Apple announced earlier this week that it broke records with its phenomenal sales quarter, and unsurprisingly this had an effect on others. AT&T announced that it sold a record 9.4 million smartphones during the December quarter, and 7.6 million of those — 80% — were iPhones. Verizon announced that it sold 4.2 million iPhones in the December quarter, representing 55% of its smartphone sales. We haven't seen numbers from Sprint yet, but I'm sure that they also sold millions of iPhones last quarter. For all of the attorneys who are new iPhone owners and new to this site ... welcome! Check out the Index to Prior Posts to catch up with everyone else. And now, the news of note for the past week:
- The most interesting article that I read this past week was on the cover of the Sunday edition of the New York Times. How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work by Charles Duhigg and Keith Bradsher explains why consumer electronics in general, and iPhones and iPads in particular, are made in China. Your first thought may be "cheaper labor," and while that is a part of the explanation, it has more to do with the fact that the U.S. lacks manufacturing companies with the abilities of these Chinese companies. Definitely worth reading.
- The default wallpaper for the iPhone's lock screen is a beautiful picture of Earth that was released by NASA in 2002. I described the background of that picture in my Blue Marble post from March of 2010. This week, NASA posted on its Flickr page Blue Marble 2012, an even higher definition view of Earth created by combining several images taken by a NASA satellite on January 4, 2012. I find it impossible to view pictures like this without finding myself thinking about man's place in the universe — or, if I'm in a less philosophical mood, at least humming the Disney "It's a small world after all" song. And now that I've mentioned it, the song is probably in your head too. (Sorry!) Anyway, perhaps it is time for Apple to update the iPhone wallpaper image.
- Utah attorney Greg Hoole recommends iPad apps in an article for Law Technology News.
- MG Siegler of TechCrunch provides an interesting perspective on Apple's record quarter earnings.
- This week, the U.S. Supreme Court released its decision in U.S. v. Jones, ruling that the Fourth Amendment applies when a police officer attaches a GPS device to a vehicle to monitor its movements. All of us with iPhones are walking around carrying a GPS unit, so this decision means that the police cannot monitor us ... right? Well, maybe not. Rebecca Rosen has an interesting article in The Atlantic that explains how limited the decision really is. A fascinating read.
- Mel Martin of TUAW describes a new app from Epson that lets an iPhone or iPad wirelessly connect to certain Epson projectors.
- Vlad Savon of The Verge reports on a study by Pew which estimates that almost 20% of adults in the U.S. now own a tablet computer, such as an iPad or an e-book reader.
- Charles Starrett of iLounge reminds us that when you are typing on an iPad and you make a mistake, you can always tap the .?123 key to see an Undo button. Great tip.
- Tony Bradley of PCWorld explains that AT&T has changed its iPhone rate plans. Current customers are grandfathered into their their existing plans, but going forward, AT&T's plans becoming $5 more expensive, but with that price increase you get more data. $20 gets you 300MB (instead of $15 for 200MB), $30 gets you 3GB (instead of $25 for 2GB) and $50 gets you 5GB plus hotspot tethering (instead of $45 for 4GB plus tethering).
- St. Louis attorney Geri Dreiling has some tips on LawyerTechReview for replacing your legal pad with an iPad.
- And finally, I love the great Siri technology on my iPhone 4S, and if you also use a 4S, perhaps you do too. But do you REALLY love Siri? The always funny guys at Scoopertino imagined the next great product from Apple, Siri Pro for those who are, well, in love with Siri. Click here or on the picture below to read all about it.
