I am sometimes asked how I find time to publish iPhone J.D. The best answer is that I am a big fan of the iPhone and iPad, I love trying out new apps and accessories (and learning how to make the most of existing ones), and it is always easier to write about something that really interests you. Having said that, there are times when I'm so busy at work and at home that I barely have time to post at all, and this past week was definitely one of those. Thus, while I was sad to read a post yesterday by Portland attorney Josh Barrett announcing that he was shutting down his Tablet Legal website, I definitely understand where he is coming from.
Tablet Legal became a resource for attorneys using an iPad only days after the original iPad was announced, long before any lawyers had even touched an iPad (except, perhaps, for a few who worked at Apple). Over the next two years, it grew into a fabulous resource for people like me who use the iPad in the practice of law every day. I always learned something from Josh's posts, and I greatly enjoyed giving several iPad-themed presentations with Josh over the years and becoming friends with him in the process. Thanks, Josh, for helping so many lawyers learn to be much more productive with their iPads, and the best of luck with your new law firm — which, by the way, has a great website. And now, for the news of the week:
- Josh Barrett's final Tablet Legal post includes an interesting recommendation that lawyers not clutter their iPads with all of the latest and greatest apps and instead try to concentrate on just the apps most useful to them. It is good advice, albeit advice that I clearly do not follow given the number of apps on my iPad.
- I'm a big fan of TranscriptPad, an iPad app for reviewing depositions. A recent update added some great new features, such as the ability to print a PDF of the entire deposition with all of your various annotations (highlight, issue coding, underlining, etc.) either visible or not visible, the ability to send an entire case file to another user (for collaboration), etc.
- Dallas attorney Tom Mighell compares four iPad PDF apps — PDFpen, PDF Expert, iAnnotate PDF and Adobe Reader — on his iPad 4 Lawyers site.
- Another reason I'm proud to be a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center: the career services department created an online guide that tells you how to pronounce the names of 230 law firms. Just click on a firm name and hear the correct way to say it. And yes, it works great on an iPhone or iPad, so you can find out how to say that firm name correctly even when you are on the go.
- Bob Tedeschi of the New York Times recommends several airport-related apps to use when you are traveling. GateGuru is one that I use all the time, but the others were new to me.
- If you are not in New Orleans this weekend but still want to get a taste of Jazz Fest, I see that YouTube is streaming both live and recorded performances today through Sunday starting at 2:00 Central every day. Click here for the full schedule and to watch the stream. There are too many great acts in there to mention them all, but for example: on Sunday you get Kermit Ruffins live at 3:15 Central, a recording of Amanda Shaw from last weekend at 5:10 Central (I saw that performance last weekend, and she was amazing), and the Neville Brothers live at 5:45 Central, plus eight other performances (Jimmy Buffet, Preservation Hall, etc.).
- Looking for a good, thin iPad case? Alexander George of The Wirecutter reviewed a huge number of them and came up with his recommendations. His top pick is the Joy Factory SmartSuite3, which looks very nice.
- Horace Dediu of Asymco crunched the numbers and came to the interesting conclusion that during the first quarter of 2012, Apple obtained 73% of all of the profits in the mobile phone market. Samsung got 26% of the profit, HTC got 1% of the profit, and everyone else selling mobile phones lost money.
- Alex Heath of Cult of Mac reports that at Walmart (although perhaps not all Walmarts), you can now get an iPhone 3GS for 97¢, an iPhone 4 for $34 and an iPhone 4S for $114. I think it is interesting that you can buy an iPhone for less than the cost of a 99¢ app.
- The Apple humor site Scoopertino announced a new app for filing lawsuits to get rich off of Apple: LitiGATOR.
- And finally, what do you do if you are a woman who wants to carry an iPhone but you don't have pockets on your dress and don't want to carry a purse? Mariah Gentry and Kyle Bartlow in Seattle have created an answer: the JoeyBra. The below picture probably tells you everything that you need to know about this product, but if you want to see the JoeyBra in action, click here for a video. My wife's commentary when she saw me posting this: "Excuse me, ma'am, but I think your bra is ringing."
