The big iPhone and iPad news of this week was Apple's preview of iOS 6. Earlier this week, I highlighted a few reasons that I think that lawyers will love this free upgrade that is coming in the Fall, but I wasn't alone. New Orleans attorney Ernie Svenson of PaperlessChase.com discussed some of the new features in iOS 6, as did the Evan Koblentz of Law Technology News. Macworld published one of its "What you need to know" columns on the newly announced iOS 6, and Lex Friedman of Macworld examined some of the lessor-known features of iOS 6 features that you might have missed. John Ribeiro of IDG News Service reports that Apple teamed up with TomTom to produce the new Maps app in iOS 6, which is good news because TomTom has a great reputation for navigation software. You can see some of the user interface changes in iOS 6 in this short video produced by Michael Steeber of Cult of Mac. If you have the latest iPhone 4S or the 2012 version of the iPad, you'll be able to take advantage of all of the new features of iOS 6 announced so far, but Jordan Golson of MacRumors produced a handy chart to identify the features that will be missing for older devices. Note, however, that if you have an iPhone 4S you shouldn't start sicking your tongue out at older devices just yet because I'm sure that when iOS 6 is released later this year, we'll also see a new version of the iPhone released with lots of cool new features that make it much better than the iPhone 4S. But it wasn't all iOS 6 news this week, and here are some of the other news items of note:
- Boston attorney Martha Sperry of Advocate's Sudio reviews the Adonit Writer Plus, an iPad case with an included keyboard.
- Attorney Sam Glover of Lawyerist reviews the Pogo Sketch+ stylus and calls it the "best-value iPad stylus I have seen or reviewed." The Sketch+ is the 2012 model of the Pogo Sketch, and it includes an improved tip.
- Utah federal judge David Nuffer discusses the use of iPads by judges in this post on 3 Geeks and a Law Blog.
- Martha Nell of the ABA Journal discusses apps by plaintiff attorneys used to sign up clients.
- Evan Koblentz of Law Technology News discusses forensic challenges in e-discovery of information on iPhones and iPads.
- This week, Apple came out with a new iPad product called the Apple iPad Smart Case. It is similar to the Smart Cover that debuted with the iPad 2, but this $50 product also covers the back of the iPad. Nick Guy of iLounge posted this review. The Gadgeteer posted two reviews, this one by Douglas Forrester and this one by Janet Cloninger. Leanna Lofte of iMore posted this (less favorable) review. Tyler Gold of The Verge posted another unfavorable review.
- Peter Burrows and Adam Satariano of Businessweek profile Apple Marketing VP Phil Schiller.
- Eric Slivka of MacRumors writes that you can now use the Apple Store app to order an item on your iPhone so that the order is ready as soon as you walk in the door of the store.
- Kit Eaton is the new App Smart columnist for the New York Times, and in his debut column he describes a few of his favorite apps, including some photography apps.
- I've recently noted that it is now possible to get an iPhone with a prepaid plan instead of the traditional plans with two year contracts. Daniel Ionescu of PC World does the math and concludes that you can save hundreds of dollars over two years with the Virgin Mobile iPhone prepaid plan.
- And finally, WarGames: WOPR from Be-Rad Entertainment is now available in the App Store. The gameplay is somewhat similar to Bejeweled but with several layers of strategy on top of that. I bought it for $0.99 and it is actually quite fun. You can buy it by clicking here:
But what is most striking to me about this game is the idea that an officially licensed game is still being produced from a motion picture that was released in 1983. Almost 30 years ago! Too funny, and I suppose that means that next we'll see iOS games based on other classic movies from 1983 such as Risky Business, Vacation and Flashdance. I tease, but of course — like anyone of my generation who is interested in technology — I loved WarGames, so an additional reason that this game is worth the buck is that you once again get to hear the voice of WOPR, see the characters from the movie, and recall memorable lines such as:
GREETINGS, PROFESSOR FALKEN
SHALL WE PLAY A GAME?
