iPhone J.D.

Review: dockBoss air -- add Bluetooth wireless to an older iPhone/iPod speaker

If you are a long-time owner of an iPhone or iPod, there is a good chance that you own a speaker system with a 30-pin connector.  Many years ago, I picked up a Bose SoundDock Portable speaker system when it was discounted at a Bose factory outlet store.  It has worked great with my old-but-still-works Apple iPod (5th Generation - 64 GB) and my iPhones through the years ... until I purchased the iPhone 5 late last year.  The speaker uses the traditional 30-pin connector and of course the iPhone 5 has the new Lightning connector.  I previously reviewed the 30-pin to Lightning connectors sold by Apple, but those didn't work well with the SoundDock Portable because the connector with the cord is too awkward and the connector without the cord makes the iPhone sit up too high against the speaker without enough support to prevent it from bending backwards too much.  The Bose speaker also has an auxiliary input in the back that lets you plug a cord into the headphone jack of the iPhone 5, but I was looking for a more elegant solution than having my iPhone 5 hanging off of the back of the speaker.  That led me to explore the idea of adding Bluetooth to my existing speaker.  Bose itself does not sell such a product (Bose now sells speakers with built-in Bluetooth, plus they sell a new SoundDock with a Lightning connector).  However, CableJive makes exactly what I was looking for, and that company sent me a free review unit of the dockBoss air, a device that plugs in to the 30-pin connector of a speaker and adds Bluetooth to the speaker.  It works well and gives new life to a speaker with a 30-pin dock connector.

[UPDATE 8/29/13:  CableJive recently announced a new version of the dockBoss air, which the company says features clearer audio and bigger volume, one-touch Bluetooth pairing (apparently without the need to enter a code) and the ability to work with a speaker's remote control.  I haven't tested the new version, but if you are going to buy this product you might want to make sure you are purchasing the latest version.]

Using the product is very easy.  Simply plug it in to the 30-pin dock connector.  The first time that you connect to it on your iPhone, you need to go to Settings -> Bluetooth and select the dockBoss air.  Once your iPhone is paired to the dockBoss air, your iPhone will remember the connection in the future.

So for example, in the future you can simply plug in the dockBoss air, and then your iPhone will either pair with it automatically after a few seconds or you can app on the sharing button on the bottom right of the Music app to start streaming to the speaker.

 

The range is fine if you are in the same room, and I could even take my iPhone one or two rooms away and have it continue to stream without problems. 

If you haven't streamed music to the dockBoss air for a long time (I haven't figured out how long), you may need to unplug it from the speaker and plug it in again to wake it up.  Then your iPhone will see it and let you use it.  On the other hand, earlier this week I had been using the dockBoss air at night to listen to a podcast while I was doing dishes downstairs, and then the next morning (7 hours later) I tried to continue listening the podcast upstairs while I was was getting ready for work but my iPhone was still connected to the dockBoss air ... causing some confusion for my wife and kids who were downstairs at the time right next to the Bose speaker.  Oops.

I was interested in this device just because I was unable to plug my iPhone 5 into a 30-pin connector.  But now that I've used it for a while, I actually prefer this approach to connecting my iPhone directly to a speaker.  With my iPhone in my pocket, it is easy to change songs.  When an iPhone 4S is in the dock on the speaker, I have to walk over to the speaker to tap buttons and make changes.

I am not an audiophile, but music played through my speakers via the dockBoss air sounds fine to me, and podcasts and audiobooks sound excellent.  I'm sure someone will tell me that Bluetooth audio quality is inferior to a direct connection to a speaker, and perhaps in a quiet room with a side-by-side comparison I might notice some difference.  But when I am just listening to music in my house — or if I take advantage of the portable nature of my SoundDock Portable and bring it outside — keeping my iPhone in my pocket and the dockBoss air in the speaker sounds great and is incredibly convenient and easy to use.

I first learned about this type of product when I read this article by Alex Castle of The Wirecutter several months ago.  He recommended a product called the i-Wave.  I clicked on the link in that article and ordered it through Amazon, but the product that the seller actually sent me just calls itself the "Wireless Music Receiver" and doesn't have the i-Wave name on it — but I thought that this might happen because Castle's article notes that the same product has different designations on Amazon.  (Indeed, if you click on the Amazon link in that article, it now brings you to a product called TekuOne, not i-Wave.)  But I had a problem with the device I bought from Amazon:  it would often stop working after just a few minutes.  This led me to look at the dockBoss air, which Roy Furchgott of the New York Times gave a very favorable review.  Unfortunately, the first unit that CableJive sent me had a similar problem — after a few minutes of use, the iPhone would appear to be playing music but no music would come out of the Bose SoundDock Portable.  But unlike the virtually anonymous product that I purchased on Amazon, the dockBoss air comes from CableJive, a respected company with fabulous customer support.  Once I mentioned the problem, CableJive told me that others had reported something similar with Bose systems because of the way that Bose communicates over the 30-pin connector and CableJive had engineered a solution and updated the dockBoss air to fix this.  CableJive sent me the updated version, and sure enough, it works like a champ.  I don't know if this problem was unique to Bose speakers or exists with other speaker brands too, but if you buy this product, you might want to make sure that you are getting the latest version.  Perhaps this is also evidence that it can make sense to pay just a few dollars more to buy a product like this from a good company like CableJive versus some no-name company on Amazon.

If you don't already own speakers and you are in the market, you should probably just buy something that has Bluetooth built-in such as the popular Jawbone Jambox (or, if you want something larger, the Jawbone Big Jambox).  But if you already own speakers that you like which have a 30-pin connector, the dockBoss air is perfect.  It is simple, elegant, inexpensive, and adds new life to speakers that you may have paid several hundred dollars for.

Click here to get the dockBoss air from CableJive ($34.95).

Click here to get the dockBoss air from CableJive via Amazon ($34.95)

Apple releases iOS 6.1

Yesterday, Apple released the latest version of the operating system for the iPhone and iPad, iOS 6.1.  There was a time when Apple released more frequent updates to iOS throughout the year, but nowadays we just see one major release every year and, except for bug fixes, maybe just one or two .1 or .2 updates during the course of the year.  iOS 6.0 was released on September 19, 2012.  There was a tiny update on November 29, 2012 when iOS 6.0.1 was released to add some performance and stability fixes, and in December Apple released iOS 6.0.2 for the iPhone 5 and the iPad mini to fix some WiFi bugs.  Perhaps we'll see an iOS 6.2 at some point this year, but maye not.  With iOS 5, the last release was iOS 5.1.1 on in May of 2012.

So what is new in iOS 6.1?  Just a few things.

LTE

First, Apple added support for LTE on many more carriers — an additional 36 iPhone carriers and an additional 23 iPad carriers.  For example, here in the U.S., the iPhone can now take advantage of LTE on Alaska Communications, Alaska GCI, Bluegrass Cellular, C Spire, Cellcom and Pioneer Cellular.  Visit this page on Apple's website for a list of all of the more than 50 currently supported LTE carriers around the world.  I've loved using the screaming fast AT&T LTE here in New Orleans where I often see well over 30 Mbps and sometimes see speeds over 50 Mbps — much faster than any WiFi I've ever used.  Thus, if this update brings LTE to your iPhone 5, you are going to love it.

 

Siri gains Fandango support

With iOS 6.1, you can use Siri to purchase movie tickets using the Fandango app.  It's always nice to see Siri support another external app, and this is a pretty good one to support.  The fastest way to use your iPhone to find out what movies are playing in your vicinity is to activate Siri and just ask "What movies are playing?"  But now, in addition to seeing a list of movies and times, you can tap on an entry in the list and Siri will launch the Fandango app where you can quickly purchase tickets.  And since the Fandango app works with Passbook, your tickets will be right on your screen waiting for you when you get to the theater.  Note that I haven't tested this feature yet — I did not go out and watch a movie last night — but whenever I next catch a movie, I look forward to trying it out.

 

iTunes Match

If you use iTunes Match, you can now download individual sounds from iCloud.  I don't use iTunes Match, so I haven't tested it.

Advertising Identifier reset

There is a new button to reset the Advertising Identifier.  OK, great ... so what's the Advertising Identifier?  It all has to do with iPhone apps that include ads.  App developers can potentially make a lot of money from ads in their apps, but the advertisers often seek to target a specific audience and will pay more if they have more of a sense of who is seeing their ads.  About a year ago, this caused privacy concerns, and even inquiries from people like Congressman Waxman, because every iPhone has a unique number associated with it called the UDID.  Apps were telling advertisers the UDID, and because the UDID is forever tied to a specific iPhone, there were some privacy concerns about being able to connect information with a specific person.

To address this, Apple banned app developers from using the UDID, and starting in iOS 6.0, lets developers instead simply associate you with an Advertising Identifier.  That number is not forever tied to your device, is random, and isn't associated with any personal information about yourself.  It's similar to the cookies that many websites use so that they know that you have visited the site before but don't know your name (unless you give it to them).  And just like you can turn off cookies in Safari on the iPhone and web browsers in your computer, in iOS 6 you can choose to turn off the Advertising Identifier...

...except that it's not even quite that simple.  From what I understand, you can't actually tell your iPhone to turn off the Advertising Identifier, but you can tell your iPhone to "limit" it.  Huh?  According to an article by Laura Stampler of Business Insider:  "Even if users take the time to limit tracking, their identifiers will still be sent to advertisers. The information, however, is flagged and advertisers should respect users' wishes."

So that brings us to iOS 6.1.  Now, in addition to choosing to limit the Advertising Identifier, whatever that means, you also have the option to reset your number.  Presumably this means a fresh start on life ... or at least, on your relationship with advertisers.

I have to admit that I don't get too worked up over this stuff.  Some people are very concerned about privacy when it comes to advertisers, and I see where they are coming from.  But frankly, I don't really mind seeing advertising targeted towards me.  I don't have any interest in the musicals at a theater in South Dakota, but if someone wants to show me an ad for a Broadway show coming to the theater here in New Orleans, well that just might be relevant to me.  Likewise, I don't mind when Amazon shows me ads based on my prior purchases becuase the ads tend to be for items that interest me.  But maybe one day I'll decide that I want a do-over for iPhone app advertisers, and now there is a button to press for that.

To use this new feature, go to the Settings app, then tap General, then tap About, and then tap Advertising.  The new button is the one that says "Reset Advertising Identifier."

 

Security

As with every iOS update, there are updates to make the iPhone and iPad more secure.  The descriptions of the security updates are a little over my head, but if you are so inclined, you can read about them on Apple's website.

Passbook

The Passbook app has added a new card — a Welcome card that includes a helpful link to the section of the App Store where you can download apps that work with Passbook.  I'm a little surprised that we are four months into iOS and yet there are only 22 such apps right now, although the ones there are pretty useful.  There are airline apps (Air Canada, American Airlines, Delta, United Airlines and Lufthansa), apps for buying tickets (Eventbrite, Fandango, Live Nation, two MLB.com apps, Ticketmaster and Viator Tours), apps for shopping including rewards cards (Apple Store, Belly, Living Social, Sephora, Starbucks, Target and Walgreens), payment apps (Discover Card and Square Wallet) plus an Amtrak app and a Starwood Hotels app.

Etc.

There are also some other minor changes.  For example, and as always, the update includes various bug fixes. 

The music controls on the lockscreen are updated to have an aluminum finish, and the circle on the volume control has a reflection that changes as you tilt the device, just as it would on a "real" aluminum knob in your hands.  (iOS 6 brought this same minor but amusing addition to the Music app itself.)

And I'm sure there are some other minor updates that I haven't noticed yet.

Installing the Update

You can install the update right on your iPhone or iPad without needing to connect to a computer.  In the Settings app, tap General, then Software Update.  You will see an indication that iOS 6.1 is available.  If you are low on power you might want to plug in your device, but it only takes a few minutes to update.  Just tap Download and Install.

 

All of the screenshots above are from my iPhone 5, but I also installed this update on my iPad 3 and my iPad mini, and everything seems to be working fine.

Pictures from first weekend of Mardi Gras

There are two major weekends of parades in New Orleans for Mardi Gras season.  This year, the first weekend was pushed up a week to accommodate the Super Bowl.  I went to watch the parades with my kids, family and friends over the last few days, but I didn't think to take my Nikon camera with me.  But of course, my iPhone 5 has a camera, and while the quality isn't close to the Nikon, you know what they say ... the best camera is the one that is with you.  For those of you outside of New Orleans who have an interest in getting a small peak of Mardi Gras through the "eyes" of an iPhone, today's post will interest you.  For those of you just looking for the typical iPhone J.D. product news and reviews, I'll have a more traditional post up tomorrow morning.

The first weekend parades are typically smaller in scale and grandeur than the ones closer to Mardi Gras day, but they are still lots of fun, and the crowds are often lighter which is a nice plus.  The weather is often wonderful in New Orleans this time of year; this past weekend was in the high 60s and 70s.  Many people outside of New Orleans only associate Mardi Gras with the debauchery in the French Quarter, but in Uptown New Orleans along St. Charles Avenue, the scene is Rated G or PG.  Families and friends gather together and socialize as the parades pass by, and many folks bring ladders to help the smaller kids compete for beads with everyone else.

I'm not sure if this group of guys caught any beads all the way up there, but they did have a nice bird's-eye view of the activities.

The groups that parade are called Krewes.  Every Krewe has a King on a float in the front, often followed by officers of the Krewe on horses and floats with maids in fancy costumes.

Next come the larger floats with many more riders ... and thus a much larger chance of catching beads, doubloons and other trinkets.

Typically, each float is separated by a high school marching band or a teenage dance team.

Every once in a while you run across dance teams composed of folks who are a little past their teenage years, but are still full of fun and young at heart.  Here are a few examples, the first of which is the NOLA Cherry Bombs ("united by a hardcore passion for dance, for the city and people of New Orleans and for tutus").  [UPDATE 2/11/2013: I'm told that there are some attorneys in this NOLA Cherry Bombs group, but I'm not naming names.]

A few years ago, a group of guys decided that it would be funny — or at least fun — to start their own dance team.  The result was the 610 Stompers ("Ordinary men.  Extraordinary moves."), a group that — to the surprise of many — was even invited to participate in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

St. Charles Avenue is a beautiful street in New Orleans, lined with homes that are architectural gems in styles unique to this city and southern live oak trees planted over a hundred years ago.  The branches of those trees sometimes come between the floats and the parade watchers, resulting in lots of beads stuck in trees.  You especially see this at Mardi Gras time, but pretty much year-round if you look up on St. Charles, you'll see purple, green and gold beads.

The Uptown crowds are virtually always very friendly, but nevertheless there is a police presence just in case.  Between Mardi Gras and the numerous other festivities in this city, the New Orleans Police Department is generally considered to be one of the most experienced in the world when it comes to dealing with crowds.  The officers have a good sense of when to let things slide (such as indecent exposure in exchange for beads in the French Quarter) and when they need to step in.

There are many reasons that I love living in New Orleans, but enjoying Mardi Gras parades with my kids along with other friends and family is definitely on my top ten list.

In the news

Way down yonder here in New Orleans, you can feel the excitement in the air.  Mardi Gras season has already started but really kicks into high gear starting tonight with the first weekend of parades in New Orleans.  That first weekend of parades was pushed up a week to make room for the Super Bowl the following weekend.  And then the next weekend through Fat Tuesday we have the main Mardi Gras festivities.  New Orleans excels at hosting big parties, so if you are headed here over the next three weeks, you'll have an amazing time.  Before I go enjoy some King Cake, here is the iPhone and iPad news of note from the past week:

• Attorney Andrew Weber of the Law Library of Congress tells me that the Congressional Record was added to the iPhone-friendly Congress.gov site, which I reviewed last year.
• Attorney Jeffrey Taylor of The Droid Lawyer reviews the Adonit Jot Pro stylus.  I continue to use the Adonit Jot Pro and I really like it, as I noted in my review last November.  Unfortunately, I recently forgot to put the top back on it (totally my fault) and the plastic disc came off and I lost it.  For $6 — plus another $6 S&H (ouch!) — I bought a set of replacement discs and now I am back in business.
• Yesterday, I mentioned that Apple had yet another very profitable quarter, thanks in large part to selling a lot of iPhones.  As reported by Dan Seifert of The Verge, AT&T announced its quarterly earnings this week and revealed that it sold a record 8.6 million iPhones.  It only sold 1.6 million other smartphones, so that means that 84% of smartphones sold by AT&T last quarter were iPhones.  
• Verizon also announced its quarterly earnings, as reported by Ina Fried of All Things D.  It sold 6.2 million iPhones.  It sold 3.6 million other smartphones, which means that iPhones accounted for 63% of Verizon's smartphone sales.  According to John Paczkowski of All Things D, about half of those 6.2 million iPhones were the iPhone 5 and the other half were a mix of the iPhone 4 and 4S.
• Kit Eaton of the New York Times reports that pocket voice recorders with mini cassette tapes were replaced by digital voice recorders, and now digital voice recorders are starting to be replaced by smartphone apps such as Voice Recorder HD ($1.99):  (via A.J. Levy)
• New York is already one of my favorite cities, but Andy Ihnatko of the Chicago Sun-Times notes another advantage of living in the Big Apple: you can use the new Aereo service to stream network TV to your computer, iPad or iPhone for as little as $8 a month, or even just $1 for a day.  You can either watch live TV or have programs recorded to watch later.  The service sounds very nice.  It reminds me of the EyeTV hardware that I discussed almost a year ago except that you don't have to purchase hardware.  Aereo is soon coming to other cities.  Note, however, that Aereo doesn't allow place shifting, whereas EyeTV does let you watch your local TV from any other location in the world — useful for those who travel a lot.
• If you use Delta to travel to La Guardia airport in New York, you'll see the recently redesigned terminal with iPads available to use while you wait for your plane.  Christine Negroni of the New York Times reports that you can even order food directly from the iPad and have it delivered to you.
• While you are in New York, you're going to need a cab at some point.  New Orleans attorney Ernie Svenson reports on an iPhone app called Uber, available in New York and many other cities, that makes it simple to call and pay for a cab.
• Bianca Bosker of The Huffington Post wrote an interesting article on the origin of Siri.
• Philip Michaels of Macworld reviews Hipmunk, one of my favorite travel planning apps on my iPhone and iPad.
• Curious what Ashton Kusher looks like as Steve Jobs?  ET Online has a clip from the upcoming movie.  The movie jOBS opens in theaters on April 19.
• Stephanie Weehawk of fake news site Scoopertino "reports" on the recent Oprah interview in which a history of doping was revealed.  No, not that Oprah interview, but one with Apple CEO Tim Cook.
• And finally, do you wish that it was easier to hold an umbrella in the rain and use an iPhone at the same time?  Well then, you will want to check out the Brolley Rain Umbrella, a $20 umbrella that keeps your fingers free for texting.  Watch this video to see how it works.  (via iPhone Savior).

Apple 2013 fiscal first quarter -- the iPhone and iPad angle

Yesterday, Apple released the results for its 2013 fiscal first quarter (which ran from September 30, 2012 to December 29, 2012, and did not actually include any days from calendar year 2013) and held a call with analysts to discuss the results.  This is typically Apple's best quarter of the year because of holiday sales.  It turned out to be Apple's best fiscal quarter ever, with revenue of $54.5 billion and profit of $13.1 billion.  As John Gruber pointed out, just a few years ago Apple was thrilled to have $50 billion in revenue in a single year, and now they are seeing that in only one quarter.  Another perspective:  Apple is now seeing a billion dollars in profit every week. Perhaps Apple CEO Tim Cook put it best:  “No technology company has ever reported these kind of results."

If you want to get all of the nitty gritty details, you can download the audio from the announcement conference call from iTunes, or you can read a rough transcript of the call prepared by Seeking Alpha.  Apple's official press release is here.  As always, however, I'm not as concerned about the financial details as I am the statements of Apple executives during the call that are of interest to iPhone and iPad users.  Here are the items that stood out to me:

• Apple sold a record 47.8 million iPhones last quarter.  You could buy an iPhone 5 in 100 different countries last quarter.
• Apple sold a record 22.9 million iPads last quarter.  Apple did not disclose how many of those were iPad minis, but it did say that it could not make enough iPad minis to keep up with demand.
• That means that Apple has now sold over 500 million iOS devices to date.  Last quarter, Apple sold 10 iOS devices every second.
• Apple emphasized that the iPhone is embraced by government agencies and businesses around the world.  For example, iPhones are in use here in the U.S. at NASA, NOAA, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and that favorite of frequent fliers, the TSA.  Similarly, Apple emphasized the widespread adoption of the iPad in businesses and government agencies.  Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer even noted:  "Court systems, county inspectors, and law enforcement agencies use iPad to streamline processes and replace huge amounts of paper. And state legislatures in Virginia, Texas, and West Virginia are all using iPads to give lawmakers instant access to government documents and information."
• The App Store now offers over 775,000 apps, including 300,000 native iPad apps.  Over 40 billion apps have been downloaded, and app developers have been paid over $7 billion.
• One analyst asked Apple CEO Tim Cook whether Apple was considering a larger screen size for the iPhone, considering that you can get Android phones with almost comically large screens.  Cook's response:  "The iPhone 5 offers, as you know, a new four inch Retina display, which is the most advanced display in the industry and no one comes close to matching the level of quality as the Retina display. It also provides a larger screen size for iPhone customers without sacrificing the one-handed ease-of-use that our customers love. So, we put a lot of thinking into screen size and believe we’ve picked the right one."
• Another analyst asked about how important marketshare is for Apple when it comes to smartphones.  Tim Cook answered — consistent with long-standing Apple policy — that Apple is not focused on chasing marketshare but instead is interested in making the best products.  Cook said:  "The most important thing to Apple is to make the best products in the world that enrich customer’s lives. That’s our high order bit.  That means that we aren't interested in revenue for revenue sake.  We could put the Apple brand on a lot of things and sell a lot more stuff, but that’s not what we’re here for. We want to make only the best products. And so what does that mean for market share? We’ve been able to do that, and I think we’ve had a great track record here on iPod, doing different products at different price points and getting a reasonable share from doing that. And so one doesn’t, I wouldn’t view the things as mutually exclusive as some might, but the high order bit is making a great product, that enriches customer’s lives. And so that’s what we are focused on."
• Tim Cook also talked about the improvements to the new Maps app now that Apple is no longer using Google Maps:  "We have made a number of improvements to Maps since the introduction of iOS 6 back in September and we'll roll out even more improvements across the rest of the year. And we are going to keep working on this, as I have said before, until it lives up to our incredibly high standards. Users can already see many of these improvements because they include things like improved satellite and flyover imagery, new categorization, improved local information for thousands of businesses and so forth. The usage in Maps is significantly higher than it was prior to iOS 6."

Review: 1Password -- password manager for iPhone and iPad

Usernames and passwords.  Ugh.  We all have tons of them, and I suspect that we all struggle with ways to remember them.  I've used lots of different systems over the years, ranging from a password-protected file on my iPhone to (I'm embarrassed to admit) a Post-it note stuck on my computer monitor.  The struggle is to find the right balance between protection and ease of use.  I've been aware of 1Password for years, first as a way to store and create passwords using a computer and then more recently as an app for the iPhone and iPad, but I never got around to trying it until December of 2012 when version 4.0 of the app came out, a completely new version of the app with many new and different features.  I purchased the app and have been using it for about a month now.  I'm still only using a fraction of what this app can do, but I suspect that I'm using the fraction that most of you would want to use, and I've been very happy with the app.  It has earned a spot on the first page of my iPhone and iPad, valuable real estate and about the highest praise that I can give to an app.

Part of my reluctance in trying 1Password was the knowledge that I would need to spend lots of time putting all of my existing usernames and passwords into the app.  I finally took one long night while I was at my in-law's house over Christmas vacation when the rest of the family was sleeping to make the move.  While doing so, I even took the time to change some of my passwords that should have been more complex or which had been identical to passwords I used elsewhere.  This process wasn't exactly fun, but in retrospect it wasn't that hard to do, and I feel much better having done it.  Don't let the process scare you off.

The app's name comes from the idea that you only have to remember one password — the master password that you use every time that you start the app.  If you want to sacrifice some security for ease of use, you can tell the app to only request the master password if you haven't used the app in the last x minutes (where "x" can range from 1 minute to 30 minutes).  Choose a good master password that you can remember and is secure (and please, please, please do not make your password something like "password" or "123").  Also, make sure that your 1Password master password is not a password that you have ever used anywhere else.

Once you are in the app, you can see a list of your logins and passwords.  You can either view the entire list and scroll to find a password, or you can search.  You can also assign logins to folders so that you can easily see, for example, all of your law-related passwords or all of your shopping passwords in one spot, which often makes it easier to find something.  You can also assign some of your Logins to a Favorites list.

 

You can keep all sorts of information with a Login.  Of course you can store username and password.  You can also store a website address (more on that in a moment), a note, or virtually any other information that you want to associate with a login.  If you have a number in your password, the app displays the number in blue so that it is easier to see.  Special characters like a semi-colon are displayed in red.  By default the app doesn't even display the password and instead displays a number of dots (protection if someone is looking over your shoulder) and you need to tap the dots to display the password.  I never look up passwords when someone is next to me, so I changed the setting to always display the password when I tap on a login to make the app faster to use.

 

If you have multiple iOS devices, 1Password can use iCloud or Dropbox to securely sync your information to other devices.  Data is stored on iCloud or Dropbox is encrypted for security.  I have been using the Dropbox syncing method and it has worked great.  I used an iPad with an external Bluetooth keyboard to type in most of my information, and then moments later everything was synced across to my iPad mini and my iPhone.

Because so many passwords are currently associated with a website, I love the ability to designate a website address in a 1Password Login entry because 1Password includes a built-in web browser that has access to all of your 1Password data.  For example, if you want to connect to your bank, you can simply tap the website address on your Login and you will see your bank website.  For many websites, 1Password will automatically find the username and password fields and log you in.  Otherwise, you can tap the login button at the top of the 1Password browser to select the appropriate login information.

Here's a tip that you might not know about even if you already use 1Password.  If you are viewing a website in Safari on your iPhone or iPad and you need to login, go to the address bar and type "op" just before the http part.  So for example, if your browser is on http://www.mybank.com, tap the address bar and add "op" to the beginning so that it reads ophttp://www.mybank.com.  Then tap return and the 1Password app will open.  Enter your master password, and then the exact same page will open in the 1Password browser, where your username and password will in most cases be entered automatically.  This is an easy way to login to a website when you are using Safari without having to even take the time to look up your password.

1Password can store more than just your logins and passwords — the app can also store virtually any other private information.  For example, you can store your credit card information in 1Password, and that way if your credit card is ever stolen, you have a place to go to get your account information for when you need to call the credit card company.  Additionally, when you are using the 1Password browser, if you go to a site that requests your credit card, you can tap the credit card button at the top of the browser to select one of your cards and automatically enter your information (number, expiration date, etc.).  1Password can also store driver license info, passport info, social security numbers, software licenses, reward programs, and many other types of information.

I especially like that 1Password can store Secure Notes.  You can type just about anything in there, so it is just like the built-in Notes app on the iPhone except that the information is private and could not be accessed by someone else using your iPhone.  I am constantly thinking of information that I would like to store someplace secure on my iPhone and iPad and I am using the Secure Notes feature almost as much as the Login feature.

Although this is everything that I am doing with 1Password, the app is far more powerful.  You can also purchase 1Password for your Mac and/or PC and keep the data in sync.  (There are different prices for different packages, but the basic software costs $50 for Mac or PC, or for $70 you can buy it for both.)  I haven't tried the computer software yet.  For now, if I am using my computer and I need a password, I just open the app on my iPhone or iPad and look up the password and then type it in on the computer.  Note that if you buy the current version of 1Password on the Mac App Store, you will get a free upgrade to 1Password 4 for Mac whenever it is released.  Click here for the Mac version ($49.99): 

You can also have 1Password automatically generate long, secure passwords for websites.  Take a look at the above screenshots for Amazon and Facebook logins to see examples.  The idea is that if you are using the 1Password software to automatically enter your password, it doesn't inconvenience you at all to have a long and complicated password but of course it adds incredible security.  I haven't tried this feature yet, in part because I don't yet use 1Password on Mac/PC, and in part because I haven't had to generate many new passwords over the last month.  But I'm glad to see this feature there and I'm sure I'll use it in the future.

In my mind, the key for security is balance:  protection versus ease of use.  Having a different, complex password for every website gives you fabulous protection, but lots of people don't do that because it is just too hard to keep track of lots of different passwords.  On the other extreme, using the same password everywhere keeps things simple, but is a security nightmare.  (I won't name names, but I know quite a few non-lawyers who do this, and I fear that some lawyers do as well.)  1Password is the perfect balance.  I can use different and robust passwords for each of my logins, but I only need to worry about remembering my 1Password master password because my iPhone or iPad is always with me whenever I need to access a password.  I am not surprised to see that this app has received — as far as I can tell — universal favorable press.  For example, iMore recently named it the iPad utility of the year.  Marco Tabini of Macworld called the app "practically flawless."

I give 1Password my highest recommendation for iPhone J.D. readers.  It solves an important problem (password security) that we all have, it is super easy to use, and it is a well-designed app that looks and works great.  This is a universal app, so you can buy it once and use it on your iPhone and iPad.

Click here for 1Password ($17.99): 

In the news

Facetime on AT&T, VIPs in your Mail, a better calendar, controllable batteries, early magazines, and the Force is strong with this case ... all in today's edition of In the news.

• Joel Mathis of Macworld reports that AT&T will soon support FaceTime over cellular for for all customers using a tiered data plan.  I think that means that the only folks excluded are those grandfathered in to an unlimited plan from years ago.  This brings AT&T more in line with Verizon, and is good news for anyone who wants to videochat while they are out and about, away from WiFi.
• Kirk McElhearn of Macworld explains the VIP function in the iOS 6 version of Mail on the iPhone and iPad (and the similar function on the Mac).  I use this feature.  It works well and I find it very useful.
• Marianne Schultz of AppShopper describes Do.one, an app that reminds you of one important task every day.  I haven't tried this one but it sounds interesting.
• I reviewed Fantastical last month and I still love that app and use it every day.  Erica Ogg of GigaOm wrote an article on the developers behind the app and how the app came about.  If you haven't tried this one yet, read my review now and check it out.  This is a great app.
• Charles Sorrel of Cult of Mac describes an interesting product in development called Tethercell.  It is the size of a AA battery and it contains a AAA battery.  Put it in any device that takes a AA battery and you can control the device from your iPhone using Bluetooth 4.0.  When I reviewed Proximo last week I noted that I was curious to see what other interesting devices would be possible with Bluetooth 4.0, and this is a great example.
• Peter Kafka of All Things D reports that Hearst and Apple have a new feature called Read Them Here First where you can read Hearst magazines on an iPad before they show up on the newsstand.  Titles include O the Oprah Magazine, Cosmopolitan, Car and Driver, Popular Mechanics, Esquire, Road & Track, Woman's Day, and many others.
• Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal describes Xsync, a new app that makes it easy to transfer files from an iPhone.
• And finally, from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away ... strike that, it is actually from a company called PowerA ... you can now get officially licensed Star Wars cases for the iPhone 5.  They give your iPhone some protection, help you make the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs, and when you use this case:  The Force Will Be With You.  Always.  Available from PowerA for $39.99.  If you use an iPhone 4 or 4S, then these's aren't the cases you're looking for, but you can move along to Amazon to get similar cases for $26.99.  (via iPhone Savior)

ABA TECHSHOW 2013 -- tech CLE in Chicago

If you are looking for a great way to get your CLE hours in 2013, my favorite CLE every year is ABA TECHSHOW in Chicago.  It is a great opportunity every spring to learn about technology, see some of the latest in legal tech, and (best of all) spend some time with some great people.  This year, TECHSHOW is April 4 through 6.

For those interested in the iPhone and iPad, the second and third day will have lots to offer.  The Tablet and Smartphone track on Friday, April 5 includes four sessions:  (1) Tablet Wars 2013, (2) The 4x4 Challenge: Top Apps for Every Platform, (3) Mobile Collaboration and (4) Batten Down the Hatches: Mobile Security for Lawyers.  I'll be co-presenting the mobile security session along with Pittsburgh attorney David Ries and Illinois attorney Aaron Brooks.  Ries and Brooks know a ton about security and technology, and I'm honored to be on a panel with them.  It's going to be a great session.

Then on Saturday, April 6, South Carolina attorney Ben Stevens and I will present iOS in Action, a session devoted to getting the most out of an iPhone and iPad in the law practice.  Stevens is well known in Mac circles (he has published The Mac Lawyer since 2006), and he and I gave a similar presentation focused on the iPhone back in 2010.  I just took a look at our slides from 2010 and it was an interesting walk down memory lane.  While we did mention quite a few third party apps, the iPhone was still so new for so many attorneys that we devoted a lot of that presentation to mastering the basics.  The final slide of that March of 2010 presentation was called "The Future" and previewed what Ben and I thought would be significant events in 2010:

1. The original iPad going on sale on April 3, 2010.  Yeah, that one turned out to be pretty big.
2. Apple releasing iOS 4.  Apple previewed iOS 4 a few days after our presentation, and sure enough it did include some major enhancements that I still use every day such as fast app switching, the ability to open a mail attachment in another app, support for Bluetooth keyboards, the ability to organize apps into folders, and Apple's iBooks app.
3. Apple working on the next phone, which we predicted would be announced on June 28, 2010.  We were a few weeks off on that date — the iPhone 4 was actually announced on June 7, 2010 and went on sale on June 29, 2010.  The iPhone 4 introduced the amazing Retina display and a radical new, thin design which Apple then improved in the iPhone 5.
4. More apps and accessories.  That was an easy prediction, but sure enough we did see some great new apps in 2010 such as Fastcase on the iPhone and then the iPad, the very popular Camera+ app which Apple actually removed from the app store for a while because it let you use the volume button to take a picture (a feature that all iPhones can do now), an update to the Chase app that let you deposit a check using the iPhone's camera (an amazing feature that every bank should support), plus some games that would go on to become incredibly popular including Angry Birds and Infinity Blade.

Now that three years have passed, I'm thrilled to be reunited with Ben Stevens.

I'm most excited about the iPhone and iPad aspects of TECHSHOW, but that is actually just a very small part of what TECHSHOW has to offer.  There are also whole tracks devoted to going paperless, social media, litigation tech, e-discovery, the Mac, tracks for small firms and large firms, and many other topics.  If you are a lawyer and you have any interest in technology, you will find much to like no matter what your interests.

The keynote speaker this year will David Pogue of the New York Times.  Pogue is a fantastic and entertaining speaker and I'm impressed that the TECHSHOW board was able to get him as a speaker; he is in high demand.  In addition to being a tech columnist, he is a former broadway conductor and he usually brings a keyboard and plays amusing tech-related songs during his presentations.  (One of my favorites:  I Want an iPhone, which he wrote back in 2007 when the original iPhone debuted.)  Pogue knows a ton about the iPhone and iPad, which is why I frequently link to his Times articles in my Friday In the news post.  The picture at right is me and David Pogue when I had a chance to meet him back in 2006.

And as if that wasn't enough of a reason to go to TECHSHOW this year, they are once again featuring lots of Taste of Techshow dinners where you can socialize with other attorneys interested in legal technology topics.  Dallas attorney Tom Mighell, the author of iPad in One Hour for Lawyers, and I are hosting a dinner for iPhone / iPad users on Thursday night, April 4th, at Wildfire restaurant.  I'm sure that is going to be a fun night.

Here is a video that I created during one of my TECHSHOW presentations last year, showing the audience just moments before being crushed.  It just goes to show you that you never know what will happen at TECHSHOW.

[By the way, I used the free Action Movie FX on my iPhone to make that:  ]

If you want to learn about tech, watch some amazing presentations, and meet lots of great people, then make plans now to attend TECHSHOW this April.  I hope to see you in Chicago!

[Sponsor] Thomson Reuters -- hosted practice technology

Thank you to Thomson Reuters for sponsoring iPhone J.D. this month.  I suspect that when most attorneys think of Thomson Reuters, they think of Westlaw, but of course the company has many other valuable products for lawyers and law firms.  Thomson Reuters wants iPhone J.D. readers to know about its hosted practice technology solutions which provide a secure, private cloud with scalable on-demand storage.  And coming next month, Thomson Reuters plans to introduce hosted versions of Case Notebook and Case Logistix.  Case Notebook provides a centralized, electronic case file where you and your team can enter and share key facts, insights, notes, documents, main characters, evidence, legal research, and more.  Case Logistix is an e-discovery document-review tool.  By using hosted versions of this software, there is no need to worry about software updates.

Click here for more information about Thomson Reuters hosted practice technology.

Review: DODOcase HARDcover for iPad mini from MobileFun.com -- cover your iPad mini with a book

As much as I love my iPad mini, one big difference between it and its larger sibling is that the Apple Smart Cover doesn't work as well with the iPad mini as it does with the full-sized iPad.  Because there is one less crease in it, it doesn't do as good of a job working as a stand, plus I find it somewhat flimsy.  Thus, I have been thinking about switching to a different cover or case for the iPad mini.  I recently heard from MobileFun.com, a company that sells a large number of different iPad mini cases.  They offered to send me a free review sample from their large collection, and I selected the DODOcase HARDcover, a case that covers the iPad in something that makes it look like a high-quality hardcover book.

DODOcase has been around since early 2010, shortly after the iPad itself was introduced.  Their line of cases have received good reviews over the years.  In fact, President Obama uses a DODOcase with his iPad; you can see it on the corner of his desk in this photograph.

There are two models for the iPad mini.  The regular DODOcase has a bamboo tray.  The iPad fits into the tray, and that tray provides protection if something hits the iPad on the side.  The other model is the DODOcase HARDcover, which doesn't have the bamboo and instead uses an adhesive to stick to the iPad, resulting in slimmer and lighter product (although the sides are exposed).  Both versions are available either in the "classic" model with a black cover and either a red, blue or charcoal inside, or the "solid" model with red. blue or charcoal outside and a tan inside.

The main feature of any DODOcase is the book-like hardcover, and it is very nice.  It feels like the sort of hardcover that you might find on a very nice library book.  It is durable, sturdy, and feels great in the hand.  It looks good too; when you carry around an iPad in a DODOcase it looks like you are carrying around a quality, hardcover book.  There is a strap on the side to keep the cover closed.  A hole in the back lets you use the camera.

The case uses magnets so that your iPad screen shuts off when the cover is closed — just like the Apple Smart Cover.  Note, however, that you don't actually feel the magnets in any way.  It is the strap that keeps it closed, not magnets.

I was uncertain about whether to choose the regular model with the bamboo tray or the HARDcover model with the adhesive.  Because the whole advantage of the iPad mini is that it is so thin and light, I opted for the HARDcover model with the charcoal color inside.  It weighs 130 grams versus 182 grams for the traditional DODOcase.  The HARDcover model has a spine that is 3mm thinner and is 10mm shorter than the traditional DODOcase.  (See here for more info on the differences.)  With the iPad mini inside, the thickness of the HARDcover is just barely over a half an inch.

When you open the case, you feel like you are opening a book.

I was a little apprehensive using an adhesive to attach something to the back of the iPad mini.  But the DODOcase website says:  "Industrial-grade adhesive used to secure the iPad mini is reusable and residue-free."  In my numerous tests, this seems true.  The iPad mini is held very securely in place when attached to the adhesive.  But with just a small amount of effort you can detach the iPad mini and there is no sticky residue on the back of the iPad mini.  The manufacturer claims that you can remove and reattach an iPad mini over 1,000 times and the adhesive will still remain strong.

Nick Bilton of the New York Times recently noted in an article that Apple CEO Tim Cook is a fan of the design of the iPad mini buttons:

“Nick, just look at this,” Mr. Cook said as he held the miniaturized iPad in the air, brushing his hand along its edge as if he were about to perform a magic trick. Then, his index finger stopped, standing to attention as it pointed to two flat black buttons on the side. “Just look at those volume buttons. Have you ever seen anything like it? Aren’t they just outstanding?”

I mention this because one disadvantage of the DODOcase HARDcover is that it makes it harder to press the buttons on the top and side of the iPad mini.  You can still access the buttons, but because the iPad mini has a curved side, that curved side against the flat back of the DODOcase means that you need to use the very tip of your finger or your fingernail.  It's a little annoying and one thing that I do not like about this case.

It is easy to fold back the cover completely so that you can use the iPad mini while it is in the DODOcase HARDcover.  And the book exterior is much less slippery than a naked iPad mini, so this reduces the risk that you will drop the iPad mini while you are holding it.  Note, however, that when you fold back the cover and hold up the iPad mini to read it, anyone across from you will see the DODOcase sticker with a large drawing of a Dodo bird.  I did get a few curious stares.  If the sticker bothers you, you can remove it.  I did so after taking the above pictures, and it came off cleanly without leaving any residue.  You can put the sticker back on if you change your mind.

You can also use the elastic band to prop up the HARDcover to, for example. watch a movie. The HARDcase comes with a clip on the strap that is supposed to make it easier to do so on a slippery surface, but I found the clip unnecessary and it got in the way, so I removed it.  If you are sitting on a couch or lying down in bed (i.e. you are resting the HARDcover on a non-slick surface such as your body), you can open up the cover even more without using the strap to find a comfortable viewing angle.

If you like the feel of a really nice hardcover book — and I know a lot of lawyers for whom that is true — then I think that you will really like this case.  I have kept it on my iPad mini for over a week now and I have enjoyed using it it.  I am still undecided on whether I will keep the iPad mini in this case all of the time.  I don't like the way that the case makes it harder to press the buttons on the side of the iPad mini.  This is not the DODOcase's fault — it is a result of Apple's decision to use a curved edge on the iPad mini — but it is a limitation.  Also, I'm undecided if I want my iPad mini to feel like a book all of the time.  I really like the feel of the iPad mini itself.  Mind you, I am someone who doesn't use a case with my iPhone either, so I realize that I am more case-adverse than the average person.  But for those times when I do want to use a case with my iPad mini, the minimalist and elegant design of the HARDcover make it a winner.

If you want other options, let me again thank MobileFun.com for sending me this review unit, and I'll point out that they have lots of different types of cases for the iPad mini, cases of different sizes and with different features.  You are sure to find something there that works for you.  Note that they charge a few dollars more for the HARDcover than if you buy from the manufacturer, but MobileFun.com gives you a 30 day money back guarantee (details here).

Click here to get the DODOcase HARDcover from MobileFun.com ($40.99)

In the news

This week was the big Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas, the place where many manufacturers announce products that they will be introducing throughout the year.  Apple does not attend the show, but thanks to the iPod, iPhone and iPad, Apple-related products are easy to find at the show, and every year the reporters at CES often spend a lot of time talking about what Apple is planning next even without Apple being there.  This year was no different:  one of the big news items this week was a rumor that Apple is planning to release a "lower-end iPhone" to compete at the low-end side of the smartphone market, spurred by a story by Jessica Lessin of the Wall Street Journal.  Even though Apple virtually never comments on future products, just a few days later, Apple Vice President Phil Schiller told a reporter that "Despite the popularity of cheap smartphones, this will never be the future of Apple’s products."  Schiller explained that Apple's strategy has always been to pursue profits, not just marketshare, and that even though Apple sells only 20% of all smartphones, it takes in 75% of all smartphone profit.  [UPDATE:  And now, on Friday, this story is getting even stranger.]  Only time will tell what kinds of iPhones are released by Apple in 2013, but I suspect that Apple will stick with its plans of only selling products that are profitable, avoiding cheap products merely aimed at increasing marketshare.  And now, the rest of the news of note from this week:

• Louisiana lawyers will be glad to see that Matt Miller updated his Louisiana Civil Code and Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure apps to update the text and to add support for the iPhone 5's larger screen.  (My review.)  If you practice law in Louisiana, you should get these apps.
• Evan Koblentz of Law Technology News reports that Amicus Attorney is adding a mobile website interface for its practice management software so that iOS users can access virtually all of the same features as the desktop time-entry modules.
• Houston attorney Reginald Hirsch sent me a link to this article describing a new ScanSnap scanner from Fujitsu that lets you send scans directly to an iPhone. 
• California attorney David Sparks reviewed that new ScanSnap iX500 from Fujitsu, and he says that the ability to scan directly to a mobile device is one of the best new features.
• South Carolina attorney Bill Latham of The Hytech Lawyer prepared a video on using an iPad to present a witness via Facetime or Skype.
• Attorney Jeremy Horwitz of iLounge describes the new products at CES that received iLounge Best of Show awards this year.  There are a few interesting ones on the list.
• I expected to see a ton of iPhone and iPad accessories announced at CES that take advantage of Apple's new Lightning connector.  There were some announcements, just not as many as I would have thought.  One potentially useful product is the Scosche strikeLine Pro, a USB-to-Lightning cord that uses a retractable cable.  Horwitz of iLounge has a first look at the product.
• GoodNotes, my favorite app for taking notes with a stylus on an iPad, was updated to version 3.6 this week.  The update allows you to annotate Word and PowerPoint files (the app converts them to PDFs first), has search improvements, has an improved zoom window, and more.  (My reviews: 1, 2.)
• John Moltz of Macworld writes that Microsoft Office for iPad may be coming this year, but it doesn't much matter because people don't really use Microsoft Word anymore.  That's an interesting theory for the market as a whole, but Word is still very important in the legal market, and I'd love to see Microsoft offer something good for the iPad.  We'll see.
• Apple announced this week that customers have downloaded more than 40 billion apps from the App Store.  What I find most impressive is that almost half of those downloads were just in the year 2012.  That tells you something about the surge in iPhone and iPad users last year.  Apple says that there are more than 775,000 apps in the App Store, more than 300,000 of which are made for the iPad.
• And finally, Julie Bort of Business Insider reports that a San Francisco company is developing an iPhone accessory that will give the iPhone the ability to taste and smell.  The developer hopes that the accessory will cost less than $100 and be out in a year or two, and suggests that you could use it to let your iPhone tell you if you have bad breath.  The company, Adamant Technologies, currently has almost nothing on its website, but the talented artists on staff at iPhone J.D. prepared this detailed rendering of the product:

Review: Proximo by Kensington -- find your keys with your iPhone, your iPhone with your keys, your briefcase or purse, and more

The iPhone 4S and 5 use Bluetooth version 4.o.  This enables them to talk to Bluetooth Smart devices, devices that can communicate with the iPhone via Bluetooth for months or years without a recharge, instead of just hours for traditional Bluetooth devices.  Ever since I purchased an iPhone 4S in 2011 I've been curious to try out a Bluetooth 4.0 device, and thanks to Kensington, we now have a pretty useful one on the market.  Today at the big CES convention in Las Vegas, Kensington is unveiling a $60 device called Proximo.  Proximo uses a small fob that you add to your keychain.  If you cannot find your keys, just launch the free Proximo app on your iPhone tap a button, and your iPhone helps you find your keys.  It works in reverse too; lose your iPhone and you can use the fob on your keys to find it. Kensington sent me a free pre-release review unit a few weeks ago to start testing it, and it works quite well.

Find your Keys, or Find your iPhone

The most basic, and perhaps most useful, feature of Proximo is that it can help you find your keys.  Just attach the fob to your keychain.

Then, to find your keys, just launch the Proximo app and you will see a row of icons that correspond to your fob.  The last icon will display "Find" if your fob is within range — which can vary quite a bit, but in my tests corresponded to about two rooms apart or about 40 feet apart.  If you see the word Find, just tap the magnifying glass to switch to the Find mode.  The fob on your keychain will start to play an alert so that you can find it by hearing it, plus you will see circles surrounding an icon of a person indicating how close you are to the keys.  You can almost imagine someone telling your "warmer" as you get closer and "colder" as you go the wrong direction.

 

If the fob is not within range, the last icon will instead say "Last Seen" and display an outline of a pin.  Just tap the pin to see a map.  A red pin will drop on the map where and when your fob was last in range, and a blue dot will show your current location.  Just head towards the red pin — walk in whatever direction you need to in order to get the blue dot closer to the red pin — to find your fob and your keys.  The map even tells you approximately how many feet you are from the fob's last location.  When you get close enough to get in range, the Proximo app tells you and will trigger the alert sound on the fob.

The whole system works in reverse too.  If you have your keys with your fob and need to find your iPhone, just press the button on the fob.  In a second or two, your iPhone will start playing an alarm.  Your fob doesn't indicate how far away the iPhone is located, but at least you can listen for the alarm to try to hunt it down.

Find anything else with tags

The $60 Proximo Starter Kit comes with one tag in addition to the fob. Tags are similar to fobs, but they are a little smaller and only work in one direction.  You can use your iPhone to find a tag, but there is no button on the tag to help you to find your iPhone.  The idea is that you connect the tag to something else that you don't want to lose, such as your briefcase or purse.  If you ever lose it, you can use the app to track it down.

Indicators in the app always tell you how close you are to your fob and your tag. 

You can purchase additional tags for $25.  The Proximo app can work with one fob and up to four tags.

If you have your tag on your briefcase and then get home and realize that you forgot your briefcase, you can tap the "Last seen" icon to quickly learn that you were last close to your briefcase X minutes ago when you were at the office, in court, in the coffee shop, or wherever else.  Fortunately, I haven't had to use this "for real" yet, but it doesn't take much imagination to see how useful this could be.

You can name your fob or tags whatever you want, and you can replace the default pictures with something else, such as a picture of your keys or your briefcase.  You can also select from a variety of different alerts to be played by a fob or a tag (or the iPhone itself) if it is lost, and can control the volume of the alert.

Let's stay together

Finally, you can activate an Alarm mode for any fob or any tag.  When activated, if your iPhone and the fob/tag are too far apart, both will start playing an alert.  For example, if your iPhone is on the table of a coffee shop and you get up and start to walk away, alarms will go off to let you know that you are forgetting your iPhone.  Or if you start to walk away without picking up your briefcase, you'll hear alarms go off.  You can adjust the sensitivity to Highest-High-Medium-Low-Lowest.  Highest is essentially useless because the two items have to be ridiculously close to each other or alarms go off.  Lowest will let you get about 30 to 40 feet or so away before the alarms go off, although this distance varies greatly based on walls and other interference.

As I tried out the Proximo over the last few weeks, I didn't find this mode to be very useful, but I can imagine times when I might turn it on.  Perhaps I would turn it on before starting to charge my iPhone on a wall outlet at an airport.  That way if I walk off to go to the restroom or to board the plane without thinking about it, the alarms will go off once I start to walk away.  Under those circumstances, it would be nice to know that I was about to walk off without my iPhone.  Of course, when all of those alarms go off, I'll also attract attention from a lot of other people as well.

As I think about it, though, for some people this could be the most valuable part of the Proximo.  Apple's Find my iPhone service can already help you track the location of an iPhone that you lost, and can even make your iPhone play an alarm sound, just like the Proximo fob.  But Proximo's Alarm function aims to prevent you from leaving the iPhone somewhere in the first place.  Finding what you lost is nice; not losing it in the first place is better.

Conclusion

Kensington says that the batteries in the fob and tag will last about six months.  It is a CR2032 Lithium Coin Battery, so you can easily buy replacements for just a few bucks.  This is the key to the Proximo working at all.  Without the long battery life that comes with Bluetooth 4.0, this product would be too much of a hassle to be worth it.  I'm excited to see what additional Bluetooth Smart products come out this year, and I'm sure that many are being announced this week at CES.

I like the Proximo.  I haven't yet had a real-life situation where I have had to use the Proximo to locate, or safeguard against a real risk of losing, my iPhone or briefcase, but such a loss would be VERY BAD.  If nothing else, the Proximo has helped me to find my keys when I cannot remember where I left them the night before.  Perhaps it isn't worth $60 just to help your find your keys, but if the Proximo prevents you from losing an iPhone, briefcase, purse, etc. just once, then it would certainly be worth it.  Like any insurance policy, you just need to weigh the cost versus the benefit — a benefit that you hope you never need.  I like that Proximo is a product that you can buy and then largely forget about until you need it ... in which case you'll be thrilled that you have it.

I don't yet see a link to purchase the Proximo, but I'm sure that Kensington will soon add a link to this page on their website.

In the news

Happy New Year, and welcome back to iPhone J.D. for 2013.  I spent some time in New York over the holidays and brought both my iPad 3 and my iPad mini.  I used the iPad mini far more than the iPad 3, but there were times when I preferred the iPad 3, such as a time when I needed to connect to my office computer using LogMeIn to draft and prepare a motion and exhibits to file in federal court.  The larger, better quality screen made that task much easier.  There were also some entertainment apps that were better on the iPad 3 because of the large, Retina display.  But for day-to-day tasks like keeping up with emails, reviewing attachments, social media apps like Twitter and Facebook, the iPad mini worked great and was so much easier to hold because of its size and weight.  I mention this because I am frequently asked whether attorneys should get the iPad or the iPad mini, and I'm torn.  I can't imagine not having my full size iPad, but I do use my iPad mini more.  As I continue to ponder that issue, here is the recent news of note:

• TechnoLawyer subscribers should check out the TL Research Guide to the iPad mini as a Serious Productivity Tool by New York attorney and TL publisher Neil Squillante for tips using an iPad mini in a law practice.  (If you are not already a subscriber, you can sign up for free.)  It's a great article.
• Michigan plaintiff attorneys Stephen Goethel and Chad Engelhardt of Goethel Engelhardt, PLLC wrote an extensive article for the State Bar of Michigan Negligence Quarterly about using an iPad in the practice of law.  The article is in PDF format.  Click here to download it.
• Steven Sande of TUAW reports that 53% of all mobile phones in the U.S. are smartphones, and iPhones account for 18.5% of all smartphones.  Given the number of iPhones I see out and about, I thought that number would be higher.  Maybe that just reflects me being around lawyers.  According to a survey conducted almost a year ago by the ABA, 44% of all U.S. attorneys were using an iPhone.  I'm sure that number is now much higher.
• If you use the Do Not Disturb function on your iPhone automatically every night (like I do), you might have been surprised (like I was) to learn that it did not switch off on January 1.  Jacqui Cheng explains the bug, and why it won't fix itself until January 7, 2013.  Lex Friedman of Macworld also has a good article discussing the bug.  Unfortunately, Apple has a history of New Year-related bugs on the iPhone.  Makes me think about when we all thought that Y2K was going to be a big deal.
• Connie Guglielmo of Forbes wrote an interesting article about the iPhone on AT&T.  Worth reading.
• Localscope, a useful app that I reviewed in 2011, is now free.
• If Siri has trouble pronouncing the name of one of your contacts, Rob LeFebvre of Cult of Mac explains that you can add phonetic spelling hints.
• Nicole Perlrtoh of the New York Times recommends apps that let your iPhone help you find your car.
• Matt Flegenheimer of the New York Times describes a new app from the Metropolitan Transit Authority that tells you exactly when a subway will arrive at a station.  It only works with the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and the S lines right now, but when I was in New York over the holidays I stayed in the Murray Hill area near Grand Central Station so I took the 4, 5 and 6 lines several times.  The app seems to work very well, and it is free.  Worth downloading out if you are in New York.  Click here to get MTA Subway Time (free): 
• Speaking of the New York Times, its iEconomy series has frequently criticized Apple for working conditions in China — unfairly, I think, because lots of companies use Chinese manufacturing besides Apple, and Apple is one of the few companies trying to make things better.  I was pleased to see that Keith Bradsher and Charles Duhigg of the New York Times wrote this article and the end of 2012 explaining that working conditions are now improving in Chinese plants that make Apple products, thanks to Apple's efforts.  There are still problems, but things are headed in the right direction.
• And finally, as far as my seven-year-old son is concerned, by far the best Christmas presents this year were Lego kits.  He is especially fond of the Lego Space series, including the Space Shuttle.  And I have to admit, I enjoyed helping him put them together too ... not that he really needed my help.  Perhaps because I have Lego on the brain, I was amused to see this article by Ray Basile of iPhone Savior linking to the BrickCase by Smallworks, a Lego-compatible case for your iPhone 5.  Cute.

Review: Polaris Office -- view and edit Microsoft Office files on the iPad and iPhone

Last month I noted that Apple finally added the track changes features to its Pages app, and since then, Pages has become my go-to app for working with Microsoft Word files on my iPad.  But there are still some things that Pages does not do, or does not do well, which causes me to sometimes use another app for working with documents on my iPad or iPhone such as Documents to Go, Quickoffice or Office².  Jeeyoung Jung, an app developer in South Korea with the company Infraware, recently sent me a free review copy of Polaris Office, a $12.99 app that can view and edit Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files (in both the old .doc format and the new .docx format).  I haven't spent much time using Polaris Office with Excel and PowerPoint files, so this review will focus on Word files.  Polaris Office does a very good job viewing Word documents, and a decent job editing Word documents. 

If you receive a document as an email attachment, simply hold down on the attachment and you will be given the option to open the file in Polaris Office.  Documents recently added to Polaris Office show up on the main screen, and you can also connect Polaris Office with the cloud services Dropbox, Google Drive, Box and ucloud to download a document.

Polaris Office is a great document viewer.  You can flick your finger up and down to scroll through a document, or use a tab on the side to quickly move through a long document.  Polaris Office displays a wide variety of fonts, and displays footnotes.  I did notice one quirk in many of my documents:  numbers would sometimes appear in blue and underlined, as if they were hyperlinks, even though there was no such code applied to the text. 

One other problem that I noted was that, when working with large files, the app would sometimes have problems displaying text.  Scrolling up or down a little bit would often (but not always) quickly solve the problem, before doing that I would sometimes see screens like this:

If a document has redline track changes in it, Polaris Office will show those edits.  Unfortunately, the app does not let you accept or reject those redline edits.

Unlike Apple's Pages app, Polaris Office can show comments in a document, although it does not do so by default.  The only way to know that a comment exists is to first tap the icon at the top right and select View Comment.  Text with a comment attached will then show up in yellow with a small box near it.  Tap the text, then tap "more" in the pop-up menu, then tap Comment to see the comment.

By default, Polaris Office uses a page view that approximates what the document will look like when printed.  However, the app also offers a useful "Reflow text" view that lets you pinch to zoom text with text reflowing on the line below.  This feature is especially useful on the iPhone because you often cannot read text in a normal page layout mode.  Documents to Go uses reflow text by default, and this feature is the main reason that Documents to Go has long been my favorite iPhone app for viewing Word documents.  The first picture below shows a document viewed in Polaris Office on the iPhone in the normal page view, and the second screen shows the same document with the Reflow text option enabled.

 

I've been talking about using Polaris Office as an app to view Word documents, but it can also edit documents.  The app is rather sophisticated in its features and offers lots of ways to reformat text, insert shapes, graphics, tables, bookmarks, etc.  Unfortunately, the app does not provide a way to create redline track changes edits, nor does it give you a way to insert comments.

Presumably as a result of Polaris Office being developed in South Korea, the text in the app and in help files is sometimes a little confusing or odd.  I realize that these are just translation issues, but it does jump out at you from time to time.  For example, the section of the FAQ that shows you how to rename a file is called "Do you have any idea to rename document?"  The website for Polaris Office states:  "Polaris Office is a premium mobile office product that enables the user to use MS Office documents conveniently, based on emotional experiences."  I'm curious what phrase in Korean translated to "emotional experiences" in English.

I think that every attorney who works with Microsoft Word files on an iPad — which is essentially every attorney — should have a copy of Apple's $9.99 Pages app.  That app is incredibly stable and offers a great way to view and edit documents plus it gives you the ability to view and approve or reject redline edits.  Unfortunately, Pages has some shortcomings, such as the fact that it cannot display comments and indeed it deletes all comments in a document, and the fact that Pages only has a page view mode which makes it hard to zoom text on a tiny iPhone screen.  Thus, while every attorney should have a copy of Pages, I think it also makes sense to have at least one other Office-compatible app.  The question is, shoud that app be Documents to Go, Quickoffice, Office² or Polaris Office?

Quickoffice has a fantastic interface — for example, the best in class for reviewing and approving/rejecting redline edits in a document — but still doesn't handle footnotes, which is a huge shortcoming for many attorneys.

Office² was the first app to offer the ability to add redline track changes to a document, but now that Pages does the same thing this is no longer a unique advantage.  Office² also crashes a lot for me when I work with complex documents, and I don't like the way that it displays track changes in very tiny text on the side.

That leaves Documents to Go and Polaris Office, and both are decent options.  If you are working with a file containing comments, I prefer the way that Documents to Go shows you the comment by default, whereas in Polaris Office you need to first turn on that feature.  That means that you may miss a comment if you didn't know that it was there in the first place.  Documents to Go and Polaris Office both offer the useful option of reflowing text, helpful when you want to make the text larger on the iPad and essential on the iPhone because you will almost always want to make text larger.  If a document has footnotes and you just want to view the document, Documents to Go works better becuase you can tap on a footnote reference to see a pop-up window with the text of the footnote.  When Polaris Office is in the reflow text mode, you just see the reference number but you need to switch back to the page layout view to read the footnote text.  On the other hand, Polaris Office (like Pages) gives you the ability to edit or select text in a footnote, something that you cannot do in Documents to Go.  Documents to Go also supports the longer screen on an iPhone 5, whereas Polaris Office currently does not, wasting screen real estate with black bars on the top and bottom (see above pictures) instead of displaying more of the document.

For now I have a preference for Documents to Go, but I admit that this is in part because I have been using Documents to Go for many years now and I am just now starting to work with Polaris Office.  With just a few more features, such as support for the iPhone 5's longer screen, I could see Polaris Office becoming my prefered app.

I'm glad to see that there is another option for viewing Microsoft Office files on the iPad and iPhone.  Polaris Office does a lot of things very well.  It is a universal app that works on both the iPhone and iPad so you don't have to buy the app twice.  In its current form, I don't see myself using this app more than Pages or Documents to Go, but that may change if more features are added to the app in the future.

Click here for Polaris Office ($12.99): 

The other apps that I discussed above:

Click here to get Pages ($9.99): 

Click here for Documents to Go [both iPad and iPhone] ($9.99): 

Click here for Documents to Go Premium [both iPad and iPhone] ($16.99): 

Click here for Quickoffice Pro HD [for iPad] ($19.99): 

Click here for Quickoffice Pro [for iPhone] ($14.99): 

Click here for Office² HD [for iPad] ($7.99): 

Click here for Office² [for iPhone] ($5.99):