Before Mardi Gras was even over in New Orleans this past Tuesday, I had to jump on a plane for depositions in another state. The New Orleans airport underwent a major renovation for the Super Bowl and it looks amazing — new restaurants, new furniture, new amenities, etc. Of course, being in the airport on Mardi Gras day, there were many other sights to see as I found myself walking behind people in costumes such as this:
While making a connection in the Atlanta airport, I was surprised to see an Apple presence. The BlackBerry Store that had been at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport for the last few years was replaced with a store called iTravel, an authorized Apple reseller. So the next time that you make a connection through Atlanta, if you need to pick up some extra cables and accessories — or for that matter, a new iPhone or Mac computer — you can do so right in the airport. Although I first noticed this store this week, I see from an article by Kelly Yamanouchi of the Atlanta-Journal Constitution that the iTravel store actually opened in August of 2012, and apparently there is a similar store at the Boston airport. The Atlanta iTravel store is located next to gate B18, near the middle of the concourse.
Enough about travel, let's get to the news of note from the past week:
- I led off last week's In the news with a story of New Orleans attorney Andrew Legrand making effective use of iThoughtsHD on an iPad mini. Here is a post from Legrand himself on PaperlessChase.com with more details on using the app.
- California attorney David Sparks explains in a Macworld article why users of Apple's products shouldn't get too worked up about the rise and fall of Apple stock prices.
- Speaking of David Sparks, he and New Orleans attorney Ernie Svenson teamed up to teach an iPad Basics Webinar on Friday, March 1 at 10 Pacific / 1 Eastern. No CLE credit, unfortunately, but Sparks and Svenson are both excellent speakers who know this subject well — Sparks literally wrote the book on using an iPad at work — so I suspect it will be an excellent presentation. The cost is $50, but if you use the promo code "iphonejd" you can save 10%.
- South Carolina attorney Ben Stevens of The Mac Lawyer reviews JuryPad, a jury selection app for the iPad.
- John Paczkowski of All Things D reports that Microsoft could make billions of dollars if it released a version of Office for the iPad. Paczkowski correctly notes that even if that number is too high, the fact remains that Microsoft could make serious money if it released such an app. Microsoft is focused on its new Surface tablet right now, but of course Microsoft has sold a version of Office for Mac since the 1980s while at the same time Microsoft promoted Windows, so there is a precedent for Office being on competing platforms at the same time.
- If you need a Lightning cable for your iPhone 5, iPad mini or fourth generation iPad, Juli Clover of MacRumors notes that both Monoprice and Amazon now sell low cost, Apple-certified cables. Click here for the Amazon cable which is only $14.99, versus Apple's $19.99 cable.
- Dan Moran and Lex Friedman of Macworld compiled a great list of 33 tips and tricks for iOS 6.
- Similarly, Rob LeFebvre of Cult of Mac offers tips and tricks for using Siri to dictate.
- GoodNotes, which is still my favorite app for taking handwritten notes on an iPad, was updated to version 3.7 this week. As noted by the developer, the new version is much faster handling PDF files, and I can confirm this from my tests.
- Apple CEO Tim Cook gave a presentation to Goldman Sachs this week. Macworld has excerpts of the highlights of his speech.
- One of the things that Cook discussed was the Apple Stores, and Horace Dediu has an interesting post at his Asymco website juxtaposing what Cook said with charts showing what it means.
- Apple recently released iOS 6.1, and apparently there are two problems with it. First, Apple issued an alert that "When you respond to an exception to a recurring calendar event with a Microsoft Exchange account on a device running iOS 6.1, the device may begin to generate excessive communication with Microsoft Exchange Server." Apple says that a fix is coming in a software update.
- Second, Lex Friedman of Macworld notes that if someone gets physical access to your iPhone or iPad running iOS 6.1, and if they press a complicated series of buttons on the device, the person can gain access to your Contacts. And because the Contacts app lets a person add a picture from the Photos app to a contact, that means that a person can also view the Photos on your device. How in the world someone discovered this is beyond me, but now anyone who reads that article can figure out how to do it. Once again, Apple says that a fix is coming in a software update, but in the meantime, keep an eye on your iOS devices.
- Infinity Blade, one of my favorites games on the iPad, is currently free due to Apple's app of the week promotion, as noted by Eli Hodapp of TouchArcade. I was happy to spend $5.99 on this app. If you don't have it yet, get it now for free:
- And finally, it appears that Doctor Who predicted the iPad back in 1980, as shown in this clip from an old episode of the TV show. (via @Jason Snell and @Dalek Thay)
