Earlier this week, I was a guest on Arizona attorney John Skiba's JD Blogger podcast, a podcast geared at attorneys who use blogs, podcasts, or other social media to market themselves. I talked about the history of iPhone J.D. and my blogging workflow, and even recommended a few apps that will be very familiar to many iPhone J.D. readers. You can click here to get to the page where you can listen to the podcast episode or subscribe to the JD Blogger podcast. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- St. Louis attorney Dennis Kennedy analyzes whether lawyers should create apps to promote their law practice in an article for the ABA Journal. The current crop of apps, he notes, "seem to fall into two categories: big-firm apps and auto-accident-firm apps." I think it makes more sense to create a mobile-friendly website than a dedicated app, but I certainly don't pretend to be a marketing expert.
- I seems that I mention California attorney David Sparks every week in In the news, but he can't seem to stop posting useful tips. This week he recommends using Siri to quickly calculate dates on the iPhone, a great tip and something that I do all the time ... although I also still like to use DaysFrom.
- This week, Apple and numerous other businesses filed amicus briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court in the two same-sex marriage cases that are being argued this month. On Wednesday, Apple and others filed a brief opposing the Defense of Marriage Act in United States v. Windsor, a case that will be argued on March 27. On Thursday, Apple and others filed a brief opposing California’s Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriages in Hollingsworth v. Perry, a case that will be argued on March 26. Those two links are to the SCOTUSblog pages that provide links to briefs; as of early Friday morning, the Apple amicus briefs were not yet posted, but I imagine that they will be soon.
- Good Technology software is used by half of the Fortune 100 and many law firms to provide enhanced security for mobile devices. This week, Good announced that 77% of all of its mobile device activations in the last quarter were iPhones and iPads, with Android accounting for nearly all of the rest.
- Fortune magazine named Apple the world's most admired company.
- Bryan Chaffin of The Mac Observer started a series called "Meet the Board" that will profile each of the eight directors on Apple's board. This week was the first entry, a profile of Disney CEO Bob Iger.
- If you lose your iPhone in New York, you'll be pleased to know that, as reported by Jamie Schram and Chuck Bennett of the New York Post, the NYPD formed a dedicated team of police officers to work with Apple and track down stolen iPhones.
- And finally, one year ago I noted that an iPhone saved the life of a man in the Netherlands when it deflected a bullet. Lacie Grosvold of the CBS affiliate KTVA in Alaska reports that an iPhone similarly saved the life of a Joel Stubleski, a U.S. soldier stationed in Afghanistan when it was in his pocket and deflected a bullet. Subleski says that "my iPhone saved my life" and now uses a picture of his shattered iPhone as a cover on his new iPhone to serve as a reminder.
