We are just a few days away from Apple’s introduction of the next model of the iPhone, plus I expect we’ll see more information and a release date (and perhaps a few surprises) on iOS 7, the next version of the iPhone and iPad operating system with a radical new interface and lots of improvements. If you plan to upgrade to a new iPhone, Apple has a new iPhone trade-in program whereby Apple will give you some cash for your old iPhone if you get the new one at an Apple Store. As Joseph Keller of iMore notes, you can get $250 for a 16 GB iPhone 5. It’s a pretty exciting time of the year for iPhone lovers. And now, the rest of the news items of note from the past week:
- Should your law firm create an iPhone app for publicity purposes? While a few law firms have had success doing so, for the most part I don’t think that this is a good use of your time and money, and I instead encourage you to make your law firm website iPhone-friendly. Erik Mazzonne, the director of the Center for Practice Management at the North Carolina Bar Association, feels the same way, as he explained in this article for Law Practice Magazine.
- Your iPhone (and iPad) can be made more useful with the right accessories. John Edwards of Law Technology News identifies some of the best smartphone accessories.
- What external battery do you get if you want to get the most extra battery life? Alan of the website Art of the iPhone explored that question and decided that the Turcom 33,600 gives you the most. He says you can recharge an iPhone around 15 times, so I’m sure you could recharge an iPad many times over. You can get it on Amazon for $129.99.
- Earlier this year, I reviewed ABBYY TextGrabber + Translate, an excellent iPhone app that can perform OCR on the device itself. The app is about to be updated to version 4.0 to add support for the iPad as well, and the update may be available by the time that you read this. You can get more info here.
- Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times reviews KeyMe, an app that lets you scan a key so that if you lose it, you can provide a blueprint to a locksmith to recreate the key.
- Marco Tabini of Macworld discusses Apple’s improvements in iOS app security.
- And finally, what do you do when it’s time to pop open an ice cold bottle of beer but you don’t have a bottle opener handy? According to a bunch of folks including Michael Rose at TUAW, you can just use your iPad charger. The below picture comes from Susie Ochs of TechHive. I absolutely, positively, do not in any way condone doing this … but you have to admit, it is tempting to try.
