iPhones and iPads come with a 1 meter long white USB cord. For all of Apple’s latest devices, the cord has a USB connector on one end and a Lightning connector on the other end. The 1 m length works well for most tasks, but sometimes you want something shorter or longer. CableJive launched the iBoltz XS and the iBoltz XL to address that need. Both cables are white, just like the Apple cables, and both cables are Apple certified. (You can buy cheaper, no-name cables on places like Amazon that claim to work with the Lightning connector, but they are not Apple certified and I would be nervous about using them with my expensive iPhone or iPad.)
The iBoltz XS is the short version, only five inches long. It is virtually identical to a product that CableJive had been selling, the the LightLinez from Kenburg Technology, and which I reviewed earlier this year. As I noted earlier this year, the shorter length is perfect if you want to connect your iPhone to your laptop; there is no reason to have them very far apart. I also find that a short cable is perfect for any of the external batteries that you can use to charge an iPhone or iPad; using the regular 1 meter cable results in a lot of extra cable. The short length of the iBoltz XS also makes it easy to pack for travel.
The iBoltz XS costs $18.95. That is essentially the same price as Apple’s $19.00 1 meter Lightning to USB Cable (to the extent that you ever need to buy an extra one; remember the 1 meter version comes with your device), but the point of the iBoltz XS isn’t to pay less but instead to have a short cord that is perfect for tasks for which 1 meter is just too long and awkward.
On the other hand, sometimes the standard 1 meter cable is not long enough. I suspect that every iPhone and iPad owner has had at least one occasion in which they were just a little too far from an outlet or a USB port. This often happens to me in a hotel room where the outlet is just far enough away from a table or nightstand that the regular cord cannot reach, so I have to leave my iPhone or iPad on the floor while it charges, and then I’m afraid that I will forget it is there and step on it. A longer cord can also be useful at your desk in your office when the outlet is just a little too far away. This is where the iBoltz XL is useful; it is just like the standard cable, but twice as long. 2 meters instead of 1 meter — or, to do the conversion for you, about 6 and a half feet instead of just over 3 feet.
Even Apple sees the need for a longer cord, and Apple sells a 2 meter version of the Lighting to USB cable for $29.00. The advantage of the iBoltz is simply price; it is $24.95 so you save about $4. And if you are ordering online, iBoltz XL cables are eligible for Amazon Prime free shipping, so you also don’t have to pay the $4.00 that Apple charges for shipping and handling at the online Apple store. (Apple doesn’t currently sell the 2 meter version on Amazon.)
The Lightning connectors at the end of the iBoltz cables are small enough that they should work even if your iPhone or iPad is in a case, but note that they are just a tiny bit larger than the Apple 1 meter cable. In the following picture, the Apple 1 meter cable connector is at the left, the middle is the iBoltz XS and the right is the iBoltz XL. Blown up this much, the size difference is noticeable, but in real life I doubt you will notice the difference.
I’ve been happy with the quality of other CableJive products, and these Apple certified cables seem like great solutions if you are looking for a short cable (which Apple doesn’t sell at all) or if you are looking to save a few bucks on a longer cable. If you decide to get both iBoltz cables, you can save a little more because CableJive is currently running a promotion where you can save $2 if you order two iBoltz cables. You need to use coupon code iBOLTZ, and you have to order from the CableJive website.
One year ago, Apple proudly announced that it sold five million iPhone 5 devices the first weekend that it went on sale and that 100 million people had updated to the new iOS 6. This week, Apple announced that it sold nine million new iPhones. That incredible number includes both the iPhone 5s and the iPhone 5c, but I suspect that the large majority of the early adopters bought the iPhone 5s. Apple also said that over 200 million iPhones are now running the brand new iOS 7. This is an incredible response to Apple’s new hardware and software, but frankly is not all that surprising considering that both have been so well reviewed. The iPhone 5s reviews have been incredibly positive, and while iOS 7 takes a little while to get used to the new look, it has so many improvements that I still find myself discovering new things every day. Here is the news of note from the past week:
Tampa attorney Katie Floyd reviews the Nest Thermostat, a sophisticated way to adjust the temperature in your home that you can control with your iPhone.
James Galbraith of Macworld ran some tests to figure out how fast the iPhone 5s is. The title of the article gives away the results: “iPhone 5s lives up to the hype.”
Allyson Kazmucha of iMore tests LTE speed on the iPhone 5s on AT&T and finds that it is faster than the iPhone 5. I haven’t noticed much of a difference myself, but I’m happy to learn that it could be faster.
There have been news stories that one person figured out how to fool the fingerprint scanner on the iPhone 5s, but the steps involved are so complicated that in my mind it doesn’t make me any less impressed by this technology. I agree completely with the perspective offered by David Pogue of the New York Times on the issue, and you should read that article if you have any concerns. If a criminal is dedicated (and lucky) enough, I’m sure he can figure out a way to pick the locks on your house, use social engineering to get past the receptionist in your office, and tap your phone line. You simply cannot eliminate all risk. But you can take reasonable precautions, and the fingerprint scanner on the iPhone 5s makes it convenient to use increased security, such as requiring a passcode every single time that the device is woken up, and that makes it a great feature for everyone, especially attorneys.
Josh Centers of TidBITS offers a 39 word review of that $39 iPhone 5s case.
If you buy a red iPhone case — or any other red product from Apple — the company makes a donation to (PRODUCT) RED, the organization that fights AIDS. Bono recently announced that Apple has so far raised $65 million for the organization.
Last week, I linked to an article based on interviews by Sam Grobart of BloombergBusinessweek of Apple executives Jony Ive, Craig Federighi and Tim Cook. He has since posted the full text of the interviews, and frankly they are far more interesting than the article. Here is the Tim Cook interview; here is the Ive/Federighi interview.
When I fly, I often find it useful to use the Gogo in-flight Internet service, especially the new plan that offers 30 minutes of access for just a few bucks — enough time to catch up on your emails so that you don’t have 100 unread messages when you land. This week, Gogo announced a partnership with Allstate that will offer 30 minutes of free in-flight Internet access during weeken flights. The Gogo Blog has more details.
When I fly, I often wish I didn’t have to turn off my iPhone and iPad during takeoff and landing. That may soon change. The FAA recently created a 28-member committee to study the situation, and yesterday that committee released its recommendation that the FAA change its policy and allow the use of personal electronic devices during takeoff and landing, as noted by AppleInsider. Hopefully the recommendation will be accepted and the policy will change soon.
Before iOS 7, if you had to open a .zip file on an iPad or iPhone, the best solution was typically GoodReader, an app that I recommend anyway to every attorney. But as Serenity Caldwell of Macworld notes, in iOS 7, the Mail app knows how to open .zip files.
If you want a USB car charger that will quickly charge an iPad and an iPhone, Karissa Bell of The Wirecutter says the best model is the Scoosche reVOLT c2 which costs about $20 on Amazon.
And finally, last week I ended with a funny clip from Conan O’Brien about the gold iPhone 5s. In light of the gold iPhone shortages, here is the follow up video:
Professor Dane Ciolino teaches at Loyola Law School in New Orleans, LA. He is the author of the book Louisiana Legal Ethics: Standards and Commentary (2013), publishes the blog Louisiana Legal Ethics, and is widely regarded as an expert in legal ethics. He also has an interest in technology, and I have enjoyed teaching CLEs with him over the years. He recently wrote about the ethics of lawyers using public Wi-Fi, an issue that lawyers with an iPhone or an iPad frequently encounter in airports, coffeshops, etc.
Prof. Ciolino was kind enough to give me permission to republish his article for iPhone J.D. readers:
—–
Rule 1.6 of course requires a lawyer to maintain the confidentiality of client information. But does it require a lawyer who digitally stores and communicates information to use über-security measures like encryption or multi-factor authentication? Does it prohibit a lawyer from using a public Wi-Fi network at Starbucks or at an airport?
A September 10, 2013 decision from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals should give comfort to even the most confidentially-minded of lawyers. In Joffe v. Google, Inc., the Ninth Circuit considered whether the federal Wiretap Act covers communications over Wi-Fi networks. That act imposes liability on anyone who “intentionally intercepts . . . any wire, oral, or electronic communication,” subject to some exceptions. See18 U.S.C. § 2511(1)(a). Google argued that one of those exceptions carved out public Wi-Fi networks because they were, among other things, “accessible to the general public.” The court rejected Google’s argument and held as follows:
Wi-Fi transmissions are not “readily accessible” to the “general public” because most of the general public lacks the expertise to intercept and decode payload data transmitted over a Wi-Fi network. Even if it is commonplace for members of the general public to connect to a neighbor’s unencrypted Wi-Fi network, members of the general public do not typically mistakenly intercept, store, and decode data transmitted by other devices on the network. Consequently, we conclude that Wi-Fi communications are sufficiently inaccessible that they do not constitute an “electronic communication . . . readily accessible to the general public” under 18 U.S.C. § 2511(2)(g)(i) as the phrase is ordinarily understood.
This decision not only is sensible, but also has important implications for lawyers. The rules of professional conduct require only that a lawyer “make reasonable efforts to prevent the inadvertent or unauthorized disclosure of, or unauthorized access to, information relating to the representation of a client.” See ABA Model Rule 1.6(c). In the wake of the Joffe v. Google opinion, it is now “reasonable” for a lawyer to assume that the communication of client information over a Wi-Fi network is “confidential” — after all, any interception by a would-be interceptor would violate the federal Wiretap Act. Therefore, it is no less reasonable for a lawyer to communicate over (now) federally-protected Wi-Fi networks than to communicate over federally-protected wireless phone networks, landlines and fax lines. In all cases, of course, fit the means of communication to the sensitivity of the information.
So, relax, take slurp of that venti double chocolate chip mocha Frappuccino, and send your email. It’s okay.
Thank you to Clio for once again being a sponsor of iPhone J.D., and this week there is big Clio news to announce: a brand new iPhone app, and a really great one at that. As you may already know, Clio offers web-based practice management, time & billing and client collaboration services (including document management) for small and mid-sized law firms. When you use Clio, your important client data is securely accessible anywhere that you have Internet access.
You have always been able to access Clio from a web browser, including Safari on an iPhone. I discussed that interface earlier this year. But Clio surveyed its users and learned that close to 70% of mobile Clio use was on an iPhone, and thus they worked hard to develop a native iPhone app. Yesterday, it became available on the app store, and it is now a free download that can be used by anyone with a subscription to Clio.
Given the recent release of iOS 7, the timing of Clio’s app release could not be better. The Clio app has a beautiful and easy to use interface that fits like a glove with iOS 7. The graphics are clean and modern, and you will see the same icons that Apple uses in its own iOS 7 apps. Jack Newton, the CEO and co-founder of Clio, explains: “We designed the Clio iPhone app from the ground up to take full advantage of the new features and visual language of iOS 7, and deliver an unparalleled user experience as a result.” The app also works with iOS 6 if you haven’t yet upgraded.
Start the app and you are asked to enter your pin for security. You then see your information in Clio. For example, one view shows you a list of your open matters.
If you tap on a matter you get more information, such as basic information about the matter, or an interesting timeline view which presents a graphical view of all of the activity on the file.
From any screen, you can swipe to the left or to the right to expose other panels. Swipe the screen from left to right and you see tabs for each function of the app: Matters, Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, Time Entries, Documents and Settings. Swipe from right to left and you see what Clio calls the Awesome Bar Awesome Dashboard [UPDATE: one of the software developers at Clio, Tys von Gaza, tweeted that they are instead calling it the Awesome Dashboard]. At the top of the Awesome Dashboard is a timer that you can start with the tap of a button to have your iPhone monitor and track your billable time on a matter. The Awesome Dashboard also shows you your upcoming events and tasks.
When you display Contacts you are shown all of your Clio Contacts. You can tap the + to add a new contact. If you tap the word Clio Contacts at the top of your screen you can then switch to a view of all of your iPhone contacts — the contacts in the iPhone’s built-in Contacts app — and with a simple tap you can upload any contact on your iPhone directly to your Clio Contacts.
When you display the Calendar you see all of your events in Clio for that day. Tap on the event to change any information about the event, such as the start and end time, whether it is a recurring event, who is attending the event, the matter to which the event is billed, etc.
When you display Documents you see a searchable list of your Clio documents. Tap on any document to view it. The app lets you select and copy text in the document, but unfortunately there is currently no option to send the document to another app.
Perhaps one of the most useful reasons to have Clio on your iPhone is the ability to create time entries as they occur, even when you are away from your computer. There are multiple ways to enter time. First, you can simply swipe the screen from right to left to bring up the Awesome Dashboard and start a timer to have the iPhone determine how long you are working on a matter. A blue bar appears at the top of the screen (as shown on some of the above images) when your iPhone is tracking your time. Second, in the Matters view, you can tap the three dots to the right of a matter name and a pop-up menu will apeal; tap + Time to enter time for that matter. Third, you can swipe the screen from left to right to display Time. From there, you can manually enter a time entry, including selecting a matter and entering the amount of time spent. Right now the interface requires you to tap a button to manually display the Description and or Notes fields, but I’m told that this might change in the future. The Description field is a list of activities that you can edit on your computer so that on your iPhone you can simply tap a selection such as “Research” or “Meeting.” The Notes field allows for a more traditional text entry, such as “research motion for summary judgment.”
For more information on how this app works, here is a short two minute video from Clio that shows the app in action:
As you can tell, this 1.0 version of the Clio app is already quite impressive. Massachusetts attorney and prolific blogger Bob Ambrogi says that “Clio’s iPhone app is the most highly functional and highly intuitive practice-management app I’ve seen.” And fortunately, it will get better. Minneapolis attorney Sam Glover of Lawyerist.com reports that the Clio app was developed in-house and there are six full-time developers at Clio working on the app. The folks at Clio tell me that fresh on the heels of this 1.0 release, the team is already working on features for the next version.
If you already use Clio in your law practice, then you’ll want to download this app today to take advantage of the convenient interface to the Clio service. If you are an iPhone-using attorney at a small or medium sized law firm and you don’t currently use law firm mangement software, you’ll definitely want to take a look at Clio. The web-baed tools are powerful, and the new iPhone client makes the service even more useful.
Knowing that the iPhone 5s is currently in limited supply, I arrived at my local AT&T store early Friday morning to get in line. Supplies were indeed limited, and about 30 minutes before the store opened at 8 am I was reminded of the quote from Henry Ford that “Any customer can have a [Model T] car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black” when the AT&T employees announced that they were not provided with any white or gold iPhones. I wanted a 64 GB black model anyway — technically called “space gray” — so the announcement did not affect me, but others in line were disappointed. Indeed, according to ifo Apple Store, no carrier stores received any gold iPhones, and even Apple-owned stores only received two to five gold phones per store. I understand that no store currently has an iPhone 5s of any color in stock, and it will be October before orders start to be filled. So that is a long way of saying that if you don’t already have an iPhone 5s, you may have to wait a few weeks to get one — especially if you want gold.
But let me tell you, the iPhone 5s is worth the wait. After three days of extensively using mine, I love it. It combines everything that I loved about the iPhone 5 — the great size and weight, the longer screen, the speedy 4G LTE — and adds three great new features.
Security and Convenience
The marquee feature of the iPhone 5s is the Touch ID fingerprint scanner. Apple has managed to take a very complicated technology and make it work so well that it seems like magic. The scanner always works, and it works so quickly that I find it hard to believe that my finger was scanned at all.
One advantage is convenience. I cannot even count the number of times that I pick up my iPhone every day to use it. In the past, I would have to first press a button to wake the screen and then swipe to unlock the iPhone, and then if I had not used the iPhone in 15 minutes I would have to enter the four digit pin. But with the iPhone 5s, I just press and release the home button and leave my finger on top of the button for the shortest of time — like a quarter of a second — and my finger is scanned and the iPhone is unlocked and I can use it. Even if you never use a password on your iPhone, it is faster to use the home button plus fingerprint scanner than to first press a button to wake up the screen and then swipe to unlock.
But of course, you should use a password on your iPhone (and if you are a lawyer, I would say that you MUST use a password on your iPhone) and yet the iPhone 5s manages to combine convenience with security, concepts that are virtually always at odds with one another. As I just mentioned, in the past I would only require a password on my iPhone every 15 minutes because it was just too inconvenient to have to enter a password every time. I knew I was giving up some security, but I hoped to be lucky. But with the iPhone 5s, I now tell my iPhone to require a passcode immediately every time someone tries to use it (Settings -> General -> Passcode & Fingerprint) because it never slows me down to have my fingerprint scanned so why not have the most security. This gives me much more protection if someone else were to accidentally or maliciously pick up my iPhone and try to use it. And given the amount of confidential information on my iPhone, making a passcode/fingerprint a constant requirement makes me feel much better about satisfying Rule of Professional Conduct 1.6(c): “A lawyer shall make reasonable efforts to prevent the inadvertent or unauthorized disclosure of, or unauthorized access to, information relating to the representation of a client.”
I also love the fact that I can use my fingerprint to buy apps or music on my iPhone. Apple now has strong security requirements for an Apple ID password: “Your password must be at least eight characters including a number, an uppercase letter, and a lowercase letter. You cannot use spaces, the same character three times in a row, your Apple ID, or a password you’ve used in the last year.” I support the idea of strong passwords, but we all know what a pain they are to type. It is infinitely easier to simply place my finger on my home button for a fraction of a second to approve a purchase. I cannot wait for Apple to expand this feature to other iPhone apps that have a username and password requirement.
In short, the Touch ID fingerprint scanner is a great feature for anyone who uses an iPhone, but it is an especially great feature for anyone who keeps private information on their iPhone, which of course includes all attorneys. You get both greater security and greater convenience at the same time.
Camera
I have a nice Nikon SLR camera that takes beautiful pictures and video, but I still take a large number of pictures and video with my iPhone just because I always have it with me. One of the secrets to taking great pictures with my Nikon camera is to take a ton of pictures. There are always going to be some bad ones because a subject blinks or looks to the side, but if I take a bunch in a row, I usually get at least one that works well. My Nikon 5100 can take 4 frames a second in burst mode if I hold down the button, which helps to get the perfect picture. The iPhone 5s can take an amazing 10 frames a second when you hold down the button (either the on-screen virtual button or the physical volume button, which is what I prefer to use). I’m sure that I will get used to this over time, but right now, every single time I hold down the button I am again astonished at how quickly the iPhone 5s can take pictures.
The Camera roll keeps all of those burst mode pictures together in a bundle so they take up just one square on your grid of pictures. You can do nothing more and simply keep all of those pictures, which makes sense if you want to look at all of them on the large screen of your computer at a later date to select the best one. Or you can tap on the bundle and then tap on the word Favorites to select the one or more that you want to save (the iPhone 5s helps you by selecting the one that it likes best, and in my tests it usually made good picks) and then delete the rest of the pictures in the bundle all at once.
I tested this burst mode over the weekend with the toughest subjects I know — my kids. Having a five and seven year old both look at the camera at the same time without making a goofy face can be one of life’s greatest challenges, but with 10 pictures snapped every second, it was far, far easier to get a picture worth keeping. And when I took pictures of my son playing soccer this weekend, the burst mode made it so much easier to get just the right shot when there was a lot of activity. The burst mode is amazing and I’m going to use it all of the time. The new slow motion mode is also really fun, resulting in some ESPN-worthy videos of my son kicking the soccer ball.
Apple has some amazing sample pictures taken by an iPhone 5s on its website. Here are two pictures that I took of some flowers. Click each picture to see it full-size:
There are other things I like about the iPhone 5s camera. It has a new f/2.2 aperture and other improvements to make each picture more sharp, even in limited light. And while I hate to use a flash on any iPhone, the iPhone 5s flash is actually not that bad, thanks to the new dual-LED lights (one white LED, one amber LED) which are used in different combinations to cast the best color on your subjects.
Just yesterday, during the halftime of the Saints football game, my kids and I heard music outside of our house. We ran outside to investigate, and a few blocks away found a street parade. (You never know when you will run into a parade in New Orleans. I later discovered that this one was the Young Men Olympian, Jr. 129th Annual Anniversary Parade.) We listened and danced along to the music for a few minutes and I shot two quick videos, which I quickly trimmed and merged into a single movie using the powerful iMovie app on my iPhone and then uploaded the movie to YouTube. Here is the result:
As always, the best part about the iPhone camera is that it is always with me. Improvements to the camera hardware and software are always appreciated because it means that those unanticipated moments are preserved that much better.
Speed
The final advantage of the iPhone 5s is speed, thanks to the new A7 64-bit processor. Many features of the iPhone 5s such as the ones I described above — the fingerprint scanner, slow motion video and the burst mode — wouldn’t be possible without that fast processor. (If I hold down the button on my iPhone 5, I get closer to one frame per second.) The processor also helps to make the iPhone 5s as a whole feel more zippy and responsive.
I also used the Safari app to load lots of webpages on both my iPhone 5 and my iPhone 5s at the same time. The iPhone 5 was no slouch, but even so, the iPhone 5s typically loaded pages about twice as fast.
I also look forward to seeing what app developers can do when they have more powerful resources to work with, and in the coming months I expect to see apps that really show off the power and speed of the iPhone 5s.
Conclusion
The jump from the iPhone 5 to the iPhone 5s does not feel quite as substantial as the jump from the iPhone 4S to the iPhone did last year, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t a real leap forward. And I’m not the only one who feels this way. As I noted last week, the reviews from those who received early review units from Apple were almost universally glowing. The subsequent reviews have been just as positive. For example, I see that the website The Verge (which reviews every major smartphone) rated the iPhone 5s an 8.8. Only once before has The Verge ever rated a smartphone that high; it was the iPhone 5 this time last year.
The improvements to security, convenience, photography and speed result in an iPhone that is a joy to use every single day. The iPhone 5s is a fantastic device that any lawyer would appreciate using.
The iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c go on sale today [UPDATE: And I bought my new iPhone 5s this morning], and this past Wednesday Apple released iOS 7. That makes this the busiest week this year in the world of iOS. If you have not yet updated to iOS 7, I encourage you to do so. The different appearance is startling at first, but you will get used to it, and along the way you will discover hundreds of improvements. For example, did you know that when you swipe to unlock your iPhone or iPad, you no longer need to swipe across the bottom, and instead you can swipe anywhere on the screen? Did you know that you can see a list view in the Calendar app by tapping the magnifying glass icon at the top of the screen? Did you know that when you tap the tabs button in Safari not only can you scroll (in 3D) through open tabs, but your iPhone can also show you tabs that are currently open on your iPad and iPad mini? There is a seemingly endless number of small improvements, not to mention all of the important new big improvements. I cannot even begin to list all of the interesting articles that were published this week, but here are some of the highlights:
California attorney David Sparks has been using a beta version of iOS 7 for six weeks and here are his observations.
Kevin Bostic of AppleInsider reports that New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon issued a joint statement encouraging users to upgrade to iOS 7 because of the additional security features. So if you don’t upgrade your iPhone or iPad, you are ignoring bi-coastal law enforcement advice, something that I am quite sure that I have never said before.
If you are looking for a long, comprehensive report on what is new in iOS 7, thre are quite a few good ones out there. Rene Ritchie of iMore wrote this epic article. Andrew Cunningham of Ars Technica wrote this one. David Pogue of the New York Times wrote this review.
Having trouble finding some of the features you used in iOS 6 now that you have upgraded to iOS 7? Thorin Klosowski of Lifehacker offers this advice. (via Houston attorney Reginald Hirsch)
Siri is much better in iOS 7. Steven Sande of TUAW notes some of the Siri improvements. You can also now ask Siri to read you your recent emails.
Joseph of Keller of iMore notes that the Quickoffice app is now free. Quickoffice is one of the best apps for viewing and editing Microsoft Office documents on an iPhone or iPad. Google now owns the app and has decided to make it free. I hope that doesn’t mean that Google is ending development of the app (I keep waiting to see the app add the ability to view and edits footnotes), but now that the price is free I definitely recommend that you check it out.
And finally, if you plan to get a new iPhone 5s, one of the decisions that you need to make is what color to get: Space Gray (essentially the black model), Silver (essentially the white model) or the brand new Gold. The funny folks at the Conan TV show put together this video to help you decide which is best:
At some point today — my guess is around lunchtime for folks in the Central and Eastern time zones [UPDATE: It is available as of 11:55 am Central] — you will be able to update your iPhone and iPad to the new iOS 7. iOS 7 gives your devices an all-new look, and includes some cool new features like the Control Center and Air Drop. Click here for my preview. Folks interested in the latest and greatest will want to use iOS 7 right away; for others, an argument can be made to wait a little bit, but eventually you are going to want to make the upgrade. Every report that I have heard from those who have been using the beta versions of iOS 7 is that once you start using it, you’ll never want to go back to iOS 6.
The new iPhone 5s won’t go on sale until Friday, but last week Apple gave select reporters early access. Last night, the reviews started to come in, and they are very positive. The fingerprint sensor seems to work flawlessly and makes it much, much faster to pick up your iPhone and start using it. The camera improvements (in both hardware and software) results in much better still photos and videos. Plus, the new A7 processor means that the iPhone seems much zippier and more responsive, and you get a little more battery life.
Here are all of the reviews that I have seen so far, along with some quotes to give you a sense of the new features of the iPhone 5s:
Jim Dalrymple of The Loop: “I’ll be honest, heading into the event, I was wondering if Apple’s
implementation of the sensor would be good enough to actually make it
useful. Not just for a demo to make people gasp and clap, but could I
use it every day. The answer is unequivocally yes.”
Walt Mossberg of All Things D / The Wall Street Journal: “It sounds like a gimmick, but it’s a real advance, the biggest step ever
in biometric authentication for everyday devices. After using Touch ID, I
found it annoying to go back to typing in passcodes on my older iPhone.”
of TechCrunch: “Also new to the iPhone 5s is image stabilization that
happens automatically in-camera, using four exposures taken in rapid
selection from which the best, most-stable parts are chosen. It
recombines elements from each, rather than just picking the best.
Similar is how the new Burst mode works, which can take full-res pics at
a rate of 10 snaps per second (better than most DSLRs). The 5s then
automatically picks one it deems ‘best’ based on a number of factors,
like whether someone’s eyes are closed, and also makes available the
entire series for you to page through and extract individual pics to
your camera roll from.”
Ed Baig of USA Today: “One thing not seen elsewhere is the True Tone flash system in the 5s. It
is based on two flashes working in tandem to automatically determine
the intensity and best combination of flashes. I got generally lovely
results taking flash photos, though I noticed it sometimes took an extra
second or so before the camera actually took a picture.”
John Gruber of Daring Fireball: “Apple claims this is the biggest year-over-year improvement in computing performance in the history of the iPhone, and in both my day-to-day experience and some benchmark testing over the past week, I have no reason to doubt them. The iPhone 5S is fast. … The iPhone 5S is, in some measures, computationally superior to the top-of-the-line MacBook Pro from just five years ago.”
Anand Lal Shimpi of AnandTech: “The A7 SoC is seriously impressive. Apple calls it a desktop-class SoC,
but I’d rather refer to it as something capable of competing with the
best Intel has to offer in this market. In many cases the A7’s dual
cores were competitive with Intel’s recently announced Bay Trail SoC.
Web browsing is ultimately where I noticed the A7’s performance the
most. As long as I was on a good internet connection, web pages just
appeared after resolving DNS. The A7’s GPU performance is also insanely
good – more than enough for anything you could possibly throw at the
iPhone 5s today, and fast enough to help keep this device feeling quick
for a while.”
Myriam Joire of Engadget: “The iPhone 5 may be fast enough for some, but the 5s is significantly
faster. In a few tests, the 5s performed more than three times better,
while in others, it was closer to a 50 percent increase. Regardless, the
5s was the clear winner according to every single metric, whether it
was CPU performance or JavaScript rendering.”
Matt Warman of The Telegraph: “This is a device that adds features that make the existing iPhone
even easier to use, more powerful and turn it into a better camera, all in a
package that remains the classiest on the market. It doesn’t have the most
features, but those that are there are accessible in a way the no other
manufacturer has yet mastered. That improved ease of use and continued
elegance mean the 5s is a worthy flagship to persuade iPhone users to
upgrade, and it retains all the apps that have powered Apple’s success.”
Last month I reviewed the Stable PRO by Thought Out, a high-quality iPad stand made out of solid steel. As noted in the review, that product is well constructed and well designed, and I find that stand very useful on my office desk. Thought Out also sent me a free review unit of a similar product for the iPhone called the PED 4 Planet CH50. It works as advertised, letting me mount my iPhone in different positions in either landscape or portrait orientation. My only real complaint is that I simply haven’t found it nearly as useful to have my iPhone on a stand of this nature as it is to have an iPad on a stand.
Most of the product is made of shiny, thick plastic, but it also has a steel shaft with a ball on the end. Thus, this stand is much lighter than the Stable PRO iPad stand, but that is not a problem because you don’t need much weight to support an iPhone 5. I use my iPhone 5 without a case, but you can expand the holders to provide the prefect grip for an iPhone that is in a case. The ability to adjust the holders mean that it should work with any iPhone, including the upcoming iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s.
Once the iPhone is in the device, you can adjust the stand to angle your iPhone in virtually any position. It is very easy to adjust the stand, but once you get it in a position that you like, the stand is stiff enough to stay in that position.
The base has rubber feet to keep it steady on your desk.
In addition to using the PED4 Planet CH50 on the base, you can unscrew the shaft from the base. The bottom of the shaft has a standard 1/4″-20 female thread so you can attach it to any tripod. If you want to take a photo or video with your iPhone and want to keep it very steady, this is a great solution. I tried this with a JOBY GorillaPod portable tripod that I use with my Nikon SLR camera and it worked great.
Note that if you are just looking for a nice way to mount your iPhone on a tripod, you can purchase the PED4 CH50 without the Planet base and save a few bucks.
As noted above, when using this device with the base, my only real complaint is that after about two months of having this product on my desk, I haven’t found it very useful to have an iPhone mounted in this position. Unlike an iPad which has a large screen and can function as a sort of second monitor, I rarely found it useful to have an iPhone in a fixed, mounted position on my desk. It’s not that I don’t use my iPhone in my office — to the contrary, I use my iPhone all the time as a quick way to check an email, my calendar, my to do list, etc. — but I prefer keeping my iPhone on my shirt pocket or on my desk and just picking it up when I need it.
The one exception was using my iPhone to make a video call using FaceTime. Your hand can get tired holding out the iPhone for a while, and it is quite nice to mount the iPhone in a fixed position on a stable surface. If you travel and use FaceTime on your iPhone to call home to talk with your spouse or kids, I could definitely see the PED4 Planet CH50 being worth it. As noted above, you can unscrew the shaft to break down the unit into two pieces, so it can easily fit in your briefcase or luggage.
[UPDATE 11/19/13: This past weekend, my son and I started to play with iStopMotion, an iPad app that you can use to create fun stop motion videos. The app lets you use an iPhone as an external camera, which is really the best way to use the app. The PED4 Planet CH50 stand is a perfect macth for the iStopMotion app. You can adjust the iPhone as a camera to whatever position that you want, and then it stays in that exact position from shot to shot — exactly what you want for stop motion videos. When I wrote this original review, my own real complaint was that I didn’t have a good use for the product, so I wanted to update the review to note that iStopMotion is a perfect use for this product.]
You know how you use your own iPhone in your office, and if you use it in a way for which it would be useful to have your iPhone mounted in a fixed position a few inches above your desk (such as my FaceTime example), then I can highly recommend the PED4 Planet CH50 because it is well-designed for that task. But if you are like me and find it most useful to always have your iPhone in your pocket so that it is close to you when you need it, then this product is not for you.
The PED4 Planet CH50 retails for $50, but you can save $10 if you buy it on Amazon.
Starting today, you can preorder an iPhone 5c and get it as soon as a week from today. Kevin Bostic of AppleInsider has the details for doing so. But unfortunately, and unlike the last few years, Apple is not allowing preorders of its new top-of-the-line iPhone, the iPhone 5s. Thus, if you want to be one of the first to get one, you will need to find an Apple Store or a cellphone store and get in line early in the morning next Friday. I did that back in 2010 when the iPhone 4 was released and it wasn’t too much of a hassle. I haven’t yet decided what I am going to do this year. And now the news of note from the past week, most of which relates to the new iPhones:
I am not the only one confused and annoyed by the lower case “s” in the new iPhone 5s. Adam Engst addresses the issue in this article for TidBITS. Amen!
Mary Branscombe of CITE World also discusses the Touch ID sensor, explaining that it doesn’t read the outside lawyer of your skin but instead reads a living layer of skin under the surface of your finger and therefore cannot be used with a finger that is severed from your body. Well that make me feel better. (via Daring Fireball)
Neil Hughes of AppleInsider reports that the new iPhones have a slightly larger battery and get two more hours of battery life. That’s good news, but isn’t enough to get me to stop thinking about that severed finger. Jeesh.
Russel Brandom of The Verge discusses the use of online services such as Gmail and Dropbox by attorneys.
Hari Gottipati of GigaOm wrote a fascinating article on iBeacon, a technology in iOS 7 the allows objects in the vicinity of your iPhone to transmit information to your iPhone.
David Pogue of the New York Times discusses a new book called Cockpit Confidential that provides honest answers for just about any question you have on air travel. Even if you don’t get the book, Pogue answers many common questions in his article. For example, he debunks the suggestion that keeping an iPad or iPhone turned poses any danger to the flight.
If you are buying a new iPhone, should you get AppleCare? Jonathan Seff of Macworld provides his thoughts. I’m on the fence. There have been times that I have purchased it and used it, but I usually don’t purchase it and those times have been lucky enough to not need it.
Rene Ritchie of iMore runs through all of the decisions (including whether to buy AppleCare) that you will need to make if you plan to get a new iPhone.
In light of the recent revelations about the NSA, is it safe to use password security software such as 1Password? There’s a great post on the 1Password blog that addresses this question. Another post from this past June also addresses the issue.
And finally, when Apple showed off the iPhone 5s earlier this week, it selected only a single app to show off the power of the new A7 processor that provides the engine for the iPhone 5s: Infinity Blade III. That game will be available next week and will actually work on devices as old as the iPhone 4 and the iPad 2, but of course you will need an iPhone 5s to see all of the dazzling graphics. Here is the official trailer for the game. It is amazing that a device as small as the iPhone can render graphics like this in real time.
There are quite a few great PDF editing apps for the iPad. For a long time, I’ve heard people sing the praises of iAnnotate, but it wasn’t until recently that I started to use the app to prepare the review that I posted last month. As you can tell from my review, I really like the app. Indeed, since I posted my review, I have continued to use iAnnotate quite a bit. I love the tabs, I love all of the powerful features, and I love how easy it is to convert a Word file into a PDF that I can easily mark-up.
The app normally costs $10, but it is on sale today only (Thursday, September 12th) for only $2. I saw one indication that the sale ends at midnight on Thursday, and another indication that it ends at noon on Friday; suffice it to say that this is a limited time offer. [UPDATE: The developer informs me that the sale ends at 1pm Eastern on Friday Sept. 13.] If you were on the fence about buying the app, perhaps because you already have another app that you use for working with PDF files, I encourage you to take advantage of the one-day sale today. The 80% discount is substantial, and the app is incredibly powerful and useful.
Click here to get iAnnotate (normally $9.99, but $1.99 today only):
