In the news

When I talk about the increase in lawyers using iPads, I’ll admit that I typically picture an attorney who is representing a client.  This week, I was reminded that the iPad is increasingly popular among judges as well.  I gave a presentation on Tuesday on using the iPad to a large number of judges at a conference sponsored by the Louisiana Judicial College, and I was surprised and impressed by the number of Louisiana judges who are already using iPads.  One appellate judge showed me how he organizes all of the briefs in all of his cases so that he can work on an opinion in any case at any time without needing to worry about carrying around a bunch of paper, and he had a great system — similar to what I would see myself using if I were a judge.  Also this week, an appellate attorney at my law firm, Ray Ward, attended the annual Appellate Advocacy Seminar put on by the Bar Association of the Fifth Federal Circuit, and as he explains in this fascinating post on his Louisiana Civil Appeals blog, most U.S. Fifth Circuit judges read briefs on their iPads.  They even use a special program to automatically add hyperlinks to briefs so that the judges can tap any citaiton and read the opinion on Westlaw or Lexis.  The U.S. Fifth Circuit will soon add hyperlinks for record citations.  It is great to hear about so many judges doing so much with their iPads, and I suspect that more effective use of technology is resulting in better judicial opinions.  And now, the rest of the news of note from the past week:

• Utah attorney Pete Summerill explains how you can use the $1.99 iCab app to e-file from an iPad on his MacLitigator website.
• California attorney Scott Grossberg gives tips for using Dropbox on an iPad in your law practice.
• The folks at Tiger Team Inc. asked me to announce that their new app Public Record allows you to search the Criminal, Infractions and Civil data of the North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts on an iOS device.  The app is free, but you pay for each search.  You can get more information on their website.
• The folks at Legal Newsance asked me to announce that you can use their free iPhone app to access curated legal news, federal and state research tools, CLE programs and job openings.  You can get more information on their website.
• Patent agent Elliott Mason asked me to announce his new app BillablePlan, an app that you can use to track your billable hours.  You can get more information on the app’s Facebook page.
• You can use the iPhone Reminders app to identify an item that you need to buy at the store and then configure that item to remind you to get it when your iPhone senses that you are at that store — a neat trick, but it does take time to add location-based reminders for each item on your list.  Dr. Drang has a good suggestion for adding generic store-based reminders.  Neat idea.
• If you travel internationally with your iPhone, you’ll want to read this article by David Pogue of the New York Times explaining that T-Mobile subscribers can travel to 115 different countries and get unlimited and free international data and texts plus calls for only 20 cents a minute.  This is far, far cheaper than what AT&T, Verizon and Sprint charge.
• Paul Goldberger wrote a fascinating article for Vanity Fair based on his interview of Apple design guru Jonathan Ive and his recent collaboration with designer Marc Newson.
• Apple now has a page on its website with useful iPhone 5s tips and tricks, most of which are simply iOS 7 tips and tricks so check it out even if you don’t have a new iPhone 5s.
• Apple updated and changed the Siri voice in iOS 7, but Jessica Ravitz of CNN interviews Susan Bennett, who provided the voice for the original Siri.  Watch the video that goes along with the story to listen to Bennett use her Siri voice.
• It is pretty rare for me to review a game on iPhone J.D., but I made an exception back in 2009 when Dragon’s Lair was first released for the iPhone.  If you played video arcade games in the 1980s like I did, then you likely put a lot of quarters into this game that was like no other, with amazing cartoon graphics.  The Dragon’s Lair app released by EA back in 2009 is no longer available, but to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Dragon’s Lair, you can now get a new High Definition version of the game for the iPhone.  The app is huge — 1 GB, which is about five times the size of the app released in 2009 — but the graphics look amazing and take advantage of the larger screen on an iPhone 5 or 5s.  “Lead on, adventurer.  Your quest awaits!”  Click here to get Dragon’s Lair 30th Anniversary ($4.99):
• And yes, I did waste invest 30 minutes last night to save Princess Daphne:

• John Gruber of Daring Fireball wrote an insightful article on what makes Apple successful notwithstanding the arguments that Apple will fail.
• If you are in the mood to be cruel, Alex Heath of Cult of Mac shows you how to prank your friends in the iMessage app.
• Photographer Jim Richardson (no relation) of National Geographic shows that you can take some pretty amazing pictures with an iPhone 5s.
• If you want a gold iPhone 5s, they are still pretty rare, so you need to
  
  be patient and persistent.  Or you can just pay $10,000 to buy one on
  
  eBay, as noted in this story by Bryan Chaffin of The Mac Observer.
• And finally, it might be a while before it is easy to buy a gold iPhone 5s, but in just a few weeks you will be able to buy the iKettle, the world’s first Wi-Fi enabled kettle, which lets you use your iPhone to boil water.  You can get it for the low price of $159.59 (with free delivery in the UK!).  (via iMore)