Seven years ago yesterday, on January 9, 2007, Steve Jobs introduced the first iPhone to the world. It would not go on sale until June 29, 2007, and according to behind-the-scenes reports (such as this great article by Fred Vogelstein) it was a miracle that the the unit that Jobs showed off on January 9th worked at all, but that was the day that Apple changed how people would think of a smartphone. In 2008, Apple started selling third party apps, and this week, Apple announced that it has now sold over $10 billion worth of apps, including over $1 billion just in December of 2013. Quite a bit has happened in seven years! And now, the recent news of note:
- New York attorney Nicole Black recommends “must-have apps” for a lawyer’s new iPad.
- John Edwards of Law Technology News shares 15 iOS 7 tips and tricks.
- Alan Cohen of Law Technology News reviews the iPad Air.
- If you are having trouble logging in to the Fastcase app in iOS 7, Fastcase is aware of the problem and is working on a fix. For now, here is a workaround: enter your username and password but DO NOT tap the green Login button on the screen. Instead, tap the Go button on the keyboard.
- Do you love your iPhone but miss the keyboard on your former BlackBerry? The new Typo keyboard provides a BlackBerry-like keyboard for the iPhone — so much so that BlackBerry is actually suing the company that makes Typo, a company backed by Ryan Seacrest. Kevin Michaluk of the CrackBerry site reviews the Typo keyboard.
- Roy Furchgott of the New York Times describes the Filip, a new $200 watch that your kids can wear that lets you use your iPhone to track, call and text your kids (which you could also do if your kids were using an iPhone) but which isn’t a smartphone so you don’t have to worry about your kids surfing the Internet or texting. I’m not sure about this one, but it is interesting.
- David Pogue of Yahoo Tech reviews the Mophie Space Pack, an iPhone case that doubles the battery life on your iPhone 5 or 5s and also provides up to 32 GB in additional storage. It costs $150 and goes on sale in March.
- Alyssa Bereznak of Yahoo Tech reviews the ZeroHour, a flashlight that will also recharge your iPhone up to seven times.
- Derrick Story of Macworld has tips for using an iPhone to take portrait pictures.
- Marianne Schultz of AppShopper describes the SkyBell Doorbell app, an iPhone app (and doorbell accessory) that gives you a live video feed of who is at your door and lets you talk to them.
- Thanks to all of you who voted for iPhone J.D. in the ABA Journal Blawg 100. Because of your support, iPhone J.D. won the Legal Technology category. The only prize is bragging rights, but even so, I really appreciate the vote of confidence.
- And finally, there are countless rumors about Apple developing a smart watch that will work with the iPhone. But David Soofian has what he thinks is a better idea — just attach an iPhone directly to your wrist. The result is a Kickstarter campaign for a product he calls Smartlet. I’m not so sure about this one, but who knows, this could be a solution for some folks.
