John Gruber of Daring Fireball wrote a great article on the 30th anniversary of the Mac. He focuses on how Apple employees really think through the details — something that was true not only for the first Mac in 1984 but also for the first iPhone in 2007, and subsequent generations of both. The article is called "Special" and you'll find out why when you read it. And now, the rest of the news of note from this week:
- San Francisco attorney Morgan Smith explains how you can use the Personal Hotspot function on your iPhone to create a private WiFi zone in a courtroom so that you can using an iPad and an Apple TV to give a presentation. I haven't had an opportunity to try something like this in a trial, but I'm glad to hear that it is working for others.
- Ohio attorney Joseph Hada provides tips for using an iPad to give presentations in this article (PDF file).
- Sacramento attorney Randy Singer provides a list of options for reading Microsoft Word files on the iPad in a post on The Mac Lawyer website published by South Carolina attorney Ben Stevens.
- Los Angeles attorney Mary Der-Parseghian created a $5 app called CourtDial that has court and judge information so that you can easily look up addresses and phone numbers. For now it just contains California state court data, but she plans to add information for courts in other states.
- If you need to use an iPhone or iPad when you are outside in the cold weather, you'll want gloves that keep your hand warms but that also work with a touchscreen. Clifford Agocs reviews the best options in this article for The Wirecutter.
- Starwood, which runs the hotel chains W and Aloft, is testing a new system that lets you use your iPhone as a room key, as reported by Shane Cole of AppleInsider.
- Dan Moren of Macworld explains how to schedule recurring events on an iPhone or iPad.
- And finally, if you want a way to carry both your iPhone and forms of payment without being obvious about it, the Push from Dapperbox is an iPhone case that includes a hidden wallet compartment that can hold three cards (license, credit card, etc.) or two cards and some folded cash.
