It is a short work week, so here is a special Thursday edition of In the news. I hope that you enjoy the long weekend!
- California attorney David Sparks reviews The Stump, an iPad stand that he really likes. On Amazon for $24.95.
- Microsoft introduced a new subscription package this week that makes it a little cheaper to use Word for iPad. For $6.99 a month or $69.99 a year, you can get Office 365 Personal, which includes copies of Office for a single PC or Mac plus the ability to use the Office apps including Word on a single iPad. The account that used to be called Office 365 Home Premium is now simply called Office 365 Home. It still costs $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year, and the extra $3 a month gets you Office on 5 PCs or Macs plus Office on 5 iPads — so this is the package that provides access to your entire family. Microsoft also offers the free Office Online package, but that package doesn't give you access to the iPad apps. Paul Thurrott discusses and explains all of these packages on his Supersite for Windows.
- Thurrott also has an article discussing working with local documents in Word for iPad.
- John Martellaro wrote a good review of Microsoft Word for iPad for The Mac Observer.
- Serenity Caldwell of Macworld reviews the Olioclip 3-in-1 Macro Lens, an accessory that lets you take very cool macro photos with your iPhone. Looks like fun, and costs $68.55 on Amazon.
- Liza Brown of Lifehacker offers 24 iPad/iPhone tips that "most people don't know." I suspect that most iPhone J.D. readers actually know many or most of these, but there are probably a few that are new to you. (A few were new to me.)
- Jeffrey Taylor reviews the Ten One Design Pogo Sketch Pro Stylus on his site, The Droid Lawyer. He likes it, and I did too in my recent review.
- Taylor also wrote a review of the Poweradd Pilot 2GS 10,000 mAh external battery. This sounds like a nice device. 10,000 mAh is a lot of power so it can charge both your iPhone and an iPad, and with two USB ports it can charge both at the same time. (Although Taylor doesn't mention this, I see on Amazon that one port has 2.1 Amps for an iPad and the other has 1.0 Amps for an iPhone.) It looks small and only costs $25.99 on Amazon. Looks like it could be useful when you travel.
- And finally, if you are in the market for an external battery but place a higher emphasis on "cute" than useful, meet the Mr. Pow portable charger. It has a 3500 mAh battery and only a single USB plug, but you can tell that the charger needs to be recharged because its smile turns to a frown. Cost is £24.99. (via Gizmodo)
