It has been five months since I wrote my review of the iPad Air. Before the iPad Air I used both a third-generation iPad and a first generation iPad mini. I would use the larger iPad 3 for most of my work because I liked the larger screen, but for more casual iPad use such as reading emails, surfing the Internet, etc. I used the mini because it was so much lighter and easier to hold and carry around. I noted in my review of the iPad Air that it was so much lighter than my iPad 3 that it felt more like an iPad mini than a full-size iPad. As I now look back over the past five months, I realize that I have completely stopped using my iPad mini. The iPad Air is so much lighter than previous generation full-size iPads that I can hold it for long periods of time to read documents without feeling any fatigue. The mini no longer has enough advantages over my full-size iPad to bother using and managing a second device. I mention all of this because every day I see so many lawyers using older iPads — mostly iPad 3s and iPad 2s. If you are a serious enough iPad user to read iPhone J.D. but you are not yet using an iPad Air, you should really consider upgrading. Of course you need to decide whether to do so today or wait; I'm sure that Apple will come out with a second generation iPad Air later this year, probably in October or November, but that is still five to six months away. I don't think that you will regret making the jump now to an iPad Air, but if you decide to wait, I recommend that you strongly consider upgrading later this year when the next model comes out. The iPad Air is fast, light, has a beautiful screen, and is an important tool in my law practice. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- California attorney David Sparks (briefly) reviews Mingle, an app that helps you manage your contacts.
- Sparks also created a useful video showing off all of the features of PDFpen Scan+ version 1.3. I reviewed an earlier version of that app last November and concluded that while it had some limitations as a scanner, it did a great job of OCR'ing scanned images. The new version 1.3 is much better — for example, I no longer have any complaints about finding the edges of a document; the engine works much better and the interface is vastly improved. I still slightly prefer the quality of images created by Scanner Pro, but PDFpen Scan+ is quite good. If you use your iPhone (or iPad) to scan documents, you should get PDFpenScan+.
- Lisa Needham, a legal writing instructor at William Mitchell College of Law, recommends eight iOS apps that have nothing to do with practicing law on Lawyerist.
- Kurt Eichenweld of Vanity Fair wrote an interesting article on the iPhone legal battles between Apple and Samsung.
- David Pogue of Yahoo Tech reviews Adobe Voice, an interesting free app that lets you easily create "explainer videos" – videos where you do a voice over and various pictures, icons and text appear on screen. I haven't yet thought of exactly how attorneys would best make use of this, but I feel certain that there is something really neat that could be done with this app.
- Alyssa Bereznak of Yahoo Tech reviews the latest version of Google Maps for iPhone. There are lots of interesting new features such as driving directions that tell you which lane you should be in.
- Jon Seff of Macworld provides advice for saving money on Office 365 — the subscription that lets you use the new Microsoft Office apps for the iPad.
- Amazon is by far the #1 online sales company, but Apple — with its App Store, iTunes Store and online Apple Store — is now #2, as noted by Mikey Campbell of AppleInsider.
- I often link to stories that describe how a person caught an iPhone thief using the Fine My iPhone feature, but as Ian Lovett of the New York Times reminds us, you should involve law enforcement rather than just showing up at the thief's doorstep and taking justice into your own hands.
- And finally, for anyone who has ever used an iPhone while in the bathroom — and let's be honest, that is just about every iPhone owner — I present to you the Atech Flash iCarta2 Wireless Bluetooth Stereo Speaker, a $40 toilet paper holder with an included speaker. Yes, it has an old 30-pin connector, but it also has Bluetooth so it will also work with your newer iPhone or iPad. Click here to get it on Amazon. [via iMore]
