What would you do if you were on the street using your iPhone and a thief grabbed it from you and ran away? It recently happened to Clara Vondrich, who calls herself a "recovering lawyer" on Twitter; she used to work on international arbitration law at Arnold and Porter in Washington, D.C. but now works on climate change issues at communications firm Fenton in New York. Even though she was wearing a dress and wedge shoes, she ran after the thief, chased him for several blocks, and eventually caught him and held him in a bear hug until the police arrived. Kenneth Garger was there and took photographs, which landed on the cover of the New York Post and resulted in this article. Vondrich got lots of other publicity, such as an interview on New York's Pix11 News and another one on News 12. Unfortunately, she didn't get her iPhone back because the thief passed off her iPhone to a friend while he was running, and while the police were able to track the iPhone and determine the building that it was in, they didn't enter without a search warrant. Vondrich now admits that if it happens to her again, chasing a suspect is probably not the wisest idea. Vondrich and I emailed about the incident, and she told me that because the thief was only 13 years old, she is not pressing charges and she even "offered to talk with the kid and take him hiking." It is tough for any of us to predict how we would react in this situation; I suspect that split-second decisions are made based on adrenaline more than logic. But now you are thinking about it, as am I. And now, the rest of the news of note from the past week:
- New York attorney Nicole Black interviewed Judge Richard Wesley of the U.S. Second Circuit about how he uses his iPad as a judge, and wrote about it in this article on Above the Law.
- When it comes to mobile technology, I don't always see eye-to-eye with Oklahoma City attorney Jeff Taylor, the expert when it comes to attorneys using Android phones who publishes The Droid Lawyer website. But I do agree with what Taylor wrote in this article, namely that for most law firms, having a mobile app makes a lot less sense than just having a mobile-friendly website.
- Earlier this year I reviewed DkT, a great app for accessing PACER on an iPad and iPhone. The app recently had some problems logging in to PACER because PACER changed the way that logins work, but the developer of the app, New York attorney Matt Zorn, has now solved the problem. It worked for me when I was using the app yesterday, so if you have been having issues with the app (as I was), hopefully it now works for you.
- California attorney Scott Grossberg discusses options for sending and receiving faxes on an iOS device.
- San Francisco attorney Wiliam Peacock, who graduated from law school in 2011 and now works for FindLaw, gives four reasons that law students shouldn't use an iPad. I think that his reason #2 makes some sense, but I disagree with the rest of his reasons. And even on his reason #2, I can see an iPad + an external keyboard being an excellent way to take notes in class. Having said that, when I went to law school in the early 1990s, people were not even using laptop computers in the classroom yet, so I may not be the best one to give advice on what technology law students today should use.
- TrialPad, a fantastic iPad app for displaying documents in a trial, mediation or meeting, is normally $89.99, but through August 24, 2014 is on sale for only $49.99. This app doesn't go on sale very often, so if you have been thinking about getting it but were deterred by the price, now is the time to get it. Click here to get TrialPad ($49.99):
- Speaking of sales, Transporter — a current sponsor of iPhone J.D. — has a back-to-school sale going right now where you can get $20 off of a Transporter Sync (use offer code B2SSYNC) and $50 off of a 1 TB or 2 TB Transporter (use offer code B2STOWER). The sale ends August 25, 2014.
- Does it seem like your iPhone has less free space than it should? John Moltz explains that he restored his wife's 16 GB iPhone and was able to recover over 6 GB of free space, and he restored his iPhone and got back around 3 GB of free space. Very impressive.
- I don't link to Apple rumors very often on iPhone J.D., but if you do want to keep up with the rumor mill, one of the best ways to do so is to read articles by Mark Gurman on 9to5Mac.com. What you may not know is that Gurman is only 20 years old, a Junior at the University of Michigan. I enjoyed reading this interesting profile of Gurman that was written by Michael Rosenwald for the Columbia Journalism Review.
- On December 23, 2013, I wrote about an Apple TV ad called Misunderstood. As I wrote at the time: "Apple has a tradition of running some pretty great Christmas commercials, and the one that they are running this year is, in my opinion, one of the all-time best." I guess I wasn't the only one who liked it. As the aforementioned Mark Gurman writes for 9to5Mac, the ad won the Emmy for Outstanding Commercial - 2014. Congrats to Apple!
- If your iPhone falls off of a boat into 10 feet of water and stays down there for five minutes, you might assume that it is a goner. But that happened to Rob Griffiths of Macworld, and he brought his device back to life, as detailed in this article. Wow.
- What can you do if you find a lost iPhone and want to get it back to its owner? Allyson Kazmucha has some good tips on iMore. Maybe someone will find Clara Vondrich's phone.
- And finally, do you love hot tea as much as you love your iPhone? If so, you will love the iKettle, a $165.95 teapot that uses Wi-Fi to talk to your iPhone. As the manufacturer states, "imagine how perfect and complete life would feel if there was no longer that tiresome wait for the kettle to boil. This blissful paradise we've just described is now all too real, thanks to the iKettle - The World's first WiFi Kettle." That sounds over-the-top, but Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac reviwed the iKettle, and while he admits that it is expensive, he says: "As someone who works from home and loves tea, the iKettle is perfect."
