In 1963, Martin Luther King proclaimed “I have a dream” in Washington D.C., giving one of the most famous speeches of all time. Before uttering those four famous words, he said: “Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice.” Yesterday, Apple CEO Tim Cook wrote a moving essay on equality, published in Bloomberg BusinessWeek, in which he announced publicly for the first time that he is gay. He said “I’m proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me” because of how it shaped him as a person. Cook is a famously private person, but he thought that his coming out might help others. “So if hearing that the CEO of Apple is gay can help someone struggling to come to terms with who he or she is, or bring comfort to anyone who feels alone, or inspire people to insist on their equality, then it’s worth the trade-off with my own privacy.” Cook concluded his essay: “When I arrive in my office each morning, I’m greeted by framed photos of Dr. King and Robert F. Kennedy. I don’t pretend that writing this puts me in their league. All it does is allow me to look at those pictures and know that I’m doing my part, however small, to help others. We pave the sunlit path toward justice together, brick by brick. This is my brick.” It is a beautiful, moving essay and I encourage you to read it.
As a lawyer, I am both fascinated and inspired to be alive during a time when marriage equality is becoming the law across the nation. We’re not reading about landmark opinions in a law school casebook; we are living through the process of watching the courts make groundbreaking law on almost a daily basis. It’s a gradual process, and as a proud New Orleanian, I’m embarrassed that one of the most recent unfortunate opinions came from the Eastern District of Louisiana. But by the time that my kids are adults, I suspect that they and their peers will consider discrimination based upon sexual orientation as obviously wrong as we today consider the notion that some people once had to sit in a different section of a bus or restaurant (or not be served at all) simply because of the color of their skin. During this historic time when we are watching public opinion and jurisprudence evolve, I’m proud of Tim Cook for sacrificing his privacy to add one more brick to the path, and it makes me even happier to use Apple products. The Apple logo may no longer sport the six colors that it once did, but I love that the company and its leaders embrace the principles of equality that the rainbow colors often represent.
And now, off the soapbox, and on to the news of note from the past week:
When I reviewed the iPad Air 2, I didn’t discuss the camera because my guess is that most attorneys would not use it much, except perhaps to scan a document. But if you are interested in the camera, Allyson Kazmucha of iMore compares it to the camera on the iPhone 6, with lots of side-by-side pictures. The iPhone 6 camera is better overall, but the iPad Air 2 camera more than holds its own.
If you want some good examples for why you shouldn’t use public WiFi in a cafe without using VPN to protect your traffic (such as Cloak), read this article by Maurits Martijn, originally written in Dutch for De Correspondent and translated into English by Jona Meijers.
There were tons of interesting articles written this week about the new Apple Pay system and a consortium of retailers, led by WalMart, who don’t want to implement Apple Pay because they are working on their own system that bypasses credit cards (and credit card fees). Glenn Fleishman wrote an excellent article on the situation on Six Colors…
…and Security expert Rich Mogull wrote this article for TidBITS…
Although I have tried various cases from time to time, for most of the over six years that I have been using an iPhone, I have not used a case. I haven’t liked the added bulk, and I preferred the feel of the iPhone itself in my hand. I suspect that I am in the minority — it seems like most folks I see do have a case for their iPhone — so I wanted to warn you at the outset that this is a case review from someone who for the most part does not like cases. Nevertheless, I purchased a $45 Apple iPhone 6 Leather Case from my local Apple Store almost three weeks ago because the iPhone 6 is larger than prior iPhones, and thus a little harder to get your hand around, and thus a little more susceptible to being dropped, and all of this is compounded by the new curved edge which feels great in your hand but is also somewhat more slippery. It seemed like I was much more likely to drop an iPhone 6 than any prior iPhone, so perhaps I should consider a case. But I also wanted something that was as slim as possible so as to not add too much to the size of the iPhone, and I also wanted something that seemed nice. Apple’s Leather Case seemed to meet all of these needs. Overall, I like this case.
Slim
One of the main things that I like about this case is that is so slim. I was at dinner the other night with a friend who I swore was using an iPhone 6 Plus. It turned out that it was just an iPhone 6, but he had it in OtterBox case — a case that provides a lot of protection, but which substantially adds to the size of the iPhone. My friend thought it was the perfect case, telling me that in his profession (he is a wine maker) his phone is always getting knocked around and is easily dropped. But I spend most days in my office, and even when I am out of the office for a deposition or a hearing, I virtually never get wet and slippery wine on my hands. I don’t need that much protection.
This case is very slim. It doesn’t cover the face of the iPhone at all. The case wraps around the back and three sides, and while I have trouble measuring something this thin, it seems to be around a millimeter thick. Thus, this case does not add very much bulk to the iPhone.
Friction and Feel
The second thing that I like about this case is that the leather provides a lot more friction. An iPhone 6 is much less likely to slip out of your hands when it is in this case. But just as importantly, the leather also feels nice in your hand (and, in my opinion, looks good too). I don’t want to hold a brand new iPhone in a case that makes it feel cheap and plasticky.
Having said that, I still prefer the feel of the curved edges of the iPhone 6 in my hand. The problem is, those curved edges are more slippery. So as I have been using this case over the last few weeks, while I have tried to force myself to keep the case on the iPhone most of the time to evaluate the case as much as possible for this review, I still “cheated” and slipped the iPhone out of the case from time to time when I was sitting at my desk or someplace else where I wasn’t moving around a lot, so I was pretty sure that I was unlikely to drop the iPhone, and I just wanted to appreciate the design and feel of the iPhone itself.
And this is a good point to note that while this case fits the iPhone like a tight glove, it is also incredibly quick and easy to slip this case on and off of the iPhone. If you are like me, and you don’t think that you want to use a case all of the time, this is a very nice feature.
Flat on the desk
Because the iPhone 6 has a camera that protrudes every so slightly from the back of the iPhone, when you set down an iPhone 6 on its back on a flat surface, such as a desk, there is a very slight wobble — less than I feared it would be when I first learned that the camera sticks out a little, but still somewhat noticeable. One advantage of this case is that it is just thick enough to let the iPhone lie flat against a table. I usually hold my iPhone in my left hand when I am using it, but for those rare occasions when I am tapping my iPhone screen while it is on a table, it was nicer to have it stay completely flat as a result of this case.
Protection
The inside of this case has a microfiber lining, so using this case on your iPhone, and slipping it on and off of your iPhone, is not going to scratch it up. Likewise, when the iPhone is in this case, you don’t need to worry about scratching the back or sides of the iPhone if it moves against a hard object. I once dropped my iPhone 5s between two chairs, and while the iPhone continued to work fine after the fall, the edge of the iPhone got nicked — minor damage, but nevertheless one that I noticed. That wouldn’t have happened if I had been using a case like this.
I cannot comment upon how much protection this case provides if you drop your phone. It is thin enough that I suspect that it would soften the blow of impact a little bit but not as much as other cases that are much thicker and made of shock-absorbing materials. And this case doesn’t protect the front of the iPhone at all. I’ve never shattered an iPhone screen so hopefully I won’t do so on my iPhone 6 either, but I’ve seen enough iPhones with cracked screens to know that it can and does happen to people — and this case is unlikely to guard against that. So this might not be the right case to give your teenager.
I stated above that this case surrounds three sides of the iPhone. The bottom is largely exposed, except at the far edges. There is a big advantage to this approach; it means that the headphone port, microphone, Lightning connector and speaker are fully exposed, and thus the case doesn’t interfere with their use. If you use a dock with your iPhone 6, there is a good chance that it will work with the Apple case but not other cases that have a hole around the Lightning port, and the same is true if you use a third-party Lightning cable with a thicker plug. This design decision does leave the bottom of the iPhone exposed so it could get scratched, but I think Apple made the right choice to maximize the utility of everything located at the bottom of the iPhone 6.
Speaking of protection, I should talk about protecting the look of the case itself. I’ve read reports that similar leather cases from Apple for the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5s would wear down over time in the places where you handle the case the most. I haven’t noticed yet. Moreover, even if it did wear down a little, I don’t think that would bother me anyway; leather is one of those materials that I think gains character as it shows wear from use.
Utility
For the most part, your iPhone is just as useful with this case on as it is when it is naked. As noted above, all of the bottom ports are exposed, and while the buttons on the left and right side are covered, they are still easy to press.
But in two ways, I find my iPhone less useful with this case on. The first issue that I have is with the swipe from the left side gesture. In many apps in iOS 8, you can place your finger on the far left side of the screen and swipe towards the right to go back. You need to make sure that you start all the way on the far edge for this gesture to work; otherwise the iPhone thinks that you are just moving your finger from some part of the left side of the screen to some part of the right side of the screen. For example, in Safari, moving your finger from some point on the left side towards the right will scroll the page horizontally, but if you start with your finger all the way on the edge of the screen (or even past the left edge of the screen) and then swipe to the right, you will go back to the prior page. Although that gesture works on prior models of the iPhone, it works better than ever on the iPhone 6 because of the curved edge, which makes it even easier to start with your finger at the far left of the screen. However, because this case has a raised edge, it is actually harder to perform this gesture; it is harder to start with your finger all the way on the left edge. I found it frustrating to start using my iPhone 6 without a case, where this gesture was easier than ever, and then to switch to a case where the gesture was harder than ever. I suspect that this issue is not unique to Apple’s case and it probably happens with all cases. Nevertheless, it was annoying.
Second, the mute switch on the left of the phone is harder to access with this case. Without the case, I can easily flip the switch up and down. With the case, I have to work harder to use my fingernail in the hole to then flip the switch. Again, this is likely a problem with most iPhone 6 cases, unless there is one with a very large hole for the mute switch.
I’ll also note that there is a downside to the additional friction that you get with this case. I typically keep my iPhone 6 in the front pocket of my shirt. It is a little harder to get the iPhone in and out of my pocket with this case because of the added friction. It slides in and out more easily without a case. Having said that, the same slipperiness makes the iPhone easier to drop, so this is more of a trade-off than a true disadvantage of the case.
Colors
I purchased the black version of the case, but you can also get the leather case in red, midnight blue, olive brown or soft pink.
What color you get is obviously just a personal preference. Having said that, I’ve seen scattered reports on the Internet that the pink case is more likely to get dirty or otherwise discolored with use. Although I haven’t seen this first hand, it wouldn’t surprise me if that happened. I doubt that this would occur with a darker color, such as the black one that I purchased.
Conclusion
I forced myself to use the Apple iPhone 6 Leather Case almost 24/7 for almost three weeks to get the most experience with this product to write a review. I’m glad I did so, because it resulted in me really getting to know this case. Overall, I like it. If you don’t want to add a lot of bulk to the iPhone, but you do want some basic protection against scratching it up, and most importantly you want the iPhone 6 to be less slippery in your hand, this may be the case for you. As you would expect for case made by Apple itself, the leather looks and feels nice, and it is a perfect fit for the iPhone 6.
I haven’t compared this case against cases sold by others. Nick Guy of The Wirecutter did do so, and while he liked the Apple case, he preferred the NGP case by Incipio because it is thin but provides all-around protection, even to the bottom of the iPhone. And that case is only $16.99 on Amazon, much cheaper than the $45 Apple charges, although you would expect to pay less for polyurethane than for leather.
Now that this review is written, I know that I won’t use this case all of the time. I generally prefer the feel of the curved edges of the iPhone without a case, plus I like that it is easier to perform the back gesture without the case. For days that I am mostly in my office, I think I can get by without the case. But when I am traveling — whether it be flying across the county for a deposition or walking down the street to the courthouse — I think that I will use this case most of the time. I have grown to really like the larger size of the iPhone 6 screen, but the size and shape is certainly a little harder to hold and more slippery, and with this case I am far less likely to drop my iPhone, plus I have some protection if I do drop it.
If you are looking for a slim, nice case for the iPhone, the Apple iPhone 6 Leather Case is worthy of your consideration, and I’m happy that I bought mine.
Stanley David Murray is an attorney in Arizona whose practice areas include personal injury and family law at both the trial court and appellate level. He is also the author of Time Limitations Applicable to Civil Actions and Procedures in the Arizona Superior Courts, published by the State Bar of Arizona. Stan and I have recently been trading emails to discuss iPhone 6 cases. Stan was particularly interested in a case that can also serve as a wallet. I reviewed the iFlip back in 2011, which does this, but I don’t believe that there is a model for the iPhone 6. Stan ultimately bought the INVELLOP iPhone 6 wallet case which is sold on Amazon for less than $13. Stan was nice enough write a review of the case and let me share it with other iPhone J.D. readers. Take it away, Stan!
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I have always used a case to protect my purchase of the latest iteration from Apple of its iPhone products, starting with my first acquisition of an iPhone 3G. I have seen too many scratched, cracked, and shattered smartphones from my friends and colleagues to know better than to operate an iPhone, or any other smartphone, without some protection.
But iPhones are just another gadget that we attorneys must carry with us whenever and wherever we travel, be it to court, meetings and even social events with friends and family. When I go to court, I can use my trusty briefcase (more of a man purse) to stash my iPhone, iPad, wallet, car keys, reading glasses and maybe a client file for easy access while in court. However, when it comes to social events, such as lunch, happy hour, or an evening out, carrying a briefcase so I can cart around all of these necessities is just not the right thing to do.
On social occasions, I can usually limit my load to keys, wallet and iPhone, but I have to carry them as I am not a back pocket type. Wallets are too thick, with all the credit cards, cash, licenses, insurance cards, etc., that are in mine, and cause a protruding back pocket that can look ridiculous. And iPhones simply were not meant to be put in back pockets (“Bendgate” notwithstanding). Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a product that could cut out one of these necessary items yet still allow me to access them when I am without my briefcase?
Enter the iPhone wallet case, for lack of a better term of art description. A wallet case is an accessory that allows you to protect your iPhone, just like any other case, but has the added feature of providing you with room to store your driver’s license, dollar bills, credit cards, etc., alleviating the need to carry around a separate wallet. Only problem, once you got all those cards and cash stuffed into the wallet case, and put your iPhone in, your wallet case was now so thick that even if you could fold it closed, it still was too thick to handle, let alone try to put it in your pocket.
But the iPhone 6 has renewed my interest in wallet cases for the reason that Apple Pay has now arrived. With Apple Pay, you can store up to 8 credit/debit cards on your iPhone 6, so before long you may not need to carry around those cards in your wallet, or wallet case. As a result of storing my credit/debit cards on my iPhone, I have been able to return to using a slimmer wallet case even with my iPhone 6 included. I have plenty of room to put my driver’s license, State Bar card, health and auto insurance cards, along with some dollar bills, in the wallet case without the awkward and clumsy looking wallet cases of the past. Now when I go out socially, all I need to carry are my keys and iPhone wallet case, and at least I can put my keys in my front pocket. Much better.
The wallet cases presently on the market for the iPhone 6 are not that expensive either. I purchased an Invellop iPhone 6 wallet case for $13.00 on Amazon and it has all the features I need.
This case even has a kickstand so that you can place your iPhone 6 in portrait mode for easier viewing.
Even though it is made with some kind of fake leather product, it still looks svelte, cool and impressive. Other wallet cases from different makers can be found in a range of prices and features, on Amazon, such as the Caseology wallet case for only $9.99, the Spigen wallet case for $16.99, and the i-Blason Case for $19.95. I was surprised to see that most of these wallet cases sell for a lot lower price than the non-wallet cases; the last one I bought cost over $35.00, for basically a plain rubber cover case.
I have found a renewed interest in wallet cases with the new iPhone 6 and Apple Pay and hope you too can avoid those awkward moments of juggling your phone, wallet and keys just to go out and have good time, without your briefcase in tow.
For any attorney looking to use a tablet computer, the iPad Air 2 is the best device on the market today. Apple started with everything that made the iPad Air such an excellent tablet, and then added a bunch of little features, each of which is nice on their own, and when taken together results in an amazing device. I wrote about the iPad Air 2’s major new features when Apple first announced the product. I ordered one as soon as it was announced. I have been using my iPad Air 2 since this past Thursday, and it has been a joy to use. (I’m using the Wi-Fi (no cellular), 128GB, Space Gray model.) I know that a large number of attorneys are using iPads that are two years or more old and are thinking about upgrading to something lighter and faster. You are all going to love the iPad Air 2. Here is why.
Touch ID
Since I first started using an iPad back in 2010, almost every single time that I have picked it up to use it, I have had to first type in my passcode. I know that many non-lawyers turn off the passcode requirement to make it faster and easier to use the iPad, but that simply cannot be an option for attorneys who store privileged and confidential attorney-client communications and work product on their devices.
I have loved using Touch ID on my iPhone 5s for the past year because it is so fast and easy to unlock the phone. I press the home button to wake my iPhone, and in the time it takes to do that, the iPhone recognizes my fingerprint on the home button and also unlocks it for me. So in one motion, I both awaken and unlock the iPhone. It works a little differently on my iPad Air 2 because I use an Apple Smart Cover. When I open up the cover, the magnets automatically turn on my iPad’s screen and I am immediately shown the keypad to enter my passcode. Instead typing any numbers, I just place my finger on the home button and the iPad quickly unlocks. Becuase I didn’t need to press the button to unlock the screen when I use the Smart Cover, Touch ID isn’t quite as magical on the iPad Air 2 as it is on the iPhone 5s, but it is still a time-saver and more convenient then entering my numbers. And on those times when my iPad wasn’t covered with the Apple Smart Cover, the function works just like on the iPhone 5s — I press the button to turn on the screen and at the same time my fingerprint is scanned.
By the way, the iPad Air 1 version of the Apple Smart Cover also works on the iPad Air 2.
Touch ID can also be used with apps on the iPad Air 2. One of my favorite apps is 1Password, and Touch ID is amazing on that app. Instead of typing my long master password every time I want to look up my username and password for a website or some other service, I can just place my finger on the Touch ID button and the 1Password app starts right up. I still need to enter my full master password occasionally, such as after I reset the iPad, but 95% of the time, my fingerprint does it all.
I have yet to make a purchase using an iPad app that supports Apple Pay, but I presume that will work well. I have purchased apps from the App Store using Touch ID and it works just as seamlessly as it has worked on my iPhone 5s for the last year.
So overall, Touch ID on the iPad Air 2 is somewhat less useful to me than Touch ID on my iPhone 5s or iPhone 6, in part because I use an Apple Smart Cover, and in part because you cannot make a purchase in a physical store using Apple Pay on an iPad the same way that you can do so with an iPhone 6. But even though Touch ID on the iPad is not quite as useful as Touch ID on the iPhone, it is still a very nice feature that makes the iPad faster and easier to use, multiple times every day. And as a bonus, you also feel like you are living in the future, which is always nice.
Better display
Apple has been using a great-looking retina display on the iPad since March of 2012. The iPad Air 2 improves upon that display.
There are multiple technical reasons that the iPad Air 2 screen is even better than the iPad Air, but to my eyes, they both look like excellent screens and I really only notice one difference: glare. Previous models of the iPad Air had a glossy glass screen that easily reflected overhead lights. I work in an office that has overhead fluorescent lights, and I frequently find myself having to adjust the angle of my iPad when it is reflecting an overhead light. The iPad Air 2 substantially reduces glare. You can see it for yourself in the following picture that I took with my iPhone: the iPad Air 1 is on the left and the iPad Air 2 is on the right.
As you can see, the glare on the first generation iPad Air is such that you cannot really read text that is covered up by the reflection of the overhead light. On the iPad Air 2, although I can still see the reflection, the reduced glare means that I can read the text. I still might adjust my screen to get to an angle where I no longer see the overhead light, but unlike older iPads, I don’t need to do it on the iPad Air 2.
The reduced glare seems to also help somewhat if you are looking at an iPad outside in the sun, but that is not something that I ever do in real life so I only tried it once this past weekend to see what difference it might make. Suffice it to say that the iPad is not a good tablet for reading outdoors, and that remains true with the iPad Air 2, even if it is a little easier to read outside. If you want to read an e-book at the beach, get a Kindle Voyage. Save the iPad for work and pleasure when you are indoors or at least on a covered porch.
The right size and weight
iPad Air 2 is the thinnest and lightest iPad ever. To compare:
iPad Air 2: 6.1 mm + 0.96 lb
iPad Air 1: 7.5 mm + 1.034 lb
iPad 3 and iPad 4: 9 mm + 1.44 lb
iPad 2: 9 mm + 1.325 lb
iPad 1: 13.4 mm + 1.5 lb
What do those numbers mean in the real world? In my opinion, the iPad 1 through the iPad 4 were thick and heavy enough that they would start to hurt your hand when you held them for an extended period of time. In a typical law practice you are dealing with cases, briefs, contracts, exhibits and other documents that are somewhat lengthy, so you need to hold an iPad for an extended period of time. For that reason, I used to use both an iPad 3 and an (original) iPad mini, using the iPad mini for extended reading, but that carried with it the downside of being a smaller, non-retina display. Last year’s iPad Air 1 was a major step forward in the size of the iPad. For the first time, there was a full-sized iPad that was thin and light enough that I found it no longer necessary to use an iPad mini when I wanted to hold a tablet in my hand to read for an extended period of time.
This year, the iPad Air 2 is a little lighter than the iPad Air 1, but in practice I don’t really notice the weight difference. What I do notice is the thinness. It’s not something that is easy to see. The iPad Air 2 (in the left in this next picture) only looks slightly thinner than the iPad Air 1 (in the right):
But that slight difference is noticeable when you hold the iPad. The 7.5 mm iPad Air 1 is thin enough that I don’t mind holding it for an extended period, but the additional thinness of the iPad Air 2 makes me feel that this is the right size, the thickness that the iPad has always wanted to have. No prior iPad has been this comfortable to hold. You feel more like you are holding a thick piece of glass than a tablet computer. If you have an iPhone 6, you know how incredibly thin that phone is and how good it feels in your hand as a result. But at 6.9 mm, the iPhone 6 is even thicker than the 6.1 mm iPad Air 2:
If you are already used to the iPad Air 1, this year’s iPad Air 2 feels like it weighs about the same but has a nicer feel in your hand. If you have been using an iPad 4 or earlier iPad, the iPad Air 2 is a substantially lighter iPad that is considerably easy to hold.
More powerful
The iPad Air 2 has a brand new processor that Apple calls the A8X. It is even more powerful than the A8 processor in the iPhone 6, and it is substantially faster than the processors in past iPads. As I noted in my preview of the iPad Air 2, a faster iPad is a more powerful iPad. You don’t see spinning circles or hourglasses on an iPad like you do on a computer, but when an iPad is faster it is more responsive, you can be more efficient and the experience of using the iPad is more pleasant.
In real world use, this is a fast, responsive iPad. I threw everything I could think of at the iPad Air 2, and it worked like a champ. Scrolling and zooming in documents and webpages is more responsive than ever before. Complicated spreadsheets scrolled like butter in Microsoft Excel for iPad. I bought and tried the new Pixelmator for iPad app, an app that brings sophisticated desktop-class photo editing to the iPad, and I was easily and quickly erasing stray people from photographs. And sophisticated, graphics-intensive games played with no stuttering. Other reviewers, such as Brad Molen at Engadget, ran objective performance tests that show that the iPad Air 2 is significantly faster than any other tablet, and can perform complicated video editing tasks over twice as fast as the iPad Air 1. Suffice it to say that the powerful processor in the iPad Air 2 will keep up with you.
The iPad Air 2 also adds support for the 802.11ac WiFi standard. If you have a newer router that supports this new standard — such as the sixth generation AirPort Extreme released by Apple in June of 2013, which is what I am using at my house — you can get incredibly fast performance, plus you can get reception in areas where older iPads might have trouble getting a signal. Last night, as I was watching the Saints play the Packers on TV, my iPad Air 2 was getting download speeds of up to 125 Mbps, which suffice it to say is more than enough Wi-Fi bandwidth for anything that I might possibly want to do with my iPad.
Etc.
I don’t have the cellular version of the iPad Air 2 so I cannot comment from personal experience on that one. I will note, however, that while I previously said that you could use the new Apple SIM to switch back and forth between AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile, I now see reports that once you activate with AT&T, AT&T locks the SIM to AT&T, so you would have to get different SIM to switch to Sprint or T-Mobile in a future month. Suffice it to say that it is early days with the new Apple SIM and we are still learning what additional flexibility that it provides.
I also see that the iPad Air 2 is missing something that had been on every prior iPad: the switch on the side that you could configure to either mute or lock rotation. Perhaps Apple couldn’t make it fit on the thinner iPad Air 2, but I’ll miss that switch. I had mine set to lock rotation, which is a handy function when someone sends you a scanned document that is rotated incorrectly — just lock the rotation and then turn your iPad so that you can read the document — and is also handy when you want your iPad orientation to stay the same even though you may be leaning back on a sofa or in bed and turning your iPad in a way that makes it seem like you were trying to rotate the screen. Fortunately the functions are still there; simply swipe up from any screen to bring up the Control Center, which on the iPad Air 2 has six buttons in the middle instead of traditional five buttons, and you’ll see both the mute and the lock rotation on-screen buttons. Even so, I’ll miss having a physical switch on the side.
Conclusion
The iPad Air 2 is a nice improvement from the iPad Air in just about every way possible — easier to hold, faster and more responsive, and Touch ID is almost as useful on an iPad as it is on an iPhone 6. I don’t think that many attorneys will see a need to upgrade from an iPad Air 1 to the iPad Air 2, but if you have an older iPad, you are going to love upgrading to the iPad Air 2. And if you have been waiting to get your first iPad, now is an excellent time to do so. Don’t get the 16GB model as that is probably going to be too tight to hold all of the apps and documents that you will want to use, especially if you also want to hold photos or videos. Either the $599 64GB or the $699 128GB model would be great for any attorney. (Add $130 plus a monthly carrier fee if you want a version that has cellular in addition to Wi-Fi.)
Apple is now selling the iPad Air 1 at a discount — you can get a 32GB model for $449. Even though that is a great price for a very nice tablet, I recommend that you spend the extra $150 to get this year’s model with twice as much space, a much faster processor, the thinner design and Touch ID. You’ll likely use a new iPad for two years or more, and if you divide out $150 over 24 months you are only paying an extra $6.25 a month for a tablet that you will enjoy even more and that will hold up a lot longer.
An iPad is an incredibly useful tool for just about any attorney. The iPad Air 2 improves upon everything that makes the iPad so great to begin with. I recommend it without hesitation.
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This article won the BlawgWorld Pick of the Week award. The editors of BlawgWorld, a free weekly email newsletter for lawyers and law firm administrators, give this award to one article every week that they feel is a must-read for this audience.
Folks who pre-ordered an iPad Air 2 last week started to receive them this week. I received mine yesterday. I’ll post my review after I have put it through its paces, but — spoiler alert — I can already tell you that this is an amazing device. If you want to read other reviews, I recommend this one by John Gruber, plus there are good roundups of the early reviews (by those who received review units from Apple) on MacRumors and 9to5Mac. And now, the news of note from the past week:
Attorneys using iPads and iPhones need to think about when it is ethical to store confidential information using a cloud-based service. New York attorney Nicole Black wrote about the latest New York ethics opinion on this topic in this article for The Daily Record.
GoodReader, one of the most useful iPad apps for any attorney, was updated to version 4.6 this week to support both iCloud Drive and Touch ID.
Bill Roach of ExhibitView Solutions tells me that his ExhibitView iPad app, which you can use to present and annotate documents in court, was updated to version 5 this week. This page of the ExhibitView website has a video that shows off the new features.
Benjaim Mayo of 9to5Mac writes that the Dropbox app was updated this week to support the resolutions on the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus and to add support for Touch ID.
Fantastical is my favorite calendar app for the iPhone and iPad, and I use it about 10x more than I use the built-in Calendar app. The app received a big update this week to version 2.2, adding interactive notifications and a great today widget that works in the pull down Notification Center. Federico Viticci of MacStories wrote a good review of the new features in the app, which has a come a long way since I reviewed it in 2012. Indeed, the new Fantastical widget quickly became my favorite iOS 8 widget. I love that I can always just swipe down from the top to see my calendar.
In iOS 8, there is an option in Settings -> iCloud to turn on iCloud Photo Library (Beta). The idea of the service is that all of your photos are uploaded and stored in iCloud, and then only the most recent photos live on your iPhone or iPad (to save space) but any photo is available to you if you have a network connection. It’s a neat idea. However, for now at least, if you turn it on, you will no longer be able to sync with photos on your computer. If you only take photos with your iPhone, this is no big deal. But if you are like me and you take photos with another camera, sync those photos to your computer, and then use iTunes to get those photos over to your iPhone and iPad, then you won’t want to turn on the iCloud Photo Library yet. Early next year, Apple will have a new Photos app for the Mac that will work with the iCloud Photo Library. (I’m not sure if Apple will ever offer a solution for Windows.) Serenity Caldwell of iMore talks through all of this and even shows a few tricks for getting photos on your computer synced to your iPhone/iPad if you do have iCloud Photo Library turned on. I look forward to using iCloud Photo Library, but I’m going to wait until the Photos app is available for the iMac I use at home before I turn on the service.
Speaking of photos on the iPad, yesterday the $4.99 Pixelmator for iPad app was released. If you watched the keynote at which Apple showed of the new iPad Air 2, then you saw a preview of this app. It looks to be the most sophisticated photo editor on the iPad. Benjamin Mayo of 9to5Mac wrote a good review of this app.
John Brownlee of Cult of Mac writes that with the Simpsons Portal on the new FX Networks app, you can now watch any episode of The Simpsons — as long as your cable company is on board. Unfortunately for me, DirecTV, my service provider, is not on board yet. D’oh!
On Wednesday, I wrote about using Apple Pay, a service that has continued to work really well for me this week. Harry McCracken of Fast Company shared his experiences on using Apple Pay to make almost all of his purchases this week.
Speaking of Apple Pay, David Pogue of Yahoo Tech wrote a great article on Apple Pay and, at the top of the article, provides the best video I’ve seen yet on how Appple Pay works. Worth watching if you are curious about this new service.
Another good Apple Pay article is the one written by Molly Wood of the New York Times. She says that using the service is “convenient, problem-free and even fun,” and I totally agree. She had less success using it to purchase items from within an app, which is something that I haven’t tried yet, and I presume will take some time before it starts to work flawlessly and in lots of different apps.
And finally, Dorothy by iStrategyLabs is an interesting, and certainly amusing, concept for an iPhone accessory. You put a small device, the Ruby, in one of your shoes. Then you use an iPhone app to configure what happens whenever you click your heels three times — such as sending a text message to a friend, triggering a fake call from your boss (to let you excuse yourself from an awkward situation), call a Uber vehicle to your current location, etc. This video shows how it works:
Sharon Nelson is an attorney in Virginia who concentrates in electronic evidence law. She just finished a one-year term as president of the Virginia State Bar. Sharon and Jim Calloway, Director of the Oklahoma Bar Association’s Management Assistance Program, team up to produce The Digital Edge, a great podcast that focuses on cutting edge legal technology. Sharon and Jim recently invited me to join them on the 81st edition of their podcast to talk about the new iPhone 6, Apple Pay, the upcoming Apple Watch and a few favorite accessories. We had a great time talking about the latest in Apple technology.
I’ve embedded the podcast below if you want to listen to it in your browser. Or you can click here to launch the podcast in iTunes, or click here to download the episode as an MP3 file. Click here for the show notes for the episode. Thanks again to Sharon and Jim for inviting me to join them.
On Monday, Apple released iOS 8.1. The latest update to iOS fixes some bugs, brings back the Camera Roll, improves Messages, etc. but the main new feature is that Apple Pay is now enabled. If you have an iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus, that means that you can now quickly and securely pay for items using your iPhone.
These are early days so Apple Pay is only starting to be supported at stores, but over time I have no doubt we will see widespread support by merchants. Right now, you can use it in places like Walgreens, Duane Reade, McDonalds, Subway, Chevron and Whole Foods.
Before you use the service the first time, you need to tell your iPhone which credit card to use. You can quickly get started by telling the iPhone to use the same credit card that you already have configured for purchasing items from the App Store. Adding additional credits cards is simple; either enter the information manually, or use your iPhone to take a picture of your credit card. [UPDATE 10/23: According to this post, you can add up to eight credit/debit cards.] In the Settings app you can select Passbook & Apple Pay to tell your iPhone which card is your default card.
Making payments is incredibly fast and easy. When you are at the store and get to the point in your transaction when you would normally have to hand over your credit card (or swipe it yourself), instead simply move your iPhone close to the reader while your finger is on the Touch ID sensor. And that’s pretty much it; you’ve paid. Here is a video from Walgreens showing how the procedure works. I used Apple Pay at my local Walgreens and the experience was pretty much exactly like this, although it seemed even faster than what happened in this video:
Note that if you want to use a card other than your default card, you simply move your iPhone close to the reader but don’t put your finger on the Touch ID yet. Your iPhone will then let you select which card you want to use to pay, and then you can put your finger on the Touch ID.
Paying with Apple Pay is nice because it is so easy, fast and convenient. But as an added bonus, it is also much more secure. The merchant doesn’t get your credit card number when you use Apple Pay, and instead gets a separate Device Account Number that is unique to your iPhone, along with a transaction-specific dynamic security code. So even if a thief was working at the merchant and he was able to get all of the information that you used to make your purchase, that information is useless and cannot be used to make other purchases. And if a hacker is able to download all of the credit card information from a merchant — which we seem to read about in the news with increasing frequency lately — the hacker won’t get anything useful from your transactions that can be used to steal your credit card.
Apple Pay is also secure because it is tied to your fingerprint. While someone could steal your credit card and potentially use it to make purchases, someone cannot steal your iPhone and use your Apple Pay because Apple Pay requires your fingerprint.
In addition to security, you can also get privacy with Apple Pay because the merchant doesn’t even see your name, driver’s license, zip code, etc. — although you can see from the above video that Walgreens encourages you to also use your Walgreens Reward Card when you make the purchase, which gives you some points but also gives the store your identity and a way to circumvent the inherent privacy with Apple Pay. But importantly, you get to decide whether or not to circumvent that privacy protection. If you don’t want Walgreens to know that you purchased an item, just don’t give them your Walgreens Reward Card and you will remain essentially as anonymous as you would have been if you had paid with cash.
You can launch the Passbook app if you want to see your credit cards that are associated with Apple Pay. Tap the info button at the bottom right to get information on that specific card and a list of recent purchases — both purchases made with Apple Pay and made using the card the traditional way. But you don’t need to ever open the Passbook app if you don’t want to do so. As noted above, you don’t need to unlock your iPhone or launch any special app to use Apple Pay.
Although everything I’ve described above involves using Apple Pay at a physical store, you can also use Apple Pay when you make an online purchase using an app on your iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad Air 2 or iPad mini 3, once the app is updated to support Apple Pay. This brings all of the same convenience, security and in some cases privacy advantages to online purchases that you make with your iOS device.
Apple Pay doesn’t yet work with every credit card, and for now only works in some stores. As the service expands over time it will become more and more useful. But whenever I am shopping somewhere that does support Apple Pay, I can’t imagine a reason that I would ever pay any other way.
Apple starts a new fiscal year at the end of September every year. Yesterday, Apple released the results for its 20114 fiscal fourth quarter (which ran from June 29, 2014 to September 27, 2014) and held a call with analysts to discuss the results. This is typically a transitional quarter for Apple considering that so many sales typically take place in Apple’s first fiscal quarter — the quarter that contains November and December holiday sales. But this year, the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus went on sale on September 19, and even though that only accounts for eight days, there is always a surge in sales when a new iPhone first goes on sale. As a result, Apple had a record-breaking fiscal fourth quarter, with quarterly revenue of $42.1 billion (compared to $37.5 billion this time last year) and quarterly net profit of $8.5 billion (compared to $7.5 billion last year). If you want to get all of the nitty gritty details, you can download the audio from the announcement conference call from iTunes, or you can read a rough transcript of the call prepared by Seeking Alpha. Apple’s official press release is here. Here are the things said on the call yesterday that I think would be of interest to iPhone and iPad users:
iPhone
During the past quarter, Apple sold 39.27 million iPhones, the most that Apple has ever sold in a fiscal fourth quarter. 10 million of those were iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus devices sold September 19-22, the first three days that they were on sale. By comparison, in the 2013 fiscal fourth quarter, Apple sold 33.8 million iPhones.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said that demand for new iPhones has been “staggering” and “is far outstripping supply” and that Apple is seeing a “marked improvement” in iPhone sales in every country over the previous year. Cook added: “I’ve never felt so great after a launch before. Maybe that’s the best way to summarize it all.”
By my count, as of September 27, 2014, Apple had sold over 590 million iPhones since they first went on sale in 2007.
Apple CFO Luca Maestri said that “iPhone momentum in enterprise market remains very strong. The latest data published by IDC indicates that iPhone has 69% share of the U.S. commercial smartphone market.”
iPad
Apple sold 12.316 million iPads. That’s a little less than Apple sold in the 2013 fiscal fourth quarter (14.1 million). Indeed, Apple sold 67.9 million iPads in fiscal 2014 versus 71.1 million in fiscal 2013. Cook noted that obviously he wished that Apple had sold more in 2014 versus 2013, but he sees this as just a “speed bump” because people don’t upgrade iPads as frequently as they upgrade iPhones. He doesn’t believe that the iPad market is saturated because there are still so many first-time buyers. Thus, Cook said that “over the long arc of time, my own judgment is that iPad has a great future. How the individual 90-day clicks work out, I don’t know. But I’m very bullish on where we can take iPad over time and so we’re continuing to invest in the product pipeline.”
By my count, as of September 27, 2014, Apple had sold over 237 million iPads since they first went on sale in 2010.
The Future
As for the products that Apple has planned for the future, Cook said: “I am incredibly optimistic about the future. We’ve already announced two new categories in the last 60 days or so, or less than 60 days, with Apple Pay and Apple Watch. We start shipping the watch early next year, and obviously we’re working on other things as well, and to the degree that I can keep that in the cone of silence, I am going to do it.”
Cook also said that Apple is “the only company on the planet that has the ability to integrate hardware and software and services at a world-class level, and that in itself allows Apple to play in so many different areas. And so the challenge becomes one of deciding which ones to say ‘no’ to and which ones to say ‘yes’ to, and one of focus, not one of do we have any great ideas. We always have more ideas than we have resources to deal with.”
It’s been a very long time since I had a Saturday post on iPhone J.D., but I wanted to devote yesterday’s post to the new iPad Air 2. I ordered one yesterday, and my receipt says that I could receive it as soon as Thursday, October 23. That makes me believe that they will be available in stores by around Friday, October 24, for those of you who want to see one in person before buying one. And now, the recent news of note:
Drew Smith is a computer programmer and his father is Judge Dennis Neil Smith of the St. Louis County Family Court in Clayton, Missouri. They worked together to create Form 14, a free app that helps you to navigate the complicated worksheet used to calculate child support amounts in the state of Missouri. You can get more information about the app here.
Massachusetts attorney Heidi S. Alexander provides iOS 8 tips in an article for Law Technology Today.
This has nothing to do with iPhones or iPads, but the folks at my alma mater, Georgetown University Law Center, asked me to announce that GULC Center for the Constitution is looking for law school graduates who intend to pursue an academic career and who are interested in issues related to constitutional interpretation. If that sounds like you, then you might want to apply to be a Fellow in residence at Georgetown for a two-year period, focusing on research and writing, as well as serving as a Visiting Lecturer. You can get more information here.
Jeff Gamet of The Mac Observer notes that this week Apple updated Pages, Numbers and Keynote — both the iOS and the Mac versions.
As noted by Jason Snell on Six Colors, IDG announced this week that it is shutting down Macworld Expo, which had been an annual conference devoted to all things Apple. Apple itself stopped attending the event five years ago, and nowadays with Apple announcements streamed live around the world, the Internet and Apple Stores, I understand that there is far less need for a Macworld Expo anymore. But at its peak, the Macworld Expo was the place to be for anyone interested Apple technology, plus a great way to meet like-minded folks. The most memorable Macworld Expo in recent memory was in 2007, when Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone. I only got the chance to attend one Macworld Expo, the one in New York in July of 2000, the year that Steve Jobs introduced Apple’s Optical Pro Mouse (and even gave one to everyone in the audience; I still have it), a batch of colorful iMacs, and the distinctive G4 Cube.
I often link to stories about people using Find My iPhone to track down a lost or stolen iPhone. But Mike Beasley of 9to5 Mac reports that a San Jose police officer used Find My iPhone to locate and rescue a woman who had been trapped in a 500-foot ravine for 17 hours.
Yesterday, Apple announced the 2014 update to the iPad, and the newest full-size iPad is called the iPad Air 2. This is an incremental update, not unlike the update from the iPhone 5 to the iPhone 5s, but it hits all the high notes for the iPad and looks like it will be a fantastic tablet for any attorney. There is a 16GB model for $499 that you should NOT get, a 64GB model for $599 and a 128GB model for $699. The 64GB model will be perfect for most attorneys, and the 128GB model is great for attorneys who want to carry around a lot of videos and pictures. As before, an extra $130 gets you built-in cellular.
When I think of what makes the iPad great for attorneys, I think of four things: (1) it is thin and light, much lighter than a laptop, (2) it has a great screen, (3) it is powerful and (4) it is easy to use. Those are the same four areas that Apple improved in the iPad Air 2, so the 2014 iPad has more of what makes the iPad so great to begin with.
Thinner and lighter
Before the Fall of 2013, I actually used two iPads. I had a full-sized iPad, which was great for viewing websites and reading documents on a larger screen, and I had an iPad mini, which was great when I wanted something that was lighter and easier to hold. But once I started using the iPad Air a year ago, it was light enough (1 pound versus the 1.4 pounds of the previous generation) and thin enough (7.5 mm versus the 9 mm of the previous generation) that I no longer felt the need to use my iPad mini. The iPad Air was thin and light enough to hold for an extended period of time, plus it had the larger screen that I preferred over the iPad mini.
And to emphasize that which you already know, a thinner and lighter iPad is important. When you are reading transcripts, caselaw, exhibits, pleadings, etc. you are going to be holding an iPad in your hand for a while. If it is too heavy or awkward to hold for an extended period of time, that is a problem.
The new iPad Air 2 is 6.1 mm versus the 7.5 mm of the iPad Air 1 (or, as Apple describes it, 18% thinner). That is really thin. Even the new and thin iPhone 6 is 6.9 mm. The iPad Air 2 is also slightly lighter at 0.96 pounds versus the 1 pound for the iPad Air 1 (or just a tiny bit heavier for both models if you got the versions with build-in cellular). Based on what I read from folks who held one yesterday, the weight difference feels even more substantial because the iPad Air 2 is so much thinner than the iPad Air 1, and the thinner iPad 2 is also even easier to hold in your hand.
Suffice it to say that if you have an iPad Air 1, the iPad Air 2 will be slightly easier to hold. But if you have any prior model of the iPad, which is true for so many attorneys, then the iPad Air 2 is going to be significantly easier to hold than whatever model iPad you have. Indeed, you could stack two iPad Air 2s and they would still be thinner than one of the first generation iPads. The thinness and weight will likely be the main reason that attorneys will love the iPad Air 2.
Better display
Apple has been using a great-looking retina display on the iPad since March of 2012. The iPad Air 2 improves upon that display in two ways.
First, the iPad Air 2 display is laminated, which makes the screen look even better. Jason Snell of Six Colors was able to try the new iPad yesterday, and here is how he described it:
But what I really liked about the iPad Air 2 was its display. On these devices, the display is where the rubber meets the road. The iPad Air 2’s display is laminated, eliminating the air gap between the glass and the screen – they’re attached together now. This has the same effect it did when the iPhone switched to a laminated display – the pixels just feel that much closer to your finger when you’re touching the screen. It’s a good thing.
The second improvement to the display is that Apple has found a way to reduce the glare. Thus, bright overhead lights are less likely to interfere with using an iPad, and the iPad should be even more usable when you are outside.
More powerful
A faster iPad is a more powerful iPad. You don’t see spinning circles or hourglasses on an iPad like you do on a computer, but when an iPad is faster it is more responsive, which lets you be more efficient and makes the experience of using the iPad more pleasant. The iPad Air 2 has a new processor (the A8X), which like the processor in the new iPhone 6 (the A8) makes it faster. Apple says that the CPU is up to 40% faster and the GPU is up to 250% faster with the iPad Air 2. Another way to look at it is that the newest iPad has 12x the regular processor and 180x the graphics processor as compared to the original, 2010 iPad.
The iPad Air 2 (like the iPhone 6) adds support for the 802.11ac WiFi standard, which came out in 2013 but is starting to see more widespread adoption in 2014. 802.11ac can be twice as fast as the previous 802.11n standard. It is also more powerful, so if there is a “dead zone” in your home or office in which you used to get a poor WiFi signal, you may now get a better signal when you use 802.11ac. So if you have a newer router that supports 802.11ac, you should see better WiFi performance with the iPad Air 2.
I always get the WiFi version of the iPad, but if you pay the extra $130 for the version with built-in cellular, there is another new feature with the iPad Air 2. Instead of coming with a SIM that works on only one carrier, you can now get the Apple SIM that can be used with AT&T, T-Mobile or Sprint. As I understand it, you could try AT&T for one month, then switch to T-Mobile for the next month, etc. I look forward to hearing about how this new feature works in practice. Note that, so far, Verizon has not signed up, so you cannot use its service with the new Apple SIM (but you can get a Verizon-only SIM).
Easier to use, thanks to Touch ID
The final major change to the iPad Air 2 is support for Touch ID, Apple’s fingerprint sensor. I’ve been waiting for this change for a year, ever since I started using Touch ID on the iPhone 5s. I can’t even count the number of times that I unlock my iPhone and iPad every day, but this is no longer a problem on my iPhone because it recognizes my fingerprint almost instantly. The iPad is going to get so much easier to unlock with the addition of Touch ID. And of course, all attorneys need to be using a passcode lock on their iPads. If you don’t have one yet, I don’t even want to hear your excuses, start doing so right now. You don’t want someone else to pick up your iPad and have easy access to all of the confidential attorney-client communications and work product that is on every lawyer’s iPad. But now with Touch ID, the passcode lock becomes much, much less of a burden.
And starting Monday when Apple Pay debuts, you will also be able to use Touch ID on the iPad to make secure purchases. No, you won’t be able to walk into a store and tap your iPad on a sensor to make a purchase – which would, of course, look silly – but you will be able to use Touch ID to make secure online purchases with the iPad.
Better camera
For most attorneys, I doubt that the camera on the iPad makes much of a difference. Even though I can understand in theory the advantage of taking a picture with an iPad because the large screen is a huge viewfinder, in practice it just seems ridiculous. About the only thing I do with the camera on the back of my current iPad Air is that I sometimes scan a document.
But if the iPad’s back camera is important to you, you’ll be happy to learn that the iPad Air 2 has a better camera. It is not quite as good as the camera in the iPhone 6, and it is not even quite as good as the camera on the iPhone 5s, but it is better than the camera on prior iPads.
iPad mini 3
If you are a fan of the iPad mini, you won’t be as impressed by the new iPad mini 3. It adds Touch ID, but otherwise is the same size, weight and speed as last year’s iPad mini 2. The only other difference is that you can now buy a gold version of an iPad mini. (There is also a gold iPad Air 2.)
The new range of iPads
Apple is now offering a larger range of iPads than ever before becuase along with the new iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3, Apple is continuing to sell many of the older iPads at reduced prices.
You can now get the first generation iPad mini, the one that came out two years ago, starting at only $249. I don’t recommend that any attorney do that because the retina screen on the iPad mini 2 and 3 is so much better, but it is interesting to see Apple selling any model of the iPad at a price that low. Although I no longer use my iPad mini, my wife still uses it just to read books using the Amazon Kindle app.
The choice between the iPad mini 2 and the iPad mini 3 is tougher. You pay an extra $100 for the iPad mini 3, but the only improvement (other than coming in gold) is Touch ID. As much as I look forward to using Touch ID on an iPad, there is nothing unreasonable about saving $100 and getting the iPad 2. You can even use that $100 savings towards a larger capacity or towards built-in cellular, two features that many will find more valuable than Touch ID.
If you want a full-size iPad, you can also save $100 by buying last year’s iPad Air 1, but I don’t recommend that you do so. For all of the reasons that I listed above, the iPad Air 2 is easily worth an extra $100 for most any attorney.
Conclusion
If you already have an iPad Air that came out last year, there are some great new features in the iPad Air 2, but you are unlikely to upgrade unless you really want the latest and greatest and/or there is a really good home for your current iPad. For example, my wife uses an iPad 2 and is ready to upgrade, so she has already called dibs on my iPad Air. But if you are using an iPad 4 (which came out in the Fall of 2012) or earlier iPad, then you are going to really love the new iPad Air 2. It has more of everything that you want in an iPad: it is easier to hold, easier to see, more responsive thanks to the faster processor and WiFi, and easier to unlock thanks to Touch ID.
Apple is now taking online orders for the new iPad Air 2 (with delivery dates of Oct. 23-27), or you can pick one up in an Apple Store and other retailers starting some point later next week.
