This week is the big International CES show in Las Vegas, a place where companies show off new consumer technology that they plan to sell this year (although many products are never actually produced). One of the interesting focal points this year is home automation, much of which works with iPhones. For example, the Eve smart home modules are pretty neat and let your iPhone monitor temperature and humidity, and even let you know when a window or door is open. And Incipio introduced some neat products, including a smart outlet that lets you use your iPhone to turn something plugged into an outlet on or off for only $25, or $60 if you want a power strip. And now, the news of note from this past week:
- Seattle attorney (and blawg guru) Kevin O'Keefe of LexBlog makes the case for attorneys getting the iPhone 6 Plus. I admit that the larger screen can be nice when you are using it, but I cannot get over the fact that — to me at least — the iPhone 6 Plus is simply too big for a pocket.
- San Diego attorney Jeff Bennion argues that attorneys need to take the time to understand how to use technology such as an iPad.
- I mentioned earlier this week that I'll be presenting 60 Apps in 60 Minutes at ABA TECHSHOW in April. New Orleans attorney Ernie Svenson posted two very short clips showing some entertaining moments from last year's session.
- Apple added an interesting page to its website this week discussing the over 1 million U.S. jobs created or supported by Apple.
- Apple also announced this week that the first week in January of 2015 set a new App Store record: customers around the world spent near $500 million on apps and in-app purchases. To date, developers have earned $25 billion from apps.
- What do developers do with that money? Dave Mark of The Loop tells the story of iPhone developer Joseph Riquelme who used his earnings to pay off his parents' mortgage — and there is a video of when he did it. Pretty awesome gift!
- And finally, one of the interesting products being shown off at CES this week is the Noke (pronounced "no key"), a padlock that unlocks automatically when it senses that your iPhone is nearby. Thus, you don't have to use a physical key or enter a combination; just click it, and the lock will use Bluetooth to see if an approved iPhone is nearby, and if so, unlock. You can even give others access from their iPhone (including one-time access). It looks like a pretty clever device, and you can pre-order it for $60. Better yet, it is a really neat use of new smartphone technology, much like the Apple Pay system. Here is a video that was prepared a few months ago during a Kickstarter campaign that shows how it works:
