Yesterday, Apple announced that it will give a presentation on September 9, 2015 at 10 Pacific / 1 Eastern to show off the 2015 version of the iPhone. Well, technically Apple didn’t say what it is showing off, but for many years now Apple has shown off the new iPhone in early September so I’m sure that is what they will do this year too. The event will take place at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, which is a large venue, and inspires one to think that this will be a big announcement. Invitations were sent to select members of the press with the teaser phrase: “Hey Siri, give us a hint.” What does that mean? Well, you could try asking Siri on your iPhone. I activated Siri and said “Give us a hint” and Siri answered “Why don’t you check a rumors blog? That’s what I do.” Very funny, Siri. Keep asking Siri and you’ll get other humorous answers, including: “You’ll have to wait until September 9. I bet you were one of those kids who snuck downstairs to open presents early, weren’t you?” Suffice it to say that if you are ready to get a new iPhone and have been waiting for the new model to come out, it looks like your wait is almost over. And now, the news of note from the past week:
This week, ABA Journal announced the its 2015 list of Legal Rebels. One of the honorees is Prof. Tanina Rostain of Georgetown University Law Center, who is honored because she developed a course called Technology, Innovation and Legal Practice in which law students learn to develop iOS apps that help make the justice system more accessible to everyone. You can learn more about the Iron Tech Lawyer program here. I wish that I could have taken this course when I was at Georgetown Law School, but alas, there was little demand for iOS apps in the early 1990s.
California attorney David Sparks discusses dictation on iOS and the Mac. When nobody else is around, I use Siri to dictate texts and short emails all of the time. It is much faster than typing.
Last year, I reviewed an app called Immigration that provides access to the key law relevant to an immigration law practice. This week I heard from the developer, Josh Adams, and he told me that he updated the app. He writes: “Last year you reviewed Immigration, an iOS reference app I created for immigration attorneys. In your review, you noted that the manner of accessing the full text of statutory sections was not ideal. In light of feedback from your review and from other users, I enhanced the app to show statutory sections in variable-length rows, as shown in this screenshot. I have also added to the app the practice manuals of the Immigration Court and Board of Immigration Appeals. By popular demand, I am adding the Foreign Affairs Manual. I enjoyed making Immigration so much that I recently left my attorney job and began creating software full time for a consultancy in San Francisco.” Good luck, Josh, in your new career, and thanks for making the app more useful!
Steven Sande of Apple World Today reviews the Inateck 2-port Rapid Car Charger, a device that fits into the cigarette lighter port in your car and can charge up to three iPads or iPhones at one time.
John Moltz of It’s A Very Nice Web Site reviews Bluetooth headphones that work with the Apple Watch and cost less than $100.
And finally, while I normally wouldn’t condone the mindless destruction of expensive items, I’m often intrigued by slow-motion video or split-second photography of a bullet piercing an object, such as the famous picture of a bullet going through an Apple. In that spirit, I offer today a slow-motion video of a bullet piercing an Apple Watch. And just to make it all even more ridiculous, the bullet is shot by Verne Troyer — the actor who played Mini-Me in the Austin Power movies. Take it away, Verne:
Black’s Law Dictionary is, of course, the leading dictionary of legal terms and phrases. Ever since Bryan Garner took over as editor for the 7th edition, released in 1999, a new edition has been released every five years. It was first available on iOS in April of 2009, when West released an iOS version based upon the 8th edition (which was released in 2004). That was actually West’s first app for the iPhone. (My review of that app is here.) In June of 2009, the 9th edition of Black’s Law Dictionary was released, and an iOS app based on that edition was released in November of 2010. (My review of that app is here.) The 10th edition of Black’s Law Dictionary was released in May of 2014, and a year later West released the iOS version based on the 10th edition in May of 2015. I had been meaning to check out what is new in this latest version of the app, and West recently sent me a free copy for this review. (Note also that Thomson Reuters is a sponsor of iPhone J.D.) At $54.99, this is likely to be one of the more expensive apps on your iPhone and iPad, but I have always found it very useful to have access to Black’s Law Dictionary at my fingertips, and this 10th edition is a nice step forward, so I recommend it to all attorneys.
There are two differences between the 10th edition and the 9th edition for iOS. First, the content is expanded based upon the improvements in the 10th edition. This means that there are 7,500 new entries. (The 9th edition was touted as having over 45,000 terms; for this edition West says over 50,000.) There are lots of other improvements and changes. Rather than me try to explain them, Bryan Garner himself wrote a good article in the ABA Journal explaining what is new in the 10th edition.
The other major improvement in this app over the 9th edition is a fresh new interface, and I really like it. There are five sections in the app, each represented by an icon on the left side of the screen. The main section is the first icon, which gives you access to the dictionary. Type in part of a search term and the app starts to show you choices that you can tap, saving you the trouble of typing the entire word. And a new feature in the 10th edition is that the app provides alternative suggestions for many misspelled search terms.
When you view an entry, you are provided with the definition, sources for the definition (often including caselaw) with hyperlinks to the WestlawNext app, related terms, and a pronunciation guide. Better yet, tap on the speaker icon for many terms and you can hear the term pronounced. You can chose between three font sizes. The first of these two pictures uses the largest font size, and the second one the smallest font size.
The second section of the app the Word of the Day. It’s a fun way to learn about legal terms that might be new to you. You can view previous words of the day by scrolling along the bottom.
The third section of the app is Bookmarks. Simply tap the bookmark icon when you are looking at any term and that term is added to the list.
The fourth section of the app is the History. You can see a full list of words that you have looked up, sorted either alphabetically or by the date that you looked up the term.
The final section of the app is the Information. In some apps the Information tab just provides boring information, but here it is full of useful items. First, you can read the Preface to the Tenth Edition by Bryan Garner, a Guide to the Dictionary and a List of Abbreviations in Definitions, all of which are useful. Additionally, unlike the prior version of the app, this version of the app includes ten appendices, including the U.S. Constitution, a list of all current and prior U.S. Supreme Court Justices, a map of federal circuits, and more.
One of the more useful appendices is the list of Legal Maxims, a list of Latin sentences and phrases that are sometimes used by lawyers and judges. Of course there are many Latin phrases that have entered regular usage; I suspect that anyone who has gone to law school knows what res ipsa loquitur means, and terms like that are in the main legal dictionary. But more obscure phases and sentences that do not show up in the dictionary are included in this appendix. For example, if you see a judge using the phrase in dubio sequendum quod tutius est, this appendix will tell you that means “In a doubtful case, one must follow the safer course.”
The layout of the appendices is less sophisticated than the other parts of the app. They are just a collection of PDF files, and you cannot search the text from within the app, although there is an easy workaround: you can export any appendix to another app that reads PDF files (such as GoodReader) and use that app to search the content of the appendix.
All of the screenshots above are from the iPad version of the app, but this is a universal app so once you buy it you can use it on both your iPad and your iPhone.
If you don’t yet own Black’s Law Dictionary for iOS, I recommend that you get it. Ever since I have been in law school, I have owned a book version of the 6th edition, and while I sometimes used it in my law practice, it mostly sat on my shelf and collected dust. But ever since I started having Black’s Law Dictionary available on my iPhone in 2009, and more recently on my iPhone and iPad, I’ve used it a ton more. This dictionary becomes much more useful when it is always available on the device in your pocket or in front of you on your desk. Of course, I sometimes use it to look up a legal term that I don’t know, and that is always useful. But I also use it to look up a term that I do know simply because reading a concise definition will often help me to craft a persuasive sentence in a brief that I am writing. And I have used the iPhone version many times when I am in court and my opponent uses a legal term — often because he or she is using the term incorrectly, and by quickly looking at the definition, I can easily explain why in my rebuttal.
If you already own the 9th edition of Black’s Legal Dictionary for iOS, then you know how often you use the app, and that will likely tell you whether it is worth purchasing the new edition. (This is a new app, so there is no discounted upgrade price.) Assuming that West continues on the current release cycle, perhaps it helps to know that we likely won’t see an 11th edition of the book until 2019, with the next iOS version perhaps not coming out until 2020, so you’ll get a lot of years of use out of the $55 that you spend on this version of the app.
Click here to get Black’s Law Dictionary, 10th edition ($54.99):
Did you know about the Medical ID feature on the iPhone? Florida attorney Katie Floyd and California attorney David Sparks discuss it on a recent episode of the Mac Power Users podcast. Just launch the Health app on your iPhone, tap Medical ID at the lower right, and you select which information should appear in your Medical ID, such as your name, birthday, a person to contact in case of emergency, your medical conditions, allergies, blood type, etc. If there is an emergency and a professional cannot talk to you but sees that you have an iPhone, hopefully they will know that — without unlocking your phone — they can tap Emergency and then see the info that you choose to put in your Medical ID. Obviously this system only works if (1) iPhone owners know to put info in the Medical ID and (2) EMS and other emergency professionals know to look there. But now you know, and hopefully over time the right professionals will learn about this too. And now, the news of note from the past week:
In a follow up to that Mac Power Users episode in which Medical ID is described, Florida attorney Katie Floyd wrote a blog post that discusses another app that does something similar on the iPhone and Apple Watch. It’s an interesting idea, but I think you can only count on emergency professionals knowing about the Medical ID that is built-in to the iPhone.
New York attorney Nicole Black discuses in an article for The Daily Record how wearable tech such as the Apple Watch may result in critical evidence in a trial.
There is an interesting article in Wired focusing on Jimmy Iovine, including how he and Dr. Dre helped to create what is now Apple Music.
Jem Aswas of Billboard interviews Zane Lowe to talk about the Beats 1 radio station on Apple Music.
Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal reviews Apple’s CarPlay, a technology built-in to many new cars. You can also watch a video associated with the article on YouTube.
According to an AP story, a man in Waterhill, TN became trapped under a truck that he was trying to repair, but Siri somehow activated, so he managed to tell Siri to call 911, and 911 was able to track his location and get someone to save him. Good job, Siri.
As we get ready for iOS 9 — which will probably be released in just a few weeks — Rene Ritchie of iMore wrote a good FAQ on what you need to know about iOS 9.
Tangerine is a movie that has been getting some very good reviews (94% on Rotten Tomatoes), but I mention it today because it was shot entirely on iPhones. Caitlin McGarry of Macworld interviews the director, Sean Baker, who explains how he used some adds-ons, such as a $175 device that fits over the iPhone lens to let it shoot in a wide-screen anamorphic mode, but the process was infinitely cheaper than using traditional movie cameras. Here is a link to the red band movie trailer (not safe for work) that lets you get a sense of how the end product looks. Amazing that it was shot on an iPhone.
You may have seen a video on YouTube from Alton Brown last year showing you how to open a champagne bottle using a sword. If that’s not crazy enough for you, Justin Gmoser of Business Insider shows you how to saber a bottle of champagne with an iPhone. It is sure to make you a hit at the next party — at least for all of the guests who you didn’t injure in the process.
And finally, are you looking for an iPhone and iPad charger that will look at home in your kitchen? Then you might need the upcoming Foaster, a toaster for your phones, as shown in this video:
The charger that comes with the Apple Watch is a circle at the end of a cord. You can place it on a flat surface, such as a nightstand next to your bed, and then place your watch down on it at night to charge. But the cord and circle can move around and can easily fall off of your nightstand. Also, if you are using a Milanese Loop or Link Bracelet watch band — bands that always form a circle — then you cannot just set down the watch on the charger and instead need to put the charger between the back of the watch and the band. Thus, for a while now, I’ve been keeping an eye on stands designed for the Apple Watch, but most of them seemed to me to have one or more drawbacks. First, some stands are $50 or more, which seemed too expensive. Second, some stands make it too difficult to remove the charging cord, which I do whenever I travel, and I was trying to avoid buying a second charging cord. Third, when Apple releases watchOS 2.0 (perhaps in just a few weeks?), it will feature Nightstand Mode, a mode that only works when the watch is oriented such that the two buttons are on the top, but many Apple Watch stands instead orient the watch with the buttons on the right (as if it is on your arm).
But fortunately, Spigen recently released its Apple Watch Night Stand, model S350. When I first saw it, I thought that it might address all of my issues. I bought it one from Amazon to try it out, and I really like it and I can recommend that you buy it.
First, it is inexpensive, only $10.99 on Amazon (MSRP of $19.99). I actually had a concern that it was too cheap; was this going to be a piece of junk? To the contrary, a product like this doesn’t need a lot of materials, and it doesn’t feel cheap even if it is inexpensive.
Second, the stand works very well. It has what Spigen calls a Nanotac Pad on the bottom, which means that it sticks firmly to a table top, but it can be easily removed without leaving any residue on the surface. (In the pictures in this post, there is a piece of plastic on the bottom, which included when it ships, so that it doesn’t stick to my legal pad, but you remove that plastic in normal use.)
The product has a circle cut out in the middle where you place the charger.
Here is a view from the back, and in the first picture, I have used Photoshop to artificially increase the light so that you can see where the grooves are.
As you can see, the circular part of the charger fits perfectly in the Spigen Night Stand. It is also easy to remove your charger and place it back in again.
Best of all, once you have placed the Spigen Night Stand on the perfect spot on a flat surface (such as the nightstand next to your bed), it is incredibly fast and easy to charge your Apple Watch. Just place the watch on the stand, and you don’t have to be very accurate about it — the magnet that is a part of the Apple charger quickly grabs the watch and starts the charging.
It is both easier and faster to charge an Apple Watch using the Spigen Night Stand than using the Apple charger on its own.
Your watch sits on a chin on the Spigen Night Stand
That chin is made for the 42 mm version of the Apple Watch. If you have the 38 mm version, there is a thin silicone pad included in the box. Just stick it on the chin the Night Stand and then the device will be sized for the smaller Apple Watch. I don’t own a smaller Apple Watch so I wasn’t able to test this myself, but it looks like it would work fine.
I’m not running the beta version of watchOS 2.0, so I cannot yet test Apple’s new Nightstand mode, but on Spigen’s website there is a picture of the stand with a watch using the upcoming Nightstand mode, and it looks perfect:
As you can tell, I’m very happy with this product. It works well, the price is right, and it has both made it easier to charge my Apple Watch at night and it has reduced the clutter on the nightstand next to my bed. And when watchOS 2.0 comes out, I’ll be ready with a stand that is already made for that mode.
Every year, the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center conducts a survey to gauge the use of legal technology by attorneys in the United States. This year’s report was released this past Friday, and as always, I was particularly interested in Volume VI, titled Mobile Lawyers. No survey is perfect, but the ABA tries hard to ensure that its survey has statistical significance, and every year this is one of the best sources of information on how attorneys use technology. Note that the survey was conducted from January to May, so even though we are looking at these numbers in late Summer of 2015, remember that the survey answers were given in the beginning of 2015.
My thoughts on the prior reports are located here: 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010. The numbers in this year’s report are similar to what we saw in 2014; once again, about 60% of all attorneys use an iPhone, and about 40% of all attorneys use an iPad.
Six out of ten attorneys use an iPhone
For the past few years, the survey has been relatively consistent in revealing that about 9 out of every 10 lawyers use a smartphone for law-related tasks while away from the primary workplace. In 2014 and 2013, the number was 91%; in 2015 the number is 90%. As was the case in the last four years, once again in 2015 there was a slight correlation between law firm size and smartphone use. For example, in 2015, 16.9% of solo attorneys do not use a smartphone and 12.9% of attorneys in a firm of 2-9 do not use a smartphone. On the other hand, in firms with 50-99 attorneys, every single attorney reported using a smartphone, and at firms with 100 or more attorneys the numbers were about 95% or more of their attorneys reported using a smartphone. As a whole, though, it is fair to say that the survey consistently shows around nine out of every ten attorneys use a smartphone.
For those nine out of every ten attorneys who are using smartphones, 75.7% reported in 2015 that they were using a personally owned smartphone, and 26.4% used a smartphone permanently assigned by their law firm. Those numbers didn’t change much from 2014.
Whether they buy it themselves or it is purchased by their law firm, what smartphones are those nine out of ten attorneys using in 2014? In 2013, the big news was that over half of all attorneys were using an iPhone. Last year, that number rose to 60.8% (66.8% of the 91% of attorneys who use a smartphone). In 2015, that number stayed roughly the same; it was once again 60.8%, and in 2015 that number comes from 67.5% of the 90% of attorneys who use a smartphone. It seems fair to say that the percentage of attorneys using an iPhone remained steady in 2014 and 2015.
So if you can imagine a row of ten attorneys, this year one of them doesn’t use a smartphone at all, and six of them use an iPhone. What about the other three? Just like in 2014, two of them are likely using an Android phone, and that last attorney is probably using a BlackBerry or a Windows Mobile phone. In 2015, 23.9% of the 90% of attorneys who use a smartphone reported using Android, which is just a slight decrease from 2014 when it was 24.5% of the 91% of attorneys. In 2015, 5.2% of the 90% of attorneys who use a smartphone reported using a BlackBerry and 2.5% reported using a Windows Mobile phone, which are not very big changes from 2014 when 6.8% of the 91% of attorneys who used a smartphone reported using a BlackBerry and 1.9% reported using a Windows Mobile phone. Finally in 2015, 2.2% of attorneys were not sure what model of smartphone that they used.
If you are adding the numbers, you’ll notice that adds to 101.3%. But it makes sense for the number to be slightly over 100% because I’m sure that a small number of attorneys use multiple smartphones.
The following pie chart is somewhat imprecise because, as I just noted, the actual numbers add up to just over 100%, but if you don’t pay attention to the percentages listed and instead just generally look at the size of each slice of the pie, this pie chart gives you a general, graphical sense of the relative use:
Although the decrease in the number of attorneys using BlackBerry phones was small from 2014 to 2015, it’s not like there were that many attorneys still using a BlackBerry in 2014 to begin with. I’m always amazed to look at the decline of BlackBerry over time and the rise in the iPhone use by attorneys over the five years that the ABA has been collecting this data:
Looking at the past five years, as BlackBerry use among attorneys plummeted from 40% in 2010 to under 5% in 2015, iPhone use increased from 31% to 61% and Android use increased from 15% to around 22%.
Why are attorneys choosing iPhone, Android or BlackBerry? Firm size seems to have something to do with it. Almost all of the BlackBerry users are at large law firms with 100 or more attorneys, especially those few megafirms with 500 or more attorneys where iPhone use is 64%, Android is 15% and BlackBerry use is 23%. And as for iPhone and Android users, Android use is highest among solo attorneys, with 62% iPhone use and 31% Android use. But once firm size increases to 50 or more attorneys, Android use drops to around 16% while iPhone use jumps to around 75%, except for the 500+ attorney megafirms where BlackBerry use is so much higher than elsewhere. This chart shows what I mean:
Other than the fact that BlackBerry users are primarily at large law firms, you probably shouldn’t read too much into this chart. Clearly, iPhone and Android users come in all shapes and sizes. But perhaps it is not just a coincidence that I work at a large law firm, whereas The Droid Lawyer — the leading website for attorneys who use Android smartphones — is published by Jeff Taylor, a solo attorney in Oklahoma City.
What are these attorneys doing with their iPhones and other smartphones? Almost all are using them to make phone calls and handle emails. Around 75% are using smartphones for calendars and contacts. Over half are using smartphones for internet access and text messaging. Other popular uses are GPS/maps, taking pictures and mobile-specific research apps. Only 7% use a smartphone to track time and expenses.
The survey also shows that attorneys are continuing to think more about security. Back in 2011, 23% of respondents were not using any security on their smartphone. That number has decreased every year and is down to 6% in 2015. Of those attorneys using security measures, 92% use a password. It’s nice to see the numbers improving, but given how much security is in the news, I would have hoped to see 100% of all attorneys in 2015 using a password to lock their smartphones.
Four out of ten attorneys use an iPad
Apple introduced the original iPad in 2010. In 2011, only 15% of all attorneys responded that they use a tablet, and that number more than doubled to 33% in 2012 and rose to 48% in 2013. But since then, the number has essentially held steady: 49% in 2014 and 49.6% in 2015. It was amazing to see attorneys take to the tablet so quickly; few other items of legal technology jumped to almost 50% usage in just a few years. But after reaching that point, the numbers have held steady.
It used to be that around 90% of attorneys using a tablet were using an iPad. It was 89% in 2011, 91% in 2012, and 91% in 2013. But in 2014 the number decreased to 84%, and it is 83% in 2015. Overall, this means that in 2013, 2014 and again in 2015, just slightly over four out of every ten attorneys is using an iPad.
As for the lawyers using a tablet but not using an iPad, in 2015 11.8% use Android (up from 10% in 2014) and 8.3% use Windows Mobile, which I presume includes the Surface (up from 6% in 2014).
Looking at the past five years on a chart shows visually how the percentage of attorneys not using a tablet had been declining rapidly but then has held steady since 2013, and the percentage of attorneys using an iPad rose quickly to 2013 but then has had the slightest of declines since then, while Android and Windows have had the slightest of increases.
That relationship between firm size and platform use seems to exist in the tablet world too. For lawyers at firms of less than 50 attorneys, around 80% use the iPad and 10% to 15% use Android. For lawyers at law firms of 50 or more attorneys, iPad use jumps to 90% or more, while Android use drops to the single digits. For example, for the attorneys who use a tablet, 79% of solo attorneys use an iPad and 15% of solo attorneys use an Android tablet, but at firms of 50-99 attorneys, 96% use an iPad and 4% use an Android tablet.
What are these attorneys doing with their iPads and other tablets? Pretty much the same thing that they are doing with their smartphones (other than the phone function), with over half of attorneys reporting that they are using their tablets for internet access, email and calendars.
Popular apps
The survey also asked attorneys to identify apps that they use. I should note at the outset that I don’t like how the ABA asks the question. The ABA first asks “Have you ever downloaded a legal-specific app for your smartphone?” In 2015, 41.4% said yes. when I see the word “smartphone” in this question, I think of my iPhone, not my iPad. Then the next question asks: “What legal specific app(s) did you download?” When I read the questions in that order, I’m thinking of the apps that I downloaded on my iPhone, not my iPad. But others must be reading the question differently because I see WestlawNext, TrialPad and TranscriptPad in the answers, and those apps exist only on the iPad, not on the iPhone. I would have never mentioned those apps when answering the question, even though I use them on my iPad.
So while I question how much value you can put in these answers, for what it is worth, the #1 app mentioned in response was Fastcase (which exists on both the iPhone and iPad). The full list, in order, is:
Fastcase
WestlawNext
A legal dictionary app
Lexis Advance
TrialPad
LexisNexis Legal News
TranscriptPad
Courtlink
LexisNexis Get Cases & Shepardize
HeinOnline
Westlaw News
Casemaker
Clio
By the way, I apologize to the makers of those excellent apps for including the above caveat; it’s not their fault that the ABA’s questions were worded so poorly.
The ABA then asked about general business apps, and the questions have the same ambiguity: the ABA first asked if the attorney ever downloaded a general business app to a smartphone (44.6% said yes), and then the ABA asked which apps were downloaded, without making it clear whether the question was asking about the iPhone and iPad. The answers provided were, in this order:
LinkedIn
Dropbox
Evernote
GoodReader
QuickOffice
Documents to Go
LogMeIn
Box
Notability
It amazes me that Microsoft Word is not on this list. It is surely one of the most useful general-purpose apps for lawyers, and it is now available for both iOS and Android.
August is always slow month in the world of iOS, and so far that has certainly been true this year. Yesterday, Apple released a minor update to iOS, version 8.4.1, to fix some bugs with Apple Music, but all eyes are on next month when I expect Apple to release iOS 9 and the 2015 version of the iPhone. I’m sure that we will also see a new iPad too, either in September of perhaps in October. (Last year, Apple announced the iPhone 6 on September 9, 2014 and the iPad Air 2 on October 16, 2014.) As for this past week, there wasn’t much to talk about, but here is the news of note:
California attorney David Sparks talks about what it would be like to have force touch on the iPhone, a rumored feature of the next iPhone.
Shira Ovide and Daisuke Wakabayashi of the Wall Street Journal report that Apple is working with more than 40 app and hardware developers to make the iPad more attractive to business users. The article mentions employee scheduling software and digital cash register systems, but I’m curious if these efforts could result in new apps that are useful for lawyers.
Curious what music they have been playing on Beats 1 on Apple Music? Nikhil Sonna analyzes all of it in an article on Quartz. The top played song is the catchy Can’t Feel My Face by The Weeknd, which has been played 107 times. The top genre played is Hip-Hop/Rap.
Soon after Apple Pay debuted, I used it at a Rite Aid store. But then the chain stopped accepting Apple Pay because it is part of a consortium developing a competitor called CurrentC. CurrentC is still not on the market yet, but starting tomorrow, Rite Aid will start accepting Apple Pay again, as reported by Caitlin McGarry of Macworld. So that means that you will be able to pay with your iPhone and Apple Watch at both Walgreen’s and Rite Aid. (CVS still doesn’t accept Apple Pay.)
Adam Engst of TidBITS reviews Dark Sky, one of my favorite weather apps for the iPhone.
Jay Blahnik, who is reponsible for many of the fitness features in the Apple Watch, talks about his work in an interview by Scott Rosenfield for Outside magazine.
And finally, in an article for Forbes, Ariel Adams writes about a company in Los Angeles called Made Worn that custom engraves watches. They often work with Rolex watches, but Adams shows off a custom-engraved Apple Watch that costs $10,000. Click here to see all of his images of this unique watch, but here is a sample. And no, this isn’t a picture of my arm:
I’ve been wearing an Apple Watch every day for over three months. That’s long enough for me to have a good sense about what I like and don’t like about the watch, but I hesitate to write about it because I know that the software is going to change substantially, for the the better, when watchOS 2.0 debuts this Fall. As noted in this preview on Apple’s website, we’ll get faster native apps, great ways to customize complications, and many more functions (such as the ability to reply to emails) that will make the Apple Watch much better. This is likely to change what I like most about the Apple Watch, and will definitely remove some of the things that I currently don’t like about the Apple Watch.
Having said that, I do feel that this is an appropriate time to write about the Apple Watch hardware. Today I want to focus on three of the six bands that Apple sells for the Apple Watch. It wouldn’t surprise me if Apple introduces a new band or two for the holiday buying season, but I expect that all three of these bands will stay the same in 2015 and perhaps much longer. Hopefully these thoughts will be useful if you are getting an Apple Watch in the future, or if you currently have one band and are thinking of getting another one.
The three bands that I own are (1) Sport Band, (2) Classic Buckle, and (3) Milanese Loop. They also happen to be the first three bands listed on the watch band portion of Apple’s website.
Sport Band
If you are looking to buy an Apple Watch, I recommend that you buy it with the Sport Band. I say this for two reasons. First, even though you are likely to also want a fancier band to wear during the day at work, you’re going to definitely want a Sport Band for the reasons that I note below, so you might as well start with it. Second, it makes sense to make the Sport Band the one that you get with your Apple Watch because you can then purchase your nicer (and more expensive) band as a stand-alone accessory, which means that it is subject to Apple’s standard 14 day return policy, a useful policy if you find that you don’t like the fancier band after wearing it for a week or so. I can’t imagine that you would ever want to return a Sport Band, which is only $49 and incredibly useful. But you might try one fancy band and then decide that you want to instead try a different fancy band.
The Sport Band is incredibly comfortable. Apple says that it is made with high-performance fluoroelastomer. I just consider it rubber (although it does sound sort of silly to call it a “rubber band”). It is a very comfortable rubber. It feels nice against your arm, and it can stretch a little to be snug without being too tight.
One big advantage of the Sport Band is that it can get wet. The Apple Watch itself is water-resistant so it can get a little wet and still be fine. Indeed, one of the Apple-recommended solutions for when dirt gets stuck in the Digital Crown is to run the watch under warm water. But if you are in a situation where the Apple Watch is going to get a little wet, you don’t want to be using a leather band that doesn’t stand up to water as well. This makes the Sport Band perfect if you are working out or working in the backyard in this hot summer heat (and sweating). I also use it when I give my kids a bath at night or if I’m in any other situation in which I expect to get a little wet.
The material of this band is also highly resistant to dirt, scratches, etc. If I’m just working around the house, or cutting the grass, or in any situation in which I know that I might be bumping my arms into anything, or potentially getting them dirty, the Sport Band is the perfect band to use.
I’ve already mentioned working out once, but it deserves mention again. For many people, one of the nicest features of the Apple Watch is that it encourages you to exercise every day. If you accept that encouragement, it will definitely be worth $49 to have a band that is perfect for exercising and sweating.
I also like the way that the Sport Band works. It has a pin that fits easily but securely into a hole, and the excess band tucks into an opening. When you buy the Sport Band you actually get three parts: the half of the band with the pin on it, plus two different sizes of the other half of the band (and you get to choose if you want a small plus a medium band, or a medium plus a large band). This helps to make sure that you have the best length for your Sport Band.
There is another advantage to this band coming in three parts. My wrist is large enough that only the large band works for me; indeed, I typically use the last hole on the large band, although sometimes I use the second-to-last hole if I want it to feel tighter. However, if the medium band fits your wrist, the third part gives you an advantage that I cannot use: there is a substantial overlap between the medium and large (and the medium and small) parts of the band, and the holes are slightly different on each. For example, if the medium band fits your wrist but one hole is just a little two tight and the next hole is just a little too lose, you may find yourself wishing that there was another hole in the middle — and there is; the overlapping holes on the large and small versions of the band are offset from the holes in the medium band.
[UPDATE 8/14/2015: Today, Apple introduced an Extra Large version of the Sport Band for folks with larger wrists. It currently only comes in black or white.] [UPDATE 12/3/2015: My review of the XL version is here.]
I know many people who like the Sport Band so much that it is the band that they use every day. And especially if you get the more casual version of the Apple Watch (the less expensive Apple Watch Sport), I completely understand this. I don’t wear my Sport Band to work simply because I consider it too casual, and the fancier bands look much nicer with my Apple Watch (the mid-range model made of stainless steel). But that doesn’t mean that I don’t love the Sport Band. Every day when I come home from work and change out of my lawyer costume, I also switch my watch band to the Sport Band, because I know that I will be overseeing bath time and working out later that night.
You can get the Sport Band in Black, White, Pink, Blue or Green. (There are even two models of the Black band, one with a steel pin and one with a black pin that looks better with the Space Gray version of the Apple Watch.) I know that some folks consider the colors a unique advantage of the Apple Watch, the ability to spice up the look of the Apple Watch. You can even buy two Sport Bands in different colors to wear one color on one side and a complementary color on the other side. (Here is what that looks like, thanks to Serenity Caldwell of iMore.) The color is of much less importance to me. I picked the blue one, and it looks fine. I suppose it matches my blue eyes, if that is even a thing? I probably would have been just as happy with the black, white or green one; pink isn’t really my color. But if you consider bright colors on your watch band as an advantage, then that’s another reason that you will like the Sport Band.
Classic Buckle
The Black Classic Buckle is the one that I purchased with my Apple Watch, so I have been using it the longest. In the 1990s and early 2000s when I used to wear a watch every day, I virtually always wore a leather band, typically black but sometimes brown. So the Black Classic Buckle felt like a return to a familiar past for me. As the name says, this is the classic. It costs $149.
Apple’s description of this band is: “From the renowned ECCO tannery in the Netherlands, the Dutch leather used for this band is milled to give the grain a subtle, distinctive texture. The simple closure is crafted from the same stainless steel as the case. It’s a beautiful take on a traditional band design. Available in black.”
The Classic Buckle looks great, and pairs very well with the stainless steel Apple Watch. It has a subtle grain to it that gives it an interesting look without standing out too much. You can wear this one to work, to court, or to a fancy dinner and the watch band will seem right at home. But it looks just as good if you are wearing jeans or shorts.
Apple also sells a band called the Leather Loop that comes in more colors and has ridges on it, but I tend to be more conservative and those ridges seemed a little too much for me. Apple’s other leather band is the Modern Buckle, which also looks nice, but note it is designed for smaller wrists and only works with the smaller, 38mm size of the Apple Watch, and thus won’t be an option for most men.
I think that the Sport Band is actually a little more comfortable than the Classic Buckle, but the Classic Buckle still feels very nice, a nice medium between being soft enough to feel good but sturdy enough to be durable.
The main complaint that I have about the Classic Buckle is that the holes are sometimes not the perfect size for me. I usually prefer the second-to-last hole, but at some points during the day I find the watch slipping a little on my arm. Perhaps my wrist gets a little bigger or smaller during the day, or maybe this has something to do with temperature or sweating. So when that happens, I switch to the third-to-last hole, but then it will often feel too tight after a while so I have to switch it back. I never notice this with the Sport Band, but that is probably because the Sport Band is made of rubber so it can naturally stretch a little.
Milanese Loop
Because of the (admittedly minor) issues I had with the holes on the Classic Buckle, I found myself wishing that my watch band could be adjusted to an infinite number of sizes. You cannot do that with a band that has pre-drilled holes, but you can do exactly that with the Milanese Loop, a band that uses a magnet to close, so you make it whatever size you want. I had been eying the Milanese Loop for weeks, and for Father’s Day on June 21, 2015, my kids — really, my wife — bought me this $149 band. I’m not sure that I would have ever purchased it for myself because it seemed a little too decadent to have three different bands for my Apple Watch, but I’m so glad that they did. Ever since June 21st, I’ve worn the Milanese Loop almost every single day, except for the rare occasions when I would switch back to the Classic Buckle just for a change of pace.
I don’t really think that the picture that I took does it justice. Here is a picture from the Apple website:
As I said at the outset, what I like most about the Milanese Loop is that there are infinite size possibilities. I put it on in the morning, and if at some point during the day I feel that it is too loose or too tight, I can quickly and easily adjust it to make it the perfect amount of tightness. Thus, it can always feel like the perfect size.
Indeed, if you are someone like me who sometimes likes to fidget, it is actually fun to play with the magnet and adjust the band. I will often find myself playing with it as I am concentrating on coming up with an argument for a brief, the same way that I might sometimes click the end of a ballpoint pen or tap my fingers as I am thinking.
The band also feels amazing. Although made of stainless steel, the mesh is so fine that it actually feels like fabric. Apple has done a perfect job with the feel of this band, and if you have any doubt about how soft it feels, try one out at an Apple Store or just buy one so that you can see how it feels while you are in the 14-day return window.
I also think that this band looks very nice — passing the would-I-wear-this-to-court test — but I have to be honest that I had my doubts at first. As someone who used to always wear a leather band on a watch, I wasn’t sure how a silver-colored band would look in general, let alone how it would look with my flesh tones. But not only have I grown to really like the look, I’ve also received complements, from men and women, on how this band looks, something that I never heard with the Classic Buckle. Style is so personal that you’ll have to decide if it looks right for you, but perhaps it means something for you to learn that I had my doubts at first, but no longer do.
The color also looks perfect with the stainless steel Apple Watch. I haven’t seen anyone using the Milanese Loop with the aluminum Apple Watch Sport so I’m not sure how well they match, but the stainless steel Apple Watch and the stainless steel Milanese Loop are a great match.
Speaking of color, Apple also sells the Link Bracelet band, which is made of stainless steel and thus its color is also a perfect match for the Apple Watch. That band looks incredibly nice, and I know several lawyers who love it. For me, I found it a tad heavy at 65 grams (the Milanese Loop is 33 grams) and at $449 it is considerably more expensive than the $149 Milanese Loop. Having said that, I’m sure that many of you have previously worn premium watches with a link bracelet style band, so you probably already know if that style is right for you.
[UPDATE 8/14/2015: Today, Apple introduced another unique advantage of the link bracelet for folks who have a large wrist. As reported by Abdel Ibrahim of WatchAware, you can now buy a $49 link bracelet kit that expands the size of the link bracelet to 245 mm. Previously, the Classic Buckle, which accommodates up to 215 mm, was the largest size.]
Another thing I love about the Milanese Loop is that it is incredibly thin, and I suspect that it is the thinnest of all of the bands sold by Apple. I have a few dress shirts with tighter cuffs, and my wrist with the Classic Buckle under the cuff feels a little too tight in those shirts; I have to physically push down the cuff to see the face of my Apple Watch. But I can wear those same shirts with the Milanese Loop band and I don’t have that problem at all.
Note that the Milanese Loop band is always in a circle. To put on the watch, you have to slide your hand through the circle and then tighten the band. I don’t find that better or worse than a traditional band, but it is something to get used to. I do, however, find that it is more of a pain to charge the Apple Watch when the Milanese Loop is attached. With the Sport Band or Classic Buckle, the watch lays flat right on top of the Apple charger. Presumably your charger is already on a flat surface, and you just set down the Apple Watch with a traditional band on top of the charger and you are done. However, with the Milanese Loop, you need to open up the circle of the band and then manually place the charger underneath the watch, between the circle of the band. This is a minor inconvenience. I usually finish up the day with the Sport Band on the watch, and because of this charging issue I keep the Sport Band on my Apple Watch when it charges at night and then swap to the Milanese Loop in the morning. (I don’t use one of the third-party Apple Watch charger stands which raise the charger in the air, but that would be another way to avoid this inconvenience.) [UPDATE: I now use the Spigen Apple Watch Night Stand, which works great with any band.]
Other than the slight inconvenience when charging at night, my only other complaint about the Milanese Loop is that it sometimes catches on one of the hairs on my arm, something that never happens to me with the Classic Buckle or the Sport Band. It doesn’t happen to me every day, and it’s not that big of a deal, but it is worth mentioning.
Conclusion
One of the best hardware features of the Apple Watch is that it is incredibly easy to swap bands. I do it twice a day, and it takes less than 10 seconds to remove one band and slide on another one. Thus, Apple makes it incredibly easy to consider getting multiple bands.
After using these three different bands during the course of just over three months, I like them all, but I have favorites. During the workday, I like the Milanese Loop considerably more than the Classic Buckle, so much so that if I never wore the Classic Buckle again, I wouldn’t really miss it. The Milanese Loop looks nice, feels great, and is easy to adjust to just the right size.
But whatever fancy band you buy to use at work and when dressing more nicely, it is definitely worth also spending $49 for the Sport Band (or, as I recommended above, just getting that one with the Apple Watch). It is durable, water resistant and comfortable.
If you live close to an Apple Store, then it is easy for you to see and try on these bands (and others) in person. Having said that, I found that I needed to live with each band for at least a week to figure out what I did and didn’t like about each band. Hopefully my experiences will help you to find the best band — or bands — for your Apple Watch.
Minnesota lawyer Lisa Needham recently updated her post called Every Legal App for the iPhone and iPad for Lawyerist.com. The list doesn’t quite live up to the word “every” in the title. For example, it is missing DocReviewPad (although, to be fair, that app has only been out for a month), bar review apps, and all of the useful apps with state-specific statutes. Plus, I would include on a list like this the general purpose apps that are particularly useful to lawyers such as Microsoft Word, GoodReader, etc. Nevertheless, the list is fairly comprehensive, and I highly recommend that you check it out to get a sense of all of the great apps for lawyers that are out there. And now, the news of note from the past week:
South Carolina attorney Justin Kahn discusses on his iPad Notebook website the new features in the update to Lexis Advance HD, including the ability to login using Touch ID.
Florida attorney Katie Floyd recommends checking out digital audiobooks from your local library before your next trip.
Jimi Famurewa of the London Evening Standard interviewed Apple’s Jimmy Iovine to talk about all aspects of Apple Music. It’s an interesting read.
John Callaham of iMore notes that, yesterday, Microsoft debuted a new, free app called Translator that can translate between languages. Say or type a word or phrase in one language and it is quickly translated into another language and said out loud in that language. It seems to have many of the same features as the excellent Google Translate app, including a full screen mode that displays the translation so that you can easily hold it up and show it to someone else. It also includes an Apple Watch app so that you can say something to your watch and then have your watch show the translated words. Pretty neat.
Jared Newman of Macworld notes that the Microsoft Outlook iPhone app now works on the Apple Watch, letting you both read and reply to emails on your watch. I discussed the Outlook app this past February in this review.
Readdle is celebrating its 8th birthday by having a 50% off sale on its apps. Readdle makes some great apps, including Scanner Pro, PDF Expert 5, Calendars 5 and Spark.
Software developer Craig Hockenberry had to get a new credit card because his old one had been used in a fraudulent transaction, but notes in this article for iMore that Apple Pay automatically and immediately updated with the new credit card number, long before the new card arrived in the mail. I think that only some banks offer this feature, but it sure is useful.
Stephen Hacket says in this article for The Sweet Setup that the Belkin Qode Ultimate Pro is the best Bluetooth keyboard for the iPad.
Jon Phillips reviews the Ring Video Doorbell, which lets you see who is at your front door from your iPhone — even if you are not at home.
When you talk to Siri on your iPhone, it talks back to you. But Steven Sande of Apple World Today explains that you can turn off Siri’s voice if you just want to look at text for responses.
And finally, if you cannot decide between a luxury watch and an Apple Watch, watch maker Nico Gerard suggests that you get both. The company is now accepting preorders for the $9,300 Skyview Pinnacle, which has a traditional watch on one side and an Apple Watch on the other. Or you can get the $112,000 Sunrise Pinnacle, which comes in 18K gold. John Gruber of Daring Fireball calls it the Mullet Watch, and says that it is like a $10,000 harness to connect your automobile to your horse. Here is a video showing what it looks like:
I’ve been using Apple Music for about a month now, and I really enjoy using the service. The song recommendations are great, and it is fun to listen to just about any song I can think of, any time I want, even if I have never purchased it. One aspect of the service that I used during the first week but then moved away from is the Beats 1 radio service. It’s nicely done and has some great DJs, but most of the time that I tuned to Beats 1, they were playing songs that didn’t appeal to me. I knew that there were shows more likely to appeal to my tastes — such as Elton John’s Rocket Hour, a show in which Elton John plays a mix of old and new songs from his favorite artists — but the show never seemed to be on when I tuned in. Thus, I wished that there was a way that I could go back in time and listen to a Beats 1 show that I missed. Something like a DVR for Apple Music.
Fortunately, Apple is starting to add this feature, if you know where to look for it. Here is how to find it.
Open the Apple Music app, and tap on the Radio button in the center of the bottom row. Then tap on the Beats 1 logo at the top half of the screen. The next screen gives you the option to Listen Now and shows you upcoming shows, but scroll down past that until you get to the large square icons to show Featured Shows. Now find the show that you want to listen to, such as Elton John’s Rocket Hour, and tap that square icon.
Now you will see the page for that show and two buttons near the middle of the screen: Playlists and Connect. To listen to a past show, tap Connect. You’ll then see a list of past shows. For Elton John’s show, I’m currently only seeing the most recent show from this week, but for other DJs I see even more shows. Tap the show and it will start playing.
When you are listening to a live show on Beats 1, you see the track information for each song as it is playing, which is useful if you want to favorite that specific song or add that specific song to your own music collection. But when you are replaying a show that previously aired, Apple Music treats the entire show as it if it one long song.
But there is still a way to get individual song information. On the screen that I mentioned before that has buttons for Playlists and Connect, tap on the Playlists button. (You can do this while you are listening to the replay of the show.) Then select the playlist that corresponds to the show to which you are listening, Now you will see a list of each song played on the show — with the exception of any songs that were played in the show but don’t yet exist on Apple Music.
Of course, you could also just listen to the songs directly from the playlist, but then you would miss all of the DJ commentary between the songs, which is usually a big part of what makes a good show a good show. How can you have Elton John’s Rocket Hour without Elton John? Or St. Vincent’s Mixtape Delivery Service show without hearing why the song was selected for that person’s mixtape?
I’m thrilled to see that Apple is finding ways to make Beats 1, and Apple Music as a whole, even better. This single feature has made Beats 1 infinitely more useful for me.
Thank you to Bushel for sponsoring iPhone J.D. this month. Bushel provides you with a way to manage all of the Apple devices in your organization — iPhones, iPads, and even Macs — through cloud-based Mobile Device Management.
What can you do with Bushel? You can automatically install apps from the App Store to all of the devices in your organization at once. You can see an inventory of all of the devices that you are managing in your organization. including what users are using each device, which apps you have installed on the devices. You can also automatically configure email on all of the devices in your organization, so your users can get up and running quickly. (Works with Microsoft Exchange, Google Mail, Yahoo! Mail, and any other IMAP or POP mail accounts.) You can configure all devices to automatically join your secure wireless networks, saving all of your users the time of typing in those long passwords. And for iPhones and iPads owned by your organization, you can configure devices automatically before users get them.
If a device in your organization is lost or stolen, Bushel gives you a quick and easy way to remotely lock the device, or wipe it completely.
Here are some screenshots that show you Bushel in action:
The first three devices that you register with Bushel are free forever, so it is easy to try out the service at no cost. Each additional device costs just $2 per month, with no contracts or commitments.
If this sounds like something that would be useful at your organization, you can learn more at Bushel.com.
