Florida attorney Katie Floyd and California attorney David Sparks record the Mac Power Users podcast, and Episode 297 was all about the apps that they use to get work done with their iPads. As we all start a new year with the desire to be even more productive with our technology, I appreciated all of the great tips in that episode and I'm sure that many of you would like it too. And by the way, congrats to David and Katie who are about to record their 300th episode, an impressive milestone. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- Boston attorney Victoria Santoro writes an article for Law Technology Today saying that she enjoys her Apple Watch but laments that is does not yet offer any real value for lawyers. She starts by saying that you cannot respond to email, but that's wrong. Using the current watchOS 2, you can respond to emails, and I do it myself many times every week. You can either select a preset response (that you can set yourself using the Apple Watch app) or you can dictate your email. She says that she doesn't like dictating a text message response when someone else is nearby and can hear her, and I agree, but that's why it is nice that you can customize your preset responses to, for example, let someone know that you will respond to their text in just a few minutes. She also complains that you cannot create a calendar entry or a tweet on the Apple Watch, but I've never seen a need to do that. On the other hand, I love using the Fantastical complication on my Apple Watch face; I can always just glance at my wrist to see my next appointment. That's a lot faster than pulling out my iPhone or iPad or switching to the calendar in Outlook on my PC at work. Santoro does like notifications and the fitness features, and so do I. She concludes by saying that if you are a lawyer and don't have an Apple Watch yet, hold off buying one for now because of the lack of features. While I don't agree with that rationale, I do believe that Apple will introduce a new model of the Apple Watch at some point in 2016. If you made it through nine months of the Apple Watch being on sale without deciding to buy one, maybe you should wait a little longer to see what the second generation model will include. But in the meantime, I love using my Apple Watch, and I wear it and use it every single day.
- Apple announced this week that the App Store had record-breaking sales this past holiday season. January 1, 2016 was the biggest day in App Store history, with $144 million spent on apps and in-app purchases. And during the two weeks that ended on January 3, customers spent over $1.1 billion. Apple also announced that it has paid app developers nearly $40 billion since 2008, with over a third of that generated in the last year alone. The most popular app categories were games, social networking and entertainment.
- If you are looking for some great pictures to enjoy on your iPad — or even better, on the larger screen of your iPad Pro — Pete Souza, official White House photographer, posted his best pictures of the year on Medium. Souza is an iPhone user, but it looks like these were all taken with a DSLR camera.
- Rene Ritchie of iMore has some good suggestions for increasing security on your iPhone and iPad.
- Lewis Wallace of Cult of Mac posted a list of some of the best Apple Watch apps.
- Steven Sande of Apple World Today notes that the Safari web browser is 13 years old. So now we enter the awkward teen years.
- And finally, Swiss watch maker Moser created a 38mm mechanical watch that looks very much like an Apple Watch, and then created an Apple-like commercial to advertise it. Even the name is similar to the Apple Watch: it is the Swiss Alp Watch. It costs $24,900, but it is made of white gold; for comparison, the 38mm Rose Gold Apple Watch with the Modern Buckle costs $17,000. Benjamin Clymer of Hodinkee writes about the Moser watch, and here is the video:
