My wife started using an Apple Watch a few days ago (it was a Mother's Day present) and it has been interesting watching someone else get up to speed with the device. Indeed, given the extended shipping dates for many 38mm Apple Watch bands right now (some are at 10-12 weeks, others a 4-6 weeks), I suspect that there were lots of other mothers who just got one too. My own Apple Watch has been mute for over a year, so it actually surprised me to hear her watch making noises with alerts. As I would have guessed, the notifications feature and the activity circles seem to be the most popular features for her, but she also uses a third party app called Things on the watch to manage her to-do items. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- There was a major update this week to TrialPad, the app that lets you present evidence from an iPad. Version 4.5 adds support for the larger iPad Pro screen and Pro accessories, such as the Smart Keyboard and Apple Pencil. There are also new annotation tools and improvements to the Key Docs feature. Click here for more information from the Lit Software blog, and click here for more information from the TL NewsWire from TechnoLawyer.
- Lit Software's DocReviewPad was also recently updated, with iPad Pro support, more features for working with Bates numbers, etc. Click here for more information from the Lit Software blog.
- Last week, I mentioned that Ernie "Ernie the Attorney" Svenson was about to launch an online course for lawyers looking to modernize their law practice with technology. You can now register for the course, but only until May 19, when registration will close until the next set of classes begin. Ernie is a great teacher; I have attended many of his CLE sessions and co-spoke with him numerous times. And he has excellent advice on making your law practice paperless. You have to pay for the courses, but there is a 30-day money back guarantee so you can check it out and decide if it is right for you.
- Florida attorney Katie Floyd offers advice for speeding up audio files so that you can listen to a CLE even faster.
- Los Angeles attorney Jeffrey Kent discusses the Bose QuietComfort 25 headphones on his Mobile Barbarian website.
- When Apple launched the Apple Watch, there were news stories about a health lab being run by Apple to develop the activity monitoring features of the watch. Tim Bajarin writes in an article for Time that he recently visited the lab, which is still going strong 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. He also writes that part of the reason for the health focus of the Apple Watch is that Steve Jobs spent so much time with the healthcare system during the last years of his life.
- John Gruber of Daring Fireball discusses Gboard, a new alternative on-screen keyboard for the iPhone from Google that lets you search Google from the keyboard. Thus, if you want to look something up while you are typing, you don't need to exit your app and launch Safari to do the search. I have yet to find a third party keyboard that I prefer to the standard keyboard, but I'm glad to see new creative efforts to make a better keyboard.
- Jason Snell of Six Colors reviews the Logitech Base, an iPad Pro stand that uses the smart connector to charge the iPad.
- Christopher Mele of the New York Times reports on a 15-year-old boy who collected over 200 vintage Apple computers. It seems like just yesterday I was using many of these computers now considered "vintage."
- And finally, a new Apple ad features Neil Patrick Harris using Siri on his iPhone to practice giving a thank you speech. Perhaps a technique for preparing your next opening statement? Maybe not. Still, it's an amusing ad.
