iPhone J.D.

TrialPad, TranscriptPad, DocReviewPad sale ends tonight

There are lots of iPad apps that are useful for attorneys but also useful for many others:  Mail, Microsoft Word, Dropbox, GoodReader, etc.  But if I was asked to name the most useful apps designed specifically for lawyers, the apps that Lit Software makes would be at the very top of my list:  TrialPad, TranscriptPad and DocReviewPad.  These are incredibly sophisticated and useful apps that are in many ways more powerful than PC software costing hundreds of dollars more.  And they work incredibly well on the iPad.  For my litigation practice, which involves lots of depositions, TranscriptPad is an incredibly useful tool that I use at least once a week, and sometimes every day.  TrialPad is an incredibly useful tool for lawyers who want to control the display of evidence in a trial (or folks who want to do the same thing in a mediation, meeting, etc.).  And DocReviewPad has powerful tools for reviewing documents.

I mention these three apps today because they are on sale.  However, you don't have much time because the sale ends at the end of today, Wednesday, August 31.  Lit Software doesn't have sales very often — the last one was in December of 2015.  Each of the apps is $20 off, which means that TrialPad (normally $129.99) is selling today for $109.99, TranscriptPad (normally $89.99) is selling today for $69.99, and DocReviewPad (normally $89.99) is selling today for $69.99.

If you want more information on each of these apps, here are my reviews and other posts on these apps:

• TrialPad:  1/13/11, 1/6/15, 5/19/16
• TranscriptPad:  1/18/12, 7/25/13, 7/16/14, 11/18/14, 1/6/15, 6/11/15
• DocReviewPad:  7/7/15, 9/1/15, 10/27/15

Lit Software is a past sponsor of iPhone J.D., and it turns out that they are also a sponsor next month.  But they are not a sponsor this month, nor did the company ask me to mention the apps today.  I just noticed that a sale was going on, and since I know that these apps are discounted so rarely, I wanted to make sure that iPhone J.D. readers knew about the opportunity to save some money.

If one or more of these apps is not currently on your iPad and you have been thinking getting the app when the time was right, today would be a good day to make the purchase.

Click here to get TrialPad ($129.99, but $109.99 today): 

Click here to get TranscriptPad ($89.99, but $69.99 today): 

Click here for DocReviewPad ($89.99, but $69.99 today): 

 

Click here for DocReviewPad ($89.99, but $69.99 today): 

Apple to announce new iPhones and more on September 7, 2016

Yesterday, certain members of the press received invitations from Apple to a product announcement event that will take place on Wednesday, September 7, 2016 at 10 Pacific / 1 Eastern.  As always, Apple is not revealing what will be announced, but it is pretty easy to make at least one guess.  In 2015, 2014, 2013 and 2012, Apple held an event in early September at which it introduced a new version of the iPhone.  Thus, I feel quite confident that we will see new a new iPhone introduced next week.

What else will Apple announce?  Maybe a second-generation Apple Watch.  Maybe some new Macs, although Mark Gurman of Bloomberg (who has a great track record for these type of predictions) says that the new Macs won't be announced until October.  I don't expect new iPads or a new Apple TV, but I suppose that anything is possible.

Suffice it to say that if you know of anyone planning to buy a new iPhone this week, I would strongly discourage them from doing so.  My guess is that the new iPhones won't be actually in stores until mid to late September, but anyone who can wait a few more weeks to get an iPhone should definitely wait.

Here is the graphic in the invitation itself.  Sometimes, Apple's invitations contain clues as to what is going to be announced.  When I first looked at this picture, my only thought was that it was a neat bokeh effect — which is how a nice SLR camera can make objects in the distance appear blurry to add more depth.  But John Gruber of Daring Fireball wonders if the bokeh effect is actually a clue that Apple is bringing SLR-quality pictures to the new iPhone, although perhaps only to the larger plus model.  There is a rumor that the larger model will have two lenses on it, which will combine to create one improved picture.

In the news

This week in an article about early-birds versus night-owls, the Wall Street Journal reported that Apple CEO Tim Cook starts his day at 3:45 a.m. each day.  My guess is that you are not reading this at 3:45 a.m., but if you are, then good morning to you ... and please keep the noise down, because I'm still asleep.  If you want more information about Cook's morning routine, I remember reading an interview with Time magazine in late 2012 when he was a runner-up for Man of the Year.  As that Time article states that Cook is "a workaholic, and not of the recovering kind.  He wakes up at 3:45 every morning ('Yes, every morning'), does e-mail for an hour, stealing a march on those lazy East Coasters three time zones ahead of him, then goes to the gym, then Starbucks (for more e-mail), then work.  'The thing about it is, when you love what you do, you don’t really think of it as work.  It’s what you do. And that’s the good fortune of where I find myself.'"  When it comes to daily routines, I am the opposite, a night-owl.  After putting my kids to bed and then exercising, I often get some of my most productive work done late at night.  That's also when I usually post new items on iPhone J.D., typically between midnight and 1:30 a.m. Central.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• If you are in the New Orleans area and want to hear me share some tips for using an iPad in a law practice, I'm teaching a one hour CLE at Noon today for the New Orleans Bar Association.  The CLE is free for NOBA members.  You can get more information and sign up here.
• There is an interesting and informative post on the Lit Software blog (creator of TrialPad) about using TrialPad to create exhibit stickers on an iPad.
• California attorney David Sparks writes about the demise of Vesper because the developer wasn't making enough money.  I love the Vesper app on my iPhone and use it every day as a simple to do list for projects I'm working on and a place to keep track of other information.  I'm very upset to see the app going away.  I suppose I could continue to use it even after support ends, but I'll probably move most of my Vesper info into Apple's Notes app — which is so much better today than it was a year ago.  But I'll miss the ability to drag items up and down to move them up or down in my list of items.
• Massachusetts attorney Robert Ambrogi discuss Duet Display, an app that turns your iPad into a second monitor for your computer.
• Apple released iOS 9.3.5 yesterday, and like many updates it contains security fixes.  But the security fixed here was really something ... apparently a hack created by an Israeli security company and used against a reporter.  Had the reporter clicked on a link in a text message, bad guys would have gotten complete access to his iPhone.  And if you haven't yet updated to iOS 9.3.5, then your device is at risk too.  For more information, read this fascinating report by Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai of Motherboard or this New York Times article by Nicole Perlroth.
• Diane Cardwell of the New York Times reports on Apple's efforts to create clean renewable energy to offset its own energy use.  What Apple is doing is really impressive, is good for the environment, and in the long run will even save Apple money. 
• I agree 100% with this article about Apple Music by Jason Snell for Macworld.  The service is wonderful because you have access to so much music and discover so much music that you otherwise would not have known about it; at the same time, you get locked into a system where you need to keep paying to access all of that new music.  I still listen to music ripped from CDs that I bought when I was in high school in the 1980s, and I haven't had to pay anything more to keep listening to that music for 30 years.  But the new music I love to listen to on Apple Music won't be available to me 30 years from now unless I continue to pay Apple the monthly fee every single month for 30 years (assuming the service remains in business). 
• Jan Dawson of Beyond Devices wrote a great article with really interesting charts showing how Apple has fared during the last five years that Tim Cook has been CEO.  Spoiler alert:  Apple is doing well.
• Steven Levy of Backchannel has a great article about artificial intelligence efforts at Apple including Siri, based on his interviews with numerous Apple executives.
• Zac Hall of 9to5Mac reviews August Smart Lock, a lock for the front door of your house that you can control with Siri.
• Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac explains that while Apple Pay is great to use because it is convenient, the real value is that the merchant never knows your credit card number but instead gets a one-time code.
• And finally, here is a video from PhoneBuff showing that the year-old iPhone 6s is much faster than the brand new Galaxy Note 7 on numerous tasks:

Incorporating an iPad into your legal research

Because a large part of my law practice is devoted to appellate litigation and complex litigation at the trial court level, legal research is an important part of my law practice.  When I was in law school in the early 1990s, Westlaw and Lexis certainly existed, but much legal research was still done with books.  If you are old enough to remember the process of using Shepard's books to research subsequent history in a case, you know how much of a pain it was, having to check many different books and pocket parts and updates with small type just to make sure that a case was still good law.  I'm thrilled that those days are gone.  Legal research using a computer is infinitely better, especially with the advanced tools that are now a part of Westlaw and Lexis.

Having said that, one thing that I hate about spending a significant amount of time doing legal research on the computer is that staring at a screen for a long period of time turns me into a zombie.  My Apple Watch taps my wrist and reminds me to walk around once every hour, and I am often amazed to learn that a full 60 minutes has passed since the last time I felt that tap.  After staring at the monitor screen for too long, I find that my senses are somewhat dulled, and I fear that it may have an effect on the quality of the legal research that I am doing.

For me, a good solution is to switch between using a computer and using an iPad to do legal research.  The simple change from one platform to the other seems to give my brain a surge and makes me more sharp as I am reading cases.  Plus, in many ways I prefer doing legal research on an iPad.  There is something about holding caselaw in my hand and being able to lean back in a chair — much like I used to do with a book back in the 1990s — that makes me feel more connected with what I am reading.

I mention all of this today to make sure that you know how easy it is to switch from a computer to an iPad and back again.  If you use Westlaw, right on the home page of the app there is an area that shows recent searches:

Additionally, when you tap in the search bar at the top of the Westlaw app, you will see recent searches:

Similarly, in Lexis, there is an area right on the main screen of the app that shows you your recent search history:

If you use Fastcase, you can tap the Recent button at the bottom of the app.  That will show you a list of recent research that you have done on both the computer and the iPad.  (You may need to tap the refresh button at the top right to see your very latest research.)

Of course, both Westlaw and Lexis also have a dedicated history section of each app where you can see all of your recent searches and recent documents.  But if you are shifting from your computer to your iPad just for a change of venue, you'll most likely just want to pick up with the last search that you were just doing on your computer.  On Westlaw and Lexis, you can do that without even invoking the history function by using the most recent history lists located on the main screens each app, and on Fastcase it is almost just as easy to tap that Recent button.

Legal research on the iPad is not 100% the same as legal research on the computer; you typically get more sophisticated search options on the computer.  But it is usually possible for me to do a significant portion of my legal research on the iPad, and I can always switch back to the computer whenever I need the full set of tools.  Going back and forth every once in a while is actually a good thing, in my opinion, because it stops me from staring at any one particular screen for too long and stops me staying in any one particular position for too long.

If legal research is a part of your law practice and you aren't currently using an iPad to do a part of that legal research, I encourage you to give it a try. 

Click here to get Westlaw (free): 

Click here to get Lexis Advance HD (free): 

Click here to get Fastcase (free): 

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This article won the LitigationWorld Pick of the Week award on September 2, 2016. The editors of LitigationWorld, a free weekly email newsletter for litigators and others who work in litigation, give this award to one article every week that they feel is a must-read for this audience.

In the news

Apple CEO Tim Cook doesn't sit down for interviews very often, and when he does it is often short, such as the one he did last week for Fast Company.  But Jena McGregor of the Washington Post published this week the very best Tim Cook interview I've ever read.  McGregor asked Cook about lots of different topics, with great follow up questions, and may of Cook's answers were very interesting.  I think that any iPhone J.D. reader would enjoy reading it.  And now, the other news of note from the past week:

• Chicago attorney, and app developer, John Voorhees reviews Castro 2, a new podcast app for the iPhone that focuses on improving your queue of upcoming episodes.
• Microsoft expert Paul Thurrott describes new features in the Microsoft Office apps for iPhone and iPad, including the ability to draw with a finger on the iPhone apps.
• The staff of iMore identifies their favorite headphones for the iPhone.
• Lauren Goode of the Verge names her favorite wireless headphones for running.
• With new iPhones expected soon, AT&T has revised their rate plans.  And as Julie Strietelmeir of The Gadgeteer reports, so have Sprint and T-Mobile.
• David Chartier explains why he is impressed with the next update to the Apple Watch software, Apple Watch 3.  So am I, as I explained last month.
• Mark Sullivan of Fast Company interviewed Bob Messerschmidt, a former Apple employee who designed the heart rate sensor on the Apple Watch.
• Valentina Palladino of Ars Technica recommends HomeKit-compatible and similar devices to turn your apartment into a smart apartment.
• Geoffrey Fowler of the Wall Street Journal has advice for turning an old iPhone into a security camera, or putting an old iPhone or iPad to work on other jobs.
• And finally, as we prepare for a new iPhone next month and think about possible new features, it is always interesting to see what is going on in newest Android phones.  Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal reviews the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, which can even be used underwater.  There aren't many use cases for that, except that it did inspire Stern to create this really funny video review.  Worth watching even if you don't use Android:

Review: Solartab -- solar charger for iPhone or iPad

External batteries are a useful accessory for any iPhone.  Most such batteries are charged by plugging into an outlet for a few hours.  But what if you don't have access to an outlet, such as if you are on an off-the-grid camping trip?  Or what if there is a power outage?  After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, there was no power at my house in New Orleans for over a month.  I remember trying to use a device after Hurricane Katrina with a hand-crank on it, the idea being that you could crank for a long time and then store enough energy to power a cell phone for a short while; that device worked poorly with 2005-era mobile devices, and I suspect it would be useless today.  More recently, late last week, areas around Baton Rouge, LA received record rainfall and flooding — "1,000-year rain" according to the National Weather Service — and as a result tens of thousands of people in Louisiana are still without power.  One way to get electricity when the traditional power grid is not an option is to use solar power.  You can now use the sun to charge your iPhone or iPad thanks to Solartab, an external battery with a large solar panel on it.  The company sent me a free review sample, and I've been trying it for a few weeks.  While it takes a while to charge the device, Solartab does let you charge your device using solar energy.

Solar Panel

The marquee feature of Solartab is that it includes solar panels. 

The device itself is about 6.5" x 9.25", similar to the size of a standard 9.7" iPad.  The Solartab has a built-in case with an elastic strap, so you can cover the solar panels to protect them when you are not charging.

The same cover can be used to prop up the solar panels at an angle.  It doesn't fold up the same as a Apple Smart Cover, but the idea is similar.  You can place the solar panels at different angles so that you can get the maximum exposure to the sun whether the sun is high in the sky or closer to the horizon.

Four green lights on the side of the device indicate the amount of power.  One light means 0 to 25% power, two lights mean 26% to 50%, etc.  Press a button next to the lights to see how much the Solartab is charged.

I was disappointed at how long it takes to fully charge the Solartab.  I drained the battery to zero and then placed it in my backyard to charge for about 8 hours, and that only brought the battery back to around 50%.  I had to charge it for a second day to get to a full charge.  Part of the problem at my house is that I have trees in my backyard, so every few hours I would need to move the Solartab to a spot without shade to get maximum charging.  If you are in a wide-open space with no shade, I suppose this device would charge faster.  The company says that with the right sunlight, this device can charge in 12 hours.

Note that you can also charge this device via the Micro USB port.  Of course, that means that you need access to an outlet, but you can fully charge the device in about five hours.  It may seem that using an outlet defeats the purpose of a device with solar panels, but I can see charging a Solartab using an outlet before taking a trip so that it starts fully charged, and then using the sun to recharge it during your trip.

External Battery

Once you have power stored in the Solartab, using it to charge your device is easy.  There are two USB ports on the side so you can charge two devices at once.  Each port is 2.1 A, so you can charge either an iPhone or iPad. 

The capacity of the battery is 13,000 mAh.  That should be enough to charge an iPhone a few times, and enough to charge an iPad maybe once, depending upon which model you have.

One of issues that I see with the Solartab is that there is a high price to pay for that charge, both in terms of cost and weight.  For example, last year I reviewed a Lumsing external battery with a 13,400 mAh capacity (about the same as the Solartab) and which costs about $25.  The Solartab is currently selling from the manufacturer for $89.  So you could buy three Lumsing batteries for less than the cost of one Solartab, and you can take them on your trip and never have to worry about finding sufficient sun to recharge.  Also consider weight; those Lumsing batteries weigh 9.3 ounces each; the Solartab weighs 2.6 pounds, so about the same as more than four of those Lumsing batteries.

Of course if you have a long enough trip without access to an outlet, then the Solartab might be better because you can keep recharging it long after your other batteries have run through their power — although remember that it may take more than a day to recharge the Solartab.  Another advantage of the Solartab is that, in a power outage scenario such as after a major storm, you may appreciate the security of knowing that you can recharge just by finding the sun without having to worry about how long it will be before the power is restored or you can find a friend with a generator.  On the other hand, if you know in advance how long you will be without power, planning ahead with the right number of external batteries might be all that you need.

Conclusion

I love the idea of the Solartab.  Being able to get power just using the sun can be very useful in the right circumstances, plus it is sort of fun to recharge that way.  I also really like the design, with the built-in case.  And the ability to also charge from an outlet via Micro USB means that you can get the best of both worlds.

However, there are some drawbacks so this product is not for everyone.  Depending upon where you are using the device, you may have to adjust it multiple times throughout the day so that the Solartab continues to review direct sunlight, and charging from the sun takes a long time.  And it may be cheaper and lighter for you to charge using multiple traditional external batteries.

Having said that, the Solartab works as advertised.  It could definitely give you some comfort to know that if you find yourself in a longterm power outage, you can use the Solartab to keep an iPhone charged even if you forgot to charge your other external batteries.  So long as the cellphone towers are running again — the restoration of which is typically a priority for officials after a disaster strikes — having a Solartab means that you'll have the power to use an iPhone to communicate with others and get access to information, two of the most important things after a disaster.  If you can see yourself in a situation in which using the sun to charge an iPhone makes sense versus the cost and convenience of traditional external batteries, then the Solartab does the job.

Click here to get Solartab from the manufacturer ($89).

Click here to get Solartab from Amazon ($99).

[Sponsor] Drobo -- safe, expandable storage, with remote access to Drobo 5N

Thank you to Drobo for sponsoring iPhone J.D. this month and for giving me an opportunity to talk about the Drobo 5N.  A few months back, in December of 2015, I wrote extensively about how Drobo works and described the Drobo that I purchased in early 2015 — the standard model with four drives simply called the Drobo.  I love my Drobo because it gives me a huge amount of external storage (and is easily expandable) but also gives me the security that is sorely lacking with standard external drives.  When a normal external drive crashes, it is dead, and that has happened to me on multiple times over the years.  But when a drive in a Drobo crashes, all of your data is still safe because of built-in back-ups on the other drives.  Just eject the broken drive, insert another one that you can buy pretty cheaply on Amazon, and you are back in business with no lost data.

Today I want to talk about the Drobo 5N, which costs $549 (without drives), compared to the standard Drobo which costs $299 (without drives).  The company sent me a free Drobo 5N review unit to test, and I've been putting it through its paces for the last month.  The Drobo 5N has virtually all of the features that I love with my Drobo, but is much more powerful both because of hardware and software — including the ability to run apps.

Hardware

The core hardware features are the same as what I previously described for the Drobo.  For example, I love the lights on the outside of the Drobo that make your drive health obvious.  A green light means that the drive is working fine.  A yellow light means that the drive is starting to get full, so you should consider puling it out and replacing it with a larger capacity drive.  A red blinking light means that a drive has failed and needs to be replaced, but your data is still safely located thanks to the redundancy on other drives.  And ten blue lights across the bottom show you how much of the total usable space is currently full.

The hardware difference is indicated by the name — 5N.  The "5" indicates that there are five drive bays inside of this model instead of the four drive bays in a standard Drobo.  Obviously this means that you can store even more data.

When you put two 1 TB drives in a Drobo, you get almost 1 TB of usable storage space.  In that configuration, one drive is essentially a backup of the other.  Add a third 1 TB drive and you get a net 1.81 TB of usable space.  Add a fourth drive and you get 2.72 TB of usable space.  That's what I have in my standard Drobo.  Because the 5N supports five bays, you can add a fifth 1 TB drive and go up to 3.63 TB.  You might think that adding a fifth drive would give you another 20% of space, but it actually gives you around 25% more space because of the way that the redundancy works.  And as with other Drobo devices, you can put different sized drives in different drive bays and the Drobo just figures it all out.  For example, if you have three 1 TB drives and two 2 TB drives, you get 4.53 TB of usable space.  This page of the Drobo website lets you calculate the total storage you get with different drives.

Another hardware difference between the 5N and the standard Drobo — the "N" — is that the 5N connects via Ethernet to your network, whereas the standard Drobo connects via USB to a specific computer.  That means that the 5N is perfect for an office environment, or even a home with multiple computers connected via Ethernet.  If you want to share the data on a Drobo with others on your network, the 5N is definitely the way to go. 

One cool hardware feature of the 5N is that it includes the Drobo Accelerator Bay (underneath the Drobo 5N).  You can add a standard mSATA SSD to that bay and the Drobo has the ability to read data even faster because the most-used data is also stored on the super-fast SSD. Drobo recommends either a 64 GB or 128 GB mSATA SSD, and from a quick look on Amazon I think you can get those for only about $50.  The 5N that I tested didn't have anything installed in the Accelerator Bay so I didn't test this feature, but it looks like a relatively inexpensive way to make the drive faster when reading data.  Drobo says that you can get up to 3x the speed by using the Accelerator Bay on the 5N.  I should note that in my use of the Drobo 5N, I had no trouble opening large PDF documents or even 1080p home videos; it was all plenty fast enough.  But it is nice that you can easily and inexpensively get some extra speed.

If you want even more speed, instead of using high-capacity hard drives, you can use SATA SSDs.  An SSD drive is much more expensive than a normal spinning disk hard drive, and the available capacities are smaller, but that will give you the fastest possible read and write speeds.  In the computers that we use at my law firm (primarily Dell laptops), the office replaced hard drives in all attorney computers with SSDs a while back, and it was the single most significant speed increase that I have ever seen in a computer.  To be sure, there was a space trade-off; in fact, I recently filled up my 128 GB SSD on my work computer, and that was a big reason I recently updated to a new work computer with a 256 GB SD.  But if you can get past the space issue, SSDs are wicked fast, and it is wonderful that SSD is an option on the Drobo 5N if you want it.

Software

I used to think that an external hard drive was just a hardware device, but with the Drobo 5N, that is no longer true.  Unlike other Drobo devices that connect to your computer via a connection like USB and are thus dependent upon your computer, the Drobo 5N sits on the network on its own.  The Drobo already has a "brain" inside of it that is uses to keep your data redundant, and with the 5N, Drobo has added to that brain the ability to run DroboApps through a feature called myDrobo. 

There are lots of apps available from both Drobo and third parties, but I think that the best one — and the one of most interest to iPhone and iPad users — is the DroboAccess app.  Using this (free) app, your Drobo 5N can make its files available to a device that is not on your local network.  From another computer, you access your files through a web browser interface.  From a mobile device, you use the DroboAccess app, which only costs $0.99 in Apple's App Store.  Using this app, you can browse through the folders on your Drobo 5N and download and upload files.

 

The app works well, and I was able to access documents from the Drobo 5N at my house even when I was at work or out of town, and even when my iMac at home was turned off.  In the Drobo configuration panel, you can create multiple users with different access rights, so certain people can have access to only certain folders in the Drobo 5N.  Plus you can share specific files with specific users.  Also, data transfer from the Drobo to an iPhone or iPad is encrypted end-to-end, and each Drobo carries a unique SSL certificate.  Thus, your files are not just safe on the Drobo because of the drive redundancy, but they are safe during travel to your mobile device.  As you can see, it is all very sophisticated and powerful, but at the same time it is super easy to use.

You can see some of the over 100 available apps on this page of the Drobo website.  For example, you can use the CrashPlan app to make an online backup of the files on your Drobo 5N.  Or you can use the Plex app to share media such as songs and videos with any device running the Plex app, such as an Apple TV. 

Conclusion

With its five bays, network access and Accelerator Bay, the Drobo 5N is a seriously sophisticated hardware device.  You could use it at home as I have been doing in my tests over the last few weeks, but this device is more than powerful enough for an office environment.  If you were to fill it up with five 8 TB drives, you would have 29 TB of usable drive space for shared files in your office, all with built-in redundancy so that you don't lose sleep worrying about a drive failure.  Remember, the question is not if a hard drive fails but when; all hard drives fail eventually.  But with a Drobo, you don't need to worry about that.

And while that would be enough to recommend the Drobo 5N, thanks to the support for DroboApps, the Drobo 5N is a powerful server, and it wouldn't be inappropriate to think of it as a computer.  Even if you were to use no app other than the DroboAccess app, that powerful app gives you and other users the ability to access filed stored on a Drobo 5N from anywhere in the world using end-to-end encryption.

And despite all of this power, the core features of the Drobo are simple to use.  Adding and removing hard drives is so simple that a child could do it.  (That's not an exaggeration; my 10-year-old son asked me if he could put the drives in the Drobo 5N for me, and he had no trouble doing it.)  The Drobo Dashboard software on your computer makes it easy to configure any Drobo, including the Drobo 5N.  And the obvious lights on the outside of the Drobo make it easy to see that everything is fine when the lights are green.

I love using my Drobo, and I would never want to go back to relying on a standard drive for external storage.  If you are looking for external storage at your home or office, you should definitely check out one of the Drobo devices such as the standard four-bay Drobo or the more sophisticated Drobo 5N.  And for a limited time, if you buy a Drobo from the online Drobo Store, and use coupon code Jeff100, you'll get $100 off. 

In the news

It isn't often that Apple executives sit down for an interview with the press, so it was noteworthy that Rick Tetzeli got an opportunity to interview Tim Cook, Eddy Cue and Craig Federighi for an article in Fast Company that appeared this week.  The article had some interesting parts, but I more enjoyed reading the raw Q&A that was subsequently released, in which Cue and Federighi talk about lots of different aspects of Apple including how Apple is improving the Maps app.  In the same issue, Mark Sullivan interviewed the interesting Bozoma Saint John, head of global consumer marketing for Apple Music.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• Terry Cater of ABA Journal reports that the new president-elect of the ABA, Hilarie Bass, is calling for lawyers to embrace technology.
• We are probably just a few weeks away from Apple announcing new products.  California attorney David Sparks discusses what might be coming.
• I've been watching quite a bit of the Olympics with my son and daughter this week.  It has been nice having the NBC Sports app on my Apple TV; it has given us the opportunity to watch some fun events that don't make the primetime coverage, and watching them during commercial breaks in the main coverage has meant that we haven't missed much.  But the app has some flaws, and Jason Snell of Six Colors does a good job of describing how this app could be better.
• In an article describing companies using iPads, Vindu Goel of the New York Times reports that nearly half of all iPads are purchased by corporations and governments.
• Walt Mossberg of The Verge reviews the new Logitech Create keyboard for the 9.7" iPad Pro.
• There are lots of interesting HomeKit devices, but few designed for outside use.  Jesse Hollington of iLounge reviews the iDevices Outdoor Switch Power Outlet, which seems perfect for controlling lights in your patio or garden.
• Sarah Jacobsson Purewal reviews portable chargers for the Apple Watch in an article for Macworld.
• Mike Tanasychuk of iMore has a great selection of tips for using the Siri remote with an Apple TV.
• And finally, Thomas Kim created a water wheel generator to charge an iPhone using recycled plastic bottles and other parts and created this video:

Review: Simplex Tablet iPad Stand by Thought Out -- high quality, inexpensive iPad stand

Three years ago, I reviewed an iPad stand by Thought Out called the Stabile PRO.  I gave that product a great review at the time, and three years later I am still using it every day in my office.  That stand holds my iPad up almost as if it is a monitor, and I frequently look at a document on my iPad in that stand while I am drafting a memorandum on my PC's monitor right next to the Stabile PRO.  I highly recommend the Stabile PRO, and the only real downside is the price.  (It currently costs $109.99 when you buy it from Thought Out.)  Thought Out recently developed a new entry-level stand, made out of the same materials but at a fraction of the price at $29.99.  This new stand is called the Simplex.  Thought Out sent me a free sample for a review, and I've been trying it out for the last week.  The Simplex is a fantastic stand.  It isn't as versatile as the Stabile PRO because you cannot adjust the angles, but it works really well.

The Simplex is made of steel, and it is very strong.  Thought Out says that this is solid American 13 gauge steel, 0.9 inches thick, and weighs 1.25 pounds.  If you needed to reach for an object on your desk to use in self-defense, this would be a good one to reach for.  How a product rates as a self-defense item is not normally a feature on my checklist for iPad accessories; I mention it in this review simply to emphasize that this is a high-quality, substantial product.

The strength makes the Simple incredibly stable, and four non-skid feet on the bottom of the Simplex keep it in place on your desk. 

The four arms of the Simplex are covered with vinyl holding pads, so your iPad only makes contact with the soft vinyl surface and won't get scratched. 

The overall design is so stable that you can tap and swipe your iPad with any degree of force that you want — from an iPad mini to the largest 12.9" iPad Pro, in either portrait or landscape orientation — and the iPad will stay in place.  The iPad doesn't currently support 3D Touch like the iPhone does, but if Apple does bring that technology to the iPad in the future, the Simplex stand will be ready for it.

The Simplex isn't raised as much as the Stabile PRO.  Thus, your iPad doesn't look like it is acting as an external monitor, and instead simply looks like it is on a stand.

The bottom of the iPad when sitting on the Simplex is about 1.5" off the surface of your desk.  If your iPad is in portrait orientation with the Lightning port on the bottom and you are charging your iPad, that 1.5" is ample space for the end of the cord to connect to the bottom of the iPad.

Design is subjective, of course, but I like the look of the Simplex.  From the front, when your iPad is on it,  you barely see the Simplex at all. 

But when the Simplex is just sitting there on my desk, I think it looks almost like a work of art, a sleek design made out of a single sheet of steel. 

Unlike the Stabile PRO, you cannot adjust the angle of the iPad.  In the Simplex, the iPad is in a fixed 55° viewing angle.  But in my extensive use over the past week with my iPad Pro 12.9", I found the angle very pleasing to use.  I had to slightly look down to look at a document and then slightly look up to glance back over to my PC monitor, but there was nothing awkward about it.  And when I spent an extended period of time reading cases, exhibits and pleadings with the iPad on the Simplex, I found my iPad to be at a great viewing angle.

I've been comparing the Simplex to the Stabile Pro because both come from Thought Out and they both have that solid steel which makes them heavy, strong and stable.  Thought Out suggested that I also compare this product to the P2 Stand by Elago, and Thought Out even sent me a sample of the P2.  The P2 is the same price as the Simplex, holds a tablet at a similar angle, and if you just look at a picture of the two products you might think that they are similar. 

But the P2 is made of aluminum, not steel, so it is much lighter.  The P2 is also smaller than the Simplex.  And the arms on the Simplex are more spread out.  For all of these reasons, the P2 is much less stable than the Simplex.  Indeed, Elago doesn't recommend the P2 for the larger iPad Pro, and instead recommends the larger P4 (which I did not try) which looks like a larger P2 and is still made of aluminum.  Also, the P2 doesn't completely cover its arms in vinyl like the Simplex does, instead just putting a small cushion where the iPad sits in the two arms.  I'd be a little afraid of an iPad getting scratched by the edges of the arms of the P2.

I figured that Thought Out sent me the Elago P2 because it knew that the Simplex would compare favorably, so I did some searching online to see if there are any other high quality iPad stands made of solid steel with vinyl covered feet etc.  I couldn't find anything that looked like it might match the Simplex, although given the huge universe of iPad accessories out there perhaps there is something else that I just didn't run across.  But it really doesn't matter if the Simplex is completely unique or if there are similar products out there.  What counts is that the Simplex is a sturdy, high quality, very nice stand. 

After using the Stabile PRO for three years, I know how much I love that stand so it is the one that I will probably continue to use most of the time in my own office.  But if I had never before used either product, I suspect that the $30 price would make me gravitate towards the Simplex.

If you are looking for a nice stand in this price range to provide sturdy support for your iPad when you are working at your desk, the Simplex is an excellent product.  I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the Simplex to any attorney or other professional. 

[UPDATE:  Thought Out just provided me with a discount code for iPhone J.D. readers.  If you use code O11OES40030 between now and August 19, 2016 for any $50 purchase direct from the Thought Out store, you will get a 20% discount.]

Click here to get the Simplex from Thought Out ($29.99)

Click here to get the Simplex from Amazon ($29.99)

In the news

I've been talking about iPad keyboards this week, and I see that Apple just announced that there are now international versions of its Smart Keyboard for iPad Pro, with localized keyboards including British English, French, Spanish, Korean, Italian and Arabic.  Jordan Kahn of 9to5Mac has details.  Apple also released a new commercial this week touting the iPad Pro as a replacement for a computer, thanks to the ability to use an external keyboard and Apple Pencil and the ability to multi-task.  I've always thought as my iPad as a suitable PC replacement when I travel, and it is interesting to see Apple explicitly acknowledge this.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• If you are in the New Orleans area and want to hear me share some tips for using an iPad in a law practice, I'm teaching a one hour CLE on Friday, August 26, 2016 at Noon for the New Orleans Bar Association.  The CLE is free for NOBA members.  You can get more information and sign up here.
• California attorney David Sparks discusses the new 1Password subscription plans.  I like the idea of the subscription, and I plan to do it once their Windows 7 client is out of beta.  (I use Windows 7 on my work computer.)
• Florida attorney Katie Floyd encourages attorneys to sign up for MacTrack Legal, a conference previously known as MILOfest for attorneys who use Macs, iPhones and iPads.  The conference is held at Disney World in Orlando every Fall, and this year is October 6-8, 2016.  I use a PC in my law office so I've never attended the conference, but everyone I know who has attended in the past has raved about how informative and fun the conference is.
• Which iPad Pro is best — the 9.7" or the 12.9"?  It's a tough question for most folks.  Julio Ojeda-Zapata runs through the pros and cons of each iPad Pro in an article for TidBITS.
• Once you get your iPad Pro, which accessories should you get?  Jason Snell examines that question in an article for iMore.
• Dan Frakes reviews iPad Pro keyboard cases in a post for The Wirecutter.
• Hey-Siri.io is a great website that lists every single command that you can give to Siri.  There is a ton in here that I didn't know about.  Well worth checking out.
• Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal wrote a great article about the transition from paying with credits card by swiping to paying with credit cards using the chip, and compared all of this to using Apple Pay (which is much faster).
• Ben Petterson has advice for using the iOS 9 notification center in an article for Macworld.
• Leander Kahney of Cult of Mac reviews the Zens Power Bank, a portable charger for the Apple Watch.
• Apple CEO Tim Cook tweeted that July was a record-breaker for the App Store, with the highest-ever monthly billings and money paid to developers, and with over $50 billion paid to developers to date.
• Apple released a new Remote app for the Apple TV.  Serenity Caldwell of iMore has advice for using the app.
• And finally, Apple created a new ad to run during the Olympics.  It features pictures and short videos taken with iPhones, with a voice-over by Mayo Angelou reading an abbreviated version of her beautiful poem Human Family.  I really like the last part, which is as timely as ever given the prejudice in our world:  "We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike."  It's a great video:

iPad tip: external keyboard text selection commands

Yesterday, I saw a tweet by Merlin Mann encouraging folks to learn the Mac OS X text selection commands, and linking to a page on the Apple support website that lists all of the Mac keyboard shortcuts.  Maybe it is because I just posted a review of an iPad Bluetooth keyboard earlier this week and thus still had iPad keyboards on my brain, but my first thought when I saw that list was that it is just as useful for iPad owners who use an external keyboard.  It may seem somewhat odd to say that, because the marquee feature of the iPad is that it is a large touch screen.  But one of the most efficient ways to use an iPad with an external keyboard is to learn ways that you can keep your fingers on the keys and not waste time touching the screen.

The text selection commands that I am describing in this post work with virtually every app with text input on the iPad — Mail, Microsoft Word, Apple's Pages, etc.  I'm sure that you know some of these commands, especially the ones at the beginning, but probably not all of them.  There are a few in here that I rarely think to use and I'm glad to be reminded that they exist.

Note that this list assumes that you have a keyboard with Command and Option keys, such as Apple's Magic Keyboard (the external keyboard) or the Smart Keyboard (the one that is built-in to an iPad Pro cover).  As I noted in my review of the iClever keyboard earlier this week, if you see a keyboard with a Win key (or a Windows logo) that key is a substitute for Command, and the Alt key is a substitute for Option.

Command–Up Arrow    

Move the insertion point to the beginning of the document.  Similar to Home, Command-Home or Control-Home when using Microsoft Word, depending upon how you have your keyboard shortcuts configured.

Command–Down Arrow    

Move the insertion point to the end of the document.

Command–Left Arrow    

Move the insertion point to the beginning of the current line.

Command–Right Arrow    

Move the insertion point to the end of the current line.

Option–Left Arrow    

Move the insertion point to the beginning of the previous word.  If you want to go back a few words in a document, instead of pressing the left arrow many, many times, just hold down option and tap the left arrow a few times, jumping over one more word every time that you press the arrow.  This is a great and quick way to fix words in a sentence that you just finished typing.

Option–Right Arrow    

Move the insertion point to the end of the next word.  This is a quick way to go back to where you were after you fixed something a few words back.

Shift–Command–Up Arrow    

Select the text between the insertion point and the beginning of the document.  So if you want to copy the beginning part of a document, put your cursor where you want the selection to stop and then hold down shift and command and hit the up arrow.  This will select all of the document up to where your cursor was.  You can then copy, cut, etc. that part of the document.

Shift–Command–Down Arrow    

Select the text between the insertion point and the end of the document.  This lets you do the same trick for the last parts of a document.

Shift–Command–Left Arrow    

Select the text between the insertion point and the beginning of the current line.

Shift–Command–Right Arrow    

Select the text between the insertion point and the end of the current line.

Shift–Up Arrow    

Extend text selection to the nearest character at the same horizontal location on the line above.

Shift–Down Arrow    

Extend text selection to the nearest character at the same horizontal location on the line below.

Shift–Left Arrow    

Extend text selection one character to the left. I will often use my finger to double-tap on a word to select it, and then hold down shift and hit the left arrow repeatedly to extend the selection to one or more characters before the word.  But if instead of expanding the selection one character at a time, sometimes I extend the selection by adding words to it, and for that I use the next one...

Option–Shift–Left Arrow    

Extend text selection to the beginning of the current word, then to the beginning of the following word if pressed again.

Shift–Right Arrow    

Extend text selection one character to the right.

Option–Shift–Right Arrow    

Extend text selection to the end of the current word, then to the end of the following word if pressed again.

Option–Shift–Up Arrow    

Extend text selection to the beginning of the current paragraph, then to the beginning of the following paragraph if pressed again.  This is a quick and easy way to select multiple paragraphs in a document so that you can cut them and then move them elsewhere.  I often draft an argument in one part of a brief, and then decide upon reflection that it would be better placed in another part of the brief.  This text selection command helps me to do that quickly on an iPad.

Option–Shift–Down Arrow    

Extend text selection to the end of the current paragraph, then to the end of the following paragraph if pressed again. 

One last tip -- see the traditional document shortcuts

Finally, I'm sure that you know many of the traditional document shortcuts such as Command-B to bold, Command-U to underline, etc.  But if you ever forget them, simply hold down the Command key on an external keyboard for a few seconds.  Your iPad will then show a cheat-sheet in the middle of the screen with shortcuts that you can use.  The hints change based upon the App that you are using.  For example, in Microsoft Word, you see shortcuts for commands like save, undo, copy, paste, bold and underline:

In Mail, you see shortcuts for commands like adding attachments, creating a new message, and sending the current message:

Hopefully these tips will help you to be even more efficient with your iPad's external keyboard.

Review: iClever Ultra Slim 3 Color backlight Bluetooth Keyboard

An external keyboard is an incredibly useful accessory for an iPad, and it is a key reason that, for years now, I have been able to rely on just an iPad when I travel, leaving the computer at my desk.  For many years, I have used Apple's Wireless Keyboard, a really great Bluetooth keyboard.  Apple discontinued that keyboard in October of 2015 and now instead sells the Magic Keyboard, which seems even better from my limited tests.  But a few months ago, the folks at iClever sent me a free review sample of their Ultra Slim 3 Color backlight Bluetooth Keyboard.  I really like it, so much so that I stopped using that Apple keyboard.

Folding design

The best part of this Bluetooth 3.0 keyboard is that it folds up into a compact size, meaning it takes up much less space than a traditional keyboard.  It folds up to about 6.5" x 4.5" x .5" — not quite small enough to fit into a pocket (unless it is large), but more than small enough for a briefcase, purse, or other bag.  If you have been using mobile devices for as long as I have and you remember using the Stowaway keyboard for Palm devices, later sold by Palm itself, this is a similar product although it folds up differently.  (Here is Dan Bricklin's 1999 write-up on the original Stowaway keyboard.)

Once unfolded, you have a full size keyboard.  I had no trouble touch-typing on this keyboard.  Typically I would just unfold the keyboard and start using it in that position, which you can definitely do and it is only slightly wobbly.  But if you want to make the keyboard perfectly flat and secure, you can fold down small feet on both sides of the opened keyboard.  Those feet work really, really well, and make the keyboard feel just as steady as a non-foldable keyboard.

I don't often use an external keyboard when I am in a meeting.  I usually just use the Apple Pencil to take handwritten notes.  But on those rare occasions when I do want a keyboard, it is very easy to carry this keyboard and my 12.9" iPad Pro together in one hand.

The keyboard folds in from both sides, with a hinge between the S and D keys and a hinge between the L and :; keys on the keyboard.  Fold the device up and it turns off.  Unfold it and the device turns on. 

This design makes it incredibly easy to carry the keyboard around, not to mention fun to use.

Power

The device charges via microUSB.  I cannot tell you exactly how long the charge has lasted for me, but I can say that I charge it rarely and I've never had it run out of power.  The manual says that you can use it for 300 hours straight between charges and that there are 90 days of standby time.

The keyboard enters an energy-saving idle mode if you haven't used it for 10 minutes.  To activate it, press any case and wait three seconds.

The keys

There is less movement on these keys than on the Apple keyboard, so I did feel like it was somewhat of a compromise using this keyboard.  Based on key feel alone, I would always prefer the Apple keyboard.  But the keyboard isn't that much worse, and I found that I got used to it over time — so much so that a while back I just stopped using the Apple keyboard at all, and I haven't missed it.

The keyboard has a "Win" key instead of a Command key, but you use it the same way.  So you can do Win-C to copy, Win-V to paste, Win-Z to undo, etc.

Function keys can also be used for special features.  For example, the Escape key has a home icon on it, indicating that you can press it to exit the app and go to the Home Screen.  F1 has a magnifying glass icon on it, indicating that you can press it to jump to the Home screen and then go to the Search screen.  F11 and F12 control volume.  F8 is previous track, F9 is play/pause, F10 is next track.

F4 through F7 are supposed to control cut and paste functions, but for some reason they didn't work for me.  But as noted above, I could just do Win-C to copy, Win-V to paste, etc. so I didn't miss those function keys.

One nice feature of this keyboard is that you can turn on back-lighting for the keys.  This drastically reduces battery life — iClever says that you go down from 300 hours to 5 hours — but if you are typing in a dark area, it is really nice to turn on back-lighting to see the keyboard while you are typing.  There are two brightness levels, and you can choose between blue, green or red back-lighting.

Note that this keyboard doesn't hold up the iPad, so you will need to use something else to prop up your iPad while you type.  I use the Apple Smart Cover, which folds up into a triangle, and that works great.  If I am at my office desk and I want to type on my iPad, I use the Stable PRO by Thought Out, a fantastic iPad stand that lives in my office, but which is way too heavy to be portable.

Conclusion

[UPDATE:  Ryan asks in the Comments why I prefer this keyboard to Apple's iPad Pro cover with a built-in keyboard, which is called the Smart Keyboard.  If you are interested in my answer, read the Comments.]

I really like this keyboard.  The folding feature makes it much easier to carry around.  The keyboard feels good to use — even though the Apple wireless keyboard is better — and I can type at full speed on the full-size keyboard.  The back-lighting feature is a nice bonus, and the special-feature keys are useful.  If you like the idea of a portable keyboard, I can recommend this one.

Click here to get the iClever Ultra Slim 3 Color backlight Bluetooth Keyboard from Amazon ($54.99).

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