Apple invited select members of the press to its campus yesterday for product announcements. The main event was the new MacBook Pro, but Apple also had some iOS-related announcements. For example, Apple announced a new app for the Apple TV called, simply, TV. The TV app acts as a central place to watch television shows from other apps (like HBO), and makes it easy to pick up where you left off with a show. The iOS angle is that, before the end of this year, Apple will also bring a TV app to the iPhone and iPad. Luke Filipowicz of iMore has the details on the new TV app. Netflix is not included in the new TV app, but Brian Barrett of Wired reports that Netflix says that it is “evaluating the opportunity” so maybe it will be added in the future. And now, the news of note from the past week:
Tim Cook announced during yesterday’s announcement that the new Memories feature of the Photos app, which just came out in iOS 10, has already been used by people to watch 400 million videos of their photos/videos. Cook also said that 60% of users are already using iOS 10.
I had hoped that Apple would announce at yesterday’s event that its new AirPods bluetooth headphones are now available. Instead, as reported by Matthew Panzarino of TechCrunch, Apple announced this week that AirPods will not be available in October as originally announced. An Apple spokesperson said: “We don’t believe in shipping a product before it’s ready, and we need a little more time before AirPods are ready for our customers.” I’m very eager to try the new AirPods, so hopefully they will be available soon.
There were lots of Apple system software updates this week. iOS 10.1 came out, and if you have an iPhone 7 Plus you’ll want to upgrade to take advantage of the new Portrait Mode feature in the camera app. Andrew Cunningham of Ars Technica reports on all of the improvements.
If you have an Apple TV and you have kids, then I suspect that you will be a hero when you tell them that, as reported by Chance Miller of 9to5Mac (and announced at yesterday’s event), Minecraft is coming to Apple TV later this year.
Speaking of my kids … um, I mean kids in general, of course … Rene Ritchie of iMore reports that from now until November 1, there are additional treats in the Pokémon Go app (more candy awarded when you catch a Pokémon, etc.).
When you travel and check a bag, airlines have a way to keep track of where your luggage is located. Soon, you will too. Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac reports on an announcement by Delta this week that you will be able to track your bag’s location while you travel. It will be nice to have the peace of mind of knowing that your bag made it on the plane.
The iPod turned 15 years old this week, which prompted Rich Stevens of The Pixel Project to create this amusing comic strip for iMore.
I normally find myself agreeing with David Pogue of Yahoo, but this week he wrote, and created a video, explaining why he doesn’t like the Apple Watch. Read his article for his viewpoint, but I couldn’t disagree more. For example, in his short video he complains no less than three different times that you need to charge the Apple Watch every night. My response: so what? Why is this a problem? Don’t people normally take off a watch to go to sleep at night? The only explanation that he gives is that charging at night means that you cannot use the Apple Watch as a sleep tracker, but the fact that the Apple Watch cannot do one thing doesn’t take away from all of the amazing things that it does do during the day. I charge my iPhone every night too, but that doesn’t detract from it being a useful device.
And finally, if you want to buy a T-shirt, mug, water bottle, etc. with an Apple logo on it, you won’t find any such item at an Apple Store … unless you are shopping at the Apple Store on Apple’s main campus in Cupertino, CA. Zac Hall of 9to5Mac has a set of pictures showing off what the 1 Infinite Loop Apple Store looks like and some of the items that you can purchase at the store, such as this picture showing lots of T-shirt designs:
New survey results indicate that a record number of attorneys are using an iPhone in their law practice — 68.4%, up from 60.8% last year — and the number of attorney using iPads is also on the rise. These numbers come from the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center, which conducts a survey every year to gauge the use of legal technology by attorneys in private practice in the United States. The 2016 report is just now being released, 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 the Fall of 2016, remember that the survey answers were given in the first part of 2016. My reports on prior ABA surveys are located here: 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010.
Almost seven out of ten attorneys use an iPhone
There were two notable changes in the survey results this year: more attorneys are using smartphones, and for those attorneys using smartphones, more of them are using an iPhone.
The survey asks each attorney “Do you use a smartphone (e.g. BlackBerry, iPhone, Android) for law-related tasks while away from your primary workplace?” In 2011 and 2012, the number of attorneys answering no was around 12%. In 2013, 2014 and 2015 that number hovered around 10%. In 2016, the number is down to an all-time low of 6.8%.
To be honest, I’m somewhat surprised the number is still that high. I find it hard to believe that there are many attorneys in 2016 not using a cellphone, and virtually every cellphone nowadays is a smartphone. And while I’m sure that there are some attorneys who have a smartphone or other cellphone and don’t use it for a law-related task, I would expect that number to be very low. If nothing else, don’t virtually all attorneys use a smartphone to check email? I guess not. According to this study, if you assemble a random sample of 100 U.S. attorneys in private practice, there still will be 6 or 7 in the group who don’t use a smartphone to check work-related emails. Presumably, that number will get even lower in future years.
As was the case in the last few years, once again in 2016 there was a slight correlation between law firm size and smartphone use. For example, in 2016, 10.5% of solo attorneys do not use a smartphone and 7.6% of attorneys in a firm of 2-9 do not use a smartphone. On the other hand, in firms with 50-499 attorneys, the attorneys not using a smartphone goes down to 3%-4%. Forr those attorneys in law firms of 500 or more attorneys, the number increases somewhat to 5.7%.
For those 93.2% of attorneys who are using smartphones, 73.6% reported in 2016 that they were using a personally owned smartphone, and 28.5% used a smartphone permanently assigned by their law firm. These percentages haven’t changed much in recent years.
Whether they buy it themselves or it is purchased by their law firm, what smartphones are attorneys using in 2016? In 2013, the big news was that over half of all attorneys were using an iPhone. In 2014 and 2015 the percentage was around 60%. But this year saw a big increase to 68.4%. Thus, we can now say that almost 70% of all attorneys in private practice in the U.S. are using an iPhone in their law practice, which is an all-time high.
Hopefully, all of them are reading iPhone J.D. regularly. Ahem.
If 68.4% of all attorneys are using an iPhone, and 6.8% of attorneys are not using any smartphone, what are the others using? Most of them are using an Android smartphone, although that number is down from previous years. Specifically, 21.2% are using an Android phone in 2016. The Android percentage was 20% in 2013, 22.3% in 2014 and 23.9% in 2015.
What about BlackBerry? Back in 2011, 40% of all attorneys used a BlackBerry, and I’m sure all of us remember a time when it was incredibly common to see another lawyer with a BlackBerry. However, BlackBerry use by attorneys has dropped sharply since 2011. In 2016, the number reached a new low of only 2.8%. As you may have seen in the news a few weeks ago, BlackBerry announced late last month that it was getting out of the hardware business completely. It is going to continue to develop software, and it is going work with other companies who will make similar smartphones that use the BlackBerry name. But with BlackBerry itself no longer making BlackBerries, I suspect that we are not far from the day when virtually no lawyers are using a BlackBerry device. Indeed, we are almost there now.
Finally, there are 1.9% of attorneys using some sort of Microsoft Windows operating system on their smartphone in 2016, and 0.7% of attorneys who say that they don’t know what kind of smartphone that they use.
If you add the numbers, you’ll notice that they add up to 101.8%. But it makes sense for the number to be slightly over 100% because I know 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 on the pie chart 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:
To place these numbers in historical context, the following chart shows lawyer smartphone use over recent years. The two dramatic changes in this chart are of course the plunge in BlackBerry use and the surge in iPhone use. There has been a more gradual, but noticeable, decrease in the number of attorneys not using a smartphone at all. As for Android use, there was a slight increase from 2011 to 2015, but then a slight decrease in the last year. Microsoft Windows smartphone use over the years is so small that I have grouped together Windows, other, and those who don’t know what smartphone they are using into the “Other” category.
Why are attorneys choosing iPhone, Android or BlackBerry? Much like previous years, firm size seems to have something to do with it. Almost all of the attorneys still using a BlackBerry are at larger law firms, and the percentage of BlackBerry users increases as firm size increases. On the other hand, Android use is highest among solo attorneys. This chart shows what I mean:
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 regularly using smartphones for calendars and contacts. Other popular uses are internet access, text messaging, GPS/maps, taking pictures and mobile-specific research apps. Only 10% use a smartphone to track time and expenses.
In recent years, more and more attorneys have said that they use a password to protect their smartphone — from 77% in 2011 up to 94% in 2015. I was disappointed to see that number drop slightly to 92% in 2016. Smartphone security is a big issue in the news, and of course security is especially important for attorneys who have confidential attorney-client information on their smartphone. It is time to see 100% of attorneys putting a passcode on their device. In 2016, that 100% number was reported for lawyers at larger firms (50 or more attorneys), but was as low as 88% for solo attorneys.
43% of attorneys use an iPad
Apple introduced the original iPad in 2010, and for the first few years it resulted in a surge in lawyer tablet use. In 2011, only 15% of all attorneys responded that they use a tablet. 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, 49.6% in 2015, and 50.6% in 2016. Having said that, we can finally say that more than half of all attorneys now use a tablet in their law practice.
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. From 2014 to 2016, that number has stayed around 84%.
As for the lawyers using a tablet but not using an iPad, in 2016 10.1% use Android, 5.2% use an older Windows Mobile device, 1.4% use the new Windows Surface, and 1.7% use something else or don’t know what they use.
Looking at the past six years on a chart shows visually how the percentage of attorneys using a tablet increased substantially from 2011 to 2013, and then has slowly inched to just over 50% this year. And even though iPad marketshare has been slightly lower in the last few years, the iPad is still the overwhelming choice for attorneys who use a tablet device.
That relationship between firm size and platform use seems to exist in the tablet world too. Of the attorneys using a tablet, only 75% of solo attorneys use an iPad, but that number is over 90% in many larger firms. Android tablet use is highest for solo attorneys, at 16%, but much lower in larger law firms, at only 2.1% in firms with 100 to 499 attorneys.
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 regularly using their tablets for internet access, email and calendars.
Popular apps
The survey also asked attorneys to identify apps that they use. I want to start by making the same objection that I made last year: 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 2016, 40.3% 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 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 top 12 apps listed are, in order of the percentage of attorneys mentioning them:
Westlaw
Fastcase
Lexis Advance
A legal dictionary app
TrialPad
TranscriptPad
Courtlink
HeinOnline
LexisNexis Get Cases & Shepardize
LexisNexis Legal News
Clio
Westlaw News
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 (40.2% 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:
Dropbox
LinkedIn
Evernote
GoodReader
Documents to Go
QuickOffice
Box
LogMeIn
Notability
It amazes me that Microsoft Word is not on this list (nor was it on the list last year). It is surely one of the most useful general-purpose apps for lawyers, and it is now available for both iOS (iPhone and iPad) and Android.
Apple starts a new fiscal year at the end of September every year. Yesterday, Apple released the results for its 2016 fiscal fourth quarter (which ran from June 26, 2016 to September 24, 2016) and held a call with analysts to discuss the results. Note that Apple's largest financial quarter is always the first fiscal quarter (the one that we are in now) because it includes the holiday sales during November and December. As for the last fiscal quarter, the new iPhone 7 went on sale on September 16, so there was about a week of sales of the new iPhones included in the fiscal fourth quarter. Yesterday, Apple announced quarterly revenue of $46.9 billion and quarterly net profit of $9 billion. If you want to get all of the nitty gritty details, you can download the audio from the announcement conference call from iTunes, or you can read a rough transcript of the call prepared by Seeking Alpha. iMore also prepared a transcript. Apple's official press release is here.
As always, I'm not particularly interested in the financial aspects of this call. But I'm always interested in the statements of Apple executives that pertain to the use of the iPhone and iPad. Here are the items that stood out to me:
iPhone
Apple sold just over 45.5 million iPhones in the last fiscal quarter. By my count, that means that Apple has sold about 1,033,476,000 as of September 24, 2016. Sorry, it's not very often that I get to write a number that is over a billion, so it was fun to write that one out in full. Thanks for indulging me.
Worldwide demand for the iPhone 7, and especially the iPhone 7 Plus, significantly outpaces supply. By the end of the current quarter, Cook believes that Apple will be able to catch up with demand for the iPhone 7, but may not be able to catch up with iPhone 7 Plus demand Nevertheless, Apple says that it is working hard to catch up to demand, so if you are still waiting for your new iPhone, hopefully you will have it soon.
Apple sells iPhones to three groups of customers: new smartphone users, users switching from another brand (typically Android), and users upgrading from an older iPhone. Apple CEO Tim Cook announced yesterday that, looking at fiscal 2016 as a whole, Apple saw more switchers from Android in 2016 than ever before.
iPad
Apple sold almost 9.3 million iPads in the last fiscal quarter. By my count, that means that Apple has sold over 337 million iPads as of September 24, 2016.
Apple said that, according to the independent company NPD, 82% of tablets sold in the U.S. in the last quarter above $200 are iPads.
Etc.
Cook noted that Apple Pay continues to expand around the world. The service launched in Russia and New Zealand this month, and is coming to Spain in the next few months. There were more Apple Pay transactions in the month of September 2016 than all of fiscal 2015.
Cook said that Siri gets two billion requests every week, which means that Apple has shipped more assistant-enabled devices than any other company.
Apple expects that there will be over 100 HomeKit-compatible products on the market by the end of this year.
Cook was asked about what Apple is doing in the automobile space. I expected Cook to simply decline to discuss theoretical unannounced products, but Cook said a little more than that: "I can't speak about rumors, but as you know, we look for ways that we can improve the experience and the customers' experience on different sets of products, and we are always looking at new things. And the car space in general is an area that it's clear that there is a lot of technologies that will either become available or will be able to revolutionize the car experience. And so it's interesting from that point of view, but nothing to, certainly nothing to announce today."
Cook was also asked about Apple's plans for television. Cook said: "I would confirm that television has intense interest with me and many other people here. In terms of owning content and creating content, we have started with focusing on some original content, as you point out. We've got a few things going there that we've talked about. And I think it's a great opportunity for us, both from a creation point of view and an ownership point of view. And so it's is an area that we're focused on."
You probably have a single spot at your home where you charge your Apple Watch every night. If you want to charge your Apple Watch away from home, you need another way to do so, such as bringing an Apple Watch charging cord and a USB power plug with you. But what if you don’t have easy access to a wall outlet? One solution is a self-contained Apple Watch charger, and that is what I am reviewing today: the Apple Watch Portable Charger by Archeer. Archeer sent me a free review sample of this device, and I’ve been using it for the last few weeks. You can buy it for $35.99 on Amazon.
The device is circular in shape. It is 1 1/8″ high with a diameter of 3″. To charge an Apple Watch, you simply press the side button on the Archeer charger once to turn it on, and then place your watch on top of the device.
The bottom of the device has a rubber pad in the middle so that it has friction and won’t slide around on a flat surface.
The Archeer device has a 1500mAh battery inside of it. Archeer says that is enough to charge an Apple Watch from 0% to 100% three times. If you press a button on the side of the device, between one and four blue lights will illuminate to give you a sense of how much power the battery has left. You recharge the battery in this device by using a Lightning cable (not included) plugged in to the port next to those four lights.
This device does not come with a charger for the Apple Watch itself. You need to supply your own Apple Watch charging cable, such as the one that came with your Apple Watch or another one that you buy from Apple for $29. I discussed this issue when I reviewed the Studio Neat Material Dock last week; because third party Apple Watch chargers are not as good as what Apple sells, you are probably better off using an official Apple cord. But since it is somewhat cumbersome to remove the charging cord from this Archeer device, you might want to buy an extra one and just keep it in this device all the time, which raises the total effective price of this device from $36 to $65.
To add your Apple Watch charging cord to this Archeer device, you untwist the silver top. Then you need to plug the USB end of the charging cord into the device — which is actually more difficult than it should be because of the awkward angle and the limited space provided. Then you wrap the remainder of the cord around the inside of the device. Finally, you place the charging end on top.
Apple makes two different types of watch chargers. The less expensive Apple Watch models (like the one that Apple used to call the Apple Watch Sport) include a white plastic charger. The cord included with the more expensive models has a white top but a silver metal on the charging end — that’s the version you see in this pictures. The metal charger is a little bit thinner than the plastic charger. Accordingly, this Archeer device provides you with a thin piece of foam that you can add to the top to provide a little extra height if you are using the silver metal charger. Thus, both types of chargers will be at the right level at the top of this Archeer device.
In my tests over the last few weeks, this device works as advertised. I took a business trip to Denver and put this device on the nightstand next to my bed in my hotel room. It charged my watch overnight, and I didn’t have to worry about finding an outlet close to the bed. (I’ve never understood why so many hotels fail to provide an accessible and unused outlet next to each nightstand!)
It is rare that I need to charge my Apple Watch during the day, especially my 42mm Apple Watch Series 2. But my wife has the first generation 38mm Apple Watch, which has a smaller battery inside, and she occasionally finds her watch going into power reserve mode at the end of the day because battery power is low. If you like the idea of having an easy way to boost your Apple Watch power during the day — perhaps because you use a 38mm model, or perhaps because you use apps that run down the battery more quickly — a portable, self-contained device like this is a nice accessory. In my tests with both my new 42mm Apple Watch Series 2 and my original 42mm Apple Watch, this Archeer charger typically added about 5% of battery life approximately every seven minutes. (That’s roughly the same speed that the Apple Watch charging cord adds power to my watch when it is connected directly to a wall outlet.)
After living with this device for a few weeks, my conclusion is that it works well, but I’m not sure that I really need it. I virtually never need to charge my Apple Watch during the day, and at night when I travel I already have lots of other devices that I need to charge — iPhone, Apple Watch, etc. — so if I have to set up near an outlet for those devices, I can do the same for my watch. But of course, everyone has different needs. If you like the idea of being able to recharge your Apple Watch no matter where you are, without having to find an outlet, using a small and light self-contained device, then the Archer Apple Watch Power Charger does this for you for $36 (plus $29 if you decide to add a dedicated charging cord and you don’t already have an extra one).
Apple has invited select members of the press to its campus on Thursday, October 27 for a product announcement at 10 Pacific / 1 Eastern. This is widely expected to be an event focused on updates to Apple’s laptop and desktop computers, but there is always the possibility that Apple will announce something related to iOS, such as perhaps an updated iPad. (The invitation simply says “Hello again,” which as Stephen Hackett notes is a throwback to previous Apple Mac announcements.) This is also expected to be the last product announcement event that Apple will host on its current campus; by next year, the new Apple Campus 2 (which features a main building in the shape of a huge circle) should be ready with its new auditorium. For all of us who did not get an invitation, there will be a live stream on Apple’s website. And now, the news of note from the past week:
John Gruber of Daring Fireball reports that, according to Patently Apple, Apple has filed suit against a company that was selling counterfeit power adapters and charging cables on Amazon, claiming that they were made by Apple. Apparently, even if you buy a product that says it is sold “by Amazon.com,” it can still be a cheap counterfeit.
For those of you who remember the days when Apple and IBM were competitors, here is an interesting article by Dennis Sellers of Apple World Today. IBM now has the largest Mac deployment in the world, and is adding 1,300 new Macs every week. IBM reports that it is three times more expensive to support PCs than to support Macs. And 66% of IBM employees use iPhones and/or iPads. We’ve come a long way from this picture.
The Simpsons celebrated 600 episodes — impressive! — with a VR version of the coach gag. As reported by Matt Brian of Engadget, you can download the free Spotlight Stories app to see it on your iPhone. It works even better if you have Google Cardboard, but that isn’t required.
I’ll admit it. One of my guilty pleasures on my iPhone is Candy Crush. When I have a few minutes to kill, it is a fun way to pass the time. But what if you want even more Candy Crush in your life? Nellie Andreeva of Deadline Hollywood reports that a Candy Crush game show is coming to CBS. No explanation of how you are supposed to swipe on your TV screen.
And finally, David Pogue of Yahoo put together a great list of hidden iOS 10 tips. This video is worth watching for the magnifier tip alone. If you don’t want to watch the video, or if the embedded video below isn’t working, you can read all of the tips (and view the video) here.
What do you do with your Apple Watch and iPhone when you go to bed at night? If you are like me, you keep them close to your bed, such as on a nightstand, so that they are with easy reach as you go to bed and when you wake up. And of course you want to charge your devices every night. You can just use their charging cords to do so, but then the cords fall off of the table when you are not using them and everything gets messy. The solution is to have a dock to hold those cords and charge your iPhone or Apple Watch — or better yet, both. The Material Dock by Studio Neat is a charger made to be used on a nightstand or desk. It comes in two versions, one for just the iPhone ($45), and one for both the iPhone and Apple Watch ($70). Studio Neat sent me a free sample of the iPhone and Apple Watch model to review, and I’ve been using it for a few weeks now. I really like this dock. It has a few drawbacks that for some folks will make something like the Spigen Apple Watch Night Stand (which I reviewed last year) a better option, but it has some advantages too, such as its professional appearance and the ability to charge both an iPhone and an Apple Watch.
The Material Dock is an attractive dock. The base is made of solid walnut and has a matte finish. The part that holds up an iPhone or Apple Watch is made of cork. Unless that lighter wood color scheme doesn’t work in your room, I think that most folks would consider this a very professional looking product, whether it is used in a bedroom on a nightstand or in an office on a desk. The wood is a nice contrast to the glass and metal of the iPhone and Apple Watch. And these materials are also environmentally friendly and recyclable.
The two guys behind Studio Neat — Dan Provost and Tom Gerhardt — have designed lots of other interesting products for the iPhone (plus some cool cocktail tools), and they have a podcast with Myke Hurley called Thoroughly Considered. On episode 18, they have an interesting discussion of the design and production of this product, including how they selected the wood, cork, and other materials used to make this.
The dock holds your iPhone in the middle. The dock holds your Apple Watch in the front, and has a round shape which allows the band to naturally curve around the dock. And unlike some docks that hold your Apple Watch with the buttons on the side, Studio Neat positions the Apple Watch with its buttons on top, which is the orientation that lets you use the Nightstand mode. The nightstand mode is incredibly useful when an Apple Watch is charging because you can see the time, date and other information. I would never want to use a dock for the Apple Watch that lacked this orientation.
It is very easy to place the iPhone in the dock. And you can be very casual about placing the watch on the dock; the magnet always puts the Apple Watch where it needs to be. Even when the lights are turned off in my bedroom, I find it easy to put both of my devices on the Material Dock.
The Material Dock has some assembly required, but it is incredibly easy to do, and the Studio Neat website has pictures and videos that walk you through the process. Here is what you get in the box:
What you don’t get are the cords necessary to charge your devices. You have to supply a Lightning cable to charge your iPhone, and you have to supply the Apple Watch charging cord to charge your watch. However, you do get everything else that you need, including even a small (and very high quality) screwdriver.
The cork that holds the iPhone up is adjustable. This means that you can adjust the distance between the Lightning connector and the back of the iPhone, so the Material Dock can support an iPhone with virtually any case on it. The instructions explain how to keep the middle cork loose, then slide it close to your iPhone, and then tighten the screws so that in the future it is a perfect fit. I sometimes use Apple’s leather case on my iPhone, so I configured the dock for that case. But I also find that when I’m not using the case, the dock still holds up my iPhone just fine.
The bottom of the Material Dock has groves to hold both of the cords in precisely the right position. There are other fasteners that ensure that the Lightning connector on the top of the unit is very sturdy and won’t move around as you are putting your iPhone on and off of the dock. Likewise, the Apple Watch charger is firmly in place.
The net result is that both chargers work perfectly in this dock. But there is a downside: it is cumbersome to remove the cords from the Material Dock, so I suspect that you will want to just keep them there all of the time. I suspect that many iPhone J.D. readers already have lots of Lightning cords, but you may only have one Apple Watch charging cord. Thus, if you use this dock with the cord that came with your Apple Watch, you’ll probably want to spend $29 for an extra Apple Watch charging cord to use when you travel. On the podcast episode that I mentioned above, the guys at Studio Neat explained that they looked into buying third party cords to include with the device, but they were unsatisfied with the quality compared to the superior cords made by Apple. Thus, they decided that it was better to ask folks to use their Apple cords with the Material Dock (and buy new ones if necessary) to end up with a high quality dock. I think that this was the right decision, but if you need to buy an extra Apple Watch charging cord you might think of this as a $99 product instead of a $70 product.
Contrast this to the Spigen Apple Watch Night Stand that I really like; it is super easy to remove the Apple Watch charging cable from that stand, so you don’t need to have an extra charging cable for when you are away from home.
The bottom of the Material Dock has a micro-suction pad. It does an excellent job of holding the dock steady on a flat surface. I placed the Material Dock on the nightstand next to my bed, and it is very sturdy. Even though the Lightning connector holds my iPhone very well, I can remove my iPhone just using one hand and the base never moves. It just works.
Because micro-suction is just a bunch of tiny suction cups, you can remove the Material Dock without leaving any sticky residue on the surface of your table. I had no trouble moving the Material Dock when I pulled up the dock slowly. Note, however, that I see that Josh Centers posted a review of this product for TidBITS, and he reported:
The Material Dock perhaps sticks a little too well. I had to remove it to make some adjustments, and it took some of my nightstand’s finish with it! My nightstand is kind of beat up anyway, but you might not want to place the Material Dock on any family heirlooms.
I don’t know anything about the nature of the nightstand that Josh Centers was using, and again, I didn’t see this problem at all.
The Material Dock has a few drawbacks; you may need to buy an extra cord (or two) to use it, and depending upon the surface to which you are attaching the dock, I suppose you might need to be careful about moving it. But otherwise, this is an excellent product. I have been very happy using the Material Dock on the nightstand next to my bed for the last few weeks, so much so that I don’t think I’ll go back to the Spigen stand. It is just so convenient to have both the iPhone and Apple Watch in a central location on a nice looking stand. Plus, it keeps your two devices in a compact location, so they are not sprawled out all over your nightstand or desk. If you are looking for a sturdy, attractive dock for both your iPhone and Apple Watch, one that works well and keeps your Apple Watch in the correct orientation to use the Nightstand feature, you should definitely consider this product.
Every once in a while, an app on the Apple Watch — like an app on the iPhone — will start behaving weirdly. Maybe the app doesn’t update information, or maybe it just doesn’t perform the way that you know that it should. Fortunately, it is possible to force quit and then restart a fresh copy of the app. Before watchOS 3.0 was released, this was done using the side button twice — once to access the power down menu, and then again to quit the app. But after the new watchOS 3 was released on September 13th, I wasn’t sure how to quit an app. And I needed to do so this past Sunday when I wanted to use my watch to follow the score in the Saints versus Carolina game but the ESPN app on my Apple Watch wasn’t working.
You can no longer force quit an app just using the side button — presumably because of the new SOS feature by which you can hold down the side button to trigger an emergency call to 911. But force quitting an app is still possible. Here is how it works in watchOS 3.
First, hold down the side button until the power menu appears. A simple press isn’t enough because that brings up the dock. Instead, hold it down for about 2-3 seconds until you see this screen:
Next, hold down the digital crown button. A quick press of the digital crown button isn’t enough; that instead will just bring you back to the last app that you used — the app that you were trying to quit. Instead, when the power menu is displayed you need to hold down the digital crown for about 2-3 seconds.
You will know you are done when you see the app launcher screen:
At this point, you can launch the app again. Hopefully, once the app is restarted, it will behave normally for you.
And if you were watching the scores of a football game, hopefully your team won. Even if it was thanks to a field goal in the final seconds.
The U.S. Supreme Court says in its official Guide for Counsel that “[n]o personal computers, cellular phones, cameras, PDAs, or other electronic devices are allowed in the Courtroom, and they may not be used in the Lawyers’ Lounge.” Nevertheless, the iPhone very much found itself in the Courtroom on Tuesday, in spirit at least, when oral argument took place in the Samsung v. Apple case. Samsung was found liable for copying design features of the iPhone, and the question in the case is how much damages to award. The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit awarded $400 million, based on the profits from the infringing Samsung phone. The issue for the Supreme Court is whether damages attributable to the infringing design is only based on some subsidiary portion of the Samsung phone (and if so, the issue is how to define that) or instead applies to all profits from the entire phone. Columbia law professor Ronald Mann wrote an analysis of the oral argument for SCOTUSblog, and it sounds like the justices are very confused on what to do. And now, the news of note from the past week:
A big portion of my practice is appellate litigation, and the iPad is an essential tool for me as an appellate attorney. If you are in the New Orleans area and want to get some tips on using an iPad in an appellate practice, I will discuss using an iPad to draft and argue appeals in a CLE hosted by the New Orleans Bar Association on October 25 at Noon. Click here for more details and to sign up.
Florida attorney Katie Floyd reviews the Eero, a Wi-Fi router that uses multiple, networked stations to spread Wi-Fi to even the hard-to-reach areas of your home or office.
Jason Snell explains in an article for Macworld that he always carries his 12.9″ iPad Pro when he travels, and the question for each trip is whether to also take a laptop. Thanks to the iPad, I believe that it has been five years since I traveled with a laptop. The iPad does everything that I need to do — mostly using the native apps such as Mail and Word and GoodReader, but occasionally I will use LogMeIn to connect to my office and remotely access my PC to do some task that requires a PC.
Mandy Oaklander of Time reports on a new study in JAMA Cardiology which finds that a chest strap monitor is the most accurate way to measure heart rate, but that of the wrist wearable devices, the Apple Watch is the most accurate.
Peter Dominiczak of The Telegraph reports that the UK cabinet previously banned smartphones in Cabinet meetings out of concerns that Russian spies could hack the smartphones and listen using the microphone inside, and now the Apple Watch (and presumably other smart watches) is also banned during Cabinet meetings for the same reason. This is the first I have heard of a hack to the Apple Watch — or at least, a theory as to how it might be hacked. I presume that it hasn’t actually happened yet, but the Cabinet is taking a better-safe-than-sorry approach given the sophistication of international espionage. The whole thing reminds me of an episode of The Americans, just with better technology. Which reminds me — if you haven’t yet seen that TV show, it is fantastic, especially if you grew up in the 1980s like I did. Highly recommended.
One of the most common questions I have received about iOS 10 is how to “fix” threaded messages in the Mail app. Caitlin McGarry of Macworld explains that you can go to the Mail portion of the Settings app and turn off the threading features if they annoy you. (They annoy me; I have all three turned off.)
If you want to listen to music using a wired headset and also charge your iPhone at the same time, that is no longer possible on an iPhone 7 because both tasks use the Lightning port. However, you can accomplish this task with an adapter, and Phil Dzikiy of iLounge reviews one such adapter, the Belkin Lightning Audio + Charge Rockstar.
In an article on Tech.pinions, Carolina Milanesi reviews CarPlay, Apple’s technology for connecting an iPhone to your car.
And finally, I’m a big fan of the Apple Music service. It is great to be able to listen to pretty much any song that I can imagine on my iPhone. This week, Apple released a video showing off the features of the new version of the Apple Music app. The video does a good job of showing off what is new:
If you own a 12.9″ iPad Pro, one of the most useful accessories that you can have is a USB-C charger and USB-C to Lightning charger because it charges the iPad so much faster than a regular USB to Lightning charger/cord. Earlier this year, I reviewed Apple’s 29W USB-C Power Adapter and USB-C to Lightning Cable. They work great together, and I wish that they were included in the box with every 12.9″ iPad Pro. Other companies have introduced their own USB-C chargers, for both the iPad Pro and other devices that can use the new USB-C connector. For the last few weeks, I have been trying out a product by Lumsing called the Lumsing 48W dual port Quick Charge 3.0 and Type-C Wall Charger with Foldable plug. It aims to provide in a single charger both a USB-C 29W port, similar to the Apple product, and also a USB port. Lumsing sent me a free review unit to test.
This device is slightly larger than the Apple charger. The Lumsing charger is about 3″ on each side (versus 2 1/8″ for the Apple charger) and about 1 1/4″ thick (versus 1″ for the Apple charger). In the following picture, the Apple USB-C charger is on the right, and the Apple standard iPad USB charger is at the bottom.
The prongs fold flat, which makes it more portable.
The USB-C port can be used with a USB-C to Lightning cable to charge a 12.9″ iPad Pro at a very quick rate. I didn’t notice any speed difference between this charger and Apple’s own USB-C power adapter.
The USB port can be used to charge an iPhone or other device. The USB port includes QC 3.0 technology but I didn’t test that fast-charging technology because it isn’t supported by the iPhone or iPad. (Certain Android phones support QC 3.0 for faster charging.)
My one complaint about this device is that the USB-C port can only charge a USB-C device, such as the 12.9″ iPad Pro. If you put a USB-C to Lightning cord in the port and then plug the Lightning connector end of the cord into an iPhone, nothing happens. Lumsing tells me this is expected; the USB-C port is only intended to charge devices made for USB-C.
Perhaps this is what Lumsing intended, but I don’t believe that it has to be that way. With Apple’s USB-C power adapter, you can charge any Lightning device. At my desk in my office, I have Apple’s USB-C power adapter plugged in on the floor next to my desk, and a single USB-C to Lightning cable extends to the top of my desk. I can use the Lightning end of the cable to charge either my iPad Pro or my iPhone. It is very convenient to have a single cord that can charge anything at top speed. With the Lumsing device, two ports means that I can charge two devices at the same time — which is nice — but it is difficult to tell which cord is which unless I trace a cord back to the Lumsing charger on the floor.
If you like the idea of a single charger that can simultaneously charge a 12.9″ iPad Pro and an iPhone, then this Lumsing charger can fill that need. However, the inability of the USB-C port to support any iOS devices other than the 12.9″ iPad Pro is a drawback.
New York attorney Neil Squillante, publisher of the TechnoLawyer newsletters, is putting together an ebook (in PDF format) that gives tips for using an iPad in a law practice. Segments of the book are being written by Neil along with Houston attorney Brian Beckcom, legal technology consultant Brett Burney, Ohio attorney Joseph Hada, South Carolina attorney Justin Kahn, New Orleans attorney Ernie Svenson, and yours truly. The book is being released as it is being written, and so far includes chapters on the best document management apps, the best PDF apps, and the best note-taking apps (the chapter to which I contributed). The book is free, and available to all members of TechnoLawyer (which is also free). If you are looking for tips on getting the most out of your iPad, click here to download the ebook. And now, the news of note from the past week:
There are very few Apple AirPods outside of Apple right now — just a few journalists were given preview units to try — but California attorney David Sparks managed to try a pair and provided some initial impressions of using Apple’s new wireless headphones.
Legal tech consultant Brett Burney reviews ReadQuick, an app you can use to speed read articles on your iPhone, in the latest post on his Apps in Law website.
In an article for FindLaw, San Francisco attorney Casey Sullivan reviews Duet Display, an app that lets you use your iPad as a second monitor for your computer.
Phil Dzikiy of iLounge reviews the Automatic Pro, a device that you attach to your car to get information related to your driving. It can also be used to track your car and get help if you are in an accident.
A new version of the Drobo was released this week, the Drobo 5C. It is a five-bay Drobo which replaces the four-bay model that I purchased last year and discussed in this review.
And finally, Conan O’Brien produced a fake version of an Apple commercial that leaves me wondering if it is funny or creepy. I suppose both. Watch the video yourself and you decide:
