New York attorney Nicole Black discusses a new ABA Opinion (Formal Opinion 477) on legal ethics issues surrounding email and other methods of communicating with clients. The bottom line is that you need to determine what is the right method of communication depending upon the sensitivity of the information, the risks of disclosure, etc., all of which requires a case-by-case analysis. The lack of a black letter rule makes it harder for attorneys. For example, you can’t just say that unencrypted email is always appropriate, becomes sometimes it isn’t. So essentially, before you send any email or text, before you use Dropbox to share a file, and before you decide whether to meet in person or just use your iPhone, you need to pause and analyze what approach is reasonable for a specific communication with your client regarding a specific topic. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- California attorney David Sparks recommends adding a strap to your AirPods when using a bicycle.
- South Carolina attorney Justin Kahn discusses a recent update to Microsoft’s OneNote app.
- Things is a powerful app for tracking your to do items (my wife uses the app every day), and this week it was updated to version 3. Lory Gil of iMore discusses what is new in Things 3.
- Mike Wuerthele of AppleInsider discusses the AT&T Call Protect app. I reviewed that app earlier this year, and I still like it.
- Steven Levy was given a tour of the new Apple Park campus and write a great article about it for Wired.
- In an article for Macworld, Jason Snell discusses Apple’s new Apple Park campus, noting that it is the last great Apple product by Steve Jobs.
- In an article for Macworld, Dan Moren says that health is Apple’s next killer app.
- Christina Farr of CNBC reports that Apple CEO Tim Cook has been seen wearing a device that tracks blood sugar connected to his Apple Watch, a suggestion that Apple may be developing a glucose tracker for folks with diabetes.
- Sarah Perez of TechCrunch notes that Apple is now doing even more educational classes at its stores and has launched a new website for the classes.
- This one is really neat. Charlie Sorrel of Cult of Mac walks through the steps to use the Photos app on an iPhone or iPad (this works better with a big iPad screen) to see a 3D view of a city with flags indicating photos that you took in different areas of the city. I had no idea you could do that. Very cool.
- Jonny Evans of ComputerWorld shares 15 Apple Watch tricks. One on the list that I didn’t know about was the ability to turn the digital crown to gently illuminate the watch face, useful if you want to be discreet and/or are in a dark room.
- Rene Ritchie of iMore tells the story of a man who was saved by Siri. He was burned in an explosion and couldn’t use his fingers to dial 911, but he was able to ask Siri to call 911 for him.
- Last week, I noted that Apple released three videos with tips on using an iPhone to take photographs. There are actually many more videos, and they are all collected on this page on the Apple website entitled “How to shoot on iPhone 7.”
- And finally, this week Apple released a new ad to show off the portrait mode feature of the iPhone 7 Plus. The commercial was filmed at a barbershop right here in New Orleans. It’s a cute commercial. One minor thing I noted — at the start of the commercial, you see a lawyer’s office on the left side of the screen next to the barbershop. I know where this commercial was shot (the Family Barber Shop at 8112 Oak Street), and while I haven’t yet driven over there to confirm, I think that Apple digitally added the law firm sign over what is actually a yoga studio. Indeed, according to the Louisiana State Bar Association website, there is no “Donald M. Taylor” practicing in Louisiana. Interesting that Apple thought that the ad would look better if the barbershop was next to a law firm. I guess it just shows you that everyone loves lawyers and wants to be near lawyers. Here is the ad, which Apple calls Barbers: