Walt Mossberg has been writing about personal technology since 1991, mostly for the Wall Street Journal, but more recently for Recode. In his final column before he retires, Mossberg considers the future of personal technology. For many years, it was all about computers. Lately, the focus in personal technology has been the iPhone. Mossberg thinks that ambient computing may be the next big thing, the idea that the environment around us is intelligent and responsive, sort of like Siri or the Amazon Echo, with more features, always aware of what you are doing or saying. It is a fascinating piece that makes me think about what may be coming in the near future. And now, the news of note from the past week:
Florida attorney Katie Floyd and California attorney David Sparks released a great episode of their Mac Power Users podcast devoted to hidden iOS features. They are joined by Clayton Morris, and the episode is full of great tips. Worth a listen.
South Carolina attorney Justin Kahn notes that NotesPlus, a note taking app, was updated to version 5.0. Notably, the update adds iPhone support.
Mike Schmitz of The Sweet Setup explains how to remove the GPS info from an iPhone picture so that you can share a picture with someone else without also sharing the location data for the picture.
If you read my CarPlay review, then you know that I’m a big fan of the technology. In the past, many Ford cars did not support CarPlay because Ford promoted its own Sync software. Surprisingly, Ford announced this week that it is updating 2016 model Ford vehicles to support CarPlay, as reported by Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac. It is rare for any car manufacturer to add new features to old cars, especially something like CarPlay. This is great news for owners of those vehicles who have an iPhone.
David Pogue of Yahoo discusses the features in the new Samsung Galaxy 8 that are not on the iPhone 7, and indicates which ones are actually useful and might be nice to have on the iPhone.
Buster Hein of Cult of Mac reports that a new FCC filing by Apple reveals that Apple has started testing 5G network technology with the iPhone, technology that could provide speeds up to 1Gpbs. Wow. And it seems like just yesterday I was excited to upgrade my Mac’s modem from 28K to 56K.
For Global Accessibility Awareness Day on May 18, Apple released seven videos showing how people with disabilities take advantage of Apple products. Jim Dalrymple of The Loop shows off all seven videos on this page.
And finally, Apple unveiled a new part of its website devoted to convincing Android users to switch to iPhone. The primary message is let folks know that the switch won’t be complicated; Apple even has an Android app which moves everything over. But the webpage, and associated short videos, also explain why life is better on iPhone. Here is one example, which points out that Apple does more to protect privacy on the iPhone than Google does on Android:
Five years ago, Apple CEO Tim Cook was asked about Microsoft’s decision to merge laptop and tablet computers into one device. Cook said that he thought it was better to keep the iPad and the MacBook different devices, explaining: “Anything can be forced to converge. But the problem is that the products are about tradeoffs. You begin to make tradeoffs to the point that what you have left at the end of the day doesn’t please anyone. You can converge a toaster and a refrigerator, but you know those things are probably not going to be pleasing to the user.” Sometimes convergence is great, like peanut butter and jelly. Sometimes not so much, like Cook’s theoretical toaster fridge. One cannot help thinking about convergence when viewing the E.LUMEN, a multi-function flashlight made by Renogy.
Renogy was founded a few years ago by Yi Li while she was getting a Ph.D. in physics at Louisiana State University. The company was created to sell solar products, first as a part of LSU’s Technology Center, then it was based in Southern California, and now the company operates out of Ontario, Canada. Renogy makes many different types of solar products, but one of its smallest products is the E.LUMEN. The company sent me a free review unit, and I have been using it for the past week (as have my kids).
Solar power
The primary function of the E.LUMEN is to serve as a solar-powered flashlight. Expose the solar panel on the side of the E.LUMEN to sunlight during the day, and you can use the flashlight at night, without having to worry about batteries. The E.LUMEN rests on a side (it isn’t completely round like most other flashlights) so the solar panel will stay pointing up towards the sun.
Renogy says that if the E.LUMEN is at 0%, it takes about 29 hours of sunlight to get back to 100%. Renogy also says that the main flashlight mode of the flashlight can last 3-4 hours, but it lasted much longer than that in my tests. I turned on the flashlight at 9pm one night, and it was still going at 7am in the morning, although it was much dimmer. It took a few more hours for the E.LUMEN to be completely dead. I then left it outside for two days, and it charged up again. Unfortunately, there is no indication on the E.LUMEN of how much charge the device has, so I don’t know how close I got to a full charge after two days outside.
Three Lighting Modes
The main flashlight has three modes, and each of those modes has multiple settings.
The headlight mode functions like a normal flashlight. There are four settings within that mode, and you switch between them by pressing the main button on the flashlight. The bright setting uses 3W of LED light to emits 200 lumens of light for 200 meters. Press the button again to switch to a dimmer setting, press the button a third time to switch to a strobe mode (perfect for attracting attention, blinding an intruder, or hosting a disco party), and press the button a fourth time to turn off the headlight.
I’m not in the business of reviewing flashlights, but the E.LUMEN headlight mode seems very bright to me, and based on some research I did on the Internet, this output seems similar to other flashlights in its class. The light beam is brighter in the center (and unlike some other nice flashlights, you cannot twist to adjust the size of the bright center of the beam). It is bright enough that you will hurt your eyes if you look directly at it. Unless you are leading a search party or exploring a cave, I suspect that you will find this to be a sufficiently bright flashlight. It’s certainly brighter than the others that I have in my house.
If you hold down the button for three seconds, you switch to the second mode, the white floodlight mode. This mode illuminates 10 small lights on the side of the flashlight (around the solar panels) at 2W, 150 lumens. This mode is nice because it gives you a wide range of light, which could be useful if you want to shine light over a wide area to get some work done, or if you want to light up the inside of a tent. Press the button a second time to switch to a dim setting, and a third time to switch it off.
The final mode is the red strobe light mode, which I’m sure is useful for attracting attention in an emergency. Presh the button a second time for a dim red strobe light, and a third time to turn if off.
iPhone charger
A solar-powered flashlight contains a rechargeable battery, and people use rechargeable batteries to charge an iPhone, so why not combine those two functions? If you twist off the bottom of the E.LUMEN, two ports are revealed. One is a standard USB port. Plug in your USB-to-Lightning cable and you can charge your iPhone.
The battery is a 2,000 mAh Lithium ion battery with a 1 Amp output. That should be enough power to almost fully charge an iPhone 7 once, or enough to charge an iPhone 7 Plus around 50%.
Charging an iPhone from a flashlight might seem a little goofy at first, but if you are camping or if there is an extended power outage, being able to use solar power to charge the battery and then charge an iPhone could be incredibly useful.
Next to the USB port is a Micro USB port, which is used only for input. If you need to charge the E.LUMEN and either don’t have access to solar power or want to charge it more quickly, just use any standard Micro USB cable (one is included with the E.LUMEN). Unlike the 29 hours of solar power required to fully recharge an E.LUMEN, you can recharge via Micro USB in only 6 hours.
But wait, there’s more!
Just in case a solar-powered battery/flashlight/strobe light/iPhone charger isn’t enough convergence for you, the E.LUMEN has many more tricks up its sleeve. One side of the top of the flashlight has a seatbelt cutter. The other side has a high-strength, alloy glass-shattering hammer. With those two tools, the E.LUMEN seems like a useful device to keep in your car’s glove compartment.
Also, the side of the E.LUMEN has a small magnet. If you have something metallic and flat, like the side of a filing cabinet, the magnet is strong enough to hold up the flashlight. So the magnet makes it easier to store the E.LUMEN.
Finally, the very bottom of the E.LUMEN has a compass. It is on the part that you remove to expose the USB ports, so you could hold and use the compass without having to hold the entire flashlight. I haven’t had a need for a compass since I was a Boy Scout, and of course the iPhone itself has a compass app, but if you have a need for a small compass, the E.LUMEN has you covered.
Putting it all together
If you get trapped in your car in the middle of nowhere, you can use the E.LUMEN to cut your seatbelt off and shatter the glass window to escape from the car. Then you can use the compass to get your bearings, use the red strobe light to draw attention to yourself and seek help, and if nightfall comes you have two types of flashlights to look around. And if you haven’t drained the battery by using the flashlight, you can recharge your iPhone to call for help. Although perhaps using the phone to call someone for help should have been the first thing that you did.
Sure, that scenario is farfetched, but I have to admit that it does seem nice to have a flashlight with so many other functions — even if you never to use all of those functions at one time. Best of all, the E.LUMEN feels like a nice flashlight in your hand. It weighs 0.68 lbs, which is not too heavy but sturdy. It is made of strong aluminum (remember, this thing is strong enough to work as a glass-shattering hammer) and looks like it can stand up to a lot of abuse. The feel is somewhat similar to the feel of a Maglite flashlight if you have used one of those. It has an IP54 rating, which means that it has reasonably good protection against dust, and it is OK for water to splash on it (e.g. rain), but you shouldn’t direct a jet of water at it and you shouldn’t let it go underwater.
If you are looking to get a flashlight for camping or for your car, or even a flashlight that could be used during emergency situations in your house, the E.LUMEN seems like a great option to me. You get all of the features that you expect from a traditional flashlight, plus lots of extra features such as an iPhone charger that could turn out to be quite useful in certain situations. Using solar power on a flashlight can be good or bad depending upon the circumstances; you cannot quickly swap out batteries like you can with a standard flashlight, but you also don’t need to worry about keeping (and carrying around) those extra batteries because you can use the sun to recharge. In short, I was worried that the E.LUMEN would be a toaster fridge, but after using it and thinking about it for a week, I like the product and it seems more like a yummy PB&J.
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:
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.
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.
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:
Earlier this week, Apple released iOS 10.3.2 for iPhone and iPad. Any X.X.1, X.X.2, etc. update is typically considered a minor update which adds no new features and just addresses some bugs and/or security issues. Sure enough, the release notes for iOS 10.3.2 say that it “includes bug fixes and improves the security of your iPhone or iPad.” You can get more details on the security improvements on the Apple website; where you will learn that iOS 10.3.2 fixes things like memory leaks that could allow an app to get kernel privileges, a flaw that could let an app execute arbitrary code, and a memory issue that could allow an app to cause a denial of service. But the concept of “security updates” may seem so unexciting that I’m sure that many folks conclude that they don’t want to waste the time installing the update.
This week we learned, once again, that security patches are important. As noted in numerous news stories such as this one from the Washington Post, a few years ago the NSA developed something it called EternalBlue, a hacking tool that the NSA could use to access computers to help U.S. interests. But the tool was stolen by hackers, and after the NSA discovered that, the NSA revealed the tool to Microsoft so that Microsoft could patch the flaw in Windows that the tool exploited. Microsoft released that patch in March of 2017, but many computers had not yet been updated, and as a result … well, I presume you heard about all of the computers around the world that were the victim of ransomware a few days ago, including a number of hospitals in London. As the Post article notes: “The malicious code at the heart of the WannaCry virus that hit computer systems globally late last week was apparently stolen from the NSA, repackaged by cybercriminals and unleashed on the world for a cyberattack that now ranks as among the most disruptive in history.”
From a worldwide perspective, WannaCry may be one of the most disruptive cyberattacks. But for Rhode Island law firm Moses Afonso Ryan, the most disruptive cyberattack was last year when a hacker took control of its computers and the firm had to pay a $25,000 ransom to get access to its systems again after three months. Even worse, as reported this month by Debra Cassens Weiss in ABA Journal, the law firm lost $700,000 in billings due to the attack, and its business interruption insurer is denying coverage.
It is unfortunate, although perhaps unsurprising, for a law firm to be a victim of hackers. I’m more amazed that the NSA — which must be one of the most security-conscious organizations in the world — could even be the victim of hackers. If the NSA is vulnerable, anyone is vulnerable. And as a side note, this is the sort of thing I was thinking of when I noted in the past during the FBI vs. Apple litigation that it was foolhardy for the FBI to ask Apple to create a backdoor for the government to access iPhones. Even if a special key was created only for the government, and even if the government honestly tried to keep that key secret, the risk of it being accessed by bad guys is simply too great to ignore.
However, my goal today is not to reignite the FBI vs. Apple debate, but instead to point out that virtually all software and hardware can have bugs and flaws. Fortunately, when these problems are discovered, they can typically be patched. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an iOS update that doesn’t include at least some security patches. Hopefully, iOS 10.3.2 wasn’t patching anything as dangerous as the Windows flaw used by EternalBlue and the WannaCry virus, but you never know. What I do know is that when Apple (or Microsoft or any trusted vendor) releases a security update, you should install the update. Maybe you don’t want to install it immediately, just in case the update itself has a flaw. That happened in 2013 with iOS 6.1, in 2014 with iOS 8.0.1, in 2016 with iOS 10.0, and other times as well. But Apple typically discovers those bugs very quickly, and then pulls the update until the issue is fixed. Once an update has been out for a day or two, you can feel safe installing the update. Of course it is always best to backup your iPhone or iPad before installing any update. (I usually practice what I preach, but to be honest sometimes I just install the update and cross my fingers.)
If you haven’t yet updated to iOS 10.3.2, it is time to do so now. Open the Settings app, tap General, and tap Software Update.
One of the most useful apps in my law practice is GoodReader, the primary app that I use to read and annotate PDF files. The last major update was GoodReader 4, released in 2014. Since then, the developer of the app, Yuri Selukoff (whose mother was a patent attorney), obtained a difficult-to-receive EB-1 Visa (reserved for foreign nationals with extraordinary abilities) and moved from Moscow to San Francisco, as described in this interesting profile of Selukoff from last year on the Inside BlackBerry blog. I was pleased to see a recent confirmation on the GoodReader Facebook page that Selukoff is hard at work on GoodReader 5. There is no release date yet, but hopefully the reason for Selukoff’s recent post is that the release date is coming soon. Selukoff says in that post: “It’s a huge update with a completely new design and new features, some you may not even know you’ll want until you’ve seen them! So fear not, and get ready (or for those of you who’ve been ready, stay ready) – GoodReader 5.0 is on the way!” For all of us who use GoodReader in our law practices – and I know from the feedback I receive from iPhone J.D. readers that there are many of us – it will be great to see a major update to this essential app. And now, the news of note from the past week:
Speaking of PDF apps, legal tech consultant Brett Burney discusses on his Apps in Law website what is new in PDF Expert version 6, a major update to one of the best apps for working with PDF files.
If you have ever used Gogo in-flight WiFi, you know that it can be incredibly useful, but it can also be incredibly frustrating, depending upon how fast the speed is. Gogo realizes this and is about to unroll a new 2Ku system that offers much higher speeds, and can even stream video. Caitlin McGarry of Macworld had a chance to try out the new service, and it seems to work well.
Kunal Dua of Gadgets360 (a tech website in India) interviewed Apple’s Phil Schiller while he was in teh country, and they discussed a variety of topics.
Sometimes an email loses its importance shortly after it is sent, such as an email asking you to go to lunch once the afternoon begins. But other times, it is helpful or even necessary to preserve an email — perhaps even as evidence, such as an email to or from opposing counsel that is an exhibit to a discovery motion. Here is a tip for converting an email message to a PDF file on the iPhone or iPad, so that you can then preserve that PDF version of the email. The technique is similar on both the iPhone and the iPad. And unlike the tip that I shared a year ago (which only worked on an iPhone that supports 3D Touch), this tip works on either an iPhone or iPad running iOS 10 (released September 13, 2016) or later.
On the iPhone, start by looking at the email that you want to preserve in the Mail app. At the bottom of the screen, the fourth icon is an arrow that you tap to Reply to a message. Tap that button, and the third option is Print. Tap the Print button.
Tapping print brings up the Printer Options screen. Ignore the options at the top of the screen and focus instead on the print preview at the bottom of the screen. Use two fingers to do a reverse-pinch on that image; start with your two fingers together and then pull them apart on the screen. This tells your iPhone to enlarge that print preview to full screen.
Note that if you are using a newer iPhone that supports 3D Touch (iPhone 6s or newer), instead of doing the reverse-pinch gesture, you can just press down on the small print preview image to open it in the full screen print preview mode. Whether you use 3D Touch or reverse=pinch is up to you; the result is the same.
This print preview screen shows you a PDF version of your email. Now, you just need to do something with it. If you look at the bottom left corner, you will see a share button (the box with the arrow coming out of it). Tap that button to do something with the PDF file such as open it in another app (such as an app that handles PDFs), email the PDF file, save it to Dropbox, etc.
Screenshot
When you are finished doing whatever you want to do with that PDF version of the email, cancel out of all of the screens by tapping the arrow at the top left, then the cancel button at the top left.
Here is how to do the same thing on an iPad. Start by tapping the reply arrow at the top right of the screen. Then tap Print, the third option in the pop-up menu.
This brings you to the Print Options screen. Again, ignore the stuff at the top and reverse-pinch the preview on the bottom part.
Now you will see a full-screen version of the preview of the document. Tap the share button at the top right to see a pop-up menu of options, and choose what you want to do with the PDF version of the email — email that PDF file, open it in another app, etc.
Again, when you are done, just cancel out of the screens to return to the point where you are looking at the email in the Mail app.
Although particularly useful when working with emails, you can use this trick in other parts of iOS too, as long as you have the option to print something. For example, if you have an image in Photos on your iPhone or iPad that you want to quickly convert to a PDF file, just select the option to print the photo, reverse-pinch on the preview, and then act upon the resulting PDF file containing the image. Want to convert a note in Apple’s Notes app to a PDF? Just tap the share button while you are looking at a note, tap the Printer icon, and then follow the directions above.
What if you are using an app that doesn’t have a print function but you really want a PDF version of whatever you are seeing on the screen? You can take a screen-shot of the current screen by pressing the power and the home button at the same time. This puts an image in your Photos. Then follow the instructions above to convert to PDF — choose the option to print the photo, etc.
Note that sometimes, in some apps, the resulting PDF file isn’t perfect. For example, if you are looking at a web page in Safari, you can tap the share button and then select print and then create a PDF file, but the resulting PDF file will often look very different than the website, sometimes completely stripping off the top of a web page. You are better off using a dedicated PDF app that is made to do a nice job converting a web page to a PDF file. PDF PROvider is one such app that can do this, but I know that many others can too. [UPDATE: A reader just informed me that DAR Software, the maker of PDR PROvider, is shutting down operations and will soon pull this app from the App Store. So while PDF PROvider is still working for me, I can no longer recommend it. I know that many other apps can also prepare a PDF of a web page; if you know of one that is worth recommending, please let me know.]
But when it comes to emails, this simple trick typically does a nice job of converting an email to PDF format, perfect when you want to preserve that email or use it as an exhibit.
FBI Director James Comey was in the news quite a bit this week. No, I’m not going to talk about him admitting felling “mildly nauseous” about how his actions affected the presidential election, but instead about his reigniting the old FBI versus Apple issue regarding the encryption of private data on Apple phones. Natasha Lomas of TechCrunch discusses Comey’s desire to force Apple to put a backdoor on iPhones to give the FBI access to encrypted data. Comey claims that he isn’t asking for a “backdoor,” and instead just for a way for the government to bypass encryption to access secure data. Um… that’s what a “backdoor” is. I’m opposed to these efforts (as is Apple) because any backdoor created for the FBI would surely be exploited by criminals as well (and I’m sure would also be requested by every other government in the world). And when that happens, the whole purpose of encryption is defeated; the bad guys get access to your confidential data. I know that every lawyer (and doctor, and priest, etc.) appreciates the value of protecting confidential communications and information. Hopefully our government will understand this too and won’t do anything short-sighted. And now, the news of note from the past week:
Legal technology consultant Brett Burney shares tips for working with documents and much more in a Q and A follow-up to his recent “Top 10 Apps for Lawyers” presentation that he did for MyCase.
Speaking of Brett Burney, New York attorney and TechnoLawyer publisher Neil Squillante discusses the Airmail app on the latest edition of the Apps in Law Podcast, hosted by Burney.
California attorney David Sparks discusses a recent attempt to use only an iPad when traveling. Not to spoil the ending, but it worked for him until the last day when he needed to use a true computer to do track changes in Google Docs. I never take a laptop when I travel, but when I have a situation like this in which a computer is required, I use remote access software on my iPad to do the task via my Mac at home or my PC at work. The one that I use is called LogMeIn, but I know that there are less expensive alternatives that work for many folks.
Jonny Evans of Computerworld shares a list of iPhone tips, many of which are rather useful and good to know.
In an article for Macworld, Dan Moreen analyzes the possibility of Apple creating a system in the Messages app that would let you send (or receive) money from someone else. I hope Apple does something like this; person-to-person payments would be very useful.
Ben Bajarin of Tech.pinons discusses a recent survey of AirPods users finding 98% customer satisfaction.
In a wide-ranging 11 minute interview with Jim Cramer of CNBC, Apple CEO Tim Cook discusses lots of different issues — job creation, working with the Trump administration, artificial intelligence, the Apple Watch (and how it helped Tim Cook lose 30 pounds), AirPods, and more.
Yesterday for Star Wars Day, Lory Gil of iMore shared some Star Wars-themed iPhone wallpapers. My family prepared for Star Wars Day last weekend by watching the Blu-Ray version of Rogue One, which was fun to see again, and last night my kids and I watched the new short videos in the Lego Star Wars show Freemaker Adventures. I’ve always been impressed by the Lego Star Wars shows; they appeal to every age, and they are fun to watch.
Speaking of Star Wars, here is an amazing series of videos by Palette-Swap Ninja, a mash-up that tells the story of Star Wars set to the tune of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. It’s called Princess Leia’s Stolen Death Star Plans. Bravo; very well done. (Thanks to Jeff Gamet at The Mac Observer.)
And finally, Apple came up with a very clever way to showcase the Portrait mode feature of the iPhone 7 Plus, a mode that keeps your subject in focus but blurs the background, similar to what happens when you use an SLR camera. In the commercial, the rest of busy Shanghai disappears when a couple uses Portrait mode. Great commercial. (And nice song, too: Sing to Me by Walter Martin, with Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.)
Yesterday, Apple released the results for its 2017 fiscal second quarter (which ran from January 1, 2017 to April 1, 2017) and held a call with analysts to discuss the results. Apple always sees a big decrease in revenue from its first to its second fiscal quarter because Q2 comes right after the holiday quarter. This time last year, Apple has a particularly unfortunate Q2, with Apple bringing in less money than the previous year's Q2. In 2017, Apple's second quarter was just fine, but compared to a year ago, "just fine" seems pretty darn good. This was a solid quarter. Apple's revenue was $52.9 billion, up from $50.6 billion last year. 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 transcript of the call prepared by Seeking Alpha, or a transcript prepared by Mikah Sargent of iMore. Apple's official press release is here. As always, I'm not as interested in the financial details as I am the statements of Apple executives during the call that are of interest to iPhone and iPad users. Here are the items that stood out to me:
iPhone
During the past quarter, Apple sold 50.763 million iPhones. That's down slightly from the 51.193 million iPhones that Apple sold a year ago and also down from the 61.2 million iPhones that Apple sold two years ago in its record-breaking 2015 second quarter. But Apple CEO Tim Cook said that the sales last quarter were consistent with Apple's own expectations, and Apple actually saw more revenue from iPhones ($33.25 billion) than a year ago.
Cook also noted that he believes that the large number of rumors regarding what Apple has planned for the next version of the iPhone are causing many potential purchasers to wait before buying a new iPhone.
By my count, as of April 1, 2017, Apple has sold over 1.162 billion iPhones since they first went on sale in 2007.
Apple cited a survey finding a 96% customer satisfaction rating for the iPhone 7, 98% for the iPhone 7 Plus, and 95% for corporate iPhone buyers.
iPad
Apple sold 8.922 million iPads. While that number is down somewhat from the 10.3 million iPads Apple sold this time last year, it is notable that the last time that Apple sold less than 9 million iPads in a quarter was way back in 2011 Q2, when the iPad was less than a year old.
Even so, Cook insisted that "iPad results were ahead of our expectations," said that "we believe we gained share during the March quarter in a number of major markets, including the U.S., Japan, and Australia," and noted that "iPad remains the world's most popular tablet."
To help you to see iPad sales over time, I prepared a chart that shows two things. The blue line shows the actual iPad sales each quarter (in millions). The green bars show the average of the current quarter and the prior three quarters. I think that this chart is useful because while the blue line shows peaks every year in Apple's fiscal first quarter — the holiday quarter, when folks buy lots of iPads as presents — the green bars are more helpful for seeing iPad sales over time. As this chart shows, the iPad was introduced in 2010 and saw a sharp rise in sales until the end of calendar year 2013 (the beginning of Apple's fiscal year 2014). But from calendar year 2014 through today, iPad sales have decreased over time. I think about this because I really love my iPad and I cannot imagine practicing law without it. I want Apple to remain committed to the iPad, and the decrease in iPad sales over time makes me concerned that Apple will see less reason to invest in the future of the iPad. Fortunately, I believe that Apple CEO Tim Cook himself is a big fan of the iPad, and hopefully this will encourage future growth.
Apple doesn't comment on future products, so of course didn't say anything in today's call about the future of the iPad. The rumors are that Apple has some great new hardware designs for future iPads, such as an iPad with a very small bezel so that the usable screen size increases while the overall size of the iPad decreases. And the rumors are that Apple has some great new software planned for the iPad, especially for professional users such as attorneys. I sincerely hope that these rumors are true so that us iPad users can do even more with the devices. And hopefully this results in an increase in sales to change the trend shown in the above chart, further encouraging Apple to devote resources to the iPad's future. We'll see.
Other
Cook noted that Apple is seeing an impressive number of people using the Messages app. During the Super Bowl this year, at one point folks were sending 380,000 messages in the Messages app per second, more than double from the previous year.
To be fair, though, Apple should share credit for that with the Atlanta Falcons. (Sorry, but as a lifelong Saints fan, I can't resist that joke.)
Apple doesn't release specific numbers for Apple Watch sales, but did say that sales were almost double of what they were last year.
When asked about other smartwatch manufacturers pulling back from the market, Cook said: "I think in terms of competition falling out and so forth, the watch area is really hard. It in essence from an engineering point of view is similar to a phone in terms of the intricacies and so forth. And so I'm not very surprised that some people are falling out of it. But we're very committed to it and believe that, it's already a big business, and believe over time it will be even larger."
Apple doesn't release specific numbers for its AirPods wireless earphones, but Apple did note that one survey saw customer satisfaction at 98%, and said that demand for AirPods continues to exceed supply. You don't really need Tim Cook to tell you that; just ask anyone who is still having difficulty finding a pair of AirPods to purchase.
Apple noted that its new Apple Store in Dubai is a "truly international store" with employees who speak 45 languages.
I’ve written before about the benefit — or perhaps I should say necessity — of using a password manager so that you can use sophisticated passwords that are unique for each service and keep track of them automatically without attempting the impossible task of remembering each of these complex passwords. My goal today is not to evangelize the need for a password manager such as 1Password but instead to address an issue for folks who are already using an older version of 1Password and are thinking about the benefits and procedures for updating to the latest version of 1Password, a subscription service. When I upgraded my account a few weeks ago, I couldn’t find much useful written on this subject, so hopefully any of you considering an upgrade can learn from my experiences.
The new subscription system
In late 2012, I started using 1Password as my password manager on my iPhone, and it was one of the best technology decisions that I have ever made. A few months later, I bought licenses for my Mac (at home) and my PC (at work), allowing me to have all of my passwords on all of my devices. Just over a year ago, my wife also purchased licenses for her iPhone/iPad and for her Mac.
For over four years, I have used the product every day and enjoyed frequent product updates without ever having to pay for an upgrade after my initial investment. But considering how useful this software is, I would have been happy to pay for an upgrade whenever the developer asked longtime customers to do so.
Instead of charging for an upgrade, in 2016 the company introduced a new subscription payment structure. Unlike the prior system where you paid one price for the “pro” version on the iPhone/iPad, one price for Mac, and one price for PC, with the new system you pay $36 a year to use 1Password on all of your devices. I paid $88 in 2012 and 2013 for all of my different versions of 1Password on iPhone/iPad/Mac/PC, which I used for four years. That is sort of like paying $22 a year for four years, but that is largely because 1Password hasn’t charged for upgrades every year or two like many other companies do. (I think that the last 1Password paid upgrade was version 4 back in 2013.)
You can instead subscribe to 1Password Families for $60 a year, and this is what I did. This package gives you accounts for up to five people on all of their devices. Whether you consider this to be more expensive than the prior system or less expensive depends upon your particular circumstances. If you are a new user of 1Password Families and have five people using 1Password, paying what amounts to $12 a year per person is a steal.
Speaking of the price, I’ll also note that there are competing products such as LastPass and Dashlane which can be less expensive. It is not my intention today to compare the products, but if you want a well-reasoned comparison I recommend the Wirecutter review by Joe Kissell written in December of 2016. He concluded that LastPass was the best password manager for most folks because of its price ($12/year for a single user), although he noted in an update to that article that LastPass has struggled with some security vulnerabilities lately. He also concluded that 1Password was the best pick for iPhone/iPad/Mac users who want to pay a little more for a better product. Much like the decision on whether to use Lexis or Westlaw or Fastcase for your legal research, you need to consider cost and features and decide what is best for your needs.
Two more notes about pricing. First, there used to be a free version of 1Password for iOS with only basic features, and you paid for the premium version to unlock all features. It looks like that version if gone; if you download the app now, your first 30 days are free and then you need to purchase a subscription. Second, when you do pay to subscribe, you can do so either using the 1Password website or in the app itself. You pay more inside of the app, presumably because AgileBits has to give a cut to Apple. The individual subscription is $3.99/month in the app (versus $2.99/month on the website) and the family plan is $6.99/month in the app (versus $4.99/month on the website). The website does make you pay for an entire year at once, but if you don’t mind doing that you can save money by not purchasing the subscription within the iPhone app.
The benefits and changes
The subscription model for software, in which you pay every year for the advantage of always having the latest version, seems to be catching on recently. For example, Microsoft has its Office 365 system that give you the latest software for PC, Mac, iPhone and iPad, and I think that Microsoft Word is a must-have for most attorneys using iOS. As long as the price is reasonable, I think subscription models make sense for everyone; the developer has a steady stream of money so that it can pay for software improvements, and users get the advantage of frequent updates.
If you subscribe to 1Password as an individual, you get the same benefit that you get with other subscription services — the knowledge that you always have the latest and greatest. I’ll admit that with some software, you don’t actually need the latest and greatest. Speaking of Microsoft Word, I know some folks who do just fine with an older version. But for security software like 1Password, it is obviously best to always use the latest and most robust version of the product.
If you use 1Password Families, in addition to the benefit of always having the latest version of the software, you get an additional benefit: shared vaults. Most of my passwords are personal to me and my wife doesn’t need them. But we also have accounts that we both access, such as bank accounts, credit card accounts, utilities, computer passwords, insurance accounts, passwords associated with our kids (such as their frequent flier accounts), etc. In 1Password Families you can create one or more shared vaults and you get to decide who on the plan has access to each shared vault. I created a single shared vault, and my wife and I currently have 25 items in that vault. Syncing changes works great. If one of us updates a password or adds some note about the account, the change is automatically synced to all of both of our devices.
And remember, 1Password is more than just logins. There are special templates to store social security numbers, membership information, secure notes, etc. and any of those can easily be added to a shared account. You might have personal medical information that is private enough that you want to store it in a secure location on your iPhone, but which you would like to share with your spouse or other family member; a secure note is a perfect location for that.
Although I haven’t tried the product, I’ll also note that AgileBits now sells 1Password Teams, a service aimed at businesses that want to have some passwords shared to multiple members of different teams while also maintaining some passwords unique to each individual. It’s the same basic idea as 1Password Families, but with some extra bells and whistles for companies.
If you use a PC, which is what I use in my office, there are additional advantages and disadvantages of upgrading to 1Password Families. The advantage is that instead of using the older 1Password version 4 for Windows, you get the interface of the new 1Password version 6. The interface on version 4 was always confusing to me, so much so that even if I was in front of my PC, I typically turned to my iPhone or iPad to use 1Password. Here is what one of the main windows looks like on version 4:
In contrast, version 6 of the Windows interface is very similar to what you see on an iPhone, iPad and Mac. This interface is far easier to use, and thus I am actually using 1Password on my PC much more often now, and I am certainly enjoying using the software much more.
There is also one disadvantage to version 6 on a PC: it doesn’t support Internet Explorer. It does support the Chrome, Firefox and Opera browsers on a PC. But if you need to use Internet Explorer — and there are a few court-related systems that I access which still work better on Internet Explorer — you need to manually copy your username/password from the 1Password app and then paste it into Internet Explorer. That works, but it is less convenient.
Why the omission? I’ve seen this explanation on the AgileBits website: “Since Internet Explorer doesn’t have a modern web extension APIs, we can’t reuse our extension code easily like we can for Chrome, Firefox, or other browsers. We have to build it from scratch and it would be a great thing to do, but right now we are focused on bringing 1Password 6 to parity with other platforms.” Keep in mind that Microsoft itself announced back in 2015 that it was phasing out its own support for Internet Explorer. The future of Microsoft web browsing is its Edge browser for Windows 10, which 1Password is currently working to support. I certainly see the logic of AgileBits having its Windows computer programmers focus on the future of Windows, not the past. Just keep in mind that if you currently use 1Password version 4 in Internet Explorer on your PC, you need to decide if support for IE is more important to you than the improved interface of version 6 and the benefits of 1Password Families. For me, it was an easy decision.
Online vault
There is another major change with 1Password Families: you no longer use a third-party service like Dropbox to sync your accounts between you devices. Instead, your passwords are stored on the 1Password servers controlled by AgileBits.
I’ll be honest — this is the one part that made me hesitate at first. One of the things that always made me uncomfortable about competitors to 1Password such as LastPass is that they stored all username and passwords on their own servers, which seemed like a tempting treasure chest of a target for hackers. And this is not just a theoretical concern; back in 2015, LastPass announced that hackers had accessed and presumably downloaded this very information from their server. (Here is an article from Wired describing the breach.) LastPass believed that the data itself was appropriately encrypted so that the hackers would not be able to determine username and passwords from what the hackers downloaded, and LastPass told users that changing their master passwords was sufficient to be safe. Hopefully that was true, but it was still scary.
In contrast, the old version of 1Password stored usernames and password in the cloud but didn’t do so on a single, central server. Instead, each user would use their own cloud service, such as Dropbox. I liked this because my own personal Dropbox account is a much less tempting target for hackers than a single online depository used by a security company for millions of users.
After researching what 1Password is doing, however, I am comfortable with this change. While 1Password Families also now stores information on its own server, it uses an extra security measure that LastPass doesn’t use. The first time that you use a computer, iPhone, iPad, etc. to access the 1Password server, you need not only the username and main password (which is what LastPass uses), but also a 34-character secret key. You are given this key when you first sign up for the 1Password.com subscription service, and 1Password recommends that you print out what it calls an Emergency Kit and keep it in a secure location such as lock box. The image at the right shows you what one looks like. The idea is that even if a hacker figured out your username and guessed your main password (perhaps because you had a really weak or otherwise guessable master password), the hacker wouldn’t also have the secret account key so the hacker still couldn’t decrypt the files and see your confidential information.
The use of a secret key makes it far more secure for 1Password to store your passwords online. 1Password explains it this way: “Unlike your Master Password, your Secret Key does not need to be memorized, so it can be much longer and more secure. It adds 128 bits of entropy to your Master Password, raising the total entropy of your encryption key far beyond the reach of current computing power. There is no amount of money that can break the encryption produced by the combined strength of your Master Password and your Secret Key.” See this page on the AgileBits website for more information about the advantages of using a secret key.
You may be familiar with other services that use something called Two Factor Authentication, which means that to login you need not only something that you know (your password) but also something that you alone have (such as an app on your iPhone or other device that creates a number that changes every 60 seconds). 1Password believes that the use of a secure key is even better than Two Factor Authentication. This page explains why.
I do not make my living worry about security, but 1Password does, and the company has been around long enough and has a strong enough reputation that I trust 1Password to come up with the most secure way to make its products work. Indeed, another advantage of 1Password versus other password managers is that, as noted in the Wirecutter article by Joe Kissell that I mentioned earlier, 1Password’s data format is publicly documented. AgileBits explains to the world how its security works, encouraging smart folks in academia and elsewhere to second-guess the decisions made on how to best keep information secure.
After studying all of this information, I am comfortable letting 1Password store my password vaults on its server. And of course, the advantage of doing so is that it allows me to use the 1Password website to create a shared vault that my wife and I both use. It is somewhat magical to update something on my iPhone and have it show up in the same entry on my wife’s iPhone just a few seconds later.
The upgrade process
If you are not currently using 1Password at all and this post convinces you to do so, then just start fresh with a new account, either 1Password Families or just the regular 1Password if you are the only user, and everything will just work. But if you are upgrading from an older 1Password account, such as one that used Dropbox to sync between your devices, here is some information on how that process works.
First, as noted above, I encourage you to purchase the subscription on the AgileBits website and not within the iPhone or iPad app. It saves you some money.
Next, go into the Settings portion of the 1Password app on the iPhone and select Add Existing Account. You then need to enter the web address for logging in go your specific 1Password.com account, your username, your password, and that secure key I mentioned above.
Fortunately, however, you don’t need to type all of that information. In the picture above of the 1Password Emergency Kit, you will see that there is a QR code on the page. You can tap the Scan Account Details option in the 1Password app to use your iPhone’s camera to scan that QR code. If you didn’t yet print out the Emergency Kit yet but you have another device, such as an iPad, you can just bring up the Emergency Kit on that device and scan the code. After doing this, the only information that you have to type is your master password.
The app will next ask you to move all of the items from your current primary vault into a new 1Password.com vault. Just follow the instructions to do so.
Next, follow the prompts to delete the old primary vault which you had been using.
If you own another iOS device, such as an iPad, you’ll want to stop using the former vault on Dropbox (or wherever you kept it) and start using the 1Password.com vault. At first I tried to do this within the existing 1Password app on my iPad, but after some trial and error I learned that the best solution is to just delete the 1Password app from your iPad, download a fresh copy of 1Password from the App Store, and then add your account. Once again, I recommend that you scan the QR code to save yourself a lot of typing.
If you are using 1Password on a PC, you’ll want to follow a similar approach. Use the Windows control panel to uninstall your prior copy of 1Password 4, download the new 1Password 6 for Windows from the AgileBits website, and then log in to your new 1Password.com account. Once again, there is a trick to avoid typing in all of the account details; read the Windows install instructions on this page from the AgileBits website for more info.
If you already have the latest version of 1Password installed on your Mac, you can follow the instructions on that same page to add the new 1Password.com account. And again, there is a neat trick to avoid typing in all of the details; make your QR code appear somewhere on your Mac screen (such as in the PDF version of the Emergency Kit you received from AgileBits) and then drag a see-through window in 1Password over that QR code so that 1Password can “see” it. Next, tell your Mac version of 1Password to stop using the former vault that you stored on Dropbox (or wherever). In my tests, the easiest way to do that was to go the Preferences part of the app, click on Advanced, and then turn off the final option “Allow creation of vaults outside of 1Password accounts.”
If you are using 1Password Families, you will next go to the part of the 1Password website associated with your account and send an invitation to your spouse (or whoever else you are adding as one of the five users). Your spouse will follow steps similar to what I outlined above — or you can be a nice spouse and do all of this for him or her. Next, create a shared vault to share with your spouse.
The final step is to talk to your spouse and decide which entries in each of your vaults to move into the central vault so that they are shared. Often, my wife and I found that we both had an entry for an institution such as a bank, so we needed to determine who had the better entry and move that one to the shared vault, and the person with the weaker entry deleted their old entry to avoid duplicate items. This was the most time-consuming part of the whole process for me, but it did have the advantage of helping me to clean up some older entries.
Conclusion
Upgrading to the new subscription-based version of 1Password takes both time and money. If you don’t have a need for 1Password Families and you are happy with your current 1Password setup, you might decide to wait to upgrade until AgileBits gives you a specific reason to upgrade, such as adding another feature that only works with new subscription service.
But if you and at least one other family member are going to use 1Password (or perhaps already use it), then I think it makes sense to upgrade now. You’ll immediately get to take advantage of the shared vault feature to share passwords, secure notes, and other important but confidential information. And once you start the subscription, you’ll know that you always have the latest and greatest version of 1Password on all of your devices. Indeed, it wouldn’t surprise me if at some point soon, 1Password either stops supporting the older version, or limits features on the older version as compared to the current product which uses 1Password.com. As a subscriber, you won’t have to worry about that happening, and instead you’ll know that you are always using the most secure and advanced version of 1Password.
Click here to get 1Password for iOS (free for 30 days):
