Nine years of iPhone J.D.

On November 17, 2008, I started iPhone J.D. and published my first post, explaining why I found the iPhone a valuable tool in my law practice.  That means that iPhone J.D. just celebrated its ninth birthday.  My second favorite iPhone of all time was the iPhone 3G I was using when I started the blog because it was my introduction to the world of the iPhone, and was such a major step up from the Treo and BlackBerry smartphones I had been using previously.  Nine years later, the iPhone X is unquestionably my favorite iPhone of all time, with its amazing screen, cameras, and Face ID.  And I am clearly not the only attorney to enjoy using an iPhone.  As I reported a few weeks ago, a record number of attorneys are now using an iPhone, over 7 out of every 10 attorneys in the United States. 

After nine years and over 1,600 posts on iPhone J.D., it has been thrilling to watch the iPhone mature and evolve from its first year to its tenth year.  And as the device has gotten more sophisticated, attorneys have been able to do so much more with the iPhone — and iPad, Apple Watch, etc.  I've enjoyed writing about great new apps and improvements to old favorites, tips and tricks, product reviews, and other items of interest to attorneys using iOS devices.  If you haven't checked out the iPhone J.D. Index recently, click the "Index to Prior Posts" link at the top of any page to get there.  The index will direct you to lots of posts that are as useful today as they were when they were written, although there are others with only historical significance.

By far the best part of publishing iPhone J.D. has been the great feedback from readers like you.  I've learned so much from talking to and reading notes from readers, and many of those interactions result in posts.  Please keep the feedback coming!  With well over 8 million page views in nine years, it has been great to "see" so many of you come back again and again.

Popular posts this year.  Every year on the birthday of iPhone J.D. (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8), I find it interesting to look back and see which posts over the prior 12 months were the most popular.  The fact that these posts were so popular might reveal something about the topics that iPhone and iPad owners have been thinking about lately.  Here, in order, are the top ten most viewed posts published in the last 12 months:

1. "No videos" bug in TV app in iOS 10.2 -- the problem, and a work-around.  The law is founded on precedent, and my sense is that many lawyers are relatively change-adverse, especially when something new makes it harder to do something that you have always done.  When Apple released the new TV app in iOS 10.2 on December 12, 2016, it seemed that all video was moved to a different place, and many of us found that we could no longer watch videos synced to an iPhone or iPad from a computer.  D'oh!  The problem was eventually fixed, but I have to admit that almost a year later, I still haven't completely warmed up to the TV app.
2. Review: AT&T Call Protect -- block and warn of nuisance calls.  The number of unsolicited phone calls that I have received on my iPhone started to increase dramatically in 2017.  Thus, I was happy to start using the AT&T Call Protect app to warn me of calls I am unlikely to want to get (such as telemarketer calls) and block calls suspected to be fraudulent.  The app continues to work well for me.
3. Why lawyers will love iOS 11 on the iPad.  While #3 on the list of most-viewed posts from the past year, this one is probably #1 in my heart.  iOS 11 introduced so many improvements for the iPad Pro, making that device much more useful for attorneys and other professionals trying to get work done.
4. Review: Apple CarPlay -- view and control your iPhone from your car.  My parents just purchased a new car, and I spent some time over this past weekend showing them how to use CarPlay in their new vehicle.  They seemed to be excited to use it, and for good reason.  I use CarPlay virtually every day, and it has vastly improved the experience of using an iPhone in a car.  Whenever you are next in the market for a new car, I strongly encourage you to only consider vehicles with support for Apple CarPlay.
5. Review: iPad Pro 12.9" (2nd generation 2017) -- an incredible tablet for lawyers.  The 2015 version of the 12.9" iPad Pro was an amazing device, and the improvements to the 2017 version, the second generation of the 12.9" iPad Pro, make the device even more useful.  (Especially with iOS 11, as noted above.)  When I am in my office, I typically use my PC more than I use my iPad, but I certainly enjoy using the iPad Pro much more.  And when I'm out of the office, I'm using the iPad Pro all of the time.
6. How to convert an email into a PDF file on an iPhone or iPad.  This was an updated version of a tip that I had posted in 2016, and it is a handy tip to remember.
7. New information on your iPhone being searched by Customs at the border.  Attorneys sometimes find themselves at the crossroads between attorney-client confidentiality and the government's desire to gather information.  This post contains some tips for navigating that minefield.
8. Review: AT&T Unlimited Data -- data for your iPhone and other device without the worry of overage charges.  Some describe these as "so-called unlimited" plans because they do contain some limitations.  On the AT&T plan that I use, once I hit 22GB of data use in a month, AT&T reserves the right to throttle my speed.  I actually crossed over that threshold for the first time just a few days ago.  AT&T hasn't yet throttled my data speed, and with eight days left before my next billing cycle, my hope is that it won't happen this time.  I know why I exceeded that limit; I took a lot of 4K video of my kids this month, and I had turned off all of the limits on uploading that data using LTE (Settings -> Photos -> Cellular Data) because I had some specific needs to get those videos on my other devices before I was going to be back on a Wi-Fi network.  But that's not how I usually have my iPhone configured, and unless you plan to upload or download a ton of video on your iPhone, it is hard to go over 22GB of data use in a month.
9. Review: TripIt Pro -- notification of travel delays and cancellations, and other travel assistance.  Attorneys often need to travel, and it is frustrating when plane delays and cancellations interfere with your plans.  TripIt Pro is a great app for managing your travel when everything is going as planned, and it is an incredibly app when things go awry.
10. Why lawyers will love the iPhone 8 and iPhone X.  There is always great interest when Apple releases a new iPhone, but that interest seemed to peak this year with the iPhone X.  And as noted above, that interest was well-deserved; the iPhone X is an incredible device.

Visitors to iPhone J.D.  Every year, I use this post to share some statistical information on iPhone J.D. visitors, to the extent that I can figure it out using the tools at my disposal — specifically, the Google Analytics service.

During the past 12 months, about 59% of readers visited iPhone J.D. from an iOS device, just shy of the record 60% in the previous year.  About 75% of those iOS visitors were using an iPhone, and the other 25% used an iPad.  About 22% of iPhone J.D. visitors are using Windows, and just over half of them are using the Chrome browser for Windows.  (I primarily use Firefox on Windows in my law office, but sometimes I use Chrome or Internet Explorer.)  About 12% used a Mac, which is what I use at home.  Almost all of the other visitors (about 4.5%) used Android, which is higher than you might have expected given the nature of this website, but remember that (1) every year lots of folks switch from Android to iOS, and (2) some of the third party accessories that I have reviewed can also be used with an Android device, and even some iOS apps have a version available for Android.

About 64% of iPhone J.D. visitors are in the U.S., but the site also gets a huge number of visitors from the U.K., Canada and Australia.  Looking at the cities of iPhone J.D. readers, New York is #1 this year, as it has been every other year except for two years ago (when there were a few hundred more visitors from London):

1. New York
2. London
3. Los Angeles
4. Chicago
5. Dallas
6. Houston
7. Washington, D.C.
8. Atlanta
9. Sydney
10. Melbourne

Atlanta is back on the Top Ten list for the first time in five years.  I went to college at Emory in Atlanta, and still have lots of friends in that city, so it is nice to see that return.  But I'm also a big fan of San Francisco, and this is the first time ever that San Francisco has failed to make the Top Ten list.  (This year it was #11, and only a few hundred visitors behind Melbourne.)  The top cities in Canada are Toronto (#12) and Calgary (#27).  New Orleans, where I live and practice law, hasn't been in the top ten since this website's second birthday, but this year is in the #18 spot, between #17 Philadelphia and #19 Brisbane.

Thank you to all of you who have been iPhone J.D. readers for any part of the last nine years.  And a VERY big thank you to all of you who have sent me software and hardware suggestions over the years or have otherwise touched based with me to share how you use your iPhone and/or iPad in your law practice.  I get so many fantastic ideas from all of you.  I also love when any of you stop me at a conference, in court, or elsewhere to say that you read iPhone J.D., because it always sparks a fascinating conversation — sometimes about using the iPhone or iPad, sometimes about more amorphous topics such as the future legal technology, and sometimes just about those great pictures of your kids that you would have missed if the iPhone wasn't close by.