Federico Viticci of MacStories has a good list of tips for getting work done on an iPad. The first tip, creating a launcher for a specific note, works on the iPhone too, and it is very useful if you use the Notes app because this tip gives you a way to open a specific note, which I prefer to opening up the Notes app and then finding the note and then opening that note. For example, I have a note containing the file numbers for my most frequent matters, and it is nice to have a quick way to launch that specific note when I need a file number. To accomplish this tip, you need to use a launcher app such as Launch Center Pro. I see that I haven't reviewed that app since 2012, but it has been updated many times since then and it remains on my first iPhone home screen because I use it every day. And indeed, after a recent update to Launch Center Pro, you can now hold down the app icon and the pop-up menu can give you six Quick Actions instead of four, a neat trick that I haven't seen any other app do yet. Click here to get Launch Center Pro ($4.99):
I'll admit that apps like Launch Center Pro and Workflows which can be configured to accomplish complicated tasks are not for everyone. The apps let you be more productive, but they come with a learning curve. However, if you consider yourself a power user of the iPhone and iPad, these types of apps are great. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- California attorney David Sparks discusses the new 2018 version of the 9.7" iPad. He says that for most users, it is a fine choice
- In the latest episode of the Apps in Law podcast, Brett Burney interviews South Carolina attorney Michael Polk to discuss Focus Keeper and HabitBull apps which he uses to stay n task throughout the day using the Pomodoro Technique.
- Jason Snell of Six Colors reviews the new iPad.
- Ryan Christoffel of MacStories explains that after a recent update to the Microsoft Word app, it now works better with the built-in Files app.
- Mark Sullivan of Fast Company wrote an interesting story explaining how Apple now runs on 100% green energy, such as solar.
- Jonny Evans of Computerworld has a good list of useful iPhone tips. Here's one that I didn't know that you could do: "Hey Siri, call [contact] on speakerphone.”
- Leif Johnson of Macworld wrote a good article on his favorite note-taking apps for the iPad and Apple Pencil. I really like GoodNotes 4, which is one of his picks. Johnson points out that one advantage of Notability is that it can record audio as you take notes. For my law practice I don't consider that an avantage; I virtually never take notes in an environment in which it would be wise to create an audio recording (and for the times that I take note in court, I'm quite sure that an audio recording would be prohibited). But it is nice to have quite a few strong apps in this field.
- Glenn Fleishmann of Macworld reviews Apple's latest version of the Numbers app for iOS. It has a few new features, including a much improved interface for importing data.
- Michael Potuck explains how to clean AirPods and the AirPods charging case in an article for 9to5Mac.
- If you use an iPhone X, because of its OLED screen, it uses less battery life to display black instead of other colors. AppleInsider did a test and found that YouTube's new dark theme can save you battery life on an iPhone X. I think that this mode would look even better on the OLED screen if it were a pure black theme instead of a dark grey.
- And finally, this week Apple came out with a (PRODUCT)RED version of the iPhone 8. It is otherwise identical to the iPhone 7 released last year, but the new color does look nice, and a portion of the proceeds go to support HIV/AIDS programs. You can see some nice pictures of the new red iPhone on Apple's website, where Apple notes that it has raised over $160 million for (RED) over the past 11 years. If you want to see a short video of what the new red iPhone 8 looks like, Rene Ritchie of iMore prepared this video for his Vector podcast:
