As someone who started trying out iPhone apps in 2008, I eventually got to the point where I had hundreds of apps on my iPhone. Last summer, as I was troubleshooting a problem, I ended up starting with a fresh install of iOS. Since then, I’ve been more conservative about adding new apps … but even so, I still have four screens full of apps on my iPhone, and many of those screens have lots of folders. California attorney David Sparks apparently has more self-control than I do, because as he shows off in a post on his MacSparky website, he has only a single screen of apps and only four folders on that screen, with a system so that every app goes in a special place. I’m not sure that I can ever see myself with just a single screen of apps, but I can see the logic to his approach. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- On the latest edition of the Apps in Law podcast, Brett Burney interviews Massachusetts attorney Howard Lenow, who discusses the Timeline 3D app. Lenow does a good job of describing how this app is simple to use but very effective.
- California attorney Jeffrey Allen and Texas attorney Ashley Hallene recommend some of their favorite apps in an article for the ABA’s GPSolo eReport.
- New York attorney Nicole Black discusses time-tracking software for lawyers, including apps that you can use on an iPhone. One of the apps that she discusses is iTimeKeep, a new sponsor of iPhone J.D. and the app that I use in my law practice almost every day.
- In early 2015, I noted that upgraded the Wi-Fi in my house by purchasing two AirPort Extreme wireless base stations, putting them at opposite ends of my house, and connecting them with a Cat 6 cable. I’ve always liked Apple’s AirPort base stations because they were so much easier to use and manage than routers made by other companies. But Apple stopped updating their devices about five years ago, and never embraced the mesh networking technology that you see in many modern routers. As reported by Rene Richie of iMore, yesterday Apple announced that it was officially out of the Wi-Fi router business that it entered in 1999 when Wi-Fi was in its infancy.
- If you are looking to upgrade the Wi-Fi in your home or office, Apple has some advice for selecting a Wi-Fi router that works well with Apple devices.
- When I think of smart home and air conditioning, I think of smart thermostats. But Mike Wuerthele of AppleInsider notes that GE is now shipping the first HomeKit-compatible window air conditioning unit. And Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac notes that GE has some other units that work with HomeKit.
- Jason Cross of Macworld recommends the best calculators for the iPhone and iPad. His overall favorite is PCalc, and that’s the one that I use too.
- J.D. Biersdorfer of the New York Times explains how to add fonts to an iPad.
- If you use Windows 10, Jim Tamous of The Mac Observer notes that iTunes is now available in the Microsoft Store.
- Bradley Chambers of The Sweet Setup explains how you can change the title of memories in the Photos app.
- And finally, in this 15 second video, Apple shows visually why the App Store on the iPhone is safer than other app stores on other smartphones: