The market capitalization or "market cap" of a company is simply the share price multiplied by the number of shares outstanding, and is one method of indicating the public's opinion of the net worth of the company. Yesterday, Apple became the first company in the U.S. to ever have a market cap of over a trillion dollars. When the market closed, Apple's market cap was $1.002 trillion. I thought that this comment from John Gruber of Daring Fireball was interesting: "That '.002' looks insignificant but represents $2 billion — about what the entire company was worth in 1996." It was obvious for a while now that this day was coming, so a number of news sites had articles ready to run when the milestone was crossed. I'll recommend two of them that were particularly good: an article by Jack Nicas in the New York Times, and an article by Brad Stone of Bloomberg. There are lots of reasons that Apple achieved this success, but there is no question that the number one reason was the iPhone. And now, the news of note from this past week:
- Illinois attorney Warren Freiberg wrote an article for TechnoLawyer recommending apps that are useful for attorneys. I myself use recommend almost all of the apps identified in that article. Click here to download the article in PDF format.
- I went back and forth about whether to link to this article because the premise is so shaky. In an article for the ABA's GP Solo, legal consultant Seth Rowland asked his son Samuel Rowland, a college student, to try to figure out what mobile apps lawyers might want to use. The older Rowland explained that he did this because he hasn't practiced law in two decades and his primary focus is PC software, not mobile apps. Um, okay, but asking a journalism major to pick the best apps for lawyers seems about as valuable as asking me to pick out the best apps for dentists. The only qualification offered for the younger Rowland was that he is "an avid cell phone user." Of course, that also accurately describes most of the kids at my son's middle school. As you might guess, the article fails to mention a ton of useful (and obvious) apps. But I'm linking to it anyway because it also names some truly good apps, and any time you look at a list of apps there is always the chance that you will come across an app that speaks to you. So if you dare, click here to read Legal Apps for the Lawyer on the Go. (And while I disagree with the premise of this article, kudos to Sam for giving it the old college try and finding some of the good apps.)
- Earlier this week, I reported on Apple's 2018 fiscal third quarter. In an article for Macworld, Jason Snell offered four interesting takeaways from the results. And in an article for Six Colors, Snell digs a little deeper into the results.
- Bradley Chambers of 9to5Mac recommends some of the best iPhone weather apps.
- Vanity Fair has an interesting excerpt from an upcoming memoir by Lisa Brennan-Jobs, daughter of Steve Jobs, called Small Fry. They had an awkward relationship, to say the least, and I enjoyed this excerpt.
- And finally, this short 15-second video advertising the iPad does a good job of showing why I love my almost-completely paperless law practice, which wouldn't be possible without my iPad. It is called Paperless Paperwork:
