Twenty years ago, Apple released its first product with Wi-Fi, the iBook. Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac takes a look back at the iBook product announcement. Around the same time, two associates at Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C., named Ed Walters and Phil Rosenthal quit their jobs to start the legal research platform Fastcase. In Episode 45 of the LawNext podcast, Massachusetts attorney Bob Abrogi interviews the two of them to discuss the growth of Fastcase over the past 20 years. They discuss the origins of the company, significant milestones, and what is coming in the future. They also discuss the launch of the Fastcase app for the iPhone and iPad, which I raved about when it launched in 2010. I really enjoyed listening to this podcast. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- Illinois attorney John Voorhees of MacStories reviews Flighty, a flight tracking app for frequent travelers.
- Earlier this week, I mentioned that iOS was updated to version 12.4. One of the new features is a new iPhone migration tool, which lets you upgrade directly from an old iPhone to a new iPhone. Ryan Christoffel of MacStories provides some details on the new iPhone migration tool.
- Christoffel also discusses the new features added this week to Overcast β my favorite app for listening to podcasts on an iPhone or Apple Watch.
- Michael Grothaus of Fast Company shares some tips for being more productive with an iPhone.
- I don't recommend rolling the dice when making legal decisions, but if you want to do so for some other reason, Josh Centers reviews a new app called Dice by PCalc, an app with beautiful graphics that lets you roll D&D-style dice. I used to play Dungeons & Dragons when I was in middle school in the 1980s, so I have to admit that seeing this app in action made me feel somewhat nostalgic for my old set of dice. I understand that D&D is still going strong, and my son recently played for the first time when he was at sleep-away camp.
- Mark Gurman of Bloomberg writes about Apple COO Jeff Williams, calling him the heir apparent to Apple CEO Tim Cook.
- Chance Miller of 9to5Mac reviews the Ecobee SmartThermostat, calling it the best thermostat that works with HomeKit.
- Brent Dirks of AppAdvice discusses the latest new features added to Carrot Weather, my favorite weather app.
- Shep McAllister of The Inventory reviews the RAVPower 60W 6-Port USB Charger, a device that can both fast-charge your iPhone or iPad using USB-C but can lets you transfer files from an iPhone/iPad to a USB storage device such as a flash drive.
- I never thought that the solid gold Apple Watch made sense considering it was obvious that you would want to upgrade the device over time, and it cost at least $10,000. But Nick Heer of Pixel Envy points out that Apple brought in over $100 million selling the gold first-generation Apple Watch Edition.
- And finally, Apple produced an interesting and psychedelic video, created on an iPhone, called Elements III Cascade. The video itself is neat, but the behind-the-scenes film showing how they created the video is even more interesting, and you can view it here: