ABA TECHSHOW took place in Chicago last week. I missed it this year due to a family vacation over the Mardi Gras holidays, but MyCase posted the visual notes that it had artist Leah Silverman create during some of the sessions this year. These are always fun to look at, and they give you a sense of what you missed if you did not attend a session. (Here is one from a session I did last year with Virginia attorney Sharon Nelson.) iPhone J.D. readers are likely to be particularly interested in the graphical representation of the session on iPhone and iPad apps by Brett Burney and Paul Unger. And now, the recent news of note:
- If you are a solo or small firm attorney looking to improve your law practice, you should consider attending the Small Firm Bootcamp program in New Orleans that Ernie Svenson has run for the last few years. This year it is May 7-8, and it features a lot of fantastic speakers including David Sparks of MacSparky and the Mac Power Users podcast and Brett Burney of Apps in Law. Ernie himself is a dynamic speaker and great teacher; he was one of the very first legal bloggers (and encouraged me to start iPhone J.D. back in 2008), and every time I have co-presented a CLE with him, the session has gone really well. I see that the discounted (and refundable) early bird pricing for the program ends in just a few days.
- Speaking of California attorney David Sparks, he recently explained why he has enjoyed the Apple Arcade service during its first six months. I don’t play a lot of games, but I signed up for the service for my kids — giving them access to lots of high-quality games without any in-game ads or in-game purchases — and they really like the games. (This week, my son has been playing Crossy Road Castle.)
- Illinois attorney John Voorhees of MacStories reviews abode iota, a HomeKit home security system that he says works well and can be controlled in many different ways. It can be used with or without a monthly monitoring plan.
- The coronavirus has had an impact on numerous aspects of our lives, including Apple products. Mark Gurman of Bloomberg reports that Apple has warned its retail employees to expect shortages of replacement iPhones due to the impact of the coronavirus on the supply chain.
- Christopher Close of iMore describes the top HomeKit smart light switches. I’m a big fan of the iMore staff favorite pick, the Lutron Caséta devices that I reviewed in 2015 and 2019.
- Buster Hein of Cult of Mac reports that Amazon added HomeKit support to its Eero Wi-Fi routers.
- Apple recently had a contest to find the best pictures taken with the Night Mode features of the iPhone 11, and the results were posted this week. These pictures are stunning.
- David Gelles of the New York Times published an interesting interview with Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Steve Jobs.
- Joe Rossignol of MacRumors shares the story of the Troyer family of Montana. They lost an iPhone 11 (containing lots of vacation pictures) at Disney World when it fell into the Seven Seas Lagoon. But two months later, the iPhone was discovered by Disney’s scuba divers, and the iPhone still worked and was returned to the family. That’s impressive water resistance.
- And finally, the newest music video from Lady Gaga is a for song called Stupid Love. I mention it today because it was filmed using an iPhone 11 Pro. So if you already own an iPhone 11 Pro, all you need is Lady Gaga and then you too can create a YouTube video with over 30 million views.