Earlier this week, I posted a suggestion on viewing CM/ECF (PACER) documents on an iPad (or iPhone). After I published that post, I received two tips that were even better than my original suggestion, one from Boston attorney Jake Walker and one from California Judge Jack Lucky. If you only read the original version of my post, I recommend that you check out the updated version. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- Those of us who use an iPhone and/or iPad to get work done have been practicing mobile computing for a long time. As a result of the coronavirus, pretty much every lawyer is now expected to be an expert in remote computing. Massachusetts lawyer Robert Ambrogi writes in an article for Above the Law that the coronavirus could be the tipping point for tech competence by lawyers.
- We are now living in a bizarre time in which many of us are now practicing law from our home while our kids are also home attending school remotely. There is much to figure out about how to do all of that well. Fortunately, there are some folks with experience. For example, Brett Burney is a legal technology consultant who runs the great Apps in Law website and publishes the Apps in Law podcast. He mostly works from home, and his wife Stephanie home-schools their two children, so they have figured out how to be productive when all four of them are at home at the same time. In the latest episode of his podcast, which is also available as a YouTube video, Brett and Stephanie offer both tech and non-tech tips for making it through the next few ... weeks? months? Sigh.
- One of the tips that Brett shared in that video: if you find that you have a need to start using (or increase your use of) Zoom for video conferences thanks to the coronavirus, Texas attorney Craig Ball shared a Zoom Cheat Sheet on his Ball In Your Court blog.
- Are you getting sick and tired of every company that has your email address sending you an email to let you know how they are handling the coronavirus? Well then make sure you read this important notice from San Francisco attorney Kevin Underhill on his great Lowering the Bar website.
- Dieter Bohn of The Verge discusses how the new trackpad works on the new Magic Keyboard. I suspect that this also provides insight on how an external trackpad would work with an iPad, such as the Apple Magic Trackpad 2.
- Similarly, Charlie Sorrel of Cult of Mac discusses the new trackpad features coming next week in iOS 13.4.
- Tony Romm, Elizabeth Dwoskin and Craig Timberg of the Washington Post discuss how the U.S. government is discussing ways to use anonymized smartphone location data to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.
- Mike Schmitz of The Sweet Setup compares two mind mapping apps: iThoughts and MindNode.
- J.R. Bookwalter of Macworld reviews version 3 of the Fantastical app. This is my primary calendar app, and I use it every day.
- Scout Tafoya of Cult of Mac recommends Apple TV+ shows to stream during self-isolation. I have a strong second for one of his recommendations. There is a show on Apple TV+ called Mythic Quest. I enjoyed it, although some episodes are not as good as others. But the standout episode is episode 5 called A Quiet Dark Death. It has almost nothing to do with the other episodes (it involves different characters at a different time) and you can watch that single episode itself without watching any other episode, or even before you start watching the series. That self-contained episode tells a great story and I really enjoyed it.
- And finally, here is a fun video created by Apple to show off the 2020 version of the iPad Pro and the new Magic Keyboard: