Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is on the minds of countless people around the world right now. While this is a rapidly developing issue, fortunately there are some good resources for information such as the excellent webpage created by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It is not surprising that a potential pandemic would touch virtually every part of life, and this includes the iPhone and iPad. Today, I’m discussing two such topics. First, the use of an iPad and iPhone if you are forced to work out of the office. Second, new information on cleaning an iPad and iPhone screen to protect against the COVID-19 virus. Of course, COVID-19 has additional iPhone and iPad implications that I’m not discussing in this post, such as the recent Bloomberg report that Apple has warned its retail employees to expect shortages of replacement iPhones due to the impact of the coronavirus on the supply chain.
Remote computing
The iPhone and iPad have always been powerful tools for remote computing. As lawyers and many other professionals prepare for the possibility of quarantine, either voluntary or mandatory, now is a good time to think about the technology that you can use if you are not able to work in your office. There is obvious value in a laptop computer, but an iPad is sometimes a better solution. Federico Viticci, the creator of the MacStories website, explained in an article that he wrote last year that when he was being treated for cancer, the iPad was a much better solution than a laptop computer:
My iPad journey began in 2012 when I was undergoing cancer treatments. In the first half of the year, right after my diagnosis, I was constantly moving between hospitals to talk to different doctors and understand the best strategies for my initial round of treatments. Those chemo treatments, it turned out, often made me too tired to get any work done. I wanted to continue working for MacStories because it was a healthy distraction that kept my brain busy, but my MacBook Air was uncomfortable to carry around and I couldn’t use it in my car as it lacked a cellular connection. By contrast, the iPad was light, it featured built-in 3G, and it allowed me to stay in touch with the MacStories team from anywhere, at any time with the comfort of a large, beautiful Retina display.
The tipping point came when I had to be hospitalized for three consecutive weeks to undergo aggressive chemo treatments; in that period of time, I concluded that the extreme portability and freedom granted by the iPad had become essential for me.
Even if you are not bedridden or so sick that you are weak, the iPad can be a great tool for getting work done, either as your only computing device or as an occasional alternative to a traditional computer. I love that I can use my iPad at a desk with a keyboard, but I can just as easily use my iPad on the sofa with a stylus.
Make sure that you have the right apps installed on your iPad if you are going to use it for mobile computing. If your law practice is anything like mine, you spend a lot of your day working with documents, so I encourage you to install Microsoft Word on your iPad. Although you can do a lot with the free version, you can access all of the features such as creating and reviewing redline edits if you or your law firm has an Office 365 subscription, which typically costs around $70 a year, although you get a family plan for $100 a year.
Of course you will also want to access email from your iPad or iPhone. I’m sure that you already have that configured, but just in case you only have it on your iPhone but not an iPad, this is a good time to get that set up. Depending upon your law firm or company, that might involve the use of Mobile Device Management (MDM) software and/or an authenticator app or device.
If your law firm uses Citrix Workspace, you should download the Citrix Workspace app for your iPad. That way, even if you are out of the office, you can access and use Windows software on your firm’s network. With this app, I can do virtually anything that I could do sitting in one of my firm’s offices using a firm-issued computer.
Alternatively, if your own personal computer is running in your office and you are out of the office, if you have remote access software installed such as LogMeIn, you can access your work computer even if you are at home and nowhere near your work computer.
If your office uses a document management system, check to see if there is an iOS app that you can use on your iPad or iPhone. That way, you can access your files from anywhere. Alternatively, if your office uses Citrix or some other remote access solution, you can use that to access your document management system.
Clean your iPhone or iPad
When I hear someone talk about a virus on a computing device, I think of hackers. But you also don’t want to have an actual virus on the surface of your iPhone or iPad. In addition to telling you to wash your hands regularly, the CDC recommends that you “[c]lean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces using a regular household cleaning spray or wipe.” For a long time, Apple has discouraged the use of any sort of disinfectant on an iPhone or iPad screen because of the risk that it would damage the oleophobic (oil-repellent) coating on the screen. But yesterday, in light of COVID-19, Apple updated its webpage on cleaning Apple products and now says that you can use a disinfectant such as Clorox Disinfecting Wipes (but not bleach) on the screen:
Is it OK to use a disinfectant on my Apple product?
Using a 70 percent isopropyl alcohol wipe or Clorox Disinfecting Wipes, you may gently wipe the hard, nonporous surfaces of your Apple product, such as the display, keyboard, or other exterior surfaces. Don’t use bleach. Avoid getting moisture in any opening, and don’t submerge your Apple product in any cleaning agents. Don’t use on fabric or leather surfaces.
Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal ran some tests, and she found that using disinfecting wipes on an iPhone screen a large number of times did not do any damage to the oleophobic coating:
Using a brand-new iPhone 8, I wiped the screen 1,095 times with Clorox disinfecting wipes. Why so many? I figured that’s the equivalent of wiping down your phone every day for the three years you might own it. Even after all that wiping, the coating was still in good condition. My fingers, on the other hand, not so much.
Of course, as Stern points out in her article, actually finding Clorox Disinfecting Wipes may be difficult right now. They are largely out of stock on places like Amazon. But I can see the value in using these. It would be a shame to have germs on your fingers that you transfer to your iPhone screen such that even after you wash your hands, your fingers come in contact with the germs again after you touch your screen again.
Moreover, I can see this being an even bigger issue if you have an iPhone or iPad screen that is touched by multiple people. Just yesterday, I was picking up a to-go lunch at a great spot in New Orleans, St. James Cheese Company. Like many other vendors, they use an iPad-based cash register system so when you pay with a credit card you sign your name using a finger on the iPad screen. Yesterday, I noticed in that restaurant a sign that they have disabled the signature requirement to reduce the risk of spreading the COVID-19 virus:
That was a risk that had not even occurred to me before seeing that sign. An article by Betsy McKay in the Wall Street Journal yesterday says that, according to the World Health Organization, a “recent review of 22 studies found that coronaviruses can last on surfaces such as metal, glass or plastic from two hours up to nine days.” I never realized that, in touching a public iPad screen, I might be touching germs from anyone else who had touched the same device within the past nine days.
Of course you don’t want to panic, and I’m not suggesting that you go crazy with cleaning the screens of all of your devices. Nevertheless, it is always good to know what you can do to be prepared and play it safe, whether you are using your on iPhone or iPad or you are touching the screen of a device that belongs to someone else.