Next generation AI is the most exciting new development in all of technology, including legal technology. For the last few weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to try CoCounsel, a service from Casetext that uses the power of ChatGPT 4 but applies it to cases and statutes so that, among other things, you can ask a legal research question and get a legal memorandum in just a few minutes. Sometimes the memos are great; other times, they look like something that even a first-year associate would not be proud of. But all technology is simple when it starts—heck, how long did we have to wait for the iPhone to gain copy-and-paste?—and it is obvious that this technology will improve over time. Given this vast potential, I’m was not surprised to learn that Thomson Reuters, which of course owns Westlaw, purchased Casetext this week. Attorney Bob Ambrogi of LawSites interviewed Casetext CEO Jake Heller to discuss the acquisition. As someone who does a lot of legal research in my appellate law practice, I have to admit that I’m incredibly excited. Taking the AI in CoCounsel and adding to that the headnotes from Westlaw cases plus the fantastic articles in PracticalLaw has the potential to be an incredible legal research tool as this technology develops. And it is not just the lawyers (and their clients) who stand to benefit from next-generation AI. As Apple incorporates this same technology into its products, devices like the iPhone can become even more helpful. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- Thanks to the improvements to iPadOS over the years and the power of the iPad Pro, the gap between an iPad Pro and a computer gets smaller every year. Fernando Silva of 9to5Mac points out some iPadOS 17 features like improved Stage Manager, external webcam support, and other improvements that will let you get even more work done with an iPad.
- Every iPhone since the iPhone 6 comes with an NFC chip that can be used to communicate with other devices and even NFC stickers that are within close range, but until now, there hasn’t been much you could do with this feature. Dan Moren explains in an article for Macworld how this will change in iOS 17.
- Attorney John Voorhees of MacStories reviews the Belkin BoostCharge Pro, a 10,000 mAh battery that has a built-in spot to recharge an Apple Watch. I own an Anker device that is about the same size, and I love this form factor. It is big enough to give you some impressive additional battery life while being small enough that it is easy to carry around in a purse or briefcase. Or sometimes even a pocket, but for that I prefer the smaller Apple MagSafe Battery Pack—a device that I just used last night when I needed some extra power for my iPhone but I was out and about and couldn’t plug in my iPhone.
- Lance Whitney of PCMag describes useful features of the built-in Notes app on the iPhone.
- For a very long time, I tried to close all of my Apple Watch circles every day. Due to an injury to my Achilles’ heel that required a recent surgery, a cast, and then a boot (which I am still not quite done wearing), those days are on hold for me right now. Nevertheless, when I did pursue this goal, I thought it was a major flaw that Apple didn’t give you a way to take a day off without ending your streak. Continuing a long streak was often the very thing that often gave me the encouragement to work out when otherwise I was hearing a compelling argument from my couch about watching TV. According to Dan Moren in an article at Six Colors, I’m not the only one with this idea.
- The main reason that I put Apple’s Calendar app in my dock is so that I can see the current date. Justin Myers of Gadget Hacks identifies a few other things that you can see in the app icons on an iPhone.
- Now that Apple devices are gaining support for the Matter standard, Bradley Chambers of 9to5Mac notes that you can start to use the inexpensive and well-liked WiZ light bulbs.
- Attorney Stephen Embry offers some thoughts on how the Apple Vision Pro may change the way that lawyers work on his TechLaw Crossroads blog.
- If you have ever used one of the headset devices currently on the market, you know that you have no sense of the world around you, making it very easy to bump into people, pets, furniture, sliding glass doors, etc. Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac explains how Apple seeks to prevent this with the Vision Pro: when you are in an immersive VR experience, the safe area is limited to five feet in each direction—i.e., a 10×10 feet area. Go beyond that and you will once again start to see your surroundings in the Vision Pro. His post also includes a YouTube video with lots of “fail” examples of people using a headset, just in case you want to see why this is an important consideration.
- I’ve always been someone who thought that 3D movies were a good idea in theory, but in practice they rarely made sense. I hate how a 3D movie is darker than a non-3D movie, and the home experience on even a large TV never quite worked for me. But with the Apple Vision Pro, 3D movies may make sense for the first time ever. Joe Rosensteel wrote a fascinating article for Six Colors about how 3D movies are made and some of the considerations in this process.
- Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac reports that a woman in the Los Angeles area who broke her leg while hiking was airlifted to safety by helicopter thanks to her iPhone 14’s Emergency SOS via Satellite feature.
- And finally, there is a new show on Apple TV+ starring the always great Idris Elba called Hijack. It is getting great reviews, and I cannot wait to check it out—right after I catch up on the great show Silo (I missed last week’s episode and the season finale is out this weekend). Hijack takes place in real time over seven hours, similar to the old 24 TV show. Here is an Inside Look about the show that doesn’t seem to include any real spoilers but does provide some interesting information on how the series was filmed: