Early this morning, Apple started to take pre-orders for the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and Apple Watch Series 3. I’m not getting one of those iPhones because I am waiting for the iPhone X. And while I’m sure that one day I’ll have an Apple Watch with LTE, I don’t yet know how useful it will be for me, so I’ll probably wait to the Series 4 before I upgrade from my current Series 2. If you like to run outside and don’t want to have to carry an iPhone with you, or otherwise like to leave an iPhone behind and do things with just an Apple Watch, or if you have an older Apple Watch and want the speed increases that came with the Series 2 and which are even better with the Series 3, then the Series 3 Apple Watch may be perfect for you. And now, the news of note from the week, all of which relate to Apple’s announcements:
California attorney David Sparks discusses the new “A11 Bionic” chip that Apple is putting in its new iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X.
If you watched the video of Apple’s announcement of the iPhone X, you saw that when Apple VP Craig Federighi first tried to demonstrate Face ID, it looked like it didn’t work. Some thought that was an indication of a problem with the technology. In fact, as explained by David Pogue of Yahoo, it was a demonstration that Face ID was working perfectly.
And finally, Apple released a bunch of interesting videos this week. If you are interested in the iPhone X, here is a good one in which Apple Chief Design Officer Jony Ive shows it off:
Yesterday, Apple introduced the 2017 versions of the iPhone. There are three models. The iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus are incremental but nevertheless nice upgrades from the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. The iPhone X (pronounced “10”) is a radical new design, featuring a gorgeous, edge-to-edge screen that is larger than the screen on an iPhone 8 Plus even though the device itself is closer to the size of an iPhone 8. If you are a lawyer or other professional who uses an iPhone to get work done, these are amazing devices. Here are the details of each model that stood out to me.
iPhone 8
I’ll start by discussing what is new compared to the iPhone 7, but I know that many of you will be upgrading from older models, so I’ll discuss that too.
Like the iPhone 7, the iPhone 8 features a 4.7″ screen. And at 5.45 inches x 2.65 inches x .29 inches deep, the iPhone 8 is virtually the same size as the iPhone 7. The main improvements in the iPhone 8 are that it is faster and has wireless charging.
Faster. The iPhone 8 uses Apple’s new A11 processor, which can run 30% faster than the A10 in the iPhone 7 — and even faster for apps that use multiple processors at one time. The A11 will also let the iPhone 8 work better with artificial intelligence applications, such as augmented reality.
Wireless charging. The size of the iPhone 8 is essentially the same as the iPhone 7 — so much so that cases designed for one will work with the other. But now, the front and back of the iPhone 8 is covered in glass (50% more durable than the iPhone 7), and there is an aluminum band around the side. The design looks really nice. With this new glass casing, the iPhone can now be charged by any device that complies with the Qi standard (pronounced “Chee” and based on the Chinese word for natural energy). Qi is not an Apple design; it is a standard that has been out for many years now. Thus, you can already buy many products featuring a flat top; just put the iPhone 8 on top of that surface, and it starts to charge.
Apple itself plans to its own Qi charger next year called the AirPower, which will let you charge an iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods just by placing them on the AirPower.
I can see it being nice to have a Qi device on your desk at work or on a counter at home. Just set down your iPhone and the iPhone will charge while it is sitting there. Having said that, it’s not like it is that hard to plug in an iPhone to a Lightning cord or a dock. Eight years ago, you could purchase a Touchstone for wireless charging of a Palm Pre. Qi technology has also been around for a while. And yet, wireless smartphone charging has not been a big thing yet. Is that just because the iPhone didn’t support it? Or is that because it is only a slight convenience and not worth the extra expense? I honestly don’t know, but with wireless charging available as an option for all of the 2017 iPhones, I guess we will find out soon enough.
By the way, I believe that wireless charging will work even if your iPhone is in a case. Apple says that all of its new iPhone cases work with wireless charging, so I presume that this will also be true for third-party cases.
Faster charging. Apple hasn’t commented on the speed of wireless charging, but I presume it is slower than using a cord. I’ve mentioned in the past that you can use a USB-C charger to charge an iPad Pro much faster. With the iPhone 8, you can use a USB-C charger to get up to a 50% charge in only 30 minutes. Thus, my guess is that the iPhone 8 gives you easy-and-convenient wireless charging, faster USB-to-Lightning charger, and even faster USB-C-to-Lightning charging.
True Tone display. Like the iPhone 7, the iPhone 8 features what Apple calls a Retina HD display. The iPhone 8 adds True Tone, a technology that automatically adjusts the display based on the light around you. True Tone makes the screen look better and easier to read, whether you are in bright sunlight or in a dark room. (True Tone is already on the iPad Pro.)
Better camera. The new A11 processor has an image signal processor which allows the camera to take even better pictures, especially in low light. And if you want to take 4K video, you can now do so at 60 fps instead of 30 fps on the iPhone 7. The flash is also better.
Bluetooth 5.0. While the iPhone 7 included Bluetooth 4.2, the iPhone 8 has the new Bluetooth 5.0 standard. While Bluetooth 4.2 has a range of up to about 30 feet, Bluetooth 5.0 has a range of up to about 260 feet. It is also faster, making it possible to send higher quality audio over Bluetooth. And it can work with two devices at once, which I suspect means that two people could use wireless headphones such as AirPods with a single iPhone, or you could have two wireless speakers connected to one iPhone.
Price. A year ago, the iPhone 7 came in 32 GB ($649), 128 GB ($749) and 256 GB ($849). This year, the iPhone 8 comes in 64 GB ($699) and 256 GB ($849). You can either pay the full price, or you can make monthly payments either with the Apple iPhone Upgrade Program (which gets you a new iPhone every year) or an installment plan with a carrier.
Worth the upgrade? If you are currently using an iPhone 7, the new features such as the faster processor and wireless charging will certainly make the experience of using an iPhone even better, but it is probably not a major upgrade. But if your iPhone is two or more years old — such as if you are using an iPhone 6 or iPhone 6s — the iPhone 8 is a major upgrade. The processor speed increase will be even more dramatic for you, meaning that your new iPhone will seem even more responsive. The Retina HD screen first introduced with the iPhone 7 looks much better. Unlike the iPhone 6s and earlier models, the iPhone 8 is rated IP67 for water resistance, which means that you get complete protection against dust, and in theory the iPhone could be up to 1 meter deep in water for up to 30 minutes and it would still work. I don’t encourage you to drop it into water, but if it gets a little wet, it should be fine. And you will also get much better speakers, a much better camera, and other new features. It will be a great upgrade for you.
iPhone 8 Plus
The iPhone 8 Plus includes all of the features of the iPhone 8, but it is larger: 6.24 inches x 3.07 inches x .30 inches deep. (It is also heavier, at 7.13 ounces versus the iPhone 8’s 5.22 ounces.)
For me, the larger size of the Plus model has been a disadvantage; I have always found the larger size holder to hold and fit in a pocket. Thus, I have never purchased a Plus model.
But if you can live with the larger physical size, you get to appreciate the Plus advantages: (1) a larger 5.5″ screen, (2) a second lens for the camera, which not only gives you an optical zoom feature, but also lets you take pictures using Apple’s cool portrait mode (which blurs the background much like an SLR camera), and (3) longer battery life.
The camera on the iPhone 8 Plus is better than the iPhone 7 Plus in one way: you can now use what Apple calls Portrait Lighting to adjust the lighting on a person’s face when you take a picture. This is a digital effect using the more sophisticated A11 processor and the dual-lens system — it’s not like there is an actual flash producing the different lighting effects — but even so, this feature looks powerful and useful. Andrew Orr of The Mac Observer did a good job of describing the different Portrait Lighting modes:
One of the highlights of the new cameras is called Portrait Lighting. This emulates professional studio lighting by using facial detection and depth maps. These are combined into Portrait Mode to present five different lighting options: Natural Light, Studio Light, Contour Light, Stage Light, and Stage Light Mono.
Natural Light is what you’d expect. It takes a portrait of your subject with a blurred background and the face in focus. Studio Light brightens up the face more. Contour Light gives your subject’s face more dramatic shadows and highlights. Stage Light gives a chiaroscuro effect that puts an artificial black background behind your subject. The subject’s face is sharply lit as if a light were shining on them. Finally, Stage Light Mono is the same as Stage Light, but in black and white.
The iPhone 8 Plus costs $100 more than the iPhone 8. Thus, you can get a 64 GB model for $799, or a 256 GB model for $949.
iPhone X
I’ve always thought that folks like me who have been jealous of the larger screen, better camera and better battery life of the Plus models, but who didn’t want a larger phone, had unreasonable expectations. After all, how you can you get a bigger screen without getting a bigger phone?
Apparently, the answer is that you remove virtually all of the bezel on the phone — including the bottom part of the iPhone which has featured a button since the very first iPhone was introduced ten years ago. With this beautiful new edge-to-edge screen, you get an iPhone which is only slightly larger than the iPhone 8, but which features an even larger screen than the iPhone 8 Plus.
The new screen is not a complete rectangle. There is a slight notch at the top center, which Apple uses for a bunch of cameras and other sensors. (More on that in a moment.) But you get much more screen space to get your work done.
With the iPhone X, you get all of the features of the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, plus the following additional features:
The screen. On my goodness, the screen. I’ve already mentioned that it is larger, so you will be able to see even more of your emails, your documents, your spreadsheets, etc. allowing you get get even more work done even on a small device. The 5.8″ screen is even larger than the 5.5″ screen of the iPhone 8 Plus.
I remember when the original iPhone came out and BlackBerry users worried about the lack of a physical keyboard. Of course, the reason that the iPhone design was better is that it is wasteful to devote half of the front of the device to a keyboard that you don’t need to use all of the time. Similarly, the iPhone X eliminates the waste of a bezel around the phone, replacing it with an edge-to-edge screen. It took ten years to get here, but the iPhone X seems like the design that the iPhone has always wanted to be.
The screen also looks better, featuring what Apple calls the new Super Retina HD display. This is first iPhone to use an OLED HDR screen, which means that blacks look darker and colors look brighter. The iPhone 8 has a 1400:1 contrast ratio; the iPhone X has a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio. The folks who were able to see it in person yesterday said that it looked fantastic.
Face ID. By replacing the bottom part of the iPhone, which used to have the home button, with more screen, Apple needed to come up with alternatives to the home button. One change is that instead of pressing the button to see your apps, you swipe up from the bottom of the screen to see your apps. Another change is that instead of holding down the home button to bring up Siri or double-tapping the home button (on the lock screen) to bring up Apple Pay, now you hold down the (larger) side button to bring up Siri and double-tap that side button to bring up Apple Pay.
But Apple also needed a way to replace the Touch ID fingerprint sensor in the home button, and Apple decided to instead use Face ID, which authenticates that you are really you by recognizing your face. The TrueDepth camera analyzes more than 30,000 (invisible) dots on your face to create a precise, 3D depth map of your face. After you teach the iPhone X what you look like, you can simply look at the screen to unlock the phone, or to authenticate yourself to use Apple Pay.
Apple said yesterday that Touch ID had an error rate of 1 in 50,000, whereas Face ID has a error rate of 1 in 1,000,000. That certainly sounds good, and I look forward to seeing how it works in practice. Apple says that Face ID is smart enough to keep working if you put on glasses or makeup, grow facial hair, etc. Apple warns that if you have an identical twin, or even a sibling who looks a lot like you, Face ID may make mistakes. (So Apple joked yesterday that if you have an evil twin, you might want to use a passcode instead of Face ID.)
Face ID currently only works with one face. I have one of my wife’s fingerprints stored in my iPhone 7 Touch ID, and she does the same for me, so that we can pick up and quickly use each other’s phone when necessary. With the iPhone X, that won’t work.
I think of Face ID as a way to get around the lack of Touch ID so that you can have the bigger screen. Nevertheless, I’m intrigued to see if Face ID might be even better than Touch ID. Whenever you pick up your iPhone to use it, of course you are going to look at it. If the act of looking at it also unlocks your phone, saving you the trouble of using your fingerprint, that sounds great.
The Face ID technology appears to have some other advantages. For example, if the iPhone senses that you are still looking at the screen, it can be configured to keep the screen lit. This technology can also improve the camera, so let’s turn to that next.
Better camera.If you have never used a Plus model iPhone, the iPhone X camera will be a big improvement because of the dual lens system on the back, including a telephoto lens. I’m really looking forward to that. But the iPhone X is even an improvement over the iPhone 8 Plus because the telephoto lens has an f/2.4 aperture instead of an f/2.8 aperture, which should allow you to take sharper pictures with less blur even with less light. And unlike the iPhone 8 Plus, both lenses on the iPhone X have optical image stabilization, resulting in sharper pictures and less shaky videos.
Not only is the camera on the back better, but the front-facing camera is also better — I presume in part because this camera needs to be good for Face ID to work. As a result, you can now take portrait pictures using the front camera. Now only does this mean that you can have better selfies, but it also allows for some new technologies. For example, Apple showed off a demo of impressive Snapchat filters which can digitally change your face in real time. And Apple is also updating its Clips app so that the new front-facing camera can immerse you in 360º animated landscapes. And you can now create an animated emoji which apple calls an animoji; the iPhone analyzes more than 50 muscle movements in your face and then mirrors your expressions on panda bear, cat, alien, unicorn, rabbit, or even the poop emoji.
Better battery. Even though the iPhone X is close to the size of the iPhone 8, Apple says that the battery lasts about two hours longer. Thus, you can enjoy additional battery life without having to use the much larger Plus model.
Price. The iPhone X costs $300 more than the iPhone 8 and $200 more than the iPhone 8 Plus. Thus, you can get the 64 GB model for $999, or a 256 GB model for $1149.
Availability
You can place pre-orders for the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus as soon as Friday, September 15, with the first devices shipping a week later on September 22. But Apple needs a little more time to finish the iPhone X, so pre-orders don’t start until Friday, October 27, with the first units shipping a week later on November 3, 2017.
My guess is that Apple will have far more demand than supply for the iPhone X, and that very few folks will get an iPhone X on or close to November 3. I hope that I am wrong, but I predict that getting an iPhone X during the 2017 holiday season will be almost as hard as getting a Cabbage Patch doll during the 1983 holiday season.
Conclusion
One of the reasons that I love using a 12.9″ iPad Pro is that I love using a high-quality large screen to read and annotate documents, look at exhibits, or even just surf the Internet or look at photos and videos. Having a larger and better screen helps me to be more productive, and have more fun, with my iPad.
Using that same logic, I’ve always understood the appeal of the Plus model of the iPhone, starting with the iPhone 6 Plus introduced three years ago. But in practice, that Plus-size iPhone just felt too big in my hand and against my face when on the phone — making me feel like Maxwell Smart using a shoe phone to place a call.
Thus, for me, the iPhone X seems like the perfect solution: all of the advantages of a larger Plus model, but in a size that is much closer to a non-Plus model, which I have been using for many years. Add to that the best screen that Apple has ever shipped with an iPhone — and I suspect that best screen that has ever shipped with any smartphone — and this device seems fantastic. Yes, it costs $300 more than the iPhone 8 (or $200 more than the Plus model), but it seems very much worth it to me to have the best possible screen for a device that I am going to look at every single day, multiple times a day, both to get work done and also for entertainment.
Today at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern, Apple will give a keynote presentation at the brand new Steve Jobs Theater, part of Apple’s brand new Apple Park campus in Cupertino, CA. We will definitely see the 2017 versions of the iPhone, and we may also see a new Apple Watch, new Apple TV, and more. Apple loves to make surprise announcements, so anything is possible today.
It appears that, a few days ago, a rogue Apple employee tried to ruin some of the surprise by intentionally leaking some of the details of today’s announcements. I cannot comment on the content of those leaks because I decided not to read the stories this past weekend. I think that it is more fun to see how Apple itself decides to announce its new hardware and software.
You can visit this page on Apple’s website to watch a live stream of the event. If you cannot watch it live, Apple typically posts a recording of the video a few hours after the event.
I’m often asked if I can recommend a good introductory course for using an iPad in a law practice, and for a while now, I haven’t had a great answer. For example, the book iPad in One Hour for Lawyers by Tom Mighell was very good when it came out in 2011, but it is now outdated. Fortunately, now I have an excellent recommendation: a new online course created by Brett Burney called iPractice on an iPad. Brett Burney started out as a practicing attorney, but then shifted his career towards helping other lawyers use technology. Brett really knows his stuff, and is a past chair of the ABA TECHSHOW. He also publishes the excellent Apps in Law website and podcast. Better yet, Brett is an excellent presenter; I have been impressed both when I have seen him give presentations, and also when he and I have co-presented.
The online course that Brett created has numerous video lessons and associated materials. In total, there is about three hours of video. In the videos, Brett uses both slides and live presentations of iPad software to make it easy to follow all of his advice. And you can pause the video or go back and watch a section again so that you can learn at your own pace.
Brett gave me a sneak peak of his entire course, and the parts that I watched were incredibly informative. The focus of this course is on file management & PDF annotation, and Brett tells you everything that you need to know to store and annotate tons of documents on your iPad. He recommends great apps, and shows you how to use them in your law practice.
You can get a good sense of what the course is like by viewing this video preview of the course:
The cost is $197, and that includes the ability to watch the course as much as you want and watch any updated sections in the future. Brett offers a 30 day money back guarantee (see his website for details) so you can be sure that you are going to find value in this program.
Brett was also nice enough to offer a discount for a limited number of iPhone J.D. readers. If you are one of the first 10 people to use the coupon code “20iphonejd” when you sign up, you will receive a $20 discount.
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This article won the BlawgWorld Pick of the Week award. The editors of BlawgWorld, a free weekly email newsletter for lawyers and law firm administrators, give this award to one article every week that they feel is a must-read for this audience
Next week, on Tuesday, we will find out what the 2017 version of the iPhone looks like. Rumors are that we will see a traditional upgrade to the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, plus a third model with an edge-to-edge OLED screen and authentication by scanning your face instead of Touch ID. My prediction is that Apple will call the new model the “Pro” and will use a naming scheme like iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone 8 Pro. (California attorney David Sparks is thinking the same thing.) But whatever they call it, I cannot wait to learn about the new features, especially new features that have not yet leaked or been guessed by the press. And now, the news of note from the past week:
Florida attorney Katie Floyd provides technology tips for preparing for a big storm. Good luck to everyone in Florida who is preparing for Hurricane Irma right now. As an attorney in New Orleans, I know first-hand what you are going through. Be prepared, and be safe.
If you are a member of Costco, John Levite of iMore reports on some great savings on iTunes gift cards. For example, you can get a $100 card for only $84.49, and a $200 card for only $164.99. You only get this discount on the online Costco store.
I’m in the the process of (slowly) going through the catalog of James Bond movies with my kids. (We are currently in the Roger Moore years.) The older movies are dated, but still have some really fun moments in them. Tatiana Siegel and Borys Kit of The Hollywood Reporter say that both Apple and Amazon are bidding for the rights to James Bond so that they can develop future TV shows, movies, etc. based on the character — not unlike what Disney is in the process of doing with the Star Wars franchise. I look forward to seeing Q give 007 a tricked-out iPhone along with other gadgets to use to save the day.
And finally, although what Apple announces on Tuesday is sure to be interesting, where Apple is doing so is just as interesting: the new Steve Jobs Theater at the Apple Park campus. Dancan Sinfield recently took some drone footage of the Steve Jobs Theater and it is in this video. Of course, you cannot see much because only the entrance to the theater is above ground level, but it is still neat to get a peak:
I don’t use a keyboard with my iPad all the time, so for me, it is overkill to have an iPad case with a keyboard built-in. There is no reason to add extra weight to my iPad all of the time. But when I do use a keyboard, I want it to be a good keyboard so that I can type just as easily as if I was using the PC in my office or my Mac at home. For a long time now, Apple has made one of the best Bluetooth keyboards for the iPad. First, Apple made the Apple Wireless Keyboard. On October 15, 2015, Apple retired the Apple Wireless Keyboard and replaced it with the thinner and lighter Apple Magic Keyboard. Perhaps one of the reasons that these keyboards are so good is that they are not designed to just be iPad keyboards; these are the same keyboards that Apple has sold with its desktop computers such as the iMac.
Apple’s keyboards don’t come with any sort of a case. If you are carrying them around in a purse or briefcase, this means that it is possible for something to get under a key cap and break off a key. It has never happened to me, but I know other attorneys who have met this fate. Thus, it makes sense to have a case for the keyboard.
Back in 2012, I reviewed a great keyboard case called the Origami Workstation for iPad by Incase. That product provided a cover for the Apple Wireless Keyboard, and as a bonus also folded into a stand so that you could prop up an iPad while you used the keyboard. But Incase did not update that product in 2015 when Apple released the Apple Magic Keyboard.
Studio Neat filled that void by creating the Canopy, a product that works with the Apple Magic Keyboard and is even better than that old Origami Workstation. Studio Neat sent me a free review unit of this $40 product, and I have been trying it out for the last few weeks. It works really well.
A case
The Canopy works great as a case. It uses micro-suction pads – not glue. They keep the Apple Magic Keyboard firmly in place. But you can remove the keyboard from the Canopy without leaving a mark, and these suction pads don’t lose their stickiness when you remove the keyboard.
To protect the keyboard, just fold up the Canopy around it, and snap the button. It would be virtually impossible for something in your briefcase or purse to damage the Apple Magic Keyboard when it is inside of the Canopy.
One of the nice features of the Apple Magic Keyboard is that it is thin and light. Fortunately, the Canopy is as well. The exterior is a synthetic canvas which is strong but light. And it has a nice professional look to it as well. I will often walk around my office to go to a meeting room with my Apple Pencil in a shirt or coat pocket and my iPad Pro and the Canopy (with keyboard) in one hand. With that combination, I can use my keyboard to type notes as if I want to type, or I can use my Apple Pencil to write or annotate whenever that makes more sense for whatever work I am doing.
Moreover, because the Canopy and keyboard are so thin and light, you can just keep them in a briefcase, purse, messenger bag, etc. all of the time. That way, you have the keyboard for whenever you need it, but it is out of the way if you don’t need it.
The interior of the Canopy is a soft microfiber, so it won’t scratch the keyboard when you fold the Canopy around it.
A stand
When typing with an external keyboard, you will usually want the iPad screen to be propped up. I use an Apple Smart Cover for my iPad, and it folds up into a stand that props up my iPad at a nice angle. But with enough pressure, the Smart Cover-as-stand will collapse.
In contrast, the Canopy is very strong when it is being used as a stand. You simply unfold the Canopy and use the leather strap and stainless steel snap to create a sort of a tent to act as the stand. The snap is very secure, so the stand is very secure as well. I have been using the Canopy with my iPad Pro 12.9″ and even though this larger version of the iPad Pro is wider than the Canopy itself, the Canopy has no trouble holding this larger and wider iPad.
And by the way, if — like me — you used to use the Incase Origami Workstation, the Canopy is much better. Unlike the Origami Workstation which used Velcro straps which wore down over time, the snap is very strong.
I’ve used the Canopy with my iPad Pro over the last few weeks both when I have been in a meeting in a conference room in my office, and also when I was traveling and relying on my iPad to get all of my work done. Whether I was in my office, at a meeting outside of the office, or in a hotel room catching up on work at the end of the day, the Canopy worked really well.
I didn’t try smaller iPads with the Canopy, but I’m sure that they would work just as well. I did try an iPhone, and that also worked — although I only rarely have a need to use an external keyboard with an iPhone. The Canopy is specifically designed for the Apple Magic Keyboard, so I doubt it would work with any other keyboard. But you can put any size iOS device in the stand, so even if you currently use an older 9.7″ iPad and you plan to update to a 12.9″ iPad Pro, the Canopy will continue to work great with different iPad sizes.
An iPad (or iPhone) just sits right behind the keyboard on the Canopy when it is in its stand mode. It works really great on a table. But if you are planning to put the Canopy on your lap, I didn’t find that very stable with my iPad Pro 12.9″. It works just OK if you are laying back on a couch or bed. Thus, the Canopy works best when you are at a table.
Although my second-generation iPad Pro 12.9″ is still running iOS 10, I also have a first-generation iPad Pro 12.9″ which is running the beta version if iOS 11. In iOS 11, you need to swipe up from the bottom to make the dock appear when you are in another app, and you need to swipe up from the bottom to make the Control Center appear. Those functions worked great on an iPad Pro 12.9″ even when the iPad was sitting in the Canopy stand.
I don’t have access to a new 10.5″ iPad Pro running iOS 11, but I know that the 10.5″ iPad Pro has an even thinner bezel. I mention this because I don’t know if the thinner bezel will make it harder to swipe from the bottom of the screen in iOS 11 while it is sitting in the Canopy being used as a case. I’ll update this post whenever I have a chance to test that out.
[UPDATE: Here is what Studio Neat told me about the 10.5″ iPad Pro and the Canopy: “On the 10.5” iPad Pro, the keyboard does not obstruct the screen, but it is indeed difficult to swipe up from the bottom edge due to the reduced bezel size. Thankfully, Apple has implemented a keyboard shortcut in iOS 11 to bring up the dock (Command + Option + D).” That’s a good point, and frankly a keyboard shortcut sounds faster than swiping up anyway.]
Conclusion
This is the third product I have reviewed from the folks at Studio Neat, and every single one of them has been excellent — featuring a clever design, high-quality materials and nice construction. (I previously reviewed the Material Dock and the Glif + Hand Grip.) These guys know what they are doing.
The Apple Magic Keyboard is a great external Bluetooth keyboard for the iPad, but the Canopy by Studio Neat turns it into a much better and more useful product. The Incase Origami Workstation was a pretty good product for its time, but the Canopy + Apple Magic Keyboard combination is better in every way: smaller, lighter, more stable, and longer-lasting thanks to the use of a snap instead of Velcro. Indeed, the Canopy works so well that it makes me want to use an external keyboard with my iPad even more, and this is good timing for that because iOS 11 will have even better keyboard support when it comes out this month.
Thank you to Lit Software for sponsoring iPhone J.D. this month. This company produces three of the very best iPad apps designed for attorneys: TrialPad, TranscriptPad and DocReviewPad. TrialPad (my review) was first released in 2010 — the same year that the iPad itself debuted — and has seen numerous major updates over the years. If you want to present evidence to a jury, judge, or other audience, the app gives you powerful tools for displaying and annotating documents, including the Callout tool that most jurors expect to see nowadays. There is a recent post on the Lit Software blog explaining how Arlington, TX attorney Chase Ware uses TrialPad.
In my own litigation practice, I spend a lot of time working with deposition transcripts, such as preparing for a motion for summary judgment. Thus, TranscriptPad (my review) is the Lit Software app that I use the most. Whether I am drafting a motion, or I am in a subsequent deposition and I want to quickly see all of the relevant testimony on a subject during prior depositions, TranscriptPad does exactly what I need. On several occasions, other attorneys have watched me use TranscriptPad and then remarked that they need to get an iPad. When an app is so useful that it is a reason for attorneys to buy an iPad, you know it is a good app. There is a recent post on the Lit Software blog explaining how Virginia attorney Brandon Osterbind uses TranscriptPad (and TrialPad).
DocReviewApp (my review) is the newest app from Lit Software. This is an app that you can use to review and annotate documents on your iPad, so this app is especially useful during the request for production of documents process.
Thanks to Lit Software for sponsoring iPhone J.D. this month, and more importantly, a big thank you to Lit Software for doing more than any other company when it comes to designing fantastic iPad apps specifically for attorneys.
Click here to get TrialPad ($129.99):
Click here to get TranscriptPad ($89.99):
Click here for DocReviewPad ($89.99):
Click here for the Ultimate Litigation Package (all three apps) ($299.99):
If you are an iPhone enthusiast like I am, then September is the most magical time of the year. Since 2012, September has been the month that Apple announces all of the new features of the next generation of the iPhone. This year, ten years after Apple introduced the first iPhone in 2007, there is even more anticipation than normal because of rumors that Apple is introducing not only a normal and plus (larger) version of the iPhone, but also a higher-end model that I suspect Apple will call the iPhone Pro. Yesterday, Apple announced that its September event will take place on Tuesday, September 12 at 10 Pacific / 1 Eastern. The invitation says “Let’s meet at our place.” For the first time, the event will take place at the brand new Steve Jobs Theater on Apple’s brand new Apple Park campus — which also features a circle-shaped, 2.8 million-square-foot main building surrounded by the world’s largest panels of curved glass. I’m very excited to see what Apple will show us in less than two weeks. And now, the news of note from the past week:
Dorothy Atkins of Law360 reports that a California trial court judge dismissed with prejudice a lawsuit against Apple claiming it had some liability for the death of a college student who was killed when another driver was texting on his iPhone instead of paying attention to the road. The judge ruled: “The chain of causation alleged by the plaintiffs in this case is far too attenuated for a reasonable person to conclude that Apple’s conduct is or was a substantial factor in causing plaintiff’s harm.”
According to Ben Arnold of The NPD Group, 900,000 totally wireless headphone units have been sold in 2017, and Apple’s AirPods account for an astounding 85% of those sales. Even though AirPods have been on sale since December of 2016, there is still a backlog when you purchase them. (They are currently shown as shipping in 2-3 weeks on Apple’s website.) I can understand why; I use mine every day, and they are one of my all-time favorite Apple products.
Ben Court and Spencer Lowell of Men’s Health got an inside look at the Apple lab that tests people exercising with an Apple Watch to improve the fitness features.
If you liked the Sphero version of BB-8 that you could control with your iPhone, you’re going to love Sphero’s new Star Wars droids.
And finally, Nicole Lee of Engadget discusses an upcoming product from Lenovo that works with the iPhone called Star Wars: Jedi Challenges. It uses your iPhone, an AR headset, and a Bluetooth lightsaber to make you feel like you are Rey fighting Kylo Ren, or even play Holochess. It will cost $199, and I suspect that it will be on many of Santa’s lists this year. That Engadget post includes a video that gives you a sense of what it will look like when you wear the device. Here is the official video preview for the product:
Way back on April 10, 2009, I decided to round up some interesting stories from the past week and link to them in a post called In the news. Today’s post is the 400th edition of In the news. (For some background on these posts, see In the news #100.) So much has changed in the iPhone universe in the 8+ years since that first post. Here is one example that was in the news this week: Siri. Apple introduced Siri in October 2011 with the iPhone 4S and iOS 5. Since then, Siri has gotten a lot smarter, but Siri also sounds different as Apple has improved the voice. Apple now publishes an online publication called the Machine Learning Journal, which features academic articles on artificial intelligence. The latest edition features an article from the Siri Team. Most of the article is rather technical, but I encourage you to look at the article and scroll down to the very end to the section called “A New Voice.” That part of the article features phrases with multiple play buttons so that you can hear what Siri sounds like in iOS 9, in iOS 10, and in the upcoming iOS 11 that Apple is expected to release in just a few weeks. One thing that you cannot miss is that the new female voice in iOS 11 is a very different voice from iOS 10. The original Siri voice was in iOS 5, based on voice recordings by Susan Bennett. (Here is a TEDx presentation by Bennett giving some details on that.) Starting with iOS 7, Apple stopped using Bennett’s voice recordings, but every Siri voice up to iOS 10 sounded to me like an incremental change from iOS 5. That’s changing now. As the article states: “For iOS 11, we chose a new female voice talent with the goal of improving the naturalness, personality, and expressivity of Siri’s voice. We evaluated hundreds of candidates before choosing the best one. Then, we recorded over 20 hours of speech and built a new TTS [text-to-speech] voice using the new deep learning based TTS technology. As a result, the new US English Siri voice sounds better than ever.” It will take some time to get used to this new Siri, but such is the price of progress. And now, here is the news of note from the past week:
California attorney David Sparks and Florida attorney Katie Floyd released one of my all-time favorite episodes of their long-running Mac Power Users podcast this week. In episode 392, the topic is must-have iOS utilities, and they discuss a ton of useful apps. All of the apps are listed in the show notes, but you need to listen to the episode to hear about what these apps can do. There are some real gems in there.
On Brett Burney’s Apps in Law website, he discusses Timeline 3D for iOS, an app that you can use to create timelines that you can use in court.
Chicago attorney John Voorhees of MacStories discusses Luna Display, a hardware accessory that turns your iPad into a second display for your Mac.
Speaking of John Voorhees, on August 22, the aforementioned David Sparks recommended TextTool 2, an $4.99 iOS app with lots of tools for manipulating text. On David’s recommendation, I bought the app that same day. I barely had a chance to use the app before David posted on August 23 that the developer had discontinued the app, and I see that it is no longer on the App Store. Well, so much for that five dollars. David then recommended a $2.99 app called Clean Text, which was recommended to David by John Voorhees. I purchased Clean Text, and I actually like it much better then the recently deceased TextTool 2. It does a great job of cleaning up text. Plus it has the added advantage of still being alive on the App Store — always a useful feature for an app.
Brian X. Chen of the New York Times discusses some of the features that have made the iPhone great for the past 10 years. He also says that sources tell him that Apple will soon announce a premium version of the iPhone that will start at $999. (Since Apple already uses “Pro” to designate premium versions of other products such as the iPad, my guess is that this will be called the iPhone Pro.)
What do you do when you, or your client, needs to access data on an iPhone of someone who is deceased? Joseph Keller of iMore has a few tips that might work.
John Gruber of Daring Fireball discusses AccuWeather’s response to the discovery that its app was sending locating-identifying information to a company that makes money from that information, even if you turned-off location tracking in the app.
I’ve been trying out the beta version of iOS 11 on an old iPad. I love it, but there is a learning curve associated with the new features. Realizing this, Apple produced six short, informative, and entertaining videos called How to do even more with iPad Pro and iOS 11. I strongly recommend that you look at them to get a sense of how things will change on the iPad in just a few weeks.
David Chartier also created a good video showing how you can use one hand to do multitasking on an iPad in iOS 11.
It was fun to experience the partial eclipse in New Orleans earlier this week. But after reading this fantastic report by David Pogue of Yahoo, who saw the full total eclipse in Tennessee, I can’t help but consider traveling to the path of totality in 2024.
And finally, Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal offers some good advice for managing notifications on the iPhone in this video:
Every year, attorneys in Louisiana need to take a one-hour CLE on professionalism. I’ve been to some good professionalism CLEs, but I’ve also been to many that seem to repeat everything you have heard before. The Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board made the smart decision to try to do something different in the realm of professionalism, and has released a Professionalism and Technology one-hour online CLE. I was pleased to be a part of it. The CLE is s lively panel discussion moderated by Loyola Law School Professor Dane Ciolino, a leading authority on Louisiana legal ethics. The participants were me, Abid Hussain, Rajan Pandit, and Brandi McNeil. The four of us have very different practices (for example, Brandi is a public defender) so we all had different perspectives on technology and professionalism. We recorded this three months ago at the WLAE studio in Jefferson, LA, and the CLE became available just a few days ago.
LADB is only charging $20 for this CLE, and since it is an online CLE you can just watch it at your desk over your lunch hour, making this a cheap and easy way to get your professionalism credit. And if you are trying to decide whether to watch this CLE, LADB even produced a trailer for the CLE, thus making this the first time that I have ever appeared in a trailer. (I think it would have been better if they had added a Don LaFontaine-style “In a world” voice-over.) Here is the trailer:
If you are a Louisiana attorney looking to get your professionalism credit before the end of this year, I think that you would enjoy this one. Click here to sign up. (Scroll down to the “E-Learning Courses” section.)
