Last night I decided to backup my daughter’s iPad to iTunes on my Mac, something I do from time to time. (I don’t use iCloud Backup on my own devices because I’d rather have the backup of the confidential data on my devices live on my home computer rather than Apple’s servers, and I’ve taken the same approach for other devices in my house.) The computer asked me if I wanted to update the iPad to the latest version of iOS, and I said yes without thinking much about it. Everything seemed to go fine, but then at the very end I saw an error message that I had never seen before telling me to press the iPad’s home button to attempt data recovery. What the heck? Nervous that I had somehow lost data on my daughter’s iPad, I pressed the button as instructed and crossed my fingers.
I then waited a while while the iPad told me that it was attempting data recovery:
During the approximately 10 minutes that the iPad spent on this screen, I did some quick research on the Internet, and found lots of other folks saying that this happened to them and that everything was fine when the process finished. Sure enough, after the iPad finished its data recovery, everything was back to normal, with the latest version of iOS installed.
I’m glad that my initial panic that I had lost data on the iPad turned out to be unjustified. I don’t know why the update failed initially, but apparently Apple has a Plan B that swings into action when the normal update process fails. If you ever see this error message on your iPhone or iPad, hopefully you will recall this post before you get too nervous, and then after you press the home button and let the data recovery process begin, all will be fine for you as well.
If you had to deal with the cold weather this week, I hope that it went OK for you. It caused a lot of chaos down here in New Orleans. Precipitation and below-freezing temperatures are so rare down here that we don’t have good ways of dealing with ice on roads, plus many of the pipes in our homes are exposed and can freeze. As a result, schools and offices were closed much of this week, the Interstate was closed, there is a boil water advisory (meaning that we are not supposed to drink tap water in New Orleans), etc. Ugh. Fortunately, it was pretty easy for me to work when I was out of the office just using my iPad and iPhone. And now, the news of note from the past week:
South Carolina attorney Justin Kahn has a daughter who is in high school, Rebecca Kahn, who somehow managed to score an interview with Apple CEO Tim Cook, as detailed in this article.
Virginia attorney Sharon Nelson discusses the new policies announced by Customs and Border Protection on searching your iPhone when you return to the U.S. I discussed the impact this has on attorneys in this post.
According to a tweet by Erik Schwiebert, a Principal Software Engineer at Microsoft, this is now the first time in 20 years that Microsoft Office is using the same codebase for all platforms (Windows, Mac, iOS and Android). The last time that happened, Microsoft imposed the PC interface on the Mac, which I didn’t like. But this time, I really like the way that Microsoft Word looks and works, and hopefully the shared codebase will result in even more integration. My next request: robust support for Styles in the iOS app!
Apple announced this week that it will take advantage of a repatriation provision in the new tax law to bring back the vast majority of the $252 billion in cash that Apple has been keeping outside of the U.S. It will pay about $38 billion in taxes, and then some of the remaining money will be devoted to creating 20,000 new jobs, a new campus in the U.S., and (as reported by Chaim Gartenberg of The Verge), $2,500 bonuses to every Apple employee in the form of restricted stock units.
Back in 2016, I reviewed an app called Parkmobile which you can use to pay for street parking using an iPhone. It works well, and there have been times when I have been in a deposition which ran long and I was able to add more time to my parking meter just using an iPhone app, which is very cool. Darrel Etherinton of TechCrunch reported this week that BMW acquired the Parkmobile app. I hope that they don’t ruin the app; I’m a little concerned considering this report by Zac Estrada of The Verge that BMW is planning to make you pay an annual fee to BMW if you want to use Apple CarPlay in its cars, something that no other car maker has done.
Speaking of CarPlay, Joe Rossignol of MacRumors reported this week that Toyota is finally adding CarPlay support to its cars, starting with some 2019 models. The same is true for Lexus, the luxury car division of Toyota. Toyota was one of the last major CarPlay holdouts. I bought a Honda Accord last year, and one of the reasons that I didn’t even consider a Toyota Camry was the lack of CarPlay support. I guess Toyota realized that there are a lot of folks like me.
I reported earlier this week on new rules relating to confidential and privileged data on an iPhone when you pass through customs to re-enter the U.S. Maureen Blando of Mobile Helix discusses one alternative to dealing with Customs: keep your data on a cloud-based service (like Mobile Helix) so that you can just remove the app before you enter customs — at which point the privileged documents won’t even be there anymore — and then re-install the app after you pass through. 1Password offers something similar called Travel Mode whereby all but a few passwords you select are removed from the device, and then you restore them after you enter customs. If you use Microsoft Exchange with the Mail app on your iPhone, you could just turn off your email in the Settings app (Accounts & Passwords -> [select account] -> turn off Mail) until you get to a location where you feel secure again, and then turn it back on to re-download your messages. And now, the news of note from the past week:
Samantha Cole of Motherboard reports on a murder trial in Germany in which some of the evidence of the defendant disposing of a body in the river consists of data from the defendant’s iPhone. After hiring a forensics company to bypass the passcode on his iPhone 6s, the investigators found data in the Health app showing that the defendant climbed stairs during the period of time that the prosecution alleges that the defendant climbed up the river embankment.
According to Katherine Faulders of ABC News, this week White House Chief of Staff John Kelly instituted a new ban on personal cellphones in the White House. The ban extends to smartwatches, like the Apple Watch. I suspect that there will still be one particular iPhone in the White House not subject to the ban.
Chance Miller of 9to5Mac reports on a recent interview by Rebecca Jarvis of ABC Radio with Angela Ahrendts, Apple VP of Retail. The video discusses how Ahrendts got the job even though she doesn’t consider herself a “techie.”
Paula Parisi of Variety reports that Jimmy Iovine, one of the Apple executives behind Apple Music, has denied rumors that he is planning to leave Apple this year, and says that he looks forward to further developments in online streaming.
Apple released iOS 11.2.2 this week. As Juli Clover of MacRumors explains, this update addresses the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities that have been in the news as of late. I always recommend that you update your iPhone (and iPad) when there is a new iOS version to make sure that you have the latest security patches, although it does make sense to wait 24 hours before applying the update just in case Apple discovers some problem with the update, which happens occasionally.
If you want an alternative to using your iPhone, Apple Watch or Siri to turn off your HomeKit lights, you can soon buy a big red button — or one of another color. Zac Hall of 9to5Mac reports that Fibaro’s The Button will soon be HomeKit compatible.
Bradley Chambers of The Sweet Setup reviews Workouts++ and says that it is the best stand-alone workout app on the Apple Watch.
Thuy Ong of The Verge reports that the Qi wireless standard used by Apple in the iPhone X and the iPhone 8 is becoming even more of a standard now that Powermat is giving up on the rival PMA standard.
In mid-2017, I discussed some of the risks associated with attorneys bringing an iPhone or iPad when traveling internationally because U.S. customs agents have been demanding to search mobile devices upon reentry into the country. Yesterday, Sophia Cope and Aaron Mackey, staff attorneys with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), reported that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has released a new directive: CBP Directive No. 3340-049A (Jan. 4, 2018) titled Border Search of Electronic Devices. The full EFF report provides details on how this affects all U.S. citizens, but today I want to focus on one small part of the new directive, the part that deals with privileged information on an attorney’s iPhone or iPad.
Under the new directive (which you can download here in PDF format), there are now new procedures that a border patrol agent must use when confronted with data protected by the attorney-client privilege or work product. The good news is that once an attorney asserts the privilege, the CBP Associate/Assistant Chief Counsel office needs to get involved; the border patrol agent cannot decide on his own to ignore the assertion of privilege. Having said that, it looks like the attorney needs to all but provide a full privilege log to CBP, and even then it is unclear how CBP will deal with the privileged information. The policy says that it will be “handled appropriately while also ensuring that CBP accomplishes its critical border security mission.” Section 5.2.1.2. Here is the new policy:
5.2 Review and Handling of Privileged or Other Sensitive Material
5.2.1 Officers encountering information they identify as, or that is asserted to be, protected by the attorney-client privilege or attorney work product doctrine shall adhere to the following procedures.
5.2.1.1 The Officer shall seek clarification, if practicable in writing, from the individual asserting this privilege as to specific files, file types, folders, categories of files, attorney or client names, email addresses, phone numbers, or other particulars that may assist CBP in identifying privileged information.
5.2.1.2 Prior to any border search of files or other materials over which a privilege has been asserted, the Officer will contact the CBP Associate/Assistant Chief Counsel office. In coordination with the CBP Associate/Assistant Chief Counsel office, which will coordinate with the U.S. Attorney’s Office as needed, Officers will ensure the segregation of any privileged material from other information examined during a border search to ensure that any privileged material is handled appropriately while also ensuring that CBP accomplishes its critical border security mission. This segregation process will occur through the establishment of a Filter Team composed of legal and operational representatives, or through another appropriate measure with written concurrence of the CBP Associate/Assistant Chief Counsel office.
5.2.1.3 At the completion of the CBP review, unless any materials are identified that indicate an imminent threat to homeland security, copies of materials maintained by CBP and determined to be privileged will be destroyed, except for any copy maintained in coordination with the CBP Associate/Assistant Chief Counsel office solely for purposes of complying with a litigation hold or other requirement of law.
5.2.2 Other possibly sensitive information, such as medical records and work-related information carried by journalists, shall be handled in accordance with any applicable federal law and CBP policy. Questions regarding the review of these materials shall be directed to the CBP Associate/Assistant Chief Counsel office, and this consultation shall be noted in appropriate CBP systems.
5.2.3 Officers encountering business or commercial information in electronic devices shall treat such information as business confidential information and shall protect that information from unauthorized disclosure. Depending on the nature of the information presented, the Trade Secrets Act, the Privacy Act, and other laws, as well as CBP policies, may govern or restrict the handling of the information. Any questions regarding the handling of business or commercial information may be directed to the CBP Associate/Assistant Chief Counsel office or the CBP Privacy Officer, as appropriate.
5.2.4 Information that is determined to be protected by law as privileged or sensitive will only be shared with agencies or entities that have mechanisms in place to protect appropriately such information, and such information will only be shared in accordance with this Directive.
I’m glad to see that CBP is acknowledging that there is a need to provide heightened protection for confidential information on an attorney’s mobile device. However, any attorney dealing with this new provision will need to do a lot of work, and if you have a short window before your connecting flight, I suspect that you are going to miss that connection.
Happy New Year! I hope that you and your family had a wonderful holiday season. and have managed to stay warm during this crazy cold weather. I know that Apple and many app developers certainly enjoyed the season because Apple announced yesterday that the App Store had a record-breaking holiday season. There were $300 million in purchases on New Year’s Day, and $890 million in purchases during the week starting on Christmas Eve. Apple VP Phil Schiller announced that “[i]n 2017 alone, iOS developers earned $26.5 billion — more than a 30 percent increase over 2016.” And since the App Store launched in July 2008, iOS developers have earned over $86 billion. And now, the news items of note from the end of the year and early 2018:
California attorney David Sparks reviews Best Photos, an app that can help you to sort and prune through the photos on your iPhone.
Sparks also discusses iCloud syncing. Sparks mentioned on a recent Mac Power Users podcast that he is now relying almost exclusively on iCloud for his document management, with just rare use of Dropbox.
For a very long time (well over a year), my favorite iPhone weather app was Weather Line. A few months ago I changed to Carrot Weather, which I really like (not only on the iPhone, but also on the Apple Watch where Carrot Weather is my favorite third-party Apple Watch app). However, Zac Hall of 9to5Mac reports that Weather Line was updated this week and now supports the iPhone X, so I’ll have to check in again on that old favorite.
If you are planning a trip to New Orleans this year, Brett Anderson, food critic for the Times-Picayune, posted his 10 favorite restaurants in New Orleans for 2018. It’s a fabulous list, and Commander’s Palace is my #1 choice. But picking just 10 means that he left off many other great ones — Galatoire’s, Shaya, Dante’s Kitchen, Emeril’s, Meril, Restaurant August, and many more that I won’t name because now I’m getting hungry.
And finally, it has been a long time since I have watched one of the drone videos of the new Apple Park campus, and Matthew Roberts made one just a few weeks ago that is of really high quality and shows off a lot of features that I hadn’t seen yet:
[UPDATE: For my latest post on Anker cables dated August 19, 2020, click here.]
Last year, I reviewed the Anker PowerLine+ USB to Lightning cord, and I was incredibly impressed. It costs less than the cord that Apple sells (or includes with an iPhone or iPad), and it is far more durable. Indeed, shortly after I purchased that cord, two of the Apple Lightning cords that some of my family members had been using started to fray near the ends. Rather than risk damage to their iPhones, those cords went right into the trash and I decided order some more Anker cords from Amazon. We got different colors for different family members to avoid confusion, and this also gave me an opportunity to compare the difference between the original version of the Anker PowerLine+ and the Anker PowerLine+ II.
Durability
The PowerLine+ I have been using for months seems incredibly durable. The nylon surrounding the cord protects the cord and makes it virtually impossible to knot the cord. And the plugs on the ends seem much more durable than the Apple Lightning cords — which always seem to be the spot where my Apple cords fray over time.
The PowerLine+ II cord also features nylon surrounding the cord, but it is just a hair thicker. And the plugs on the ends of the PowerLine+ II are a little bit larger and are more tapered than the PowerLine+ cord. In the following picture, the Lightning end of the PowerLine+ II is at the top, followed by the Lightning end of the PowerLine+, then the USB end of the PowerLine+ II, and at the bottom the USB end of the PowerLine+.
What difference does this make? Anker advertises the PowerLine+ as lasting 6 times longer than other (unspecified) Lightning cables with a 6,000+ bend lifespan. Anker advertises the PowerLine+ II as lasting 30 times longer than ordinary cables, able to withstand 30,000 bends. So apparently Anker believes that the PowerLine+ II is about five times more durable than the PowerLine+ cord. Anker says that both cords have a tensile strength that can support 175 pounds.
The PowerLine+ comes with an 18 month warranty, but the PowerLine+ II comes with a lifetime warranty. Anker’s website says: “We’re so confident in PowerLine+ II, we are offering a hassle-free replacement for all quality issues. Not for half a year, not for 18 months, but for an entire lifetime. It’s the only cable you will ever need to buy.”
I haven’t tried to bend any of these cords 6,000 times, let alone 30,000 times. I have tried to see what is different between the cords, and I see a few minor differences. First, the nylon on the PowerLine+ II is thicker and feels a little softer than the PowerLine+. Second, if I bend the PowerLine+, the cord tends to keep the shape of the bend, but if I bend the PowerLine+ II, the cord doesn’t keep the shape as much. I don’t know if either of those two qualities has anything to do with durability.
I’m sure that the longer plugs on the PowerLine+ II are important for durability. Since that is a common point of failure for the Apple Lightning cords, I can understand that Anker would want to make them as strong as possible.
Speaking of the plugs, keep in mind that — as I noted in my prior review — the Lightning end of the Anker plugs are slightly larger than the Lightning end of Apple’s cord. If you have an iPhone case with a tiny hole for the Lightning cord made precisely for the Apple cord, it is possible that the Anker plug will be too big. Otherwise, I doubt you will notice the difference.
Colors
The PowerLine+ cords come in four colors: gray, red, white and golden. I bought my original PowerLine+ cord for my car, and the dark gray color is a great match for my car’s interior. My wife picked the red color for her cord, and the red does look really nice. Here are the gray and red colors:
The PowerLine+ II cords come in four colors: black, red, silver and golden. Here are the black, silver and golden colors:
The gray of the PowerLine+ is dark enough that it is only a shade lighter than the black of the PowerLine+ II. The following picture shows all five cords, with the gray PowerLine+ at the top and the black PowerLine+ II in the middle:
Cases
One big difference between the two products is that the PowerLine+ comes with a felt pouch that folds over, whereas the PowerLine+ II comes with a nicer zippered pouch. Here is the felt pouch for the PowerLine+:
Here is the pouch of the PowerLine+ II, the 3 foot version on the left, and the slightly larger 6 foot version on the right:
With both cases, you can wind up the cord inside of the case to make the part of the cords that come out of each side just the length that you need. This works with the leather pouch because both ends are open; this works with the zippered pouch because it has zippers at both ends.
I think that most people would prefer the zippered pouch because it zips completely closed. Both cases give you someplace to store the cord when you are not using it, but the PowerLine+ II version seems like a nicer case to toss into your purse, briefcase, luggage, etc.
Price difference
Typically, the PowerLine+ II cord costs $1 or $2 more than the same length PowerLine+ cord. But this isn’t always true.
You can buy these cords in 1 foot, 3 foot, 6 foot and 10 foot lengths. The cost for the PowerLine+ versions are $12.99, $14.99, $16.99 and $17.99. For the same length versions of the PowerLine+ II, the prices are $13.99, $15.99, $17.99 and $19.99. But those prices can vary, both on Amazon and the Anker website.
Also, if you like the red color, the PowerLine+ can be even cheaper than the PowerLine+ II because Anker offers a two-pack: two 3 foot cords for $19.99, or two 6 foot cords for $21.99. And even if you just want a single red cord, as I type this, the 3 foot red cord is currently $13.99 ($1 cheaper) on Amazon and $11.99 on Anker’s website. I don’t know if red is always cheaper or if there are other times in which another color is cheaper.
My recommendation
If you decide that you are ready to get a high-quality Lightning cable, these nylon-coated Anker cables get my very highest recommendation. If you find that for the price and color that you want, the PowerLine+ II version is only $1 or $2 more, you might as well get the PowerLine+ II version. Even to my eyes, the II version appears to be a little more durable, and Anker apparently thinks the difference is enough to offer the lifetime warranty with the II version. Plus, the case is much nicer with the II version, which is something that you will appreciate right away.
But if you find that the price difference is more substantial, opting for the PowerLine+ version is still a fine choice. When I purchased my new cords, I took advantage of the discount on the red PowerLine+ two-pack, which meant that I spent $11 on each red 6 foot cord versus $16 for a red PowerLine+ II version. I’d make that same decision again. For me, the nicer case and the increase in durability for a product that is already very durable isn’t worth another $5 for each red cord.
Here are links to the sizes and prices I’m seeing on Amazon right now:
I'm a big fan of Face ID on the iPhone X. It is a big improvement over the Touch ID fingerprint identification system on other iPhone models because, when it works, it provides security without any inconvenience at all. You are looking at your iPhone anyway when you pick it up to use it, and then Face ID unlocks the phone, almost as if you didn't even have a passcode at all. In an excellent recent article on the iPhone X, John Gruber of Daring Fireball described it this way:
Consider the aforementioned process of opening a notification from the lock screen. Touch ID adds an extra step, every time, even when it works perfectly. Face ID is not perfect — it’s true that I wind up either authenticating a second time or resorting to entering my PIN more often than with Touch ID — but it only adds these extra steps when it fails for some reason. When it works perfectly, which for me is the vast majority of the time, the effect is sublime. It really does feel like my iPhone has no passcode protecting it. That was never true for Touch ID. Touch ID feels like a better way to unlock your device. Face ID feels like your device isn’t even locked.
Unfortunately, as Gruber noted, the current generation of Face ID fails more often than Touch ID fails. Here is a tip I recently figured out (just by dumb luck) for dealing with Face ID when it does fail.
If Face ID fails on the Lock screen, you are presented with a keypad to type in a number of password. If you want to try Face ID again, I previously thought that the only way to to do was to press the cancel button and start all over again.
Here is a better way. If you turn your iPhone away from your face for just a second — so that the Face ID camera is looking at something else — and then you turn it back towards your face, I find that Face ID works the second time almost 100% of the time. This saves you the trouble of pressing that cancel button and starting over again. Just slightly rotate your wrist, turn it back, and you are done.
This also works with apps that use Face ID as an alternative to typing a username and password. If Face ID fails, you will see a message like this one with the option to tap an on-screen button to Try Face ID Again:
But you can ignore that button. Just turn the iPhone away from your face, then bring it back, and Face ID will see you without you having to touch the screen at all. You'll see the green happy face, and then the app will unlock.
Since I started using this method, the relatively rare instances in which Face ID fails have become far less annoying for me.
If you have enough interest in the iPhone to read iPhone J.D., then there is a good chance that your friends and family look to you when they have questions about their devices. And I suspect that you will see lots of friends and family members over the next few days for the holidays. A question you are likely to hear is “why is my [older] iPhone getting so slow?” Of course, one reason is that as iOS gets more sophisticated, it takes more advantage of newer iPhones with faster processors. An older iPhone that did well with iOS 9 will run slower with iOS 10 and iOS 11. This week, Apple provided another part of the answer, as discussed by Niraj Chokshi and Brian X. Chen of the New York Times. As iPhones get older, the lithium ion batteries inside start to run out of battery capacity. Instead of having folks get stuck with iPhones that don’t last very long, Apple scales back the processing power. The result is that an older iPhone runs slower, but can keep going for longer. Since you don’t always need an iPhone to run at top speed, I think that Apple has its priorities in the right place. But if you use an older iPhone and this is starting to bother you, you can pay Apple $79 to get a new battery installed, and then that older iPhone will run faster (and last longer). And now, the news of note from the past week:
Attorney Scott Killian told Zac Hall of 9to5Mac the story of how his Apple Watch saved his life when it woke him up to warn him that he was having a heart attack. Killian used a third-party app, but Apple itself recently launched the Apple Heart Study to research how to do more of this. You can sign up to participate in the study if you have an Apple Watch; I started doing so nine days ago.
Zac Hall of 9to5Mac reports that Twitter is now supporting two-factor authentication using third-party authentication apps. (In this post, I described how you can do this with 1Password.) This is more secure than using text messaging as the second factor of authentication because it is possible for a hacker to spoof your cellphone and get your text messages, but only you should have access to a device running an authentication app. I configured this for my Twitter accounts yesterday, and it was easy and fast to set up.
Back in early 2015, I recommended a great ebook on the Photos app called Photos: A Take Control Crash Course by Jason Snell. Snell recently updated the ebook to account for the new features in Photos on the Mac and iOS 11. If you purchased the ebook in the past, the new content is a free upgrade. Otherwise, the ebook is only $10 and it is full of fantastic information that will help you do so much more with the pictures on your iPhone, iPad and/or Mac. Highly recommended.
Federico Viticci of MacStories put together a good list of must-have iOS apps.
FYI, the new Star Wars movie — The Last Jedi — is really good. I really enjoyed seeing it last weekend, and I my kids and I already have plans to see it again.
And finally, speaking of answering tech support questions from family members, Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal provides some great advice to common questions in this video, and does so with the aid of puppets:
The International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) is a peer networking organization for people who work in the legal technology field, such as the people who work in law firm IT departments. This week, ILTA released the results of ILTA’s 2017 Technology Survey, which is based on survey responses fro 579 law firms (including mine).
Unlike the ABA Tech Survey, which indicates the percentage of lawyers using an iPhone and iPad, ILTA’s technology surveys have always just asked which operating system is supported at law firms. For many years now, virtually every law firm has had at least some attorneys using an iPhone or iPad, so these survey responses have not been particularly exciting to me for a while now. I started paying attention to this survey back in 2013, when 97% of all law firms had one or more iOS devices in use. That number increased slightly to 98% in 2014, and in 2015, 2017 and 2017 the percentage has held steady at 99%. Breaking down that number by firm size, the 2017 survey says that 98% of law firms with under 50 attorneys have iOS use, 99% of law firms with 50 to 149 attorneys have iOS use, and 100% of law firms with 150 or more attorneys have iOS use. Suffice it to say that, for many years now, virtually all law firms have supported iPhones and iPads.
Most law firms also support other smartphone devices, but for the most part that means Android nowadays. In 2017, 80% of law firms support Android devices, 25% support Blackberry OS devices, and 18% support Windows Mobile devices.
ILTA also asks law firms if they are using third-party systems for Mobile Device Management (MDM). Since 2012, there has been a slow-but-steady increase in use, from 34% in 2012 to 58% this year.
For those firms who are using MDM to manage their iPhones and other mobile devices, the five most popular vendors (in order) are Airwatch, MobileIron, IBM Fiberlink MaaS 360, Blackberry Work (formerly Good Technology) and Citrix XenMobile.
They survey also reports that most law firms (81%) provide some type of financial support for attorneys and others using smartphones, but the amount varies widely among law firms, and 45% of law firms do not pay anything at all towards the cost of the smartphone itself. A different question on the survey shows similar results: 56% of law firms do not buy smartphones for attorneys, 37% do, and 7% have some other response. I would have guessed that the 56% number would be even higher because, just anecdotally, it seems that most attorneys I talk to tell me that their law firm has a Buy Your Own Device (BYOD) approach towards smartphones.
One of the last questions in the survey is the top three technology issues or annoyances within your firm. At the top of the list are items like security compliance and user acceptance of change. But mobile device maintenance is at the very bottom of the list, right next to print drivers and print-related issues. There are a lot of technology challenges at law firms today, but apparently iPhones and iPads cause far less trouble for law firm IT professionals than other legal technology items.
If you have been thinking of getting Lit Software’s incredibly useful iPad apps for attorneys, this is a good time to do so if you act quickly. The TranscriptPad, TrialPad and DocReviewPad apps are all available in a bundle called the Ultimate Litigation Bundle. That bundle typically goes for $300, which is a $10 discount versus buying the apps individually. But Lit Software is having a flash sale today and tomorrow only (December 18-19, 2017) where you can get the bundle for $50 off.
I’ve written about these apps many times before. And while Lit Software has been a sponsor of iPhone J.D. in the past, I started using these apps long before that sponsorship started. I use TranscriptPad at least once a week to annotate and work with deposition transcripts (my review). TrialPad is a great app that lets you present evidence on screen during a trial, arbitration, meeting, etc. (my review). And DocReviewPad (my review) 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.
While nothing official has been announced, Lit Software has indicated that it is considering a switch to subscription pricing, which is what many other apps like Microsoft Office and 1Password have done. If and when that takes place, I’m sure that Lit Software will come up with a way to make the transition to a subscription make sense and be appealing from both a technical and financial standpoint. But if you like the idea of buying the three apps outright, you should take advantage of this limited sale because these sales do not happen very often and this is as good of a price as I would ever expect to see on this bundle.
Click here for the Ultimate Litigation Package (sale for $249.99, normally $299.99):
