Earlier this year, I reviewed Renogy E.LUMEN, a device which combines a flashlight with an iPhone charger and a battery that can be recharged by a built-in solar panel. In a similar spirit, today I am reviewing the SnowLizard SLXtreme for iPhone 7, a protective case for the iPhone 7 which is also waterproof, and which also has a built-in battery which can be (optionally) recharged with a built-in solar panel. That’s quite a mouthful. SnowLizard recently sent me a free review unit of this device, which sells for just under $150. The “snow” in the SnowLizard name tells me that this device was designed for folks who ski. I live in New Orleans, so I don’t know much about this strange substance you call snow. But I do know about the beach, so when my family recently took a beach trip, I gave this device a spin. It worked quite well.
Protection
The case has two parts: the main body, and the bottom which removes to insert the iPhone.
Just plug the Lightning connector into the bottom of your iPhone, and then slide it in. Then snap snap down on both sides to attach the two parts of the device.
The case itself is large, although it doesn’t add much weight to the iPhone. But it does add protection. I didn’t perform drop tests myself, but SnowLizard says that it is built to withstand a drop from a height of 6.6 feet. I tried to abuse the case, and it does seem quite rugged.
The camouflage design that the company sent me also gives it the appearance of being rugged. If you want something that looks a little more tame, I see that the company also sells models that are black, yellow and orange.
Additionally, the bumps along the side and the use of rubber on the bottom makes this device easy to grip in your hand, even if your hand is wet and might normally drop an iPhone. And yet you still have access to all of your buttons. The thin protective film over the Home button provides protection and yet lets you still use Touch ID. I was amazed to see that Touch ID worked every time for me except for once — and that was because my finger was totally covered with sand so it wasn’t the SnowLizard’s fault at all.
You cannot use a wired Lightning headphone while your iPhone is in this device, but you can use Bluetooth. I used my AirPods with the SnowLizard for many hours and it worked great.
Waterproof
This device is rated IP-68 under IEC standard 60529. The first number – the 6 – is the highest on the scale of solid particle protection, so it is dust tight and provides complete protection against dust. The second number – the 8 – is the second-highest level on the liquid ingress protection scale, suitable for continuous immersion in water of 1 meter or more. SnowLizard says that it provides protection at up to 2 meters (6.6 feet) of depth. (For comparison, the Apple Watch Series 2 rates a 7 on the same scale, so the SnowLizard device is more waterproof than the newest Apple Watch.)
To test this, I kept my iPhone in this case while I was at the beach. I was surrounded by lots of sand, but knew that my iPhone was protected. Then I went in a swimming pool with my kids and took lots of cool underwater video. The case performed like a champ, and my kids thought it was fun to get filmed doing stunts underwater in the deep end of the pool.
Here is a 15 second clip to give you a sense of how that looked:
Battery and Solar Panel
I would have considered this a useful product if it was nothing more than a rugged waterproof case. In fact, when I first saw that this case had a built-in battery, I wondered about the necessity of that.
In actual use, however, I see how this is a good idea. When you are at an outdoor location like the beach, camping, etc. you may be lucky enough to get a cell signal, but it may not be very strong. As your iPhone works harder to get and send data, your battery wears out more quickly. Because the SnowLizard has a built in 4000 mAh battery, it can completely recharge an iPhone 7 once and then still has enough power to provide a partial charge after that. You turn on the battery by pressing a button on the back of the device. I thought it was great to be at the beach for many hours, and then find that instead of my iPhone being almost completely drained, it was still at 100%. If you are already dealing with a larger case to provide protection to the iPhone, it is a nice bonus to also devote some space to a battery.
While you can recharge the battery with an included USB to Micro USB cable, which frankly is what I usually did, the device also has a solar panel on the back of it. It takes a long time to recharge a 4000 mAh battery using the sun. (SnowLizard says that you can boost the battery up to 7% in an hour.) But it is nice to have the option to use the sun if you are outdoors.
Note that you cannot use the battery and recharge the battery using the solar panel at the same time. If you turn on the battery, you will charge your iPhone. If you turn off the battery and let the sun hit the solar panel, then the battery will start to recharge with one LED flashing to indicate that the battery is receiving a charge.
Conclusion
This case is bulky enough that you are unlikely to want to use it every day, unless you live a far more adventurous life than I do. I don’t see myself going to Court with this device – especially with the camouflage colors. But when you want to be active and exposed to the elements while also using your iPhone, the SnowLizard SLXtreme device is more than up to the task. You can protect your iPhone from bumps and falls, you can use your iPhone even underwater, and you can extend the battery life of your iPhone, all with this one device.
Apple updated iOS to version 10.3.3 this week. You should update your iPhone and iPad for the same reasons I mentioned back when 10.3.2 came out; iOS updates always improve security. In fact, Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac reports that one of the things fixed is the potential ability of a hacker who is close enough to your iPhone to exploit a flaw in the iPhone’s Wi-Fi chip and wirelessly gain control of your iPhone. Yikes! Glad that one was fixed. And now, the other news of note from the past week:
John Gruber of Daring Fireball explains why you should not manually quit apps in iOS. Sure, you can do it occasionally if an app is frozen or otherwise isn’t working properly, but if you believe that you are saving memory or making your iPhone faster by quitting apps, you are wrong.
Jonny Evans of Computerworld shares over 50 iOS 10 tips, and there are some good ones on that list.
When I purchased a 2017 Honda Accord earlier this year, I made sure to select CarPlay as an option. I love CarPlay and I use it every time I drive. Reese Counts of Autoblog reports that this Fall, Honda will start to sell the 2018 Honda Accord, with Apple CarPlay included in every model and a larger 8″ display (up from 7″ on the 2017 model). It will also include a physical knob to control the volume instead of touchscreen volume controls (which can be hard to use).
There was a time when I would carry an iPhone, and iPad and an iPad mini all at the same time, but apparently that is nothing. Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac reports that Chinese customs agent stopped a woman coming in from Hong Kong who had 102 iPhones strapped to her body. (iPhones are cheaper in Hong Kong than in mainland China.)
David Pogue of Yahoo explores the idea of charging an iPhone wirelessly, and interviews the CEO of Energous, a company trying to do this. The charge would be very slow (a trickle charge), and the technology seems far off, but someday this might actually work.
And finally, yesterday Apple updated its Clips app to version 1.1. This first update to Clips adds some neat new features like new posters (an animated background on which you can place text), but the big new feature is the ability to add Disney/Pixar characters to your videos. Here is an 11 second demo I created at my desk which didn’t take much more than 11 seconds to make:
A few days ago, 1Password was updated to improve the ability to use 1Password with sites that have a time-based, two-factor authentication code. This is a useful feature of 1Password. Here is why I recommend two-factor authentication in general, and how it and how it now works in 1Password on the iPhone or iPad.
Two-factor authentication is good
Two-factor authentication is a way to confirm your identity when you are logging in to a website. Normally a website asks for your username and password, but your username is often easy for a hacker to learn (it might just be your public email address), and thus all a hacker needs to do is learn your password and he has access to your account with that website. There are lots of different ways that a hacker could theoretically learn your password — such as if you use the same password at multiple sites (don’t do that!) or if you have multiple password that are similar and the hacker can guess your pattern (don’t do that either!) or if someone looks over your shoulder while you are typing in your password in a public spot (yikes!), etc. With two-factor authentication, it is not enough for the hacker to have your username and password; he must also have access to a device in your possession (such as your iPhone) which displays a number that changes every 30 seconds. If the hacker is in some foreign country across the globe, he won’t have that, and his attempts to access your account will fail.
There are many different iPhone apps which can be used to display authentication numbers which change every 30 seconds. 1Password is a good one to use just because you naturally think of that app as a place to store login information. But with the update this week, 1Password is even better than other apps because it can automatically put the number on your clipboard. This makes two-factor authentication really fast to use. And that’s good because you get more security without a bottleneck that slows you down.
Here is how you use the feature.
Configure a 1Password entry to use a one-time password
First, in 1Password, find your entry for the website in question, where you already have your username and password stored. Tap Edit in the top right corner and scroll down until you see “Add new one-time password.” Tap that and you will see a new entry which has a QR code icon on it.
Next, on your computer, go to the website in question. In this example, I’ll use Backblaze, the service I use to automatically backup my home computer. On the account settings area of the Backblaze website on my computer, I click on the option to turn-on two-factor authentication. The website will then display a big QR code on my computer’s monitor. I tap the QR code icon in 1Password on my iPhone and use my iPhone’s camera to scan the QR code.
Now my 1Password entry for Backblaze has a One-Time Password field with a six-digit number which changes every 30 seconds. There is even a little timer on the right which counts down the seconds so I can see how long I have until the password changes.
Using 1Password with two-factor authentication
Now that the entry for a website has two-factor authentication configured, you can use it the next time that you access that website. So back to my Backblaze example, whenever I want to access the Backblaze website on my iPhone, I tap the Action button at the bottom of the Safari window, then I select 1Password, I use my Touch ID fingerprint to confirm that I am really me, and then 1Password automatically types my username and my password on the website.
Next, the website will ask me for my authentication code, but I don’t have to go back to the 1Password app to lookup that code. Right after 1Password automatically entered my username and password, it pasted the six-digit code to my iPhone clipboard, and it briefly displayed a message that says “One-time password saved to the clipboard.” Thus, all I need to do is tap in the box and select paste, and the number is entered for me.
This new system is so much more convenient then having to manually go to another app to find the number and then going back into Safari to enter the number.
Although my focus here is iPhone/iPad, this new 1Password system works the same on your PC and Mac. Just use 1Password on your computer to enter the username/password, and then use your computer to paste the number when you are asked to enter the six-digit code. [UPDATE: To be more clear, the current version of 1Password for Mac automatically copies that code so that it is ready for you to paste, just like iOS. The current version of 1Password 6 for Windows (version 6.6.439) does not automatically copy the code, but you can right-click on the entry in the browser add-on to manually copy that code and then you can paste it into the Windows browser. I presume that 1Password for Windows 6 will gain this feature in a future update.]
I currently have two-factor authentication in 1Password configured for Backblaze, Dropbox and Facebook, but I plan to add more websites in the future now that 1Password works so much better with two-factor authentication.
Taking an iPhone or iPad when you leave or enter the United States is a complicated issue for attorneys. You are likely going to want to do work when you are abroad — especially if you are traveling for business, not pleasure — and thus it makes perfect sense to have your iOS device with you. In fact, it can be a much better option than a computer, which can be more easily attacked by malware in a foreign country. If you can get access to WiFi and you use VPN software like Cloak, you should be fairly safe. The problem, however, is that U.S. customs agents as of late have been demanding to search mobile devices upon reentry into the country, and there are some reports that they will sometimes even copy the data from a device. If you have confidential attorney-client communications or attorney work product, you don’t want a stranger who works as a U.S. customs agent to have unfettered access.
To try to get more concrete information on the current state of affairs, Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon who has a reputation of being a privacy advocate, recently sent a letter to Acting Commissioner Kevin McAleenan of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) with questions on the current policies. I encourage you to read the full response as posted by the Washington Post, as well as the article by Brian Fung of the Post, but here are four parts of the response that jumped out a me.
First, CBP does sometimes search electronic devices in the possession of individuals entering the United States, but does so rarely — less than one-hundredth of one percent of travelers. CBP will inspect devices of both non-citizens and U.S. citizens.
Second, if your device is locked, CBP can ask you to unlock your device so that they can search it. If you refuse to do so, and if you are a U.S. citizen, CBP will still allow you to enter the country, but you may be delayed (so you may miss your connecting flight) and your device will likely be confiscated. If you are not a U.S. citizen, failure to unlock your device could be a reason that CBP does not allow you to enter the United States.
Third, CBP takes the position that it has the authority to search anything that is on the device itself. CBP asserts several justifications for searching devices, and you can probably guess them. For example, CBP may look for contraband (such as child pornography), or information that could be a threat to national security (such as something related to the proliferation of nuclear weapons).
Fourth, CBP will not ask to access your information on remote servers. Thus, they should not ask you for your password to Dropbox, Facebook, your law firm, etc. However, if there is a local copy of any data synced to a remote server — such as local files in the Dropbox app on your iPhone — CBP can look at those documents.
All of this means that if you don’t look too suspicious — which unfortunately might be determined based upon the color of your skin or the clothes that you are wearing — there is a very good chance that a customs agent will not ask to look at your phone at all. My most recent experience with customs was just a few weeks ago when I was in a car and drove across the border to Canada and then drove back again. The experience of re-entering the U.S. was incredibly quick and non-intrusive for me, just a few questions. Then again, I was in a van with my wife and kids coming across the border next to Niagara Falls, so it was fairly obvious that we were just typical American tourists.
But if you are unlucky, customs may well ask you to unlock your iPhone or iPad so that they can search through your files. You need to decide before your travel whether this risk is enough reason to not take your device in the first place. The Electronic Frontier Foundation prepared an excellent document on this topic called Digital Privacy at the U.S. Border: Protecting the Data On Your Devices and In the Cloud. According to the EFF, you can ask the border agent to withdraw the order that you unlock your device on the grounds that the device contains confidential and sensitive attorney-client communications and attorney-work product. This might work. But it might not, and in the process you are going to have explain to the agent in great detail what is on the device.
The EFF also cites a 2009 directive stating that border agents must consult with the CBP legal office before searching documents protected by the attorney-client privilege.
I wish I could conclude this post with easy answers, but it appears that there are none at the moment. I don’t know how you should weigh the usefulness of having your iPhone and iPad with you outside of the country versus the risk that a border agent will try to search the device as you enter the country. And remember, we are just talking about U.S. border agents right now; you may also find yourself facing an official in another country who demands access to your device and who has no regard for the Rules of Professional Conduct or the Rules of Evidence governing privilege.
Today at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern, legal tech consultant Brett Burney and New Orleans attorney Ernie Svenson are presenting a free webinar called Advanced Mobile Lawyering Tactics. I have known Brett and Ernie for a long time, and both are excellent presenters and very knowledgeable on mobile technology. According to a post on Brett’s Apps in Law website, topics include: file management, note taking, scanning documents and working with PDF files, legal research, mind-mapping, and security tips. If you are in the Central time zone like I am, that means that you can learn some useful tips while you have lunch at your desk at Noon. Click here to register for free. And now, the news of note from the past week:
In an article for Macworld, Jason Snell explains how the new iPad Pro, especially when paired with the upcoming iOS 11, is an amazing device for getting work done.
In another article for Macworld, Jeffery Battersby reviews Citrix ShareFile, a service that works on your computer and iOS device. My law firm uses ShareFile and it works well for sharing large files.
In yet another article for Macworld, Glenn Fleishman explains how the ability of apps to track you (even when you want them to) will change in iOS 11.
Abhishek Kurve of Cult of Mac explains how, with iOS 11, you will get more free space on your iPhone or iPad.
Steven Sande of Apple World Today reviews the iDevices Outdoor Switch, which brings HomeKit control to outdoor lights (and other things that you plug in outside).
Jordan Kahn of 9to5Mac reports that the Waze driving app now lets you record custom voice prompts “turn right,” “turn left,” etc. and share them with others. Finally, you can have your spouse tell you what to do in your car.
And finally, Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal describes steps you can take — from easy to hard — to fix an old iPhone battery that doesn’t do as good a job of holding a charge:
On March 2, 2011, Apple introduced the iPad 2, Apple’s first attempt to improve upon the iPad. The iPad 2 itself was nicer because it was faster, thinner and lighter. But I was also excited about two new accessories. First, Apple introduced an HDMI connector, letting you send 1080p video to a TV, and opening the door to higher-quality presentations. (Having said that, it amazes me that, this many years later, I still encounter VGA more than HDMI when I give presentations using my iPad.) Second, Apple introduced the Smart Cover, a device that could both protect the screen of the iPad and work as a stand. Back in 2011, you could get either a polyurethane version for $39 or a leather version for $69. I opted for the leather version, and I used leather Smart Covers for many years with multiple versions of the iPad and iPad Air.
When Apple came out with the larger 12.9″ iPad Pro in the Fall of 2015, I bought a new Smart Cover to accommodate the new size. I was curious if the extra weight of the 12.9″ iPad Pro would make the Smart Cover less stable as a stand, but I was happy to discover that it worked just fine. However, Apple only released a polyurethane version of the Smart Cover for the 12.9″ iPad Pro. Last month, when Apple released the second generation of the 12.9″ iPad Pro, Apple also introduced the first 12.9″ version of the leather Smart Cover. So you can now choose between a 12.9″ polyurethane version for $59 or a 12.9″ leather version for $79. (Both versions work with the first generation and second generation version of the 12.9″ iPad Pro.) Here are my thoughts if you are trying to decide between the two.
Smart Covers are a great idea
Smart Covers have been around for so many years that I suspect most of you have owned or at least tried one by now. But for the sake of completeness, I will start by briefly noting why I like the Smart Cover so much as an iPad accessory.
First, it protects the screen. The glass on the iPad is pretty strong and scratch-resistant anyway, but with a Smart Cover you never need to worry about a sharp object damaging the screen. I also find that it makes the iPad easier to grip when carrying it, which provides further protection because I am less likely to drop my iPad.
Second, it gets out of the way when you don’t need it. The genius of the Smart Cover is that is uses magnets built-in to the side of an iPad. Thus, it is easy to attach to the iPad, and easy to remove. When I am using my iPad at work at my desk, I typically don’t have the Smart Cover attached. But whenever I pick up my iPad to take it to a meeting or another attorney’s office, I always quickly attach it.
Third, it folds into a stand, in two different positions — one that keeps the iPad more flat with a slight rise in the back, great for using the Pencil or on-screen keyboard:
And one that keeps the iPad more upright, perfect for when you are looking at the screen more than touching it:
When I want my iPad upright for a more extended period of time, I actually prefer to use a dedicated stand to prop up my iPad so that I never have to worry about the iPad falling down, even if I push hard on the screen. And for over a year now, I’ve been incredibly happy with the Simplex Tablet iPad Stand by Thought Out which I reviewed in 2016. That device is only $30 and it is incredibly strong, and makes it easy to have my iPad propped up next to my computer so that I can use both at the same time. But the Simplex is heavy enough that I only rarely move it outside of my office. With the Smart Cover, I always have a stand with me, wherever I am, with no noticeable extra weight.
Polyurethane vs. Leather
Now you know why I recommend that attorneys get a Smart Cover for an iPad. The remaining question is: which one: polyurethane or leather? There are some differences, and the leather version is not always better even though it costs $20 more.
Strength. As I noted above, back in 2015, I was worried that the extra weight larger 12.9″ version of the iPad would make the Smart Cover less capable as a stand. With the polyurethane version, that has not been a problem at all. But the leather version, for some reason, is not quite as strong when I have the iPad in the more fully upright position. Every time I did a side-by-side test, with the leather Smart Cover in stand mode on one of my 12.9″ iPad Pros and the polyurethane on the other one, as I applied gradually more pressure to both iPads, the leather Smart Cover would always collapse before the polyurethane version.
Moreover, I have used the polyurethane version since the Fall of 2015 and it has only rarely failed as a stand — and when it did, it was often because I wasn’t placing it on a flat surface, or I was applying what was really unreasonable pressure to the screen. I’ve been using the leather Smart Cover for a few weeks now, and there have been two times when I felt the triangle of the stand start to slip as I was using it. Admittedly, both times, I was probably applying more pressure than was necessary. The magnets holding the Smart Cover to itself just seem a little bit less strong on the leather version.
I don’t mean to suggest that the leather version doesn’t work as a stand. It does work, and it works well. But the polyurethane version works better.
Durability. Since I started with the bad news about the leather version, I’ll move on to the other potentially negative issue. If you spill something on the polyurethane version, you can just wipe it off. But with the leather version, you can potentially stain the leather. I’ve never had this happen to me in my many years of using leather Smart Covers on a 9.7″ iPad, but I’ve heard other folks mention it as a reason that they prefer the polyurethane version.
The two materials also wear differently. Polyurethane maintains the same look over time. Leather ages over time, and can change color, especially in areas where the oils from your hands touch the Smart Cover more often. I actually consider this a feature of the leather version, not a shortcoming; to me, it gains personality over time.
Look and feel. The main reason that I prefer the leather case is the way that it feels. The polyurethane Smart Cover has a slightly sticky feel to it. Even after using the polyurethane version for well over a year, I never really got used to it. As soon as I went back to the leather version a few weeks ago, I was instantly happy to return to the feel of leather. It feels great to the touch, the same way that leather seats in a car are nicer than seats with a plastic-y feel.
I also think that the leather looks much nicer too.
Colors. For the older 9.7″ or newer 10.5″ version of the iPad, you get more color options with polyurethane. I see that Apple currently sells seven 10.5″ polyurethane colors: Mist Blue, Pollen, Flamingo, White, Pink Sand, Midnight Blue and Charcoal Gray. (You get eight options with the 9.7″ Smart Cover.) But with the 12.9″ polyurethane Smart Cover, your only color choices are White and Charcoal Gray. I’m not sure why Apple considers color so much less important with the larger model.
With the 12.9″ leather Smart Cover, you get three color choices: Saddle Brown, Midnight Blue and Black. (The 10.5″ leather Smart Cover has a fourth color: Taupe.)
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter how many different colors are offered. All that really matters is whether there is a color that works for you. I prefer a dark color, which is available in both leather and polyurethane. But I prefer the Black leather to the almost-but-not-quite-black Charcoal Gray polyurethane. In the following picture. the polyurethane model is on top of the leather model:
Of course, if White, Saddle Brown or Midnight Blue is the best color for you, then you can make your selection accordingly.
Conclusion
After spending over a year using a polyurethane Smart Cover, I’m happy to be able to return to a leather Smart Cover. For me, it looks and feels so much nicer. I wish it was 100% as strong a stand as the polyurethane Smart Cover, but it is more than strong enough. The extra $20 is worth it for something that I carry around every day, and thus feel and look at every day.
If you are in the market for a 12.9″ iPad Pro, or really any iPad for that matter, I encourage you to get a Smart Cover. They add protection and live up to the “smart” in their name by cleverly folding up into a stand and getting out of the way quickly when you don’t need them. And best of all, now you once again have a choice of leather or polyurethane for the 12.9″ version.
The new iPad Pro has been out for a little while now, and as wonderful as that device is, we can’t help but start thinking about the next big thing in the world of iOS. We know that iOS 11 is coming soon, and you can even download a public beta now if you want to take it out for spin — but I don’t recommend that you do so on a device that you use for work because Apple is still working out the kinks and many third party apps won’t work with the beta version. We also know that Apple will come out with new iPhones this Fall, presumably an iPhone 7s and an iPhone 7S Plus, so that is another next big thing to look forward to. But for a while now, there has been a rumor that Apple will also release a premium model, perhaps called the iPhone Pro, giving Apple the ability to sell a more advanced iPhone with features that Apple cannot produce at scale and at a low enough cost to put the features in all iPhones sold. John Gruber of Daring Fireball wrote a fantastic analysis of why it makes sense for Apple to produce an iPhone Pro, and Gruber even explains why the iPhone Pro will likely sell for $1200 to $1400. And now, the news of note from the past week:
Florida attorney, and former U.S. Senator, George LeMieux discusses how the iPhone and other technology has changed the world, in an article for the Tampa Bay Times.
Security is a frequent topic here on iPhone J.D., and for good reason. Unfortunately, even if you do everything right, you are still vulnerable. Software developer Justin Williams tells the tale of how he got hacked even though he uses a password manager, two-factor authentication, etc. because an AT&T call center representative was tricked into resetting his iPhone even though the hacker didn’t know the passcode. Then the hacker was able to transfer money out of a PayPal account. Ugh.
Speaking of security, at certain Hilton hotels, you can use your iPhone to unlock the door to your room. As reported by Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac, Hilton announced that its system has now been used 11 million times at 1,700 hotels without a single security breach.
There is a solar eclipse in a few weeks that will be visible from the United States. Jeff Byrnes of AppAdvice reviews the Solar Eclipse app from Redshift that gives you all of the information that you need to view the eclipse.
It was a little sad to see the report by Chance Miller of 9to5Mac that Jawbone is shutting down. There was a time when the company was known for making some of the best headsets, and the Jawbone Jambox was a very popular speaker for a while. I was a big fan of the Jawbone Prime, a Bluetooth headset I reviewed back in 2009.
In an article for TidBITS, Glenn Fleishman explains the new video and photo formats (HEVC and HEIF) coming in iOS 11. “HEIF tries to combine all the best aspects of PNG, JPEG, and GIF, while dramatically improving compression and adding new features like the capability to store bursts of photographs.” Sounds good, and perhaps it will let Apple make Live Photos even better — a feature that is really fun when you take pictures of kids.
Who needs an iPhone when you can have a $2,500 Nokia phone which commemorates the meeting today between Trump and Putin? Click, if you must, on this post by Devin Coldewey of TechCrunch for pictures and more information.
And finally, Apple started out its WWDC developer conference a few weeks ago by showing an amusing video of what the world might be like if all of our apps suddenly went away. It’s funny and worth watching if you haven’t seen it yet:
As we celebrate 10 years of the iPhone this week, Josh Centers describes an interesting new offer from Virgin Mobile in an article for TidBITS. Virgin Mobile is the first carrier to go iPhone-exclusive. And to get some attention for going iPhone-only, for the next month, if you purchase an iPhone from Virgin Mobile, you can get 12 months of service for just a dollar. And after that, it is only $50 a month. And that’s for unlimited talk, text and data. Virgin Mobile is owned by Sprint, so make sure that Sprint service is adequate in your area, but if it is, this is the best iPhone deal I’ve ever seen. And now, the news of note from the past week:
John Gruber of Daring Fireball does a great job explaining how the iPhone changed the world. “The iPhone was the product Apple had been founded to create — the epitome of everything both of Apple’s founding Steves stood for and obsessed about. The home run of all home runs.”
In a video for the Wall Street Journal, former Apple executives Scott Forstall, Tony Fadell and Greg Christie discuss the origin of the iPhone. It’s a fantastic video with lots of inside information on how the iPhone came to be. I highly recommend it.
I often think of my iPhone as my second brain, remembering the things that I could never remember, such as all of my passwords. (Which reminds me, you need to hurry up to take advantage of the 1Password offer before it expires!) But according to an article by Christopher Bergland in Psychology Today, a study showed that brain power is reduced when your iPhone is close by. It looks like an interesting study, but I could only skim it because I was also using Twitter on my iPhone.
Joseph Keller of iMore reports that Cisco unveiled Security Connector this week, software that gives large companies more control over iPhones and iPads and increases security.
Earlier this month, Apple posted an amazing video called Earth featuring videos shot on iPhones, with narration by Carl Sagan from his book Pale Blue Dot.
And finally, Joanna Stern created a fun video showing, from a first person perspective, what it is like to try to use the original, first generation iPhone in 2017. Amazing how far we have come:
In November 2015, Apple started selling the 12.9″ iPad Pro. the first iPad sold by Apple with a screen larger than the 9.7″ screen that had been around since the iPad was introduced in 2010. This was the only Apple product I had ever used that I grew to love but didn’t love at first. Usually, I can tell fairly quickly if a product is right for me. The thing that I grew to love most about the product — the large screen — was also the thing that held me back at first. For the first week or so it just felt too big and heavy as compared to the iPad I had been using for five years. However, once I got used to it, I never wanted to go back to a smaller iPad.
This month, Apple introduced the second generation of the iPad Pro 12.9″ and the primary improvements are a better screen, speed and a better camera. None of these are critical improvements over the previous model, so attorneys using the first generation version of the iPad Pro don’t need to run out and upgrade. But if you are still using an earlier model of the iPad such as the iPad Air, and especially if you are still using something pre-dating the iPad Air, the new iPad Pro is light years better than what you are using.
What remains great
Because I expect that virtually all attorneys considering the new iPad Pro 12.9″ will be upgrading from an iPad Air 2 or earlier model, let me begin by discussing what is so great about this latest iPad even though it is the same as 2015 version of the iPad Pro.
First, all models of the iPad Pro support the Apple Pencil. Yes, it costs $99, and that is more expensive than styluses that you can buy from third parties (my favorite of which remains the $22 Adonit Jot Pro which I reviewed here). But there is really no comparison between the Apple Pencil and any other stylus. Because the Apple Pencil and iPad Pro are designed from the ground up to work together, the Pencil does a fantastic job of writing on the iPad screen with virtually no lag. Check out my 2015 review for the many reasons that I love the Pencil, but perhaps most telling is that I continue use the Pencil almost every single day at work. I use it to take handwritten notes, to annotate briefs of opposing counsel, to highlight and annotate cases during legal research, and more.
Second, the larger screen of the 12.9″ model makes it so much easier for me to get work done, sometimes when I am using the iPad next to my computer, other times when I am using my iPad instead of a computer. The larger screen is better for reading documents on the iPad. Indeed, in portrait mode, letter-sized documents are essentially full-size. So whether I am reading briefs, looking at the fine print in contracts, or just admiring a great picture of my kids, the screen size is incredible, and I believe is worth the tradeoff of carrying an iPad that is bigger and heavier (1.5 pounds versus 1 pound).
Third, iPad Pro models are much faster than earlier iPads, making everything more responsive. I can flip through the pages of large PDF files easily.
I’ll mention a fourth reason, although it doesn’t apply to me. Sometimes it is nice to use an external keyboard with an iPad. If you prefer a keyboard that is built-in to a cover, such as Apple’s Smart Keyboard, the larger size means that you can have a full-size keyboard just like on your computer. This isn’t an issue for me because I prefer to use Bluetooth keyboards, which are stand-alone and can be whatever size you want. But lots of folks tell me that this is a reason that they like the first generation iPad Pro 12.9″
These are all reasons to love the second generation iPad Pro 12.9″ too. But there is more.
Better screen
My favorite feature of the second generation iPad Pro is the screen. It is better in three different ways.
First, the new iPad Pro uses something that Apple calls ProMotion. The technical detail is that it can refresh the screen at 120Hz, whereas the first generation iPad Pro refreshed at a maximum speed of 60Hz. What this means is that everything moves incredibly smoothly on the screen. When you flick through pages of a brief, it doesn’t look like an animation of going from one page to another page; it looks like you are actually moving pages. When you move between apps, the process is amazingly smooth. Yes, this is largely eye-candy, but it is incredibly nice to use, and as a side benefit makes the iPad feel more responsive.
ProMotion also makes the Apple Pencil even better because the iPad can “draw” on the screen twice as fast. Don’t get me wrong, the Apple Pencil worked amazingly well with the first generation iPad Pro. But with the second generation iPad Pro. the illusion that the Pencil is actually drawing on the screen is virtually perfect. It’s like you can “see” the ink flowing from the Pencil onto the iPad’s screen.
Second, the second generation 12.9″ gains the same screen technology introduced in 2016 when Apple unveiled the 9.7″ version of the iPad Pro. Using something called DCI-P3 (the same standard used for theatrical projection and in 4K UHD televisions), colors are deeper and the screen is brighter. And with TrueTone (an optional feature you can enable in Settings), the new iPad Pro senses the light around you and adjusts the white balance automatically. Thus, whether you are in a room with a more yellow light or a more blue light, colors on the screen (especially white) look more appropriate. If you use your iPad outside, the brighter screen (600 nits versus 400 nits for the first generation) makes it easier to see the screen even in sunlight.
Third, the new screen also supports HDR Video, a standard which lets darker areas look truly dark while brighter colors look truly bright. Today, there isn’t much HDR Video content. Last year, Netflix added HDR video that could work with certain televisions, and hopefully it won’t be long before Netflix brings this to the new iPad Pro models. I’ve heard folks say that a TV with HDR looks even better than a 4K TV. My understanding is that we will have to wait for iOS 11 later this year before the new iPad Pro can take advantage of HDR video, but suffice it to say that the second generation iPad Pro is ready for the future.
Even when playing high-quality non-HDR videos, the colors look much better on the second generation iPad Pro than the first generation iPad Pro. I did many tests when I played the same video on both iPads at the same time. I looked at my older iPad and thought that the video looked great. Then I looked at the newer iPad and the colors looked much more vibrant — and suddenly my first generation iPad didn’t seem so great anymore.
Faster
I thought my first generation iPad Pro was pretty fast. This new one is screaming fast. There is noticeably less lag when working with huge documents, using Safari to search the web is faster, switching applications is faster … everything is much more responsive. This is great today, but with the new multi-tasking features of iOS 11, this speed increase will be even more valuable as iOS 11 does more.
I’ve been using this new iPad Pro while researching and drafting several major briefs over the last few days, and I really love how quickly I can move around from app to app, and how quickly I can scroll through documents. It’s really nice. When the iPad doesn’t slow me down, I feel even more productive.
Better camera
In the past, the camera on an iPad was always lacklaster as compared to the newest cameras on the newest iPhones. But now, the iPad Pro has the same great camera that is on the iPhone 7, and even gains a flash. (It doesn’t have the dual-camera system found on the iPhone 7 Plus.)
My main use of a camera at work is scanning documents. In the past, I would always use my iPhone to take the picture because it had a better camera and then transfer the picture over to my iPad. Now, I can just use my iPad to get a great picture.
But the main reason that I’m interested in the better camera is for using the iPad just for fun. No, I don’t plan to be one of those people who walks around with a huge iPad taking pictures, and I’m still amazed how often I see that happen. But what excites me is that at Apple’s developer conference earlier this month, Apple previewed new and powerful augmented reality tools which developers can use to create amazing experiences. A demo showed a virtual animated 3D village sitting on a real table, and you could move an iPad around the table to see everything in incredible detail. The quality was amazing. I’m not yet sure how developers will use this technology, but I have no doubt that it will be fun and impressive. The high quality camera on the second generation iPad Pro, along with the faster processors inside, will make the augmented reality experience all the more realistic. My hope is that in just a few months, we will start to see some cool stuff.
[UPDATE: This 9to5Mac post by Chance Miller has some very early examples of the augmented reality possibilities I’m talking about.]
Etc.
There are a few other improvements. First, Touch ID works better and faster, with the iPad finally gaining the second generation Touch ID that was introduced with the iPhone 6s.
If you get the cellular version of the iPad Pro, it gets better reception. I myself prefer saving money and getting the WiFi version; I can always just tether to my iPhone when I don’t have access to WiFi.
There are also new memory options. When the first generation iPad Pro was introduced in 2015, you had a choice between 32 GB and 128 GB, and I thought that the 128 GB was the natural choice for most lawyers. Apple added a 256 GB option in March, 2016. With the second generation iPad Pro, the choices are 64 GB, 256 GB and 512 GB. 64 GB (at $799) will be enough for many lawyers, but if you want to put what will seem like unlimited documents on your iPad Pro, and especially if you want to put lots of photos and videos on the device and want to future-proof, I think that spending an extra $100 for 256 GB makes good sense, and that is what I purchased. For $1,099, you can now get a new 512 GB option. That seems like overkill to me, but if you have grand plans to download lots of HDR video (in the future, once it becomes available) and want to spend the extra money on getting the most capacity, well then Apple has you covered.
One thing that hasn’t changed is the Lightning to USB cord and charger that come in the box. I realize that most folks are still using a computer with traditional USB and, for now at least, Apple wants to be compatible with that. But as was also true with the first generation iPad Pro, if you purchase a USB-C Power Adapter ($49) and USB-C to Lightning Cable ($25), both of which I reviewed here, you can charge an iPad Pro much, much faster. It is a shame that you need to spend an extra $75 to get the best charging option, especially since you need to spend an extra $99 to get the Apple Pencil which I consider essential for most lawyers use an iPad Pro.
Conclusion
The second generation iPad Pro is better than the first generation iPad Pro in the ways that matter most for attorneys using an iPad to get work done — how the screen looks, how fast and responsive the system is, and how it works with the Apple Pencil. If you are using a first generation iPad Pro, don’t get too jealous because your iPad is almost as good. You don’t need to upgrade. But if you are using an older model of the iPad, the iPad Pro will be a major improvement and will help you to be much more productive with your device. Plus it will be a lot more enjoyable to use.
After using the 12.9″ screen for 19 months, I wouldn’t want to go back to the smaller screen. It’s a big change at first and takes a week or two to get used to, so give yourself time before you decide if it is right for you. Remember, Apple has a 14-day, no-questions-asked return policy, so if it still seems too big for you after 10 days, you will still have four more days to get to an Apple Store and swap it out for the smaller version. But I love the larger screen.
If you think that the smaller size if better for you, the good news is that the smaller iPad Pro now has a 10.5″ screen instead of a 9.7″ screen, and thanks to a thinner bezel, Apple packed the 10.5″ screen into a device that doesn’t feel much bigger than the traditional iPad size. California attorney David Sparks — who literally wrote the book on getting work done with an iPad many years ago — wrote on his MacSparky website that he is trying out the 10.5″ screen to see if it works for him. I’ll be interested to see if he sticks with the smaller size, but I’m confident that I made the right decision for me.
Perhaps the best part of this new device is that the best is yet to come. The iPad is going to get major improvements once iOS 11 comes out in a few months. Older iPads may struggle to keep up with the new features, and some new features won’t even work with some older models, but the second generation iPad Pro will be more than up for the task with its improved screen and faster processor. So as much as I am enjoying using this new iPad today, I have no doubt that it will be even better this Fall.
Next week we will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the iPhone going on sale. On June 29, 2007, about six months after Steve Jobs first previewed the iPhone, long lines formed to be among the first to use this revolutionary device. The idea of a smartphone without a physical keyboard seemed insane to many, and the first generation of the iPhone was extremely limited, but it still forever changed not only the cellphone industry, but the entire technology sector. In an article for BackChannel on Wired, Steven Levy talks about being one of only four reviewers to try out an iPhone before they went on sale to the public. (The others were Walt Mossberg who was with the Wall Street Journal, David Pogue who was with the New York Times, and Ed Baig of USA Today.) And now, the recent news of note:
I bought the 12.9″ version of the new iPad Pro. I’ll have a full review soon, but in short the speed is amazing and the improved screen is very nice. California attorney David Sparks decided to switch from his prior 12.9″ version to the new 10.5″ version, and wrote a review after one week with the new iPad.
TranscriptPad was updated to version 2.3.0 and adds two great new features. First, the app can now create impeachment reports. Second, the app can now create a report with marked testimony in chronological order instead of sorted by issue code. A blog post on the Lit Software website explains these two new features.
ExhibitView for iPad was updated to version 7 not that long ago, featuring retina graphics and more printing options. Click here for more information.
In an article for Macworld, Jason Snell explains why typing is much better on the 10.5″ iPad than the former 9.7″ version, even though that size difference seems minor.
In a two hour interview for the Computer History Museum, five folks talk about the creation of the iPhone. The first hour features iPhone Engineers Nitin Ganatra, Scott Herz, and Hugo Fiennes. The second hour features Scott Forstall, the iPhone software team leader, in what is I believe his first public discussion of working at Apple since he left the company.
Dan Moren of Six Colors reviews an iClever ergonomic keyboard that folds in half. When I travel, I still enjoy using a different iClever foldable keyboard I reviewed last year.
If you currently pay $9.99 a month for Apple Music, Chance Miller of 9to5Mac reports that you can now save yourself some money by changing to $99.99 a year. I don’t yet see an annual rate for a family plan.
Apple is now selling a new Pride Edition of the Apple Watch woven nylon band for $49, as explained by Lory Gil of iMore. Although this band features six colors, they start at red and end at purple; even so, it sort of reminds me of the six colors of the original Apple logo, which started at blue and went to green.
And finally, I recently took a road trip with my kids, and the day that I got home, the Memories feature of Photos was nice enough to put together a great video containing still photos, live photos, and short video clips from my trip. The automatically-created version was great, but it was easy to make some small edits to it, removing some photos I didn’t like and adding others that I love, and within minutes I had a fantastic slideshow that, before Memories, would have taken me hours to create. And as nice as that was for a recent trip, I also love how Memories creates videos of older photos that I haven’t seen in a while. If you take pictures with your iPhone and don’t yet pay attention to the Memories feature, you should do so. And to remind you to do so, Apple recently released a new commercial for Memories, showing what it might have taken in the old days to get similar results:
