California attorney David Sparks discusses getting work done with an iPad instead of a computer, noting that Microsoft Word on the iPad is really just one feature short of giving attorneys all that they need to give up using the computer for word processing: proper support for Styles. I agree 100%, and every time Microsoft updates its iOS app, this is the first thing I look for in the list of what is new. And now, the news of note from the past week:
On the latest edition of Brett Burney’s Apps in Law podcast, Kentucky attorney Jeff Alford discusses using TextExpander on the iPhone and iPad.
If you ever find that Face ID doesn’t work, Yoni Heisler of BGR explains that rather than try again, you should enter your passcode. That way, the iPhone X will learn to adjust and will do a better job in the future recognizing your face.
The iPhone 8 and iPhone X support fast charging, much like the iPad Pro. I previously reviewed the combination of Apple’s 29W USB-C Power Adapter and USB-C to Lightning Cable, a great pair for getting the fastest possible charging. But it costs $75. Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal ran some tests and concluded that while Apple’s USB-C combo is the fastest, using a $20 Apple 12W charger (which comes with the iPad) or using an $11 Anker 24W charger is almost as fast for the iPhone 8 / iPhone X. I still like having Apple’s USB-C combo because I have an iPad Pro which takes much better advantage of USB-C, but if you are only looking for fast charging on an iPad, it looks like Apple’s USB-C combo is overkill.
According to Neil Hughes of AppleInsider, you can save a tremendous amount of battery life on the iPhone X by using mostly dark screens, because black on an OLED display uses substantially less power. I recently switched to an all-black backgrounds for the home screen on my iPhone X, not to save power, but instead because I love the contrast on that OLED screen between a true black and the icon colors.
Mark Prigg of the Daily Mail reports that a kitesurfer off the coast of California found himself stranded in shark-infested waters and used the cellular function of his Apple Watch 3 to call for help.
CarPlay Life offers some good advice for using Siri with Apple CarPlay. One tip I learned from that article is that asking Siri for directions to X will just show you the directions on the screen, but asking Siri to take me to X will not only find the directions but also start providing directions advice, saving you the step of tapping the “Go” button on the CarPlay screen.
And finally, here is the cute video released by Apple this week showing a teenager using an iPad Pro for so many things that she forgets what a computer is; this is the video referenced in David Spark’s post that I linked to above:
I’ve enjoyed my first week with the iPhone X more than I’ve enjoyed my first week with any other iPhone except perhaps for my first iPhone, the iPhone 3G back in 2008. I’ve picked up my iPhone 7 several times this week, and it now seems so dated because they lack the huge screen. The larger screen on the iPhone X quickly feels like this is the screen that was always supposed to be on an iPhone, and I’m sure that in a few years almost all iPhone users will feel the same way. The screen in the standout feature, but Face ID runs a close second because it is so incredible to have the iPhone unlock without my having to do anything. And thanks to the release of the new Clips app (discussed below), we are now starting to see new and interesting things that can be done with all of the front-facing cameras the sit in the notch at the top of the screen. And now, the news of note from the past week:
By default, you need to look at an iPhone X to unlock it. With earlier iPhones, you can unlock with a fingerprint, even if someone else puts your finger on the device while you are asleep. That led to some chaos this week when a woman on a Qatar Airways flight put her sleeping husband’s finger on his iPhone to unlock it and discovered that he was having an affair. The woman, who reportedly had been drinking, then became disruptive, and ultimately the flight had to be diverted to get her and her husband off the plane. Saurabh Sinhai of The Times of India has additional details.
Nick Compton of Wallpaper interview’s Apple’s Jony Ive to discuss Apple’s new Apple Park building, and other Apple design issues. The photography in this article is impressive.
Now that we all know what the new iPhone looks like, what will the next iPad look like? Mark Gurman and Alex Webb of Bloomberg have some ideas, and Jason Snell of Six Color notes that these predictions seem reasonable — stuff like Face ID on an iPad and a new Apple Pencil.
Peeking further into the future, Michael Simon of Macworld discusses a possible wearable device by Apple that could be targeted for a 2020 release. Apple CEO Tim Cook does love to talk about Augmented Reality, and as cool as it is on an iPhone, it does seem like Apple has additional applications in mind for this technology.
Apple may be working on a second edition Apple Pencil, but what are the best styluses today? The GoodNotes Blog selects some favorites, and I agree with this list. The Apple Pencil is by far the best choice, but if you don’t have an iPad Pro there are some other good ones to choose from.
John Gruber of Daring Fireball discusses the new Clips app by Apple, which is now at version 2.0. As Griber notes, it is a major upgrade. One of the fun new features is to use the iPhone X TrueDepth camera to place yourself on the Millennium Falcon. I showed off a little by making this short video right after the app was updated, but then Rian Johnson (the director of the upcoming Star Wars movie The Last Jedi) posted this video and immediately put mine to shame.
Speaking of the front-facing cameras on the iPhone X, Jason Snell wrote a good article for Tom’s Guide explaining how to use Face ID on the iPhone X.
The visitor center at Apple Park opens a week from today, November 17, according to Chance Miller of 9to5Mac. It’s nice that Apple will finally have a designated area for the general public to visit the Apple campus. I’ve visited Apple’s Infinite Loop campus in the past with an Apple employee escorting me, but having that friend on the inside was always critical. That changes next week.
Jessica Smith of Business Insider reports that the attempted merger between T-Mobile and Spring is now called off.
Tomorrow, November 11, if you exercise for 11 minutes with your Apple Watch, you’ll earn a Veteran’s Day badge. iMore has the details.
David Pogue of Yahoo compares the Apple TV, Roku and other streaming boxes. He says that the Apple TV is the best, but the Roku is a great value because it is less expensive. If you have lots of other Apple devices, however, I think that the Apple TV makes the most sense.
And finally, Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal discusses how to use the iPhone X, but does it by taking on the personality of the new Animoji in the Messages app. The video is amusing and informative:
New survey results indicate that a record number of attorneys are using an iPhone in their law practice — over 70% of all attorneys in the United States. These numbers come from the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center, which conducts a survey every year to gauge the use of legal technology by attorneys in private practice in the United States. The 2017 report (edited by Joshua Poje) was just released, and as always, I was particularly interested in Volume VI, titled Mobile Lawyers. No survey is perfect, but the ABA tries hard to ensure that its survey has statistical significance, and every year this is one of the best sources of information on how attorneys use technology. Note that the survey was conducted from February to May of 2017, so these numbers don’t reflect any changes in what attorneys are using which occurred within the last six months. This is the eighth year that I have reported on this survey, and with multiple years of data we can see some interesting trends. (My reports on prior ABA surveys are located here: 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010.)
Over 70% of all U.S. attorneys use an iPhone
The 2017 survey revealed that a record number of attorneys in the U.S. are using a smartphone (around 95%), and of the attorneys using a smartphone, a record number are using an iPhone (around 75%).
The survey asks each attorney “Do you use a smartphone (e.g. BlackBerry, iPhone, Android) for law-related tasks while away from your primary workplace?” Back in 2010, the number of attorneys answering “no” was around 12%. It decreased over the years to 10% and then last year to 6.8%. This year, it is at an all time low of only 4.4%. I’m somewhat surprised it has taken that long to get here, but we can now say that over 95% of all attorneys use a smartphone.
In 2013, the big news was that, for the first time, over half of all attorneys were using an iPhone. In 2014 and 2015 the percentage was around 60%. In 2016, there was a big increase up to 68.4%. In 2017, the number is up to 74.9%. Taking into account that 4.4% of all attorneys are not using any smartphone, we can now say that 71.6% of all attorneys in private practice in the U.S. are using an iPhone in their law practice, which is an all-time high. According to the ABA 2017 National Lawyer Population Survey, there are 1,335,963 attorneys in the U.S., which suggests that there could be over 956,000 attorneys in the U.S. using an iPhone.
If 71.6% of all attorneys are using an iPhone, and 4.4% of attorneys are not using any smartphone, what are the others using? Most of them are using an Android smartphone, around 21.6%.
Back in 2011, 40% of all attorneys used a BlackBerry, and I’m sure all of us remember a time when it was incredibly common to see another lawyer with a BlackBerry. However, BlackBerry use by attorneys has dropped sharply since 2011. In 2017, the number reached a new low of only 2%.
Finally, there are 0.6% of attorneys using some sort of Microsoft Windows operating system on their smartphone in 2017, and another 1.3% either report using “other” or say that they don’t know what kind of smartphone they are using.
If you add the numbers, you’ll notice that they add up to 101.5%. But it makes sense for the number to be slightly over 100% because I know that a small number of attorneys use multiple smartphones.
The following pie chart is somewhat imprecise because, as I just noted, the actual numbers add up to just over 100%, but it gives you a general, graphical sense of the relative use:
To place these numbers in historical context, the following chart shows lawyer smartphone use over recent years. The two dramatic changes in this chart are of course the plunge in BlackBerry use and the surge in iPhone use. There has been a more gradual, but noticeable, decrease in the number of attorneys not using a smartphone at all. As for Android use, there was a slight increase from 2011 to 2015, but then a slight decrease in the last two years. The “Other” category in this chart includes Windows, something else, and those who don’t know what smartphone they are using.
Why are attorneys choosing iPhone, Android or BlackBerry? Firm size might have something to do with it. Almost all of the attorneys still using a BlackBerry are at the largest law firms. On the other hand, Android use is highest among solo attorneys. And for firm sizes between the smallest and largest, it looks like those BlackBerry or Android users become iPhone users:
What are these attorneys doing with their iPhones and other smartphones? Almost all are using them to make phone calls and handle emails. Around 75% are regularly using smartphones for calendars, contacts, and accessing the Internet. Other popular uses are text messaging, GPS/maps, taking pictures and mobile-specific research apps. Only 8.2% use a smartphone to track time and expenses (which is down slightly from 10% last year).
Almost 5% of attorneys report that they are not using any security measures on their smartphone, which is unfortunate; for attorneys, that number really should be zero. If nothing else, you need to use a password to protect your device. (And if you use an iPhone, Apple is making even harder to use a device without a passcode.)
50% of survey respondents use Verizon for their smartphone. AT&T has 37.4%, Sprint has 6.2%, T-Mobile has 4.7%, US Cellular and Cricket Wireless each have 0.6%, and 1.4% said “other” or “don’t know.”
About 40% of U.S attorneys use an iPad
Apple introduced the original iPad in 2010, and for the first few years it resulted in a surge in lawyer tablet use. In 2011, only 15% of all attorneys responded that they use a tablet. That number more than doubled to 33% in 2012, and rose to 48% in 2013. But since then, the number has essentially held steady: 49% in 2014, 49.6% in 2015, 50.6% in 2016, and 49.8 in 2017%. Suffice it to say that about half of all U.S. attorneys in private practice currently use a tablet, and that has remained true since 2014.
It used to be that around 90% of attorneys using a tablet were using an iPad. It was 89% in 2011, 91% in 2012, and 91% in 2013. From 2014 to 2016, that number stayed around 84%. In 2017, that number is at an all-time low of 81.3%. If 81.3% of the 49.8% of attorneys use a tablet use an iPad, that means that about 40.5% of all U.S. attorneys are using an iPad in 2017.
Keep in mind, though, that this data was all collected in early 2017. As I reported yesterday, iPad sales peaked in 2014 and then decreased substantially, but for the last six months, iPad sales have started to increase again, perhaps due to the new 10.5" iPad Pro and the second generation 12.9" iPad Pro released in mid-2017. Assuming that lawyers were a part of this recent turn-around in iPad sales, my guess is that the iPad numbers will increase in the 2018 survey. We’ll see.
As for the lawyers using a tablet but not using an iPad, in 2017 11.1% use a Microsoft Windows operating system (a jump from 6.6% in 2016, presumably thanks to the Windows Surface devices), 9.9% use Android (versus 10.1% in 2016), and 1.6% use something else or don’t know what they use. My guess is that some portion of the increase in Windows tablet users were previously iPad users.
Looking at the past seven years on a chart shows visually how the percentage of attorneys using a tablet increased substantially from 2011 to 2013, and then has remained around 50%. For the half of U.S. attorneys using an iPad, the vast majority use an iPad. For the other half of U.S. attorneys who were not interested in a tablet device in 2013, apparently they haven’t changed their minds yet.
What are these attorneys doing with their iPads and other tablets? Pretty much the same thing that they are doing with their smartphones (other than the phone function), with over half of attorneys reporting that they are regularly using their tablets for internet access, email and calendars.
Popular apps
The survey also asked attorneys to identify apps that they use. I want to start by making the same objection that I made for the last two years: I don’t like how the ABA asks the question. The ABA first asks “Have you ever downloaded a legal-specific app for your smartphone?” In 2017, 41.8% said yes. When I see the word “smartphone” in this question, I think of my iPhone, not my iPad. Then the next question asks: “What legal specific app(s) did you download?” When I read the questions in that order, I’m thinking of the apps that I downloaded on my iPhone, not my iPad. But others must be reading the question differently because I see TrialPad and TranscriptPad in the answers, and those apps exist only on the iPad, not on the iPhone. I would have never mentioned those apps when answering the question, even though I use them on my iPad.
So while I question how much value you can put in these answers, for what it is worth, the top 13 apps listed are, in order of the percentage of attorneys mentioning them:
Westlaw
Fastcase
Lexis Advance
A legal dictionary app
TrialPad
TranscriptPad
Courtlink
LexisNexis Get Cases & Shepardize
Clio
ABA apps
LexisNexis Legal News
HeinOnline
Westlaw News
The ABA then asked about general business apps, and the questions have the same ambiguity: the ABA first asked if the attorney ever downloaded a general business app to a smartphone (47.1% said yes in 2017), and then the ABA asked which apps were downloaded, without making it clear whether the question was asking about the iPhone and iPad. The answers provided were, in this order:
Dropbox
LinkedIn
Evernote
GoodReader
LogMeIn
Documents to Go
Box
QuickOffice
MS Office/Word
Notability
It amazes me that Microsoft Word is so low on this list (only 6.4% report using it), but at least it made the list in 2017; in prior years, it wasn’t even on the list. Word is one of the most useful general-purpose apps that any lawyer can have on his iPhone, iPad, Android or Windows mobile device. If you are not using it yet on your iPhone and iPad, you are missing out on an app that is incredibly useful in a law practice.
Apple starts a new fiscal year at the end of September every year. Last Thursday, amid all of the media attention on the new iPhone X, Apple released the results for its 2017 fiscal fourth quarter (which ran from July 2, 2017 to September 30, 2017) and held a call with analysts to discuss the results. This is typically a transitional quarter for Apple considering that so many sales take place in the October to December quarter that contains holiday sales. Sales of the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus started September 22, 2017, so about a week of those sales were included in the fiscal fourth quarter, but of course it did not include any iPhone X sales. Apple announced quarterly revenue of 52.6 billion (up from $46.9 billion a year ago) and quarterly net profit of $10.7 billion. If you want to get all of the nitty gritty details, you can download the audio from the announcement conference call from iTunes, or you can read a rough transcript of the call prepared by Seeking Alpha. Jason Snell of Six Colors also prepared a transcript. Apple's official press release is here.
As always, I'm not particularly interested in the financial aspects of this call. But I'm always interested in the statements of Apple executives that pertain to the use of the iPhone and iPad. Here are the items that stood out to me:
iPhone
Apple sold almost 46.7 million iPhones in the last fiscal quarter. By my count, that means that Apple has sold just over 1.25 billion iPhones as of September 30, 2017. Apple sold its 1 billionth iPhone in July 2016, and it is amazing that it didn't take much more than a year to get to 1.25 billion.
Apple CEO Tim Cook stated in his prepared remarks that iPhone sales in the past quarter "exceeded our expectation." The iPhone 8 Plus in particular "has gotten off to the fastest start of any Plus model," according to Cook. "That, for us, was a bit of a surprise, and a positive surprise, obviously. And so we’ll see what happens next."
Cook stated that initial demand for the iPhone X is "very strong for both direct customers and for our channel partners, which as you know are lots of carriers throughout the world."
When asked about the price of the iPhone X, the most expensive iPhone every sold, Cook stated: "In terms of the way we price, we price to sort of the value that we're providing. We're not trying to charge the highest price we could get or anything like that. We're just trying to price it for what we're delivering. And iPhone X has a lot of great new technologies in there that are leading the industry, and it is a fabulous product and we can't wait for people to start getting it in their hands."
Apple clearly believes that it will sell a lot of expensive iPhone X devices in the current quarter because it announced a prediction of 2018 Q1 sales (October-December) of $84 to $87 billion. That would easily be Apple's best financial quarter ever, and would be a big jump up from the $78.4 billion of 2017 Q1 and the $75.9 billion of 2016 Q1. So when I update the following chart in three months, I expect to see a very tall line at the end:
iPad
Apple sold just over 10.3 million iPads in the last fiscal quarter. By my count, that means that Apple has sold over 381 million iPads as of September 30, 2017.
The prior quarter (2017 Q3) was the first time in three and a half years that iPad sales started to increase. That trend continued in 2017 Q4 with more sales in this fiscal fourth quarter than last fiscal fourth quarter. I think that the best way to see this is to look at a chart that shows the average of four quarters of iPad sales over time. In the following chart, the blue line shows the actual iPad sales each quarter (in millions), and you can see the peaks every year in Apple's fiscal first quarter — the holiday quarter, when folks buy lots of iPads as presents. The green bars show the average of the current quarter and the prior three quarters, which gives you a better sense of iPad sales over time. As this chart shows, the iPad was introduced in 2010 and saw a sharp rise in sales until the end of calendar year 2013 (the beginning of Apple's fiscal year 2014), followed by a decrease in iPad sales over time, and then finally a slight increase in the past two quarters. I'm sure that Apple hopes that the last two quarter are evidence that iPad sales are back on the upswing again.
One of the early reviews of the iPhone X that I read a week ago was by Jason Snell of Six Colors titled “Tomorrow’s iPhone Today.” I’ve been using the iPhone X for just over two days as I type this, and it really does feel like somebody used a time machine to show me what the iPhone of the future would look like. Yes, it has many elements of the iPhone that we have known and loved for the past 10 years, but it is so much more advanced that it feels futuristic. I’ve loved every iPhone that I have owned since my original iPhone 3G back in 2008, but this iPhone X is really something special. It is more expensive than other models of the iPhone, but if you use an iPhone in your law practice and your personal life as much as I do, then it is worth it.
I discussed the major features of the iPhone X two months ago in this post. Take a look at that post again if you want the list of what is new, including the new screen, Face ID, better battery, speed increase, wireless charging, true tone display, better camera, Bluetooth 5.0, etc. Today, I want to just focus on my major impressions of the iPhone X — what makes the device feel so special.
Where everybody knows your name
I’m sure that everyone has private information of some type on their iPhone, but of course attorneys will have tons of documents and other information that is confidential and subject to privileges such as attorney-client, work product, joint defense, etc. Thus, attorneys need to use some sort of authentication on an iPhone. For every iPhone that I have used before the iPhone X, I would pick up my iPhone and then, before using it, I had to pause for authentication. Sometimes that meant typing a passcode. Sometimes it meant putting my finger on the Touch ID button.
As you know, the iPhone X uses cameras and other technology that Apple calls Face ID for authentication. What this means in practice is that it feels like you often don’t have to worry about security at all. It’s like Norm entering the Cheers bar; just walk right in and everybody already knows your name (and they’re always glad you came). When I pick up the iPhone X to use it, the screen wakes as I lift the device, and then during the time that I am swiping my finger up to access the home screen, the iPhone X recognizes me and unlocks the device. Or sometimes, all I want to do is look at my notifications, such as new emails or text messages. I have my notification settings configured so that they show up on my lock screen, but do so in a way that if someone else picks up my iPhone, they don’t see any of the content of the message (just the sender name). On the other hand, if I pick up my iPhone, the iPhone X recognizes me and automatically expands each notification to also show me the subject line and the beginning of the email or message.
(To configure this, go to the Settings App and in Notifications make the top option Show Previews When Unlocked, and in the individual app, such as Messages, turn on Allow Notifications and Show on Lock Screen.)
Touch ID isn’t perfect, especially if your fingers are wet. Similarly, Face ID isn’t perfect, and sometimes would fail to recognize me. I noticed that the infrared camera would sometimes have difficulty when I was outside in a lot of sun, such as when I was at my daughter’s soccer game on Saturday morning. It also had some difficulties when I first woke up on Sunday and wanted to use my phone — perhaps my iPhone X was trying to tell me that I don’t look my best when I first wake up. When that happens, I just have to enter my passcode. I understand that when you do this, the iPhone X will make slight adjustments to its sense of what you look like, so that Face ID improves over time. Maybe next Sunday my iPhone X will be more forgiving of my looks.
But even though the first 48+ hours of Face ID may not be quite as accurate as Touch ID, I would never want to go back to using Touch ID after using Face ID. When Face ID does work — which is the vast majority of the time — it really feels like you are just skipping the security step altogether. Whether I am unlocking the phone, or using an app that checks for security such as my 1Password app (my password manager), it is magical and incredibly convenient for my iPhone X to see who I am and let me right in, without carding me first. And considering that I probably use Face ID well over a hundred times every day, this is a major advantage of the iPhone X.
Screen
The iPhone X screen is breathtakingly amazing. The edge-to-edge screen, with no bezel, lets you see so much more. It’s almost like getting the larger screen of one of the Plus-size iPhones in a device that feels the same in your hand as a non-Plus iPhone. It’s a taller phone, which means that you get a few more lines for apps that display info in a list form top-to-bottom. This includes some of the apps that I use the most on my iPhone, such as Mail, Safari, Notes, Twitter, 1Password, Music, Facebook, etc. Videos and photos look fine when the iPhone X is turned on its size in landscape mode, but other apps do seem unusually wide. But other than videos and photos, I virtually never have my iPhone turned to landscape mode anyway. In portrait mode, the extra space is much appreciated.
And it’s not just quantity, it’s quality too. The OLED screen is unlike anything I’ve ever seen on a phone before, including prior Android phones with an OLED screen. Apple has done an amazing job with this thing. The black are perfectly black, and colors are vivid (but not over-saturated). Whether you are looking at photos or videos, or simply using the iPhone to get work done, everything just looks amazing.
The iPhone X also uses a True Tone display, which adjusts colors based upon the surrounding light. I love that display on my iPad Pro, and it is nice to have it on my iPhone too. White backgrounds always look like nice white backgrounds.
I cannot really post a picture that will give you a sense of how good the iPhone X screen looks because you’ll be limited by the screen of whatever you are using to read this post. Either go to an Apple Store to see it yourself, or just trust me — it is amazing.
Productivity
I celebrated my birthday yesterday, so I’ll admit that billable hours were not high on my list of priorities this weekend. But I did do some work, and I can already tell that the iPhone X will help me to be more productive.
First, as noted above, the taller screen lets you see more at one time, which is a nice productivity boost. For example, when looking at a list of emails, I can see two additional emails. When reading the text of an email, I can see even more of the message.
Second, multitasking works MUCH better on the iPhone X. There is a short line across the bottom of most screens. That mostly serves as a reminder that you can swipe up to access the home screen or do other functions that in the past would be accomplished by pressing a Home Button. But if you swipe your finger from left to right across that line (i.e., across the bottom of the screen) you switch to prior apps that you have used. Yes, I know that on earlier versions of the iPhone you can 3D Touch on the left side of the screen to invoke the app switcher, but I’ve always found that gesture awkward and a little slow on a naked iPhone and sometimes almost impossible to do on an iPhone in a case. Swiping along the bottom of the iPhone X is vastly superior.
And then of course, as with every new iPhone, everything works even faster, so you spend less time waiting to do work. Combine that with Face ID, and this means that you can get in, get your work done, and get out much more efficiently.
Fun with the TrueDepth camera
App developers cannot access everything that Apple can access in Face ID, but they do have access to the TrueDepth camera and the speedy A11 processor, which means that apps can analyze your facial expressions. In a very creative demonstration of what that means, Apple included Animoji with the Messages app, allowing you to make an animated character mimic your facial expression. You can either create a single image, or for even more fun create a short 10 second video in which the character speaks your words and uses your expressions. Creative folks on Twitter soon realized that this means that you can create Animoji Karaoke (Harry McCracken was one of the first). Here is an example of a good one, using multiple Animoji to sing Bohemian Rhapsody:
This is just the beginning. When David Pogue of Yahoo reviewed the iPhone X, he had access to a pre-release version of Apple’s Clips app which uses the TrueDepth camera like a virtual green screen that can put your face in other environments, such as on the Millennium Falcon. And those are just apps from folks at Apple, who have access to the iPhone X for a while now. Clever third parties are going to come up with all sorts of fun uses for this technology.
No, the TrueDepth camera is unlikely to help you in your law practice, unless someone out there is being more creative than I am right now. But it sure is a lot of fun. My kids had a great time making silly faces with the Animoji characters, and I even received a birthday greeting from my three year old nephew who was very cute as an alien.
I’ve always been jealous of the zoom camera on the Plus versions of the iPhone, but those phones are just too darn large for me to want to ever own one. With the iPhone X, I finally have an iPhone that feels like the right size in my hand while also having two cameras, the traditional wide-angle camera and the telephoto camera, both with optical image stabilization. I love taking pictures and video with my iPhone, but it was often frustrating to me to not have a zoom lens. (Sure, you could do a digital zoom, but the picture quality decreased rapidly as you zoomed in.) You can now get full quality even with a 2x zoom, and if you need to zoom in a little bit more you can do so with much better results than ever before.
This past Saturday, when I attended my daughter’s soccer game, I used the iPhone X to take a video of game highlights, including the two goals that she kicked (yeah!). I kept my iPhone X in 2x mode and got a great results with the 4K video, even when she was far across the soccer field from where I was watching.
Feels great in the hand
With a width of 2.79", the iPhone X takes up essentially the same amount of space across your hand as an iPhone 7 or similar non-Plus models of the iPhone (2.64" for the iPhone 7). The glass black feels very similar to the Jet Black version of the iPhone 7, and also feels similar to the glass black on the old iPhone 4.
I used a case with my iPhone 7, mainly to add some friction to decrease the chance that I drop it. For now, I’m using the iPhone X without a case. I may decide to add a case in the future, and of course if you use a case it will be the case that you are feeling. But if you don’t use a case, the iPhone X feels great, and you can really feel and appreciate the build quality and care that went into creating it.
Other advantages
The built-in speaker is louder and better-sounding. Most of the time I use AirPods, but sometimes if I’m listening to a podcast or song when nobody else is around, I’ll just set down my iPhone and turn up the volume. That works better with the iPhone X.
I haven’t used the iPhone X long enough to do battery tests, but I’m encouraged by Apple saying that the iPhone X lasts two more hours than the iPhone X. I suspect that the battery is larger, but that’s not the full story. I noticed that when I’m not looking at my iPhone X for a while, it pays attention to that and turns of the screen. My iPhone 7 has no idea if I’m looking at the screen or not, so it keeps the screen on much longer when I’m not using the device, wasting battery life.
I know that this iPhone X has wireless charging. At this point, I don’t see a need for that; plugging a Lightning cable into the bottom of an iPhone doesn’t seem like that big of a deal. But as wireless charging becomes more of a thing, it might be something that I find useful, either at home if I purchase a charging device or in a restaurant or other public facility. For now, the jury is out on this feature, but I suppose it could be nice to have.
I also haven’t yet had a chance to try Bluetooth 5.0, but this is one feature that I definitely look forward to using when compatible devices become available. 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. If Apple comes out with Bluetooth 5.0 AirPods with much longer range, that would be fantastic.
Conclusion
There really isn’t much of the way of bad news with the iPhone X, other than the fact that you have to pay more to get these extra features. And although I have a lot of muscle memory associated with the traditional iPhone Home Button, it only took me about a day to get used to the new gestures such as swiping up instead of pressing a Home Button. Indeed, last night, as I was taking some screenshots with my iPhone 7, I found myself swiping up on the bottom of the iPhone 7 to exit an app instead of pressing the button, which is clear proof that it doesn’t take long to get used to the new gestures.
The advantages of the iPhone X — especially the better screen and Face ID — are fantastic, making this a substantial upgrade over prior models. If, like me, you use your iPhone a large number of times a day, throughout the day and every day, I can highly recommend the iPhone X. What a great product.
Apple starts selling the iPhone X at 8am today. And because of time zones, that means that folks in Sydney, Australia (which is 15 hours ahead of the Eastern Time Zone) have been using an iPhone X for a while now, and Apple has a few pictures. Shortly after Apple started taking pre-orders one week ago, shipping times slipped to 5-6 weeks. Apparently Apple is working hard to ramp up production, because as I type this it is now down to 3-4 weeks. Of course you can also show up at an Apple Store today to buy one without a pre-order, but I’m sure that supply is very limited, so unless you are already standing in line as you are reading this in the early hours of Friday morning, I suspect that it is too late for you to get one today. And now, the news of note from the past week:
If you have any interest in using your iPhone to control lights and more in your home, Florida attorney Katie Floyd and California attorney David Sparks had a fantastic episode of their Mac Power Users podcast in which they speak with home automation expert Robert Spivack. It was good to hear that Spivack is as much of a fan of Lutron Caséta light switches as I am. (My review.)
Speaking of Apple Pay, Bryan Wolfe of AppAdvice notes that you will soon be able to use Apple Pay in some new locations, including Saks Fifth Avenue, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Albertson’s.
My favorite app for listening to podcasts, Overcast, was updated to version 4.0 yesterday. Federico Viticci of MacStories explains what is new.
Apple has a special page of its website devoted to iPhone X tips.
Lance Ulanoff of Mashable talked to a few Apple executives to get the backstory on the creation of the iPhone X.
For folks who want a new iPhone but want a more traditional model with Touch ID and without the $1000+ price tag, Apple now has the new iPhone 8. Jason Snell of Six Colors wrote this review.
As noted by Trevor Daughterty of 9to5Mac, a neat AR feature was added to the Amazon app this week. Tap the camera icon at the top and then tap AR view. Now you can select lots of different products and see how each would look in a room in AR. Once you place the object, you can walk around it, zoom in and out, etc. Neat stuff.
And finally, Apple came out with a new commercial for Apple Music this week, and I really like it. It features the Apple Music logo (two eighth notes) worked into animations of famous albums and artists. Every time I watch the ad I pick out something else; for example, the homage to Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours album cover goes by in such a fraction of a second that I didn’t even see it the first two times i watched the video:
The new iPhone X is a big departure from the past decade of iPhones. The screen is edge-to-edge, with a notch at the top. The home button goes from being the single most distinctive feature on an iPhone to non-existent. And for the first time, the iPhone uses infrared sensors to recognize your face. We’ve heard lots from Apple about this new phone, but I’ve been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to hear from independent reviewers. Yesterday, we saw the first set of reviews from over two dozen media outlets. (Joe Rossignol of MacRumors has compiled a fairly complete list.) Overall, the reviews of been incredibly positive. All of the reviewers found that using your face to unlock an iPhone instead of your fingerprint works really well, and most of them quickly concluded that it is an improvement. All of the reviewers loved the incredibly high-quality screen (the first iPhone to use OLED) which goes edge-to-edge. Many of them noted that it takes a little time to get used to the new features, but of course that is true with any technology improvement. If you want to learn more about the iPhone X, here are the reviews that I recommend:
If you want something relatively short that covers the key features, Jim Dalrymple of The Loop has this first look at the iPhone X.
Jason Snell of Six Colors also wrote a helpful review of the iPhone X. He calls his review “Tomorrow’s iPhone today” and that is a good three-word summary because the iPhone X really does start a new chapter in iPhone features.
Matthew Panzarino of TechCrunch was one of the few reviewers to have the opportunity to try out the iPhone X for a week; most of the other reviewers had less than 24 hours to write their initial reviews. His review is less technical than others and focuses on how the iPhone X works in real world usage.
Attorney Nilay Patel of The Verge notes that “the iPhone X looks so good one of our video editors kept saying it looked fake” and says it “is clearly the best iPhone ever made.”
David Phelan of The Independent in the UK was of the other very few journalists to have over a week with the iPhone X. His written review is good, but I thought that his short video review (at the top of his written review) was one of the best videos for getting a sense of what it is like to hold and use the iPhone X.
I’ll mention two other video reviews which are excellent. First, David Pogue of Yahoo — who has been reviewing iPhones since the original iPhone 10 years ago — has a great video review at the top of his written review. He is also the only reviewer to mention and show off the virtual green screen in Apple’s Clips app — a feature which is neat on its own, and also makes me wonder what creative third party developers will be able to do in the future with the advanced front facing cameras on the iPhone X.
And finally, Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal focuses her review on just one new features of the iPhone X: using the new FaceID system to unlock the phone with your face instead of your fingerprint. She put it to the test, even going to the trouble of having a mask made of her own face. As you can see in this video (embedded below and also included in the written review), the iPhone X does incredibly well:
The new iPhone X is a high-end model, more expensive than any iPhone sold in the past. It includes lots of features that Apple couldn’t afford to put in the more mass market version of the iPhone, and I expect initial sales to go mostly to true iPhone enthusiasts. I am one of them, and I know that many folks who read iPhone J.D. are as well, so I suspect that many of you were up late Thursday night (or very early Friday morning, depending upon how you look at it) to place an order. From what I could tell myself and what I heard from others, the online store officially opened around 12:05 a.m. Pacific / 3:05 a.m. Eastern, and for about 10 minutes you could place an order with a delivery date of this Friday November 3. Then it switched to a 2-3 week wait for about 15 minutes or so, and then it slipped to a 5-6 week wait.
Screenshot
From what I could tell from the comments on Twitter, podcasts, etc., most folks who stayed up late to order had a good experience ordering online (especially if you used the Apple Store app on the iPhone, which continues to be the best way to order from Apple when time is of the essence), but a few folks had hiccups. For example, one part of the buying process is for a carrier to confirm order eligibility, and for most (like me) that occurred quickly. But for others, there was a delay, and some received a note saying that an iPhone X was reserved but that Apple would have to wait for the carrier to come back and confirm eligibility. Florida attorney Katie Floyd had that experience:
I got “we couldn’t reach your carrier” but we reserved a phone for you. (Verizon) so I have to come back later to finish.
Before last Friday, many folks were predicting that Apple would have very few iPhone X models available for pre-order, and that shipping dates would quickly slip into 2018. Thus, I was surprised and happy to see that once shipping slipped to 5-6 weeks Friday morning, it stayed there the rest of the day and over the weekend too. It is still not too late to get an iPhone X before the holidays. I suppose one possible explanation is that after the early morning Friday sales, very few additional folks decided to buy one. But I suspect that Apple deserves the credit here for making far more devices than folks had predicted would be possible. There was a time when Apple used to proudly announce the iPhone sales when new models were introduced, but they haven’t done that in a while now. Apple did tell iMore: “We can see from the initial response, customer demand is off the charts.” Apple didn’t indicate what number was at the top of those referenced charts.
If you did order an iPhone X and your delivery date is this Friday, there is a good chance that it is already shipping from China. Apple hasn’t yet sent out official emails with tracking numbers, but I learned from a tweet from Mark Gurman of Bloomberg that you might be able to figure out your own tracking number. Here’s how. First, get your Apple Order number, which you saw when you placed your order and which is also in the email from Apple confirming the order. (Mine is W followed by nine numbers.)
Then, go to this UPS website on an iPad or your computer. (I couldn’t get it to work on an iPhone.) By default, that webpage offers to track by UPS tracking number, but if you look down the left side you will see an option for Track by Reference — click that. Then, enter the Apple Order number but leave off the last two numbers. Then click search. That will bring you to a page with the full tracking history (including the UPS tracking number). For my order, I can see that as of early October 30, my iPhone X is currently in ZhenZhou, China:
If you didn’t pre-order an iPhone X in time to get one delivered to you this Friday, it is still possible to get one this Friday because there will be limited quantities at Apple Stores starting at 8am. Of course, if you choose that route, I’m sure you will have to get in line early to get one.
And finally, if you are still deciding if the iPhone X is right for you, here is Apple’s introduction video which shows it off:
Apple’s new iPhone X (pronounced “ten”) went on sale at Midnight Pacific / 3am Eastern this morning. I ordered the 256GB version (Space Gray color) using the Apple Store app on my iPhone and my delivery date is Friday November 3, which is the same date that the iPhone X officially goes on sale in the Apple Stores. I presume that we will start to see reviews of pre-release models from select members of the press next week, and I look forward to trying out this new iPhone design myself a week from today. And now, the news of note from the past week:
Virginia attorney Sharon Nelson provides password advice based on the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). First, requiring users to use complex passwords with capital letters, lowercase letters, special characters, etc. is actually less secure. The same is true for short password expiration periods, such as a requirement to change passwords every 30 days. It seems counter-intuitive at first, but when you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. Passphrases, such as a bizarre sentence, are just as secure and are far easier to remember than something like j#(FlWFd19J$. And requiring folks to change passwords frequently only results in people being more careless with their passwords, such as writing them down. Sharon also notes that the best solution is to use a password manager, and I strongly agree with that.
Alex Cooke of Fstoppers (a website for photographers) reviews the 12.9" iPad Pro. Yes, the review has a photographer angle to it, but it is a useful review for anyone thinking about getting the larger version of the iPad Pro.
I happen to fly Delta frequently, so this story caught my eye. According to Killian Bell of Cult of Mac, Delta’s 14,000 pilots and 23,000 slight attendants are moving from Nokia handsets and Microsoft Surface tablets to the iPhone 7 Plus and the iPad Pro. It’s nice to know that the pilots are using the same tablet that I’m using.
I’ve seen lots of reports of Apple CarPlay being added to cars, but this is the first report I’ve seen of CarPlay on a motorcycle. As reported by CarPlay Life, the 2018 model of the Honda Gold Wing motorcycle has CarPlay prominently in the center of the console.
John Hancock has an interesting life insurance perk. Under its John Hancock Vitality program, if you pay $25, the insurer will give you an Apple Watch Series 3. You then pay off the Apple Watch over a 24 month period, but instead of paying cash you have the option of “paying” by earning points every time you workout using the Apple Watch. John Hancock says that earning 500 points in a month means that you pay nothing, but I don’t see on the website how much exercise you need to do each month to earn 500 points. If you meet that goal every month for 24 months, then you’ll never pay anything more other than the initial $25 payment. It’s an interesting way to give life insurance customers an incentive to stay in shape.
Jesse Hollington of iLounge reviews the Fibaro, a $70 HomeKit-compatible flood sensor you can place in a basement or other area that you are concerned might flood. The Fibaro can give you an alert, and it can also trigger other automation such as turning another appliance on or off.
And finally, in an interview with CNBC, Ahrednts discusses Apple’s new stores and the sale of the iPhone X. Ahrednts, who was previously CEO of Burberry, notes that she wants for the stores to be inviting to build a relationship with customers. “It’s no different than fashion. … Don’t you go back to someone who has taken really good care of you, who you trust, to make you a better version of yourself?” Ahrendts is a great spokesperson for Apple, and I’m glad that we are starting to see more of her. Here is the video:
Thank you to iManage for sponsoring iPhone J.D. this month. iManage is the industry’s leading email and document management application, allowing lawyers to create, manage and collaborate on work product. Over 2,000 law firms use iManage. I have been using iManage at my law firm since 2003, and over that time I’ve seen the product evolve and improve greatly. (The name has changed too — from iManage, to Interwoven, and now back to iManage.) As iManage has improved over the years, the iPhone and iPad integration has improved greatly over time.
iManage is sponsoring iPhone J.D. to promote iManage Work version 10, which is a major upgrade, offering tools for lawyers to work on documents from anywhere on any device. Indeed, iManage 10 advertises that it uses a “mobile-first user experience” so that you can learn the software once and then have a consistent experience across phone, tablet and desktop, enabling you to work from anywhere and stay productive on-the-go. iManage Work 10 includes smart features such as personalized search, document timelines, and intelligent worklists. Companies around the world in the legal, accounting and financial sector use iManage to handle their documents and emails.
At my firm, we are getting ready to upgrade to version 10, and I’m very much looking forward to the new features. I see that iManage recently issued a press release discussing how Minneapolis family law firm Honsa Rodd Landry is using iManage Work 10. Kristy Rodd, a partner at the firm, is quoted as saying: “Since we don’t have dedicated on-site IT staff, technical issues could result in delayed access to critical documents. … Because of my past experience with iManage at a larger law firm, I know how valuable it would be to incorporate the same platform here. Getting iManage Work 10 and iManage Share via the iManage Cloud is an essential solution for us.”
iManage manages not only documents, but emails too. On the PC in my office, I use the iManage software which is incorporated into Outlook so that I can take any email from my Inbox and drag it in to the appropriate folder in iManage. That way, case-related emails are stored with the appropriate case, and can later be found by browsing or searching.
If you are looking at adding or improving document management at your law firm, you should definitely check out iManage. And thanks again to iManage for supporting iPhone J.D.
