Jeff Richardson

Apple got a lot of attention in the news this week when the European Union ordered Apple to pay Ireland $14.5 billion in back taxes, plus interest.  But ironically, Ireland itself — the country that would receive the taxes — disagrees that Apple owes the taxes, and plans to appeal (as does Apple).  Apple CEO Tim Cook wrote a public letter on the Apple website explaining why he believes that Apple has done nothing wrong and paid all of the taxes that it owed.   But as Matthew Yglesias of Vox explains, the real issue is that the EU thinks that Ireland has been unfairly undertaxing Apple (and others) to encourage them to conduct business in Ireland, and this practice is allegedly contrary to EU rules.  Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac wrote an interesting article on these taxes, and while his article doesn’t account for the ruling because it was written six months ago, it provides great background reading on this issue.  Even if the EU is correct, it seems unfair to me to go back and retroactively change the rules for taxes already paid.  It would be easier for me to agree with the EU saying that, going forward, Apple needs to pay taxes pursuant to a different formula.  But I am not even a U.S. tax attorney, let alone an Irish or EU tax attorney, so all I can really say is that it is obviously a very complicated issue, and I’m sure that there are a lot of lawyers in Europe spending a lot of time on this for their clients.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• Florida attorney Rick Georges reviews the QCY Q26 Mini in Ear Wireless Bluetooth, an incredibly tiny device that fits in one ear and wirelessly produces the audio from your iPhone.  Wow, that thing is really tiny.
• California attorney David Sparks offers some thought on what Apple may introduce next week in the new iPhone 7.
• Two quick self-promotion items from this Summer.  First, New Orleans CityBusiness has a column where they ask people to recommend one or two apps on their iPhone.  They recently asked me, and I talked about 1Password and Fantastical.  If you want to read what I said, you can click on the link on this page.
• Second, the Louisiana State Bar Association is celebrating its 75th anniversary.  In one article in the June/July issue of the Louisiana Bar Journal, New Orleans attorney Ernie Svenson and I were interviewed by attorneys David Stein and Pete Kee to discuss what we think legal technology will look like in 25 years.  Click here to read the article:  PDF version.  It was fun to think about the future of legal technology.
• Caitlin McGarry of Macworld describes some of the new Siri features in iOS 10, the new operating system which may be released as soon as next week.
• Joseph Cox of Motherboard writes that, in 2012, hackers stole account details for over 60 million Dropbox users, and the details are just starting to come out now.  Dropbox says that it has seen no evidence of malicious access to these accounts, but even so, this news is obviously quite unsettling.
• Geoffrey Fowler of the Wall Street Journal reviews the Automatic Pro, a $130 device (with no service fee) that plugs in to your car and provides information about your car to your iPhone.  Better yet, if the device senses that your vehicle is in a crash, it automatically notifies someone who will call you to see if you are OK — and will call 911 with your location if you need help.
• Brent Dirks of App Advice reviews the new Tile Slim Bluetooth Tracker that is thin enough to fit in your wallet, and lets you use your iPhone to locate your wallet — or your wallet to locate your iPhone — if you misplace one of them.
• Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac reports on a French medical study finding that letting a child use an iPad before surgery was just as effective as using a sedative when it comes to reducing the child’s anxiety level.  So the next time you are feeling anxious, you know what to reach for.
• You know that “Sent From My iPhone” that you sometimes see at the end of an email?  Lara Williams writes in an article for The Guardian that the connotation of that phrase has changed over time from a way of showing off (“Looking at me!  I have an iPhone!”), to something else completely.  Interesting.
• And finally, as we look forward to Apple’s keynote next week at which the new iPhone will be introduced, it is fun to take a look backward at the great Apple keynotes of yesteryear.  NotesKey is a neat website that has extensive details on every major Apple keynote since January of 1997.  I enjoyed using NotesKey to relive the details of the July 2000 keynote at Macworld New York, the only Apple keynote I attended in person; it was a real treat to see Steve Jobs on stage.  But one of the very best keynotes ever was the January 2007 keynote at Macworld San Francisco, where Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone. Here is how Steve Jobs began:
  

  This is a day I’ve been looking forward to for two and a half years.  Every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything.  And Apple has been, well … first of all, one is very fortunate if you get to work on just one of these in your career.  Apple has been very fortunate.  It has been able to introduce a few of these into the world.  In 1984, we introduced the Macintosh.  It didn’t just change Apple, it changed the whole computer industry.  In 2001, we introduced the first iPod.  And it didn’t just change the way we all listen to music, it changed the entire music industry. 

  
  

  Well, today, we’re introducing three revolutionary products of this class.  The first one is a widescreen iPod with touch controls.  [Crowd cheers]  The second is a revolutionary mobile phone.  [Crowd cheers even louder]  And the third is a breakthrough Internet communications device.  So, three things.  A widescreen iPod with touch controls, a revolutionary mobile phone, and a breakthrough Internet communications device.  An iPod, a phone and an Internet communicator.  An iPod, a phone and an Internet communicator.  [Crowd goes wild]  Are you getting it?  These are not three separate devices.  This is one device.  And we are calling it iPhone.  Today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone.

  
  

  If you want to watch it again as we look forward to next week, here is the full video of that January 2007 keynote; the iPhone introduction starts around 21:50:

There are lots of iPad apps that are useful for attorneys but also useful for many others:  Mail, Microsoft Word, Dropbox, GoodReader, etc.  But if I was asked to name the most useful apps designed specifically for lawyers, the apps that Lit Software makes would be at the very top of my list:  TrialPad, TranscriptPad and DocReviewPad.  These are incredibly sophisticated and useful apps that are in many ways more powerful than PC software costing hundreds of dollars more.  And they work incredibly well on the iPad.  For my litigation practice, which involves lots of depositions, TranscriptPad is an incredibly useful tool that I use at least once a week, and sometimes every day.  TrialPad is an incredibly useful tool for lawyers who want to control the display of evidence in a trial (or folks who want to do the same thing in a mediation, meeting, etc.).  And DocReviewPad has powerful tools for reviewing documents.

I mention these three apps today because they are on sale.  However, you don’t have much time because the sale ends at the end of today, Wednesday, August 31.  Lit Software doesn’t have sales very often — the last one was in December of 2015.  Each of the apps is $20 off, which means that TrialPad (normally $129.99) is selling today for $109.99, TranscriptPad (normally $89.99) is selling today for $69.99, and DocReviewPad (normally $89.99) is selling today for $69.99.

If you want more information on each of these apps, here are my reviews and other posts on these apps:

• TrialPad:  1/13/11, 1/6/15, 5/19/16
• TranscriptPad:  1/18/12, 7/25/13, 7/16/14, 11/18/14, 1/6/15, 6/11/15
• DocReviewPad:  7/7/15, 9/1/15, 10/27/15

Lit Software is a past sponsor of iPhone J.D., and it turns out that they are also a sponsor next month.  But they are not a sponsor this month, nor did the company ask me to mention the apps today.  I just noticed that a sale was going on, and since I know that these apps are discounted so rarely, I wanted to make sure that iPhone J.D. readers knew about the opportunity to save some money.

If one or more of these apps is not currently on your iPad and you have been thinking getting the app when the time was right, today would be a good day to make the purchase.

Click here to get TrialPad ($129.99, but $109.99 today): 

Click here to get TranscriptPad ($89.99, but $69.99 today): 

 

Yesterday, certain members of the press received invitations from Apple to a product announcement event that will take place on Wednesday, September 7, 2016 at 10 Pacific / 1 Eastern.  As always, Apple is not revealing what will be announced, but it is pretty easy to make at least one guess.  In 2015, 2014, 2013 and 2012, Apple held an event in early September at which it introduced a new version of the iPhone.  Thus, I feel quite confident that we will see new a new iPhone introduced next week.

What else will Apple announce?  Maybe a second-generation Apple Watch.  Maybe some new Macs, although Mark Gurman of Bloomberg (who has a great track record for these type of predictions) says that the new Macs won’t be announced until October.  I don’t expect new iPads or a new Apple TV, but I suppose that anything is possible.

Suffice it to say that if you know of anyone planning to buy a new iPhone this week, I would strongly discourage them from doing so.  My guess is that the new iPhones won’t be actually in stores until mid to late September, but anyone who can wait a few more weeks to get an iPhone should definitely wait.

Here is the graphic in the invitation itself.  Sometimes, Apple’s invitations contain clues as to what is going to be announced.  When I first looked at this picture, my only thought was that it was a neat bokeh effect — which is how a nice SLR camera can make objects in the distance appear blurry to add more depth.  But John Gruber of Daring Fireball wonders if the bokeh effect is actually a clue that Apple is bringing SLR-quality pictures to the new iPhone, although perhaps only to the larger plus model.  There is a rumor that the larger model will have two lenses on it, which will combine to create one improved picture.

This week in an article about early-birds versus night-owls, the Wall Street Journal reported that Apple CEO Tim Cook starts his day at 3:45 a.m. each day.  My guess is that you are not reading this at 3:45 a.m., but if you are, then good morning to you … and please keep the noise down, because I’m still asleep.  If you want more information about Cook’s morning routine, I remember reading an interview with Time magazine in late 2012 when he was a runner-up for Man of the Year.  As that Time article states that Cook is “a workaholic, and not of the recovering kind.  He wakes up at 3:45 every morning (‘Yes, every morning’), does e-mail for an hour, stealing a march on those lazy East Coasters three time zones ahead of him, then goes to the gym, then Starbucks (for more e-mail), then work.  ‘The thing about it is, when you love what you do, you don’t really think of it as work.  It’s what you do. And that’s the good fortune of where I find myself.'”  When it comes to daily routines, I am the opposite, a night-owl.  After putting my kids to bed and then exercising, I often get some of my most productive work done late at night.  That’s also when I usually post new items on iPhone J.D., typically between midnight and 1:30 a.m. Central.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• If you are in the New Orleans area and want to hear me share some tips for using an iPad in a law practice, I’m teaching a one hour CLE at Noon today for the New Orleans Bar Association.  The CLE is free for NOBA members.  You can get more information and sign up here.
• There is an interesting and informative post on the Lit Software blog (creator of TrialPad) about using TrialPad to create exhibit stickers on an iPad.
• California attorney David Sparks writes about the demise of Vesper because the developer wasn’t making enough money.  I love the Vesper app on my iPhone and use it every day as a simple to do list for projects I’m working on and a place to keep track of other information.  I’m very upset to see the app going away.  I suppose I could continue to use it even after support ends, but I’ll probably move most of my Vesper info into Apple’s Notes app — which is so much better today than it was a year ago.  But I’ll miss the ability to drag items up and down to move them up or down in my list of items.
• Massachusetts attorney Robert Ambrogi discuss Duet Display, an app that turns your iPad into a second monitor for your computer.
• Apple released iOS 9.3.5 yesterday, and like many updates it contains security fixes.  But the security fixed here was really something … apparently a hack created by an Israeli security company and used against a reporter.  Had the reporter clicked on a link in a text message, bad guys would have gotten complete access to his iPhone.  And if you haven’t yet updated to iOS 9.3.5, then your device is at risk too.  For more information, read this fascinating report by Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai of Motherboard or this New York Times article by Nicole Perlroth.
• Diane Cardwell of the New York Times reports on Apple’s efforts to create clean renewable energy to offset its own energy use.  What Apple is doing is really impressive, is good for the environment, and in the long run will even save Apple money. 
• I agree 100% with this article about Apple Music by Jason Snell for Macworld.  The service is wonderful because you have access to so much music and discover so much music that you otherwise would not have known about it; at the same time, you get locked into a system where you need to keep paying to access all of that new music.  I still listen to music ripped from CDs that I bought when I was in high school in the 1980s, and I haven’t had to pay anything more to keep listening to that music for 30 years.  But the new music I love to listen to on Apple Music won’t be available to me 30 years from now unless I continue to pay Apple the monthly fee every single month for 30 years (assuming the service remains in business). 
• Jan Dawson of Beyond Devices wrote a great article with really interesting charts showing how Apple has fared during the last five years that Tim Cook has been CEO.  Spoiler alert:  Apple is doing well.
• Steven Levy of Backchannel has a great article about artificial intelligence efforts at Apple including Siri, based on his interviews with numerous Apple executives.
• Zac Hall of 9to5Mac reviews August Smart Lock, a lock for the front door of your house that you can control with Siri.
• Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac explains that while Apple Pay is great to use because it is convenient, the real value is that the merchant never knows your credit card number but instead gets a one-time code.
• And finally, here is a video from PhoneBuff showing that the year-old iPhone 6s is much faster than the brand new Galaxy Note 7 on numerous tasks:

Because a large part of my law practice is devoted to appellate litigation and complex litigation at the trial court level, legal research is an important part of my law practice.  When I was in law school in the early 1990s, Westlaw and Lexis certainly existed, but much legal research was still done with books.  If you are old enough to remember the process of using Shepard’s books to research subsequent history in a case, you know how much of a pain it was, having to check many different books and pocket parts and updates with small type just to make sure that a case was still good law.  I’m thrilled that those days are gone.  Legal research using a computer is infinitely better, especially with the advanced tools that are now a part of Westlaw and Lexis.

Having said that, one thing that I hate about spending a significant amount of time doing legal research on the computer is that staring at a screen for a long period of time turns me into a zombie.  My Apple Watch taps my wrist and reminds me to walk around once every hour, and I am often amazed to learn that a full 60 minutes has passed since the last time I felt that tap.  After staring at the monitor screen for too long, I find that my senses are somewhat dulled, and I fear that it may have an effect on the quality of the legal research that I am doing.

For me, a good solution is to switch between using a computer and using an iPad to do legal research.  The simple change from one platform to the other seems to give my brain a surge and makes me more sharp as I am reading cases.  Plus, in many ways I prefer doing legal research on an iPad.  There is something about holding caselaw in my hand and being able to lean back in a chair — much like I used to do with a book back in the 1990s — that makes me feel more connected with what I am reading.

I mention all of this today to make sure that you know how easy it is to switch from a computer to an iPad and back again.  If you use Westlaw, right on the home page of the app there is an area that shows recent searches:

Additionally, when you tap in the search bar at the top of the Westlaw app, you will see recent searches:

Similarly, in Lexis, there is an area right on the main screen of the app that shows you your recent search history:

If you use Fastcase, you can tap the Recent button at the bottom of the app.  That will show you a list of recent research that you have done on both the computer and the iPad.  (You may need to tap the refresh button at the top right to see your very latest research.)

Of course, both Westlaw and Lexis also have a dedicated history section of each app where you can see all of your recent searches and recent documents.  But if you are shifting from your computer to your iPad just for a change of venue, you’ll most likely just want to pick up with the last search that you were just doing on your computer.  On Westlaw and Lexis, you can do that without even invoking the history function by using the most recent history lists located on the main screens each app, and on Fastcase it is almost just as easy to tap that Recent button.

Legal research on the iPad is not 100% the same as legal research on the computer; you typically get more sophisticated search options on the computer.  But it is usually possible for me to do a significant portion of my legal research on the iPad, and I can always switch back to the computer whenever I need the full set of tools.  Going back and forth every once in a while is actually a good thing, in my opinion, because it stops me from staring at any one particular screen for too long and stops me staying in any one particular position for too long.

If legal research is a part of your law practice and you aren’t currently using an iPad to do a part of that legal research, I encourage you to give it a try. 

Click here to get Westlaw (free): 

Click here to get Lexis Advance HD (free): 

Click here to get Fastcase (free): 

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This article won the LitigationWorld Pick of the Week award on September 2, 2016. The editors of LitigationWorld, a free weekly email newsletter for litigators and others who work in litigation, give this award to one article every week that they feel is a must-read for this audience.

Apple CEO Tim Cook doesn’t sit down for interviews very often, and when he does it is often short, such as the one he did last week for Fast Company.  But Jena McGregor of the Washington Post published this week the very best Tim Cook interview I’ve ever read.  McGregor asked Cook about lots of different topics, with great follow up questions, and may of Cook’s answers were very interesting.  I think that any iPhone J.D. reader would enjoy reading it.  And now, the other news of note from the past week:

• Chicago attorney, and app developer, John Voorhees reviews Castro 2, a new podcast app for the iPhone that focuses on improving your queue of upcoming episodes.
• Microsoft expert Paul Thurrott describes new features in the Microsoft Office apps for iPhone and iPad, including the ability to draw with a finger on the iPhone apps.
• The staff of iMore identifies their favorite headphones for the iPhone.
• Lauren Goode of the Verge names her favorite wireless headphones for running.
• With new iPhones expected soon, AT&T has revised their rate plans.  And as Julie Strietelmeir of The Gadgeteer reports, so have Sprint and T-Mobile.
• David Chartier explains why he is impressed with the next update to the Apple Watch software, Apple Watch 3.  So am I, as I explained last month.
• Mark Sullivan of Fast Company interviewed Bob Messerschmidt, a former Apple employee who designed the heart rate sensor on the Apple Watch.
• Valentina Palladino of Ars Technica recommends HomeKit-compatible and similar devices to turn your apartment into a smart apartment.
• Geoffrey Fowler of the Wall Street Journal has advice for turning an old iPhone into a security camera, or putting an old iPhone or iPad to work on other jobs.
• And finally, as we prepare for a new iPhone next month and think about possible new features, it is always interesting to see what is going on in newest Android phones.  Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal reviews the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, which can even be used underwater.  There aren’t many use cases for that, except that it did inspire Stern to create this really funny video review.  Worth watching even if you don’t use Android:

External batteries are a useful accessory for any iPhone.  Most such batteries are charged by plugging into an outlet for a few hours.  But what if you don’t have access to an outlet, such as if you are on an off-the-grid camping trip?  Or what if there is a power outage?  After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, there was no power at my house in New Orleans for over a month.  I remember trying to use a device after Hurricane Katrina with a hand-crank on it, the idea being that you could crank for a long time and then store enough energy to power a cell phone for a short while; that device worked poorly with 2005-era mobile devices, and I suspect it would be useless today.  More recently, late last week, areas around Baton Rouge, LA received record rainfall and flooding — “1,000-year rain” according to the National Weather Service — and as a result tens of thousands of people in Louisiana are still without power.  One way to get electricity when the traditional power grid is not an option is to use solar power.  You can now use the sun to charge your iPhone or iPad thanks to Solartab, an external battery with a large solar panel on it.  The company sent me a free review sample, and I’ve been trying it for a few weeks.  While it takes a while to charge the device, Solartab does let you charge your device using solar energy.

Solar Panel

The marquee feature of Solartab is that it includes solar panels. 

The device itself is about 6.5″ x 9.25″, similar to the size of a standard 9.7″ iPad.  The Solartab has a built-in case with an elastic strap, so you can cover the solar panels to protect them when you are not charging.

The same cover can be used to prop up the solar panels at an angle.  It doesn’t fold up the same as a Apple Smart Cover, but the idea is similar.  You can place the solar panels at different angles so that you can get the maximum exposure to the sun whether the sun is high in the sky or closer to the horizon.

Four green lights on the side of the device indicate the amount of power.  One light means 0 to 25% power, two lights mean 26% to 50%, etc.  Press a button next to the lights to see how much the Solartab is charged.

I was disappointed at how long it takes to fully charge the Solartab.  I drained the battery to zero and then placed it in my backyard to charge for about 8 hours, and that only brought the battery back to around 50%.  I had to charge it for a second day to get to a full charge.  Part of the problem at my house is that I have trees in my backyard, so every few hours I would need to move the Solartab to a spot without shade to get maximum charging.  If you are in a wide-open space with no shade, I suppose this device would charge faster.  The company says that with the right sunlight, this device can charge in 12 hours.

Note that you can also charge this device via the Micro USB port.  Of course, that means that you need access to an outlet, but you can fully charge the device in about five hours.  It may seem that using an outlet defeats the purpose of a device with solar panels, but I can see charging a Solartab using an outlet before taking a trip so that it starts fully charged, and then using the sun to recharge it during your trip.

External Battery

Once you have power stored in the Solartab, using it to charge your device is easy.  There are two USB ports on the side so you can charge two devices at once.  Each port is 2.1 A, so you can charge either an iPhone or iPad. 

The capacity of the battery is 13,000 mAh.  That should be enough to charge an iPhone a few times, and enough to charge an iPad maybe once, depending upon which model you have.

One of issues that I see with the Solartab is that there is a high price to pay for that charge, both in terms of cost and weight.  For example, last year I reviewed a Lumsing external battery with a 13,400 mAh capacity (about the same as the Solartab) and which costs about $25.  The Solartab is currently selling from the manufacturer for $89.  So you could buy three Lumsing batteries for less than the cost of one Solartab, and you can take them on your trip and never have to worry about finding sufficient sun to recharge.  Also consider weight; those Lumsing batteries weigh 9.3 ounces each; the Solartab weighs 2.6 pounds, so about the same as more than four of those Lumsing batteries.

Of course if you have a long enough trip without access to an outlet, then the Solartab might be better because you can keep recharging it long after your other batteries have run through their power — although remember that it may take more than a day to recharge the Solartab.  Another advantage of the Solartab is that, in a power outage scenario such as after a major storm, you may appreciate the security of knowing that you can recharge just by finding the sun without having to worry about how long it will be before the power is restored or you can find a friend with a generator.  On the other hand, if you know in advance how long you will be without power, planning ahead with the right number of external batteries might be all that you need.

Conclusion

I love the idea of the Solartab.  Being able to get power just using the sun can be very useful in the right circumstances, plus it is sort of fun to recharge that way.  I also really like the design, with the built-in case.  And the ability to also charge from an outlet via Micro USB means that you can get the best of both worlds.

However, there are some drawbacks so this product is not for everyone.  Depending upon where you are using the device, you may have to adjust it multiple times throughout the day so that the Solartab continues to review direct sunlight, and charging from the sun takes a long time.  And it may be cheaper and lighter for you to charge using multiple traditional external batteries.

Having said that, the Solartab works as advertised.  It could definitely give you some comfort to know that if you find yourself in a longterm power outage, you can use the Solartab to keep an iPhone charged even if you forgot to charge your other external batteries.  So long as the cellphone towers are running again — the restoration of which is typically a priority for officials after a disaster strikes — having a Solartab means that you’ll have the power to use an iPhone to communicate with others and get access to information, two of the most important things after a disaster.  If you can see yourself in a situation in which using the sun to charge an iPhone makes sense versus the cost and convenience of traditional external batteries, then the Solartab does the job.

Click here to get Solartab from the manufacturer ($89).

Click here to get Solartab from Amazon ($99).

Thank you to Drobo for sponsoring iPhone J.D. this month and for giving me an opportunity to talk about the Drobo 5N.  A few months back, in December of 2015, I wrote extensively about how Drobo works and described the Drobo that I purchased in early 2015 — the standard model with four drives simply called the Drobo.  I love my Drobo because it gives me a huge amount of external storage (and is easily expandable) but also gives me the security that is sorely lacking with standard external drives.  When a normal external drive crashes, it is dead, and that has happened to me on multiple times over the years.  But when a drive in a Drobo crashes, all of your data is still safe because of built-in back-ups on the other drives.  Just eject the broken drive, insert another one that you can buy pretty cheaply on Amazon, and you are back in business with no lost data.

Today I want to talk about the Drobo 5N, which costs $549 (without drives), compared to the standard Drobo which costs $299 (without drives).  The company sent me a free Drobo 5N review unit to test, and I’ve been putting it through its paces for the last month.  The Drobo 5N has virtually all of the features that I love with my Drobo, but is much more powerful both because of hardware and software — including the ability to run apps.

Hardware

The core hardware features are the same as what I previously described for the Drobo.  For example, I love the lights on the outside of the Drobo that make your drive health obvious.  A green light means that the drive is working fine.  A yellow light means that the drive is starting to get full, so you should consider puling it out and replacing it with a larger capacity drive.  A red blinking light means that a drive has failed and needs to be replaced, but your data is still safely located thanks to the redundancy on other drives.  And ten blue lights across the bottom show you how much of the total usable space is currently full.

The hardware difference is indicated by the name — 5N.  The “5” indicates that there are five drive bays inside of this model instead of the four drive bays in a standard Drobo.  Obviously this means that you can store even more data.

When you put two 1 TB drives in a Drobo, you get almost 1 TB of usable storage space.  In that configuration, one drive is essentially a backup of the other.  Add a third 1 TB drive and you get a net 1.81 TB of usable space.  Add a fourth drive and you get 2.72 TB of usable space.  That’s what I have in my standard Drobo.  Because the 5N supports five bays, you can add a fifth 1 TB drive and go up to 3.63 TB.  You might think that adding a fifth drive would give you another 20% of space, but it actually gives you around 25% more space because of the way that the redundancy works.  And as with other Drobo devices, you can put different sized drives in different drive bays and the Drobo just figures it all out.  For example, if you have three 1 TB drives and two 2 TB drives, you get 4.53 TB of usable space.  This page of the Drobo website lets you calculate the total storage you get with different drives.

Another hardware difference between the 5N and the standard Drobo — the “N” — is that the 5N connects via Ethernet to your network, whereas the standard Drobo connects via USB to a specific computer.  That means that the 5N is perfect for an office environment, or even a home with multiple computers connected via Ethernet.  If you want to share the data on a Drobo with others on your network, the 5N is definitely the way to go. 

One cool hardware feature of the 5N is that it includes the Drobo Accelerator Bay (underneath the Drobo 5N).  You can add a standard mSATA SSD to that bay and the Drobo has the ability to read data even faster because the most-used data is also stored on the super-fast SSD. Drobo recommends either a 64 GB or 128 GB mSATA SSD, and from a quick look on Amazon I think you can get those for only about $50.  The 5N that I tested didn’t have anything installed in the Accelerator Bay so I didn’t test this feature, but it looks like a relatively inexpensive way to make the drive faster when reading data.  Drobo says that you can get up to 3x the speed by using the Accelerator Bay on the 5N.  I should note that in my use of the Drobo 5N, I had no trouble opening large PDF documents or even 1080p home videos; it was all plenty fast enough.  But it is nice that you can easily and inexpensively get some extra speed.

If you want even more speed, instead of using high-capacity hard drives, you can use SATA SSDs.  An SSD drive is much more expensive than a normal spinning disk hard drive, and the available capacities are smaller, but that will give you the fastest possible read and write speeds.  In the computers that we use at my law firm (primarily Dell laptops), the office replaced hard drives in all attorney computers with SSDs a while back, and it was the single most significant speed increase that I have ever seen in a computer.  To be sure, there was a space trade-off; in fact, I recently filled up my 128 GB SSD on my work computer, and that was a big reason I recently updated to a new work computer with a 256 GB SD.  But if you can get past the space issue, SSDs are wicked fast, and it is wonderful that SSD is an option on the Drobo 5N if you want it.

Software

I used to think that an external hard drive was just a hardware device, but with the Drobo 5N, that is no longer true.  Unlike other Drobo devices that connect to your computer via a connection like USB and are thus dependent upon your computer, the Drobo 5N sits on the network on its own.  The Drobo already has a “brain” inside of it that is uses to keep your data redundant, and with the 5N, Drobo has added to that brain the ability to run DroboApps through a feature called myDrobo. 

There are lots of apps available from both Drobo and third parties, but I think that the best one — and the one of most interest to iPhone and iPad users — is the DroboAccess app.  Using this (free) app, your Drobo 5N can make its files available to a device that is not on your local network.  From another computer, you access your files through a web browser interface.  From a mobile device, you use the DroboAccess app, which only costs $0.99 in Apple’s App Store.  Using this app, you can browse through the folders on your Drobo 5N and download and upload files.

 

The app works well, and I was able to access documents from the Drobo 5N at my house even when I was at work or out of town, and even when my iMac at home was turned off.  In the Drobo configuration panel, you can create multiple users with different access rights, so certain people can have access to only certain folders in the Drobo 5N.  Plus you can share specific files with specific users.  Also, data transfer from the Drobo to an iPhone or iPad is encrypted end-to-end, and each Drobo carries a unique SSL certificate.  Thus, your files are not just safe on the Drobo because of the drive redundancy, but they are safe during travel to your mobile device.  As you can see, it is all very sophisticated and powerful, but at the same time it is super easy to use.

You can see some of the over 100 available apps on this page of the Drobo website.  For example, you can use the CrashPlan app to make an online backup of the files on your Drobo 5N.  Or you can use the Plex app to share media such as songs and videos with any device running the Plex app, such as an Apple TV. 

Conclusion

With its five bays, network access and Accelerator Bay, the Drobo 5N is a seriously sophisticated hardware device.  You could use it at home as I have been doing in my tests over the last few weeks, but this device is more than powerful enough for an office environment.  If you were to fill it up with five 8 TB drives, you would have 29 TB of usable drive space for shared files in your office, all with built-in redundancy so that you don’t lose sleep worrying about a drive failure.  Remember, the question is not if a hard drive fails but when; all hard drives fail eventually.  But with a Drobo, you don’t need to worry about that.

And while that would be enough to recommend the Drobo 5N, thanks to the support for DroboApps, the Drobo 5N is a powerful server, and it wouldn’t be inappropriate to think of it as a computer.  Even if you were to use no app other than the DroboAccess app, that powerful app gives you and other users the ability to access filed stored on a Drobo 5N from anywhere in the world using end-to-end encryption.

And despite all of this power, the core features of the Drobo are simple to use.  Adding and removing hard drives is so simple that a child could do it.  (That’s not an exaggeration; my 10-year-old son asked me if he could put the drives in the Drobo 5N for me, and he had no trouble doing it.)  The Drobo Dashboard software on your computer makes it easy to configure any Drobo, including the Drobo 5N.  And the obvious lights on the outside of the Drobo make it easy to see that everything is fine when the lights are green.

I love using my Drobo, and I would never want to go back to relying on a standard drive for external storage.  If you are looking for external storage at your home or office, you should definitely check out one of the Drobo devices such as the standard four-bay Drobo or the more sophisticated Drobo 5N.  And for a limited time, if you buy a Drobo from the online Drobo Store, and use coupon code Jeff100, you’ll get $100 off. 

It isn’t often that Apple executives sit down for an interview with the press, so it was noteworthy that Rick Tetzeli got an opportunity to interview Tim Cook, Eddy Cue and Craig Federighi for an article in Fast Company that appeared this week.  The article had some interesting parts, but I more enjoyed reading the raw Q&A that was subsequently released, in which Cue and Federighi talk about lots of different aspects of Apple including how Apple is improving the Maps app.  In the same issue, Mark Sullivan interviewed the interesting Bozoma Saint John, head of global consumer marketing for Apple Music.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• Terry Cater of ABA Journal reports that the new president-elect of the ABA, Hilarie Bass, is calling for lawyers to embrace technology.
• We are probably just a few weeks away from Apple announcing new products.  California attorney David Sparks discusses what might be coming.
• I’ve been watching quite a bit of the Olympics with my son and daughter this week.  It has been nice having the NBC Sports app on my Apple TV; it has given us the opportunity to watch some fun events that don’t make the primetime coverage, and watching them during commercial breaks in the main coverage has meant that we haven’t missed much.  But the app has some flaws, and Jason Snell of Six Colors does a good job of describing how this app could be better.
• In an article describing companies using iPads, Vindu Goel of the New York Times reports that nearly half of all iPads are purchased by corporations and governments.
• Walt Mossberg of The Verge reviews the new Logitech Create keyboard for the 9.7″ iPad Pro.
• There are lots of interesting HomeKit devices, but few designed for outside use.  Jesse Hollington of iLounge reviews the iDevices Outdoor Switch Power Outlet, which seems perfect for controlling lights in your patio or garden.
• Sarah Jacobsson Purewal reviews portable chargers for the Apple Watch in an article for Macworld.
• Mike Tanasychuk of iMore has a great selection of tips for using the Siri remote with an Apple TV.
• And finally, Thomas Kim created a water wheel generator to charge an iPhone using recycled plastic bottles and other parts and created this video:

Three years ago, I reviewed an iPad stand by Thought Out called the Stabile PRO.  I gave that product a great review at the time, and three years later I am still using it every day in my office.  That stand holds my iPad up almost as if it is a monitor, and I frequently look at a document on my iPad in that stand while I am drafting a memorandum on my PC’s monitor right next to the Stabile PRO.  I highly recommend the Stabile PRO, and the only real downside is the price.  (It currently costs $109.99 when you buy it from Thought Out.)  Thought Out recently developed a new entry-level stand, made out of the same materials but at a fraction of the price at $29.99.  This new stand is called the Simplex.  Thought Out sent me a free sample for a review, and I’ve been trying it out for the last week.  The Simplex is a fantastic stand.  It isn’t as versatile as the Stabile PRO because you cannot adjust the angles, but it works really well.

The Simplex is made of steel, and it is very strong.  Thought Out says that this is solid American 13 gauge steel, 0.9 inches thick, and weighs 1.25 pounds.  If you needed to reach for an object on your desk to use in self-defense, this would be a good one to reach for.  How a product rates as a self-defense item is not normally a feature on my checklist for iPad accessories; I mention it in this review simply to emphasize that this is a high-quality, substantial product.

The strength makes the Simple incredibly stable, and four non-skid feet on the bottom of the Simplex keep it in place on your desk. 

The four arms of the Simplex are covered with vinyl holding pads, so your iPad only makes contact with the soft vinyl surface and won’t get scratched. 

The overall design is so stable that you can tap and swipe your iPad with any degree of force that you want — from an iPad mini to the largest 12.9″ iPad Pro, in either portrait or landscape orientation — and the iPad will stay in place.  The iPad doesn’t currently support 3D Touch like the iPhone does, but if Apple does bring that technology to the iPad in the future, the Simplex stand will be ready for it.

The Simplex isn’t raised as much as the Stabile PRO.  Thus, your iPad doesn’t look like it is acting as an external monitor, and instead simply looks like it is on a stand.

The bottom of the iPad when sitting on the Simplex is about 1.5″ off the surface of your desk.  If your iPad is in portrait orientation with the Lightning port on the bottom and you are charging your iPad, that 1.5″ is ample space for the end of the cord to connect to the bottom of the iPad.

Design is subjective, of course, but I like the look of the Simplex.  From the front, when your iPad is on it,  you barely see the Simplex at all. 

But when the Simplex is just sitting there on my desk, I think it looks almost like a work of art, a sleek design made out of a single sheet of steel. 

Unlike the Stabile PRO, you cannot adjust the angle of the iPad.  In the Simplex, the iPad is in a fixed 55° viewing angle.  But in my extensive use over the past week with my iPad Pro 12.9″, I found the angle very pleasing to use.  I had to slightly look down to look at a document and then slightly look up to glance back over to my PC monitor, but there was nothing awkward about it.  And when I spent an extended period of time reading cases, exhibits and pleadings with the iPad on the Simplex, I found my iPad to be at a great viewing angle.

I’ve been comparing the Simplex to the Stabile Pro because both come from Thought Out and they both have that solid steel which makes them heavy, strong and stable.  Thought Out suggested that I also compare this product to the P2 Stand by Elago, and Thought Out even sent me a sample of the P2.  The P2 is the same price as the Simplex, holds a tablet at a similar angle, and if you just look at a picture of the two products you might think that they are similar. 

But the P2 is made of aluminum, not steel, so it is much lighter.  The P2 is also smaller than the Simplex.  And the arms on the Simplex are more spread out.  For all of these reasons, the P2 is much less stable than the Simplex.  Indeed, Elago doesn’t recommend the P2 for the larger iPad Pro, and instead recommends the larger P4 (which I did not try) which looks like a larger P2 and is still made of aluminum.  Also, the P2 doesn’t completely cover its arms in vinyl like the Simplex does, instead just putting a small cushion where the iPad sits in the two arms.  I’d be a little afraid of an iPad getting scratched by the edges of the arms of the P2.

I figured that Thought Out sent me the Elago P2 because it knew that the Simplex would compare favorably, so I did some searching online to see if there are any other high quality iPad stands made of solid steel with vinyl covered feet etc.  I couldn’t find anything that looked like it might match the Simplex, although given the huge universe of iPad accessories out there perhaps there is something else that I just didn’t run across.  But it really doesn’t matter if the Simplex is completely unique or if there are similar products out there.  What counts is that the Simplex is a sturdy, high quality, very nice stand. 

After using the Stabile PRO for three years, I know how much I love that stand so it is the one that I will probably continue to use most of the time in my own office.  But if I had never before used either product, I suspect that the $30 price would make me gravitate towards the Simplex.

If you are looking for a nice stand in this price range to provide sturdy support for your iPad when you are working at your desk, the Simplex is an excellent product.  I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the Simplex to any attorney or other professional. 

[UPDATE:  Thought Out just provided me with a discount code for iPhone J.D. readers.  If you use code O11OES40030 between now and August 19, 2016 for any $50 purchase direct from the Thought Out store, you will get a 20% discount.]

Click here to get the Simplex from Thought Out ($29.99)

Click here to get the Simplex from Amazon ($29.99)