Jeff Richardson

After using an iPad Pro for four moths, I would never want to go back to the smaller 9.4″ iPad because the larger screen is so much nicer for working with documents.  But the iPad Pro is heavier than other iPads, and this makes it more awkward to hold.  One way to make the iPad Pro easier to hold is to add some sort of a handle to it.  For the past few weeks, I’ve been trying out two products sold by LapWorks that add a handle (and also a kickstand) to an iPad Pro:  The Tablet Handler Pro and the Gripzilla Pro.  (LapWorks sent me free samples to review.)  These two products take different approaches, and have different advantages and disadvantages.

Gripzilla Pro

The Gripzilla Pro is a long, sturdy brace that has spring-loaded brackets at each end.  Both the flat surface of the brace and the brackets are covered with rubber so they won’t scratch the iPad Pro.

Attaching the Gripzilla Pro is fast and easy.  Place one bracket on one corner, then pull the other bracket to reach the other corner.  That’s it.  The whole process just takes a few seconds.  Springs in the brackets keep a very firm grip on the iPad Pro so it is not going to fall out of the Gripzilla Pro.

A soft Neoprene holder in the middle of the brace has Velcro so that you can adjust the size of the holder to fit your hand.  And that holder spins 360º so you can hold your iPad Pro in any position, portrait or landscape.

If you press two buttons on the side of the holder, it converts into a kickstand.  It can hold the iPad in either a portrait or landscape position.  Unfortunately, the bracket that is on one corner of one side means that the iPad Pro isn’t perfectly level.  I found that to be more annoying in portrait position than in landscape position.

While I love how easy it is to attach the Gripzilla Pro, there are a few things that I don’t like about this product.  First, the brace is so large and prominent that it gets in the way.  And as you can see in the above picture, it sits back quite a bit from the back of the iPad Pro.  As a result, I didn’t find it very comfortable to keep my hand in the Neoprene holder for long stretches of time.  Instead, I often found myself just griping the holder instead of using it with my hand inside.  To be fair, if I need to hold my iPad Pro for a long period of time, I’d rather do so with the Gripzilla Pro than with nothing at all.  I just found myself wishing for an option that was more comfortable to use.

A related problem is that the Gripzilla Pro seems heavy.  It weighs 8.1 ounces, and that number doesn’t seem much higher than the Tablet Handler Pro, which I measured at 5.7 ounces.  But in actual use, it seemed to noticeably add to the weight of the iPad Pro.

Another drawback to the Gripzilla Pro is that the large size makes it awkward to carry with you.  Attached to the iPad, it considerably increases the size of the iPad Pro.  And even if you carry it on its own, because it doesn’t fold up or come apart in any way, it takes up significant space in a briefcase, and I suspect that it won’t fit at all in many purses.  If you intend to keep the Gripzilla Pro at your desk all the time, this is no big deal.  But I wouldn’t want to have to carry this around very often.

Tablet Handler Pro

The Tablet Handler Pro solves all of the problems of the Gripzlla Pro.  The Tablet Handler Pro is lighter, it doesn’t add an awkward brace to the back of your iPad, and it comes apart in a way that makes it much smaller and easier to carry.  Unfortunately, it introduces new problems:  it is difficult to attach to the iPad Pro, and once attached you need to be very careful about its placement in relation to the buttons on the side of an iPad Pro.

To attach the Tablet Handler Pro, you first need to attach the four silicone loops to the hub.  In theory those could stay attached to the hub when the device is not in use, but the loops come off so easily (when not attached to the iPad Pro) that I found that I had to reattach at least three of the loops every time I went to use the Tablet Handler Pro.  Doing so is not difficult, just line up the notch on one end of the loop to the hole on the hub, but it is a task that you need to do. 

Next, you stretch the end of one loop to one corner, then stretch another loop to the opposite corner.  Sometimes when you do so, one loop or the other will pop off, so you need to be careful.  Then you attach the third and finally the fourth corner, again trying to stop them from coming off as you attach them.

I usually save for last the corner of the iPad Pro which has the power button on one side and the volume up button on the other side because that one is tricky.  You need to place the silicone loop in a location where it will grip the corner but not cover a button.  Otherwise, the loop will hold down on the button.  It is possible to get it in the right place, but it takes some time to do.  And invariably when I am done, my iPad Pro is asking me if I want to shut it down because the loop always seems to end up holding down the power button for a few seconds while I try to get it into place.

The good news is that once all four loops are attached, in my tests they have always stayed in place.  I was worried about loops slipping off and shooting like rubber bands across the room, but that has never happened.  Each loop has a small tab on it that keeps it in place.  The tab doesn’t look like much, but it seems to do the job.

Once the Tablet Handler Pro is attached, it works quite well.  There is no obnoxious brace.  Yes, there is a hub in the middle that holds the four loops, but it has such a low profile that it has never bothered me.  Likewise, the loops are so close to the back surface of the iPad Pro that they never get in my way.  And I never noticed the iPad being heavier with the Tablet Handler Pro attached.

Just like the Gripzilla Pro, The Tablet Handler Pro has a Neoprene holder on the hub which spins 360º and which you can wrap around your hand.  I don’t find it terribly comfortable to put my entire hand in the holder, but I frequently put my left thumb in the holder and grip the holder with my left hand, which works well.

Also just like the Gripzilla Pro, you can press two buttons to turn the holder into a kickstand.  It works great as a kickstand, and there are two reasons that it works better than the Gripzilla Pro.  First, you don’t have to worry about the slight angle that results from having one side a little higher than the other.  Second, the silicone loops at the bottom act like feet that don’t slide on a desk.  I could see someone buying Tablet Handler Pro just to serve as a really good kickstand.

One downside of the Tablet Handler Pro is that it isn’t very attractive to see the silicone loops on all four corners of the iPad Pro.  They don’t cover the screen portion so they won’t get in the way of you tapping in the corner of the iPad screen, but aesthetically it is not the best look.  It wasn’t a huge turnoff for me, but maybe it would be for some of you.

The Tablet Handler Pro is sold to work with a variety of larger tablets, not just the iPad Pro.  I wish that this device was designed only for the iPad Pro, and instead of loops used something else that better matched the corners of the iPad Pro.  Perhaps this would make it easier to attach to the four corners, plus would make it look more attractive.

When you are finished using the Tablet Handler Pro, the loops remove easily.  The hub and the four loops (once removed) take up very little space so you can easily carry them in a purse or briefcase, or perhaps even in a large pocket.

Conclusion

Both of these holders do make it easier to hold an iPad Pro for a long period of time.  I love that the Gripzilla Pro is so quick and easy to attach, and I really dislike how cumbersome it is to attach the Tablet Handler Pro.  But once attached, I prefer the feel of the Tablet Handler Pro so that is the one that I recommend.  The Tablet Handler Pro doesn’t seem like the perfect solution, so I will be on the lookout for other options from other companies — especially if they are designed specifically for the iPad Pro.  Having said that, there is a lot to like about the Tablet Handler Pro, and the fact that I find myself wanting to use it almost every day is about the best praise that I can give this product.

Click here to get Gripzilla Pro on Amazon ($44.95)

Click here to get Tablet Handler Pro on Amazon ($44.95)

Apple provides a power adapter with each iPhone and iPad.  For the more power-hungry iPads, you get Apple’s 12W USB Power Adapter, which has an output of 2.4 Amps.  Apple’s power adapters work well, but you need a separate power adapter for each device.  iClever’s BoostCube power adapters let you charge multiple devices with a single power adapter.  The company sent me free review samples of two of its BoostCube devices, one with two USB ports and one with three USB ports.  I have been trying them out for the last few weeks, and they both work well.

The 2-port model has a 24W capacity and the 3-port model has a 36W capacity.  Both models output 2.4 Amps, the same that you get with Apple’s current 12W USB Power Adapter.  So a BoostCube should charge your devices just as fast as the Apple power adapter does.  (If there is any difference in speed, I didn’t notice it in my use.)

Like the Apple power adapter, each BoostCube has an outlet plug that folds up or down, perfect for carrying it with you in a purse or briefcase without scratching something else.

To accommodate the additional ports, these BoostCube devices are slightly larger in width and height than the Apple’s power adapter, although they are all the same depth.  I measure the Apple adapter at about 1 3/4″ x 1 3/4″.  The 2-port BoostCube is about 2 1/8″ x 2 1/8″.  The 3-port BoosCube is about 2 1/8″ x 2 5/8″. 

There is a slight difference in weight versus the Apple power adapter.  I measure the Apple adapter at 2.35 oz., the 2-power BoostCube at 2.95 oz., and the 3-port BoostCube at 3.9 oz.  In normal use, however, I barely noticed the increased weight.

For that very small increase in size and weight, you get a power adapter that is 2x or 3x as useful.  It is nice to not have to carry multiple adapters to simultaneously charge an iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch.  (The devices use what iClever calls SmartID technology to deliver the right output to your device — so an iPhone would get the 1 Amp it needs while a larger iPad will get the full 2.4 Amps that it can use to charge.)

It is also nice to have multiple USB outlets to share with others.  I was in a meeting last week in which another attorney was already using the only available power outlet to charge his iPad, but once I swapped out his Apple adapter for the iClever BoostCube 3-power adapter, he and I were both able to charge our iPads with an extra port available for someone else to charge their iPhone.

The BoostCube also has one feature that the Apple adapter doesn’t have.  There is a small blue LED light inside of the adapter.  When it is plugged in to a working power outlet, you can see a small amount of blue light coming out of the outlets.  This gives you a confirmation that the adapter is indeed getting power, so you know that it is plugged in correctly.  This can also be useful in a hotel room when you think that you have plugged in to a working power outlet, only to discover later that the outlet was controlled by a wall switch that was in the “off” position so you were not charging at all.

You should already have the Apple power adapter that came with your device, so to that extent it is “free,” but if you do need to buy a second adapter, another advantage of the BoostCubes is that they are cheaper.  Apple sells its 12W power adapter for $19, but you can get the 2-port BoostCube on Amazon for $11, and the 3-port model for $17.

The iClever BoostCube multi-port chargers are useful accessories for anyone who uses an iPhone or iPad.

Click here to get iClever BoostCube 2-port from Amazon ($10.99)

Click here to get the iClever BoostCube 3-port from Amazon ($16.99)

An Apple Watch needs to be charged every night.  It comes with an inductive charger:  a circle at the end of the cord that attaches magnetically to the back of the watch.  I suspect that many folks (like me) use the charger with the Apple Watch on a nightstand next to a bed.  This lets you use the Nightstand mode so that your watch can show the time in bright, large numbers while it is charging at night (tap the screen or move the Apple Watch, even just a little, to see the time displayed) and wake you up in the morning with an alarm.  This is a good design, but it has some minor drawbacks.  First, while the magnet is strong enough to do the job, it is possible to accidentally disconnect the watch from the charger.  You might not discover this until the next morning, which could mean that you don’t have a full charge to get you through the next day.  Second, the watch connected to the charger cord can easily move around on a nightstand and could fall to the floor.  Ten One Design created the Timeframe to address both of these problems.  The company sent me a free sample to review and I’ve been trying it out for a few weeks.  I don’t like it as much as the Spigen Apple Watch Night Stand, which I reviewed last year, but the Timeframe does have a few advantages such as being good for travel because it is portable.

The Timeframe is a hardened rubber case with strips of velvet inside to protect the Apple Watch.  I’m using the model for the 42mm Apple Watch, but there is also a model for the 38mm Apple Watch.

Remove the back of the Timeframe to insert the charger that comes with the Apple Watch.  You can choose to have the cord run out the left or the right bottom corner, so you can select the setup that works best for your nightstand, whether you sleep on the left side of the bed or the right side of your bed.

You use the Timeframe by just slipping the Apple Watch into the Timeframe from the top into the Timeframe.  It slips in (and removes) easily.  Once in the Timeframe, the watch is perfectly aligned with the inductive side of the charger, so it will start to charge immediately.

There is a blue lever at the bottom of the Timeframe that you can use to eject the Apple Watch.  That feature is unnecessary because you can easily slide the watch out of the Timeframe, but it does work if you want to use it.

Unlike many other Apple Watch stands that hold the device in the same orientation that it would be on your arm (with the Digital Crown on the side), I like that the Timeframe holds the watch so that the Digital Crown is at top, which means that you can use Apple’s Nighstand mode.

Because the Timeframe holds the charger against the back of the Apple Watch, there is no danger of the two becoming disconnected.  Thus, you never need to worry about waking up to discover that your Apple Watch did not charge.  I don’t mean to imply that this happens very often if you charge your Apple Watch without using some sort of stand, but even if it only happens rarely it is still annoying if it occurs.

The Timeframe also provides protection to the Apple Watch in case it falls.  The Timeframe provides excellent protection to three of the sides — protected by the hard rubber — and even the side of the Apple Watch with the Digital Crown has some protection because it is lower than the edge of the Timeframe.

The glass or sapphire face of the Apple Watch is still exposed if it falls, but the Timeframe still provides some protection because the face is set back somewhat, plus the top edge of the Timeframe curves out somewhat.  Thus, if the face of your Apple Watch were to fall on a flat, hard surface, the Timeframe will definitely provide additional protection.  On the other hand, if a sharp pointy object were to stab directly at the face, then the Timeframe is unlikely to help much.  But hopefully you don’t have many sharp pointy objects right next to your bed.

The Timeframe works especially well if you are using a Sport Band.  With something more flexible, especially the Milanese Loop, the Timeframe might not stay upright in the mode necessary for the Nightstand mode to work.  Having said that, it is more likely to stay upright with the Timeframe on than just using an Apple Watch with Milanese Loop without the Timeframe.  But I think a dedicated stand is a better option for most who use the Milanese Loop band — one that stays in place either because of its weight or because it uses microsuction or something else to stick to the top of a table.

After trying out the Timeframe for a few weeks, I still prefer the Spigen Apple Watch Night Stand for every day use.  First, I like that the Spigen device sticks to my nightstand and thus doesn’t move around.  I also like that the Spigen stand holds the watch in position no matter what watch band I’m using.  Also, the Spigen Apple Watch Night Stand only costs $9.99 on Amazon, so it is very inexpensive without seeming cheap. 

But the Timeframe does offer some advantages.  First, the fact that it doesn’t stick to anything on the bottom means that it is very portable.  The Timeframe works great when you are traveling.  Second, the Timeframe does offer some protection.  I’ve never had my Apple Watch fall off of my Spigen stand, and even if it did it would probably be safe if it just hit the carpet in my bedroom.  But I suppose there is always some risk that I would accidentally knock it off while I am asleep and moving around, and were that to happen, it would be better to have the protection of the Timeframe.

I think that most any Apple Watch owner would appreciate having a nice charging stand.  If you are not interested in a stand that stays in one place, the Timeframe is a good choice, especially if you are looking for something to use when traveling.  And if you are concerned about your Apple Watch being damaged when it falls while charging, the Timeframe is a good choice because it provides some protection.

Click here to get the Timeframe from Ten One Design from Amazon ($24.95).

Once again, the big Apple news this week was the FBI’s request that Apple be ordered to come up with a way to break its own encryption.  Apple CEO Tim Cook sat down for a 30 minute interview with ABC News anchor David Muir to discuss the issues.  Some of the questions and answers are repetitive, but Tim Cook does an excellent job explaining and defending Apple’s position.  Yesterday, Apple filed a motion to vacate the order in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, and you can read a copy here.  It’s very well-drafted brief, authored by Ted Olson and other attorneys at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher along with the ZwillGen law firm.  (My only critique is that they call the software that Apple is being asked to create GovtOS, when I think that FBiOS sounds much better.)  Next week, Apple’s General Counsel Bruce Sewell will testify before a congressional hearing on encryption, as reported by Dan Moren of Six Colors.  The issues surrounding this continue to be fascinating.  As Apple points out, if the government can use the All Writs Act to order Apple to write software to facilitate hacking into an iPhone, what is to prohibit the government from ordering Apple to create software to turn an iPhone into a remote surveillance device by turning on the microphone?  And if the U.S. government can order this, so can the government of any other country.  And once this software is created, what is to prevent other courts from trying to take advantage of it in non-terrorism cases, such as divorce cases, tax evasion cases, etc.  And once hackers can access to this software, it can be used to invade the privacy and safety of virtually anyone — especially if a bad guy is able to use the Find Friends feature to track everyone in your family.  Slippery slope arguments can sometimes be silly, but in this case I think Apple is correct that these are all natural consequences of this order.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• Virginia attorney Sharon Nelson and her husband, security expert John Simek, offer some opinions on the Apple v. FBI issue.
• Canadian attorney Simon Chester reflects on chairing the 1993 ABA TECHSHOW.
• I often link to articles by California attorney David Sparks.  This week, he reflects upon his one year anniversary of leaving a law firm after 20 years and hanging out his own shingle.  I enjoy working at a large law firm, but it sounds like David made a choice that works well for him.
• Glenn Fleishmann of Macworld gives advice for boosting your Wi-Fi signal.
• I’m not a big fan of iPad cases — I just use an Apple Smart Cover to protect the glass but have nothing on the back.  But if you want one, Nicky Guy of The Wirecutter explains why the Apple Smart Case is the best option.
• Before the Apple v. FBI story broke, Adam Lashinsky of Fortune interviewed Apple CEO Tim Cook on a variety of topics.
• Alan of Art of the iPhone explains how to mute text message notifications for a specific contact.
• Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac reports that a 19-year-old girl was kidnapped by her ex-boyfriend, but her mother worked with the police to locate her using the iPhone’s Find My iPhone feature.
• And finally, this is a few years old, but I just saw it recently:  an advertisement for the law office of Lando Calrissian:

Earlier this week, I discussed Larry Port’s comment that it is easy to lose track of an Apple Pencil, and indeed Larry accidentally left his in a restaurant last week.  (Good news:  he recovered it.)  My suggestion was to use a clip, such as the Fisher Chrome Clip, so that you can easily clip the Pencil to a pocket.  Memphis attorney Darrell Phillips of Pietrangelo Cook PLC wrote to me with another suggestion:  the Apple Pencil Magnet by Moxiware, a $14.95 sleeve for the Pencil that lets you attach the Pencil to the magnets built-in to the side of the iPad Pro.  I had not heard of this product before, and Darell was nice enough to write a short review of this product for iPhone J.D. readers.  He also took some pictures and even made a video to show it in action.  Take it away, Darrell:

– – – – –

I ordered the Moxiware Apple Pencil Magnet after trying the Switcheasy Coverbuddy for iPad Pro [$39.99 on Amazon] and finding it inadequate for my uses. The Coverbuddy is essentially a rear cover for the iPad, with a protruding Apple Pencil holder made of hard plastic. It works well, but I found that since I was using the Apple Pencil to take notes and, most frequently, with the iPad Pro flat on the table, the protruding holder was an annoyance because it made my writing surface uneven.  The Coverbuddy is fairly well-reviewed on Amazon and I had no problems with its construction, but simply found it impractical for my daily use. 

I then started looking for Apple Pencil holders with greater flexibility and ultimately discovered the Moxiware Apple Pencil Magnet.  It is not extraordinary and does not ship with any fancy packaging, but it just works very well. It is a sleeve, through which you push the Pencil upon first use, and which cradles the pencil very snugly.

Half of the sleeve has a protruding magnet which adheres quite rigidly to various spots on the iPad Pro, both with and without the smart keyboard cover.

When I put my iPad away, I leave the Pencil stuck to the outside of the Smart Keyboard and, although it may shift a bit during transport, it (so far) appears to remain intact. The magnet is so strong that I do not worry about losing the Pencil because of an open bag, and the Pencil (to date) has not fallen off my device upon withdrawal from my briefcase.

When I am using my iPad Pro with the keyboard, I leave the Apple Pencil stuck to the tablet face. It looks smart and, although I am less likely to need the Pencil once I have decided to use keyboard mode, it is easily accessible and I am not likely to lose it or forget it.

Alternatively, when I am using the iPad Pro for note-taking, I frequently plop the Pencil on the side of the tablet face during breaks; it just seems to work there.

The presence of the magnet does not affect my grip at all; frankly, I use the Apple Pencil quite a bit for note-taking and am completely unaware of the magnet.

Here is a video showing the Apple Pencil Magnet in action:

Until the market presents a better alternative, this is the best product I have found to cradle my Apple Pencil.

– – – – –

I see from the Moxiware website that in addition to the white model that Darrell uses, you can also get it in black, red, yellow, blue and green:

If any of you have discovered other useful third party products with your Apple Pencil, I’d love to hear about them.  I suspect that many other interesting accessories will be coming out soon.

Thanks again to Darrell Phillips for reviewing this product.  And by the way, while Darrell is now a litigator, I see that before law school he was a broadcast journalist, and he occasionally blogs about media law at NewsroomLegal.com.

Click here to get Apple Pencil Magnet by Moxiware ($14.95)

Last night, I read a post by Larry Port on the Legal Productivity blog about things that he dislikes about the Apple Pencil.  He had two complaints about charging the Apple Pencil:  (1) it looks silly when the Pencil is connected to the side of an iPad and (2) there is no place to put the cap while you are charging.  I respect Larry on issues of legal technology; he is the CEO and founder of Rocket Matter, one of the leading online services for law practice management.  Nevertheless, I disagree with Larry on that first complaint, and I have a tip regarding the second one.

Charging on the side

One of the ways that you can charge an Apple Pencil is you remove the cap on the back and then connect it to the Lightning port on the iPad Pro.  If your iPad is in the landscape position, that means that the Pencil will be sticking out of the side of the iPad Pro.  Larry thinks that Apple should have done it another way because that is inelegant, but I disagree.  I think it is brilliant that you can charge the Pencil using just the iPad Pro that is surely right next to the Pencil, without having to find a charging cord or adapter.  Would I want the Pencil sticking out of the iPad all of the time?  Of course not, but you don’t have to worry about that because it takes very little time to charge the Pencil. 

If you are using the Apple Pencil and you get an alert on the iPad Pro that the battery is running low, you can connect the Pencil to the iPad Pro for only 15 seconds and get another 30 minutes of battery life, which for me is virtually always enough extra power to finish the task at hand.  Later, when I am not using my iPad, I can plug in the Pencil for a little longer to get back up to a full charge.  (It takes about 10 minutes to go from nothing to a 50% charge, and almost 20 minutes to go from nothing to a 100% charge.)  Because the Pencil holds a charge for about 12 hours, I can go for days or weeks before I have to worry about charging the Pencil again.

You don’t need to use an iPad Pro’s Lightning port to charge an Apple Pencil — it comes with an adapter to use a Lightning cord — but that’s the way that I always do it.  In my opinion, the convenience of being able to quickly recharge the Pencil without fumbling for a cord or adapter far outweighs the temporary unsightliness of having the Pencil connected to the side of the iPad for a few seconds or minutes.

A place for the cap

Regarding Larry’s second point about the cap, here is a tip:  attach the cap to the magnets on the side of the iPad while the Pencil is charging.  The sides of the iPad have numerous magnets designed to attach to the Apple Smart Cover and Smart Case — five on each of the long sides, and two on each of the short sides.  Those magnets are more than strong enough to hold the cap. So whenever I charge my Pencil, I just put my cap on the magnet which is slightly above the Lightning port where my Pencil is plugged in. 

Even if my iPad is propped up (e.g., using the Apple Smart Cover folded in a triangle), the magnet is strong enough to stop the cap from falling off.  Best of all, I always know exactly where my cap is when it is time to return it to the back of the Pencil.

Get a clip

Larry did voice one complaint that I agree with:  there is no easy place to store the Apple Pencil.  And unfortunately for Larry, he wrote his post shortly after he had lost his Pencil at a restaurant earlier that day.  (I hope he recovered it!)  My solution, which I wrote about back in December, is to add a clip to the Apple Pencil such as the Fisher Chrome Clip.  For just a few bucks, you can make it easy to clip an Apple Pencil in your shirt pocket, or in a side pocket in a briefcase or purse.

The big Apple news this week is that Apple is challenging a U.S. Magistrate Judge’s order, pursuant to the All Writs Act of 1789, that Apple must help the FBI unlock the iPhone 5c that belonged to a gunman who, with his wife, killed 14 people in San Bernadino, CA two months ago.  Many, such as security expert Rich Mogull, believe that the FBI has been looking for the right case to set a legal precedent on the duty of a company like Apple to crack its own security when requested by the government, and with the horrific fact pattern of the San Bernadino shooting, the FBI may well hope that these facts will influence the ultimate legal ruling.  In the past, Apple has complied with court orders to extract data from older iPhones that were locked.  And even in this case, Apple turned over the data that it did have in its possession, including an iCloud backup of the iPhone in question from about two months before the shooting. 

What Apple is resisting now is an attempt to force Apple to hack into the iPhone.  This iPhone is running iOS 9, which not only makes it impossible to extract data from a locked phone, but also has built-in protection against a hacker guessing the password.  If you look on your iPhone in Settings, and then tap Touch ID & Passcode, at the bottom there is a setting that erases all data on the device after 10 failed passcode attempts.  So if the FBI just starts trying to guess the password and guesses wrong too many times, it risks losing all of the data on the phone, data that the FBI believes could be pertinent to its investigation. 

To get around Apple’s own security and comply with this order, the FBI wants to force Apple to create a special version of iOS 9 and load it onto this iPhone 5c, a special iOS that doesn’t include the limitation of only 10 attempts, and one that also lets the FBI use a computer to rapidly enter different passcodes, many different times every second, so that the FBI could try to get access quickly.  It has to be Apple that creates this special version of iOS — some have dubbed it FBI-OS — because the iPhone will only install a new operating system that is digitally signed by Apple itself.  So the question of the day is, should the FBI be permitted to force Apple to create FBI-OS?

Apple CEO Tim Cook posted an open letter this week explaining why Apple opposes this.  It is very interesting and well written, and I encourage you to read it if you haven’t done so already.  In short, Apple is opposed to being forced to create a backdoor to its security.  Once a backdoor is created, there is no guarantee that it would be used only in this one instance.  Indeed, that may be why the FBI wants to create the legal precedent (and the tool), so that it can use it in many other cases. 

Moreover, if Apple creates this backdoor for the FBI, it would presumably have to make it available to other governments in countries where Apple does business when they ask for it in an investigation, including oppressive regimes with a different view on human rights.  And even if you assume that all governments only do what everyone would agree is good (ahem), it seems unrealistic to expect that FBI-OS, once created, would only be used by governments.  Getting access to this tool would be such a tempting prize for hackers that it could just be a matter of time before it falls into the wrong hands.

As California attorney Megan Zavieh writes at Lawyerist.com, lawyers should pay particular attention to this case because of the privacy issues that are at stake.  Moreover, there are serious questions about whether this order is a proper application of the 200-year old All Writs Act.  This is a fascinating and important legal issue.  I’m glad that Apple is taking a stand, and it will be interesting to see how this develops in the courts. 

And now, the other news of note from the past week:

• ABA TECHSHOW takes place in Chicago in just a few weeks, and I’ll be there.  Because this is the 30th anniversary of TECHSHOW, the ABA has been talking to some of the attorneys who were in charge of the early conferences.  Dan Hagens talks about the first TECHSHOW in 1986, when a big topic was using personal computers from IBM or Apple to do legal work.  Jeff Aresty talks about the 1988 TECHSHOW, when there was as much interest from paralegals as attorneys because many attorneys didn’t handle their own technology.
• Los Angeles attorney Jeffrey Kent reviews the Staad Attaché bag from WaterField Designs as a case for the iPad Pro on his Mobile Barbarian website.
• California attorney David Sparks discusses typing on the iPad Pro.
• New York attorney Nicole Black discusses smartwatch use by lawyers.
• South Carolina attorney Justin Kahn discusses an update to Adobe Acrobat Reader for iOS that brings support for the iPad Pro and iOS 9.
• Security expert Bruce Schneier writes an article in the Washington Post explaining why Apple’s position on FBI-OS is correct.  For example, he writes:  “What the FBI wants to do would make us less secure, even though it’s in the name of keeping us safe from harm. Powerful governments, democratic and totalitarian alike, want access to user data for both law enforcement and social control. We cannot build a backdoor that only works for a particular type of government, or only in the presence of a particular court order.  Either everyone gets security or no one does.”
• Brad Stone, Adam Satariano, and Gwen Ackerman of Bloomberg Businessweek interviewed Johny Srouji, the Apple VP who is in charge of creating the chips used in iPads and iPhones.  It’s an interesting article and provides a view into a side of Apple that you don’t often hear about, even though it is incredibly important to Apple’s success.
• Rob Haskell of Vogue Magazine interviews Apple’s Tim Cook and Jony Ive to discuss the intersection of technology and fashion.
• Rene Ritchie of iMore shares shortcuts in the Mail for iOS app that you might not know about.
• Jonny Evans of ComputerWorld discusses 3D touch shortcuts in the iPhone Messages app that you might not know about.
• Jonny Evans also discusses tips for using the Apple Maps app that you might not know about.
• Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal compares the new Fitbit Blaze to the Apple Watch.
• Chance Miller of 9to5 Mac reports that all of the photography in the March issue of Bon Appétit magazine was shot using iPhones.
• Speaking of food, John Callaham of iMore reports that you can now use the Domino’s pizza app to order a pizza from your Apple Watch, avoiding the effort required to reach for your iPhone or computer.
• And finally, in the ultimate mashup of old and new, you can now play Pong (from 1972) on your Apple Watch with the app A Tiny Game of Pong.  The app is free, but if you pay a buck you can unlock another game mode and the ability to change the color.  I played it last night, and it was simple and fun — a good combination for an Apple Watch app.  Here is a video showing it in action:

Over the past few years, many major websites have been hacked, exposing usernames, passwords, emails, and other private information.  One example that received a lot of news coverage in 2015 was the data breach at Ashley Madison, a website that advertises itself as facilitating affairs (although some have concluded most of the supposed female users of the website are actually just bots).

There is an interesting article in Law Practice Today this month by attorney Sharon Nelson and her husband John Simek, both of whom are legal security experts and who run Sensei Enterprises, a digital forensics company.  Their article is about the “deep web” and the “dark web,” parts of the Internet that you cannot access from a search engine like Google, and it is an interesting read on that topic.  But today I want to focus on just one part of that article, the part in which they explain how they downloaded from the dark web (for research purposes) a copy of the breached data from Ashley Madison.  One of the things that they saw in the data was all of the passwords people used on Ashley Madison.

Now remember that this is a website that people used to be unfaithful to their spouse, so you would presume that most users would select passwords that are even more secure than normal to try to avoid prying eyes — not only hackers, but also spouses.  And yet the top ten passwords used on Ashley Madison, as revealed by Nelson and Simek, are ridiculous:

1. 123456
2. 12345
3. password
4. DEFAULT
5. 123456789
6. qwerty
7. 12345678
8. abc123
9. [redacted to keep iPhone J.D. family friendly]
10. 1234567

According to a similar report from last year by reporter Keith Collins for Quartz (which lists the top 100 passwords used on Ashley Madison), that top password — 123456 — was used by over 120,000 users.  And over 200,000 users used a string of numbers beginning with 1 and ending at 5, 6, 7, 8 or 9.

So this is another opportunity for me to urge you to use complex and unique passwords on each of the websites that you visit.  And the easiest way to do that is to use a password manager, for all of the reasons that I discussed when I wrote about password security in June of 2015.  I use 1Password, which works very well on the iPhone, iPad, PC and Mac, and which even has a useful Apple Watch app which works great for storing a few commonly-used passwords like a locker combination.  In fact, just yesterday, 1Password introduced a new family plan so that your whole family can use, and when appropriate share, secure passwords.  But whether you use 1Password or another product, I strongly encourage you to use something.

Click here to get 1Password for iOS (free, but $9.99 to unlock all features): 

I have been involved in a large number of mediations over the last two decades (as a defense attorney), and most of my experiences have been very positive.  Of course, mediation is not right for every case.  I often see cases in which the best strategy is to try to convince the court to dismiss my client on a motion to dismiss or a motion for summary judgment, plus there are some cases that just need to go to trial.  But for cases in which money will likely change hands at some point, mediation can be a great tool to achieve a fair settlement while minimizing defense costs for my client.

To obtain a favorable result in a mediation, you need to be well-prepared before you even begin the mediation.  But while the mediation is ongoing, an important part of the strategy is to pick the right numbers to offer the other side.  You need to act in a way that will move the mediation towards a fair end result, which means issuing offers most likely to result in good responses from your opponent during each step of the negotiations.

ADR MediationTool is an app that was released this past December which aims to help you make settlement offers as a defense attorney, or settlement demands as a plaintiff attorney, in a mediation or other settlement negotiation.  The app costs $9.99, and the developer sent me a free copy so that I could check it out.  My last mediation was in October of 2015 so I haven’t yet had a chance to test out this app in a real mediation, but I can already see that this app can be a useful tool.

To start using the app, tap the Settings button at the bottom right and add your basic case information such as case name and the names of the parties.

 

If you are on the plaintiff side, you next tap the Plaintiff button to add your expenses, contingency fee and the dollar figure that you would like to obtain for your client.  Then tap Negotiations to start the mediation, and the top of the screen will give you a target that matches those numbers.  For example, in these screenshots you can see that I have indicated that expenses are $75,000, my contingency fee is 25%, and I want my client to get at least $250,000.  The app tells me that I will need to reach a settlement target of at least $408,333 for those numbers to work.

 

If you are on the defense side, tap Defendant on the main screen.  That will bypass the part of the app with expenses, contingency fees, etc. and bring you right to the negotiation portion of the app.

This is the part of the app where you record the demands and the offers.  In my example, the plaintiff has started with a $1 million demand, and I responded with a $50,000 offer.  In the next round, the plaintiff demanded $950,000 and I offered $75,000.

 

Whenever you enter a demand and an offer, the app shows you the midpoint for those numbers.  That’s math that you can often just do in your head, but it is nice to see the midpoint automatically, and it is useful to see how the midpoint changes throughout the settlement process.

Whenever you are ready to start a new round, you tap the plus sign at the bottom left.

In addition to showing you the midpoint, the app shows you two other numbers that can help you.  First, tap the midpoint until it turns red and the app will show you the response ratio — in other words, how much the defendant offered in response to the plaintiff’s demand.  If the plaintiff goes down by $50,000 and the defendant goes up $25,000 in response, that is a 50% response ratio.  By looking at your prior response ratios, one negotiating tactic is to make additional offers that are consistent with that ratio, a way to signal to the other side that for every $100,000 that they come down, you are going up $50,000.  Or you can adjust your offers to yield different response ratios to send different signals to your opponent.

 

Perhaps the most useful tool is the Trends Intersection figure, which you can see by tapping until the middle number is blue.  This shows you where your negotiations are headed based upon the last two rounds of demand and offer.

 

By looking at the prior Trend Intersection numbers and adjusting your next offer accordingly, you can try to push settlement negotiations towards a certain number.  So in my example, I am assuming that I am trying to settle my case for $350,000 to $400,000, and thus I am trying to keep the Trends Intersection number within that range.

Another tool that this app gives you is the Graph tool.  There are three pages of graphs.  First, you see the progression of offers and demands over time, and how the midpoint has changed over time.  Second, you see a page that, the developer says, lets you apply finance analytics to litigation — things like Bollinger Bands and Linear Regression.  I will admit that it is a little over my head, but if you understand these things, click here for the developer’s explanation of what the graph shows.

 

The final page of graphs shows you the trend intersection for your negotiations.

 

The app also has a tool for handling brackets.  In my hypothetical example, when we got the point where the plaintiff was at $775,000  and the defendant was at $175,000, the plaintiff proposed a settlement bracket of between $500,000 and $300,000, which the defendant accepted.  Once a bracket is entered, the app will make future recommendations that are within that bracket, and it accounts for the bracket on graphs by using small white circles.

 

Speaking of recommendations, the app can help you to come up with your next demand or offer.  When you first tap the bubble to enter an amount, the app will suggest an amount that is consistent with the most recent midpoint, response ratio or trends intersection.

 

You can also enter a possible number and then look at the graphs to see how that number would affect the likely midpoint or trend intersection, and then enter a different number to see how that changes the midpoint or trend intersection.

When you are done with a mediation, the app can create a report in PDF format.  Strangely, the app doesn’t give you the option to email that report, but you can open it in another app that handles PDFs and then email from that app.  The report gives you a handy record of all of the demands and offers.

I’ve only seen one other app designed for settlement negotiations, an app that I reviewed several years ago called Picture It Settled Lite.  That app has some features missing from this one, such as recording the time and date of each offer or demand, and I also prefer the interface for suggesting the next offer/demand by showing multiple numbers on a single page with an explanation of what each number would represent — such as matching the dollar change of the last number, matching the percentage of change of the last number, etc.  Picture It Settled Lite also lets you store multiple negotiations in the app, whereas ADR MediationTool only lets you work on a single negotiation at a time.  On the other hand, I find it easier to enter numbers in ADR MediationTool, and the graphs are much better (even though I’ll admit that I don’t understand all of them).  And I particularly like the Trends Intersection feature in ADR MediationTool, which doesn’t exist in Picture It Settled Lite.

All data is stored in the app itself, so you don’t need to worry about confidential settlement numbers being uploaded to the Internet.

Will this app, by itself, make a noticeable difference in your next mediation?  Maybe not, but then again, who knows.  It is certainly one more tool that you can use to help you with your strategy.  And because it requires minimal time to use, you don’t have to devote much time to the app to get value out of it.  If you are a litigator, I think you’ll find it worthwhile to give this iPhone app a try the next time that you are involved in a mediation or settlement negotiation.

Click here to get ADR MediationTool ($9.99): 

There have been rumors floating around for a while now that Apple is about to introduce the iPad Air 3, which looks to be similar to the iPad Pro but in the traditional iPad size.  For example, here is a recent article by Mark Gurman of 9to5Mac predicting that the iPad Air 3, along with a new iPhone 5se, will be announced on Tuesday, March 15 and will go on sale on Friday, March 18.  If you are in the market for a new iPad but you think that the iPad Pro is just too big for you, it probably makes sense to wait a few weeks before you buy your next iPad.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• South Carolina attorney Justin Kahn reminds us that when you put your iPad Pro in airplane mode, you cannot use an Apple Pencil with it until you turn on Bluetooth.
• California attorney David Sparks reviews the Staad Attaché bag from Waterfield.
• Serenity Caldwell of iMore has tips for drawing with an Apple Pencil.
• If you have some areas of your home where Wi-Fi isn’t as strong, you are not alone.  Even the leader of the free world has to deal with Wi-Fi dead spots in the White House, as reported by Allie Malloy of CNN.
• Watch expert Jack Forster wrote an interesting article for Hodinkee about the impressive design of the Apple Watch.
• Abdel Ibrahim of WatchAware explains why the Apple Watch protects your privacy more than other fitness trackers.
• And finally, skier Nicolas Vulgnier found a cool way to make a 360º movie of intense skiing.  He put his iPhone 6 on a contraption at the end of a string and spun it around him while he went down the slope.  The resulting video is pretty cool: