Jeff Richardson

Every year, the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center conducts a survey to gauge the use of legal technology by attorneys in the United States.  This year’s report was released this past Friday, and as always, I was particularly interested in Volume VI, titled Mobile Lawyers.  No survey is perfect, but the ABA tries hard to ensure that its survey has statistical significance, and every year this is one of the best sources of information on how attorneys use technology.  Note that the survey was conducted from January to May, so even though we are looking at these numbers in late Summer of 2015, remember that the survey answers were given in the beginning of 2015.  

My thoughts on the prior reports are located here:  2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010.  The numbers in this year’s report are similar to what we saw in 2014; once again, about 60% of all attorneys use an iPhone, and about 40% of all attorneys use an iPad.

Six out of ten attorneys use an iPhone

For the past few years, the survey has been relatively consistent in revealing that about 9 out of every 10 lawyers use a smartphone for law-related tasks while away from the primary workplace.  In 2014 and 2013, the number was 91%; in 2015 the number is 90%.  As was the case in the last four years, once again in 2015 there was a slight correlation between law firm size and smartphone use.  For example, in 2015, 16.9% of solo attorneys do not use a smartphone and 12.9% of attorneys in a firm of 2-9 do not use a smartphone.  On the other hand, in firms with 50-99 attorneys, every single attorney reported using a smartphone, and at firms with 100 or more attorneys the numbers were about 95% or more of their attorneys reported using a smartphone.  As a whole, though, it is fair to say that the survey consistently shows around nine out of every ten attorneys use a smartphone.

For those nine out of every ten attorneys who are using smartphones, 75.7% reported in 2015 that they were using a personally owned smartphone, and 26.4% used a smartphone permanently assigned by their law firm.  Those numbers didn’t change much from 2014.

Whether they buy it themselves or it is purchased by their law firm, what smartphones are those nine out of ten attorneys using in 2014?  In 2013, the big news was that over half of all attorneys were using an iPhone. Last year, that number rose to 60.8% (66.8% of the 91% of attorneys who use a smartphone).  In 2015, that number stayed roughly the same; it was once again 60.8%, and in 2015 that number comes from 67.5% of the 90% of attorneys who use a smartphone.  It seems fair to say that the percentage of attorneys using an iPhone remained steady in 2014 and 2015. 

So if you can imagine a row of ten attorneys, this year one of them doesn’t use a smartphone at all, and six of them use an iPhone.  What about the other three?  Just like in 2014, two of them are likely using an Android phone, and that last attorney is probably using a BlackBerry or a Windows Mobile phone.  In 2015, 23.9% of the 90% of attorneys who use a smartphone reported using Android, which is just a slight decrease from 2014 when it was 24.5% of the 91% of attorneys.  In 2015, 5.2% of the 90% of attorneys who use a smartphone reported using a BlackBerry and 2.5% reported using a Windows Mobile phone, which are not very big changes from 2014 when 6.8% of the 91% of attorneys who used a smartphone reported using a BlackBerry and 1.9%  reported using a Windows Mobile phone.  Finally in 2015, 2.2% of attorneys were not sure what model of smartphone that they used. 

If you are adding the numbers, you’ll notice that adds to 101.3%.  But it makes sense for the number to be slightly over 100% because I’m sure that a small number of attorneys use multiple smartphones.

The following pie chart is somewhat imprecise because, as I just noted, the actual numbers add up to just over 100%, but if you don’t pay attention to the percentages listed and instead just generally look at the size of each slice of the pie, this pie chart gives you a general, graphical sense of the relative use:

Although the decrease in the number of attorneys using BlackBerry phones was small from 2014 to 2015, it’s not like there were that many attorneys still using a BlackBerry in 2014 to begin with.  I’m always amazed to look at the decline of BlackBerry over time and the rise in the iPhone use by attorneys over the five years that the ABA has been collecting this data:

Looking at the past five years, as BlackBerry use among attorneys plummeted from 40% in 2010 to under 5% in 2015, iPhone use increased from 31% to 61% and Android use increased from 15% to around 22%. 

Why are attorneys choosing iPhone, Android or BlackBerry?  Firm size seems to have something to do with it.  Almost all of the BlackBerry users are at large law firms with 100 or more attorneys, especially those few megafirms with 500 or more attorneys where iPhone use is 64%, Android is 15% and BlackBerry use is 23%.  And as for iPhone and Android users, Android use is highest among solo attorneys, with 62% iPhone use and 31% Android use.  But once firm size increases to 50 or more attorneys, Android use drops to around 16% while iPhone use jumps to around 75%, except for the 500+ attorney megafirms where BlackBerry use is so much higher than elsewhere.  This chart shows what I mean:

Other than the fact that BlackBerry users are primarily at large law firms, you probably shouldn’t read too much into this chart.  Clearly, iPhone and Android users come in all shapes and sizes.  But perhaps it is not just a coincidence that I work at a large law firm, whereas The Droid Lawyer — the leading website for attorneys who use Android smartphones — is published by Jeff Taylor, a solo attorney in Oklahoma City.

What are these attorneys doing with their iPhones and other smartphones? Almost all are using them to make phone calls and handle emails.  Around 75% are using smartphones for calendars and contacts.  Over half are using smartphones for internet access and text messaging.  Other popular uses are GPS/maps, taking pictures and mobile-specific research apps.  Only 7% use a smartphone to track time and expenses.

The survey also shows that attorneys are continuing to think more about security.  Back in 2011, 23% of respondents were not using any security on their smartphone.  That number has decreased every year and is down to 6% in 2015.  Of those attorneys using security measures, 92% use a password.  It’s nice to see the numbers improving, but given how much security is in the news, I would have hoped to see 100% of all attorneys in 2015 using a password to lock their smartphones.

Four out of ten attorneys use an iPad

Apple introduced the original iPad in 2010.  In 2011, only 15% of all attorneys responded that they use a tablet, and that number more than doubled to 33% in 2012 and rose to 48% in 2013.  But since then, the number has essentially held steady:  49% in 2014 and 49.6% in 2015.  It was amazing to see attorneys take to the tablet so quickly; few other items of legal technology jumped to almost 50% usage in just a few years.  But after reaching that point, the numbers have held steady.

It used to be that around 90% of attorneys using a tablet were using an iPad.  It was 89% in 2011, 91% in 2012, and 91% in 2013.  But in 2014 the number decreased to 84%, and it is 83% in 2015. Overall, this means that in 2013, 2014 and again in 2015, just slightly over four out of every ten attorneys is using an iPad. 

As for the lawyers using a tablet but not using an iPad, in 2015 11.8% use Android (up from 10% in 2014) and 8.3% use Windows Mobile, which I presume includes the Surface (up from 6% in 2014).

Looking at the past five years on a chart shows visually how the percentage of attorneys not using a tablet had been declining rapidly but then has held steady since 2013, and the percentage of attorneys using an iPad rose quickly to 2013 but then has had the slightest of declines since then, while Android and Windows have had the slightest of increases.

That relationship between firm size and platform use seems to exist in the tablet world too.  For lawyers at firms of less than 50 attorneys, around 80% use the iPad and 10% to 15% use Android.  For lawyers at law firms of 50 or more attorneys, iPad use jumps to 90% or more, while Android use drops to the single digits.  For example, for the attorneys who use a tablet, 79% of solo attorneys use an iPad and 15% of solo attorneys use an Android tablet, but at firms of 50-99 attorneys, 96% use an iPad and 4% use an Android tablet.

What are these attorneys doing with their iPads and other tablets?  Pretty much the same thing that they are doing with their smartphones (other than the phone function), with over half of attorneys reporting that they are using their tablets for internet access, email and calendars.

Popular apps

The survey also asked attorneys to identify apps that they use.  I should note at the outset that I don’t like how the ABA asks the question.  The ABA first asks “Have you ever downloaded a legal-specific app for your smartphone?”  In 2015, 41.4% said yes.  when I see the word “smartphone” in this question, I think of my iPhone, not my iPad.  Then the next question asks:  “What legal specific app(s) did you download?”  When I read the questions in that order, I’m thinking of the apps that I downloaded on my iPhone, not my iPad.  But others must be reading the question differently because I see WestlawNext, TrialPad and TranscriptPad in the answers, and those apps exist only on the iPad, not on the iPhone.  I would have never mentioned those apps when answering the question, even though I use them on my iPad.

So while I question how much value you can put in these answers, for what it is worth, the #1 app mentioned in response was Fastcase (which exists on both the iPhone and iPad).  The full list, in order, is:

1. Fastcase
2. WestlawNext
3. A legal dictionary app
4. Lexis Advance
5. TrialPad
6. LexisNexis Legal News
7. TranscriptPad
8. Courtlink
9. LexisNexis Get Cases & Shepardize
10. HeinOnline
11. Westlaw News
12. Casemaker
13. Clio

By the way, I apologize to the makers of those excellent apps for including the above caveat; it’s not their fault that the ABA’s questions were worded so poorly.

The ABA then asked about general business apps, and the questions have the same ambiguity:  the ABA first asked if the attorney ever downloaded a general business app to a smartphone (44.6% said yes), and then the ABA asked which apps were downloaded, without making it clear whether the question was asking about the iPhone and iPad.  The answers provided were, in this order:

1. LinkedIn
2. Dropbox
3. Evernote
4. GoodReader
5. QuickOffice
6. Documents to Go
7. LogMeIn
8. Box
9. Notability

It amazes me that Microsoft Word is not on this list.  It is surely one of the most useful general-purpose apps for lawyers, and it is now available for both iOS and Android.

August is always slow month in the world of iOS, and so far that has certainly been true this year.  Yesterday, Apple released a minor update to iOS, version 8.4.1, to fix some bugs with Apple Music, but all eyes are on next month when I expect Apple to release iOS 9 and the 2015 version of the iPhone.  I’m sure that we will also see a new iPad too, either in September of perhaps in October.  (Last year, Apple announced the iPhone 6 on September 9, 2014 and the iPad Air 2 on October 16, 2014.)  As for this past week, there wasn’t much to talk about, but here is the news of note:

• California attorney David Sparks talks about what it would be like to have force touch on the iPhone, a rumored feature of the next iPhone.
• Shira Ovide and Daisuke Wakabayashi of the Wall Street Journal report that Apple is working with more than 40 app and hardware developers to make the iPad more attractive to business users.  The article mentions employee scheduling software and digital cash register systems, but I’m curious if these efforts could result in new apps that are useful for lawyers.
• Software developer and long-time Android proponent Joe Casabona explains why he is switching from Android to iPhone.
• Curious what music they have been playing on Beats 1 on Apple Music?  Nikhil Sonna analyzes all of it in an article on Quartz.  The top played song is the catchy Can’t Feel My Face by The Weeknd, which has been played 107 times.  The top genre played is Hip-Hop/Rap.
• Soon after Apple Pay debuted, I used it at a Rite Aid store.  But then the chain stopped accepting Apple Pay because it is part of a consortium developing a competitor called CurrentC.  CurrentC is still not on the market yet, but starting tomorrow, Rite Aid will start accepting Apple Pay again, as reported by Caitlin McGarry of Macworld.  So that means that you will be able to pay with your iPhone and Apple Watch at both Walgreen’s and Rite Aid.  (CVS still doesn’t accept Apple Pay.)
• Adam Engst of TidBITS reviews Dark Sky, one of my favorite weather apps for the iPhone.
• Jay Blahnik, who is reponsible for many of the fitness features in the Apple Watch, talks about his work in an interview by Scott Rosenfield for Outside magazine.
• Luxury watch expert Ariel Adams of A Blog to Watch reviews the 18K gold Apple Watch Edition.
• And finally, in an article for Forbes, Ariel Adams writes about a company in Los Angeles called Made Worn that custom engraves watches.  They often work with Rolex watches, but Adams shows off a custom-engraved Apple Watch that costs $10,000.  Click here to see all of his images of this unique watch, but here is a sample.  And no, this isn’t a picture of my arm:

I’ve been wearing an Apple Watch every day for over three months.  That’s long enough for me to have a good sense about what I like and don’t like about the watch, but I hesitate to write about it because I know that the software is going to change substantially, for the the better, when watchOS 2.0 debuts this Fall.  As noted in this preview on Apple’s website, we’ll get faster native apps, great ways to customize complications, and many more functions (such as the ability to reply to emails) that will make the Apple Watch much better.  This is likely to change what I like most about the Apple Watch, and will definitely remove some of the things that I currently don’t like about the Apple Watch.

Having said that, I do feel that this is an appropriate time to write about the Apple Watch hardware.  Today I want to focus on three of the six bands that Apple sells for the Apple Watch.  It wouldn’t surprise me if Apple introduces a new band or two for the holiday buying season, but I expect that all three of these bands will stay the same in 2015 and perhaps much longer.  Hopefully these thoughts will be useful if you are getting an Apple Watch in the future, or if you currently have one band and are thinking of getting another one.

The three bands that I own are (1) Sport Band, (2) Classic Buckle, and (3) Milanese Loop.  They also happen to be the first three bands listed on the watch band portion of Apple’s website.

Sport Band

If you are looking to buy an Apple Watch, I recommend that you buy it with the Sport Band.  I say this for two reasons.  First, even though you are likely to also want a fancier band to wear during the day at work, you’re going to definitely want a Sport Band for the reasons that I note below, so you might as well start with it.  Second, it makes sense to make the Sport Band the one that you get with your Apple Watch because you can then purchase your nicer (and more expensive) band as a stand-alone accessory, which means that it is subject to Apple’s standard 14 day return policy, a useful policy if you find that you don’t like the fancier band after wearing it for a week or so.  I can’t imagine that you would ever want to return a Sport Band, which is only $49 and incredibly useful.  But you might try one fancy band and then decide that you want to instead try a different fancy band.

The Sport Band is incredibly comfortable.  Apple says that it is made with high-performance fluoroelastomer.  I just consider it rubber (although it does sound sort of silly to call it a “rubber band”).  It is a very comfortable rubber.  It feels nice against your arm, and it can stretch a little to be snug without being too tight.

One big advantage of the Sport Band is that it can get wet.  The Apple Watch itself is water-resistant so it can get a little wet and still be fine.  Indeed, one of the Apple-recommended solutions for when dirt gets stuck in the Digital Crown is to run the watch under warm water.  But if you are in a situation where the Apple Watch is going to get a little wet, you don’t want to be using a leather band that doesn’t stand up to water as well.  This makes the Sport Band perfect if you are working out or working in the backyard in this hot summer heat (and sweating).  I also use it when I give my kids a bath at night or if I’m in any other situation in which I expect to get a little wet.

The material of this band is also highly resistant to dirt, scratches, etc.  If I’m just working around the house, or cutting the grass, or in any situation in which I know that I might be bumping my arms into anything, or potentially getting them dirty, the Sport Band is the perfect band to use. 

I’ve already mentioned working out once, but it deserves mention again.  For many people, one of the nicest features of the Apple Watch is that it encourages you to exercise every day.  If you accept that encouragement, it will definitely be worth $49 to have a band that is perfect for exercising and sweating.

I also like the way that the Sport Band works.  It has a pin that fits easily but securely into a hole, and the excess band tucks into an opening.  When you buy the Sport Band you actually get three parts:  the half of the band with the pin on it, plus two different sizes of the other half of the band (and you get to choose if you want a small plus a medium band, or a medium plus a large band). This helps to make sure that you have the best length for your Sport Band.

There is another advantage to this band coming in three parts.  My wrist is large enough that only the large band works for me; indeed, I typically use the last hole on the large band, although sometimes I use the second-to-last hole if I want it to feel tighter.  However, if the medium band fits your wrist, the third part gives you an advantage that I cannot use:  there is a substantial overlap between the medium and large (and the medium and small) parts of the band, and the holes are slightly different on each.  For example, if the medium band fits your wrist but one hole is just a little two tight and the next hole is just a little too lose, you may find yourself wishing that there was another hole in the middle — and there is; the overlapping holes on the large and small versions of the band are offset from the holes in the medium band.

[UPDATE 8/14/2015:  Today, Apple introduced an Extra Large version of the Sport Band for folks with larger wrists.  It currently only comes in black or white.] [UPDATE 12/3/2015:  My review of the XL version is here.]

I know many people who like the Sport Band so much that it is the band that they use every day.  And especially if you get the more casual version of the Apple Watch (the less expensive Apple Watch Sport), I completely understand this.  I don’t wear my Sport Band to work simply because I consider it too casual, and the fancier bands look much nicer with my Apple Watch (the mid-range model made of stainless steel).  But that doesn’t mean that I don’t love the Sport Band.  Every day when I come home from work and change out of my lawyer costume, I also switch my watch band to the Sport Band, because I know that I will be overseeing bath time and working out later that night.

You can get the Sport Band in Black, White, Pink, Blue or Green.  (There are even two models of the Black band, one with a steel pin and one with a black pin that looks better with the Space Gray version of the Apple Watch.)  I know that some folks consider the colors a unique advantage of the Apple Watch, the ability to spice up the look of the Apple Watch.  You can even buy two Sport Bands in different colors to wear one color on one side and a complementary color on the other side.  (Here is what that looks like, thanks to Serenity Caldwell of iMore.)  The color is of much less importance to me.  I picked the blue one, and it looks fine.  I suppose it matches my blue eyes, if that is even a thing?  I probably would have been just as happy with the black, white or green one; pink isn’t really my color.  But if you consider bright colors on your watch band as an advantage, then that’s another reason that you will like the Sport Band.

Classic Buckle

The Black Classic Buckle is the one that I purchased with my Apple Watch, so I have been using it the longest.  In the 1990s and early 2000s when I used to wear a watch every day, I virtually always wore a leather band, typically black but sometimes brown.  So the Black Classic Buckle felt like a return to a familiar past for me.  As the name says, this is the classic.  It costs $149.

Apple’s description of this band is:  “From the renowned ECCO tannery in the Netherlands, the Dutch leather used for this band is milled to give the grain a subtle, distinctive texture. The simple closure is crafted from the same stainless steel as the case. It’s a beautiful take on a traditional band design. Available in black.”

The Classic Buckle looks great, and pairs very well with the stainless steel Apple Watch.  It has a subtle grain to it that gives it an interesting look without standing out too much.  You can wear this one to work, to court, or to a fancy dinner and the watch band will seem right at home.  But it looks just as good if you are wearing jeans or shorts.

Apple also sells a band called the Leather Loop that comes in more colors and has ridges on it, but I tend to be more conservative and those ridges seemed a little too much for me.  Apple’s other leather band is the Modern Buckle, which also looks nice, but note it is designed for smaller wrists and only works with the smaller, 38mm size of the Apple Watch, and thus won’t be an option for most men. 

I think that the Sport Band is actually a little more comfortable than the Classic Buckle, but the Classic Buckle still feels very nice, a nice medium between being soft enough to feel good but sturdy enough to be durable.

The main complaint that I have about the Classic Buckle is that the holes are sometimes not the perfect size for me.  I usually prefer the second-to-last hole, but at some points during the day I find the watch slipping a little on my arm.  Perhaps my wrist gets a little bigger or smaller during the day, or maybe this has something to do with temperature or sweating.  So when that happens, I switch to the third-to-last hole, but then it will often feel too tight after a while so I have to switch it back.  I never notice this with the Sport Band, but that is probably because the Sport Band is made of rubber so it can naturally stretch a little.

Milanese Loop

Because of the (admittedly minor) issues I had with the holes on the Classic Buckle, I found myself wishing that my watch band could be adjusted to an infinite number of sizes.  You cannot do that with a band that has pre-drilled holes, but you can do exactly that with the Milanese Loop, a band that uses a magnet to close, so you make it whatever size you want.  I had been eying the Milanese Loop for weeks, and for Father’s Day on June 21, 2015, my kids — really, my wife — bought me this $149 band.  I’m not sure that I would have ever purchased it for myself because it seemed a little too decadent to have three different bands for my Apple Watch, but I’m so glad that they did.  Ever since June 21st, I’ve worn the Milanese Loop almost every single day, except for the rare occasions when I would switch back to the Classic Buckle just for a change of pace.

I don’t really think that the picture that I took does it justice.  Here is a picture from the Apple website:

As I said at the outset, what I like most about the Milanese Loop is that there are infinite size possibilities.  I put it on in the morning, and if at some point during the day I feel that it is too loose or too tight, I can quickly and easily adjust it to make it the perfect amount of tightness.  Thus, it can always feel like the perfect size.

Indeed, if you are someone like me who sometimes likes to fidget, it is actually fun to play with the magnet and adjust the band.  I will often find myself playing with it as I am concentrating on coming up with an argument for a brief, the same way that I might sometimes click the end of a ballpoint pen or tap my fingers as I am thinking.

The band also feels amazing.  Although made of stainless steel, the mesh is so fine that it actually feels like fabric.  Apple has done a perfect job with the feel of this band, and if you have any doubt about how soft it feels, try one out at an Apple Store or just buy one so that you can see how it feels while you are in the 14-day return window.

I also think that this band looks very nice — passing the would-I-wear-this-to-court test — but I have to be honest that I had my doubts at first.  As someone who used to always wear a leather band on a watch, I wasn’t sure how a silver-colored band would look in general, let alone how it would look with my flesh tones.  But not only have I grown to really like the look, I’ve also received complements, from men and women, on how this band looks, something that I never heard with the Classic Buckle.  Style is so personal that you’ll have to decide if it looks right for you, but perhaps it means something for you to learn that I had my doubts at first, but no longer do.

The color also looks perfect with the stainless steel Apple Watch.  I haven’t seen anyone using the Milanese Loop with the aluminum Apple Watch Sport so I’m not sure how well they match, but the stainless steel Apple Watch and the stainless steel Milanese Loop are a great match.

Speaking of color, Apple also sells the Link Bracelet band, which is made of stainless steel and thus its color is also a perfect match for the Apple Watch.  That band looks incredibly nice, and I know several lawyers who love it.  For me, I found it a tad heavy at 65 grams (the Milanese Loop is 33 grams) and at $449 it is considerably more expensive than the $149 Milanese Loop.  Having said that, I’m sure that many of you have previously worn premium watches with a link bracelet style band, so you probably already know if that style is right for you.

[UPDATE 8/14/2015:  Today, Apple introduced another unique advantage of the link bracelet for folks who have a large wrist.  As reported by Abdel Ibrahim of WatchAware, you can now buy a $49 link bracelet kit that expands the size of the link bracelet to 245 mm.  Previously, the Classic Buckle, which accommodates up to 215 mm, was the largest size.]

Another thing I love about the Milanese Loop is that it is incredibly thin, and I suspect that it is the thinnest of all of the bands sold by Apple.  I have a few dress shirts with tighter cuffs, and my wrist with the Classic Buckle under the cuff feels a little too tight in those shirts; I have to physically push down the cuff to see the face of my Apple Watch.  But I can wear those same shirts with the Milanese Loop band and I don’t have that problem at all.

Note that the Milanese Loop band is always in a circle.  To put on the watch, you have to slide your hand through the circle and then tighten the band.  I don’t find that better or worse than a traditional band, but it is something to get used to.  I do, however, find that it is more of a pain to charge the Apple Watch when the Milanese Loop is attached.  With the Sport Band or Classic Buckle, the watch lays flat right on top of the Apple charger. Presumably your charger is already on a flat surface, and you just set down the Apple Watch with a traditional band on top of the charger and you are done.  However, with the Milanese Loop, you need to open up the circle of the band and then manually place the charger underneath the watch, between the circle of the band.  This is a minor inconvenience.  I usually finish up the day with the Sport Band on the watch, and because of this charging issue I keep the Sport Band on my Apple Watch when it charges at night and then swap to the Milanese Loop in the morning.  (I don’t use one of the third-party Apple Watch charger stands which raise the charger in the air, but that would be another way to avoid this inconvenience.)  [UPDATE:  I now use the Spigen Apple Watch Night Stand, which works great with any band.]

Other than the slight inconvenience when charging at night, my only other complaint about the Milanese Loop is that it sometimes catches on one of the hairs on my arm, something that never happens to me with the Classic Buckle or the Sport Band.  It doesn’t happen to me every day, and it’s not that big of a deal, but it is worth mentioning.

Conclusion

One of the best hardware features of the Apple Watch is that it is incredibly easy to swap bands.  I do it twice a day, and it takes less than 10 seconds to remove one band and slide on another one.  Thus, Apple makes it incredibly easy to consider getting multiple bands.

After using these three different bands during the course of just over three months, I like them all, but I have favorites.  During the workday, I like the Milanese Loop considerably more than the Classic Buckle, so much so that if I never wore the Classic Buckle again, I wouldn’t really miss it.  The Milanese Loop looks nice, feels great, and is easy to adjust to just the right size.

But whatever fancy band you buy to use at work and when dressing more nicely, it is definitely worth also spending $49 for the Sport Band (or, as I recommended above, just getting that one with the Apple Watch).  It is durable, water resistant and comfortable.

If you live close to an Apple Store, then it is easy for you to see and try on these bands (and others) in person.  Having said that, I found that I needed to live with each band for at least a week to figure out what I did and didn’t like about each band.  Hopefully my experiences will help you to find the best band — or bands — for your Apple Watch.

Minnesota lawyer Lisa Needham recently updated her post called Every Legal App for the iPhone and iPad for Lawyerist.com.  The list doesn’t quite live up to the word “every” in the title.  For example, it is missing DocReviewPad (although, to be fair, that app has only been out for a month), bar review apps, and all of the useful apps with state-specific statutes.  Plus, I would include on a list like this the general purpose apps that are particularly useful to lawyers such as Microsoft Word, GoodReader, etc.  Nevertheless, the list is fairly comprehensive, and I highly recommend that you check it out to get a sense of all of the great apps for lawyers that are out there.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• South Carolina attorney Justin Kahn discusses on his iPad Notebook website the new features in the update to Lexis Advance HD, including the ability to login using Touch ID.
• Florida attorney Katie Floyd recommends checking out digital audiobooks from your local library before your next trip.
• Jimi Famurewa of the London Evening Standard interviewed Apple’s Jimmy Iovine to talk about all aspects of Apple Music.  It’s an interesting read.
• John Callaham of iMore notes that, yesterday, Microsoft debuted a new, free app called Translator that can translate between languages.  Say or type a word or phrase in one language and it is quickly translated into another language and said out loud in that language.  It seems to have many of the same features as the excellent Google Translate app, including a full screen mode that displays the translation so that you can easily hold it up and show it to someone else.  It also includes an Apple Watch app so that you can say something to your watch and then have your watch show the translated words.  Pretty neat.
• Jared Newman of Macworld notes that the Microsoft Outlook iPhone app now works on the Apple Watch, letting you both read and reply to emails on your watch.  I discussed the Outlook app this past February in this review.
• Readdle is celebrating its 8th birthday by having a 50% off sale on its apps.  Readdle makes some great apps, including Scanner Pro, PDF Expert 5, Calendars 5 and Spark.
• Software developer Craig Hockenberry had to get a new credit card because his old one had been used in a fraudulent transaction, but notes in this article for iMore that Apple Pay automatically and immediately updated with the new credit card number, long before the new card arrived in the mail.  I think that only some banks offer this feature, but it sure is useful.
• Stephen Hacket says in this article for The Sweet Setup that the Belkin Qode Ultimate Pro is the best Bluetooth keyboard for the iPad.
• On his 512 Pixels website, Stephen Hacket talks about his first three months with the Apple Watch.
• Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac describes his first three months with the Apple Watch.
• Jon Phillips reviews the Ring Video Doorbell, which lets you see who is at your front door from your iPhone — even if you are not at home.
• When you talk to Siri on your iPhone, it talks back to you.  But Steven Sande of Apple World Today explains that you can turn off Siri’s voice if you just want to look at text for responses.
• And finally, if you cannot decide between a luxury watch and an Apple Watch, watch maker Nico Gerard suggests that you get both.  The company is now accepting preorders for the $9,300 Skyview Pinnacle, which has a traditional watch on one side and an Apple Watch on the other.  Or you can get the $112,000 Sunrise Pinnacle, which comes in 18K gold.  John Gruber of Daring Fireball calls it the Mullet Watch, and says that it is like a $10,000 harness to connect your automobile to your horse.  Here is a video showing what it looks like:

I’ve been using Apple Music for about a month now, and I really enjoy using the service.  The song recommendations are great, and it is fun to listen to just about any song I can think of, any time I want, even if I have never purchased it.  One aspect of the service that I used during the first week but then moved away from is the Beats 1 radio service.  It’s nicely done and has some great DJs, but most of the time that I tuned to Beats 1, they were playing songs that didn’t appeal to me.  I knew that there were shows more likely to appeal to my tastes — such as Elton John’s Rocket Hour, a show in which Elton John plays a mix of old and new songs from his favorite artists — but the show never seemed to be on when I tuned in.  Thus, I wished that there was a way that I could go back in time and listen to a Beats 1 show that I missed.  Something like a DVR for Apple Music. 

Fortunately, Apple is starting to add this feature, if you know where to look for it.  Here is how to find it.

Open the Apple Music app, and tap on the Radio button in the center of the bottom row.  Then tap on the Beats 1 logo at the top half of the screen.  The next screen gives you the option to Listen Now and shows you upcoming shows, but scroll down past that until you get to the large square icons to show Featured Shows.  Now find the show that you want to listen to, such as Elton John’s Rocket Hour, and tap that square icon.

 

Now you will see the page for that show and two buttons near the middle of the screen:  Playlists and Connect.  To listen to a past show, tap Connect.  You’ll then see a list of past shows.  For Elton John’s show, I’m currently only seeing the most recent show from this week, but for other DJs I see even more shows.  Tap the show and it will start playing.

 

When you are listening to a live show on Beats 1, you see the track information for each song as it is playing, which is useful if you want to favorite that specific song or add that specific song to your own music collection.  But when you are replaying a show that previously aired, Apple Music treats the entire show as it if it one long song. 

But there is still a way to get individual song information.  On the screen that I mentioned before that has buttons for Playlists and Connect, tap on the Playlists button.  (You can do this while you are listening to the replay of the show.)  Then select the playlist that corresponds to the show to which you are listening,  Now you will see a list of each song played on the show — with the exception of any songs that were played in the show but don’t yet exist on Apple Music.

 

Of course, you could also just listen to the songs directly from the playlist, but then you would miss all of the DJ commentary between the songs, which is usually a big part of what makes a good show a good show.  How can you have Elton John’s Rocket Hour without Elton John?  Or St. Vincent’s Mixtape Delivery Service show without hearing why the song was selected for that person’s mixtape?

I’m thrilled to see that Apple is finding ways to make Beats 1, and Apple Music as a whole, even better.  This single feature has made Beats 1 infinitely more useful for me.

Thank you to Bushel for sponsoring iPhone J.D. this month.  Bushel provides you with a way to manage all of the Apple devices in your organization — iPhones, iPads, and even Macs — through cloud-based Mobile Device Management.

What can you do with Bushel?  You can automatically install apps from the App Store to all of the devices in your organization at once.  You can see an inventory of all of the devices that you are managing in your organization. including what users are using each device, which apps you have installed on the devices.  You can also automatically configure email on all of the devices in your organization, so your users can get up and running quickly.  (Works with Microsoft Exchange, Google Mail, Yahoo! Mail, and any other IMAP or POP mail accounts.)  You can configure all devices to automatically join your secure wireless networks, saving all of your users the time of typing in those long passwords.  And for iPhones and iPads owned by your organization, you can configure devices automatically before users get them.

If a device in your organization is lost or stolen, Bushel gives you a quick and easy way to remotely lock the device, or wipe it completely. 

Here are some screenshots that show you Bushel in action:

The first three devices that you register with Bushel are free forever, so it is easy to try out the service at no cost.  Each additional device costs just $2 per month, with no contracts or commitments.

If this sounds like something that would be useful at your organization, you can learn more at Bushel.com.

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai, who used to practice law in Spain and is now journalist in New York covering security and hacking, explains in an article for Motherboard that even though in general he far prefers Android to the iPhone, he has decided to switch to the iPhone because of all of the security problems with Android.  One of his complaints is that even when Google patches the security exploits that are perhaps inevitable on any operating system, it then takes forever for manufacturers and carriers to pass them along to users.  Apple has often been much faster in pushing out any necessary security patches, and doesn’t have to wait on anyone else to get the patches to its users.  Truth be told, there have been several security concerns on the iPhone that Apple didn’t fix as fast as many would have liked.  Nevertheless, because Apple controls the phone and the operating system, it has all of the incentive and the ability to push out necessary fixes quickly, and is typically good at doing so.  For this reason and others, I have always felt that I am more secure on an iPhone than on an Android phone.  And now, the rest of the news of note from the past week:

• Do you have one or more law-related blogs that you love to read?  If so, nominate them for this year’s ABA Journal Blawg 100 by clicking here to submit your Blawg 100 Amici.  iPhone J.D. was added last year to the Blawg 100 Hall of Fame and thus is no longer eligible for the annual list, but there are lots of other great blogs out there, and I know that the blog authors would appreciate it if you share the love.
• Massachusetts attorney Heidi Alexander, a Law Practice Management Advisor at the Massachusetts Law Office Management Assistance Program, explains what she likes about the Apple Watch in an article on Law Technology Today.
• California attorney David Sparks explains why he is a big fan of Apple Music, and so is his family.
• Serenity Caldwell of iMore is not a lawyer, but she wrote an interesting article about music licensing for songs on Apple Music, explaining why some songs played on Beats 1 or available for sale on iTunes cannot be streamed on Apple Music.
• Abdel Ibrahim of Watch Aware writes that, according to a new study by Wristly, Apple Watch users are becoming more healthy.
• Jason Snell explains why the Apple Watch will get a lot better this Fall, when watchOS 2 is released, in this week’s More Color column on Macworld.  As he notes:  “Apple needed the Apple Watch hardware to be rock solid on the launch date, because once that watch hardware is out in the world, it’s never going to get any better. But the software, that’s a continuing story.” 
• Which reminds me, I’ve been asked by several readers to write an updated review of my Apple Watch, now that I’ve been using it for three months.  What has held me back from writing something like that is that I know that the watch will change substantially once watchOS 2 comes out in just a few months.  The new software for the watch will not only itself include huge improvements, but will also open the door for developers to release much more useful native apps and handy plug-in “complications” for the watch face.  I love my Apple Watch today, but I also know that what I love most about it is likely to change substantially in just a few months.
• T-Mobile announced two changes this week that make it much more appealing to use T-Mobile if you use an iPhone, as Jeff Byrnes of AppAdvice explains.  First, you can now stream music from Apple Music (and other music services) without using up your monthly data allowance.  Second, if you buy an iPhone 6 from T-Mobile now, once Apple comes out with new iPhone models later this year you can swap the iPhone 6 for the newer iPhone at no cost.  It’s a neat idea, giving you the ability to get a new iPhone without worrying about buyer’s remorse when a new model comes up in six weeks or so.
• Right now, you can only buy an Apple Watch at an Apple Store, but as Rene Ritchie of iMore notes, starting a week from today, you’ll be able to buy an Apple Watch at over 300 Best Buy stores in the U.S.  And as Chance Miller of 9to5Mac reports, the following week it will come to Best Buy in Canada.  It is good to see that Apple has finally been able to keep up with demand enough to make the watch available in more locations.
• James Stewart wrote an interesting article in the New York Times analyzing Microsoft’s disastrous decision to purchase Nokia’s phone unit.
• Bradley Chambers of The Sweet Setup shares a useful tip about using Dropbox to take documents that you run across while using your iPhone in a place where you can deal with them on your desktop computer.
• And finally, there is a new trailer for an upcoming documentary about Steve Jobs called Steve Jobs:  The Man in the Machine.  The trailer makes the film look pretty interesting to me.  However, when an early cut of the documentary was shown at South by Southwest earlier this year, Apple VP Eddy Cue complained on Twitter:  “Very disappointed in SJ:Man in the Machine. An inaccurate and mean-spirited view of my friend. It’s not a reflection of the Steve I knew.”  We can all judge for ourselves on September 4, when the documentary will debut in select theaters and on demand.  Here is the new trailer:

I suspect that many of you are using Apple Music right now, as am I.  Whether or not we stick with it once it becomes necessary to pay a monthly fee, we all get lots of great free music for three months.  But today’s post is not about music.  One thing that I have been enjoying on Apple Music is listening to comedy.  I’m not just talking about comedic songs, although there is an Intro to “Weird Al” Yankovic curated playlist that has everything from Eat It to I Lost On Jeopardy, plus lots of other funny songs.  Today, I’m talking about stand-up comedy albums.

Stand-up comedy is a genre of album that I have never before purchased.  It always seemed to me like something that I would listen to once and then be done with, no matter how good it is, and thus not worth owning.  But because the philosophy of Apple Music is pay one price — currently no price at all — and listen to anything that you want, all that you want, Apple Music provides a perfect opportunity to listen to some funny comedy on your iPhone.  And notwithstanding what I just said about not wanting to listen to routines more than once, I have found that there are some routines that I listened to long ago — such Steven Wright’s funny I Have a Pony album — that remain just as funny when I hear them again today.

I’ve only just begun to explore this genre, but here are some of the albums that I have enjoyed so far or that I have on my list to listen to soon.  Hopefully you will enjoy some of these too while you are driving around in your car, doing chores, or otherwise listening to your iPhone.  If you have any other suggestions for good stand-up comedy albums that I should add to my list, please share in a comment to this post!

And finally, it won’t surprise you that virtually all of this humor is not safe for work.

• Louis C.K. – Hilarious
• Steven Wright – I Have a Pony
• Amy Schumer – Cutting
• Eddie Murphy – Greatest Comedy Hits
• Patton Oswalt – Werewolves and Lollipops
• Steve Martin – A Wild and Crazy Guy
• David Cross – Shut Up, You F*****g Baby!
• Robin Williams – A Night At the Met

UPDATE:  Here is another one suggested to me by a reader.  (And there are more recommendations in the comments to this post)

• Woody Allen – The Stand-Up Years

The Activity app on the Apple Watch encourages you to be more active by using circles.  If you stand and move around during 12 or more different hours during the day, you complete the blue “Stand” circle.  If you exercise for 30 minutes or more during the day, you complete the green “Exercise” circle.  And if you move around and burn enough active calories to meet that goal (which can be adjusted), you complete the red “Move” circle.  Complete all three before midnight, and you get an alert congratulating you for completing all of your goals that day.  Complete all of your goals every day in a week, and your watch congratulates  you on that.  Completing circles gives you positive reinforcement for being more active every day, and I know that for many people, this encourages them to be more physically active.  It has for me.

The only problem is that I typically workout late at night.  I’m not a fan of early mornings, I’m too busy at work during the day to go to a gym in the 9 to 5 hours, I spend time with my family at night, and after reading stories and putting my kids to bed, finishing up my work from the day, writing posts for iPhone J.D., etc., it is often 11pm before I have time to use my treadmill.  That’s usually still enough time to exercise and complete my circles for the day, unless I’m really busy and find that it is close to midnight before I can exercise.  But the Apple Watch only gives you credit for work done before midnight, so if you start exercising at 11:45pm on Tuesday night and finish at 12:15am Wednesday morning, your Apple Watch only assigns 15 minutes of activity credit to Tuesday, which may not be enough to complete your circles for that day.  This is frustrating because I consider any time before I go to sleep to be the end of the day on Tuesday, even if it is technically Wednesday morning.

Fortunately, I’ve found that there is a solution for those of us who exercise late at night.  Before midnight comes, on your iPhone, go to General -> Date & Time.  You probably have your iPhone configured to Automatically set the time.  Turn that off, and manually select a time zone.

 

I live in New Orleans, which is in the Central Time Zone, so when I see that it is getting late I just tell my iPhone that I am in Cupertino, which is two hours earlier.  Within just a few seconds, the time on my Apple Watch automatically adjusts to two hours earlier.  And with this extra time at the end of the day, I can easily both start and finish my workout before my Apple Watch believes that it is midnight.

When you are finished with your workout, you may be tempted to change the time zone back to normal.  Don’t do so yet, because if you do, your Apple Watch will immediately adjust your activity circles to reflect that some activity was before midnight on one day and the rest of the activity was on the second day.  Instead, my tests show that you need to wait until it is past midnight in the time zone that you manually selected.  You can then adjust the time accordingly.  I usually just wait until the next morning to return to the real time zone.  Keep in mind that if you are using your iPhone or Apple Watch as an alarm clock in the morning, you’ll need to account for the time zone change when you set the alarm.

Hopefully you won’t need to use this trick very often because it is confusing to have to change the time zone back in the morning.  I myself have only had to resort to this trick a few times over the past few months.  But if you exercise late at night and your goal is to complete your circles for one day even though the clock reflects that it is technically the next day, this trick will let you get the activity circle credit as you intended, and will ensure that the Activity app on the iPhone gives you all of the completed circles that you intended to earn.

If you are looking to try out a bunch of apps without spending a lot of money, Apple is running a promotion this week in which 100 apps and games are being sold for only $0.99 each.  There are even some great productivity apps like GoodReader (a must for any attorney) and Scanner Pro.  Also on sale is this little up-and-coming game called Angry Birds; there might be a future in that one.  Check out the full list of $0.99 apps here.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• John Gruber of Daring Fireball notes that Apple now sells as many iOS devices as the worldwide PC industry sells PCs.  And Apple makes a lot more money selling iPhones and iPads than PC makers do selling their computers.
• Farhad Manjoo of the New York Times discusses the future of the Apple Watch, noting that, as Apple announced earlier this week, Apple sold more units in the first nine weeks on the market than either the iPhone or iPad did during that same period.  Perhaps one day Apple will sell more Apple Watches than PC makers sell PCs?
• As John Moltz points out, Apple’s statement that the Apple Watch is selling better than the iPhone and iPad at launch means that Apple sold more than 3.27 million Apple Watches in the first nine weeks.  Others are estimating 4 million.  Anecdotally, though, I’m still not seeing many folks wearing an Apple Watch — just enough that I actually take notice when I see it.
• Apple’s HomeKit technology is still in its infancy, but I’m a fan of it, as you can tell from my review last month of the Lutron Caséta Wireless Dimmer and Smart Bridge.  Rene Ritchie of iMore says one reason that compatible devices are slow to come out is that Apple has very stringent security requirements.  And this is a good thing.  As Ritchie notes:  “These accessories are coming into our homes. They’re going to be controlling the devices we and our families live with. They need to be rock-solid reliable and as secure as the state-of-technology allows. Because you better believe the first ‘hijacked home’ video will go viral.”  Agreed.
• Ritchie also reviews the new iPod touch, which is essentially a thinner and smaller iPhone 6 without the phone.  It looks like a good device if you want to give your kids something that can run apps and play music but doesn’t have a phone (and a monthly contract).  It can also be useful if you want a second iOS device, such as something smaller and lighter to take to the gym.
• John Callaham of iMore notes that Microsoft updated its iOS Office apps this week, including Word.  New features include the ability to open and view documents that have permissions applied to them.
• Serenity Caldwell of iMore wrote a comprehensive guide to troubleshooting Apple Music.
• Joshua Ho and Brandon Chester wrote a long and in-depth review of the Apple Watch for AnandTech.
• And finally, Apple has recently been featuring some stunning videos shot by real people using an iPhone 6.  Elite Daily put together this parody video showing more honest videos shot on an iPhone.