Lit Software, a current sponsor of iPhone J.D., had a lot of great announcements during ABA TECHSHOW 2015 last week, many of which I’ll be talking about in upcoming posts. But one of their announcements was time sensitive so I wanted to post about it today.
The announcement has to do with TrialPad, a powerful app that lets you easily organize and present evidence at trial, in a mediation, in a meeting, or any other time when you want to display documents, call out sections of documents, highlight text, create side-by-side document comparisons, edit and show video clips, add exhibit stickers to documents, search document text, etc. Lit Software’s announcement was that after TECHSHOW, the price of the app will increase to $129.99. That is still a great price considering all that the app does, but as of today, the price is still only $89.99. I’m told that it should stay there for just another day or two. So buy the app today, and save yourself $40 as compared to what the app will cost in just a few days.
This is an abbreviated edition of In the news because I at at ABA TECHSHOW in Chicago right now. It has been an amazing conference so far, and I have enjoyed meeting so many iPhone J.D. readers from across the country, and even a few from other countries. But even though most of my focus right now is on legal technology, I have to admit that the best three words I heard yesterday were: Chewie, we’re home. And now, some of the news of note from the past week:
You can take notes on an iPad either by typing on a keyboard (the on-screen virtual keyboard or better yet an external keyboard) or by taking handwritten notes using a stylus and an app like GoodNotes. I often find that it is more productive to take notes by hand, and it turns out that there is science that supports that, as noted by Joseph Stromberg in this article for Vox.
Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac speculates that the way that Apple is showing off the Apple Watch at its Apple Stores is a preview of the future of the Apple Store. He may well be correct.
Lovejoy also reports that you will not be able to buy an Apple Watch in an Apple Store until June. Only online orders for now.
It is interesting to see companies starting to add Apple Watch abilities to their iPhone apps. For example, the 1Password app recently added the ability to designate certain items to be available on your Apple Watch, such as a locker combination or a credit card number, as noted in this blog post on the Agile Bits Blog.
Microsoft expert Paul Thurrott describes the large number of apps that Microsoft is currently shipping for iOS.
Apple announced that WWDC, its developer conference, will take place this year in San Francisco on June 8-12. Apple always has a keynote with lots of announcements at the start of WWDC, so if you want to start counting down the days until Apple next announces something new, now you know what date to count from. (That’s 55 days from today.)
And finally, while the Apple Watch looks to be pretty cool, Netflix thinks that we are ready for the next step in wearable technology — the Netflix Watch — as shown in this amusing parody video:
ABA TECHSHOW takes place in Chicago this week. Some events start tonight, and the main conference takes place Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning. If you are going, I suspect that you have long since made plans to do so, unless you practice in Chicago in which case you can register at the last minute at the conference. This will be my seventh year going to ABA TECHSHOW in Chicago. I first attended in 2008 to talk about protecting a law firm against disasters — a topic that was at the time still fresh in the minds of all of us attorneys who practice in New Orleans and had to deal with Hurricane Katrina. I didn’t attend in 2009, but I did join up with attorneys David Sparks, Ben Stevens and Reid Trautz to come up with a list of recommended iPhone apps that they talked about at the conference. That was a good list at the time, but there are only a few apps on that list that I would still recommend today — the world of law-related apps has changed substantially in the last six years! In 2010, I attended ABA TECHSHOW to talk about the iPhone, and I have attended and talked about the iPhone and iPad every year since then.
As always, I’m really looking forward to ABA TECHSHOW this year. Every year I meet even more attorneys using iPhones and iPads in their practice, often in very interesting ways, and for the last few years more and more vendors in the Expo Hall have been showing off something new for the iPhone and iPad.
Who wants free stuff?
Once again, I have a bunch of iPhone/iPad cleaning cloths sold by MOBiLE CLOTH with the iPhone J.D. logo on them to give away for free thanks to the generosity of John Hartigan, the President of MOBiLE CLOTH. Please introduce yourself to me if you see me at ABA TECHSHOW and, as long as supplies last, I’m happy to give you one. This year I will have both the larger “Classic” size and the smaller “Nano” size. Don’t be shy in asking — the more that you take from me, the fewer I have to lug around every day!
My Presentations
The iPad track is on Thursday, and it consists of four sessions that will be full of useful information for any attorney that uses an iPhone or iPad. I’m teaching the last two sessions on the track. At 2pm, I’m teaming up with Canadian attorney Bjorn Christianson for Easy and Effective Presentations from Your iPad. Right after that, I’m teaching a session on using Microsoft Word and some of the other Microsoft apps on the iPad.
There is also a Mobile Track on Friday, and while some of those sessions are aimed at lawyers using Android, other sessions appear to be applicable to iPhone and iPad users as well.
On Saturday morning, I’ll be presenting 60 Apps in 60 Minutes along with Ohio attorney Joe Bahgat, legal tech consultant Adriana Linares, and Dallas attorney Tom Mighell.
Click here to see the full schedule, where you will find eight different simultaneous tracks, so there is sure to be at least one session that would appeal to you throughout the day.
Taste of Techshow
On Friday night, I’m co-hosting a dinner with Florida attorney and Mac Power Users co-host Katie Floyd. Our dinner will be at 7:30pm at Rosebud on Rush, an Italian/Steak restaurant. All of the reservation spots are currently booked, but if you still want to join us there is often a waiting list just in case someone else cancels. You can ask about getting on the waiting list for our dinner at the Concierge Desk, and that is also the spot to sign up for a different one.
Just in time for ABA TECHSHOW 2015, Clio announced this week that it now has an iPad app. Clio (a former sponsor of iPhone J.D.) offers web-based practice management, time & billing and client collaboration services (including document management) for small and mid-sized law firms. When you use Clio, your important client data is securely accessible anywhere that you have Internet access. Because Clio is web-based, you always had the ability to access Clio using Safari on an iPhone or iPad. In September of 2013, Clio introduced an iPhone app to provide a customized interface for using Clio on that mobile device. With the new iPad app, you now have the option of using an iPad-centric interface on the iPad instead of just using the web-based interface in Safari.
I played around with the Clio for iPad app using a demo account, and it looks like a very nice app. A bar on the left includes all of the main features: Matters, Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, Time, Documents and Settings. In much of the app, the left portion of the screen shows you a list of selections, and items that you select have more specific information on the right side. And the design of the app matches the aesthetic of iOS 8. Here is what it looks like:
If you are a current user of Clio, the new iPad app should make the service even easier to use. And if you have a small or medium-sized law firm and you are considering upgrading your practice management software (or using practice management software for the first time), Clio is an even better option now that it has a useful and attractive iPad app.
Apple started taking pre-orders for the Apple Watch this morning. If you want to read an interesting story on the history of the Apple Watch, you should check out the story that David Pierce wrote for Wired. He was given lots of access to Apple insiders, so his story is full of interesting quotes. I ordered the Apple Watch 42mm Stainless Steel Case with Black Classic Buckle. I also ordered a Sport Band to use when working out. Apple gave me a 4/24-5/8 date for shipping the Apple Watch, and a 4/29-5/12 date for shipping the band; I was surprised to see a delay for the band. And now, the news of note from the past week:
This week, Apple released iOS 8.3 for the iPhone and iPad. It includes a much better Emoji picker.. Benjamin Mayo of 9to5Mac runs down all of the new features.
Bradley Chambers names Overcast the best podcast app for iOS in this review for The Sweet Setup. I agree, and I use Overcast just about every single day.
If you want to watch HBO but don’t want to pay for a cable subscription, earlier this week HBO made HBO NOW available for purchase for $15 a month, and the first month is free. All you need is the Internet and you can watch HBO shows on a TV (using an Apple TV), a computer, an iPhone or an iPad. According to Chris Morran of Consumerist, the content appears to be exactly the same as HBO GO, which you can also watch on an Apple TV, computer, iPhone or iPad — but to use HBO GO, you must already have a subscription to HBO through your cable or satellite provider.
Nicole Laporte wrote a fascinating article on the origin of HBO NOW for Fast Company, noting for example that HBO CEO Richard Piepler used to work for Jimmy Iovine, who became an Apple executive after Apple acquired Beats, and that is one of the reasons that HBO NOW is currently exclusive to the Apple TV.
I have been using an iPhone 6 for over six months now, and I’ve gradually gotten used to the larger size. But I still cannot imagine using the crazy large iPhone 6 Plus as my every day phone. Jason Snell of Six Colors spent two weeks using an iPhone 6 Plus, and came to the same conclusion, returning to his iPhone 6 and noting “I’m back to the iPhone 6 now and not missing the big guy at all.”
If you want to watch any of the Star Wars movies on your iPhone or iPad, this Friday the Star Wars Digital Collection is coming to iTunes and other services. More information is available on the official Star Wars blog.
And finally, how strong is the screen of that new Apple Watch that you just ordered? For example, what if you wanted to scratch it against bricks, or with a key? Or with a power drill? iPhonefixed in the UK claims to have acquired an Apple Watch sapphire screen and performed some torture tests on it. I hope this is legitimate, because if so, the screen is incredibly durable, as you can see in this video:
If you want to be one of the first to start using an Apple Watch, Apple will start accepting pre-orders tonight — or rather, early tomorrow morning to be more exact. Starting at 12:01 a.m. Pacific / 3:01 a.m. Eastern on April 10, you can pre-order an Apple Watch on the online Apple Store. And starting tomorrow morning, you can go to an Apple Store and take a look at the watch yourself. The Apple Watch will not ship for another two weeks (you will be able to buy them in the Apple Stores starting on April 24), but my guess is that the initial supplies will be constrained, so if you want to be one of the first to start using an Apple Watch, plan to stay up late tonight, or set an alarm.
Early last week, Apple gave Apple Watch review units to a small number of journalists, and all of their reviews were posted online yesterday morning. Raymond Wong of Mashable posted this article with links to all of the reviews. Overall, the reviews are positive but mixed. All of the reviewers agree that the Apple Watch is far, far better than any other smartwatch on the market. Most agree that the Apple Watch can not just show you the time but can also save you time by moving notifications from an iPhone that you have to take out of your pocket or purse to a device on your wrist that you can quickly glance at. But some reviewers worry about this being a 1.0 product and recommend waiting to see what Apple does in the next version of the Apple Watch. If you just want to read a few Apple Watch reviews, I recommend that you read this one by David Pogue of Yahoo Tech, the reviews by Joanna Stern and Geoffrey Fowler of the Wall Street Journal, and the review by Nilay Patel of The Verge. The embedded videos in those reviews are definitely worth watching.
If you decide that you want to be one of the first to try this new technology, the least expensive model, the Apple Watch Sport, costs $349 for the 38mm model or $399 for the 42mm model. The standard Apple Watch model starts at $549/$599 and goes up to $1049/$1099 depending upon which band you get. And if you are in the market for the high-end 18-karat gold Apple Watch Edition, which starts at $10,000, feel free to buy a second one to send to me so that I can post a review on iPhone J.D., tapping into my vast experience of reviewing high-end luxury goods.
I am thrilled to welcome JetPens as a new sponsor of iPhone J.D. JetPens is an online store that sells high-quality pens and other writing instruments and associated stationery products. A big part of my life may be paperless and digital, and I frequently take handwritten notes on my iPad using a stylus, but that doesn’t mean that I have stopped using a pen and paper. In many circumstances — such as when I am in court, taking a deposition, or in some meetings — pens and paper are still the best tool for the job. Ever since I discovered JetPens last year (and long before JetPens and I discussed this sponsorship), JetPens has been my go-to place for ordering excellent pens.
JetPens was started in 2004 by three Stanford students who wanted to use the high-quality pens made in Japan but had trouble finding them in the U.S. Over ten years later, you can now find an amazing collection of pens on the JetPens website, including many excellent and inexpensive pens that you cannot find easily anywhere else — ballpoint, roller ball, gel ink, fountain pens, etc. And the site makes it easy and fun to discover new types of pens because of the numerous guides published on the website. For example, a few weeks ago, the site published an extensive guide to finding the best paper to use with a fountain pen. Last year, the site featured an extensive guide to finding the best felt tip pen.
My personal preference is for an inexpensive pen (since I tend to lose them) that has dark ink. After exploring the JenPens website, I learned that to get that result, I needed a gel ink pen with a larger tip. I considered the well-regarded Pilot Hi-Tec-C and the Uni-ball Signo line, but ultimately found the JetPens comprehensive guide to the Zebra Sarasa line of pens. There are seven pens in that family, each with a multitude of tips, clips and features. After reading the guide, I decided that the best one for me was the Push Clip model:
I bought a bunch of them in the 0.7 mm size, and that is the size that I like the best. (I also tried the 0.5 mm size, but the lines that it drew are a little too fine for my tastes.) The smooth ink looks fantastic, the pen feels great in my hand, and the spring-loaded clip works great. This pen is simply a joy to use.
I also purchased some in the 1.0 mm size. That size is a little too large for my tastes for taking notes, but it is nice when I want my ink to be just slightly larger and bolder, such as when I am signing my name or making a list.
You can order the Zebra Sarasa Push Clip in 20 different colors. (And the other varieties in the Sarasa line come in even more colors.) I also ordered some red and blue pens, and while I tried some of them in the 0.7 mm size, I prefer to use those in the 1.0 mm size, the reason being that while I take notes in black ink, I use red or blue when I am writing on and around text that is typically printed in black, and when I am doing so I want my writing (such as my edits) to be larger and bolder. Sometimes I use the blue pen to sign my name, and again I think that the 1.0 mm size looks better for that.
As much as I love and value these pens, they are a steal at only $2.20 each. That means that you can buy a whole bunch of them — keep some in your desk, some in your briefcase, some at home, etc. — and it is not the end of the world if you lose one or if someone else “borrows” one. You can also order refills for only $1.35 each.
But I don’t want this post to just be about the Zebra Sarasa pens. JetPens sells lots and lots of other pens, so depending upon your own personal taste and style, you’ll find exactly the right pen for you. For example, the folks at JetPens told me that iPhone J.D. readers might also be interested in the Uni-ball Signo 207 BLX, which contains archival quality, fraud-proof ink in unique off-black colors; the Uni Jetstream Rubber Body Ballpoint, a smooth and comfortable ballpoint pen with water and fade-resistant ink; and the Ohto Graphic Liner, which features archival quality ink and a sturdy metal tip that won’t wear down with heavy use.
And not only does JetPens offer an incredible selection of the best pens, JetPens also has a great selection of pencils, markers, and office accessories from around the world. Perhaps you want durable bag organizers with various pockets and compartments to hold tablets, notebooks, and more; or convenient index tab stickers perfect for marking documents without looking crooked or worn; or innovative highlighters that are capable of three highlighting functions in one unique tip design.
JetPens was nice enough to put together a special offer for iPhone J.D. readers. During April of 2015, if you click this link and make a purchase of over $35.00, JetPens will include a free Zebra Sarasa Push Clip Gel Ink Pen (0.7 mm, black), the pen that I love to use so much, so that you can try it out yourself. So even if you just get some office supplies, you can try out a Sarasa pen for free and see what you think, and then if you like it as much as I do you can go back and order a bunch more. Complete details of the offer are available when you click that link.
If you are reader of iPhone J.D., then you are most likely (1) an attorney or other professional who uses pens every day and (2) someone who appreciates high-quality products. JetPens is perfect for people like us. I encourage you to have fun exploring the JetPens website and treat yourself to some of their great products. And thanks again to JetPens for sponsoring iPhone J.D. this month.
My wife and I both like to take pictures, both with an iPhone and a Nikon DSLR camera. Although I use a PC at work, I use a Mac at home, and there is where I store our almost 40,000 photos. I only sync a portion of those photos to my iPad and iPhone, but I like the idea of making all of my photos available on my iPad and iPhone for those times when I want to see and/or share a photo from years ago. That is one of the features (the iCloud Photo Library) of Apple’s replacement for iPhoto, a program called Photos. Apple has a page of its website devoted to the upcoming Photos software, which Apple says is “coming this spring.” While iPhoto isn’t the only photo-related software I use on my Mac — for example, I also use Photoshop Elements and GraphicConverter — it is the place where I store and perform simple edits on every single one of my pictures so I consider it a pretty big deal for Apple to replace iPhoto with something new. I’ve been very curious about how Photos will work. A few days ago, Jason Snell (who was the lead editor of Macworld for more than a decade who now runs the great site Six Colors) released a $10 digital book on Photos called Photos for Mac: A Take Control Crash Course. I purchased a copy to check it out.
This is the first time that I have purchased an incomplete book. [UPDATE: Snell tweets that rather than viewing this as an incomplete book, “I prefer to think of this as a pre-order where you get the first half of the book now. But either way…”] Because Photos is not officially out yet, the version of the book that Snell released last week only contains some of the chapters from the final book, chapters that discuss things like how to import an iPhoto library into Photos, the interface of Photos, using albums and smart albums and coping with the lack of Events in iPhoto, etc. But the book does not yet include chapters on using the iCloud Photo Library, editing pictures in Photos, sharing pictures, creating projects, etc. You can buy a copy of the 30 page book now, and then you will be able download the additional approximately 30 pages when Apple releases a final version of Photos and the rest of the book is finished. [UPDATE 5/22/2015: The full book (Version 1.1) was released on May 22, 2015.]
I enjoyed reading this book. Jason Snell is one of the best in the industry when it comes to explaining how to do something on a Mac. He is also incredibly knowledgeable on the subject of working with photos, and fortunately knows how to explain complex concepts clearly. If you want to get a sense of Snell’s writing style on this particular subject, he wrote a an article with his initial impressions on Photos for Mac back in February for TidBITS. In addition to the text being informative and entertaining, the layout of this book is excellent (which has been my experience with all of the Take Control series of ebooks). There are tons of pictures and sidebar entries, and when there is a picture associated with something in the text, you see a number in a circle in the text, which corresponds to the picture with the same number in a circle next to it.
My only complaint about this book is that I found myself wanting more — which I suppose was inevitable because this is an incomplete book. The chapters that I am most interested in reading (such as the chapter on the iCloud Photo Library that I can use to make my entire photo album available to my iPhone and iPad, and the new features for editing pictures) are the very chapters that won’t be released until the Photos software is final. I hope that the chapter on the iCloud Photo Library includes both Mac and iPhone/iPad tips.
When you purchase this book, you can download it in PDF format (what I used), plus other formats like EPUB and Mobipocket. I read the PDF file in the GoodReader app on my iPad, which worked great.
It was nice to be able to start to read some of this book even before Photos for Mac is released. I look forward to reading the rest of the book to learn more about how to get the most out of the Photos app on my Mac. You can click here to view a free sample of the book, and if you like what you can see, click below to get the book for only $10.
A lot has changed at Apple since Steve Jobs was running the company, and as successful as the company was under Jobs, I think it is doing even better under Tim Cook. It seems that Cook kept all that was good about Apple while introducing welcome changes such as more openness, more support for charities (including matching employee contributions), and most recently taking a stand against discrimination, such as the law recently enacted in Indiana, on which Cook wrote a powerful editorial in The Washington Post this week. It is worth reading, and it is interesting to see Apple take a public stand on social issues. And now, the other news of note from the past week:
South Carolina attorney Bill Latham of The Hytech Lawyer has published his Summer 2015 list of useful iPad apps for attorneys. His list includes a bunch of great apps that I use all the time in my law practice.
Toronto attorney Phil Brown shares his thoughts for getting the most out of ABA TECHSHOW. Worth reading if you are headed to the conference in Chicago in a few weeks.
Normally it is a very bad thing when someone steals your iPhone. But Matt Stopera of BuzzFeed had his iPhone stolen when he was in a bar in New York in 2014, and a year later he learned that someone in China was using it. He posted about it, and his story ended up going viral in China. Stopera and the new owner of his iPhone started chatting, and then Stopera flew to China to visit the man and get his iPhone back — with Stopera learning that he became a minor celebrity in China. Stopera wrote this article describing the whole situation, and while his story is rather long, it is a nice story of how something that started out bad ended up very positive.
HBO’s CEO Richard Piepler revealed in an interview with CNBC that 60% of viewers of HBO-GO use an Apple device.
Joseph Keller of iMore reports that Lisa Jackson, Apple’s VP of Environmental Initiatives (and former head of the EPA) talked about Apple’s impact on the environment in a conference sponsored by the Wall Street Journal.
The fantastic 1Password app was updated again this week. Federico Viticci of MacStories writes about the new features. But he doesn’t mention my favorite new feature. You can now tap a password and have the app display the password in a very large font. This is great because, in those rare instances where a website doesn’t let 1Password on my computer enter the password automatically, I can just look at the password on my iPhone, and this feature makes the password large and very easy to see, making it easier to type even a long and complicated password. I just cannot say enough good things about 1Password.
The Apple Watch won’t be in stores until April 24, but Juli clover of MacRumors reports that the App Store is already starting to include iPhone apps that include the ability to install apps on an Apple Watch.
The SnapPower Charger looks like an interesting KickStarter project. Just replace the faceplate on your outlet — no rewiring required, and in the video it takes just a few seconds — and the SnapPower Charger draws power from the screws in your outlet to give you a 1 Amp USB power port (suitable for charging an iPhone, or slowly charging an iPad) without getting in the way of the two outlets. Only $14.
And finally, amid rumors that Apple is working on an electric car, Tesla has announced that it is working on its answer to the Apple Watch, the Tesla Model W. Oh, did I mention that they made this announcement on April 1st? Click here for all of the details of this revolutionary device.
Late last year, I purchased an app called Workflow just as soon as it came out. I wasn’t really sure what to do with it, but the idea sounded interesting: an app that lets you automate certain tasks on the iPhone. But after poking around the app a little, it seemed a little complicated and I wasn’t exactly sure what I might do with it, so I never really started to use it in earnest, and thus never talked about it on iPhone J.D. Then a few weeks ago, California attorney David Sparks released a video tutorial — Sparks calls it a video field guide — explaining exactly how the app works and what you can do with it. Sparks was nice enough to send me a free copy of his Workflow Video Field Guide for review purposes, which was nice because I was actually about to buy a copy anyway (it is only $9.99) to see if this video would help me to figure out exactly what the Workflow app is all about. I had high hopes for the video field guide because Sparks has done such a great job with his prior e-book field guides (e.g. Paperless, Email, Presentations, and his prior book iPad at Work), but even though I expected something really special, this video tutorial is excellent so I was not disappointed.
The Workflow app lets you combine tasks done by different apps and do them all at once, making you more efficient on your iPhone (and iPad). For example, you can create at workflow that lets you press one button and then the app figures out how far you are from home, determines how long it will take you to drive home from where you are, and sends a text and/or email to multiple recipients to say what time you are expected to arrive. Another workflow lets you press one button and have your iPhone take a series of photographs and then stitch them together into an animated GIF and then post that GIF on Twitter.
In this video, Sparks walks you through every step of creating a complicated workflow, sometimes starting by downloading one of the many (free) downloadable workflows and then modifying it, other times by creating a workflow from scratch. By the time I finished watching the one hour video, I finally felt like I understood how the Workflow app works and how I can integrate it into my life.
For example, I’ve long wanted to stop saving paper receipts and instead save them electronically, but I never thought it was worth the hassle of setting up a system. This video field guide helped me to create my own workflow (it just took a few minutes to create) in which I press one button and my iPhone asks me to enter one string of text — the name of a vendor, restaurant, etc. Then the iPhone turns on the camera and waits for me to take a picture of a receipt, then the app converts the picture into PDF format (my preferred format for saving documents), then the app creates a title for the PDF file in the format of the date plus the text I entered (such as “2015-03-30 – Commander’s Palace”), and then the app saves the PDF file into a folder of my Dropbox called Receipts. So all I need to do is press a button and enter a word or two, and the app does everything else automatically, and I don’t have to save the paper receipt. If I ever need the receipt in the future, all receipts are stored by date in that one folder in my Dropbox, which I can access from any computer, iPhone, iPad, etc. And best of all, because the workflow is right there on my iPhone, I can image the receipt immediately after I receive the receipt and before I forget about it, and then I no longer need to think about it again — much better than other systems that require me to bring the receipt home and then find time to remember to scan a bunch of receipts and make sure that each has the right date.
That’s just one workflow that appeals to me. Maybe that one doesn’t appeal to you. But by devoting just an hour of your time to this video, you’re sure to come up with ideas for lots of other tasks that you can do more efficiently with the Workflow app.
I realize that the Workflow app is geeky and not for everyone. But if you think that the app might be for you, you can watch the first 11 minutes of the Workflow Video Field Guide for free by clicking here. That preview is more than long enough to demonstrate the high quality of the video tutorial that Sparks has created. If you like the first 11 minutes, I encourage you to buy the full video and then find an hour one night — or maybe even find some time while having lunch in your office — to watch the full video and learn all about Workflow. It’s a fascinating app, and an excellent video.
