You can now start to count the hours until 10am Pacific on Monday, March 9, which is when Apple will give us all of the details on the upcoming Apple Watch. I’m very curious to find out how much the different models will cost, as well as all of the additional details that were not revealed on September 9, 2014 when Apple first announced the Apple Watch. And now, the news of note from the past week:
Lit Software, the developer of the fantastic TrialPad and TranscriptPad apps (and a sponsor of iPhone J.D.), is having a sale, but it ends today. You can get both apps for only $139.99, a $40 savings over buying each app individually. And if you already own one app, you can take advantage of the bundle to get the other app for cheaper. Click here to take advantage of the bundle.
Florida attorney Katie Floyd discusses the Sesame Smart Lock, an upcoming product that will let you unlock your from door using an iPhone app.
If you want an external battery to charge your iPhone or iPad that has a lot of power in it, Jeremy Horwitz of 9to5Mac reviews the Ankler Astro E7, which has enough power to recharge an iPad Air twice.
Julie Strietelmeir of The Gadgeteer reviews an interesting device called the iBolt Command Remote. It is a button that you can use to control certain functions on your iPhone.
And finally, Disney released an interesting iPhone app yesterday called Show Your Disney Side. The app is free, and if you have kids, you should download it. Even if you don’t have kids, you should download it because what it does is neat. You take a picture of yourself or someone else, and then the app turns that picture into a Disney character, such as Anna or Elsa from Frozen, Darth Maul from Star Wars, Captain Hook, Maleficent, etc. That in itself is neat, but what is really interesting is how the app animates the picture so that the eyes move, for some characters the picture laughs, etc. The app is a little buggy and has crashed on my iPhone 6 several times, but it is quick to restart the app and try it again. What the app does is pretty cool, so you should check it out. Click here to download the app, and here is a video showing it off:
The new 2015 version of the Adonit Jot Pro is one of the very best styluses for the iPad, and I think it is becoming my new all-time favorite stylus. It feels great in your hand, and has a unique see-through disc at the end that creates the illusion that you are using a fine point pen even though the disc is actually large enough for the iPad to sense it. If you enjoy using a stylus to takes notes or draw, this is an excellent product.
Styluses: a short history
To understand what makes this stylus so good, let’s start by talking about iPad styluses in general. The iPad is made to sense something the size of a finger tip, so if you were to try to use a stylus with a true fine tip, the iPad wouldn’t sense it at all. Thus, when the first iPad styluses came to the market soon after the iPad was introduced in 2010, they had large, rubbery tips. They worked okay, but it did often feel like you were using a crayon to write on the iPad. Over the years, traditional stylus tips got smaller, but there was a limit to how small they could get. Today, some of the best traditional styluses with those somewhat smaller tips include the third generation Wacom Bamboo Stylus duo released in 2014 (which has a 6 mm tip) and the Hand Stylus (which has a 4 mm tip).
A major innovation in the iPad stylus market occurred when Adonit released the Jot Script in late 2013. It is an active stylus, which means that it requires a battery. It has a tiny 1.9 mm tip, which normally would be too small for the iPad to sense it, but the stylus emits signals from the tip that the iPad senses. Thus, you get the precision of using a smaller tip, even though the iPad thinks you are using something larger. Many other companies followed suit with their own active styluses, and one of the best ones currently on the market is the Wacom Bamboo Stylus fineline, released in late 2014. The problem with active styluses is that you need to keep the powered — which means replacing batteries or remembering to charge them. They are also larger, so you feel more like you are holding a Sharpie than a pen. Some models have a hard tip, which makes them somewhat noisy every time the stylus tip touches the iPad. And perhaps worst of all, they sometimes have problems with diagonal lines — they come out wavy — or otherwise can have flaky performance. If you own a newer iPad (the iPad Air and the iPad Air 2), active styluses generally perform worse than they do on older iPads. As a result, while I like the idea of active styluses, I still find myself coming back to traditional styluses.
Adonit came up with a different solution when it released the first model of the Adonit Jot Pro in 2012. The distinguishing feature was the clear disc that I described above, which lets your eyes focus on a sharp pen tip and see through the disc itself but the iPad can feel the full size of the disc. Thus, you get the precision of an active stylus, but you don’t have to worry about batteries, this stylus itself is thinner, and it doesn’t have problems with diagonal lines. I had reservations about the first model of the Adonit Jot Pro because it was noisy, but Adonit released a revised version in late 2012 that added a spring to the tip so that it was much quieter when it touched the screen.
The new Adonit Jot Pro
In January of 2015, Adonit released a new version of the Adonit Jot Pro. I was intrigued to try it out, so I bought one on Amazon and I’ve been using it for the last few weeks. It has some great new features that make it better than the old version of the Jot Pro.
Carrying clip
First, this is the first model of the Jot Pro to have a clip, and the clip has an interesting design in that instead of being an external part, the clip is actually cut into the barrel of the stylus.
The clip certainly gives the new Jot Pro a unique look, but how does it work? I frequently carry a stylus in my shirt pocket (next to my iPhone), and in my daily use, it worked just fine. The stylus would sometimes slide around — more than it would with a traditional external clip that uses tension to stay in place — but that didn’t happen enough to be a problem.
I was also worried that having this clip cut out of the stylus would make it weaker, but that has not been true at all. The aluminum and steel body is very strong, even at the point where the clip is located.
One thing that I don’t like about styluses that lack clips is that the round barrel can result in the stylus rolling off of a desk. Because the Jot Pro clip is cut into the barrel itself, it can roll. It isn’t as bad as other styluses — the way that the clip is cut and how that affects the weight of the stylus causes the Jot Pro to want to rest in the same position (with the clip at the top) — but it does sometimes roll around my desk.
Improved tip
The tip on the 2015 Jot Pro is better than the tip on the prior models. It has an improved cushion on it, which means that it gives just the right amount of give when you first touch the iPad screen, which makes this the quietest Jot Pro ever. I never had a problem with the new Jot Pro being too noisy to use in court or in a quiet meeting, which sometimes happened with prior models. Yes, a traditional stylus is virtually silent and even the new Jot Pro makes some noise when you use it, but the new Jot Pro is quiet enough.
Most importantly, the disc on the tip of the 2015 Jot Pro works great. As I mentioned above, because you can see through the disc and your eyes focus on the pointed end, you can write or draw with amazing precision. The disc feels very nice gliding across the iPad screen. And while I noted in my 2012 review of the second model of the Jot Pro that I sometimes had trouble with broken lines in apps like GoodNotes, that is no longer a problem at all. The disc on the new Jot Pro pivots smoothly while maintaining contact with the screen. I took pages and pages of notes with it over the last few weeks, and annotated lots of PDF files, without any problems.
The only drawback I see to the disc is that while it works great when you are writing or drawing, if you just want to use the stylus to tap a button on the screen, or to swipe up and down on the screen, the disc sometimes seems to get in the way. For simple tapping and swiping, a traditional stylus like the Wacom Bamboo Stylus duo is better. As a result, I often found myself using the Jot Pro when I was taking notes, and then I would often turn the stylus in my hand and just use my finger to tap or swipe, and then go back to the Jot Pro to write again. This is only a minor complaint, but it was one of the few times when the Jot Pro performed worse than other styluses.
Etched grip
The front of the stylus (the part you hold while you are writing) now features an etched grip. It is a subtle change, one that you often won’t notice at all, but it does make the Jot Pro very nice to hold and keeps it steady in your hand.
Protective Cap
The disc on the Jot Pro can break off if you are not careful with the tip. Adonit has actually made the disc stronger than it was on the first generation Jot Pro, but even so, you want to protect it when you are not using the stylus. Thus, the Jot Pro comes with a protective cap that covers the disc when you are not using it. When you do use the stylus, you unscrew the cap and screw it on the other end. This works fine, and in addition to protecting the disc, it makes the Jot Pro feel more like a high-end product because it screws and unscrews so well.
Size and weight
While the disc and fine point tip is the best feature of the Jot Pro, I wouldn’t like this stylus so much if it didn’t also feel good in my hand. The 2015 Jot Pro weighs 20 grams, is 9.5 mm in diameter, and is 123 mm with the cap closed and 140 mm with the disc exposed and the cap on the back end. The result is a stylus that feels great. The weight is substantial enough to feel good without being heavy, and the length and diameter is similar to a normal pen. Here is how the length of the Jot Pro compares to other popular active and passive styluses. From top to bottom: (1) Wacom Bamboo Stylus fineline, (2) Adonit Jot Script, (3) the new Adonit Jot Pro, (4) Hand Stylus and (5) Wacom Bamboo Stylus duo.
Other
The new Jot Pro comes in either black (what I bought) or silver.
If you like the idea of the Jot Pro but want something smaller, Adonit also sells the Jot mini. It is smaller and cheaper, but doesn’t have a cushion on the tip so it is louder. I didn’t test it.
Conclusion
I still love the Wacom Bamboo Stylus duo, but the Adonit Jot Pro is at least in a tie for the very best stylus that I have ever used with an iPad, and in many ways — especially precision and the feel and weight of the stylus — it is better than the Bamboo Stylus duo. Because it provides just about all of the precision that you get with an active stylus without any of the drawbacks (size, batteries, problems with diagonal lines), I no longer see a reason to use an active stylus now that I can use the new Jot Pro. I see that Nick Guy of The Wirecutter recently tested 11 popular styluses and he similarly concluded that the new Jot Pro is the best iPad stylus on the market. This is a very high quality stylus that works well, feels great, and isn’t very expensive. If you want to use a nice stylus with your iPad, this is probably the one that you want to get.
There are countless ways that an iPhone and iPad can be useful to an attorney while in court — whether you are at counsel table or just monitoring proceedings from the cheap seats in back. I often use my iPhone to look up a statute, check my calendar, get some information from an email, or remind myself of the name of another attorney in the courtroom. I often use my iPad to look at a case cited by an opponent, review the key part of an exhibit or transcript, or take notes. But you cannot do any of this unless the court lets you use electronic devices in the courtroom. I remember a time many years ago when the Eastern District of Louisiana did not allow any cell phones, even if turned off, and if my Palm Treo was still in my pocket, I had to walk back to my office, a few blocks away, and leave it there. Many courts are now more lenient, but attorneys should not just assume that it is okay to plan to use an iPhone and iPad in court. Instead, it is wise to first determine if there is an applicable court rule on the issue.
I write about this today because Ray Ward, an appellate attorney at my law firm, has a case that is soon set for oral argument before the U.S. Fifth Circuit, and in connection with that case, yesterday he received a notice from the Fifth Circuit of a new policy on electronic devices in the courtroom. Ray wrote about the notice (and attached a copy) in this post on his Louisiana Civil Appeals blog. In short, you can now have an iPhone or iPad in the courtroom, but it must be turned off unless you are presenting argument or at counsel table. And even then, you cannot take pictures or video, nor can you use social media. Here is the text of the rule, which does not yet appear to be on the U.S. Fifth Circuit website:
POLICY ON ADMITTANCE OF ELECTRONIC DEVICES INTO THE JOHN MINOR WISDOM UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS BUILDING
A. Cameras and recording devices are not permitted in the John Minor Wisdom United States Court of Appeals Building (“Building”) without the court permission. Laptops, tablets, cell phones, and other similar devices that contain cameras or recording functions are exempt from this subsection but are still subject to (B)—(D).
B. After visual inspection and x-ray by a Court Security Officer, electronic devices may be admitted into the Building.
C. Unless prior court permission is obtained, all electronic devices must be turned off (not “vibrate-only” mode or airplane mode) when inside a courtroom where a Fifth Circuit argument is being held. However, an attorney presenting argument or assisting at counsel table may use a laptop, tablet, or similar device. If the laptop, tablet, or similar device has a camera or recording device, those functions may not be used inside the courtroom. At no time may anyone use social media inside a courtroom.
D. Under no circumstances will disruptive behavior be tolerated in any courtroom where a Fifth Circuit argument is being held. Violators will be promptly removed.
Approved January 20, 2015
It is great that the rules now officially and explicitly permit some use of an iPad. It can be useful to have an iPad at the podium that contains electronic copies of all of the briefs, cases, and the record on appeal so that you can quickly access something if needed without having to lug a lot of paper. I have also seen people work from an outline on their iPad while presenting an oral argument, although I haven’t done that myself. Note, however, that if your case goes up from the Fifth Circuit to the U.S. Supreme Court, you cannot use electronic devices there. The Supreme Court’s guide for counsel (PDF link) provides: “No personal computers, cellular phones, cameras, PDAs, or other electronic devices are allowed in the Courtroom and they may not be used in the Lawyers’ Lounge. Counsel and co-counsel may leave such devices, coats, hats, and similar items in the Lawyers’ Lounge. Others can check such items in lockers located at the front of the building on the first floor (Courtroom level).”
Note that in the Fifth Circuit, if you are not presenting oral argument or at counsel table, you cannot use an iPad. This is a shame. Even putting aside the issue of whether tweeting or using social media in the courtroom ought to be banned (it doesn’t strike me as being disruptive), it is often useful for attorneys monitoring an oral argument to use an iPad to take notes, to check on something in the briefs, etc. In light of this new rule, however, do not plan to do so when you are watching an argument in the U.S. Fifth Circuit.
In my experience, trial courts are generally more lenient on the use of iPhones and iPads by attorneys in the courtroom. In some ways, they need to be. For example, selecting dates is often an issue in a trial court, and I almost always see attorneys using their iPhone or iPad to check availability — as do I.
The Eastern District of Louisiana now explicitly permits the use of an iPhone or iPad by attorneys in court. Local Rule 83.3.8 includes this language:
Any member of the Bar of this court may, subject to security screening, bring personal digital assistants, cellular telephones or computers (“Authorized Electronic Devices”) into the courthouse for that attorneys’ own use and for presenting, managing, and accessing documents and files for the presentation of evidence during trials and proceedings. Any Authorized Electronic Devices with the capability to make or record images or sounds must be off whenever the device is in any courtroom or its environs, and the use of any such device to record, transmit or photograph court proceedings is prohibited. All sound emitting capabilities (including ringtone or vibration sound) of any Authorized Electronic Device must be off in any courtroom.
In Louisiana state courts, the Uniform Rules for District Courts provides in Rule 6.1(f): “A judge may prohibit the use of electronic devices, including cellular telephones and recording devices, in a courtroom.” But in my experience, the prevailing rule for Louisiana trial court judges is that you can use iPhones and iPads in court as long as they don’t make any noise.
If you are aware of any interesting rules in the jurisdictions in which you practice on the use of iPhones and iPads in the courtroom, I’d love to hear about them. And if you don’t mind sharing with others, write about it in a comment to this post.
In late January, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that the Apple Watch would start shipping in April. This week, Apple announced that it will have a special event on Monday, March 9 called “Spring Forward.” Apple isn’t saying what the event will be about, only that it will be at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco (a venue that Apple has frequently used to announce new iPhones and iPads) at 10am Pacific, but I have no doubt that the focus will be on the Apple Watch. You’ll be able to watch a live stream, and I’m sure that I’ll have a few words to say about the event in my March 10 post. And now, the news of note from the past week:
If you have been using WordPerfect on an iPad as a part of the WordPerfect X7 iPad Companion app, that app was just a beta app, you should have received an email from Corel announcing that the app will stop working today. The app is no longer available on the App Store, and its future is uncertain. If you still need to view a WordPerfect file on an iPad, I recommend that you use WordPerfect Viewer for iPad by LawBox.
There continues to be talk about Apple working on an electric car, and I very much enjoyed this analysis by Jason Snell of Six Colors on the Apple Car. Snell raises a point near the end that I have been thinking about too — when Apple first started to research what would become iOS devices, the first goal was not to create an iPhone, but instead to create an iPad. After the initial work, Apple discovered that the technology wasn’t there yet for a large touchscreen tablet, but realized that some of that same R&D could be applied to creating a phone, and thus the iPhone debuted in 2007. (The iPad was not introduced until 2010.) If Apple is researching a car, it could result in lots of different things: maybe a car, maybe just new ways of working with cars manufactured by others, or maybe something else altogether. It will be interesting to see where this research leads.
After I discussed the fantastic 1Password app earlier this month, some folks asked me how 1Password compares to LastPass. Glenn Fleishman reviewed the Mac version of LastPass (and the service in general) for Macworld and concluded that it isn’t as good as 1Password.
And finally, Apple ran a good ad during the Oscars this past Sunday, showcasing some students using iPads to create movies. If you missed it, here it is again. And according to Lance Ulanoff of Mashable, even this commercial was filmed using an iPad, which is pretty amazing considering the quality.
Thank you to Connected Data, maker of the Transporter, for sponsoring iPhone J.D. The Transporter is a hard drive that stores your files and securely shares them with all of your computers and iOS devices so that you can access your files from anywhere. But unlike Dropbox or other cloud-based services, your data is stored on a hard drive that you own, and which you keep at your office or home, so you maintain full custody of your data. Thus, you don’t need to worry about your documents being on the cloud and in the possession of a third party that hasn’t signed a confidentiality agreement with you. Also, there are no subscription fees. Just buy the hardware once.
I wrote extensively about how I use my Transporter in August of 2014, and I menioned that I use it virtually every day. That’s been true ever since I first started to use a Transporter in early 2013, when the company sent me a free unit to try out in connection with its first sponsorship of iPhone J.D., and it remains true today. But that same Transporter is even more valuable today than it was in 2013 because Connected Data frequently updates the Transporter to add new features.
For example, a new feature added just this month is a second option for sharing files. Before the update, you could right-click on a file on your computer to create a link to a file, and then you could email that link to someone else so that they can download the file. When they do so, they are downloading the file directly from your Transporter, and they need to first install a browser plug-in on their computer to communicate with your Transporter. This file transfer method is great for privacy because your file remains on your Transporter, but it does require some extra work by the file recipient to install the plug-in. The new feature is that you can now choose whether you want to create a Direct Link or a new Standard Link. When a recipient of a Standard link clicks the link, your file is sent from your Transporter to the Connected Data website, and then the recipient downloads the file from the Connected Data website without having to install any plug-ins. You lose the inherent privacy of a Transporter for that one specific file because a copy of your file exists on the Connected Data server, but it is faster and easier for the recipient, and is a perfect option if you are transferring one or more files that are stored on your Transporter and are not confidential, such as a large file that you are sharing with opposing counsel. Learn more about this new option here.
Apple is always trying to make its different products work well together. Indeed, one of the marquee features of iOS 8 is continuity, which lets you, for example, answer a call placed to your iPhone from your computer or iPad, and lets you handoff an email or a website from one device to another. But some folks might not want their Apple products cooperating quite so much. While I bring my iPad back and forth to work every day, so it is always with me, I know many attorneys who often leave their iPads at home. And even if your iPad is always with you, you may not be the sole user — for example, you may let your kids use it on the weekends to play a game.
While talking to another lawyer last week, who will remain anonymous, I was reminded that the cooperation between your Apple devices might be a bad thing if you are not the only one using your devices. This lawyer often leaves his iPad at home, and his kids sometimes use it after school. But his iPad is also signed in to his Messages account, which means that if someone sends him a text message while he is at work, that message appears on not only his iPhone, but also his iPad. (And it can be responded to from either device.) As a result, he learned that text messages sent to him that were intended only for his eyes were also showing up on his iPad at home, while it was being used by his son. Whoops.
If you want to limit your text messages to your iPhone because others have access to your iPad, there are a few ways to do so.
In the Settings app on your iPad, if you select Messages on the left, you will see several options on the right. The first one is an on/off switch. If you turn that off, new texts will not appear on your iPad. When you want to start seeing texts again, just turn the switch on.
That’s a quick solution, but it requires you to remember to turn the switch on and off again. Also, if anyone using your iPad happened to flip the switch, they could start seeing your texts too.
Another solution is to sign out of your iMessages account. To do so, once again open the Settings app and go to Messages, but this time tap the Send & Receive option. On the next screen, your Apple ID is shown at the top — tap it. This brings up a window that gives you four options, the last option of which is Sign Out. Once you select this, your iPad will stop receiving messages, and the only way that anyone can get them to start showing up again is to log back in using your Apple ID username and password — and when they do so, you will get alerts on your other devices, such as your iPhone, that your iPad is now using your account to get messages.
Note, however, that anyone with access to your iPad can still open your Messages app and read your old texts, even if you have stopped new texts from coming in. If you don’t want that to happen, go to the Messages app, tap Edit at the top left, and then select each of your prior conversations and then tap delete at the bottom. In my tests, this only deleted conversations on the iPad and did not also delete the conversations on my iPhone.
Of course, if you are going to this extreme to protect the confidentiality of your texts, remember that anyone using your iPad can also access other sensitive information. If you are logged in to email on your iPad, they can read your emails. If you have privileged and confidential documents in your GoodReader or your Word apps, they can read that.
For years, I have heard people say that they want a way to have multiple users on an iPad, much as you can do on a Mac or PC, so that multiple people can log in and log out on the same iPad without seeing the documents and information that belongs to someone else. Apple has never implemented this feature, and I’m not sure that they ever will.
Perhaps the only true solution is to use my approach: don’t let anyone else have access to your iPad. Over the years, I have upgraded to newer iPad models, which means that we have an older iPad 2 and iPad 3 in my house that we now let our kids use, during appropriate times during the week. Those iPads don’t have access to my text messages, my emails, my documents, etc. and instead both are loaded up with educational and game apps that my kids like to use.
When my kids get older, I know that they are other issues that I will have to think about such as their ability to access the dark corners of the Internet in the Safari app. For now, I have turned off access to Safari and certain other apps by opening the Settings app and going to General -> Restrictions -> Enable Restrictions, where you can selectively turn on or off apps like Safari, FaceTime, and Siri. Having said that, I know that there will come a time in the future when they have a legitimate need to do research on the Internet using the Safari app, and then I’ll have to open up that can of worms.
Whatever approach you take, just make sure that it is a conscious one that you thought about beforehand. Otherwise, you might think that you are texting in private with your spouse or someone else, only to learn afterwards that you were not so private after all.
Thank you to GoodCase Apps, publisher of the CaseManager apps for the iPad and iPhone, for sponsoring iPhone J.D. CaseManager was created by New York civil rights attorney John Upton as a fast and inexpensive solution for sole practitioners and attorneys with small firms who want to use mobile devices to manage their law practice. The app has a great interface, which I showed off in my September, 2014 post, and you can use the app to keep track of the key information in your cases: events, tasks, contacts, time and expenses, plus the facts, notes and documents unique to each case. I’ve showed off the iPhone and iPad apps, but there is also a version for Windows so that you can work with your data on your work computer, and there is even an Android version. You can find out all about the apps on the CaseManager website. The iPhone and iPad apps are only $20, so it is inexpensive to try CaseManager and see how it works with your law practice.
Click here to get CaseManager for iPhone ($19.99):
Almost every day there is a new rumor about what Apple is up to, so I very rarely discuss rumors on iPhone J.D. But lately there have been a huge number of reports that Apple is working on something brand new: an electric car. The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple has hundreds of people on the Apple car team, 9to5Mac has pictures and bios of many of the senior employees, and as John Gruber of Daring Fireball notes, one of the new Apple employees is the former lead recruiter at Tesla, and “Why poach Tesla’s lead recruiter unless you were building an electric car?” Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that Apple plans to ship its first electric car in 2020. I’m sure that an Apple car would be a neat — and expensive — accessory for an iPhone. And now, the news of note from the past week:
David Sparks is a California attorney who also publishes the MacSparky website and co-hosts the great Mac Power Users podcast with Florida attorney Katie Floyd. He always has great insights on technology, so I link to his posts almost every week. This week, Sparks announced that he is leaving his law firm to start a solo practice and focus more on his tech passions. I wish him the best of luck on this new chapter of his life, and I have no doubt that he will do great. But no, I don’t have anything similar planned. I really enjoy the work that I do at a large law firm — I have great clients, I’ve had the opportunity to work on interesting and challenging cases, and I’m privileged to work with lots of bright and friendly folks at my firm who I’d miss too much if I went solo.
Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac reports that Microsoft updated its OneNote for iPad app this week, adding OCR scanning of text within images and the ability to add handwritten notes.
Jordan Kahn of 9to5Mac reports that Microsoft updated the Word, Excel and PowerPoint iOS apps to add support for additional cloud services including iCloud.
Ian Parker of The New Yorker wrote an extensive profile of Jony Ive, the head of design at Apple and the second most important person at the company. Parker had extensive access to Ive himself and lots of folks who know Ive, and the resulting article is full of interesting information. Jacob Kastrenakes of The Verge notes some of the 15 most interesting tidbits in the article.
Joseph Keller of iMore reports that you can now upload documents on your iPhone and iPad directly to Dropbox without having to first send the Dropbox app.
And finally, you may remember that in the classic 1989 movie Back to the Future II, when Marty McFly goes to the “future” he goes to 2015 — October 21, 2015. If you want to feel like you are living the future, then you’ll want to check out the Delorean iPhone 6 case, which is being produced in Japan but can be preordered on the Bandai site for $50. Check it out in this video. (via AppAdvice)
If you are not in New Orleans today celebrating Mardi Gras, then I hope that you have a chance to come here at some point in the future. This city throws a great party for Fat Tuesday, plus New Orleans is a great place to visit year-round if you like food, drinks, music, history, architecture and/or a city where people are comfortable just being themselves, no matter how unique that might be.
Whether you are in New Orleans today in person or just in spirit, have a Happy Mardi Gras!
Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke at a Goldman Sachs conference this week. It was a fascinating talk, given after the best financial quarter in Apple’s history — not to mention the best financial quarter of any company’s history. Serenity Caldwell of iMore prepared a transcript of Cook’s remarks. Cook talked about existing Apple products such as the iPhone and iPad, Apple Pay, the upcoming Apple Watch, environmental initiatives, and the future. It’s a worth reading if you are interested in Apple. If you would rather listen than read, Apple has posted an audio recording. And now, the news of note from the past week:
Tieman Ray of Barron’s reports that last quarter Apple obtained 93% of the profit in the smartphone industry, Samsung got the other 7%, and everyone else lost money.
It’s not easy being green. Not only is that the memorable line sung by Kermit the Frog, as well as the title of an excellent article written by a law student back in 1993 for the American Criminal Law Review (ahem), but it is also the theme of this article by Paul Ford about how once you start using the iPhone Messages app to communicate with other iPhone users with blue bubbles, you start to dislike communicating with non-iPhone users with green bubbles.
Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac reviews the ClamCase Pro, an iPad 2 case that makes your iPad look much like a MacBook Air.
Caitlin McGarry of Macworld reports that JetBlue will start to let you use Apple Pay to pay for purchases on a flight. That’s a great idea because your iPhone is likely to be in your hand during a flight and thus be easier to reach than a wallet or purse.
And finally, speaking of Apple Pay, American Express is running a fun commercial that shows the history of the AmEx card and ends up with support for Apple Pay.
