Jeff Richardson

One of my all-time favorite apps for the iPad is TranscriptPad, an app I reviewed in 2012 and 2013.   As a litigator, I frequently take depositions and have to review transcripts of depositions that I and others have taken.  For example, I may want to assemble the best testimony to support a motion for summary judgment.  In the old days, I highlighted and added Post-It Notes to a paper version of a depositions, but it was a pain to have to deal with large and heavy copies, the Post-It Notes would sometimes come off, and it wasn’t a very efficient way to find testimony that I had previously noted as important because you couldn’t easily see the key testimony on an issue all in one place.  But with TranscriptPad, I can review transcripts on my iPad (which is much easier than dealing with all of that paper), I always have every transcript with me, and when I review a transcript I don’t just highlight all key testimony in yellow; instead, I assign issue codes as a I read.  When I am done reviewing a deposition, TranscriptPad creates a report for me of each of my issues (e.g. comparative fault, damages, one of my affirmative defenses, etc.) with all of the questions and answers I coded for that issue listed underneath.  And I can create a report either from a specific deposition or from all of the depositions in the case. This app greatly reduces the chance that I will miss key testimony that I can use to help win my case.  TranscriptPad is one of those few apps that consistently helps me to be a better attorney.

Late last night, litigation consultant Ian O’Flaherty and his team at Lit Software released version 2.0 of TranscriptPad.  The app has a new interface and new features, and is a free upgrade for owners of the 1.0 version of the app.  I have been using a preview of the app for the last few days to prepare this review, and this is a great update.  Here are the significant new features.

Improved Main Menu

The app has a new interface that matches the look of iOS 7 and iOS 8.  From the main screen of the app, if you choose a Grid view, you see folders for each of your cases, and a new feature is that you can color-code your folders.  For example, you might want all folders for one client to be the same color.  The color normally appears as an outline of the folder, but if you tap on a folder to select it, the folder itself also changes to the assigned color.  This is a nice way to easily differentiate among your folders.

With a case selected, you can press the email button to send all of the transcripts, including your annotations, to another TranscriptPad user.  (Exhibits that you saved in TranscriptPad are not included, which makes sense because, in virtually all cases, including exhibits would make the email too large to send.)

If you tap on a case and hold down your finger, a new popup menu gives you the option to open the case, rename the case, duplicate the case or delete the case.  Or you can tap once to select a case and tap again to open it — in other words, a double-tap is a standard way to open a case in TranscriptPad 2.

Easier editing of issue codes

The most powerful feature of TranscriptPad is the ability to create your own case-specific issue codes.  When you read a Q and A that is significant, you simply select the first and the last line and then assign an issue code that you create based upon the issues in your case — such as Damages or Comparative Fault or even Part 1RQ56 if a particularly important issue in your case is what each witness has to say about Part 1RQ56.  It is now even easier to edit an issue code that you created because the app now puts Edit button at the end of each issue code on the left.  Tap Edit and you can rename an issue code, select a new color or delete an issue code.

Improved navigation

It is now easier to navigate within a particular deposition.  In addition to the slider that lets you scroll up and down to find a page in the deposition, you can now tap on the Page X of Y indication at the top right of a transcript and enter a specific page number to jump right to that page.

Another useful way to jump to important text is to select an issue code in the list on the left and then tap on a range of lines on the left to jump directly to those questions and answers on the right.  In TranscriptPad 2, it is easier to have a sense of where you are because the range of lines on the left is bold when you are looking that range on the right.  And as you manually browse through the transcript on the right by moving up or down, the list on the left updates with new lines becoming bold as you get to them.

Speaking of going through pages in a deposition, while I prefer to just flick my finger to scroll up and down, TranscriptPad 2 adds a Page Up and Page Down button.  Every time you tap Page Up you are brought to the first line of a page.  So tap it three times and you will go the first line of your current page, then the first line of the previous page, then the first line of the page before that.  The Page Down button works the same way except that it bring you to the last line on the page.

And speaking of looking at a transcript, version 1 of TranscriptPad gave you a choice of four fonts for the text:  Menlo, Courier New, Monaco and Andale Mono.  Version 2 keeps those fonts and adds Noto Sans, Noto Serif and Open Sans — plus gives you a preview of what each font looks like by using the font for each font name.

When you are done reviewing a transcript, as before, you can tap the arrow in the top left to go back one level.  Version 2 of this app adds a new shortcut.  Hold down on the arrow and you see a pop-up menu showing the hierarchy, making it fast to jump up multiple levels or even navigate back the main Cases screen without having to tap back a whole bunch of times.

Better handling of flags

To be honest, I haven’t used the flag feature of TranscriptPad in the past except to test the feature.  In my actual cases, when I have wanted to note that something is important, I have just assigned an issue code, or if I want added emphasis, I highlight in yellow or maybe underline.  But I understand the advantage of using a flag; in addition to marking text as significant, you can (optionally) write notes on the flag, such as explaining why this testimony matters.  If you share your TranscriptPad file data with another person, I can see that being helpful to share your thinking on a certain line of questioning.

In TranscriptPad 2.0, an open flag icon is placed next to text if you didn’t add a note, and a closed flag icon is used if you did add a note.  Additionally, in the list on the left, there is a blue dot to indicate when you have a note associated with the flag.

Flags are also more sophisticated in version 2 because you can split them up.  For example, if you place a Flag spanning lines 1-10, you can now go back and remove the flag from lines 2-4, which results in two (identical) flags, one for line 1 and another for lines 5-10.  

Make your folders stand out

Within each case folder, the app creates different folders associated with different witnesses.  You can also add your own folders.  If you have a lot of witnesses in a case, it is nice to have a way to make some folders stand out, and now you can do that in TranscriptPad 2.  Specifically, you can now add color to each folder (eight color choices) or you can add labels to each folder, including a π for the plaintiff and a ∆ for the defendant.

Support for Transporter and Box

The main way that I get a transcript into TranscriptPad is to go to the email that a court reporter sent me with a plan text (ASCII) version of the transcript attached and open that file in TranscriptPad.  Or sometimes I email the file to myself to do the same thing.  TranscriptPad has long been able to open files from Dropbox, or add files by connecting your iPad to your computer and using iTunes.  Version 2 adds the ability to open files that are stored on your Transporter.  Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to try this feature yet because there is a small bug on the implementation in version 2.0.  Ian tells me that the bug has already been fixed, and Transporter support will be working as soon as Apple approves version 2.0.1, which should be very soon.

Version 2 also adds support for Box (Box.net) and WebDAV.  I don’t use either so I didn’t test this support. 

I don’t mind using Dropbox to tranfer a bunch of transcripts to TranscriptPad because transcripts are (with rare exception) not confidential; I have no security concerns about storing plain text transcript files on Dropbox.  Nevertheless, I am increasingly keeping all of my case file materials on my Transporter, and I know that others prefer to use Box.  It is nice to have so many options for getting files into TranscriptPad.

Conclusion

Those are the big new changes, but there others as well, some of which are under-the-hood.  And Ian tells me that he has a few more features close to being finished that weren’t ready to put in version 2.0, so I’m sure we will continue to see more TranscriptPad updates in the future.  But just focusing the changes that I described above, version 2.0 itself is a big update, and it makes an already fantastic app even more powerful and easier to use and customize.  If you own an iPad and you work with transcripts in your law practice, I strongly recommend that you get the TranscriptPad app.  Unless you are representing someone on the other side of one of my cases, in which case I would prefer for you to use your old, inefficient, less effective tools like a highlighter and some Post-It Notes that are prone to fall off of your heavy, paper copies of the depositions.

Click here to get TranscriptPad ($89.99): 

There was no In the news last week because Microsoft released the new version of Word for the iPad and iPhone last Thursday and I wanted to write about it last Friday.  I’ve now been using Word on my iPad and iPhone for a week, and it has worked great for me.  If you read my post Friday morning (or if you subscribe to iPhone J.D. via email), note that I updated that post mid-Friday to note that while Microsoft is promoting this as an app that lets you review and edit documents for free, it appears that the license for the free version only allows you to “create, edit or save documents for non-commercial purposes.”  So presumably lawyers and other professionals are supposed to purchase an Office 365 subscription to use the app — which you might have done anyway for the software on your PC/Mac, unless you are still using an older version of Microsoft Office.  With no In the news last week, here are the interesting items of note from the last two weeks:

• New York attorney Neil Squillente provides advice for attorneys trying to decide between an iPad Air 2 and an iPad mini 3 in an article original published in the TechnoLawyer TL Answers newsletter.
• Washington, D.C. attorney Reid Trautz discusses his use of the iPhone 6 Plus.  He likes it, but has some trouble carrying it around because of its size.  I’ve heard from a few folks who bought an iPhone 6 Plus but then exchanged it for an iPhone 6, in large part because they found it too big to carry.
• In this article for 9to5 Mac, New York attorney Jason Stern discusses the privacy implications of using a password to lock your iPhone, which law enforcement cannot force you to reveal, and using a fingerprint, which you can be compelled to produce.  From the standpoint of an attorney complying with the confidentiality rules of the Rules of Professional Conduct, I believe that protecting your confidential information with your fingerprint is more than sufficient, plus it offers convenience, an advantage that you rarely find with other methods of protecting information.  It is true that a police officer could force you to use your finger to unlock your iPhone, but they can also force you, with a subpoena, to unlock your office door (or they can break it open themselves) so that they can access items in your law office — although of course you would obviously have many arguments for opposing that.
• California attorney David Sparks discusses the HooToo TripMate Elite, a combination external battery and wireless router that can also make the contents of a USB flash drive accessible to iOS devices.  Neat idea, and $56 on Amazon.
• Attorneys Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell discuss apps on the latest episode of the Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast.
• Good Technology is used by a significant number of businesses and law firms, and the company recently released a report on its users’ app, platform and device preferences (PDF link).  Good found that the introduction of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus significantly increased iPhone market share.
• Scott Christensen of Law Technology News discusses considerations for lawyers using wearable technology.
• John Edwards of Law Technology News offers tips for using the Messages app.
• This week, AirDesk Solutions introduced AirDesk Presenter, an app that you can use to present evidence in court.  It is free for the first 30 days, and then costs $9.99 per month.
• I’m thrilled to see the Microsoft Office apps on the iPad and iPhone, but they are not always the best tools for the task.  While I mostly use Word for my documents, there are times when Pages is the better tool.  I use Excel for my sophisticated spreadsheets, but for simple charts I prefer Numbers.  And I always use Keynote instead of PowerPoint.  If you are considering the best tool for your task, you might enjoy this article by Allyson Kazmucha of iMore comparing and contrasting Apple’s iWork apps, Microsoft Office apps and Google Docs on the iPad.
• In the early 1990s when I was in law school, Apple and Citibank offered a credit card that let you earn points to purchase Apple products.  Because my landlord took a credit card to pay rent, I earned enough points to get a free computer when I was a 3L — I believe it was a Performa 450.  I see that Apple has once again teamed up with a credit card company, this time Barclaycard Visa, with a similar program.  You can get more information in this article by Josh Centers for TidBITS and on this page of the Apple website.
• Mandy Oaklander of Time reports that psychology professor Larissa Barber has a name for the urge to keep up with your work-related emails no matter what time of day they come:  telepressure.  Hello, my name is Jeff, and I’m a telepressureholic.
• Suzie Ochs of Macworld discusses CarPlay based on her use of a new CarPlay-complaint Pioneer in-dash unit.  There is also a video that shows how it works.
• Steve Kovach of Business Insider ranks the top 15 smartphones on the market today.  #1 and #2 are the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus.  Even last year’s iPhone 5s is still #11.
• Dan Frakes — formerly of Macworld and now of The Wirecutter — discusses his favorite new features in iOS 8.  It’s worth reading the article to make sure that you know about all of these great features.
• Joseph Keller of iMore reports that certain Starwood Hotels (Aloft, Element, W) are starting to roll out keyless hotel room entry using an iPhone.
• And finally, if you think that the only thing missing from your iPhone is that you cannot use it to saw a tree branch, cut steak, cut and strip wire, and open a bottle of beer, then you are the perfect customer for the TaskOne G3 iPhone Case.  This $89.95 case for the iPhone includes a 2.5″ serrated knife, a 1.8″ sawblade, pliers with wire cutters and 3-6mm Hex screw cutouts, a 5″ ruler, 6 Allen wrenches, dual spoke wrenches, a wire stripper, two flathead screwdrivers, a Phillips screwdriver, a saw-blade mount and a bottle opener.  Not surprisingly, the very first question on the product’s website is whether TSA might have a problem with this case when you are at an airport.  But there is an answer:  “We have made the knife portion of this case removable in seconds with no tools so it can be placed in your checked luggage or left at home on your trip.”  This version is for the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5s, but you can pre-order the iPhone 6 version at a discounted price of $75.95. The developer, Addison Shelton, used to work at Apple, and he also sells some other interesting iPhone cases, the myTask line, that hold lots of items.  My first reaction to the TaskOne was that combining knives and saws with an iPhone is crazy, but then again, I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that there is a part of me that wants one.  This video shows off the features:

Thank you to Connected Data, maker of the Transporter, for sponsoring iPhone J.D. this month.  The Transporter is a great tool for attorneys because you get all of the advantages of cloud storage — files that are always accessible from any of your devices, including PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android, and even Kindle Fire — while also getting the security of knowing that only you have control over your files, not some third party company that hasn’t signed a confidentiality agreement with you and which uses employees that don’t report to you.  Plus, the device itself is incredibly fast and easy to initially setup, and virtually never requires any tinkering for you to maintain the device (although there are lots of advanced tools for doing so if you need to do something).

When you put a file on a Transporter, a copy also exists on your computer, so you have two copies of the file, which can serve as a backup if disaster strikes your computer or your Transporter.  You can also buy a second Transporter and keep it in a different location to have a full, automatic, remote backup; if your office catches fire and one Transporter were to be lost, everything would already be and running on the second Transporter.  Or if you want to use the Transporter as an external storage device and keep a large file only on the Transporter (and not on your computer), you can store files in the Transporter’s Library folder.

Connected Data has a dedicated page on its website that talks about how attorneys can use a Transporter in their law practice.  On that page, you can view videos from attorneys David “MacSparky” Sparks and John Conway describing how they use their Transporters.  Or you can watch the videos on YouTube — Sparks, Conway — along with lots of other Transporter videos on the company’s YouTube page.  For example, I enjoyed the video with Dr. Michael Laccheo in which that rheumatologist talks about using a Transporter so that he always has access to his patient documents no matter where he is located, while also staying HIPAA-compliant.

You can get more information about the Transporter in my August, 2014 post and my March, 2014 post.

In May 0f 2014, I reviewed the Cregle ink, an active stylus with a rubber tip that is essentially silent when you use it.  I liked that stylus, but I noted at the end of my review how strange it was strange that Cregle was selling that stylus while they were already telling folks that a new version was planned to come out later this year.  Cregle now has a new stylus, and it is called the Cregle ink R.  Cregle sent me two free review units a few weeks ago, one of each color:  dark gray and snow white.  I’ve been trying them out for the last few weeks.  Here are my thoughts.

This is not the Cregle ink 2

My post from earlier this year included a chart provided by Cregle that showed the differences between the Cregle ink and the planned Cregle ink 2.  I don’t know whether Cregle still plans to make the Cregle ink 2.  I see that the Indiegogo campaign for the Cregle ink 2 never reached its funding goal.  But to be clear, the Cregle ink R that I am reviewing today is a different stylus than the Cregle ink 2:  this one is rechargeable, it has a different shape, it comes in different colors, etc.  Here is what the Cregle ink R looks like:

So now that we know what the Cregle ink R is not, let’s talk about what it is.

Rechargeable battery

Active styluses are nice because they have small tips, but to work they require power.  So if you decide to get an active stylus, you should decide whether you want a stylus that requires a replaceable battery or one that is rechargeable.  I can understand why a battery might appeal to some folks; if your stylus is dead and you want to use it right away, you can always swap in a new battery (if you have one).  On the other hand, recharging takes some time.  But after using both types of powered styluses throughout this year, I myself prefer a stylus that is rechargeable.  Like the Lynktec Rechargeable Apex Fine Point Active Stylus which I reviewed in June, and the Bamboo Stylus fineline that I reviewed last week, the Cregle ink R can be recharged via a Micro-USB cord.  Simply unscrew the cap at the back of the pen and plug it in.

I consider this an improvement over the Cregle ink, not only because in general I prefer to recharge rather than use a battery, but also because the Cregle ink requires somewhat hard to find AAAA batteries.

Rubber tip

The rechargeable battery is nice, but the key distinguishing feature of the Cregle ink R is the rubber tip.  It works and feels exactly like the rubber tip on the original Cregle ink, and that is a good thing.  This tip has two things going for it.

First, like any active stylus, it is a tiny tip.  This one is 2.4 mm.  That’s slightly larger than the 1.9 mm tip on the Bamboo Stylus fineline and the Adonit Jot Script, but in practice it doesn’t feel any larger.  And most importantly, it feels substantially smaller than the 6 mm tip on the Wacom Bamboo stylus duo and even feels substantially smaller than the 4 mm tip on the Hand Stylus (which has the smallest tip that I have seen on a non-active stylus).  When you draw a line with a 1.9 to 2.4 mm tip, the line seems to appear exactly where the tip wrote on the iPad screen.  It’s almost like the experience of writing with a pen on paper, although of course pen tips are typically less than 1 mm.

Second, unlike the hard tip on the on the Bamboo Stylus fineline and the Adonit Jot Script, the Cregle ink R has a rubber tip that is silent when you touch the iPad screen.  I explained in my the review last week of the Bamboo Stylus fineline why I have a problem with hard tips; the slight noise that they make every time that you tap the screen is loud enough to draw attention to oneself, and I don’t like doing that when I am taking notes in a meeting or in court.  It’s a shame, because I really like the tip on the Bamboo Stylus fineline and the Adonit Jot Script, and if I am by myself in a room, or if I am in a noisy enough environment where the slight tapping noise doesn’t matter, I still like to use those styluses.  But most of the time that I am taking notes, I want to be quiet, so I prefer to use a non-active stylus like the Wacom Bamboo stylus duo or a powered stylus with a rubber tip such as this one or the Lynktec Rechargeable Apex Fine Point Active Stylus which I reviewed in June.

The rubber tip of the Cregle ink R works well.  The rubber produces more friction than a hard tip, so you feel like you have to push down a little harder and you feel like you can’t write quite as fast as you can with the hard tip on the Bamboo Stylus fineline and the Adonit Jot Script.  But I suppose that is the price that you pay for a tip that is silent when you write on the screen.

Now that I’ve talked about what works well on the Cregle ink R, let’s turn to what I don’t like about this stylus, starting with the lack of a clip.

Lack of a clip

I prefer a stylus that has a clip so that I can hold it securely in a shirt pocket.  Unlike the original Cregle ink, the Cregle ink R doesn’t have a clip on the side.

It does have an on/off button on side of the stylus.  I mention that because one of the things that I most dislike about the lack of a clip on the Adonit Jot Script is that the stylus is round and can easily roll off a table. The Cregle ink R stops rolling when the button makes contact with the table, so at least the lack of a clip doesn’t cause the Cregle ink R to roll of of a desk.

The white model, and a repeated flaw

Cregle sent me both a gray and a white version of this stylus. 

The gray one works great, but the first white one that Cregle sent me was missing an on/off button, which had fallen off in the package before it was sent to me.  I alerted Cregle to the problem and the company quickly sent me a replacement, but it also had a broken button.  So again I alerted Cregle, and they sent me a third unit … and once again this one had a broken button.  I could place the button back in the hole, but after shaking the stylus only a little bit, the button would fall out again.

This is a serious flaw because the button is essential to turn the stylus on and off.  You don’t want to lose it.  The button on the gray unit seems fine, and I even tried to pull it off myself to see if it was weak but it seems well attached.  Nevertheless, at least in this batch of white styluses, the Cregle ink R seems to have a design or construction flaw.

Even if the button had stayed attached on one of those three white models, I still prefer the gray one because the end of the white model glows.  There is a tiny blue light near the front of the Cregle ink R that stays on when the stylus is turned on.  With the gray model, it just looks like a tiny blue light.  But with the white model, the blue light illuminates most of the front of the stylus, presumably because it is covered by white plastic and not a darker plastic.  Perhaps some of you will see this as an advantage, a little bling for your stylus.  However, I prefer to use a low-key stylus that doesn’t draw attention to itself, so I prefer the gray model.

No Bluetooth

A final drawback of this stylus is that, unlike the Bamboo Stylus fineline and the Adonit Jot Script, the Cregle ink R lacks Bluetooth.  That means that there are no apps that can sense when the Cregle is touching the screen instead of your palm or your hand.  It also means that the Cregle ink R can’t have any buttons that talk to the iPad.  As I noted in my review of the Bamboo Stylus fineline, I really like that you can configure its button to trigger an undo of the last stroke.  It is a very quick and easy to fix something as you are writing.  Indeed, just this week, GoodNotes (my favorite app for taking notes) added support for the Bamboo Stylus fineline, and I love being able to use the button in that app.

To be clear, the Cregle ink R works fine as a stylus without Bluetooth.  You simply don’t get the extended features that you get with other active styluses that do use Bluetooth.  If you want to take advantage of the extra features that Bluetooth provides, then this might not be the stylus for you.

Wavy lines

Finally, you should be aware that, like all active styluses, the Cregle ink R has trouble when you make a diagonal line and you move the stylus slowly.  The issue is no worse or better with the Cregle ink R than other active styluses; it just seems to come with the territory when you use an active stylus.  Here is an example that I included with my review of the Bamboo Stylus fineline, and I include it again here because I saw the exact same results with the Cregle ink R.  Draw a diagonal line quickly and all is fine, but draw it more slowly and you get wavy lines:

I have yet to see an active stylus that is better at this than other active styluses, so this is not a reason to pick any one active stylus over another.  But it is a reason that you might prefer to use a traditional, non-active stylus with a larger tip versus a powered, active stylus with a tiny tip.

Conclusion

There is a lot to like about the Cregle ink R.  Like all active styluses, it has a fine tip that provides an experience that is closer to the feeling of writing with a ballpoint pen.  I like that it is rechargeable.  And because the Cregle ink R uses a rubber tip, I especially like that it is silent when you use it, a big advantage over many other active styluses.  On the other hand, it doesn’t include Bluetooth so it doesn’t give you special features when you use it with apps designed to work with the stylus, it doesn’t have a clip, and at least some of the white versions of the stylus seem to have a problem with the on/off switch.

When I reviewed the original Cregle ink, I ended by talking about the features expected in a Cregle ink 2.  Now, I find myself wishing for a Cregle ink R 2 — one which keeps the nice, silent tip and the other features, but which adds Bluetooth and support from popular apps, adds a clip, and which uses a switch or some other on/off mechanism instead of a button that can break off, at least on the white model.  As it stands now, you need to decide whether the advantages of the current model outweigh its drawbacks.

Click here to get the Cregle ink R on Amazon ($47.00)

Ever since I started publishing iPhone J.D. in November of 2008, the #1 question that lawyers have asked me is:  what is the best way to view and edit Word documents on an iPhone?  When DataViz released the Documents to Go app in June 0f 2009, it instantly became a must-have app for many attorneys because it did a decent job of working with Word files.  In subsequent years we saw many other iPhone apps that could work with iPhone files, but they were always lacking something.  In June of 2013, Microsoft released Microsoft Office Mobile for iPhone.  After I recovered from the initial shock of seeing Microsoft software on an iPhone, I then started to try out the app, and I was incredibly disappointed.  The app was clunky, didn’t handle footnotes, couldn’t work with track changes, and amazingly didn’t even work with .doc files (only the newer .docx files).  I couldn’t recommend the app to other attorneys, but I did hope that it was a sign of better things to come.

It turns out that it was.  In March of 2014, Microsoft released Word for iPad.  As I noted in my review, it was a fantastic app that did not have any of the flaws of the Microsoft Office Mobile for iPhone app.  Microsoft has been improving the app throughout this year, and with each update I wished more and more that Microsoft would release a version of the app that worked on the iPhone so that I could finally delete the disappointing Office Mobile app.

Yesterday, Microsoft did it.  Microsoft updated the Word for iPad app.  The new name is simply Microsoft Word, and it is now a universal app that works on both iPhones and iPads.  I spent last night trying out all of the new features of the new version 1.2 of the app, and Microsoft did a great job.  This is an app that should be downloaded by every single lawyer with an iPhone.

Viewing documents

The Word app does a fantastic job of viewing Word documents on an iPhone, both the old .doc format and the new .docx format.  In fact, it is even more powerful than Word on an iPad because you have two different ways to view a document.  In the default Print Layout view, you see the document as it would appear when printed, with line breaks and page breaks in the correct location.  Of course, on a small iPhone screen, this makes the text really hard to read, but it does let you see the overall look of the document. You can pinch to zoom, but when you do so, you only see part of a page at one time.

 

Second, the app includes a Reflow view, in which the text is larger and the line breaks occur wherever the text ends on your iPhone screen, not where it would end when printed out.  You activate this view by tapping the Reflow icon at the top of the screen (the second button from the right).  When you are in Reflow view, you can pinch to zoom, and that just changes the number of words that you can see at one time.

 

The Reflow view works great.  Adjust the font size to whatever looks best for your eyes, and then you can review any Word document that someone emails to you.

And because this is the real Microsoft Word, you can view just about anything in a Word file.  You can view tables.  You can view footnotes when you are in Print Layout view.  (In Reflow view, you see the main text of the document and the footnote number, but to read the footnote itself, switch to Print Layout view.)  And if someone else has made redline edits to a document or added comments, you can view those as well.

The app also has a nice Find feature.  To get to it, tap the three dots at the top right of the screen and then tap Find.  When you search for a word, all instances of the word are highlighted in the document.  You can tap back and forth arrows to go to each instances.  Also, the place where you type your search term tells you the number of instances of that word.  Tap the gear icon for advanced features like Find and Replace.

 

Editing documents

Editing documents works well in the Word app on an iPad with its larger screen.  On the iPhone, everything is more cramped, but Microsoft still managed to fit everything in so that if you need to edit a Word document on your iPhone, you can do so.  Just hold down your finger on some part of a document to make the cursor appear and the keyboard will come up from the bottom.  You can edit in either the Print Layout or the Reflow view.

 

When you are done editing, tap Done at the top left to make the keyboard go away so that you can use the full iPhone screen to view the documents.

In the iPad version of Word, there are tabs across the top — Home, Insert, Layout, Review, View — that you tap to see a ribbon containing commands.  The iPhone version doesn’t show those tabs to save space, but you can get to them by tapping the Ribbon icon, which is the third from the right at the top, the one with the letter A with a pencil on it.  Tapping that button brings up one of the ribbons, such as Layout, and you can tap the word Layout to switch to another ribbon. 

Underneath the ribbon name is a scrollable list of all of the commands.  For example, if you have activated the Premium features in the app (more on that below), you can change to the Review ribbon to turn on Track Changes to create redline edits to a document. 

 

At the top of the screen in both Print Layout and Reflow view, there is an undo button that offers multiple levels of undo.  You’ll also find both an undo and a redo button when you bring up the ribbon.

You cannot create or edit Styles in the Word app, but if you are opening a file created on a computer that used Styles, those Styles are still contained in the document on the iPhone and iPad.  Also, you can copy text that has formatting applied to it, then select another word (or sentence or paragraph etc.), and then Paste Format to apply the same formatting to the selected text.

The File menu

When you are looking at a document, the second icon brings up a File menu that contains lots of options.  You can turn AutoSave on or off.  You can Duplicate a file (similar to “Save as…” on a computer).  You can even view documents properties and restore earlier versions of a file.

Working with files, including new Dropbox support

If someone emails a Word document to you, it is easy to open it in the Word app.  First, hold down for a second or so on the attachment icon at the end of the email.  This will bring up a menu that includes a list of apps that you can use to open the file.  Tap Open in Word and the Word app will launch so that you can work with the document.

One of the major updates to the Word app yesterday, in addition to iPhone support, is that the app now also supports Dropbox.  In my tests yesterday, the works really well.  After you give the app permission to access your Dropbox account, you can see all of your files and folders on Dropbox.  Tap a Word document to open it in the app and you can view or edit your document.  And with the AutoSave feature turned on (the default setting), your changes will be saved to Dropbox as you work.

 

Thus, the Word app will now let you work with files that you save locally to your iPad or iPhone, documents in your Dropbox, documents in your OneDrive, and documents in your SharePoint if your law firm uses SharePoint.  You can also move documents between those different locations; for example, you can take a document saved locally on your iPhone or iPad and then tell Word to move it to your Dropbox folder.

As before, the Word app gives you the option to email a document to someone else.  On July 31, 2014, Microsoft added the option to send a file as a PDF file or a Word document.  Thus, you now have the ability to use your iPhone or iPad to quickly convert any Word document to a PDF document, which can be useful if you want to share a document with opposing counsel in a format that isn’t easily editable.  Also, if your Word document is saved in Dropbox, you can now use the Word app to email someone a link to the file so that they can download the file from Dropbox.

Pricing

As before, the Microsoft Word app is free.  Before yesterday, you could use the free app to view a Word document, but if you wanted to edit a document you had to purchase a Microsoft 365 account.

With the new version of the app, when you first start the app you are asked to sign in to your Microsoft account or create a new one.  If you instead tap Sign In Later, you can use the app to view documents, but you won’t be able to edit them.

If you select Create an Account, Microsoft then asks for some basic personal information (name, email address, zip code, date of birth, sex, phone number) and then gives you a free Microsoft account.  With this free account, you can use the app to both view and edit documents.  For many attorneys, this will be sufficient.

[UPDATE 11/7/14:  I’m not providing anyone with legal advice on your rights as a user of this app, but if you plan to use this app as a part of your law practice without paying for Office 365, I encourage you to read the License Agreement.  You can read it in the App Store on your iOS device by searching for the app and then tapping “License Agreement.”  I think it says that anyone can use the app to view a document, but the free license only allows you to “create, edit or save documents for non-commercial purposes.”  Something to consider.]

To access the premium features in the Word app, you need to have an Office 365 account, which as I noted in September, currently costs $99 a year.  The current Premium features in Word are:

• Insert section breaks
• Enable columns in page layout
• Customize headers and footers for different pages
• Change page orientation
• Track and review changes
• Add custom colors to shapes
• Insert and edit WordArt
• Add shadows and reflection styles to pictures
• Add and modify chart elements
• Highlight table cells with custom color shading

I suspect that most attorneys will only care about one of those features:  track and review changes.  While the free version of the new Word app can view redline edits that someone else has created, if you want to add your own redline edits, or if you want to review (accept or reject) redline changes that someone else made, then you need to have an Office 365 account.

$99 a year is a lot to pay just to have the ability to create and review redline edits on your iPhone or iPad.  But of course, you get a lot more than that with an Office 365 account.  That $99 gives you the premium features in the Excel and PowerPoint apps on up to five devices, and also gives you the full Office software (Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, etc.) on up to five computers, plus other features, all of which is explained on the Microsoft website.

Conclusion

I am incredibly impressed with Microsoft’s new Word app, and I think that every attorney using an iPhone or iPad should get it.  Even if you never plan to edit a Word document on your iPhone, you should get this app just so that you can easily review any Word document that someone else emails to you.  The Microsoft Word app is without a doubt the best way to look at a Word document on an iPhone or iPad.

With a free Microsoft account, you can also make edits to a document.  And with an Office 365 account — which you may already have if you use the Office software on your computer in your office — you can access all of the premium features including full Track Changes access so that you can create redline edits to a document and can accept or reject someone else’s redline edits.

Longtime iPhone users have been waiting a long time for this moment, but now we finally have an excellent way to work with Word files on an iPhone.  If a client or colleague emails a Word document to you while you are out of the office, you can now easily read and edit the document on your iPhone.  And if you have your iPad with you, you can take advantage of the larger screen to work with the document.  Either way, the Word app lets you do many of the same things that you could do with a document using the full version of Word on a PC or Mac, and perhaps more importantly, the powerful Word app lets you do just about everything that you are ever likely to want to do on a mobile device.

Click here to get Microsoft Word (free): 

vOnce upon a time, all iPad styluses had rubbery tips about the size of your fingertip.  Then then smart folks at Adonit figured out that you could make a stylus with a tiny, 1.9 mm tip, but have the tip emit a signal that is sensed by the iPad as if it is a larger tip touching the screen.  The Adonit Jot Script, which came out in late 2013 and which I reviewed in early 2014, was groundbreaking.  Other companies followed Adonit’s lead, and nowadays, there are quite a few companies selling active (powered) styluses with tiny tips.

One of the most recent entries in the active stylus market is the Bamboo Stylus fineline by Wacom.  Wacom is no Johnny-come-lately in this market; the Wacom Bamboo Stylus duo is now on the third generation and has been widely considered one of the very best non-active styluses on the market.  And Wacom has been making pen-like inputs for computers since the 1980s.  I was interested to see Wacom’s take on an active stylus for the iPad, and after Wacom sent me a free review unit a few weeks ago, I’ve been trying out the Bamboo Stylus fineline quite a bit.  Although this stylus suffers from some of the same drawbacks as the Adonit Jot Script, such as the fact that the hard stylus tip makes some noise every time you tap the screen, this is an excellent stylus that seems to me better than the Adonit Jot Script in every single way.

Design

The tip of the Bamboo Stylus fineline is 1.9 mm, the same as the tip on the Adonit Jot Script. 

The fine tip is what makes active styluses is so nice.  The tip is so tiny that you can see precisely where you are going to write on the screen, and you feel like you are actually writing with a pen.  With traditional styluses, you often feel like you are using the thick tip of a crayon.

Like all active styluses, the Bamboo Stylus fineline is thicker than a non-active stylus.  I suppose the electronics inside requires some extra space.  The Adonit Jot Script has a diameter of 12 mm; the Bamboo Stylus fineline is tapered with a thickness that ranges from 10 mm to 11.9 mm.  I only slightly notice the difference in diameter when I immediately go back and forth between the two styluses.  In normal use, they both seem to be about the same thickness.  The Wacom Bamboo Stylus fineline and the Adonit Jot Script are the same length, except that the Wacom stylus is longer when you put the cap on it.

Speaking of the cap, one aspect of the Adonit Jot Script that I do not like is that it lacks a clip.  Not only does this mean that you cannot easily put it in a shirt pocket, it also means that the stylus is perfectly round and easily rolls off of a table.  The Bamboo Stylus fineline has a removable cap that offers some protection for the tip — albeit protection that may be unnecessary, as I have never seen any damage to the Adonit Jot Script tip.  But more importantly, you can place that cap on the back of the stylus when you are using it, and becuase the cap has a clip on it, the Bamboo Stylus fineline doesn’t roll around.

Bluetooth technology

An active stylus doesn’t need to include Bluetooth technology to work.  For example, the Cregle Ink, which I reviewed this past May, doesn’t have Bluetooth.  (I have just started to test the next generation Cregle active stylus called the Cregle Ink R; it also doesn’t have Bluetooth, and I’ll be ready to review that stylus in a few weeks.)  But if a stylus does have Bluetooth technology, it can have some extra features when you use an app that knows how to talk to the stylus.

For example, with both the Adonit Jot Script and the Bamboo Stylus fineline, if you use an app that is designed to work with the stylus, you can tell the app not to display virtual ink on the screen unless it came from the stylus.  Thus, you can use your finger to tap any menu, but if your finger or palm accidentally touches the main part of the screen, the app will just ignore that input; only strokes that you make with the stylus are registered.  It’s a neat feature that works well with both styluses.

The Bamboo Stylus fineline takes this a step farther by also including a button near the front of the stylus, located in a spot that is easy and natural to tap with your index finger.  Apps can do whatever they want with the button.  For example, in Wacom’s own Bamboo Paper app, you can configure the app to Undo every time you tap the button, an incredibly quick and easy way to correct while you are writing. Other apps like the current version of Noteshelf (which I reviewed back in 2012) can also use the button for Undo.  In the Bamboo Paper app, you can also make the app switch to the eraser mode as long as you are holding down the button, making it incredibly quick and easy to fix mistakes and then switch right back to the pen mode.  That’s a neat trick that I wish that Noteshelf also supported.

The Bamboo Stylus fineline also uses Bluetooth technology to make the stylus pressure sensitive, when you are using an app that is designed to work with the stylus.  In the Bamboo Paper app, you can hold down the stylus and make the ink thicker, or apply less pressure to get a thinner line.  I don’t use a stylus to draw artistic pictures; I use it to take notes.  Thus, for the way that I use a stylus, I don’t see any real advantage to a pressure sensitive stylus, but I suppose that it is nice to have.  Here is an example of a line that I drew in which I pressed down harder in the middle of the line:

Right now, there are not many apps that work with the Wacom Bamboo Stylus fineline (you can see a list here), but Wacom is a well-known brand, so I expect that we will see more support in the future.  For example, Wacom says that the GoodReader app is adding support, which will be nice since that is the app that I often use to highlight and annotate cases that I download from Westlaw.

[UPDATE 2/18/2015:  I just noticed that when you are using this stylus with an app designed to work with it and which has the latest SDK from Wacom, you get an alert when there is a firmware update available for the stylus along with a link to download a free app that updates your stylus.  I just updated it, and it seems to be doing a better job with diagonal lines on my iPad Air 2.  It is great to see a stylus get better over time.]

Rechargable Battery

Active styluses require power to work.  Some active styluses, like the Adonit Jot Script and the Cregle Ink, use a battery.  It is a pain to have to carry around an extra battery, but if you run out of power it is simple to just swap out a new one.  Other active styluses, like this Bamboo Stylus fineline and Lynktec’s Rechargeable Apex Fine Point Active Stylus which I reviewed in June, are rechargeable.

This is certainly a matter of personal preference, but I prefer to use a rechargeable stylus.  It seems somewhat wasteful to me to have to throw out a battery and replace it with a new one, plus I have to remember to carry around a battery.  The Bamboo Stylus fineline is rechargeable via an included Micro-USB cord.  I already carry around a Micro-USB cord in my briefcase because I use it to charge so many other iPhone and iPad accessories (such as external batteries) so I don’t need to carry around anything extra to charge the Bamboo Stylus fineline. 

Recharging is easy.  Just pull off the rubber cover at the back end of the stylus and plug it in.  Wacom says that the battery lasts for up to 26 hours.  I’ve never come close to running the battery all the way down to 0%, so you should be able to use this stylus in an all day long meeting and then just recharge it at night.

One minor complaint that I have with this stylus is that the rubber end pops off pretty easily, which made me afraid that it might one day break off.  That hasn’t happened yet, but I do wish that the rubber cap stayed better attached when not charging the stylus.

The disadvantages

There are two major disadvantages of this stylus.  The first is a problem that exists with all active styluses.  When you draw a diagonal line, the line is wavy if you move your stylus too slowly.  For example, in the next image, I made a series of Xs in the GoodNotes app.  If I draw the X quickly, it looks fine.  If I draw the diagonal lines more slowly, the lines are wavy.

This issue is counter-intuitive.  It seems that if I write more slowly, I ought to write more neatly.  But with an active stylus and a diagonal line, the opposite is true.

This is a problem that I have seen with every active stylus, and unless Apple changes the iPad hardware to work better with active styluses, I doubt that this problem will go away.  It isn’t a major problem for me, but I’ll admit that sometimes I reach for a traditional stylus like the Wacom Bamboo Stylus duo instead of an active stylus just because I don’t feel like dealing with this while I am taking notes.

The second problem that I have with both this stylus and the Adonit Jot Script is noise.  Because the stylus has a hard tip, and because the iPad has a glass screen, every time that you tap the screen, you hear a tap.  I even recorded a video of this noise with the Adonit Jot Script, and I’ll embed it right here because the Bamboo Stylus fineline is just as noisy:

In some environments, the tap tap tap sound on your screen is no big deal.  But if I am in a meeting or a deposition or a courtroom or some other relatively quiet environment and I want to use a stylus to take notes on my iPad, this noise virtually always deters me from using a stylus that has a hard tip.  And this is really a shame because otherwise, I really like the way that the Wacom Bamboo Stylus (and the Adonit Jot Script) write on the iPad screen.  It’s not that the noise is super loud, but it is loud enough to make me self-conscious when using the stylus.

Price

Active styluses are more expensive than traditional styluses.  The Adonit Jot Script costs $75.  It is nice that the Wacom Bamboo Stylus fineline is cheaper, only $59 on Amazon.  This is still a lot of money to spend on a stylus, but at least you save a little money as compared to the Adonit stylus.

Colors

The stylus that Wacom sent me is gray, and that’s probably the color that I would have picked anyway.  But if you want more color, the stylus also comes in blue, pink, orange and silver.

Conclusion

If you can get past the issue that a hard tip makes noise when tapped on a glass surface, the Wacom Bamboo Stylus fineline is an excellent stylus.  Although more expensive than a traditional stylus, you get the tiny 1.9 mm tip plus extra features that result from Bluetooth, the button and the pressure sensitive tip. 

I suspect that anyone looking at this stylus will also be looking at the Adonit Jot Script.  Adonit gets the credit for creating this category, but I think that the Wacom Bamboo Stylus fineline is better in every way.  You get more features thanks to the button and the pressure sensitive tip (when using compatible apps), it is nice to have a cap for the tip, it is especially nice that the cap includes a clip, and this stylus is even a little cheaper ($59 versus $75).  I also consider it an advantage that the Wacom Bamboo Stylus fineline is rechargeable, although I can see how others might prefer to use and replace the AAA battery in the Adonit Jot Script, so you’ll have to decide which you prefer. 

Click here to get the Wacom Bamboo Stylus fineline on Amazon ($59.00)

In 1963, Martin Luther King proclaimed “I have a dream” in Washington D.C., giving one of the most famous speeches of all time.  Before uttering those four famous words, he said:  “Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice.”  Yesterday, Apple CEO Tim Cook wrote a moving essay on equality, published in Bloomberg BusinessWeek, in which he announced publicly for the first time that he is gay.  He said “I’m proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me” because of how it shaped him as a person.  Cook is a famously private person, but he thought that his coming out might help others.  “So if hearing that the CEO of Apple is gay can help someone struggling to come to terms with who he or she is, or bring comfort to anyone who feels alone, or inspire people to insist on their equality, then it’s worth the trade-off with my own privacy.”  Cook concluded his essay:  “When I arrive in my office each morning, I’m greeted by framed photos of Dr. King and Robert F. Kennedy.  I don’t pretend that writing this puts me in their league.  All it does is allow me to look at those pictures and know that I’m doing my part, however small, to help others.  We pave the sunlit path toward justice together, brick by brick.  This is my brick.”  It is a beautiful, moving essay and I encourage you to read it. 

As a lawyer, I am both fascinated and inspired to be alive during a time when marriage equality is becoming the law across the nation.  We’re not reading about landmark opinions in a law school casebook; we are living through the process of watching the courts make groundbreaking law on almost a daily basis.  It’s a gradual process, and as a proud New Orleanian, I’m embarrassed that one of the most recent unfortunate opinions came from the Eastern District of Louisiana.  But by the time that my kids are adults, I suspect that they and their peers will consider discrimination based upon sexual orientation as obviously wrong as we today consider the notion that some people once had to sit in a different section of a bus or restaurant (or not be served at all) simply because of the color of their skin.  During this historic time when we are watching public opinion and jurisprudence evolve, I’m proud of Tim Cook for sacrificing his privacy to add one more brick to the path, and it makes me even happier to use Apple products.  The Apple logo may no longer sport the six colors that it once did, but I love that the company and its leaders embrace the principles of equality that the rainbow colors often represent.

And now, off the soapbox, and on to the news of note from the past week:

• New York attorney Nicole Black talks about how Judge Janet Neff (W.D. Mich.) uses two iPads and other technology while she is on the bench in an article on Above the Law.
• Clio CEO Jack Newton announced at MILOfest last Friday that you can now use TouchID to authenticate yourself with the Clio app.
• When I reviewed the iPad Air 2, I didn’t discuss the camera because my guess is that most attorneys would not use it much, except perhaps to scan a document.  But if you are interested in the camera, Allyson Kazmucha of iMore compares it to the camera on the iPhone 6, with lots of side-by-side pictures.  The iPhone 6 camera is better overall, but the iPad Air 2 camera more than holds its own.
• If you want to read a comprehensive review of the iPad Air 2, Rene Ritchie and Serenity Caldwell of iMore wrote a good one.
• If you want some good examples for why you shouldn’t use public WiFi in a cafe without using VPN to protect your traffic (such as Cloak), read this article by Maurits Martijn, originally written in Dutch for De Correspondent and translated into English by Jona Meijers.
• There were tons of interesting articles written this week about the new Apple Pay system and a consortium of retailers, led by WalMart, who don’t want to implement Apple Pay because they are working on their own system that bypasses credit cards (and credit card fees).  Glenn Fleishman wrote an excellent article on the situation on Six Colors…
• …and Security expert Rich Mogull wrote this article for TidBITS…
• …and Kirk Lennon wrote this good article…
• …and Andy Ihnatko of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote this article.
• Microsoft announced on its OneDrive blog that Office 365 customers now get unlimited OneDrive storage at no extra cost.
• And finally, if you want your iPhone and iPad to look extra spooky for Halloween, or any other occasion, you can get the $6.99 iPrank Cracked Screen Sticker Pack from ThinkGeek:

Although I have tried various cases from time to time, for most of the over six years that I have been using an iPhone, I have not used a case.  I haven’t liked the added bulk, and I preferred the feel of the iPhone itself in my hand.  I suspect that I am in the minority — it seems like most folks I see do have a case for their iPhone — so I wanted to warn you at the outset that this is a case review from someone who for the most part does not like cases.  Nevertheless, I purchased a $45 Apple iPhone 6 Leather Case from my local Apple Store almost three weeks ago because the iPhone 6 is larger than prior iPhones, and thus a little harder to get your hand around, and thus a little more susceptible to being dropped, and all of this is compounded by the new curved edge which feels great in your hand but is also somewhat more slippery.  It seemed like I was much more likely to drop an iPhone 6 than any prior iPhone, so perhaps I should consider a case.  But I also wanted something that was as slim as possible so as to not add too much to the size of the iPhone, and I also wanted something that seemed nice.  Apple’s Leather Case seemed to meet all of these needs.  Overall, I like this case.

Slim

One of the main things that I like about this case is that is so slim.  I was at dinner the other night with a friend who I swore was using an iPhone 6 Plus.  It turned out that it was just an iPhone 6, but he had it in OtterBox case — a case that provides a lot of protection, but which substantially adds to the size of the iPhone.  My friend thought it was the perfect case, telling me that in his profession (he is a wine maker) his phone is always getting knocked around and is easily dropped.  But I spend most days in my office, and even when I am out of the office for a deposition or a hearing, I virtually never get wet and slippery wine on my hands.  I don’t need that much protection.

This case is very slim.  It doesn’t cover the face of the iPhone at all.  The case wraps around the back and three sides, and while I have trouble measuring something this thin, it seems to be around a millimeter thick.  Thus, this case does not add very much bulk to the iPhone.

Friction and Feel

The second thing that I like about this case is that the leather provides a lot more friction.  An iPhone 6 is much less likely to slip out of your hands when it is in this case.  But just as importantly, the leather also feels nice in your hand (and, in my opinion, looks good too).  I don’t want to hold a brand new iPhone in a case that makes it feel cheap and plasticky.

Having said that, I still prefer the feel of the curved edges of the iPhone 6 in my hand.  The problem is, those curved edges are more slippery.  So as I have been using this case over the last few weeks, while I have tried to force myself to keep the case on the iPhone most of the time to evaluate the case as much as possible for this review, I still “cheated” and slipped the iPhone out of the case from time to time when I was sitting at my desk or someplace else where I wasn’t moving around a lot, so I was pretty sure that I was unlikely to drop the iPhone, and I just wanted to appreciate the design and feel of the iPhone itself.

And this is a good point to note that while this case fits the iPhone like a tight glove, it is also incredibly quick and easy to slip this case on and off of the iPhone.  If you are like me, and you don’t think that you want to use a case all of the time, this is a very nice feature.

Flat on the desk

Because the iPhone 6 has a camera that protrudes every so slightly from the back of the iPhone, when you set down an iPhone 6 on its back on a flat surface, such as a desk, there is a very slight wobble — less than I feared it would be when I first learned that the camera sticks out a little, but still somewhat noticeable.  One advantage of this case is that it is just thick enough to let the iPhone lie flat against a table.  I usually hold my iPhone in my left hand when I am using it, but for those rare occasions when I am tapping my iPhone screen while it is on a table, it was nicer to have it stay completely flat as a result of this case.

Protection

The inside of this case has a microfiber lining, so using this case on your iPhone, and slipping it on and off of your iPhone, is not going to scratch it up.  Likewise, when the iPhone is in this case, you don’t need to worry about scratching the back or sides of the iPhone if it moves against a hard object.  I once dropped my iPhone 5s between two chairs, and while the iPhone continued to work fine after the fall, the edge of the iPhone got nicked — minor damage, but nevertheless one that I noticed.  That wouldn’t have happened if I had been using a case like this.

I cannot comment upon how much protection this case provides if you drop your phone.  It is thin enough that I suspect that it would soften the blow of impact a little bit but not as much as other cases that are much thicker and made of shock-absorbing materials.  And this case doesn’t protect the front of the iPhone at all.  I’ve never shattered an iPhone screen so hopefully I won’t do so on my iPhone 6 either, but I’ve seen enough iPhones with cracked screens to know that it can and does happen to people — and this case is unlikely to guard against that.  So this might not be the right case to give your teenager.

I stated above that this case surrounds three sides of the iPhone.  The bottom is largely exposed, except at the far edges.  There is a big advantage to this approach; it means that the headphone port, microphone, Lightning connector and speaker are fully exposed, and thus the case doesn’t interfere with their use.  If you use a dock with your iPhone 6, there is a good chance that it will work with the Apple case but not other cases that have a hole around the Lightning port, and the same is true if you use a third-party Lightning cable with a thicker plug.  This design decision does leave the bottom of the iPhone exposed so it could get scratched, but I think Apple made the right choice to maximize the utility of everything located at the bottom of the iPhone 6.

Speaking of protection, I should talk about protecting the look of the case itself.  I’ve read reports that similar leather cases from Apple for the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5s would wear down over time in the places where you handle the case the most.  I haven’t noticed yet.  Moreover, even if it did wear down a little, I don’t think that would bother me anyway; leather is one of those materials that I think gains character as it shows wear from use.

Utility

For the most part, your iPhone is just as useful with this case on as it is when it is naked.  As noted above, all of the bottom ports are exposed, and while the buttons on the left and right side are covered, they are still easy to press.

But in two ways, I find my iPhone less useful with this case on.  The first issue that I have is with the swipe from the left side gesture.  In many apps in iOS 8, you can place your finger on the far left side of the screen and swipe towards the right to go back.  You need to make sure that you start all the way on the far edge for this gesture to work; otherwise the iPhone thinks that you are just moving your finger from some part of the left side of the screen to some part of the right side of the screen.  For example, in Safari, moving your finger from some point on the left side towards the right will scroll the page horizontally, but if you start with your finger all the way on the edge of the screen (or even past the left edge of the screen) and then swipe to the right, you will go back to the prior page.  Although that gesture works on prior models of the iPhone, it works better than ever on the iPhone 6 because of the curved edge, which makes it even easier to start with your finger at the far left of the screen.  However, because this case has a raised edge, it is actually harder to perform this gesture; it is harder to start with your finger all the way on the left edge.  I found it frustrating to start using my iPhone 6 without a case, where this gesture was easier than ever, and then to switch to a case where the gesture was harder than ever.  I suspect that this issue is not unique to Apple’s case and it probably happens with all cases.  Nevertheless, it was annoying.

Second, the mute switch on the left of the phone is harder to access with this case.  Without the case, I can easily flip the switch up and down.  With the case, I have to work harder to use my fingernail in the hole to then flip the switch.  Again, this is likely a problem with most iPhone 6 cases, unless there is one with a very large hole for the mute switch.

I’ll also note that there is a downside to the additional friction that you get with this case.  I typically keep my iPhone 6 in the front pocket of my shirt.  It is a little harder to get the iPhone in and out of my pocket with this case because of the added friction.  It slides in and out more easily without a case.  Having said that, the same slipperiness makes the iPhone easier to drop, so this is more of a trade-off than a true disadvantage of the case.

Colors

I purchased the black version of the case, but you can also get the leather case in red, midnight blue, olive brown or soft pink.

What color you get is obviously just a personal preference.  Having said that, I’ve seen scattered reports on the Internet that the pink case is more likely to get dirty or otherwise discolored with use.  Although I haven’t seen this first hand, it wouldn’t surprise me if that happened.  I doubt that this would occur with a darker color, such as the black one that I purchased.

Conclusion

I forced myself to use the Apple iPhone 6 Leather Case almost 24/7 for almost three weeks to get the most experience with this product to write a review.  I’m glad I did so, because it resulted in me really getting to know this case.  Overall, I like it.  If you don’t want to add a lot of bulk to the iPhone, but you do want some basic protection against scratching it up, and most importantly you want the iPhone 6 to be less slippery in your hand, this may be the case for you.  As you would expect for case made by Apple itself, the leather looks and feels nice, and it is a perfect fit for the iPhone 6.

I haven’t compared this case against cases sold by others.  Nick Guy of The Wirecutter did do so, and while he liked the Apple case, he preferred the NGP case by Incipio because it is thin but provides all-around protection, even to the bottom of the iPhone.  And that case is only $16.99 on Amazon, much cheaper than the $45 Apple charges, although you would expect to pay less for polyurethane than for leather.

Now that this review is written, I know that I won’t use this case all of the time.  I generally prefer the feel of the curved edges of the iPhone without a case, plus I like that it is easier to perform the back gesture without the case.  For days that I am mostly in my office, I think I can get by without the case.  But when I am traveling — whether it be flying across the county for a deposition or walking down the street to the courthouse — I think that I will use this case most of the time.  I have grown to really like the larger size of the iPhone 6 screen, but the size and shape is certainly a little harder to hold and more slippery, and with this case I am far less likely to drop my iPhone, plus I have some protection if I do drop it.

If you are looking for a slim, nice case for the iPhone, the Apple iPhone 6 Leather Case is worthy of your consideration, and I’m happy that I bought mine.

Click here to get the Apple iPhone 6 Leather Case from the Apple Store ($45.00)

Stanley David Murray is an attorney in Arizona whose practice areas include personal injury and family law at both the trial court and appellate level.  He is also the author of Time Limitations Applicable to Civil Actions and Procedures in the Arizona Superior Courts, published by the State Bar of Arizona.  Stan and I have recently been trading emails to discuss iPhone 6 cases.  Stan was particularly interested in a case that can also serve as a wallet.  I reviewed the iFlip back in 2011, which does this, but I don’t believe that there is a model for the iPhone 6.  Stan ultimately bought the INVELLOP iPhone 6 wallet case which is sold on Amazon for less than $13.  Stan was nice enough write a review of the case and let me share it with other iPhone J.D. readers.  Take it away, Stan!

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I have always used a case to protect my purchase of the latest iteration from Apple of its iPhone products, starting with my first acquisition of an iPhone 3G.  I have seen too many scratched, cracked, and shattered smartphones from my friends and colleagues to know better than to operate an iPhone, or any other smartphone, without some protection.  

But iPhones are just another gadget that we attorneys must carry with us whenever and wherever we travel, be it to court, meetings and even social events with friends and family.  When I go to court, I can use my trusty briefcase (more of a man purse) to stash my iPhone, iPad, wallet, car keys, reading glasses and maybe a client file for easy access while in court.  However, when it comes to social events, such as lunch, happy hour, or an evening out, carrying a briefcase so I can cart around all of these necessities is just not the right thing to do. 

On social occasions, I can usually limit my load to keys, wallet and iPhone, but I have to carry them as I am not a back pocket type.  Wallets are too thick, with all the credit cards, cash, licenses, insurance cards, etc., that are in mine, and cause a protruding back pocket that can look ridiculous.  And iPhones simply were not meant to be put in back pockets (“Bendgate” notwithstanding).  Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a product that could cut out one of these necessary items yet still allow me to access them when I am without my briefcase?

Enter the iPhone wallet case, for lack of a better term of art description.  A wallet case is an accessory that allows you to protect your iPhone, just like any other case, but has the added feature of providing you with room to store your driver’s license, dollar bills, credit cards, etc., alleviating the need to carry around a separate wallet.  Only problem, once you got all those cards and cash stuffed into the wallet case, and put your iPhone in, your wallet case was now so thick that even if you could fold it closed, it still was too thick to handle, let alone try to put it in your pocket.

But the iPhone 6 has renewed my interest in wallet cases for the reason that Apple Pay has now arrived.  With Apple Pay, you can store up to 8 credit/debit cards on your iPhone 6, so before long you may not need to carry around those cards in your wallet, or wallet case.  As a result of storing my credit/debit cards on my iPhone, I have been able to return to using a slimmer wallet case even with my iPhone 6 included.  I have plenty of room to put my driver’s license, State Bar card, health and auto insurance cards, along with some dollar bills, in the wallet case without the awkward and clumsy looking wallet cases of the past.  Now when I go out socially, all I need to carry are my keys and iPhone wallet case, and at least I can put my keys in my front pocket.  Much better.

The wallet cases presently on the market for the iPhone 6 are not that expensive either.  I purchased an Invellop iPhone 6 wallet case for $13.00 on Amazon and it has all the features I need.

This case even has a kickstand so that you can place your iPhone 6 in portrait mode for easier viewing. 

Even though it is made with some kind of fake leather product, it still looks svelte, cool and impressive.   Other wallet cases from different makers can be found in a range of prices and features, on Amazon, such as the Caseology wallet case for only $9.99, the Spigen wallet case for $16.99, and the i-Blason Case for $19.95.  I was surprised to see that most of these wallet cases sell for a lot lower price than the non-wallet cases; the last one I bought cost over $35.00, for basically a plain rubber cover case.

I have found a renewed interest in wallet cases with the new iPhone 6 and Apple Pay and hope you too can avoid those awkward moments of juggling your phone, wallet and keys just to go out and have good time, without your briefcase in tow.

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Thanks, Stan! 

Click here to get the INVELLOP iPhone 6 wallet case on Amazon ($12.96)

For any attorney looking to use a tablet computer, the iPad Air 2 is the best device on the market today.  Apple started with everything that made the iPad Air such an excellent tablet, and then added a bunch of little features, each of which is nice on their own, and when taken together results in an amazing device. I wrote about the iPad Air 2’s major new features when Apple first announced the product.  I ordered one as soon as it was announced.  I have been using my iPad Air 2 since this past Thursday, and it has been a joy to use.  (I’m using the Wi-Fi (no cellular), 128GB, Space Gray model.)  I know that a large number of attorneys are using iPads that are two years or more old and are thinking about upgrading to something lighter and faster.  You are all going to love the iPad Air 2.  Here is why.

Touch ID

Since I first started using an iPad back in 2010, almost every single time that I have picked it up to use it, I have had to first type in my passcode.  I know that many non-lawyers turn off the passcode requirement to make it faster and easier to use the iPad, but that simply cannot be an option for attorneys who store privileged and confidential attorney-client communications and work product on their devices. 

I have loved using Touch ID on my iPhone 5s for the past year because it is so fast and easy to unlock the phone.  I press the home button to wake my iPhone, and in the time it takes to do that, the iPhone recognizes my fingerprint on the home button and also unlocks it for me.  So in one motion, I both awaken and unlock the iPhone.  It works a little differently on my iPad Air 2 because I use an Apple Smart Cover.  When I open up the cover, the magnets automatically turn on my iPad’s screen and I am immediately shown the keypad to enter my passcode.  Instead typing any numbers, I just place my finger on the home button and the iPad quickly unlocks.  Becuase I didn’t need to press the button to unlock the screen when I use the Smart Cover, Touch ID isn’t quite as magical on the iPad Air 2 as it is on the iPhone 5s, but it is still a time-saver and more convenient then entering my numbers.  And on those times when my iPad wasn’t covered with the Apple Smart Cover, the function works just like on the iPhone 5s — I press the button to turn on the screen and at the same time my fingerprint is scanned.  

By the way, the iPad Air 1 version of the Apple Smart Cover also works on the iPad Air 2.

Touch ID can also be used with apps on the iPad Air 2.  One of my favorite apps is 1Password, and Touch ID is amazing on that app.  Instead of typing my long master password every time I want to look up my username and password for a website or some other service, I can just place my finger on the Touch ID button and the 1Password app starts right up.  I still need to enter my full master password occasionally, such as after I reset the iPad, but 95% of the time, my fingerprint does it all.

I have yet to make a purchase using an iPad app that supports Apple Pay, but I presume that will work well.  I have purchased apps from the App Store using Touch ID and it works just as seamlessly as it has worked on my iPhone 5s for the last year.

So overall, Touch ID on the iPad Air 2 is somewhat less useful to me than Touch ID on my iPhone 5s or iPhone 6, in part because I use an Apple Smart Cover, and in part because you cannot make a purchase in a physical store using Apple Pay on an iPad the same way that you can do so with an iPhone 6.  But even though Touch ID on the iPad is not quite as useful as Touch ID on the iPhone, it is still a very nice feature that makes the iPad faster and easier to use, multiple times every day.  And as a bonus, you also feel like you are living in the future, which is always nice.

Better display

Apple has been using a great-looking retina display on the iPad since March of 2012.  The iPad Air 2 improves upon that display.

There are multiple technical reasons that the iPad Air 2 screen is even better than the iPad Air, but to my eyes, they both look like excellent screens and I really only notice one difference:  glare.  Previous models of the iPad Air had a glossy glass screen that easily reflected overhead lights.  I work in an office that has overhead fluorescent lights, and I frequently find myself having to adjust the angle of my iPad when it is reflecting an overhead light.  The iPad Air 2 substantially reduces glare.  You can see it for yourself in the following picture that I took with my iPhone:  the iPad Air 1 is on the left and the iPad Air 2 is on the right.

As you can see, the glare on the first generation iPad Air is such that you cannot really read text that is covered up by the reflection of the overhead light.  On the iPad Air 2, although I can still see the reflection, the reduced glare means that I can read the text.  I still might adjust my screen to get to an angle where I no longer see the overhead light, but unlike older iPads, I don’t need to do it on the iPad Air 2.

The reduced glare seems to also help somewhat if you are looking at an iPad outside in the sun, but that is not something that I ever do in real life so I only tried it once this past weekend to see what difference it might make.  Suffice it to say that the iPad is not a good tablet for reading outdoors, and that remains true with the iPad Air 2, even if it is a little easier to read outside.  If you want to read an e-book at the beach, get a Kindle Voyage.  Save the iPad for work and pleasure when you are indoors or at least on a covered porch.

The right size and weight

iPad Air 2 is the thinnest and lightest iPad ever.  To compare:

• iPad Air 2:  6.1 mm + 0.96 lb
• iPad Air 1:  7.5 mm + 1.034 lb
• iPad 3 and iPad 4:  9 mm + 1.44 lb
• iPad 2:  9 mm + 1.325 lb
• iPad 1:  13.4 mm + 1.5 lb

What do those numbers mean in the real world?  In my opinion, the iPad 1 through the iPad 4 were thick and heavy enough that they would start to hurt your hand when you held them for an extended period of time.  In a typical law practice you are dealing with cases, briefs, contracts, exhibits and other documents that are somewhat lengthy, so you need to hold an iPad for an extended period of time.  For that reason, I used to use both an iPad 3 and an (original) iPad mini, using the iPad mini for extended reading, but that carried with it the downside of being a smaller, non-retina display.  Last year’s iPad Air 1 was a major step forward in the size of the iPad.  For the first time, there was a full-sized iPad that was thin and light enough that I found it no longer necessary to use an iPad mini when I wanted to hold a tablet in my hand to read for an extended period of time. 

This year, the iPad Air 2 is a little lighter than the iPad Air 1, but in practice I don’t really notice the weight difference.  What I do notice is the thinness.  It’s not something that is easy to see.  The iPad Air 2 (in the left in this next picture) only looks slightly thinner than the iPad Air 1 (in the right):

But that slight difference is noticeable when you hold the iPad.  The 7.5 mm iPad Air 1 is thin enough that I don’t mind holding it for an extended period, but the additional thinness of the iPad Air 2 makes me feel that this is the right size, the thickness that the iPad has always wanted to have.  No prior iPad has been this comfortable to hold.  You feel more like you are holding a thick piece of glass than a tablet computer.  If you have an iPhone 6, you know how incredibly thin that phone is and how good it feels in your hand as a result.  But at 6.9 mm, the iPhone 6 is even thicker than the 6.1 mm iPad Air 2:

If you are already used to the iPad Air 1, this year’s iPad Air 2 feels like it weighs about the same but has a nicer feel in your hand.  If you have been using an iPad 4 or earlier iPad, the iPad Air 2 is a substantially lighter iPad that is considerably easy to hold.

More powerful

The iPad Air 2 has a brand new processor that Apple calls the A8X.  It is even more powerful than the A8 processor in the iPhone 6, and it is substantially faster than the processors in past iPads.  As I noted in my preview of the iPad Air 2, a faster iPad is a more powerful iPad.  You don’t see spinning circles or hourglasses on an iPad like you do on a computer, but when an iPad is faster it is more responsive, you can be more efficient and the experience of using the iPad is more pleasant. 

In real world use, this is a fast, responsive iPad.  I threw everything I could think of at the iPad Air 2, and it worked like a champ.  Scrolling and zooming in documents and webpages is more responsive than ever before.  Complicated spreadsheets scrolled like butter in Microsoft Excel for iPad.  I bought and tried the new Pixelmator for iPad app, an app that brings sophisticated desktop-class photo editing to the iPad, and I was easily and quickly erasing stray people from photographs.  And sophisticated, graphics-intensive games played with no stuttering.  Other reviewers, such as Brad Molen at Engadget, ran objective performance tests that show that the iPad Air 2 is significantly faster than any other tablet, and can perform complicated video editing tasks over twice as fast as the iPad Air 1.  Suffice it to say that the powerful processor in the iPad Air 2 will keep up with you.

The iPad Air 2 also adds support for the 802.11ac WiFi standard.  If you have a newer router that supports this new standard — such as the sixth generation AirPort Extreme released by Apple in June of 2013, which is what I am using at my house — you can get incredibly fast performance, plus you can get reception in areas where older iPads might have trouble getting a signal.  Last night, as I was watching the Saints play the Packers on TV, my iPad Air 2 was getting download speeds of up to 125 Mbps, which suffice it to say is more than enough Wi-Fi bandwidth for anything that I might possibly want to do with my iPad.

Etc.

I don’t have the cellular version of the iPad Air 2 so I cannot comment from personal experience on that one.  I will note, however, that while I previously said that you could use the new Apple SIM to switch back and forth between AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile, I now see reports that once you activate with AT&T, AT&T locks the SIM to AT&T, so you would have to get different SIM to switch to Sprint or T-Mobile in a future month.  Suffice it to say that it is early days with the new Apple SIM and we are still learning what additional flexibility that it provides.

I also see that the iPad Air 2 is missing something that had been on every prior iPad: the switch on the side that you could configure to either mute or lock rotation.  Perhaps Apple couldn’t make it fit on the thinner iPad Air 2, but I’ll miss that switch.  I had mine set to lock rotation, which is a handy function when someone sends you a scanned document that is rotated incorrectly — just lock the rotation and then turn your iPad so that you can read the document — and is also handy when you want your iPad orientation to stay the same even though you may be leaning back on a sofa or in bed and turning your iPad in a way that makes it seem like you were trying to rotate the screen.  Fortunately the functions are still there; simply swipe up from any screen to bring up the Control Center, which on the iPad Air 2 has six buttons in the middle instead of traditional five buttons, and you’ll see both the mute and the lock rotation on-screen buttons.  Even so, I’ll miss having a physical switch on the side.

Conclusion

The iPad Air 2 is a nice improvement from the iPad Air in just about every way possible — easier to hold, faster and more responsive, and Touch ID is almost as useful on an iPad as it is on an iPhone 6.  I don’t think that many attorneys will see a need to upgrade from an iPad Air 1 to the iPad Air 2, but if you have an older iPad, you are going to love upgrading to the iPad Air 2.  And if you have been waiting to get your first iPad, now is an excellent time to do so.  Don’t get the 16GB model as that is probably going to be too tight to hold all of the apps and documents that you will want to use, especially if you also want to hold photos or videos.  Either the $599 64GB or the $699 128GB model would be great for any attorney.  (Add $130 plus a monthly carrier fee if you want a version that has cellular in addition to Wi-Fi.) 

Apple is now selling the iPad Air 1 at a discount — you can get a 32GB model for $449.  Even though that is a great price for a very nice tablet, I recommend that you spend the extra $150 to get this year’s model with twice as much space, a much faster processor, the thinner design and Touch ID.  You’ll likely use a new iPad for two years or more, and if you divide out $150 over 24 months you are only paying an extra $6.25 a month for a tablet that you will enjoy even more and that will hold up a lot longer.

An iPad is an incredibly useful tool for just about any attorney.  The iPad Air 2 improves upon everything that makes the iPad so great to begin with.  I recommend it without hesitation.

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This article won the BlawgWorld Pick of the Week award. The editors of BlawgWorld, a free weekly email newsletter for lawyers and law firm administrators, give this award to one article every week that they feel is a must-read for this audience.