Jeff Richardson

Yesterday afternoon, Apple released iOS 7.1, an important update to iOS, the operating system for iPhones and iPads.  I recommend that you install the update on all of your devices.  Here is information on how to update, and what is changed in iOS 7.1

How to update

The best way to update your device is on the device itself.  First, plug your device in to a power source, or if you can’t do that make sure that you have 50% power remaining on your iPhone or iPad.  Then tap on the Settings app and tap General.  Next tap Software Update and then follow the instructions to download and install iOS 7.1.

 

Alternatively, you can connect your device to a computer with iTunes and then update uisng iTunes.

I had no problems at all updating my iPhone 5s to iOS 7.1.  However, when I updated my iPad Air to iOS 7.1, I initially found that it was very slow to type with the keyboard, both the virtual keyboard and an external Bluetooth keyboard.  This is a problem that some folks also experienced after updating to iOS 7.0.  The fix for me was to go to Settings -> General -> Reset -> Reset Keyboard Dictionary.

Once you update, here are the improvements that I think will be most appreciated by lawyers.

Fewer crashes

One of the things that I always loved about the iPhone and iPad was that they almost never crashed.  But ever since I started using iOS 7 on an iPhone 5s and an iPad Air, I would sometimes be using my device and then suddenly see a black screen with the Apple logo on it, and I would have to wait for the home screen to reset.  Arrgh.  iOS 7.1 is supposed to fix that.  The update has been out less than 24 hours so I’ll have to wait and see if this is really fixed … but if it is, I’ll be very happy.

Calendar app

I use the Calendar app sometimes, but most of the time I use Fantastical 2, an app that provides a useful list view for your events and makes it fast and easy to make new entries.  (Here is my review of Fantastical 1.)  Recognizing that it can be useful to see a list of events, iOS 7.1 adds to improvements to the built-in Calendar app.  First, when you are looking at a specific day in the Calendar app, you can tap the new list icon at the top to switch to a list view of your events of the day. 

 

Second, when you are in the month view, you can tap the list icon at the top to also see a list of events underneath the calendar — a great improvement that lets you see both individual events and the month as a whole at the same time.

 

Bold is even bolder

iOS 7 includes a beautiful new system font, but I find it a little hard to read.  Fortunately, iOS 7 also provides ways to make the font larger and bolder, a look that I find more functional.  This post I wrote last year describes how to take advantage of this.

In iOS 7.1, if you turn on bold text (Settings app -> General -> Accessibility -> Bold Text), you also get bolder icons.  In the following two images, the first shows bold text turned off and the second shows bold text turned on.  Look at the icon row at the bottom to really see the difference.

 

I like the bolder icons for the same reason that I prefer bolder text — they might not be quite as pretty, but they are more obvious to my eyes and thus make my iPhone more functional.  But again, if you don’t like the look, you don’t have to use bold text.

The letters on the keyboard are also a little bit bolder than they were in iOS 7.0 when you have bold text turned off, and they are noticeably bolder when you have bold text turned on.

Siri adds hold to talk

In iOS 7, if you hold down the home button for a few seconds, Siri starts to listen to you.  In iOS 7.0, Siri decides when it thinks you are finished talking, and if you paused for a second, Siri may have stopped listening before you were done.  This can be very annoying.  In iOS 7.1, if you continue to hold down the home button after Siri launches, Siri will keep listening until you release the home button.  Thus, you can ensure that Siri will keep listening to you until you are finished talking.  I find this approach much better and I suspect that I will use it all the time now.

You can also use this feature when you use Siri to dictate a text message.  First tell Siri that you want to send a text — for example, say “Send a message to my wife.”  Then, when Siri asks you what you want to say in the message, hold down the button and keep holding it down until you are finished with your message.  You no longer have to worry about pausing as you think about what you want to say next.

Better Touch ID

If you use an iPhone 5s with the new fingerprint sensor, you know how useful this feature can be.  I find Touch ID to be incredibly accurate for my fingers, but sometimes I hear from people who find it to be more prone to errors.  Apple says that iOS 7.1 has improved Touch ID fingerprint recognition, so hopefully that will be helpful to those who have had problems.

Faster on iPhone 4

iOS 7 runs pretty slow on an iPhone 4.  If you are an attorney still using an iPhone 4, it is really time for you to upgrade to a new model.  But for those who do still use an iPhone 4, it is nice to see that iOS 7.1 runs a little faster on the iPhone 4.  Andrew Cunningham of Ars Technica explains the improvements.

The optional return of buttons

When the iPhone was new, a large touchscreen with few hardware buttons was something different for folks to get used to, so prior versions of the iOS made it very obvious when there was a virtual button that you could tap.  Now that we all understand how an iPhone works, iOS 7 took a bold new approach and removed most of the buttons, replacing them with words that you are supposed to just know that you can tap.  I’ve now gotten used to this approach, but if you want to return to the good old days of a virtual buttons, in the Settings app you can go to General -> Accessibility -> Button Shapes to turn on those virtual buttons again.  In the following two examples, look at what happens to General at the top left when I turn the option on.

 

I think I’m going to keep button shapes turned off now that I have gotten used to iOS 7, but I’m glad to see the option to bring back buttons for those who want it.

Etc.

Those are the major improvements that I think that many of you will appreciate, but there is a lot more that is new in iOS 7.1.  There are cosmetic changes everywhere that you look, such as slightly different icons that tend to use darker and richer colors, slight differences in the way that the keyboard looks (such as new caps and caps lock buttons), a new green circle (instead of a long bar) at the bottom of the keyboard in the Phone app that rotates when you tap it to dial, etc.

Apple also added support for CarPlay, a new service announced last week that allows new CarPlay-compatible cars work even better with an iPhone.

If you use an iPhone 5s, the camera app now has an Auto HDR feature that kicks in whenever you take a picture where HDR could be helpful, such as when you have lots of light in part of the picture but less light elsewhere.  And if you use the Auto Flash function in the Camera app, in iOS 7.1 a yellow box with a flash icon shows up at the bottom of the screen whenever the iPhone thinks a flash would help so that you know that when you press the shutter button that the flash will be used.

If someone tries to call you using FaceTime, you might have multiple devices ring at the same time, such as both your iPhone and iPad.  In iOS 7.1, once you answer on one device, the notifications are cleared on your other devices.

And there is lots more in iOS 7.1 such as improvements to iTunes Radio, better support for iBeacons, and many other small improvements. 

I’ll end with my favorite of the small changes, and will do so by quoting from the Apple release notes:  “Fixes display of Mail unread badge for numbers greater than 10,000.”  If you still have more than 10,000 unread messages in your Inbox, you’ve got much bigger problems to worry about than the badge on the Mail app … but I guess that the first step is recognizing that you have a problem, and maybe the new badge icon will help.

It’s been a great Mardi Gras season in New Orleans this year.  If you don’t live in New Orleans, hopefully you have had a chance to come see Mardi Gras for yourself at some point.  And if you don’t know much about a Mardi Gras parade, check out this post from last year.  Here are a few pictures that I took at various parades over the last two weeks using my iPhone 5s.

Happy Mardi Gras!

Every Summer, my family drives from New Orleans to the beaches of Alabama or Florida, and we often drive through the tiny town of Robertsdale, AL.  I never knew that was where Apple CEO Tim Cook grew up until I read this interesting article by Michael Finch of Al.com.  The article includes some fun pictures of what Cook looked like in high school.  There are equally silly pictures of me when I was that age, so I guess that means there is still a chance that I will one day be CEO of the largest company in the world.  While we wait for that to happen, here are the news items of note from the past week:

• Pennsylvania attorney Gina Rubel offers a few iPhone tips “for lawyers” — although frankly they are good tips for anyone — on the Avvo Lawyernomics blogs.
• Missouri attorney J. Clifton Smith offers tips on preserving text messages for use in Court.  The very few times that I have had to do this, I just took a screenshot by pressing the home button and the lock button at the same time.  The Tacoma, WA attorney who pointed me to this article, Dan Montopoli, tells me that he has good experiences using the iExplorer program mentioned in that article.
• John Edwards of Law Technology News recommends apps that you can use to protect confidential information.
• Philip Elmer-DeWitt reports for Fortune that, according to a study by the NPD Group, one-third of Apple’s U.S. sales in 2013 went to people making more than $100,000 a year.  And among those who make $100,000 or more a year, Apple had a 65% share.
• Kevin Tofel of GigaOm reports on the first hearing aid made to work with the iPhone and that doubles as an iOS headset.
• All of your phones in the U.S., including your iPhone, have an area code.  Megan Garber of The Atlantic wrote an interesting article on the history of the area code.
• I updated my review of the Nimblstand, an iPad stand that also holds the Apple Wireless Keyboard, to note that you can use the free iPad Air Sustainability Kit to use the product with an iPad Air.
• If you use multiple messaging apps — such as the built in Messages, Facebook, WhatsApp, etc. — Rene Ritchie of iMore suggests putting them all into one folder so that you can see all at once whether you have any new messages, because a red number shows up on the folder icon.  Good tip.
• And finally, Chris Wong was skiing when his iPhone fell out of his pocket and into the snow, where it was lost.  The battery died so he couldn’t find it with Find my iPhone, but he was able to find it the next week using a cheap metal detector he bought on Amazon.  Here is a video of his discovery, and it is fun to watch.  Jump to 2:30 if you just want to get to the part where he finds the iPhone, and then he subsequently dries it out and brings it back to life. (via The Loop)

Because you need to charge an iPhone and iPad almost every day, the power adapter and cable that came with your device is probably the most-used iPhone/iPad accessory that you own.  Nice, Inc. created CableKeeps to improve upon that accessory.  At home, CableKeeps can keep the extra cord out of your way.  When traveling, CableKeeps can keep everything together.  And best of all, CableKeeps has personality, which makes it fun to use and helps to identify your power adapter from the many others that might be, for example, plugged into a power strip in a conference room or into an outlet at an airport.  They cost $16 each, and Nice sent me free samples to review for iPhone J.D. — two for the iPad charger and one for the iPhone charger.

Each CableKeeps is made of stiff rubber and resembles some sort of aquatic animal.  The “face” of the CableKeeps holds your power adapter, with the prong coming out of the nose.  The back of each CableKeeps has fins, around which you can wrap your cord while it is plugged in to the adapter.  Wrap the cord all the way if you are traveling, or wrap the cord part of the way if you are just trying to shorten the cord and use a CableKeeps for cord management.

Each CableKeeps comes in six different colors:  light blue, dark blue, red, green, purple and orange.

iPhone:  Goldie

The CableKeeps designed for the iPhone charger is called Goldie, and it resembles a goldfish.  The sample sent to me is light blue, but I suspect that the orange one looks even more like a goldfish.  To use it, just slide the iPhone power adapter into the front of the CableKeeps. 

Plug your USB cord into the back of the power adapter, and then wrap it around the fins as needed.

The Goldie CableKeeps for the iPhone advertises one unique advantage:  you can also use it as a stand for the iPhone.  If you are in a hotel room and using a power outlet on the wall, this means that you can keep your iPhone propped up on the CableKeeps instead of sitting on your floor, where you might step on the iPhone by accident — which has almost happened to me on more than one occasion.  The CableKeeps website shows an iPhone 4S in portrait mode orientation on top of a CableKeeps.  With the taller iPhone 5/5s, that seems slightly unstable to me, but putting the iPhone on its side works well.

iPad:  Nibbles

There are two CableKeeps that work with the U.S. version of the iPad power adapter.  First, there is Nibbles, which reminds me of a piranha. 

Just like the iPhone version, you can wrap your cord around the fins.

iPad:  Gulp

The other CableKeeps that works with the U.S. version of the iPad power adapter is Gulp.  It looks like a whale, especially if you get the light or dark blue ones.

The Gulp model offers one advantage over Nibbles:  the Gulp is advertised to work with the international adapters found in Apple’s World Travel Adapter kit.  I don’t own any of those international plugs so I wasn’t able to test the claim, but based on the design of the Glup I have no doubt that it works.

Speaking of non-U.S. chargers, Nice also makes Spike for the European iPhone charger and Ink for the U.K. charger.

As noted above, all of the CableKeeps come in six different colors.  If you have multiple iPhone and iPad chargers in your house, you could use different colors to prevent disputes over which charger belongs to which person. 

CableKeeps has been around for a while — they were originally funded in a Kickstarter campaign back in 2011 — but they are new to me, and I really like them.  They add very little extra bulk to an iPhone or iPad power adapter, and they give you a way to wrap your cable during travel so that it doesn’t cause chaos in your briefcase, plus they keep your power adapter and your cable together.  And I also like the way that CableKeeps takes a boring power adapter and gives it a little personality — which is useful when you need to know which of many power adapters is yours, and just plain fun the rest of the time.

Some of the models and colors are available on Amazon, but to get the full selection, order directly from Nice.

Click here to get CableKeeps from Nice ($16.00)

As you may already know, Clio, a current sponsor of iPhone J.D., offers web-based practice management, time & billing and client collaboration services (including document management) for small and mid-sized law firms.  As a company that helps lawyers make the most of out of their technology, Clio is obviously interested in the technology that lawyers use, so for the last four years, Clio has conducted an annual survey on the use of Apple products being used by lawyers.  The 2013 Apple in Law Offices report is being released today, and I was interested to see what the survey reveals about iPhone and iPad use

Clio survey respondents are primarily attorneys at small law firms.  85% of the 835 individuals surveyed in 2013 work in law firms with 1 to 10 attorneys, primarily in the U.S.  And two-thirds of the survey respondents use Macintosh (the rest use Windows), which is in part because many of the survey respondents are folks who attend the annual MILOfest (Macs in Law Office) conference. 

The new report reveals that about 75% of the attorneys reported that they use an iPhone, and another 5% said that they plan to switch to an iPhone in 2014.  Almost 18% use Android, and a very small percentage use Windows or Blackberry phones.  This reflects an increase from the 2012 survey, when 62% were using an iPhone and more people were using Android (25%) and BlackBerry (7%). 

The new report also reveals that about 71% of the attorneys reported that they use an iPad.  This a slight increase from the 2012 survey, when about 70% reported that they used an iPad.  The 2012 numbers were a huge increase from the previous years:  in 2011 only 15% reported using an iPad, and in 2010 (the year that the iPad debuted) only 10% reported using an iPad.

Putting the numbers together, the Clio survey shows a greater percentage of attorneys using iPhones and iPads every year. 

Even though the Clio survey speaks mostly to what attorneys in solo and small law firms are using, especially those who use Macs, the Clio data is consistent with data that I see from other sources, such as the annual ABA Tech Survey and the annual ILTA Survey, in that it shows more and more lawyers using iPhones and iPads every year.  The main difference between the Clio survey and those others is that there is more iPad use in the population of attorneys responding to the Clo survey. 

I’m tempted to suggest that the difference is a result of the large number of Mac-using attorneys in the Clio survey population, but frankly I see such a large number of attorneys who use a PC in their law office (often because they are not given a choice) but who also use an iPad and/or an iPhone (that they typically choose t0 purchase on their own) that I think that the iPad and iPhone are just as attractive to attorneys who use PCs and they are to attorneys who use Macs.

Apple releases minor security updates for the iPhone and iPad from time to time.  When folks ask me if they should upgrade, I virtually always say yes.  Why not have an iPhone that is more secure, and less likely to be hacked by bad guys?  So this past Friday afternoon when Apple released iOS 7.0.6 and said that it was a security update, I updated my devices but otherwise did not think much of it.  (And no, you did not miss an update if, like me, you went from iOS 7.0.4 to 7.0.6; 7.0.5 was only released for iPhones sold in China.)

But over the weekend, there were two posts about this update by John Gruber of Daring Fireball (Post 1, Post 2) that I thought were pretty interesting.  According to PRISM documents leaked by Edward Snowden, the NSA gained the ability to intercept encrypted iPhone traffic in October of 2012, and that’s apparently right after the bug fixed by iOS 7.0.6 was introduced.  As Gruber notes, this could mean all sorts of things.  It could mean that someone at Apple intentionally added a backdoor for the NSA.  Or it could mean that someone at Apple made a simple coding mistake but the NSA found out about it and exploited it. 

Or it could just be a big coincidence, but there is at least a chance that Apple has now found and fixed a security bug that had been exploited by the NSA. 

Normally I think of security patches as being important ways to protect your iPhone and iPad from “bad guys,” the sort of criminals that we expect the government to prosecute.  But iOS 7.0.6 may also give you a way to protect your device from the government itself.

When I think of secure information on my iPhone and iPad, much of the most confidential data is located in the 1Password app.  Fortunately, the security flaw fixed in iOS 7.0.6 did not have anything to do with the security of 1Password data.  Jeff Goldberg, the security guru at AgileBits (the company that makes 1Password) whose title is “Defender Against the Dark Arts,” wrote a great post that explains in plain English the details of the security flaw and why confidential 1Password data was not compromised.  Unfortunately, the security flaw did affect the Mail app in iOS, which raises many red flags.  Indeed, this is the very thing that many of us have been worried about with all of the recent NSA allegations — has the NSA been reading (or at least saving) our confidential emails?

If you haven’t updated to iOS 7.0.6 yet, you should do so.  If you are still running iOS 6, Apple also released iOS 6.1.6 to fix the same bug.

Last week I linked to an article in which the author speculated that it might be a while before we see Microsoft Word for the iPad.  For an alternative view, Mary Jo Foley — who has lots of inside sources at Microsoft — wrote on ZDNet that she hears rumors that Office for iPad will be out in the first half of 2014.  Whenever it does come out, how good will the app be?  John Gruber of Daring Fireball says that his sources tell him that the app will be impressive, and the main hold up on the app being released is internal Microsoft politics.  But California attorney David Sparks predicts that the app won’t be that impressive.  And this is why I probably should not talk about rumors at all … except that I will say that I hope that we see a version of Microsoft Word for the iPad soon, and I hope that it is a full-featured, useful app.  And now, the rest of the news of note from the past week:

• Florida attorney Christopher Hopkins provides tips for using an iPad in a deposition.
• South Carolina attorney Ben Stevens reviews Wallax, an app that helps you turn photographs into iPhone wallpaper.
• Stevens also provides tips for keeping your iPad and iPhone clean.
• South Carolina attorney Justin Kahn noted on his iPad Notebook website that the Lexis Advance HD app for the iPad has been updated to version 4.0.
• California attorney David Sparks discusses using templates in the Pages and Numbers apps.
• Tim Baran of Rocket Matter discusses great iPad apps for lawyers, as recommended by Dallas attorney Tom Mighell.
• David Pogue of Yahoo Tech provides tips for avoiding getting hacked, using reverse psychology.
• I gave a presentation on using the iPad to a group of attorneys in New Orleans earlier this week, and afterwards I talked to someone who was looking to get her first iPad, and she couldn’t decide whether to get the full-size iPad Air or the iPad mini with Retina screen.  My advice for most attorneys is to get the iPad Air.  When you are reading documents on an iPad, it is nicer to have a larger screen, and the iPad Air is light enough that you no longer need to use an iPad mini to have an iPad that you can hold without your arm getting tired right away.  Charlie Sorrel of Cult of Mac apparently agrees with me, because as he explains in this article, he actually stopped using an iPad mini to switch to an iPad Air.
• When the iPhone first came out, it lacked the ability to select text to copy and paste it.  Hard to imagine nowadays.  Luke Dormehl of Cult of Mac talked to Bas Ording, one of the guys at Apple who invented the feature on the iPhone, to get some of the back story.
• Lisa Rein of the Washington Post reports that the U.S. Postal Service is planning a Steve Jobs stamp.
• And finally, Jerry Seinfeld appeared on the new Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon this week to do a stand-up comedy routine, and his topics were smartphones and email.  Funny stuff from one of the masters of comedy.  (Direct link)

A stylus is one of the most useful accessories for an iPad.  You can take notes (using an app like GoodNotes) or draw pictures (with an app like Paper).  For a change of pace, it is sometimes nice to use a stylus to tap buttons during regular use of an iPad instead of using your finger.  And if you are annotating a PDF file — such as highlighting and adding margin notes to a case you downloaded from Westlaw — I find that I am more productive with a stylus.  One of the very first styluses for the iPad was the Pogo Stylus by Ten One Design, and I reviewed it in 2010 just a few weeks after I started using an iPad.  I was never a big fan of that stylus because it was too small and light and it had an unusual tip which I never found as effective as a soft rubber dome.

All of that changed in late 2013 when Ten One introduced a completely redesigned version of the Pogo Stylus.  Ten One sent me a free review sample of this $20 stylus and I’ve been trying it out for the last few weeks, comparing it to my current favorite stylus with a traditional rubber tip, the Wacom Bamboo Stylus duo.  This new version of the Pogo Stylus is much, much better than the original Pogo, and while I still prefer the Bamboo Stylus duo for the reasons noted below, the new Pogo is an excellent stylus that I can recommend.

The new Pogo Stylus includes a lot of the features that I love on the Bamboo Stylus.  First, it has the circumference of a normal pen and feels nice in your hand.  Second, it includes a clip to make it easy to carry in a shirt pocket.  And like the Bamboo Stylus, if you ever want to remove the clip, you can just unscrew the top and take it off.  (I don’t understand why people do that — a stylus without a clip is not only harder to transport but it also tends to roll of a desk — but to each his own.)

Also like the Bamboo Stylus, the new Pogo has a small rubber tip, about as small as a tip can get and still have the iPad recognize it.  I find it much easier to write with these smaller tips than with the larger tips that you find on cheap styluses.  In the following picture, the new Pogo is at the top, and the Wacom Bamboo Stylus duo is at the bottom:

Rubber tips can wear down after use, so it is nice to have an option to buy replacement tips.  Wacom offers this for the Bamboo, and even offers a firm tip for those who prefer that feel (I don’t).  The new Pogo has an ingenious tip that is connected to the stylus by a magnet.  It is more than strong enough that the tip never comes off in normal use, but if you tug at it you can remove the tip.  Replacement tips come in a set of two for $8.  I should note that in my many years of using styluses I have never once worn down a tip to the point that I had to replace it, but I know from reports I’ve read on the Internet that others have found the need to replace a stylus tip.  It’s nice to know that if you do wear down the tip, you don’t have to buy a whole new stylus.

The features of the new Pogo Stylus that differentiate it from the Bamboo Stylus are, frankly, the features that make me prefer the Bamboo.  First, the Pogo is about a quarter of an inch shorter than the Bamboo.  That doesn’t sound like a lot, but the length of the Bamboo is closer to that of a traditional pen and I find that it feels better in my hand.  Having said that, the new Pogo is still long enough to work just fine, and you might actually prefer something that is slightly shorter and takes up less space.

Second, the new Pogo weighs less than the Bamboo.  The Bamboo is about 0.9 ounces; the new Pogo is about 0.65 ounces.  I prefer the weight of the Bamboo — it is certainly not too heavy, and feels like it has substance to it.  The new Pogo weighs more than some cheap styluses that I have tried and quickly discarded, and the stylus certainly feels strong enough.  It’s not like you are going to bend the Pogo or anything like that.  My personal preference is just for something with a little more heft to it.  If you feel the same way, you’ll prefer the Bamboo.  If you prefer something lighter, you’ll prefer the Pogo.

Third, the new Pogo doesn’t include a real pen on the other end.  That’s the “duo” part of the Bamboo Stylus duo.  I like being able to carry a single stylus in my pocket and, for those rare occasions when I need a real pen (such as a sign-in sheet in court) I have that too.

In many ways, the new Pogo is more of a direct competitor to the Wacom Bamboo Stylus solo, the version of the Bamboo that doesn’t have a pen and is shorter and lighter, and now costs $17 on Amazon.  You need to pay $29.95 on Amazon for the Wacom Bamboo Stylus duo, so the Pogo is two-thirds the price at $19.95.

I understand that $20 versus $30 may seem like the difference between an impulse buy and a larger investment.  Based on the price alone, the new Pogo may be the better purchase for you.  Moreover, if your preferences are different than mine and you prefer a stylus that weighs a little less and is slightly more petite, although certainly not too short, then the new Pogo might be even better than the Wacom Bamboo Stylus duo.  For me, if both styluses are within reach, I always prefer the Wacom Bamboo Stylus duo.  But during my tests, when the Pogo was the one that I had with me, I certainly enjoyed using the Pogo.  It’s a nice stylus.  I think that most everyone would agree that the new version of the Pogo Stylus is a vast improvement over the original. 

You can currently buy the new version of the Pogo Stylus directly from Ten One, so that is the link that I have below.  I suspect that it won’t be long before the new Pogo shows up on Amazon.

Click here to get the 2013 version of the Pogo Stylus from Ten One Design ($19.95).

Just a quick reminder that if you are in the New Orleans area tomorrow (Tuesday, Feb. 18), I’ll be presenting a one hour CLE with tips for getting the most out of an iPad in your law practice.  The presentation is this month’s installment of the Louisiana State Bar Association’s TECH TUESDAY series.  Lunch is from 11:30 to Noon, then the presentation is Noon to 1pm.  The location is the Louisiana Bar Center, 601 St. Charles Ave. (across from Lafayette Square).  You can get more information and register online at this page on the LSBA website.

Alan Cohen, a reporter for Law Technology News, published a very interesting article this week on iPad use at law firms including some lawyers prefering an iPad to a laptop.  Apparently some law firms let a lawyer choose either a laptop computer or a desktop computer plus an iPad.  That would be an easy choice for me.  Although I have a laptop computer in my office, it might as well be a desktop — heck, it might as well be an old-style mainframe computer that fills a room and has spinning tape — because I never move it from my desk, and I just travel with my iPad.  And now, the rest of the news of note from the past week:

• Dallas attorney Tom Mighell reminds you to recycle your old iPhones. 
• John Gruber of Daring Fireball, citing a report by Patrick Seitz for Investors.com, notes that last quarter Apple received 87.4% of the industry profit on cellphones while Samsung received 32.2%.  And yes, that does add up to over 100% because every other company in the industry lost money last quarter.
• I know that a number of companies, including law firms, use software by Good Technology on their mobile devices.  According to Daniel Eran Dilger of AppleInsider, 91% of Good customers use an iPad as a tablet, and 54% of Good customers use an iPhone as their smartphone.
• Last week, I mentioned a Wall Street Journal article based on an interview with Apple CEO Tim Cook.  The Journal has now posted the entire interview, and it is an interesting read.
• Brian Chen of the New York Times reports that Apple has announced that the tantalum (a metal) it uses in its products does not come from areas engaged in warfare.
• Last year, Microsoft executives indicated that Microsoft Office would at some point come to the iPad.  Juan Carlos Perez of IDG News Service wonders if that is still true in light of comments made by a Microsoft marketing executive.
• Jeffrey Taylor of The Droid Lawyer asks everyone to turn their iPhone to landscape mode when they shoot video.  Amen to that.
• And finally, the new Chevrolet Equinox features built-in iPhone support, and the company produced a funny commercial showing off how that might work: