Jeff Richardson

How do you improve a product that is already great?  One approach is to add new features.  For example, Apple improved upon the iPhone 4 by adding Siri to the iPhone 4s, then added a larger screen to the iPhone 5, and then added the fingerprint scanner in the iPhone 5s.  New features are nice because they stick out; they provide an easy answer to the question “why should I upgrade?”  Another approach is to simply make the overall experience better — an approach that lacks a sound bite, but can result in a product that is far more delightful.  For example, the iPhone 3G (my first iPhone) was fantastic, but often demanded your patience.  The iPhone 3Gs enhanced the iPhone 3G by making everything faster and more responsive.  The device felt the same, except that it was more pleasant to use.

Yesterday, Apple used both approaches, one with each of the members of the iPad family.  The 2013 iPad mini has lots of improvements but a single marquee feature: a Retina display.  The 2013 full-size iPad doesn’t have a bold new feature, but instead seeks to provide a better overall user experience.  Both new iPads will be available in November — the iPad Air on November 1, and the iPad mini later that month.

The iPad Air

I love using my full-size iPad (I use the third generation iPad), but if I were to complain, my first complaint would be the weight.  My law practice is about as paperless as it can be, so I am constantly working with documents on my iPad — whether it be an opposing party’s brief, a case I downloaded from Westlaw, or a transcript that I am annotating in the Transcript Pad app.  My iPad is far lighter than a computer and is easier to hold than a binder full of paper, but my hand does suffer some fatigue after holding an iPad up for a long period of time.  Indeed, the weight of my iPad is often a reason that I reach for my iPad mini, but while the iPad mini is great for many tasks, reading documents is far better on the larger (and retina) screen of a full-sized iPad.

Thus, I’m thrilled to see that the new iPad is lighter — 1 pound versus the 1.3 pounds of a third generation iPad and the 1.4 pounds of the fourth generation iPad.  To emphasize that it weighs less, Apple came up with a new name for the product:  the iPad Air, a nod to Apple’s successful MacBook Air computer.  It achieves that reduced weight not only by being thinner then the prior model (7.5 mm versus 9 mm) but also by having a much smaller bezel around the screen.  Apple says that as a result, “we were able to drop close to a quarter of the volume of the previous-generation iPad.”

How noticeable is the difference in weight?  I’ll need to try it myself to reach my own conclusion, but the initial reports from the folks who were at Apple’s presentation yesterday and got to try one out are that it makes a big difference.  I frequently see people saying that the iPad Air feels more like the old iPad mini than like the old iPad.  For example, David Pierce of The Verge writes that the iPad Air “deserves a new name: it feels completely different than the
full-sized iPad once did. Apple’s clearly trying to turn the iPad Air
into a full-size device you’re willing to take outside your home, and
based on our first impressions we’d happily throw one in our backpacks
today.”  MG Siegler of Google Ventures says:  “The iPad Air is incredibly thin and light. Feels far more like the mini than previous iPads.”  Brian Heater of Engadget writes:  “And while the new tablet is, in fact, around 20 percent slimmer than its
predecessor, it’s not immediately apparently until you put the iPad up
against its older sibling. What is apparent, however, is the weight.”

My other complaint about my third generation iPad is that it doesn’t feel zippy, especially compared to the iPhone 5 and 5s.  I decided against upgrading to the fourth generation iPad that came out a year ago even though that model was faster, but I’m definitely looking forward to the new speed of the iPad Air.  The iPad Air uses the same A7 chip in the iPhone 5s, and as a result, Apple says that it is considerably faster than prior iPads, up to twice as fas as the fourth generation iPad.

I’ve never had a complaint with the Wi-Fi speed on my iPad, but any time that you can download a large file or even load a page in Safari faster, that is good.  The iPad includes two Wi-Fi antennas and can use both of them at the same time using something called MIMO (multiple input multiple output) which Apple says will result in up to twice the 802.11n Wi-Fi performance.

I’m also happy to see that the new iPad Air has dual microphones to do a better job hearing you, which should make Siri work even better.  I frequently dictate emails on my iPad.

Put all of this together — smaller overall device but the same screen size, lighter and faster without sacrificing battery life, faster Wi-Fi uploads and downloads — and the end result seems to me to be a device that does everything that the prior iPad did but is much more enjoyable to use.  The iPad is an important part of my law practice, and I look forward to upgrading so that every time I use the iPad, I have a better overall experience.

The iPad mini with Retina display

The iPad mini is a great device because it is small and easy to hold and carry.  You can even sometimes put it in a pocket, depending upon the size of the pocket on your jacket or your pants.  But the one major drawback was the lack of a Retina display.  Ever since the iPhone 4 was introduced in 2010, we’ve all seen how text and graphics look so much better when you have smaller dots on the screen.  Having words look so crisp that they could have been in a high quality magazine makes the reading experience so much better.  For those of us who are attorneys and thus are constantly reading words, that makes a difference.  Moving from my iPhone screen to my iPad mini screen is often jarring because the screen simply doesn’t look as nice. 

The solution seemed simple and obvious – add a Retina screen to the iPad mini — but of course nobody wanted to sacrifice the other advantages of the iPad mini such as the small size and long battery life.  The 2013 version of the iPad mini adds a Retina display, and instead of the original iPad mini’s 1024 by 768 pixels, we now get 2048 by 1536 pixels in a screen of the same size.  This makes the iPad mini the sharpest iPad ever because it has the same number of pixels as a full-size iPad, but the pixels are as small as those on the beautiful screen of the iPhone 5.  Fortunately, Apple was able to keep the battery life the same as the original iPad mini, although Apple did have to make some slight compromises on the size — the new iPad mini is the same height and width, but it is slightly thicker, 7.5 mm versus 7.2 mm, and about an ounce heavier.  (The weight varies depending upon whether you get the lighter Wi-Fi only version or the heavier version with built-in 3G LTE.)

The new iPad mini is also faster.  Last year’s iPad mini used the A5 processor, the same one that Apple used in the iPad 2 released in 2011.  The new iPad mini uses the same A7 chip as the iPad Air and the iPhone 5s.  Apple says that this will be up to four times as fast as the 2012 iPad mini.  Also, and like the iPad Air, the new iPad mini has two Wi-Fi antennas with MIMO support and dual microphones.

Although I own both a full-size iPad and an iPad mini, most people choose just one.  If forced to pick just one, I’d opt for the larger screen.  But I know of many attorneys who value portability and weight over a larger screen, and for them, the new iPad mini with Retina display sounds like the answer to a lot of prayers.  As Tampa attorney Katie Floyd tweeted yesterday:  “Retina…and sold.”

Wrap Up

I’ll admit that I have so quickly gotten used to the fingerprint scanner
on my iPhone 5s that I had hoped to see it added to the iPad as well. 
Perhaps we will have to wait another year for that feature.  Regardless, there is still a lot that lawyers will love in the 2013 versions of the iPads.  I myself am really looking forward to the overall better experience that the iPad Air will offer, and I plan to get one.  I probably won’t get a new iPad mini this year, but I know that many attorneys will consider an iPad mini with a Retina screen to be the perfect device.

Today at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern, Apple will introduce the 2013
versions of the iPad and iPad mini, and I’m sure will also have lots of other iOS and Mac announcements.  For example, there will likely be updates to Apple’s GarageBand, iMovie, iPhoto, Pages, Numbers and Keynotes app because for a short while this past Sunday, Apple’s website showed new icons for the apps and new information on the GarageBand app having in-app purchases.

At some point this morning, Apple might announce that there will be a live video stream of the event.  That happened last year. [UPDATE:  The Apple Events channel on Apple TV now says that there will be a live video stream.] [UPDATE #2: Apple’s web page now says that you can watch on an Apple TV, on a Mac, or on an iPhone or iPad.]  Otherwise, if you want to learn about the announcements in real time, you can follow along on one or more websites providing live blogs.  Here are the ones that I expect to provide some of the best live coverage, along with direct links to their live blogs:

• Macworld.  Jason Snell and Dan Moren are perhaps the best live-bloggers in the world for Apple announcements.
• The Verge. 
  
  Joshua Topolsky typically live blogs Apple announcements for The Verge, although it was Dieter Bohn who covered the iPhone 5s announcement last month, and his coverage was excellent.
• Engadget.  I’m not sure who will do this one, but the Engadget folks typically do a good job.
• Ars Technica.  I believe that Andrew Cunningham will provide the Ars live blog this year.  He did a good job with the iPhone 5s live blog next month.

Finally, if you miss the event during the day, I expect that Apple will post a video of the event later tonight.

There are reports suggesting that almost three-quarters of iPhone users may have already upgraded to iOS 7.  If you are one of the many who have made the switch, I suspect that you found the transition jarring for the first few days because everything looks so different, but once you get used to the change there is no denying that iOS 7 is far better than iOS 6.  Even so, I’ve been surprised at the number of attorneys (and others) who have told me that even after they get used to the rest of iOS 7 they still don’t like the smaller and thinner font size used.  Frankly, I feel the same way.  The new font used in iOS 7 — a version of Helvetica Neue — is beautiful, but if you don’t have perfect eyesight, it can be harder to see because Apple chose a version of Helvetica Neue that does not have much weight.  (Click here for a comprehensive look at Helvetica Neue and its different weights from Rani Molla of GigaOm.)  Fortunately, there are two things that you can do in iOS 7 to increase the text size and make everything more legible — even if, perhaps, not quite as pretty.  I’ve made both of these changes on my own iPhone and I prefer it this way.

Both of these changes can be made in the Settings app under General, and they are located in menus that are right next to each other:  Text Size and Accessibility.

Text Size

The first thing that you can adjust to make things easier to read is the text size.  Tap General and then tap Text Size and you will see a slider that you can drag to make the standard text size larger or smaller.  As you do so, the text at the top will adjust to give you a preview.

 

Here is an example of an email, first using the standard setting, and second using the largest Text Size setting.

 

Changes that you make to the Text Size work in most of the apps designed by Apple.  They will also work in third party apps that are designed to support the iOS Dynamic Type feature.

Accessibility – Bold

Even at larger sizes, the font used in iOS 7 is still somewhat hard to read because it is so thin — not only in text in email messages, but everyone else.  Each letter in iOS 7 has less weight than it did in iOS 6 and prior iPhone/iPad operating systems.  If you want to adjust that, tap on the Accessibility menu under General and look for the Bold Text option.  When you turn it on, you are warned that you need to restart your device for the change to take effect.  Once you do so, however, the change is quite noticeable.  For example, here is the Accessibility menu, first as it looks before Bold Text is turned on, and second as it looks after Bold Text is turned on and then an iPhone is reset.

 

Here is a comparision of an email with Bold Text turned off, and then with Bold Text turned on.

 

The bold option also makes a difference on your home screen.  The following two images show my home screen with Bold Text turned off, followed by Bold Text turned on.

 

And I could go on.  Suffice it to say that when you turn on Bold Text, the change is reflected in numerous places on your iPhone.

Combinations

The two changes shown above can be combined.  You can make the default Text Size larger, plus you can turn on bold text.  For example:

There is also an option to supersize text.  First, increase the Text Size as noted above.  Second, go to General -> Accessibility -> Larger Type and adjust the text size even more.  At the highest setting (shown bel0w), the text is so large that it is likely to be useful only to those with serious vision impairments.  But even if you don’t supersize text to the maximum possible size, you might find that a small adjustment is perfect for you.

 

You can make all of the adjustments noted above on the iPad as well.  I prefer Bold Text on my iPhone, but for whatever reason it doesn’t look right on my iPad, so I only increase the text size on my iPad. 

If you take the time to try out different adjustments and figure out what is right for you, you’ll find it easier to read text on your iPhone and iPad with iOS 7.

This week, Apple announced that it is hiring Angela Ahrendts to be a Senior VP in charge of retail and online stores.  Ahrendts is currently the CEO of Burberry and is credited with turning that company around.  At first blush, the CEO of a fashion and clothing company might seem like an odd fit for Apple, but the more I read about Ahrendts this week, the more impressed I am by her.  For example, Lauren Indvik of Mashable wrote an interesting article about her background, and I recommend the video embedded in that article (or click here to see it) in which Ahrendts talks about how she is using technology at Burberry.  Ahrendts looks to be an amazing addition to the executive team at Apple, and who knows, could eventually be the successor to Tim Cook as Apple’s CEO. 

• Want to learn about some of the best iPhone and iPad apps for lawyers to use?  Clio (a current sponsor of iPhone J.D.) is hosting a free webinar on Tuesday, Oct. 22 at 11 am Pacific / 2 pm Eastern.  Joshua Lenon of Clio and I will talk about mobile device security, apps, and making the best use of an iPhone and iPad in the practice of law.  The session has been scheduled for a long time now, but by coincidence it will be right after (or at the end of) the big iPad announcement on Tuesday, so I’m sure we’ll have something to say about that as well.  Click here to get more information and to register.
• SCOTUSblog — in my opinion, the best resource for news and analysis related to the U.S. Supreme Court — released an iPhone app this week.
• Jesse Londin of Law Technology News reviews some apps that you can use to get keep track of Congress.
• Angela Hunt of Law Technology News reviews a new privacy filter from 3M made for the iPad screen.
• Lester Victor Marks writes for AppleInsider about a presentation by the cofounder of AuthenTec, the company Apple purchased to create the fingerprint scanner on the iPhone 5s. 
• Rob LeFebvre of Cult of Mac has some good tips for using Siri to navigate to specific parts of the Settings app.
• For a fascinating perspective on the recent Steve Jobs movie, John Vink (a former longtime Apple employee) talks with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and early Apple employees Daniel Kottke and Andy Hertzfeld  about the real events that inspired that movie.  Click here for the video.
• There are lots of great Bluetooth speakers for the iPhone, but the Jawbone Jambox was one of the first to make a big splash.  David Pogue of the New York Times reviews the new Jambox Mini.
• And finally, if you think that the one big drawback of the iPhone or iPad is that it just isn’t furry enough, your prayers are now answered.  This week, CalypsoCrystal announced the new Fury line of cases for the iPhone and iPad, including the $790 London for the iPhone and the $1290 Paris, pictured below, for the iPad.

Yesterday, Apple announced that it will make an announcement at an event on Tuesday, Oct. 22.  Apple did not say what it would announce, but it is widely expected that this is the date on which Apple will reveal the 2013 models of the iPad and iPad mini.  I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple also used this event to make other iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and Mac announcements (such as more information on the next version of OS X for the Mac and the upcoming and newly designed Mac Pro).

The invitation sent to select members of the press says that the event will take place on Tuesday, October 22, at 10 Pacific at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco.  That is a bigger venue than the Town Hall that Apple used last month for the new iPhone announcement; if Apple is inviting more people, maybe that means that Apple has more interesting products to show off. 

The invitation features a picture of the top of the Apple logo and many falling leaves, the same shape as the leaf on the top of the Apple logo, and the phrase “We still have a lot to cover.”  Here is the image, as reported by Macworld:

Last month, when Apple announced the Sept. 10 iPhone announcement, the invitation said “This should brighten everyone’s day.”  It now appears that was a reference to the colors on the new iPhone 5c, and perhaps also the new gold color for the iPhone 5s, and perhaps also the new Apple cases for both phones.  The falling leaves that provide “cover” in this announcement could just mean that this is a Fall announcement, but is it also a clue to what Apple will announce next week?  It won’t surprise me if the new full-size iPad announced next week retains the same size screen but has smaller bezels, which means a smaller overall iPad, which requires a new Apple Smart Cover … and perhaps that is what the word “cover” refers to in this invitation?  For more speculation on what Apple might announce, check out this article by Neil Hughes of AppleInsider.

In May of 2013, Apple CEO Tim Cook was called to testify before Congress about Apple’s tax strategies, including the use of offshore subsidiaries to avoid bringing profits on non-U.S. sales back into the U.S. where they would be subject to high taxes.  That led to an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which ultimately found Apple’s disclosures to be sufficient.  But I’m not Kelly “Taxgirl” Phillips Erb so I’m not about to comment on tax law.  Instead, I mention the congressional testimony because after Sen. John McCain asked Tim Cook a number of questions about taxes, he had one last question for the Apple CEO:

McCain: I’m out of time, but why the hell do I have to keep updating the apps on my iPhone? Why can’t you fix that?

Cook: We’re looking to do better all the time.

Sure enough, when iOS 7 came out last month, one of the included features was the ability to update apps automatically.  Just goes to show you that some things can get accomplished in Congress.

It looks to me as if the feature is turned on by default, but I’ve seen mixed reports of this on the Internet with some people saying that they have to turn it on manually.  You can check for yourself by going to your Settings app and then tapping on iTunes & App Store.  Swipe to the bottom of the screen and you will see the following options.  Make sure that Automatic Downloads is turned on for “Updates” — which means app updates.

Note that between “Music” and “Books” there is also an option for automatic download of Apps.  That does something different.  If you download an app on your iPhone and your iPad has that switch turned on, then your iPad will also download the app.  That is a handy feature if you want all of your apps to automatically appear on all of your devices, but that’s not what I’m talking about today.

With automatic app updates turned on, you no longer need to worry about using an app that is out-of-date.  When a developer releases an update to an app, you will get the update without having to do anything.  By default, updates only take place when you are connected to Wi-Fi, but if you don’t mind eating up the data portion of your cellphone plan, you can turn on “Use Cellular Data” at the bottom of that screen and app updates will occur even when your device is not connected to Wi-Fi.  As you can see from the above screen, I leave that option turned on, but that is mainly because I want to be able to use iTunes Radio when I am in my car and not in a Wi-Fi zone, which is controlled by the same switch.  Nevertheless, the switch also gives me app updates even when I’m not in a Wi-Fi zone.  I haven’t yet encountered a situation in which having “Use Cellular Data” turned on has eaten up a lot of my data, but I am usually connected to Wi-Fi, and I rarely get anywhere close to my 4 GB per month AT&T data cap, so I have data to spare.  If you have a smaller plan and/or you find that you are regularly using up your monthly data allotment, consider turning off the “Use Cellular Data” option.

Automatic app updates are great when one of your apps is updated to fix a bug.  When an app is updated to add more features, that can also be great, but at the same time it can be confusing if you don’t know that the new features were added.  For that reason, I encourage you to open the App Store app from time to time and tap the “Updates” button at the bottom right.  When you do so, you will see any new apps that have not yet been updated on your device, followed by a list of each of your recent updates organized by date.  For each update, you can tap the words “What’s New” to see a description of the update,  including any new features that you might want to try out.  If there is an app that you use often, you’ll want to tap What’s New to find out what is new.

 

I have heard some people say that they prefer to keep the automatic app update option turned off because they fear that it drains battery life.  I suppose that could be true in some situations, but note that iOS 7 tries to be smart about when it allows activity like this take place, often waiting until your iPhone or iPad is being charged and is not otherwise being used.  As the Apple website says:  “Intelligently scheduled updates: iOS schedules updates during power-efficient times.  Like when your device is on and connected to Wi-Fi.  So your battery isn’t drained unnecessarily.”  My app updates often take place overnight when I’m sleeping and my iPhone is charging.

The other argument that I have heard against automatic app updates it that there might be times when you don’t want the latest version of the app, such as if there is a bug in the new version.  Of course that is possible, but in my experience it is far more likely that the update fixes a bug in a prior version of the app.  I view this as a situation in which the risks of doing nothing far outweigh the risks of taking action.  Almost all of the time, you are better off with an app update.  Unless you plan to take the time to extensively research the pros and cons of every app update before you allow it, I think you are far better off with automatic app updates turned on.

Whether you use this option or not, my hope is that you keep in mind that the option is there.  If you turn off automatic updates, don’t forget to manually update your apps from time to time just like you did in iOS 6.  If you turn on automatic updates, don’t forget to check every once in a while to learn about new features.

When I talk about the increase in lawyers using iPads, I’ll admit that I typically picture an attorney who is representing a client.  This week, I was reminded that the iPad is increasingly popular among judges as well.  I gave a presentation on Tuesday on using the iPad to a large number of judges at a conference sponsored by the Louisiana Judicial College, and I was surprised and impressed by the number of Louisiana judges who are already using iPads.  One appellate judge showed me how he organizes all of the briefs in all of his cases so that he can work on an opinion in any case at any time without needing to worry about carrying around a bunch of paper, and he had a great system — similar to what I would see myself using if I were a judge.  Also this week, an appellate attorney at my law firm, Ray Ward, attended the annual Appellate Advocacy Seminar put on by the Bar Association of the Fifth Federal Circuit, and as he explains in this fascinating post on his Louisiana Civil Appeals blog, most U.S. Fifth Circuit judges read briefs on their iPads.  They even use a special program to automatically add hyperlinks to briefs so that the judges can tap any citaiton and read the opinion on Westlaw or Lexis.  The U.S. Fifth Circuit will soon add hyperlinks for record citations.  It is great to hear about so many judges doing so much with their iPads, and I suspect that more effective use of technology is resulting in better judicial opinions.  And now, the rest of the news of note from the past week:

• Utah attorney Pete Summerill explains how you can use the $1.99 iCab app to e-file from an iPad on his MacLitigator website.
• California attorney Scott Grossberg gives tips for using Dropbox on an iPad in your law practice.
• The folks at Tiger Team Inc. asked me to announce that their new app Public Record allows you to search the Criminal, Infractions and Civil data of the North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts on an iOS device.  The app is free, but you pay for each search.  You can get more information on their website.
• The folks at Legal Newsance asked me to announce that you can use their free iPhone app to access curated legal news, federal and state research tools, CLE programs and job openings.  You can get more information on their website.
• Patent agent Elliott Mason asked me to announce his new app BillablePlan, an app that you can use to track your billable hours.  You can get more information on the app’s Facebook page.
• You can use the iPhone Reminders app to identify an item that you need to buy at the store and then configure that item to remind you to get it when your iPhone senses that you are at that store — a neat trick, but it does take time to add location-based reminders for each item on your list.  Dr. Drang has a good suggestion for adding generic store-based reminders.  Neat idea.
• If you travel internationally with your iPhone, you’ll want to read this article by David Pogue of the New York Times explaining that T-Mobile subscribers can travel to 115 different countries and get unlimited and free international data and texts plus calls for only 20 cents a minute.  This is far, far cheaper than what AT&T, Verizon and Sprint charge.
• Paul Goldberger wrote a fascinating article for Vanity Fair based on his interview of Apple design guru Jonathan Ive and his recent collaboration with designer Marc Newson.
• Apple now has a page on its website with useful iPhone 5s tips and tricks, most of which are simply iOS 7 tips and tricks so check it out even if you don’t have a new iPhone 5s.
• Apple updated and changed the Siri voice in iOS 7, but Jessica Ravitz of CNN interviews Susan Bennett, who provided the voice for the original Siri.  Watch the video that goes along with the story to listen to Bennett use her Siri voice.
• It is pretty rare for me to review a game on iPhone J.D., but I made an exception back in 2009 when Dragon’s Lair was first released for the iPhone.  If you played video arcade games in the 1980s like I did, then you likely put a lot of quarters into this game that was like no other, with amazing cartoon graphics.  The Dragon’s Lair app released by EA back in 2009 is no longer available, but to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Dragon’s Lair, you can now get a new High Definition version of the game for the iPhone.  The app is huge — 1 GB, which is about five times the size of the app released in 2009 — but the graphics look amazing and take advantage of the larger screen on an iPhone 5 or 5s.  “Lead on, adventurer.  Your quest awaits!”  Click here to get Dragon’s Lair 30th Anniversary ($4.99):
• And yes, I did waste invest 30 minutes last night to save Princess Daphne:

• John Gruber of Daring Fireball wrote an insightful article on what makes Apple successful notwithstanding the arguments that Apple will fail.
• If you are in the mood to be cruel, Alex Heath of Cult of Mac shows you how to prank your friends in the iMessage app.
• Photographer Jim Richardson (no relation) of National Geographic shows that you can take some pretty amazing pictures with an iPhone 5s.
• If you want a gold iPhone 5s, they are still pretty rare, so you need to
  
  be patient and persistent.  Or you can just pay $10,000 to buy one on
  
  eBay, as noted in this story by Bryan Chaffin of The Mac Observer.
• And finally, it might be a while before it is easy to buy a gold iPhone 5s, but in just a few weeks you will be able to buy the iKettle, the world’s first Wi-Fi enabled kettle, which lets you use your iPhone to boil water.  You can get it for the low price of $159.59 (with free delivery in the UK!).  (via iMore)

I always feel like a kid in a candy store whenever I look at the MobileFun.com website.  The company sells a huge number of iPhone and iPad accessories — chargers, docks, automobile kits, cases, you name it.  I still love the DODOcase HARDcover for iPad mini that I reviewed early this year.  MobileFun recently sent me a free review unit of the iT7x Premium Wireless Bluetooth Headphones and I’ve been testing them for the past month.  I’ve been a happy user of Apple’s $80 ($60 on Amazon) in-Ear Headphones for over four years now, so I’m very used to having a pair of white cords dangling out of my ears, and I wasn’t sure how much of an advantage it would be to use wireless headphones.  But soon after I started usig the iT7x, I realized that wireless headphones are both useful and fun.  If you listen to just about any audio from your iPhone or iPad — music, audiobooks, podcasts, movies — you’ll enjoy using this product.

Before talking about the product, a brief word about the packaging.  Apple is famous for creating an amazing unboxing experience.  It only takes a few minutes to open a box containing an iPhone or an iPad, and after you do so you may never look at the box again, but the care and attention that goes into the packaging signals to you from the outset that you are about to use a premium product.  I won’t ruin the surprise by posting pictures of the iT7x packaging, but suffice it to say that it is delightful.  If you decide to give this as a gift, your recipient will appreciate the quality even before first pairing the headphone with an iPhone.

The iT7x is an over-the-ear style headphone, which means that it isn’t small.  Frankly, the last time that I regularly used this style of headphone, it had a curly black cord and I connected it to the amplifier in my room to listen to my record player as a child in the 1970s.  I was happy to discover that the iT7x is quite comfortable to wear.  The cushioned speakers surround each of your ears, the padded headband feels good, and you can adjust the size to ensure the best fit whether you have a small or a big head.  (Yes, I realize I’m setting myself up for a joke there.)

The Bluetooth pairing is simple.  Just hold down the large button on the side of the right ear speaker for a few seconds as you turn on the unit until a blue light flashes, then pair using the Settings app on the iPhone or iPad.  You will then start to hear all audio through the iT7x.

And the audio sounds quite good.  Nice highs and lows, and decent thumps from the bass that are enjoyable without being overpowering.  My music sounded beautiful and the audio portion of videos sounded great.  (I’m currently catching up on Breaking Bad; I’m in the middle of Season 4, so no spoilers in the Comments please!)  I only have two minor complaints about the sound.  First, when no sound is playing (such as between songs) I can hear a slight hiss in the background.  It’s not unpleasant, but it is noticeable.  Second, about 10 seconds after you pause or stop audio on your iPhone/iPad, the iT7x enters into standby mode, after which you no longer hear that slight hiss or any other sound — and as it goes into standby mode you hear a slightly startling pop sound that I did find somewhat annoying.  But those complaints are minor, and overall I was very satisfied with the sound on the iT7x.

There are controls on the side of the right speaker that make it largely unnecessary to touch your iPhone or iPad.  There are buttons to increase the volume, decrease the volume, skip to the next track and go back.  If you hold down the next track button the music will speed up but there doesn’t seem to be a way to return the speed to normal, which seems like a bug either with the iT7x or iOS 7.  You can tap the large power button in the middle to trigger Siri, making it easy to tell your iPhone to call someone, ask Siri the current time, etc.  One obvious omission — there is no play/pause button.  Instead, there is a mute button that stops the sound as long as you hold it down, useful if you want to talk to someone for a few seconds (sound keeps playing on your iPhone but you just don’t hear it), but I’d find it more useful for that to be a play/pause button.  You can press the large button and tell Siri to “pause music” but that’s not as fast as pressing a pause button.

I mentioned that you can tell Siri to call someone.  The iT7x includes a built-in microphone.  It is invisible — there is no boom mic coming out of the side or anything like that — but in my tests it worked well for making phone calls with the iT7x, and as noted, it lets you give instructions to Siri.

You charge the iT7x with a cable that plugs into USB on one side and plugs into the bottom of the right speaker on the other side.  A charged iT7x lasts for about five hours.  The iT7x also comes with a cord so that you can plug it in to a headphone jack if you want to do so, although that obviously defeats the purpose of a wireless headphone.

You can fold up the iT7x to make it a little more portable for travel,
which works well if you are putting them in a suitcase but I still found
them a little large for a briefcase.

The iT7 Audio line is part of British company Bluechipworld and is named for Ian Taylor, who Wikipedia tells me is a retired English soccer player best known for playing for the Aston Villa Football Club in Birmingham.  With that background, it comes as no surprise that one target market for this product is folks who are working out or otherwise involved in physical activity where wires can get in the way.  I prefer to use my Nike Plus enabled iPod Nano when I run so I didn’t test that use of the iT7x, but I found many other great uses for wireless headphones.  When I was cutting the grass or doing other yard work, or doing other chores around the house, it was great to be able to slip my iPhone in my pocket and wear the iT7x without any risk of a headphone cord getting caught up in whatever I am doing.  When I watched those Breaking Bad episodes on my iPad at night, it was nice to not have to worry about a cord dangling down across the iPad screen.  (And even though the headphones were plenty loud enough for me, they are designed to make very little noise for others so there was no risk of waking my wife in bed.)

I see on the Bluechipworld website that the company makes other iT7 products, such as the newer iT7x2 (which comes in different colors and can go longer between charges, but I don’t believe is for sale in America yet), plus the website says that the iT7i and iT7Pro are “coming soon” with other features.  But I’ve been very happy with the iT7x.  Other than the minor inconvenience of no play/pause button (which also appears to be missing on the iT7x2), these headphones have worked well and have shown me how useful and fun it is to have wireless, great-sounding audio.

Click here to get the iT7x from MobileFun.com ($200.99).

A few months ago, Microsoft released a version of Microsoft Office for the iPhone.  That app lacks many of the important features of Office on the PC or Mac, but the app does let you read and modify a Microsoft Word document without losing any of the formatting in the document, which is sometimes all that you want to do on a mobile device.  The app itself is free, but you can only use it if you pay $10 a month or $100 a year to subscribe to Office 365, which also gets you the current version of Microsoft Office for the PC or Mac.  My review of Microsoft Office Mobile for iPhone is here. 

However, what I and most other attorneys want is a full-featured version of Microsoft Office — especially Microsoft Word — that works on an iPad.  Yesterday, at a Gartner event in Florida, Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer announced that Microsoft is working on a version of Microsoft Office for the iPad, and said that it will be released when Microsoft finishes working on a touch interface to Microsoft Office which will also be incorporated into the Windows version of Office.  Tom Warren of The Verge has details in this article. 

I’m thrilled to see some official confirmation from the top executive that this app is coming, but that doesn’t mean that it is coming soon.  A Microsoft spokesman told The Verge in November of 2012 that Office was coming to iOS, and it was seven months before we saw that limited version of Microsoft Office Mobile for iPhone that I mentioned above.  And back in December of 2011, Matt Hickey of the now defunct publication The Daily reported a rumor that Microsoft was “actively working” on Microsoft Office for the iPad.  Moreover, even when Microsoft does eventually release Office for the iPad, it will be interesting to see whether it includes sophisticated but important features such as track changes and styles.

In the meantime, my current favorite app for working with Microsoft Word documents on the iPad is Documents to Go by Dataviz.  It does a nice job of showing footnotes, track changes redline edits and comments in a Word document.  If I need to create redline edits in a Microsoft Word document, I think that Apple’s Pages app is currently the best solution, but unfortunately when you convert a document from Word format to Pages format and then back to Word format some of the formatting can sometimes get lost.  I also like Quickoffice, an app that was recently purchased by Google and as a result is now a free app.  Quickoffice can show and create redline edits, but unfortunately it doesn’t show footnotes, which is usually a deal-breaker for me because I always have footnotes in my legal documents.  Office² is also a good word processor for the iPad, although sometimes I have problems with the app crashing when I work with larger briefs.

My hope is that we do not have to wait long to see Microsoft Office on the iPad, and I also hope that it is a full-featured app, unlike the app recently released for the iPhone.  There are lots of reasons that it is in Microsoft’s own interests to release such an app, as noted here and here by California attorney David Sparks.  Indeed, while Microsoft surely prefers that you run the desktop version of Word on a PC and the portable version of Word on a Microsoft Surface tablet, Microsoft has been selling Word for Macintosh since 1985, so there is nothing unusual about Microsoft selling Word and the other Office applications on an Apple platform. 

In the meantime, here are links to download the apps I mentioned above:

Click here to get Microsoft Office Mobile for iPhone (free, with subscription): 

Click here to get Documents to Go Standard by Dataviz ($9.99): 

Click here to get Pages by Apple ($9.99): 

Click here to get Quickoffice (free): 

Click here to get Office² HD ($7.99): 

It is finally starting to get easier to buy the new iPhone 5s.  If you are still on the fence about whether to get one, here are two more good reviews to read.  First, Rene Ritchie of iMore wrote an extensive, comprehensive review of the iPhone 5s.  Second, I enjoyed reading the review of the iPhone 5s by Andy Ihnatko of the Chicago Sun-Times.  Finally, if you are on the fence about upgrading and you have reached the end of your two year contract, New York attorney and TechnoLawyer publisher Neil Squillante explains that you are wasting money if you don’t get a new phone.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• San Francisco attorney Marcia Hofmann considers the Fifth Amendment implications of the new fingerprint sensor on the iPhone 5s in an article for Wired.  Interesting.
• The next time that you need to make an important decision, did you know that you can ask Siri to flip a coin for you?  California attorney David Sparks figured that out based on a post by David Chartier.
• Jordan Redavid, a law student at the University of Miami School of Law, asked me to announce that he wrote an iPad app to aid in jury selection called, appropriately enough, Jury Selection.  The app is free to use for 10 days so you can try it out; after that it costs $19.99 for unlimited use.  Click here to get Jury Selection (free): 
• North Carolina attorney Brian Focht of The Cyber Advocate reviews the Jury Selection app.
• Vicki Voisin, Kathy Miller and Karen Trumpower discuss top apps for paralegals on the latest edition of The Paralegal Voice podcast.
• In our work and personal lives, we are all dealing with information overload.  How do you keep track of everything?  My tips for doing so with an iPhone or iPad are in a recent article that I wrote that was published in the TechnoLawyer SmallLaw newsletter.  If you missed it, that article is now online.
• If your company uses the Good service to provide greater security for your iPad, this week Good added support for a version of the iAnnotate app that I recently reviewed and really like.  Sean Doherty of Law Technology News has the details.
• Are you having trouble sending iMessage text messages with iOS 7?  It has worked fine for me, but I’ve seen reports of others having trouble.  The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple is aware of the problem “that affects a fraction of a percent of our iMessage users” and is working on a solution.
• If you upgraded to iOS 7 and only see the first names of people in the Mail and Messages app, that is because your iPhone/iPad has the Short Name preference turned on.  Allyson Kazmucha of iMore explains how to turn it off.
• And finally, I’ve linked in the past to videos from magician Simon Pierro who does really fun things with his iPad, but here is another one, apparently from 2011, that I just saw.  It isn’t in English, but you won’t have any trouble understanding what is going on, and it is amusing: