Today is the last day for you to nominate your favorite law-related blog for the ABA Journal’s Blawg 100. You don’t need to register with the ABA to nominate a blog, and the form includes only a few questions so it is quick and easy to make a nomination. Click on this link if you want to tell the ABA Journal editors about one or more blawgs that you enjoy, whether it be iPhone J.D. or any other blog. And now on to the iPhone and iPad news of the week:
It seems like I report on this one every year, and I guess I do. For the sixth year in a row, Apple was the #1 smartphone manufacturer according to J.D. Power’s customer satisfaction survey, as noted by Jim Dalrymple of The Loop.
Even though the iPhone 4 has been out for well over a year, Neil Hughes of AppleInsider reports that it is still the #1 phone sold by both AT&T and Verizon. And on AT&T, the two year old iPhone 3GS is the #2 phone sold. (Verizon only sells the iPhone 4.) If the old iPhones are still selling this well, one can only imagine how many new iPhones Apple will sell when it releases the 2011 model — which I presume will be within the next six weeks.
You will soon be able to use your iPhone from virtually anywhere. Tim Greene of Network World reports that Iridium is coming out with a new device that will provide satellite-based internet access on your iPhone or iPad.
Julie Cohn of The Daily reports on iPads in the White House.
For the first time, the FTC has barred the sale of an iPhone app on the grounds that it makes an unsubstantiated health claim. As Grant Gross of IDG reports, the FTC has reached a settlement that stops the sale of apps that claimed to treat acne by using blue and red lights. Apparently there is some scientific support for treating acne with lights, but not at the intensity produced by an iPhone.
NBC updated its iPad app so that it now streams full episodes of shows, much like the ABC and CBS apps, as reported by Sue Megrund of AppAdvice. Click here for the NBC app (free):
Attorney Bill Latham of The Hytech Lawyer reviews and compares TrialPad, Exhibit A, and RLTC Evidence — three trial presentation apps for the iPad.
Latham also analyzes whether it is ethical for lawyers to store confidential documents on Dropbox.
Bob Tedeschi of the New York Times shares iPhone battery-saving tips learned from Hurricane Irene.
I often write about people using the Find My iPhone feature to locate a lost or stolen iPhone. Jesus Diaz of Gizmodo reports that Find My iPhone was used to locate the remains of a military plane that crashed over Chile.
A few weeks ago, I reviewed the PowerSkin, an iPhone case that includes a battery. Lex Friedman of Macworld reviews eight other iPhone cases with a battery.
MG Siegler of TechCrunch explains why the iPad is often such a good replacement for a PC.
And finally, in an apparent attempt to prove that the iPad is universally loved, Jan Uebelherr of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that orangutans at the Milwaukee Zoo love their iPads. Here is the video that accompanies the article:
Have you ever tried to look at an e-mail on your iPhone only to find that it seems to take forever to display the content of the message as you watch a wheel spin at the top of your screen, and then when something finally does appear, it is just an error message? Sometimes your iPhone tells you that the message cannot be displayed because of the way it is formatted. Other times it tells you that this message has not been downloaded from the server. Here is an example of one such error message that I encountered yesterday:
Once you get an error message like that, even if you go to another e-mail and then come back, you’ll still see the error message.
The solution: restart the Mail app. To force a restart of any app on your iPhone, hold down the Sleep/Wake button until a red slider appears, but don’t touch that slider. Instead, next hold down the Home button for a few seconds. This will force the app to quit. You can then tap the Mail icon to launch the app again and Mail will try again to download the content of that message.
In my experience, the most likely cause of this problem is a poor data signal. I encountered this problem yesterday the same place that I encounter it most of the time — at the Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, right after my plane landed while taxiing to the gate. I frequently have a hard time getting a reliable AT&T data signal on the runways of that airport, which means that it often takes a long time for new message to appear, and even when I finally see my list of new messages, I sometimes run into error messages like the one noted above.
Here are two related tips. First, sometimes you will see the content of an e-mail message, but your iPhone will have trouble downloading an attachment. After trying for a while, it will give up, and instead of seeing the correct icon for the attachment (such as Word file icon) you will see a blank box. Tapping that blank box does nothing. The solution is the same; restart the Mail app, and then let the iPhone try to download the attachment again.
Second, when you are in an area with poor data coverage and you get tired of waiting and waiting for Mail to appear, I often have good luck putting the iPhone into Airport Mode for a few seconds. (Go to the Settings app and then Airport Mode is the first option at the top.) Then turn off Airplane Mode, and the iPhone will try to get a new 3G signal. In my experience, I often have luck getting a better 3G signal for at least a little while, although sometimes in an area like an airport where there is heavy demand for limited resources, the signal will get worse over time. When that happens, I just use this same trick again and turn on Airplane Mode for a few seconds.
By the way, for new readers of iPhone J.D., here are some of the prior iPhone tips that I’ve covered on this website:
I suppose it is book week here on iPhone J.D. After yesterday’s review of iPad in One Hour for Lawyers, today I am reviewing another great book for beginning iPad owners, iPad for Dummies (2d ed.) by Edward Baig and Bob “Dr. Mac” LeVitus. I suspect that all of you are at least somewhat familiar with the For Dummies series of books — 1,600 titles that try to make just about any subject easy to understand. The book’s two authors are perfect for a subject like this. Ed Baig writes about personal technology for USA TODAY, Bob LeVitus has written the “Dr. Mac” column for the Houston Chronicle for 15 years and has authored dozens of books. Both men are experts at making complicated technology easy to understand.
The book is organized in five parts, each of which has multiple chapters. Here is a list of all of the chapters. The playful nature of many of the chapter titles gives you a sense of how this book was written to be a very approachable for all levels of users:
Unveiling the iPad
iPad Basic Training
The Kitchen Sync: Getting Stuff to and from Your iPad
Going on a Mobile Safari
The E-Mail Must Get Through
Surfin’ the Web without a Board (or at Least without Safari)
Apply Here (to Find Out about iPad Apps)
Get in Tune(s): Audio on Your iPad
iPad Video: Seeing is Believing
You Oughta Be in Pictures
Curling Up with a Good iBook
The iPad at Work
Setting You Straight on Settings
When Good iPads Go Bad
Accessorizing Your iPad
Ten Appetizing (and Free) Apps
Ten Apps Worth Paying For
Ten Hints, Tips and Shortcuts
As you can tell from this list, unlike the book that I reviewed yesterday which is designed to be consumed in about an hour, this book is comprehensive. It will take a while to read it straight though, and because of the way that the book is organized you can skip around — and this makes it a great resource. Even if you don’t read every page of this book, you’ll still like having it so that when you are trying to figure out how to do something specific — such as get pictures on your iPad or use the Map app to get directions — you can find those topics in the table of contents or index and jump right to that section. The text is easy to understand and presented in a straightforward format, plus the book is full of color pictures that help to walk you through exactly what you need to do.
In some ways, this book is like an owner’s manual for the iPad because it tells you how to do everything, what buttons to press, etc. The iPad is easy enough to use that there are surely many things that you can figure out on your own, but this book takes the guesswork out of those tasks, telling you for example exactly where you need to go in the Settings or Photos or Safari app to do a particular task and everything you need to tap to do so. As you do so, you’ll probably find yourself saying “oh yeah, this makes sense,” but the book leads you down those paths that you might not discover on your own.
Note that while this is the second edition of this book, this version came out in May of 2011. I was just sent a free review copy of the book a few weeks ago, and I find that even four months later, this book remains a great and timely resource for all of the basics. Having said that, when iOS 5 (the next version of the iPad operating system) comes out — which could be this month or next month — there may be some parts of this book that seem a little dated, but I suspect that the large majority of it will remain quite relevant.
You can purchase this book in either a hard copy or an electronic copy. I think this book is more useful in the hard copy format so that you can keep the book open to a page while you follow the steps on the iPad itself. (Plus, when someone else in your life gets their iPad, you can loan them your book to get them started.) Having said that, if you want to get more of a sense of this book before you buy it, take a look at the electronic version of this book in the iBookstore (link at the end of this review). You can download a free sample of the book which includes the full table of contents and the first five pages of Chapter 1 (which in total is 14 pages).
iPad for Dummies is a great manual for new iPad users. It covers tons of topics, it is easy to understand, and the writing style is casual and fun. The retail price is $25 but you can get it for less than that through these links:
I am constantly seeing lawyers get their first iPad. The first question many of them have is: OK, I have this iPad, now what? I often point people to this post I wrote in June that has advice for new iPad owners, but what if you want more? A great resource is the book iPad in One Hour for Lawyers by Tom Mighell. Tom is an attorney but now spends his time as a consultant, helping companies with records management and e-discovery issues. He is also the co-host of the Kennedy-Mighell Report, a legal technology podcast, and he publishes the website iPad 4 Lawyers, a great source for iPad tips and app reviews.
The aim of this book is to teach a lawyers the essentials of using an iPad but to do so in a book that can be consumed in just an hour. And you really can read this book in about an hour. There are six lessons in the book:
Navigating Your iPad and Browsing the Web
Setting Up Mail, Calendar, and Contacts
Managing Your iPad: Multitasking and Folders
Adding Files to Your iPad and Syncing Them
Being Productive on the iPad
Doing Lawyer Things on Your iPad — Legal Apps
The first four lessons are essentially iPad basics, information that would be useful to anyone who uses an iPad, but information that all iPad owners should definitely know. If you are coming to the iPad from an iPhone you may already know about much of what is in Lesson 1 (although maybe not), and if you work in a large law firm, you may be lucky enough to have some IT folks who can help you with much of what is in Lesson 2, but it is still useful to have a straightforward, short guide to these steps.
Where the book gets most valuable for any attorney using an iPad is Lessons 5 and 6. This is where the book offers all sorts of tips for using the iPad as a lawyer, things like taking notes on the iPad, creating and editing documents, and using lawyer-specific apps to do things like pick a jury or do a trial presentation. After the six lessons, the book then includes a “beyond the lessons” section that discusses some advanced topics like security, shortcuts, and advanced e-mail options.
The paper version of this book was released earlier this year, just as the iPad 2 was coming out, but the electronic version of the book just came out a few weeks ago and the ABA sent me a free review copy of the new electronic version. While a lot has happened in the world of the iPad since earlier this year, I didn’t come across anything in the book that is incorrect due to the passage of time. This book provides a great foundation for attorneys who are new to the iPad, who can then get more advanced and up-to-date information at websites like this one, iPad 4 Lawyers, Tablet Legal, etc. Any lawyer who is new to the iPad will get a lot out of this book.
You can purchase a hard copy of the book from the ABA for $35, or only $20 if you are a member of the ABA’s Law Practice Management Section, but I discourage you from doing so. [UPDATE: The book is also now available on Amazon.] Instead, you should purchase an electronic copy of this book to read on your iPad. Just the simple act of reading a book like this on your iPad will get you even more used to using the iPad, plus it will give you a chance to use the iBooks app on the iPad so you can see what it is like to read a book on an iPad. The ABA sells an electronic version of the book that works in the iBooks app for the same price as the hard copy of the book ($35 or $20), but you can buy this book in the Apple iBookstore for only $18. I consider $35 to be substantial amount of money for a book that you will largely consume in an hour (although you may use it as a resource long after that), but $18 is a great price for all of this information. Plus, buying a book in the iBookstore from within the iBooks app on the iPad is by far the easiest way to get a book on your iPad — an important consideration for the new iPad users who are the target of this book. Thus, while I am providing all three links below, I encourage you to use the last one:
The talk about Steve Jobs resigning as CEO continues, but what I find most interesting is how well Apple and Jobs handled this transition. There has been no major drop in Apple’s stock price and the consensus is that Apple is in good hands with Tim Cook. I’ll start today with three Steve Jobs-related articles that are worth reading, and then move on to the rest of the iPhone and iPad news of the week:
First, Casey Newton of the San Francisco Chronicle interviewed some famous Apple alumni to get their take on Jobs.
Third, moving from big publications to tiny publications, Lisen Stromberg wrote an article in the Palo Alto Patch called My Neighbor, Steve Jobs which provides some insight into Steve Jobs not as the CEO of Apple, but instead as just a regular father. You know, considering that Newsweek sold last year for only $1.00, the Palo Alto Patch may be actually worth more than Newsweek.
South Carolina Attorney John Martin writes about e-discovery implications of company employees using iPads in this article for Corporate Counsel.
The DOJ is moving to block AT&T’s merger with T-Mobile, as reported by the Dealbook blog of the New York Times.
As many folks discovered in unlikely places such as New York, Boston and Vermont, it is hurricane season. Andy Ihnatko, a Boston resident who writes for the Chicago Sun-Times, wrote an article with disaster preparation advice for you and your digital devices.
Amber Singleton Riviere of GigaOm recomends iOS apps to help you go paperless.
New Orleans attorney Ernest Svenson describes Adobe’s new iOS app in an article with a title that gives away the ending: “Adobe’s new iOS PDF app is lame.”
Stewart Wolpin of NBC writes “It’s an iPad World and We Just Live In It.”
Robert Frank of the Wall Street Journal writes that millionaires love the iPad.
Eli Milchman of Cult of Mac reviews six different styluses for the iPad. My current favorite stylus, the Kensington Virtuoso Stylus for Tablet, for some reason was not included in that stylus roundup.
And finally, this video is about two months old, but there is something strangely mesmerizing about watching The Pope use an iPad. It looks to me like this is the first time that His Holiness had either used an iPad or seen Twitter:
The Young Lawyers Section of the Maryland State Bar Association thought that it would be useful to create an iPhone and iPad apps for attorneys with the Maryland Rules of Professional Conduct and important rules for lawyers. After a grant from the Maryland Bar Foundation, the result is the free MSBA app, which just appeared on the App Store this week. Thanks to Erek Barron, chair of the YLS of the MSBA, for bringing this app to my attention.
The main menu of the app has two modes. When the app starts you are presented with five buttons (the app calls them “tabs”) that you can select: (1) The Maryland Rules of Evidence, (2) The Maryland Rules of Professional Conduct, (3) rules on Attorney Trust Accounts, (4) the Maryland Ideals of Professionalism and (5) the MSBA Code of Civility. Alternatively, you can display “list” mode which simply lists the chapters of all of these bodies of law in one long list. I’m not sure why the “list” view would ever be easier to use than the “tabs” view.
When you tap on a chapter you see all of the rules in that chapter. For example, tap on Rule 1 “Client-Lawyer Relationship” and you see a long list of every rule and comment, from Rule 1.1 to Rule 1.18, in one long list divided up into four different parts. It is nice to get all of the text of the rules and comments in a free app, but I don’t understand the thinking behind putting all of the rules together. For example, if you want to review Rule 1.13 “Organization as Client” you need to first tap Rule 1, then scroll all the way down to the bottom, then tap a button to go the next part, then scroll all of the way to the bottom again, then tap a button to go to the third part, and then you can find the rule. It would be so much faster to have all of the rules in an index so that you can jump straight to Rule 1.13. The other bodies of law, such as the Rules of Evidence, are similarly grouped into long lists under each chapter.
There is a search feature which allows you to do a full text search. Hits are highlighted in yellow making them easy to find … except that you have to scroll through that long list of rules to find the hits. You can also add bookmarks to each of the long sets of lists … which once again would be a much more useful feature if you could add bookmarks to jump to a specific rule.
The app also includes a Links button at the bottom which provides links to parts of the MSBA website including the MSBA Hotline, MSBA Ethics Opinions (for members only) and Fastcase (for members only). The inclusion of Fastcase is curious. Lawyers in Maryland who want to use Fastcase on a computer need to first login at the MSBA website because (like many other state bars) the MSBA purchased Fastcase access for its member attorneys. But if you are on an iPhone or an iPad, the Fastcase app is free to everyone, regardless of whether your state bar has a contract with Fastcase. Why would anyone want to tap a link to the Maryland website on an iPhone to access the web version of Fastcase when they can instead just use the fantastic Fastcase iPhone / iPad app?
I love that the Young Lawyers Section of the Maryland Bar saw the need for an app and created something that is free for all attorneys. This is even a universal app so you can use it on both the iPhone and the iPad. I disagree with the decision to lump sets of rules together because it makes it harder to find the one rule that you need, and perhaps a 2.0 version of this app will address that. Nevertheless, if you are a Maryland attorney, you should still get this free app in case you want to look up any of these rules. For everyone else, perhaps this app can serve as an example and an impetus for other state bar associations to provide useful iPhone and iPad apps to their members.
I know of a large number of attorneys and non-attorneys who use an iPad instead of a laptop when traveling. Because it is nice to use an external keyboard with the iPad when you don’t have access to a computer with a real keyboard, people have frequently asked me about cases (such as the original Kensington KeyFolio that came out last year) that hold both the iPad and a keyboard, transforming the iPad into something that looks sort of like a netbook. Thus, when Kensington offered to send me a free review sample of its new KeyFolio Pro which was announced in late June of 2011, I was eager to try out the product. For many people this will be a great iPad accessory, but for me I found the keyboard a little too small.
The KeyFolio Pro is an iPad case. The iPad slips into one side of the KeyFolio Pro. It is secured by a simple tab that doesn’t have velcro or a snap of any kind but does a great job of holding the iPad in place. When you close the case, the iPad is essentially protected on all sides. (The iPad’s four corners are technically exposed, but they are recessed from the corner of the KeyFolio so if something bumps the corner your iPad will probably be fine.)
The closed KeyFolio is 8″ wide, 10.25″ long and about an inch thick. So in other words, it is about the size of a typical high school yearbook. My iPad 2 weighs 21.0 oz. by itself; when in the KeyFolio Pro they together weigh 41.4 oz., so you are essentially doubling the weight. As a case, I really like the KeyFolio Pro. It feels very nice in the hands, includes a hole in the back for the camera so you can take a picture without removing the iPad 2, and is very sturdy. Note that the case does not lock in any way to stay closed, so if you drop the case it could open up and damage the glass on the iPad 2. But you can walk around with the KeyFolio in your hands and know that your iPad or iPad 2 has more protection than it would have without any protection at all or with just the Apple Smart Cover.
Of course, the reason to get this case is not just to cover the iPad but also to use the built-in keyboard. The keyboard works like the Apple Wireless Keyboard in that it pairs with the iPad via Bluetooth. The keys are study, perhaps just a slight bit more mushy than the Apple Wireless Keyboard, but they work well. The keyboard includes at the top the following keys which are also present on the Apple Wireless Keyboard:
Rewind
Play/Pause
Fast-forward
Mute
Decrease Volume
Increase Volume
Show/hide keyboard
The only special keys on the Apple Wireless Keyboard missing from the KeyFolio Pro are the increase and decrease brightness buttons. The KeyFolio Pro also includes additional dedicated keys that perform the following functions:
Home: just like pressing the Home button on the iPad, but you don’t have to lift your fingers from the keyboard — very handy.
Slideshow: instantly launch a slideshow, no matter what you are doing on the iPad. Normally you have to first go to the iPad’s lock screen to then see the button to launch a slideshow.
Search: a button that instantly brings you to the iPad search screen, which normally you have to access by pressing the Home button twice or swiping to the right from the first Home screen.
Lock: instantly turn off the iPad screen, just like pressing the Sleep/Wake button on the side of the iPad.
.com: instantly type “.com”
Control key: the Apple Wireless Keyboard has a single control key on the left; the KeyFolio Pro has one on the left and one on the right
Note that many of these keys — the Lock key for sure, but also the Home, Slideshow and Search keys — provide a privacy feature of some sort. If someone approaches your iPad and you want to instantly hide what is on the screen, you can press the Lock key to instantly make the screen turn black or those other keys to change what is on the screen.
There are a few other keys on the KeyFolio Pro that, to my knowledge, don’t do anything with the iPad 2. They are labled “Pause Break” “PrtSc SysRq” and “insert.” There is also a “delete” button at the top right that does the same thing as the backspace key just below it. The KeyFolio Pro also has a special button at the top of the keyboard called “connect” that you use to pair the keyboard with the iPad via Bluetooth. There are some lights at the top right of the keyboard that indicate things like power on, caps lock on, when the keyboard is ready to be paired via Bluetooth and when the keyboard is charging.
There is an on/off switch on the right side of the keyboard making it easy to save power. The keyboard charges via USB and Kensington advertises 90 hours of working time and 45 days of standby time. I did charge the keyboard every once in a while over the last few weeks, but I never had it run out of power so I wasn’t able to confirm the 90 hours (although I don’t doubt it).
One special feature of the KeyFolio Pro is somewhat hidden in the part that holds the iPad — that part spins. Thus, you can use the iPad in the landscape mode (the mode you would expect for a case like this) but you can also twist clockwise to put the iPad in a portrait mode.
If I were to stop now, this would be a fairly glowing review of the KeyFolio Pro … but I have one problem with this keyboard. The keys are too small for me. The Apple Wireless Keyboard has keys that are each 5/8″ wide and which have about 1/8″ between each key. The KeyFolio Pro keys are 9/16″ wide and have just under 1/8″ between each key. From one edge of the Q to the other edge of the P on the Apple Wireless Keyboard is about 7 3/8″; on the KeyFolio Pro that same span is about 6 3/4″. Those differences sound small — we are talking about only around 1/16″ per key —but they sure do make a difference for my fingers. The Apple Wireless Keyboard feels like a full-size keyboard because it is a full-size keyboard; it is the same keyboard that comes with many Macs. But whenever I type on the KeyFolio Pro, I feel like I am squishing my fingers together.
I recognize, however, that the problem here could just be me. I have larger hands, and in the past I’ve also found some compact netbooks too small for me to type on comfortably. Thus, I loaned the KeyFolio Pro to one of my colleagues who was seriously considering purchasing something just like this for her iPad and who has smaller fingers. (Is it sexist to say “typical female-sized fingers”? Maybe it is, so I won’t.) She used the KeyFolio for a week and told me that she had no problem with the key size at all. She did have some other complaints, though. First, she didn’t like the extra weight, which made her iPad feel more like a notebook computer, which defeated the purpose of the iPad for her. Second, she missed the Apple Smart Cover feature of putting the iPad to sleep automatically when covered; with the KeyFolio Pro you must first press that Lock key on the keyboard or press the Sleep/Wake button on the iPad and then close it. She also had some complaints that apply to any external keyboard, including the Apple model such as (1) the frequent need to reestablish a Bluetooth connection to the iPad before using the keyboard and (2) the need to frequently switch between touching the screen and using the keyboard. Thus, after a week of using the KeyFolio Pro, she decided that it wasn’t worth it to her to purchase a device like this.
For me, however, if it wasn’t for the keyboard being too small for my hands, I think that this would be a fabulous accessory for taking the iPad to meetings, court, or anyplace else when you want to give the iPad some protection (which of course adds weight, but that will be true no matter what kind of case you use) and you want to have an external keyboard. Indeed, an all-in-one option can be a nice advantage over carrying both the iPad and then also a keyboard.
So if you have larger hands like me, I cannot recommend the KeyFolio Pro. But if not, I would give this one a close look. It is a nicely designed, second-generation product gives you a simple way to protect your iPad while you also carry around and use an external keyboard, and it is quick and easy to remove the iPad from the KeyFolio Pro when you are not using it. The retail price is $99, but you can get it for only $62 on Amazon — $7 cheaper than the $69 Apple Wireless Keyboard, which is just a keyboard and doesn’t also include a case.
The International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) is a peer networking organization for people who work in the legal technology field, such as the people who work in law firm IT departments. I know that the folks in my law firm’s tech department frequently take advantage of ILTA resources when seeking advice on selecting and working with software designed for the legal market and when recruiting new hires. Last week, ILTA had its annual conference in Nashville, TN, and as the conference started, ILTA and InsideLegal released the results of their sixth annual technology purchasing survey. JoAnna Forshee of InsideLegal explained the methodology of the survey as follows:
The 33 question web-based survey was distributed to approximately 684 law firms, ranging from 50 to 3,000 attorneys, and yielded 118 unique firm responses. 84% of all participating firms came from the U.S., with the remaining 16% originating from Canada, the UK, Australia, and Brazil. 85% of all survey respondents are IT Directors or C-Level executives, and 86% have direct purchasing or purchasing committee responsibility.
You can download a PDF of the survey results here, and it is full of interesting statistics, but for me the most interesting part of the survey was that, for the first time ever, tablets were a major topic of discussion for survey participants. When asked to name the most exciting technology or trend, the #1 answer in this year’s survey was tablets. And as we know, when people say “tablets” they are really just saying “iPads” considering that around 90% of tablet purchases by lawyers are iPads. Thus, while the survey speaks of “tablets,” I’ll just use the word “iPad” for the rest of this post.
The survey reveals that most firms (55%) let lawyers buy their own iPads but the IT departments at the firms support the purchase. This is the way that it works at my law firm; the lawyer purchases an iPad, and our tech folks help the lawyer get it connected our Microsoft Exchange system and give some advice on apps. The survey reveals that 11% of firms purchase iPads for their attorneys — 9% purchase them on a case-by-case basis, and 2% purchase them for all attorneys in the firm (similar to the Bassford Remele firm that I wrote about a few weeks ago). Around a third of the law firms don’t provide any support for iPads, although I suspect that those firms still have many lawyers using iPads on their own initiative, regardless of whether they are getting official support from their IT department. The survey includes this chart showing these responses:
Source: ILTA/InsideLegal Technology Purchasing Survey 2011 p. 12.
About 25% of survey respondents said that iPads were one of the major technology purchases of their law firm over the last 12 months. (I don’t quite understand how that answer jives with only 11% of law firms purchasing iPads for attorneys; I guess they are counting both purchases by the firm and purchases by attorneys.) Similarly, about 25% of respondents said that the iPad would be one of the major technology purchases for the next 12 months.
You don’t really need numbers like this to know that iPads are taking over law firms; just poke your head into most any law firm and the iPads are everywhere. But it was interesting to see iPads show up for the first time in thie year’s ILTA survey, and it will be even more interesting to see how this year’s numbers compare to what we will see in next year’s survey.
Whether you are using an iPad to review depositions or during a presentation in court, you need a good way to hold it. Just holding the iPad in your hand gets tiring after a while, and it can easily slip out of your hand while you are walking around. A solution is to use a device that acts as an iPad case but also includes a handle of some sort on the back. I have previously reviewed the FreeOneHand, an iPad holder designed for this purpose, and I also reviewed the GorillaMobile Yogi which does a good job of letting you hold the iPad while you are reading it (just wrap the legs around your hand or hold on to the legs). The HandStand 2 by Hub International is a case for the iPad 2 that includes a strap on the back making it easy to keep the iPad 2 in your hand. (This review is of the HandStand 2 for the iPad 2, but there is also a HandStand for the original iPad.)
The HandStand is made of molded polyurethane, a strong but flexible material that holds up to abuse but makes it easy to grip around the iPad. The HandStand includes cut-outs on the side for all of the iPad’s buttons and on the back for the camera. HandStand does not protect the glass front of the iPad, although you can always add a screen cover if you are looking for full iPad protection. Having said that, if you place the iPad face down when it is in the Handstand, the edges of the HandStand will touch the surface instead of the iPad’s glass, so that does provide some minor protection to the front. I reviewed the black version, but it also comes in white or pink.
If you simply sit the HandStand with an iPad on a table, the HandStand props up the iPad at an angle that makes it easier to type.
But the real purpose of the HandStand is not to just be a cover or to prop up the iPad on a table. The key feature here is how the HandStand makes your iPad a natural extension of your hand. The back of the HandStand has an ABS plastic pad that is raised at one part so that your fingers curve around it. And then an elastic strap holds your hand firmly against the pad. As a result, you can walk around with your hand either raised up or down at your side and the iPad is going to stay right there in your hand.
One nice feature is that the plastic pad on the back of the HandStand rotates. Thus, you can easily put your iPad in either portrait or landscape mode — or pretty much any other angle. It is easy to spin the iPad into a position, and then once in that position it stays in that position until you spin it again.
If you are standing up and want your iPad to stay firmly in your hand without any risk of slipping out, the HandStand works great. I haven’t yet had an opportunity to use the HandStand in court, and I’m not completely sold on the idea of keeping an iPad in my hand while I am talking to a judge or a jury. I have frequently used an iPad at a table or podium in court, but I don’t know about walking around with the iPad. But if this is something that you want to do, the HandStand works great.
I most appreciate an easy way to hold the iPad when I am sitting in a chair reading documents on my iPad. Reading hundreds of pages of depositions or cases on an iPad takes time and can really wear out your hand and arm. The HandStand does keep the iPad attached to your hand without you having to use any effort to hold the iPad, which is good. Having said that, I prefer using the FreeOneHand to hold the iPad when I’m sitting. In part this is because the FreeOneHand extends further out to the back of the iPad making it more comfortable for me to hold the iPad. Another reason that the HandStand is less comfortable for this purpose is a result of the design of the HandStand; keeping the iPad on my flat hand is more tiring to my hand and arm than keeping my hand into a more natural, “handshake” pose which I can use to hold the FreeOneHand or even the GorillaMobile Yogi. Having said that, with the FreeOneHand or the Yogi, your iPad can drop out of your hand if you let go; the advantage of the HandStand is that it keeps the iPad firmly attached to your hand. The iPad isn’t going anywhere when you use the HandStand.
If you are looking for a way to keep an iPad firmly in your hand, the HandStand does the job. I wish it were even more comfortable when sitting down, but this was somewhat less of a problem for me when I am standing. And the HandStand is sturdy and well-constructed, essential qualities for any product that you are going to depend on to stop an iPad from slipping out of your hand and crashing to the floor. The HandStand retails for $49.95, but you can save a few bucks if you buy it on Amazon.
It wasn’t that long ago that I was noting the lack of news and stating that “August is a slow news month.” Then Google purchased Motorola to compete with Apple’s patents, HP announced that it was getting out of the smartphone, tablet and even personal computer business because of Apple’s dominance, and Steve Jobs resigned as Apple’s CEO. So much for my ability to predict the news cycle. Here is the iPhone and iPad-related news from the past week:
There has been so much written about Steve Jobs that I don’t even know where to start, but I can specifically recommend David Pogue’s article in the New York Times and John’s Gruber’s article on Daring Fireball.
Chris Albrecht of GigaOm collects some great videos of Steve Jobs speaking. The 2005 Stanford Commencement Address is particularly good and worth watching.
Tim Cook is now the CEO of Apple, and Lex Friedman of Macworld wrote a great article on his background and qualifications for the job. For even more information, read Adam Lashinsky’s comprehensive article for Fortune back in 2008. There is no question in my mind that he is the right man for the job.
I like this tweet from Harry McCracken of Technologizer: “Still unimaginable: that Jobs was the most important person in personal technology both in 1978 and in 2011.”
I know that it is an old joke to say that you read Playboy “just for the articles,” but one of the very best interviews of Steve Jobs was David Sheff’s interview that ran in the February 1985 issue of Playboy. The full text of the article is posted here on Scribd. (That version contains no pictures and is safe to read anywhere.) I’m sure it was a great read in 1985, but when you read it now with the advantage of 25+ years of history, you get a sense of how insightful Jobs was even when he was only 25 years old.
Harry McCracken of Technologizer describes an interesting iPad keyboard from Logitech that unfolds.
Joel Mathis of Macworld reports that United Airlines will give 11,000 iPads to United and Continental pilots to replace bulky paper navigation charts in the cockpit.
Similarly, Alex Heath of Cult of Mac reports that every player on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is getting an iPad to replace the paper playbook. I appreciate their use of Apple products, but I still hope that they lose to the Saints this year.
One of the reasons that I love using a Macintosh computer in my home is the lack of malware (viruses, spyware, etc.). Some people claim that the credit for that goes not to Apple, but just to the fact that Macs have a small marketshare; the bad guys target the larger PC market. But in the smartphone space, the iPhone is clearly the market leader, and yet there is still no iPhone (or iPad) malware, while on the other hand, as Josh Ong of AppleInsider reports, malware on Android smartphones is increasing substantially. It appears that Apple is doing something right when it comes to security.
If you like the idea of reading magazines on your iPad, you need to check out the great Zinio app. Bryan Wolfe of AppAdvice posts a good overview of the app.
Tim Moynihan of PC World reviews some new Nikon cameras. One of them, the Coolpix S1200pj, lets you take pictures and then project them onto a wall or screen using a projector in the camera. Better yet, you can connect an iPad, iPhone, or iPod to the camera and use it as an external projector. Interesting.
Michael Munchmore of PC Magazine reviews the Keynote app for iPhone.
And finally, if you want to show the world just how cool your iPhone can be, how about using your iPhone to cool you down and beat the summer heat? Chris Rawson of TUAW reviews a $10 iPhone attachment that adds a fan to your iPhone:
