Jeff Richardson

Don’t tell anybody, but just between you and me, I played hooky yesterday and skipped work to go to the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, known here simply as Jazz Fest.  The weather was in the 70s and perfect, the food was amazing, and we saw some incredible performers including Gal Holiday & the Honky Tonk Revue (sort of a Louisiana version of Patsy Cline), Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys (great Cajun music), The New Orleans Bingo! Show (chaotic fun), Amanda Shaw (amazing fiddle player, and yet only 20 years old) and Cyndi Lauper.  Lauper was a bit of surprise.  Yes, she played many of her classic songs, so the audience got a chance to “Bop” and sing along to songs like “Time After Time,” “True Colors” and “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.”  But Lauper’s latest album is a blues album, Memphis Blues, so about half of her songs were blues and she did an amazing job with them.  Before I risk turning this blog into a music review site, let me shift to an iPhone angle.  Jazz Fest gets around 400,000 visitors over 7 days, and with tens of thousands of people in one location every day, cell phone towers typically get jammed.  In past years, I had difficulty calling people, experienced delays with text messages, and connecting to the Internet over 3G was near impossible.  But this year, AT&T provided free WiFI for AT&T customers at Jazz Fest and may have also done something to boost their cell towers, and what a difference that made on the iPhone.  I was able to keep up with e-mails from the office, had no trouble making phone calls, and with the free WiFi I was even able to do a FaceTime chat with my brother in California, aim my iPhone’s camera to the stage, and make him jealous share some of a performance with him.  He told me that the video and audio quality using FaceTime on his Mac to watch the stream from my iPhone 4 was quite good.  It’s nice to see that even when you have a ton of people in a small area, AT&T service can be wonderful when AT&T takes proactive steps.  I hope this continues in future years.  And now, on to the news of the week:

• One of the big Apple stories over the last two weeks was news that the iPhone was saving certain location-related data on your computer in iTunes.  On May 4, Apple released iOS 4.3.3 to address this issue.  (iOS 4.2.8 if you are using a Verizon iPhone.)  Dan Moren of Macworld explains what it does.
• I am frequently asked what percentage of lawyers use an iPhone or an iPad.  I haven’t seen any reliable statistics, although anecdotally my answer is “lots, and more every day!”  My law firm has almost 300 attorneys and about half of them use an iPhone; I don’t know the iPad numbers but considering that I get a call virtually every day from a partner asking me which model he or she should get, that number is getting bigger too.  I mention this because Manhattan Research, a market research firm, recently issued a press release announcing that “30 percent of U.S. physicians” currently own an iPad “and an additional 28 percent plan to purchase an iPad within the next six months” and that the iPhone is the “number one smartphone platform used by physicians in the U.S.” although they don’t give a percentage.  They do say that 75% of all doctors in the U.S. own either an iPhone, iPad or iPod, but I’m not sure how revealing that statistic is considering that virtually everyone seems to own an iPod.
• As for the overall market, AppleInsider cites an IDC report that Apple’s iPhone has an 18.7% share of the smartphone market, and cites a Nielsen survey concluding that Apple’s iPad has an 82% share of the tablet market.
• Of course, market share isn’t everything.  Jay Yarow of Business Insider reports that Apple gets 50% of the profits that come from the entire handset industry, even though Apple only sells 4.9% of all cell phones in the world.
• Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal discusses options for watching TV shows on an iPad.
• Steve Kovach and Jay Yarow of Business Insider describe 20 iPhone shortcuts.  Many of these have been discussed on iPhone J.D. before (look at the Tips and Shortcuts section of the iPhone J.D. Index) but it is easy to forget these tips so their article is a good read.  Note, however, that I strongly disagree with their final statement that jailbreaking your iPhone is “the only way you can really enjoy your iPhone.”  I discourage jailbreaking because it makes your iPhone unstable and it offers most iPhone users no real advantage, unless you are looking to run pirated apps or tether without paying AT&T’s monthly fee — which you shouldn’t be doing anyway.
• Another good tip:  Allyson Kazmucha of TiPb dicusses how to include pauses in a phone number in your iPhone contacts, useful for accessing things like voice mail.
• I’ve noted in the past that President Obama now has an iPad 2, as do others in his administration.  Gautham Nagesh of The Hill discusses problems that this can pose for the Presidential Records Act which requires that official communications be preserved.
• According to an article on MSNBC, a woman in South Carolina lost her iPhone, and then learned that whoever found her iPhone was sending e-mails to the contacts on her iPhone and attaching her nude pictures that she kept on her iPhone.  I think that we can all learn two lessons from this story.  First, try not to lose your iPhone, but because you might do so anyway be sure to enable the passcode lock to give you some protection from intruders.  I’ll let you figure out the second lesson.
• If you play golf, Bob Tedeschi of the New York Times recommends some golf apps.
• David Drumm has a post on the Jonathan Turley blog discussing whether smartphones can be searched incident to a valid arrest (the Chimel doctrine).
• AppReviews provides an overview of the different iPhone and iPad apps that you can use to annotate a PDF.  GoodReader is curently my favorite on my iPad.
• If you fly American Airlines but have trouble seeing the video monitors on the plane, a press release reveals that they are working on a solution.  The airline is testing the ability to stream video content to WiFi devices such as the iPhone and iPad. 
• Virginia attorney Rob Dean discusses the Fastcase app for the iPad on his blog.  I love the Fastcase app; my review of the iPhone version is here and Fastcase works just as well on the iPad — arguably better because of the larger screen.
• Sue Megrund of AppReviews discusses AirBeam, an app that you place on one iOS device to act as a video camera and on another iOS device to act as a monitor.  So you can turn an old iPhone into a baby monitor or a home security system.
• Lex Friedman of Macworld mentions iFontMaker, an iPad app that lets you turn your handwriting into a font that you can use on your computer.  Friedman recommenmds that for one of the characters, instead of handwriting the character, sign your name.  That way you can enter your signature on a document on your computer just be selecting the font you created and hitting that one key.
• Ben Brooks discusses many of the iPhone weather apps and recommends a few.
• Dan Havlik of The Daily discusses what smartphones mean for the future of digital cameras.
• A great feel-good story:  a nine year old with a terminal illness had the dream of designing a video game, and thanks to the Make a Wish foundation and the awesome folks at PopCap, they helped him create his own iPad game, which will be available in the App Store soon (with all proceeds to go to Make a Wish).  Chris Ward of TUAW has details and a link to a video.
• And finally, last month I discussed Apple’s “We Believe” iPad commercial narrated by Peter Coyote.  This week Apple unveiled a follow up commercial called If You Asked, and it is worth watching:

When taking a deposition of an adverse witness, I sometimes want to pin down a witness on exactly where he was standing or where some other events took place.  This can be difficult with simple questions and answers because even if the witness gives one explanation for where things took place, mere words may give the witness some wiggle room to later say that it happened differently.  A good solution is to be armed with a picture of the area so that the witness can identify exactly where, in the picture, events took place.  Of course, in a discovery deposition, you may not always know beforehand what the witness will say, so it can be difficult to arrive armed with every possible picture from every possible angle.

Virginia prosecutor Rob Dean recently wrote a useful post on WALKINGOFFICE, his blog for lawyers who use an iPad.  I give Dean full credit for this idea, I have simply expanded upon it a bit in this post.  If your witness describes an event that took place on a public street, you can use the built-in Maps app on your iPad to plug in the address or the intersection at issue.  Let’s say, for example, that a witness tells me that an event took place across the street from Jackson Square in New Orleans.  If I have a street address, I can plug that into the Maps app.  Or if I have a popular place name, such as “Jackson Square” I can plug that in. 

If the location on the map has an icon next to the pin (a white figure in an orange circle) then I can tap the icon to enter the Street View mode to get a street level view of the location.  If not, I can tap the bottom right corner of the screen to choose “Drop Pin” and then I can tap and hold the pin to drag it to a street, where Street View will work.

Now I just tap the Street View icon and show the image to the witness.  I suspect that most of you have used this feature before and you know how easy it is to virtually look around in 360º and tap on the white arrows to move up and down the street.  Get your witness to identify the spot and/or the angle that corresponds to his story on where the event took place.  Once you have it on your screen, take a screenshot by quickly pressing and releasing the Sleep/Wake and Home buttons at the same time. The screen will flash to let you know the screenshot was taken, and the screenshot is added to your iPad’s Camera Roll.

The iPad always takes screenshots in the Portrait mode.  If that is the way that you were holding your iPad, then you can skip the next step.  But most likely, such as in my examples above, you had your iPad in the landscape position, so you will next want to rotate the image 90º.  Unfortunately, the Photos app doesn’t currently let you rotate an image, but there are many third party apps that do.  For example, the free Adobe Photoshop Express app will let you manipulate an image in lots of different ways.  Launch the app, select the screenshot that you just took from your Camera Roll on the iPad, and tap the first icon at the bottom of the screen to get the option to Rotate:

If you want to be fancy you can even quickly adjust the exposure, contrast, etc. but for these purposes that probably isn’t necessary unless the Street View picture from Google is particularly poor.  When you are done, tap Save at the top.

Now that the image is in your Camera Roll in the correct orientation, you can have the witness identify locations by drawing right on the picture.  I recommend using a $5.99 app called Adobe Ideas.  Launch the app and tap the plus sign at the bottom of the screen that is next to a picture of a camera.  This lets you choose a picture from your Camera Roll as a background image:

Tap the image and it opens up in the app.  Along the left side you can select a pen, eraser and a hand (to move around the image or pinch to zoom).  Change the pen to whatever color you want, preferably one that will have a lot of contrast to the background such as a bright yellow.  If necessary, adjust the size of your brush. 

Now, ask the witness to either use his finger or a stylus that you provide to indicate exactly where events took place.  For example, the witness might put an X where he was standing and a circle where the other party was standing.  Don’t worry if a mistake is made; you can undo and redo, and you can use the eraser took if you need to change a bunch.  You are drawing in a separate layer on top of the picture, so you don’t have to worry about erasing or modifying the underlying picture.

Make sure your witness identifies on the record what his markings mean (such as the X and the O) and then you will have a very specific record of where the witness was standing and/or where the significant events took place, even though you didn’t come to the deposition with a picture for him to use.  In fact, in some ways this is better than photograph.  The iPad screen is large, so unless you brought an 8×10 picture, this is bigger.  Also, drawing on a photograph is very difficult unless you have the right pens with you, but using an iPad app like Adobe Ideas to draw on a picture is simple when you select the right color.  Once done, you can tap the share button at the bottom right to send the picture via e-mail to the court reporter and all counsel of record, and/or you can save the modified picture to an album on your iPad.

If you want the witness to include even more information, you can tap the hand button and then pinch to zoom out.  This reveals extra space that a witness might use to indicate some other information in the margins around the picture:

When Adobe Ideas sends the image, it puts it in PDF format and automatically crops it to just include the areas where you have drawn.  Click here if you want to download the PDF image that I just created to see what it looks like.

For all of this to work using Maps and Google Street View, the event must have taken place on or near a public street.  Sometimes, this will be exactly what you want.  For example, in a deposition in a car accident case, you might position the view to match what a driver would have seen as he is approaching an intersection. 

Keep in mind you can also create the underlying image in many other ways.  For example, the Bing Maps service from Microsoft offers something called Streetside, which is Bing’s version of Google Street View.  Unfortunately, as of now, Streetside doesn’t work on an iPad (although you can use it on your computer if you want to create the picture before your deposition), but you can use the free Bing app to use the Bird’s Eye view in Bing Maps, a mode that does not exist in Google Maps.  Depending upon what you want a witness to describe, the Bird’s Eye view might be even better from a top down view that you get in a traditional map.  For example, here is a Bird’s Eye view of the same location I showed above. 

Once again, you can take a screenshot and then use Adobe Ideas or another graphics app to have the witness mark specific landmarks.  A nice feature of the Bing app is that you don’t even have to type something; you can just tap the microphone icon at the top and say something, such as in this example “Jackson Square” and that location will pop right up in the map.

Or you might even use a photograph that you did take yourself before the deposition.  Instead of printing out the picture, just put it on your iPad and load it up in the Adobe Ideas app before your deposition starts so that you can quickly have the witness draw on the picture.  Perhaps you might use a picture of the equipment that malfunctioned and ask the witness to mark exactly where the malfunction took place.

A picture can be worth a thousand words.  A picture that you use with a witness to exactly identify where he says something took place can be much more valuable than that when you later want to impeach the witness at trial, showing that the events could not possibly have unfolded as he previously testified.  Thanks to the iPad, you have the tools to create a photograph with markings right there in the deposition, which may end up being the reason that you win your case.  (And thanks again to Rob Dean for his original post with this idea.)

Click here for Adobe Photoshop Express (free): 

Click here for Adobe Ideas ($5.99): 

Click here for Microsoft Bing for iPad (free): 

Many attorneys who read iPhone J.D. write to tell me how they are using their iPhone or iPad in their practice.  I love to read these stories, and from time to time I like to share them here on iPhone J.D.  I find that when I hear what others are doing, it usually gives me more ideas for making the most of my iPhone or iPad in my practice.  Hopefully you find that the same is true for you.

Al Saikali is a partner in the Miami office of Shook, Hardy & Bacon, a law firm with 500 attorneys that started in Kansas City and now also has offices in Geneva, Houston, London, Miami, Orange County, San Francisco, Tampa, Florida, and Washington, D.C.  Saikali's practice mostly involves representing companies at trial and on appeal in products liability, personal injury and commercial litigation.  He uses both the iPhone and iPad in his practice.  After reading my post from last week about using my iPhone and iPad in a class certification hearing, he shared this story about using his iPhone and iPad in the non-billable portion of his practice:

“Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.”   Some attribute that quote to Chinese military strategist Sun-tzu, who wrote The Art of War.  Others just give credit to Michael Corleone in The Godfather Part II.  Microsoft is a competitor of Apple in the smartphone market, and yet Apple pays Microsoft a licence so that iPhones work with Microsoft Exchange / Outlook.  Google, with its Android operating system, is a competitor of Apple, and yet Google makes great apps for the iPhone and Apple uses Google maps in the built-in Maps app.  There had been no similar connection between RIM, who makes the BlackBerry, and Apple’s iPhone … until yesterday.

Yesterday, RIM announced that it was acquiring a German software company called ubitexx to give RIM the tools to create a single BlackBerry Enterprise Solution that will give organizations the same control over iPhones, iPads and Android smartphones and tablets that organizations currently have over BlackBerry devices thanks to the venerable BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES).

The BES has long been touted as a key advantage of BlackBerry phones because of the centralized control it gives to IT departments, control that many equate with better security.  With this new software, IT departments could exercise the same type of control over both BlackBerries and iPhones.  A RIM press release explains:

“The multi-platform BlackBerry Enterprise Solution is designed to address a growing market and respond to requests from enterprise customers who want a secure multi-platform device management solution from a company that already delivers the gold standard for enterprise mobility,” said Peter Devenyi, Vice President, Communications Platform Group at Research In Motion. “We recognize the opportunity to continue leading in the enterprise market by providing customers with a common platform to help simplify the management of a variety of mobile devices.”

The single web-based console is being designed to provide IT administrators with a simple and efficient way to distribute software and manage policies, inventory, security and services for BlackBerry devices, as well as other mobile devices. IT administrators will be able to manage devices over-the-air, including activating devices, distributing software and applications, locking or wiping devices, enforcing and resetting device passwords, setting IT policies, and managing optional mobile applications for end users.

What motive does RIM have for helping the iPhone?  Chris Barth of Forbes offers an explanation which makes some sense to me:  “If RIM wants to remain a player in the enterprise market, this type of move is a necessary one. With the smartphone market widening, the iPhone moving to Verizon and sentiment on RIM on a decline, the company will need to make a push to remain relevant.”

There will still be some features of the BES that only work with BlackBerries.  Curiously, the press release identifies one such feature as “RIM’s industry-leading push technology.”  I find it hard to believe that any RIM solution for the iPhone wouldn’t also feature push technology.  Nobody will want an e-mail server for the iPhone that doesn’t tell you when you get a new e-mail. The ubitexx website says that its Mobile Device Management software — presumably the very software that RIM plans to build upon — provides “[a]utomatic over-the-air installation and configuration of security settings, mobile software and push e-mail simultaneously on an unlimited number of smartphones.”  This makes me think that push e-mail will indeed be a part of this product, although perhaps there will be some small differences in the way that the BES currently provides push e-mail to BlackBerries.

We’ll have to wait to get more details on how all of this will work.  RIM did not provide a specific release date, instead merely saying that there would be “general availability later this year.”  But for those law firms (and lawyers) holding out on supporting the iPhone because of some of the advantages of BlackBerry administration, this new software may be just what the law firm is looking for:  a uniform and centralized way to manage all smartphones.

There are a large number of iPhone and iPad apps that let you view high-quality content.  For example, the free ABC Player iPad app let’s you watch selected episodes of selected ABC content such as the shows Brothers and Sisters, Modern Family, All My Children and The View.  Or you can pay $7.99/month to access the Hulu Plus iPhone/iPad app and view episodes of TV shows from stations like ABC, NBC and FOX and certain movies.  Sony recently debuted an iPhone/iPad app called Crackle with selected episodes from various shows (e.g. Seinfeld, Married with Children, Doctor Who) and movies.  These sorts of apps are wonderful because the iPad is a great portable device for watching TV shows and movies, especially when you are traveling or are just looking for something to watch in bed before you go to sleep.

The content is what really makes these sorts of apps shine, and in my opinion some of the best television content from the last 20 years has come from HBO.  I’ve been an HBO subscriber forever, and while I will sometimes watch a movie on HBO, the primary reason I keep my subscription is to watch HBO’s own series.  For about a year now HBO has had a service called HBO GO that let you watch HBO content on a computer, but even with a laptop that is not as convenient a more portable viewing device as the iPhone or iPad.  Today is the day that HBO announced that its free* HBO GO app for iPhone and iPad would debut.  It actually appeared on the App Store a few days ago.

I put the asterisk next to “free” because while the app is free, you must be a current HBO subscriber to use the app.  The first time that you use the app it will ask you to indicate which service provider you use.  The app currently works with AT&T U-verse TV, DirecTV, Dish Network, Suddenlink, Verizon FiOS and XFINITY.  The app works in beta with Charter and Cox, and other providers should be added soon.  Select your provider and provide some account information, and from then on, whenever you start the app you can view the content.

And boy does this app have content.  You can view, in most cases, every episode from every season of fantastic, award-winning HBO shows including:

• Band of Brothers
• Big Love
• Boardwalk Empire
• Bored to Death
• Carnivale
• Curb Your Enthusiasm
• Deadwood
• Eastbound & Down
• Entourage
• Epitaeios
• Extras
• Fligh of the Conchords
• Funny or Die Presents
• Game of Thrones
• Generation Kill
• How to Make it in America
• Hung
• In Treatment
• John Adams
• The Life and Times of Tim
• Little Brian USA
• Mildred Pierce
• Oz
• Real Time with Bill Maher
• Rome
• Sex in the City
• The Niestat Brothers
• The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency
• The Pacific
• The Ricky Gervais Show
• P. Diddy Presents The Bad Boys of Comedy
• Russell Simmons Presents Brave New Voices
• Russell Simmons Presents Def Comedy Jam
• Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry
• Six Feet Under
• The Sopranos
• Summer Heights High
• Treme
• True Blood
• The Wire

If that was all the content that this app provided, that would be amazing enough, especially if you haven’t seen many of those shows already — you could easily justify the cost of an iPad just to watch all of that great content.  The app includes far more content than you can get using the “On Demand” services of cable and satellite providers.

But there is more.  The app also provides a large selection of movies to watch (currently including new and old movies such as Avatar, Date Night, Dead Poets Society, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Lost in Translation).  The app also includes lots of HBO Comedy, Sports and Documentaries Content.  The app even includes a “Late Night” section with shows such as the HBO Real Sex series and what I presume must be Oscar-overlooked classics such as The Devil Wears Nada and Bikini Frankenstein (ahem).  (There is a Parental Controls option so that you restrict access to certain programs if minors use your iOS device.)

 

 

The video content streams to the app, so you’ll probably want to use this app when you have WiFi.  (If you are using 3G, the app warns you that you may incurr additional charges from your carrier depending upon which plan you have.)  It appears that you can only be signed in to HBO GO on one device at a time, so you need to sign out to switch from an iPhone to iPad or vice versa.

The video quality is excellent.  The app has limited AirPlay support — only audio.  So you can watch a movie on an iPad and play booming audio through an AirPlay enabled speaker, but you cannot send the movie to your Apple TV and watch it there.  I would love to see full AirPlay enabled, but perhaps the agreement between HBO and the cable and satellite companies specifics that the app is just a supplement to watching programs on TV, not an alternative way to watch a program on TV without using your cable company’s equipment.

If you enjoy HBO content, this is a fantastic app.

Click here to get HBO GO for iPad and iPhone (free): 

A few follow ups on previous posts, the white iPhone 4 arrives, and more in this week’s In the news:

• David Pogue of the New York Times has a “wrapping up” of the “Apple location brouhaha.”
• Pogue also recommends some camera apps for the iPhone.
• John Edwards of Law Technology News has advice for lawyers who want to carry gadgets with style.
• As Apple itself says it:  “Finally.”  The white iPhone 4, which was announced along with the black iPhone 4 on June 7, 2010, is finally available a mere 10 months and three weeks later. 
• Ina Fried of the Wall Street Journal interviews Apple executives on why it took so long to bring the white iPhone to market.
• I love it when developers create great apps for lawyers.  Attorney Dan Friedlander shares some advice in the TechnoLawyer BigLaw newsletter based on his experience writing apps for lawyers (such as Court Days Pro), advice that can help firms with any technology initiatives.
• Sam Grobart of the New York Times discusses 16 shortcuts for the iPhone.  Even if you only learn one or two new tips, it is worth reading his article.
• If you missed the 60 Apps in 60 Minutes session at ABA TECHSHOW, I’ve previously provided a list of the apps we discussed.  The Your ABA newsletter has now posted summaries of the presentations that we made on some of those apps.  There are a few errors in the article (for example, Calvetica is for the iPhone not the iPad, and some things that I said are attributed to Reid Trautz or Josh Barrett and vice versa) but the article is still a good read.
• Speaking of Josh Barrett, he has an interesting post on Tablet Legal that shows you how to save a webpage as a file on an iPad.  I have another solution that is less elegant but more simple:  Just press the power and home buttons at the same time to take a screen shot of the webpage when it is open in Safari.
• Jason Snell of Macworld writes that if you have an iPad or two, you don’t need to spend money on a DVD entertainment system in your car or minivan.
• Mark Sullivan of PCWorld wrote a good article on what makes the iPad special.
• The official White House Flickr stream includes a picture of the most famous BlackBerry user in the free world — President Obama — walking around holding nothing more than his iPad 2 with a white Apple Smart Cover.
• The Courtroom Objections app that I reviewed last June has been updated to include the rules from California, Florida, New York and Texas as well as the Federal Rules.
• Curious how your iPhone figures out where you are?  Glenn Fleishman explains it in this article for Macworld.
• I recently discovered WalkingOffice, a blog for attorneys using the iPad published by Virginia prosecutor Rob Dean.
• And finally, I can’t decide if this is funny or just creepy — an Israeli comedy sketch about the iBoy.  Click the picture below for the link to YouTube:

 

The lead item in last week’s In the news post here on iPhone J.D. was the controversy arising out of the discovery that there is a file on your computer containing what appeared to be a track of everyplace that you have gone with your iPhone.  Because a “bad guy” would need access to your computer to tap into such data — at which point you have much larger concerns — I didn’t think it was that big of a deal, and last Friday I linked to articles written by others who felt the same way.  But since I wrote that post last week, I heard from a lot of you who had much more concern than me, and Apple has received similar feedback.  Thus, Apple took the unusual step yesterday of responding to these concerns in several ways.

First, Apple posted a published a Q and A style press release to address this issue.  Apple explained that the data was part of a cache used to quickly determine where you are.  When you use location services on your iPhone, it would take up to several minutes to find your location just using the GPS chip, so Apple also stores information that helps the phone to figure out your general vicinity by figuring out which cell towers and WiFi zones are nearby.  This is good for users because your iPhone can “know” where you are located much more quickly, but that data was being saved — and for a long period of time — in backups to your computer.  Thus, Apple was not really saving a history of where you were, but instead was saving a history of nearby cell towers and WiFi hotspots so that when the iPhone was once again in that vicinity it could quickly figure out its location without waiting for the GPS chip.  Apple explains in the Q and A that Apple is not tracking the location of your iPhone and has no plans to ever do so.  If you have any questions or concerns about the iPhone location data that has been in the news for the last week, read Apple’s full press release right now to get the real story.  For example, Apple notes at the end that an upcoming software update will save far less of this data and stop backing it up to iTunes on the computer.  [UPDATE 5/4/11:  That update is now released:  iOS 4.3.3]

Second, three top Apple executives — CEO Steve Jobs and Senior VPs Scott Forstall and Phil Schiller — talked to Ina Fried of the Wall Street Journal and All Things D to set the record straight, resulting in this edited transcript and this article by Ina Fried.

Third, someone from Apple wil soon be headed to Washington to discuss this issue.  Congressman such as Sen. Al Franken have asked Apple and others to answer questions on these issues, and Steve Jobs told Ina Friend that “They have asked us to come and we will honor their request, of course.”  It will be interesting to see who Apple sends to Washington.

Even though I still think that this story was blown way out of proportion, I do respect those who were more concerned than I am. I certainly appreciate the need for privacy, and if you are really concerned about the possibility of someone learning where you are located, you probably shouldn’t even carry a cell phone, whether it be an iPhone or something else.  My understanding is that the law is unsettled on whether cops even need a search warrant (and thus need probable cause) to get information about your location from your cell carrier.  But whever you stand on thie iPhone location data saga, hopefully these answers from Apple will satisfy your concerns.

Sorry for the lack of posts this week; I had a class certification hearing that consumed my time.  The hearing gave me an opportunity to use my iPhone and iPad in court, and as expected they were very useful.

First, I had an occasion to use my iPhone when I objected to an opponent’s question.  While arguing the issue at the bench, I knew that there was an applicable article in the Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure, but I could not remember the number or the language of the article.  Thanks to Matt Miller’s La. Code of Civil Procedure app, while I was at the bench and my opponent was arguing, I was able to quickly fire up the app on my iPhone, tap the search button, type the word “expert”, scroll through the hits and then find the article applicable to my objection so that when it was my time to respond to my opponent, I could cite and quote chapter and verse of the applicable rule.  Apps like this which contain the state and federal rules and statutes are incredibly useful to have in the courtroom.

Second, an issue came up during witness testimony on which I had drafted some questions in the past, but I had deleted them from my cross examination outline because I didn’t think it would be an issue.  I turned on the Personal Hotspot feature on my iPhone so that it would share the 3G connection with my iPad 2, and then I used the LogMeIn app on my iPad to connect to my computer in my office.  I was then able to access my document management system and find the old draft of my outline and e-mail it to myself.  Then I just used the Mail app on my iPad to see the questions as a Word attachment and see which exhibits I had previously selected to support that line of questioning.  In a perfect world, I would have already had all of this with me in the courtroom, but of course in real life you sometimes realize in court that there is something back in the office that you can use.  In the past, I might have tried to send an e-mail to someone back in my office, but it would have been difficult to describe what I was looking for even though I knew exactly how to find it myself.  With the iPhone and iPad, I could act just like I was sitting in my office even though I was instead sitting in the courtroom.

Third, an issue came up before court in the morning that required some quick legal research.  I used the Fastcase app on my iPad to quickly find the cases so I knew what to cite to the court.

Fourth, I had a ton of important documents in my case stored as PDF files in GoodReader on my iPad. It turned out that I only needed a few of those documents, but of course you want to have all of them with you because you never know which one will be important.  With the files in digital format, they don’t take up physical space and there is no reason not to have all of them with you.  When I needed to quickly view a document or search for text in a deposition, it was a cinch to do so using GoodReader.  I have yet to post a formal review of the GoodReader app on the iPad, but it is one of my favorite iPad apps.

I could have done much of this with a laptop computer, but one thing I don’t like about using a laptop in court is that when your screen is propped up, it adds a slight barrier between you and the judge/jury, and also opens up the possibility of someone behind you in the audience seeing what you are doing.  (I realize that you can use a privacy filter on your screen to reduce this risk, but I don’t like how they make the screen darker.)  Because the iPad lies flat on the desk (or at a slight angle if I prop it up slightly using the Apple Smart Cover), you don’t have any of these problems.  Plus the iPad — even with a bluetooth keyboard — is much lighter and thinner than a laptop, taking up less space in my briefcase so I can carry other items.

There are some things that I could have done with my iPhone and iPad but did not do.  For example, I often take notes on my iPad using a stylus and the Note Taker HD app, but so far I have only done that when watching a hearing or trial.  When I am the one in the hot seat, I still prefer to use a legal pad and a pen.  I also didn’t use the Keynote app on my iPad 2 to connect to the court’s display system and use slides; instead my demonstratives were on traditional boards on a tripod easel, which just made more sense for the demonstratives that I was using.

I’m sure that all of us have used an iPhone in court to check e-mails, but I love that the iPhone and iPad are so powerful that they can become indispensible aids in court that help you to make your case.

I started iPhone J.D. in November of 2008, and a few months later I realized that there was a lot of iPhone news that was worth sharing that did not deserve a long post by me — often because the article itself said everything that I could say, and usually much more.  Traffic on iPhone J.D. was usually a little lighter on Fridays anyway, so on Friday, April 10, 2009 I titled my post “In the news” and collected some links of interest from the prior week.  The title is a throwback to the 1970s when I was a little kid and my brother and I used to love to wake up as early as possible on Saturday mornings to go downstairs and watch cartoons.  In fact, sometimes we would wake up so early that we would catch the TV that came on before the cartoons, reruns of shows like The Munsters and The Three Stooges.  There was no cable TV back then so our cartoon choices were limited to the three major networks, and whenever we watched Channel 4 (WWL, the CBS affiliate in New Orleans) I used to enjoy their In The News segments, a two-minute summary of the news of the day, edited for a younger audience by CBS News.  (And on ABC, of course, I loved the Schoolhouse Rock segments between cartoons.)  If I close my eyes, I can still hear those distinctive tones from the In The News segment … or I can just click here to hear them again without having to imagine a thing.  Two years after my first “In the news” post, here we are with the 100th edition.  So with no further ado, here is the news of note from the past week.

• One of the biggest stories this week was the announcement by a security research firm that your iPhone is tracking everywhere you go, and all you need to do is download a simple free program on your computer to see a map showing everywhere that your iPhone has ever been.  The initial reaction was fiercely negative.  Is Apple following us?  Then people realized that every cell phone company has the same data on all of its customer’s phones — not to mention all the other records that exist of where you go and what you do.  Do you use a program like Quicken to keep track of your credit card expenses?  That’s another record on your computer of where you have been and the places that you have visited.  Perhaps the best article that I have seen on this subject is this one by David Pogue of the New York times entitled Your iPhone is Tracking You.  So What?  I also enjoyed this similar analysis by Dan Moren of Macworld.  Having said that, if there is someone who keeps up on technology news like this who has regular access to your computer (such as your spouse) and you are trying to hide the fact that you took that trip to Las Vegas, make sure that you tell iTunes to encrypt your backup file on your computer.
• Attorney Tom Mighell discusses giving presentations on an iPad using apps like Keynote on his new site for lawyers using iPads called iPad4Lawyers.
• Jim Calloway of the Oklahoma Bar Association discusses attorneys using iPads.
• For a contrary view, Seattle attorney Venkat Balasubramani says “bah humbug” to attorneys using iPads.
• Dan Moren of Macworld discusses the security of documents stored on Dropbox.
• Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal discusses buying a laptop computer and whether you should instead get an iPad.
• Edward Albro of PC World considers whether there are any real competitors to the iPad in the tablet market.
• According to an article by Tom Huddleston of AmLaw, the 700 lawyer firm Proskauer Rose is giving iPads to its attorneys.
• Nick Bilton of the New York Times explores the question of whether you should upgrade from an iPad to an iPad 2.
• Similarly, Art of the iPhone explores the speed of the iPad 2 versus the original iPad.
• I love my iPad 2, and the Apple Smart Case is great for when I am carrying my iPad around my office or my home.  But what about when I travel to and from work every day?  I rarely need to take a briefcase anymore since most of my important papers are digital nowadays, but I want something small to carry my iPad and give it some protection.  If you know of any good solutions for your iPad 2 (and many cases that hold the iPad will also work with an iPad 2 with a Smart Cover), please let me know.
• Here is one example that looks intriguing to me, or at least it would if I was a female.  Happy Owl Studios has a product called The Clutch.  When you first see it you think it is just a nice clutch purse, but it holds a first generation iPad.  A version for the iPad 2 is in development.  While women are the target audience for The Clutch, the amusing commercial that they produced for The Clutch seems more aimed at men, although it does certainly answer the question of what would happen if the iPad and a sexy purse got together.  This one might be mildly not safe for work, so be careful before you click the link to this commercial and this follow up.
• Every time you tap the Safari icon on your iPhone, Safari opens and starts to reload the last page it displayed.  Sometimes that takes a little while.  If you would instead rather open Safari directly into a blank page, read this tip from Dan Frakes of Macworld.
• In addition to watching Saturday morning cartoons as a child in the 1970s, I remember loving the Sesame Street book The Monster At The End of This Book.  Now in 2011, it is one of my son’s favorite apps on my iPad.  Karen Freeman of AppAdvice posts a review.
• MG Siegler of TechCrunch predicts that the iPhone will soon be the most popular “camera” for photos on Flickr, and he has the charts to back up his theory.
• And finally … this is usually the part of In the news where I discuss something silly in the world of iPhone or iPad, but here is something that started silly and turned serious.  On April 1, 2010, one of the April Fool’s Day products on Think Geek was a $150 device that turned an iPad into an arcade machine, and some people wondered if such a product could really be produced.  The answer is yes, and a year later, Think Geek is now selling the iCade for $99.  Just because it is funny doesn’t mean that it can’t come true.

Yesterday, Apple released the results for its 2011 fiscal second quarter (which ran from December 26, 2010 to March 26, 2011) and held a call with analysts to discuss the results.  It was yet another great quarter for Apple, with sales of $24.67 billion and net profit of $5.99 billion.  If you want to hear the full call yourself, you can download it from iTunes or you can read the transcript provided by Seeking Alpha.  Apple’s press release is here.  Here are the highlights of the call that I think would be of interest to attorneys who use an iPhone or iPad:

• Apple saw $24.7 billion in revenue this quarter, which is $11.2 billion more than Apple saw this time last year.  The difference, according to Apple’s Peter Oppenheimer:  “This tremendous increase of 83% was fueled primarily by record iPhone sales, vey robust demand for iPad and strong growth in Mac sales.”
• Apple sold a record 18.6 million iPhones this quarter.
• One reason for the increase in iPhone sales is that more companies are supporting the iPhone, companies such as Cisco, Prudential, Boston Scientific, General Motors, American Airlines, Deloitte, Yum! Brands and Xerox.
• Apple sold 4.7 million iPads during the quarter.  A lot of people waited until the very end of this quarter to buy an iPad because they were waiting for the iPad 2, and demand far outstripped supply so many who wanted an iPad were unable to get one by March 26, 2011 when this quarter ended.
• One reason for the strong demand for iPads is that more companies are supporting the iPad.  Oppenheimer said:  “Employee demand for iPad in the corporate environment remains strong and CIOs continue to embrace iPad in an unprecedented rate. In just over a year since its debut, 75% of the Fortune 500 are testing or deploying iPad within their enterprises” such as Xerox, AutoNation, Yum! Brands, ADP, Boston Scientific, Estée Lauder, Disney, Stryker, Prudential Financial, Rite Aid and USAA.
• The App Store has over 350,000 apps available and there have been well over 10 billion apps downloaded.  Apple has paid over $2 billion to app developers.
• When Apple announced the Verizon iPhone, some wondered why the faster 4G LTE network wasn’t used.  Apple’s answer remains the same today as it was then.  Tim Cook explained:  “I was asked this question or a similar question when we launched the iPhone with Verizon. And what I said then, and I still see it as being the case today, and I think you can see this in the products that have been shipped, is that the first generation of LTE chipsets force a lot of design compromises with the handset, and some of those, we are just not willing to make. And so we are extremely happy with the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 3GS. And hitting 18.6 million units was something much larger than we thought we could do this quarter, and we’re happy to have gotten it out to 3 more large carriers.”  I’m positive that we will see an LTE iPhone at some point in the future, but the technology just isn’t there yet to make a great product (for example, battery life is horrible), and Apple wants to wait until it can release a great LTE iPhone.
• Tim Cook said that Steve Jobs “is still on medical leave … but we do see him on a regular basis. And as we previously said, he continues to be involved in major strategic decisions. And I know he wants to be back full-time as soon as he can.”
• Many of you (like me) probably used your first Apple computer when you were in school.  Education continues to be an important market for Apple computers, but Tim Cook noted that as of last quarter, Apple was at “about a 1:1 ratio of iPads to Macs, which is amazing with the short life of the iPad, and really demonstrates what kind of opportunity there probably is there.”  So Apple is now seling just as many iPads to schools as Macs.  That really is pretty amazing.
• One analyst noted that for several years now Apple has introduced a new iPhone in June and asked if that would happen again this year.  Tim Cook didn’t answer, just saying that Apple never comments on upcoming products.  (If you want to believe the latest rumors, though, my guess is that we’ll probably see the next iPhone in September.)

Yet again, Apple had a fantastic financial quarter.  And yet again, the iPhone and iPads were the key to Apple’s success.