One year ago yesterday, April 3, 2010, the original iPad went on sale. It was a difficult device to define. Was it just a big iPhone? Was it a tablet computer? A netbook competitor? One of the TV commercials that Apple aired in connection with the original iPad was called “What is iPad” and it sought to answer the question of what one might do with an iPad. Here is that commercial, which was narrated by Peter Coyote, a prolific actor with an amazing voice who has been in tons of movies (including E.T.) and television shows (most recently the new Law & Order: Los Angeles):
Now that the iPad has been out for a year, we have a better understanding of what the iPad is. It is a new type of device, a tabula rasa than can do a countless number of different things. In light of the blockbuster iPad sales, other companies are trying to compete by coming out with tablets with different specs. One has a better camera, one has more memory, one has a different size screen, etc. But Apple realizes that the most important aspect of the iPad is to get the hardware out of the way, to be that blank slate on which you can do almost anything. And since Apple has a knack for producing impressive commercials, over this past weekend Apple unveiled a commercial for the iPad 2, again narrated by Peter Coyote, that explains what the iPad is really about:
The videography in the commercial is really beautiful and makes the iPad 2 seem very personal and intimate. When I saw the person playing the virtual guitar in GarageBand, I almost swore that I was watching strings on a real guitar being plucked. But the words are really the star of the commercial. The script is:
This is what we believe. Technology alone is not enough. Faster, thinner, lighter … those are all good things. But when technology gets out of the way, everything becomes more delightful. Even magical. That’s when you leap forward. That’s when end up with something like this. iPad 2
I don’t think that this is just commercial hype; I think that this ia how the engineers at Apple really think of the iPad, and this is what makes the iPad such a very special device. This is especially true for the iPad 2. It is noticeably faster than my original iPad, but I notice it not in that particular tasks occur more quickly, but instead in that the entire iPad seems so much responsive to my touch. The technology gets out of the way, and I feel even more like I am directly interacting with the app.
I got an iPad 2 last night (Black, 32GB, Wi-Fi only). They sure are hard to get right now; you have to be lucky to catch an Apple Store when they have one or two in stock. I knew it was going to be thinner and lighter, but I wasn’t expecting it to make such a big difference. That is partly because I used a case with my original iPad, and carrying around my original iPad in a case was like carrying a hard cover book. Carrying around the iPad 2 with a Smart Cover is like carrying around a magazine. It is a night and day difference. I’ll post more after I have used the iPad 2 for more than just these last few hours, but my inital impression is: wow. Here is the iPhone and iPad news of note from the last week:
I consider my iPhone and my iPad to be an important part of my law practice. I use them both every day. Apparently many doctors are starting to feel the same way, according to a CNBC report that is described by David Winograd of TUAW. I like the article’s title: “iPads are becoming as important to doctors as their stethoscopes.”
This is really more of a Fourth Amendment issue than an iPhone issue, but Denver attorney Bill Kelly passed along this interesting report by Anita Thompson on the Huffington Post Denver about the Colorado Supreme Court’s recent decision that police improperly invaded a man’s privacy when they read through the text messages on his lost iPhone and used what they found to get search warrants and ultimately get felony drug charges.
The Paul, Hastings law firm unveiled its iPhone app this week. It is a typical law firm iPhone app with firm bios and news and other information that you would find on its website, but it is nicely done. Click here to download the Paul, Hastings app (free):
On the Lawyer2Laywer podcast that I linked to yesterday, attorney Rick Georges bragged that an advantage of Android is that it is an “open” platform. While I question what difference that really makes for attorneys using smartphones, there was some truth to that when Android debuted. However, Ashlee Vance of Businessweek reports that Google is now retreating from its prior policies of openness.
Also on that podcast, Rick Georges talked about how much he loves his new HTC ThunderBolt phone, especially the fast 4G LTE speeds. If you are interested in learning more about that phone, Jonathan Geller of BGR has a comprehensive review. He concludes that “the sheer thickness and weight” and “the poor battery performance makes it a tough sell,” and while the LTE speed is fantastic, “that means nothing if my battery dies after just a few hours of usage.”
Tim Chaten of AppAdvice reports on his research into insurance policies that you can purchase for your iPhone and iPad.
David Pogue of the New York Times reports on Amazon’s new Cloud Player service. It doesn’t work with the iPhone or iPad yet (there are work-arounds, but they are clunky), but many have speculated that Apple is planning to offer a similar service, so it is interesting to see Amazon’s approach.
Litigation consultant Ken Broda-Bahm discusses two iPad apps that can help with jury selection, iJuror and Jury Duty.
Attorney Finis Price recently gave a presentation on the use of iPads by lawyers including recommended apps. Ben Stevens of The Mac Lawyer reports on that presentation.
If you would like to read a comprehensive review of the iPad 2, Daniel Eran Dilger wrote one such article for AppleInsider.
I much prefer magazines on the iPad than to reading them on paper. Electronista notes that Popular Science recently announced that it now has over 10,000 iPad subscribers, which sounds like a lot until you realize that they have 1.2 million print subscribers. But hey, you have to start somewhere.
Tom Kaneshige of CIO writes about the use of iPads in large companies.
Debra Cassens Weiss of ABA Journal reports that some federal courts are banning smartphones because of fear that they could be used as bombs. This is unfortunate; I consider my iPhone a critical tool when I am in federal or state court.
Nick Bilton of the New York Times reports that the smartphone market is poised to explode in 2011. Wait… no, he said “soar.” Not “explode.” Don’t tell the federal courts I said “explode.”
Last week, I mentioned that Sylvia Hsieh of Lawyers USA interviewed me and other attorneys for her great article on the iPad 2. You can now read that article even if you don’t subscribe to Lawyers USA because it was republished by the Wisconsin Law Journal.
Legal consultant (and fellow New Orleanian) Craig Bayer tells me that he is very impressed with miniLaw, a time and expense tracking app for the iPhone that works with the PCLaw accounting software.
The most famous BlackBerry-using attorney in the world — President Obama — confirmed that he owns and uses an iPad, as reported by MacNN. Now that he is using the iPad, can the iPhone be far behind?
If you would like to process credit card payments on your iPhone, you should look into Square. Attorney Jeremy Horwitz of iLounge posts a comprehensive review of the app and hardware accessory.
Attorney Tom Mighell discusses iPads replacing PCs for attorneys on the Attorney at Work blog.
Atorney David Sparks of the MacSparky blog and the MacPowerUsers podcasts discloses the apps on his iPad’s home screen in this post at Tablet Legal.
And finally, if you want to keep your iPhone close to you — really close to you — how about underwear that can hold an iPhone? The folks at SCOTTEVEST (the company that makes coats and other apparel with a million pockets to store all of your gadgets) created boxer shorts with a pocket for your iPhone. Get more info here on the company’s website, or watch the company’s founder and CEO extol the virtues of the product in this video:
Because you are reading this website, chances are you have already decided to make the iPhone your smartphone of choice, but many attorneys are currently trying to decide whether to get an iPhone or some other device running operating systems such as Android, BlackBerry, Palm Pre and Windows Mobile 7. BlackBerry was long the traditional platform of choice for attorneys, but those looking to upgrade seem to be largely moving to the iPhone or Android. Why choose one over the other?
That is the topic of the latest Lawyer2Lawyer podcast, the excellent, flagship podcast on the Legal Talk Network. The hosts are attorneys Bob Ambrogi (a Boston attorney who publishes the LawSites blog) and J. Craig Williams (an attorney in the Irvine, CA office of the Sedgwick law firm who publishes the May it Please the Court blog). Ambrogi and Williams invited me to “defend” the iPhone and St. Petersburg, FL attorney Rick Georges of the great FutureLawyer blog to “defend” the Android operating system. Georges and I are passionate about our platforms of choice so the podcast got a little heated (and I fear that Ambrogi and Williams had trouble getting a word in at times!), but it was a great discussion. Unfortunately, we only scratched the surface; there was so much more that we could have mentioned with more time, but this is just a 30 minute podcast.
Even if you are not trying to decide between iPhone and Android, you will enjoy listening to this podcast. It is always interesting to learn about the technology that other attorneys love to use. For example, Georges brags about the fast, new LTE network on his Android phone — although he doesn’t like how much it reduces battery life. Tim Cook of Apple has suggested that the first generation LTE chips are not desirable because they consume too much battery life and require a very large phone to fit a large antenna. But better chips will come along, and I look forward to seeing LTE come to the iPhone when the technology is ready.
If you want to listen to the podcast using your web browser (including Safari on the iPad), you can click here for the page on the Lawyer2Lawyer website devoted to the episode entitled Battle of the Smartphones: iPhone v. Android. Or you can download this episode of Lawyer2Lawyer (and subscribe to Lawyer2Lawyer) for free on iTunes by clicking here:
By the way, if this topic interests you, then I would love to see you at the ABA TECHSHOW in Chicago in a few weeks. On April 13th, I’ll be on the panel for the presentation entitled 2001 Smartphone Shootout, where we will discuss the iPhone, Android and BlackBerry.
If you have an iPad, a stylus is a useful and inexpensive accessory. It makes it easier to highlight documents, sign your name and draw, and even with normal apps that are controlled by tapping, it sometimes feels more precise to use a stylus. (You can also use a stylus with an iPhone, but I consider that useful only in rare circumstances, such as when trying to use an iPhone with gloves on in cold weather.) Last year I reviewed the BoxWave Capacitive Stylus and the Ten One Design Pogo Sketch Stylus. They are both great producs, but I preferred the tip on the BoxWave device. For the last few weeks, I have been trying out review units of two other styluses, the Boxwave Capacitive Styra Pen and the Kensington Virtuoso Touch Screen Stylus and Pen. Both of these are great products that I like better than the two styluses that I reviewed last year.
These products offer two advantages over the styluses that I reviewed last year. First, you can remove the cap on both devices to reveal a pen. There have been times in the past when I have had a stylus in my shirt pocket and needed a pen (or someone asked me for one) and it was annoying to not have one. If you are carrying around the Virtuoso or the Styra, you have a pen for when you need it. Although the Virtuoso is slightly longer than the Styra with the caps attached, with the caps removed they are exactly the same size. Note that unlike some pens, you cannot attach the cap to the back of the pen (over the capacitive tip) when you are writing.
In terms of writing quality, the pens are identical. Both use a standard Parker refill so it should be cheap and easy to replace the ink cartridge when one runs dry.
The second advantage of the Virtuoso and the Styra over the styluses that I reviewed last year is the length. The standard BoxWave stylus and the Pogo Sketch Stylus are quite small, not that much longer than a golf pencil. They are just long enough to feel fine in your hand when in use, but now that I have tried the Virutoso and the Styra, I find that the longer length really feels much better in my hand. Even if you never use the pen function, I would still recommend either of these for the additional length. The Kensington Virtuoso is slightly longer than the BoxWave Styra, but frankly I found either length sufficient. To show the lengths, here are (from top to bottom) a Sanford Uniball pen, a Mont Blanc pen, the Kensington Virtuoso, the BoxWave Styra and the BoxWave Capacative Stylus that I reviewed last year:
One other advantage of the Virtuoso and the Styra is that they do not contain that metal loop at the top for attaching a string; I found the string useless and the loop at the top of the normal BoxWave stylus just got in the way. The BoxWave Styra and the Kensington Virtuoso have a smooth top which is much better.
Comparing the Virtuoso to the Styra is difficult because both are great. The rubber stylus tips on these two products feel identical. The Virtuoso is slightly longer, but as I said above, in my testing that hasn’t proved to be any real advantage. Having said that, the slightly longer clip on the Virtuoso made it slightly easier to use than the clip on the Styra.
Another difference is the finish. The Virtuoso has a matte finish whereas the Styra has a shiny gloss finish (like my Mont Blanc pen). I suppose the matte finish gives you a slightly better grip, but it is not a huge difference. You can get the Styra in black or white, but the Virtuoso only comes in black.
There is a slight difference in price. The list price of the BoxWave Styra ($32.95) is higher than the Kensington Virtuoso ($24.95) but if you buy from Amazon, the Styra is $22.95 and the Virtuoso is $19.95, not much of a difference.
If I had to choose, I might give the slight edge to the Kensington Virtuoso because I slightly (but only slightly) prefer the matte finish, the longer length, and the somewhat cheaper price, but all of these differences are very minor and I frankly am happy using either stylus. Now that I have both of them, I just reach for whichever one is closer to me.
If you own an iPad or an iPad 2, I recommend that you get either the Kensington Virtuoso or the BoxWave Capacitive Styra. Both are well-made, useful products. They are more expensive than the $15 BoxWave and $8 Pogo Sketch styluses that I reviewed last year, so if you are not sure how much you really will use a stylus you might want to get one of those because they are less expensive. But having used them all, I think that most people would be much happier with the Virtuoso or the Styra.
One final note: is it possible that there is an even better iPad stylus out there, either on the market now or coming soon? I find it hard to imagine improving very much on the Virtuoso or the Styra, but that is why I am a lawyer and not an inventor. Earlier this week, two inventors in New York unveiled an idea called the Cosmonaut, essentially a stylus that is the size of a marker instead of a pen. If you click here, you can see their Kickstarter page on which they explain their invention, arguing that an iPad is more like a white board and thus something that feels like a marker works better. If and when their idea becomes a shipping product, I’ll be curious to find out if they are right. One concern that I have is that the Cosmonaut looks far too big to put into my shirt pocket, whereas the thin Virtuoso and Styra with their clips do that job quite well.
Click here to get the Kensington Virtuoso on Amazon ($19.95).
Click here to get the BoxWave Capactivie Styra on Amazon ($22.95).
The iPhone has very few physical buttons. Simplicity is often a virtue, but not when you want to control an iPhone without looking at the screen. For example, I listen to podcasts and music when I drive in my car, and while I used to use the Kensington LiquidAUX in my car which includes a handy remote control with physical buttons that you can easily reach and use while you are driving, a few months ago I switched over to the Kensington AssistOne. I prefer the AssistOne to the LiquidAUX in every way except for one; I miss those easy to use physical buttons on the remote for when I want to pause/play music and skip to the next track while keeping my eye on the road.
The other day, on the MacSparky blog run by David Sparks, I read his “home screen” interview with writer, director, and actor David Wain. One of the apps Wain keeps on his home screen is FlickTunes, and after reading about the app I decided to buy it myself to try it out. After just a few days of use, I can see that this is a really useful app. It makes it vastly easier to control my iPhone when I don’t want to look at the screen to find the tiny virtual button to press, such as when I am driving and my iPhone is docked in the AssistOne or when my iPhone is docked in my Bose SoundDock Portable.
If music (or a podcast, audiobook, etc.) is already playing when you launch FlickTunes, FlickTunes will take over control of that music. The artist and song and album titles are clearly displayed in large type at the top. (If too long to fit the screen, the line with the words automatically scrolls to reveal what is missing.) There are several different display options so you can place the words, album art, etc. in several different positions. The displays work in either portrait or landscape mode. You can also configure FlickTunes to automatically start playing a playlist that you specify whenever it launches, which saves you the multiple steps of opening up the iPod app and then tapping the play button.
By default, you can simply swipe left or right on the screen to switch to the next or last song. That is so much easier to do than looking for the small next or previous track button in the iPod app and then tapping it. There are also two finger and three finger swipe controls, which gives you 12 different command that you can give the app without having to look at the screen. Frankly, just four commands is enough for me so I rarely use anything but a one finger swipe. I have mine set up so that if I swipe down the music will pause/play. If I swipe up, I have mind set so that the the music will skip back 30 seconds, useful when I have a podcast playing and I want to quickly repeat what I just heard because I stopped paying attention to the podcast for a short while.
Take a look at the following screens to see all of the different commands that you can assign to any one, two or three finger swipe:
Note that for FlickTunes to work, your iPhone does not go to sleep and therefore it uses more power. I usually use FlickTunes when my iPhone is connected to my AssistOne or my Bose where it is being charged anyway so that is not an issue for me, but keep in mind that you will use more power with FlickTunes than with the normal iPod app. There is a setting to dim the screeen when FlickTunes is running, which I suppose decreases some of the power use.
If you ever find yourself wishing that you could control the iPod function of your iPhone without having to look at the screen and find the little virtual button to tap, FlickTunes is well worth a buck. The app has earned a place on my first home screen.
I realize that there are still some portable music players on the market made by companies other than Apple, but no one can dispute that Apple owns this market with its iPod. And for good reason; the iPod is a very high quality product that comes at multiple price points. You can start with an iPod shuffle for only $49, get an iPod nano for $149, get an iPod touch for $229, or if you have a ton of files that you want to always have with you, get the iPod classic with 160GB for $249. The only real competition to the iPod comes from Apple itself; instead of getting a dedicated music player, why not get an iPhone so that you can combine your phone and iPod into a single device?
We are only on the second generation of the iPad, and much like the early days of the iPod, there are lots of other companies just now starting to sell competitors. And these are substantial companies, like HP soon selling the TouchPad, RIM soon selling the PlayBook, Motorola now selling the Xoom, and Samsung recently unveiling new Galaxy Tabs. I hope that these products do well — competition is a good thing — but from all of the reviews I’ve read, I cannot think of a good reason to recommend any of them over the iPad.
With other companies struggling to match the quality that Apple offers, price becomes a possible way to undercut the iPad. The cheapest iPad 2 costs $499, so a strong competitor would have to cost less than that — substantially less to make it really worth it, such as under $400.
Which leads me to yesterday, when I was shopping at a Sam’s and saw this display:
Sam’s is selling the first generation iPad, and the entry level 16GB model sells for only $388. Only a year ago, when that device was unveiled, many had predicted that Apple would sell a product like the iPad for $1,000. As much as I am looking forward to upgrading to an iPad 2, the original iPad is still an amazing device, and the thought of getting it with a price tag that starts with the number “3” is simply amazing to me.
Of course, there is nothing unusual about selling a discontinued product at a substantial discount, but I wonder how long it will be before we will see many different tiers of iPads, including some in that same price range. Apple continues to sell the iPhone 3GS at the same time that it sells the iPhone 4, and you can get an 8GB version of the iPhone 3GS for only $49. The iPhone 4 is a much better phone, but from what I hear that $49 3GS still sells quite well, as it should considering how much value you get for that very low price. I wonder whether the iPad 2 will continue to be sold even after Apple releases an iPad 3 (in 2012?) just so that Apple can sell a compelling product for far less than $500. Whenever this happens, I suspect that the iPads will, like iPods, be everwhere.
The iPhone and iPad news of this past week includes apps for using an iOS device for both business and pleasure, some great stories on finding lost iPhones, and Homer Simpson.
For the fifth consecutive year, Apple has ranked #1 in J.D. Power and Associate’s smartphone customer satisfaction rankings, and this year the gap between Apple and other smartphone manufacturers widened even more. Gregg Keizer of Computerworld has more details.
Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal recommends apps for using your iPad at work such as Documents to Go, Quickoffice, and GoodReader as well as services such as Dropbox. I use these apps on my iPad virtually every day.
Attorney Dan Friedlander also talks about the useful GoodReader app in an article for the BigLaw newsletter.
Dave Caolo of TUAW has relates the story of a person retrieving a stolen iPhone using the Find My iPhone feature, this time a student in Manchester, England.
Charles Starrett of iLounge relates the story of a very different use of Find my iPhone. Ron Walker, a parachute jumper in the Air Force, accidentally dropped his iPhone 1,000 feet from an airplane. He figured that the iPhone was gone forever, but amazingly he was able to recover it using the Find My iPhone feature. Wow.
David Pogue of the New York Times reviews portable Bluetooth speakers that work with the iPhone.
Speaking of the New York Times, the paper is about to start charging for use of its website. John Gruber writes a good critique of the new pricing structure.
Rich Mogull wrote an article for TidBITS in which provides some tips for making sure that your iPhone is encrypted if you are using an older iPhone that you upgraded to run iOS 4.
Rob Waugh of The Daily Mail profiles Jonathan Ive, the main in charge of designing Apple’s products.
Tyler Tschida of AppAdvice reviews the latest update to QuickOffice which provides additional sharing options and AirPrint support.
Attorney Slyvia Hsieh wrote about lawyers getting the new iPad 2 for the website Lawyers USA. I was one of the attorneys she interviewed for the article. If you are a subscriber, click here to read the article.
One of my favorite arcade games in the 1980s was Tapper, and now there is a version for the iPhone and iPad featuring the great graphics of Don Bluth, known for animating the famous Dragon’s Lair arcade game. I bought the iPad version and it is a lot of fun. Unlike many old arcade games brought to the iPhone or iPad, this game actually works better with touch controls. Click here for Tapper World Tour for iPhone ($0.99): and click here for Tapper World Tour HD for iPad ($1.99):
Is there a connection between Steve Jobs and Homer Simpson? Well actually, there is. John Brownlee of Cult of Mac explains.
Attorney Robert Gitelman illustrates landmark cases and sells his drawings on T-shirts at his site HypoJustice. He also has a part of his site where he recommends several iPhone apps.
Ted Brooks reviews Court Days Pro. He likes it, as did I when I reviewed the app last month.
I love this story. A husband bought an iPad 2, but then returned it to Apple with a note on it that said “Wife said no.” Click here to see Apple’s response, as reported by Arnold Kim of MacRumors.com.
And finally, the Angry Birds craze continues. Not only was Angry Birds Seasons recently updated for St. Patrick’s Day, but there is a new version called Angry Birds Rio which is nicely done. Both my son (who is 5) and I have been enjoying playing it on my iPad. Click here for Angry Birds Rio for iPhone ($0.99): and click here for Angry Birds Rio HD for iPad ($2.99): . But apparently we are not the only father and son who get a kick out of Angry Birds, as shown in this great birthday video:
Early last month, I received an e-mail from Vincent Ko, a recent business school graduate from Georgetown University, with this story about a product he designed called the iFlip:
“How does a business started by a college student only selling one type of iPhone case reach $32,000 in sales during its first year with no advertising and no media outreach? By creating a unique iPhone case and offering the best customer service possible. At the time I was a student at Georgetown University and I had just gotten an iPhone for my 21st birthday. Realizing that I only needed to carry around some cards and cash on a regular basis, I thought there had to be a way to combine my wallet and iPhone. During a late night study session a light bulb went off – create an iPhone wallet case.
The first prototype was created by cutting up an old leather wallet and sewing it together with an iPhone case. It took several trials to refine the ideal design but it was eventually picked up by a leather wallet manufacturer. In the first year we have sold close to 1,000 iFlipWallet cases through our company’s website.”
Vincent asked if he could send me a free sample of his product. My first thought was that this was a crazy idea. Why would anyone want a wallet with an iPhone in it? Like many folks, I put a wallet in my back pocket, and I cannot imagine sitting on my iPhone. Many women put an iPhone in a purse, but then why would you need to keep the iPhone together with your wallet when there is more than enough room in all but the smallest purses to keep both an iPhone and a wallet without needing to combine them? But for some reason I found his story compelling, perhaps because I graduated from Georgetown Law School so we had that in common. I agreed to try out the iFlip wallet, and I have been doing so for the last few weeks. To my surprise, this is actually a really nice and useful product that I think many of you might be interested in as well.
The iFlip is a leather bi-fold wallet that feels good in your hands, like, I suppose, any good leather wallet. You slide your iPhone in one half of it, and when the wallet is closed you can access the front of your iPhone and the home button through an opening in one side of the iFlip.
There are openings on the side so that you can access the volume buttons and mute switch. The wallet stays closed with a small strap that attaches to the back of the wallet with a magnet, a feature that works very well.
When you open the wallet, you see four pockets to hold two or three credit cards or IDs and some cash. It is hard to tell from the below picture unless you click to enlarge it, but there is an opening in the see-through area where you place cash so that you can slide the cash in and out of that pocket. There is also a hole for the iPhone camera so that if you want to take a picture while your iPhone is in the iFlip, you can just open the wallet and don’t have to remove your iPhone.
The wallet does not hold very much, just a few essentials. Each pocket can really only hold a single card, and the place where you can slide cash doesn’t hold more than a few bills. But because it holds so little, I realized what the iFlip is really for. This is probably not going to be the wallet that you use every day. It is just a wallet that you use on a special occasion when you just want to carry all of the essentials — a few cards, some money and an iPhone — in one place.
For example, it just so happened that I was trying out the iFlip during Mardi Gras season here in New Orleans. When I take my kids to a parade route, I don’t need to carry much with me. I figured I should have a driver’s license and a credit card on me (not that I would be likely to use them at a parade) and a little money just in case I want to by something from a vendor, plus of course I want my iPhone with me. The iFlip is too big to put in my back pocket, but at a parade it was nice to have everything in one place in a front pocket on my pants. That way I could always know exactly where the iPhone and those other valuable items were, without the risk that a single credit card or ID or $20 bill might slip out of my pocket.
And it is easy to use the iPhone when it is in the iFlip, whether for making a call, taking quick photo to upload to Facebook, looking up some quick info on the Internet (such as the latest parade update on Twitter to see how many blocks away it was), etc. Since Mardi Gras, I’ve found the iFlip is just as useful when I want to carry only the essentials to take my kids to the Zoo or a park.
I had two issues with the iFlip, but frankly Vincent Ko warned me about them before he even sent me the product. First, the pockets are very tight. He told me that with use over time, the leather will loosen. So far he is right, although I look forward to them getting a little more loose over time. Second, the edges of the iFlip cover about 1mm of each edge of the iPhone screen. Ko told me that because the leather loosens over time, this was a conscious design decision so that after normal use, the leather would adjust to the size of the iPhone screen instead of starting at the right size and then getting too big. Even after a few weeks of occasion use, the edges still have a little more to go before the size is a perfect fit, but I suppose I just need to give it more time.
The list price of the iFlip is $39.99, but right now it is on sale for $29.99. You can buy a model for either the iPhone 4 or the iPhone 3G / 3GS. If you like the idea of carrying your iPhone and a few essentials in one place, perhaps over the weekend or when you are traveling, the iFlip is worth your consideration. It is a nice and useful product.
Click here to get the iFlip from the iFlip website ($29.99).
I am always looking for better ways to hold an iPad. The TabGrip is an innovative solution that makes it easier to hold your iPad, and as a bonus it also functions as a stand. It was developed by Chulho Song, who is a licensed attorney in California but who has been involved in business, not the practice of law, for several years. He tells me that he actually had lawyers in mind when he came up with the TabGrip because he thought that they would be a natural market for a lightweight and versatile product that makes it easier to hold and prop up a first generation iPad. He sent me a free sample for review purposes, and I’ve been trying it out for the last few weeks.
The TabGrip itself consists of a flexible rubber strap that attaches to all four sides of the iPad using rubberized plastic grips.
Each grip has a groove inside, and you pull the TabGrip to slip it over each side of the iPad. Once attached, you have grips on all four sides of the iPad so you can easily hold the iPad in one or two hands with a far smaller risk that the iPad can slip out of your hands.
The TabGrip would be useful if that was all that it did, but additionally each of the grips opens up to reveal legs, making it easy to prop up the iPad in multiple positions in either a landscape or portrait position.
Because the grips extend past the width of the iPad, when you have the grips attached you can place the iPad face down on a table and the iPad screen (or back) is lifted so that it doesn’t come in contact with the table, reducing the change of scratches.
If you have plans to give a presentation or be in a meeting where you will be walking around with your iPad in your hand, having the TabGrip attached make it much easier to keep a grip on the iPad. It also makes it easy to pass your iPad to someone else, giving them something to grip when the take it from your hands.
I see that one reviewer complained that once he got the TabGrip on his iPad, he couldn’t remove it. I agree that it is a little difficult to remove the TabGrip. You get the hang of it over time, but the first time I tried to remove it I was a little worried about the pressure I was exerting to do so. (Tip: I find it easier to first remove the TabGrip from the shorter sides of the iPad, and then you will find it easier to remove the grips from the longer sides of the iPad.)
Another drawback is that holding one or two grips on the side of an iPad is, in my opinion, not a very comfortable way to hold an iPad for a long period of time. I find it much easier to use a product like the FreeOneHand or the GorillaMobile Yogi (I just wrap the adjustable legs around my hand). I suppose that, for me, placing one of my hands in the center of the weight of the iPad is a lot more comfortable than supporting the iPad just by holding it on one side or both sides.
Having said that, the TabGrip is an innovative product that provides a unique way to get a better grip on your iPad. In a business setting when you are walking around holding the iPad or passing it to a colleague, and in a game setting when you are “steering” the iPad turning it left or right, the TabGrip is a useful accessory for the first generation iPad.
The retail price for the TabGrip is $50, but you can get it for $40 right now both on Amazon and from the manufacturer’s website.
Over the weekend, AT&T announced that it will acquire T-Mobile for cash and stock valued at about $39 billion. The companies estimate that it will take 12 months to clear regulatory hurdles and handle the logistics of the merger. According to an article in The New York Times, combining AT&T’s 95.5 million wireless customers wth T-Mobile’s 33.7 million customers would account for roughly 42% of all wireless subscribers in the United States. (Verizon has around 31%, and a good part of the rest are Sprint customers.)
What does this mean for the iPhone? Recent T-Mobile ads have made fun of the iPhone, trying to argue that while the iPhone was on AT&T and Verizon, T-Mobile is better because it offers “4G.” I put that in quotes because there is considerable debate over whether it is fair to call the HSPA+ service offered by T-Mobile 4G service because while it is faster than traditional 3G service, it is not as fast as the LTE technology that both AT&T and Verizon call 4G.
One of the first thoughts that many had after the announcement of the merger was whether this means that the iPhone will be coming to T-Mobile subscribers. Not so fast, says T-Mobile itself, which posted this Q&A on a FAQ page on its website:
Is T-Mobile USA getting the iPhone?
T-Mobile USA remains an independent company. The acquisition is expected to be completed in approximately 12 months. We do not offer the iPhone. We offer cutting edge devices like the Samsung Galaxy S 4G and coming soon our new Sidekick 4G.
I think that simply means that during this transition period, T-Mobile isn’t getting the iPhone. (I’m sure T-Mobile wishes that this were not the case; the CEO of Germany’s Deutsche Telekom AG, the parent company of T-Mobile, admitted last year that the lack of the iPhone has hurt T-Mobile’s business.) But once the acquisition is complete (assuming that it goes through), then I think it is obvious that T-Mobile customers will be AT&T customers and thus will have access to all AT&T devices, including the iPhone. I suspect that the ability to get the iPhone in the future was one of the reasons that T-Mobile considered it worthwhile to be acquired by AT&T. For the next 12 months, though, if you are a T-Mobile customer who wants an iPhone, you’re going to need to make the switch now to AT&T (which it appears you will soon being doing anyway) or Verizon.
Will this acquisition have any benefits for current AT&T iPhone users? Perhaps. AT&T and T-Mobile are the two carriers in the U.S. who use GSM, although the way that they handle 3G is different so if you put a T-Mobile SIM in an AT&T iPhone and enable it by jailbreaking the iPhone, you can only take advantage of the slow Edge network on T-Mobile. But even though the current GSM 3G technology is not compatible, perhaps AT&T can find a way to make it work together. When the iPhone 5 (or whatever it will be called) comes out in a few months, perhaps it will have a way to take advantage of faster flavors of 3G.
Most likely, however, the main potential benefit of the acquisition to current AT&T iPhone customers will come in the future. AT&T (like Verizon) is just starting its 4G LTE roll out. I doubt that this 2011 version of the iPhone will take advantage of 4G, but I suspect that the 2012 iPhone will. By adding 4G LTE not only to all of the AT&T towers and spectrum but also the T-Mobile towers and spectrum, I hope that AT&T will be able to provide better 4G coverage to even more people, including those who are in areas that currently have T-Mobile service but little to no AT&T service. Randall Stephenson, the chairman and CEO of AT&T, alluded to this when he said that the acquisition of T-Mobile “will improve network quality, and it will bring advanced LTE capabilities to more than 294 million people.”
