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.”
I have been on the road lately and haven’t had a chance to purchase a new iPad 2, but I did get a chance to try one out earlier this week when I was meeting with another lawyer who had one. What an impressive device; it really feels much better in your hand than the original iPad. And with the iPad 2 on everyone’s mind, it comes as no surprise that the news of note from this past week is virtually all about the iPad:
If you are going to get an iPad 2, should you get the Wi-Fi only model or the 3G model? For the past week, I’ve been using my original 3G iPad with the cellular data turned off and using my iPhone 4 as a Personal Hotspot. The combination seems to work very well. The battery on the iPhone 4 deplete somewhat more quickly with the hotspot feature turned on, but my overall experience leads me to think that I don’t need 3G on an iPad 2. For more information on the Personal Hotspot feature of the iPhone 4, check out this great article from Glenn Fleishmann on Macworld.
Apparently another difference between the Wi-Fi and 3G iPad 2 is the microphone on the unit. Charles Starrett of iLounge has details.
How much better are the graphics on the iPad 2 versus the original iPad? One way to find out is to look at a game that pushes graphics to the limit, and Trevor Sheridan of App Advice looks at Infinity Blade and Real Racing 2 HD. Of course, over time, I’m sure that games will do more to take advantage of the iPad 2, but these first efforts seem impressive.
Attorney Clark Stewart discusses his efforts to get an iPad 2.
Justin Kahn of the iPad Notebook site looks at TrialPad, an iPad app that runs presentations with the ability to annotate.
I am a big fan of LogMeIn Ignition, an app that allows you to remotely control a PC or Mac from an iPhone or iPad. The app was just updated to add a feature that allows you to quickly get a file from a remote computer, and I’ll be talking about this feature more after I have had a chance to try it out. But I wanted to note that a competitor to LogMeIn Ignition, VMWare, is also available and Sean Hollister of Engadget has an overview.
Leander Kahney of Cult of mac writes that a Hugarian politician is drafting a new version of the country’s Constitution on his iPad.
Lex Friedman of Macworld posts 10 power user tips for the iPad.
Sean Doherty of Law Technology News discusses Worlddox DMS for the iPad.
And finally, here are Dave Letterman’s Top 10 reasons to get an iPad 2:
Earlier this year, I noted an iPhone case called the iBottle opener which, as you might guess, is an iPhone case that has a built-in bottle opener. I’m not sure how practical that product is, but it is certainly humorous. The company that sells that product and many other zany contraptions, Baron Bob, sent me a free review sample of a product in a similar vein called the iPlunge, billed as a handy stand for your video emergencies. The product looks like a minature plunger. It is a piece of wood attached to a red suction cup that stands about two inches high:
You attach the iPlunge to your iPhone just by pressing the cup part of the plunger on the back of your iPhone. The directions say that it works better if you moisten the cup, but I didn’t find that necessary. It attaches easily to the back of the iPhone, and should also work fine with most iPhone cases that have a smooth surface. It also removes easily without leaving a mark.
With the iPlunge attached, it is easy to prop up an iPhone in the landscape position, putting the iPhone at a good angle for watching a video. You can also use the iPlunge to prop up your iPhone in the portrait position, useful for a FaceTime videochat, but I found it much more difficult to find the exact right spot to stay upright in the portrait position; it can be done with some effort, but the iPhone is more likely to tip over.
Of course, I feel that talking about how this product works is somewhat beyond the point. The main selling point of this item is simply that it is humorous. At only $5.95 it makes for an inexpensive joke gift for someone who uses an iPhone, not to mention a funny gadget for yourself if you are looking for a laugh when you prop up your iPhone. You’ll have to decide for yourself whether it is prudent to use the iPlunge during a meeting with a potential client. Will it be an icebreaker that leads to a shared laugh, or will it cause the client to lose all confidence in you as a lawyer capable of a serious representation of the client? How exciting to see which it will be! Let me know how it works out for you; I suspect I’ll keep this iPlunge packed away during client meetings. Then again, every time I look at the iPlunge, I cannot help but smile.
Click here to get the iPlunge from Baron Bob ($5.95).
Apparently these have been around since July of 2010, but until recently I had not paid much attention to a section of the App Store called App Store Essentials. This is a part of the App Store that recommends apps in several different categories.
For example, the Apps Starter Kit section recommends 25 apps for the new iPhone owner looking to cover the basics. It is a pretty good list of apps:
Last week while I was on vacation, Apple was certainly busy. Most notably the iPad 2 was released on Friday, and I see from the e-mails that I received that many of you were lucky enough to get one. Congrats! I plan to get one soon, most likely the black 32 GB Wi-Fi model. My current iPad has 3G, but now that iOS 4.3 is out and the iPhone 4 on AT&T has a Personal Hotspot feature, I can just use my iPhone to provide 3G data to my iPad when I’m not in a Wi-Fi hotspot, so I don’t see a need to have 3G on the iPad 2 itself.
Speaking of iOS 4.3, Apple released it on March 9, 2011. There were many improvements, and the ones that struck me as most significant are the following:
Personal Hotspot. In the Settings App on an iPhone 4, if you go to General –> Network –> Personal Hotspot, you can now share the 3G data on your iPhone with other computers using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or USB. If you have AT&T, this means that you need to change your rate plan to the DataPro 4GB plan that allows for tethering and which costs $45 a month. I had been using the $30 unlimited data plan so by changing to this plan I lose unlimited data, but in my experience I rarely go over 1GB of data a month so the 4GB plan should be more than enough even when I start sharing data with my iPad. And while I don’t plan to share much data with my laptop, it is nice to know that I can also do that in a pinch.
Wait and pause. When you assign a number to a contact, you can now add a wait within the number by pressing the “wait” button, which is displayed as a semicolon. This is useful if you have a voice mail system or a conference call where you need to wait before sending another string of numbers. There is also a “pause” button, which is displayed by a comma, if you just need a slight pause before more numbers are entered. This is a useful feature that I have wanted for a long time.
Safari speed. Safari is now faster thanks to the new Nitro JavaScript engine.
Side switch (iPad). On the iPad, you can now choose in Settings whether the side switch mutes the volume or locks the screen orientation. I find it easy enough to quickly mute the iPad by tapping the volume down button a few times so I have assigned the side switch to the screen rotation lock.
Password required for in-app purchases. In-app purchases now require a password, solving the problem that I noted in this post where a child might make purchases without you knowing about it.
Better security. Every iOS update brings security improvements, and this one does as well. Apple provided this list of what was improved.
Other minor changes. There is a new font in the Notes app called Noteworthy and which is more cursive. The expanded AirPlay feature allows Safari and third party apps to send video to another device such as an Apple TV.
If you want to learn more about all of the nitty gritty details of the changes in iOS 4.3, I recommend this post by Rene Ritchie of TiPb.
It’s Mardi Gras season right now in New Orleans. If you are here in New Orleans, I’m sure that you are enjoying the parades and good times with friends and family. If you are not in the Big Easy right now, well, you should be, and you ought to try to make up for it by coming in town for Jazz Fest next month.
Normally there wouldn’t be much connection between the iPhone and Mardi Gras, but the theme of one of the parades this past Saturday (the Krewe of Tucks) was “iTucks: What’s APPening,” as you can see from these pictures of the title float in the parade:
Many of the floats made fun of apps and most of the floats found a way to stick a small “i” at the start of various words. And if the theme itself didn’t do enough to emphasize the popularity of the iPhone/iPad and the App Store, the fact that this little fellow preferred playing with an iPhone over catching beads from floats speaks volumes:
Many businesses shut down for a few days during Mardi Gras and those people who don’t stay home to watch the parades often use this as an opportunity to take a vacation, so iPhone J.D. is taking a break this week. See you next week, and laissez les bons temps rouler!
Steve Jobs said on Wednesday that 2011 will be the year of the iPad 2. We’ll see whether that is true, but there is no question that this was the week of the iPad 2, evidenced by the bulk of the news items of note from this week:
Yesterday, I gave you my thoughts on why lawyers will like the iPad 2. Brett Burney shares his thoughts on the subject here.
Brendan McKenna is not as excited about the iPad 2 in this article for Law Technology News.
John Gruber of Daring Fireball wrote a fantastic analysis of the iPad 2 introduction.
Jeff Gamet of the Mac Observer notes that Apple is still selling the original iPad wit the prices dropped $100, so you can get the 16 GB Wi-Fi version for only $399.
Want to pay even less? You can get a refurbished iPad for as low as $349 directly from Apple. $349 for an iPad? Wow.
Did you buy an iPad after February 16, 2011? Bryane Wolfe of App Advice notes that you can get a $100 rebate from Apple.
The site iLawyerApps discusses LogMeIn Ignition, a $30 app that I use all the time on both my iPad and my iPhone.
A competitor to LogMeIn Ignition is GoToMyPC, and Tony Bradley of PC World has a review of the new GoToMyPC iPad app from Citrix. The app is free, but you need to have a $10 a month subscription to the GoToMyPC service.
Joshua Topolsky of Engadget wrote an interesting commentary on the Post-PC World, a concept that Steve Jobs discussed during the iPad 2 introduction.
Eric Slivka of MacRumors cites recent reports by Bloomberg and Reuters that Verizon will drop its unlimited data service this summer. AT&T used to offer an unlimited data service for the iPhone, but now only those grandfathered into an old plan can use it. That includes me, but I am thinking of switching to AT&T’s current 2GB/month plan. I’ve never used more than 2GB a month, and with that plan selected I can take advantage of the new Mobile Hot Spot feature in iOS 4.3 that is coming out in a few days, which means that I can just get the Wi-Fi version of the iPad 2 and piggy-back on my iPhone’s data plan. If any of you have been thinking about doing the same thing, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the subject.
The ABA TECHSHOW blog notes that there will be lots of opportunities to discuss the iPad at the upcoming conference next month. That is true, and there will be also lots of opportunities to discuss the iPhone as well.
Joel Johnson wrote an interesting article for Wired about the conditions at Foxconn, the massive manufacturing company in China that makes (among many other things) the iPhone.
Peter Cohen of The Loop notes that the developer of the Angry Birds app is very happy about Apple.
There is a good comparison of four different iPhone apps that you can use to take notes on the And Now It’s All This blog.
Divorce lawyer Paul Talbort writes on The Huffington Post about using spying on your spouse using their iPhone or BlackBerry.
Josh Barrett of Tablet Legal writes about apps that you can use for Word and Excel compatibility.
And finally, when Steve Jobs introduced the iPad 2 this past Wednesday, he also showed this video looking back on the uses for the original iPad over the previous year. Like many videos produced by Apple, it is incredibly well done, and may even provoke a tear or two. Worth watching:
Yesterday, Steve Jobs introduced the iPad 2, which will be available at the same price as the original iPad starting Friday, March 11 at 5pm. The original iPad sold 15 million units from April to December of 2010, and a lot of those sales went to lawyers. The iPad 2 will appeal to lawyers even more. If you want all of the nitty gritty details, check out the information and videos on the iPad 2 page on the Apple website and the article by Roman Loyola on Macworld. Or if you have an hour, you can watch the video of the entire presentation. In short, though, the iPad 2 is thinner, lighter, faster, has cameras, and works with a neat new cover sold by Apple. Here is what I think that this will mean for lawyers.
Easier to hold
Working with documents is essential to the practice of law, and I love storing all of my important documents on the iPad. But when I hold up my iPad for an extended period of time, it starts to feel somewhat heavy in my hand and I fear that it might slip out. This is the reason that products such as the FreeOneHand can be so useful for lawyers with the original iPad.
The iPad 2 has a different design than the original iPad. The original iPad has an edge on it (sort of like the iPhone 4). The iPad 2 has a back that curves up to meet the front so there is essentially no side at all, as you can see in this picture:
Also, the iPad 2 is 33% thinner than the original iPad (indeed, it is even thinner than the iPhone 4). It is also lighter than the original iPad (1.3 pounds instead of 1.5 pounds).
When I first saw those specs, I thought that they sounded good but was curious how much difference it would really make. But Steve Jobs emphasized yesterday that these seemingly small differences in design, thickness and weight work together and are significant. He said:
It’s dramatic. … When you get your hands on one, it feels totally different. … Going from 1.5 pounds to 1.3, and you might not think that is a lot, but when you get down to 1.5 pounds a tenth of a pound is a lot, and it feels quite a bit lighter.
I have read and listened to several reports by folks who were at the introduction yesterday and got a chance to handle the new iPad, and they all say that the iPad 2 really is much easier to hold. The curved design, the thinness and the reduced weight make holding the iPad a dramatically better experience. Jason Snell of Macworld remarked in a podcast yesterday that holding the iPad 2 feels almost like holding a magazine. After holding the original iPad for a while, my hand can feel like it is holding a large hard cover book. Having a case on the original iPad (or something like the FreeOneHand) can help, but the reports make me think that with the iPad 2 it will be much easier to get by without those extra contraptions.
Faster
The original iPad is usually pretty fast, but can sometimes lag in certain tasks. For example, whenever I am doing legal research, I like to download cases in PDF Format and then read and highlight them on my iPad using the GoodReader app and a stylus. Sometimes when I am highlighting a document, or marking up a PDF by drawing a circle or an arrow, there is just enough of a slight lag that it breaks the illusion that I am actually writing on a document.
But the new iPad 2 is, in the words of Steve Jobs, “dramatically faster.” It has a new chip inside called the A5 that has two processors instead of one, and a CPU that is up to twice as fast. Moreover, the graphics are up to nine times faster. According to those who handled the iPad 2 yesterday, these improvements make the iPad feel much more responsive. We’ll see when I get my hands on one, but I hope that this eliminates those slight lags that I see on my current iPad. And I understand that using the Safari browser to surf the Internet is much zippier on the iPad 2.
Cameras
The iPad 2 has a camera on the front and a camera on the back, just like the iPhone 4. The back camera on the iPad 2 is not as good as the camera on the iPhone 4, but I don’t see that as very important. I often use my iPhone 4 to take pictures, but I can’t see holding up something the size of a legal pad to take many photographs. On the other hand, the cameras let you use FaceTime on the iPad, which in my experience is a nice way to keep in touch with family when I have to travel on business. Having a bigger screen will make FaceTime more enjoyable.
Video out for presentations
The new iPad 2 can work with a $39 device that provides HDMI mirrored video output at up to 1080p and works with all apps and supports rotation. Apple has more information on this page. For lawyers, this means that you can use your iPad to give a presentation on a large TV screen and the audience can see whatever you see on your iPad.
According to a page on the online Apple Store, the new Apple Digital AV Adapter also work with the iPhone 4 and iPod touch (4th generation). (I’m not sure if it works with the original iPad.) So this should mean that you can even just use your iPhone to easily display a document, slide, etc. with other counsel or clients as long as you have access to a TV with an HDMI port. [UPDATE 3/4/11: Apparently, you can’t do as much with this adapter on an iPhone. Macworld reports: “However, when used with an iPhone, iPod touch, or original iPad, the adapter doesn’t support systemwide mirroring and is limited to displaying video from apps that explicitly support video output, such as the stock Photos and Video apps and the Netflix app. In addition, that video is limited to 720p resolution. (When used with an iPad 2, the adapter lets you mirror anything and everything, including the Home screen, and supports resolutions up to 1080p.)”]
Smart Covers
Apple (and many third party companies) made cases for the original iPad. But for the iPad 2, Apple decided that it wanted to come up with a way to protect the screen without adding as much thickness and weight. The result is what Apple calls the Smart Cover. It attaches to the iPad with magnets, covering the screen and automatically putting the iPad to sleep. It also folds up into a triangle that can prop up the iPad either slightly for typing or more for watching videos, doing FaceTime, etc. This short video does a great job of showing how it works:
The covers come in a polyurethane version in five colors for $39 each and a leather version in five colors for $69 each. I suspect that almost all iPad 2 owners will want to pick up one of these. Time will tell whether the Smart Cover makes other iPad cases obsolete, but it is great to have such a sleek option that adds so little size and weight to the iPad so that it will be even easier to carry the iPad 2 around.
Lawyers will love it
I’m just touching on the major features. The iPad 2 also has a lot of fun new features, such as the Photo Booth app (your kids will love it), and the (optional) new GarageBand and updated iMovie apps look really neat. The new three-axis gyroscope (just like the iPhone 4) will be useful for augmented reality apps. And while the original iPad only came in black, you can get either a black or white model of the iPad 2. In short, though, it looks like the iPad 2 will add a lot of useful features to a device that lawyers already love, and will address some of the few shortcomings of the original iPad.
I know a lot of lawyers who have been waiting for the next model to get their first iPad. Their time has come. I also suspect that a lot of lawyers who currently have an iPad will be gifting it to a spouse or other loved one to take advantage of the new features. I feel that I should note that John Gruber and Jim Dalrymple — two folks who tend to have very good sources and good insight on unreleased Apple products — have bothguessed that Apple will announce an iPad 3 (or perhaps the iPad 2 HD), a version of the iPad 2 with a retina display like we have on the iPhone 4, in September of this year to have a new model for the holiday buying season. Will this happen this year? Well, maybe we can read something into the statement on this slide that Jobs displayed yesterday: “2011: Year of iPad 2.” Perhaps that means that the iPad 2 is all that we will see this year and the third generation iPad won’t come out until 2012. We just don’t know.
Of course, you never know when the next great technology product will come out, and if you keep waiting for the next model, you’ll never get anything at all. One thing that is for sure: I am positive that many lawyers will soon be very happy owners of the new iPad 2. And I suspect that I will be one of them.
At 10:00 Pacific / 1:00 Eastern today, Apple will host an event in San Francisco at which the next version of the iPad will be announced. I suspect that Apple will also announce when iOS 4.3 will be available, and it is also likely that Apple will preview the next major revision of the iOS, perhaps called iOS 5.0. I doubt we will learn much about new iPhone hardware, but who knows.
If you want to follow the event live as it happens, I recommend the live blogs at the following locations:
If you want to watch the event yourself but are not a member of the press with an invitation, I suspect that tonight, Apple will also provide a video of the event on the Apple website.
