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One of the earliest reviews of an iPhone accessory that I posted on iPhone J.D. was my review of the iPhone 3G Dock back in 2008.  When explaining why I liked that dock, I said:  “First, it gives me a specific place to keep my iPhone when I am working at my desk so that it is always in that same convenient location when I need to reach for it.  Second, it keeps my iPhone charged while it is sitting in the dock.”  Since 2008, I’ve continued to appreciate having a dock for my iPhone on my desk at work for those same two reasons.  Unfortunately, because Apple’s docks have been custom molded to fit specific iPhone models, they wouldn’t work when your iPhone was in a case, and they also would become obsolete when you bought a new iPhone with a different design.  The iPhone 3G Dock also worked with the iPhone 3GS that came out in 2009, but then I had to purchase a new dock in 2010 when I upgraded to the iPhone 4.  The iPhone 4 dock worked with the iPhone 4 and 4S, but in 2012 when Apple released the iPhone 5 with a different design, I needed another dock.  For whatever reason, Apple didn’t release a new dock in 2012, and the old ones did not work with the iPhone 5 not only because the shape was different but also because the iPhone 5 used the new Lightning connector.  A year later in 2013, after Apple released the iPhone 5S, it released yet another dock, one that worked with the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5S. 

When the iPhone 6 came out in 2014, it used yet another design — indeed, the entire iPhone was larger than prior models — so I could no longer use the dock that I had used with my iPhone 5S.  And when Apple didn’t release a dock for the iPhone 6 in 2014, I thought that we might have to wait another year, much like we did when the iPhone 5 came out.  We did have to wait, but it wasn’t a full year.  Last month (May of 2015), Apple released its newest dock called the iPhone Lightning Dock.  It costs $39.  I bought one, and I’ve been using it at my desk at work for the last few weeks.

Like the prior Apple dock models, this latest dock has a rubbery bottom so that it doesn’t move around on your desk, but there is nothing sticky about the bottom so when you want to move it around, you can easily do so.  Also like the prior models, there is a connector in the back where you plug in a charging cord, plus there is an audio out port in the back, useful if you want to plug in headphones or an external speaker while your iPhone is in the dock.

There is one major difference between this dock and the prior models.  This newest dock is not molded to the shape of the bottom of the iPhone.  Instead, the Lightning connector is strong enough that it can hold up the weight of an iPhone.  And because the Lightning connector is raised somewhat, you can even use this dock when your iPhone is in certain cases, such as the iPhone leather case made by Apple that I use (which I reviewed last year).

This new design for the dock is a big improvement.  Not only does it mean that you can use this dock with some iPhone cases, but it also means that the dock might continue to work with future iPhones even if Apple changes the design.  Indeed, I was able to place my iPad Air 2 in this dock and it worked.  I strongly do not recommend that you do this; it wasn’t very stable and could have easily fell over with a large iPad on it.  But I tried it just to prove that the dock could work with different sized devices that also have a Lightning port.  I don’t have an iPhone 6 Plus to try with this dock, but I’m sure that it works just fine.

Many years ago, Apple made what it called a Universal Dock.  It worked with different models of the iPod and iPhone by using plastic adapters.  You used the right size adapter for your device, and that adapter made your device fit with the dock.  It was nice to have that flexibility, but I far prefer this latest design.  It is much sleeker and allows for a smaller dock.

I’ve been very happy with this dock.  I like having a central place to put my iPhone on my desk.  The dock props up the iPhone at a nice angle so that I can easily see the screen if I need to use the iPhone while in the dock or just want to glance at an alert.  And of course I like that my iPhone charges while it is in the dock. 

While the dock does a nice job of holding the iPhone very steady, it is very easy to remove the iPhone from the dock.  I’ve seen other reviews that say that you need to use two hands — one to hold the dock and one to pull the iPhone off.  But I find that I can easily remove the iPhone from the dock with just one hand.  I grip the iPhone with my thumb and third finger, and then I push against the top of the dock with my pinkie finger and it lifts right out.

It is also very easy to pull the Lightning cable out of the back of this dock.  I mention this because I frequently remove the cable so that I can plug it in to my iPad to charge it while it is on my desk, and then when I’m done I plug it back in to this dock.  Even when I don’t have a Lightning charger cord connected to this dock, I still like to keep my iPhone in it just so that I always know where my iPhone is located (and don’t have to worry about it getting buried under papers), plus I like how the dock props the iPhone at a nice angle.

This next picture shows my new dock with all of the prior models.  The top row has the iPhone 3G dock and the Universal Dock, and the second row has the iPhone 4 dock, the iPhone 5 dock, and the new dock that works with the iPhone 6.

Hopefully I won’t need to add to that collection for some time.  The new design of this dock should allow it to work with many future models of the iPhone.

There are other companies that make iPhone docks, some of which prop the iPhone higher in the air such as the Twelve South HiRise.  But I’ve always preferred the minimalist design of Apple’s docks, and this latest dock is the shortest and sleekest one yet.  If you like the idea of having a central place to keep your iPhone on your desk, and you like having your iPhone propped up at an angle so that you can easily see the screen, and you like keeping your iPhone charged while at your desk, then you are likely to enjoy using this dock as much as I do.

Click here to get the iPhone Lightning Dock from Apple ($39.00).

 

I listen to a lot of podcasts — when I am driving to and from work, when I am working out, when I am doing tasks such as cutting the grass or washing dishes, etc.  One of my favorite podcasts is Mac Power Users.  That podcast is aimed at a general audience of folks who use Apple products, but the co-hosts are both attorneys:  California attorney David Sparks and Florida attorney Katie Floyd.  They were nice enough to invite me to be a guest on their latest episode to discuss the Apple Watch, and I had a great time talking with them and participating in one of my favorite podcasts.  We recorded the podcast last Saturday, and I was happy to learn that some of the features we discussed wanting (such as third party complications and the ability to respond to an email on the Apple Watch) are indeed coming in just a few months, as announced by Apple during its WWDC conference a few days ago.  If you’d like to listen, here is the webpage for that episode, or you can download Episode 261 in your podcast app of choice.  (I use and recommend Overcast.)  The full episode is 105 minutes, but I’m on for just the first half hour.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• In addition to co-hosting Mac Power Users, David Sparks also runs the MacSparky website, and this week he shared some of his thoughts on the upcoming iOS 9 which Apple announced at WWDC this week.
• One of the iOS 9 features that I am most excited about are the new multitasking features coming to the iPad Air 2, such as running two apps at the same time, side-by-side.  Federico Viticci of MacStories, who uses an iPad as his primary computing device, is excited about those features too and shares his initial thoughts on the announcements.
• Jim Dalrymple of The Loop also shared some interesting thoughts on Apple’s announcements at WWDC.
• Serenity Caldwell of iMore posted a list of 18 features in iOS 9 that you may have missed.  I see that the URL is “http://www.imore.com/17-features-ios-9-you-may-have-missed-during-keynote” so it looks like she originally planned to discuss just 17 features and then realized that she also missed one.
• Cartoonist Rich Stevens tells us the real reason to look forward to iOS 9 in the latest Pixel Project comic on iMore.
• Juli Clover of MacRumors reports on an interesting new feature in the upcoming iOS 9.  Apple already has a technology it calls Continuity, which allows you to answer a phone call not only from your iPhone but also from a computer, iPad or Apple Watch as long as it is on the same Wi-Fi network.  But in iOS 9, this feature will work even if you are not using the same Wi-Fi network.  Thus, if you leave your iPhone at home, you will be able to make and receive calls using your work computer that is on the Wi-Fi at your office.  The article doesn’t say whether it also works using an iPad or an Apple Watch on a different Wi-Fi network.  And also note that it appears that this new feature only works if your cellular carrier supports Cellular Continuity, which currently only T-Mobile supports.  I have more questions than answers at this point on how all of this works, but the idea sounds very useful.
• Buster Hein of Cult of Mac reports that the cool iOS 9 feature that Apple showed off at WWDC on an iPad — the ability to use two fingers to turn the keyboard into a trackpad to move the cursor — will also work on an iPhone.  I was wondering about that.
• As noted by Brent Dirks of AppAdvice, Apple also announced this week that iOS 8.4 will be released on June 30.  It fixes some bugs, but the big new feature is support for the Apple Music streaming service that Apple announced at WWDC this week.  For $9.99 a month, or $14.99 for up to six family members, you can listen to just about any song that you want on your iPhone, iPad or computer.
• Vanessa Freidman, the chief fashion critic with the New York Times, tried using an Apple Watch for six weeks but decided that it wasn’t for her.  As she describes in her New York Times article Why I’m Breaking Up With the Apple Watch, she didn’t like that other people would notice it and ask her about it, she felt weird using the watch, she preferred to exercise based on how she was feeling and not based on numbers and digital encouragement, and she didn’t find the watch functions useful (except that she liked how the watch would tap her wrist when her kids were calling).  My own opinion is almost exactly the opposite — which won’t surprise any of you who would consider me to be pretty much the exact opposite of a New York Times fashion critic — but it was interesting to read an articulate explanation of why the Apple Watch is not for some people.
• There is also a whimsical follow-up to Freidman’s article, a back-and-forth between Freidman and Farhad Manjoo, the tech columnist for the New York Times.
• If you have some iTunes purchases planned, 9to5Mac notes that you can currently get $100 worth of gift cards for only $70 via eBay.
• I suspect that many of you have seen — in person or in pictures — the iconic Apple Store on Fifth Avenue, the glass cube at the corner of Central Park.  It is in front of FAO Schwarz,  the place where Tom Hanks danced on a big keyboard, and the oldest toy store in the U.S.  Or at least, it has been up until now; FAO Schwarz is closing down, and the Apple Store is using this as an opportunity to renovate the Fifth Avenue store.  As reported by Nick Jesdanun and Barbara Ortutay of AP, Apple will use the FAO Schwarz space as a temporary store while it renovates.  No word yet on whether Apple will let you dance on its keyboards.
• Apple acknowledged this week that it has vehicles driving around the world collecting data and taking pictures to improve the Apple Maps app.  Indeed, Apple now even has a webpage posting where the vehicles will be next.  So if you are in Atlanta, Chicago, Boston, New York, London or a number of other cities during the next few weeks, be sure to wave when the Apple car drives by to take your picture. 
• And finally, just before Apple CEO Tim Cook took the stage for the WWDC keynote this week, Apple showed the audience (filled mostly with app developers) a funny video – starring Saturday Night Live alum Bill Hader, Danny Pudi from Community, and Matt Walsh from Veep – the premise being that Hader is directing a dress rehearsal for the opening number of WWDC.  Apple posted the video to YouTube yesterday, and it is worth watching to see a lot of popular apps brought to life in a humorous way:

One of the most useful apps in my litigation practice is TranscriptPad.  It is nice to be able to annotate a deposition as I read it with different issue codes, and then later create a report for all of the depositions in a case so that I can determine the key testimony from each witness on the key issues in the case.  It helps me to remember the important testimony when many months have passed since I took and/or first read the deposition, and it is incredibly useful when I am drafting a motion for summary judgment or preparing for trial and I need to have easy access to the most relevant testimony.

However, I used to have a gripe with the app.  Once you create a report, there is no direct way to open the PDF version of the report in another app.  You can upload the report to cloud storage (such as Dropbox, Transporter, Box, Citrix ShareFile) and then get the report from storage and open it in another app.  Or you can email the report to yourself, and then open the email and then open the attachment in another app.  But those methods involve extra steps that seem unnecessary.  And if you are on a plane or somewhere else that you do not have Internet access, those options won’t work at all.

I shared my gripe with Ian O’Flaherty, the creator of TranscriptPad, and he explained to me that there are technical reasons that it does not make sense to add this option directly to the app, but he suggested a workaround using the Workflow app.  I tweaked his suggested workflow somewhat, and came up with something that has been working great for me for many weeks now.  Hopefully many of you will also find this tip useful.

As I said, you need the Workflow app to do this.  The app is normally $4.99 but is currently on sale for $2.99.  The sale is to celebrate the fact that, earlier this week, Apple honored the app with an Apple Design Award, as reported by TechCrunch.  The fact that the app was one of the few to win this award demonstrates that this is a great app that you might want to own anyway.  (And I highly recommend California attorney David Spark’s Workflow Video Field Guide to learn how to get the most out of this app; my review is here.) 

There are two simple steps to this workflow.  First, use the command to make a PDF.  Second, use the command to open the PDF that you just created in GoodReader.  (GoodReader is my app of choice for reading and annotating PDF files, but if you have another favorite app, just identify it instead.)  And that’s it.  It will take you less than a minute to create this workflow.  Here is what it looks like in the Workflow app:

To use the workflow after you make it, create a report in TranscriptPad and then tap the Share button at the top right (the square with the arrow pointing up).  This is where you would normally save the report to a cloud service or email the report, but thanks to this workflow you no longer need that step.  Instead, just tap the Run Workflow button.

The very first time that you use a workflow, you may need to scroll to the end of the bottom line, tap More, and turn on Run Workflow, but you’ll never have to do that step again.  For every subsequent time, the next step is simply to tap the Run Workflow button. 

Then tap the name of the report that you created, which in my case I called TranscriptPad Report. 

That’s it.  Almost instantly, your report opens up in GoodReader (or your PDF reader of choice). 

So in other words, after tapping the Share button, you simply tap two buttons and you are done.  Even if you have Internet access, this workflow is far, far faster than emailing the file to yourself and then opening up the file from that email, or saving the file to a cloud service and then getting the file out of that cloud service and into GoodReader.

I’ve known Ian O’Flaherty for many years, and his company has been a sponsor of iPhone J.D., so you might think that it was no surprise that he so quickly responded to my question and came up with a solution.  But from what I have heard from many other users of his TranscriptPad and TrialPad apps, he is just as helpful when other attorneys reach out to him.  Thanks to Ian for suggesting this workflow to solve my problem, and thanks also for creating, and supporting the users of, these great apps.

Click here to get TranscriptPad ($89.99): 

Click here to get Workflow ($2.99): 

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This article won the LitigationWorld Pick of the Week award. The editors of LitigationWorld, a free weekly email newsletter for litigators and others who work in litigation, give this award to one article every week that they feel is a must-read for this audience.

During the keynote address yesterday at WWDC (Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference), CEO Tim Cook and other Apple executives had lots of announcements that relate to the Mac, iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch.  Today, I focus just on the announcements that concern iOS 9, the operating system for the iPhone and iPad that Apple will release as a free upgrade this Fall — my guess is September of 2015, but we’ll see.  Apple may be holding back some new features so that there are still some surprises later this year, but based on what Apple showed off yesterday, lawyers and other professionals who use an iPhone and iPad to get work done will find lots to love in iOS 9.  Here are the new features that jumped out at me.

Multiple windows on the iPad

If you have a newer iPad, you will be able to be much more productive with new features for using multiple windows at the same time.  First, you can swipe from the right side so that a Slide-Over window covers the right edge of your current window.  In that window, you can temporarily access another app without leaving the app in which you are currently working.  So just like you can now swipe up from the bottom of the screen on an iPad to launch the Control Center, in iOS 9 you can swipe in from the right to launch another app that temporarily covers up the right part of the screen of your current app.  This should make it much easier to quickly get some information from another app.

Second, you can enable a Split View so that you run two apps side-by-side at the same time.  For example, you can look up information in Safari while you are simultaneously writing something in another app.  The split view is resizable, so you can either give two apps 50% of the screen, or have one app have more of the screen while another app has a smaller portion.

I can see it being really useful to use the Microsoft Word app on the right part of my screen while I am looking at a PDF document in GoodReader in the left part of my screen.  And Split Screen would be even more useful if Microsoft brings the great Reflow view that is in the iPhone version of Word to the iPad.  That way, the text can be larger when Word is only filling up one part of your screen.  For attorneys like me who leave the laptop at home and just take an iPad when traveling to a deposition, meeting, etc., tools like this are great for increasing productivity.

Third, a picture-in-picture mode lets you continue to watch a video in a small window while you are using another app.  You can move that small video window around your screen (so that it isn’t covering up something that you need to see or tap), and there are controls to play, pause, etc. even while a video is in the small picture-in-picture mode.  I’m not sure how useful this is as a productivity feature, but it will certainly be fun.

To take advantage of some of these new features (such as two apps running at the same time), you’ll need to have an iPad Air 2.  Thus, you may not be able to use these features with your current iPad, but they will work with your next iPad.  And if the rumors are true about Apple releasing an iPad with a larger screen later this year, these features would be even more valuable with the increased screen real estate.

Improvements to the iPad keyboard

When the keyboard is visible in iOS 9, if you touch the keyboard with two fingers instead of one finger, the keyboard dims and turns into a virtual trackpad that you can use to control the cursor.  It is similar to how you might use a mouse or trackpad to control a cursor on a PC or a Mac.  You can also use this feature to quickly select text.  I can’t wait to try this one in person, but it looks like a big boost to productivity once you get used to it.

Also, just above the keyboard, there are now small icons on the left that you can tap to quickly cut, copy and paste.  On the right there are small icons that can be used to format text.  And these new buttons can be app-specific, so developers can provide the most useful buttons for each specific app.

If you use an external keyboard, there are new keyboard shortcuts.  By far the most useful to me will be Command-Tab (or Control-Tab) to switch apps, just like you can do on an PC or Mac.

Improved shift key

Speaking of the keyboard, have you ever looked at the shift key on the iPhone or iPad screen only to find yourself confused whether shift was on or off?  It happens to me all of the time, even though I really should know better by now.  In iOS 9, the keys on the keyboard change to lower case when shift is off and upper case when shift is on, making it far more obvious which mode you are in.  Amen.

6 > 4

You may not like this change at first, but it a security improvement so it is good for you.  If you have a newer iPhone or iPad with Touch ID (the fingerprint sensor), in iOS 9 you will be required to use a six digit pin to unlock the device instead of a four digit pin. 

The change from four to six numbers means that there are a million different possible passcodes, versus 10,000 with four digits.  This should make it harder for a malicious hacker to gain access to your iPhone or iPad without your permission.

Fortunately, you still only have to enter the pin after a restart; otherwise your fingerprint can still serve as your password.

Siri improvements

Siri will be more intelligent in iOS 9.  For example, Siri will have more awareness of what you are doing, so that if you are, say, looking at a web page and you tell Siri “remind me of this later,” Siri will know that you want a reminder to go back to that web page.  You will also be able to ask Siri to remind you of something when you get into the car.  And Siri will do a better job of understanding how you use your device so that it offers more helpful advice.  Apple calls the added intelligence in Siri “Proactive Assistant.”

Siri will also look different, more like how Siri looks on the Apple Watch.  Also, your device will also quickly vibrate to indicate that Siri has started to listen to you.

Scrubbing photos

It will now be faster to find the photograph that you want because there will be a new scrubber (tiny thumbnails) at the bottom of the screen in the Photos app.  This should make it faster to jump to the right picture.

More battery life

Apple says that improvements across iOS should result in your device getting about an hour of additional battery life.  Everyone will love that.

One specific and interesting example of saving battery life:  an iPhone running iOS 9 will be able to sense when it is face down on a table and, if so, won’t light up when there is an incoming notification.

But what if that isn’t enough?  Do you ever find yourself down to just an hour of battery life left on your iPhone or iPad when you know you need it to last longer?  iOS 9 gives you the option, in Settings, to turn on a Lower Power Mode.  This dims the screen and makes other changes to the device, which should give you about three more hours instead of one.  You’ll lose some functionality (new email won’t show up automatically, apps won’t refresh in the background, motion effects and animated wallpapers will turn off, etc.), but when you are running out of power and getting desperate, the tradeoffs will likely be worth it.

Improved Notes app

I sometimes use the built-in Notes app to quickly jot something down, and this will be easier in iOS 9.  For example, the Notes app in iOS 9 supports sketching, so you can draw a quick diagram or other shape when necessary.  Your notes in iOS 9 can include bullet or numbered lists, checkable lists (useful for a grocery or packing list where you tap an item when it is done), formatted text, images, etc.  Apple says that half of all users use the Notes app, so these improvements will help a lot of people.

Another way to search

Ever since iOS 7, you could pull down from the middle of a home screen to search on your iPhone.  In iOS 9, this gesture remains, but you can also swipe to the left of your first home screen (the way that search worked in iOS 6) to get not only a search bar but also suggested search items.

Maps improvements

Perhaps the most useful improvement to Maps will be the integration of public transit maps and schedules for buses, trains, subways, etc.  The only U.S. cities to support this feature at launch will be New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Baltimore and Washington D.C., plus it will work in cities in other countries such as Berlin, London, Mexico City and Toronto, and will work in a larger number of cities in China.  I’ll appreciate this feature whenever I travel to these cities — I especially look forward to trying it in New York — and I’m sure that even more cities will be added in the future.   The Transit feature will even understand all of the different entrances/exits in a subway.

Maps also gains the ability to show you certain establishments that are nearby your current location.

Switching to the iPhone

I’ve heard from quite a few attorneys who tell me that they use an iPad, but they also use an Android phone, although they are thinking of making the switch to iPhone.  There are lots of advantages to using an iPhone if you use an iPad, such as universal apps that you can buy once and use on both platforms, handoff between iPhone and iPad, and the large number of legal-specific apps on the iPhone that simply don’t exist on Android.

Yesterday, Apple announced a new set of apps for Android and iPhone called Move to iOS.  These apps ease the transition from Android to iPhone.  The apps move your contacts, message history, photos etc. from your old device to the new device.  They download on the iPhone all of the free apps that you used to use on Android, and give you an App Store wishlist for the paid apps that you used on Android and will have to purchase again for the iPhone.  These apps also move your DRM-free media such as songs and videos.

Switchers will only need to use this app once, but for that one use I suspect it will be very useful.  It has to be much better than the current way of moving everything manually.

And the rest…

Those are the big new features for me, but there are other changes as well.  For example, the App Switcher will look different, but I’ll have to try it to see whether I think it is an improvement.  A new News app will present information from different sources – newspapers, magazines, websites, etc. — in a single, beautiful interface.  (It looks similar to Flipboard, if you have used that app.)  Apple Pay will soon support merchant rewards cards.

Apple also is improving the parts of iOS that you don’t see every day, stuff that should make iOS faster and more stable.  (This is probably how Apple was able to get more battery life in iOS 9.)

Put it all together, and all of us who use an iPad and iPhone to get work done should find that we can be even more productive with iOS 9, all without getting new hardware.  Having said that, you know that around the same time that iOS 9 comes out, Apple will have some tempting new iPads and iPhones as well.

Today is the start of WWDC, Apple’s developer conference.  At 10 am Pacific / 1 pm Eastern today, Apple CEO Tim Cook and other Apple executives will give the keynote address, an event Apple typically uses to preview new iPhone, iPad and Mac software — and this year, I’m sure we will hear about the Apple Watch as well.  This is typically an event where Apple previews the next version of the iOS operating system, so my guess is that we will learn about some of the new features in iOS 9, which will likely be released later this year when the 2015 model of the iPhone is released.  There are also rumors that Apple will debut a new Apple Music service today. 

You can watch the keynote live at apple.com/live, using Safari on a Mac, iPhone or iPad.  The live stream is also available on Apple TV.

If you cannot wait until 10 am Pacific to find out what is likely to be announced, Mark Gurman of 9to5Mac has written the definitive roundup of WWDC keynote rumors.

Monday morning will be the start of Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.  The Keynote address will be at 10am, and unlike the rest of the conference which includes many confidential sessions, the Keynote will be public.  I expect Apple to announce some of the new features of the next version of iOS, which will most likely be available this Fall when new iPhones come out.  There was also a rumor that Apple was going to debut a new version of Apple TV, but Brian Chen of the New York Times reported this week that sources told him that the new Apple TV was not ready yet.  Whatever Apple announces next week, hopefully it will be interesting.  And if nothing else, perhaps it will give us something related to the iPhone and iPad to talk about for the next few months, instead of the Apple Watch continuing to dominate the iOS news cycle.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• I use a clock face on my Apple Watch that shows my next calendar appointment right in the middle of the screen, and I love that I can just glance at my wrist and see what’s next — especially on those busy days with lots of meetings and calls.  On my iPhone, I find that Fantastical does a much better job handling my calendar than the built-in Calendar app, so I was thrilled to see that Fantastical came to the Apple Watch this week.  It’s got a few nice features, such as emphasizing how much time you have until the next event (similar to a feature that I praised earlier this week in my review of the Delta Apple Watch app).  California attorney David Sparks shares my enthusiasm and he runs down the new features in this post.  I also enjoyed the reviews by Susie Ochs of Macworld and the review by Federico Viticci of MacStories.  I’m sure that this app will be even more useful when Apple lets third parties create native Apple Watch apps later this year, but for now Fantastical on the Apple Watch is already useful, not to mention being a good sign of things to come.
• The Joy of Tech offers one theory on why the Apple TV won’t be ready on Monday.
• This week, the Chase app was updated to support Touch ID, as noted by Joseph Keller of iMore.  I use Chase for my banking, and I’m a big fan of this app.  You can use the app to deposit a check just by taking a picture of it, saving you a trip to the bank, and now that the app supports Touch ID, you can securely log in to the app without having to even type in your long password.
• Sharon Noguchi of the San Jose Mercury News reports that, after her husband died, a woman dropped off boxes of old electronics at a recycling center.  It turns out that one of the things that she discarded was an original Apple I computer, which the center sold for $200,000.  The center is now trying to find the woman to split the proceeds with her.  If any iPhone J.D. readers want to recycle an Apple I, feel free to send it to me.
• John Arlidge of the London Evening Standard interviewed Marc Newson, who helped Jony Ive design the Apple Watch.
• Apple announced this week that, starting June 26, the Apple Watch will go on sale in Italy, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland and Taiwan.  It is interesting to see the Apple Watch go on sale in Switzerland since that country has long been synonymous with traditional watches.  The same press release also announces that you will be able to buy certain Apple Watch models in the Apple Stores in about two weeks.
• Speaking of traditional versus new watches, the New York Times reported on July 9, 1916 that some people were starting to use the new “strap watches” instead of the traditional pocket watch.  The article notes:  “Until recently, the bracelet watch has been looked upon by Americans as more or less of a joke.  Vaudeville artists and moving-picture actors have utilized it as a funmaker, as a ‘silly ass’ fad.”  Something to keep in mind the next time you see someone roll their eyes at an Apple Watch while they are simultaneously determining the time by reaching for a device in their pocket … i.e. a smartphone.  (via M.G. Siegler)
• Adam Engst of TidBITS wrote a good article about exercising with the Apple Watch.
• One of the things that the Apple Watch encourages you to do is to spend more time being active and less time sitting down for many hours at a time.  Brigid Schulte of the Washington Post explains why this is a good thing.
• Christopher Meinck of everythingCafe writes about 12 ways that you can use Force Touch on an Apple Watch.
• And finally, have you ever wondered what it might have been like if Steve Jobs had been around to debut the Apple Watch?  Here is a video that shows us what that might have been like, created by mashing together clips of old Steve Jobs keynotes:

Thank you to Connected Data, maker of the Transporter, for sponsoring iPhone J.D. this month.  The Transporter is a hard drive, but unlike a traditional hard drive that connect to just one computer, the Transporter securely shares your files with all of your computers and iOS devices so that you can access your files from anywhere.  And unlike Dropbox or other cloud-based services, your data is stored on a hard drive that you own, and which you keep at your office or home, so you maintain full custody of your data.  Thus, you don’t need to worry about your documents being on the cloud and in the possession of a third party that hasn’t signed a confidentiality agreement with you.  Also, there are no subscription fees.  Just buy the hardware once.  If you want more information on how you can use a Transporter in your law practice, click here to access the Legal Solutions page of the Transporter website. 

If you are ready to buy a Transporter this month, the company was nice enough to create a special discount code for iPhone J.D. readers.  Purchase a 1TB or 2TB Transporter at filetransporterstore.com between now and June 30, 2015, and use the offer code IJD75, and you will get a $75 discount. 

Connected Data, which makes the Transporter, gave me a free review unit when it first sponsored iPhone J.D. in March of 2013.  I love it, and I’ve used the product almost every single day for over two years.  Thanks to Connected Data for making such a great product and for being a long time supporter of iPhone J.D.

These are early days for apps designed for the Apple Watch.  There are quite a few good ones, but as developers are just starting to use an Apple Watch, it is no surprise that many Apple Watch apps need to go back to the drawing board.  During a recent business trip in which a traveled on Delta Airlines, I tried out the Fly Delta app for the Apple Watch, and I was pleased to discover that it is very good.  The developers did a great job of designing a useful app that has the info you need, but nothing else. 

When you have an upcoming Delta flight, the app shows you in the center how much time you have until your flight departs.  The bottom of the app shows you your flight number and your gate.

And that’s about it.  The developers of the app could have included features such as a map of your current location, other flights you will be taking that day, frequent flier mile information, etc., but wisely chose not to do so.  You can always use the Delta app on your iPhone for more detailed information, but when you are walking around the airport, the info you need is simple.  You want to know how long you have until your next flight.  You want to know your flight number, so that if there is an announcement or if you are reading a board you can determine which flight is yours.  And you need to know the gate that you are walking to.

One of my favorite features of the Apple Watch is that it is so easy to lift your wrist and quickly look at key information, such as the time, the date, your next appointment, a text or email that just came in, who is calling you, etc.  When you are in an airport, you are most likely to be focused mainly on the upcoming flight, so the info displayed by the Delta app is the most relevant info at that time. 

In the Settings app on my Apple Watch, in General -> Activate on Wrist Raise -> Resume to, I always have my Apple Watch set to Last Used App.  This means that when I am using an app, if I drop my hand to my side for a period of time and then lift my wrist again, I see the last app that I was using instead of going back to the watch face.  This setting is perfect when used in connection with the Fly Delta Apple Watch app because when I lift my wrist in an airport, I would much rather see the Delta app with time to flight, flight number and gate number than see my normal watch face.  And if I really do need to know the time, that is also on the top right corner of the Delta app.  Thus, the Delta app functions as the perfect substitute watch face while I am traveling.

If you are actually on the plane, the Delta app instead shows you the info you would most likely want to see during your flight — how long until you land, and what gate will you land at.

When you land, the app welcomes you to your destination.

As much as I love the design of the Fly Delta app, there is room for improvement.  First, instead of showing you how long until my flight leaves, it would be useful to have the option to instead see how long until my plane boards.  That’s the actual time that I want to make sure that I am at the gate.

Also, there were times when the Apple Watch app got stuck and didn’t show me the correct time until my next flight … but then a few minutes later it would work again. And other times, I just got the generic screen indicating that the app was looking for information:

My guess is that this is not Delta’s fault but instead has to do with the way that Apple doesn’t currently allow native apps on the Apple Watch, so the apps instead have to work through the iPhone app, which can lead to a delay.  Native apps should be out later this year, and when they are out hopefully this will go away.

Note that you also can use your Apple Watch as a boarding pass, but you do so using the Passbook app, not the Fly Delta app.  Moreover, most every airline scanner screen that I see nowadays is a flat surface, which makes it easy to place your iPhone on it face down to scan a boarding pass from the iPhone Passbook app, but makes it incredibly awkward to use with a watch.  You would have to twist your arm in a backwards position, or slip the watch so that the face was underneath your arm instead of on top of your arm.  I can’t see using my Apple Watch as a boarding pass, so it makes sense to me that Delta did not include this feature in its Apple Watch app.

While there is room for improvement, I’m a big fan of the Delta Apple Watch app.  When traveling, it is a great substitute for the normal watch face.  When walking through an airport terminal, it is much easier to glance at my watch to confirm a gate number than to pull out an iPhone, unlock it, navigate to the Delta app and then locate that information.  I hope we see more apps for the Apple Watch that use a single screen to show just what you need to know, and nothing else.

Click here to get Fly Delta (free): 

British actor Stephen Fry talked to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Apple’s Jony Ive, and wrote an interesting article about it earlier this week in The Telegraph.  The article reveals that Ive has a new position at Apple:  Chief Design Officer.  This led to much speculation as to whether this new position signals that Ive will be spending more time in England and less time designing cool new Apple products, but John Gruber of Daring Fireball disagrees with that and thinks that it means that Ive can spend less time focusing on administrative duties and more time thinking about design, which seems like a good thing to me.  Whether Ive is involved or someone else, hopefully we will have a very long future of well-designed products from Apple.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• Florida attorney Katie Floyd talks about how the Apple Watch can be pretty smart in suggesting replies to text messages.
• Although the iPhone is now the most popular smartphone for attorneys, there was a time when most of the attorneys I knew were using a BlackBerry.  Jacquie Mcnish and Sean Silvoff wrote a book called Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry, which explains how Research in Motion (maker of the BlackBerry) was blindsided by the iPhone.  There is an interesting excerpt in the Wall Street Journal.
• This week, there were reports that if someone sends a very strange series of characters to you in a text message, it can crash the Messages app on your iPhone.  If this happens to you, yesterday Apple posted instructions for fixing it, and also said that a permanent fix will come in a future software update.
• Marques Brownlee put together a video addressing 10 common Apple Watch questions.
• Jason Snell of Six Colors explains that even after you decide to get an Apple Watch, it is very difficult to decide which one to get because of the large number of choices, something new for Apple.
• Zac Hall of 9to5Mac reports that the new Marriott app lets you check in and check out from your Apple Watch.
• I noticed the day that I received my Apple Watch that the box / storage case that it comes in is really nice, which almost makes me feel guilty about never using it.  Zac Hall reports that people are actually selling the boxes on eBay — not the Apple Watch, just the empty box — and people are buying them. 
• Marco Arment notes that the circles on the Apple Watch have caused him to exercise every day.  The same thing has happened to me.  I realize that this is just gamification, but I know many people who pay for a personal trainer mostly for the encouragement, so there is nothing unusual about using encouragement to be healthier.  It’s nice to see that the Apple Watch is providing positive reinforcement for others, not just me.
• This week I reviewed the excellent Weather Line app, but as I noted in that review, there are lots of other good weather apps too.  Allyson Kazmucha put together a list of some of the best weather apps for the iPhone.  I own most of the apps on that list and I agree with her that these are good ones.
• M.G. Siegler, a partner with Google Ventures and tech expert, says that force touch works so well on the Apple Watch that it makes sense to also put force touch on the iPhone and iPad.  I agree, and I hope the rumors are true and that Apple adds this to the 2015 version of the iPad and iPhone, which I expect to come out this Fall.
• ITV News reports that a man in England survived a shotgun attack because he was lucky enough for the bullets to hit his iPhone 5c, which absorbed most of the impact.
• The sapphire glass screen of the Apple Watch is also pretty resistant, but as Chris Smith of BGR learned, it can be broken if you drop an Apple Watch on concrete.  Lets be careful out there.
• And finally, the Jasper Hamill of The Mirror reports that Gregory Papadin handed his iPhone 5 (in a waterproof case) to his brother to dive into the ocean near San Diego.  Then the brother tried to throw the phone back to him… but instead it fell in to the water and went down, down, down.  But the camera was on, so the whole thing was captured on video — including the captain swimming down and saving the phone.  It’s a fun video:

When it comes to using a stylus with an iPad, the Holy Grail is a stylus that gives you the precision and feel of a nice pen.  Unfortunately, the iPad is not designed to recognize something as small as a pen tip.  It is designed to recognize input from a finger — something the size of a thick crayon.  Thus, for a long time, all iPad styluses had larger rubbery tips to simulate the touch of a finger. 

Adonit changed all of that in late 2013 when it introduced the original Adonit Jot Script, a stylus with a tiny, hard tip just like a pen.  Adonit figured out a way to have the iPad recognize a tip that is far, far smaller than a finger by emitting an electrical pulse that the iPad is tricked into thinking is input from a fingertip.  This meant that the stylus needed a power source, and the original Script used a AAA battery.  Other stylus makers followed suit with similar models, and this type of stylus is often called an active stylus.

When I reviewed the that original Adonit Jot Script, I was amazed at the engineering, but I was frustrated by some disadvantages.  One thing that I didn’t like was that when you tried to make a diagonal line, the line would appear somewhat wavy on the iPad.  This improved in 2014 when Adonit gave updated software to app developers, which made apps like GoodNotes work even better with the Jot Script.  But then it got worse in late 2014 when Apple introduced the iPad Air.  Something about the iPad Air screen made it less compatible with the original Jot Script, and this continued to be a problem with the iPad Air 2 introduced in late 2015.  You could use an active stylus like the original Jot Script with the iPad Air and iPad Air 2, but it was not as precise as when you used an active stylus on older iPads.

Fortunately, the Adonit engineers recently figured out how to solve this problem, and the result is the new Adonit Jot Script 2.  Adonit sent me a free sample to review, and I’ve been using it for the past few weeks to take notes in my office.  My conclusion is that is a huge improvement over the original Jot Script, but it still has some drawbacks.

Diagonal lines

The biggest improvement in the Jot Script 2 is that it has no problem at all with diagonal lines.  What you draw is what you get on the screen. If your line isn’t straight, the fault lies with your penmanship, not the stylus.  Here is an example of using the original Jot Script and the new Jot Script 2 on an iPad Air 2 using GoodNotes:

As you can see, the difference when you making a diagonal line is substantial.  But even when just writing words, I find that the Jot Script 2 does a much better job.  Whatever Adonit did to make the iPad work when making a diagonal line also makes the stylus more precise for any writing that you are doing.  You can see this in the above picture, especially in the T, o and w where I wrote “The quick brown fox…”  The stylus may not improve your penmanship, but unlike other active styluses, the Jot Script 2 won’t make your penmanship any worse than it already is.

Rechargeable and slimmer

Another disadvantage of the original Jot Script that I noted in my review was that it needed a AAA battery to be powered.  Not only did this mean that you need to go through batteries to keep it charged, but it also added to the diameter of the stylus.

The new Jot Script 2 is rechargeable.  It comes with a small charger than plugs into a USB port, and the stylus fits into the circle on the charger.  A magnet keeps the stylus connected to the charger.  The charger works very well.  Adonit says that the Jot Script 2"will function for over 20 hours of pen down writing time before a charge is needed. A full charge only takes 45 to 50 minutes.”  Those claims seem about right to me.

The new version of the Jot Script is also skinnier than the original version.  It is still not nearly as thin as a traditional pen, or as thin as most non-active styluses, but it is a noticeable improvement.  In the following picture, the original Jot Script is on the left, and the Script 2 is on the right.

Design

The design of the Adonit Jot Script 2 is very similar to the original Jot Script, but there are a few subtle changes, one of which I really appreciate.  One of my complaints in my review of the original stylus was that the button that you press to turn on the stylus was very hard to distinguish from the rest of the stylus, forcing me to waste time hunting for a button when I wanted to turn on the stylus.  I included this photo in my review of the original Jot Script to show the problem:

In the Jot Script 2, the button is still flush with the rest of the stylus and thus somewhat hard to find just by touch, but now it is a shiny silver that is much easier to see.

Here is a picture from the Adonit website that does a good job of showing you the difference in the buttons:

Note that the button is only used to turn the stylus on.  Some active styluses also have a button that can perform functions when used with a compatible app.  When I use those styluses, I really enjoy being able to press a button to undo whatever I wrote last.  Adonit sells another active stylus, the Jot Touch, which has both buttons that can perform functions and pressure sensitivity, but I don’t know if it has yet been updated to work well with an iPad Air and iPad Air 2 like the Jot Script 2 has.

The Jot Script 2 is also a tiny bit shorter than the original Jot Script, but the difference is not enough to make any real difference.

The one design feature that Adonit did not change, even though I really had hoped that they would do so, is that the Jot Script 2 still lacks a clip on the side.  This means that you cannot easily clip it to a pocket, and thus the stylus rolls around in your shirt pocket.  It also means that if you put down the stylus on a table, it can roll around on the table and sometimes for me would roll off the table completely.

Noise

One of my biggest complaints about the original Jot Script was that the hard tip is noisy when you tap against the screen.  I even posted a video so that you could hear the sound.  The sound in the Jot Script 2 is similar; it is perhaps the slightest bit less noisy, but when I tried to record the difference, the difference was too slight to hear.  Thus, that original video still gives you a sense of what kind of noise you will make with the Jot Script 2.

I realize that we are not talking about a lot of noise, and some folks won’t mind it at all, especially if you are in an environment with background noise.  But I tend to take notes in rooms that are very quiet except for whoever is speaking, and the noise bothers me.  It also makes me want to tap more slowly on my screen and with less pressure to reduce the noise, but that often results in the stylus not working as well, so then I need to erase what I just wrote and write it again — an annoying process.

If you are taking notes in a noisy environment, or if you are drawing in a room by yourself, and thus the slight noise doesn’t matter, I very much like the feel of the hard tip against the iPad screen.  I’m sure that this is why the original Jot Script was so popular.  It’s a very nice stylus.  But if I am in a quiet room with others around me — which is a very typical environment for meetings and team conference calls that I attend — the noise produced by the hard tip of the Jot Script 2, like the lack of a clip, annoys me.

Conclusion

The Adonit Jot Script 2 works well, and I do like this stylus.  When you use a fine point tip on the iPad, you can be incredibly precise on where you want the digital ink to be drawn.  It feels much more like writing with a pen, whereas many non-active styluses feel more like you are writing with a crayon.

When you use an active stylus like the Jot Script 2 with a compatible app, such as Evernote or GoodNotes, the app knows to ignore input from anything except for the stylus.  If you rest your palm on your iPad screen while you write and you find that this often results in the iPad thinking that you intended to write on the screen when you just rested your palm, then an active stylus like the Jot Script 2 will solve that problem.

But having said that, I feel that I can be just as precise when I use another stylus which also happens to be made by Adonit, the 2015 version of the Adonit Jot Pro, which I reviewed two months ago.  That non-active stylus creates the illusion of a fine tip by using a clear disc at the end of the stylus.  The Jot Pro is only $30, whereas the Jot Script 2 costs $75.  Also, with the Jot Pro, I don’t need to worry about charging or replacing batteries; no power is needed at all.  And finally, while the Jot Pro does make a little bit of noise when you use it, it makes far less noise than the Jot Script 2.  There are also some newer non-active styluses with rubber tips, like the third generation Wacom Bamboo Stylus duo, that do an excellent job of writing on the iPad Air or Air 2.  The Stylus duo tip is not as small as the Jot Script 2 or the Jot Pro, but it gets the job done, and it is silent to use (and has a clip on the side).

If you want to use an active stylus so that you can use a fine tip and take advantage of compatible apps, this is a really good stylus — and likely the best active stylus for the iPad Air and iPad Air 2.  If only it were silent and had a clip, then I would use it all of the time.  Instead, I can only give it a qualified recommendation.

Click here to get the Adonit Jot Script 2 from Adonit ($74.99)