Uncategorized

If you are an early adopter like me, you’ll be getting a new iPad today.  According to the FedEx website, mine will be delivered to my office before 3pm.  That would normally be very exciting, but I’ve got a busy day at work and plans for Friday night, so I suspect it will be this weekend before I get to start putting the new iPad through its paces.  Here is the news of the week, much of which (obviously) relates to the new iPad:

• David Pogue of the New York Times answers some questions about the new iPad.
• iFixIt took apart a new iPad and took lots of pictures so you can see what it looks like inside without having to void your own warranty.
• Neil Squillante of TechnoLawyer explains what the new iPad means for lawyers.
• Jim Dalrymple writes about the iPad on Tech.pinions, explaining that what makes the iPad great is not the hardware specs but the overall experience.
• Gregg Keizer of Computerworld writes that corporations prefer the iPad 10-to-1 over rivals.
• Similarly, Josh Ong of AppleInsider writes that according to ChangeWave Research, Apple might get 84% of the corporate market with the new iPad.
• Alan of Art of the iPhone explains why AppleCare+ for the new iPad might be worth buying.  I always purchase AppleCare for my Apple computers, and I’ve never regretted the decision.  I have sometimes purchased it for the iPhone, but I haven’t yet ever purchased it for an iPad.
• Apple updated its iPad apps to take advantage of the third generation iPad’s retina display, and now third party app developers are doing the same.  Rene Ritchie of iMore describes some of the notable upgrades, and Jim Dalrymple of The Loop notes that Apple now has a section of the App Store dedicated to apps that take advantage of the new iPad’s retina display.
• If you get the LTE 4G version of the new iPad, you’ll see 4G speeds similar to Wi-Fi in the cities that support LTE.  Verizon has LTE service in about 200 markets, and plans to have over 400 LTE cities by the end of 2012 according to Nathan Mattise of Ars Technica.  AT&T currently only has 28 LTE cities, but Brad Reed of Network World reports that AT&T plans to cover 56 markets by the end of 2012, and over the next few months it is adding New Orleans (yeah!) and Baton Rouge here in Louisiana; Cleveland; St. Louis; Staten Island; Akron and Canton, Ohio; Naples, Fla.; Bloomington, Lafayette and Muncie, Ind.; and Bryan-College Station, Texas.
• Florida attorney Rick Georges of FutureLawyer recommends agianst using LTE to download HD movies.
• For the seventh year in a row, J.D. Power named the iPhone #1 in smartphone customer satisfaction.
• The news magazine The Week notes that someone in New York is suing Apple because he thinks Siri isn’t good enough, and uses the occasion to note other dubious lawsuits agianst Apple over the years.
• Jim Dedman and his cohorts at the great Abnormal Use blog have spent this week celebrating the 20th anniversary of “My Cousin Vinny,” the great legal comedy.  Here is an overview of their coverage, and they’ve got some great posts there.  Bravo!
• Ron Johnson is now the CEO of JC Penny, but he used to be in charge of Apple’s retail stores and he talks about that with Jennifer Reingold of Fortune.
• Mark Prigg of the London Evening Standard interviews Jonathan Ive, the guy in charge of design at Apple.
• When I dictate an e-mail to my iPhone 4S using Siri, I sometimes (although not very often) want to use an exclamation point, and sometimes Siri has trouble understanding that.  David Pogue of the New York Times suggests on Twitter saying it this way:  “ex-CLAM-ation point.”  Of course, now that I’m trying to test it, Siri is having no trouble understanding me no matter how I say it, but maybe this tip will help you.
• Quickoffice has a great app for viewing Microsoft office files on the iPad or iPhone.  My only gripe with it is that it still doesn’t support footnotes or show redlines.  Ryan Faas of Cult of Mac reports that Quickoffice is now coming out with an ultra-secure version of the app that locks down the documents in it.  If I understand correctly what this app does, it removes the ability to get a document out of the app, keeping confidential documents more secure, and securing documents in the app.
• Litigation consultant Ted Brooks writes about a way to save a legal brief in iBooks format to create an e-brief.
• Kenneth Jackson of Law Times writes about lawyers moving from the BlackBerry to iPhone.
• Christopher Breen of Macworld writes about the Apple TV as an accessory for your iPhone or iPad.
• Andy Ihnatko of the Chicago Sun-Times recommends external keyboards for the iPad.
• Attorney Jeremy Horwitz of iLounge reports that Apple has a new Digital AV Adapter.  Josh Ong of AppleInsider reports that you may need this new version for the third generation iPad.
• Alabama attorney Clark Stewart reviews the Pioneer Appradio, an in-dash system for your car that has a large screen and connects to your iPhone.
• And finally, fake Apple news site Scoopertino “reports” that Apple is getting rid of music companies and will just have Siri sing the entire iTunes catalog.  Click here or on the below picture to read the story and to hear Siri sing.

After Apple introduced the third generation iPad last week, it loaned review units to a few journalists to try out for a week with the instruction that they couldn’t post their reviews until 9pm Eastern time Wednesday night.  The embargo is now lifted, so now we have heard from people who have put the new iPad through its paces.  The reviews are as glowing as any I’ve ever seen for any product in the history of Apple.  Here are links to the full reviews, along with some choice quotes.

• Joshua Topolsky of The Verge:  “Yes, this display is outrageous. It’s stunning. It’s incredible. I’m not being hyperbolic or exaggerative when I say it is easily the most beautiful computer display I have ever looked at. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that you hold this in your hands, or maybe it’s the technology that Apple is utilizing, or maybe it’s the responsiveness of iOS — but there’s something almost bizarre about how good this screen is. After the launch event, I described the screen as ‘surreal,’ and I still think that’s a pretty good fit.”  Topolsky wrote a similar review for The Washington Post.
• Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal:  “It has the most spectacular display I have ever seen in a mobile device. The company squeezed four times the pixels into the same physical space as on the iPad 2 and claims the new iPad’s screen has a million more pixels than an HDTV. All I know is that text is much sharper, and photos look richer.  If you already own an iPad 2, and like it, you shouldn’t feel like you have to rush out to buy the new one. However, for those who use their iPads as their main e-readers, and those who use it frequently while away from Wi-Fi coverage, this new model could make a big difference.”
• Jason Snell of Macworld:  “It’s not smaller or lighter, but it’s got a remarkable screen, a much better rear camera, and support for cellular networking that can run at Wi-Fi speeds. It’s the iPad that millions of people have embraced, only one year better.  Users of the iPad 2 shouldn’t fret: Their iPad investment is certainly good for another year. But they might not want to look too closely at the new iPad’s screen. Once you get a load of that Retina display, it’s hard to go back to anything else.”
• Ed Baig of USA Today:  “Examine the new screen side-by-side with one of its near-10-inch predecessors, and you’ll swear you just had Lasik surgery. Text on Web pages or in books is so crisp and sharp that you don’t want to go back to reading on an older iPad. Movies and photographs reveal rich detail.”
• David Pogue of the New York Times:  “My Verizon test unit got download speeds ranging from 6 to 29 megabits a second in San Francisco, Boston and New York — in many cases, faster than home cable-modem service. According to tests by PC Magazine and others, AT&T’s 4G network is smaller, but often faster. No doubt about it: life begins at 4G.”
• John Gruber of Daring Fireball:  “Reading on the big retina display is pure joy. Going back to the iPad 2 after reading for a few hours on the iPad 3 is jarring.”
• MG Siegler of TechCrunch:  “I never saw the point of getting the 3G version of the iPad because WiFi is available in many places, and where it’s not, you could just tether to your phone. But I will absolutely get an LTE iPad. Again, it’s faster than most WiFi networks I usually connect to.”
• Vincent Nguyen of SlashGear:  “Steve Jobs would have approved of the new iPad. With its focus on the holistic experience rather than individual boasts around its constituent parts, it’s the epitome of the Post-PC world the Apple founder envisaged. No lag or delay; no frustrating cloud settings or arcane minimum software requirements. Simply pick up, swipe, and you’re immersed in a joined-up ecosystem. Apple doesn’t need another revolution, it has already started one, and the new iPad brings a fresh degree of refinement to a segment in which it is undoubtedly the king.”
• Shane Richmond of The Telegraph:  “It’s hard to overstate the significance of the new screen. Apple has packed four times as many pixels into the same space and the improvement has to be seen to be believed. The display is extraordinarily sharp. Text and photos look beautiful.  Put the new iPad side-by-side with the iPad 2 and the differences are amazing. The iPad 2 suddenly looks so blurry. How have I never noticed that before? It’s possible to see details on the new iPad that were just indistinct smears on the iPad 2. App icons are sharper and you can even read some of the tiny magazine covers on the Newsstand icon.”
• Rich Jaroslovsky of Bloomberg:  “While the Retina Display on the iPhone wasn’t an earth-shaking advance, the impact is far more evident on the iPad’s greater real estate. Even the text in an e-book is crisper, high-def video is sharper and photos are crystal clear.”
• Jim Dalrymple of The Loop:  “I’ve been using the iPad for a week now and I’m so impressed. From the first time I turned it on and saw the Retina display, I was in awe of how good it was. Trust me, even if you watched the introduction video, you still have no idea how good this display is. You really do have to see it to believe it. I struggled after the event to put the right words together to describe the display and a week later I’m still lost for the proper analogy. The only thing I can think of that comes close is comparing it to the first time you ever saw an HDTV. Remember how startling it was to go from one of those giant standard definition projector TVs to an HDTV? That’s what this is like.”
• Clayton Morris of FOX News:  “To test the experience I read hundreds of news articles and a new novel by Elmore Leonard; the text looked as though it were sitting on top of the screen, like newsprint. When I flipped through my photos, it looked as though I were holding 10-inch glossy prints in my hand. Games and graphics have never looked so good. And video? Amazing.”
• David Phelan of Pocket-Lint:  “As a result, text which had previously seemed perfectly readable is suddenly sharper, with a crispness that rivals print. No more jagged edges on curved lines, no matter how much you squint. It’s hard to convey what a major, but also subtle, change this is. Stare at it in the right light and it looks like it could be a printed photograph, not an electronic display.”
• Jon Fortt of CNBC:  “From a competitive standpoint, the new iPad has changed the terms of the tablet debate in a way that’s going to make things harder for even scrappy players like Amazon. From years of HDTV shopping, consumers know how to spot a better screen in an in-store lineup.”

I am constantly working with PDF files on my iPad, whether they be legal briefs, exhibits, transcripts in PDF format, or a variety of other documents.  The main app I use to manage PDF files is GoodReader, and sometimes I find a need to use the Adobe Reader app.  A few weeks ago, Smile sent me a free review copy of PDFpen for iPad.  PDFpen and PDFpenPro have long been popular PDF programs for the Mac because they offer features that rival (and in some cases exceed) the full $450 Adobe Acrobat Pro but only cost $100 or less.  Thus, I was very curious to see what a full-featured PDF app would look like on the iPad.  I am very impressed.  Most anyone who uses PDF files on the iPad would find something to like in this $9.99 app, and anyone who considers themselves a “power user” of PDF files will find lots of ways to use this app.

You move a PDF file into PDFpen by using the standard “Open in” menu from another app, such as with an attachment to an e-mail message.  You can also copy files from iTunes, iDisk, Dropbox, Google Docs, Evernote, WebDAV or an FTP server.  You can even create a new PDF in PDFpen with either a blank, lined (like legal paper) or graph background.

You can swipe up and down to move up and down a page, or swipe left and right to move between pages in a document.  A button at the top (or a swipe from the left side) brings up miniature versions of all of the pages in the document, making it easy to find and then jump directly to another page.

Unlike most other PDF apps (such as GoodReader), you can even easily delete or move around specific pages within the PDF file.  You can also merge two PDF files.  If you want to split a PDF file, you can duplicate it and then delete unwanted pages from each file.

The app offers a ton of annotation tools.  Of course you can write on a document or create a shape.  When a PDF file has readable text in it (e.g., it was created from a Word document or it is a scanned document that has gone through OCR), there are tools to highlight, underline or strike-through text.  The app also gives you the ability to change the text in the document with readable text.

Even if the file does not have readable text, the app still allows you to highlight by drawing a yellow (or other color) line across the page, and unlike some other apps, the underlying text stays dark.  So for example, as you are highlighting you see something like this:

Many apps stop here, so it is hard to read the text you underlined.  But in PDFpen, once you tap the “Done” button at the top, the app changes it to this, which is exactly right:

My only complaint about highlighting a non-readable PDF file is that I find it hard to draw a straight line.  I wish the app could do something to make my lines more straight.  This is not a problem when you highlight a readable PDF file.

The app also includes a library of objects that you can add to your document, including boxes, arrows, a circle, a standard PDF call-out balloon, and dozens of common proofing symbols.  You can add any picture from your Photo library.  You can add text, with either a see-through background (so you can still see the document underneath) or with a fill color. 

You can even add to and paste from a custom library.  For example, you can use a stylus (or your finger) to sign your name on a blank page, then you can add that to the custom library, and in the future you can add your signature to a document just by selecting it from your custom library.  (Note that sometimes I find that when I sign my first name and then my last name, the app thinks that they are two different objects; a solution that I found is to sign my first name, then my last name, then go back and tap a small dot somewhere in my first name so that the app knows that it is all one object.)  I redacted my signatures in this screen, but you can still see how this works:

Another example:  You can see from the above screen I decided to add an exhibit sticker to my custom library so that I can take a document, stamp an “Exhibit” square to the bottom, and then add a number to that square to give it an exhibit number:

When you are finished with your edits and annotations, you can print to any AirPort Printer.  You can attach the document to an e-mail (either as is, or with all of your annotations flattened so that they can’t be edited by someone else and so that they will show up in virtually every PDF program).  If you use PDFpen or PDFpenPro on a Mac, you can also share files with your iPad using iCloud, but I don’t use PDFpen on my Mac so I wasn’t able to test this feature.  [UPDATE: If you use a Mac, I see that you can currently get PDFpen 5 and 10 other Mac programs including VMWare Fusion 4 for only $49.99 for the next two weeks from MacUpdate.  Looks like a good deal.]  And you can export to the services noted above, such as Dropbox, Google Docs, etc.

When PDFpen for iPad debuted in January of this year at the Macworld iWorld convention in San Francisco, Macworld magazine named it one of the 10"Best of Show” products, and only four apps even made that list.  After using the app for a few weeks, I’m not surprised at the accolades.  This app is incredibly powerful, but it has a beautiful and relatively easy to understand user interface, much like the best apps that Apple itself makes for the iPad.  Thus, I know that advanced iPad users will find a lot to love in this app, but I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the app to a new iPad user who is just looking to do a few sophisticated things with a PDF file.  PDFpen is a great tool for anyone who works with a lot of PDF files on their iPad.

Click here to get PDFpen for iPad ($9.99): 

If you ever travel on business, you probably know how useful an iPad can be.  You can do so much with the iPad that you can usually leave your computer at the office.  My column in this week’s TechnoLawyer BigLaw newsletter provides some tips for traveling with an iPad.  If you subscribe to the BigLaw newsletter, look for the latest issue in your e-mail inbox later today.  If you don’t subscribe yet, sign up for a free subscription so that you can keep up with the articles that I write every month for BigLaw.

The big news last week was the announcement of the third generation iPad, but Apple also updated the operating system for the iPhone and iPad.  This is not a major update, but it does add some nice new features and fix a few bugs.

As always, you can update your iPhone or iPad by connecting it to your computer and using iTunes to download and apply the upate.  However, if you already had iOS 5 on your device, you can easily update to iOS 5.1 without even connecting to your computer.  Just go to Settings -> General -> Software Update.  The update only took me around 20 minutes or so, but just to be safe you should plug in your iPhone or iPad so that it does not run out of power throughout the update.

Once you update, here are the major changes that you will see:

Lockscreen Camera.  With iOS 5.0, you could double-tap the home button when your iPhone screen was locked to see an icon that you could tap to snap a quick picture.  Apple has now made the process even faster.  In iOS 5.1, there is always a camera icon at the bottom of your lock screen,  Just place your finger on the camera and swipe up to start taking pictures.  This is a nice improvement that really speeds up the process of taking a picture and will result in fewer missed opportunities.

Photo Stream.  If you use the iCloud Photo Stream feature, you now have the ability to delete pictures from the stream.  So if you take three pictures and only one them is any good, delete the bad ones and you won’t have to worry about them showing up on your other iCloud devices.

Face Detection.  In yet another camera-related improvement, detected faces will now be highlighted in the camera app so you can see that the iPhone is trying to keep faces in focus.

4G Speed … sorta.  If you use AT&T and if you live in a city that has HSPA+, the iPhone 4S can get even faster 3G service than earlier iPhones, which means you can see up to 5.8 Mbps upload and 14.4 Mbps download speeds.  When using iOS 5.1 on an iPhone 4S, the iPhone now calls this “4G” at the top left instead of “3G”.  This is just a change in the label; the iPhone 4S is not any faster.  But AT&T insists that it is fair to call this increased speed 4G, and now Apple agrees as well.  Lex Friedman of Macworld wrote a good explanation of this change.

Better Audio for Video.  Apple says that iOS 5.1 has louder and clearer audio for TV shows and movies.  I haven’t noticed this yet, but I suppose that sounds good.

Genius Match.  If you pay for iTunes Match, you now get Genius matches and playlists.

Location Services Icons.  Instead of just having one location services icon at the top of the screen to alert you that your iPhone is keeping track of your current location, there are now three different icons depending upon the status.  For example, if the only reason that your iPhone is watching your location is that you instructed the Reminders app to let you know when you arrive at or leave a location (Apple calls this geofencing), you now see an outlined icon.

Security Updates.  As with any iOS update, Apple improved the security of the operating system in this update.  If you want the details, read this page on the Apple’s website.

Free Manual.  To give us all the nitty gritty details on iOS 5.1, Apple produced a manual for iOS 5.1 as a free iBook.  To download it on your iPhone or iPad, click here: 

I could probably sum up just about all of the news of note from this past week by just saying “new iPad.”  But that would make this a really short post, so I’ll also note the following:

• Macworld published one of their “what you need to know” articles on the new iPad.  It covers many of the questions that you may have about the device.
• They also have one on the new Apple TV.
• Glenn Fleishman of Macworld explains what LTE means for the third generation iPad.
• Portland attorney Josh Barrett of Tablet Legal suggests that attorneys may only need two apps on their iPad.  I have just a tad more than that.
• Jim Dalrymple of The Loop got to use the third generation iPad, and says:  “It’s impossible to put into words just how good the Retina display is on the iPad. It’s not just images that look sharper, it’s text too. Reading a Web site or an iBook on the iPad’s display is incredible. Even the home screen on the iPad is crisper and sharper than I expected.”  Sounds great.
• If you want to get a new iPad with 4G LTE, should you get the AT&T or the Verizon model?  Chris Ziegler of The Verge compares the two.
• Evan Koblentz of Law Technology News talks to a few lawyers to find out whether they are getting the new iPad.
• Roy Furchgott of the New York Times discusses the useful Shortcuts feature of the iPhone and iPad.
• New York attorney Niki Black has a video review of the Typi Folio iPad case with built-in Bluetooth keyboard.
• And finally, the iPhone might be the hottest smartphone today, but what if you want it to look like the hottest smartphone of the 1980s?  Then the 80s Retro iPhone Case is what you need, available on Amazon for only $19.15:

Yesterday, Apple announced the 2012 version of the iPad. Instead of calling it the “iPad 3" or the “iPad HD” or something like that, Apple is just calling it the iPad. That makes sense to me. I use an iMac as my home computer, and the computer has been called the iMac for a very long time even though it is updated from year to year. It is sort of like saying you drive a Honda Accord, without needing to say the “Accord 9" or something like that, although of course you often do need to know your model year to get service, accessories, etc.

I ordered the new iPad last night, to be delivered on March 16 when it becomes available for purchase. I look forward to trying it out myself, but based upon what Apple announced yesterday, here are the reasons that I think that lawyers will love the third generation of the iPad:

Retina display. This is the new feature that we expected, but even though it is not a surprise, I am sure that this will be the best part of the new iPad. The original iPad and iPad 2 have a 1024 x 768 pixel resolution at 132 pixels per inch (ppi). The new iPad doubles that for four times as many pixels: 2048 x 1536 resolution at 264 ppi. Those are just numbers, though … what does it mean in real life? As I mentioned last week, remember that a fancy 1080p HDTV has a 1920 x 1080 display, and even though that screen is probably 30 to 50 inches or more, you really can’t see individual dots very much. The iPad display has got a million more pixels than an HDTV, and they are packed together MUCH more to fit the considerably smaller iPad screen. As a result, text will look amazingly smooth, photographs will look stunning, and videos will look amazing. Ryan Block of GDGT saw the new display yesterday and wrote:

Let me put it this way: when I pulled up a nice, high resolution photograph on the iPad 3rd-gen, I genuinely could not tell the difference between what I was seeing onscreen, and a nice, beautifully shot, well-printed, glossy photograph. It was seriously to that level. It’s the best display I’ve ever seen. Anywhere, period. And it makes a meaningful difference to the experience — it’s not just a spec.

The iPad is all about the screen. You view the screen, you touch the screen — the iPad is nothing more than a screen. This resolution on a screen will be amazing and make the iPad so much more pleasant to use.

Faster. The new iPad needs to have a faster processor to handle the vastly improved screen, and it does. My hope is that the overall experience of using the iPad will also be faster because it means that the iPad will be more responsive. I’ll have to test this to see how it works, but my hope is that all apps feel faster including, for example, apps like Note Taker HD that let you use a stylus to take handwritten notes on an iPad. More speed would make that app and others like it feel more like you are directly writing on the screen.

4G LTE. Additionally, if you buy the iPad model that has a built-in radio, it now works not only with 3G networks but also with 4G LTE networks, which means even faster web browsing, downloads, etc. I almost always have Wi-Fi available so when I placed my order last night, I didn’t pay the extra $130 for this feature. Instead of paying a monthly fee to AT&T or Verizon for the iPad, I just pay for the AT&T iPhone tethering plan and use that with my iPad for the rare times that I need it. But I cannot deny the usefulness of having that radio – my first iPad was the 3G version and it was great to just always be on the Internet. If the 3G model is right for you, you can now also use 4G LTE if you are in a city that supports the service.

Voice dictation. One of the things I love about Siri on my iPhone 4S is the ability to dictate an e-mail, which is often so much faster than using my thumbs to type (and I’m a pretty fast thumb typist). The new iPad doesn’t support all Siri features, but it does support voice dictation, so you don’t need to use a third party app like Dragon Dictation to accomplish this. Writing e-mails and editing documents are a huge part of my daily use of the iPad, and having voice dictation will make those tasks easier.

New and updated apps. Apple announced the new iPhoto app, making it easy for you to improve photos on your iPhone or iPad, and Apple updated the iWork apps (Pages, Numbers, Keynote) and the iLife apps (GarageBand, iMovie) to take advantage of the Retina Display and get new features.

Other details. The new iPad has a vastly improved camera, but I can’t imagine that using a large iPad as a camera is important to most lawyers so I don’t see this as a very big deal, although I suppose it is nice. [UPDATE:  As several have wisely pointed out in the comments, the improved camera will be helpful for attorneys who want to scan documents.] 

The new iPad weighs about two ounces more than the iPad 2 (but still less than the original iPad). It is also a little bit thicker than the iPad 2, although much less than the original iPad. All other things being equal, I’d prefer a lighter, thinner iPad. I’m sure that Apple needed the extra bulk to keep the amazing iPad battery life of up to 10 hours, even with the larger screen and more advanced processor.

The price remains the same as before, so you can get the entry-level new iPad with 16 GB for $499. Add another $100 for 32 GB or an extra $200 for 64 GB; add an extra $130 for the 3G/4G LTE radio.

If you want to save some money and you don’t mind getting the 2011 model instead of the new 2012 model, you can now get the 16 GB version of the iPad 2 for only $399. You can compare the iPad 2 with the third generation iPad on this page.

The bottom line. I’ll have to wait until the third generation iPad is in my hands before I can post a full review, but I suspect that it will be a nice upgrade for any attorney using an iPad, especially if you are still using the first generation iPad. And for new attorneys who have yet to get their first iPad, the third generation iPad looks to be a real treat. There will be a lot for lawyers to love in the new iPad.

Apple will announce the next generation of the iPad today.  We’ll learn whether it is called the iPad 3 or the iPad HD.  We’ll learn whether it will have a retina display (most likely 2048 x 1536 resolution at 264 ppi).  We’ll learn whether the 3G model will also support the much faster LTE 4G.  We’ll learn whether there is a better camera and whether it comes in a model with more than 64GB.  We’ll learn whether the price will remain the same and whether Apple will keep selling the current iPad 2 for under $500.  We’ll learn when it will go on sale.  And perhaps Apple has some other new features up its sleeves that I’m not thinking of.

And that’s just the iPad hardware.  We might also learn about a new operating system (iOS 5.1?) for the iPad and iPhone with new bells and whistles.  We might hear about some new apps, such as perhaps an iPhoto app from Apple and perhaps Microsoft Office from Microsoft.  If the new iPad does have a retina display, I expect that we will see demonstrations of some amazing-looking new apps that take advantage of the better screen.  And we might see a new version of the Apple TV with new features for when you want to display content from your iPhone or iPad on a TV.

And who knows what else.  Maybe we’ll see a 2.0 version of the Apple iPod Socks to bring compatibility to the iPhone and iPad.  We’re in that magical time just before a big Apple announcement when anything seems possible.

All will be revealed when the event starts at 10 Pacific / 1 Eastern today.  If you want to get live updates as the event unfolds, here are my recommendations for what I expect to be the best live coverage with links to the pages that will contain the updates once the event starts:

• Macworld
• The Verge
• GDGT
• Engadget

And if you want to laugh about it when it is over, it appears that the guys at the always-funny Scoopertino have something clever planned.

If I asked you how much you would pay for a desk lamp, I suspect that many of you would say less than $50.00, if not less than $20.00.  If I asked you how much you would pay for art for your office, I suspect that most of you would not blink at a pricetag of several hundred dollars.  The D’E-light is a desk lamp created by famous French designer Philippe Starck that contains a charging dock for an iPhone or iPad, placing your device at a perfect height when you want to glance at it.  It is sold by FLOS, an Italian company that has been working with Starck since 1988, and it costs $396.  Whether you think that price is reasonable or not depends upon where you place it on the spectrum from a functional desk lamp to a piece of art.  FLOS sent me a review unit to evaluate for a few weeks and I will say this:  it is very useful, and very cool.

The lamp has a simple, efficient design with a highly polished aluminum finish.  It weighs a substantial 2 lbs. 1 oz., but the base is only 5.3" wide and 4.6" deep and is flat so it doesn’t take up much space on your desk.  You can certainly place documents on top of the base. 

The light comes from a flat panel 2700K LED, which runs cool to the touch.  Because the lamp is about 8 inches high, your eyes don’t see the light source unless you really duck down your head, so the light is not going to blind your eyes as you work at your desk, but it will do a nice job of lighting up whatever sits below it. 

The D’E-light has no buttons on it.  To turn on the light, you tap the touch-sensitive right side of the lamp.  Tap it again to dim the light to 50%, then again to turn the light off.  This simple design feature has been a source of constant amusement for my six year old son for the past few weeks; the first thing he does when he comes to my desk is turn the light on or off.  And to be honest, I find it almost as cool as he does.

The reason that this is the first desk lamp review on iPhone J.D. is that the top of the lamp contains a spot to charge an iPhone, iPad or iPod. Your device sits at a slight angle in portrait orientation, and the lamp is more than sturdy enough to hold an iPad, and certainly has no trouble with an iPhone or iPod.  This is not a dock with a USB connector so you can’t use the D’E-light to sync your device with your computer; it is just a charger.

When you place an iPad on the D’E-light, part of the iPad sits over the edge.  It might look like this is not stable, but because of the weight of the D’E-light, the angle that the lamp holds the iPad and the surface that the iPad leans against, the iPad is actually quite secure.

There are two things I love about charging an iPhone or iPad on the D’E-light.  First, once you place your device here, you’ll always know where it is and you don’t have to worry about an iPhone getting lost on your desk.  (This is the same reason that I have always used an Apple iPhone dock at my desk in my office.)  Second, the D’E-light places an iPhone or iPad at a perfect height for you to glance at it to see the time, look at a notification for when a new e-mail comes in, look at a picture, etc.  The height is also good for FaceTime calls on the iPhone, although maybe just a tad too high.  (Unfortunatly, it is too high for FaceTime on the iPad.)

Would I pay $400 myself for the D’E-light?  For my home?  No, because there is nothing fancy about my study.  On the other hand, if I had a law office with a modern decor that matched the D’E-light, I would definitely consider purchasing this because it a very nice lamp and iPhone/iPad charger and holder that also looks really cool to me — although as is true for any art, you’ll have to decide whether you like it as much as I do.  Goodness knows I’ve seen other attorneys spend far more than $400 for art, furniture and other items for their law office.  The D’E-light reminds me of many Apple creations; it is a premium product that works well and looks great.

Click here to get the D’E-light from the FLOS website ($396.00).

We are just a few days away from the release of a new iPad, and that story pretty much dominated the iPhone and iPad news outlets this week.  But there were a few other news items of interest to me, and here they are in case they might interest you too:

• Dan Friedlander, a California attorney who writes some great iPhone apps, has started his own law firm, Klein Friedlander.  To celebrate, he has made four of his apps that attorneys would find useful free for the next few days:
  (1) Court Days, which I reviewed back in 2009, is a date calculator that lets you count business days and takes into account court holidays.  Click here to get Court Days free for a limited time: 

  

  
  (2) Court Days Pro, which I reviewed a year ago, is a date calculator that lets you use sophisticated rules to calculate multiple dates that follow each other.  Click here to get Court Days Pro free for a limited time: 

  

  
  (3) Do Date, which I reviewed two months ago, provides daily reminders of important events that are coming up.  Click here to get Do Date free for a limited time: 

  

  
  (4) TallyPad, which I have never reviewed, is an app that let’s you keep track of scores or otherwise keep track while you count.  Click here to get TallyPad free for a limited time: 

  

• Are you already convinced that you are going to upgrade when the next model of the iPad is announced next week?  Mickey Meece of the New York Times offers tips for selling your soon-to-be-old iPad.
• New York attorney Niki Black suggests iPad apps for lawyers who travel. 
• Apple occasionally highlights businesses using Apple products on their website.  For example, about two years, Apple posted a profile of the Chicago-based Sonnenschein law firm because of the firm’s use of the iPhone.  Apple recently added this profile of the Fennemore Craig law firm in Arizona because of its use of the iPad.
• Attorney Bill Latham of The Hytech Lawyer reviews PaperPort Notes, a free app that can convert voice to text.  My review of that app from a few weeks ago is here.
• Do you like using ringtones on your iPhone?  If so, Jacqui Cheng of Ars Technica explains how to use a Mac to create your own ringtones for free.
• Do you use your iPad at work?  So does President Obama.  Here’s a picture in the Official White House Flickr Stream of the President using his iPad while getting a daily briefing.  I’ve noted this in the past, but in case you forgot, the President actually got his iPad 2 directly from Steve Jobs shortly before they were released to the public.  No word yet on whether Tim Cook is making plans to give the President a new iPad 3 next week.  It has also been reported that the President uses the DODOcase for his iPad, a case that looks like a book.  You often see that case on the President’s desk in the Oval Office, such as in this picture and this picture.
• And finally, while all of us are wondering what the iPad 3 will look like, the folks at 3D animation production company Aatma Studio decided to let their minds run wild and produced this really fun video: