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For those of us here in New Orleans, last year’s Super Bowl will always be considered the best Super Bowl ever.  Yesterday for Super Bowl XLV, I wasn’t particularly interested in either of the teams playing, so like many others I mostly watched for the ads — which in my opinion were just so-so.  Apple did not purchase an ad yesterday, but it was interesting to see that the iPhone and iPad still had a presence.

As I’m sure that you know, many credit Apple for helping to cement the Super Bowl as the most important venue for running commercials because Apple ran its famous 1984 commercial during Super Bowl XVIII on January 22, 1984.  Many still consider that commercial — the introduction of the Macintosh computer — to be the best commercial ever made.  I’m sure that most of you reading this have seen it before, but here it is again:

Although Apple did not run a commercial yesterday, its presence was felt several times.  First, Motorola ran a commercial called “Empower the People” to promote its upcoming Xoom, an Android 3.0 based tablet computer that will compete with the iPad.  The commercial is an obvious homage to Apple’s famous 1984 commercial, except that the ad tries to portray Apple users as undifferentiated drones.  (It is interesting that Apple’s white earphones are so iconic that simply showing someone with white cords hanging from their ears instantly identifies them as an iPod/iPhone/iPad user.)  I don’t have a direct link to the commercial, but you can see it here on YouTube where Ad Blitz is showing all of the Super Bowl XLV commercials.  Here is the Motorola commercial:

Then there was the new iPad-only newspaper, The Daily, which ran an ad during the Super Bowl.  I don’t think that I’ve ever seen a commercial on TV for an iPhone or iPad app before (except for the Apple ads that promote several apps at a time) and I certainly have never seen an app advertised in the Super Bowl before.  Between the $3 million that The Daily reportedly spent to run this ad and the other money that is behind this app, it is obvious that Rupert Murdoch expects The Daily to be a big deal.  (I have mixed emotions about The Daily myself; the stories don’t have a lot of depth and it is slow to load, but I am holding out hope that it will improve over time.)  Here is The Daily commercial:

Then there was Verizon’s ad for the new Verizon iPhone, in which they brought back their “can you hear me now” guy:

And finally, there was the commercial for the upcoming animated movie Rio.  At first blush, the commercial just seems like a normal ad for a movie.  Here is that ad:

But if you pause the ad at the 28 second mark, you see this for just a fraction of a second:

Look on that wooden box on the right and you see this:

That is a hint telling you to play level 13-12 in the hit iPhone and iPad game Angry Birds — one of the few games that I love so much that I actually reviewed it on iPhone J.D., even though this is certainly not a game review website.  (Level 13-12 is one of several new levels recently added to the game in a free update.)  I did some digging on the Internet and learned that you can unlock a golden egg on Level 13-12 by doing the following.  Your first bird is a yellow bird; do whatever you want with him.  For your second bird, the white bird, pull the slingshot the wrong direction so that he is headed BEHIND the spot where the birds line up:

Then release and just after he passes the other birds, tap your finger to drop an egg:

That will cause Golden Egg to appear which unlocks a new level in the game:

To activate that new level, go to the Golden Egg screen in the game, where you will see a special egg that is shaped like a football instead of the normal egg shape:

Tap the football to play the special level:

Once you beat the level, you will see a globe with an arrow pointing to a Rio icon.  Tap that arrow:

The app then opens up Safari and you are brought to a special webpage on which you can sign up to win a trip to Rio de Janeiro to see the world premiere of the movie:

While the football game itself was nothing special as far as I was concerned, I enjoyed seeing the references in the Super Bowl to Apple products in these four different ads, and I enjoyed playing the new level of Angry Birds on my iPhone.  Having said that, next year, I’d rather just see the Saints in the Super Bowl again.

There is no question about the biggest iPhone story of the week — it’s the iPhone on Verizon.  I know many lawyers who have told me that they have been waiting a long time to get a Verizon iPhone and now are excited to finally be able to do so.  I am sure that we will soon see reports of phenomenal sales.  Here are the iPhone stories of note from this past week:

• As I thought might be the case, pre-ordering an iPhone from Verizon wasn’t easy and its website got overloaded, as reported by Jenna Wortham of the New York Times.
• Nevertheless, Josh Ong of AppleInsider reports that both Verizon and Apple ran out of their pre-sale stock last night.  Verizon confirms this on its website.
• For those lucky enough to make a pre-order yesterday, David Quilty of TUAW reports that the Verizon iPhone are apparently already shipping with delivery expected later today.
• Apple better make some more of the Verizon iPhones fast.  Josh Ong of AppleInsider reports that according to one study, over half of Verizon’s current Android and Blackberry users are likely to switch to the Verizon iPhone.
• Apple gave a number of tech journalists a Verizon iPhone to try out last week, and the early reviews are coming in.  They are pretty consistent.  The Verizon iPhone 4 is essentially identical an AT&T iPhone 4.  The main improvement is that, in most areas, there are fewer dead spots on Verizon so it is easier to make and receive calls and not have them drop, plus the calls often sound better, although of course this varies from location to location and there are still some spots with better AT&T coverage than Verizon coverage.  On the other hand, the data on the Verizon iPhone is slower, and in some cases much slower, than data on the AT&T iPhone.  The other difference is that you cannot use data while you are making a phone call on Verizon, so you can’t send an e-mail or check a website while you are on the phone.  If you want to read some of the notable reviews, I recommend…
• David Pogue’s review for the New York Times
• John Gruber’s review on Daring Fireball
• MG Siegler’s review for TechCrunch
• Josh Topolsky’s review for Engadget
• Jason Snell’s review for Macworld
• For now, only the Verizon iPhone has the Mobile Hotspot feature, but according to Dan Moren of Macworld, this feature is coming to AT&T on Feburary 13.  You have to be using AT&T’s $25/month 2GB plan (which means giving up, potentially forever, your $30/month unlimited plan if you have one), and for an extra $20/month you get the Mobile Hospot feature plus an additional 2GB (4GB total). 
• Lonely Planet makes travel guides for the iPhone that normally cost about $5.99 per city.  But to give travel inspiration to those trapped inside with the winter weather right now, a number of the guides are now free.  However, this deal ends at 9pm Eastern tonight, so act quickly.  You can currently get free apps for my home town of New Orleans or other great cities including Boston, Chicago, Fort Myers, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Montreal, New York, San Fancisco, Seattle, Toronto, Vancouver and Washington, D.C.  (Those are all App Store links.)  I’ve gone through the New Orleans guide, and it is quite good; hopefully the other city guides are just as helpful.  (Thanks to Jason Bergmann for the tip.)
• Joe Wilcox of Beta News points out that ten years ago in 2001, Apple made some investments and decisions that had major importance for the company:  (1) Apple launched iTunes in January, (2) Apple launched Mac OS X in March (which of course is the basis for the iOS), (3) Apple opened the first two Apple Stores in May, and (4) the first iPod debuted in October.  All four of those events ten years ago played a critical role in the iPhone being what it is today.
• The top two operating systems on the global Internet are of course Windows and Mac, but iOS is now #3.  According to Vlad Savov of Engadget, iOS’s 2.05% share ie enough to put it ahead of Linux, Java, Android, etc.
• Alan Cohen wrote a great article for Law Technology News about how lawyers are demanding devices like the iPhone and iPad and this is causing law firms to find a way to support these devices.
• Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is apparently a big fan of the iPad, and shortly before she was shot in Tucson, she talked to Elizabeth Saab of the new iPad-centric newspaper The Daily about how she uses the iPad.  You can see the video report here, and this is a link on the web so you don’t need to use the iPad app to read the story and watch the video.  It’s worth watching.
• As we prepare for the Super Bowl, it is a good time to remember the famous 1984 Apple commercial.  Steve Hayden of AdWeek wrote a good article on the commercial.
• Ben Brooks of The Brooks Reviews explains why the iPad is a great tool to take to meetings.  He makes some good points.
• Chad Garrett of TiPb compares iWork and Documents to Go on the iPad.
• Ted Brooks reviews Jury Duty, a $39.99 iPad app that can be used to assist with jury selection.
• And finally, if you are looking to do something unique with your iPhone while it sits on your desk, a company called Apps-and-More has designed a cardboard cuckoo clock and other faceplates that work with an iPhone app to display the time.  The cost is $13.20, and you can see everything about how the app works in three YouTube videos.  The first and second ones provide the setup info, and here is the third one that shows the final product in use.  Silly, tacky, but sort of fun:

Yesterday, Rupert Murdoch and Apple VP Eddy Cue (the guy who runs iTunes and the App Store) announced the new iPad-only daily newspaper called The Daily.  It has a ton of content and lots of pictures, and has a New York Post and USA Today sort of feel to it.  Many stories can be viewed in either portrait or landscape mode, but some stories only show a large picture in landscape mode with an icon at the bottom left telling you that you need to turn your iPad to see the story.

If you want a more comprehensive review of the app, I recommend these articles:

• Hands-On With the Daily for iPad by Darrell Etherington of GigaOM.
• First thoughts on The Daily by Jim Dalrymple of The Loop
• First look:  ‘The Daily’ for iPad promises in-depth, interactive news by Neil Hughes of AppleInsider
• Another look at The Daily by Dave Caolo of TUAW
• News Corp. lauches The Daily news magazine for iPad by Philip Michaels of Macworld
• News Corporation Introduces The Daily, a Digital-Only Newspaper by Jeremy Peters and Brian Stelter of The New York Times

Interesting tidbit from that New York Times article for people like me who grew up loving Superman:  Murdoch originally wanted to call the new publication “The Daily Planet,” but DC Comics would not agree to grant the rights to use the name.

There is little reason for me to discuss The Daily itself because if you own an iPad, just go ahead and download it yourself and see what you think.  For the next two weeks, The Daily is free (thanks to a sponsorship by Verizon).  After that, it will cost $0.99 a week or $39.99 a year to subscribe, with subscriptions taking place through iTunes.  I haven’t decided yet whether I will subscribe to The Daily after the free period has ended.

It is the subscription model itself that I find most interesting.  I love reading news on my iPad, and I would love it if all of my print magazine subscriptions suddenly turned into iPad-only subscriptions so that I would always have my magazines with me when I travel or just find a few minutes to read.  The good news is that the subscription model used by The Daily will be available for other publications, so I hope that in the future we will see lots of subscription options for the iPad.  The bad news for publishers is that, according to the Wall Street Journal, Apple is now requiring that any publisher who sells content — both books and subscriptions — must sell that content as an in-app purchase, which means that Apple keeps 30% of the sale.  Some of that is used to pay for the credit card processing fee, so the publisher does realize some savings by having Apple handle the transaction, but my suspicion is that this will reduce per-book or per-issue profits for publishers.  If the publisher sees a huge increase in sales by being on the iPad, I suppose it is worth it.  But if not, this could result in higher prices for consumers who want to consume the content on the iPad.

It is still way to early to tell how all of this will sort out, but I’m optimistic that we will soon live in a world in which I no longer have to pay for publications to be printed and mailed or delivered to me and instead I can just pay to have the latest issues instantly appear on my iPad and/or iPhone, all in a format that really take advantage of the iPad/iPhone and the iOS. 

Finally, I like this quote from Rupert Murdoch yesterday, talking about Steve Jobs and the promising future of the iPad:  “Here we have the man who invented the personal computer, then the laptop.  He’s now destroying them.  That is an amazing life.”

Click here for The Daily (free for two weeks; then $0.99/day, $39.99/year): 

If you are a Verizon customer who has been waiting for the iPhone to come to Verizon before joining the rest of us iPhone users, your time has come.  Or, at least, it will tonight.  The Verizon website says that early tomorrow morning, at Midnight Pacific / 3am eastern, you can finally place an order for a Verizon iPhone 4 to be available for pickup on or after February 10.  In the past, when AT&T has started to allow pre-orders of a new model of the iPhone, the phone lines and websites have been jammed on Day 1, making it very difficult to place an order that will make it possible to receive the phone on the first day of availability.  It will be interesting to see how Verizon handles what might be a huge influx in traffic.  Perhaps by opening up the lines in the middle of the night, Verizon hopes to limit somewhat the people trying to be first in line.

Having said that, as I noted in my original post on the Verizon iPhone, you should consider whether you want a few more months.  I suspect that the 2011 version of the iPhone will be available on both AT&T and Verizon in July or perhaps the end of June.  If you are a power user who is likely to appreciate having all of the latest cool features, I’d probably wait.  If you are just a normal smartphone user who is frustrated with whatever Verizon phone that you are using now and aren’t the sort of person who seeks to exploit every possible feature of your gadgets, go ahead and order now.  The iPhone 4 is a great phone; I love mine, and I’m sure that you will love yours.

I love reading documents on my iPad.  Having said that, the combination of the weight of 1.5 pounds (1.6 if you have a 3G model like I do) and the need to pinch the sides to stop it from slipping out of my hands means that I experience hand fatigue after holding the iPad for a while.  Sometimes I find that I can get a better grip on my iPad when it is in its case, but that also adds to the bulk and the weight.  I hope that the next model of the iPad is even lighter, but even with a lighter model there is not an ideal way to hold the iPad for long periods of time.

[UPDATE 5/23/2012:  This review is of the original FreeOneHand as used with the first generation iPad.  There is a second generation FreeOneHand that works with the iPad 2 and the third generation iPad, and my review of the new FreeOneHand is here.]

 

FreeOneHand is an iPad accessory that aims to solve this problem, and it does it very well.  The company sent me a free sample for review purposes, and I have been using for the last few weeks.  The product has a sort of flexible, rubbery, plastic feel to it.  The website for the product says that it is “constructed of flexible and resilient elastomers that snugly fit the edges of the iPad. FreeOneHand’s elastomer construction provides an excellent combination of lightweight properties, rigidity to function as a stand, tackiness to protect the iPad from falls by gripping almost any surface, and a rubber-like softness for comfort during use.”  That description seems about right to me.

 

To use the FreeOneHand, you simply slip the four corners around the corners of your iPad.  This takes only seconds to do.  Once attached, you can easily hold your iPad with just one hand by using the knob and the holes.  I find myself using the device three different ways.  Sometimes I slip the knob between my second and third finger.  Sometimes I slip my fingers into the holes underneath the knob.  Here are pictures showing those two methods:

But the pose that I use the most is to put my thumb through one of the bottom holes and then grip the knob, much like you would grip a door knob:

 

In any of these poses, you can hold the iPad up for a long period of time before your hand gets tired — much longer than would be possible without the FreeOneHand.  I frequently find myself reading PDF versions of legal opinions using the GoodReader app with the FreeOneHand in my left hand and a BoxWave stylus in my right hand, which I use to highlight important passages in the opinions.  To be fair, after using the FreeOneHand for a very long period of time, I often find that it too can become uncomfortable — which usually leads me to just shift my grip position, which helps for a while.  The point is not that FreeOneHand lets you effortlessly hold your iPad forever, but instead that it allows you to hold the iPad with a single hand for much longer than you could without the FreeOneHand.

The FreeOneHand’s hold on the iPad is very secure so you don’t have to worry about dropping the iPad.  I hear lawyers talk about using an iPad in a courtroom, but I can’t imagine walking around holding an iPad instead of a legal pad or document because it is so easy to imagine the iPad slipping through my fingers and crashing to the ground.  But with a FreeOneHand attached, I have no hesitation walking around with an iPad in one hand.

Even if I am just sitting in a chair or sitting up in bed, the FreeOneHand makes it much easier to hold an iPad.  (It is equally easily to hold an iPad in a landscape or a portrait position with the FreeOneHand.)  Here are two pictures from the FreeOneHand website showing these sorts of positions:

 

 

Here is another picture from the FreeOneHand website.  I’m not sure what this couple is looking at on their iPad as they are wearing their PJs, but they certainly seem to be enjoying themselves:

 

The FreeOneHand also props up the iPad at an angle when it is sitting on a desk.  This puts the iPad at a nice viewing angle for reading or watching a video.  The knob slips on a table too much for me to type on the iPad while it is at this angle, but the website shows people doing this, so perhaps with a different table surface you will experience better results.  But to be honest, if I were just looking to put my iPad at an angle, there are other products I would use that provide multiple different angles.  The unique advantage of the FreeOneHand it to let you easily hold an iPad with one hand.

If you want to see a video of the FreeOneHand in action, this post on the AppAdvice website has a video of use of the device taken at CES.  Also, here is a promotional video that the manufacturer put on YouTube:

This post on the Tech Bucket Blog also includes picture of the FreeOneHand taken at CES, including a picture of a belt clip (presumably an accessory currently in development) that can be used to carry an iPad on your belt.  I encourage any iPhone J.D. reader to please slap some sense into me if you ever see me walking around town with an iPad on my belt.

The FreeOneHand comes in six different colors and can be purchased on the FreeOneHand website for $39.94 with free shipping.  Having said that, I see distributors selling it through Amazon for up to half that price with $4.49 shipping.

If you ever find yourself wishing that there was an easier way to hold an iPad with one hand for an extended period of time, I think that you will really like this product.  It has certainly made it much easier for me to use my iPad in my office and at home.

A large number of iPhone and iPad accessories and apps were announced at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) a few weeks ago (see my posts 1, 2, 3, 4).  I am currently trying out some of those new products and will post about them soon.  Over the last few days, the Macworld Expo was held in San Francisco, and a number of new iPhone/iPad products were announced and demonstrated.  Macworld magazine selected a number of Best of Show winners — most of which were for the Mac, but a few were for the iPhone and iPad.  Beatweek also selected its favorite products at Macworld, and the website 148Apps announced the 2010 Best App Ever Awards at Macworld Expo.  Here are some of the products voted “best” that struck me as potentially attractive for iPhone J.D. readers:

BusyToDo.  This is an iPhone to-do list app that syncs with BusyCal or iCal on the Mac.  I haven’t tried it myself, but it appears to have a clean interface and lots of features.  You can get more info on the program by going here on the developer’s website.  Click here for BusyToDo ($0.99): 

  

iRest Tablet Stand.  This $49.90 device raises an iPad at an angle for when you are using your iPad on your lap or on a table.  Roman Loyola of Macworld says that it features “foam cushions for resting the stand on your lap, and a torque hinge that allows you to adjust the angle.”

myTrek.  This item, which doesn’t even show up yet on the Scosche website, is a heart rate monitor that uses Bluetooth to talk to the upcoming myTrek app on your iPhone to help your manage your training.

Fling.  This device adds a joystick to your iPad.  It attaches to the iPad’s screen with small suction cups and works with about 100 games that have virtual on-screen joysticks.  I rarely play these sorts of games on my iPad, in part because the touch controls are a little awkward, and I can imagine that for the right game this could be a big help.  They cost $20 each or you can get a pair for $30, for those games that have virtual joysticks on both the the left and right of the screen.

Pocket Informant.  I know that a lot of people swear by the Getting Things Done strategy for task management pioneered by David Allen, although I haven’t tried the system myself.  This app includes a calendar and a task list to help you get things done using Allen’s GTD methods.  Click here for Pocket Informant for iPhone ($4.99):    Click here for Pocket Informant for iPad ($6.99): 

  

ZAGGmate with keyboard.  This $99.99 hard aluminum iPad case matches the iPad, props the iPad up an an angle, and includes a keyboard that talks to the iPad via Bluetooth.  When I travel, I find it very useful to use a Bluetooth keyboard for typing longer e-mail messages, editing documents, etc.  I can imagine the advantage of having a keyboard built-in to the case.

FastMac Impact Shield iPhone 4 case.  If you need extreme protection for your iPhone, this might be the case for you.  As Beatweek says:  “Made of super thin rubber-like material, it appears to be just another (very thin) iPhone case. But start whacking the material with a hammer, as the FastMac folks loved doing at their Macworld 2011 booth this week, and you realize that the Impact Shield is nearly indestructible.”  I don’t see a price for the iPhone version, but I see on the website that there is also a version for the iPad for $39.95.

Angry Birds.  The game won 148Apps’s overall award for Best App Ever.  My review of the iPhone version is here, but having now played this game on the iPhone, iPad and my 27" iMac, I think that the best version is the iPad version.  Click here for Angry Birds ($0.99):   Click here for Angry Birds HD for iPad ($4.99): 

Camera+.  This utility won 148App’s Best Visual Design and Best Photography App categories.  My review is here.  The app was removed from the App Store because Apple didn’t like the use of the volume button to snap a picture, but it is now back with that feature removed and other new features.  Click here for Camera+ ($1.99): 

Shop Savvy Barcode Scanner.  This app, which won 148App’s Best Use of iOS Hardware category, let’s you scan a barcode and then tells you where you can get the item for cheaper.  Click here for Shop Savvy Barcode Scanner (free): 

IMDb.  This app won 148App’s Best Reference App category for the iPad.  I use it all the time on my iPhone or iPad (I especially love the iPad version) when I am watching a movie or TV show at home and i find myself wondering about an actor in the show or other information related to the show.  Click here for IMDb (free): 

FlightTrack Pro.  I keep hearing good things about this travel app which won the 148App Best Travel App category for the iPad.  It syncs with Tripit for those who use that service, it includes maps and even works in an offline mode so you can see the location of your airplane while you are flying (as estimated by the app), and it has real-time status updates for gates, delays and cancellations.  There is also a non-pro version for half the price that doesn’t sync with Tripit, lacks push alerts for flight updates, and doesn’t include maps of airports.  I haven’t yet tried this app myself, but hope to do so soon.  Click here for FlightTrack ($4.99):    Click here for FlightTrack Pro ($9.99): 

Macworld Expo is going on right now in San Francisco.  I wish I could be there; I haven’t attended one since July of 2000 when the event was in New York.  From the articles and pictures I’ve seen, it looks like there are lots of people there and plenty of interesting and, just plain crazy, iPhone-related items being shown off this year.  Here is what else has been going on this week in the world of iPhone:

• iPhone security is an issue that I have discussed in the past.  A few days ago, Law Technology News asked about my views on iPhone security in light of a new product that police officers can use to access data on an iPhone.  The result was this article.
• Florida attorney Rick Georges of FutureLawyer and I isagree on our smartphone of choice (he uses an Android phone) but we agree on the general topic of smartphone security.
• Kentucky attorney Finis Price of TechnoEsq recently gave a presentation on iPhone and iPad apps, and Omar Ha-Redeye wrote this report on the presentation for the Canadian legal website Slaw.
• There are so many ways to place free calls on an iPhone using services like Skype or Line2 that it can be tough to keep them all straight.  David Pogue of the New York Times explains the differences, the pros and the cons.  A follow up to the original article can be found here.
• Bob Tedeschi of the New York Times writes about apps that you can use to find the cheapest gas in an area.
• Jenna Wortham of the New York Times discusses using the iPhone as a sleep aid.
• Miguel Helft of — you guessed it — the New York Times wrote a nice profile of Apple COO Tim Cook.
• Agam Shah of Macworld notes that if you count iPads in the categories of computers — which seems fair to me considering that many get an iPad instead of a netbook and use an iPad as a laptop replacement — Apple would be the world’s third-largest PC vendor.
• Jason Snell, the editor of Macworld magazine, apparently gave an interesting talk at Macworld Expo about some of the reasons that Apple is successful.  Several websites have reports on that presentation, but the one that Lonnie Lazar of Cult of Mac wrote is my favorite.
• According to Daniel Eran Dilger of AppleInsider, Destche Bank is has been testing the iPhone and considers it better than the BlackBerry.
• Michael Cohen reviews UnityRemote for TidBITS, a $100 device that sits on your coffee table and communicates with your iPhone/iPad via Bluetooth and your TV components via infrared and turns your iPhone/iPad into a sophisticated remote control.
• Josh Barrett of TabletLegal reviews presentation apps for the iPad.
• Boston Attorney Martha Sperry writes on her Advocate’s Studio blog about the new Microsoft OneNote app for the iPhone.
• I mentioned the TrialPad app earlier this month, and the developer told me that the app is updated to version 1.5, adding Dropbox support.  I have yet to see an app that isn’t improved by adding Dropbox support, so this is great news.
• If you often have a need to carry around an iPhone sync cable and you want something very portable, John Brownlee of Cult of Mac reviews an interesting looking device called the flipSYNC II.
• Here is something sort of neat.  Open up Safari on your iPhone and then, in the Google search box at the top right, just type the word weather.  You will see a nice graphic showing your local weather with a slider, and you can drag the slider to change the forecast.  Jeff of the iPhone Download Blog has more details.
• And finally, if you want to give you iPhone 4 a very different look, John Brownlee of Cult of Mac describes a procedure identified on a Chinese website.  You remove the covers on the iPhone, use paint thinner to remove the black paint, and then replace the covers.  The result is a transparent iPhone 4 — and, I strongly suspect, the end of the warranty on your iPhone.  You can see a bunch of pictures on the Chinese website, but here are two of my favorites:

When the Verizon iPhone was announced two weeks ago, one of the features touted was the ability to turn your iPhone into a Personal Hotspot, using the Wi-Fi on the iPhone to share the internet connection with up to five devices.  Thus, instead of purchasing and carrying around an extra device such as a MiFi, you can simply share the 3G connection on your Verizon iPhone with your iPad, your laptop computer, a friend’s computer, etc.  A Verizon iPhone owner with a friend using an AT&T iPhone can share the Verizon 3G with the AT&T iPhone, which could be useful if you are in an area with poor AT&T coverage but good Verizon coverage.

Soon after the announcement, we learned that Personal Hotspot is not a unique Verizon feature but instead is a part of the upcoming iOS 4.3 software.  However, it is a feature that has to be enabled by the carrier.  Remember that limited tethering came to the iPhone on June 17, 2009 with iOS 3.0, but AT&T did not enable the feature on AT&T iPhones until a year later.  And the tethering that has been available on AT&T since June of 2010 (details available here) comes with some strings attached.  First, it only works via a USB cable or Bluetooth.  You cannot turn your iPhone into a Wi-Fi hotspot.  Second, it doesn’t let you share the 3G data on an iPhone with an iPad.  Although the iPad has Bluetooth, the software on the iPad doesn’t enable it to share an iPhone’s internet connection via Bluetooth.  Third, to purchase the AT&T tethering plan (which costs an extra $20 a month), you need to be using one of AT&T’s current iPhone plans — DataPlus for $15/month (200 MB of data) or DataPro for $25/month (2 GB of data).  If you have been using an iPhone for more than six months, you may still be grandfathered into the former $30/month unlimited data plan, but you have to give up that plan to add tethering.  Fourth, you don’t get any extra data with the $20/month tethering fee; you just share your iPhone’s data plan (presumably you would get the 2 GB plan) between the iPhone and any devices tethered via a cord or Bluetooth.  So in other words, for longtime iPhone users to add AT&T tethering, you go from $30 a month with unlimited data on your iPhone to $45 a month for only 2 GB of data that you share via Bluetooth or a USB cable with your computer, but not with an iPad. 

Earlier this week, Verizon explained to David Chartier of Macworld how the Personal Hospot will work on the Verizon iPhones.  First, it looks like the data plan on Verizon is somewhat similar to the old AT&T plan — $30 a month for unlimited data.  As for tethering, that will cost you an extra $20 a month, and it comes with its own 2 GB of data.  Thus, when you are just using your iPhone, you have unlimited data, and whenever you turn on tethering the meter starts running on the 2 GB of data.  And of course, with Personal Hotspot you can share data via Wi-Fi, which means that you can even share data with an iPad or any of the myriad other devices that can use Wi-Fi to access the Internet.  All of this makes the Personal Hospot Feature on a Verizon iPhone look much more attractive than the current tethering option on AT&T iPhones.

If you use a Verizon iPhone and decide to get an iPad, you will have to decide whether to spend an extra $130 for a 3G version of an iPad and then also pay the monthly fee for 3G iPad service.  For many users who plan to have their Verizon iPhone nearby whenever using the iPad to access the Internet using Personal Hotpot Wi-Fi tethering, there would seem to be few reasons to purchase the more expensive iPad with the 3G included.  (One such reason:  the 3G iPad has GPS; the non-3G iPad does not.)

To be fair, though, it is too early to compare tethering on a Verizon iPhone with tethering on an AT&T iPhone because AT&T has not yet announced whether it will support the new Personal Hotspot feature of the upcoming iOS 4.3.  As noted above, the first time that Apple brought (limited) tethering to the iPhone, it took AT&T a full year to jump on board.  With Verizon offering the service starting next month, AT&T might have an incentive to add the feature more quickly this time.  And even if the feature is added, we don’t yet know the cost.  Will it be the same as the current $20/month tethering, or will AT&T charge more?  And whatever the cost, will AT&T start to offer extra data with the tethering, as Verizon is doing?

I suspect that it will be several weeks — if not months — before we know all of the details of Wi-Fi tethering on a Verizon iPhone versus Wi-Fi tethering on an AT&T iPhone.  I know that tethering is a very useful feature for attorneys who are often on the go, so I’ll be sure to post here when we know more.  I, for one, thought long and hard about enabling tethering on my own iPhone a few months ago, but I ultimately decided not to do it because I didn’t want to give up my $30/month unlimited data plan.  Truth be told, I don’t think that I have ever used more than 2 GB of data in a month (although I have come close), but I know that once I change to a plan with data limits, AT&T may never again offer me a plan with unlimited data, and I’m sure that in the coming months and years I’ll be using more data every month on my iPhone, not less.

In just a few months, April 11-13, I’ll be speaking at ABA TECHSHOW 2011 which will be held at the Chicago Hilton on Michigan Ave.  This is the premier conference for lawyers interested in technology, sponsored every year by the Law Practice Management Section of the ABA.  The conference and expo has something for everyone, whether you are a technology novice with a brand new iPhone or you have been comfortable using legal technology since the days when Westlaw looked like this (click to enlarge):

 The sessions are excellent and cover topics of interest to solo or small firm attorneys, large firm attorneys, corporate counsel, litigators, users of Macs and PCs, users of iPhones, BlackBerries and Android phones, litigators, users of Microsoft Word, Excel and Outlook, users of Google services, anyone interested in social networking, IT professionals, etc.  You can see the complete schedule here. 

I suspect that — just like last year — iPhone discussions will be everywhere, but I will be speaking about the iPhone at two sessions.  On Wednesday morning, April 13, Michigan attorney Michael Morse and I will present the 2011 SmartPhone Shootout where we will compare and debate the best smartphones for lawyers.  (Spoiler alert:  I’ll be touting the cool things you can do with an iPhone.)  And then directly after that session, Portland attorney Josh Barrett who runs the great iPad site TabletLegal, Reid Trautz of the American Immigration Lawyers Association in D.C. and author of Reid My Blog! and I will conduct the fun and fast-paced session 60 iPhone and iPad Apps in 60 Minutes.  I’m really looking forward to that session; we had a great time last year and the session was standing room only.  Here are the apps that we discussed last year.  It will be difficult to limit ourselves to 60 apps this year considering all of the great apps that have been released in the last 12 months, not to mention all of the new iPad apps (the iPad wasn’t even out yet at last year’s TECHSHOW).

As good as the sessions are, that is only part of the reason to go.  There is also a lively Expo where you can see all of the latest and greatest legal technology from dozens of vendors.

But best of all, you’ll get to meet and talk with tons of other people who enjoy using legal technology.  For example, on Monday night, Josh Barrett of TabletLegal and I are hosting  one of the “Taste of Techshow” dinners; ours will be for anyone who uses an iPhone or an iPad.  (The iOS-curious will also be allowed to attend.)  At a similar dinner last year, we only spent part of the time comparing our favorite iPhone apps, but we had lots of laughs and it was a great way to get to know some great people.  There is also a Concierge Booth at TECSHOW that tends to be a place where everyone gathers to socialize.  I bumped into a bunch of iPhone J.D. readers at the Concierge Booth last year, several of whom became friends.

I had never attended a major legal technology conference before I first attended ABA TECHSHOW in 2008, and I have had a great time every year that I have gone.  If you have never attended a show like TECHSHOW, I encourage you to join us to see what you have been missing.  Make your plans now to attend.

Finally, this is a special year for ABA TECHSHOW because it is the 25th anniversary.  The occasion was a reason for some of the organizers to produce a video explaining why you should attend.  The video is a little silly but worth watching.  WARNING WARNING WARNING:  you may want to shield your eyes halfway through when Reid Trautz shows up wearing a bathrobe.

 

Many companies sell batteries that you can use to charge an iPhone.  Some batteries are built into cases, but I’m not a fan of those because I don’t like to add extra bulk and size to my iPhone.  I prefer small batteries that you can easily toss into a pocket or briefcase to be used when you need it, and for years now I have been happy using the RichardSolo 1800 and 1200 size batteries.  Kensington has just released a 1200 mAh battery for the iPhone called the PowerLift that, like many other iPhone batteries, is small and light, but the PowerLift adds two more features:  it can act as a dock to sync to a computer, and it can act as a stand to prop up your iPhone.  Kensington sent me a free review unit and I’ve been very impressed with this product.

When the product is completely folded up, it is small (2.5" x 2.3" x .7") and light (1.76 oz.), making it easy to toss into your pocket when you are on the go.

The iPhone connector snaps into three different positions.  In the first position, shown in the above pictures, it is completely folded into the unit and out of the way.  The second position extends the connector 180º so that you can plug in an iPhone and set them both down on a table for charging.  Lights on the PowerLift indicate how much battery power is remaining, making it easy to tell whether the battery is charged.

 

In the third position, the connector folds back at an angle, and you extend up the silver part of the unit.

 

In this position, you can sit your iPhone into the connector (which is long enough to accommodate some iPhone cases) and lean the iPhone back on the silver portion of the unit, creating a stand.

 

I see two major advantages of placing your iPhone in the stand this way.  First, it places your iPhone at a very natural angle so that you can view information on your iPhone.  Indeed, I have been using an Apple dock ever since I first purchased an iPhone because I love always having my iPhone in a specific location on my desk (making it easy to find) and at an angle that allows for easy reading of the iPhone at my desk.

A second advantage of using the iPhone in the stand this way is that it is a great position for a FaceTime (or Skype) videochat.  I can see the appeal of this combination when traveling.  You attend an out of town meeting, and then you return to your hotel room with your iPhone almost out of power.  Place the iPhone in this base to charge it, and at the same time conduct a videochat with your spouse or kids at home.

As you can see from the above pictures, the unit also includes a built-in USB cord, albeit a very short one.  The cord is too short to use with a desktop computer (unless you use a USB extender like this one) but is perfect for placing the unit right next to a laptop computer.  Thus, you can dock your iPhone with your computer to sync it, charge your iPhone to 100%, and recharge the battery in the PowerLift all with one unit.  Very nifty.

I only have a few complaints about this product.  First, it is a tad expensive.  Prices for external batteries for the iPhone are all over the place, but if you shop around, you can often find a 1200 mAh battery for $25 or less.  For example, the RichardSolo 1200 model I use can now be had for about $20.  An Apple dock for the iPhone 4 sells for $30.  The PowerLife combines the functions of both of those products, but does so for the same price that you could pay for both products.  At $40, I’d consider the PowerLift well worth it; $50 is still reasonable, but somewhat high for what it does.

Second, the product has a plastic, somewhat “cheap” feel to it (which is ironic considering my first complaint).  I thought from photographs that the silver portion of this device that props up an iPhone would be some sort of sturdy metal, but it is just plastic.  Having said that, I’m sure that the use of plastic contributes to the light weight of the product, which I really like.  Nobody wants to carry around a heavy battery in their pocket all day.

Note also that if you use this as a travel battery and you don’t take a laptop with you — I have now reached the point where I only take my iPhone and iPad with me when I travel, leaving the computer at the office — you will need to take along some sort of plug to connect the USB cord to a wall outlet.  And as noted above, the USB cord is very short, which might make it inconvenient when plugging into a typical wall outlet positioned several inches from the ground.

Notwithstanding those shortcomings, I really like this product.  Putting a dock and a stand into an iPhone battery makes the battery much more useful.  If you are looking to get an external battery for your iPhone, the extra features of the Kensington PowerLift set it apart from competitors in the crowded field of iPhone batteries.

Click here to order the Kensington PowerLift directly from Kensington ($49.99).