Juli Clover of MacRumors did some incredibly useful testing and wrote a helpful article on MacRumors to compare and contrast the different ways to charge an iPhone X. I suspect that many of her conclusions carry over to other models of the iPhone as well, and her tests confirmed many of the things which I have seen more anecdotally. If you are interested in great tips for iPhone charging — and pretty much every iPhone owner falls into this camp — I strongly recommend that you check out her article, which also includes some great graphs.
Normally I would save a link like this for my Friday In the news post, but I wanted to take some extra space to highlight some of the most important take-aways from this article, most of which I can also confirm from my own experiences:
The charger that comes with the iPhone is slow. The iPhone has long shipped with that small, almost cube-shaped 5W charger. It charges the iPhone very slowly. For the iPhone X, it gets you up to an 11% charge in 15 minutes and 39% in 60 minutes.
USB-C charging is 2x to 3x faster. Back in early 2016, I reviewed the combination of Apple’s 29W USB-C Power Adapter and USB-C to Lightning Cable, which together cost around $75. In that review, I pointed out that it is the fastest way to charge an iPad Pro. But the iPhone X can also take advantage of USB-C charging, and it can get you almost three times the charge of a 5W charger after 15 minutes and about two times the charge of a 5W charger after 60 minutes. If you need to get the maximum charge to your iPhone X in the shortest amount of time, this is the way to go. And while this Apple combination will cost you $75, Clover notes that you can pay about half as much by using reputable third-party devices. If you own an iPad Pro. I think it is well-worth the $75 investment to get the fastest charge on all of your iOS devices.
Higher-wattage USB-C doesn’t make a difference. Although I reviewed Apple’s 29W USB-C Power Adapter, Apple also has a 87W USB-C Power Adapter that comes with the 12" MacBook, and third party USB-C adapters come in 18W. For the iPhone X, the test results are the same for all of those.
The 12W charger is a nice sweet spot. Apple’s 12W charger, which is included in the box with an iPad, will charge your iPhone much faster than the 5W charger that comes with the iPhone. It’s not quite as fast as USB-C, but it is much less expensive. It may even be free, if you own an iPad and thus already have one. Even if you buy another one, it only costs $19, and you can use the same USB-to-Lightning cord that came with your iPhone. So for either free or $19, you can charge almost as fast as USB-C without spending the $75 for the Apple USB-C products (or about half as much with third party products). If you don’t think it is worth spending the money for USB-C, this is the perfect alternative.
Wireless charging is slow, but the 7.5W version is a little faster. The iPhone X and iPhone 8 support what Apple calls wireless charging, the ability to place the back of the iPhone down on a charging plate and let it charge without plugging in a cable. Some consider it a major convenience, even though it isn’t the fastest way to charge. Most of these wireless chargers are 5W and charge at essentially the same speed as that slow 5W plug that is included in the box with an iPhone. Some Apple-approved devices are 7.5W, and when Apple releases its AirPower wireless charger in 2018 it will also support 7.5W. Those 7.5W chargers are a little faster than the 5W version — not a big difference, but enough that if you are going to buy a wireless charger, you might as well buy the 7.5W version to get more bang for your buck.
A few days ago, Apple released iOS 11.2. For those with iOS 11.2 installed, yesterday Apple turned on the Apple Pay Cash feature, which lets you send and receive money within the Messages app. Need to pay someone to split the cost of lunch, or want to send someone a request to send you a specific amount? You can now do so, and it is just as quick and easy as sending a text message. Writing a check to someone seems prehistoric compared to Apple Pay Cash.
When you receive money, it goes into your Apple Pay Cash card on your iPhone. You can keep the money in there so that you have it in the future to pay other folks using Apple Pay Cash, or use it to pay a merchant using traditional Apple Pay, or you can transfer it to your bank account. If you need to make a payment and don’t already have sufficient funds on your Apple Pay Cash card, the service will let you add money to your account from either a credit card or a debit card. If you use a credit card, Apple charges you a 3% fee, so if you owe someone $20 and you use your credit card to add the funds to Apple Pay Cash, it will cost you 60¢. But if you connect your bank’s debit card to Apple Pay Cash, then you can add money without any service fee.
I received two bucks from someone last night and then sent $2 back just to see how the process works, and it was really easy to use. Perhaps the most startling aspect of all was that for the first time, I saw a color in the Messages app other than blue or green. Messages associated with sending or receiving Apple Pay Cash are in black. When you send money, you need to confirm money using either Face ID (on an iPhone X) or Touch ID on older iPhones.
You can also send or receive money just using an Apple Watch (after you upgrade to watchOS 4.2). Or you can ask Siri to “send 25 dollars to Martin” or even “ask Martin for $22 for lunch.”
Other services like Venmo have offered something similar for a while, but because Apple Pay Cash is built-in to Messages and works with the Wallet app, and because Apple is a trusted company when it comes to preserving your privacy, Apple Pay Cash has the potential to become incredibly popular. And as more people become comfortable with using the service, it will become even more useful.
The minimum amount that you can send or receive is $1, and the maximum limit on any specific transaction is $3,000. There is also a $10,000 limit on transactions within each seven-day period, and $20,000 is the most that you can have on your Apple Pay Cash card at one time. So you probably won’t be using Apple Pay Cash for asking your clients to pay their invoices for legal services, unless it is just a small, one-off type of thing. But for sending and receiving small amounts of money between friends and family, Apple Pay Cash should be perfect.
Following Apple’s on-screen instructions for setting up Apple Pay Cash is pretty easy, but if you want some detailed step-by-step instructions for doing so, Joseph Keller of iMore wrote a helpful guide to Apple Pay Cash. And for a good overview (including some animations) showing how Apple Pay Cash works, check out this page on Apple’s website.
Even though many analysts are reporting that Apple is selling huge numbers of iPhone X devices, it is finally getting to the point where you can get one without too much delay. Mikey Campbell of AppleInsider reports that delivery times in the U.S. are now done to just one week. And sure enough I am finally to starting to see other folks using an iPhone X, including several of my law partners. If you are thinking about upgrading to an iPhone X, I really cannot recommend this product enough. Apple’s AirPods and Apple’s iPhone X are two of my most favorite Apple products ever, and I really enjoy using both of them every day. And now, here is the recent news of note:
Don’t call it the ABA Journal Blawg 100 anymore; this week the ABA Journal released its new Web 100 which includes law blogs, law podcasts, and Twitter accounts. As always, it is a great resource for learning about law-related sites — and now podcasts and tweeters as well.
More and more apps are getting updated for the new screen size of the iPhone X. Yesterday, Michael Potuck reports that Google Maps for iOS is one of the latest such apps. The map in that app looks so much better now that it fills the full screen, as do the Google Street View pictures.
Dan Provost of Studio Neat runs some tests and concludes that because the telephoto lens on the iPhone X is so much better, you can now take higher quality telephoto pictures even when there is less light available.
For a while now, CARROT Weather has been my favorite app for checking the weather on my iPhone. Ryan Christoffel of MacStories reported yesterday that the Apple Watch app for CARROT Weather was substantially updated, and it is now one of the best weather apps on an Apple Watch — perhaps the very best.
Apple announced yesterday that it is starting the Apple Heart Study, a joint effort with Stanford Medicine to use the Apple Watch to identify irregular heart rhythms, to try to prevent serious heart complications including strokes. If Apple accepts you into the study, you will receive a notification if an irregular heart rhythm is identified, plus a free consultation with a study doctor and an electrocardiogram patch for additional monitoring. More details are available on Apple’s website.
Stephen Hackett of 512 Pixels reviews the Apple Watch Series 3 with LTE after using it for three months. My Series 2 is doing me just fine for now, but I’m still jealous of the new features.
I’m a fan of home automation technology, but I haven’t gotten as deep into it as many folks have. I don’t have cameras in my home, nor do I have smart locks on my door. But Serenity Caldwell of iMore does, and she shares the amusing tale of how she got locked out of her smart home.
Tim Bajarin describes the role that Corning’s Gorilla Glass had in the original iPhone, in an article for Fast Company. Corning has a fantastic museum in Corning, New York called the Corning Museum of Glass. It has a fascinating mix of Corning hsitory, the artistic sculptures that you might expect to see in a glass museum, plus high technology made possible by glass, such as fiber optics, and I really enjoyed visiting the museum with my family this past summer. However, there was no mention of the iPhone anywhere in that extensive museum; I thought that they might have a Gorilla Glass exhibit or something like that.
And finally, Apple has a new commercial for the holidays, advertising the AirPods as a way to spark romance. It’s a cute ad, and it is called Sway:
Although this is intended to be a review of a specific iPhone X case, it is also a review of the idea of using a case with the iPhone X in the first place. I love the feel of the iPhone X, and the perfectly black OLED screen blends in beautifully with the smooth black edges of the Space Gray model. For my first week with the iPhone X, I didn’t use a case at all, and I liked it. But I was also very nervous about it. The smooth round edges of the iPhone X — like the iPhone 7, iPhone 6s and iPhone 6 before it — make the device just slippery enough that I was often afraid that I would drop it when I was out and about. So after a week with no case, I decided to purchase the Apple iPhone X Leather case for $49. For over a week I kept it on my iPhone all of the time, and then after that I would often take it off when I was working at my desk or in a safe place at home, but otherwise kept it on. I like this case, and if you are looking for something slim that looks nice and makes your iPhone less slippery, this is a good choice.
Leather exterior
I’ve been using Apple’s leather cases since 2014, when I purchased a model for my iPhone 6 (my review). I used that case with both the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6s, and then I used a similar model with the iPhone 7. Apple made a nice improvement between the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 7 version, replacing the leather bumps covering the buttons on the iPhone 6 version with actual aluminum buttons on the iPhone 7 version. After a lot of use, the leather over the buttons would wear down to almost nothing, as you can see from this photo of the side of the iPhone 6 version (where the volume buttons are) after two years of use. You can barely even see where the two buttons are:
Fortunately, the iPhone X version (like the iPhone 7 version) uses aluminum buttons, which are easy to find and press and which won’t wear away over time.
Although I didn’t like how the leather wore over time directly over the buttons, otherwise I really like the way that the leather case ages. My old iPhone 6 and iPhone 7 leather cases feel very nice and soft in my hands. In this photo, the iPhone 6 version is on the left, and the iPhone 7 version is on the right:
My new iPhone X case also feels nice, but not quite as soft, and I look forward to it maturing over time. Here is how Apple describes it on its website: “They’re made from specially tanned and finished European leather, so the outside feels soft to the touch and develops a natural patina over time.”
In addition to feeling nice in the hand, the leather also makes the iPhone considerably less slippery, dramatically reducing the risk of accidentally dropping your expensive iPhone. A more rubbery case, such as the silicone case sold by Apple and many other companies, also makes it harder to drop the iPhone. But for me, that style of case provides too much friction, making it harder to slip my iPhone in and out of the pocket on the front of a button-down shirt.
Shape
Apple made a lot of great decisions when it comes to the shape of this case. First, this case is incredibly thin, so the size and weight that it adds to your iPhone X is almost negligible. I haven’t yet had an opportunity to try wireless charging with my iPhone X, but Apple confirms that you can charge through this thin case.
Second, I love the bottom. Ever since the iPhone 6 leather case, Apple has kept the bottom of the case open. For the iPhone 6, that made it easier to access the Lightning and headphone ports, and I continue to like that it makes it easy to access the Lightning port on the iPhone X. But with the iPhone X, the open bottom is even more appreciated because swiping up from the bottom of the screen is a gesture performed countless times every day. I’ve tried using other brands of cases on iPhone X devices used by some of my friends, and the bottom portion of those cases has always seemed to get in the way when I swipe up from the bottom of the screen, or when I swipe left to right to switch between open apps.
The open bottom of this case is one of its best features for the iPhone X.
Third, one advantage of using this case is that it makes your iPhone X lay perfectly flat on the table. A naked iPhone X wobbles a bit due to the bump on the back for the cameras.
Colors
I purchased the simple Black version of this case, but if you want to add some pizzazz, Apple currently offers this case in nine colors: Cosmos Blue, Pink Fuchsia, Dark Aubergine, Charcoal Gray, Taupe, Saddle Brown, Midnight Blue, Black and (PRODUCT)RED:
Protection
The primary reason I purchased this case was to protect my iPhone X, making it less slippery. But the case also adds protection to the sides and back, in the event that something makes contact. My older leather cases have tiny bumps and scratches on them, none of which I mind on a leather case, but each of them represents a time when my iPhone could have been damaged without a case.
The inside of the case is lined with a microfiber, protecting the iPhone from scratches, and making it easier to slide the case on or remove it.
Conclusion
Because I still like using an iPhone X without a case, I don’t use this case all the time. But I do have my iPhone X in this case most of the time, and as far as cases go, this one has a lot going for it. The leather feels good and protects the phone, and the thin shape is perfect, especially because it does not cover the bottom. If you are considering a case for your iPhone X, I can recommend the Apple iPhone X Leather case. And while I bought mine for $49.00, I see that you can currently save a few bucks buying it on Amazon.
Thank you to Lit Software for sponsoring iPhone J.D. this month. This company produces three of the very best iPad apps designed for attorneys: TrialPad, TranscriptPad and DocReviewPad. TrialPad (my review) was first released in 2010 — the same year that the iPad itself debuted — and has seen numerous major updates over the years. If you want to present evidence to a jury, judge, or other audience, the app gives you powerful tools for displaying and annotating documents, including the Callout tool that most jurors expect to see nowadays. There is a recent post on the Lit Software blog explaining how Ian Unsworth, a prosecutor in London (Queen’s Counsel) uses TrialPad in complex criminal trials.
In my own litigation practice, I spend a lot of time working with deposition transcripts, such as preparing for a motion for summary judgment. Thus, TranscriptPad (my review) is the Lit Software app that I use the most. Whether I am drafting a motion, or I am in a subsequent deposition and I want to quickly see all of the relevant testimony on a subject during prior depositions, TranscriptPad does exactly what I need. On several occasions, other attorneys have watched me use TranscriptPad and then remarked that they need to get an iPad. When an app is so useful that it is a reason for attorneys to buy an iPad, you know it is a good app.
DocReviewApp (my review) is the newest app from Lit Software. This is an app that you can use to review and annotate documents on your iPad, so this app is especially useful during the request for production of documents process.
Lit Software does more than any other company when it comes to designing fantastic iPad apps specifically for attorneys. If you are a litigator and you want to make the most of your iPad, I encourage you to check out these apps.
Click here to get TrialPad ($129.99):
Click here to get TranscriptPad ($89.99):
Click here for DocReviewPad ($89.99):
Click here for the Ultimate Litigation Package (all three apps) ($299.99):
[UPDATE: For my latest post on Anker cables dated August 19, 2020, click here.]
USB-to-Lightning cords are incredibly useful for users of Apple mobile products because they can be used to charge your iPhone, iPad, AirPods, and other devices such as Apple keyboards. And even though Apple includes these cords with many devices, it is always annoying when you need one but cannot find one, so it is a good idea to keep extra cords at home, work, your briefcase or purse, etc. For many years I have stuck with Lightning cords made by Apple because I had heard reports of folks having problems with cheaper Lightning cords made by fly-by-night companies. But recently I have heard great reports about cables made by Anker, a company known for many other useful products. I wanted a new cord to keep in my car (for use with Apple CarPlay) so I purchased an Anker PowerLine+ USB to Lightning cord from Amazon. I’ve been very happy with the cable so far, and I can recommend the product, both for you to use yourself and to give as a great gift to anyone else who uses an iPhone or iPad.
Quality
It was important to me to have a good quality cord. I certainly don’t want my devices damaged by a short caused by a cheaply-made product. Fortunately, Anker has a great reputation, and so it is a company that I trust to make a good product. Earlier this year, Nick Statt of The Verge wrote an interesting profile of Anker, explaining how the company was founded by a former Google engineer.
A few years ago, I reviewed the Anker PowerPort 6, and I continue to use that fantastic device every single time I travel because it lets me use a single cord running to an outlet to charge six different devices. If I was getting a new one today, I would get the USB Type-C model of the PowerPort, which includes one USB-C port for fast charging of an iPad or iPhone X plus four other ports that can be used for any device.
In light of all of this, I felt good about trusting Anker to make a reliable product, the same way that I trust Apple to make a reliable product.
Durability
Although Anker also makes “normal” Lightning cords, I was attracted to the PowerLine+ version, a cord featuring double-braided nylon to make the cord more durable. The braided nylon also makes it virtually impossible to knot this cord, so I haven’t had any problem with this cord getting tangled.
The braided nylon also protects the cord if you bend it. I have had numerous Apple cords split at a point where the cord was often bent. I really don’t think that type of damage would be possible with the PowerLine+ cord.
The plug ends of the PowerLine+ are also built to be far more durable then the ends of cords made by Apple and other companies. You can easily feel in your hands how the Anker USB and Lightning plugs are far more sturdy than the ones on Apple’s cords.
I haven’t used the PowerLine+ long enough to give you a definitive report on how it wears over time, but Anker says that PowerLine+ cords are six times more durable than other Lightning cables.
Price
I would be willing to pay more for a high-quality, durable Lightning cord, but Anker’s products are actually less expensive than Apple’s. I purchased the six-foot cord for my car because I wanted the flexibility of having something long enough for my kids to occasionally use my iPhone while they are in the backseat to select music while the iPhone is connected to CarPlay in the front of my car. The 6′ cord is roughly 1.8m, so close to the same size as Apple’s 2m USB-to-Lightning cord. But while Apple’s cord costs $29, the Anker 6′ cord is currently selling on Amazon for only $16.99.
Anker also sells a three foot version, roughly similar in size to Apple’s 1m Lightning cord. While Apple’s 1m cord costs $19.00, the Anker 3′ cord costs only $14.99 on Amazon, or better yet you can pay only $19.99 for a two-pack of the Anker 3′ cords. If you want to have the freedom that comes with a really long cord, Anker also sells a ten foot version on Amazon for $17.99.
Color
While I generally don’t mind the iconic white color that Apple uses with its cords, I have to admit that a white cord looked a little out of place in my car with its dark interior. The PowerLine+ cords come in various colors. I got the gray version, which does a far better job matching the interior of my car. The cords also come in gold, red, and white.
If you find that you often “lose” your Lightning cord because someone else borrows it or picks it up by mistake, you might want to consider getting the red or gold model. It will stand out, and others are unlikely to confuse it for their own cord.
Plug size
The plug at the Lightning end of the PowerLine+ is only a tiny bit larger than the plug on the similar Apple Lightning cord. Most folks will never notice the difference. However, if you are using a case for your iPhone which has a very small hole, made only big enough to work with the Apple cord, it is possible that the Anker cord won’t fit. I’ve never used a case like this for an iPhone, but I’ve seen other folks use them, so if this applies to you it is something for you to consider.
Pouch
The three foot and the six foot models of the PowerLine+ come with a felt pouch which you could use to hold the entire cord, or which you can use to adjust cable length. Just wind up the cable and slide it through the strap in the middle of the pouch. Then close the pouch with the Lightning end coming out one side and the USB end coming out the other side. Magnets in the pouch hold the cover closed. This way, you can charge when you are very close to the charger without having lots of extra cord getting in the way.
I haven’t decided how much I’ll use this pouch in the future, but it was a nice touch for Anker to include it, and shows that Anker is trying to go above and beyond what you get from other companies.
Other models
While I really like the PowerLine+ model with the double-braided nylon cord, Anker makes other cables with more traditional cords, and they are even less expensive. For example, if you want a three foot size, you can get the PowerLine for only $9.99 on Amazon, or the PowerLine II (with lifetime warranty if it ever breaks) for $11.99 on Amazon. I haven’t tried those models, but I presume that they are also good quality cords.
Conclusion
The Anker PowerLine+ Lightning cord works great. It is cheaper than the Apple Lightning cord and yet it seems to be much more durable. I like the color and feel of the double-braided nylon cord, and I like knowing that this cord should hold up fine even if it gets a lot of use. And because I’m sure that many iPhone users have never used a cord like this, I think it is actually a great gift idea, now that the holidays are around the corner.
On November 17, 2008, I started iPhone J.D. and published my first post, explaining why I found the iPhone a valuable tool in my law practice. That means that iPhone J.D. just celebrated its ninth birthday. My second favorite iPhone of all time was the iPhone 3G I was using when I started the blog because it was my introduction to the world of the iPhone, and was such a major step up from the Treo and BlackBerry smartphones I had been using previously. Nine years later, the iPhone X is unquestionably my favorite iPhone of all time, with its amazing screen, cameras, and Face ID. And I am clearly not the only attorney to enjoy using an iPhone. As I reported a few weeks ago, a record number of attorneys are now using an iPhone, over 7 out of every 10 attorneys in the United States.
After nine years and over 1,600 posts on iPhone J.D., it has been thrilling to watch the iPhone mature and evolve from its first year to its tenth year. And as the device has gotten more sophisticated, attorneys have been able to do so much more with the iPhone — and iPad, Apple Watch, etc. I’ve enjoyed writing about great new apps and improvements to old favorites, tips and tricks, product reviews, and other items of interest to attorneys using iOS devices. If you haven’t checked out the iPhone J.D. Index recently, click the “Index to Prior Posts” link at the top of any page to get there. The index will direct you to lots of posts that are as useful today as they were when they were written, although there are others with only historical significance.
By far the best part of publishing iPhone J.D. has been the great feedback from readers like you. I’ve learned so much from talking to and reading notes from readers, and many of those interactions result in posts. Please keep the feedback coming! With well over 8 million page views in nine years, it has been great to “see” so many of you come back again and again.
Popular posts this year. Every year on the birthday of iPhone J.D. (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8), I find it interesting to look back and see which posts over the prior 12 months were the most popular. The fact that these posts were so popular might reveal something about the topics that iPhone and iPad owners have been thinking about lately. Here, in order, are the top ten most viewed posts published in the last 12 months:
“No videos” bug in TV app in iOS 10.2 — the problem, and a work-around. The law is founded on precedent, and my sense is that many lawyers are relatively change-adverse, especially when something new makes it harder to do something that you have always done. When Apple released the new TV app in iOS 10.2 on December 12, 2016, it seemed that all video was moved to a different place, and many of us found that we could no longer watch videos synced to an iPhone or iPad from a computer. D’oh! The problem was eventually fixed, but I have to admit that almost a year later, I still haven’t completely warmed up to the TV app.
Review: AT&T Call Protect — block and warn of nuisance calls. The number of unsolicited phone calls that I have received on my iPhone started to increase dramatically in 2017. Thus, I was happy to start using the AT&T Call Protect app to warn me of calls I am unlikely to want to get (such as telemarketer calls) and block calls suspected to be fraudulent. The app continues to work well for me.
Why lawyers will love iOS 11 on the iPad. While #3 on the list of most-viewed posts from the past year, this one is probably #1 in my heart. iOS 11 introduced so many improvements for the iPad Pro, making that device much more useful for attorneys and other professionals trying to get work done.
Review: Apple CarPlay — view and control your iPhone from your car. My parents just purchased a new car, and I spent some time over this past weekend showing them how to use CarPlay in their new vehicle. They seemed to be excited to use it, and for good reason. I use CarPlay virtually every day, and it has vastly improved the experience of using an iPhone in a car. Whenever you are next in the market for a new car, I strongly encourage you to only consider vehicles with support for Apple CarPlay.
Review: iPad Pro 12.9" (2nd generation 2017) — an incredible tablet for lawyers. The 2015 version of the 12.9" iPad Pro was an amazing device, and the improvements to the 2017 version, the second generation of the 12.9" iPad Pro, make the device even more useful. (Especially with iOS 11, as noted above.) When I am in my office, I typically use my PC more than I use my iPad, but I certainly enjoy using the iPad Pro much more. And when I’m out of the office, I’m using the iPad Pro all of the time.
Review: AT&T Unlimited Data — data for your iPhone and other device without the worry of overage charges. Some describe these as “so-called unlimited” plans because they do contain some limitations. On the AT&T plan that I use, once I hit 22GB of data use in a month, AT&T reserves the right to throttle my speed. I actually crossed over that threshold for the first time just a few days ago. AT&T hasn’t yet throttled my data speed, and with eight days left before my next billing cycle, my hope is that it won’t happen this time. I know why I exceeded that limit; I took a lot of 4K video of my kids this month, and I had turned off all of the limits on uploading that data using LTE (Settings -> Photos -> Cellular Data) because I had some specific needs to get those videos on my other devices before I was going to be back on a Wi-Fi network. But that’s not how I usually have my iPhone configured, and unless you plan to upload or download a ton of video on your iPhone, it is hard to go over 22GB of data use in a month.
Why lawyers will love the iPhone 8 and iPhone X. There is always great interest when Apple releases a new iPhone, but that interest seemed to peak this year with the iPhone X. And as noted above, that interest was well-deserved; the iPhone X is an incredible device.
Visitors to iPhone J.D. Every year, I use this post to share some statistical information on iPhone J.D. visitors, to the extent that I can figure it out using the tools at my disposal — specifically, the Google Analytics service.
During the past 12 months, about 59% of readers visited iPhone J.D. from an iOS device, just shy of the record 60% in the previous year. About 75% of those iOS visitors were using an iPhone, and the other 25% used an iPad. About 22% of iPhone J.D. visitors are using Windows, and just over half of them are using the Chrome browser for Windows. (I primarily use Firefox on Windows in my law office, but sometimes I use Chrome or Internet Explorer.) About 12% used a Mac, which is what I use at home. Almost all of the other visitors (about 4.5%) used Android, which is higher than you might have expected given the nature of this website, but remember that (1) every year lots of folks switch from Android to iOS, and (2) some of the third party accessories that I have reviewed can also be used with an Android device, and even some iOS apps have a version available for Android.
About 64% of iPhone J.D. visitors are in the U.S., but the site also gets a huge number of visitors from the U.K., Canada and Australia. Looking at the cities of iPhone J.D. readers, New York is #1 this year, as it has been every other year except for two years ago (when there were a few hundred more visitors from London):
New York
London
Los Angeles
Chicago
Dallas
Houston
Washington, D.C.
Atlanta
Sydney
Melbourne
Atlanta is back on the Top Ten list for the first time in five years. I went to college at Emory in Atlanta, and still have lots of friends in that city, so it is nice to see that return. But I’m also a big fan of San Francisco, and this is the first time ever that San Francisco has failed to make the Top Ten list. (This year it was #11, and only a few hundred visitors behind Melbourne.) The top cities in Canada are Toronto (#12) and Calgary (#27). New Orleans, where I live and practice law, hasn’t been in the top ten since this website’s second birthday, but this year is in the #18 spot, between #17 Philadelphia and #19 Brisbane.
Thank you to all of you who have been iPhone J.D. readers for any part of the last nine years. And a VERY big thank you to all of you who have sent me software and hardware suggestions over the years or have otherwise touched based with me to share how you use your iPhone and/or iPad in your law practice. I get so many fantastic ideas from all of you. I also love when any of you stop me at a conference, in court, or elsewhere to say that you read iPhone J.D., because it always sparks a fascinating conversation — sometimes about using the iPhone or iPad, sometimes about more amorphous topics such as the future legal technology, and sometimes just about those great pictures of your kids that you would have missed if the iPhone wasn’t close by.
California attorney David Sparks discusses getting work done with an iPad instead of a computer, noting that Microsoft Word on the iPad is really just one feature short of giving attorneys all that they need to give up using the computer for word processing: proper support for Styles. I agree 100%, and every time Microsoft updates its iOS app, this is the first thing I look for in the list of what is new. And now, the news of note from the past week:
On the latest edition of Brett Burney’s Apps in Law podcast, Kentucky attorney Jeff Alford discusses using TextExpander on the iPhone and iPad.
If you ever find that Face ID doesn’t work, Yoni Heisler of BGR explains that rather than try again, you should enter your passcode. That way, the iPhone X will learn to adjust and will do a better job in the future recognizing your face.
The iPhone 8 and iPhone X support fast charging, much like the iPad Pro. I previously reviewed the combination of Apple’s 29W USB-C Power Adapter and USB-C to Lightning Cable, a great pair for getting the fastest possible charging. But it costs $75. Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal ran some tests and concluded that while Apple’s USB-C combo is the fastest, using a $20 Apple 12W charger (which comes with the iPad) or using an $11 Anker 24W charger is almost as fast for the iPhone 8 / iPhone X. I still like having Apple’s USB-C combo because I have an iPad Pro which takes much better advantage of USB-C, but if you are only looking for fast charging on an iPad, it looks like Apple’s USB-C combo is overkill.
According to Neil Hughes of AppleInsider, you can save a tremendous amount of battery life on the iPhone X by using mostly dark screens, because black on an OLED display uses substantially less power. I recently switched to an all-black backgrounds for the home screen on my iPhone X, not to save power, but instead because I love the contrast on that OLED screen between a true black and the icon colors.
Mark Prigg of the Daily Mail reports that a kitesurfer off the coast of California found himself stranded in shark-infested waters and used the cellular function of his Apple Watch 3 to call for help.
CarPlay Life offers some good advice for using Siri with Apple CarPlay. One tip I learned from that article is that asking Siri for directions to X will just show you the directions on the screen, but asking Siri to take me to X will not only find the directions but also start providing directions advice, saving you the step of tapping the “Go” button on the CarPlay screen.
And finally, here is the cute video released by Apple this week showing a teenager using an iPad Pro for so many things that she forgets what a computer is; this is the video referenced in David Spark’s post that I linked to above:
I’ve enjoyed my first week with the iPhone X more than I’ve enjoyed my first week with any other iPhone except perhaps for my first iPhone, the iPhone 3G back in 2008. I’ve picked up my iPhone 7 several times this week, and it now seems so dated because they lack the huge screen. The larger screen on the iPhone X quickly feels like this is the screen that was always supposed to be on an iPhone, and I’m sure that in a few years almost all iPhone users will feel the same way. The screen in the standout feature, but Face ID runs a close second because it is so incredible to have the iPhone unlock without my having to do anything. And thanks to the release of the new Clips app (discussed below), we are now starting to see new and interesting things that can be done with all of the front-facing cameras the sit in the notch at the top of the screen. And now, the news of note from the past week:
By default, you need to look at an iPhone X to unlock it. With earlier iPhones, you can unlock with a fingerprint, even if someone else puts your finger on the device while you are asleep. That led to some chaos this week when a woman on a Qatar Airways flight put her sleeping husband’s finger on his iPhone to unlock it and discovered that he was having an affair. The woman, who reportedly had been drinking, then became disruptive, and ultimately the flight had to be diverted to get her and her husband off the plane. Saurabh Sinhai of The Times of India has additional details.
Nick Compton of Wallpaper interview’s Apple’s Jony Ive to discuss Apple’s new Apple Park building, and other Apple design issues. The photography in this article is impressive.
Now that we all know what the new iPhone looks like, what will the next iPad look like? Mark Gurman and Alex Webb of Bloomberg have some ideas, and Jason Snell of Six Color notes that these predictions seem reasonable — stuff like Face ID on an iPad and a new Apple Pencil.
Peeking further into the future, Michael Simon of Macworld discusses a possible wearable device by Apple that could be targeted for a 2020 release. Apple CEO Tim Cook does love to talk about Augmented Reality, and as cool as it is on an iPhone, it does seem like Apple has additional applications in mind for this technology.
Apple may be working on a second edition Apple Pencil, but what are the best styluses today? The GoodNotes Blog selects some favorites, and I agree with this list. The Apple Pencil is by far the best choice, but if you don’t have an iPad Pro there are some other good ones to choose from.
John Gruber of Daring Fireball discusses the new Clips app by Apple, which is now at version 2.0. As Griber notes, it is a major upgrade. One of the fun new features is to use the iPhone X TrueDepth camera to place yourself on the Millennium Falcon. I showed off a little by making this short video right after the app was updated, but then Rian Johnson (the director of the upcoming Star Wars movie The Last Jedi) posted this video and immediately put mine to shame.
Speaking of the front-facing cameras on the iPhone X, Jason Snell wrote a good article for Tom’s Guide explaining how to use Face ID on the iPhone X.
The visitor center at Apple Park opens a week from today, November 17, according to Chance Miller of 9to5Mac. It’s nice that Apple will finally have a designated area for the general public to visit the Apple campus. I’ve visited Apple’s Infinite Loop campus in the past with an Apple employee escorting me, but having that friend on the inside was always critical. That changes next week.
Jessica Smith of Business Insider reports that the attempted merger between T-Mobile and Spring is now called off.
Tomorrow, November 11, if you exercise for 11 minutes with your Apple Watch, you’ll earn a Veteran’s Day badge. iMore has the details.
David Pogue of Yahoo compares the Apple TV, Roku and other streaming boxes. He says that the Apple TV is the best, but the Roku is a great value because it is less expensive. If you have lots of other Apple devices, however, I think that the Apple TV makes the most sense.
And finally, Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal discusses how to use the iPhone X, but does it by taking on the personality of the new Animoji in the Messages app. The video is amusing and informative:
New survey results indicate that a record number of attorneys are using an iPhone in their law practice — over 70% of all attorneys in the United States. These numbers come from the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center, which conducts a survey every year to gauge the use of legal technology by attorneys in private practice in the United States. The 2017 report (edited by Joshua Poje) was just released, and as always, I was particularly interested in Volume VI, titled Mobile Lawyers. No survey is perfect, but the ABA tries hard to ensure that its survey has statistical significance, and every year this is one of the best sources of information on how attorneys use technology. Note that the survey was conducted from February to May of 2017, so these numbers don’t reflect any changes in what attorneys are using which occurred within the last six months. This is the eighth year that I have reported on this survey, and with multiple years of data we can see some interesting trends. (My reports on prior ABA surveys are located here: 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010.)
Over 70% of all U.S. attorneys use an iPhone
The 2017 survey revealed that a record number of attorneys in the U.S. are using a smartphone (around 95%), and of the attorneys using a smartphone, a record number are using an iPhone (around 75%).
The survey asks each attorney “Do you use a smartphone (e.g. BlackBerry, iPhone, Android) for law-related tasks while away from your primary workplace?” Back in 2010, the number of attorneys answering “no” was around 12%. It decreased over the years to 10% and then last year to 6.8%. This year, it is at an all time low of only 4.4%. I’m somewhat surprised it has taken that long to get here, but we can now say that over 95% of all attorneys use a smartphone.
In 2013, the big news was that, for the first time, over half of all attorneys were using an iPhone. In 2014 and 2015 the percentage was around 60%. In 2016, there was a big increase up to 68.4%. In 2017, the number is up to 74.9%. Taking into account that 4.4% of all attorneys are not using any smartphone, we can now say that 71.6% of all attorneys in private practice in the U.S. are using an iPhone in their law practice, which is an all-time high. According to the ABA 2017 National Lawyer Population Survey, there are 1,335,963 attorneys in the U.S., which suggests that there could be over 956,000 attorneys in the U.S. using an iPhone.
If 71.6% of all attorneys are using an iPhone, and 4.4% of attorneys are not using any smartphone, what are the others using? Most of them are using an Android smartphone, around 21.6%.
Back in 2011, 40% of all attorneys used a BlackBerry, and I’m sure all of us remember a time when it was incredibly common to see another lawyer with a BlackBerry. However, BlackBerry use by attorneys has dropped sharply since 2011. In 2017, the number reached a new low of only 2%.
Finally, there are 0.6% of attorneys using some sort of Microsoft Windows operating system on their smartphone in 2017, and another 1.3% either report using “other” or say that they don’t know what kind of smartphone they are using.
If you add the numbers, you’ll notice that they add up to 101.5%. But it makes sense for the number to be slightly over 100% because I know that a small number of attorneys use multiple smartphones.
The following pie chart is somewhat imprecise because, as I just noted, the actual numbers add up to just over 100%, but it gives you a general, graphical sense of the relative use:
To place these numbers in historical context, the following chart shows lawyer smartphone use over recent years. The two dramatic changes in this chart are of course the plunge in BlackBerry use and the surge in iPhone use. There has been a more gradual, but noticeable, decrease in the number of attorneys not using a smartphone at all. As for Android use, there was a slight increase from 2011 to 2015, but then a slight decrease in the last two years. The “Other” category in this chart includes Windows, something else, and those who don’t know what smartphone they are using.
Why are attorneys choosing iPhone, Android or BlackBerry? Firm size might have something to do with it. Almost all of the attorneys still using a BlackBerry are at the largest law firms. On the other hand, Android use is highest among solo attorneys. And for firm sizes between the smallest and largest, it looks like those BlackBerry or Android users become iPhone users:
What are these attorneys doing with their iPhones and other smartphones? Almost all are using them to make phone calls and handle emails. Around 75% are regularly using smartphones for calendars, contacts, and accessing the Internet. Other popular uses are text messaging, GPS/maps, taking pictures and mobile-specific research apps. Only 8.2% use a smartphone to track time and expenses (which is down slightly from 10% last year).
Almost 5% of attorneys report that they are not using any security measures on their smartphone, which is unfortunate; for attorneys, that number really should be zero. If nothing else, you need to use a password to protect your device. (And if you use an iPhone, Apple is making even harder to use a device without a passcode.)
50% of survey respondents use Verizon for their smartphone. AT&T has 37.4%, Sprint has 6.2%, T-Mobile has 4.7%, US Cellular and Cricket Wireless each have 0.6%, and 1.4% said “other” or “don’t know.”
About 40% of U.S attorneys use an iPad
Apple introduced the original iPad in 2010, and for the first few years it resulted in a surge in lawyer tablet use. In 2011, only 15% of all attorneys responded that they use a tablet. That number more than doubled to 33% in 2012, and rose to 48% in 2013. But since then, the number has essentially held steady: 49% in 2014, 49.6% in 2015, 50.6% in 2016, and 49.8 in 2017%. Suffice it to say that about half of all U.S. attorneys in private practice currently use a tablet, and that has remained true since 2014.
It used to be that around 90% of attorneys using a tablet were using an iPad. It was 89% in 2011, 91% in 2012, and 91% in 2013. From 2014 to 2016, that number stayed around 84%. In 2017, that number is at an all-time low of 81.3%. If 81.3% of the 49.8% of attorneys use a tablet use an iPad, that means that about 40.5% of all U.S. attorneys are using an iPad in 2017.
Keep in mind, though, that this data was all collected in early 2017. As I reported yesterday, iPad sales peaked in 2014 and then decreased substantially, but for the last six months, iPad sales have started to increase again, perhaps due to the new 10.5" iPad Pro and the second generation 12.9" iPad Pro released in mid-2017. Assuming that lawyers were a part of this recent turn-around in iPad sales, my guess is that the iPad numbers will increase in the 2018 survey. We’ll see.
As for the lawyers using a tablet but not using an iPad, in 2017 11.1% use a Microsoft Windows operating system (a jump from 6.6% in 2016, presumably thanks to the Windows Surface devices), 9.9% use Android (versus 10.1% in 2016), and 1.6% use something else or don’t know what they use. My guess is that some portion of the increase in Windows tablet users were previously iPad users.
Looking at the past seven years on a chart shows visually how the percentage of attorneys using a tablet increased substantially from 2011 to 2013, and then has remained around 50%. For the half of U.S. attorneys using an iPad, the vast majority use an iPad. For the other half of U.S. attorneys who were not interested in a tablet device in 2013, apparently they haven’t changed their minds yet.
What are these attorneys doing with their iPads and other tablets? Pretty much the same thing that they are doing with their smartphones (other than the phone function), with over half of attorneys reporting that they are regularly using their tablets for internet access, email and calendars.
Popular apps
The survey also asked attorneys to identify apps that they use. I want to start by making the same objection that I made for the last two years: I don’t like how the ABA asks the question. The ABA first asks “Have you ever downloaded a legal-specific app for your smartphone?” In 2017, 41.8% said yes. When I see the word “smartphone” in this question, I think of my iPhone, not my iPad. Then the next question asks: “What legal specific app(s) did you download?” When I read the questions in that order, I’m thinking of the apps that I downloaded on my iPhone, not my iPad. But others must be reading the question differently because I see TrialPad and TranscriptPad in the answers, and those apps exist only on the iPad, not on the iPhone. I would have never mentioned those apps when answering the question, even though I use them on my iPad.
So while I question how much value you can put in these answers, for what it is worth, the top 13 apps listed are, in order of the percentage of attorneys mentioning them:
Westlaw
Fastcase
Lexis Advance
A legal dictionary app
TrialPad
TranscriptPad
Courtlink
LexisNexis Get Cases & Shepardize
Clio
ABA apps
LexisNexis Legal News
HeinOnline
Westlaw News
The ABA then asked about general business apps, and the questions have the same ambiguity: the ABA first asked if the attorney ever downloaded a general business app to a smartphone (47.1% said yes in 2017), and then the ABA asked which apps were downloaded, without making it clear whether the question was asking about the iPhone and iPad. The answers provided were, in this order:
Dropbox
LinkedIn
Evernote
GoodReader
LogMeIn
Documents to Go
Box
QuickOffice
MS Office/Word
Notability
It amazes me that Microsoft Word is so low on this list (only 6.4% report using it), but at least it made the list in 2017; in prior years, it wasn’t even on the list. Word is one of the most useful general-purpose apps that any lawyer can have on his iPhone, iPad, Android or Windows mobile device. If you are not using it yet on your iPhone and iPad, you are missing out on an app that is incredibly useful in a law practice.
