Today at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern, Apple will introduce the 2014 version(s) of the iPhone, which I presume will be called the iPhone 6.  I add the possible “s” to “version” because the rumor is that Apple will announce two models, one with a larger 4.7 inch screen and another with an even larger 5.5 inch screen.  Additionally, Apple is rumored to announce a new wearable device that could be called the iWatch.  For a good take on what Apple is expected to announce today, read this article by John Gruber.

You can watch a live stream of the announcements at this link on an iPad, iPhone or Mac, or you can watch on an Apple TV.  If you want to also (or instead) read a live blog of the event, I recommend that you look at this one on Macworld; Jason Snell and Dan Moren are Apple live blog pros.  If you can’t watch the live video during the day, Apple usually posts it on their website a few hours later, so you should be able to watch it tonight. 

And of course, come back to iPhone J.D. tomorrow and I’ll give you my initial thoughts on the announcements.

For many attorneys, the best new app that was released in 2014 was Microsoft Word for iPad.  As I noted in the review I wrote in April, the app works great when you want to view or edit Microsoft Word documents on an iPad.  I use the app almost every day in my law practice.  But as I also noted in my review, while the app itself is free to download, if you want to edit documents you need to have an Office 365 subscription, and the pricing of that can be confusing. 

Last week, Microsoft announced new monthly subscription plans for Office 365, and some folks have asked me which plan is best for attorneys who want to use all of the features of Word for iPad and the other Office suite apps (Excel for iPad and PowerPoint for iPad).  The two new plans are Office 365 Personal for $6.99/month, which allows access on one computer and one tablet, and Office 365 Home for $9.99/month, which offers access to up to five computers and up to five tablets.  Those monthly subscriptions are actually not a bargain because they cost more than an annual subscription.  For example, you can get Office 365 Home for $99/year.  Or you can even buy a subscription key card on Amazon and pay a discounted price of only $63.99 per year, which is only $5.33 a month.  So which of these plans is best for attorneys?

Actually, I think that the answer is none of them.  Technically, any of those plans will give you a license number that you could enter to make Microsoft Word work on your iPad.  However, the license agreements impose limitations on what you are supposed to do with those plans.

If you look at the Microsoft website, you will see that Microsoft offers many different plans for Office 365.  This page lists six of them, ranging from Office 365 Personal to Office Professional 2013, but that isn’t close to all of the plans offered.  Nevertheless, I link to that page because it does state that Office 365 Home and Office 365 Personal are licensed only for “home use.”  What does that mean?  The Microsoft Software License Agreement includes the following in the “Additional Terms” section:

8. HOME AND STUDENT SOFTWARE     

“Home and Student” edition software may not be used for commercial, non-profit, or revenue-generating activities.

If you are an attorney, presumably you are using Microsoft Word for “commercial” or “revenue-generating” activities.  Even if you are doing purely pro bono work, you would still seem to be doing “non-profit” activities.  Thus, if I am reading the license correctly (and I think I am), attorneys are not supposed to use an Office 365 Home or an Office 365 Personal subscription to use Microsoft Word for iPad to view and edit work-related files.

Instead, you need to look at the Office 365 for business plans to purchase an appropriate license for using Microsoft Word on an iPad.  This page lists seven such plans, which range from $5 per user a month to $22 per user a month.  Four of those plans provide access to Microsoft’s mobile apps (which includes Microsoft Word for iPad).  The Office 365 Small Business Premium plan costs $150 per user a year and supports a maximum of 25 years.  If you have 26 to 300 users, it looks like you can use the Office 365 Midsize Business plan, which also costs $150 per user a year.  Microsoft also offers the Office 365 Enterprise E3 plan, which costs $240 per user a year for unlimited users.

But that’s not all.  Microsoft also offers education plans, government plans, and nonprofit plans.  Plus, Microsoft has sales representatives with whom you can negotiate packages based upon your specific needs.

I know that at first blush, $150 a year seems like a lot, but remember you are not just paying for the iPad apps.  That also gives you the latest versions of the desktop versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Access and other programs (if you use a PC; only some of those programs are available for Mac).  It also gives you 1 TB of storage on OneDrive for Business and access to other Microsoft services. 

[UPDATE 9/16/14:  Legal tech consultant Ben Schorr alerted me that Microsoft has new plans coming out on Oct. 1 for companies with 1 to 250 employees.  The current Small Business, Small Business Premium and Midsize Business plans will be replaced with Office 365 Business Essentials, Office 365 Business and Office 365 Premium.  The Office 365 Business plan will cost $8.25/month per user ($99/year) and includes all of the Office applications for up to five PCs or Macs plus the iPad apps.  If you also want Exchange, you’ll have to get Office 365 Business Premium, which is $12.50/month per user ($150/year).  Thanks, Ben!]

I suspect that many attorneys are already paying for an Office 365 subscription to use the desktop software, and if that applies to you, then you can think of the iPad apps as a free add-on.  If you are using older versions of Microsoft Office software on your computers, consider whether you want to upgrade to Office 365 to get a license for the iPad apps.  If you cannot yet upgrade, I recommend that you talk to a Microsoft sales representative about the best options for your law office.

We are now very close to September 9, 2014, when Apple will introduce new products.  For sure, we will see the 2014 model of the iPhone, which I presume will be called the iPhone 6.  We might also see the wearable device that Apple has been working on for so long (the iWatch?), and possibly even a new iPad, although in past years Apple has waited until October for iPad announcements.  Brian Chen of the New York Times wrote a good article explaining what his sources told him will be announced next week.  But whatever it is that is being announced, all signs are that this will be a BIG announcement for Apple.  First, Apple sent out invitations to the press a week earlier than normal.  Second, as I noted last week, Apple booked a venue for the event that holds over three times as many people as the venue that Apple traditionally uses for iPhone announcements, and as if that is not enough, Apple is constructing a huge building next to the theater, presumably for product demonstrations.  (AppleInsider sent a drone over it to get aerial footage.)  Third, Apple is providing a live stream to the event, and unlike past years when the live stream was confirmed shortly before the event, this year they confirmed the live stream the week before the event.  There is even a page on Apple’s website with a countdown timer to the event.  So tell Siri to clear your calendar at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern on Tuesday, September 9.  I am very excited.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• New York attorney Nicole Black has posted on Above the Law the second part of her article based on her interview of U.S. Second Circuit Judge Richard Wesley on how he uses an iPad.
• New York attorney Lisa Solomon provides her thoughts on the first part of Nicole Black’s article on judges using iPads.
• The Lawyerist has posted a Dropbox for Lawyers and Law Firms user guide.  It is a useful article, but there is one part of it that gives me pause.  The article opines that “Dropbox is perfectly safe for most lawyers to use for client files.”  I know many smart lawyers who I respect who agree with that statement, but as the article itself notes, other lawyers disagree because Dropbox is a third party and has not signed a confidentiality agreement with its attorney users.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Dropbox and I use it extensively, but for me it stores public items such as pleadings.  For confidential documents that I want to share between my computers and my iPhone and iPad, I use a Transporter (a past sponsor of iPhone J.D.).
• Speaking of the security of online files, one of the big items in the news this past week was celebrities who use an iPhone that was backed up to iCloud who had some of their pictures stolen by criminals who seem to have somehow gotten access to their passwords, and then got access to their iCloud backups.  It is still unclear how the criminals did so, although Andy Greenberg offers some theories in an article for Wired, as does security expert Rich Mogull in an article for TidBITS, and I also liked this article by Ben Lovejoy for 9to5Mac. 
• One knee-jerk reaction is to say that people should not backup to iCloud, but as John Gruber notes, the alternative is (for most people) even worse — losing irreplaceable photographs if an iPhone dies or is lost and there is no backup.  Of course, you can also backup to iTunes on a computer, but it seems that most folks don’t do that, and for them, an online backup is better than no backup at all if a device can no longer be used.
• Hopefully the publicity surrounding this incident will result in better security options for all of us.  Whether a thief breaks into your home or accesses your online data, it is still a criminal invasion of privacy that makes us all feel vulnerable.  Daisuke Wakabayashi of the Wall Street Journal interviewed Apple CEO Tim Cook on the subject.  Cook told the Journal that “celebrities’ iCloud accounts were compromised when hackers correctly answered security questions to obtain their passwords or when they were victimized by a phishing scam to obtain user IDs and passwords.”  Cook noted that “none of the Apple IDs and passwords leaked from the company’s servers” but said that Apple is taking steps to make it harder for this to happen in the future, such as sending email and push notifications when someone tries to restore iCloud data to a new device. 
• Cook is also encouraging everyone to use two-factor authentication, which I also strongly recommend.  This eliminates the possibility of someone getting your password by answering security questions, and also can make it harder for a criminal to access your account even if the criminal does know your password.  I explained two-factor (or two-step) authentication and how to use it in this post from early 2013.
• After all of that serious talk about security, I think we can all use something on the light side.  Thanks to a tweet by Ohio attorney Chad Burton, I saw a funny-yet-true article for Gizmodo called 11 Reasons Email is the Worst by Tim Urban.  The pictures are great.
• Just in time for the announcement on September 9, the funny Apple fake news site Scoopertino “reports” that Apple CEO Tim Cook has had Steve Jobs’ shadow surgically removed.
• And finally, Jimmy Kimmel had a funny sketch last week showing off the (ahem) new iPad:

Boston attorney Heidi Alexander, a law practice management advisor for the Massachusetts Law Office Management Assistance Program, co-hosts The Legal Toolkit, a podcast that provides law practice management tips.  Heidi recently asked me to join her on the latest episode of the podcast to discuss some of our favorite iPhone and iPad apps and accessories.  That topic is far too broad for a podcast episode that lasts only 42 minutes, but we did our best to hit some of the highlights.

I’ve embedded the podcast below if you want to listen to it in your browser.  Or you can click here to launch the podcast in iTunes, or click here to download the episode as an MP3 file.  Click here for the show notes for the episode, which includes links to just about all of the apps and accessories that we discussed.

I am always interested in surveys that provide information on attorney iPhone and iPad use, and the latest report that I have seen on this subject is the 2014 Survey of American Lawyers at Major Law Firms: Use of Tablet Computers by Primary Research Group, Inc.  Primary Research Group is a professional research firm that publishes research reports, surveys, and benchmarking studies for businesses, colleges, libraries, law firms, hospitals, museums, and other institutions.  This is a survey of randomly chosen partners, associates, of counsel and contract attorneys at U.S. law firms with 25 or more attorneys who have used (but do not necessarily own) a tablet computer.  The sample size for this survey was 104 law firms and 256 attorneys.  There are some interesting results in this new report, and Primary Research Group gave me permission to report on some the findings.  If you purchase the report, you get a huge amount of additional information, essentially everything that you might want to make use of all of the survey responses.

As noted above, the participants in this survey work at a law firm with 25 or more attorneys and have used a tablet before, but don’t necessarily own one.  The survey asked respondents what brand of tablet that they own.  The results were 66.0% iPad, 6.6% Samsung, 4.8% Microsoft Surface, 1.6% Google, 0.8% Lenovo, 0.4% Asus. Samsung and Google both make tablets that use the Android operating system.  I believe that Lenovo and Asus make both Android and Windows tablets.

Assuming that no respondents owned more than one brand of tablet, that means that a total of 80.2% of the surveyed attorneys actually own a tablet.  If 66 of the of 80.2 is iPad, that is 82.3%, so that means that of the population of survey respondents who own a tablet, approximately 82% of them own an iPad.  Here is a pie graph showing those results:

The results of the Primary Research Group survey are similar to what we saw in the 2014 ABA Legal Technology Resource Center tech survey, where 84% of tablet-using attorneys used an iPad, 10% used Android, and almost 6% used Windows tablets.

Although the overall survey showed 66.0% owning an iPad, the report breaks down that number by age and by gender.  As for age, the report shows a slight tendency, up to age 59, for older attorneys to own an iPad.  Specifically:

• Age under 30:  58.82% own an iPad
• Age 30-39:  59.65% own an iPad
• Age 40-49:  69.35% own an iPad
• Age 50-59:  75.38% own an iPad
• Age 60 or Over:  60.00% own an iPad

As for gender, there was a slight tendency for female attorneys to own an iPad (71.62%) versus male attorneys (63.74%).

Where are these attorneys getting their tablets?  90% of survey respondents bought their own tablet; 10% of them used a tablet provided by their law firm.

The survey also provides a lot of information about the apps that attorneys are using.  I think that the most significant new iPad app for attorneys that was released this year was the Microsoft Office suite, especially the Word for iPad app.  Almost 19% of all respondents said that they use Office for iPad, and considering that 66% of all respondents own an iPad, that means that around 28% of attorneys in the survey that own iPads are already using those Microsoft apps that were released on March 27, 2014.

When I travel, one of the most useful iPad accessories that I bring with me is my Apple Wireless Keyboard, which makes it so much easier to type emails and edit documents when I am working at night in my hotel room.  One of the questions in the survey was:  “Do you use some form of detachable or auxiliary keyboard with your tablet?”  34% said yes, 55% said no, and 11% did not answer the question. 

Speaking of travel, the survey also asked:  “Has your tablet computer helped you increase your billable hours?”   28% said yes, 57% said no, and 15% did not answer.  For the attorneys who used a tablet to increase their billable hours, the report notes: “Overwhelmingly they said that tablets helped them to add billable hours while traveling.  The term ‘traveling’ here is meant broadly and can include commuting to and from work or to and from local destinations.”  That makes sense to me.  I use my iPad in my office all of the time, and when I do so, it increases the quality of my work but probably not the number of billable hours.  But when I am out of the office, the iPad does make it easier to do billable work that I otherwise might not do at all.

If you are interested in more results from this extensive survey, you can get more information, view the Table of Contents, download an excerpt, and purchase a copy at this page on the Primary Research Group website.  Thank you to the Primary Research Group for giving me permission to share some of the survey results with iPhone J.D. readers.

Late yesterday morning, Apple announced that is hosting an event on September 9, 2014 at the Flint Center in Cupertino.  My first reaction was that we finally have official confirmation of the date on which I expect Apple to debut the iPhone 6.  That was quickly followed by my second reaction, which was that it seems pretty special for Apple to host the event at the Flint Center — the only time I could remember Apple doing so was when Steve Jobs first debuted the Macintosh in January of 1984.  (Jim Dalrymple of The Loop subsequently posted that Apple also used it in 1998 and 1999, events where Steve Jobs announced the first iMacs.)  When Apple has smaller announcements (e.g., the iPhone 4s, the iPhone 5s), it typically uses the Town Hall located on Apple’s campus, which seats 301 people.  For a larger announcement, such as the iPhone 5, Apple typically uses the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco, which seats 755 people.  The Flint Center seats 2,400 people, significantly more than those other venues.  And to get even more space, that post from Dalrymple also reveals that Apple is right now constructing an additional building next to the Flint Center to use for this announcement.

Why does Apple need so much additional space, and why pick a venue so significant in Apple history?  Is the iPhone 6 going to be so special that Apple needs three times the space that it could get at Yerba Buena?  I suspect the answer is that in addition to showing off the new iPhone, Apple also plans to debut on September 9th its long-rumored wearable device — which I presume will be called the iWatch.  I can imagine it being touted as the ultimate accessory for an iPhone.  Who knows, maybe I’m wrong, but I am certainly excited to see what Apple has in store for us on September 9; it should be a memorable announcement.  And now, the rest of the news of note from this past week:

• TrialPad, widely considered to be the best app for displaying documents at trial or in a meeting on an iPad, was updated to version 4.1 this week.  New features include a custom sort option, the ability to automatically make a straight line when you underline using the pen tool, and iOS 8 compatibility.  You can get more information here and on the TrialPad website.
• Washington attorney James Gayton and Greg Tolbert explain how lawyers can get into trouble with iPhones and other technology in a post for Lawyerist.
• Massachusetts attorney Robert Ambrogi discusses PaperWork, an app developed by Massachusetts attorney William Palin that can be used to create family law forms for use in — you guessed it — Massachusetts.
• GoodNotes is my favorite app for taking handwritten notes on my iPad using a stylus.  This week the app was updated to version 4.3, which adds the option to convert handwritten notes to text and search the text, as noted on the developer’s blog.
• Dropbox is lowering its pricing and expanding its storage space.  In the past, the free Dropbox plan provided 2 GB of storage, or you could get a Dropbox Pro plan with an annual fee of $99 for 100 GB, $199 for 200 GB, or $499 a year for 500 GB.  As noted on the Dropbox blog this week, there is now just a single Dropbox Pro plan, which will cost $99 a year (or $9.99/month) for 1 TB (1,000 GB) of storage space.  Additionally, Pro users will have new sharing features, such as the ability to add a password to your share link, an expiration date for a shared link, and optional view-only permissions for shared folders.
• Speaking of Dropbox, Allyson Kazmucha of iMore explains how you can use Dropbox to sent large email attachments from your iPhone or iPad.
• Speaking of online storage options, OneDrive is Microsoft’s answer to Dropbox, and as Mark Hearn of 9to5Mac notes, Microsoft updated its OneDrive app for iOS this week.
• Walt Mossberg of re/code dicusses the future of the tablet market, and his article includes quotes from Apple CEO Tim Cook about iPad sales.
• I’m a big fan of Cloak, an app that runs in the background on my iPhone and iPad and automatically establishes a secure VPN connection anytime that I am on public Wi-Fi such as at a hotel, airport or coffee shop.  I reviewed it in April of 2014, and I continue to use it.  Bradley Chambers wrote an article for The Sweet Setup in which he looks at the available options and concludes that Cloak is the best VPN solution for iOS and the Mac.
• And finally, when Apple sends out invitations to its iPhone announcements, it frequently uses graphics and a tagline that provide some hint as to what is coming.  For example, the September 2011 invitation said “Let’s talk iPhone” and the event debuted iPhone 4s, which introduced Siri so that your iPhone could talk to you.  The September 2012 invitation had a picture of a 12 with a shadow of a 5, indicating the iPhone 5 would be announced.  The September 2013 invitation said “This should brighten everyone’s day” and the iPhone 5s added the new gold iPhone.  But as further evidence that Apple has something big, but really secret, to announce on September 9, 2014, this time the graphic reveals nothing, and the tagline is simply:  “Wish we could say more.”  Apple, you are such a tease.

I

f you were an early purchaser of the iPhone 5 like I was, you may be eligible for a free replacement battery from Apple.  As noted on this page of the Apple website:  “Apple has determined that a very small percentage of iPhone 5 devices may suddenly experience shorter battery life or need to be charged more frequently. The affected iPhone 5 devices were sold between September 2012 and January 2013 and fall within a limited serial number range.”  I gave my iPhone 5 to my wife last year when I upgraded to an iPhone 5s.  She uses it every day and tells me that — so far — she hasn’t noticed shorter battery life, but it turns out that the iPhone 5 I bought on September 21, 2012 and that she now uses is a part of the serial number range.

To find out if your iPhone 5 is affected, determine your iPhone’s serial number by opening up the Settings app and then tapping General and then About.   You will see a list of lots of information about your iPhone 5, including the Serial Number.  Then go to the Apple website that I mentioned above, and enter your Serial Number.  If you have an iPhone 5 that is eligible for the program, you will get a message that “The iPhone 5 serial number you entered is eligible for this program. Please choose one of the service options below.”

You don’t need to rush to an Apple Store to get a new battery; the program lasts until two years after the first retail sale date of the iPhone 5 (which is September 21, 2014 if you bought it on the release date like I did) or March 1, 2015, whichever date provides more coverage.  So in other words, you have at least six months from now, or perhaps longer if you bought your iPhone after March 1, 2013 (although Apple thinks that most affected units were sold before February of 2013).  Of course, if your battery does seem to be exhibiting problems, you probably don’t want to wait very long to get a replacement battery at an Apple Store or other authorized service provider.

I suspect that many iPhone 5 owners are nearing the end of a two-year contract, and thus plan to upgrade to the iPhone 6 when it is released next month (if you believe the rumors).  I know that many folks pass on their used iPhones to family members or friends, and if you have an affected iPhone 5, then you might be able to get a fresh new battery for free before you pass along the device, which I’m sure that your family member or friend will appreciate.

The International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) is a peer networking organization for people who work in the legal technology field, such as the people who work in law firm IT departments.  ILTA just concluded its annual conference in Nashville, and at the conference ILTA and InsideLegal released the results of their ninth annual technology purchasing survey.  The survey was sent to about 1,400 ILTA member law firms with responses from 281 (20%) law firms, about 86% of which were U.S. firms.  You can download this year's report in PDF format here.  Here is what I saw in the survey results that struck me as interesting for attorneys who use iPhones and iPads

iPhones and iPads are exciting to IT departments

When respondents were asked to describe the most exciting technology or trend, the top four answers were (1) mobility, (2) cloud services, (3) virtualization and (4) artificial intelligence and wearables.  iPhones and iPads fit into at least two of those categories — mobile devices used to access cloud services — and if the rumors are true about Apple announcing an "iWatch" iPhone accessory later this year, the iPhone may soon relate to three of those categories of the most exciting technologies.

For law firms that buy smartphones, almost all buy iPhones

This is a "technology purchasing survey" which means it asks about technology purchased by law firms.  There are many categories of legal technology that are virtually always purchased by law firms and not individual lawyers, but the category of mobile technology is one that is moving away from IT purchasing departments.  Many attorneys now buy their own device, a practice so prevalent in all companies that there is a common acronym for it:  BYOD (bring your own device).  Indeed, this year's survey reveals that 36% of law firms do not purchase any smartphones for their attorneys.  And this is clearly the trend:  in 2013, 21% of law firms were BYOD-only, and in 2012, 10% were BYOD-only. 

The ILTA survey does not ask any questions about smartphones that attorneys purchase themselves, only the smartphones that law firms are buying.  If 36% of law firms have a BYOD-only policy in 2014, that means that the other 64% are still buying smartphones for at least some of their attorneys.  What are they buying?  Virtually all are buying iPhones (63%), most are buying Android (39%), almost half are still buying BlackBerries (28%), and a small number are buying Windows smartphones (9%).  Or stated differently, for those law firms that purchase smartphones for their attorneys in 2014, 98% are buying iPhones, 61% are buying Android, 44% are buying BlackBerry and 14% are buying Windows. 

Because ILTA has been asking this question for three years now, we now have three years of data to chart and can start to see some trends.  For law firms that purchase smartphones for their attorneys — which, as noted, fewer and fewer do each year — there have been some notable changes.  Just two years ago, only about half of law firms purchased iPhones.  In 2014, virtually all law firms that purchase smartphones purchase iPhones.  And while only about 11% of law firms would purchase Android phones in 2012, now 61% of law firms purchase at least some Android phones. 

What this chart doesn't tell you is how many of each smartphone the firms are buying, just that the firm is buying at least one of that brand.  On the other hand, the chart does tell us something about which smartphones are acceptable to IT departments at law firms.  Two years ago, half of the law firms refused by buy any iPhones, and now virtually all of them buy iPhones.  Two years ago, very few law firms would buy any Android smartphones, and now 61% of them will do so.  And while other surveys, such as the latest ABA Technology Survey that I analyzed last week, indicate that attorney BlackBerry use has plummeted over the last few years, almost half of law firms will still consider buying a BlackBerry for at least some of their attorneys. 

For law firms that buy tablets, almost all buy iPads

In the 2012 ILTA purchasing survey, only 13% of law firms purchased tablets for at least some of their attorneys.  That increased substantially in the 2013 survey, when 58% of law firms purchased tablets for at least some of their attorneys.  But this year, more law firms have BYOD policies on tablets, and only 48% of law firms purchase tablets for at least some of their attorneys.

For those law firms that do purchase tablets for their attorneys, once again the ILTA survey reveals that virtually all buy iPads.  (In 2013, essentially 100% purchased iPads for at least some attorneys, and in 2014, about 92% purchased iPads for at least some attorneys.)  In 2014, about 21% of law firms that purchased tablets purchased Android for some of their attorneys (similar to 22% in 2013), and about 35% of law firms that purchased tablets purchased Microsoft Surface devices for some of their attorneys (up from 21% in 2013).

One interesting question asked in 2013 and 2014 was "What percentage of your firm's attorneys use tablets in their day-to-day work?"  In 2013, 86% of law firms reported that at least one of their attorneys used a tablet, and in 2014 that increased to 91%.  That tells us that it is getting even harder to find a law firm that doesn't have at least one attorney using a tablet.  In 2013, 7% of law firms reported that over half of their attorneys used a tablet every day; in 2014, that increased to 10% of law firms reporting that over half of their attorneys use a tablet every day.

Security policies

As more and more of us recognize the importance of mobile device security, it is becoming increasingly important for law firms to have policies in place that govern how attorneys can use their devices — especially considering that more and more attorneys are bring their own devices to work.  For example, I believe that law firms should require that their attorneys use a passcode to lock their iPhones and tablets because those devices are likely to contain confidential client information, and it is too easy for someone besides the intended user to pick up a mobile device, perhaps becuase it was left unattended, or perhaps because it was stolen.

In 2013, only 30% of law firms had a formal security policy for mobile devices.  In 2014, this increased to 65%, plus another 21% are in the process of establishing a policy.  This is an encouraging trend, and I hope it isn't long before the numbers get closer to 100%.

What would you do if you were on the street using your iPhone and a thief grabbed it from you and ran away?  It recently happened to Clara Vondrich, who calls herself a “recovering lawyer” on Twitter; she used to work on international arbitration law at Arnold and Porter in Washington, D.C. but now works on climate change issues at communications firm Fenton in New York.  Even though she was wearing a dress and wedge shoes, she ran after the thief, chased him for several blocks, and eventually caught him and held him in a bear hug until the police arrived.  Kenneth Garger was there and took photographs, which landed on the cover of the New York Post and resulted in this article.  Vondrich got lots of other publicity, such as an interview on New York’s Pix11 News and another one on News 12.  Unfortunately, she didn’t get her iPhone back because the thief passed off her iPhone to a friend while he was running, and while the police were able to track the iPhone and determine the building that it was in, they didn’t enter without a search warrant.  Vondrich now admits that if it happens to her again, chasing a suspect is probably not the wisest idea.  Vondrich and I emailed about the incident, and she told me that because the thief was only 13 years old, she is not pressing charges and she even “offered to talk with the kid and take him hiking.”  It is tough for any of us to predict how we would react in this situation; I suspect that split-second decisions are made based on adrenaline more than logic.  But now you are thinking about it, as am I.  And now, the rest of the news of note from the past week:

• New York attorney Nicole Black interviewed Judge Richard Wesley of the U.S. Second Circuit about how he uses his iPad as a judge, and wrote about it in this article on Above the Law.
• When it comes to mobile technology, I don’t always see eye-to-eye with Oklahoma City attorney Jeff Taylor, the expert when it comes to attorneys using Android phones who publishes The Droid Lawyer website.  But I do agree with what Taylor wrote in this article, namely that for most law firms, having a mobile app makes a lot less sense than just having a mobile-friendly website.
• Earlier this year I reviewed DkT, a great app for accessing PACER on an iPad and iPhone.  The app recently had some problems logging in to PACER because PACER changed the way that logins work, but the developer of the app, New York attorney Matt Zorn, has now solved the problem.  It worked for me when I was using the app yesterday, so if you have been having issues with the app (as I was), hopefully it now works for you.
• California attorney Scott Grossberg discusses options for sending and receiving faxes on an iOS device.
• San Francisco attorney Wiliam Peacock, who graduated from law school in 2011 and now works for FindLaw, gives four reasons that law students shouldn’t use an iPad.  I think that his reason #2 makes some sense, but I disagree with the rest of his reasons.  And even on his reason #2, I can see an iPad + an external keyboard being an excellent way to take notes in class.  Having said that, when I went to law school in the early 1990s, people were not even using laptop computers in the classroom yet, so I may not be the best one to give advice on what technology law students today should use.
• TrialPad, a fantastic iPad app for displaying documents in a trial, mediation or meeting, is normally $89.99, but through August 24, 2014 is on sale for only $49.99.  This app doesn’t go on sale very often, so if you have been thinking about getting it but were deterred by the price, now is the time to get it.  Click here to get TrialPad ($49.99): 

  

• Speaking of sales, Transporter — a current sponsor of iPhone J.D. — has a back-to-school sale going right now where you can get $20 off of a Transporter Sync (use offer code B2SSYNC) and $50 off of a 1 TB or 2 TB Transporter (use offer code B2STOWER).  The sale ends August 25, 2014.
• Does it seem like your iPhone has less free space than it should?  John Moltz explains that he restored his wife’s 16 GB iPhone and was able to recover over 6 GB of free space, and he restored his iPhone and got back around 3 GB of free space.  Very impressive.
• I don’t link to Apple rumors very often on iPhone J.D., but if you do want to keep up with the rumor mill, one of the best ways to do so is to read articles by Mark Gurman on 9to5Mac.com.  What you may not know is that Gurman is only 20 years old, a Junior at the University of Michigan.  I enjoyed reading this interesting profile of Gurman that was written by Michael Rosenwald for the Columbia Journalism Review.
• On December 23, 2013, I wrote about an Apple TV ad called Misunderstood.  As I wrote at the time:  “Apple has a tradition of running some pretty great Christmas commercials, and the one that they are running this year is, in my opinion, one of the all-time best.”  I guess I wasn’t the only one who liked it.  As the aforementioned Mark Gurman writes for 9to5Mac, the ad won the Emmy for Outstanding Commercial – 2014.  Congrats to Apple!
• If your iPhone falls off of a boat into 10 feet of water and stays down there for five minutes, you might assume that it is a goner.  But that happened to Rob Griffiths of Macworld, and he brought his device back to life, as detailed in this article.  Wow.
• What can you do if you find a lost iPhone and want to get it back to its owner?  Allyson Kazmucha has some good tips on iMore.  Maybe someone will find Clara Vondrich’s phone.
• And finally, do you love hot tea as much as you love your iPhone?  If so, you will love the iKettle, a $165.95 teapot that uses Wi-Fi to talk to your iPhone.  As the manufacturer states, “imagine how perfect and complete life would feel if there was no longer that tiresome wait for the kettle to boil. This blissful paradise we’ve just described is now all too real, thanks to the iKettle – The World’s first WiFi Kettle.”  That sounds over-the-top, but Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac reviwed the iKettle, and while he admits that it is expensive, he says:  “As someone who works from home and loves tea, the iKettle is perfect.”

If you are in the New Orleans area and you want to get an hour of CLE credit tomorrow while you listen to me talk about using an iPad in a law practice, I am told that there are still a few spots left for the New Orleans Bar Association’s Free on Friday CLE Series.  The CLE will take place from Noon to 1:00 at the New Orleans Bar Association’s office in downtown New Orleans at 650 Poydras St., Suite 1505.  Lunch will not be served, but the CLE is free to NOBA members (or $35 for non-members).  To register for a spot before they are all gone, you can email Rebekah Burg or call NOBA at (504) 525-7453.

If you are in New Orleans, I hope to see you there.  And if you are not in New Orleans, hopefully you will find an excuse to get yourself down to the Crescent City in the near future.