One of my favorite iPad accessories is the Apple Wireless Keyboard, a full-size keyboard that connects to the iPad via Bluetooth. When I am traveling and I need to draft something longer than a few sentences, I almost always reach for the keyboard, and even when I am in my office, I will sometimes use my keyboard and iPad together while I use my computer for another purpose. When using the Apple Wireless Keyboard, you want to have the iPad propped up at a good angle. You can use an Apple Smart Cover, but it is not very sturdy when you tap on the iPad’s screen. For a while now, I’ve used the Origami Workstation for iPad, a combination case for the keyboard and stand for the iPad. For a few weeks now, I’ve been trying another solution called the Niblstand because one of the creators of the device sent me a free review unit. It’s a clever solution that has quite a few tricks up its sleeve.
The Niblstand is a made of plastic and comes in two specially designed parts that fit together: the main part that attaches to an Apple Wireless Keyboard with a grove to hold an iPad, and a handle that extends out to provide support.
As you can see from the side, there are special groves so that you can slide in an Apple Wireless Keyboard.
Simply slide in your keyboard, place an iPad in the well, and your iPad will be propped up at a good angle. Better yet, it is fairly sturdy in the well so you can tap and swipe on the screen without fear that the iPad will fall down.
Because the Niblstand is fairly strong, you can even place it on your lap and type without a desk. I’m not a big fan of typing with any device on my lap — I don’t like to do it with laptop computers either — but if that position works for you, the Nimblstand provides a sturdy platform for the iPad and keyboard.
You can also make the Nimblstand more compact by moving the extender from one end of the base to the other. In this position, if you push on your iPad too hard it will push back and could fall over, so I prefer to use the Nimblstand the other way. But the compact position does work, and it also provides a more efficient design for storage.
There is also a round holder in the Nimblstand specially designed for the Wacom Bamboo Stylus, which I and many others believe is one of the very best styluses for the iPad. When you are using the Nimblstand to type, the placement of the stylus is a little awkward so I didn’t use it very much.
However, the clever Nimblstand can be used yet another way. in either extended or compact mode, flip the iPad around so that your keyboard is behind the iPad (and not used). This places the iPad in a perfect angled position for using the iPad, especially if you want to use an app to draw on the screen — such as one of my favorite apps for taking notes, GoodNotes. And in this orientation, the placement of the stylus holder makes perfect sense and works quite well.
I was actually surprised how much I liked this last orientation of the Nimblstand. I originally thought of the Nimblstand as something to use only when using a keyboard, but when I wasn’t using a keyboard I really enjoyed using my iPad in this position in which the iPad leans far back but is still quite sturdy when you tap or otherwise touch the screen.
All of the above pictures show the Nimblstand with my iPad 3. The Nimblstand website says that it works with 99% of all tablets, even with many tablets in covers. However, I’m not a big fan of how the Nimblstand works with the brand new iPad Air. Because the bevel on the iPad Air is so narrow, the screen sits a little to low in the Nimblstand, making it difficult to touch the edge of the screen — and thus making it difficult to access the new iOS 7 control panel. Here is a picture of my iPad Air in the Nimblstand:
I contacted the developer about this, and he told me that the company is already working on developing spacers, something like an adhesive-backed soft rubber pad, to fit in the Nimblstand so that the iPad Air is at the correct height. He said that the company plans to include these spacers with all Nimblstands sold and will even send them to current owners. I’ll update this review when I get a chance to try out the spacers.
[UPDATE 2/26/2014: I received my iPad Air Sustainability Kit for the Nimblstand. It consists of four adhesive pads that each have a sticky side. You simply place them in the groves at the ends following very simple instructions, and now your Nimblstand is updated for the iPad Air. The edge of the screen is no longer burried in the groove on the Nimblestand and everything just works. So whenever you upgrade to the iPad Air, your Nimblstand is ready to upgrade with you.]
The design of the Nimblstand is fascinating and makes the product quite versatile. The website says that the developers went through 64 prototypes over 30 months to create the final design. On this page of the Nimblstand website there is a great video that shows all of the different positions of the Nimblstand.
If you use an Apple Wireless Keyboard with your iPad, this product is worth a look. The Nimblstand lets your Apple Wireless Keyboard and your iPad work very well together.
If you are one of the 1,317 people (as of 11/1/13) coming to the ABA Section of Labor and Employment Law 7th Annual Labor and Employment Law Conference that starts in New Orleans today, welcome to New Orleans! The Crescent City has a lot to offer visitors, including some of the best restaurants in the world, amazing live music, unique architecture, a colorful history, and a lot of friendly folks. Plus, many say that the cocktail was invented in New Orleans, and while I’ve seen some vigorous debates over which city served the first one in the early 1800s, suffice it to say that you will have no trouble finding an excellent drink in this city. My personal favorite is the Old Fashioned, and they make a great version at the Old Absinthe House on Bourbon St.
But of course, you are coming to New Orleans to attend conference sessions, not just sip a Sazerac while you spin around the Carousel Bar in the French Quarter, so I hope to see you at the Apps for Labor and Employment Lawyers session at 2:15 on Thursday, Nov. 7 in Grand Salons 3/6 at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside. I’m teaming up with my friends Oklahoma lawyer Jeff Taylor of The Droid Lawyer and Natalie Kelly of the State Bar of Georgia to discuss the best apps, on a panel led by Jim McKenna, the Director of Infrastructure and Administrative Systems at Morrison & Foerster in San Francisco.
I also see that there is a session on Friday called Trial by iPad, presented by Detroit lawyer Adam Forman and San Francisco attorney Todd Schneider, and a session on Saturday called Do Lawyers Have an Ethical Duty to Learn About and Understand Technology? (Spoiler alert: I bet that the answer is yes.)
For those in town, have a great time in New Orleans. And for those not attending, the Big Easy is open year-round, so find yourself an excuse to get down here at some point. It’s a fun city.
If my third-generation iPad and my iPad mini had a baby, and if the proud parents were lucky enough to realize the dream shared by all parents that their child be even smarter than they are, the result would be the iPad Air. I’ve been using an iPad Air extensively for the last three days, and it truly combines the best features of the iPad and the iPad mini, plus offers more. This is an amazing product, and it is hard for me to imagine any lawyer not finding a lot to love about the iPad Air.
Weight
The marquee feature of the iPad Air — the reason for the word “Air” in the title — is that it is light. The technical specifications will tell you that the iPad Air weighs 1 pound versus the 1.3 pounds of a third generation iPad and the 1.4 pounds of the fourth generation iPad. Expressed in terms of a percentage (about 25% lighter) that sounds substantial, but a difference of 0.3 or 0.4 pounds may not seem very large.
Trust me, the difference is substantial. For the last year, I’ve used both a third generation iPad and an iPad mini so I know what it feels like for an iPad to feel lighter, and the iPad Air feels much more like an iPad mini than an iPad. Indeed, it almost feels the same weight as the iPad mini. I know that is just an illusion — the iPad Air weighs a pound and the iPad mini weighs about two-thirds of a pound — and perhaps the illusion comes from the extra weight being distributed across a larger surface area? Whatever the reason, it is so nice to get the advantages of a full-sized iPad screen in a device that weighs almost as much as an iPad mini.
What does it mean to have an iPad that is so light? It means that when I went to go fetch my iPad Air to use while watching the Saints game yesterday, I was half-way back to my TV when I stopped, thinking that I forgot to get my iPad, only to look down in my hand and notice that it was indeed there. It was just so light it didn’t feel like I was holding an iPad. It means that when I hold up my iPad Air for a long period of time to go through emails or read documents, my hand no longer gets tired the way that it would with the iPad 3. It means that I can hold the iPad Air with one hand much the same way that I often hold my iPad mini. It means that the iPad Air is much less noticeable when you are carrying it in a briefcase or a purse.
Another way to say all of this is that the iPad Air removes any of the awkwardness of holding a full-sized iPad, which is really saying something because for years I’ve loved a full-sized iPad over a laptop computer because the iPad is so much lighter and easier to work with.
Of course, you could always get the weight advantage with an iPad mini, and I love my iPad mini, but it is far less useful for work. For one thing, I miss the Retina screen on my mini, although fortunately that will be fixed when the new mini comes out later this month. Second, much of the work that I do on my iPad involves working with documents. Whether I am reading and annotating a PDF file in an app like GoodReader or iAnnotate or PDFpen, reading and highlighting a transcript in TranscriptPad, looking at a Word document in Documents to Go, creating a document in Pages, or spending a lot of time reading web pages in Safari, my eyes are much happier when I use the larger screen. Having the exact same screen size in a lighter package is truly the best of all worlds.
Easier to Hold Design
The weight makes a big difference when you are holding an iPad Air, but the hardware design also makes the iPad Air much easier to hold than the iPad. If you have ever used an iPad mini, you’ve probably noticed the edge. Unlike the tapered edge of the iPad, the iPad Air follows the iPad mini design of a 90º edge with rounded corners, and it feels much better in your hands. It makes the iPad Air feel like a true tablet.
I presume that I will grow used to it over time, but for now, every time I start holding the iPad Air I find myself thinking how much nicer the edges feel in my hands.
Wi-Fi Speed
I suspect that most attorneys will, like me, primarily use an iPad at the office or at home where Wi-Fi is available. Faster download speeds are always better, and I’ve seen faster Wi-Fi speeds than ever before with the iPad Air. I suspect that part of this is because the iPad itself is faster, part of this is because of a better Wi-Fi radio, and part of this is because the iPad Air includes two Wi-Fi antennas and can use both of them at the same time using something called MIMO (multiple input multiple output) for up to twice the 802.11n Wi-Fi performance when used with a compatible router.
Whatever the reason, the Wi-Fi speeds in my office are fantastic. I ran numerous speed tests at the same time with both my iPad 3 and my iPad Air next to each other. In my office, my download speeds on the iPad 3 ranged from 14 Mbps to 32 Mbps, and my iPad Air download speeds were about twice as fast, ranging from 42 Mbps to 54 Mbps. Upload speeds ranged from 10 Mbps to 23 Mbps on the iPad 3, and from 23 Mbps to 54 Mbps on my iPad Air. Here are some typical examples, with the iPad Air on the right:
(The reason for the time differences in the above photos is that I had not yet told the iPad Air that I was in New Orleans, so it was displaying Pacific Time while my iPad 3 displayed Central time. The tests were run at exactly the same time.)
Other times, when I wasn’t doing a side-by-side comparison, my results on the iPad Air in my office were even higher. In one test, I saw download speeds of 79 Mbps and upload speeds of 50 Mbps. Wow!
At home, my Wi-Fi is provided by an Apple AirPort Extreme (4th generation). MIMO support was added to the AirPort Extreme in the third generation (released March of 2009), so the difference between the iPad 3 and the iPad Air on my home Wi-Fi was similar to what I saw in my office, although the overall speeds were lower. On my iPad 3, when in the same room as the AirPort Extreme, I typically see download speeds of 15 to 25 Mbps, and on the iPar Air, I typically see download speeds of 40 to 50 Mbps.
These results are not just academic. The speed is easily noticeable when you use the iPad Air. It was especially nice to see large documents on Dropbox or iCloud download to my iPad so much faster, but it was also nice to have Safari show pages so much faster. Even small speed increases can have a big impact on how it feels to use a device, and so when the iPad Air gives you big speed increases, it can make a big difference in your productivity.
But perhaps more important are the results I saw in a room at the other end of my house where I typically have trouble getting a good Wi-Fi signal, and where tests revealed numbers like this:
Speeds of 0.37 Mbps down and 0.13 Mbps up are slow enough to make it difficult to get work done with an iPad 3. The iPad Air speeds in that same room of 2.71 Mpbs down and 0.34 up are not great, but they are good enough for me to get work done. Thus, not only does the iPad Air give you the opportunity to see faster Wi-Fi speeds, it can even make the difference between getting a strong enough signal to get work done and having the Wi-Fi be so slow that you are frustrated in your efforts to be productive.
Device Speed
The iPad Air has the same A7 chip as the iPhone 5s, except that it has a slightly faster clock speed. As a result, this is the fastest iOS device that Apple has ever sold. This means that in every day use, the device seems much more responsive. And for app developers that push the limit of the A7, you can see some truly amazing results. For example, the game Infinity Blade III looks cinematic — so much so that I’d like to think that every time I was defeated by an opponent, it was because I was so dazzled by the beautiful background artwork that I didn’t see the sword coming for me. Sure, that’s the reason.
Much like faster Wi-Fi, overall device speed is important because it allows you to keep working without being distracted by delays. Unlike on my iPad 3, I haven’t had any problems with apps on the iPad Air keeping up with me, and switching apps is smoother and faster.
Etc.
I know that the iPad Air has dual microphones, which should help to reduce background noise and improve Siri dictation. In just the last three days of testing, however, I haven’t noticed much of a difference, perhaps because I rarely dictate to my iPad in a noisy environment.
I also know that early reviews of the iPad Air touted excellent battery life. However, I haven’t run any vigorous battery tests this weekend, nor have I had a reason to pay much attention to the battery life in my casual usage.
I haven’t discussed the improvements to the iPad camera because I almost never use the camera on my iPad except for FaceTime video chat and the occasional scanning of a document, and even for document scanning I usually prefer to use the iPhone.
The model that I purchased was the Wi-Fi only, black (Apple calls it Space Gray) model with 128 GB. This is the top-of-the-line Wi-Fi model and costs $799. My iPad 3 has 64 GB, and I now have enough files in my Dropbox that I sync to GoodReader, enough photographs and home movies of my kids, and enough apps that I was starting to find that 64 GB was tight, especially if I wanted to load up movies and TV shows to watch on a trip. It wasn’t that long ago that I was telling people that I found it hard to believe that any attorney would need 128 GB on an iPad. I’ll find out over the next year whether 128 GB is an excessive luxury or whether it adds real value, but I’ll admit that I’m an edge case and I suspect that 32 GB is sufficient for most attorneys.
I didn’t spend the extra $130 (plus monthly fees) for a model with a cellular radio because I find that there is usually Wi-Fi available when I want to use my iPad, and even when there is not I have tethering enabled on my iPhone and that works fine for me. I feel like I am somewhat in the minority; it seems that most of the attorneys I know don’t have tethering enabled and instead buy the cellular version of the iPad, and I’m sure that for many folks that makes good sense. I can also see the logic in getting an iPad Air with cell service from a different company than the one that you use with your iPhone so that if you ever find yourself in an area where your iPhone gets a bad signal, you could still use your iPad Air on another network.
Right now, my only complaint about the iPad Air is that I wish that it included the Touch ID fingerprint sensor that is in the iPhone 5s. Perhaps Apple will add that in the 2014 model of the iPad Air.
Note that if you have hardware for a previous model of the iPad, it might not work with the iPad Air. For one thing, unlike the iPad 3 and prior models, the iPad Air uses a Lightning connector, not the old 30-pin connector. Moreover, the iPad is thinner and has a smaller bevel (similar to the iPad mini) so cases and other devices made for the precise size of a prior model of the iPad might not work. For example, the Stabile PRO that I reviewed a few months ago works fine with the iPad Air, except that the (optional) Grapple PRO accessory that holds the iPad firmly in place only works when the iPad Air is in portrait orientation. Fortunately, many iPad accessories (like speakers and many keyboards) use Bluetooth and don’t require the iPad to be a specific size, so those accessories will work just fine.
Conclusion
I use my iPad every single day for work and most every weekend and night for work and pleasure. Having a model that is faster, lighter, and easier to hold will make a big difference for me every time I use it, and I am very happy to now be using an iPad Air. Of course, an iPad Air costs between $499 and $929, which is enough money that I know that most attorneys won’t upgrade every time a new model comes out. Last year, I bought an iPad 3 in early 2012, but I skipped the iPad 4 which came out in late 2012. But if you are ready to upgrade, this is an excellent time to do so. The iPad Air is a tremendous leap forward from previous models.
Of course, the new iPad mini with a Retina display will come out in a few weeks. As noted above, I think that many attorneys would get more value out of the larger screen when working with documents etc., but if you think that a smaller screen and smaller device works better for you, the good news is that just about all of the advantages of the iPad Air apply to the new iPad mini too — better Wi-Fi, faster A7 processor, and all in a very light device (although the new iPad mini is just slightly heavier than the 2012 model to accommodate the Retina display).
This article won the SmallLaw Pick of the Week award. The editors of SmallLaw, a free weekly email newsletter for solo practitioners and those who manage and work in small law firms, give this award to one article every week that they feel is a must-read for this audience.
The new iPad Air goes on sale today [UPDATE: and I purchased one this morning]. For now, you can buy one at an Apple Store or at the online Apple Store, but I’m sure that before long you’ll be able to get the new iPads elsewhere too. If you travel by airplane, you’ll soon have even more opportunities to use that new iPad Air because the FAA announced yesterday, as reported by Matthew Wald of the New York Times, that passengers will soon be able to use an iPad or an iPhone in all phases of flight if you keep the device in Airplane Mode. No need to wait until you are above 10,000 feet. And now, the other news items of note from the past week:
One the most-used apps on my iPhone is Fantastical. I loved the original version, and this week, a new version was released, Fantastical 2. It has an updated interface to match iOS 7 and adds a few new features. California attorney David Sparks posted this review, plus here is a review from Dan Frakes of Macworld. There are still times when I use the built-in Calendar app, but I love being able to scroll through the list of events or scroll across days at the top in the app, and it is much faster to create an event in Fantastical than in the built-in Calendar app thanks to the powerful natural language interface. Fantastical 2 will eventually cost $4.99 but is only $2.99 right now, and I strongly encourage you to buy it. Click here for Fantastical ($2.99):
Allyson Kazmucha of iMore provides some interesting information on the Touch ID fingerprint sensor on the new iPhone 5s.
Speaking of Touch ID, the always funny Joy of Tech comic provides this perspective on the security implications of the fingerprint sensor on the iPhone 5s.
If you want to get apps that show off the power of the new iPad Air and the new iPad mini with Retina Display, Kelly Hodgkins of TUAW provides a list of the 39 apps that were highlighted by Apple.
If you are traveling internationally and want to use your iPhone without incurring huge data charges, Jason Snell of Macworld has some good tips. My own strategy for international travel has been to keep my iPhone in Airplane Mode the whole time and only use it with Wi-Fi access, such as access provided by my hotel. I don’t let people call me, but if they email me and tell me that they need to talk, I use Skype to call them at a “real” phone number. With iOS 7, you could also use the new FaceTime audio feature to place an audio call over Wi-Fi to another iPhone.
If you need to communicate with folks using BlackBerry Messenger, you can now do so on an iPhone. Ellis Hamburger of The Verge has a review of the new BBM app.
And finally, I presume that the bold new design of iOS 7 was created by graphics professionals in a high-end graphics program, but Václav Krejčí from the Czech Republic shows in this video that you can create all of the icons in iOS using Microsoft Word. Pretty neat. (via iMore)
Today is Halloween, otherwise known as All Hallows’ Eve. Of course, for iPad enthusiasts, today is also All iPads’ Eve, the day before the brand new iPad Air goes on sale. I presume that all iPhone J.D. readers are dressing up as their favorite iOS-related characters tonight, so feel free to post links to your costumes in the comments. Now that Siri has a male voice in iOS 7, I’ll be dressing up as Siri on a black iPhone.
The new iPad Air goes on sale this Friday. Last week, Apple loaned iPad Airs to a few journalists who were allowed to post their reviews starting last night. The reviews are universally positive. Everyone seems to agree that iPad Air is not just lighter than previous models, it is light enough to make a real difference in every-day usage. It is also the fastest iOS device to date (just a sliver faster than the iPhone 5s), and has incredible all-day long battery life. Here are all of the reviews that I have seen so far, along with some quotes to give you a sense of the new features of the iPad Air.
John Gruber of Daring Fireball: “For those whose software needs are such that they can truly go iOS-only,
the new iPad Air is a compelling option as an alternative to a Mac or
PC laptop. Even if you pack along a hardware keyboard peripheral, you
can easily stay under 2 pounds total weight with an iPad Air as a travel
computer. The iPad Air makes an iPad 3/4 feel heavy; it makes an
of The Loop: “It’s very hard to describe how good the iPad Air feels
in your hand without actually picking one up. It’s kind of like the
first time you saw a Retina display for the first time—shock. The other
thing you will quickly notice is that while the screen size of the iPad
Air is the same as the previous generation, the Air is actually a
smaller device. The height is the same, but the width is considerably
narrower.”
Tim Stevens of CNET: “If you found yourself tuning out the last few generations of iPad thanks
to their extreme familiarity, it’s time to get yourself dialed back in.
The iPad Air is worth getting excited about. Though it brings no new
functionality to the table, and we can’t help being disappointed about
the lack of Touch ID, the performance increase and solid battery life
show that progress is still being made on the inside. It’s the new
exterior design, however, that really impresses. The iPad Air is thinner
than any tablet this size deserves to be, and lighter, too. The old
iPad always felt surprisingly hefty. This one, compellingly lithe.”
David Pogue, who is currently in-between jobs: “The thing is, making the iPad smaller, lighter, and faster without sacrificing battery life or beauty is a tremendous achievement. This isn’t a device that sits or hangs in one place its whole life. It’s not a microwave or a TV. You have to hold this thing while you’re using it, and carry it around when you’re not. So size and weight matter a lot.”
Walt Mossberg of All Things D: “I’ve been testing the iPad Air for about a week and found it a pleasure to use. This new iPad isn’t a radical rethinking of what a tablet can be, but it’s a major improvement on a successful product. It is the best tablet I’ve ever reviewed. … The battery performance of the iPad Air simply blew me away. In my tough
tablet battery test, where I disable automatic screen dimming and other
power-saving features, and combine video playback from the device’s
memory with leaving Wi-Fi on and email working at normal settings, the
iPad has almost always met its claims and beat competitors by a wide
margin.”
Ed Baig of USA Today: “As it happens, though, this latest full-size Apple tablet is the most tempting iPad yet, better than its already best of breed predecessors, superior still to each and every rival big screen slate that I’ve tested. Apple dominates the tablet apps ecosystem. Its tablet remains the easiest to use.”
Brad Molen of Engadget: “Simply put, the iPad Air is the most comfortable 10-inch tablet we’ve ever used.”
Vincent Nguyen of SlashGear: “It makes more of a difference than you might
imagine. While you see plenty of full-sized iPads out in the wild, the
majority of larger tablets spend their time indoors. With the iPad Air,
however, we found ourselves far more likely to drop it into our bag than
before, replacing the iPad mini and other 7- to 8-inch tablets as our
go-to device for mobility purposes.”
Clayton Morris of Fox News: “It’s hard to believe Apple managed to shave nearly a half-pound off last year’s fourth-generation iPad while still maintaining exceptional battery life, which in my all-day usage rarely dropped below 30 percent.”
Harry McCracken of Time: “Still, whether it’s a record-holder or not, the iPad Air is such a featherweight that it changes the experience of using Apple’s tablet. (I tried a unit provided by Apple with built-in Verizon 4G LTE, adding .05 of a pound to the package; no, I didn’t notice it.) To steal the phrase that Jeff Bezos used to describe Amazon’s original Kindle e-reader, you want a tablet to disappear in your hands. And there’s so much less of the Air that it comes closer to doing that than any previous full-sized iPad, letting you focus on the app you’re using rather than the device you’re holding. You can even support it in one hand, at least for a bit, without giving yourself a sore wrist. It’s just plain more approachable.”
Darrell Etherington of TechCrunch: “It’s a difference that you feel, all numbers and measurements aside. The
iPad Air is much, much more comfortable to hold than the iPad 4th-gen
it replaces; This isn’t strictly a one-handed device, but it’s as close
as you can get with a tablet that still has a gorgeous, expansive
9.7-inch Retina Display.”
Stuart Miles of Pocket-Lint: “The Air goes on and on for what seems like forever — especially if you
turn off the 4G. Even though the battery is physically smaller this time
around, performance savings within iOS 7 — Apple’s installed as
standard mobile operating system — and the new processors really does
mean you’ll see the same 10 hours of life per charge.”
Damon Darlin of the New York Times: “A tablet, especially this iPad, is a delight to use and will bring you
more hours of enjoyment than any other electronic device I know of.”
Rich Jaroslovsky of Bloomberg: “I actually grew impatient trying to exhaust the battery in
my tests; you should get a lot more than a full day of normal
for a week or so and it’s the first full-size iPad I’ve ever thrown into my
bag without thinking about the (28 per cent lighter) weight. It’s totally
replaced the iPad Mini for me, which previously was the model I’d take out
and about.”
Ben Bajarin of Techpinions: “The new iPad Air is so light you have to feel it to believe it. The iPad Mini weighs .69 pounds and the iPad Air weighs 1 pound. But when you hold them at the same time, the weight difference feels negligible. The iPad Air distributes its weight in a way that holding it and using it feels about as light as the iPad Mini. The iPad Air is easily the best designed iPad yet.”
Anand Lal Shimpi of AnandTech: “The iPad was never light enough for me to comfortably hold in my hands, suspended above my face while lying in bed or on the couch for long periods of time. The iPad 2 got close, but the 3rd and 4th generation iPads reset the scale completely. That’s actually one reason why I liked the iPad mini and Nexus 7 so much, they were far more comfortable to hold. The iPad Air gets incredibly close. Sans case, the iPad Air is light enough that I can comfortably hold it above me (with two hands) for a while without my wrists getting tired. I still prefer propping the iPad up against something but I think 1 pound may be the crossover point for me personally.”
Anick Jesdanun of AP: “Apple says it has been working on this engineering feat on the side for years, even as it released bulkier models. To make the Air 20 percent thinner, Apple shrunk just about every layer: the front glass, the touch sensor, the display, the battery and the aluminum back. Apple says it kept the device durable without unnecessary materials. It’s not until you hold the old and the new side by side that you feel and appreciate the difference.”
Luke Peters of T3: “Pitching the iPad Air against its
competitors is quite easy – it’s the best looking, premium, and
app-happy tablet on the market. The cosmetic design changes are an
unequivocal improvement, and the weight reduction proves a genuine
Yesterday, Apple released the results for its 2013 fiscal fourth quarter (which ran from June 30, 2013 to September 28, 2013) and held a call with analysts to discuss the results. This is typically a transitional quarter for Apple considering that so many sales take place in the October to December quarter that contains holiday sales. That was especially true this year because there were no new iPads for sale last quarter and the new iPhones did not go on sale until September 20, 2013 — enough to capture some of the early sales, but most new iPhone sales will occur in the 2014 fiscal fourth quarter that began on September 29, 2013. Nevertheless, it was yet another profitable quarter for Apple, with Apple announcing quarterly revenue of $37.5 billion. $1.5 billion more than the same quarter last year, and quarterly net profit of $7.5 billion, down slightly from the $8.2 billion in profit this time last year. If you want to get all of the nitty gritty details, you can download the audio from the announcement conference call from iTunes, or you can read a rough transcript of the call prepared by Seeking Alpha. Apple’s official press release is here. Here are the things said on the call yesterday that I think would be of interest to iPhone and iPad users:
Apple sold 33.8 million iPhones, which is pretty impressive considering
that, as noted above, the new iPhones didn’t come out until the very end of the fiscal quarter.
That’s the largest number of iPhones that Apple has ever sold in a
fiscal fourth quarter. Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer said: “Phone sales were ahead of our expectations and grew stronger year-over-year in each of our geographic segments.” Put the numbers together, and Apple CEO Tim Cook said that Apple sold 150 million iPhones in fiscal 2013. By
my count, as of September 28, 2013, Apple had sold over 421
million iPhones.
Oppenheimer noted that a lot of folks are using iPhones to get work done. He said: “iPhone continues to be a key productivity tool for organizations around
the world, aided by apps from the App Store as well as those
custom built for internal use. In fact, nearly 35,000 companies
representing millions of employees worldwide are building custom apps
that address specific workflow improvements for their iPhones and iPad
users.”
Cook said that only a little over 50% of the global handset market is currently using a smartphone. He said that currently the smartphone market is about 1 billion units worldwide, and by 2017 Apple sees that number at 1.7 billion. Thus, there is room to sell more iPhones in the future to new users, not to mention the upgrades to current users.
Cook noted that the new technology in the iPhone 5s — including the 64 bit processor and the fingerprint sensor — is just the “front end of a long road map.” So Apple has big things in store for this technology in the future. Good to know.
Apple sold 14.1 million iPads in the fiscal quarter. That’s roughly the same as the 14 million sold this time last year, but I’m sure that many folks (like me) were waiting for the new iPads to go on sale this Friday. Cook said that Apple sold 71 million iPads in fiscal year 2013. By my count, that means that as of September 28, 2013, Apple had sold over 169 million iPads.
Cook said that the worldwide tablet market is about 225 billion units this year and will increase to over 400 million in 2017. So once again, there is a lot of room for growth in sales to new users, not to mention the upgrades to current owners. As Cook said: “We continue to view the tablet market as huge. We see it as a large opportunity for us. … I think it’s going to be an iPad Christmas. But we’ll see, we’ll report the numbers back to you in January, how we did, but we are pretty confident.”
Oppenheimer said that over 60 billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store, and Apple has paid over $13 billion to app developers — half of that in just the last year.
Oppenheimer noted that Apple currently has $146.8 billion in cash and securities. Good to know that the company a little set aside for a rainy day. Or for that matter, a rainy decade.
When will Apple come out with something new, such as a rumored iWatch or other wearable accessory? Six months ago, Cook announced that Apple was working on some “exciting new product categories.” When asked about this yesterday, Cook was vague (no surprise), but did confirm that something new is coming: “In terms of new product categories, specifically, if you look at the
skills that Apple has from hardware, software and services, and [an]
incredible app ecosystem, these set of things are very, very unique. I
think no one has a set of skills like this. And we obviously believe that
we can use our skills in building other great products that are in
categories that represent areas where we do not participate today. So
we’re pretty confident about that.” Similarly, in the prepared remarks that Cook read at the start of the call, he said: “We continue to be very confident in Apple’s future and we see
significant opportunities ahead of us and both current product
categories and new ones.”
What do the iPhone and iPad mean to Apple as a whole? They are incredibly important. As noted by Macworld, iPhones accounted for 52% of Apple’s revenue this quarter and iPads accounted for another 17%, so that’s 69% of Apple’s total revenue. And that’s before you even start counting App Store sales and other iOS-related revenue. Apple still makes money selling Macs and to a much lesser extent iPods, but Apple is far more of an iPhone/iPad company than a Mac company.
With the recent updates to the iPad and iPad mini, the two devices are now arguably peers, which can make it hard to decide — if you are looking to upgrade your iPad, which one should you get? California attorney David Sparks gives his perspective on his MacSparky website, and ultimately he is thinking of getting both of them. New York attorney and TechnoLawyer publisher Neil Squillante describes the new iPads and offers this good advice: get an iPad Air if you prefer to type in landscape orientation, and get the iPad mini if you prefer to type in portrait orientation. MG Siegler of TechCrunch had a chance to try out the new iPads, and offers this perspective on them. I’ve decided to get an iPad Air when it comes out on November 1st, and in a way I’m glad that Apple won’t start selling the new iPad mini until late November because that way I won’t be tempted to buy both when I am in the store.
Miami attorney Al Saikali discusses on his Data Security Law Journal website a $3 million settlement of a lawsuit filed against a defendant after two unencrypted laptops containing personal information of 1.2 million customers were stolen from the defendant’s office. An extreme example, but a healthy reminder of the need to keep an eye on your mobile devices — and to use passwords on them.
Rulebook is a great app for downloading and viewing bodies of law and other legal resources so that you always have them with you. For example I use The Bluebook in Rulebook several times a month. Starting today, Rulebook is offering Free Rule Book Friday. Follow the Rulebook @rulebookapp Twitter account to learn each Friday morning which book is free.
Last month, I wrote an article for the TechnoLawyer SmallLaw newsletter on helpful but hidden iOS 7 features. Hopefully, you already subscribe to that free newsletter — even lawyers at large law firms will find some great articles in that newsletter — but just in case you missed it, you can now read my article on the TechnoLawyer website.
Tampa attorney Katie Floyd discusses the new 2.0 version of the Transporter app.
Marlisse Silver Sweeney of Law Technology News discusses Li-Fi, a new wireless protocol that uses light bulbs. Interesting.
Apple released iOS 7.0.3 on October 22. Serenity Caldwell of Macworld describes what is new, including fixes to some annoying bugs.
Horace Dediu of Asymco did some interesting number crunching. If you count computers, tablets and smartphones all as “computing devices,” then Microsoft’s share of computing devices went from 90% in 2008 to 32% in 2013. The change has more to do with Android than iOS, but it is still an interesting perspective.
If I receive a text message while I am driving, I will often ask Siri to read it to me, and then I will sometimes dictate a short reply. But according to a recent study discussed by David Pogue for Scientific American, hands-free texting can be just as dangerous as picking up your iPhone to write a text. It is just one study with only 43 subjects, but it does make you think. Let’s be careful out there.
I really liked iAnnotate version 2 when I reviewed it a few months ago. This week, the app was updated to version 3.0. It has a new look for iOS 7 and adds a few new features such as the ability to copy and paste annotations, share using AirDrop and speak the text in a document. I recommended the app when it cost $9.99, but from now until October 30, 2013, the app is on sale for only $2.99. If you want to annotate PDF files on your iPad, this is a good one. Click here to get iAnnotate:
If you want to communicate with people using the BlackBerry BBM system, you can now do so. This week, BlackBerry released a free BBM app for the iPhone.
Before every Apple event, I can’t help but spend some time trying to determine if there is anything to decipher in the picture on the invitation. Jacob Kastrenakes of The Verge has an interesting look at the last ten years of Apple invitations and what they meant.
Apple has a great new commercial for the iPad Air. When I first watched it, I knew that the voice was familiar but I couldn’t place it. John Browlee of Cult of Mac reveals that it is Bryan Cranston from Breaking Bad.
Tweetbot is my favorite iPhone and iPad client for Twitter. It was updated to version yesterday. It’s a new app, $2.99 for now and will eventually cost $4.99. It has an entirely new look for iOS 7 that is attractive and fun, but retains all of the cool features of the prior app and adds some new ones like background tweet refreshes. Click here for Tweetbot 3 ($2.99):
Nathan Ingraham of The Verge reports that Microsoft released a Remote Desktop app for iOS that lets you control a Windows PC from an iPhone or iPad.
And finally, app developers David McKinney and Stuart Hall came up with a clever and free app called Flipcase that works with the new iPhone 5c and the case sold by Apple for the iPhone 5c. The below video shows how it works, and now I can’t stop thinking “pretty sneaky, sis.”
How do you improve a product that is already great? One approach is to add new features. For example, Apple improved upon the iPhone 4 by adding Siri to the iPhone 4s, then added a larger screen to the iPhone 5, and then added the fingerprint scanner in the iPhone 5s. New features are nice because they stick out; they provide an easy answer to the question “why should I upgrade?” Another approach is to simply make the overall experience better — an approach that lacks a sound bite, but can result in a product that is far more delightful. For example, the iPhone 3G (my first iPhone) was fantastic, but often demanded your patience. The iPhone 3Gs enhanced the iPhone 3G by making everything faster and more responsive. The device felt the same, except that it was more pleasant to use.
Yesterday, Apple used both approaches, one with each of the members of the iPad family. The 2013 iPad mini has lots of improvements but a single marquee feature: a Retina display. The 2013 full-size iPad doesn’t have a bold new feature, but instead seeks to provide a better overall user experience. Both new iPads will be available in November — the iPad Air on November 1, and the iPad mini later that month.
The iPad Air
I love using my full-size iPad (I use the third generation iPad), but if I were to complain, my first complaint would be the weight. My law practice is about as paperless as it can be, so I am constantly working with documents on my iPad — whether it be an opposing party’s brief, a case I downloaded from Westlaw, or a transcript that I am annotating in the Transcript Pad app. My iPad is far lighter than a computer and is easier to hold than a binder full of paper, but my hand does suffer some fatigue after holding an iPad up for a long period of time. Indeed, the weight of my iPad is often a reason that I reach for my iPad mini, but while the iPad mini is great for many tasks, reading documents is far better on the larger (and retina) screen of a full-sized iPad.
Thus, I’m thrilled to see that the new iPad is lighter — 1 pound versus the 1.3 pounds of a third generation iPad and the 1.4 pounds of the fourth generation iPad. To emphasize that it weighs less, Apple came up with a new name for the product: the iPad Air, a nod to Apple’s successful MacBook Air computer. It achieves that reduced weight not only by being thinner then the prior model (7.5 mm versus 9 mm) but also by having a much smaller bezel around the screen. Apple says that as a result, “we were able to drop close to a quarter of the volume of the previous-generation iPad.”
How noticeable is the difference in weight? I’ll need to try it myself to reach my own conclusion, but the initial reports from the folks who were at Apple’s presentation yesterday and got to try one out are that it makes a big difference. I frequently see people saying that the iPad Air feels more like the old iPad mini than like the old iPad. For example, David Pierce of The Verge writes that the iPad Air “deserves a new name: it feels completely different than the
full-sized iPad once did. Apple’s clearly trying to turn the iPad Air
into a full-size device you’re willing to take outside your home, and
based on our first impressions we’d happily throw one in our backpacks
today.” MG Siegler of Google Ventures says: “The iPad Air is incredibly thin and light. Feels far more like the mini than previous iPads.” Brian Heater of Engadget writes: “And while the new tablet is, in fact, around 20 percent slimmer than its
predecessor, it’s not immediately apparently until you put the iPad up
against its older sibling. What is apparent, however, is the weight.”
My other complaint about my third generation iPad is that it doesn’t feel zippy, especially compared to the iPhone 5 and 5s. I decided against upgrading to the fourth generation iPad that came out a year ago even though that model was faster, but I’m definitely looking forward to the new speed of the iPad Air. The iPad Air uses the same A7 chip in the iPhone 5s, and as a result, Apple says that it is considerably faster than prior iPads, up to twice as fas as the fourth generation iPad.
I’ve never had a complaint with the Wi-Fi speed on my iPad, but any time that you can download a large file or even load a page in Safari faster, that is good. The iPad includes two Wi-Fi antennas and can use both of them at the same time using something called MIMO (multiple input multiple output) which Apple says will result in up to twice the 802.11n Wi-Fi performance.
I’m also happy to see that the new iPad Air has dual microphones to do a better job hearing you, which should make Siri work even better. I frequently dictate emails on my iPad.
Put all of this together — smaller overall device but the same screen size, lighter and faster without sacrificing battery life, faster Wi-Fi uploads and downloads — and the end result seems to me to be a device that does everything that the prior iPad did but is much more enjoyable to use. The iPad is an important part of my law practice, and I look forward to upgrading so that every time I use the iPad, I have a better overall experience.
The iPad mini with Retina display
The iPad mini is a great device because it is small and easy to hold and carry. You can even sometimes put it in a pocket, depending upon the size of the pocket on your jacket or your pants. But the one major drawback was the lack of a Retina display. Ever since the iPhone 4 was introduced in 2010, we’ve all seen how text and graphics look so much better when you have smaller dots on the screen. Having words look so crisp that they could have been in a high quality magazine makes the reading experience so much better. For those of us who are attorneys and thus are constantly reading words, that makes a difference. Moving from my iPhone screen to my iPad mini screen is often jarring because the screen simply doesn’t look as nice.
The solution seemed simple and obvious – add a Retina screen to the iPad mini — but of course nobody wanted to sacrifice the other advantages of the iPad mini such as the small size and long battery life. The 2013 version of the iPad mini adds a Retina display, and instead of the original iPad mini’s 1024 by 768 pixels, we now get 2048 by 1536 pixels in a screen of the same size. This makes the iPad mini the sharpest iPad ever because it has the same number of pixels as a full-size iPad, but the pixels are as small as those on the beautiful screen of the iPhone 5. Fortunately, Apple was able to keep the battery life the same as the original iPad mini, although Apple did have to make some slight compromises on the size — the new iPad mini is the same height and width, but it is slightly thicker, 7.5 mm versus 7.2 mm, and about an ounce heavier. (The weight varies depending upon whether you get the lighter Wi-Fi only version or the heavier version with built-in 3G LTE.)
The new iPad mini is also faster. Last year’s iPad mini used the A5 processor, the same one that Apple used in the iPad 2 released in 2011. The new iPad mini uses the same A7 chip as the iPad Air and the iPhone 5s. Apple says that this will be up to four times as fast as the 2012 iPad mini. Also, and like the iPad Air, the new iPad mini has two Wi-Fi antennas with MIMO support and dual microphones.
Although I own both a full-size iPad and an iPad mini, most people choose just one. If forced to pick just one, I’d opt for the larger screen. But I know of many attorneys who value portability and weight over a larger screen, and for them, the new iPad mini with Retina display sounds like the answer to a lot of prayers. As Tampa attorney Katie Floyd tweeted yesterday: “Retina…and sold.”
Wrap Up
I’ll admit that I have so quickly gotten used to the fingerprint scanner
on my iPhone 5s that I had hoped to see it added to the iPad as well.
Perhaps we will have to wait another year for that feature. Regardless, there is still a lot that lawyers will love in the 2013 versions of the iPads. I myself am really looking forward to the overall better experience that the iPad Air will offer, and I plan to get one. I probably won’t get a new iPad mini this year, but I know that many attorneys will consider an iPad mini with a Retina screen to be the perfect device.
Today at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern, Apple will introduce the 2013 versions of the iPad and iPad mini, and I’m sure will also have lots of other iOS and Mac announcements. For example, there will likely be updates to Apple’s GarageBand, iMovie, iPhoto, Pages, Numbers and Keynotes app because for a short while this past Sunday, Apple’s website showed new icons for the apps and new information on the GarageBand app having in-app purchases.
At some point this morning, Apple might announce that there will be a live video stream of the event. That happened last year. [UPDATE: The Apple Events channel on Apple TV now says that there will be a live video stream.] [UPDATE #2: Apple’s web page now says that you can watch on an Apple TV, on a Mac, or on an iPhone or iPad.] Otherwise, if you want to learn about the announcements in real time, you can follow along on one or more websites providing live blogs. Here are the ones that I expect to provide some of the best live coverage, along with direct links to their live blogs:
Macworld. Jason Snell and Dan Moren are perhaps the best live-bloggers in the world for Apple announcements.
Joshua Topolsky typically live blogs Apple announcements for The Verge, although it was Dieter Bohn who covered the iPhone 5s announcement last month, and his coverage was excellent.
Engadget. I’m not sure who will do this one, but the Engadget folks typically do a good job.
Ars Technica. I believe that Andrew Cunningham will provide the Ars live blog this year. He did a good job with the iPhone 5s live blog next month.
Finally, if you miss the event during the day, I expect that Apple will post a video of the event later tonight.
