I had wanted to write a full iPhone 4 review, but it looks like I'm running out of time to do in a way that is both 1) timely and 2) complete.  So, I'll just aim for timely.

I absolutely love the phone.  All of the features shown in the ads are fantastic: FaceTime, Retina Display, HD video recording, etc.  Each alone is worth the price of admission, though my hands-down favorite is the Retina Display.  I can comfortably read small-type documents using the built-in PDF reader in iBooks (and just one hand, of course).  The screen just completely changes the way I think of the device.  It's a portable infinite piece of paper, connected to the Internet.  It makes the iPad almost unnecessary.  The pace of innovation is startling.

I jumped from the 3G to the 4, so some of the features that were available on the 3GS are new to me: crazy speed (especially on syncing with iMarc!), better battery life, etc. - all are greatly appreciated.  And of course I can take full advantage of iOS 4, something I couldn't do on the 3G.

The form factor is fantastic, and I'd argue it's actually improved by the bumper.  I bought the bumper before Antennagate really hit the fan, so I 1) haven't had any reception problems and 2) got a refund for my purchase.

If you're a human being who likes communication and information, you need to get this phone.

Below, a cute dog picture I took using the phone:

While a student in the Lawyering in the Digital Age clinic in law school, I had the pleasure of working on the incipient "collateral consequences calculator" which was being developed collaboratively by Columbia Law School, the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning, and Hon. Judith S. Kaye, Chief Judge of the State of New York. The calculator has now launched and is available to the public today at http://calculator.law.columbia.edu.

The calculator lets legal practitioners, judges, and other interested parties determine the immigration and public housing eligibility consequences that follow from a guilty plea or conviction in New York courts. The importance of this project has been underscored by the recent Supreme Court decision in Padilla v. Kentucky, which held that criminal defense lawyers must advise their clients about the immigration consequences of criminal charges and that failure to do so amounts to the ineffective assistance of counsel.

More information about the Collateral Consequences Calculator is available in a Columbia press release and in the New York Law Journal article embedded below:

(download)
For a related project, I re-designed and curated a blog entitled Four Cs, which catalogs news, cases, statutes/regulations policies, and articles about the collateral consequences of criminal charges.

These guys regularly beat me...

If I was left to my own devices, this blog would be little more than a list of links to The Onion.  In the interest of variety, I won't let that happen.  Still, this one was too good to pass up:

My cousin Jennifer has started a new company, Make Room 4 More, which organizes and runs children's consignment sales in the Philadelphia area.  The sales are a great way to buy and sell gently used children's clothes, toys, and equipment.  Aside from being a fan of both Jennifer and children, I support this business because I helped to develop the Web site.  Why not visit the site to learn more about the Fall 2010 sale, which well be held from Friday, October 1 to Sunday, October 3 at the Elks Lodge in Colmar, PA?  While you're at it, you could become a fan on Facebook.

Putting Some 'Mute' in Your 'Commute': 

NJ TRANSIT Executive Director James Weinstein today announced plans to conduct a 90-day pilot program to test the feasibility of offering "Quiet Commute" cars on NJ TRANSIT trains.

"Customers have asked us to offer a Quiet Commute option in an effort to balance the needs of people who want to stay connected while aboard our trains with those who want to relax or work in a quiet atmosphere," said Weinstein.  "We're going to offer this amenity as a pilot program and rely on customer feedback to determine whether to make Quiet Commute a permanent NJ TRANSIT amenity." 

Beginning September 7, Quiet Commute cars will be offered weekdays on the first and last cars of Northeast Corridor express trains in the "3900-series" - which operate to and from the outer-zone stations of Trenton, Hamilton and Princeton Junction.

This is fantastic news.  As my friend Martin has aptly stated, the worst part of NJ TRANSIT is the people.  Perhaps the second worst part is the headline of this press release.  It is an egregious example of "unnecessary" quotation marks.  I could maybe get behind "mute" (it's "cute"), but "commute"?  What, are they implying I'm doing this for fun?

Maureen Dowd stops hating men long enough to relay a wonderful story about George Steinbrenner, told to her by former Yankees general counsel David Sussman.

As both a fan and purveyor of justice, perhaps there is some sort of substantive/normative conclusion that I should be drawing from reading this article in the New York Times about a tsunami of lawsuits brought against consumers by debt-collection law firms.  Perhaps I'll just leave it at, "If they truly are your debts, you should pay them back."  I don't really see the nuance there.

What interests me more is the "automated" nature of these lawsuits.  According to the article:

Collection law firms are able to handle such large volumes of cases because computer software automates much of their work. Typically, a debt buyer sends a law firm an electronic database that contains various data about consumers, including name, home address, the outstanding balance, the date of default and whether interest is still accruing on the account.

Once the data is obtained by a law firm, software like Collection-Master from a company called Commercial Legal Software can “take a file and run it through the entire legal system automatically,” including sending out collection letters, summonses and lawsuits…

Let me tell you what is fantastic about that: everything. This assembly line, which allows one lawyer to file 5,700 lawsuits per year (equaling about 22 each business day), couldn't be further from the workflow in almost every other area of litigation.  I just really get a kick out of this extremely pure combination of my backgrounds in law and technology, particularly information management.  I love me some data!

On a side note, I've recently been reading/trolling the comments section on Web sites, something I hadn't done before in 15 years or so on the Web.  I've realized that 12-year-old Marc was right to ignore them, but at the same time, I'm seeing a lot of hate for Wall Street out there from people who benefitted for years from the capital the banks helped distribute.  Then again, Quinn Emanuel regularly exercises its "unique freedom to sue big banks" (pdf link). No comment.

I was so bored while watching Cyrus that I decided to use my time to write a funny joke.  The result of those efforts is the title of this blog post and the internal monologue of Jonah Hill when he sees an incline in the surface on which he is walking.  I don't want to be mean, but the dude is large.  On the flip side, he has nice eyes.

I was able to focus on that detail because: 1. This movie was filmed entirely in close-up; and 2) I had to sit in the front row of the movie theater, something I don't think I've done since Jurassic Park.  I did not expect a matinee screening of this film to be sold out at the AMC Neshaminy 24 multiplex, but there you go.