You must have been living in cave with no media connections the last few months if you didn't know that the new crop of smart phones have some impressive features. At the beginning of the year when I became eligible to upgrade to an iPhone, I jumped to buy the iPhone 3GS; even though I knew a new one would be out this summer. I love my iPhone.

Soon after (before the release of iPhone 4) I wrote: Your Next Cell Phone Should be More than Just a Phone.

My intended target audience was the number of lawyers who tell me "I only want my phone to be a phone." That may have be OK at one time, but  the current generation of mobile phone now provide so many tools for the busy lawyer including e-mail, synchronization with the lawyer's calendar, maps and directions, a camera and apps to do almost everything one can imagine.

But the article expanded as I included links to apps for various mobile phones and some discussion of iPhone security. Two of my colleagues (and really good friends) pan the iPhone for lawyers due to their security concerns, but it still seems to be the most popular smart phone purchase for lawyers in small-to-medium sized law firms. Larger firms still tend to go with Blackberries as the firm IT departments feel they are better for security and there are better tools for the IT staff to manage the phones.

I've included a brief iPhone security checklist with my article. It is a bit tongue in cheek in parts and I'm sure we'll see rebuttals soon. But if you do have client data of any consequence on your iPhone, you should consider the automatic data wipe option and maybe a subscription to MobileMe. Most importantly– don't lose your iPhone.

Now do both of us a favor and send this link to your colleagues who mock your phone that you use as more than just a phone.

Here are additional recent selections of interesting mobile phone reading.

From PC World: iPhone 4 vs. Droid X: A Head-to-Head Comparison

From eWeek.com: 10 Apple iPhone First Impressions: Innovation, Glaring Flaws

From Computerworld: 5 ways Apple's iOS 4 'breathes new life' into iPhone

From PC World: Apple iPhone 4 vs. The Rest of the Smartphone Pack (includes comparison chart)

From The New York Times: New iPhone Arrives; Rivals, Beware By David Pogue

From The New York Times iPhone 4 Q&A By David Pogue