Among my unfortunately numerous vices, is one I like to call shiny gadget syndrome. Maybe you are familiar with it.

It struck in the late 90’s when they made the Motorola Starlink phone and I thought that was the coolest technology since Star Wars: “look how easy it is to send a text! You only have to hit each button on the keypad 4 times to select the letter you want. Then you can send a text that says “hi” in like, 4 minutes!”

From there it only got worse. Blackberries and then of course, the iPhone kicking off the phone (fka smartphone) wars for the next decade or more.

As we have watched tablets and watches (fka smartwatches) and phones and laptops morph and expand over the past many years, the market for those shiny gadgets has lamentably gotten a bit stale. Everything gets better over time, foldable phones are a novel next step, but the last time anything in hardware blew my mind was probably 2010 when the iPad came out.

I should note that I grudgingly accept the utility of the Apple Watch (or whatever Android versions are out there) but it’s more logic than love for me. I routinely kvetch with my nerd friends that there’s very little hardware that comes out anymore that I find super enthralling.

Bummer. 

My solution over the past 2-3 years of dealing with this malaise from dormant shiny gadget syndrome has been to look not to hardware but to software. Initially I went hunting for new interesting software solutions that make life and work a little easier, better or more fun. It got expensive getting a new subscription for everything and in the grand tradition trying to solve problems by buying things, it had a sadly low ROI.

So more recently, I have looked inward to solve the problem of not feeding my shiny gadget syndrome. Meditation? Yoga? Fantasy Football?

No.

I mean, I decided instead to look at software I already own or pay for and decide to try to learn one or two new things that it does that I didn’t know. I’m a big fan of this for lawyers and law firms too – I routinely try to steer folks not into buying new things or changing vendors but into leaning into what they already own. Most of the time there are lots and lots of time saving, energy saving, neat little tips and tricks buried in those apps that we have never learned.

So, in that vein, today I want to discuss some hidden tips, tricks and features of Apple Notes. Why Apple Notes as opposed to Microsoft OneNote?

The most recent data I could find from the ABA, courtesy of iPhone JD, was from the 2021 legal tech survey. At that time, the data showed that 80% of lawyers use iPhones. Pretty astonishing given that iPhone’s market share in the US in 2025 is closer to 59%.

And I’ve sat next to enough lawyers at enough meetings watching them take notes on their iPhone or iPad to know, they are overwhelmingly using Apple Notes as their note taking app.

And why shouldn’t they? Over the years it’s gone from kind of a underperforming one trick pony to a powerhouse of features that rival the other note taking apps I used to recommend (OneNote and Evernote, primarily; Notion if you’re nasty, I mean nerdy).

While Apple Notes is in seemingly wide use (anecdotal assessment, I know) I don’t see that some of its best features are. Things that make Notes even more useful and user friendly and easy to use.

To that end, let’s take a look at some of the cool little features of Apple Notes you may not be using.

Long Press

The first is before you even open the app, did you know if you long press on the icon itself it launches a quick action menu? Meaning it gives you a bunch of things you can do without having to open the app and select them?

When you press and hold for about a second or so (as opposed to the quick tap) it gives you the option to quickly create a new note, or a new checklist, or scan a document, or record audio.

(The long press feature is not exclusive to Notes, by the way; if you try it working your way around the icons on your iPhone screen, you’ll find that most of your apps offer some additional functionality through the long press.)

So, back to Notes. Sitting down for a meeting and want to quickly record it? Long press and record audio and set your phone down on the desk like journalists used to do. Got a short document that you want to make sure you don’t lose? Long press and scan it – business cards, etc. You can scan multiple page documents as well, but much past 5 pages and you might find it a bit of a chore.

Lock Your Note

In the upper right hand of a given note in Apple Notes, you’ll see the familiar 3 dots (like an ellipsis) that usually mean settings or more features. If you click on that ellipsis, you will open a new menu of options for the note itself, including the option to lock the note.

This means you can assign your iPhone passcode to open the note, or an entirely different password, in order for someone who has access to your Apple Notes to be able to view the contents of the note. Handy for making sure care is taken with confidential information.

Do Math in Notes

As the old jokes go, if we were good at math we would be doctors instead of lawyers. I guess that needs to be updated these days to say if we were good at math we’d be AI researchers. In any event, I don’t think I am breaking any new ground saying that many lawyers do not view math as their love language. English majors, assemble!

While you’re in that little ellipsis screen to lock your note, you’ll see halfway down the menu a selection called “Math Results” – here you can decide to what extent you want Notes to have a built little calculator for you when you are – in those dark hours – forced to add. Or heaven forbid… divide.

You can choose from “suggest results” which will have Notes watch what you’re typing and if it sees something that looks like a calculation (use the equal sign) it will suggest the answer for you. Or you can set it so that it just does that function for you and inserts it in the note. Or you can turn it off and do the math in your head like some kind of non-English major. I wouldn’t know.

Okay, there’s lots more to unpack in Apple Notes, but we’ll hold that over for the next installment. As always, if you’d like some help with Apple Notes, legal tech or other aspects of practice management, and you’re a Lawyers Mutual insured, don’t hesitate to contact me for one of your free 3 yearly practice management consults.