iPhone J.D.

Twitter on the iPhone

Do you use Twitter?  Twitter is a free website that allows you to post short messages -- no more than 140 characters.  Other people can follow what you post on Twitter, and you can select a group of people that you want to follow.  If this is all new to you, David Pogue of the New York Times recently explained it in this article.

A lot of lawyers use Twitter.  Here is a very incomplete list of hundreds of them.  And it seems that every day I am seeing yet another site talking about lawyers using Twitter.

Notwithstanding the buzz on Twitter being the hot tool for attorneys, I don't consider it all that relevant to my practice.  On the other hand, it can be something to break up the monotony of a day -- the digital equivalent of someone poking their head in my office to share a thought, tell a quick story, ask a question, say something silly or pass along breaking gossip or news.  I follow a small group of people on Twitter -- a few lawyers, but mostly just people who often post interesting technology-related thoughts.  If I find that I have a minute or so of down time, I will sometimes take a quick look at recent Twitter posts.  I don't post to my own Twitter account very often, but sometimes I will announce when I add a substantial post on this site.

You can access the Twitter website on your iPhone using Safari (and the site will give you a specially-formatted page for the iPhone screen) but Twitter works much better if you use one of the many dedicated Twitter apps.  And that is the primary reason for my post today:  iLounge recently reviewed all 23 of the iPhone Twitter clients, and they found both gems and stinkers.  I myself use TwitterFon -- it works great, and it is free -- but check out the iLounge article if you want to learn more about what is out there.

Is Twitter the next big thing for lawyers?  Probably not, but it is fun, and I love that it is so easy to use on the iPhone.

Forget about the extra dragons

Apparently, Apple doesn't have much of a sense of humor when it comes to what a developer can say about its iPhone app on iTunes.  Click here for more info from Mobile Orchid.

Review: iSignature - sophisticated e-mail signature management

The iPhone gives you the ability to automatically add a signature to your e-mails, but I don't use this feature because I don't want to have the same signature on every single one of my e-mails.  But every once in a while I want to use my full firm e-mail signature, and it sure is a pain to have to type it out manually on the iPhone.

AL Software has come up with an ingenuous solution with its $0.99 app called iSignature.  This app gives you the ability to create six possible signatures.  To use one of them in a new e-mail, just launch the iSignature app, and you will see previews of the first seven lines of up to six different signatures.  Just tap the one that you want to use:

 

After you tap the signature that you want to use, the Mail app will open with the signature you selected automatically in the contents portion of the e-mail.  You can then just type your e-mail and the signature will be at the bottom.  In the first picture below, you can see that Mail has launched with my cursor in the "To" field and you can just barely start to see my signature.  In the second screen, I have scrolled down so that you can see my full signature, which in this example has eight lines:

   

The app also works if you want to reply to (or forward) an e-mail.  To do so, just tap the button to reply to an e-mail like you normally do, but as soon as your new reply e-mail screen comes up, tap the Home button on your iPhone to exit Mail and start iSignature.  Then tap the signature that you want, and iSignature will return you to your reply e-mail with the signature automatically added.

Before you can use iSignature, you need to set up your different signatures.  You do this not in the iSignature app itself, but instead by going to your iPhone Settings and then scroll down to the bottom where application-specific settings are located.  Tap on iSignature and you will have a place to enter Line 1, Line 2 and Line 3 for up to six signatures.  Of course, with just three lines, how did I manage above to have a signature with eight lines? This is actually quite simple: just add \n to enter a new line.  For example, you can see on the below screen that I have the line ...Jeffrey E. Richardson\nAdams and Reese LLP ... which will cause a line break between my name and my law firm.  Using the \n feature you can have a signature with as many lines as you want:

If you want to get fancy with your signatures, you can even use HTML tags.  For example, let's say I want to have a signature with my name and then "iPhone J.D." in bold.  To do this, I just add <b> before to add bold and then </b> to turn off bold.  In the left you can see how I do this, and in the right you can see how the Mail app correctly renders the text as bold:

   

Here is another tip.  The way that iSignature works is that it adds two line breaks followed by the text to the top of your e-mail.  This is why you normally want to let iSignature do its thing before you type your e-mail, so that you can type at the top and have the automatically entered signature block move down to the bottom of your e-mail.  But you can also use iSignature to automatically add any text to the top of an e-mail.  For example, let's type an e-mail to a client that is privileged.  I want my signature block at the bottom, and I want to have a confidentiality warning at the top.  To do this, I first start up iSignature and top my signature block, which in the below screen is at the top left.  Then I type my message.  Then, when I am ready to add the confidentiality language at the top of the e-mail, I press the home button to return to iSignature, and this time I will tap a signature block at the bottom left which consists of <b><i>Privileged and Confidential Attorney-Client Communication</b></i> (which will format that text in bold and italics).  iSignature will then return me to my e-mail with the confidentiality language at the top.  Unfortunately, iSignature always adds two blank lines before it enters the text, so I will want to manually delete those two blank lines, but the result is that I have automatically entered text at both the top and the bottom of my e-mail:

   

The only HTML codes I have used so far are bold and italics, but if you know how to use more advanced HTML codes, you can get even more complicated.  But whether you use complicated signatures or simple ones, it is wonderful to have a choice of six that you can choose to use or not use, instead of the current Apple solution which is to always use the same signature block every time.

Note that you will want to make sure that you don't already have an e-mail signature on your iPhone.  If you do, your message will contain both the iSignature block and the standard signature block.  Go to Settings --> Mail, Contacts, Calendars --> Signature and make sure that it is blank before you start using iSignature.

My only complaint about iSignature is just that I wish we didn't need the app in the first place.  I wish that Apple would add the ability to use macros in an e-mail.  That way, whenever I want to add a pre-defined block of text -- whether it be the signature at the end of the message, or just some long string of text someplace else -- I could do so.  But until Apple adds this feature, this simple app is definitely worth $0.99.

Click here to download iSignature from iTunes for $0.99: 

(Thanks to Brian Beam at Macworld for his review which made me aware of this app.)

Happy Mardi Gras!

If you are not in New Orleans today celebrating Mardi Gras, then I hope that you have a chance to come here at some point in the future.  This city throws a great party for Fat Tuesday, plus New Orleans is a great place to visit year-round if you like food, drinks, music, history, architecture and/or a city where people are comfortable just being themselves, no matter how unique that might be.

To keep this post marginally iPhone-related, it has been nice this Mardi Gras season to get updates on parade locations and status by following @parades on my iPhone using the nice Twitter client TwitterFon.  

Click here to download TwitterFon for free: 

Review: Take Control of your iPhone by Ted Landau

I have been reading the great, free weekly Macintosh newsletter TidBITS since I was in college.  If you use a Mac and don't subscribe, you are missing out and should do so.  The publishers of TidBITS, Adam and Tonya Engst, also publish the "Take Control" series of electronic books.  These books are written by professional and talented writers and are the same as any book you would find in any bookstore, except that these books are electronic.  This means that when you want to buy the book, you don't have to drive to the store or wait for Amazon to send it to you; you just pay the (always inexpensive) price and immediately download the PDF file.  These e-books are also unique because the authors can actually update them after they are published; each book has a big "Check for Updates" button on the cover. 

One of the latest Take Control books to be released is the Second Edition of Take Control of Your iPhone.  This $15.00 book was written by Ted Landau, who has been writing about Macintosh and other technology issues since the 1980s.  He is most well known for the MacFixIt site that he founded in 1996, which quickly became the premier site for Mac troubleshooting.  CNET now runs that site.

This is probably not the book to buy if you are just looking for basic information on how to use the iPhone and its built-in applications.  (If you want to learn the basics, I recommend you check out David Pogue's excellent book iPhone: The Missing Manual.)  Although Ted Landau does cover some of the basics in this book, there is very little discussion of many of the built-in apps on the iPhone, such as Mail and Phone.  Instead, Ted appears to have two goals with this book.  First, the book focuses on the iPhone features that can be a little harder to understand, especially if one wants to use advanced features.  For example, the book includes great, in-depth discussions of syncing, mastering the keyboard, Safari, Maps and Location Services, and the various radios in the iPhone (WiFi, Edge, 3G and Bluetooth).

Second, this book discusses just about everything that might go wrong with your iPhone and walks you through how to fix it.  This is perhaps the best part of the book, and the author's history as an expert troubleshooter who ran MacFixIt really shines through here.  Even though my iPhone usually works just fine, after reading this book I now feel well prepared in case a minor issue or even a disaster does strike -- and should anything bad happen, the first thing I will do is turn to this book and remind myself what Ted recommends for fixing the issue.

For those of you who use (or plan to use) an iPhone in a law firm that runs Microsoft Exchange, Appendix A to this book gives you an overview of how to do so and links to all of the information you need to set this up from Microsoft and Apple.  It is nice to have links to all of this information in a single place.

Even though some of the troubleshooting tips covered are necessarily a bit complicated, the author's writing style makes this 183 page book easy to read.  And while most of the iPhone is simple enough to be figured out by a child, Ted Landau did a great job of picking areas to cover that are not so obvious.  As a result, I recommend this book to all iPhone users, regardless of your level of expertise.  As is typical for Take Control books, you can even download a free sample version of the book that includes the Table of Contents, Introduction, Quick Start, and section starts.  (The link for the sample is at the bottom of the page where you can download the book.)  So if you are on the fence about whether you should get this book, take a look at the free sample.

To go to the page where you can download this book, click here.  The book only costs $15.00, so for about the cost of a lunch or a few cups of coffee, you can have a much better understanding of how the iPhone works and how you can make it work better for you ... especially if anything appears to be going wrong.

Review: MobileFiles Pro - transfer files, edit Excel files on the iPhone

[UPDATE 4/22/09:  MobileFiles Pro was renamed and is now called Quicksheet.  The developer has also introduced Quickoffice Mobile Office Suite, which offers all of the functions of Quicksheet / MobileFiles Pro plus the ability to edit Microsoft Word documents.  Click here for my review of Quickoffice, which also serves as an update to the rest of this review.]

Earlier this week, I mentioned that I am looking forward to the release of DataViz's Documents to Go on the iPhone.  But there is another product recently released for the iPhone that includes many of the features that Documents to Go is supposed to have.  MobileFiles Pro by Quickoffice is an impressive, powerful and professional iPhone app.  This $9.99 app brings includes sophisticated file management tools that allow you to upload, view, edit (for Excel files), and send files on your iPhone.  (And for only, $3.99, MobileFiles 2.0 gives you the same features except for editing Excel files.)

Uploading files to the iPhone.  The app gives you three ways to transfer a file to the iPhone.  First, if you use Apple's MobileMe service, MobileFiles Pro can access any files in your iDisk.  Second, if your iPhone is on the same WiFi network as your home computer, you simply tap the WiFi Desktop Connection button on the home screen and then type an address given to you by the app into your browser and you will see a nice webpage displaying all files on the iPhone along with an Upload button that allows you to add more files:

 

Note that if you are using the Safari web browser on a Mac or PC, it is even easier to use the WiFi Desktop Connect function.  First, make sure that in your Safari Preferences, in the tab for Bookmarks, you have a checkmark next to "Include Bonjour" in either your Bookmarks Bar or your Bookmarks Menu.  Once you have confirmed that it set correctly, just start up WiFi Connect in MobileFiles Pro, and then instead of having to type in any IP address on your computer, just go to the Bonjour menu in Safari and select the entry for "MobileFiles - iPhone."

I've previously reviewed another app called Datacase that allows you to transfer files to your iPhone.  Datacase allows you to connect to your iPhone using a web browser, but MobileFiles Pro does a far better job.  Datacase also allows you to mount your iPhone like an external drive on a Mac or PC, something that MobileFiles Pro does not do.  But Datacase does not let you use iDisk.

There is also a third way to get a file to MobileFiles Pro, and I discuss it below in my discussion of sending a file.

Viewing Files.  Once your files are on the device, you can see a list of what files you have, create folders, move files, etc. 

Tap on a filename to view a file.  The app can view images, Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents, iWork Pages, Numbers and Keynote documents, PDF files, web pages, web archives, text and audio files.  (The app does not support RTF files.)  You can tap once when viewing a document to view it full screen or tap again to see a toolbar superimposed on the document, on which you can tap to go back to your list of documents or tap the folder icon for options on saving or sending the file:

   

Editing Files.  What sets this app apart from other document storage and viewing apps is that you can actually edit Microsoft Excel 2003 files, with over 125 features supported.  On the spreadsheets that I tested, this feature worked well.  Here are some screen shots from a spreadsheet that I use to calculate legal interest.  One minor flaw that I noticed is that if you have text set in Excel to display over multiple cells, the text only displays within the first cell in MobileFiles Pro.  For example, you can see below in cell G20 that I wanted to display "Grand Total" stretched across two cells, but only the word "Grand" is displayed on the first cell.  But this is just a minor cosmetic annoyance, and it is nice to be able to enter and edit numbers, formulas, add and delete rows, resize columns, etc. -- a big step up from apps like Mail that handle Excel files but only show a picture of a spreadsheet, almost as if you had printed it out, without the ability to change anything.

   

You can pinch to zoom in or out, plus if you turn the iPhone, the spreadsheet turns and removes all toolbars so you can see a lot more of the spreadsheet:

Although the current version of this app edits Excel files, a company representative told me that they are working on adding the ability to edit Word files.  Quickoffice (like DataViz) writes products for lots of different smartphones including Palm, Symbian, Blackberry and Android, and many of those products have document editing features, so the company clearly knows what it is doing in this area.

Sending Files. You have several options for getting a file from your iPhone to another location.  First, as noted above, you can use a web browser to connect to your iPhone and download any file from the iPhone to any computer.  Second, the app can upload to your iDisk, and then you can later download from your iDisk to a Mac or PC. 

Third, the app allows you to send any file as an attachment to an e-mail.  The way it does this is actually pretty ingenious.  You can choose to send any file that MobileFiles Pro has on your iPhone as an attachment to an e-mail, and when the app sends the e-mail there are actually two files attached -- the file itself, and a small little HTML file.  The recipient of the e-mail can then tap on that HTML file and will see a screen on which the recipient can tap the top button to copy the file to MobileFiles Pro, or the bottom button to learn more about MobileFiles Pro:

   

It is interesting that Quickoffice found a way to work around Apple's normal "sandbox" restrictions and get a document out of your e-mail and into a third party app.  Normally, third party apps cannot get access to e-mails in the Mail program, let alone the attachments to those e-mails.  Quickoffice gets points here for creativity; their solution is a little awkward, but it works, and it isn't Quickoffice's fault that Apple is forcing companies to come up with workarounds like this.  Note that you can turn this function off and only send the file if you are e-mailing someone who you know doesn't have MobileFiles Pro or MobileFiles 2.0 (or, for that matter, an iPhone).

MobileFiles and MobileFiles 2.0.  If you want to get a feel for MobileFiles Pro without spending $10, you can download a free program by Quickoffice called MobileFiles.  It lets you download files from an iDisk, but not upload files, nor can you use a web browser on a computer to transfer files over WiFi to and from the iPhone.  It handles Microsoft Office files and image files, but not iWork files, plus it lacks the sophisticated file organization features.  It lacks the e-mail functions described above.  And it doesn't allow the editing of spreadsheets.  I love it when app developers give you a way to try a limited version of an app for free before you buy the full version, and thus I think it was a great idea for Quickoffice to do this.  (And if all you need is a way to view your iDisk files on the iPhone, then MobileFiles is a great little app.)

Quickoffice also sells MobileFiles 2.0.  It costs $3.99, and it looks to me like it has every feature in MobileFiles Pro except for the editing of Excel files. [UPDATE on 2/25/09:  According to a recent Macworld review, MobileFiles 2.0 has all of the features of MobileFiles Pro except for (1) editing of Excel files, (2) ability to view iWork documents and (3) ability to protect access to the app with a four-digit password.]

Conclusion.  MobileFiles Pro is a wonderful app, and it has now become my preferred app for storing files on my iPhone.  The ability to edit Excel files is nice, and while I don't think that I will use that feature very often, I like having it there for when I need it.  What really impresses me about this app is the very clean layout and design and the multiple and easy ways to get files to and from the app.  If and when Quickoffice adds the ability to edit Word docs, then this will really be a sophisticated app.  At $9.99 it is a little on the expensive side for an iPhone app, but I think it is worth it for what it does.  Plus, if you don't need to edit Excel files, MobileFiles 2.0 is a great value at only $3.99.

Click here for MobileFiles (free): 

Click here for MobileFiles 2.0 ($3.99): 

Click here for MobileFiles Pro ($9.99): 

Piano inspired the iPhone?

I love to play the piano, and maybe that has something to do with why I like the iPhone.  This never occurred to me until I read an interesting post about Wayne Westerman by Arnold Kim of MacRumors.com.  Westerman co-founded a company called FingerWorks in 1998 that developed a number of multi-touch input devices.  Apple acquired FingerWorks and all of its intellectual property in 2005, Westerman now works at Apple as a Senior Engineer, and Westerman played an important role in the creation of the iPhone (and the acquisition of his company appears to be a basis for Apple's claim that it owns the patents on multi-touch).

FingerWorks sold a product called the TouchStream.  It was a touch-sensitive, flat membrane keyboard on which you could both type and use gestures with your fingers to do things like move and click the mouse pointer, copy and paste, open and save, etc.  Here is a review of the keyboard from back in 2003 that contains lots of information on how it worked, and here is a New York Times article from 2002.  You can also read more information on Westerman and his multi-touch inventions from the University of Delaware website, where Westerman got his Ph.D. and did post-doctoral work. 

Kim's MacRumors article links to this news story from a few months ago in UDaily, a publication of the University of Delaware's communications and marketing department.  In the article, Westerman describes how he came up with the idea for multi-touch in TouchStream keyboard, inspired in part by the piano:

Westerman talked about the role serendipity played in the invention, from his stubborn bout with tendonitis, which hobbled his progress until he devised the touch-sensitive technology, to his experience as a pianist, in which his interaction with the keyboard was graceful and natural.

“I had an ergonomic problem and I paired it with a motivation,” Westerman said of the early inspiration. “I'd always felt that playing the piano was so much more graceful and expressive than using a computer keyboard, and I thought how great it would be if I pulled some of that expression from the piano to the computer experience.”

The iPhone wouldn't be the iPhone without multi-touch, and multi-touch might not be multi-touch without the piano.  So a big thanks goes to piano player Wayne Westerman for his role in the development of the iPhone.  Based on the picture on his Facebook page, he looks like a pretty fun guy:

DataViz Documents to Go for iPhone - not ready yet

Following up on my post from last week, I had hoped that DataViz would be announcing the availability of Documents to Go for the iPhone at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week.  After all, DataViz did start working on this app a year ago.  Unfortunately, according to the Italian website Macitynet.it, DataViz is only showing off a very early prototype. 

The app is supposed to eventually allow you to edit Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files on an iPhone, but the beta version shown this week could only handle Word files.  It apparently does have copy-and-paste, plus you can e-mail an edited Word file to someone.  The post on Macitynet has a number of photos of the current beta version of the app, and for those of you who (like me) don't read Italian, you can click here for a Google translated version of that website.

I haven't seen any update on when this product might be available, nor have I seen any other coverage of what DataViz is showing off right now other than the post on that Italian website.

UPDATE on 2/19/09:  More information is starting to appear on the Internet.  The iPhone Blog has more information on and pictures of the beta version of this app, including information on how the app accomplishes copy-and-paste -- a feature that many of us are waiting for Apple to implement on the iPhone.  And iPhone Alley has a few more details, including news that when the app is first released, it will be able to edit Word documents but probably not Excel spreadsheets.  That site also says that the app is due to be released sometime between April and June of this year.

iPhone v. Blackberry

The ABA's Law Practice Management Section recently asked me to write the "iPhone" half of an iPhone v. Blackberry series posted on their website.  If you are interested, you can read my article here, and the Blackberry article by Lee Rosen is here.  Lee writes about his personal experiences with both the iPhone and the Blackberry Bold; he ultimately decided that he didn't like either one and returned to his older model Blackberry.

These articles prompted attorney Midland, TX attorney Dale Strauss to respond by writing a defense of the Blackberry Bold, featured as a guest post on the great The Mac Lawyer website.  Dale believes that the Blackberry Bold outshines the iPhone 3G on battery life, e-mail, file storage, notes and tasks and he prefers using a keyboard over a multi-touch interface.  Dale makes some good points, and especially for those people who think they really need a physical keyboard and for whom e-mail is really all they need to do with their smartphone, the Bold is a great choice. 

Of course, it will not come as a surprise that for others, I think that the iPhone is the right choice.  For those who want to take advantage of a virtually unlimited app store that lets one do almost anything one can imagine with a smartphone, use a far superior web browser, use a smartphone to easily sync and play songs, photos or videos, take advantage of a larger screen (which is only possible when a keyboard doesn't always take up half of the face of the device), and do all of this in a device that is small and sleak with a best-in-class user interface design, then the iPhone is the clear winner.  Nevertheless, I am glad to see that the iPhone prompted RIM to improve the Blackberry, prompted Microsoft to improve Windows Mobile, prompted Palm to change the direction of the company with the upcoming Pre, and prompted Google to further refine its new Android operating system.  As the competition improves, Apple will have all the more reason to improve the iPhone.

[UPDATE on 3/1/09:  Mike Elgan at Computerworld has an interesting post on why he switched from the Blackberry Pearl to the iPhone, and there is one overwhelming reason:  third party apps.]

By the way, the Law Practice Management Section of the ABA presents the annual ABA TECHSHOW in Chicago.  This year's show is only six weeks away, and as I have previously written, if you are an attorney interested in technology, this is a great way to get your CLE hours.  The "early bird" discounted registration deadline is right around the corner (February 28th).

Fart v. Fart

 

The law library at Georgetown, where I attended law school, is named after the famous D.C. attorney Edward Bennett Williams.  He was known for representing people no matter how distasteful (to some) their causes -- mobster Frank Costello, Jimmy Hoffa, Hugh Hefner, spy Igore Melekh, Senator Joseph McCarthy, etc.  As Williams told Mike Wallace during an interview in 1957:

Let me say this to you, no matter how socially or politically obnoxious the ideas of an individual may be, no matter how unorthodox his conduct or his thinking may be, no matter how unpopular he may be, he has the right to the assistance of counsel.

I share this philosophy, and for that reason I will try to refrain from making jokes about which side you would rather represent in the lawsuit filed by Pull My Finger developer Air-O-Matic against InfoMedia's iFart Mobile for using the phrase "pull my finger" in connection with their fart sounds app and the lawsuit in response filed by the iFart Mobile guys.  iFart Mobile insists that "pull my finger" is a generic and well-known phrase so they should be able to use it in connection with the iFart Mobile app.  The Pull My Finger guys argue that the use of the phrase is but a part of a long campaign by the iFart author to unfairly capitalize on success that should have gone to Pull My Finger -- including spam campaigns, fake reviews, and search optimization schemes.

The humor in fart apps may be low brow, but the dollars are high finance.  iFart Mobile only costs $0.99, but it has been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times -- 38,927 on December 25th alone, netting its author a $27,249 Christmas present that day -- and it has been discussed in venues ranging from minor blogs to the prestigious New York Times Magazine. 

Putting aside the merits of who deserves the credit for a farting iPhone, I find it interesting that Air-O-Matic is asking for $50,000 in its lawsuit against InfoMedia because that is apparently what an iPhone app developer can make in a single week if his app reaches the #1 paid download spot.  With around 20,000 apps in iTunes right now it is very difficult to reach the top, but for developers who do so, there is a lot of money to be made.  Ethan Nicholas, developer of a tank artillery game called iShoot, quit his day job after his app hit the #1 spot and he made $600,000 in a single month.

We'll see what legal precedent, if any, comes out of the Fart v. Fart lawsuits, but their existence reveals that developing iPhone apps can be a lucrative but cutthroat business.  If you want more details, you can learn what the big stink is all about at these websites:

• iPhone Alley
• Neowin.net
• CNet
• Fortune
• [Update 2/18/09:  Another good article is at Ars Technica]

And if you must, you can download both of these $0.99 apps and sniff out your own conclusions:

• Click here to get iFart Mobile: 
• Click here to get Pull My Finger: 

Love

Total Google search results for "I love my Blackberry" -- 29,900
...for "I love my Nokia" -- 11,600
...for "I love my Treo" -- 11,300
...for "I love my G1" -- 6,540
...for "I love my Sony Ericsson" -- 3,120
...for "I love my Palm" -- 904
...for "I love my HTC Touch" -- 534

And the total Google search results for "I love my iPhone" -- 93,100

Interpret this highly scientific research as you will. 

I hope that you and the one that you love enjoy this Valentine's day.

-Jeff

P.S.  Amazon is offering the classic Marvin Gaye song "Let's Get it On" for free today.  Click here to download the MP3 file.  Offer expires at the end of Valentine's Day.

Review: Apple In-Ear Headphones

I recently purchased a pair of the latest model of the Apple In-Ear Headphones released by Apple in December of 2008.  I have been very happy with this $79 purchase.  There are four things I like about these headphones:  they are comfortable, very functional thanks to a remote, they sound great, and they come with a compact carrying case.

Comfort.  First, they are very comfortable in my ears.  The headphones that come with the iPhone are okay, but I often feel myself adjusting them because they don't feel completely right for my ears, plus they sometimes fall out.  Thus, for a long time now (with both my iPhone and my iPod) I have used the previous model of Apple's in-ear headphones.  The soft rubbery earpieces always felt much better in my ears.  I find this new version of the Apple In-Ear Headphones is even more comfortable.  Like the previous model, these come with three different sized earpieces.  This time, the spares are housed inside of an interesting tiny tube.  I used the largest set with the prior model of the in-ear headphones, but with this latest model I prefer the feel of the middle-sized set.  I can wear these for hours and my ears feel great, while the ones that came with my iPhone 3G hurt my ears if I use them for too long.

 

Remote and Microphone.  Second, the new Apple In-Ear Headphones are very functional.  Even though the headphones that came with my iPhone 3G were not as comfortable, I still frequently used them because they include a microphone and thus can be used to make calls.  Also, I like the button that allows you to play / pause / FF / RW.  These new Apple In-Ear Headphones have the best of both worlds -- the comfort of in-ear headphones, plus the functionality of a microphone and remote. 

Note that there is one feature in these headphones that does not work with the iPhone 3G, at least not right now.  The remote on the headphones has + and - buttons that are supposed to let you change the volume.  That feature works with the newest iPods, but is not supported on the iPhone 3G.  I don't know if that is a software issue that can be fixed in an update or a hardware issue that will not be fixed until a new model of the iPhone is released.  It would be nice to have the ability to use the remote to change the volume, but I don't consider this a big deal.  I can always reach down to the iPhone and change the volume using the buttons on the side -- something I can do without even looking at the iPhone.  What I really appreciate is the ability to play / pause / FF / RW using physical buttons without having to take out my iPhone 3G, turn on the screen, actually look at the screen to find the virtual iPhone controls, and then tap the correct button on the screen.  And the placement of the remote right on the cord is very convenient.

As a reminder of how the remote works, click once to start playing the iPod app (or if it is already playing to pause).  Click twice to skip forward to the next track.  Click three times to skip back to the beginning of the current track (or if you are near the beginning, to skip to the prior track).  If your phone rings, click the remote to answer and click again to hang up.  Note that the remote will not control apps other than the iPod or Phone.  For example, if you are using your headphones while watching a YouTube video, you might instinctively click the remote to pause the video ... but that won't work.  Instead, it will exit the YouTube app and start playing the iPod app.

Sound Quality.  Third, these headphones sound great.  I should disclose that while I like to listen to music, I am not an audiophile.  I know that there are a lot of people out there who swear by their headphones from companies like Shure, Sennheiser, Etymotic, etc. that cost $300, $500 or more.  I'm sure those sound wonderful, but my ears are not sophisticated enough to really appreciate the difference in price.  I want something that sounds great but costs under $100.  Apple points out that these headphones actually contain two drivers -- a woofer to handle base and mid-range sounds and a tweeter for high-frequency audio, something that you rarely see in headphones that cost less than $100.  Perhaps that is why they sound so good to me.

iLounge posted a very comprehensive review of these headphones last December.  The iLounge reviewer doesn't like the sound as much as I do because he wants more bass out of a pair of headphones.  For the type of music I listen to, I think the bass sounds just fine.  I still encourage you to look at the iLounge review, if for no other reason because they have some awesome close up pictures that really show you every detail of the headphones.  But keep in mind that other reviewers, like me, really like the sound.  For example, Ryan Block (former Editor in Chief of Engadget, now of gdgt) said "they sounded really good — way out of their price range. Having two drivers makes a big difference."

Compact Carrying Case.  Fourth, I love the carrying case.  The large and boxy case that came with the former version of the in-ear headphones was nice to have but felt too large in my pocket.  This new case is much smaller and more compact and I don't hesitate to toss it in a pocket.  Sometimes it is a little difficult to get the headphones to fit just right in the case so that you can close the plastic cover -- it is a snug fit -- but I consider this an acceptable tradeoff to have a very tiny case.

Finding the right headphone or earphone is a very personal decision.  We all have different ear shapes and are impressed by different tonal qualities.  Thus, it comes as no surprise that many reviewers really like these headphones while others hate them.  Nevertheless, if you are looking to get something better than the headphones that came with your iPhone or iPhone 3G, want to keep the functional remote and microphone, and don't want to spend a fortune, I encourage you to consider these.  Upgrading your headphones is a good investment that will help you enjoy your iPhone even more.

Click here for the Amazon page for the Apple In-ear Headphones with Remote & Mic.  I purchased mine in an Apple Store at full retail price, but you can save a few dollars if you buy them from Amazon, and this link has a referral code to support iPhone J.D.

UPDATE on 2/18/09:  Alex Watson of Bit-Tech has a review of six replacement headphones for the iPhone, including the Apple ones I review here.  Alex doesn't like the bass on the Apple headphones, but the other headphones he reviews either don't have a microphone and remote or have them but they seem to me to be less functional then what Apple gives you -- plus they are much more expensive.  I respectfully disagree with parts of of Alex's review; for example, he considers the remote too small to be functional, but it works great for me and I consider it a plus that the remote is small and unobtrusive.  Nevertheless, I still recommend that you read his review to get a different perspective before you decide what to buy.

Places to buy an iPhone

I have heard from several people who read this site but don't yet have an iPhone.  And I can't even count the number of times that I have used an iPhone in public and someone has asked me about getting one -- something that I am sure happens to all of you, too.  If you or someone you know is looking to buy an iPhone now, there is a useful post on Art of the iPhone entitled Where is the Best Place to Buy an iPhone?  There are currently five places to buy an iPhone in the U.S.:  an Apple store, an AT&T store, Best Buy, Wal-Mart or Sam's Club.  Wal-Mart is cheaper than the others, but only $2.00 cheaper.  The article explains that if saving money is critical, you can save $50 by buying a refurbished iPhone, and if you do so your best bet is to buy from Apple or Best Buy where you get a 1 year warranty.  [UPDATE on 2/18/09:  AT&T is now offering a $100 rebate on a refurbished iPhone.]

One thing not discussed in that article that I will add is that if you have a complicated data plan such as a split billing arrangement where your employer pays the data portion of your bill, a combined billing plan, etc., then you may be required to buy from an AT&T store.  Other stores, including Apple, may not be able to add an iPhone to one of those plans.

If you are looking to buy an iPhone, should you buy one now or wait?  I wrote about this last month, and I continue to believe that a new iPhone will be released by Apple this year, probably in June or July.  Remember that Apple increased the memory on iPhones in February of 2008, so it is possible that they will do so again before a new model is released later this year.

Last year, the inventory of first generation iPhones started to dry up in April, two months before the iPhone 3G was announced on June 9, 2008.  We might see a similar inventory decrease at some point this year, and if so, that will be a sign that a major new model of iPhone is coming and a reason to hold off on purchasing if you can.  But we are not there now, so if you are looking to buy your iPhone now, check out the article.

         

Cliff Maier adds bookmarks, flattening to legal reference apps

It was just last week that I discussed updates to Cliff Maier's legal reference apps such as FRCP (Federal Rules of Civil Procedure) and FRAP (Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure), but now they have been updated again.  When comparing his apps to similar offerings from The Law Pod, I pointed out that two advantages of The Law Pod apps over Cliff's apps were that (1) The Law Pod apps list the rules by number (instead of Title) on the home screen, making it easier to jump to a specific rule if you already know the number and (2) The Law Pod apps list the entire rule on one screen, whereas in Cliff's apps you had to read each subsection on its own screen.

Cliff is a long-time reader of iPhone J.D.  In fact, Cliff often answers questions about his apps in the Comments to posts -- which I mention because I know that many of the regular readers of this site read it in an RSS reader and might not normally see the Comments.  Cliff is now adding updates to many of his apps to address both of these issues, making his already useful apps even more functional. 

Bookmarks.  The first new feature is bookmarks.  If you are like me, your paper copy of your rules has pages that are dog-eared or affixed with Post-It Flags to bookmark the rules that you turn to time and time again.  Cliff is now adding a bookmarks feature to his apps.  For example, let's say that you frequently turn to FRAP 28 when you are drafting an appeal brief.  Notice that in the bottom left corner there is now an open star.  Tap once on that star and it becomes a closed star to indicate that you have now added a bookmark to that rule:

   

The Home Screen of Cliff's apps still lists the rules by title, not by number, but there is a new bookmarks button at the top left of the Home Screen.  Tap it once and you will see a list of the rules that you bookmarked:

    

This makes it quick and easy to jump right to the rules that you use most frequently -- even faster than using the Jump button on the Home Page that was recently added to Cliff's apps.  The apps still list the Titles in on the Home Screen, useful when you are not exactly sure what rule you want.  But if you know the rule number and it is one that you bookmarked, you are now just a tap away from a list of your favorite rules.  Bookmarks is a great new feature that I will use all the time.

Flattening. The other issue that I mentioned last week is that in Cliff's apps, you sometimes don't see the entire rule on a single screen.  Cliff addressed this by adding a new button to the bottom right of many of his apps that turns on and off flattening.  The best way to describe this is with pictures, and I'll do so using the FRCP app -- in part because the FRAP app doesn't yet have flattening, although this feature is coming soon.  On the left is a picture of Rule 11 as it normally appears.  On the right is a picture of Rule 11 once you tap the flattening button at the bottom right.  Note that the icon on the flattening button even changes to indicate which view you are in:

     

I find it very useful to have the option to either (1) view an outline of the rule to get an overview of the rule and quickly go to the subpart you need or (2) view the entire rule on a single page when you just want to scroll through it all.

Apps to be Updated.  Cliff plans to eventually add bookmarks to almost all of his legal reference apps.  Flattening is really only necessary for the more complicated sets of rules that have lots of subparts; many apps just have the rules flattened by default.  Here are the apps that now have these new features or will very soon:

• CCP (California Code of Procedure) - bookmarks coming soon; flattening coming soon
• Constitution - bookmarks coming soon
• FRBP - bookmarks coming soon; flattening coming soon
• FRCP - bookmarks now; flattening now
• FRCrimPro - bookmarks now; flattening coming soon
• FRAP - bookmarks now; flattening coming soon
• Lanham - bookmarks now
• MassEv - bookmarks now
• Patent Rules - bookmarks now
  
• PCT - bookmarks coming soon
  

Note also that Cliff maintains a page on his website that lists the apps available now, the apps coming soon, the apps that attorneys have requested and are under consideration, and information on what has been submitted to Apple and is just awaiting approval.

If you have other ideas for improving these apps, please post them in the Comments.  I'm sure that Cliff will see them, and others can comment on your comments to perhaps improve on your idea.  It wasn't long ago that I considered legal reference apps on the iPhone just a nice way to view a rule when I was away from my desk.  But with all of the new features being added, I'm increasingly finding that the iPhone version of the rules is the version that I turn to first, even if I am at my desk with a paper copy of the rules within reach.

Link to FRCP on iTunes ($2.99): 

Link to FRAP on iTunes ($2.99): 

DataViz - edit Word, Excel, Powerpoint on iPhone?

On my prior phone, a Treo 650, I was a big fan of a product from DataViz called Documents to Go which allows one to view and edit Microsoft Office files on a portable device.  Documents to Go is available for many brands of cell phones, and it is no surprise that DataViz would want to port the product to the iPhone.  You can click here for a YouTube video interview of DataViz's president from March of 2008, just after Apple announced that third parties would be able to sell apps for the iPhone, in which he says that DataViz had plans to do so.  More recently, DataViz spokeswoman Jenn Figueroa said that Documents to Go for the iPhone was their top customer request.  And for many months now, DataViz has had this teaser page on their website which says nothing more than this:

 

Thus, it has been clear for a while that something was coming, and now it finally sounds like we will learn more about this product in just a few days.  A number of websites such as this one are reporting that DataViz sent out a press release a few days ago stating that the company would announce Documents to Go for the iPhone at the Mobile World Congress which begins next week on February 16, 2009.

Of course, the iPhone already includes the ability to view Word, Excel and PowerPoint files.  I suspect and hope that DataViz's iPhone app will add at least the following two features.  First, I expect DataViz to give us the ability to always sync the latest version of a file on your desktop with your iPhone.  You can already manually do something similar with apps like DataCase, but some sort of automatic sync would be welcome.  Second, it would be nice to have the ability to edit those documents on your iPhone and then sync the changes back to a computer -- although without cut-and-paste on the iPhone, DataViz's ability to include editing will likely be limited.

DataViz has a very long history of working with Apple.  I used DataViz software to translate documents created on a PC to and from the Mac back when I was in college in the 1980s.  Hopefully, DataViz has used the past 11 months to work with their contacts at Apple and come up with a great product for the iPhone.  We'll find out next week.

Magic or a brain -- let the CT scan decide

I often find myself amazed at what the iPhone can do.  For example, just the other day my wife and I heard a somewhat familiar song that we couldn't identify during the closing credits of HBO's Big Love.  My wife suggested that we hold an iPhone up to the speaker on our TV and use the free Shazam app, just like it shows you in that iPhone commercial.  I did so, and sure enough, in just a few seconds, it identified the song as "Forever Young" by Alphaville.  Then I fired up the free Wikipanion app and typed in "Forever Young" and I leaned that this song was released in 1984 (so my wife and I must have remembered the song from when we were in high school), that it is now considered a staple of the 1980s pop music scene, and that it has been used in a ton of TV shows and movies.  The article even lists the uses of the song, including in the very TV show that we were watching.  Knowing the answer to our trivia question was neat, but having the ability to get that answer on the iPhone in less than a minute was amazing.

  

Arthur C. Clarke famously said in 1973 that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."  That accurately describes how I often feel about my iPhone.  What other word but "magic" can describe the iPhone taking just a few seconds to give me tons of details about the song I am listening to?  Well, one other word is "brain" -- I often find myself thinking of my iPhone an extra brain that I carry around with me.

So is it "magic" or a "brain"?  How do we settle the debate?  Simple:  we take a look inside of the iPhone.  Thanks to iPhone Alley for providing a link to Radiology Art, a site that shows you what different objects look like in a CT scan.  The doll and the TV dinner scans are interesting.  One of the objects that they scanned is an iPhone.  Click here to go to that website and see a larger picture of the scan, but here is a preview of what the CT scan shows us:

Does anyone see a brain in there?  No?  Well that settles it once and for all.  It must be magic.

Time tracking - online

Following up once again on using your iPhone to enter your time, New Orleans attorney Al Robert -- who runs the great Louisiana law blawg Naked Ownership -- reminded me that there is yet another part of the ecosystem that you should consider if you want to use your iPhone to enter time:   online services with web-based or standalone apps.  Al uses an online service called Harvest to track his time and invoice his clients.  He does all of the setup on his computer, and then he can use the iPhone to enter time using a web app that includes a start/stop timer and uses simple drop-down menus.  The web app can also be used to enter expenses and associate the expenses with clients and matters when you are on the road.

Of course, you need to have some sort of Internet access to use a web app.  I'm currently acutely aware that this is not always available.  I am serving jury duty this month in Orleans Parish Criminal District Court, which means that on Tuesdays and Thursdays in February, I have to spend almost a full day in the basement of the courthouse where AT&T 3G and Edge service is nonexistent and a weak WiFi signal is just barely available if you find a seat in the corner of the room and only then if you are lucky.  Perhaps some sort of voodoo ritual would help.  But back on topic ... if you do have Internet access, the nice thing about a web app is that when you enter your time on your iPhone, it is simultaneously entered with the online service.  No need to export data from your iPhone to your computer.

There are many other online services that track time, and some of them offer a standalone iPhone app that acts as a front end and interfaces directly with the website.  The advantage of these, of course, is that whether or not you have Internet access, you can still use the app on your iPhone.  Also, because these iPhone apps are closely integrated with the online service, you don't have to worry about exporting your data to an e-mail and then importing to a different time entry system.  You still need to sync, but at least you know that no data reformatting is necessary.  In my original post on time tracking apps I mentioned one of these:  Bill4Time Mobile by Broadway Billing Systems.  FreshBooks is a similar online service that also offers an iPhone app.  You can use the app to track time for projects and tasks and write notes for each time entry.  The FreshBooks app automatically stores pending submissions when you are offline and then syncs with you once again have an Internet connection.

I've been getting a lot of feedback from iPhone J.D. readers on these different options for using your iPhone to track your time, which leads me to believe that there are quite a few of you out there using these, or at least thinking about using them.  As I mentioned in my original post, right now, I am not using one, but the next time I find myself on the road, I may consider doing so.  I still can't decide which is my favorite.

 

Time tracking apps -- Eternity Time Log

Two weeks ago, I posted a survey of the time tracking apps available for the iPhone.  I recently learned of another one:  Eternity Time Log by Komorian, an app created by Marcin Komorek.

Eternity Time Log was not created for attorneys and was not even specifically designed to be a business time keeping app, but Marcin tells me that many people use Eternity Time Log to keep track of their work.  The title certainly fits -- I've had many a day at the office when I felt like I worked for an eternity!  [insert rimshot here]

The app offers many of the good features contained in the other time tracking apps I discussed such as a timer, the ability to add notes for each time entry, and the ability to modify a time entry after it is entered.  The app allows you to create an activity, and then if you want, you can nest additional sub-activities.  I can imagine an attorney having a different activity for each client, and a different sub-activity for each matter for the client.  Or you could just ignore the sub-activities completely and create a new activity for each matter.

   

To start recording time, you tap on an activity / sub-activity, and this brings up a start/stop timer and the ability to add notes.  The app allows you to subsequently edit the start or stop time if you need to make an adjustment, plus you can edit your notes.  To review your time, tap "Logs" to see each time entry including your notes.  You can also tap "Reports" which shows the amount of time you spent for each activity (including all sub-activities).  It would be nice if there was an option to round to the nearest minute and not display seconds, but in this version you get the precise time.

    

The screen shots I am showing here are from the free version, Eternity Time Log Lite, which only allows up to seven activities and doesn't allow you to export your time.  The full version allows you to e-mail your time as a .csv attachment.

Eternity Time Log looks like another nice entry in this product category, and if you are shopping for the time entry app that is right for you, this one deserves a look, especially since you can try out the Lite version for free.

Click here for the free Eternity Time Log Lite: 

Click here for the full version of Eternity Time Log for $7.99: 

Additional fields in your Contacts

I suspect that everyone knows about the basic fields of an entry in the Contacts app:  first name, last name, phone number, address, etc.  But did you know that you can add lots of other useful information to a Contact entry by adding advanced fields?

Alan at Art of the iPhone has a great series of posts he calls iPhone Basics.  He recently posted a helpful entry called "How to Add Prefixes, Suffixes, Middle Names, Etc, to iPhone Contacts."  The post is full of great tidbits.  For example, he points out that in addition to adding a first and last name to an entry, you can add a field for a phonetic spelling of the first or last name to remind yourself how a name is pronounced.  You can also add a field for a person's nickname, birthday, etc.  The post includes pictures showing you step by step what to do.  It is worth a look.

If you like that post, you might like some of the other posts in Art of the iPhone's iPhone Basics series.  They include:

• How to change your iPhone wallpaper
• How to send a call to voicemail
• How to give a contact a unique ringtone
• How to delete the Safari browser history
• How to make an on-the-go playlist

...and many others.  And if you want even more, Alan also has a series of posts that he calls iPhone Tips.  Whether or not you consider yourself a basic user or an iPhone pro, you are sure to learn something new.

Review: The Law Pod - federal rules for your iPhone

Fitz Collings is a first year law student at William and Mary Law School.  He got his undergraduate degree in Biology at Cornell, his masters in biotechnology at Harvard, and he plans to practice IP law when he graduates.

In August of 2008, Fitz wrote some web apps (websites specially formatted for the iPhone) containing various federal rules.  He recently converted them to iPhone apps so that you can access the rules even when you don't have an Internet connection.  Fitz calls his company The Law Pod and he currently has four apps:  the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure and the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy.

The apps are straightforward.  Start the app and you will see a list of rules, listed by number.  Tap on a rule number to see the title and full text of the rule.  When you are looking at a rule, you can tap a "Previous" or "Next" button to browse through the rules.  

  

The apps also contain a search box at the top of each page.  On the app's home page, you can enter a term and the app will show you a list of the rules that contain your search term.  You can then tap on one of the rules in the list to see the full text of the rule.    To find a term within a rule, you tap the search area at the top of the screen of a rule, and then as you start to type your term you will see the instances of the word highlighted.

  

Yesterday, I discussed the similar legal reference apps sold by Cliff Maier.  How do Fitz's Law Pod apps compare?  Each has different strengths. 

One major difference is the layout of the home screen of each app.  In Cliff's apps, the home screen is a list of titles.  You need to click on a title to see the rules within that title.  In Fitz's apps, you see a full list of the rules, by number only, on the home screen of the app.  Cliff's layout is better if you don't know the specific rule you want and want to browse by subject.  Fitz's layout is better if you know the number you want and just want to go straight there.  As I noted yesterday, Cliff's app now features a "Jump" button that lets you jump straight to a rule or statute, but you might find it easier to just see a full list of all of the rules so you can scroll and then tap on what you want.

   

Another major difference is that Fitz lists the entire rule on a single page while Cliff has each subpart of a rule on a different page.  For example, if you want to see Fed. R. Civ. Pro 26(a)(1)(A), in Cliff's App you need to tap Title V --> Rule 26 --> (a) Required Disclosures --> (1) Initial Disclosure --> (A) In General.  That's five taps to get there, and you are only seeing that one part of the rule.  Compare that to Fitz's app, in which you just tap on Rule 26 and you are looking at the whole rule, including that first part.  In Cliff's apps, you can browse through subsections using arrows, but you might prefer Fitz's layout in which the whole rule is in front of you at once, reducing the risk that you will read Rule 26(a)(1)(A) but forget about something in Rule 26(a)(1)(B).

   

Those two differences I just noted are largely issues of personal preference, and depending upon what I am doing I sometimes prefer Fitz's apps and sometimes prefer Cliff's apps.  When it comes to search, on the other hand, Cliff's apps are superior.  As noted above, when you search in a Law Pod app you just see a list of rules, and when you first tap on a rule the search term is not highlighted unless you do a second search within that one rule.  In Cliff's apps, when you do a search, you see a both the title of the rule and a contextual excerpt with the search term highlighted.  Moreover, search itself is more sophisticated in Cliff's apps because you can search for a phrase or do a search for both terms or either terms (AND and OR searches); in Fitz's Law Pod apps, there is only a single term or phrase search.  (Look at yesterday's post to see pictures of these search functions.)

Other advantages of Cliff's apps:  Cliff's apps allow you to e-mail the text of a rule to yourself or someone else.  Cliff's apps include the "Jump" feature noted above.  Cliff has many more apps, and allows for inter-linking between apps.  When you restart Cliff's apps, you return to the rule you were last viewing.

Cliff's apps clearly have more features, but be aware that Fitz tells me that he has updates planned for his apps which will add better search capabilities, virtual tabbing/bookmarking of frequently used rules or sections, cross-linked rules, the addition of notes, and stored user preferences.  Also note that you pay a little more for Cliff's apps:  Cliff charges $2.99 for the federal civil, appellate and bankruptcy rules and $8.99 for Title 18 (which includes both criminal law and procedure).  Fitz charges only $0.99 for his Law Pod federal rules apps.

So which should you get?  I think the choice is easy.  GET BOTH.  This is not just me being glib; I prefer to have both sets of apps on my iPhone.  Sometimes I want to take advantage of the advanced features in Cliff's apps.  But for just a single buck more, I can also access one of Fitz's apps for those times when I know the rule number and just want to quickly browse through the entire rule.  I recommend that you do the same -- no matter what your billing rate, you'll spend more than a dollar of your time trying to choose just one! 

You can download each of the Law Pod apps from iTunes using these links:

• Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure - $0.99 -
• Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure - $0.99 -
• Federal Rules of Civil Procedure - $0.99 -
• Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure - $0.99 -

Or just click here for a page in iTunes listing all of Fitz's Law Pod apps: