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.
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 manyreviewersreallylike these headphones while othershate 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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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:
. 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.
