Month: March 2009

Yesterday, two new apps were added to the iTunes app store that are incredibly useful and free — always a great combination.

First, Skype released an iPhone app.  Why do you need Skype if your iPhone is already a cell phone?  Because with Skype, you can make calls over a Wi-Fi connection, which means that you don’t use up the minutes on your plan, plus you can even make calls on your iPhone when you are in another country over Wi-Fi.  Calling another Skype user is free; calls from Skype to a normal phone line cost about two cents a minute, or you can get unlimited calls to normal phone lines with a monthly plan.  I have only tried the app for a few minutes, but it seems to work as advertised.  Here are some of the better articles describing the app, although note that these are not reviews because they were written during the day on Monday and the app didn’t become available until late Monday night: Reuters, PC World, TidBITS.  (Note that if you don’t have an iPhone but instead have an iPod Touch, you can plug a pair of earphones with a mic into your iPod Touch and use Skype to make calls.  I’ve always described the iPod Touch as the “iPhone without a phone,” but now that there is a Skype app, even the iPod Touch can act somewhat like a phone, although I imagine you would have to have the app running to receive a call.)

[UPDATE:  Skype sure is popular.  The company says:  “In less than two days, Skype for iPhone has been downloaded more than one million times – around six downloads every second.”  Wow.]

Second, if you use DirecTV, then you should definitely get the free DirecTV app.  The app allows you to view a guide directory, so you can browse all of the channels on a time and date or you can pick one channel and then scroll through the upcoming listings.  You can also search for particular shows by program title, episode title, description, category, channel name or cast and crew.  And once you find something that you like, you can use the app to tell your DirecTV DVR to record it.  I have been using a DirecTV webpage to do these same things for a few months now; it worked, but it was slow and awkward.  The iPhone app is beautiful, functional and fast.  You can tap for more information on any listing, and there is often a picture that you can tap to see a roll of photographs — typically pictures of the cast members.  With this great app, you can easily tell your DVR to record a show (or an entire series) whether you are in the office, on the road, or even across the country.  Here are some of the better reviews of this app:  DBSTalk (in the first post, download the PDF file for a comprehensive review), TUAW, Art of the iPhone.  Here are a few pictures:

  
 

  

Click here to get Skype (free): 

Click here to get DirecTV (free): 

Within the last year, two documentaries about Apple have been released.  I haven’t yet seen MacHEADS, which I understand focuses on Mac users, but I recently watched Welcome to Macintosh:  The Documentary for the Rest of Us.  It is a fun and informative 80 minute look at the last 20 years of Apple hardware, told through the voices of people with a long history with Apple.  Some of the best include Andy Hertzfeld (co-creator of the Mac), Guy Kawasaki (former Apple Evangelist) and Wayne Wenzlaff (who placed the first order to sell Apple II computers at a chain of computer stores). 

By far the most amusing interviewee is Jim Reekes, who worked at Apple from 1988 to 1999, during which time he wrote the Mac’s Sound Manager and other audio software for Apple.  Reekes is perhaps most famous for creating the chime that plays when you start a Mac.  It was first used in the Mac Quadra in 1991 and then became standard on all Macs after Steve Jobs returned to Apple.  Describing the creation of this chime, Reekes says in the documentary that he realized that a user would hear this sound whenever the computer crashed, so he tried to design a “palate cleanser.”  He describes the startup sound as a “widespread C major chord with a high E in the upper voice which, to me, just sounds more bright and sort of unresolved, but happy.  It’s a happy chord.”  Of course, that sound is now synonymous with the Mac, and I chuckled when I heard it in Pixar’s Wall•E movie (it played when Wall•E’s solar panels finished charging).  Jim Reekes is a good storyteller, and his sarcasm is absolutely hilarious.  He was a surprise star of this movie.

There is much to say about Apple history and a lot is, of course, not covered in this movie.  There is little discussion of software, no discussion of former Apple CEO John Scully firing Steve Jobs in the 1980s, and a lot of classic stories are left out.  One funny law-related story that I was surprised to see omitted was the story of “Sosumi,” a sound included with every Mac from the 1990s until today.  Fortunately, this story is included in the great DVD extras as part of a 23 minute interview with Reekes.  The background to the story is a 1981 settlement between the Beatles’ Apple Corps and Apple Computer whereby Apple Computer agreed to stay out of the music business.  Ten years later when computers became powerful enough to create pretty good music, Apple Corps sued Apple Computer.  At the same time, Reekes was developing new sounds to be included with the upcoming System 7, and one of the lawyers handling the lawsuit brought by the Beatles objected to the titles of some of his sounds as being “too musical.”  Reekes describes what happened next:

Late at night, we were working, it was literally midnight or later, a few of us were sitting around and I walk into the group and I say, “I can’t believe that I just got this e-mail.  The lawyers are saying the name of my new beep sound is sounding too musical and we’re going to have to take it out.”  And I was like, “we’re not taking it out.”  So I had to figure out what we would call it.  And so I told the group, “I know, I’ll call it ‘Let it Beep.'”  I thought that was actually brilliant.  But it was too obvious.  And so everyone was laughing, and then they thought I was serious.  “No, you can’t do that,” and I’m like, “No, I’m not serious,” I’m like “so sue me.”  And then, that is when it hit me, hey that would be a good name.  I just have to spell it funny.  So that’s why I said, I could spell it like it’s Japanese.  Sosumi.  And that is literally where it came from, just in the moment, exactly like that.

So then luckily, the director, Sheila Brady, of Software Engineering, was in the room at the time.  And I said “Sheila, I need you to contact the lawyer, tell him we’re going to change the name of this dumb thing that sounds too musical, and don’t tell him what it is, but spell it for him.  Because if you say it, he’ll get it.  And I don’t think that lawyers have a sense of humor anyway, so they probably won’t get it if you just spell it and just tell him that it’s a Japanese word, it doesn’t mean anything about music.”  So she did.  She called him and left him a voice mail and said we got this new word, it’s a Japanese word, she misunderstood what I said and said it’s a Japanese word that literally means nothing musical.  And so that actually became one of the urban legends.  No, it’s just some nonsensical word that I made up.

Reekes says that he never disclosed the true story behind “Sosumi” until after he left Apple in 1999.

There are very few mentions of the iPhone in this movie (although it is discussed somewhat more in the DVD extras), but if you enjoy hearing Apple-related stories like the one about Sosumi, you should definitely watch this movie.  You can buy the DVD directly from the filmakers at their website for $19.84.  (Cute; the Mac was introduced in 1984.)  You can also just rent it through Netflix.  Here is the movie trailer:

The iPhone Blog has a nice post this week on how the new features in iPhone Software 3.0 will be appreciated by business users, which includes just about all lawyers who work at a law firm.  Features discussed include anti-phishing in Safari, an improved call log, the ability to create meeting invitations, additional language support, LDAP support, notes sync, VPN on demand, etc.  Many of these are features that I’m really looking forward to for me and my law partners who use iPhones.  Click here to read the post.

With over 25,000 apps on the app store, it can be hard to decide which ones to download.  Thus, I always find it helpful to see lists of the apps that others are using.  I am currently working with a few prominent lawyer bloggers to complie a large list of suggested apps — hopefully that will be finished and posted here next week.  But until then, here are a few other lists that are worth checking out.

Today, Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal posted this list of his favorite apps on the iPhone.  His picks are Tweetie (a good Twitter client, but I currently prefer the free TwitterFon), Facebook, Kindle, ICE, Easy Wi-Fi (note that Apple may include some or all of the functions of this $2.99 app for free in the iPhone Software 3.0 coming out this summer), ReaddleDocs (I use MobileFiles Pro to do something similar), Quordy (I am addicted to the similar gave Wurdle) and Google Mobile (which I also love).  Check out his column on the Wall Street Journal site (if you subscribe) or here on his free All Things D site for more info on his picks.

Last week, Virginia Lawyers Weekly ran this article by Justin Rebello with a list of recommended apps for lawyers.  Picks include Jott, Air Sharing, Stage Hand, NumberKey, Recorder (note that Apple will include a free Voice Memo app in the upcoming 3.0), Datacase, 1Password and Evernote.  As noted above, I use MobileFiles Pro which replaces the need for Air Sharing or Datacase.

California attorney Scott Wu also recently posted this list of over 30 favorite and free apps.

Want to quickly tell someone else where you are? 
Perhaps you and a friend are trying to meet up and you are having
trouble describing your location.  There are two free apps that do
little more after you launch them then create an e-mail with the
subject line “I am here” along with a link to Google Maps with a marker on
your exact latitude and longitude so that the recipient can just click
the link and see where you are. 

To confuse matters somewhat, both apps
are called the same thing:  Here I am.  One of them comes from Arboretum Software, and was recently reviewed by Macworld.  The other one comes from Gareth Townsend.  The core features are the same, but they have some slight differences.  For example, the Arboretum app lets you set
a default “to” address and subject line, useful if you will often be
sending to the same person, plus it actually tells you your latitude and longitude before the e-mail is sent.  But whichever you choose, both are fast and easy.

As noted, these apps can be useful to show someone else where you are.  They might also be useful if you are at a location that you want to remember at
a later date — just send the e-mail to yourself.

Click here to get Arboretum’s Here I am (free): 

Click here to get Townsend’s Here I am (free): 

Given the law focus of this website, it is pretty rare for me to discuss games, let alone link to sites like Joystiq (a leading videogame website).  But something interesting caught my eye there last night regarding the popularity of the iPhone.

The growth in iPhone sales has, of course, been pretty astonishing.  When Greg Joswiak of Apple discussed iPhone Software 3.0 last week, he noted that the iPhone is now in 80 countries and has sold 17 million units, using graphs like this one to show the increase in sales.  (Note the huge increase in June of 2008 when the iPhone 3G was introduced.)

The success of the iPhone is often compared to other smartphones.  For example, RIM currently sells more Blackberry smartphones (combining all the various models) than Apple sells iPhones, although of course RIM has been making Blackberries for a long time whereas Apple’s share of the smartphone market has already gone from zero to around 25% in a very short period of time. 

Yesterday, however, the growth of the iPhone was put in a different context — gaming devices.  This week is the 2009 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, and the keynote address on Monday was given by Neil Young. No, not that one, but the one who used to work at gaming behemoth Electronic Arts and then left to start iPhone game developer ngmoco.  That company has released numerous popular iPhone games including Topple, Rolando and Word Fu, and Neil Young was one of the developers showcased by Apple last week at the iPhone Software 3.0 announcement.  Wired reports that in his keynote address, titled “Why iPhone Just Changed Everything,” Young said that the iPhone is “the beginning of something very special” and that the introduction of the iPhone was as “important a moment in the game industry as the introduction of the
(Atari) VCS, or the NES, or the Game Boy, or Xbox Live, or massively
multiplayer games” in part because “Apple has trained 30 million people to download and install
applications on their phone, wherever they are.”  A Joystiq article about the presentation includes a slide that Young displayed containing data from Morgan Stanley
showing how the growth curve of the iPhone is more impressive than the
growth curves of the popular Nintendo DS and Sony Play Station Portable:

(Image from Joystiq)

I know that a lot of people love the iPhone for the games, and Young noted that 60% of the top 100 apps on the iTunes app store are games.  Even so, it is not often that I think of the iPhone’s success juxtaposed with the success of popular game systems, so I find this slide and Young’s remarks interesting.  Check out the Wired and Joystiq articles for more details.

If your law practice involves dealing with the U.S. Congress, you will want to read two recent reviews of the Congress in Your Pocket apps by Cohen Research Group.  The company sells three apps.  Congress is $0.99 and gives you basic information about every member of Congress.  Congress+ is $9.99 and adds staff information, committee assignments and one free update of the database in 2010.  CongressPro is $99.99 and the database in that version is updated throughout the year.  (And if you practice in California, the developer also has California in Your Pocket apps.)

Congress+ was recently reviewed by Macworld.  The reviewer liked the app, giving it a 4 out of 5 mouse rating and saying that the app is “indispensable” for those interested in Congress because of its “extensive database packed with information on congressional leaders,
their staffers, committee activities and the minutiae of the
legislative process.”

The website Apple iPhone Apps also recently reviewed Congress+ and also gave it a 4 out of 5 review, concluding that the app is “very well done app in function and form, contains loads of information
(contact or otherwise), and appears to has a responsive development
team (based on user comments) and my own experience.”

Older reviews of Congress+ can be found at AppCraver and AppleStoreApps.

I haven’t tested the app myself as I don’t do governmental relations work, but it might be worth checking out if you do.  Here are a few screenshots from the app provided by the developer, and if you want more you should look at this page from the developer’s web site containing 45 screen shots.

   

Click here to get Congress ($0.99): 

Click here to get Congress+ ($9.99):  

Click here to get CongressPro ($99.99): 

There have been quite a few articles this week about the implications of iPhones and similar devices in the courtroom. 

The story that has perhaps gotten the most attention ran in the New York Times a few days ago:  As Jurors Turn to Web, Mistrials Are Popping Up.  The article describes a Florida criminal trial in which a mistrial was declared after it was discovered that eight jurors had been researching the case on the Internet, a criminal trial in Pennsylvania in which a judge declared a mistrial after a juror posted updates on Twitter, and a civil case in Arkansas in which another juror posted updates on Twitter such as this one:  “So Johnathan, what did you do today? Oh nothing really, I just gave away TWELVE MILLION DOLLARS of somebody else’s money.”  MSNBC picked up on the story as did countless other news outlets.

Also this week, the National Law Journal posted a story about judges letting reporters use services like Twitter to live-blog the events at a trial.  Some judges prohibit electronic devices in the courtroom, while other judges see no problem with it.

My initial reaction to these stories is that they were sensationalist.  As Macworld joked when describing the New York Times article, when a journalist finds three cases of something — it must be a trend!!!

Upon reflection, however, I think there is something here.  Jurors getting information from, or communicating with, the outside world is nothing new, nor are journalistic attempts to provide up-to-the-minute coverage of trials.  (We all remember the O.J. Simpson trial.)  But what is different is that small but powerful technology like the iPhone makes it so easy to get and send information that people don’t think twice about doing it.  People are already using iPhones to broadcast all of the minutia about their lives, even what they had for lunch.  Having something of true significance to share, like a trial, can somehow seem even more appropriate.  And if you are used to using your iPhone to look up information whenever you have a question, wouldn’t it be easy to use your iPhone just to get a quick picture of the area where a crime took place, or to look up a legal concept, or to research a person or a company?

Last month, I had jury service in criminal court in New Orleans for six full days.  Along with the feeling of civic responsibility came a lot of down time and boredom, and I found myself making extensive use of my iPhone.  At one point, I was voir dired in a high-profile murder case, and I thought about how I could do a quick search on my iPhone and find out what the case was all about.  I had to exercise quite a bit of self-control to not do so when I knew how easy it would be.  (No, I wasn’t selected for that jury or any others … lawyers love to strike other lawyers from juries!)  When the iPhone makes accessing the world to get or send information so darn easy, the temptation to do so can be hard to resist.  Perhaps Macworld is right and this isn’t a “trend” per se, but surely an increasing number of courts will be forced to confront questions arising from the use of iPhones in court.

[UPDATE on 3-24-09: Here is a cute cartoon from Courtoons on this subject:]

When Apple revealed the upcoming iPhone Software 3.0 on Tuesday, they said that they only had time to discuss some of the over 100 new features.  Since then, even more new features in 3.0 have come to light.  Here are a few of them being discussed on other sites that look particularly interesting:  [UPDATE 4/1/09:  Added Nos. 8 through 10.]

1. Find my iPhone.  There is a new option in the Settings for MobileMe called “Find my iPhone” that you can turn on or off.  AppleInsider describes this feature, as does Engadget, and MobileCrunch has a picture of that screen on their website.  The best guess is that this is a feature for those who subscribe to Apple’s $100 a year MobileMe service whereby if you ever lose your iPhone, you can log into your MobileMe account from a computer and MobileMe will tell you where your iPhone is located (using the GPS or Wi-Fi triangulation on your iPhone) and then show you the location on a map.  It would be great if Apple could also add this feature to my keys.
2. 
   
   Voice Memos app runs in the background.  I mentioned the new Voice Memo app yesterday and wondered what it would offer that is different from the numerous voice recorder apps currently sold by third parties.  Now we know the answer.  Unlike third party apps, which are not allowed to run in the background, the Apple Voice Memo app can.  Thus, you can exit the app and check your e-mail, calendar, etc. and the app will continue to record.  A red bar appears at the top of the screen when you are recording.  MobileCrunch has a picture of that, as does iLounge.  iLounge reports that this new app cannot be used to record phone calls.
3. Text messages send in the background.  MacRumors reports that when you hit send, you can start typing your next new message while previous message is being sent.  This is not much of a feature for text messages, which send quickly, but is more important when you use the Messages app to send photos via the newly enabled MMS.
4. Encryption of backups.  Your iPhone is backed up on your computer whenever you sync in iTunes.  iLounge discloses
   
   a new feature that allows you to encrypt that backup file, presumably so
   
   that someone else using your computer cannot access any confidential
   
   information backed up from your iPhone — something that, frankly, never even occurred to me as being possible.
5. More home button shortcuts.  Currently, you can double-click the home button to either go to the
   
   Home screen, your Phone Favorites, or the iPod.  In 3.0, you can also make a
   
   double-click bring up Search or the Camera.
6. 
   
   Shake to undo.  When Apple revealed cut, copy and paste on Tuesday, they pointed out that if you make a mistake, you can shake the iPhone to bring up a dialog box that lets you undo the cut, copy or paste.  But apparently the shake to undo feature can be used elsewhere.  For example, if you type a few words in an e-mail, Notes, etc., apparently you can shake the iPhone to undo the last thing you typed — similar to using the undo command in a word processor.  Engadget shows this in a video posted here (at around the 9 minute mark).
7. Media scrubber.  On a slide quickly displayed during Apple’s presentation on Tuesday, one of the phrases that appears as a new feature is “Media scrubber.”  Apple didn’t reveal what this means, but MobileCrunch reveals that there are new high-speed and low-speed scrubbing modes to make it easy to quickly find a specific point in a podcast.  There is also a new button that appears when you are listening to a podcast that you can tap to quickly rewind 30 seconds, which would be useful any time you find yourself thinking “wait, what did he just say?”
8. These go to 11.  Spinal tap would be proud; 3.0 adds two more screens to the home screen, so instead of 9 screens you get 11.  That’s space for another 32 apps.
9. New Safari link options.  Currently if you hold your finger down on a link in Safari, the URL appears below your fingertip.  In 3.0, you get options to open the link, open in a new window and copy the link (so you can paste it into something like an e-mail).
10. Load remote image.  Like many desktop e-mail programs, Mail on the iPhone adds a “load remote image ” option to help you guard against spam.

Here’s one more link:  Andy Ihnatko published this article on the Chicago Sun Times site describing 3.0.  It is both informative and, as is the norm for Ihnatko, humorous.

Finally, here are the two slides Apple displayed during its Tuesday presentation listing new features for users and for app developers, some of which were discussed on Tuesday, some of which were not:

Yesterday, Apple previewed the next version of the iPhone operating software, version 3.0, which is due out this summer.  I hope that means June, not August.  Apple says that there are over 100 new features, and they announced a bunch of them yesterday.  Harry McCracken counted 81 different announcements yesterday, although he was purposefully being quite generous in the way he counted.  Here are the announcements that I think will be of the most interest for attorneys (any many others!) who use iPhones.  [UPDATE:  This follow up post lists even more new features.]

1. 
   
   Cut, copy and paste.  Finally!  Double-tap a word to bring up a menu, easily adjust how much text you are selecting, and if you make a mistake you can just shake the iPhone to undo.  It will be great to be able to paste text into an e-mail that you have copied from another e-mail, a court’s website, a legal reference app on your iPhone, etc.  We’ve waited a long time for this, and it looks like Apple has a great implementation.  For many lawyers, this will be the best new feature.
2. Spotlight and search.  I have thousands of e-mails and calendar entries and dozens of notes on my iPhone, and it is sometimes difficult to find the specific item that I need.  Apple is adding robust search features, both within an app and across all of your apps.  It is unclear whether you can search the body of an e-mail — yesterday, Apple only talked about searching the From, To, Subject and Header fields.  You can use Spotlight not only to find an e-mail, contact, song, etc. but also to find apps by name.  Type “tim” and you will see a link to the New York Times app — saving you the trouble of flicking across multiple screens to find the app.
3. 
   
   Notes.  The Notes app will sync with your computer using iTunes.  This is fine, but even better would be
   
   for Notes to sync with the notes in Microsoft Exchange, for those of us
   
   at a law firm that uses Outlook.  I’m sure that Apple (or a third party) will let you sync notes on your computer with Exchange.  It would be easier if the Notes app just synced wirelessly with Exchange, as the Mail and Contacts and Calendar apps do.  (And what about syncing of To Do items?)
4. Subscriptions and updates within apps.  Right now, when you buy an app, updates are free.  While this sounds good, it reduces the incentive for a developer to add new content and features, and forces some developers to create multiple apps with somewhat different features to get paid again.  Apple will allow a developer to sell an app on a subscription basis, and will also allow developers to charge for updates within the app itself.  A publication like the Wall Street Journal could sell a WSJ app along with a monthly subscription charge.  I am sure that legal reference app developers will use this to charge users for regular updates to these apps so that the reference apps can always be kept up to date.  And this is a good thing.  Lawyers always want to have the latest information, and now developers have the incentive to provide it within an app.  I can easily see Westlaw and Lexis using this feature to create apps in which you pay a small fee to pull a case or statute.  I could also see a developer like Cliff Maier create a single legal reference app that contains whatever sources you want to purchase — I want Fed. R. Civ. Pro. and Fed. R. App. Pro., but I don’t need to buy the criminal rules.  And of course, a game developer could sell you a game with levels 1 through 10 and you have the option to later purchase levels 11 through 20.  This one change in 3.0 will forever change iPhone apps.
5. 
   
   Push notification service.  Speaking of staying up to date, Apple will now allow apps to get alerts, even if the app is not running.  Notifications can be text, audible alerts, or a numbered badge on the app icon (much like the Mail icon always shows you the number of unread messages).  Yesterday, ESPN showed off getting updated scores automatically pushed to the iPhone, which would be nice.  But Oracle also showed business apps getting updated information, such as updated information from a customer relationship manager (CRM) app.  I look forward to seeing what creative developers dream up.
6. Tethering.  You will be able to use your iPhone to give
   
   Internet access to your laptop.  Details of this are up to the carrier,
   
   so we will have to see what AT&T announces.  I’m sure there will be
   
   a monthly fee, but considering that many hotels charge $10 or more a
   
   day for Internet access, frequent travelers may find it
   
   easier and cheaper to just use the 3G connection on the iPhone as a
   
   modem for their laptop.
7. 
   
   Peer to Peer Connectivity.  I am always amazed how often I see other people around me with an iPhone.  With the 3.0 software, iPhones that are close to each other will be able to talk to each other.  We’ll have to see what Apple and other developers do with this.  Game developers will love this for multiplayer games, but I expect we will also see an easy way to send your contact information to another nearby iPhone — the digital version of sharing business cards. 
8. Share contacts via MMS and e-mail.  Speaking of which, you will be able to share the information contained in one of your Contacts entries over MMS using the vCard standard.  You can also attach a vCard to an e-mail.
9. Performance improvements.  The iPhone should be faster and even more stable, which is always good.
10. Safari improvements.  Improvements include auto-fill of forms on a webpage,
    
    enhanced phishing protection, VPN on demand for secure websites, Safari will remember your log-in information for websites, etc.  Safari is one of the most useful apps on the iPhone, so any
    
    improvements are welcome.
11. 
    
    Maps and turn-by-turn directions.  I frequently use the Maps app to find out where I am and where I need to go.  Apple will allow developers to integrate maps directly into apps, which means that we will see even more sophisticated use of maps in future apps.  Developers can even sell a turn-by-turn GPS system, although because of Google license requirements the developer has to provide its own maps.  This is actually a good thing; as Alex Lindsay pointed out in this week’s MacBreak Weekly podcast, even though a map of the U.S. can take up a full gigabyte on your iPhone, this is worth it because a GPS app works much faster if the maps are local on your iPhone, plus you want to store maps locally for those times when your iPhone doesn’t have 3G or Edge access.  I’m sure it is just a matter of time before a well-known company like Tom Tom or Garmin sells a turn-by-turn GPS app for the iPhone.
12. 
    
    Landscape keyboard.  I prefer to use my iPhone in the normal portrait mode when I type, but I always hear from lawyers who say that it is easier to type when they turn their iPhone on its side and use it in landscape mode.  You can currently only use this in a few apps, such as Safari.  With 3.0, you can use the landscape mode keyboard in all of the Apple apps, including most importantly, Mail.  If you prefer a little more elbow room in your iPhone keyboard, then you will like this feature.
13. iPhone app interaction with accessories.  This is another neat one that I am sure has ramifications that I haven’t even begun to imagine.  The iPhone will be able to talk to and control accessories, either wirelessly (using Bluetooth) or by connecting the accessory to the port on the bottom of the iPhone.  Apple gave an example of connecting the iPhone to a speaker and using the iPhone to control levels on the speaker.  A medical company showed off a glucose monitor that can communicate with the iPhone wirelessly so that a diabetic can log and monitor blood sugar using the iPhone.  I can see the iPhone communicating with document scanners, bar code readers, printers, etc.  And it would be nice to be able to connect the iPhone to a small external keyboard to type longer e-mails, messages, etc.  (Apple was specifically asked yesterday if this would work, and simply answered that they had nothing to announce.  But I presume this will be possible.)  Like many of the other improvements announced today, I’m sure we can’t even begin to predict what imaginative developers will do with this feature.
14. 
    
    Voice memo.  There are already lots of nice third party voice recorder apps, but Apple has developed its own that will be included for free with 3.0.  It includes the ability to trim the start or end of the recording and e-mail the recording.  It will work either with the iPhone’s built-in microphone or with an external microphone.
15. Stereo bluetooth.  You will be able to use the iPhone with wireless headphones to listen to your music (or, presumably, talk on the phone).  I haven’t yet had the occasion to use wireless bluetooth headphones to listen to music or a bluetooth stereo in a car, but this sounds like a useful feature.
16. Wi-Fi auto login.  Useful if you travel frequently and use Wi-Fi at waypoints that require a username and password.
17. Select multiple photos.  Currently, you can only e-mail one photo at a time.  With 3.0, you can select multiple photos and then e-mail all of them at the same time.
18. Improved call log.  Apple hasn’t provided details on what is improved, but any improvements could help with billable time and client management.  [UPDATE:  It appears that improved log lists you who you talked to and when, whether it was incoming or outgoing, and the duration of the call.]
19. Create meeting invitations.  Presumably this will work with Exchange, but again Apple has not yet provided full details.

And of course, there are a whole bunch of other features that might not be useful as you use your iPhone to practice law, but will be fun or useful:  shake the iPhone to shuffle songs on the iPod, send photos using MMS, subscribe to YouTube videos, better support for live streaming of video and audio, improved parental controls, etc.

Harry McCracken makes an interesting observation in a post he calls “The Curious Case of iPhone 3.0” — the iPhone was originally revealed in 2007 with advanced features and a breakthrough interface that forever changed the cell phone market, but now two years later, some of the features being added to the iPhone are features that other smartphones have had for a long time, such as copy-and-paste, tethering, share pictures via MMS, etc., so it is sort of like the iPhone is going back in time.  It’s a good point, but whether these features are new or old, I can’t wait until my iPhone is updated with the new 3.0 software, not just because of the immediately useful improvements, but also because of the features that third party developers will use to create amazing new apps and hardware accessories for the iPhone.

And remember, all we know about now is the new software.  Apple will surely have new hardware this summer, and I can’t wait to find out what currently undisclosed features in 3.0 will take advantage of the next generation iPhone.  And it might not just be a new iPhone announced this Summer — perhaps the reason that Apple was so tight-lipped on whether an iPhone with 3.0 could work with an external keyboard is that Apple plans to start selling such a keyboard this summer.

I also find it interesting how many new features are packed into this
software update.  I have previously used a Palm Treo, a Blackberry, a Sony Ericsson,
and other phones.  Updates on those phones were rare to nonexistant,
and NEVER would include the types and variety of improvements we are seeing with
3.0 (or for that matter, last year’s 2.0).  Apple is constantly adding great features to the iPhone, making the phone more and more valuable.  Thus, as amazing as the iPhone is today, we know that it will only get better with time.  We may not know all of the improvements coming with 3.0, but even with just the sneak peak we got this week, any lawyer who uses an iPhone has a lot to be excited about.