iPhone J.D.

Skype and DirecTV apps

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): 

Review: Welcome to Macintosh, the documentary for the rest of us

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: what 3.0 means for busineses

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.

A few lists of favorite apps

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.

Review: Here I Am apps by Arboretum Software and Gareth Townsend

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): 

iPhone growth from a gaming perspective

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.

Reviews of Congress in Your Pocket for the iPhone

  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): 

iPhones in the courtroom

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:]

More features discovered in iPhone Software 3.0

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:

Why lawyers will love iPhone Software 3.0

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.

Live coverage of today's iPhone announcement

Apple is announcing details on the new iPhone Software 3.0 today at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern.  The following sites are providing live coverage of the announcements as they take place.  I will update this list as more links become available:

• Ryan Block's coverage at GDGT
• Macworld
• Engadget
• Technologizer
• CNET
• Gizmodo
• Ars Technica
• The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) (see here; live chat not active yet)
• Fortune
• SlashGear
• Computerworld
• iPhone, Therefore iBlog (iPTIB) (link to Twitter coverage as noted here in blog)
• Mac|Life
• 9to5Mac provides a single screen with four panels from other sites (Gizmodo, Engadget, Computerworld and SlashGear)
• TWIT Live (I presume Leo Laporte will be discussing this live as it happens on his streaming video channel)
• AppleGazette

Pre-announcement potpourri

The big iPhone news this week (month? year?) will be whatever Apple has to say about iPhone Software 3.0 tomorrow, Tuesday March 17, 2009 at 12 Noon Central / 1:00 p.m. Eastern.  So rather than a product review or other major post today, I'm just posting a few small items including links to interesting iPhone tidbits I've recently come across.

Load Up On Apps.  You can (currently) only have 148 apps on your iPhone at one time.  But you can have as many as you want on your computer and swap them in and out to your iPhone.  MG Siegler at VentureBeat computes that you can download all of the approximately 25,000 apps currently available for the low low price of $71,442.69.  He also notes some interesting statistics on iPhone apps.  (Example:  The largest number of apps are in the "Games" and "Entertainment" categories, but did you know that the #3 category is actually "Books"?  Look out, Kindle!)  His article is a good read.

The Gray Lady Goes 2.0.  The New York Times has long had an excellent iPhone app (not to mention great iPhone-formatted web pages when you use Safari), but it recently updated its app to version 2.0.  I was going to write a post about all of the improvements, but Alan at Art of the iPhone has already done such a great job that I'll just provide this link to Alan's review.  The app is free, and it is a must-have if you are a news junkie.

Panoramic Photos with the iPhone.  I've used the camera on my iPhone to make panoramic photos before -- I've just taken a few photos and then used Photoshop Elements on my Mac to turn them into a panorama.  But Macworld reviews a $2.99 app called Pano that walks you through the process of creating a panorama on your iPhone and then lets you save the finished product to your iPhone's photo album.  I haven't tried the app yet myself, but the review intrigues me because I like panoramic pictures.  For example, here are two that I quickly created (excuse the stitching errors) from pictures that I took on May 19, 2006 during the grand opening of the flagship Apple Store on Fifth Avenue in New York.  Note that I said 2006 -- these were not taken with an iPhone

Boxee Remote.  If you don't know what Boxee is, ignore this.  But if you use Boxee on your computer or other device, the new Boxee remote app allows you to use your iPhone to control Boxee, much like Apple's Remote app allows you to control an AppleTV.  I have used the hack to run Boxee on my AppleTV, and this free app has no trouble controlling Boxee on the AppleTV.  Here is a link to a YouTube video from TapCritic showing the app in action.

Click here to get NYTimes (free): 

Click here to get Pano (2.99): 

Click here to get Boxee Remote (free): 

iPhone Software 3.0 to be revealed on March 17th

Apple has decided to celebrate St. Patrick's day this year by revealing the plans for iPhone Software 3.0, the next generation of the operating system for the iPhone, on March 17, 2008 at an invitation-only event at its Cupertino, California headquarters. 

This approach parallels last year, when Apple announced iPhone Software 2.0 on March 6, 2008, discussing (as expected) plans for third party development of applications and discussing (in a surprise) support for Microsoft Exchange.  The March, 2008 announcement gave developers time to prepare for the final release of Software 2.0 four months later on July 12, 2008.  I presume that the March 17, 2009 announcement will once again be a preview and that the new software will be available in June or July of 2009, perhaps at the same time that a new iPhone is released.

Last year, the invitation for the March event was a map with a clear indication that the third party software development kit (SDK) and Enterprise support was coming.  This year, the invitation is less revealing, simply indicating that a blueprint for 3.0 will be unveiled:

    

Macworld reports that the words on the invitation don't reveal any of the new features, instead simply stating "Get an advance preview of what we’re building."  Thus, we are now in that magical time -- not unlike Christmas Eve -- when the mind starts to wonder about what exciting toys might be in store.  What is on your wishlist for 3.0?

Presumably, Apple won't disclose any software improvements that are dependent upon new hardware.  For example, I wouldn't be surprised if the next hardware upgrade to the iPhone includes multiple processors that a future iPhone operating system could use to perform multiple tasks at the same time, but I would be surprised if Apple disclosed this next week.  However, Apple could announce support for background processes.  Apple said in June of 2008 that push notifications would be available for all iPhone apps in September of 2008, but here we are six months later and push notification only exists for Apple apps such as Mail and SMS.  Push notifications were considered a substitute for background processes:  instead of having an app running the background all of the time just in case it needed to alert you to something new, a message could be pushed to the app from a server on the Internet to tell the app to display a badge, play a sound, display a message, etc.  Does the failure to deliver push notifications when promised mean that this feature is still coming and just late?  Or does it mean that Apple has instead decided to just give apps the ability to run in the background?  Perhaps we will find out on St. Paddy's Day.

The iPhone runs a version of Mac OS X, and Apple is currently working on the next version of Mac OS X, called Snow Leopard.  Will some of Snow Leopard's features be ported to the iPhone OS, and if so, which ones?  The main feature of Snow Leopard is simply that the OS runs more efficiently.  On a device with limited horsepower like the iPhone, increased efficiency would be welcome.  Snow Leopard also has enhanced support for multi-core processors, which is why I think that this might be a part of the hardware changes in the next iPhone.

Like John Gruber, I hope that we see a new feature for managing apps on the iPhone.  I have around 100 apps on my iPhone, and while that is more than many people simply because I am constantly testing apps to review on iPhone J.D., I am far from the only iPhone owner to have a large number of apps -- with good reason, because there are so many good ones out there.  It would be nice to have a better way to manage the apps, either on the iPhone itself or in iTunes.

Also on my wishlist are some of the features added this week to the new 3G iPhone shuffle.  At the very least, it would be nice for the iPhone to gain support for the volume up and down buttons on Apple's new three-button headphone remotes, such as the one on the Apple In-Ear Headphones.  It would also be nice to have some of the VoiceOver features added to the iPhone so that the iPhone could tell you what you are listening to and let you choose playlists without having to use the touchscreen.  [UPDATE:  Paul Meyerson shares a good idea in the Comments to this post -- use of VoiceOver to announce the Caller ID when a call comes in and headphones are attached.]

How about the ability to record video -- something that we know the iPhone hardware can handle, but Apple currently doesn't allow.  Support for Adobe Flash in Safari.  Syncing of Notes with the computer and with Exchange, and a To Do / Tasks app that syncs with Exchange.  Voice dialing. [UPDATE on 3/16/09:  Here is Macworld's wishlist.  Here is one from The iPhone Blog.]

The Boy Genius Report, which often makes correct predictions on new cell phone features, predicts we will see support for MMS (multimedia messages) and tethering via Bluetooth and USB (the ability to share the iPhone's 3G Internet with your laptop).  Tethering would be nice, and while MMS isn't all that important to me, I know it has been on the wishlists of others for a long time.  AppleInsider has its own wishlist which includes support for stereo bluetooth headsets, user-creatable widgets, and the ability to access remote files.

And finally, do I really need to add how much I want to see copy-and-paste on the iPhone?  Please, Apple?

I'd love to hear what is on your wishlist!

iPhone inspires 3G iPod shuffle; iTunes updated to 8.1

I love having a remote on my iPhone headphones, so much so that I recently upgraded my Apple in-ear headphones so that I could have the comfort of in-ear headphones plus the useful Apple remote.  Apparently, even Apple considers its remote pretty inspiring.  Yesterday, Apple announced the $79 third generation of its iPod shuffle.  Once again, this generation is even smaller than the last, and this time the miniaturization was made possible once Apple realized that it could rely on the headphone remote instead of making space for buttons on the iPod shuffle.  Greg Joswiak, Apple's VP of iPod and iPhone Product Marketing, explained to Macworld:

“The concept for doing this came from the iPhone, specifically the iPhone headset,” said Joswiak. “After we expanded on it in the fall by adding volume control, we looked at it and realized that would work for the shuffle too.”  Joswiak explained that by removing the buttons Apple was able to make the shuffle smaller, without compromising on other features.

I own three iPods.  First, there is the iPod app on the iPhone, which is what I use most of the time.  Second, I have a 5th generation 60 GB iPod which had been my primary iPod before I got the iPhone; now it mostly lives in my Bose SoundDock Portable.  Third, I have a second generation 1GB iPod shuffle.  I love my shuffle.  It weighs nothing and easily clips on clothes, which makes it the perfect iPod to listen to podcasts or songs when I am working out or doing chores around the house.  When I got the shuffle, I thought it would just be a little toy, but I am amazed how often it is the iPod that I most want to use.

The new iPod shuffle improves on the old shuffle in many ways.  First, it is smaller and lighter, which reminds me of the famous Saturday Night Live skit in which Fred Armisen plays Steve Jobs introducing progressively smaller iPods -- the iPod Micro, followed by the iPod Piqueño, followed by the iPod invisa which held "eight million songs, every photo ever taken and Pong."  (Here is the best link I could find to that video, although if you are so inclined you can purchase it in HD from iTunes for $2.99 as a part of 22 minutes of sketches from the November 19, 2005 show.)  Second, the capacity is increased to 4 GB.  Third, it includes a synthesized voice that can tell you what you are listening to or even announce your playlists and let you choose one.  Apple's website includes some samples if you want to hear what it sounds like.

Of course, because there are no buttons on the new iPod shuffle, you pretty much need to use headphones that have a remote.  Jason Snell, the editor of Macworld, noted on Twitter that that makes him unhappy -- "it requires you to use Apple's headphones. Which suck."  Christopher Breen of Macworld agrees.  I am also not a huge fan of the standard Apple headphones, although as previously noted I really like the newer and much more comfortable Apple In-Ear Headphones that come with a remote, which I understand works fine with the new iPod shuffle.  If you want to use headphones made by anyone other than Apple, you will need to make sure that they have an Apple-compatible remote built in or you will have to use an adapter along with the headphones.  Otherwise, Apple says that standard headphones will work, but you lose many features such as the ability to change volume, FF, RW, the voice features, etc., although you can use the single switch on the 3G iPod shuffle to play either in order or randomly.

Removing all buttons from the iPod shuffle itself is also a controversial decision.  Dan Moren of Macworld worries that the remote will be more complicated to operate than the buttons on the previous iPod shuffle.  I will admit that Apple's chart on how to use the remote is a little daunting at first look, but Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal has been using the new iPod shuffle for a few days now and he says that it "sounds more complicated than it is."  Moren is also concerned that he will lose the Apple headphones.  Frankly, given the size of this thing, if I was going to lose something it would most likely be the iPod shuffle itself.

[UPDATE:  Jason Snell of Macworld got a chance to sit down with Greg Joswiak this morning and he provides a lot more details about the 3G iPhone shuffle here.]

Along with the new iPod shuffle, Apple updated iTunes to version 8.1.  Apple says that the new iTunes includes speed boosts that iPhone owners should appreciate, including faster loading of large libraries, faster browsing the iTunes Store and faster syncing.  To be honest, I didn't notice much of a speed boost when I used the updated iTunes last night, but I'm sure Apple is correct and there were some increased speeds.  iPhones can also use the Remote app with iTunes DJ, an updated version of what Apple used to call Party Shuffle. Click here for a Macworld article describing the additional new features.

Back to the iPod shuffle, although I haven't tried one yet, I'm impressed by what I have seen so far.  I love the design.  As Stephen Wildstrom of BusinessWeek notes, Apple's "minimalist approach is taken to the ultimate ... I can’t think of a way to design a product any cleaner than this."  And it includes everything I love about the second generation iPod shuffle, plus great new features like increased capacity and the synthesized voice.  If you are reading this, you presumably already have an iPhone and have built up your iTunes library.  The iPod shuffle is a great and inexpensive accessory that will let you use your iTunes songs and podcasts when it would not be convenient to carry around the iPhone.

Click here to get the 3G iPod shuffle from Amazon.

Review: iPhone Fully Loaded by Andy Ihnatko

There are lots of great books about the iPhone available.  Want a great introductory guide?  David Pogue's iPhone: The Missing Manual is excellent.  Want to go to the next level and get expert advice on troubleshooting?  Then you'll love Ted Landau's Take Control of your iPhone.  But what if you really want to push your iPhone to the max?  There is no better choice than Andy Ihntako's iPhone Fully Loaded (2d ed.). 

The theme of this book is simple -- how much useful and amazing stuff can you get into your iPhone, even if you need to think a little outside of the box to do so.  He discusses innovative uses of smart playlists so that your iPhone always has fresh music and videos and you have the illusion of having much more space on your iPhone.  He devotes several chapters to getting video on your iPhone, whether that video is on TV, DVD, an online service like YouTube or even your old home movies on VHS.  Ihnatko loves comics, so there is a chapter on getting comics on your iPhone.  There are several chapters devoted to the best ways to get news and other information from the Internet on your iPhone.  Many attorneys will be interested in his discussion of different ways to get documents on your iPhone.  By the time you finish reading this book, you brain will be overflowing with ideas of neat new things that you can do with your iPhone, and you will forever feel just a little guilty when you see some free space on your iPhone because you will be thinking of something else that you can add.

Just based on the book's content alone, I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to move to the next level with their iPhone.  But what really makes this book a joy to read is Ihnatko's writing style.  A writer of the Wikipedia entry on Ihnatko called it a boisterous writing style, seasoned with references to US pop culture, P. G. Wodehouse, comic books, cartoons, and science fiction.  He's also been called a "comedian masquerading as a tech writer."  I'll just say that he is smart and funny, my two favorite characteristics in any writer.  If you are not already familiar with his writing style, then take a pause from this review and check out any of Ihnatko's weekly technology columns in the Chicago Sun Times, or read any of the entries in his blog Andy Ihnatko's Celestial Waste of Bandwidth, or listen to any of his weekly appearances on the MacBreak Weekly podcast.  I'll wait.

[whistles, shuffles feet...]

Back?  Good.  See what I mean?  It is just good fun to read or listen to Ihnatko.  So even if he had written a book about the weather in northern Alaska, I'd still probably want to read it.  When you combine his great writing style with great content, you get the rare technology book that is actually a page turner.

Here's one more reason I love this book:  it is very well produced.  Every page is full color, the book includes great iPhone screen shots and illustrations, the book is packed with sidebar "Tidbit" items that are often insightful, humorous, or both, and the book is well organized with a useful index that makes it easy to go back and find something. 

I only have one complaint about this book, and it is a complaint about any book that is on a printed page but especially books about cutting edge technology:  the book can get outdated.  For example, the book has great tips on using RSS feeds to listen to podcasts that you didn't sync to your iPhone, but now you don't need to worry about that tip because with software update 2.2, you can download podcasts directly to the iPhone.  Ihnatko has a chapter on reading books on the iPhone, but obviously it doesn't discuss the Kindle for iPhone app that Amazon released last week.  Indeed, this is the second edition of this book, released December 3, 2008, and I suspect that Ihnatko finished writing it in October or early November of 2008.  Having said that, here we are in March of 2009 and I still find myself strongly recommending this book because virtually all of the content remains relevant and even the few dated parts are still informative and fun to read.

Because you are reading this website, I already know that you are someone who wants to learn how to get the most out of an iPhone, and that puts you in the target demographic for this book.  It is less than $14 on Amazon, which would be money well spent for either the content or the humor -- it is a bargain to get both.  So give yourself a little gift and pick up a copy of the book today.  I'll end with a few pictures of Andy Ihnatko from his Flickr page that seem to capture his spirit:

 

Click here to get Andy Ihnatko's iPhone Fully Loaded from Amazon.

Review: Yahoo!'s Inquisitor app - instant web and news search on the iPhone

A few years ago, David Watanabe developed Inquisitor, a Safari web browser plug-in that starts to give you search results while you are still typing your search terms.  It was a neat idea to speed up search.  Yahoo! acquired the rights to Inquisitor in May of 2008, and the plug-in is now available for Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari.  Last year, Watanabe started to work on an iPhone version of Inquisitor, and the free app was released by Yahoo! and finally approved by Apple on March 5, 2009.  

I've been playing around with Inquisitor for the last few days, and I'm impressed.  On my computer, I never considered Inquisitor to be anything more than a novelty.  Sure, it was fast, but it only showed a few search hits.  Plus, it doesn't take my very long to type a few search terms, so I have always been happy to wait the very short period of time until after I type and enter my search terms before I see a full Google page with lots of matches.

On the iPhone, on the other hand, things are different.  First, I cannot type on the virtual iPhone keyboard as fast as I can type on a real computer keyboard, so an app that starts to give me results before I even finish typing is a great time-saver.  Moreover, Inquisitor search results are nicely formatted for the iPhone screen, so it can actually be easier to use than just running a search in the search bar of the iPhone's Safari app.

Here is how the app works along with a few screen shots.  Start typing the letters of your search, and you will see a list of possible full search terms come up.  Tap as soon as you see the one that you are in the process of typing.  This will bring up a screen with news items matching your search term (if any) at the top of the screen, followed by possible web page hits on the rest of the screen:

   

If you tap on the news items at the top, you will be taken to a page that lists several news stories that relate to your search terms:

If you instead tap on one of the web hits, Inquisitor (which can act as a web browser) will show you the website.  But you don't have to wait for the website to fully load to start to get information from that website.  While the website is still loading, a box will pop up at the bottom of the screen containing text relevant to your search terms taken from the website.  Once the website is fully loaded, the box at the bottom disappears and you will see the full website, just as you would see if you were using Safari:

  

Using the button at the bottom right of the screen, you can e-mail the website, or you can open the website in the Safari app.

You can adjust a few preferences for Inquisitor by going to the Preferences app on the iPhone.  Note that one of the choices is to turn on or off the "Shake to Clear" feature.  If you want to quickly erase what is typed in the search bar, just shake the iPhone (just as you might shake an Etch-A-Sketch to clear it) and the search field will clear.  It's a cute feature that is actually useful.

Inquisitor works as advertised.  It definitely gives me search results faster than I can get using the Safari app.  Of course, it is not the only app to have this feature; the Google Mobile App also lets you get search results quickly.  While you are typing search terms in the Google Mobile App, boxes appear just below your search history that you can tap to quickly complete words:

Plus, the Google Mobile App includes its signature feature of letting you put your iPhone up to your face and say your search terms out loud, and the app will covert the speech to text and then run the search.  I find that speaking search terms with the Google Mobile App is the fastest way for me to run a search.  But of course, sometimes you are an environment where you cannot talk out loud to your iPhone, and if you are typing search terms using your fingers, Inquisitor is very fast -- but so is Google Mobile App.  The two apps also differ in the layout of the search results.  The Google Mobile App shows you a smaller version of what you would get on the Google website, whereas the Inquisitor search results are bigger and look better on the iPhone screen.

Over time, I will be interested to see which app I use more to run searches -- Inquisitor or Google Mobile App.  But it is nice to have the choice.  Both apps are great, and both are free, so you should download them both and try them out yourself.   Either will substantially reduce the time it takes to run a web search on your iPhone.

Click here to download Inquisitor (free): 

Click here to download Google Mobile App (free): 

Pocket rejection of apps

The good iPhone website Apple iPhone Apps.com has an interesting article on Apple's ability to reject an app from the app store without explicitly rejecting it -- something that the site calls a "pocket rejection" (much like a pocket veto whereby the President can sometimes indirectly veto a bill).  The website developed an app that would notify the user when the price of other iPhone apps dropped -- something that happens all the time and can be difficult to track.  They submitted the app to Apple several months ago, and even developed a video commercial for it ... and then just waited.  After several months of waiting, it would appear that Apple is not approving the app, and yet Apple has failed to advise that it is rejecting the app.

Many other iPhone developers have posted similar stories.  Even if Apple has a good reason to not approve an app, it seems unfair to keep a developer in limbo for such a long period of time.

[UPDATE on 3/10/09:  Dan Moren of Macworld has an interesting editorial on the problems with Apple's app approval process.]

[UPDATE on 3/13/09:  Today, Apple finally approved the BarginBin app submitted long ago by Apple iPhone Apps.com.  It's a happy ending for this particular story, but the fact remains that many developers are pleading with Apple for more communication during the app review process.]

AmLaw article on lawyers and iPhones

There is an interesting article by Alan Cohen in The American Lawyer about the increasing use of iPhones in law firms.  (The same article also appeared in the AmLaw Daily blog.)  The article notes that there are about 160 attorneys using iPhones at Chapman & Cutler, a few hundred users at Sonneschein Nath & Rosenthal, and about 100 users at Howrey.  All of these firms give attorneys the choice to use an iPhone or something else, like a Treo or a Blackberry.  I think that is the right approach.  At my law firm, where we have around 30 attorneys using iPhones right now, I am frequently asked by my partners whether they should get an iPhone or a Blackberry.  For those who are never going to use anything beyond e-mail, I think that the Blackberry Bold is a fine choice.  But quite often, once I start talking about everything that one can do with an iPhone, they decide that they want an iPhone. 

The article notes that Howrey does something that is pretty smart -- they will loan an attorney an iPod Touch (which is just an iPhone without the phone) so that the attorney can get a feel for the interface and the virtual keyboard while deciding whether to get an iPhone.  I know several attorneys who first used an iPod Touch -- often because their child or a relative had one -- and then decided to get an iPhone.

The article also talks about how many law firms are making it easier for attorneys to access document management systems using the iPhone:

At Sonnenschein, iPhone users can securely access the firm's network and--via Safari, the iPhone’s browser--search and retrieve more than 6 million documents. "The nicest thing about the iPhone is that all the formatting, indenting, and styles display on the screen," says Jurczyk. "[Apple] really nailed it on mobile browsing with Safari." Chapman and Cutler also provides remote access to its document management system. "Because the browser works so well, attorneys can go into our private Google search engine and pull any [file] they need," says Nugent.

Check out the article.  It is a good read.

[UPDATE on 3/8/09:  Here is a short, similar article from The Industry Standard on lawyers moving from Blackberries to iPhones.]

[UPDATE on 3/9/09:  Boston attorney Martha Sperry shares an interesting perspective on the AmLaw article on her blog Advocate's Studio.]

Apple's new AirPort Extreme: Wi-Fi for iPhone + faster Wi-Fi for computers

If you are an iPhone user looking to add or upgrade Wi-Fi in your home or office, Apple released two new products this week that will be of interest to you.  First, Apple updated its AirPort Extreme base station, a Wi-Fi router that you attach to your broadband cable or DSL modem to create a wireless network throughout your home or office.  Before talking about what is new, let me start by discussing the prior version of this product.

The prior version of the AirPort Extreme offered two types of bands.  First, there was the slower 2.4 GHz band.  This band can be used with the older Wi-Fi standards of 802.11b or 802.11g.  The iPhone, for example, uses 802.11g.  However, on the 2.4 GHz band, you can get interference from cordless phones, microwave ovens, nearby industrial sites or wireless cameras.  Second, there was the faster 5 GHz band.  The newer 802.11n can use this band, and 802.11n on 5 Ghz can be five times or more faster than 802.11g on 2.4 GHz.  With the older AirPort Extreme (which is what I use for Wi-Fi at my house), you had to choose either the 2.4 GHz band or the 5 GHz band.  For anyone with an iPhone, this is no choice at all because the iPhone can only use 802.11g, which only works on 2.4 GHz.  Thus, even though I have other devices in my house that can take advantage of 802.11n and 5 GHz (specifically, other Apple computers and an Apple TV), I need to keep my AirPort Extreme in 2.4 GHz mode to maintain computability with both my iPhone and the Dell laptop provided to me by my law firm which only has 802.11g.

With the new version of the AirPort Extreme, you no longer need to choose because the new AirPort Extreme allows simultaneous dual-band support.  It does this by including two radios in the unit, one which provides a 2.4 GHz network that your iPhone and older computers can use, and one which provides a 5 GHz band network that your new computers and other devices such as an Apple TV can use.  The new AirPort Extreme also includes other new features, such as a guest networking feature that allows guests to use your Wi-Fi for the Internet but not have access to devices on your network such as hard drives, printers, etc.  The new AirPort Extreme costs $179.00, the same price as the prior version.

The second item that Apple updated this week is called the Time Capsule.  The Time Capsule is nothing more than an AirPort Extreme that also includes an internal hard drive (either 500 GB or 1 terabyte) which you can use to automatically backup your Apple computers using software that comes with every Mac called Time Machine.  The new version of the Time Capsule adds simultaneous dual-band support.  The price remains the same:  $299.00 for 500 GB or $499.00 for 1 TB.

The updates to the AirPort Extreme and the Time Capsule are great for people who own an iPhone, and frankly I'm a little envious.  I would love to have both 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi network for my iPhone and Dell laptop and simultaneously have the faster 5 GHz network for my Macs and my Apple TV.  I recently switched from using DSL to a cable modem at my house because with DSL I was only getting speeds of around 4 Mbps whereas with a cable modem I now see speeds at my house of up to 20 Mbps -- downloads now just zip, and I can use products like Citrix to access my work environment on my home computer at top speed.  But I can only get that top speed on the iMac in my study that I have connected via Ethernet cable to my AirPort Extreme.  The other computers and the Apple TV in my house use 802.11g Wi-Fi and don't see much additional speed beyond what I was getting with DSL.

If you want to learn more about Apple's new AirPort Extreme and what it means for your home or office network, I have two words for you:  Glenn Fleishman.  Fleishman, who runs the respected Wi-Fi Networking News site, is perhaps the preeminent expert on all things Wi-Fi.  Earlier this week, he posted a nice overview of the new features on the TidBITS website, followed by an expanded analysis on the Macworld website.  And if you want to learn more about Wi-Fi on Apple products, there is no better source than Fleishman's Take Control of Your 802.11n AirPort Network, an e-book that you can download in PDF format instantly for only $15 and which covers everything that you might want to know in a very easy to read format.  It's really a great book that taught me a lot and which I use as a resource whenever I want to do anything involving Wi-Fi.

Use your iPhone as a Kindle

Amazon has been getting a lot of press lately with the new version of the Kindle.  If you don't mind reading books on your iPhone screen -- which is much smaller, but has color, more contrast, a much brighter screen and is back-lit so you can read in a dark room --  Amazon has released Kindle for iPhone, a free app that allows you to read any of the hundreds of thousands of books available at the Amazon Kindle Store on your iPhone.  You can't actually buy a book using the iPhone app, but you can use Safari on your iPhone to access the Amazon Kindle Store website (the app itself even gives you a link that opens up Safari).

     

There are lots of free public domain books for the Kindle if you want to download the free app and get a feel for what it is like.  Here is a a link to free books in the Kindle Store that can get you started.

Once you buy a book, when you start the Kindle for iPhone app any books you purchased are listed.  Just tap a book to start reading it. 

The books appear full screen, and you can swipe your finger left or right to go through the book page by page.  Or, you can tap once on the screen to pull up an overlay with buttons to do things like add a bookmark (the plus sign), go to a specific section of the book, or increase or decrease the font.

   

If you own a Kindle, you can use technology that Amazon calls Whispersync to switch back and forth between your Kindle and your iPhone.  Both devices remember your bookmarks and remember where you stopped reading, so you can pick up reading again on either device.

I don't own a Kindle, but I've always been intrigued by it.  The Kindle for iPhone app will be a nice way to get a feel for what it is like to read digital books.  I wonder whether reading a long book on my iPhone screen would start to strain my eyes after a while, but as you can see from the screenshots above, the font looks like it would be quite easy to read for an extended period of time.  We'll see.

[UPDATE:  Good sources for more information on this app include articles posted today by Harry McCracken (Technologizer), Glenn Fleishman (TidBITS), Brad Stone (New York Times), Jeremy Horwitz (iLounge) and Nicole Lee (CNET).  I've seen conflicting reports on whether this app will eventually handle newspapers or other sources besides books; right now, the app just handles books.  I've also seen conflicting reports on whether the text in books can use hyphens to better fit the iPhone screen; McCracken says no but Fleishman says yes, and both use pictures to back up their positions.]

Click here to download Kindle for iPhone (free):