iPhone J.D.

Three follow-ups

From time to time, I will edit one of my older posts to indicate that something has changed.  I add the note [UPDATE] so that it is clear that I have done so.  But it often troubles me that people who read this website regularly -- and hey, I love y'all! -- only read the newest posts and may miss an important update to an old post.  Today I have several follow-ups to older posts and I thought it might be useful to note them here instead of burying them in the original posts.

Quickoffice updates.  In my recent review of Quickoffice Mobile Office Suite, I noted that the app did not support e-mailing of files.  That has now been added, making this product much more useful.  You can now e-mail files that are in the documents folder of the Quickoffice app or files that you have online in a MobileMe account.  In theory, you can also receive e-mail attachments if they were sent by another iPhone user via Quickoffice, but I am having some trouble getting this feature to work right now.  Finally, another very useful update is the ability to mount Quickoffice as an external hard drive on your computer.  Instructions for doing so are in this FAQ.  Using a Mac, for example, in your Finder choose Go --> Connect to Server... and then type in the server address that appears in the Quickoffice app (including the http:// part).  A virtual drive will just pop up on your desktop.  This makes it very quick and easy to drag and drop files to and from Quickoffice, add sub-folders, delete items, etc.  It is much faster than using the web interface that I described in my original review of Quickoffice, back when it was called MobileFiles Pro.  There were some other small tweaks to the app (for example, in Quickoffice the shift key now correctly operates as a shift key instead of a caps lock key).  There are still no suggestions or auto-correction as you type, which makes it much harder to type in this app than it should be, but I am happy to see Quickoffice continuing to improve this app.  If you are thinking of buying this app, you should also read this recent review by TUAW.

Is Black's Law Dictionary app worth $50?  In yesterday's review of the Black's app, I pointed out that the $50 price, while steep, is similar to what you would pay for the physical book and for similar iPhone dictionary apps.  But Steve Matthews makes a compelling argument that the app should be cheaper, say $25.  It is a fair viewpoint.  Frankly, I suspect that Black's would sell many more copies of this app if they priced it at $20 or $25, but perhaps the fine folks at West have more insight into iPhone app economics than I do.

Ninjas - 1, Dragons - 0.  A few months ago, I noted that when an app developer tried to be cute in the descriptions of the update to his app by adding to the legitimate descriptions of what is new in the update the note "Extra Dragons," Apple rejected the app update.  But yesterday, Google updated its excellent Google Mobile App and noted in the update description the jokes "Longer version number" and "Ninja."  Here are screen shots from my iPhone and from iTunes:

   

Why is it that Google can get away with a joke but not the other guys?  Is this a simple oversight by Apple's app reviewers?  A bias towards Google?  A preference for ninjas and against dragons?  Inquiring minds want to know.

Review: Black's Law Dictionary for iPhone

West just released its first iPhone app, the venerable Black's Law Dictionary, 8th Edition.  At $49.99 and 152 MB, it is now the most expensive and largest app on my iPhone.  So what do you get, how does it compare to the book, and is it worth the price?  Let's take a look.  This review is a little longer than normal because I suspect that many of you will want to fully understand the app before you decide whether to spend $50 on it.

vs.

Black's Law Dictionary is, of course, the definitive legal dictionary in the U.S.  First published in 1891, it is now edited by Bryan Garner, perhaps the best known expert in effective legal writing.  The current print 8th Edition contains over 43,000 definitions, all of which are in the iPhone app.  The print edition, which you can get from Amazon for $52.80, has its advantages:  it is easy to browse, you can keep it and use it forever without worrying about computability with future devices, and it looks nice on your shelf.  But the feature-packed iPhone version has a lot going for it, even beyond the obvious advantage of always being in your pocket (assuming that your iPhone is always in your pocket).

You find terms in the app by typing into a search bar.  Results appear as you begin to type, so you don't even need to finish typing to find what you need.  And impressively, even though there are 43,000 terms defined, this app is very fast.  When you see the term or phrase you are looking for, just tap on it to see the definition.  As you can see, the text is a little small.  Although you can pinch to zoom in and out, the text does not reformat when you zoom in which means you need to scroll back and forth.  (I noted in my recent review of Quickoffice's Quickword that it reformats when you zoom in on text, and I am really growing to like that feature and wish that more apps would include it.)

    

As in the print edition, you see a guide for pronunciation immediately after the term.  But even better, the app includes a handy audio tool at the top right for about 7,000 terms that you can just tap to hear the word pronounced.  It is a clear pronunciation spoken by a male human voice, not a computer synthesized voice.  In the definition, some words and phrases are single underlined or double-underlined.  The single underline indicates a hyperlink; tap the underlined word to get its definition.  This is a great feature that makes the iPhone edition much easier to use than the print edition, and I think more than makes up for the fact that you can't just quickly browse through terms in the iPhone app like you can in a printed book.  (Having said that, it would have been nice if the developers had included the ability to swipe to advance forward or backward through terms.)  The double-underline indicates a hyperlink to Westlaw.com, which I will address in a moment.

Around 3,000 of the terms include, after the definition, a quotation using the term drawn from various sources.  For example, here are the definitions of damages and tort, each of which includes a quote (or for tort, three quotes, the last of which (not shown in this picture) is a classic one from Prosser and Keeton).

   

At the bottom of each entry, you see a copyright and Bryan Garner's name followed by the page number on which the term appears in the printed version.  Garner told me that he was not directly involved in the development of this app (he uses a Blackberry, not an iPhone), but he is obviously ultimately responsible for the content of the dictionary.  And on WestBlog.net, Garner is quoted as saying:

The idea that you can have a very full, elaborate, complex and richly textured book like Black’s available at your fingertips is fantastic.  I myself am stubbornly in favor of print sources, but I like to watch my daughters use their iPhones. And I know that there’s another generation of people who really prefer the electronic medium at their fingertips.

Many definitions contain sub-terms, indicated by a white plus sign in a blue circle.  To view the sub-term just tap on the plus sign.   It will then change to a minus sign, which you can tap to minimize.  For example, here is the full (two page) definition of prescription, which in a civil law jurisdiction like Louisiana can have a meaning similar to the common law statute of limitations and can also have a related meaning similar to the common law concept of adverse possession.  (You can see that this is an example of a term without an audio pronunciation, so the audio tool is inactive.)  This definition includes sub-terms for two different types of prescription, acquisitive prescription and liberative prescription:

   

The app also uses the accelerometer, so when you rotate your iPhone from portrait to landscape the app becomes wide.  For example, you can turn the iPhone in the search mode to get a wide, landscape keyboard.  Unfortunately, when in landscape mode, the font size remains the same and the app just adds more words per line.  Thus, switching to landscape mode doesn't give you larger text as it does in other apps such as Safari.  This is a missed opportunity and hopefully something that will be addressed in an update.

As noted above, the double-underlined terms can be tapped to jump to Westlaw.com.  In the app's preferences (which you access in the iPhone's Settings app, not in the Black's app) you can choose whether you want to jump to the full Westlaw.com or the low bandwidth versions text.westlaw.com or wireless.westlaw.com.

   

For example, in this definition of usufruct, I tapped on the link to La. Civil Code. art. 535.  After taping OK in the dialog box, the Safari web browser will open and ask you to log in to Westlaw.com (unless you are already logged in).  You will then see the page for the link.  Here is what it looks like in wireless.westlaw.com and text.westlaw.com:

   

I can definitely understand why some people would prefer a text-only version of Westlaw on the iPhone.  Indeed, a West representative told me that at some point in May, www.westlaw.com will default to wireless.westlaw.com when accessed from an iPhone.  (Once the change occurs, iPhone users will still be able to go to web2.westlaw.com for the full website.)  Frankly, I prefer the full website on the iPhone.  It is full featured and, because Safari is such a good mobile web browser, fairly easy to navigate even on the iPhone's small screen.  Plus, it is easy to zoom in on the text by just double-tapping on a column:

   

It is nice to have the hyperlinks to Westlaw.com for when you need it, but it would be much better if West released a full iPhone client app.  And my hope is that they will do so soon and allow one to adjust the preferences to have the Black's app open hyperlinks in a Westlaw app.  Of course, West has not yet announced such an app, but one of the Black's app developers, Dan Bennett, said in a press release that he "learned so much about the [iPhone] platform from building Black's that will really help us make future apps."  Similarly, WestBlog.net says that more iPhone apps are "in the queue."   So maybe a Westlaw app is coming, or perhaps West just plans to use this same app framework to sell treatises or compilations of statutes and rules (similar to what Cliff Maier and The Law Pod are doing).

Although this iPhone app is brand new, the 8th edition of Black's on which it is based will not be the latest and greatest for very long.  Originally, Black's Law Dictionary was updated approximately every 20 years.  According to Wikipedia, The 1st Ed. was in 1891, the 2d Ed. in 1910, the 3d Ed. in 1933, the 4th Ed. in 1951 and the 5th Ed. in 1979.  Then the 6th and 7th Eds. accelerated the refresh cycle to ten years, coming out in 1990 and 1999.  Now, it appears that the refresh cycle is down to five years.  The 8th Ed. was released in 2004, and a ninth edition is coming in approximately June of 2009.  Kevin Hunt, Senior Communications Specialist with Thomson Reuters (West), told me that the company has not yet decided whether or when an iPhone version of the ninth edition will be available.

So is the Black's app worth $49.99?  As noted above, the print edition costs $52.80 (and much more if you get the deluxe edition), doesn't include many features of the iPhone app and isn't always in your pocket when you need it.  West also sells a digital version of Black's for your computer that integrates with Word and WordPerfect and seems to include all of the features of the iPhone edition such as hyperlinks and audio pronunciation, and that version sells on Amazon for $80.16.  So considered in the context of what legal texts in general, and Black's in specific, typically cost, the price is fair.  (Besides, you might be able to get your law firm to pay for it or at least write it off as a business expense.)  The Black's app is, of course, more expensive than the typical iPhone app, but consider that Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary app , Medical Dictionary app and foreign language dictionary apps such as their English-French app all cost $24.99, and that the Webster's Unabridged app costs $59.99.  Also consider some of the iPhone OED apps:  the Concise Oxford English Dictionary and Thesaurus app costs $34.99, the more comprehensive Shorter Oxford English Dictionary costs $49.99 and the Shorter OED version that includes audio costs $59.99.  Placed in this context, $49.99 for the Black's app seems fair.

The real question is just whether the app will be worth $49.99 to you.  I have an older, print version of Black's Law Dictionary in my office that I bought in law school.  I used it a lot in law school, but now I use it only occasionally.  But I must admit that having the Black's app on my iPhone for the last few days has brought me renewed interest in the dictionary and I find myself frequently looking up terms during my legal research just because my iPhone is always within reach.  Time will tell whether I am still finding this app useful in a month or a year.  Nevertheless, I can imagine myself in court one day finding it useful to have Black's within reach, so I think I am going to really like this app.

I am very happy that West has brought this classic legal reference text to the iPhone.  There is room for improvement (such as the ability to increase the font size or browse by swiping), but this is a fantastic 1.0 app.  Plus, now that West has developers who know how to write for the iPhone, I look forward to what they will bring us next.  I'll end with a short YouTube video posted by West in which you can hear from the developers of the app.

Click here to get Black's Law Dictionary ($49.99): 

Mike Schneider -- lawyer quits his day job to write iPhone apps

For seven years, Mike Schneider was an IP attorney in the Seattle office of the prestigious law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.  But during his spare time, he wrote iPhone apps.  Some became very successful, such as a $0.99 app called TouchType that allows one to type e-mails while an iPhone is in landscape mode.  After he sold tens of thousands of apps, a Seattle publication profiled him last October in an article titled "Lawyer Strikes Gold Rush with iPhone Apps."  Mike now has 16 apps in the app store, and he decided last month to resign from Wilson Sonsini and concentrate on being a software developer.  He also runs a nice technology blog called This is Tech.

I recently caught up with Mike to ask him about his experiences as an iPhone developer.

iPJD:  What type of law did you practice at Wilson Sonsini?

Schneider:  My practice was focused on technology and intellectual property related transactions.  I worked primarily with software companies on building and commercializing their technology and content.  Real world examples would be helping draft and negotiate large customer contracts and engaging developers or artists to create content. 

iPJD:  Tell us about your experience with smartphones and software development before the iPhone.

Schneider:  When I was in law school, I used a Handspring Visor and then an HP Jornada.  I started working on a few applications for the Palm platform, and then spent some time trying to learn to write for the Pocket PC platform, which has evolved into Windows Mobile.  For the most part, this was an intellectual exercise.  I have always been fascinated with computers, and software programming is a challenging puzzle to try to crack.  In my early years as a lawyer, I used a string of Blackberry devices that were standard issue at my firm.

iPJD:  When did you start using and writing software for the iPhone?

Schneider:  I started using an iPhone when Wilson Sonsini rolled them out as an option for their attorneys.  Shortly after the SDK was released [in March of 2008], I downloaded a copy and started familiarizing myself with the platform.  In July of last year, my wife and I spent a week and a half in Hawaii.  I spent a fair amount of time during the vacation reading and experimenting with the SDK. 

iPJD:  Tel us about your success with your first iPhone app, TouchType.

Schneider:  TouchType hit the store in October of 2008 and spent about a month in the top 25 apps on the store.  I was used to typing with two thumbs on previous devices I had used, and was frustrated that couldn’t be done on the iPhone.  As I got more familiar with the iPhone SDK and what could and couldn’t be done on the platform, I realized that information could be passed into the email application using a URL scheme.  From there, it was fairly simple to create TouchType, which allows users to type email messages using a large keyboard and send them to Apple’s email application for dispatch.  The app has expanded to include a spell check function, which helps when sending email messages to clients, since the iPhone’s predictive spelling system is not always sufficient to catch misspelled works, or suggest good alternatives. 

iPJD:  You recently told Popular Mechanics how important it is for a developer to be first in the app store because anything successful "will be fully knocked off in a couple weeks. It just seems to be the nature."  Tell us about your experience with copycat apps and TouchType.

Schneider:  Shortly after TouchType came out, a wave of competitors hit the app store.  For a while, there was a new landscape keyboard application on the store every day.  TouchType is still among the top Productivity apps on the store, but the imitators have captured a good portion of the market.  My goal was to try to stay one step ahead of the copycats.  Ideas are generally only protectable through the patent system, which means that unless I want to start filing patents on the inventive aspects of my applications, there isn’t much that can be done to stop copycats.  That said, I try to establish a degree of brand recognition around the applications I create, and am perfectly willing to pursue competitors that try to copy my trademarks or copyrightable elements of my apps.

iPJD:  Perhaps the biggest, ahem, complement to the usefulness of your app is that Apple itself is adding landscape e-mail typing to iPhone Software 3.0, due out this summer.  What does this mean for the future of TouchType?

Schneider:  I am excited for the 3.0 software to be released.  It will eliminate the need for an application like TouchType to compose email messages using the landscape keyboard, but TouchType’s spell check functionality will still be worth having.  Also, the 3.0 version of the iPhone OS will allow email composition to be incorporated into third party apps, meaning that once TouchType users compose their message and spell check it, they won’t have to leave the application to dispatch the message but instead will be able to do so from within TouchType.  I think this will make the experience better for users.

iPJD:  TouchType was your first app, but you have developed many more.  You recently released a number apps -- Relax, Build Confidence, Disconnect, Quit Smoking, Lose Weight and Visualize Healing -- that you developed in connection with hypnotherapist Andrew Johnson.  What was the impetus for these apps?

Schneider:  I have been listening to a copy of Andrew’s deep relaxation CD on and off for a few years.  Whenever my mind was racing and I couldn’t fall asleep, I would put the CD on and it would put me right to sleep.  When I started working on iPhone applications, his content seemed like a perfect fit for the platform.  I reached out to Andrew and we started working on the iPhone apps within the week.  The Andrew Johnson apps have done incredibly well.  I get multiple email messages every day from people telling me how much they like them.   I would urge your readers to check out Relax with Andrew Johnston - Deep Relaxation.  People love that app.  There is also a free version, Relax with Andrew Johnson Lite, for any of your readers that would like to give it a try.  

iPJD:  Your GPS Thief Tracker app is innovative -- an app with an intentionally intriguing icon that, when tapped, discretely sends the owner an e-mail with the iPhone's location.  Tell us more about this one.

Schneider:  The theft tracker app did much better than I expected.  The concept is a bit of a novelty.  Because the iPhone doesn’t allow third party apps to run in the background, the app requires a thief or person who finds your iPhone to open the application (which triggers a silent email to you with your phone’s location).  Fortunately, people have still felt like it is worth the $0.99 and the app has been very popular.  To date I have only heard of one person that has recovered a stolen iPhone using my app.  It turned out that her brother-in-law had stolen it, and with the police, she was able to get it back.

iPJD:  Your most recent iPhone app helps people to teach tricks to a dog.  What can you tell us about this app? 

Schneider:  Best of 101 Dog Tricks includes step-by-step instructions on how to train your dog to do eight different tricks (e.g., sit, down, fetch).  Each trick has great photos and a video demonstration.  It is the best looking app I have made.  I would recommend that app to anyone with a dog. 

iPJD:  What are your favorite apps on the iPhone, besides your own?

Schneider:  I am a big fan of Tweetie and Evernote.  Air Mouse is also really impressive.

iPJD:  Have you ever thought of developing an app for lawyers?

Schneider:  I made a desktop app for lawyers once called Clause Locker.  The app allowed lawyers to save snippets of text to a database that was easy to browse and search.  I think I am the only person who ever used it, but it worked great for me.  Now that I have left Wilson Sonsini to try my hand at entrepreneurship full time, my immediate plans are to launch a few more iPhone apps, but then I hope to turn my attention to writing more traditional (non-iPhone) legal software. 

iPJD:  You recently spoke at the 360|iDEV conference in San Jose, talking about legal issues in iPhone development.  What are some of the issues that you discussed and that the attendees asked about?

Schneider:  iPhone developers range from one man shops to venture backed companies.  These companies face the same types of issues that any startup would have.  What type of entity should be formed.  Putting good agreements in place with employees and contractors.  How to build and protect intellectual property rights, and not infringe the rights of others.  It was a great discussion.  I learned a lot at that conference about iPhone development, and was glad to be able to contribute something of value.

iPJD:  How can a lawyer with a full-time law practice find time to write apps for the iPhone?

Schneider:  That is a great question.  For about six months I was working long hours at the firm and then writing code in the late evenings and on the weekends.  Once the apps started taking off, I started transitioning out of the firm.  Now I am working about 70% of the time on iPhone applications and 30% of my time building my own independent legal practice.  

iPJD:  How successful can one be as an iPhone developer?

Schneider:  The iPhone presents a unique opportunity for individuals to make a living for themselves.  Companies with lots of employees don’t yet have a big advantage over one or two person shops.  Successful applications can create a very comfortable living for an individual, but instances of people retiring on the money they make on the iPhone are not going to be common. 

iPJD:  How do you compare working as a lawyer at a law firm to working as an iPhone developer?

Schneider:  The latter is a much better creative outlet.  I have and do enjoy working with clients to help solve their problems, but there is something much more satisfying about working on whatever I think is interesting.  

iPJD:  And finally, what are your thoughts about the upcoming iPhone Software 3.0?

Schneider:  I am very excited about the 3.0 software, and most excited about in-app purchases.  I think that will open the door to some programs that wouldn’t otherwise be worth doing.  I have an app that has been sitting on the back burner because I didn’t want to have to figure out how to charge people on the iPhone; entering a credit card would have been cumbersome for the user.  With the in-app payments, users can purchase products and services in the app and have the payments charged to their iTunes account. 

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A big iPhone J.D. thank you goes to Mike Schneider for taking the time to share his experiences.  Thanks to authors like John Girsham and Scott Turrow, many a lawyer has dreamed of quitting his day job and becoming an author.  The updated version of that dream for some may be to quit working for a firm and become an iPhone app developer.  I wish Mike the best of luck as he pursues his dream, and I can't wait to see what he brings us next.

Mike Schneider's apps include:

TouchType ($0.99) -- landscape keyboard and spell check for e-mail, with Twitter integration. 

TouchType Lite (free) -- same as TouchType but without spell check and Twiiter integration. 

GPS Thief Tracker - Private-I ($0.99) -- help to track your iPhone if it is stolen. 

Private-I Lite (free) -- free, ad-supported version with limited e-mail advertisements. 

Phone Tree Navigator - Direct Line ($0.99) -- a directory of customer service numbers for major corporations, and when you tap a company name to call, the app automatically presses the buttons needed to get to a live person. 

I Love Lost ($0.99) -- unofficial Lost fan app. 

SMS Touch - iPod SMS with Spell Check ($2.99) -- enables users to compose text messages in portrait or landscape mode and then send them through e-mail without incurring text messaging fees. 

Relax with Andrew Johnson - Deep Relaxation ($2.99) --

Relax with Andrew Johnson Lite (free) --

Build Confidence with Andrew Johnson ($2.99) --

Disconnect with Andrew Johnston ($2.99) --

Quit Smoking with Andrew Johnson ($2.99) --

Lose Weight with Andrew Johnson ($2.99) --

Visualize Healing with Andrew Johnson ($2.99) --

Dog Tricks - Best of 101 Dog Tricks ($2.99) --

Fetch - Best of 101 Dog Tricks (free) -- includes one of the tricks from the Dog Trips app. 

iPhone battery tip -- turn it off

I recently posted some great iPhone battery tips from Ed Shepard.  This prompted New Orleans attorney Duris Holmes to write me with another suggestion for saving power on your iPhone:  turn it off.  Okay, that sounds like a joke, but Duris learned the hard way that it may be best to turn the entire iPhone off -- instead of just turning off the antennas -- when you won't use it for a while.  He explained:

I haven't seen this anywhere else, but if you are going somewhere and will not be using your iPhone for a few days, I would suggest turning it off.  I went to Canada last week and turned off roaming, 3G, etc. while I was there so as not to download expensive data.  I was impressed that my iPhone appeared to still be half-charged.  Something went haywire, however, as it would no longer hold any charge when I returned to the US, even though I was charging three times a day.  The Apple Store ran diagnostics that showed that the phone was in use for almost as long as it was on, just as if I had talked on it the whole time.

Fortunately for Duris, the Apple Store replaced his iPhone and he says that the replacement process was "pretty painless and free."  Indeed, I think that one of the reasons that Apple gets such great customer service ratings is that if an iPhone or iPod isn't working right, Apple Stores are really good about just replacing the unit without giving you any hassle.  Nevertheless, it would have been better for Duris if this had never happened in the first place, and I would be interested to hear from anyone else who has had similar experiences.

This is a good time to mention that I always enjoy hearing from iPhone J.D. readers, especially if you have tips to offer others.  My e-mail address is on the left, as is my Twitter account if you want to limit yourself to 140 characters.

In the news

It's been an interesting week for the iPhone.  Apple has now sold over a billion apps on the iTunes store and posted record earnings in the last quarter thanks in large part to the iPhone.  Moreover, the excitement continues to build towards this summer with the new iPhone 3.0 software and whatever Apple is preparing for the next version of the iPhone.  Here are some of the iPhone-related stories that caught my attention this week.

• Macworld provides a review of Thesaurus apps for the iPhone.  Or should I say an analysis, an assessment, a survey, an overview, a recapitulation, a report, a ....
• What's on iPhone reviews an app called WBCapture, an app dedicated to the task of taking a picture of a whiteboard.  I have used whiteboards in the past during brainstorming sessions, and I found it useful to just use the built-in camera app to take a picture.  I suppose this app brings that to the next level.
• Ben Part writes in Mashable about 11 essential iPhone apps for when you are taking a road trip.
• Looking for news on your iPhone?  Rich Rosen compares the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today apps on the O'Reilly Media blog.
• So let's say that you're going to be away from the office all day long, and you want to both protect your iPhone in a case and give it the extra power to go all day long.  The $80 Mophie Juice Pack Air might be just what you need.  Reviews are posted on iLounge, Engadget and CrunchGear, and MacNN says that it will be shipping in about a week.
• Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal discussed the strengths and weaknesses of the iPhone and its smartphone competitors.  (I missed that article when it first ran, but thanks to A.J. Levy for bringing it to my attention.)
• Macworld has reviewed a heck of a lot of iPhone apps, and they are now collecting all of their reviews (over 500 so far) on this page.
• Telephony Online reports that AT&T is about to double the speed of its 3G networks from 3.6 Mbps to 7.2 Mbps.  In the real world, I typically see 3G download speeds of almost 1 Mbps and Wi-Fi speeds of around 3 Mbps or more.  It would be great for 3G speeds to get even closer to Wi-Fi speeds.  Will current iPhone 3G owners see these new speeds?  I'm not sure.  This article in AppleInsider says no, so perhaps one of the selling points for the for iPhone to be released this summer will be that it is twice as fast as the prior iPhone 3G.
• Congratulations to thirteen year-old Connor Mulcahey of Weston, Conn. for downloading the 1 billionth app from iTunes.  The app was Bump, a contact manager app.  With his $10,000 iTunes gift card prize, at least we know there is one teenager who won't be downloading pirated songs.
• And finally, and I don't know how long this will stay up, the New York Times currently has a great iPhone ad on its homepage celebrating Apple passing the 1 billion app download mark.

iPhone news from Apple's Q2 FY09 quarterly earnings call

At the end of the day yesterday, Apple held its Fiscal Year 2009, Second Quarter earnings call.  As always, Apple executives read a prepared statement and then answered questions from analysts.  Apple has a lot to be happy about; this was Apple's best non-holiday quarter in the history of the company -- and this is during a recession when other companies are laying off people left and right.  Wow.

Just like last quarter, there were a number of interesting things said about the iPhone by Apple's COO (and acting CEO) Tim Cook and the other Apple executives.  Here are some of the highlights:

• iPhones are now sold in 81 countries.
• iPhones are selling great.  There was only a small decline in iPhone sales this past quarter from the busy holiday quarter, which was a surprise to Apple.  And with iPhone Software 3.0 coming out [not to mention whatever new iPhone model that we all know Apple will release this summer] Apple believes that even more people will want to buy iPhones in the future.
• Apple sold 3.8 million iPhones during the past quarter.  To date, Apple has sold around 21 million iPhones and around 16 million iPod Touches for a total of around 37 million devices using the iPhone operating system.  Pointing out the obvious, the Apple executives noted that the iPhone a huge platform for developers.
• Indeed, iPhone apps are selling like hotcakes.  Apple noted that it is just hours away from selling its 1 billionth app.
• The iTunes app store now offers over 35,000 apps. To put this in perspective, three months ago during the last quarterly earnings call, Apple was thrilled to have over 15,000 apps.  The continued exponential growth in the number of apps is just staggering.
• Apple has no plan to change its relationship with AT&T.
• The iPhone has the highest overall customer satisfaction of any smartphone on the market.
• On the earnings call three months ago, Tim Cook referred to other smartphones such as the Palm Pre and said that Apple would be very serious about protecting its intellectual property.  An analyst asked why Apple hasn't taken any actions to protect its IP this quarter, and asked whether it was because the Palm Pre isn't on the market yet.  Cook didn't answer the question, instead just saying that "competition is great, we think it makes all of us better, as long as other companies invent their own stuff."
• Tim Cook also made very vague references to Apple's future iPhone plans, stating that "between the product plans that we've got and the app store and the software that you've seen and then things I can't talk about, we have a plan that we believe continues to make us the leader in the space, continues to keep us years ahead of others, and one of the things that we will make sure is that we don't leave a price umbrella for people."  So what I hear Cook saying is (1) Apple has some surprises in store for the iPhone -- yeah! -- and (2) Apple will keep iPhones affordable so that people are not tempted to spend less on a competitor's product -- yeah again.

Finally, Tim Cook had an interesting statement on netbooks.  A lot of people are wondering whether Apple has plans to release a netbook, perhaps based on the iPhone OS.  When asked about netbooks, Tim Cook responded essentially that the current netbooks are terrible, the iPhone is currently a good alternative, and Apple is thinking about a possible netbook.  He said:

For us it's about doing great product.  And when I look at what is being sold in the netbook space today, I see cramped keyboards, terrible software, junky hardware, very small screens and just not a consumer experience and not something that we would put the Mac brand on, quite frankly.  And so it's not a space, as it exists today, that we're interested in, nor do we believe that customers in the long term would be interested in.  It's a segment that we would choose not to play in.  That said, we do look at the space, and are interested to see how customers respond to it.  People that want a small computer, so to speak, that does browsing and e-mail might want to buy an iPod Touch or they might want to buy an iPhone.  And so we have other product to accomplish some of what people are buying netbooks for.  And so in that particular way, we play in an indirect basis.  And then of course if we find a way where we can deliver an innovative product that really makes the contribution, then we'll do that.  And we have some interesting ideas in the space.  The product pipeline is fantastic for the Mac.  As we look back over the last 4+ years, 17 of the 18 quarters of the last four and a half years, we've exceeded the market rate of growth.  To exceed it in this horrendous economy I think is quite an accomplishment, especially when you look at these very low priced netbooks, that I think it is a stretch to call a personal computer, are really propping up the unit numbers from the industry as a whole.  So we feel great about our performance, it's a very solid performance especially in this environment, and the pipeline looks fantastic.

If you want to listen to the earnings call yourself, you can do so over the next two weeks by downloading the podcast from iTunes: .  Or you can view a computer-generated transcript of the call on this page at the Seeking Alpha website.

It is great to see Apple having such a great quarter, especially during these troubling economic times.  And the iPhone is clearly a key reason that Apple is doing so well.

Review: Quickoffice Mobile Office Suite -- edit Word and Excel files on your iPhone

The day has come.  We finally have the ability to edit Microsoft Word files on the iPhone, including cut, copy and paste.  For a while now, Quickoffice, Inc. has sold an app called Quicksheet which allows you to view and edit Excel files (and view Word files) on the iPhone.  (I reviewed that app two months ago when it was called MobileFiles Pro, and then the company changed the name to Quicksheet.)

The developer has now released Quickoffice Mobile Office Suite.  The app contains just about all of the features of Quicksheet plus it adds the ability to edit Word files.  (The missing feature is e-mail support, which as I note below is coming very soon.)  The Word or Excel files must be in Windows Office 97 through 2003 format or Mac Office X through 2004 format to be edited. (Windows Office 2007 / Mac Office 2008 files can be viewed but not edited.)

The app does a nice job of viewing Word files.  You can pinch to zoom in and out, and when you do so the text reformats to fit the screen so you don't have to worry about scrolling back and forth to read a file.  (Yeah!)  Indeed, even if you don't need to edit Word files on your iPhone, Quickoffice may well be the best app currently available for viewing Word files on an iPhone.

  

Selecting text to either format it or to cut, copy or paste works very well, and is a nice preview of what this feature will be like when Apple releases iPhone Software 3.0 this summer.  You double-tap on a word to select a word (or triple-tap to select a paragraph).  Then you can drag grab points to adjust how much text you want to select.  Once you have text selected, you can tap one button to format the font or style or to highlight the text, and tap another button to cut, copy or paste.

  

The text selection and cut / copy / paste features are currently unique to the app.  Thus, you cannot copy text from Quickoffice and then paste it into an e-mail.  However, a company representative told Macworld that the current proprietary text selection and cut / copy / paste features will be updated to conform with iPhone Software 3.0 when it is released this summer.

As a word processor, the features are limited.  You can add bold and italics, but you cannot add underline.  You cannot add or even see footnotes, although if you edit a document with footnotes and then transfer it to your computer, the footnotes will still be in the document when you open the document in MS Word.  You can create a bulleted list, but not a numbered list.  The app does allow you to view and edit files in either portrait or landscape mode, which is nice for those who prefer the wider landscape keyboard and can make it easier to view some documents.  However, typing on the app can be frustrating because the app lacks the standard iPhone autocorrect abilities; I have grown very used to just typing ahead on the iPhone with the knowledge that typos in my e-mail will be fixed automatically, but right now this app offers no suggestions and makes no automatic corrections.  The app also lacks any sort of a Find (let alone Find and Replace) feature.  And there are no advanced options for scrolling through a long document, so you just have to keep flicking the screen, which can become tedious in larger documents.

I found that the app worked fine with most Word files, even larger briefs.  However, I had trouble with cases downloaded from Westlaw in Word format.  First, I tried to transfer a large case, a 2.8 MB Word file.  I had no trouble transferring the file to the app, but the app hung whenever I tried to open the file.  I then tried a smaller Westlaw-created Word file, and while I could open it in the app, it was mostly gibberish.  The app just can't handle the advanced formatting that Westlaw adds to opinions such as graphics, bookmarks and live links.  I next tried to download the opinion again, telling Westlaw not to include KeyCite flags, live links or images.  Even then, the I could see the words in the opinion surrounded by a lot of gibberish.  Finally, I downloaded the same case on Lexis, and the coding in the file resulted in similar gibberish:

  

For information on transferring files to the app, see my review of the earlier version of this app (when it was called MobileFiles Pro). In short, you can use a web browser on your computer to transfer files to and from Quickoffice as long as your iPhone and computer are on the same Wi-Fi network.  If you use Apple's MobileMe, the app can upload and download files, which you can later access from MobileMe on your Mac or PC.  Quicksheet also allows you to send and receive files via e-mail.  Quickoffice doesn't currently support e-mailing files, but a company representative told Macworld that this feature is coming in about a week.  Another feature listed on the company's website as coming soon is the ability to mount the iPhone as a wireless drive via Wi-Fi and drop and drag files between your computer and your iPhone.  And the Macworld article referenced above notes other upcoming features including more powerful sync features and integration with other online services in addition to MobileMe.

Ultimately, Quickoffice, Inc. plans to offer four different apps, three of which are available now:

• Quickoffice Files is $1.99 and allows you to upload and download files from iDisk, transfer files to and from your iPhone using Wi-Fi, e-mail files from  your iPhone, and view a large variety of file formats including Microsoft Office, PDF, iWork, web archives, HTML, and MP3.
• Quicksheet is regularly $12.99 (although it is currently on sale for $6.99) and offers all of the functions of Quickofice Files plus the ability to edit and create Microsoft Excel spreadsheets
• Quickword is coming soon (it will also cost $12.99) and offers all of the functions of Quickoffice Files plus the ability to edit and create Microsoft Word documents
• Quickoffice Mobile Office Suite is $19.99 and offers all of the functions of Quickoffice Files, Quicksheet and Quickword.

While Quickoffice, Inc. is the first to release an app that can edit Word files, DataViz announced long ago that it is working on its own app, Documents to Go, that should be released within the next eight weeks.  Quickoffice is worth $20 for what it can do, but you might want to wait a month or two to see whether the shortcomings noted above are addressed and how this app compares to DataViz's upcoming Documents to Go for iPhone, which I imagine will be priced similarly.  Even so, kudos to Quickoffice, Inc. for being the first to bring such a powerful app to the iPhone.

Click here to download Quickoffice Mobile Office Suite ($19.99): 

Apple ad -- Legal Copy

This isn't iPhone related, but it is related to Apple and the law.  Yesterday, Apple released four new "I'm a Mac / I'm a PC" commercials.  One of them is called "Legal Copy" and it makes fun of legal disclaimers that might be necessary for a PC to claim that it is as easy to use as a Mac.  Here is the ad from YouTube, or you can see a higher quality version here on Apple's website.

If you want to actually read all of the fine print, Matt Deatherage of MacJournals.com has taken the time to include it all here.  As Matt notes, while some of the fine print refers to PC-only chores such as modifying the Registry, the fine print also talks about chores that you must do on any computer, Mac or PC, such as backing up files.  So perhaps the ad isn't completely fair -- something that can also be said of the latest Microsoft ads -- but it is pretty funny.

Review: Leaf Trombone World Stage -- play, judge and be judged

I usually don't review entertainment apps on this website, but I'll make an exception for Smule's newest app Leaf Trombone World Stage.  Last year, Smule came up with the ingenious idea of Ocarina, an app that turns your iPhone into a flute that works when you blow into the bottom of the iPhone.  Leaf Trombone is this year's follow up.  Like Ocarina, you can use Leaf Trombone as a musical instrument.  You can still blow if you want, but you don't have to; you can instead just tap your fingers to play the instrument.  You can either free play the instrument, or you can pick a song and the app will show you which notes you need to play (in the form of leaves that fly in from the left).  And on the Smule website, you can even compose a new song that you or others can play.  The instrument function alone is a lot of fun and an improvement on the Ocarina app.

   

But what really makes this app shine are the last two words in its name:  World Stage.  After you have practiced a song and you are ready to show off what you can do, you can choose to record your song and then immediately listen to your song while it is being judged by three judges.  In the spirit of American Idol, the judges can change their emoticon facial expressions, positive or negative, during your performance, can shout out any short words of encouragement (or despair), and can rate you on a 1 to 10 scale when you are done.  Both you and your judges are essentially anonymous, except that you can see a username and where they are located on the globe and they can see the same for you.  Being a judge is almost as much fun as being judged, plus you get a point every time you judge which you will need to be able to perform on the world stage, which costs three points.  

 

There is a much more to say about the features of this app, and for that I will simply point you to the excellent and comprehensive review by iLounge; I agree with everything that they say.  And we know that more features are coming when the iPhone software is updated to 3.0.  During Apple's iPhone 3.0 announcement, the guys from Smule showed off a mode in which two Leaf Trombone users in the same room can play a duet.  Here is a video:

This app would be entertaining enough without the world stage aspect, but adding the ability to judge and be judged is pure fun.  I know a ton of lawyers who play a musical instrument at least a little bit, and if you have any talent at all -- and from what I have seen as a judge, it doesn't take much! -- I think you will find Leaf Trombone World Stage to be easily worth the $0.99 cover charge.

Click here to download Leaf Trombone World Stage ($0.99): 

In the news

Here are some recent, interesting stories in the news relating to the iPhone, starting and ending with the Wall Street Journal:

• Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal updates his review of MobileMe and he likes it.  If you work at a company that uses Microsoft Exchange, then you know how useful it is to have your e-mail, calendar and contacts automatically synced between your computer and your iPhone.  If you are not in an Exchange environment, MobileMe can give you a similar experience for $99 a year.
• Former attorney and now full-time mother Jennifer of the These Are Days blog writes about her recent experience buying an iPhone and how it was a big deal for her.  I felt the same way when I first got my iPhone, and it is fun to read about similar experiences of others.  (By the way, Jennifer has a nice blog.  I liked this post about the differences between her former life as an attorney and her current life.)
• Do you and your spouse both have an iPhone?  iLounge discusses two chargers that let you charge both at one time.  They posted a review of the $45 Dual Dock Charger being sold by RichardSolo, and compared it to the Griffin Powerdock 2 which you can get on Amazon for $30.  
• Macworld reports that market research firm Forrester finds more evidence that the iPhone works great in large businesses.  For example, almost half the mobile phone users at Kraft now use iPhones, and the company orders 400 more every month.  AppleInsider also wrote about the Forrester report.
• Steven Frank wrote a very interesting analysis of user interfaces, from the keyboard + command line to the mouse + desktop to multitouch on the iPhone.  It is a fascinating read.  Thanks to Daring Fireball for bringing it to my attention.
• LinkedIn, which is sort of the grown-up version of Facebook, now has an iPhone app.  But according to Dale Gardner of Macworld, it is just okay.
• Looking for a really short docking cable for the iPhone?  CableJive sells an $8 cord called iStubz that is around 3 inches long and a $9 version that is around 9 inches long.
• If you want to read the Wall Street Journal online, you need to pay about $100 a year.  Or, you can just get the new, free Wall Street Journal iPhone app, and access all of the content for free.  Rick Broida writes about the app for CNET and David Chartier reviews the app for Macworld.

Expensive iPhone apps

Yesterday, in my review of Time Master, I stated that the app costs $9.99 and noted that this price is on the high end for an iPhone time tracking app.  That got me thinking about how lucky iPhone users are when it comes to app prices.  On my prior smart phone, a Treo 650, I didn't buy software very often, but when I did it was frequently priced $25 or higher.  For example, Documents to Go by Dataviz for Palm costs $30 to $90, depending upon the version.  And yet on the iPhone, users are used to apps costing between $0.99 and $9.99.  Few developers cross the $10 threshold.

But some do, and if you want to spend a lot of money on an iPhone app -- perhaps you are looking forward to that tax refund after filing your return yesterday -- you can do so, although your options are limited.  And I'm not talking about silly apps like the previously available $999.99 I Am Rich app or the currently available and arguably just as silly $999.99 GoldBeggar app from mobileDev.  (iTunes link, if you must:  )  There are also legitimate iPhone apps that cost over $100.  Here are the ones that I found:

Surveillance camera apps.  If you have a lot of surveillance cameras that you want to monitor, there are several apps that let you do so from your iPhone, even viewing multiple live camera feeds at the same time.  iRa Pro ($899.99 ) from Lextech Labs allows you to easily navigate between hundreds of cameras by just flicking your finger across the iPhone screen.  And for cameras that support it, you can even pan and tilt the camera angle and zoom in and out just by using the iPhone app.  If you don't need access to high-end servers, the company also sells iRa Direct ($499.99 ).  Another company with similar products is mobiDEOS which sells Mobile Cam Viewer Enterprise Basic Vesion ($349.99 ), Mobile Cam Viewer Standard ($99.99 ) and Mobile Cam Viewer Basic ($29.99 ).  Yet another example is CamControl for iPhone ($149.99 ).

MyAccountsToGo.  If you are a sales rep and your company uses Microsoft Dynamics GP (Great Plains), you can download the MATG app from CBR-Technology Corporation ($449.99 ) to access your company's accounting and financial information from your iPhone.  There is a similar version for the same price that works with the SAP BusinessOne financial management system.  The developer also offers a free version that only syncs with a sample database so that you can get an idea of how the app works.

Medical apps.  It is easy for a doctor to spend money on iPhone apps.  Lexi-Comp sells various medical reference apps that vary in price from $74.99 to $219.99, or you can purchase a complete set by getting Lexi-COMPLETE ($299.99 ) or Lexi-DENTAL COMPLETE ($299.99 ).  Epocrates Essentials includes continually updated, peer-reviewed, drug, disease and diagnostic information for $149 a year (or $249 for two years).  And a doctor might also want to check out iChart EMR from Caretools, Inc. ($139.99 ) to keep track of patient medical records.

Home automation.  If you have SAVANT's ROSIE home automation system to control your lights, temperature, security, etc., you can purchase the ROSIE Home Automation app ($199.99 ) to control your system from your iPhone, even if you are away from home.  If you use a similar system from AVAI Ventures, then iFusionHome ($149.99 ) does the same thing.  These app prices are actually quite reasonable because purchasing a touch panel control system for these devices can be quite expensive.

Audio spectrum analysis.  If you need realtime feedback of the audio spectrum while you are mixing or doing other audio work, XA1 ($179.99 ) will do the trick for you.  There is also a $9.99 Lite version with fewer features.

Guitar tuner.  There are lots of inexpensive or free guitar tuner apps, but if you want to spend money on a top product, Bernhard Stopper has developed Tunic Guitar Pro ($109.99 ) for professional use.

I am not aware of any law-related apps over $100, although I did recently review a version of Congress in Your Pocket called CongressPro ($99.99) which is updated throughout the year and would be useful for any attorney that does governmental relations work.

[Thanks to AppSherpa for making it easy to search for apps by price and to Inside iPhone for a similar post last year.]

Review: Time Master -- a time tracking app

Keeping track of time is very important to lawyers and many other professionals, so I have been keeping track of the iPhone time tracking apps.  I previously wrote about 17 such apps, then I wrote about an 18th app, and then I wrote about some online options you can use with your iPhone. 

Even though there are already quite a few good time tracking apps, there is always room for another good one, and I found one.  Adam McInnis of On-Core, Inc. recently wrote me to tell me about Time Master, an iPhone app that tracks time and expenses.  Adam is not an attorney (although his brother is a partner at Akin Gump) and this app is not specifically written for use by attorneys, but it includes all of the key features that an attorney would want to track time on an iPhone.

The app stores a list of clients and projects for each client, and can optionally associate billing codes with a client and a project.  You can also associate a billing rate with a client and project if you want.  You can either manually tell the app how much time to bill on a project, or you can tap in the gray area on the time entry screen to start a timer.  One nice feature that I don't remember seeing on other time tracking apps is the ability to bill in specific increments -- for example, you can tell the app to bill in 6 minute increments for .1 billing, and you can have the app automatically round up, down, or to the nearest such increment.

   

The app gives you the ability to have multiple timers at once, although this is, of course, useless for attorneys who ethically cannot bill two clients at the same time.  (See ABA Formal Opinion 93-379.)  If you have a timer running and then you exit the app, the timer continues to run, and a badge appears on the icon of the app to let you know how many timers are currently running.  You have the ability to go back to a prior entry and adjust the time, which I consider an essential feature for when you go back to working on a project later in the same day or you need to fix a time entry because you let the timer run too long.

The app can easily prepare reports of your time and then you can e-mail the reports to yourself (or anyone else, such as your secretary).  The app gives you lots of options to customize the report that you e-mail, such as identifying which fields to include and the order in which the fields should appear.

   

I haven't played around with the Expenses feature very much, but the app does give you the ability to track your expenses.  I can see this being useful when you are on the road.

All in all, this is a very nice app.  It includes all of the key features of an iPhone time tracking app and for this reason alone is one of the best, plus it adds a lot of customization features and polish.  At $9.99, it is one of the more expensive time tracking apps, but that is a reasonable price considering all that you get with this app.  To help you decide whether to buy this app (and to help you learn how to use it), the developer's website includes helpful videos of all of the major features. 

If you are looking for a time tracking app for your iPhone, there were already several good options, but Time Master enters this crowded field as one of the best and it is definitely worth your consideration.

Click here to get Time Master ($9.99): 

A billion served -- almost

Apple is about to sell its one billionth app, and if you are the lucky person to download app number 1,000,000,000, you will get a $10,000 iTunes gift card, an iPod Touch, a Time Capsule, and a MacBook Pro.  Visit this page on Apple's website for more information, including the opportunity to enter the contest for free without even downloading an app.

But it is a lot more fun to just download some apps.  So what have other people been downloading?  Apple has a page on the iTunes store listing the all-time most downloaded apps.  The top paid apps of all time are:

1. Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D ($5.99) -- a racing game
2. Koi Pond ($0.99) -- interact with fish in a pond of water
3. Enigmo ($3.99) -- a puzzle game in which you direct drops of liquid
4. Bejeweled 2 ($2.99) -- the classic game in which you get three or more jewels in a row to make them disappear
5. iBeer ($1.99) -- a visual gag in which your iPhone appears to contain beer (or mouthwash)
6. Moto Chaser ($0.99) -- a racing game
7. PocketGuitar ($0.99) -- a virtual guitar
8. Flick Fishing ($0.99) -- virtual fishing
9. Tetris ($4.99) -- the Tetris game
10. Texas Hold'em ($4.99) -- the only iPhone game sold by Apple, this poker game includes great graphics
11. Super Monkey Ball ($5.99) -- a game in which your monkey rolls through mazes
12. Pocket God ($0.99) -- control the ongoings on your island to either help or hurt your islanders
13. Cro-Mag Rally ($1.99) -- a racing game
14. Ocarina ($0.99) -- a virtual flute
15. Fieldrunners ($2.99) -- a tower defense game
16. iFart Mobile ($0.99) -- a productivity app
17. Touchgrind ($4.99) -- a skateboarding game
18. iHunt ($0.99) -- a hunting game
19. iShoot ($1.99) -- an aim-and-shoot game
20. Monopoly Here & Now ($4.99) -- a new version of the classic game

Arnold Kim at MacRumors.com has an interesting analysis of how many times some of these top 20 apps have been downloaded and how much money each has made for the developer.

The top free apps of all time are:

1. Facebook -- nice client for the social messaging giant
2. Google Earth -- 3D version of satellite and aerial images of Earth
3. Pandora Radio -- start with a song you like and Pandora will stream you the audio of similar songs
4. Tap Tap Revenge -- tap scrolling dots in time with the music
5. Shazam -- identify a song by just letting your iPhone listen to it for a few seconds
6. PAC-MAN Lite -- the first stage of the classic game
7. Backgrounds -- thousands of iPhone background images, updated daily
8. Touch Hockey: FS5 -- air hockey game
9. Labyrinth Lite Edition -- the wooden maze, steel ball game you played as a kid
10. Flashlight -- fill your screen with white
11. Urbanspoon -- pick a restaurant with a fun slot machine interface and get reviews
12. Movies -- see what is playing and more
13. iBowl -- a bowling game
14. Lightsaber Unleashed -- admit it, when were a kid you would have done anything to have a lightsaber with you at all times
15. Sol Free Solitaire -- Klondike and more
16. MySpace Mobile -- client for the social messaging giant
17. Virtual Zippo Lighter -- Freebird!
18. The Weather Channel -- one of the better weather apps
19. Bubble Wrap -- pop the virtual bubbles
20. Remote -- Apple's app to remotely control iTunes on your computer or an Apple TV

Download an app, help Apple reach the one billion mark, and maybe you will be the lucky person who brings Apple into the 10 digit download number range.

Call log

Here is a quick tip suggested to me by Ernest "Ernie the Attorney" Svenson that is helpful if you are ever trying to remember who you recently talked to on your iPhone (perhaps as you are doing your billable time entries).  In the Phone app, tap the "Recents" button at the bottom to see a list of all of the people who you recently called or who called you.  For older entries you just see the day of the call listed, but tap the blue arrow on the right of each entry to see the specific time of the call.  Unfortunately, there is no way to display how long the call lasted once the call is over, but this might be enough to jog your memory and remember who you talked to and what you talked about. [UPDATE:  I haven't tried this myself, but Martin points out in a comment to this post that you can use a script called alllog2ical.rb, available here, to get more info such as call duration.]

For some entries you may see a number in parentheses next to the person's name, indicating that there were multiple calls with that person.  The time or date of the most recent call is listed in Recents, and you can tap the blue arrow to see a list of the precise date and times of the calls.

I'm not sure how many recent calls are stored.  I vaguely remember reading somewhere that the iPhone logs the last 80 calls, but mine doesn't seem to have quite that many.  Suffice it to say that dozens of the most recent calls are logged.

The call log will be greatly improved when Apple releases the iPhone Software 3.0 this summer.  But even the current, limited, version of the call log is a useful part of the iPhone that you might forget is there.

In the news

There was a lot of iPhone news this week.  Much of it concerned rumors of features that may be included in the next iPhone that Apple will release, but so many of those predictions are mere guesswork that I won't comment on them here, except to note that I think it would be a good idea for Apple to include a better camera with video recording capabilities in the next iPhone.  But there was other news, and here are a few iPhone-related stories that caught my eye this week.  If you missed them, click the links for more information.

• DRM-free music and variable pricing on iTunes.  (Macworld)
• GM and Segway have come up with what looks like a really cool iPhone accessory.  (iLounge)
• New Gmail interface for iPhone.  I really like the pop-up menus.
• Video preview of the classic game Myst on the iPhone.  (AppVee)
• Documents to Go by DataViz will be released in May.  (Just Another iPhone Blog)
• Working out with your iPhone is not a good idea.  I recommend that you just use an iPod shuffle.  (TUAW)
• Confessions of an iPhone app addict.  (Mercury News, via Apple Hot News)
• Ten crazy iPhone cases.  (TUAW)

Enjoy the weekend, and have a good Easter or Passover or whatever it is that you are celebrating.

Review: Vade Mecum -- the law of Brazil on your iPhone

As an attorney practicing in the only civil law jurisdiction in the U.S., I was intrigued to get an e-mail the other day from Max Malta, the developer of Vade Mecum.  "Vade mecum" literally means "go with me" in Latin, and the phrase generally refers to a useful manual that one always keeps close at hand.  The Vade Mecum iPhone app includes all of the major sources of Brazilian law, not only the Civil Code of Brazil (which, like the Louisiana Civil Code, is derived from the Napoleonic Code), but dozens of other sources of law including Brazil's Federal Constitution, Code of Civil Procedure, Criminal Code, Commercial Code, Traffic Code, Labor Laws, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, etc. 

  

You can browse through articles one by one, jump to a specific article number, or search for laws containing words in the text.

    

I don't speak Portuguese or practice law in Brazil so I can't say much about the content -- and admittedly I am stretching to even title this post a "review" of the app -- but it looks like a comprehensive and useful iPhone app for anyone dealing with Brazilian law.  The reviews on the iTunes app store are excellent, and the Brazilian iPhone website Blog do iPhone gives the app a very favorable review (click here for an English translation via Google), even noting that one Brazilian attorney remarked after seeing Vade Mecum that he would buy an iPhone just to be able to use this app and have all of the key laws in his pocket.  The comments on that Blog do iPhone post make it clear that there are many happy users of this app in Brazil, including lawyers and law students.  (One commenter notes: "At last, a legal program for my iPhone!"  I wish we had more law-related apps here in the U.S., but I guess we are doing much better than iPhone users in other countries.)

It's nice to know that attorneys in other countries are taking advantage of their iPhones just as we are here in the States, and I wish Max the best of luck as an iPhone developer.

Click here to get Vade Mecum ($9.99): 

iPhone battery tips from Ed Shepard

Small Dog Electronics is one of my favorite places to buy gadgets, especially those related to the Mac and iPhone.  Their employees are extremely knowledgeable and their customer service is top-notch.  Plus, it is obvious from their website that they love what they do -- and they love their dogs!  They publish an informative, free newsletter called Kibbles & Bytes, a weekly publication that includes Apple news and commentary, Mac and iPhone tips, and updates on items on sale.

A recent issue of Kibbles & Bytes includes an article by Small Dog's marketing manager Ed Shepard with tips for getting the most out of your iPhone's battery power.  Much has been written on this subject, but Ed's article is one of the best I have seen, so I asked if he would let me re-publish the article here.  He graciously agreed (Thanks, Ed!) and here it is:

Squeeze More Juice from Your iPhone/iPod Touch Battery

by Ed Shepard, Kibbles & Bytes #614

The iPhone 3G is an incredible device. I recently took a ten day trip with my iPhone, and used it every single day in dozens of different ways (including as—go figure—a cell phone). It has become an essential tool in both my digital and real life.

As I wrote in last week’s Kibbles & Bytes newsletter, I do wish the battery in the iPhone had a little extra stamina. I’m getting the TruePower extended battery for iPhone 2G/3G/iPod touch before my next extended trip.

In the meantime, here are twelve tips suggested by Apple and learned from our experience that should help wring a little extra juice from an iPhone or iPod touch battery.

1. Always make sure your iPhone has the latest software from Apple, as engineers may find new ways to optimize battery performance. You can update to the latest software with iTunes 7.7 or higher.
2. Turn off Wi-Fi: If you rarely use Wi-Fi, you can turn it off to save power. Go to Settings > Wi-Fi and set Wi-Fi to Off. However, if you frequently use your iPhone to browse the web, battery life may be improved by using Wi-Fi instead of cellular data networks.
3. Turn off Bluetooth: If you rarely use a Bluetooth headset or car kit, you can turn off Bluetooth to save power. Go to Settings > General > Bluetooth and set Bluetooth to Off.
4. Use Airplane Mode in low- or no-coverage areas: Because your iPhone always tries to maintain a connection with the cellular network, it may use more power in low- or no-coverage areas. Turning on Airplane Mode can increase battery life in these situations; however, you will be unable to make or receive calls. To turn on Airplane Mode, go to Settings and set Airplane Mode to On.
5. Turn off 3G: Using 3G cellular networks loads data faster, but may also decrease battery life, especially in areas with limited 3G coverage. To disable 3G, from the Home screen choose Settings > General > Network and set Enable 3G to Off. You will still be able to make and receive calls and access cellular data networks via EDGE or GPRS where available.
6. Adjust brightness: Dimming the screen is another way to extend battery life. Go to Settings > Brightness and drag the slider to the left to lower the default screen brightness. In addition, turning on Auto-Brightness allows the screen to adjust its brightness based on current lighting conditions. Go to Settings > Brightness and set Auto-Brightness to On.
7. Fetch new data less frequently: Applications such as Mail can be set to fetch data wirelessly at specific intervals. The more frequently email or other data is fetched, the quicker your battery may drain. To fetch new data manually, from the Home screen choose Settings > Fetch New Data and tap Manually. To increase the fetch interval, go to Settings > Fetch New Data and tap Hourly. Note that this is a global setting and applies to all applications that do not support push services.
8. Turn off push mail: If you have a push mail account such as Yahoo!, MobileMe or Microsoft Exchange, turn off push mail when you don’t need it. Go to Settings > Fetch New Data and set Push to Off. Messages sent to your push email accounts will now be received on your phone based on the global Fetch setting rather than as they arrive.
9. Auto-check fewer email accounts: You can save power by checking fewer email accounts. This can be accomplished by turning off an email account or by deleting it. To turn off an account, go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars, choose an email account and set Account to Off. To remove an account, go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars, choose an email account and tap Delete Account.
10. Minimize use of location services: Applications that actively use location services such as Maps may reduce battery life. To disable location services, go to Settings > General > Location Services or use location services only when needed.
11. Minimize use of third-party applications: Excessive use of applications such as games that prevent the screen from dimming or shutting off or applications that use location services can reduce battery life.
12. Lock Your iPhone: It may seem obvious, but you should lock your iPhone when you aren’t using it. You will be able to receive calls and text messages while it is locked, but nothing happens if you touch the screen. To lock iPhone, press the Sleep/Wake button. You can also set the Auto-Lock interval so your iPhone will turn off more quickly after a period of inactivity. To set Auto-Lock, go to Settings > General > Auto-Lock and set the interval to a short time, such as 1 minute.

Bonus tip: Use iPhone Regularly: For proper maintenance of a lithium-based battery, it’s important to keep the electrons in it moving occasionally. Be sure to go through at least one charge cycle per month (charging the battery to 100% and then completely running it down).

Finally, the iPhone 3G is stated to offer up to five hours of talk time on 3G, ten hours of talk time on 2G, five hours of internet use on 3G, six hours of internet use on Wi-Fi, seven hours of video playback, or twenty-four hours of audio playback on a full charge at original capacity. The iPhone features up to 300 hours of standby time.

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Thanks again to Ed and Small Dog Electronics for these helpful tips.

Review: Cocktails+ -- mix a drink with your iPhone FOR FREE

If you are like most of the lawyers that I know, then you enjoy a good cocktail.  Granted, I do live in New Orleans so my perspective might be skewed, but hopefully you agree that it is a lot of fun to explore new drinks and enjoy the classic ones with friends, either when out at a bar or at your bar at home.

On July 11, 2008, I stood in line at my local AT&T store to buy an iPhone 3G on the release date.  It was a long line, so there was ample time to talk to the other people, and behind me was Ted Haigh from Burbank, California.  Ted does graphic design work for movies, but he is better known as Dr. Cocktail, one of America's foremost authorities on the history of the cocktail.  He was in New Orleans for the opening of the new location of the Museum of the American Cocktail, a museum of which he is the Curator, and indeed, a good number of the items in the museum come from his personal collection.

Ted played a role in the creation of the iPhone app Cocktails+.  The other person responsible for the content is Martin Doudoroff, a cocktail enthusiast and technology consultant in New York.  The two of them also created a great online database for cocktails called CocktailDB.  Ted and Martin recently agreed to divide and conquer; Ted is focusing on the online CocktailDB and Martin is focusing on further development of the iPhone app.  And since then, Martin and programmer Ian Baird have added some fun new features, such as the ability to share a recipe from the app via Twitter or Facebook.

If you are looking for a good collection of cocktail recipes on your iPhone, Cocktails+ is a great choice.  The problem with many cocktail collections is that some of the drinks sound like they were just made up yesterday.  But Cocktails+ has great respect for the history of the cocktail.  Each recipe in this app comes from a classic cocktail guide and includes a source and date.  A lawyer's dream:  cocktails plus citations!

  

Indeed, the older the recipe, the more dated the background in the app (as if you were looking at old paper) -- a fun detail.  And for many cocktails, there are multiple versions from different sources over the decades.  For the Sazerac, for example, there is a version from 2003 that uses Herbsaint, a version from the 1940s that uses Pernod, and a version from 1930 that uses absinthe.

  

It is easy to find a recipe from the over 2,000 available.  You can browse by title, by flavor, by type, or by base ingredient, or you can use the search function to search by title or ingredient. 

  

When you are looking at a recipe, if you want to learn more about any ingredient, just tap on it.  This will bring you to a helpful screen describing the ingredient, including possible substitutes if you are missing something in your bar.

  

Although I love Cocktails+ for the classic recipes, the app also includes new recipes from three famous contemporary bartenders.  Many of those, however, are a little over the top for me.  For example, the recipe for a Brandy New Fashioned from famous Seattle bartender Jamie Boudreau includes only three ingredients, but one of those ingredients -- Bourdreau's Cherry Bitters -- itself is composed of almost two dozen ingredients and takes over four weeks to make.  Sounds like a fun drink to order and appreciate at a bar, but I seriously doubt I would take the time to make one.

You can mark a recipe as a favorite, but I wish that the app offered the ability to add notes.  Martin tells me that this is the #1 requested new feature for the app, so perhaps we will see this added in the future.  It would also be nice to be able to add new recipes that you come across.  But what Cocktails+ offers now is still a great app.  Indeed, the Wall Street Journal reviewed several iPhone cocktail apps earlier this year, and Cocktails+ was one of its favorites.  You can read the article here, although you may need to be a Wall Street Journal subscriber for that link to work.

If you want to see Cocktails+ in action, you can click here to see a video of the app provided by the developer. 

But better, yet just download the app right now ... FOR FREE.  I was ready to recommend Cocktails+ at its regular price of $9.99.  But the developer is offering a special THIS WEEK ONLY -- you can currently download the Cocktails+ app for free as a part of a promotion of the new "Publish to Facebook" feature.  This offer ends this Sunday, April 12, so be sure that you download the app now.

Cheers!

Click here for Cocktails+ (free now; normally $9.99): 

Two from the New York Times

There were two articles in the New York Times this past weekend about the iPhone.  They are both getting a lot of buzz, so I though I would link to them in case you haven't seen them yet, and write a little about one of the articles.

First, there was an article in the Fashion & Style section (of all places) called "The iPhone Gold Rush."  It talks about some of the (few, lucky) iPhone app developers who have made a ton of money, such as the developer of the iPhone game iShoot who made $800,000 in five months.  A related article also ran in the Bits section of the Times.

Second, there was an article by Virginia Heffernan, the former television critic for the New York Times who now writes a column for the New York Times Magazine called "The Medium" which covers, among other topics, the convergence of television and the Internet.  I've long been a fan of Heffernan's writing, even though she has been criticized as highfalutin and called to task for her esoteric references, not to mention once called the "Sarah Palin of Journalism."  Her column that ran yesterday is called "I Hate My iPhone."  When you combine the unprecedented popularity of the iPhone with a title like that in a publication as esteemed as the Sunday New York Times Magazine, there is no wonder why the article has been making the rounds on the Internet.  (One of my favorite critiques of her article was this one by Mike Rose in The Unofficial Apple Weblog.)

In the article, Heffernan talks of her purchasing an iPhone and then returning it.  The article is quintessential Heffernan, with phrases like this:  "the iPhone probably sips, like a lipsticky girl with a vodka drink" and "that device’s tarty little face and those yapping 'apps'".  Um, okay.  After I stepped over the clever phrases and looked for the reasons that Heffernan returned her iPhone, I found two.  First, she says that she has been a Blackberry user for years and she had trouble getting used to the iPhone's virtual keyboard.  Heffernan doesn't say how long she used the iPhone before returning it, but it sounds like it was just a few days, and even she admits that during that time she mostly just kept it in her bag.  She even notes that she felt hesitant to touch the screen after "years of not touching screens — so as not to smudge or scar."  To perhaps state the obvious, anyone afraid to touch an iPhone's screen cannot possibly understand all that an iPhone offers.  And it is a shame that she didn't give herself more time with the iPhone.  The virtual keyboard isn't perfect, but it is a good tradeoff for not having a physical keyboard always take up half of the space on the front of the device when you only need it a fraction of the time you are using the iPhone.  Moreover, just as it took time to get used to witting with Graffiti on an old Palm or to type with thumbs on a Blackberry or Treo, it does take time to get used to the iPhone's keyboard.  It appears that her occasional usage over just a few days was not enough.

Second, she found that her AT&T coverage in New York was worse than her T-Mobile coverage.  That is obviously a fair complaint; I've heard many people say that Verizon has the best coverage in Manhattan and the surrounding areas.  On the other hand, I get great AT&T 3G coverage in New Orleans.  And I don't see how returning an AT&T iPhone for an AT&T Blackberry would solve her coverage woes.

What I find most odd is that Heffernan seems like the perfect candidate for an iPhone.  She uses a Mac and an iPod, and Heffernan frequently writes about technology, social media, online videos, and other media.  The iPhone needs to have a phone, of course, but I find that the phone is one of the features that I actually use the least on my iPhone.  I am more often using my iPhone to run third party apps, surf the Internet, watch short YouTube videos, look at pictures, read e-mails or Twitter updates or Facebook updates, etc., and these are the very sorts of things that Heffernan has been writing about for years.  A device like a Blackberry Bold may be better at composing e-mails for those who demand a physical keyboard, but I don't believe that the Blackberry can compete with the iPhone on all of these other features.  I can't help but think that if Heffernan had just taken the time to get to know the iPhone, she would scoff at the idea of returning it for a Blackberry.

On the other hand, her experience did result in a fun article with an attention-grabbing headline that caused me, and countless others, to pause while flipping through the pages of the Times Magazine and has resulted in numerous links across the Internet.  For a journalist, I suppose that is one measure of success.  But I also know that lots of attorneys (and others) will read her article, and I hope that it doesn't mislead them into failing to consider all that an iPhone can offer.

Options for editing Microsoft Word, Excel files on the iPhone

Since the day that the iPhone was first introduced, people have asked for the ability to edit and transfer Microsoft Office documents.  DataViz, whose Documents to Go software offered this feature on other smartphones such as the Palm Treo for many years, started working on such a program a year ago.  A beta of a Dataviz iPhone app has been previewed, but is still not available.

Meanwhile, TechCrunch reported (as did PC World) that Stephen Elop, President of Microsoft's Business Division, stated yesterday at the Web 2.0 Conference in San Francisco that we may be seeing Microsoft Office on the iPhone soon.  His interviewer asked for more information on this, and Elop reportedly said "not yet, keep watching."  Note that this is really nothing new -- a year ago, Microsoft was talking about possibly developing iPhone apps.

In the meantime, one company is actually delivering -- or, in part, about to deliver -- the ability to edit Word and Excel files on the iPhone.  Quickoffice previously sold a series of apps with the MobileFiles name, and they are now rebranding and expanding those products (albeit with some price increases).

Quickoffice used to offer a free app called MobileFiles which could be used to download (but not upload) files from iDisk and view certain files such as images and Microsoft Office files.  QuickOffice has stopped offering that product.

The product that used to be called MobileFiles 2.0 is now called Quckoffice Files.  It remains at $3.99, and allows you to upload and download files from iDisk, transfer files to and from your iPhone using Wi-Fi, e-mail files from  your iPhone, and view a large variety of file formats including Microsoft Office, PDF, iWork, web archives, HTML, and MP3.  (The ability to view iWork files is a new edition to this app.)  Many attorneys will find that this app is the best solution to transfer files to and from the iPhone and view them.

If you want to edit spreadsheets, the app that used to be called MobileFiles Pro is now called Quicksheet, and the price has increased from $9.99 to $12.99.  Quicksheet offers all of the functions of Quickofice Files and adds the ability to edit and create Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.  (Excell 2007 spreadsheets can be viewed but not edited.)  Everything that I said about this app in my review of MobileFiles Pro remains true, the only change being some interface improvements.  This app works well.  (Note that Mariner Software similarly offers a $9.99 product called Mariner Calc that allows you to edit Excel files on the iPhone.  I have't tried it yet.)

If you want to edit Word documents, Quickoffice has announced that they will release Quickword in just a few weeks.  Quickoffice says that this app will include the ability to select, cut, copy and paste text.  Apple will of course bring those functions to the iPhone in the 3.0 update coming out this summer.  It seems curious that Quickoffice would want to introduce a proprietary version of this feature just months before Apple brings the feature to all iPhone apps.  Perhaps Quickoffice just wanted to beat DataViz and Microsoft to the punch.  Unsurprisingly, Quickoffice says that it will support the iPhone 3.0 version of cut and paste when it is available.

If you want to get all of the Quickoffice apps, Harry McCracken reports that you will be able to buy a Quickoffice suite for $20.  (This might be a reason for you to wait to buy Quicksheet by itself right now.)

The curious thing about editing Office files on a smartphone is that while it seems like a great idea, it may not be something that you use very much in practice.  I had DataViz's Documents to Go on my Palm Treo for many years, and while I frequently used the program to view files, I virtually never edited Word documents.  Editing spreadsheets is a little more useful because it is nice to be able to see how changing just one or two numbers can change a total.  But regardless of how often you actualy edit Office files on a device such as the iPhone, it is empowering to know that you can do it.  I'm glad that Quickoffice has already figured out how to do this, and I look forward to seeing competing apps from DataViz and, perhaps, Microsoft itself.

Click here to get Quickoffice Files ($3.99): 

Click here to get Quicksheet ($12.99):