Month: April 2009

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.]

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): 

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.

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.

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.

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): 

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.

– – – – – – – –

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

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): 

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.

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):