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.
