Month: April 2009

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.

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.)

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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. 

*    *    *

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. 

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.

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.

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:

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.

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.

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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.

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): 

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.