Month: September 2009

The iPhone does so many different things so well—web access, e-mail, iPod, camera, GPS, seemingly unlimited apps, etc.—that sometimes I find myself forgetting that it is also a phone.  While holding up the iPhone to your face to talk on the phone works well, I have always found that, for longer conversations, it is more comfortable to slip the iPhone into a shirt pocket and use a pair of headphones with a built-in mic to talk on the phone.  But when doing so, I still need to deal with the annoyance of a cord.

The solution, of course, is a Bluetooth headset.  Many years ago, in the days before the iPhone, I owned a Bluetooth headset made by Plantronics (I can’t remember the model) that I used with a Sony Ericsson T616 cellphone.  It worked okay, but the call quality was just so-so and the over-the-ear headset wasn’t all that comfortable.  As a result, I used the headset very infrequently, and the experience soured me to Bluetooth headsets in general.  (I don’t mean to disparage the current generation of Plantronics headsets, which I understand are superb.  For example, yesterday Macworld gave the Plantronics Voyager Pro an excellent review.)

I had a chance to check out the one of the cream-of-the-crop of the current generation of Bluetooth headsets when Aliph recently loaned me a review unit of the Jawbone Prime, Aliph’s latest and greatest headset which the company started selling four months ago.  The retail price is $129.99, but you can get it for just over $100 through Amazon.  This device is excellent, and I recommend it with no reservations to anyone who wants a Bluetooth headset to use with their iPhone.  Indeed, with the new iPhone Software 3.1 that came out last week, this headset is even more useful.

Ease of Use and Comfort

Much like the iPhone, it is obvious that a lot of time went into the design of the Jawbone Prime to make it easy to use and comfortable.  It is small and weighs essentially nothing.  (The specs say 10 grams, and you’ll never notice that weight.)  The device has two buttons on the unit, but they are hidden so that they don’t detract from the sleek design.  One button is contained within the top of the unit (just slightly depress the top and you will feel a satisfying click) which you use to step through several different volumes, turn on or off the background noise elimination, reject a call, and send commands to the iPhone such as initiating a phone call.  You can also triple-tap the top button to redial the last number called.  A second button is contained within the side of the unit.  You barely see it with your eyes, but when your finger touches the unit you easily feel a grove that tells you where to press.  That button is used to turn the unit on and off and to answer and end a call.

 

Jawbone gives you many different options to insert the device into your ear.  First, there are three different sizes of traditional earbuds.  If you use those and you find that the unit is not staying in your ear well enough, you can also use the included wire earloop.  But even better (in my opinion, at least) are the three different sizes of what Jawbone calls “new fit earbuds,” which look like traditional earbuds except that they have an extra loop, making the earloop unnecessary.  When I use the new fit earbud, the unit is snug and comfortable in my ear and simply refuses to fall out, no matter how much I shake my head.

 

I wore the Jawbone Prime for long stretches of time and the unit felt quite comfortable.  I felt that it was there, of course, but it was unobtrusive.

The unit comes with a cord that fits the Jawbone on one end and has USB on the other end.  You can plug the cord into a USB port on your computer to charge the device, or you can plug into the included wall charger, which has prongs that fold up for easy packing when traveling.  The specs say that with a full charge you can talk for up to 4.5 hours or stay in standby mode for up to 8 days.  Those numbers sound about right to me.  At one point, as a test, I let it go for about a week just to see how long I could go between charges, and unfortunately the unit died while I was in the middle of a call, which was annoying for me and a little confusing for the caller who suddenly couldn’t hear me.  In real life use, however, I would have never let the unit go that long between charges, so the battery life is perfectly acceptable to me.

 

Call Quality

Aliph proudly touts the call quality on the Jawbone Prime.  Aliph got a reputation for breakthrough call quality when the original Jawbone was released.  Aliph claims that the “NoiseAssasin 2.0” technology provides excellent background noise elimination, even in noisy environments.  Additionally, the “Sensor Signal Fusion” technology is said to dramatically reduce or eliminate wind noise.  I haven’t done a comparison of different Bluetooth headsets so I cannot rate the success of this technology compared to others.  What I can say is that everyone sounded clear to me and I was told that I sounded clear to everyone.  Moreover, reviewers from outlets such as CNET and PC World who review headsets like this all the time were very impressed by the sound quality.  This technology has come a long way since I last used a Bluetooth headset.

[UPDATE 11/16/09:  Ars Technica includes the Jawbone Prime in its Holiday Gift Guide, saying:  “This is by far the best of the noise-canceling Bluetooth headsets
available. I’ve used this on the noisy streets of Chicago and New York,
and call partners were none the wiser. It holds a great charge, is
small and lightweight, and comes with several options to perfect and
secure the fit. It’s not the cheapest headset out there, but it is the
best.”]

With the iPhone, it is very easy to switch between audio sources while you are on a call.  You just tap a button to select a source:

 

This made it very easy to compare the call quality of the Jawbone Prime to my Apple In-Ear Headhpones, the headphones that come for free with the iPhone, the speakerphone function on the iPhone, and just holding the iPhone up to my ear.  The Apple In-Ear Headphones sounded the best, especially when headphones were in both of my ears (just because I was more immersed in the call using both ears), and holding the iPhone up to my ear also sounded great.  The Jawbone Prime came in third in my completely subjective and unscientific test, tied with the headphones that come with the iPhone (and far better than the speakerphone) but I don’t mean to imply that the Jawbone didn’t sound great.  It did.  But when I had my in-ear headphone in one ear and the Jawbone in the other ear, and switched back and forth between them, then I could tell that the premium (corded) Apple headphones sounded a little better.  Of course, I don’t think that the point of a Bluetooth unit is to sound better than a premium corded unit; the point is to sound just about as good while retaining the advantages of Bluetooth, and the Jawbone Prime accomplishes this goal.

iPhone 3.1 Features

One of the new features of iPhone Software 3.1 is the ability to access Voice Control on the iPhone 3GS using a Bluetooth headset.  I’ve been testing this since 3.1 came out last week and, for the most part, it works well.

To use Voice Control, you just hold down the button on the top of the Jawbone Prime for one second.  You will hear a beep, follow about a second letter by the iPhone’s sound which indicates that Voice Control has started and that you should say a command.  You can say a person’s name to call that person, or even issue commands to the iPod such as “Play artist Billy Joel.”  Voice Control makes a Bluetooth headset many times more useful.  This is especially true when you are driving and you no longer have to look at the iPhone to dial a number.  It was also useful for changing music while I was driving.  My iPhone was hooked up to my car stereo, and using the Jawbone I could just tell my iPhone to start, stop, change the music, etc. without having to touch the iPhone.

My problem with Voice Control is that, for me at least, it doesn’t always correctly interpret what I am saying.  This is not a problem with the Jawbone; I have the same problems when I talk directly to the iPhone.  I noted this in my review of the iPhone 3GS although, as I also noted in that review, my friend Ernie Svenson posted on his Ernie the Attorney blog that Voice Control works great after you use it for a while.  I presume that the more I use this feature the better I will get, but during my “training period” there were a few times that Voice Control misunderstood me and dialed the wrong person by mistake.  Of course I would immediately hang up, but sometimes not fast enough before the phone started ringing, and then they would call back thinking they missed my call, and the comedy routine would ensue.  Sigh.  Notwithstanding the inherent shortcomings of Voice Control, using it with the Jawbone headset was definitely the best way to use the technology.

I do wish that the Jawbone could be used with the iPod app on the iPhone.  iPhone Software 3.0 added A2DP support which makes it possible to use the iPod app with certain Bluetooth headsets.  Unfortunately, the Jawbone Prime does not support A2DP.  I realize that music could not be in stereo on the Jawbone, but it would be nice to use the Jawbone to listen to podcasts, which are in mono anyway.

Design

Design is subjective, of course, but the Jawbone has a reputation for looking great, and I, for one, think it looks very nice.  But is it stylish?  The truth is, just about anyone looks pretty silly when they walk around talking with a Bluetooth device in their ear.  One might argue that the Jawbone Prime is the best looking Bluetooth device ever, but that didn’t stop my wife from rolling her eyes whenever she saw me wearing the unit.  (To be fair, my wife often has reasons to roll her eyes at me, so perhaps it wasn’t always the Jawbone.)  I’m reminded of this recent cover of Wired magazine featuring Brad Pitt:

 

The issue featured “New Rules for Digital Gentleman” and the “new rule” illustrated in the picture on the cover of the magazine is:  “Rule No. 52: Ditch the headset.  He can barely pull it off—and you are not him.”

Of course, whether or not you look like Brad Pitt, there are times when you need or want the features of a good Bluetooth headset.  At least with the Jawbone Prime, you are about as stylish as you can get.  The unit is certainly less obnoxious than walking around with the standard iPhone white corded earbuds.  Plus, when you are in your car, nobody will notice how you look so you can wear a Bluetooth headset with abandon.

The Jawbone Prime that I tried was black, but it also comes in brown and platinum.  Or, you can get the Limited Edition Jawbone Earcandy which comes in yellow, red, green and purple.

Bottom Line

I really liked using the Jawbone Prime and I am a little sad to post this review because it means that I have to return the unit.  I am fortunate to live just a few minutes from my office, so I don’t have a long commute, and my practice doesn’t take me out of the office very often.  And as noted above, the phone is actually one of the least important parts of the iPhone for me.  For all of these reasons, I don’t think that I need a Bluetooth headset enough to justify spending $100+ on one.  But if those circumstances were to change and I were to find myself talking on the iPhone a lot more, especially in my car, this would be a great device to own.  Because I haven’t reviewed any other Bluetooth headsets yet, I cannot tell you whether this is the “best” one for the iPhone (not that any one unit would be best for everyone anyway), but I can say that if you are in the market for a Bluetooth headset, you will definitely want to give the Jawbone Prime a look.

Apple announced yesterday that current Senior VP and General Counsel Daniel Cooperman is retiring at the end of September and that he will be replaced by Bruce Sewell.

D. Bruce Sewell (the “D” standards for Durward) becomes the fourth
General Counsel to be hired at Apple since the return of Steve Jobs.  Eighteen months after Apple purchased NeXT in March of 1996 and brought Steve Jobs back to the Apple, Apple hired Nancy Heinen to serve as General Counsel and Secretary, a job Heinen had also held at NeXT.  Heinen held the position until May of 2006, when she resigned shortly before Apple admitted to some irregularities in the backdating of stock options.  Heinen eventually settled claims brought by the SEC for about $2.2 million, without admitting to any of the SEC’s charges.

Six months after Heinen left Apple, Donald Rosenberg became Apple’s Senior Vice President and General Counsel in November of 2006.  Rosenberg had previously held the same position at IBM, where he had worked for over 30 years.  But Rosenberg did not stay at Apple very long, leaving after only 10 months to take the General Counsel position at Qualcomm, a position he still holds today.

In September of 2007, the same time that Apple announced the departure of Rosenberg, Apple hired Daniel Cooperman to serve as its Senior Vice President and General Counsel.  Cooperman had previously served as General Counsel for Oracle for 11 years
and before that was a partner in the San Francisco office of the firm
now known as Bingham McCutchen.  Apple announced yesterday that Cooperman will retire at the end of this month, which is presumably the reason that Apple sought and hired Sewell.  [UPDATE 3/17/10:  After taking a break for a few months, Cooperman returned to Bingham on March 16, 2010, as reported in this Law.com article.]

Sewell thus becomes the third Apple GC in as many years.  Sewell comes to Apple from Intel, where he has worked since
1995 and where, since 1994, he served as General Counsel overseeing Intel’s 600
in-house attorneys and policy professionals.  Here is an interview with Sewell on the Intel website in which he discusses the importance of IP when establishing standards.  And here is a link to a short clip on YouTube if you want to hear Sewell speak.  Before Intel, Sewell
worked at Brown & Bain, which became a part of Perkins Coie
in 2004, and before that he was an associate at the firm now known as Schnader.  Sewell graduated from George Washington Law School in D.C. in 1986.

This is not the first time that Sewell will work on Apple’s legal matters.  In the late 1980s and early 1990s, legendary tech IP attorney Jack Brown of Brown & Bain represented Apple in the lawsuit Apple filed
against Microsoft alleging that Microsoft had improperly copied the
“look and feel” of Apple’s Macintosh operating system for
Microsoft’s Windows 2.03 and 3.0 programs.  Sewell worked on this litigation under Jack Brown while he was at the firm.  Apple lost that case, in
part because of a provision in a 1985 licensing agreement between Apple
and Microsoft.  Apple Computer, Inc. v. Microsoft Corp.,
35 F.3d 1435 (9th Cir. 1994).  One wonders how different Windows might
be today if Apple had won. 

I’m sure that one of the best perks of Bruce Sewell’s new job is that he
gets a free iPhone.  Perhaps Sewell will become one of the many attorneys who regularly reads iPhone J.D.  (Just in case:  Welcome, Bruce!)

In my post yesterday following up on iPhone Software 3.1 issues, I noted that one of the new features of iPhone 3.1, anti-phishing protection, was not working for some people.  We now have new information on this:  apparently you need to take some rather unusual steps to enable the protection in 3.1.  Here is the story.

Phishing and Malware Defined

First, let’s define what we are talking about.  As Wikipedia explains, “phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords
and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an
electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular
social web sites, auction sites, online payment processors or IT
administrators are commonly used to lure the unsuspecting public.”  For example, you might get an e-mail that appears to be legitimate and urges you to click here to go to the ABC Bank, but instead of sending you to that bank it sends you to a website that was designed to look just like the real ABC Bank website.  You enter your username and password, and suddenly the bad guys have everything that they need to access to your bank account.  Ouch.

Another security threat you can encounter on the internet is malware.  Malware is software that can do bad things to your computer without your consent.  The entry for malware on Wikipedia notes that malware “includes computer viruses, worms, trojan horses, most rootkits, spyware, dishonest adware, crimeware and other malicious and unwanted software.”  There are some bad websites out there that will, through various means, try to get you to download software to your computer which is, in fact, malware.  Ouch again.

On an iPhone (like a Mac), the risk of malware is far less than on a PC, and to my knowledge there are currently no websites that can install malware on your iPhone via Safari.  (There were reports of a fake program for the Mac in early 2008 that claimed to update your iPhone but instead did some nasty things.  Frankly, it is beyond me why someone would run a program that claimed to be an iPhone updater but didn’t come from Apple.)  But just because iPhone malware doesn’t exist today, that doesn’t mean that it won’t be here tomorrow.  Moreover, even if malware is not much of a threat for the iPhone, a phishing website can trick you no matter how you access the website, via an iPhone, a Mac or a PC.  An evil website might include both a phishing and a malware element; the site might try to trick you into turning over sensitive information while also tricking you into clicking a button to download a virus to your computer. 

Google Phishing and Malware Protection

To try to protect you from phishing and malware, Google has established a blacklist of evil web sites that the company knows about.  And if anyone is going to know about these fake websites, it is Google.  As Matt Deatherage of MDJ wrote last year in an article reprinted by Macworld:

Google’s computers, however, have a better shot at deciphering such
attacks. As the world’s leading search engine, Google has figured out
where eBay is, and knows that a single IP address in China is probably
not one of eBay’s servers. Google knows what banks, credit card
providers, insurance companies, and other firms people try to find, and
it therefore has a reasonable idea that if their images show up in a
page in the wrong part of the world, it may be bogus. It also helps
that Google has something like six umpteen-gazillion times the
computing power of the entire Apollo space program. You may have eight
cores, but Google is still slightly ahead of you.

Since 2008, the version of Safari that runs on a Mac or PC has included a preference option to warn when you are visiting a fraudulent website.  It is the first preference in this window, and by default it is turned on:

This option works by comparing the URL that you are trying to visit with the known list of evil URLs maintained by Google.  Safari doesn’t take the time to check with Google every time you try to go to a website; that would slow things down to much.  Instead, Safari downloads a list from Google containing some preliminary information on the known bad websites, and if the address of a website that Safari is about to load matches an entry in that list already on your computer, then Safari checks with Google to see if it is something on the blacklist to be worried about.  You can get more technical information on how this works in the article by Matt Deatherage that I referenced above.  And while I’m talking about Safari, note that the Firefox and Google Chrome browsers also use the Google blacklist for protection, and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer uses a different list but also contains the same type of protection.

Bringing the Google Blacklist to the iPhone

One of the features of iPhone Software 3.1 is that the iPhone Safari web browser is updated to include anti-phishing protection.  The feature on the iPhone is apparently the same as the feature on the
Mac or PC, which means that you need to first have a list on your iPhone of
the potentially bad sites so the Safari app knows when it needs to
check with Google to see if there is a problem.  When the feature works, you get a screen that looks like this:

It is great when the phishing protection works, but as I noted yesterday, Dan Moren reported in Macworld that the feature has not been working for everyone.

Fortunately, we now have a little more information on what is going on.  Jim Dalrymple, a former Macworld reporter who now has his own website called The Loop, did the sensible thing and talked directly to Apple about this issue.  He reports that the iPhone’s malicious website protection doesn’t work until the iPhone has downloaded the anti-phishing database.  This makes perfect sense, but what is strange is the way that the database is updated.  Dalrymple explains:

“Safari’s anti-phishing database is downloaded while the user
charges their phone in order to protect battery life and ensure there
aren’t any additional data fees,” Apple spokesman, Bill Evans, told The
Loop. “After updating to iPhone OS 3.1 the user should launch Safari,
connect to a Wi-Fi network and charge their iPhone with the screen off.
For most users this process should happen automatically when they
charge their phone.”

It is necessary for the iPhone to completely download the database
before the anti-phishing feature can protect you against phishing Web
sites. This will also allow Apple to update the anti-phishing database
when needed to keep users protected.

Considering that this is the director of Mac PR at Apple talking to a respected reporter, I presume this is all accurate.  Nevertheless, this seems like a very bizarre way to update the database.  I know many iPhone users who rarely connect their iPhones to their computers, and even when they do, I don’t know how often they are connected to Wi-Fi and happen to have Safari running.  These people will rarely get an update to the Google blacklist, and with new malicious websites appearing all the time, these iPhone users will not receive the security protection promised by iPhone Software 3.1.

Indeed, I find it strange that the page on Apple’s website that describes 3.1 says that one of the features is “Warn when visiting fraudulent websites in Safari (anti-phishing),” but nowhere does that page or any other Apple page (to my knowledge) mention the steps that you need to go through to get the protection of an updated blacklist.  Moreover, even if you follow the steps that Bill Evans from Apple outlined, the iPhone doesn’t tell you when the list is finished downloading.  Do I leave my iPhone plugged in for a minute?  An hour?  Who knows.

Recommendation

In the almost 14 months that I have owned an iPhone, I have never once (to my knowledge) ever encountered a malicious website.  I have encountered a few on my Mac, but none of them have been harmful and some have even been almost humorous.  For example, this past weekend, I visited the New York Times website—one of the last places that I expected to encounter something like this—and a window popped up warning that my computer had been infected and asking me to install (fake) virus software.  Because the warning looked like a Windows warning message and I was using a Mac, it was immediately apparent to me that this was fake.  But as Wired reports, some PC users did click on the link and found themselves “stuck with a fake scareware program that badgers them into buying supposed anti-virus software.”  TidBITS also has a good description of what happened at the Times, and the Times itself posted this article on the mess.  In the past, I have been the victim of malware on the PC that I use at work, and to this day I have no idea how the malicious software got on my computer without my knowledge.  It is often virtually impossible to remove malware, and for me the only solution was for my tech department to wipe my hard drive clean and start fresh.  Fortunately all of my files were backed up, but it was still a painful experience.

Even though the iPhone, like the Mac, is going to be largely immune from these malicious website threats, you never know when the day may come when some bad guy figures out a way to come up with something that can do damage on the iPhone.  And as noted above, phishing is always a threat for everyone, even iPhone users.  Thus, I’m happy that Safari on the iPhone now includes malicious website protection.  But having said that, I’m a little annoyed that the way of keeping the blacklist current is undocumented by Apple.  It would be nice to have something on the iPhone telling you the date that the blacklist on your iPhone was last downloaded and instructions for updating the blacklist.  Or alternatively, iTunes on your computer could give you a notice of when it is time to plug in the iPhone to update the blacklist.

I suspect that this is not the last that we will hear on this issue.  I expect Apple to provide iPhone users with even more information about what they need to do, or perhaps Apple will improve the way that blacklist updates are handled in a future iPhone software update.  But for now, I encourage you to follow Apple’s instructions and, from time to time, connect to a Wi-Fi network, launch Safari on your iPhone, connect your iPhone to your computer, and then turn off the screen on your iPhone so that the blacklist can be updated.

Last week I identified 13 new features of iPhone Software 3.1, plus an additional four new features that come from 3.1 in conjunction with the new iTunes 9.  I have since learned more on the new features in iPhone Software 3.1.  The following list is not exclusive, so for example if you want to learn about how 3.1 provides a improvements to the Bulgarian keyboard, you’ll have to look elsewhere—I suspect that the website iPhone в България (iPhone in Bulgaria) will provide full coverage—but this is what I think will be of most interest to iPhone J.D. readers.

1. The new anti-phishing features that warn you of potentially fraudulent websites is actually a feature you can turn on or off.  By default it is turned on, but you can go to Settings –> Safari –> Fraud Warning to turn it off.  When the feature is turned on, it works by comparing the URL to a list of known malicious websites maintained by Google.  Of course, the protection is only as good as Google’s blacklist, which may not know about the latest bad sites.  Moreover, even for the sites on that list, Macworld reports that the feature doesn’t always work very well.  The danger of a security system that contains holes is that it could lull you into a false sense of security.  My recommendation is to keep the Fraud Warning turned on as a second layer of protection, but continue to rely on your good common sense as your first level of protection as you surf the internet and follow the sage advise of Sgt. Phil Esterhaus from Hill Street Blues:  “Hey, let’s be careful out there.”  [UPDATE:  For more on this feature, read my post from 9-15-2009.]
2. If you record a video on your iPhone 3GS, the video is synced to iPhoto on a Mac (or your photos folder on a PC).  Under 3.0, those videos were not synced back to the iPhone.  With iTunes 9 and iPhone 3.1, there is now an option under the “Photos” tab when you connect your iPhone that allows you to “include videos.”  Turn that on and when you sync a folder or event from your computer back to the iPhone, videos will be synced along with photos.  Once synced back, you can no longer use the editing features to trim the video, but you can still share videos via e-mail, MMS, uploading, etc.  Thanks to this excellent iLounge post listing new 3.1 features for making me aware of this one.
3. I have seen reports like this that 3.1 improves battery life.  I have also seen some reports claiming just the opposite.  I haven’t myself noticed one way or the other yet.
4. Calendar event alerts are now displayed in a pop-up, much like push notifications.
5. iPhone security is important to everyone, but especially for lawyers with confidential information on their iPhones.  Like other iPhone updates, 3.1 includes several security enhancements, and Apple has posted this article describing them if you want the nitty gritty details.
6. There is one security enhancement that is specific to iPhones using Exchange for e-mail.  As noted in reports like this, the iPhone is now supporting Exchange encryption policies (which were previously ignored), if your company imposes such a requirement.  This is no big deal with the iPhone 3GS because it already supports Exchange-required encryption of data on the device, but if you use an earlier model of the iPhone that lacks this support, you may become locked out of your company’s e-mail.  I consider this a security improvement, but your iPhone certainly won’t seem “improved” if you are locked out of your e-mail.  If this problem affects you, the solution is apparently to have your server administrator disable the encryption requirement for your iPhone.  Or you could upgrade to the iPhone 3GS.  Here is a support article from Apple itself on this issue.
7. There is now preliminary support for “augmented reality” apps such as the upcoming New York subway app that I previously discussed.  According to the Games Alfresco
   
   website, an iPhone developer can now create an app that overlays
   
   graphics on a live video screen.  However, apparently it is still not
   
   possible for the app to analyze the video on the screen. 
8. Macworld reports on a change to the way that MobileMe works to help you find your iPhone.  If you misplace your iPhone in your house and use MobileMe to play a sound on the iPhone so that you can find it, the ringer now plays at maximum volume, even if your iPhone’s ringer volume was turned down.  That certainly makes sense.
9. There was a widely reported problem in 3.0 that made it possible to see e-mails from POP accounts that had been deleted.  iPhone Alley reports that it appears that this bug is fixed in 3.1.

Finally, The iPhone Blog has a nice walk-through of many the new features in 3.1. with lots of pictures.

The big iPhone news this week was the release of iPhone Software 3.1 and iTunes 9 which I discussed extensively yesterday and will discuss again next week.  But here is some of the other notable iPhone news that I ran across this week and during the prior two weeks when I was out of town.

• Engadget reports that AT&T is bringing HSPA 7.2 3G to Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles and Miami by the end of this year.  If you use an iPhone 3GS in those towns, let me know what you think of the additional speed when it gets rolled out over the next four months.  If you need a reminder on what 7.2 means, click here.
• If you are considering buying GPS turn-by-turn software for your iPhone, Wall Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal reviews the four major programs from TomTom, Navigon, AT&T and Fullpower.  He doesn’t consider any of them the best; each has its own advantages and disadvantages.

• 

  Ed Baig (USA Today) and Bob “Dr. Mac” LeVitus (Houston Chronicle) describe 10 great, free iPhone apps to promote their new iPhone For Dummies

  

  
  
  book.
• The new iTunes 9 includes a new layout for songs, movies and iPhone apps.  According to this article, some app developers are worried that their sales will fall because of the changes in the way that apps are being displayed.  I suppose this could happen, but it seems just as likely to me that these layout changes will help even more developers get their apps noticed by users.
• Is the Soccer Mom being replaced by the iPhone Mom?
• Would you like for your law firm or company to have its own iPhone app
  
  but don’t know where to get started?  DC tax attorney Jonathan Jackel posted
  
  on his Used and Enthused blog a few weeks ago about some developers who
  
  will create an iPhone app to your specifications for a few hundred
  
  dollars.
• The competition between Quickoffice and Documents to Go to catch up with each other and leapfrog over each other continues.  Quickoffice (which I reviewed and discussed on 4/22/09, 5/5/09, 7/20/09 and 8/4/09) has always been able to view Word and Excel 2007 files, but the latest update, version 1.4.1, adds the ability to edit those Office 2007 files as well.  Virtually everyone I know still saves documents in the older format (.doc files) but if you need to edit a .docx file on your iPhone, you can now do so with either Quickoffice or Documents to Go (which I reviewed and discussed on 6/25/09, 8/4/09 and 8/17/09).
• Dvice has an amusing post on 10 iPhone apps that were downloaded with high expectations but then subsequently deleted.
• There are a lot of attorneys who, like me, were on the debate team in high school or college.  If you are not one of them, the rest of this entry will be meaningless to you so skip ahead.  (I did CX debate at Isidore Newman in New Orleans and college NDT debate at Emory, and taught at numerous summer institutes at U. Kentucky, American and Samford for any of you who debated in the 1980s and early 1990s; perhaps our paths crossed way back when.)  I was amused to learn that there is a free iPhone app for debaters called iDebate, and it looks pretty slick.  It includes profiles of hundreds of judges, a timer for all the different parts of a high school (LD or CX) or college debate, and much more.  Now I really feel like I debated in the stone ages.  Check out the app’s web site to see what the app does, or since it is free, just download it yourself to check it out.  It’s been a long time since I judged a debate, let alone participated in one, but if I do, I’ll use this app.  Click here to get iDebate (free): 

  

• TechFlash has an interesting story on an IP attorney whose app was rejected because of the use of a keyword “bitwise.”

• 

  According to this Bloomberg article, Apple’s Fifth Avenue store in New York may be the most profitable store on Fifth Avenue.  I happened to be there on May 19, 2006 when the store opened (click here to see two panoramic pictures I took that day).  It really is an impressive and iconic store.
• And finally, Dallas personal injury attorney Todd Clement asked me a question that I wasn’t sure how to answer, but my hope is that one of you will have a solution.  Todd wants a way for his paralegal to make a list of his clients and, under each client, include phone numbers for all of the relevant people (attorneys, experts, etc.)  At first he put this information in the notes field of a Contacts entry associated with each client, but unfortunately you can’t tap on a phone number that is in a notes field to dial the number.  He also thought about having his paralegal borrow his iPhone and create entries in the built-in Notes app, but that is a pain to update.  Can any of you suggest an easy way for his paralegal to be able to add and update names and numbers and have that synced to his iPhone in a format that he can tap on numbers to dial?  Perhaps a tool like Evernote (which I haven’t tried myself) would work for this?  If you have a good idea for Todd, please share your thoughts in a comment to this post.

For as many years as I can remember, Apple has held an event in September to announce new iPods.  Yesterday, Apple’s Steve Jobs hosted this year’s event at the Yerba Buena theater in San Francisco to introduce the new iPod lineup for the 2009 holiday season.  Because one of the most popular iPods is the iPod touch, which is in many ways just an iPhone without the phone, iPod events are increasingly also becoming iPhone events.  There were a number of important iPhone-related announcements yesterday, so let’s get to them.

Impressive Numbers

Steve Jobs loves to announce impressive numbers when he gives presentations, and yesterday was no exception.  He noted that there are over 75,000 apps in the App Store.  (Over 21,000 of them are games and entertainment apps.)  Users have downloaded over 1.8 billion apps.  iTunes is now in 23 countries and is the #1 music retailer in the world, with over 8.5 billion songs sold.

iPhone Software 3.1

The new iPhone operating system, version 3.1, is now available and includes many new features.  Steve Jobs focused on only two of these at the event (the App Store Genius and the new ringtones), but here are all of the new features that I have found so far.

1. The iPhone can now recommend apps for you based on the other apps that you own.  Once you enable the Genius feature on your iPhone, you see a list of suggested apps, and for each one you are told that the suggestion is based on another app that you already have.  Jason Snell, the editor of Macworld, stated on Twitter that Apple will use app metrics to monitor your app habits including which apps you own, how many times you have launched the app, the duration of use, etc.  In my tests so far, the feature recommended apps to me based on apps that I rarely use, but I presume that after it monitors my usage for a while, and after Apple collects more information from iPhone owners about the apps that they use the most, this feature will improve.  As Jobs said yesterday, “this will only get better and better and better as we get larger databases of people, what they buy, what they like, the recommendations will get better and better, just like they have [with the similar Genius feature] for music.”  Considering the enormous number of apps on the app store, anything that helps you find the apps that you will find most useful is a great feature.
2. If you sync with Microsoft Exchange, the iPhone now does a better job
   
   of syncing the calendar and handling invitations, and some potential
   
   security flaws were fixed.
3. You can now purchase ringtones for $1.29 a piece.  Apple previously let you use iTunes to create your own ringtone from many songs or use GarageBand on a Mac to create your own ringtone from any song (both of which you can still do), but with 3.1 you also can buy a ready-made ringtone right on the iPhone itself from a selection of over 30,000 ringtones.  So now if you feel the immediate urge to hear Frank Sinatra sing “Start spreadin’ the news…” every time your client calls from the corporate headquarters in New York, NY, Apple has you covered.  I don’t use ringtones myself, but given the mini-concerts I hear around me when other cell phones ring, it appears that I am in the minority.
4. If you use MobileMe, you can now remotely lock your iPhone.  For
   
   security reasons, I have long recommended that everyone enable the Auto-Lock
   
   feature on their iPhones.  That way, if you misplace your iPhone,
   
   someone else cannot pick it up and use it without entering the code. 
   
   With 3.1, if you misplace your iPhone and even if you have
   
   Auto-Lock turned off, you can jump on the MobileMe website and send a
   
   signal to your iPhone to lock it.  The four digit code will override
   
   any Auto-Lock passcode that was previously set on your iPhone, which
   
   could be useful if someone gets access to your iPhone and knows your
   
   prior passcode.  I tested this feature and it works great; a fraction
   
   of a second after I told MobileMe to lock my iPhone, my iPhone
   
   immediately went into Auto-Lock mode and wouldn’t allow access until I entered
   
   the new code.
5. If you have an iPhone 3GS and you record some video, you now have the option to trim the video and save it as a new file.  So now you can take a long video, trim it to a nice small clip that is suitable for uploading to YouTube or MobileMe or for e-mailing to a friend, and still retain the uncut long version for transferring to your computer.
6. If you have an iPhone 3GS, you can now use Voice Control with Bluetooth headsets.  I’ve been testing a very nice Bluetooth headset that will be the subject of an upcoming review on iPhone J.D., and I look forward to putting this feature through its paces.
7. With 3.1 you can triple-click the home button to activate certain accessibility features such as turning on the VoiceOver system, changing the display to the high-contrast white on
   
   black view, or activating the
   
   iPhone’s zoom feature.
8. The iPhone has long allowed you to tap on any number that looks like a phone number and iPhone would offer to dial that number.  Now, you can also copy a number and paste it into the keypad on the Phone app.  And if you copy a phone number that includes letters, such as 1-800-LAWSUIT, the phone will correctly translate that into numbers. 
9. You could previously use the iTunes app on the iPhone to redeem gift certificates, promotional codes, etc. for both songs and apps.  Now you can also do so within the App Store app.  And related to this, both the App Store and the iTunes app will now show you your account credit if  you have previously redeemed a gift certificate or otherwise have money in your iTunes account.
10. If someone sends you iPhone-compatible video attached to an e-mail or a MMS message, you can now download that video to your camera roll.  (And by the way, AT&T says that MMS support is coming on September 25.)
11. Thanks to anti-phishing features, Safari will warn you if you visit a suspicious looking website.
12. If you have an iPhone 3G, you will now get better Wi-Fi performance when Bluetooth is turned on.  I didn’t even realize this had been an issue.
13. Finally, there are other miscellaneous bug fixes and security improvements, such as a fix to a bug that caused some app icons to display incorrectly.  Macworld has more information on these if you want the nitty gritty details.

There may be even more new features that I haven’t discovered yet, but these are some really nice improvements for a .1 update.

iTunes 9

There’s a lot to love in the new iTunes version 9 including a slick new interface.  There are a few new features that will be especially important for iPhone owners.  First, you can now manage your iPhone apps using iTunes.  Finally!  It is so much easier to use the large screen of a computer and a mouse to move apps around between pages on the iPhone rather than using  your finger on the iPhone itself to drag apps, one at a time, to reorganize them.  You can even move multiple apps at one time.  I had essentially given up on organizing apps on my iPhone because I have so many of them and was instead using the Spotlight search feature to find and launch apps by just typing in the first letter or two.  But now that I can easily manage my apps using iTunes, I look forward to having everything neat and organized.  If only iTunes could also help me organize my desk…

There are improved options for syncing with iTunes making it much
easier to select the music, video, podcasts and (if you use a Mac) photos that you want to sync. 
For example, you can now choose to sync all of the music from a
specific artist and you can now choose to sync a specific season or
even a specific episode of a TV show.  If you sync photos on your iPhone with a Mac, you can now select specific events or albums to sync, and can even use the Faces feature to sync all of your pictures that contain a specific person.

iTunes 9 also includes a new Genuis Mix feature.  The old Genius Playlist feature allowed you to select one song and have iTunes select similar songs.  With the new Genuis Mix feature, iTunes collects songs of a similar genre on your iPhone and plays them in a random order.  It will take me some time to warm up to this feature; I find it odd that you can’t see a playlist to see what song is coming next.  Regardless, the iPhone angle here is that any Genuis Mixes that iTunes 9 creates on your computer can be synced to your iPhone.  (They are not synced by default; you have to select them under the “Music” tab when your iPhone is connected to your computer.)

There is also a new Home Sharing feature that allows multiple computers in the same household to share music.  If you have multiple iPhones in your household, this feature might make it easier for different people to sync their iPhones with different computers.  My wife and I both have iPhones and up until now, we’ve needed to sync with the same computer to sync songs.  Now that songs can be shared with multiple computers, perhaps she can instead sync with her laptop, but we haven’t tested this yet.

iPod Touch, and What It Means for the iPhone

Apple spent a lot of time at yesterday’s event discussing the new iPod touch.  The iPod touch runs the iPhone OS and while it lacks some of the features of the iPhone—obviously it lacks a phone, and it also lacks a camera, microphone and GPS—it is a great alternative for anyone who wants an iPhone but doesn’t want to switch their cell phone service to AT&T.  It is interesting that Apple now includes a video camera with the new smaller, cheaper iPod nano but not the iPod touch; Steve Jobs told David Pogue of the New York Times that the camera was omitted to reduce the price of the iPod touch and make it the most inexpensive way to get a device that can access the App Store.  Apple has reduced the prices on the iPod touch so you can now get an 8 GB version for only $199 or a version with a faster processor, iPhone-like earphones with a remote and the Voice Control feature of the iPhone 3GS for $299 (32 GB) or $399 (64 GB). 

With the iPod touch now available with 64 GB, this is a sure sign that the next generation of the iPhone will also include a 64 GB model.  I also see that the new iPod nano includes an FM radio receiver and a
pedometer to keep track of your steps.  I think it far less likely that
we will see those two features on the next iPhone.  The iPhone already
contains a bunch of other radios and this one could cause unnecessary
interference considering that you can already access Internet radio. 
Moreover, the addition of the pedometer to the iPod nano reflects that many people use the nano when they workout; far fewer people use the iPhone to workout, and if they do they can already use Nike+ devices if they have an iPhone 3GS.  [UPDATE 9/11/09:  According to Chris Breen’s well-written review of the new nano for Macworld, the pedometer simply uses the accelerometer to measure every bump as a step.  Since the iPhone already has an accelerometer, it would be a simple software change to add a pedometer to the iPhone.  I’m still not sure that it makes sense for an iPhone to contain this exercise-centric feature, but it would be simple to add and the iPhone does have another exercise feature (Nike+), so maybe we’ll see it in a future software update.]   Anything is possible, so maybe the next iPhone will have 64 GB, an FM radio and a pedometer.

What I found most interesting about the iPod touch announcements was the sales.  Apple has sold 20 million iPod units.  Combine that with 30 million iPhones sold and there are now 50 million devices out there that run the iPhone OS.  That’s a huge market for iPhone app developers.  And while I think of the iPhone when I think of the iPhone OS, these numbers reveal that a full 40% of the people using the iPhone OS are not using an iPhone, but instead just an iPod touch.  That’s fascinating.  I know that there are many attorneys who read iPhone J.D. and who own an iPod touch instead of an iPhone, but it never occurred to me that the number could theoretically be as high as 40%.  (It’s not, of course; I’m sure that many of those iPod touch sales are to kids and young adults who use them for music and games, which is confirmed by comments made by Steve Jobs in his interview with David Pogue.)

In Summary

The focus of yesterday’s Apple event may have been the iPod, but iPhone owners will find a lot to love in the free iPhone 3.1 and iTunes 9 updates.  Looking ahead, in light of the timing of prior updates to the iPhone, I suspect that we will see another iPhone update with new features (presumably called 3.2) before the end of this year.

I’ve done a lot of international travel this summer, and I have been using my iPhone as a substitute for lugging around a laptop.  You can’t do everything with an iPhone, but I did find it easy to keep up with my work files, my colleagues, my friends, and the local news while out of the office.  Here are the apps that I found most useful when traveling.

1. Mail.  This is obvious, but the iPhone was great for reading and responding to e-mail.
2. Documents to Go to view Word files.  Like most law firms, my firm uses Microsoft Exchange for e-mail.  Using Documents to Go, I was able to easily view Word files that were attached to e-mails that I received.  Of course, Mail has the built-in ability to view Word files, but Docs to Go does a better job because you can adjust the font size and the app automatically formats the line breaks so that you don’t have to scroll left and right to read the text.
3. Documents to Go to edit Word files.  Docs to Go also lets you edit Word files, and I used this feature quite a bit to markup edits to a Word file and then send the file back to my colleagues.  Unfortunately, Docs to Go doesn’t support the track changes features of Word, which would be an easy way to redline my edits.  Instead, I made my edits to the document and then manually highlighted each of my edits in yellow and put the text in bold italics.  That was enough to make my edits easy to spot for other readers.
4. Foreign language dictionaries.  There are a ton of these available depending upon the language that you need.  Apps that allow you to hear the pronunciation of a word in a foreign language are especially useful so that you can hear how something is supposed to sound before you say the word to a waiter, store clerk, etc.  I particularly liked the ViDICTO+ my trip series of apps which cost about $3 each and allow you to pick a category (hotel lobby, dinner, shopping, numbers & date, etc.) and see pictures that you can tap to see a foreign translation and hear the word spoken, plus hundreds of related phrases.  You can currently get versions for Japanese, Chinese, Russian (the version I used), Spanish and German.  This app didn’t always have the word I was looking for, but I usually turned to this app first because when it was there, it was helpful.  Another app I found very useful for Russia was SpeakEasy Russian.  When you travel, you’ll want to check the App Store to see what is available for the language that you need.  For just a few dollars, you can have a great foreign language dictionary in your pocket that lets you hear exactly how to say a word.
5. Maps.  I kept my iPhone in airplane mode when I traveled to avoid data charges, but whenever I had access to Wi-Fi I frequently used the built-in Maps app to get a sense of my surroundings.
6. Skype.  I’ve mentioned this one before.  If you are abroad and have Wi-Fi access (which is often easy to find in your hotel), you can use Skype to call home cheaply.  I used Skype to participate in many hours worth of calls, including many long conference calls, for about $4 for all of the calls—cheap enough to be practically free.
7. Social media apps.  Using the Twitterific and Facebook apps, I was able to keep up with friends and family and local news even though I was far from home.  The latest versions of both apps are excellent.  I prefer the premium version of Twitterific which costs $3.99 and doesn’t have ads, but if you don’t mind the ads you can use the free version.
8. Camera.  With my iPhone 3GS, it was easy to take pictures and videos while out and about.  Once I was in Wi-Fi range, I uploaded my pictures and videos to share with family and friends.  I subscribe to Apple’s MobileMe so I uploaded my pictures and video there, but I could have also uploaded them to YouTube.  Or using the new Qik app, I could have uploaded video there.  It was really fun to be able to share a video with people around the world just minutes after taking the video.
9. Convertbot.  Dollars to Euros, Celsius to Farenheit, kilograms to pounds, and many other conversions are easy with the Convertbot app.  When I was in Russia I wanted to convert Rubles to Dollars, and unfortunately that currency was not supported, so instead I used the built in Stocks app and a trick that I described here to easily find out the current exchange rate.  
10. Weather.  I always find it useful to keep an eye on the weather when I am traveling.  There are many easy ways to check the weather using an iPhone, but I like the simplicity of the built-in Weather app (just add the cities that you will be visiting) and the iPhone-formatted version of the Weather Underground web page, i.wund.com.
11. NetNewsWire.  This is an RSS reader app that allows you to download the latest feeds from the websites that you follow.  I love that I can launch NetNewsWire when I have Wi-Fi access and in under a minute download hundreds of posts from websites, and then later I can read the stories even if I am on a plane or in some other location where I don’t have Internet access.
12. DirecTV.  If you subscribe to DirecTV, the company’s iPhone app lets you record a program on your DVR so the show is waiting for you when you get home.  I know that several cable companies have similar apps.
13. Clock.  This built-in app is a great alarm clock, just make sure that your ringer volume is turned up and the vibrate mode is turned off  before you go to sleep.  Also, the world clock feature makes it easy to see the current time at locations around the world.  [UPDATE: as Florida attorney Keith Upson reminded me, the alarm will still make noise even if your phone is in vibrate mode.  However, I have had a problem in the past where I had my ringer volume turned down and as a result didn’t hear an alarm, so be careful with that.]
14. Notes.  This built-in app was a great place to jot down a note while I was out and about.  Later on, in my hotel room, I would frequently use copy-and-paste to move what I jotted down to an address book entry, an e-mail, a calendar entry, etc.

There were other apps I also used such as iTunes to download new podcasts, apps from companies like the New York Times to catch up on the news, the iPod to listen to music and watch videos and a few games to pass the time.  Put it all together, and the iPhone did a fantastic job of allowing me to keep up with my work files, stay in touch with colleagues, friends and family and keep in touch with the news at home even though I was abroad, plus allowed me to make the most of being in a foreign country.

[UPDATE:  Rob Radcliff posted a comment below asking about data charges when abroad.  I didn’t research the exact fees, but articles like this one provide more information on these charges, which can really add up.  If you have occasional Wi-Fi access when you are abroad, it is probably best to keep your phone in airplane mode.]

Click here to get Documents to Go ($9.99): 

Click here to get the ViDICTO apps ($2.99 or $3.99 each): 

Click here to get SpeakEasy Russian ($3.99): 

Click here to get Skype (free): 

Click here to get Twitterific Premium ($3.99): 

Click here to get Facebook (free): 

Click here to get Convertbot ($0.99): 

Click here to get NetNewsWire (free): 

Click here to get DirecTV (free): 

I have previously reviewed two law dictionaries for the iPhone, the definitive Black’s Law Dictionary which contains over 43,000 definitions and costs $49.99 and Nolo’s Plain English Law Dictionary, which contains over 3,000 definitions written in plain English and is free.

The Barron’s Law Dictionary app fits neatly between these two offerings.  Like the Nolo dictionary, the Barron’s dictionary contains over 3,000 terms.  Like Black’s, the Barron’s dictionary has more sophisticated definitions, although in my random check they seem to use less legalese than Black’s.  And the price of $14.99 fits between the other two dictionaries.

When I reviewed the Black’s Law app I looked up some civil law terms like redhibition and prescription.  Redhibition doesn’t even appear in the Barron’s app, and the definition of prescription is more limited, omitting for example the concept of liberative prescription which the Black’s app includes.

 

But for the definitions that Barron’s does include, the definitions seem quite good.  For example, Barron’s includes an excellent definition of damages (the beginning of which is shown above) and, like Black’s, also offers definitions of related concepts such as actual damages, consequential damages, exemplary damages, etc.  Like Black’s, many terms within the definition contain hyperlinks to definitions of those terms.

The Barron’s app doesn’t include many of the extra features of Black’s.  For example, there are no quotes showing the use of a term by notable speakers and no audio pronunciation, both of which are included with thousands of the terms in Black’s.  But the app includes a search feature which shows you results as you type and, like Black’s, the app is quick and responsive.

Black’s Law Dictionary is the standard by which all other legal dictionaries are judged.  If the Black’s app were cheaper, then lawyers would have no need for other dictionaries like Barron’s.  But I know many lawyers who can’t justify spending $50 on a legal dictionary for the iPhone, and for them, the Barron’s app at only $15 is a nice alternative.  For non-lawyers, Barron’s also has the advantage of using slightly less legalese in its definitions—not to the extreme of the Nolo’s Plain English Law Dictionary, but enough to be appreciated by non-lawyers.

Click here to get Barron’s Law Dictionary ($14.99):