iPhone J.D.

In the news

Does anyone else find it hard to believe that October is basically over?  This year has certainly gone by fast.  But back to the topic at hand, it's Friday, so here is some of the interesting iPhone-related news from this past week.

• Yesterday I talked about Google potentially bringing improvements to the Maps app on the iPhone.  Yesterday was also the day that Andy Ihnatko of the Chicago Sun Times wrote an excellent comparison of the current options for turn-by-turn GPS navigation on the iPhone.  His favorite was actually one of the cheapest:  MotionX-GPS Drive, which costs only $2.99 and includes a month of Live Voice Guidance.  After the first month, the voice service costs another $2.99 a month, but apparently you can cancel at any time.  That can add up over a year, but is far less than the $99 you would pay for the TomTom app.  Ihnatko's review has inspired me to check out MotionX-GPS, and I'll let you know what I think.  If you want to try it out too, click here to get MotionX-GPS Drive ($2.99): 
• Traveling to a foreign country?  There are lots of apps that allow you to type something in one language and have it translated into another language, but if you don't want to type, Lex Friedman of Macworld reviews a $2 app called Bableshot.  Take a picture of some text with your iPhone and the app will scan the picture to find all of the text, and then translate that text into English.  I haven't tried it yet, but this sounds very useful.
• If you prefer to talk instead of taking a picture, your iPhone can still translate for you.  Friedman reviews another app for Macworld called Jibbigo.  With this $25 app, just say something in English to your iPhone, and it translates it into Spanish and then says it over the iPhone speaker.  It's like having a translator inside of your iPhone.
• Everyone can recall Apple's memorable "There's an app for that" and "I'm a Mac / I'm a PC" ads, and it probably comes as no surprise that Apple spent around $500 million on advertising in 2009.  But Philip Elmer-DeWitt writes that it is surprising that Apple spent less than other companies like Microsoft and Dell, even though their ads are less memorable.
• Speaking of ads, Advertising Age writes that when Volkswagen launched one of its cars, the GTI, in 2006 it spent $60 million on television ads.  But to launch the 2010 model, it is spending just $500,000 and putting all of that money into one thing:  an iPhone app.  Volkswagen teamed up with the makers of the $6.99 Real Racing app, an iPhone game that has received good reviews, and produced an app called Real Racing GTI that anyone can download for free.  You get to race around a track in a virtual version of the GTI.  It will be interesting to see if this advertising strategy works for Volkswagen.  The game itself has very nice graphics and is worth checking out since it is free, although given the number of times I have crashed in this game I don't think I could afford the insurance premiums were I to get a GTI and race it around town at top speed.  Click here to get Real Racing GTI (free): 
• Good news:  you can get an iPhone for only $20.  Bad news:  it's just a movie prop.  MobileCrunch has all the details.
• I don't take taxis very often, but if you do, you'll want to check out Terry White's review of an app called Taxi Magic that lets you call a taxi and even have it charged to your credit card.  Thanks to Ernie Svenson for the link.
• Mashable and AppAdvice report that LawFirms.com came up with an "ad" for a fake iPhone app called iCoyote that purported to help you smuggle illegal aliens across the border but was actually an advertisement for immigration lawyers.  The ad didn't stay up long as public backlash forced its removal, replaced by this page, but if you click on the Mashble and AppAdvice links you can see the original ad.
• And finally, Jerry Brito's wife must really love him to have agreed to this iPhone wedding cake.  Click here for a slideshow with several pictures on Brito's website, and here are a few samples.  (via AppAdvice.)

 

Google working with Apple to bring advanced map navigation to the iPhone?

Yesterday, Google showed off the new Google Maps application for phones running the Android 2.0 operating system (such as the new Droid phones that Verizon is starting to advertise), and it is mighty impressive.  It includes free, built-in navigation services, so you can get turn-by-turn directions in Google Maps without having to buy a GPS unit such as the ones sold by Garmin, TomTom, etc.  The application can be controlled by your voice and even incorporates Google's satellite view and street view.  This Google video describes seven unique features of the Google maps application on Android:

1. Use plain English terms to search instead of an address, so you can simply make your destination a business name or description.
2. Search by voice.  This looks similar to what you can already do on the iPhone with the Google app that allows you to search Google by saying your search terms.
   
3. Live traffic data so you can see where the roads will be slower and even choose an alternate route to avoid traffic.
   
4. Search along route, to find nearby gas stations, restaurants, etc.
   
5. Satellite view.
6. Street view.  Street level photographs show you exactly what your next turn will look like and the actual street view of your destination.
7. A special car dock mode when the phone is in a car dock.
   

Engadget also has this nice video from a demonstration that the site was given yesterday.  This Macworld report has additional information. 

There appear to be a few downsides.  For example, you need a network connection to get the maps, so if you are on the open road where there is no cell signal (and no Wi-Fi) you are out of luck.  But considering how well the service appears to work when you do have a network connection, and considering the low price of free, it is no surprise that, as reported by the New York Times:  "Shares of both TomTom and Garmin plummeted Wednesday after Google’s announcement."

Well that's great for all of our Android 2.o-using brethren, but what about us iPhone users?   Vic Gundotra, the Vice-President of Engineering at Google who is responsible for mobile phone applications, may have said that the technology is coming to the iPhone, it just depends on which report you read.  CNet reporter Tom Krazit says definitively that "Google is working with Apple on bringing it to the iPhone," and the hold up is simply that Google needs to work closely with Apple because Maps is a built-in iPhone application.  Similarly, Quentin Hardy writes for Forbes that Google is "'eagerly working' with Apple to provide the app for the popular iPhone."

A report from Reuters, however, gives a less certain spin on what Gundotra said:

Google Engineering Vice President Vic Gundotra said the company hoped to eventually make versions of the navigation product for non-Android smartphones, but noted that the software has "stringent" hardware requirements.

He would not comment on whether Apple's iPhone, which offers Google mapping software as part of its standard menu of built-in applications, would offer the new navigation features. He said, in response to a question, that the latest version of the iPhone, the iPhone 3GS, has the horsepower to support the navigation product.

Hopefully Google is just honoring Apple's confidentiality requirements and is indeed saying, just without really saying, that Google is working with Apple to bring this to the iPhone.

Apple may have even more in store for the Maps app.  As I reported a few weeks ago, it was recently discovered that Apple purchased a company called Placebase this past July which was a competitor to Google Maps.  Placebase specialized in adding layers with helpful information to maps, and if Apple is bringing some of those same ideas to the iPhone, then perhaps we'll soon see have a version of Maps that is even more impressive than what Google is showing off for Android.

I try to stay away from rumors on iPhone J.D., but because this technology is so exciting and because Gundotra's comment provides some degree of confirmation (depending upon which story you read) I thought that this story was worthy of mention here.  Whether the improvements come from Google or Placebase or both, I am very excited to see the next version of the Maps app on the iPhone.

Review: My New iPhone by Wallace Wang -- excellent beginner book for the iPhone

Just yesterday, I got the call that I have gotten countless times before.  This time it was a law partner of mine, other times it has been a friend or a relative, but the question is always along these lines:  "Jeff, I just got an iPhone.  What should I do next?"  Thanks to the folks at No Starch Press who sent me a review copy of one of their new books, I now have a great answer:  read the book My New iPhone by Wallace Wang.

I wasn't familiar with Wallace Wang before I read this book.  Not only does he write computer books, but he is also a stand up comedian who has performed in Las Vegas and appeared on A&E's Evening at the Improv.  His comedy doesn't carry over into this book, however; the writing style is clear and helpful, without, for example, the zaniness that you find in books written by Andy Ihnatko.

The approach to this book is really quite brilliant.  The book is organized almost like a cookbook, but instead of recipes, in here you find 52 projects organized in to 10 parts.  Each project is set up the same way:  an introduction, the project goal, a list of what you will be using such as a list of apps or sometimes a program on the computer, step-by-step instructions with tons of pictures from the iPhone, and then finally some additional ideas for taking the skills learned to the next level and a sidebar that shows a related project, third party app or idea.  Much like a cookbook, you can really read the book in any order that you want, so you can start with the projects that interest you the most and then make your way through the book.  By the time you are finished, you will go from being an iPhone novice to an iPhone power user.

Note that while the book is up to date as of iPhone Software 3.0, it doesn't discuss the unique features of the iPhone 3GS.  That doesn't detract much from the projects, but just keep in mind that this book doesn't include advice for taking videos or using the compass.

I won't list all 52 projects, but here are some examples:

#5 Searching Your iPhone

#18 Creating Ringtones

#21 Customizing Your iPod Settings

#25 Listening to Audiobooks and Podcasts

#29 Personalizing the Safari Browser

#37 Storing Contact Information

#44 Watching the Stock Market

#47 Making an iPhone Kid Friendly

#50 Traveling with Your iPhone

If you want to get a feel for a sample project, click here to go to the publisher's website (No Starch Press) where you can download a free copy of Project #22 Turning Your iPhone into a Radio.  That will give you a good sense of what the book as a whole is like.

In the past, I have always recommended that beginning iPhone users looking for a book to read check out David Pogue's iPhone:  The Missing Manual book.  As great as Pogue's book is, Wang's book offers a nice alternative.  If you want a soup-to-nuts manual, you'll love the Pogue book, but if you want to just tackle one project at a time, going in your own order and at your own pace like you would do with a cookbook, you'll love Wang's book.

The retail price of the book is $29.95, but if you click here you can get it on Amazon for only $19.77, and a tiny percentage of each sale helps to defray the cost of running iPhone J.D.  If you or someone you know is new to the iPhone, this book is a great resource.

iPhone costume

Are you getting ready for Halloween and trying to decide what your costume will be this year?  Reko Rivera and John Savio of Tampa, Florida are ready with their costumes, and they are each dressing up as an iPhone 3GS, or as they call it, GuyPhones.  Each costume consists of a 42" flat screen television, three batteries including a car battery that has to be held between their legs, a jailbroken iPhone with a live output of an iPhone screen to the television, and a lot of fancy artwork on a plastic shell to create the front and back of the iPhone.  The result is a costume that weighs 85 pounds but is essentially a working iPhone 3GS that can run for 4.5 hours before needing to be recharged.  The costumes cost around $2,000, but the pair hopes to make that money back by participating in some costume contests.

Here are some of the pictures that Savio posted to a MacRumors forum (click on the post to see even more pictures) and a video that the pair posted to YouTube.  Thanks to TUAW for the post that brought this to my attention.

 

    

    

Review: Merck Manual -- medical diagnosis and treatment info on your iPhone

For over 100 years, the pharmaceutical company Merck has published The Merck Manuals, a series of books providing information on the diagnosis and treatment of disease.  There are editions for both medical professionals and consumers.  Doctors often pay $65 to purchase the hard cover book, now in its 18th Edition.   A version of this book geared at consumers sells for $40.  Additionally, Merck provides a free online version of many of its books.  You can see all of the books and links to the online versions here.

Two of the more popular texts are the (professional) Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy and the (consumer) Merck Manual—Home Edition.  While you can access free versions of these texts online, Merck is now selling versions for the iPhone developed by Agile Partners that are formatted for the iPhone screen and don't require an Internet connection.  The professional version is $29.99 and the home version is $9.99.  Agile Partners gave me free copies of both to evaluate, and they are very nice apps.

In the professional version, you can browse through entries by section, explore an index of terms, or find an entry by browsing a list of symptoms.  You can also do a full text search for a word, view a history of the entries you recently viewed, view a list of entries that you have marked as your favorites or even jump to a random entry.

    

Each entry has a wealth of information about a disease or condition.  The entries are as long as a substantive Wikipedia entry, but unlike Wikipedia where anyone can add information, the Merck Manual entries are written by over 300 medical experts so the information is trustworthy.  There are three buttons at the bottom of each entry, one which brings you back to the home, one which brings up options and star which adds an entry to your list of Favorites.  There are currently two options.  You can change the font size to large, or you can e-mail an entry.  When you e-mail, the app doesn't send the text, but instead sends a link to the same entry in free online version of the Merck Manual.

  

The home version of the Merck Manual is written for consumers.  There is less content, and it is geared towards what you would need to know in the home.  For example, instead of a section called "Find by Symptom," the similar section in the home version is called "Emergencies & Injuries."

 

The Emergencies & Injuries section contains a list of common ailments:

    

There are a few areas in both apps where I could see improvement.  I wish you could tap at the top of the screen to scroll the top of an entry, as you can in most other iPhone apps, because many of the entries are quite long.  There are also a few pages that are not formatted for the iPhone screen and which require scrolling left and right to read them.  I understand why it was done this way for large tables, but there are a few other pages that could have been better formatted.  But these are just minor nits; for the most part that apps work very well.

Perhaps the largest downside to these apps is the price, considering that you can get the online versions with essentially the same content for free.  The apps are better formatted for the iPhone screen and a lot easier to use, but the web pages do a decent job of displaying on the iPhone, assuming that you have a network connection.

I suspect that many lawyers have, like me, found the need to look up medical terms, such as during a break in a deposition.  And many of us will at some point find ourselves looking for the remedy for a bee sting, snake bite, etc.  You can always just fire up Safari and do a Google search on your iPhone and, with enough digging, you'll probably find the information that you need.  But the Merck Manual apps are excellent sources of medical information and it is very useful to have all of this information at your fingertips on the iPhone for quick and easy access.

Click here for The Merck Manual - Professional Edition ($29.99): 

Click here for The Merck Manual - Home Edition ($9.99): 

In the news

The day after Apple's 2009 fiscal fourth quarter conference call, Apple announced a number of updated products including new iMacs and Macbooks.  For the most part, those product announcements had nothing to do with the iPhone, but those two days of Apple announcements did result in some follow up news that I wanted to mention today.

• First, one of the new products announced by Apple this week does have some connection to the iPhone.  Apple sells the Airport Extreme base station, a Wi-Fi router that you attach to your broadband cable or DSL modem to create a wireless network throughout your home or office.  I last discussed the Airport Extreme this past March, and this week Apple improved the Airport Extreme to provide better performance and range.  AppleInsider provides more details on the update.  I use an older version of the Airport Extreme to provide Wi-Fi in my house that I use with my iPhone.
• And speaking of Apple's fiscal fourth quarter conference call, one issue that I did not discuss in my post earlier this week was the talk on the call about the way that Apple handles accounting for iPhone revenue and how that may change in the future.  I'm glad that I didn't try to tackle this complicated subject because Daniel Eran Dilger does a better job than I could have done explaining all of this in this post on his RouglyDrafted Magazine website.
• Apple wasn't the only one to announce quarterly results this week.  Yesterday, AT&T provided its quarterly report and, according to Electronista, revealed that it activated 3.2 million iPhones during that same quarter, a new record for AT&T.  We know from Apple's announcement that it sold 7.4 million iPhones this past quarter, so that tells us that Apple sells more iPhones outside of the U.S. (4.2 million) than in the U.S. (3.2 million).  Or to look at these numbers another way, as Macworld's Dan Moren did, AT&T is "the largest single carrier of iPhones in the world."  It was also announced during the AT&T call that 40% of AT&T's iPhone activations were for customers new to AT&T, so the iPhone remains a powerful incentive for people to switch to AT&T.
• Attorney Jonathan Frieden describes a dozen useful iPhone apps for lawyers on his blog E-Commerce Law.
• Law firm PR specialist Rich Klein suggests 10 iPhone apps that lawyers might like.
• If you don't already receive the useful TechnoLawyer newsletters, you should sign up today.  I particularly like the Monday BlawgWorld newsletter which identifies the most interesting blawg posts from the last week, especially now that the newsletter features a "Legal Technology on the Go..." section that always has links to useful iPhone-related posts, such as the last two items that I just described.  Adriana Linares (who runs the great site I Heart Tech) and Liz Kurtz do a fabulous job editing the BlawgWorld newsletter every week.
• There are several options for using your iPhone to provide turn-by-turn GPS directions.  TomTom sells a $99 iPhone app that provides this service, and you can now supplement that app with the $120 TomTom Car Kit.  The kit gives you a place to mount your iPhone in your car, charges the iPhone, improves the GPS signal (by using its own internal GPS) and adds other enhancements.  Click here for the TomTom app ($99.00): 
• TechCrunch selects some interesting slides from a presentation by Morgan Stanley Internet analyst Mary Meeker showing that (1) Internet adoption on the iPhone has been faster than any other device and (2) the iPhone (and iPod touch) is the fastest-growing consumer electronics product of all time.
• MobileCrunch reports that the U.S. Postal Service now has a mobile version of its website that is tailored for the iPhone.  The USPS website has always been a useful way to find zip codes and track packages, and now it works even better on the iPhone.  To access it, go to m.usps.com.
• And finally, according to an article in Advertising Age, magazine publisher Condé Nast plans to start selling iPhone apps for $2.99, each of which contains a full issue of magazine such as GQ.  The articles notes:  "Users will be able to see every page as it appears in print as well as renderings of all the content tailored for display on the small screen. They will also be able to watch related videos, hear audio and visit advertisers' sites without leaving the app."  The goal is for the app to become available for sale the same day that each new issue hits the newsstands.  I haven't seen a full list of which magazines will be included, but in addition to GQ, Condé Nast's portfolio includes Vogue, Details, Architectural Digest, Golf Digest, Vanity Fair, Bon Appétit, Wired and the New Yorker among many others.  It will be interesting to see how these magazines translate to the iPhone's small screen and how eager customers are to read magazines this way.  Getting a digital copy is a way to save some trees, but reading a magazine on an iPhone will be a very different experience.  Whether it works out or not, I'd like to thank Condé Nast for giving me an excuse to publish a picture of the beautiful and talented January Jones from the cover of the current issue of GQ.  I love the character she plays on Mad Men, and based on her interview in GQ, she sounds like quite a character in real life.

Review: Louisiana Civil Code, Code of Civil Procedure and Code of Evidence -- La. law on your iPhone

Matt Miller is a new Louisiana attorney who graduated from Tulane Law School this past May and just found out earlier this month that he passed the Louisiana Bar.  (Congrats, Matt!)  Matt has a degree in computer science from Duke and worked as a software engineer before law school, so he decided that as a "break" from his law studies he would write some iPhone apps.  Seeing that nobody else was selling Louisiana law for the iPhone, Matt took it upon himself to create apps containing the Louisiana Civil Code, the Code of Civil Procedure and the Code of Evidence.  All three apps are now available in the App Store.  Matt gave me some free copies for review purposes on the day that he found out that he passed the bar (I wonder if he would have charged me for them if he had failed?) and I've been checking them out for the last few weeks.  They work great and if you practice law in Louisiana, you'll find them to be valuable additions to your iPhone.

All three apps look and work the same way, so for this review I'll just focus on the Louisiana Civil Code app.  Upon starting the app, you see the different Books of the Civil Code.  Tap on a Book to see the Titles, then tap a Title to see the Articles.  While this is a nice way to see the different articles in context, you can also just browse a list of articles.  Tap the "All Articles" button at the bottom and you will see a full list of articles, with an index on the side that allows you to jump through the long list.

    

Tap on an article to view the text.  There are PREV and NEXT buttons at the top that allow you to browse through the articles.  When you come across an article that you will want to see again in the future, there is a button at the top right that says "Bookmark."  Just tap it to add the article to your list of bookmarks.  (If an article is already bookmarked, then the bookmark button at the top right will be hidden.)

    

You can also search the full text of the Civil Code.  Just tap the search button at the bottom and start to type your term.  As you are typing, articles that contain the term instantly appear.  Tap on a search result to see the full text, and when looking at an article you can tap the button at the top left to return to your list of search results.  The search feature is very simple; no "AND" or "OR" searches, just terms.  Also, the search results do not highlight your search term, so you'll have to find it yourself in the article.

Unlike some other legal reference apps, there is no option in these apps to e-mail the text of an article.  However, you can use the standard copy and paste functions to select text and copy it, and Matt is thinking about adding an e-mail button in the future.  Other features that Matt may add in the future include the ability to adjust the text size, the ability to use gestures to go to the next or previous articles, and perhaps also a "cross reference" of articles. 

Matt (pictured at the right) is now studying for the Patent Bar, after which he will become an associate in the IP group of Carver Darden.  I know that one of Matt's passions (besides his daughter) is playing with his dogs—for almost five years he has run the website Urban Pug—but I hope that he finds the time to add new features to these apps and bring us more great iPhone apps.

Click here to get La. Civil Code ($6.99): 

Click here to get La. Code of Civil Procedure ($9.99): 

Click here to get La. Code of Evidence ($4.99): 

Review: LawBox -- single source for statutes and legal news on your iPhone

There are a few different companies selling iPhone apps containing the text of statutes, rules, etc., and the usual practice is to sell a different app for each set of laws.  For example, four different iPhone developers are currently selling apps containing the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.  But Nicholas Zeltzer has a different approach: a single iPhone app that contains all of the legal reference texts in one place, with the ability to purchase additional texts from within the app.  Zeltzer, who is currently working as a judicial law clerk in Santa Clara, California, calls his app LawBox.

Upon launching the app, you see a list of legal reference texts.  The app comes with the U.S. Constitution, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the Federal Rules of Evidence.  And you get all of this for free, which makes this the least expensive way to get an iPhone app containing that law.  (More on the free nature of the app is below.)

  

Tap on a source to see the law.  For example, if you tap on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, you get a list of Articles.  Tap on an Article and you get a list of the rules.  Tap on a rule to see the text of the rule.  You can select a portion of the text to copy it, or you can tap the button at the top right to e-mail the full text of the rule (or a portion of the rule if you select part of the text and copy it before tapping the e-mail button).

  

After you tap on a source, you can also tap the search button at the top right of the screen.  The search feature is different other legal reference text apps because you can tap a button below the search field to search either the content, the number or the title.  Search results appear quickly, as you are typing, with a list of excerpts showing the search term in all caps.  When you view a rule that you found through a search, the search terms are highlighted in the rule.

    

You can only search for one term at a time (either a word or a phrase) so the app doesn't let you find rules that contain two different words.  The app doesn't include an option to jump to an other specific rule, but you can use search and tap the number restriction to search for a specific rule by its number, which is almost the same thing.

The app also contains a store from which you can purchase additional legal texts from right within the app.  Right now, the app only offers the Arizona Landlord Tenant Act for $0.99, but Zeltzer plans to add more.

There is currently no way to bookmark a frequently used rule, but Zeltzer says that he plans to add this in the future.  He also hopes to add notes and rule comments.

If that was all the LawBox did, it would be an impressive app.  But additionally, the app lets you browse legal news.  Tap the news button at the bottom of the screen and you will see news items from the RSS feeds of numerous legal blogs and other sources of news.  You have to first select those sources by tapping the Index button at the bottom right of the screen.  News items are displayed as a title and a few lines of text.  Tap on the item to read the full story.  Read items are collapsed so that you only see the title in grey.

 

You can only select from the legal news sources listed in the app, but many dozens of sources are listed.  In the future, Zeltzer plans to allow you to add your own feeds in the app and also plans to have a website where users can contribute worthy feeds to a common pool.

Although LawBox is still in its infancy, it is already a great app, and will only get better as Zeltzer continues to improve the app and add more content that can be purchased.  I like the idea of having a single app containing all of the law that I need, although of course Zeltzer will need to add many other sources of law to the app's built-in store to satisfy everyone.  But even now, with the app being free, there is no cheaper way to get the text of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure or the Federal Rules of Evidence on your iPhone, let alone both. 

Before last week, the app actually cost $0.99 because that was the least that an iPhone developer could charge for an app that included in-app purchases.  But as I wrote this past Friday, Apple just changed that policy so that now free apps can include in-app purchases.  Ziltzer tells me that he changed the price of LawBox to free within minutes of Apple changing its policy.  As Zeltzer wrote in a comment on iPhone J.D. this past Friday:

Apple's new policy was a cause for celebration over here at TheLawBox. When we developed our software, we assumed we'd be able to give it away. But because our app included downloadable content, we were forced to list it at 0.99. I can't tell you how excited we were to be able to cut the price tag off our software entirely.

Zelter hopes that people will download the app for free and then, as people get used to using the app, they will want to pay to download additional collections of statutes and rules.  It is an intriguing business model and I hope it works well.  Even if this was a paid app I would recommend it, but now that it is free, you really have no reason not to get LawBox to check it out.

Click here to get LawBox (free): 

Apple 2009 fiscal fourth quarter -- the iPhone angle

Yesterday, Apple announced its 2009 Fiscal Fourth Quarter results.  If you want to replay it, you can download it from iTunes or you can read the transcript provided by Seeking Alpha.  Here is the significant iPhone news from the conference call, which came from Apple's Chief Financial Officer, Peter Oppenheimer, and Apple's Chief Operating Officer, Tim Cook.

• This was one of Apple's best quarters ever.  The company reported revenue of $9.87 billion, its second highest quarter ever.  And this wasn't even the first fiscal quarter, the quarter which contains Christmas and is always Apple's best quarter.  The company is doing very, very well.
• Apple sold 7.4 million iPhones this past quarter, the most that Apple has ever sold in any quarter.  The previous record had been held by last year's fiscal fourth quarter, which was the quarter following the introduction of the iPhone 3G and the huge increase in the number of countries selling iPhones.  As Tim Cook said, "the popularity of the iPhone 3GS has been phenomenal.  We were very surprised by the demand." 
• Apple probably could have sold even more iPhones because demand exceeded supply.  Oppenheimer said that around the world, there were not enough iPhone 3GS units available for sale, so Apple ramped up supply in September and started to meet the demand in October.  One analyst asked Apple to predict how many iPhones Apple would have shipped if it had kept up with demand.  Tim Cook responded that there is really no way to answer that.  "You know, that’s a very tough question to answer because unfortunately we can't run the experiment both ways. What I know is that for almost the entire quarter, until we got into September, the iPhone 3GS was short virtually everywhere. What I don’t know is how many people waited until it was available versus bought a competitive phone and there’s just—there is not a good way to tell that."  In total, Apple sold almost 21 million iPhones in its 2009 fiscal year.
• Another analyst asked how iPhones are selling in the corporate market versus the consumer market.  Cook responded that there is a strong demand for iPhones by employees, so Apple has been upgrading the iPhone to add features that the technology departments at corporations are requiring to allow their employees to get iPhones.  Indeed, this is a reason for several of the features added in the iPhone 3GS.  As a result, over 50% of the Fortune 100 companies now deploy the iPhone or, at least, have test pilot programs in place.  Cook also noted that a number of government agencies are using the iPhone.  Similarly, in Europe, about 50% of the Financial Times 100 companies are using iPhones.
• Apple continues to say that there are over 85,000 apps in the App Store, a number that Apple first announced back in mid-September.  I was a little surprised that Apple didn't update that number as I'm sure that the number is over 90,000 by now.  Perhaps Apple is just waiting for the number to top 100,000 before making its next announcement on the number of apps available, which I expect will happen in November.  Similarly, Oppenheimer said that there have been over 2 billion apps downloaded, the same number announced back in September.
• On October 30th, Apple will begin selling the iPhone in China, which presents the opportunity for a huge increase in international sales.  Oppenheimer wouldn't predict how many iPhones will be sold in China, but he did say that Apple noticed that many of the older models of the iPhones have ended up in China so there is clearly demand, plus China is "a huge market, the largest market in the world in terms of total phones."
• The iPhone 3G already sells in over 80 countries, and by the end of 2009 the iPhone 3GS will also sell in over 80 countries.  The iPhone 3GS was shipping in 64 countries as of the end of September, 2009.

Review: Gogo In-flight Wi-Fi Internet -- use the Internet with your iPhone during a flight

[For my updated review of the Gogo service, click here.]

Last week, I took a cross-country Delta flight on a Boeing 757 that was equipped with Gogo In-flight Wi-Fi Internet.  Gogo and Delta are running a promotion through December 31, 2009 whereby first-time users can try the service for free.  I thought that this would be a good opportunity to test the service on my iPhone 3GS, so I followed the simple instructions on the card in my seatback pocket, entered "deltatrygogo" in the promo code blank when I got to the payment page, and within a minute I was on the Internet, which I used throughout my four hour flight.  The service worked great and I strongly recommend using Gogo if you want to have Internet access on your iPhone while you are flying.

The Gogo service is currently available on select domestic flights on Delta, United and American Airlines.  AirTran and Virgin America offer the service on all of their flights.  US Airways announced that it will add the service in 2010. 

Access is easy.  Once your plane reaches 10,000 feet and you are told that you can use electronic devices, go to Settings and keep your iPhone in Airplane Mode but turn on Wi-Fi.  You will see gogoinflight as an available network.  Select it, and in just a few moments a screen will pop up for you to log on.  (If it doesn't, just go to Safari and try to access any website.)  Follow the prompts to sign up, choose a plan (or use the promotional code noted above), and then you will see this screen telling you that you are connected:

At that point, you can use your iPhone to access the Internet to do just about anything you want.  Of course, you will want to read and send e-mails, and that works great.  Using Safari to access websites was also very fast.  Twitter and Facebook worked great, as did my RSS reader app, NetNewsWire.

The terms of service prohibit you from using VOIP to make phone calls using the Gogo service.  I briefly contemplated launching the Skype app just to see if it worked notwithstanding the terms of service, but then quickly decided against it.  The last thing I want is to be surrounded by people yakking on the phone on an airplane, so I certainly didn't want to start any trends.  But you can easily interact with people on the ground by sending e-mail back and forth or by using instant messaging.  If your company supports VPN for extra security, VPN does work fine with Gogo.

One concern that I had was speed.  After all, we are talking about using the Internet at 30,000 feet.  But to my surprise, the speed was quite reasonable.  Gogo says that the speed varies depending on the number of people on the flight using the service.  I ran two speed test apps, at different points on the flight, and both of them consistently showed the speed as around 800 to 900 Kbps for download and almost 200 Kbps upload.  For example, here is the results screen from one of those apps:

 

That is not even close to the Wi-Fi speeds that I normally get on my iPhone (I get around 7000 Kbps down and about 800 Kpbs up on my home Wi-Fi), but it is very similar to what I typically see on AT&T's 3G network.  Indeed, my subjective opinion of the Gogo service was that it felt as fast as a good 3G connection, which is plenty fast for most of what you want to do with an iPhone on a plane.

For example, I was able to download an app from the App Store quickly and easily.  I could download music and podcasts from iTunes, but it took a while to do so, depending upon the length (for example, around 10 minutes for one podcast).  YouTube worked fine. 

Both as a test, and as a source of entertainment, I decided to access the NBC mobile website and watch some sitcoms I had missed last Thursday night (30 Rock, The Office and Parks and Recreation).  To do this, you go to m.nbc.com on your iPhone.  Click on the "video" tab and choose "full episodes."  There are plenty of choices, around 17 shows that are currently on the air, and 11 classic shows (currently:  The A-Team, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Battlestar Galactica (the original series), Buck Rogers, Charles in Charge, Emergency, Knight Rider (the original series), Magnum P.I., Miami Vice, Quantum Leap and Simon & Simon).  Each show is broken into a few segments of up to around ten minutes.  When one segment ends the next segment starts to load. 

    

By default, the iPhone waits until it has loaded enough of the segment so that it can play the video through to the end without pausing before it starts to play.  Sometimes I found that the segment would start in just a few seconds.  Other times, it would take a few minutes to buffer enough video, so I used that time to browse a magazine.  Either way, before long, I was watching the episode and the quality was excellent.  I had loaded my iPhone with video content before my flight, but it was so nice to watch something new that had aired so recently that I didn't even bother with most of what I had loaded on my iPhone.  And as an added bonus, no commercials—although I'm sure NBC will include them at some point.

I have seen reports that Gogo uses traffic shaping to share the bandwidth on the plane, so if you are trying to do something that doesn't use a lot of bandwidth, like check e-mail or even load web pages, your service will be given priority.  For high bandwidth uses like streaming video, you will be given a lower priority so that you don't hog all of the bandwidth that your neighbors are trying to use.  This seems fair to me and probably explains some of the reasons that I had some delays when I was streaming television episodes.

So how much does Wi-Fi on your plane cost?  If you haven't tried Gogo before and you fly Delta, you can use it once for free by using the promotional information I noted above.  [UPDATE 10/21/09:  Google and Virgin America are also offering free Wi-Fi on every Virgin America flight from November 10, 2009 through January 15, 2010.]  Otherwise, there are several cost plans.  For a short flight of 90 minutes or less, the cost is $5.95.  For any flight of more than 90 minutes, it costs $7.95 for a mobile device like an iPhone.  The iPhone price is cheaper than what you would pay on a laptop:  $9.95 for a flight of 90 minutes to three hours and $12.95 for a flight of more than three hours.  You can also pay $12.95 for 24-hour access on multiple flights or $49.99 for a month of access.

Is the service worth it?  I think so.  On a short flight of 90 minutes or less, I probably won't have enough need for the Internet to spend $6 for it, but it is nice to know that it is there.  For a longer flight, $8 seems reasonable to be able to keep up with your office and be productive, and may also be worthwhile just to entertain yourself on the Internet.  Indeed, airports have already conditioned us to paying crazy high prices for food and bottled water, and you'll probably get more out of the Gogo service than you did from the pre-flight Starbucks coffee that wasn't much less than $8.

In the news

Apple made a major announcement to its app developers yesterday that should result in a major change to iPhone apps.  Until now, there was no way to try an app before you bought it.  Apple's policy was that free apps should remain free, so you either had to pay full price to buy an app, or the developer could offer a free "lite" version of the app but it had to be a separate app that would always retain all of its features for free.  For the past few months, Apple has allowed developers to include in-app purchases, but developers could only include this feature in a paid app, not a free app.  As Daring Fireball, Macworld, and many other websites have reported, Apple has now changed its policy, and now free apps can now include the ability to purchase additional features within the app.  This means that a developer can let you download a free version of the full app that has some limitation but which also includes the ability to pay to add more features to the app, such as upgrading to the "full" version of the app.  Hopefully, many app developers will use this feature, and this could mean the end of separate, "lite" versions of apps.  I look forward to seeing what developers do with this.  Other notable iPhone news from the past week:

• For those of you who subscribe to Apple's MobileMe, the service was updated on October 9, 2009.  All of the updates are minor and only two directly pertain to the iPhone, both of which are improvements to the Find My iPhone feature.  First, there is now an icon for Find My iPhone in the toolbar at me.com, which makes it easier to find the feautre.  Second, there is now a URL to go directly to this feature:  http://www.me.com/findmyiphone   Click here for Apple's full release notes for this update.  By the way, the MobileMe service costs $99 a year, but you can get a discounted price of $72.99 through Amazon by clicking here, and if you use that link, Amazon provides a tiny amount of money back to iPhone J.D. to help pay for this website.
• This is a little "Inside Baseball," but Daniel Eran Dilger provides a fascinating story at AppleInsider about the "Pink" project at Microsoft, an attempt to develop a competitor to the iPhone.  The article gets most interesting about halfway through when it starts to quote an anonymous former employee.  Apple may not be perfect, but it does seem to have a consistent vision for the iPhone and iPod touch, something which Dilger says is lacking at Microsoft.
• For a while, all we heard about were iPhone app developers becoming rich overnight and quitting their day jobs.  But according to this Newsweek story, many app developers struggle to make a profit.  This is an interesting contrast to another Newsweek story from last year, and also reminds me of what Cliff Maier, who develops apps for lawyers, told me in this interview last year:  "The other advice is this: don't think you're going to get rich.  The economics of the app store right now are that you have a tiny chance of making a lot of money, and a huge chance of making hardly any at all.   Do it because you need something you can't get from someplace else, do it for the technical challenge or the personal satisfaction, or do it to help society.  Don't do it for the money.  For me, the law is why I leave my house every day, but engineering is my passion."
• John Brandon writes an interesting article for Computerworld on how the different hardware features of the iPhone work.
• JD Supra launched a free iPhone app called Legal Edge which allows you to view recent law-related articles, news, shared work product, blog posts and court filings.
• USA Today reports on an app that can be used instead of a key to unlock and start your car.
• Your iPhone can help you make a great cocktail.  Earlier this year I reviewed the excellent Cockatils+ app.  Macworld recently reviewed some similar apps, although that article indicates that Cockatils+ is still probably the best of these apps.
• It is technically possible to share your iPhone's 3G internet connection with your computer, a feature called tethering, but AT&T has not enabled the feature.  9to5Mac reports that based on a recent statement from AT&T, we might not see this enabled before 2010.
• And finally, iPhone Alley reports on another use for the versatile iPhone:  saving your life by distracting a bear.

Updates to Law Pod legal references apps

The Law Pod, a company started by law student Fitz Collings, is one of a few companies that sells legal reference materials for the iPhone.  The Law Pod sells the U.S. Constition for $0.99, and five other sets of rules for $1.99 each:  the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Criminal Procedure, Evidence, Appellate Procedure and Bankruptcy Procedure.  I reviewed the app sold by The Law Pod back in February of 2009, and at the time I noted that there were design differences between the Law Pod apps and the similar apps developed by Cliff Maier that might lead some to prefer one over the other, but also noted that The Law Pod apps were missing many features that were offered by the Cliff Maier apps.  Earlier this week, the Law Pod apps were updated to version 2.0, and there are some great improvements.  I'll focus this post on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure app, but these same improvements appear in many of the Law Pod apps and I presume that all of them will eventually receive updates to 2.0.

One design difference that has always existed between The Law Pod and legal reference apps sold by others is the way that the rules are set forth when you start the app.  In Cliff Maier's apps, for example, you see a list of titles, which you then must tap to see a list of rules under each title.  The Law Pod has always instead given you a list of the rules.  One of the recent changes is that the list now includes the title of the rule, not just the number.  Here are the main screens of The Law Pod app (left) and the Cliff Maier app (right) to show you the difference:

    

Cliff Maier's apps have long included a helpful JUMP button to allow you to go to a specific rule.  The Law Pod apps now include a similar GoTo button.  There seems to be a slight bug if you want to go to rules with a decimal point.  Notice how the below screen says "Example: 1.1"?  While there is no Fed. R. Civ. Pro. 1.1, there is a Rule 4.1, but you cant jump to it because the keypad lacks a period/decimal point.  You have to go to Rule 4 and then tap the NEXT button at the bottom to go to Rule 4.1.  I presume this minor bug will be fixed, and putting aside that bug, the GoTo feature works quite well.

 

A third new feature is the ability to change the font size and font (the default Helvitica, Times or Courier).  For anyone whose eyes are not as good as they used to be, this is a great feature.

    

    

There are other small improvements as well.  The app now saves your location in the app when you exit, so you can quickly return to the last rule you were reviewing.  Search features are improved so that the results are filtered as you type, and the search terms are highlighted in the rules.  Finally, you can view Advisory Committee Notes for each rule.

There are now several companies selling legal reference apps, but with these improvements, the apps sold by The Law Pod are excellent choices.

Click here for Fed. R. Civ. Pro. ($1.99): 

Click here for Fed. R. Crim. Pro. ($1.99): 

Click here for Fed. R. App. Pro. ($1.99): 

Click here for Fed. R. Evid. ($1.99): 

Click here for Fed. R. Bankruptcy Pro. ($1.99): 

Click here for U.S. Constitution ($0.99): 

Review: NotifyMe -- send yourself reminders in the future

How often has something like this happened to you.  It's Friday and you think about how you have to do X on Monday morning.  The next thing you know, the weekend has passed, it's the end of the day on Monday, and you realize that you forgot about X.  If only someone had poked you on Monday morning to say "psst, don't forget about X."  NotifyMe from PoweryBase is a fantastic $3.99 app that solves this problem. 

PoweryBase is an iPhone software development company that was recently started by two guys in Europe.  Dominik Balogh has a design and marketing background and has worked with companies such as Heineken, Microsoft, Coca-Cola and Mastercard.  Pavel Serbajlo is a programmer who has worked mostly on financial/accounting software for the last eight years.  The two guys started PoweryBase in June of 2009 to work on iPhone apps, and NotifyMe was one of their first ideas.  Dominik tells me that the primary goal for NotifyMe was simplicity so that the app would be fast and easy to use.

Here is how the app works.  Simply pick a date and time and tell the app what message to send.  The process only takes a few seconds.  If you want to, you can also choose a category for the reminder.  Also, if you want to, you can choose to have the message repeat daily, weekly, every two weeks, monthly or yearly.  Then click save and your request is uploaded to the NotifyMe server.  When the time comes, no matter what you are doing on your iPhone, the message you previously typed will appear on your screen using the iPhone's push notification capabilities.  (Indeed, NotifyMe was one of the very first iPhone apps to use push notifications, a feature added in iPhone Software 3.0.)  Note that because the alerts are pushed to your iPhone by a server, you have to have an Internet connection to get your reminder.  If you are in airplane mode, you won't get your reminders.

    

The main screen of the app allows you to set a new reminder or see upcoming or past reminders.  If you choose to use categories, you can also see your upcoming and past reminders by category. 

   

What makes the app even more useful are the various settings.  For example, you can select what happens when you start the app.  For me, every time I start the app I am doing so to set a new reminder, so I have the app automatically open to that screen upon launch.  You can also choose from nine different sounds that will be played when a notification arrives.  Or if you don't want any sound to play when a reminder pops up, go to the main Settings app on your iPhone and choose Notifications --> NotifyMe, where you can disable the alert sound completely.

    

In addition to viewing your upcoming and past reminders from within the iPhone app, you can access the PoweryBase website and view all of  your reminders online.  You can modify reminders on the website just like you can on the iPhone, so if you want, you can create all of the reminders on the website using your computer and just receive reminders on your iPhone.  But for me, it is the ability to enter reminders on the iPhone that makes this app so great.  I can be anywhere, away from my computer, and when I think about my need to remember something in a few days I can jot it down right away on the iPhone app.

Even though NotifyMe's calling card is its simplicity, additional features are planned for future upgrades.  These include custom repeating modes, custom categories, sharing reminders with others, having an alert sound in advance of a time, and alert sound looping.  I would love to see the ability to create a custom alert sound so that I could have one that is incredibly short, just a fraction of a second long.  I want something that catches my attention but is in no way annoying to anyone who may be around me.  Although the default sounds are not that obnoxious, I still opted to just turn off sounds completely rather than use one of the built-in sounds.

Of course, you don't need to buy the NotifyMe app to have your iPhone remind you to do things.  You can instead create a calendar entry and set an alarm for that calendar entry.  But when you do that, you fill up your calendar with personal items like "get drycleaning" and "pick up milk" that are really to do items and not calendar events, items that do not really need to have a start and end time on your calendar.  Moreover, creating a reminder in NotifyMe is incredibly fast, much quicker than setting up a calendar entry and turning on an alarm.

It is always nice when developers create a free version of an app so that you can try before you buy, and the developers of NotifyMe have done just that.  NotifyMe Free includes all of the features of the full app except that (1) there is a 20 second "nag" screen very time you start it up and (2) you can only have 3 reminders at one time.  But that is enough for you to get a feel for how the app works and decide if you want to use it.  If you later upgrade to the full version of NotifyMe, the reminders you create in the free version will carry over to the paid version. 

NotifyMe is a wonderful app.  It solves a specific problem and does so with a quick and easy to use interface, but also includes sophisticated features like categories and repeating items if you choose to use them.  The developers gave me a free copy of the full app so that I could review it here, but I definitely think that it is worth $3.99 even if it only stops you from forgetting something important once or twice.

Click here to get NotifyMe ($3.99): 

Click here to get NotifyMe Free (free): 

PLAC in San Diego

I'm headed to San Diego for the Fall Conference of PLAC (the Product Liability Advisory Council) at the end of this week.  It is a great organization with some wonderful members.  If you plan to attend and you want to meet up and talk about all things iPhone, let me know and I'll see you there!

No refunds and no nukes: a look at the Apple iPhone App Store Terms and Conditions

Yesterday, the Gadgetwise blog in the New York Times included a short article by Eric Taub entitled "Apple's App Refund Policy:  No."  The title of the article pretty much tells you the contents.  If you buy an iPhone app and it turns out that you don't like it for any reason at all, you cannot return it.  Because most apps are free or cost only a few dollars, this is not a big deal.  However, there have always been a few expensive apps on the App Store, such as the ones that I previously mentioned here.  More recently, several companies are offering GPS apps with turn-by-turn directions for up to $100 or more, plus there is the Black's Law Dictionary app which costs $49.99.  So there are now lots of apps that attorneys and others might think about buying for which the combination of the price tag and no return policy are a serious deterrent.

Thinking about the "no refund" policy of the App Store got my wondering about other App Store rules.  I'm sure that all of us always read the fine print before clicking "I agree," so this may be nothing more than a refresher for you (ahem), but I thought it would be interesting to take a close look at the U.S. version of the App Store Terms and Conditions to see what else is in there.  By the way, this agreement is updated from time to time (as made explicit in Section 30), so I am only talking about the version in effect as of today, October 13, 2009.  (It says that it was last updated on September 9, 2009.)  Here are some items of interest:

1. Age requirements.  You have to be 13 years or older to use the App Store.  Moreover, if you are under 18 years old, you are supposed to read the Terms and Conditions with your parents or legal guardians before agreeing to them.  I can only imagine countless teenagers and parents across the nation reading the Terms and Conditions.  (Section 2.)

2. No use outside of the U.S.  You are only allowed to use the App Store while you are in the U.S. or its territories and possessions.  "You agree not to use or attempt to use the Service from outside of the available territory."  (Section 3.)  I am fairly certain that I purchased DataViz's Documents to Go app when I was in Russia a few months ago using the Wi-Fi at my hotel.  Oops.

3. It's only a license.  You do not actually own the apps you purchase.  Apps "are licensed, not sold, to you."  (Section 4.)

4. Transfer to other devices?  I know that if I purchase (um, I mean "license") an app on my iPhone and then sync my iPhone to my Mac, when my wife syncs her iPhone to the same Mac, the app gets downloaded to her iPhone.  I've always assumed that was allowed because I know that when you purchase a song from iTunes you can transfer it to other iPods that are synced with the same Mac.  This assumption finds some support in Section 9 of the Terms and Conditions, which contains "Usage Rules" that state (1) "You shall be able to store Products from up to five different Accounts on certain devices, including an iPod touch or iPhone, at a time" and (2) "You shall be able to store Products on five iTunes-authorized devices at any time."  (Section 9(b)(ii) and (iii).)  That makes me think that it is okay to have an app that I buy on both my iPhone and my wife's iPhone. 

On the other hand, I am not quite sure that I understand this paragraph and how it affects transferring apps between different devices:

You shall be able to manually sync Products from at least one iTunes-authorized device to devices that have manual sync mode, provided that the Product is associated with an Account on the primary iTunes-authorized device, where the primary iTunes-authorized device is the one that was first synced with the device, or the one that you subsequently designate as primary using iTunes.

(Section 9(b)(vi).)  Additionally, at the end of the Terms and Conditions, there is a separate part called "Licensed Application End User License Agreement" which I'll shorten to LAEULA  It provides that the license is granted to use an app "on any iPhone or iPod touch that you own or control" and the license "does not allow you to use the Licensed Application on any iPod touch or iPhone that you do not own and control ...."  (LAEULA, part a.)

Moreover, there is another provision of the Terms and Conditions that relates to the new "in app purchase" feature of iPhone Software 3.0.  This feature lets you pay for additional features for an app, whatever you purchase cannot be transferred to another device.  The Terms and Conditions seem to say that you cannot transfer these features to other iPhones:

Certain Products may include functionality that enables you to purchase additional services, or licenses to additional functionality or content for use within the Product ("In App Purchases"). In App Purchases that are consumed during the use of the Product (e.g., virtual ammunition) cannot be transferred among devices; can only be downloaded once; and after being downloaded, they cannot be replaced. Once a consumable In App Purchase is purchased and received by you, Apple shall be without liability to you in the event of any loss, destruction, or damage. All In App Purchases are deemed Products, and In App Purchases made within Third Party Products are deemed Third Party Products, and treated as such, for purposes of these terms and conditions.

(Section 4.)  Does that mean that if you purchase something in an app on your iPhone 3G, then you later decide to upgrade to an iPhone 3GS, you are not allowed to bring along the "virtual ammunition" and other add-ons that you purchased?  But on the other hand, the LAEULA provides that "The terms of the license will govern any upgrades provided by Licensor that replace and/or supplement the original Product, unless such upgrade is accompanied by a separate license in which case the terms of that license will govern."  (LAEULA part a.)

Thus, there seems to be a little confusion on whether you can transfer apps from one iPhone to another iPhone that syncs with the same computer.  Since I don't offer legal advice on iPhone J.D., I won't try to sort all of this out here, but I think that the provisions I cited above are the relevant ones on this issue.

5. Please stay in touch.  You agree to provide Apple "accurate, current, and complete information" when you register with Apple, and you also agree to "maintain and update your Registration Data as required to keep it accurate, current and complete."  Otherwise, "Apple may terminate your rights to any or all of the Service ...."  (Section 7.)  So if you move or change your phone number, by all means let Apple know quickly!

6. Keep your password secret.  You are responsible for keeping your account and password confidential, and "Apple shall not be responsible for any losses arising out of the unauthorized use of your Account."  (Section 8(a).)

7. Don't hack that app.  It is a violation of the Terms and Conditions to violate the "security components," which I presume means the digital rights management (DRM), on apps.  "You agree not to attempt to, or assist another person to, circumvent, reverse-engineer, decompile, disassemble, or otherwise tamper with any of the security components related to such Usage Rules for any reason whatsoever."  Apple reserves the right to monitor "for compliance purposes" so don't be surprised if they figure out that you are doing something wrong.  (Section 8(b).)

8. If you lose it, you may not be able to re-download it.  You are responsible for maintaining the apps that you download.  "Solely as an accommodation to you, some Products may be re-downloaded for use in accordance with the Usage Rules applicable to such Products" but Apple doesn't promise that you will be able to do so, and Apple has "no liability to you in the event a previously downloaded Product becomes unavailable for re-download."  (Section 9(a).)

9. Keep your reviews clean.  As you know, you can post reviews on the App Store of the apps that you purchase.  However, when you post, you cannot "infringe or violate the rights of any other party or violate any laws, contribute to or encourage infringing or otherwise unlawful conduct, or otherwise be obscene, objectionable or in poor taste ...."  (Section 9(e).)

10. Apple owns your reviews  Whatever you post when you review a prouct, Apple can use your words again.  "Moreover, you hereby grant Apple a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to use such materials as part of the Service, and in relation to Products, without any compensation or obligation to you."  (Section 9(e).)

11. No refunds.  This is the policy I mentioned above.  The general rule is that "no refunds are available."  (Section 12(b).)  However, there are two exceptions.  First, if you purchase an app and technical problems "delay or prevent delivery of" the app, then the "sole remedy" is that Apple will replace the app or refund the price that you paid.  Apple gets to determine whether they replace the app or give you a refund.  (Section 12(b).)  Second, if you buy an app but then, prior to download, the app becomes "unavailable," your "sole remedy in such cases is a refund of the price paid for the unavailable licensed Product."  (Section 18.)  I know that Apple sometimes removes an app that was previously available in the App Store, and if you time your purchase incorrectly, this may happen to you.  Something similar happened to me just this past weekend.  There was an iPhone game available this weekend for free that normally costs a few dollars, so I decided to try it out.  I clicked the button to download the app, but I got an error message.  I tried again with no success.  Then I went back to the App Store 15 minutes later and saw that the app had returned to its original price.  Even though the App Store clearly said that the app was free when I clicked the button to get it, apparently the price changed during that small window before I could download it.  Thus, I suppose under Section 18 my remedy was that I got my money back—and since I paid nothing, I got nothing.

12. iTunes cards are only for iTunes.  I've always known that if you buy an iTunes gift card, it can be used only on iTunes, including the App Store.  You cannot use the card to buy an Apple hardware product such as a new iPod or iPhone.  What I didn't know it that this is explicitly stated in the Terms and Conditions.  (Section 16.)

13. Be careful when playing games.  Section 20 is titled "Important Safety Information" and provides:

(1) To avoid muscle, joint or eye strain during video game play, you should always take frequent breaks from playing, and stop and take a longer rest if your eyes, hands, wrists or arms become tired or sore or you feel any other discomfort. (2) A very small percentage of people may experience seizures or blackouts when exposed to flashing lights or patterns, including while playing video games or watching videos. Symptoms may include dizziness, nausea, involuntary movements, loss of awareness, altered vision, tingling, numbness, or other discomforts. Consult a doctor before playing video games if you have ever suffered these or other symptoms linked to seizures and/or epilepsy, and stop playing immediately and see a doctor if these or similar symptoms occur during game play. Parents should monitor their children's video game play for signs of symptoms.

I suppose these sorts of provisions are common in video games nowadays.

14. Objectionable material.  Apple is pretty famous for excluding apps from the App Store if they contain nudity or other objectionable material.  But just in case you find something that you consider offensive, you can't blame Apple for it:

You understand that by using the Service, you may encounter material that may be deemed offensive, indecent, or objectionable, which content may or may not be identified as having explicit material. Nevertheless, you agree to use the Service at your sole risk and that Apple shall have no liability to you for content that may be found to be offensive, indecent, or objectionable. Application types and descriptions are provided for convenience, and you acknowledge and agree that Apple does not guarantee their accuracy.

(Section 21.)

15. California, here I come.  California law governs the Terms and Conditions, and you "expressly agree that exclusive jurisdiction for any claim or dispute with Apple or relating in any way to your use of the Service resides in the courts of the State of California."  On the plus side, it's a wonderful state with lots to do while you are there.

16. Don't sell your apps.  Even if you are done using the app that you purchased, you can't sell it to someone else.  "You may not rent, lease, lend, sell, redistribute or sublicense the Licensed Application."  (LAEULA, part a.)

17. No nukes.  You cannot use an iPhone app to design nuclear weapons, so don't even think about it, buddy.  "You also agree that you will not use these products for any purposes prohibited by United States law, including, without limitation, the development, design, manufacture or production of nuclear, missiles, or chemical or biological weapons."  (LAEULA, part g.)

The above analysis is based only on the text of the Terms and Conditions.  It may be that Apple has, from time to time, offered some explanations of the Terms and Conditions that alter or clarify something that I noted above.  And once again, I'm not offering legal advice here, so if you want to learn more about your rights, go get a lawyer. 

How to view an upside down PDF on the iPhone

Almost every day, I receive e-mails with PDF files attached that are scans of pleadings, briefs, exhibits, etc., either because someone scans something and e-mails it to me, or because someone faxes something to me.  (My law firm automatically converts all faxes to PDF files and then e-mails the file to the recipients.)  Every once in a while, someone will scan or fax a document upside down.  On a computer, this is only a minor inconvenience; I can just use the rotate command to rotate the image 180º to fix it.

On the iPhone, however, the solution is not so obvious.  When you get an upside down PDF, your natural inclination is to just rotate your iPhone, but as you do so, the image on the screen rotates with you, so it remains in the upside down position.  The result is frustrating, albeit mildly comical.

The solution is to hold a finger down on your screen and then rotate your iPhone so that it is upside down.  Do not move your finger while you are rotating.  Your finger on the screen prevents the iPhone from rotating while you turn it.  When you are finished, your iPhone will be upside down, but the PDF will appear right side up.

In the news

Yesterday, Apple released an iPhone update, iPhone Software 3.1.2.  No, you didn't miss anything, there was no 3.1.1; the last public release was 3.1 on September 9, 2009.  3.1.2 is a minor release that fixes three bugs:  (1) a bug that would sometimes prevent an iPhone from waking from sleep mode, (2) a bug that could interrupt your cellular service until you restarted and (3) a bug that could cause a crash when streaming video.  I never experienced any of those problems, but I'm always happy to see bugs fixed before they make their way to my own iPhone.  I still hope to see iPhone Software 3.2 with new features before the end of this year.  I have no special information that it is coming; this is just my guess based on the release schedule after 2.0 came out last year.  Other interesting iPhone news from the last week:

• If your company uses Lotus Notes,  you'll be pleased to see this MacNN report that IBM has released version 8.5.1 which now supports the iPhone, including push e-mail and contacts.
• Will AT&T limit data use by iPhone users?  PC World reports on a speech given this week by AT&T Wireless CEO Ralph de la Vega at the CTIA Conference in San Diego.  De la Vega said that just 3% of AT&T's smartphone customers (presumably iPhone users) use 40% of all smartphone data, 13 times the usage of the average smartphone customer, but only represent 1% of AT&T's total postpaid customer base.  To remedy this, De la Vega said:  “We have to manage the network to make sure that the few cannot crowd out the many."  It's not very clear what, if anything, this means, but PC World speculates rationing to limit use by heavy iPhone users.  We'll see how this all shakes out.
• Following up on my post from Wednesday about AT&T changing its position and allowing iPhones to use VoIP, yesterday David Pogue of the New York Times provided his analysis on the development.
• There were lots of iPhone-related survey results released this week.  Let's start with InfoWorld, which shares some of the highlights from a report on smartphones by CFI Group, a consultancy that helps businesses improve customer satisfaction.  Apple has the best customer satisfaction at 83%, followed by Android and Palm Pre at 77%, the Blackberry at 73%, the Palm Treo at 70%, and Symbian and Windows Mobile devices at 66%.  Other fun facts:  the iPhone scores highest for word-of-mouth recommendations, and people who use other smartphones are most likely to switch to an iPhone if they switch.  In the past, smartphones were mostly purchased by businesses, but today CFI says that they are mostly purchased by individuals for personal needs.
• InformationWeek reports on a J.D. Power survey of business smartphone users and concludes that iPhone owners are the most satisfied with their smartphones.  Blackberry came in second.  One interesting statistic is that more than half of the business users surveyed said that they downloaded games for their smartphone, which J.D. Power saw as evidence that "business users are also integrating their devices into their personal lives."  Indeed, this is the reason that I encourage so many lawyers to get an iPhone.  As I told Alan Cohen who wrote this recent article for AmLaw, if the only thing you want to do with your smartphone is read and respond to e-mail, then the Blackberry does that just fine, but I discourage people from thinking that e-mail is the only reason for a smartphone because you can do so much more.  The Blackberry can't touch the iPhone when it comes to web browsing, photos, music, games, maps, the tens of thousands of third-party apps, not to mention other important features like ease of use.  As more people, including lawyers, realize all that a smartphone can do, even more people will opt for an iPhone.
• And it's not just the grown-ups who want an iPhone.  In a rare example of teenagers lusting after the same thing that their parents desire, Larry Dignan of ZDNet reports on Piper Jaffray's bi-annual survey of teenagers, and the iPhone is what the kids want.  Six months ago, 8% of teens had an iPhone.  Now, 15% of teens own one, and another 22% expect to buy one soon.
• If you are still hungry for more statistics, Tammy Parker writes an interesting story for telecoms.com following the recent 360iDev Conference.  For example, statistics show that the average paid iPhone app has 9,300 downloads, while the average free iPhone app has 71,000 downloads.  Another interesting statistic:  there are more $4.99 apps sold than any other price point.  
• I've previously reviewed the Richard|Solo line of external batteries for the iPhone.  You can get a small 1200 mAh version for $40 that will give you almost another full charge on the iPhone, or the 1800 mAh $70 version that will bring you from 0% to 100% with even more charge left to use later.  (Disclosure: Richard|Solo gave me free units to review.)  Other companies also make iPhone batteries with similar capacities, but if you will find yourself away from an outlet for a really long time and need a lot of extra power, I see that USBFever is now selling the $60 Super Charger for iPhone.  It is larger than the Richard|Solo and similar products, but gives you a 3000 mAh battery that the company estimates will extend your talk time or online time 8.5 hours and video playback time 40 hours.  Of course, if that's not enough, you can always get the HyperMac external batteries that I mentioned this past May and get 260 extra hours for only $500.
• And finally, some game news for those of you who remember the classic computer games of the past.  In April, I mentioned that the groundbreaking game Myst was ported to the iPhone.  It is a graphics-rich and time-intensive game and at 533 MB it may well be the largest game you can download from the App Store.  TouchArcade reports that if you want to get a feel for the $4.99 game, you can now get Myst Free for, you guessed it, free.  It weighs in at 124 MB and has all of the features of the full version, but contains only one island, omitting the five additional "Ages" in the full game.  For anyone nostalgic for the great computer games of the past, this one is a must download.  Click here to get Myst Free (free): 

Review: Louisiana Legal Ethics -- ethics website optimized for the iPhone

I used to be the chair of my firm's Ethics Committee and I currently have responsibility for approving all new file openings, so I frequently find myself analyzing legal ethics.  As is true for many areas of law, there are lots of great Internet resources that can assist with an ethics analysis, from paid services such as the ABA/BNA Lawyers' Manual on Professional Conduct to the free but excellent Freivogel on Conflicts.  But none of these sites are optimized for the iPhone.

As a Louisiana attorney, I was thrilled to learn that Loyola (New Orleans) Law School Professor Dane Ciolino, an expert on legal ethics, recently started the website Louisiana Legal Ethics.  The site includes not only frequent blog-style updates on legal ethics but also some great resources for Louisiana attorneys.  For example, the site includes a free and updated version of the book Louisiana Professional Responsibility Law and Practice which was published by the La. State Bar Association in 2001 and updated in 2004 and 2007, but which is now out of print and out of date.  Thus, you can easily view the current text of the Louisiana Rules of Professional Conduct along with background information on the rules, related ABA resources such as the comments to the corresponding ABA Model Rule and annotations including Louisiana case law.

The iPhone angle here is that Prof. Ciolino, who bought his first iPhone just a month ago, knew from the start that he wanted his website to work well on mobile devices because he hates working with websites that are not mobile-friendly.  (Don't we all.)  Thus, he created his site using WordPress and then worked with a free plug-in called WPtouch iPhone theme to create a version of the website specially formatted for the iPhone screen (and which apparently also looks good on other smartphones).  Ciolino tells me that it took some tweaking to get everything working, but it was fairly easy to do.  Thus, if you go to the Louisiana Legal Ethics website on an iPhone, you will automatically see a version optimized for the iPhone screen:

  

You can even tap the arrow at the top right of every page to get a pop-up menu that allows you to search the site and jump to other main sections:

 

Ciolino plans to update Louisiana Legal Ethics on a daily basis, and even though the website is new, I know it will quickly become the go-to resource for Louisiana legal ethics issues.  iPhone users will love the ability easily access the current rules, comments, etc.  I am often asked to assess a legal ethics issue when I am not at my desk or at my computer but my iPhone is with me.

Ciolino's website will primarily be useful for Louisiana attorneys, and while I know a bunch of them who read iPhone J.D. (and I love y'all!), the other reason for my post today is to express hope that other great legal resource websites will also create iPhone-friendly versions of their websites.  iPhone apps may be all the rage, but an updated website that is optomized for the iPhone screen is often just as useful.  (For example, my favorite iPhone weather app is not an app at all: the iPhone-optimized version of Weather Underground, located at i.wund.com.)  Safari on the iPhone is better than any other mobile browser, but there are still some websites that don't display great on the iPhone screen because they require a lot of back-and-forth scrolling.  The solution is to offer an iPhone version of the website.

By the way, I have often thought about creating an iPhone version of this website, but I haven't done so because I actually think that iPhone J.D. looks fine on an iPhone when you double-tap the middle column to zoom to the entries.  I don't use any fancy, wide-page formatting other than the single graphic at the top.  Having said that, I still may do this one day just to figure out how it is done.  If any of you have experience setting up an iPhone theme for a TypePad website, let me know what you did.

Thanks to Dane Ciolino for creating a great resource for Louisiana lawyers, especially those of us who use an iPhone.

AT&T allows iPhones to use VoIP

I've written in the past about the usefulness of the Skype app when you are traveling internationally.  If you find WiFi in another country, the Skype app lets you use VoIP (voice over internet protocol) to dial home for just pennies and avoid the exorbitant roaming fees associated with using the cell phone service of a provider in another country to call home.  But when here in the U.S., the usefulness of an app like Skype was limited by the WiFi requirement.  You could place calls from the U.S. to other countries using Skype's relatively cheap plans, but only when you had WiFi access.  You couldn't use a VoIP app such as Skype with AT&T's wireless service because AT&T viewed those services as competitors.  Even with the WiFi-only restriction, Skype has been very popular; the company revealed yesterday that Skype has been downloaded to 10% of all iPhone and iPod touch devices.  (Apple recently announced that 50 million devices have been sold, so that's 5 million Skype downloads.)

A few months ago, when the FCC asked Apple, AT&T and Google to respond to questions relating to the Google Voice app for the iPhone, AT&T wrote extensively about why it was fair for AT&T to prohibit iPhone VoIP apps (see the bottom of this post), although AT&T did end its defense by saying that it "regularly reviews its policies" and that it planned to "take a fresh look at possibly authorizing VoIP capabilities on the iPhone for use on AT&T's 3G network."

Apparently, AT&T wasn't just blowing smoke.  About six weeks after AT&T wrote to the FCC, AT&T announced yesterday that it reversed its policy and will now let VoIP apps such as Skype use the AT&T wireless network.  Thus, if you want to use your iPhone to make a call from the U.S. to another country, you can use services other than AT&T to try to save money on the call. I presume you can also use VoIP to make unlimited domestic calls without using up the minutes on your AT&T plan.

Skype is not the only iPhone VoIP app that will now be able to work without WiFi.  Earlier this week, Vonage released an iPhone app that lets you make cheaper international calls.  Some are unhappy with the app because it requires the user to establish a new account, so existing Vonage customers cannot use it with their current service.

It's nice to have choices, and now if you want to use your iPhone to make international phone calls, AT&T's policy's change gives you more flexibility. 

- - - - - -

The following is of just historical importance now, but it is interesting to read AT&T's justification for not allowing iPhone VoIP apps now that the company has reversed that position.  If you want more context, you can view the entire August 21, 2009 letter from AT&T to the FCC in PDF format on the FCC website by clicking here, but here is the part that discusses VoIP:

It is widely recognized by economists and jurists that parties to strategic alliances in competitive markets may enter into contracts to promote and protect their respective business interests and to refrain from taking actions adverse to those interests.¹² Consistent with such lawful, economically efficient practices common among parties to strategic alliances, including participants in the mobile wireless marketplace,¹³ AT&T and Apple agreed that Apple would not take affirmative steps to enable an iPhone to use AT&T’s wireless service (including 2G, 3G and Wi-Fi) to make VoIP calls without first obtaining AT&T’s consent. AT&T and Apple also agreed, however, that if a third party enables an iPhone to make VoIP calls using AT&T’s wireless service, Apple would have no obligation to take action against that third party.

The parties’ concurrence on this provision was particularly important in light of the risks the parties assumed in bringing the iPhone to market. From the beginning, both AT&T and Apple recognized that each party would need to invest substantial capital and other resources to successfully develop, market and support the iPhone – a product with unprecedented features and capabilities from a manufacturer that had never before built a wireless phone.¹⁴    AT&T and Apple also recognized their mutual interest in stimulating sales in the highly competitive wireless marketplace by offering consumers the iPhone at an attractive retail price.

The parties’ willingness and ability to assume the risk of their investments in the iPhone and of their pricing strategy were predicated, in significant part, on certain assumptions about the monthly service revenues that would be generated by iPhone users. In particular, both parties required assurances that the revenues from the AT&T voice plans available to iPhone customers would not be reduced by enabling VoIP calling functionality on the iPhone. Thus, AT&T and Apple agreed that Apple would not take affirmative steps to enable an iPhone to use AT&T’s wireless service to make VoIP calls.

Without this arrangement, the prices consumers pay for the iPhone – particularly the broadband-enabled iPhone 3G – would likely have been higher than they are today. Indeed, AT&T offers the iPhone 3G to consumers at a price significantly below its cost as a result of the largest subsidy AT&T has ever provided on a wireless handset, on both a per-unit and aggregate basis.¹⁵    That subsidy has made the iPhone accessible to millions of consumers, at prices as low as $99 per iPhone 3G. Those consumers are taking advantage of its revolutionary features and capabilities for a wireless broadband Internet access experience that was not previously possible on any other handset. As a result, iPhone customers use their handset for broadband Internet access to a far greater degree than do customers of any other AT&T phone. As competitors roll out their own “iPhone killers,” customers of other phones undoubtedly will follow suit. In this sense, the iPhone and the subsidies that were instrumental in popularizing it, helped to spawn a sea-change in the way Americans access the broadband Internet.

During the course of the agreement, AT&T indicated to Apple that it does not object to Apple enabling VoIP applications for the iPhone that use Wi-Fi connectivity (including connectivity at more than 20,000 Wi-Fi hotspots operated by AT&T that may be used by iPhone customers for no additional charge) rather than AT&T’s 2G or 3G wireless data services. Although AT&T has no involvement in producing Apple’s iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK), which establishes the iPhone functionalities accessible to application developers, AT&T understands that the SDK enables application providers to develop VoIP applications that use the iPhone’s Wi-Fi capabilities and that such applications are currently available in the Apple App Store.

As noted above, AT&T regularly reviews its policies regarding features and capabilities available through the devices we offer in order to provide an attractive range of options for our customers. Consistent with this approach, we plan to take a fresh look at possibly authorizing VoIP capabilities on the iPhone for use on AT&T’s 3G network. AT&T will promptly update the Commission regarding any such change in its policies.

Footnotes:

¹² See Continental T.V. v. GTE Sylvania, 433 U.S. 36, 54-55, 57-58 (1977) (“Vertical restrictions promote interbrand competition by allowing the manufacturer to achieve certain efficiencies in the distribution of his products. These ‘redeeming virtues’ are implicit in every decision sustaining vertical restrictions under the rule of reason. Economists have identified a number of ways in which manufacturers can use such restrictions to compete more effectively against other manufacturers” – such as inducing retailers to make “investment of capital and labor” or “engage in promotional activities,” as well as ensuring product quality and preventing free riding. “Such restrictions, in varying forms, are widely used in our free market economy. . . . [T]here is substantial scholarly and judicial authority supporting their economic utility. There is relatively little authority to the contrary.”). See also Richard J. Wegener, et al, Restricted Distribution 2009: Thirtysomething Sylvania and the State of Non-Price Vertical Restraints, American Law Institute – American Bar Association, SP050 ALI-ABA 43 (March 2009); William J. Kolasky, Jr., Antitrust Enforcement Guidelines for Strategic Alliances, Practicing Law Institute (July- August 1998).

¹³ See, e.g., Google Android Market Developer Distribution Agreement at http://www.android.com/us/developer-distribution-agreement.html (“Non-Compete. You may not use the Market to distribute or make available any Product whose primary purpose is to facilitate the distribution of Products outside of the Market.”).

¹⁴ In AT&T’s only prior experience with Apple in the wireless market – a three-party alliance with Motorola to develop and market the iTunes-enabled ROKR – the end product received significant criticism. See Michael Mace, Motorola Rokr: Instant Failure, Mobile Opportunity (Nov. 2005) at http://mobileopportunity.blogspot.com/2005/11/motorola-rokr-instant- failure.html; Frank Rose, Battle for the Soul of the MP3 Phone, Wired (Nov. 2005) at http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.11/phone.html?pg=1&topic=phone&topic_set=.

¹⁵ In other countries where the iPhone is offered at similarly attractive price points, some wireless providers expressly prohibit customers from using VoIP while others impose surcharges on customers that use VoIP. See Orange Mobile Terms of Service § 6.4 at http://sites.orange.fr/ge/content/pdf/v2_pdf/documentation/Conditions_generales_abonnement.pdf; DT Replaces VoIP ban with surcharge, Telegeography (June 4, 2009) at http://www.telegeography.com/cu/article.php?article_id=28749.

Review: iTie and Tie-A-Tie -- learn to tie neckties on your iPhone

I suspect that most of the readers of this website already know how to tie a tie, but just in case you forget, there's an app for that on the iPhone.  Actually, there are at least two:  iTie and Tie-A-Tie.

iTie

iPhone developer Karl Klostermann of Lab48 in Munich, Germany developed the free iPhone app iTie.  It includes instructions for five different knots, so even if you have been tying ties for decades, you might learn something new.  The app includes Four-in-hand, Half Windsor, Double Tie, Oriental and Onassis.  For each knot, you get illustrated step-by-step instructions that you can have play automatically as a slide show or you can just manually advance through each screen.

    

The illustrations are nicely done and easy to understand.  On the options screen, you can choose how quickly you want the steps to appear in automatic play mode (from 3 to 8 seconds per slide), and you can choose to flip the orientation.

 

This app is bare bones simple, but it does exactly what it needs to do, and hey, it's free.  Although I did not check it out, if you want to splurge and spend $1.99 you can buy the premium version which adds more knots:  Full Windsor, Pratt, St. Andrew, Atlantic, Italian, Diagonal-Right and, for those nights you want to go out on the town, the Bow Tie. 

Tie-A-Tie

Another set of tie-tying iPhone apps comes from AppsCode.  The free version of the app, called Tie-A-Tie Lite, only includes a single knot, the Windsor.  Like iTie, Tie-A-Tie includes nice drawings of each of the steps to tie a tie.  But for each step in Tie-A-Tie, you can also see a photograph of a person tying a tie, which is a nice addition.

    

The app also gives you some basic information on the knot, another nice feature:

 

Again, I only looked at the free version, but if you want more features, you can purchase Tie-A-Tie Deluxe for $0.99 and get seven different knots:  Windsor, Half Windsor, Four-in-Hand, Small Knot, Cross Knot, Pratt and Bow Tie.

Tie a Tie and Tie a Tie Pro

I know that I said that there were two iPhone apps to teach you to tie a tie, but I also see two more in the App Store.  One is called Tie a Tie from Pocket Fun Inc ($0.99).  The description says that it shows you not only how to tie 13 different knots but also how to fold a handkerchief into six different pocket squares.  However, I can't seem to find a website for the developer, and each of the nine different apps sold by Pocket Fun Inc. links to a different website, none of which appear to be connected to the iPhone apps or Pocket Fun Inc.  The other app is called Tie a Tie Pro ($0.99) from NBR-Soft, and the description says that it shows you how to tie 10 different knots.  Once again, I don't see a website for this app, but here the fault might be mine; the link on iTunes is to a Chinese website that does appear to have something to do with iPhone apps, but I don't see any reference to Tie a Tie Pro in English and I cannot read the Chinese.  In light of my confusion finding developers for these apps, I did not take a look at either one of them.

Tying it all up

Now that we're covered with tying a tie, what we really need is an iPhone app that fixes that broken button that you discover when you are already running late to work and only have one clean shirt left because the others are waiting for you at the cleaners.  I would definitely pay for the premium version of that app.

Click here to get iTie (free): 

Click here to get iTie Premium ($1.99): 

Click here to get Tie-A-Tie (free): 

Click here to get Tie-A-Tie Deluxe ($0.99):