Month: October 2009

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.

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): 

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): 

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!

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. 

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.

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): 

  

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.

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.

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):