iPhone J.D.

In the news

I contemplated ending 2009 with a review of the last year of the iPhone, but Dan Moren of Macworld did such a great job that instead I encourage you to read his article.  For lawyers, the increased speed of the iPhone 3GS, the addition of features like copy and paste in iPhone 3.0, and the explosion in the quantity and quality of third party apps have all made 2009 a great year for the iPhone.  I am incredibly excited to see what 2010 will bring.  Other recent news items worth reading:

• Marc Ferranti of IDG News Service lists for PC World the "Top 10 Tech Stories of the Decade."  Apple appears on the list twice, once for the debut of the iPod and then again for the iPhone.
• Simlarly, Engadget has a list of Ten Gadgets That Defined the Decade, and both the iPod and the iPhone make the list.
• TouchArcade, which specializes in reviewing iPhone games, has come up with its list of the Best iPhone Games of 2009.  If you are more interested in retro games from the good old days, the site also has a list of the Best Retro Ports of 2009, including Dragon's Lair which I reviewed here.
• Documents to Go with Exchange Attachments has been renamed Documents to Go Premium, is now at version 3.0, and adds (1) the ability to edit and create PowerPoint presentations and (2) support for Gmail attachments in addition to Exchange attachments.  Great additions!  Click here for Documents to Go Premium ($14.99): 
• Lawyerist reports on iPhone-optimized websites from online law practice management websites Clio, Time59 and Rocket Matter.
• A lot of current iPhone owners previously used iPods, and as those iPods get older they sometimes no longer function as good as new.  Kirk McElhearn writes for Macworld about uses for old iPods.  For example, I have an old first generation, 5 GB iPod and an old iPod mini.  The batteries in both of the old iPods have essentially died, but the iPods still work if you keep them plugged in.  I have given both iPods a new life by buying inexpensive (under $40) iPod speakers including a dock from Amazon and setting them up in my kids' rooms with a mix of children's songs, including some calming music to help them go to sleep.
• Tyler Tschida reports for App Advice that Christmas Day was a banner day for iPhone (and iPod touch) app sales.
• Apple's website has a series of iPhone in Business pages that profile companies using the iPhone.  There has long been a profile of the Sonnenschein law firm in the U.S., but I just noticed that Apple added a profile of an Australian law firm, DLA Phillips Fox.  Click here for that page, which includes a video.
• CNBC is planning to show two Apple-related movies.  First, CNBC is airing the great movie Welcome to Macintosh, a movie that I loved and reviewed this past March.  The movie will air on January 4th at 6:30 pm Pacific / 9:30 pm Eastern.
• Second, CNBC will debut Planet of the Apps: A Handheld Revolution, a show that will "look at how apps have changed our lives, meet some of the creators behind them, and figure out just how big a business they really are."  That show airs Thursday, January 7 at 10pm Pacific / 1am Eastern. (Thanks to Alan Cohen for that link.)
• One of my law partners bought a new iPhone only to find that the phone would only work when in speaker mode.  I thought this was a very strange problem, and fortunately the local Apple Store swapped his defective iPhone for a new one, but I have since learned that this is a known, occasional problem with the iPhone.  If it happens to you, attorney Mike Mintz has some good advice on his Mintz's Wordz blog of the steps that you can take to try to solve the problem.
• This has absolutely nothing to do with the iPhone, but I loved watching the six minute animated film Pigeon Impossible so much that I couldn't resist posting about it here.  I cannot believe that this was the first effort by animator/writer/director Lucas Martell (although it did take him five years).  Pixar needs to hire this guy.
• Thanks to everyone who attended the Digital Workflow CLE in New Orleans today.  It was great to meet so many iPhone J.D. readers.  I look forward to meeting more of you at ABA TECHSHOW 2010 in Chicago in late March.
• And finally, today is the last day to vote in the ABA Journal's Blawg 100 competition.  I suspect that many of you have not voted, but could I entice you to do so if I PAID YOU COLD HARD CASH???  Well, I'm not doing that, but someone else actually is.  The TechnoLawyer Blog may pay you up to $500 if you vote for them.  What a way to get out the vote!  All you need to do is vote for TechnoLawyer in the "technology" category and then send an e-mail listing your full name, city, state, telephone number, and e-mail address to [email protected] letting them know that you voted for TechnoLawyer.  Get more details here.  Two first prize winners will each receive $500, and five second prize winners will each receive $100.  I am not sure what the ABA will think of this effort to get out the vote, but TechnoLawyer does publish some great newsletters so they are certainly a deserving winner.  And remember, you can vote for up to ten websites, including multiple websites in the same category (iPhone J.D. is in the technology category, along with TechnoLawyer), so while you are there trying to get some cold hard cash from TechnoLawyer, feel free to share the love and vote for iPhone J.D. as well.  Click here to get started, and good luck!

Happy New Year!!!

Review: DreamList -- create and share a "bucket list" on your iPhone

As the new year approaches, this is the time to make resolutions and contemplate what you want to accomplish in 2010.  Two second year law students at UCLA, Hector Pacheco and Daniel Carter, created the app DreamList to help you keep track of those thoughts for the future. 

The app lets you create lists of dreams (things you want to do) and lists of wishes (items that you want to have).

    

Enter whatever dreams or wishes you have and you can optionally choose a target completion date.  If you are having trouble coming up with things to put on your lists, the app even includes hundreds of preloaded activities, sites and experiences that you might want to strive for.  I actually found that to be one of the most interesting parts of the app as it gave me lots of ideas of things that I want to do at some point in the future.

    

You can mark a dream or wish as completed, which gives you a nice feeling of accomplishment to see what you have done.  The app also allows you to share your dreams and wishes with your friends who use the app and see which of your friends have completed their own dreams.  You can also search to see which of your friends have the same dreams or wishes as you.  Or you can search your friends' wishes list to see what they want, which could give you ideas for birthday presents.  This video from Daniel Carter shows you all of the ins and outs of the app:

This is an interesting idea for an app, and a timely app with the new year approaching.  But what I really love about this app is that it is an example of lawyers — or, in this case, future lawyers — coming up with creative ideas and then turning those ideas into iPhone apps.  Whether such apps are geared to other attorneys or, as here, suitable for the general public, I hope that more and more lawyers make it their resolution to develop iPhone apps next year. 

By the way, the origin of this app is a cute story.  Hector and Daniel tell me that they created this app after experiencing the "bloody" on campus interview process.  To take a break from the stress of OCI and focus on something productive, they decided to write an iPhone app.  I recall that my post-OCI activities when I was in law school primarily consisted of walking down the block to consume pints of beer at The Irish Times.  If only I had been as productive as Hector and Daniel.  Good luck to them on their future legal and iPhone endeavors.

Click here for DreamList ($1.99): 

Review: LexisNexis Get Cases & Shepardize -- view an opinion on your iPhone

If you are a Lexis subscriber with an iPhone, you can now view cases and get a Shepard's Summary of the case on your iPhone with the LexisNexis Get Cases & Shepardize app that came out last month.  The app does what it says, but the current 1.0 version suffers from some major limitations that I hope will be remedied in an update.

The first time that you use the app you are prompted for your Lexis username and password.  My understanding is that there is no charge to use the app and that the username requirement is there simply because LexisNexis limits use of the app to current subscribers.  Having said that, I am still trying to get official confirmation of this from LexisNexis, and I will update this paragraph of this post as I get more information.  [UPDATE 12/30/09:  LexisNexis sent me confirmation that there is no charge to use the app.  Great news!]

Once your username and password are stored, the app will not ask you for them again.  To get a case simply enter the citation.

    

After a few seconds, you will be given the case.  The useful editorial content that Lexis adds to cases is included, such as (when available) Subsequent History, Procedural Posture, Overview, Outcome, Core Terms, Headnotes, Counsel, etc.

    

You can tap the Shepardize button at the top to see a Shepard's Summary to get a sense of whether the case is still good law, including the Shepard's Signal circles — green means good, red means caution.

  

Unfortunately, there are some major omissions from this version of the app that limit the app's usefulness.  First, you are going to most likely want to use this app when you are out of your office, on the go.  Perhaps when you are in court and hear opposing counsel mention a case.  But unless you know the case citation, you can't use the app at all.  It would be so helpful to be able to search by title and jurisdiction, so that when the other party mentions the "Morial v. Smith & Wesson" case, or even just the "Morial" case, you can pull it up.  No such luck, unless the other party also says "785 So. 2d 1" in the same breath. 

Second, when you are viewing a case, there are no hyperlinks.  Thus, if the case you are reviewing cites another case, you cannot just click to see how the case is being cited.  You can use the standard iPhone copy function to copy the cite and then do a new search and paste that cite, but that is a real pain and I see no justification for this cumbersome workaround.  Moreover, there is no back button so you cannot then jump back to the original case after you have viewed a second case.

 

Third, the app does not let you view statutes, just cases.  I don't understand this limitation; obviously Lexis has statutes in its database as well.

Fourth, the Shepard's feature is far too limited.  This has the potential to be the killer aspect of the app — Shepardize a case while you are in court, and instantly telling the judge that your opponent is citing bad law.  But no, not really.  As you can see from the pictures posted above, all that you get is a Shepard's Summary.  So, for example, when I ran a report on a case I recently argued and won before the U.S. Fifth Circuit, Audler v. CBC Innovis, Inc., 519 F.3d 239 (5th Cir. 2008), I am told that the case was superseded (and thus has a red warning signal) and was also distinguished.  This could be critical information ... but I can't really make much use of it, because the app doesn't list any of the cases themselves.  I just get this summary.  So I know that the case was cited 80 times, was supposedly superseded, and was supposedly distinguished, but I cannot see a list of those cases or read the cases themselves to determine if the Audler case is still good law and was just superseded or distinguished on a point that doesn't matter.  I don't consider this to be a userful Shepardizing exercise.  It is just a big tease, and a confusing one at that considering that once I Shepardized the Audler case on Lexis.com, I discovered that (1) the "superseded" cite is just an unreported case distinguishing Audler's applicability under a different statute in another state, which I would never even call "superseding" law anyway (Inclusive Cmtys. Project, Inc. v. Tex. Dep't of Hous. & Cmty. Affairs, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 101240 (N.D. Tex. 12/11/08)) and (2) the "distinguished" case is simply one holding that the result is different under Mississippi law (Paul v. Landsafe Flood Determination, Inc., 550 F.3d 511 (5th Cir. 2008)), which has no effect on the Audler case still being a correct interpretation of Louisiana law.

Fifth, the app can really use some user interface improvements, although I readily admit that these are just my personal preferences and are minor points.  It would be helpful to resize the font size.  You can pinch to zoom, but then you have to scroll back and forth to read which can give you a headache after a while.  I also wish that there was some pop-up window to populate the source such as So. 2d, F.2d, etc. when you are entering a cite.  Switching back and forth between the number keyboard and the letter keyboard to manually enter every letter and number of a cite wastes time when the app could just let you enter the two numbers, perhaps pre-populating your last used source and letting you easily tap to select a different one.  It would also be helpful to have a history button so that you can pull up a case you recently viewed, which would also alleviate the omission of a back button as I noted above.  Having said that, they should also add a back button.

To be clear, I am offering only constructive criticism of this 1.0 version of the app.  All of these omissions can be easily addressed in a future update, at which time this app could become insanely useful.  In its current state, however, I prefer to just use the free Google Scholar website on your iPhone, which I reviewed last month.  You can find a specific case on Google Scholar using either a citation or a case name.  For example, I can find that Audler case by citation, but can also find it if I just run a search for "Audler CBC."  Indeed, I could even just do a search for "Audler" and in this example, the right case would be the second search result.  While Google Scholar omits the editorial content that Lexis gives you such as a case summary, it does let you click on a hyperlink for any cited case to view that case, and then you can hit your Safari back button to go back to the original case.  With Google Scholar, you can even tap the "How Cited" tab to get a list of citing cases.  Google Scholar doesn't tell you whether these cases distinguish, overrule or just follow the original case, but you can see excerpts that might tell you what you need to know.  For example, as you can see in this picture, Google Scholar doesn't list the unreported case that Lexis (incorrectly) claimed was a superseding case, but does list the Paul case and I can guess from the brief excerpt's use of the word "In that case" that Paul is likely a case distinguishing Audler.

  

Additionally, Google Scholar even lets you search for caselaw by searching for words and phrases, something you can't do on the Lexis app, although to be fair the Lexis app doesn't intend to be a research tool, and the title itself tells you that this app is just a way to get a case and Shepardize it.  Finally, Google Scholar is incredibly fast, even on an iPhone.  The Lexis app takes several seconds to load a case, which can get annoying.  I know that Google has some really fast computer servers sending the data to my iPhone, but you would think that Lexis does too.

I'm glad to see this app.  Westlaw doesn't offer anything similar.  Some people might find the current version useful in some situations.  For example, George Mason University third year law student Adam Aft told me that he "could see the value of pulling up a case [in class] to glance at the case summary, especially if there is no other lifeline while drowning in a sea of socratic dialogue."  But Adam agrees with me that the shortcomings of this app are frustrating.  If Lexis adds some or all of these missing features, they will have a real winner on their hands.  But in the current 1.0 version, this is not an app that I will often use or recommend over the free Google Scholar.

Click here to get LexisNexis Get Cases & Shepardize (free): 

Review: Waterford Clink-Clink -- toast with your iPhone

The free Clink-Clink app from Waterford presents you with a virtual glass of champagne or wine so that you can clink glasses with another iPhone user also running the app.  Is it gimicky?  Does it get old soon?  Is it just a promotion for Waterford Crystal?  Yes to all three questions, but the app is free, and it might be something cute for you to play with this week as you are waiting for the ball to drop on New Year's Eve.

Choose a Waterford glass (you have five choices) and the glass appears on the screen, filled with champagne or wine.  As you move the glass back and forth, the virtual liquid moves as if it were real.

  

    

The app has three modes.  If you and a friend are both using the app, choose the "Toast a Friend" option and you will hear the sound of glasses clinking as the iPhone's motion accelerator senses movement, followed by the app presenting you with a toast.  In the Settings, you can choose one or more toast categories such as New Year, International Cheers, Wedding and Birthday.

    

You can also choose the "Make a Friend" option to share your own Contacts card, or your Facebook information, with the person with whom you are sharing a toast.  (If you choose the Facebook option, the app will post your toast to your Facebook wall.)  You both have to also specifically enable Contacts and/or Facebook sharing in your Preferences for this to work.

    

Finally, if you are alone, you can choose the "Just Play" option to just toast yourself.  I suppose virtual toasting is better than drinking alone.

After you have used the app a few times, you will be given the option to provide your e-mail address to Waterford.  And when enough people use the program, all users will get some sort of coupon from Waterford.  This is a promotional app, after all.  According to the Creativity advertising website, ad agency Gotham created this app for Waterford.

    

This is a cute little app that might provide you with a few minutes of amusement, and with the contact sharing component could even help you land a new client or make a new friend.

Click here for Waterford Clink-Clink (free): 

iPhone-themed holiday card from J.P. Morgan

A friend at my law firm received a Christmas card from the Compensation and Benefits Strategies division of J.P. Morgan with a fun iPhone theme.  Kudos to them for coming up with a memorable card, at least for iPhone enthusiasts:

In the news

It's a short week due to Christmas, but there was still some iPhone news of interest.  Here are some of the highlights:

• MacRumors reports that, according to Nielsen, the iPhone 3G is the mobile phone model with the largest percentage of users (4%).
• Dan Frakes of Macworld has an excellent list of gifts for the iPhone lover.
• Gizmodo tests 3G data on all of the U.S. networks in 12 cities and concludes that AT&T's 3G network is the fastest.
• Are you flying for the holidays?  Do you want to get free Wi-Fi on your flight?  Lifehacker has the codes you need.  (Link via Niki Black.)
• The Financial Times has an interesting article on the iPhone App Store, noting that it was far more successful than Apple ever expected.
• The Harvard Business Review names the Top 50 CEOs.  Steve Jobs is #1.
• Dan Moren of Macworld has tips on talking to your iPhone using the Voice Control feature of the iPhone 3GS.
• The Washington Post carries a Reuters story about how Tapulous, the developer of the iPhone game Tap Tap Revenge, is bringing in almost $1 million a month.
• And finally, are you ready for the announcement of the next model of the iPhone?  Apple traditionally introduces new models in June, and AppleInsider speculates that in 2010 it will be on June 28th.  This is because the Moscone Center in San Francisco is booked for a anonymous "corporate event" June 28 to July 2, 2010, which AppleInsider believes will be the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), a natural venue to introduce the 2010 model of the iPhone.  The original iPhone was released on June 29, 2007, the iPhone 3G was announced at WWDC on June 9, 2008, and the iPhone 3GS was announced at WWDC on June 8, 2009.

Merry Christmas!

Review: LogMeIn Ignition -- view and control your PC or Mac from your iPhone

Have you ever been out of your office and realized that you need to look at a file that is sitting right on the desktop of your office or home computer but that you forgot to take with you?  Or maybe you need to access an e-mail that you have already moved to your office document management system for which there is no iPhone interface, so just having access to your Inbox in the iPhone's Mail app won't let you get that e-mail?  Or maybe you need to look something up in a database that cannot be accessed from an iPhone?  Or maybe you just want to use a website that doesn't work in Safari on the iPhone, such as a website that requires Internet Explorer?  A solution to all of these problems is to view and control your PC or Mac that is sitting in your office at your home.  With the LogMeIn Ignition app, you can now do all of this from your iPhone.

To start, you need a free LogMeIn Ignition account, and you need to install software on your computer(s).  (There are also paid LogMeIn accounts available that include a few advanced features, but you don't need one of those paid plans to use the iPhone app.)  Once you install this software, you can use any web browser on any computer to control your computer that has the LogMeIn software installed.  Making your computer accessible on the Internet raises obvious security questions, but LogMeIn appears to have thought through all of these issues, as you can see on the company's Security page.  When you start the iPhone app and log into your account, you will see a list of all of the computers associated with your account, such as your office PC and your home iMac.  Select the computer that you want to access and enter the username and password for that computer.  (By the way -- ignore all of the black boxes in these pictures; those are just my redactions to these images.)

    

Once connected, you will see your computer's screen on your iPhone.  At first, it will be incredibly tiny of course, but you can pinch to zoom in which makes everything easy to read.  By the way, I'm showing these screens in portrait mode, but you can turn your iPhone on your side if you would prefer a wider, landscape mode.

    

The default mode is for the cursor to remain fixed in the middle of the screen.  Use your finger to scroll around to the part of the screen where you want to click, then tap once on the screen to click, or twice to double-click, or tap twice but hold down on the second tap to drag.  If you need to do a right click, just tap the third of the six icons at the bottom of the screen to change into right click mode.  (There is also a tap shortcut that lets you do the same thing, but I find that icon easier to use.)  You can even swipe with two fingers at once to scroll a window, a gesture that will be familiar to anyone who uses the same gesture on a MacBook.  If you need to type something, just tap the second icon on the bottom to bring up a keyboard.  It is not a standard iPhone keyboard so it takes a little getting use to, but this is necessary because the app gives you all of the keys that you would have with a full keyboard:

    

  

The fourth icon across the bottom, the magnifying glass, can be tapped to zoom in or out.  I find that zooming is usually easier if you just pinch your fingers, but it is nice to be able to tap one button when you are zoomed in to instantly zoom all the way out and see the entire screen at once.  The fifth icon at the bottom brings up various settings that you can adjust.  The sixth and final icon brings up a quick and easy way to Alt-Tab to switch applications or Ctrl-Alt-Del to lock your screen and perform the various other functions associated with that.  (If you are controlling a Mac, the options are Command-Tab and Command-` which allow you to switch applications or switch windows within the same application.)

    

Here is a video from the developer that shows the app in action:

Click here for another promotional video on the LogMeIn website.

The real question for me when I contemplated buying this app was speed.  Would it really be fast enough to make reasonable use of a computer from a tiny little iPhone?  To my utter surprise, the answer is yes.  Even on 3G, but especially on WiFi, the app is very responsive and speed was never an issue for me.  The small screen size is a limitation, and you find yourself moving around the screen a lot whenever you are zoomed in enough for text to be reasonably legible, but fortunately the app is zippy when you are moving around the screen.  You wouldn't want to use this app to write a long brief in Microsoft Word, but it is a snap to use this app to fix a few words in a Word document on your desktop and then use an e-mail program such as Outlook to send the file around.  As a test, I even connected to my Mac and started playing a movie in half-size so that it would roughly match the size of my iPhone screen.  On the iPhone, the screen refreshed quickly enough (on WiFi) that I was able to view the video on the iPhone.  The frame rate was lower, and the app has no audio so I couldn't hear the video, but the movie was certainly watchable.  I was amazed that it worked as well as it did.

There are a few iPhone apps out there that work very well, are incredibly useful, and really push the platform beyond anything that you thought would be possible.  These rare apps can be almost magical when you first use them.  Several of the iPhone's built-in apps meet this test, as does the Dragon Dictation app that I recently reviewed.  LogMeIn Ignition also falls in that category.  If you are in a pinch and really need to access your computer when you are away from that computer, the iPhone now allows you to do something that was previously impossible.  And of course, you never know when that moment will arise, so you should consider getting this app set up now so that it is there for you when you need it.  This app has been out for a while but for a long time I put off trying it, thinking that it would be difficult to use and not that helpful.  I was wrong, and I wish I had purchased it earlier.

Indeed, this app has even started to change my habits.  I used to frequently bring home my work laptop, especially on weekends, just in case I needed something on it.  But now, I am starting to think it is better to default to leaving my laptop at work, because that way I can access that laptop both from home (using LogMeIn either on my iMac at home or on the iPhone) or if I am away from home.  Just the other day, I needed to get a home address for one of my colleagues while I was running errands over the weekend.  I didn't have the address in my iPhone contacts, but I knew that I could get it from my firm's intranet website, a website that only works on Internet Explorer so I couldn't even use my iPhone to VPN to my law firm and get it that way.  This was no problem with LogMeIn Ignition; I just connected to my work laptop, started Internet Explorer, and then got the address.  It only took about a minute.  My experiences are consistent with study findings released in a set of LogMeIn promotional slides that "57% of [LogMeIn Ignition] users in our survey are ditching their laptop in favor of their iPhone with Ignition at least half the time."

As good as this app is, there are reasons to consider not getting it, at least not yet.  First, if you don't mind waiting, at some point I'm sure that LogMeIn Ignition will have some real competition.  There are other remote access programs for computers, perhaps the most famous being GoToMyPC by Citrix.  I saw reports earlier this year that an iPhone GoToMyPC app was in development, so hopefully we will see that soon.  If you use the similar WebEx PCNow, I understand that you can use the service in Safari on an iPhone, but not to control a PC; you just see a big list of the files on your PC, which depending upon your needs might be sufficient.

Also, if the $30 cost seems a bit much for you, you should know that I have seen at least two times this year when LogMeIn dropped the price to $20 for a few days.  (I bought my copy during one of those brief sales.)  If I see a price drop again, I'll be sure to mention it on my Twitter feed. 

Finally, if even that discounted price seems too much, note that there is at least one other iPhone app that does the same thing, a $5.99 app called Mocha VNC, but I understand that it is difficult to set up and I don't know enough about security of that product to recommend it one way or the other.  LogMeIn does not require you to do any complicated configuring on your computer or iPhone.  It just works.  For me, that ease of use makes it well worth the cost, especially considering that if you really need to access your computer in a pinch, that $30 (or $20) could pay for itself in a single use, depending upon the emergency.

Click here to get LogMeIn Ignition ($29.99): 

iTunes App Store Best and Top Selling Apps of 2009

Earlier this month, the iTunes Store announced "Rewind 2009" identifying the best of 2009 on iTunes.  The iTunes App Store Rewind 2009 page lists the best apps of 2009 as selected by the App Store staff and the top selling apps of the year.  There are separate lists for game apps and non-game apps.  Browsing these lists is a useful way to discover some great apps.  Since I don't really talk about games on iPhone J.D. (with one recent exception), I'll just list here the "best" and "top selling" non-game iPhone apps.  These are in alphabetical order; Apple doesn't rank the lists.  All prices are current, but note that many of these prices reflect holiday sales so these apps may cost more in a few days.

Best of 2009, as selected by the App Store Staff:

1. 20 Minute Meals - Jamie Oliver ($4.99)
2. Awesome Note (+ToDo) ($3.99)
3. BeejiveIM with Push ($6.99) — supports all the major instant messaging protocols, and because it uses push notifications it works even when you are not running the app
4. CBS Sports:  Live College Games ($4.99)
5. CNBC Real-Time (free) — the only free app that provides real-time stock quotes
6. ColorSplash ($1.99) — converts a photo to black and white and lets you add color to a specific part of the picture to create a dramatic effect
7. Convertbot ($0.99) — I use this one all the time to convert between various units
8. Credit Card Terminal ($0.99)
9. ESPN ScoreCenter (free) — I have several apps to track sports scores, but this is probably my favorite
10. Fandango Movies - Times & Tickets (free)
11. Flight Update Pro - Live Status + TripIt ($9.99)
12. Golfshot: Golf GPS ($29.99) — keep score, GPS rangefinder with distances, aerial views of 26,000 courses, etc.
13. I Am T-Pain ($0.99) — Auto-Tune your voice to sing along with music
14. Leaf Trombone:  World Stage ($0.99) — my review is here
15. Magellan RoadMate 2010 ($79.99)
16. Mathemagics - Mental Math Tricks ($1.99)
17. Mover+ ($1.99) — send files between two iPhones
18. Musée du Louvre (free)
19. NBA League Pass Mobile ($39.99) — watch live games on your iPhone
20. NearestWiki ($1.99) — requires iPhone 3GS; provides information about your surroundings
21. Pano ($1.99) — turn iPhone pictures into panoramas.  I haven't tried Pano, but I use a similar program called AutoStitch ($1.99) which works very well.
22. ReelDirector ($7.99) — turn video clips into polished movies on the iPhone 3GS
23. (Shazam)RED ($4.99) — (PRODUCT) RED version of the popular Shazam app
24. SketchBook Mobile ($1.99)
25. SmackTalk! ($0.99) — a voice-altering app featuring animated animals
26. Star Walk - 5 Stars Astronomy Guide ($2.99)
27. Storyboard Composer ($19.99)
28. Tweetie 2 ($2.99) — I haven't tried this Twitter client, but it gets great reviews.  I instead currently use and love Twitterific Premium ($4.99)
29. Vintage Video Maker ($2.99) — make your video look like a movie from the 1920s or the 1960s.  I haven't tried this app, but you can see some sample videos here.  What I find interesting is that even though the iPhone 3GS takes videos of somewhat limited quality, that doesn't matter when you apply effects like this.
30. Zipcar (free)

Top Selling of 2009:

1. AIM ($2.99)
2. AppBox Pro ($0.99) — contains 18 different utility apps
3. Camera Genius ($1.99)
4. Camera Zoom 2 ($0.99)
5. CNN Mobile ($1.99)
6. ColorSplash ($1.99) — converts a photo to black and white and lets you add color to a specific part of the picture to create a dramatic effect
7. Documents to Go [the version without Exchange support] ($9.99) — I've discussed this app many times on iPhone J.D. including:  6/22/09, 6/25/09, 8/4/09, 8/17/09
8. ESPN Radio ($2.99)
9. Family Guy ($1.99)
10. FlightTrack Pro - Live TripIt Flight Status Tracker ($9.99)
11. Golfshot: Golf GPS ($29.99) — keep score, GPS rangefinder with distances, aerial views of 26,000 courses, etc.
12. I Am T-Pain ($0.99) — Auto-Tune your voice to sing along with music
13. iBird Explorer PRO ($29.99)
14. iEmoji ($0.99)
15. iSoda (iWater, iCola and more) ($2.99)
16. MobileNavigator North America by Navigon ($59.99)
17. MLB.com At Bat (free) — this app is currently free because the season is over; during the 2009 season, you could use this $9.99 app to watch live games on your iPhone
18. The Moron Test ($0.99) — I haven't tried this, but it actually gets good reviews; the app includes lots of trick questions
19. MotionX GPS Drive ($2.99) — my review is here
20. Picfree - Send Picture Messages (MMS) Free! ($5.99)
21. Pocket God ($0.99) — this is a game app, so I'm not sure why it is on this list
22. Proloquo2Go ($189.99) — for people who have difficulty speaking, this app lets them type text or select pictures and then the app speaks for them.  The reviews are amazing because this app lets someone just carry an iPhone or iPod touch instead of a 10 pound AAC device that can cost thousands of dollars.
23. Quickoffice Mobile Office Suite ($9.99) — I've discussed this app many times on iPhone J.D. including:  2/20/09, 4/22/09, 5/5/09, 7/20/09, 8/4/09
24. RedLaser ($1.99) — scan bar codes and compare prices on items
25. SlingPlayer Mobile ($29.99)
26. Textfree Unlimited - Send Text Messages (SMS) Free! ($5.99)
27. TomTom U.S. & Canada ($69.99)
28. ViewTi Golf ($0.99)
29. The Weather Channel Max ($3.99)
30. Wolfenstein 3D Classic Platinum ($0.99) — once again, this is a game app so I'm not sure why it is on this list

Only three apps made both lists:  (1) ColorSplash, (2) Golfshot and (3) I Am T-Pain.  I haven't tried any of them, but now I'm starting to think that I am missing something. 

These lists reveal some disagreements on which apps are best.  For example, if you are looking to track flights, it looks like you have to choose between the "best" Flight Update Pro and the "top selling" FlightTrack Pro.  I haven't tried either yet.  Likewise, if you want a turn-by-turn GPS app, the App Store editors pick Magellan RoadMate 2010 as the best, whereas Navigon's MobileNavigator, TomTom and MotionX GPS Drive were apparently better sellers — the peoples' choices, I suppose you could say — in 2009.

In the news

A lot of people will be traveling for the holidays, and if you have been waiting until now to get a GPS navigation app for your iPhone, you'll be glad that you did because of the comprehensive reviews and deep discounts that came out over the last few days.  Here are those stories, plus the rest of the news that caught my attention this week:

• Glenn Fleishman is normally known as the guru of wireless networking, but this week he showed that he knows his way around GPS as well.  He wrote the most comprehensive review I have seen to date on the GPS navigation apps for Macworld.  As he notes, the one that is right for you depends on the features that will interest you most, but his wrap up notes:  "Overall, AT&T Navigator was the best app among those with low prices, recurring monthly fees, and small app sizes; among the large apps with pre-loaded maps, Navigon MobileNavigator scored the highest. Combining decent quality with a low price, MotionX was the best bargain among all the apps I reviewed."  MotionX, which I reviewed here, is a great bargain, but I keep thinking about getting another app that can announce street names, a big omission in MotionX. [UPDATE:  Text to speech is planned for a future update to MotionX, as  noted below in the comment and just confirmed to me by the company, but the company isn't saying when this feature will arrive.]
• There are also some big sales on some of the major GPS navigation apps.  TomTom has been selling a $99.99 U.S. & Canada app, but from now until December 28, TomTom is currently selling that app for only $69.99.  Better yet, TomTom has come out with a U.S. only version that only costs $49.  I know a lot of people bought the $99 version with no intention of traveling north of the border, and if you were thinking of doing the same, you can now get what you need from TomTom for essentially half the price.  Click here for TomTom U.S. & Canada ($69.99 sale):  .  Click here for TomTom U.S.A. ($49.99 sale):
• Similarly Navigon MobileNavigator, which Fleishman gave the highest score, used to cost $89.99 but from now until January 11th only costs $59.99.  Click here for Navigon MobileNavigator ($59.99 sale): 
• By the way, if you get a GPS navigation app, you might want to get a car mount as well.  If you use the TomTom app, they sell a $120 car kit that improves the GPS signal and speakers, but I hear that stock is limited.  (The Apple Store seems to have some.)  If you already have a cigarette lighter power cord for your iPhone and just want a simple mount, I hear good things about the Kensington mounts for your dashboard or your windshield that cost under $25, and I'm thinking about getting one of those.
• Macworld has picked their 20 favorite iPhone apps of the year.  Those guys really know their iPhone apps, and this is a great set of picks.
•  With Tiger Woods on everyone's minds nowadays, Art of the iPhone reviews the Tiger Woods golf app, which apparently is excellent.  Click here for Tiger Woods PGA Tour ($4.99): 
• With so many games for the iPhone, it sometimes seems that attorneys need to defend the iPhone as also being a serious business tool.  Proving that the iPhone can be used for even more important tasks, Roy Furchgott reports for the New York Times on a new app by military contractor Raytheon that "tracks friends and foes, shows their positions on live, real time maps and provides secure communications."  Raytheon sees possible applications both on the battlefield and for first responders such as police and firemen.  (Thanks to Marshall Hevron at my firm for the link.)
• It used to be that if you wanted to record video on your iPhone, you had to have the latest model, the iPhone 3GS.  Art of the iPhone reviews a cheap app called iVideoCamera that allows you to record video on the original iPhone and the iPhone 3G.  The video quality and length is limited, but at least you now have an option.  Click here for iVideoCamera ($0.99): 
• Do you have a stereo in your house or office?  Would you like to wirelessly send music from your iPhone to that stereo?  Macworld notes a new $50 device from Belkin that turns any stereo into a Bluetooth speaker.
• Scott Kleinberg reports on iPhone, Therefore iBlog about an iTunes problem that I have been having as well.  iTunes tells you that you have updates for an app, but then after downloading and installing the updated app on your iPhone, iTunes continues to insist that the same update is still available.  Hopefully Apple will come out with a fix soon.
• Gregg Keizer reports for Computerworld that the iPhone user base is now the second largest among smartphones in the U.S.  Nine million people use the iPhone as their primary smartphone.  RIM is still in the lead with 15 million Blackberry users.  For now, at least.
• I previously reviewed two new Take Control books relating to the iPhone, Take Control of iPhone OS 3 and Take Control of Your iPhone Apps.  For a limited time, you can get either book for half price ($6.50 or $5.00) by clicking this link.
• Randall Stross writes an interesting article in the New York Times asserting that AT&T coverage problems are due in part to iPhone design problems.  Others have written harsh rebuttals to the article, including John Gruber at Daring Fireball, Daniel Eran Dilger at Rougly Drafted and Chris Foresman at Ars Technica.  You be the judge.
• If you've visited the App Store in iTunes recently, you've seen a whole new look.  TUAW and Macworld discuss the redesign.
• At the end of 2007, U.S. Supreme Court practitioner and SCOTUSblog co-founder Tom Goldstein released a funny YouTube video playing off of the early Apple ads for the iPhone.  Click here for my post from last year containing that video and another funny one from Goldstein; both are still worth seeing today if you missed them in the past.  This year for the holidays, Goldstein released another funny video called "The Public Apology of Tom Goldstein."  The iPhone makes only a minor appearance in the latest video, but it is worth watching.  (Thanks to Ray Ward's Minor Wisdom for the link.)
• And finally, if you are looking for a way to avoid spending tens of thousands of dollars on a Steinway grand piano, apparently you can just purchase six iPhones instead:

All I want for Christmas / Hanukkah / Kwanzaa / etc.

During this time of giving and holiday cheer, I know that a lot of you have been thinking about what you can give to iPhone J.D. this year.  Well, maybe some of you have been thinking that.  OK, maybe just one.  (Hi, Mom!)  But if you do enjoy reading iPhone J.D. and you are interested in supporting the site, there are two easy things you can do that won't cost you anything.

First, if you make any purchases from Amazon, just click right here before making that purchase and Amazon will provide a tiny percentage of whatever you buy to iPhone J.D.  It doesn't cost you anything extra.

Second, even if your holiday shopping is done and you have nothing to purchase from Amazon, it would be so nice if you take the time to vote in the ABA Journal's Blawg 100.  This year, the ABA makes you register before you can vote, and I know that is a deterrent.  But registration really is painless and only takes about a minute, and once you register you can vote for up to ten favorite blawgs among the 100 nominees.  I'd like to show the ABA Journal editors that they did the right thing by selecting this site because there is a lot of iPhone interest out there.  To vote, you can click on the link at the top right of this page, or just click on the following large, obnoxious banner helpfully provided by the ABA Journal to go directly to the "Tech" category.  Once you are there, click the links at the top for the other categories:

By the way, you really should check out some of the other nominated sites.  There are some great ones. 

For all of you who decide to support iPhone J.D. through either of the above, not to mention though your continued readership and enthusiasm, thanks so much.  It means a lot.

Review: West CLE Mobile -- get CLE credit on your iPhone

As the end of the year nears and the holidays catch your attention, don't forget to get your CLE hours for the year.  West offers over 2,000 audio CLE programs in its West LegalEdcenter, and now you can take those courses on your iPhone with the new West CLE Mobile app.

To get started, download the free West CLE Mobile app to your iPhone, and then create a West LegalEdcenter account, if you don't already have one. 

    

The app allows you to download one free CLE, a one hour program called Ethics in Client Development.  You can also go to the LegalEdcenter and search for or browse the 2,000+ programs offered by West.  The programs that you can use with the iPhone app — which in my unscientific review appeared to be most of them — say "Mobile Compatible" next to them.  (I wish that West would let you browse, search for and purchase CLE programs from within the app itself instead of having to use a web browser, and hopefully this is something that can be added in a future version.)

The prices vary, but most of the one hour courses appear to cost $135.00.  Once you have purchased a program, it will show up as being available for download on your iPhone.  Downloading a program, which includes the audio and the materials, takes just a minute or two.  Once you have a program downloaded to your iPhone, you can play the program at any time before it expires.

    

Once you choose to start playing a program, the audio will play over your iPhone speaker, or use your headphones for a little more privacy.  A progress bars shows you how much you have to go, and if you miss something there is a button that lets you rewind 30 seconds.  You can also use the slider at the bottom to jump to a particular spot in the program, but you cannot advance past your last verified position.  Verified position?  What that means is that at various points during the program, you will hear a bell ring.  When that happens, you need to tap the Now Playing button at the bottom of the screen and then tap the Verify button to demonstrate that you are still awake and listening to the CLE.

    

By tapping on the Program Materials button in the middle of the screen, you can see all of the materials for the CLE, including documents and PowerPoint slides.  I found it very easy to manually scroll through the slides while the speaker was speaking.  You can rotate the screen if you would rather view the slides or documents in landscape mode.

    

One nice feature is that you can stop the program at any time and then resume it later.  This makes it easy to fit in the CLE during whatever time you have available.

When you are finished with your program, the app allows you to rate the program and then you press one button to Submit for Credit.  West then e-mails you a link to obtain a Certificate of Completion, which you can provide to your bar to recognize your CLE credit.

    

Here is a video from West showing off the features of the West CLE Mobile app.  Feel free to silence the audio as you watch this; it consists of nothing more than stock background music:

Thanks to the West CLE Mobile app, you can now slip your iPhone in your pocket, put on some headphones, and get CLE credit while you are doing other things in your house, pausing from time to time to look at the new slides.  I encourage all attorneys to check out this app because the app itself is free and it includes a free download of the Ethics in Client Development program, so even if you never use the app again, you have the opportunity to easily get a free CLE hour.  But after using this app once for free, I'm sure that I will be paying for content in the future because West CLE Mobile on the iPhone is such a convenient way to get CLE credit.

Click here to get West CLE Mobile (free): 

Review: Zosh -- fill out, sign or annotate PDF documents on the iPhone

Have you ever received a PDF file containing a form that you had to fill out or a document that you had to sign or mark up?  Typically you would print out the PDF, use a pen to make your additions or changes, and then either fax the document back or scan and email the document back to the person who sent it to you.  Zosh is a useful iPhone app from a company in Austin, Texas that lets you do all of this on your iPhone, eliminating the need to find a computer, printer, scanner or fax machine to accomplish these tasks.

When you first start the app, you are asked to create a (free) account with Zosh, which simply requires you to provide an e-mail address and a password.  Once you have an account, Zosh knows who you are based on your e-mail address.  The app also creates an entry called "Zosh" in your Contacts that has the e-mail address of [email protected].

When you receive a PDF file that you need to fill out or sign, just forward the e-mail that has the PDF file to "Zosh" and in about a minute the document will appear on the main screen of the Zosh app.  Tap the document in Zosh and you will see the PDF on your screen. 

 

When you are ready to insert either text or a signature, tap the Insert button at the top right, or just tap and hold on a spot in the document.  Inserting text is very simple, just type the text that you want inserted.  There is a shortcuts button that lets you easily enter text that you have used in the past.

    

The text will then appear on the form, and you can re-size the text and move it around so that it appears on the correct line. You can even rotate the text, if necessary.

    

The app also lets you quickly insert a date in a short (12/15/09) medium (Dec. 15, 2009) or long (December 15, 2009) format.  Finally, you can easily insert a signature.  With the iPhone screen being so small, you might wonder how you can sign more than a letter or two using your finger before you hit the edge of the screen.  The app actually has an ingenious way of handling this; the screen automatically scrolls (at a speed you can adjust in settings) so that the "paper" moves under you as you are signing.  The makes it very easy to sign a name just using the tip of your finger.  When you are done, the signature is added to the document, and you can make it larger or smaller, move it to the right place and rotate it if necessary.

  

 

The signature feature of Zosh is really nice.  Unless you are an artist with a tablet connected to your computer, you may actually find it easier to sign a PDF on your iPhone with your finger using Zosh than it is to create a signature using your mouse and a drawing tool on your computer.

The Settings allow you to make your inserts blue, black, gray or red.  You can also change the default font of text with over 50 different choices, many of which are variants.  (For example, you can choose Times New Roman normal, bold, italic or bold & italic.)

When you are finished completing the form or adding a signature, hit the Transmit button at the bottom.  You can choose to send the revised document to you, or you can choose to e-mail to others which brings up a standard e-mail form for you to complete from within the app.

 

The recipient will receive a PDF file with all of the information that you added on the PDF document.

Here is a video from the developer of Zosh that shows the app in action:

I would like to see some more features in an update.  For example, it would be nice to be able to change the color and font of text after you enter it.  It would also be nice to have an undo button, although this omission is minor because if you don't like the way that you placed, sized or rotated something it is pretty easy to just change it again.  It would also be nice to have some sort of "save as" function or "copy" function for documents so that you can keep a commonly used form in the Zosh app and just copy it each time you want to add new inserts, a new signature, etc.

But even in this 1.0 version, the Zosh app works great.  It never even occurred to me before that I could use the iPhone to add text or a signature to a PDF file.  If you ever have the need to fill out or sign a PDF form while you are out of the office, this app is perfect.  And the $2.99 price is a bargain considering that the alternative may involve figuring out a way to print out, sign, and fax a document, such as finding a local Kinko's and paying whatever they charge to fax documents.

Also, while Zosh is advertised just as a way to complete a form or sign a document, you can also use this app is to add annotations to a PDF file, perhaps adding some large red text to suggest some changes on a document or using the signature feature to draw a circle or an arrow to add emphasis to a particular part of a PDF file.  This is so much easier and faster than trying to explain in an e-mail or even on the phone what needs to be changed in a document.  (Go to the fourth page of the document, now find the second paragraph, now go to the fifth word...  Yikes!)

If you are a lawyer or anyone who works with PDF documents while you are out of your office, this reasonably priced app is one that you will definitely want to add to your arsenal of iPhone tools.

Click here to get Zosh ($2.99): 

Review: Dragon's Lair -- your quest awaits, on the iPhone

If you are between 35 and 45 years old and played video games when you were a kid, then you will probably hear actor Michael Rye's voice in your head as you read these words:  "Dragon's Lair: The fantasy adventure where you become a valiant knight, on a quest to rescue the fair princess from the clutches of an evil dragon. You control the actions of a daring adventurer finding his way through the castle of a dark wizard, who has enchanted it with treacherous monsters and obstacles. In the mysterious caverns below the castle, your odyssey continues against the awesome forces that oppose your efforts to reach the Dragon's Lair. Lead on, adventurer. Your quest awaits!" 

Dragon's Lair was a breakthrough video game when it came out in 1983, and not just because it was the first game that I remember that cost 50¢.  The game was unique because it did not rely on the modest computer graphics of the early 1980s but instead used a laserdisc with a real cartoon beautifully drawn by former Disney animator Don Bluth.  Last week, the game came out for the iPhone, and given all of my fond memories of playing it as a teenager, I couldn't resist buying it.  I normally don't review games on iPhone J.D., but I decided to mention this one for those of you out there who, like me, spent quite a few quarters enjoying this game during your youth. 

 

In fact, my iTunes App Store receipt is sort of funny from last week because it is all dragons, all the time:

The game play is simple.  There are on-screen buttons for your sword (on the left) and a four-way directional pad (on the right).  At frequent points during the animation, the button that you need to press flashes momentarily, and you need to press it at the right time to go forward in the game. 

 

 

Make a mistake — and trust me, you will make plenty — and you will lose a life and see this familiar screen:

Fortunately, the default setting in the game is to give you infinite lives.  Boy, what I would have given to have that back when I was a teenager!  You can change that if you want to torture yourself and make the game more challenging.  The game also saves your place so you can quit the app and pick up where you left off.  Make all the right moves, and you can rescue Princess Daphne from the clutches of the evil dragon.

 

It occurred to me when I reached the end of the game this past weekend that I first started trying to finish Dragon's Lair in the summer of 1983.  26 years later, thanks to the iPhone and the infinite lives feature, I was finally able to finish.  Nice to know that I can check that one off of my bucket list.

The game has two different playing modes, one which resembles the original arcade version and a "home mode" that actually makes more sense because you go through scenes in sequence.  (In the original arcade game, when you died, you did not replay the scene but instead were sent to a different scene.  This made the game more challenging but less linear.)  One nice feature is a Watch Game mode in which you can just watch the game being played perfectly.  This mode reminds me of being a kid watching someone better play the game, and this mode allows you to appreciate the wonderful animation and the funny grunts and asides of Dirk the Daring even more than is possible when you are playing the game and concentrating on what button to press next.  And by the way, the animation looks beautiful on the iPhone.  It is a very nice transfer.

 

After you finish the game, you can of course play it again as much as you want, but frankly it has somewhat limited replay value.  Nevertheless, if you share my nostalgia for the original game of the early 1980s, you'll consider this one worth the twenty quarters.  Ahem, I mean worth the $4.99 price tag.  I had a lot of fun with this one.

UPDATED LINK THAT WORKS AS OF 5/27/2019:

Click here to get Dragon's Lair 30th Anniversary ($4.99): 

In the news

A lot of exciting iPhone apps have been accepted into the App Store lately.  Earlier this week I talked about Dragon Dictation, which is really a remarkable app.  If you read my review when it first came out, go back and look at it again to see some important updates to my review, including a link to a great website containing dictation tips.  Also accepted into the App Store (after a very long wait) was the Ustream Broadcaster app which lets you stream live video from your iPhone to a website, as noted in this Macworld review.  I decided to wait to review Ustream because a similar app, Qik, is also likely to be approved by Apple now that Apple has approved Ustream, and I might do a comparison review when both apps are out.  The acceptance of Ustream, Knocking Live (which I reviewed last week) and Qik will represent a major shift by Apple in letting iPhone apps take advantage of the iPhone video camera.  This is great news for iPhone users.  And now, on to the news of the week:

• Are you a Louisiana lawyer looking to get the rest of your CLE hours for 2009?  Then join us in New Orleans on December 30th for the seminar Digital Workflow for Attorneys.  Ernie "the Attorney" Svenson and Prof. Dane Ciolino will teach you everything you need to know about becoming a better digital attorney, from how to become paperless to how to effectively conduct electronic discovery.  The six hour course will include an hour of ethics and and hour of professionalism so that you can satisfy those requirements, plus I will teach a session on Mobile Lawyering Tips with the iPhone.  I hope to see you there, and you can get more information here.
• Looking ahead to satisfying your CLE hours in 2010, I've mentioned before how excited I am to present two sessions on using the iPhone in the practice of law at the ABA TECHSHOW in Chicago on March 25 to 27.  The ABA has now released the full schedule for the program, and as you can see, every hour of the day you have a lot of sessions to choose from.  At several points, I'm really torn on which session to attend myself!  We'll have a lot of fun in Chicago, and I hope to see you there.
• Time Magazine did not choose the iPhone 3GS for the gadget of the year this year (the Droid got that honor), but it probably is time to give another gadget a chance at the top spot.  (The iPhone was #4 this year.)  Nevertheless, proving the iPhone's dominance, Time did not provide a top ten list of Android apps for 2009, but they did pick their ten favorite iPhone apps.  Also, the famous New Yorker cover that was created on an iPhone by Jorge Columbo was named the #2 Magazine Cover of the Year.  (And that isn't the only iPhone-related cover of the year; check out #6, also from the New Yorker.)
• The Deseret News in Salt Lake City, Utah reports on a Christmas iPhone app developed by attorney Alissa Owen, now a stay-at-home mom.  The $1.99 app is called Santa's Message and it allows you to record messages for your kids, and then the app "translates your voice into Santa's deep, rich baritone, ready for delivery, with a picture of Old St. Nick on the phone screen."
• AppleInsider reports that Apple removed over 1,000 apps from the App Store after learning that the developer hired people to write favorable reviews.  Macworld also has a good report.
• Oklahoma bankruptcy lawyer Dan Nunley recommends that all iPhone-using bankruptcy attorneys purchase two app published by Cliff Maier.  While bankruptcy is not my area of practice, I agree that Cliff has some great, useful iPhone apps.
• The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription required) on Apple's recent purchase of La La, a service that allows you to stream music over the web.  The article speculates on what Apple may do with the service.  I suspect that a key reason for the purchase was to bring the smart people at La La into Apple, but I can also see a future where you don't need to sync your music via iTunes to play it on your iPhone; you could just use the Internet to stream music that you already own.  I could also see Apple starting a subscription music service, even though Steve Jobs has said in the past that customers would rather own music than rent it.  It will be very interesting to see what comes of this next year.
• If you visit the App Store on iTunes, you can't miss the iTunes Rewind 2009 which features the best in music, TV, movies and iPhone apps.  As the App Store notes:  "In early 2008, we were happy just to get email on our phone.  Now, we're playing multiplayer championship racing with Real Racing, editing films with RealDirector, manipulating photos with Colorsplash, or getting completely lost in the touch screen wonder that is Spider:  The Secret of Bryce Manor.  The constant developments in technology, the sheer number of apps available, and the fun of exploring — these are all part of why apps were such an important part of our lives in 2009 and we can't wait to see where the App Store is going in the future."  Well said, Mr. App Store Text Writer.  Check out the App Store to see the Best of 2009 iPhone Apps.
• Yesterday, I wrote about iPhone security, an issue being raised by several security consultants.  I recently heard from another security consultant who makes a very good point.  As noted in this article (PDF link) from tech expert Cathy Brode of 3BView, lawyers should be aware that if they forward a Word document while using an iPhone, metadata remains within the document.  Many lawyers have software on their computers which can be used to strip metadata before sending a document to opposing counsel.  Don't forget that this software isn't on  your iPhone, so think about this before forwarding an e-mail with a file attached on your iPhone to others outside of your firm.
• If you are a lobbyist, a governmental relations attorney, or just a congressional news junkie, you'll want to check out the new C-SPAN Radio app.  Art of the iPhone provides a quick overview of the app.
• I haven't tried it myself yet, but I frequently hear lawyers and others give Dropbox rave reviews, a service that lets you easily share files between multiple computers.  With the Dropbox iPhone app, you can also access your files on your iPhone.  Macworld gives the app a good review.
• Gigaom has an interesting and fun graphic showing who makes money from the sale of an iPhone.
• iPhone Savior reports on the iVictrola, an iPhone speaker that combines old tech and new tech.  Very amusing.
• And finally, the New York Times provides a video report of the Stanford iPhone Orchestra.  Yes, you read that correctly.  iPhone Orchestra.  Too funny.

iPhone Security

The ABA Journal reports on a blog post from attorney Sharon Nelson, the president of security company Sensei Enterprises, in which Nelson says that a 50-person law firm (which she does not identify) abandoned the iPhone because of the security risks that Nelson described in this article from the ABA Law Practice Magazine.  The article says that if a sophisticated hacker gains access to your iPhone, using the right tools, he can bypass iPhone security features and access data. 

Security is very important for lawyers, but articles like this frustrate me a little.  First, the hacking required is very sophisticated.  The hacker mentioned in that article is Jonathan Zdziarski, the foremost authority on iPhone security who literally wrote the book on iPhone Forensics.  I have no doubt that if Zdziarski gets your iPhone and wants to do you harm, you are in trouble.  The random guy who picks up the iPhone you left on a subway will almost certainly not be Jonathan Zdziarski. 

Second, the iPhone is not unique when it comes to security risks.  What about the risk of losing a briefcase containing confidential client papers?  What about the risk of losing a laptop computer containing hundreds of gigabytes and many years of confidential information?  Is it reasonable for a law firm to bar its attorneys from using briefcases or using laptops?  It would take a skilled hacker to bypass the password on your laptop (assuming that you are using one), but I have no doubt that there are a larger number of skilled Windows hackers and folks who can figure out how to open a briefcase out there than skilled iPhone hackers.

Law firms need to be concerned about security.  Just last month, the FBI issued issued an advisory that it had seen "noticeable increases" in efforts to hack into the law firm computer systems.  Smart hackers can exploit holes in network routers to tunnel into a law firm, especially one that doesn't have the latest security patches.  Moreover, security experts will tell you that while computer crime is an important risk, so is social engineering.  How easy would it be for a person to walk into your law firm, perhaps wearing a genuine looking uniform, or perhaps entering when a receptionist is away or distracted, and gain access to all sorts of paper files or computer terminals?  And if a criminal calls lawyers and staff pretending to be from IT and asking for the user's password, would anyone at your firm give it to them?

I can't fault security firms such as Sensei Enterprises for issuing news stories which scare people.  It helps to get them new customers, and if all law firms hired smart security consultants, the trend noted by the FBI last month would surely start to reverse itself.  I also understand that because the iPhone is not only popular, but also a pop culture symbol, one can get a lot more attention writing a story about iPhone security than talking about Palm Treo security or Android security.  Nevertheless, I think that people need to look at the big picture.

The problem is not iPhone security.  The problem is security.  Period.  This includes computer security, smartphone security, physical office security, social engineering security, etc.  If an attorney puts confidential information anywhere — be it on an iPhone, a laptop, or a legal pad — the attorney needs to be very cautious about what happens to that information.  If you lose your briefcase, there is little you can do besides retrace your steps and hope to find it.  If you lose an iPhone, you have the option of trying to determine its location using a service like MobileMe or you can immediately tell your system administrator (or use MobileMe) to remotely wipe the iPhone.  It won't work if a thief has already removed the SIM chip, but at least those are options that you don't have with a lost briefcase or even a lost laptop.

Apple has already done a lot to improve security on the iPhone, and I'm sure that they will continue to do more.  A lot of smart IT folks at major law firms have analyzed the state of iPhone security, and most of the most profitable firms in the country allow the use of iPhones.  Indeed, just a few days ago, John Cox wrote an article in Network World entitled iPhone Winning Over Some Corporate Security Skeptics.  That article quotes Andy Jurczyk, the CIO at Chicago-based law firm Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP and a self-described security extremist, who says that there are currently more security measures for the Blackberry than for the iPhone, but nevertheless he became satisfied with the level of iPhone security once Apple added Microsoft ActiveSync support in 2008.

Each law firm needs to make its own decisions on security.  Do you let your attorneys use a laptop at all?  Have you ever hired a consultant to do a security audit?  How easy is it to gain physical access to your office?  What policies do you have in place when a disgruntled employee leaves?  Each firm needs to decide what is best for its users, but when I hear that a firm decides to prohibit the use of laptops or iPhones or any other particular device, I can't help but wonder whether the right focus is being placed on the most critical security risks. 

Having said that, if you are an attorney using an iPhone, please use your iPhone's passcode lock feature, and please don't expose your iPhone to potential trouble by jailbreaking your iPhone.

Review: Dragon Dictation -- iPhone voice transcription by Dragon NaturallySpeaking

With over 100,000 apps available for the iPhone, there are a lot of great apps out there.  Every once in a while, an app comes along that really impresses me and stands out from the rest.  Yesterday, Nuance released one such app, a version of Dragon NaturallySpeaking for the iPhone called Dragon Dictation.  Simply dictate a message to your iPhone and, almost instantly, your voice is transcribed with amazing accuracy.  With one tap you can send the transcription to an e-mail.  You can dictate a message to your iPhone a heck of a lot faster than you can tap a message on the iPhone keyboard, even if you are a good iPhone typist, so with Dragon Dictation you can save a lot of time writing messages or other text.  And for a limited time, this amazing app is free.  All I can say is, wow.

Well actually, you know I can't help but say a lot more than that one word, so let's get to it.  To use the app, simply start it up and tap the red button in the middle of the screen.  Then speak your message.  You can also say punctuation marks such as "comma", "period", "question mark", "exclamation mark" etc.  To start a new paragraph just say "new paragraph".  

[UPDATE 12/10/09:  Joet of Just Another iPhone Blog has posted a bunch of dictation tips, including instructions on telling the app to capitalize a word (just say "cap" before the word) or to even turn on and off all caps, and including tips on dictating punctuation and symbols.]

You can go for about 20 seconds at a time, and then the app will stop recording and show you what it has so far.  Or, you can stop or pause yourself by tapping the Done button.  Your speech is quickly translated and then you will see the text on your screen.  If you want to add more text, just tap the red recording button again to add to your message.

    

In my tests, the accuracy of the transcription has been excellent.  The app even adapts to your voice over time to improve accuracy, and thus Nuance recommends that you avoid letting other people use the Dragon Dictation app on your iPhone.  If this matters to you, note that the app resists translating curse words — an issue of no consequence to me except that I love that it resulted in this amusing post by Andy Ihnatko. 

Of course, like all voice-to-text systems, the transcription is it not 100% perfect.  Fortunately, there are three easy ways to correct transcription errors.  First, you can tap on a word that you want to correct, and a drop-down list will pop up with alternative suggestions.  You can also correct an entire phrase by dragging your finger to highlight a few words. 

    

Second, once you have selected the incorrect word, you can tap the red button and record it again.  Third, you can tap the keyboard button at the bottom left and manually correct the error by typing it correctly.  When you are using the keyboard, you place the cursor in the correct location by double-tapping in a spot.

  

When you are done with your message, it is very simple to export it, especially if you want to move the text to an e-mail.  Just tap the arrow icon at the bottom right of the screen and select "Send to Mail" in the menu that comes up.  Within the app itself, an e-mail panel opens with your message included.  Address your e-mail, add a subject and click send, and you are done.

    

Another option is to "Send to Clipboard."  This option copies the text so that, within any other app, you can paste the text.  For example, you might want to open the Facebook app, a Twitter client, or a word processor such as Documents to Go or Quickoffice and paste the text there.  A final option is "Send to Txt Msg" which copies the text to the clipboard and opens up the Messages app.  You need to start a new message manually and then paste the text into your text message.

Nuance posted this short video to YouTube that shows the app in action:

Any time a lawyer has someone else write down the lawyer's words, security is an issue to consider.  Note that the transcription does not happen within this app itself.  Instead, the app sends your voice to a server operated by Nuance, the transcription happens on that server, and then the text is sent back to your iPhone.  And that is not all that is sent to Nuance; the app also sends a list of the names in your iPhone's Contacts (but nothing but the names) so that you can say the name of a person who you know and Dragon can do a good job of figuring out the text.  For example, I was amazed when this app correctly transcribed "Ernest Svenson" on the first try until I realized that Dragon already knew about that name from my Contacts list.  Ben Patterson of Yahoo! Tech asked Nuance about security and received this response from the developer of Dragon Dictation:

Search queries and dictation requests are transcribed by fully automated speech recognition software, without the use of humans.  Data is uploaded and collected in order to improve performance for individual users, and to improve the general performance of the system.

All speech recognition requests and associated data are processed in data centers in the U.S. that meet stringent security and privacy standards; these are the same standards that we use for processing private information in other areas of our business.

The Dragon Dictation application does upload a user’s contact names only (no phone numbers, email addresses, etc.), and the data is used only for optimizing name recognition when a user dictates.  It maintains its integrity and security.

Speaking more about the app's use of your Contacts list, Michael Thompson, Senior Vice President & General Manager with Nuance Mobile (the guy in the above video), writes:

As you may have experienced already, Dragon Dictation for the iPhone goes through your contact list on your iPhone and uploads the names to our server. We do this for a pretty simple reason: we found that people are often dictating names from their address book and expect the names to be recognized. We take this information and create an anonymous user profile for your device that understands what names are likely to dictate into a document. It's important to note that we only upload the names, not the e-mail addresses, phone numbers or any other personally identifying information from your contacts.

Even though there is no personally identifying information, we still treat all of this information with the highest privacy standards. All of our servers are located in the United States and meet the most stringent privacy and security standards. We conform to these high standards because we use the same data centers for other areas of our business where we are required to store personal information.

[UPDATE 12/10/09:  Dragon announced today that it is working on an update to the app that will allow you to turn off the feature of uploading the names of your contacts to Nuance.  Thus, if this is a privacy concern for you, there should be a solution soon.]  [UPDATE #2 12/10/09:  As David Pogue of the New York Times points out, it is a little strange for people to be so worried about Nuance getting your list of contacts when so many other companies have so much more information about you already.]  [UPDATE 2/16/09:  Version 1.1 of the app is now available, which allows you to choose to not upload Contacts data and to delete any previously uploaded Contacts data from the Nuance server.]

Because the app talks to a Nuance server to do its magic, you need to have a network connection to use the app.  On WiFi, I find that transcription is almost instantaneous.  Even on 3G, it only takes a few seconds to work.  I haven't tried the app on a slower Edge connection.

As amazing as this app is, it is just the beginning.  Nuance VP Michael Thompson wrote that the company has "a bunch more applications, languages and features planned."  For example, one missing feature is the ability to tell the app to capitalize a word.  [See above tip for capitalization.]  Also, the app doesn't include a legal or medical dictionary, and I would not be surprised to see this as a future add-on that can be purchased (or a future, separate version of the app).

Nuance is also planning to a launch another app called Dragon Search.  They already have a web page set up and the app is in testing now.  Dragon Search will allow you to speak your search terms and get simultaneous results from websites such as Google (or Yahoo or Bing), YouTube, Twitter, iTunes and Wikipedia.  Google has long offered its free Google Mobile app that allows you to speak your search terms, so presumably the hook for Dragon Search will be the simultaneous results from multiple sites, not just Google.

Dragon Dictate is not the first iPhone app to handle dictation.  For example, Voxie Pro Recorder can record and transcribe text.  The app itself costs only $1.99, but you have to pay extra for transcription services, which are done by real people.  This is great for accuracy, and they even offer Legal and Medical transcription, but you pay by the word and the cost can get expensive as you can see in these service plans.  Another option is QuickVoice2Text Email which costs only $0.99, but it takes about ten minutes to transcribe your voice.  What Dragon has going for it is the years of experience of Dragon NaturallySpeaking, the premier speech to text engine on the PC and Mac, and the speed and low price of automated transcription by a computer.

As noted above, for a limited time, the Dragon Dictation app is free.  Nuance has not announced what the price will be when this limited time offer ends.  I strongly encourage you to run, do not walk, to your nearest App Store and download this app right now, while it is free.  I guarantee that the time will come when you will find this app handy to have. 

Click here to get Dragon Dictate (free for a limited time): 

Review: AT&T Mark the Spot -- easily report service problems to AT&T

Have you ever had a problem with your AT&T service on your iPhone and wished that there was a simple way to tell AT&T about the problem?  Yesterday, AT&T released its fifth iPhone app, an app called Mark the Spot that allows you to alert AT&T to a problem.

When you launch the app, the app determines your current location, based on the assumption that you are in the spot that is having the problem.  However, if you want to tell AT&T about a problem that happened in a different location, just tap the Map button and find the location where the incident occurred.  A red X will stay in the middle of the screen, and as you scroll around a map the marker will tell you the latitude and longitude and address of that location.  Incidentally, this free app is probably the easiest way to quickly determine the latitude and longitude and/or address of a location, so if that function is useful to you consider downloading Mark the Spot for this reason alone.

   

Next, indicate the type of problem that you had at that location, selecting from choices such as "dropped call" or "no coverage."  Finally, indicate whether the problem happens once, seldom, often or always.  If you want, you can tap the Additional Info button to bring up a field where you can type a message to provide more information on your problem.

 

When you are finished with your report, tap Submit.  The app then provides your information to AT&T.  I'm not exactly sure how it does that if you happen to be in an area that has no AT&T coverage to begin with.  I can't imagine that the app is allowed to run in the background to send the report after your AT&T coverage returns.  Perhaps the app sends a text message that gets queued until you have service again, but there is certainly no record of that left on the iPhone.  Regardless of how it is that AT&T gets your report, AT&T sends you a free text message within an hour of getting the report to acknowledge receipt.

    

Because this app was just released, it is too soon to say how much the app helps AT&T to improve coverage.  Nevertheless, it is encouraging to hear AT&T say that it will "utilize this feedback to optimize and enhance the network.  Problems will be clustered to highlight areas for investigation."  Note that AT&T says that "multiple submissions at the same time for the same issue by the same user do not receive higher weighting." 

I've seen some remarks that the existence of this app is evidence of AT&T admitting to problems with its coverage as highlighted in Verizon ads currently airing.  I think that is unfair; every wireless network has problem spots, but now AT&T is giving its customers an easy way to do something about it.  Assuming that AT&T makes good use of the reports that it receives, I think that this app is a wonderful idea and gives AT&T customers a way to provide feedback so quickly and easily that there is no reason not to speak up when a customer encounters a problem area.  AT&T can get a lot of valuable information from this app that will allow it to improve coverage for its customers.  Kudos to AT&T for taking steps towards improving coverage.

Click here to get AT&T Mark the Spot (free): 

In depth look at the App Store by the New York Times

A few days ago, Jenna Wortham of the New York Times wrote a great story on the iPhone App Store.  The article includes interviews with iPhone developers, compares developing apps for the iPhone to developing apps for other smartphones, and includes some interesting quotes from Apple executives such as Phil Schiller, Apple's Senior Vice President of Marketing, who explained to the Times that Apple is trying to do the right thing:

“I think, by and large, we do a very good job there,” Mr. Schiller said. “Sometimes we make a judgment call both ways, that people give us feedback on, either rejecting something that perhaps on second consideration shouldn’t be, or accepting something that on second consideration shouldn’t be.”

For Apple, the review process is a necessary evil. The company places high value on what it describes as “customer trust,” or the idea that users have faith that an application distributed on the iPhone won’t crash the platform, steal personal information or contain illegal content.

Mr. Schiller says the majority of applications sail through the review with no difficulty, and those that do require greater scrutiny are largely those that are slowed down by bugs or glitches in the coding.

“We care deeply about the feedback, both good and bad,” he says. “While there are some complaints, they are just a small fraction of what happens in the process.”

This article reminds me of statements Apple made this past August which I discussed here.  If you enjoy using third party apps on your iPhone, I think you will enjoy reading this New York Times article. And there is also a good related article in which Schiller lists some of his favorite apps.

In the news

There have been a lot of new visitors to iPhone J.D. this week thanks to the ABA Journal article listing this as one of the Top 100 Blawgs.  If you are new here, check out the iPhone J.D. Index to get caught up.  For long time readers of iPhone J.D., I'd appreciate your vote.  Now, on to the iPhone news from this week:

• Earlier this year, I wrote a post on the origin and meaning of the "i" in "iPhone."  More recently, Caleb Crain wrote an interesting article for the New York Times Magazine in which he argues that one should not use capital letters in the middle of words, a practice that he calls Camel Case but which I have more frequently seen referred to as InterCaps.  Crain argues that we should all write Iphone instead of iPhone.  Um... no.
• This AP article lists suggests some good hardware gifts for an iPhone owner.
• Dan Dearing writes an article in Networld World about how corporate environments that currently shun the iPhone should learn to accept it because their users are using them anyway.
• The new website App Rejections writes about iPhone apps that Apple has rejected from the App Store.  Some of the stories are quite humorous.
• If you like to take pictures with your iPhone, Rik Fairlie of the New York Times suggests some good apps.
• Michael Agger writes in Slate about "iPhone moms" who use iPhones themselves but also let their kids use their iPhones.  Neil Swidey writes a similar article for the Boston Globe.
• Looking for a fun game on your iPhone that you can play in very short intervals?  I really like Ramp Champ from Iconfactory, a twist on the classic boardwalk skee-ball game.  And speaking of letting your kid use your iPhone, my four year old son also loves this game too.  It is free for a limited time, so get it while you can.  Click here to get Ramp Champ (free for now): 
• Speaking of free, Sean Ludwig of PC Magazine identifies his Top 40 Free iPhone Apps.  There are some good ones on his list.
• Apparently, an iPhone can still work even if it is so cracked that you need Scotch Tape to keep it together.  (via Denise Howell)
• Dan Moren writes for Macworld about adding locations to calendar events on the iPhone.
• Philip Michaels writes for Macworld about improvements to the PDF viewer in Documents to Go.  The improvements are great, and this app is now my favorite PDF viewer for the iPhone.
• If you travel a lot, you should check out the FlightTrack app.  David Pogue of the New York Times gives it a great review.  Click here for FlightTrack Pro ($9.99): 
• I know a lot of lawyers who are fantastic guitar players.  For example, Doc Schneider of King & Spalding in Atlanta has some great songs on iTunes.  (Some of my favorites:  The Legal Guitarist, Wherever You Are, Choices and Chances and The Best Year of My Life.)  And Jonathan Hoffman of Martin Bischoff in Seattle has five different albums of fun and nicely done songs for dog lovers.  (I myself play piano, although I do hope to learn the guitar one day.)  For all of you out there who play guitar, Bob Tedeschi of the New York Times suggests some great guitar-related iPhone Apps.
• And finally, I know many attorneys who use Dragon Naturally Speaking software on their computers.  This software lets you dictate to your computer and has very good accuracy.  I have tried the product before, but because I am a very fast touch typist, it isn't something that I have wanted to use.  But apparently Nuance, the manufacturer, is coming out with an iPhone app.  I can definitely talk faster than I can type on my iPhone, so this app looks very intriguing.  There is no release date yet nor has a price been announced, but this demo of a beta version from Gear Diary is very very interesting:

Review: Knocking Live -- stream live video from your iPhone

Have you ever found yourself looking at something and thinking, hey, this is neat, I wish I could show it to so-and-so right now?  With an iPhone, you can always take a picture or video and e-mail it to the person, but that is delayed gratification.  What would be really neat is to let someone else see something live, at the same time that you are seeing it.  The smart folks at Pointy Heads LLC (cute name) have come up with an iPhone app called Knocking Live that lets you stream live video from one iPhone to another iPhone so that someone else can see what you are seeing, while you are seeing it.

The app received a lot of publicity when it was released on December 1st because of the way that it showed up on the App Store.  You see, the Pointy Heads guys aren't the first to come up with a way to stream live video from an iPhone.  A company called Qik showed a demo of an app that would allow you to stream live video from your iPhone to a website so that lots of people could watch the live stream at the same time.  I posted a video of a demo of the Qik app earlier this past July.  Unfortunately, Apple did not approve the original Qik app, presumably because the hack that Qik was using to stream video was not supported by Apple.  Thus, the Qik folks instead released a pared down app that allows you to upload video to the Qik website that folks can view later but which omits live streaming of video.  (Qik is available on other mobile phones, and some of them such as the Nokia S60 do support live video streaming.)

With that background, it is no surprise that when the Pointy Head guys submitted their app to Apple, it was also initially rejected.  But the developers were persistent, and they wrote an e-mail to Steve Jobs himself, urging him to approve the app.  As Ars Technica reports, the e-mail apparently worked.  The developers got a call from Apple saying that someone "directly from the top" had approved the app.  Read the full story over on Ars Technica to get all of the details on how this app got approved.  It's a good read.

I've been trying out the app for the last two days, and my opinion is that it is VERY COOL, but unfortunately is at the moment VERY BUGGY.  Let's start with the good news.  The app is free, at least for now.  The developers say that it is free for the first 50,000 users, and then it will cost $2.99, which is a very reasonable price for what this app does.  The app is also easy to use.  Just download it, create an account, and get a buddy with an iPhone to also create an account.  (The developer is working on similar apps for the Blackberry and Android so that, in the future, you can even stream video to someone who isn't even using an iPhone. )  Either you or your buddy can send each other a friend or family invitation using a process that is similar to creating a friend on Facebook:  a request comes in, and you can either accept it or reject it.  I've blurred out the name below, but this gives you an idea of what it looks like:

Once you have a "friend" or "family" member you can start sending them video just by tapping their name in the app and then tapping the button that says "Share Video with" and then the person's name.  Once you are connected, that person will see a live video stream (no audio) of whatever you are seeing on your iPhone.

On the receiving end, the app also works very well.  Using push notification, you will see a message pop up on your iPhone saying that [name] wants to share video with you and you will hear a sound on your iPhone that sounds like someone knocking on a door.  You don't even have to be running the Knocking Live app to get the notice.  Just tap OK and the app will launch and, in a few seconds, you will start to see the video.

 

The app works best if you are both using Wi-Fi, but I've also tested it over 3G and that works too, although the video is more jerky.  As noted above, the app only sends the video, not the audio, but that is not a problem because you can call someone on your iPhone at the same time that you are using Knocking Video.  Just use your iPhone to call someone else's iPhone, then start the Knocking Video app, then start sending video to that person's iPhone.  You will both hear each other over the phone, and one of you will get to see the video from the other person.  It is sort of like a one-way video chat, except that the camera on your iPhone is facing away from you so the person sees what you are seeing and not your face (unless you turn your iPhone towards your face, of course).  Additionally, the developer says that audio will be added in a future version (although I would still probably prefer using the phone so that you can get two-way audio while you stream video one way).  The developer also notes in the app description on the App Store that simultaneous video streaming and telephone calls only works "on some connections."  It worked fine for me.

Last night, for example, I called my brother who lives in San Francisco on his iPhone.  I was able to stream him live video from my house in New Orleans and show him my Christmas tree, and then later he was able to stream me live video from his house on the West Coast and show me his kitchen, all while we were talking on the iPhone:

  

For an even better demonstration of how this all works, the developer has posted this short promotional video to YouTube:

...and this 7 minute hands on demonstration to YouTube:

So that is the good news.  The bad news?  Oh man is it buggy.  Sometimes when I attempt to start the app, the app tries to launch for 30 seconds but then never does.  Other times, I get the app to launch and start sharing video, but after anywhere from 10 to 30 seconds, the app crashes and the video stops streaming.  I was never able to get the app working for more than about two minutes straight before it would crash.  The crashes were so frequent that at times I wondered how the app was even approved to be on the App Store ... but then I remembered, oh yeah, the approval came "from the top."

According to the developer, the server that supports this app is being overloaded right now, and that is the reason for the crashes.  I imagine that lots of people are reading the Ars Technica story and trying out this app since it is free.  The developer says that its technical team is currently working around the clock to fix this, so hopefully this will improve very soon.

Because it currently crashes so much, you cannot currently rely on this app for anything that is mission critical.  And while the app includes some other features that I haven't tried yet (such as a Facebook integration), you definitely get the feeling while using the app that this is just a first release that is still lacking lots of features.  As noted above, audio is coming to a future version, and the ability to record is also a planned future feature.  Nevertheless, as the stability improves and features increase over time, this app will become very useful.  I can imagine many situations in which I would want to use this app, such as if I am at the park watching my kids do something cute and I want my wife at home to see it while it is happening.  As a proof of concept and a preview of what is coming to the iPhone in the future, this app is really neat.

Click here to get Knocking Live (free for first 50,000, then will cost $2.99):