In the news

Most of the Apple-related news this week consisted of speculation about next week’s big announcement, but there were a few other stories, including one about an iPhone saving a person’s life.  MSNBC and iPhone Savior tell the story of Dan Wooley, who was in Haiti earlier this month working for a mission organization and making a film about Haitian poverty.  When the earthquake hit on January 12, he was in hotel and soon found himself trapped under tons of wreckage in the hotel lobby.  Thanks in part to the American Heart Association’s Pocket First Aid & CPR iPhone app, he was able to stay alive until help arrived.  The MSNBC article explains:  “[T]hanks to the iPhone first-aid app he’d downloaded, he
knew how to fashion a bandage and tourniquet for his leg and to stop
the bleeding from his head wound. The app also warned him not to fall
asleep if he felt he was going into shock, so he set his cell phone’s
alarm clock to go off every 20 minutes.”  65 hours after the earthquake, a French rescue team arrived and Wooley was returned to safety.  Wow.  I feel like we all need to download some First Aid apps now.  Click here for the American Heart Association’s Pocket First Aid & CPR ($3.99):  .  Also, I’ve previously reviewed the Merck Manual, and Art of the iPhone lists some other first aid app selections.  Other, less dramatic, iPhone stories of the past week:

• According to a report by Zusha Elinson of The Recorder on Law.com, Apple’s top corporate lawyer, Charles Charnas, left the company this month.  Apple’s current General Counsel is Bruce Sewell, who I wrote about back in September of 2009.  Charnas was hired by Sewell’s predecessor, Daniel Cooperman, back in April of 2008 and Charnas oversaw several acquisitions by Apple such as its purchase of streaming music site Lala in late 2009.  Before Charnas, the top corporate law position at Apple had been vacant for several years, so we’ll see if and when Sewell hires a replacement.
• California attorney Rachel Lamkin posts on her blog TheGeekTrifecta a video of an iPhone app called iTrust that you can use to find out if your spouse is snooping on your iPhone behind your back.  Funny idea for an app, and I hope that you never, never, ever need to use it.
• Some people (especially those who don’t own an iPhone) complain that the iPhone’s virtual keyboard is slow to type on.  But in this test by Phil Gyford, the iPhone was only slightly slower than a full size keyboard and faster than other mobile devices.  Interesting.  (Link via Daring Fireball)
• Quickoffice is, along with Dataviz’s Documents to Go, one of the two best document viewer and editors on the iPhone.  The list price of Quickoffice is $19.99 but it has been “on sale” for $9.99 for as long as I can remember.  It is currently even more on sale, only $7.99 for a limited time.  I’ve discussed Quickoffice many times here, so if you click on the iPhone J.D. Index on the right you will see links to a lot of posts on the app.  Click here for Quickoffice Mobile Office Suite ($7.99 for a limited time): 

  

• Thinking about getting a Bluetooth headset for your iPhone?  Art of the iPhone has a list of their top 10.  Their favorite is the Aliph Jawbone Prime, which I also really liked when I reviewed it a few months ago.  Keep in mind, though, that Aliph recently came out with the new Jawbone ICON, and the initial reviews that I have seen have been excellent.  For example, here is a glowing review from Jim Dalrymple.
• If your office uses Lotus Notes, eWeek reports that IBM recently announced iPhone apps that work with Notes.
• New York attorney Nicole Black lists some good iPhone apps for lawyers on her blog Sui Generis.
• Ars Technica reports that, according to a report from market research firm Gartner, Apple was responsible for 99.4% of all mobile phone app sales in 2009. Gulp!
• And finally, the often amusing fan of all-things-Apple iJustine released an iPhone-themed video that spoofs the song Tik Tok by Ke$ha.  (And no, I had no idea who Ke$ha was before I saw the iJustine spoof.)