My post on Wednesday about the Blue Marble default iPhone wallpaper has resulted in record traffic to iPhone J.D. thanks to John Gruber, who linked to the post on his great Daring Fireball site, and tons of folks who mentioned the post on Facebook and Twitter. For example, Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter, noted in this tweet that the Blue Marble is his wallpaper on both his iPhone and his computers. Likewise, I've had the Blue Marble set as my iPhone wallpaper for the last week. It really is an amazing image that makes me think about how small the Earth really is (not to mention how cool it would be to be an astronaut). I mention all of this today because if you enjoyed the original post, you'll want to go back and read the very interesting comments, especially the ones at the end by Kevin Purcell of Seattle who added some great links to other fantastic photographs of Earth from space. And now, on to the iPhone news of note from the past week:
- Adam Engst of TidBITS wrote an excellent review of the WeatherBug Elite app. I've had the free version of WeatherBug for a long time now. I always considered it one of the best iPhone weather apps, along with AccuWeather and The Weather Channel. (I also like the Weather Underground website which is formatted for the iPhone.) But I didn't realize all that the WeatherBug app can do until I read this review, which prompted me to spend the dollar to get the "Elite" version which doesn't have ads. The ads do get in the way of the maps and charts, so if you decide to get WeatherBug after you read the TidBITS review, I recommend that you spring for the Elite version. Click here to get WeatherBug Elite ($0.99):
- Nicholas Bonsack of Macworld writes about a Stanford survey on iPhone addiction. Hey, I could quit the iPhone anytime I want, I just ... ahem ... oh who am I kidding, yes I'm addicted.
- Claire Cain Miller of the New York Times writes about mobile apps that outperform websites.
- Court Days is a great date calculator app by Dan Friedlander that only costs $0.99. I reviewed the first version last year, and now the app is about to be updated to version 2.0. The new version isn't in the App Store yet, but you can read about it on the LawOnMyPhone website. [UPDATE 3/14/10: The update is now available in the App Store.] There are some great additions, including the ability to add custom court holidays.
- The West Virginia Record writes about Charleston, WV attorney Robert Bailey who wrote iPhone apps containing the rules of procedure for West Virginia state and federal courts.
- If you are looking for a way to stream video from your computer to your iPhone, even video that is in a format that the iPhone normally wouldn't be able to play, Gizmodo has a review of an app called Air Video. I've tried it and it works great. Click here to get Air Video ($2.99):
I purchased one or two Emanuel study guides when I was in law school. For anyone out there planning to take the Multistate Bar Exam, Emanuel now has six iPhone apps to help you prepare. Each one costs $12.99, and the subjects covered are (these are links to the App Store): Constitutional Law, Contracts, Criminal Law and Procedure, Evidence, Property and Torts.
- Apple makes iPhone app developers agree to keep the terms of Apple's developer agreement confidential, but the Electronic Frontier Foundation noticed that NASA is an iPhone developer, so the EFF submitted a FOIA request to NASA to get the agreement, and then posted it on its website. Interesting strategy. If you want to know more about the agreement, click here. Frankly, a lot of what EFF highlights is also contained in Apple's App Store Terms and Conditions, which are available to the public on Apple's website and which I analyzed in my post last year entitled "No refunds and no nukes: a look at the Apple iPhone App Store Terms and Conditions."
- I always enjoy reading about how lawyers use their iPhones. Rick Georges writes on his FutureLawyer site about all of the things that he does with his Droid phone, and since the items on his list are all things that you can also do with an iPhone, I thought some of you might enjoy reading his article.
- Putting aside the fact that AT&T still doesn't allow tethering on the iPhone, I've wondered whether you could tether an iPhone to an iPad, making it unnecessary to buy the more expansive version of the iPad and 3G monthly service. As Engadget notes, Steve Jobs apparently says no.
- And finally, Doritos sponsored a contest for people to come up with a video that would go viral, and one group produced a cute one that mocks Apple's video on the upcoming iPad. You can read more on Mashable and you can view it right here:
