Five years ago today, on June 29, 2007, the original iPhone first went on sale. Steve Jobs had previewed the iPhone back on January 9, 2007, in what I think was the best presentation that Steve Jobs ever made (which is saying something). As we got closer to June 29, 2007, anticipation was high because people wanted to try for themselves the device that seemed so different than everything that came before it. Around the country, people lined up to be among the first to get an iPhone.
As you would expect after five years, there are tons of differences between the original iPhone and the current iPhone 4S. Obviously, iPhones are now cheaper. The cheapest original iPhone was the $499 model with the 4GB, or for an extra $100 you could get 8GB. Today, you can get the iPhone 3GS for free, while the 4S starts at $199 for 16GB and the high-end 64GB model is $399.
With over 650,000 apps currently in the App Store, it seems strange that the original iPhone did not allow for any third party apps. Developers were instead encouraged to create web pages formatted for the iPhone screen (a severe limitation, although thousands were created, many of which were surprisingly good). As for Apple’s built-in apps, because they took advantage of the iPhone’s beautiful and unprecedented screen, they seemed great at the time, but many suffered from severe limitations. For example, the original Mail app did not work with Microsoft Exchange, and that shortcoming alone was a key reason that few lawyers bought the original iPhone. You could not select multiple e-mails at once so you had to delete e-mails one at a time. And as was the case in all apps on the original iPhone, there was no cut/copy-and-paste.
There are important hardware differences between the original iPhone and the current iPhone 4S. The original iPhone did not even work with 3G, and instead only used the slow Edge network. The original iPhone’s camera was only 2 megapixels and did not support video recording, let alone FaceTime videochat. There was a headphone jack on the original iPhone, but it was deeply inset so many headphones would not fit without an adapter. And due to less memory and a much slower CPU, the original iPhone was a fraction of the speed of the current iPhone 4S. On the other hand, you did get a free dock with the original iPhone, something that you now have to purchase for $30.
And of course, technologies like Siri, AirPlay, Bluetooth keyboards, etc. were nowhere to be seen on the original iPhone. Nor were carriers other than AT&T. (The first international iPhone launch was November 9, 2007, when the iPhone was released in the UK and Germany.)
But for all of the changes over the past five years, I’m actually amazed how much the iPhone hasn’t changed. Although thinner and lighter, it is still essentially the same height and width. We still have just the one button on the front, the sleep/wake button at the top, and the volume buttons and mute switch on the side. The basic interface remains a grid of icons, although with the Retina display those icons look much nicer. The basic navigation remains the same: scroll through lists, pinch to zoom, tap on the screen without to push down like on earlier touchscreens. And the iPhone remains dominated by its large, beautiful screen, uncluttered by an always-present keyboard that had been so popular with BlackBerries and Palm Treos. Here is the ad that Apple was running when the iPhone came out in June of 2007, and it still captures much of what makes the iPhone so special today (not to mention it still makes me hungry for calamari):
It is amazing how much Apple got right with the first generation of the iPhone, resulting in so many key iPhone features remaining the same after five years.
Few lawyers bought that original model of the iPhone, but many of us could tell that Apple was about to change smartphones forever (although I doubt that many of us could have predicted how successful the iPhone would be). As Steve Jobs said in 2007: “Every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything. … Apple is going to reinvent the phone.” I am constantly amazed at how much the iPhone and its sibling the iPad have allowed me to be a better lawyer, while at the same time providing countless hours of entertainment and learning (both for me and my kids). As we celebrate the fifth anniversary of the iPhone, I lift my glass to toast Apple for all that it has accomplished and to thank the company for creating such an amazing device.
On this special Thursday edition of In the news, let’s start by turning back the clock. The iPhone and iPad may be the cool tech items du jour, but when I grew up in the 1970s and early 1980s, Atari was all the buzz. I cannot even imagine how many hours my brother and I spent playing Pong and then the Atari 2600 hooked up to our TV. The Atari of today bears little resemblance to the original Atari, but there is enough of a connection to celebrate 40 years of Atari this week. Harry McCracken of Time has a great interview with Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari (and one of the first people to hire Steve Jobs). And now, the rest of the news of note from the past week:
John Barkett of Law Technology News discusses the ABA’s efforts to revise the Model Rules of Professional Conduct to update references to technology. For example, a proposed amendment to Modle Rule 1.1 would require lawyers to keep abredst of “the benefits and risks associated with technology.” I’m already trying to comply with this proposed rule.
South Carolina attorney Bill Latham of The Hytech Lawyer opines that SpiderOak is better for lawyers than Dropbox. His arguments are logical, but I love that Dropbox support is so widespread in iPhone and iPad apps.
Glenn Fleishman, who knows more about Apple Wi-Fi technology than almost anyone else on the planet, reviews the new version of Apple’s AirPort Express in this article for Macworld. In my home, I have an AirPort Extreme and two AirPort Express devices strategically located to ensure Wi-Fi throughout my house.
Nick Wingfield of the New York Times writes about the Surface, a tablet recently previewed by Microsoft. But of course, one cannot talk about any other tablet without talking about the iPad, and this article contains interesting tidbits such as the time that Apple bought a large quantity of high-quality aluminum from an Australian mine to corner the world market and ensure sufficient supplies for the iPad.
Hone is an interesting idea and a Kickstarter project. For $49, you get a fob for your keychain that uses low power Bluetooth 4.0 that works on a battery for up to six months. When you lose your keys, an app on your iPhone can make the keys beep and point an arrow in the direction of your keys to help you locate them using a proximity sensor.
The iEconomy series in the New York Times has included some unfavorable articles about Apple. I think that parts of these articles are sometimes unfair, but they are still good reads. For example, a few day ago David Segal wrote this cover story about how employees at Apple Stores work long hours for little pay. I think his premise is a little silly. Does anyone think that working at an electronics store in a mall is going to be a high-paying job? And yet the demand to get a job at an Apple Store is still incredibly high because of the perks of the job including working with cool technology, great benefits, and the fact that it looks much better on a 20-year-old’s resume than flipping burgers.
And finally, the smart guys at Tovbot have created a iPhone (and Android) external speaker that is also a robot. They called their creation Shimi, and the robot dances along to your music, alerts you when you get a Facebook post or a new Twitter follower, and can recommend songs to play based on hand gestures. And the Shimi will be open to third party development as well, so I’m sure that before long somebody will combine Siri and Shimi (Shirmi?) to turn it into a robot that can talk to you and dance with you This item is expected to launch in early 2013, and it looks like a lot of fun, as you can see in these two videos. And if you like Star Wars, check out this one too.
I’ve previously reviewed two other apps that let you scan business cards with an iPhone. ABBYY Business Card Reader takes a picture of a business card and uses OCR on the iPhone to read the card. CardMunch takes a picture of a business card and uses a service in which a real person look at the card and finds a match to the person on LinkedIn (if available), or if not types the information in. You need to wait up to a few hours to get results, but when you do the results in CardMunch are much more accurate and comprehensive. But I know that some people don’t like the idea of sharing new contact information with LinkedIn and thus prefer to have an app that does all of the OCR on the iPhone itself to maintain privacy. The developer of the WorldCard Mobile iPhone app, Penpower Technology Ltd., asked me to check out their app and sent me a free copy to review, and I’m glad that they did because I’m very impressed. It is a strong alternative to ABBYY Business Card reader.
To use the app, tap the large Camera button on the main screen of the app to start scanning a business card.
Simply put the business card within the blue lines and tap the camera button to take a picture. Better yet, you can tap the icon of a shaking hand, and the iPhone will wait to take a picture until you are holding your iPhone very still. By default the app handles one business card at a time, but you can also tap the button at the bottom right to scan several cards at a time and then wait until later to edit the details.
After you snap a picture you can preview the result and then you tap a button that says “Recognize” to start the OCR process. The app then shows you a contact card with the information that it scanned. As you tap each field, the app shows you the part of the image that it selected to correspond to that field. If it gets something wrong — for example, for my law firm Adams and Reese LLP the app put a lowercase “p” in the LLP — simply tap on the field to edit it. And when you do so, the app shows you an image of the portion of the card that it associated with that field. This way, even if you don’t have the business card with you, you can still see the image to figure out what to correct, if anything.
Sometimes the app makes a mistake when it associates a field with names. For example, I tried a few unconventional business cards in which the business name was more prominent than the person’s name, and the app would sometimes confuse those two fields. If you tap the Browse button, you are presented with the business card image again and you can manually move crosshairs around a portion of a card, and then once selected you can tell the app to use this part of the image for a particular field. This is a very useful feature.
The app usually does a great job of recognizing the four edges of a business card, but if it has trouble you can manually select the four corners of the card and the app will create an image based on that.
In my tests, WorldCard Mobile did an excellent job of recognizing traditional business cards such as my own business card and a business card from an Apple employee. I also tried some more exotic business cards with graphics, strange fonts, color, etc., and that is where the app started to make some mistakes, but the app makes it easy to fix them. Importantly, in my numerous tests, WorldCard Mobile was 100% accurate on phone numbers (and fax numbers). This is a big advantage of using an app to scan business cards instead of typing the information manually; entering numbers is tedious, and it is easy to make a mistake. I far prefer to have the iPhone quickly read all numbers, and I can double-check it to confirm everything is correct.
One neat feature: the app gives you the option to scan the back of the business card too, just in case it is a two-sided card.
Once you are finished, you can export the card to your iPhone contacts, to the Card Holder portion of the app itself, or to both. If you export to your iPhone contacts, you can choose to have the picture of the business card sent as the image for the contact. The Card Holder portion of the app is nicely implemented. You can view contacts in a list with a thumbnail of the picture of the business card next to the person’s name, company and phone number. (My one gripe is that while you can sort by company name or name of the person, when you sort by the name of the person it sorts by first name instead of last name.) Moreover, the app has a cool cover flow feature; turn the iPhone sideways and you can browse through pictures of business cards.
If that was all that this app did, I’d be very happy with it. But the app also includes lots of other methods of getting information into the app. If you previously took a picture of a business card with the Camera on the iPhone, you can import pictures from your photo album. The app supports syncing to iCloud and Dropbox so if you also use the app on another device (I see that there is a WorldCard HD app for the iPad, although I haven’t tried it) you can share information. The app also has a QR Code scanning function to translate a QR Code into an address which you can then tap to see the address in Safari or you can add the URL to an existing contact.
The app also has the ability to create a contact entry from the signature at the end of a person’s e-mail. When you are in your Mail app, just select all of the text at the bottom of a person’s e-mail with all of their contact information, then choose “copy” to place that on your clipboard. Then launch the app and tap the Signature button on the main screen to tell the app to recognize the data in the e-mail signature and create a contact based on this data. For some reason, WorldCard Mobile doesn’t let you then create a contact entry only in the Card Holder portion of the app, but it does do a good job of figuring out the fields for all of the data so that you can create a normal entry in the iPhone’s Contacts app.
Thee developer also has a free Lite version of the app that limits you to three cards a week during the first week and then one card a week after that. If you scan very infrequently, perhaps the Lite version is enough for you, but the main value of the Lite version is that it lets you try before you buy.
Overall, I was very impressed by this app. Using an app like WorldCard Mobile lets you create a Contacts entry faster and with more accuracy than you typing the information yourself. Also, I like the ability to see the pictures of the actual business cards in the Card Holder portion of the app. I don’t encounter QR Codes very often so I doubt that will be very useful to me, but I love the ability to easily create a contact by simply selecting the text in a person’s e-mail signature. If you are looking for a business card scanner for your iPhone, WorldCard Mobile is worth a look.
It’s another Friday, so here is another collection of the iPhone and iPad items of interest that were in the news during the past week:
Angela Morris of Texas Lawyer‘s Tex Parte Blog describes a 60 Apps in 60 Minutes session at the State Bar of Texas Annual Meeting. Attorneys Ronald Chichester, Grant Scheiner and Mark Unger recommended several apps for iPhone (and Android). There are a few errors in the article — for example, GoodReader is described as a “news reader” — but the apps themselves seem to be good picks.
New Orleans attorney Ernie Svensons writes about “true” digital signatures on his PDF for Lawyers blog. His premise is that nobody really likes the digital signature feature of Acrobat, and it usually is better to just insert a graphic of your signature in a document. I agree 100%, and it is amazing to me that the digital signature feature of Acrobat has been around for so long and yet it is still so awkward.
Indiana attorney Bill Wilson discusses Dropbox security on his Third Apple website.
I’ve long been a fan of the Fastcase app for iPhone and iPad. This week, Fastcase announced a new free product, Fastcase Advance Sheets. These are the latest, not-yet-published decisions from courts, provided by Fastcase in an e-book format. And best of all, Fastcase Advance Sheets are free. Sean Doherty of Law Technology News writes about this new product. Click here to get more information on the Fastcase website. My assumption is that Fastcase Advance Sheets are not yet available; I see this on the Amazon Kindle Store but those Fastcase e-books have prices, and I don’t yet see anything on the Apple iBookstore.
New York attorney Niki Black writes about the SignMyPad app.
Matthew Panzarino of The Next Web describes the new Passbook app coming in iOS 6. I’m really looking forward to this app, both because of what it will do at first and how the app could evolve in the future.
Peter Cohen of The Loop describes upgrades to the app PDFpen including folder syncing with Dropbox.
Carmine Gallo has an interesting article about Apple Stores in this article in Forbes.
MacNN reports that, according to the Electric Power Research Institute, it costs an iPad owner about $1.36 a year to charge an iPad (assuming a full charge every other day). By comparison, a desktop computer costs about $28.21 a year and a clothes dryer costs about $105 a year.
Kit Eaton of the New York Times discusses augmented reality apps.
And finally, here is a really fun video created by British duo Tom Jenkins and Simon Sharp, who call themselves The Theory, using an iPhone and a miniature video projector. They call it the world’s smallest police chase. Too funny:
GoodReader is my go-to app for storing and reading PDF files on my iPad. For example, just yesterday I was doing some legal research on LexisAdvance on my computer. I downloaded the cases that looked relevant (which, by the way, is a pain with LexisAdvance; they really need to improve the download interface), I dropped the cases into a Dropbox folder on my computer, and then I pressed the sync button in GoodReader to get all of the cases. Then I could go through each case, delete the ones that were not that important, and highlight the relevant passages in the good cases. I prefer reading cases on an iPad versus a computer to take a break from sitting up and staring at my computer screen all day. And it is much better than reading cases on paper because I can zoom each column to make the text larger, use the more precise highlight function (including undo, which is lacking with real ink), and I don’t have to worry the cases getting lost on my desk.
One of the things that I love about GoodReader is that the app receives frequent updates so that it is always improving. One recent update added a handwriting zoom window much like the zoom window in apps like GoodNotes, NoteTakerHD, NotesPlus or Noteshelf. That feature makes it easier to add notes in the margins of documents.
Yesterday, GoodReader was updated to add a few new features, and my favorite is the new ability to save video. You can now save a video from Safari to GoodReader so that you can view it later even if you don’t have an Internet connection. It’s a useful feature, but the one-time setup is a little complicated. Here are the steps.
First, tap on the Settings icon at the bottom and select General Settings. You will see two large green buttons and the second one says “bookmark for video.” Tap that one. This places an address on your clipboard.
Next, go to the Safari web browser. Go to any webpage — in this example I went to www.google.com — and tap the button at the top to create a bookmark as if you were going to create a bookmark to that page. Tap “Add Bookmark.”
You will next be given the option to change the name of the page. Do so. For example, I replaced the title “Google” with “Video to GoodReader.” What you want to do next is change the address, but Safari won’t let you do so yet. As you can see in this next picture, the URL cannot be selected. So instead, tap the blue Save button.
Next, tap the Bookmarks button and select the Edit button at the top right. Now find the bookmark that you just created (if you followed along with me, you called it “Video to GoodReader” and you put it in your Bookmarks Menu, but you could have used any name that you want and put it in any folder that you want). Tap on that bookmark. Now, Safari will let you select the URL in the address field:
Tap on the address, hit the X button at the end of the line to delete what is already there, and next hold down your finger in the box for a second until the “Paste” option pops up. Now you can paste that long address that GoodReader automatically copied to the clipboard for you.
You’re done! Tap anywhere else to save your edited bookmark. You won’t have to go through that long process again.
Now that everything is setup, you can use this new feature. When you visit a webpage that has a video on it that can be played on the iPad, just tap to start the video playing and then tap pause to stop the video.
Next tap the Bookmarks icon at the top of Safari and select the new bookmark you created, which in my case was the one called Video to GoodReader. Your iPad will switch to the GoodReader app, and GoodReader will tell you that it has started downloading the video. The video is placed in the Downloads folder of GoodReader and now you can watch the video whenever you want.
You can also use the standard GoodReader functions to manipulate the file. For example, you might want to change the title of the video to something that makes more sense. You can also move the video into another folder on GoodReader, so if the video pertains to a lawsuit that you are handling you can keep it with your other files from the lawsuit. If you put the video into a folder that you are syncing with Dropbox, then just tap the standard Sync button to have the video uploaded to Dropbox. That means, for example, that the video will also be on your computer, where you can play it with a program such as Apple’s free QuickTime Player.
I’ve shown all of this using GoodReader on the iPad, but I understand that this new feature also works with the iPhone version of GoodReader.
As I think about it, this new feature is somewhat indicative of the GoodReader app as a whole. It can be a little confusing at first, but there is a lot of power at your fingertips once you learn how to use it.
This tends to be a friendly website and it is rare that I spark controversy on iPhone J.D., but I seem to do so whenever I mention Gogo, the service that lets you access the Internet while you are on many airlines. While I consider the service somewhat overpriced (currently $40/month or $13/24 hours) and I don’t use it all the time when I travel, it is often very useful. For example, instead of facing dozens of new e-mails that I need to wade through when my plane lands, Gogo lets me work through those e-mails when I am stuck on the plane and even deal with the urgent e-mails immediately.
I first discussed Gogo on iPhone J.D. in 2009, and that original post continues to get comments from people griping about how slow the service is. My follow-up post from 2011 has similar comments, including one reader who suggests that the service should instead be called “NoNo.”
Every once in a while, Gogo offers significant discounts, and around the holidays they sometimes offer free service sponsored by a third party. I mention Gogo today because I see that through the end of June, you can use Gogo for free for 15 minutes on any Delta flight. No promotional code is required.
15 minutes is not very long, but is enough to check your e-mail and respond to a few messages during your flight.
If you are looking for more deals after this one ends, keep an eye on the Gogo blog, which recently moved to this new location. And for a good recent article on in-flight WiFi, check out this article by Rocky Agrawal for VentureBeat which notes that over 25% of the passengers on Virgin America cross-country flights are using Gogo. As Agrawal points out, for all of Gogo’s flaws, he sees better service on Gogo at 30,000 feet than he often does at SFO. Swap “ATL” for “SFO” and I can say the same thing.
The big iPhone and iPad news of this week was Apple’s preview of iOS 6. Earlier this week, I highlighted a few reasons that I think that lawyers will love this free upgrade that is coming in the Fall, but I wasn’t alone. New Orleans attorney Ernie Svenson of PaperlessChase.com discussed some of the new features in iOS 6, as did the Evan Koblentz of Law Technology News. Macworld published one of its “What you need to know” columns on the newly announced iOS 6, and Lex Friedman of Macworld examined some of the lessor-known features of iOS 6 features that you might have missed. John Ribeiro of IDG News Service reports that Apple teamed up with TomTom to produce the new Maps app in iOS 6, which is good news because TomTom has a great reputation for navigation software. You can see some of the user interface changes in iOS 6 in this short video produced by Michael Steeber of Cult of Mac. If you have the latest iPhone 4S or the 2012 version of the iPad, you’ll be able to take advantage of all of the new features of iOS 6 announced so far, but Jordan Golson of MacRumors produced a handy chart to identify the features that will be missing for older devices. Note, however, that if you have an iPhone 4S you shouldn’t start sicking your tongue out at older devices just yet because I’m sure that when iOS 6 is released later this year, we’ll also see a new version of the iPhone released with lots of cool new features that make it much better than the iPhone 4S. But it wasn’t all iOS 6 news this week, and here are some of the other news items of note:
Boston attorney Martha Sperry of Advocate’s Sudio reviews the Adonit Writer Plus, an iPad case with an included keyboard.
Attorney Sam Glover of Lawyerist reviews the Pogo Sketch+ stylus and calls it the “best-value iPad stylus I have seen or reviewed.” The Sketch+ is the 2012 model of the Pogo Sketch, and it includes an improved tip.
Utah federal judge David Nuffer discusses the use of iPads by judges in this post on 3 Geeks and a Law Blog.
Martha Nell of the ABA Journal discusses apps by plaintiff attorneys used to sign up clients.
Evan Koblentz of Law Technology News discusses forensic challenges in e-discovery of information on iPhones and iPads.
This week, Apple came out with a new iPad product called the Apple iPad Smart Case. It is similar to the Smart Cover that debuted with the iPad 2, but this $50 product also covers the back of the iPad. Nick Guy of iLounge posted this review. The Gadgeteer posted two reviews, this one by Douglas Forrester and this one by Janet Cloninger. Leanna Lofte of iMore posted this (less favorable) review. Tyler Gold of The Verge posted another unfavorable review.
Peter Burrows and Adam Satariano of Businessweek profile Apple Marketing VP Phil Schiller.
Eric Slivka of MacRumors writes that you can now use the Apple Store app to order an item on your iPhone so that the order is ready as soon as you walk in the door of the store.
Kit Eaton is the new App Smart columnist for the New York Times, and in his debut column he describes a few of his favorite apps, including some photography apps.
I’ve recently noted that it is now possible to get an iPhone with a prepaid plan instead of the traditional plans with two year contracts. Daniel Ionescu of PC World does the math and concludes that you can save hundreds of dollars over two years with the Virgin Mobile iPhone prepaid plan.
And finally, WarGames: WOPR from Be-Rad Entertainment is now available in the App Store. The gameplay is somewhat similar to Bejeweled but with several layers of strategy on top of that. I bought it for $0.99 and it is actually quite fun. You can buy it by clicking here: But what is most striking to me about this game is the idea that an officially licensed game is still being produced from a motion picture that was released in 1983. Almost 30 years ago! Too funny, and I suppose that means that next we’ll see iOS games based on other classic movies from 1983 such as Risky Business, Vacation and Flashdance. I tease, but of course — like anyone of my generation who is interested in technology — I loved WarGames, so an additional reason that this game is worth the buck is that you once again get to hear the voice of WOPR, see the characters from the movie, and recall memorable lines such as:
[UPDATE 11/15/16: The Oral Argument app is no longer available in the App Store. The developer tells me that the app was pulled because it was never updated for iOS 10 and therefore is not 100% functional. But the developer is considering an update to the app, so perhaps the app will return in the future.]
I have used my iPad during oral arguments in court many times, and it has come in very handy. It is typically a replacement for carrying a big binder to the podium with cases, exhibits, transcripts, etc. Instead I drop all of the files I need into a folder in GoodReader and then I can easily get the document I need if it becomes relevant, such as if the judge asks me a question about a footnote in a case or a clause in a contract. The company TabLit Applications, founded by Detroit attorney Jeff May, created the app Oral Argument with the idea that the iPad can act as your oral argument outline. May sent me a free review copy of this $20 app. After working with it for a while, it strikes me as interesting idea for an app, but I don’t think I see myself ever using this app in court.
Of course you don’t need this app to put an oral argument outline on your iPad. Just create your outline on your computer, open the outline using one of the countless apps that can read Word or text files, and bingo, you have an outline on your iPad. TabLit tries to go one better than that by adding some extra bells and whistles.
When you launch the app you see your Dashboard. This is where you see a list of the oral argument outlines saved in the app. You can choose to edit an existing outline, view that outline (e.g. to use it in court), or you can add a new argument outline.
If you create a new argument or edit an existing argument, you are presented with a text editor screen. Unfortunately, this built-in editor is a disaster. The buttons are way too small and parts of the interface just don’t even make sense. It looks like this is an off-the-shelf editor created for use in a web browser that the company has simply added to this app, without any attempt to conform to typical iPad style guidelines. Every other text editor I’ve seen on the iPad at least tries to use easy to tap buttons that take advantage of the full screen. This editor does not, plus it has blank areas that are unused, for no apparent reason. And I see there are two different buttons to create a Pop-Up Box (more on that feature in a moment) that both do the same thing. Why have two buttons? Ugh.
Perhaps recognizing that it is difficult to create and edit outlines in this editor, TabLit gives you the option of editing your outlines on a website using your computer, but to do so you need to purchase a monthly plan. For $10 a month you can edit up to 3 outlines and view your 10 most recent outlines. For $20 or $30 a month you can edit and view even more. I didn’t try out the website editor, in part because those prices strike me as rather high, and in part because there is a relatively easy (and free) work-around. You can mostly ignore the built-in editor by just creating your outline on a computer, e-mailing it to yourself, and then copying the text of your outline and pasting it into the editor window.
Once your text is there, you can take advantage of another nice idea in this app, the use of Pop-Up Boxes. The idea is that your outline can mention a word or a phrase, and then you can create a hyperlink so that during oral argument you can tap to get more information. For example, in this screen I attached a Pop-Up Box to the case name “Marbury v. Madison” so that when I tap it during oral argument I see the citation and some details on the case — information that I normally wouldn’t need in the outline itself, but it is there in case it becomes relevant during the oral argument.
Unfortunately, creating each Pop-Up Box is time-consuming and cumbersome. You manually create the text for the link and then the text for the Pop-Up Box, then you save it, then you put the cursor where you want it in the outline, then you tap a tiny arrow next to the Pop-Up Box item on the right side. Just creating one took me about a minute. I cannot imagine taking the time to create a whole bunch of them. And putting aside the time it takes to create the Pop-Up Boxes, when you go to use them, the text in the Pop-Up Box is small and hard to read, which would be awkward during oral argument.
You can also see in the above image that I have included two different pages, one called Point 1 and one called Point 2. (You can call them whatever you want.) The idea is that in a typical oral argument you will have a few major points to make, and you may need to address the points out of order. You may start with your first point, but the judge may then tell you he wants to talk about something that was going to be your third point. With up to six different pages in this app, you can just tap on the page tab at the top and you will instantly see the outline for that argument. This is a great idea for this app, and it is nicely implemented.
In the editor you can select the length of your oral argument, such as 15 minutes. Then, during your oral argument, you simply tap the timer button to start a count-down timer. I like the idea of seeing how much time you have remaining right next to your outline. (The program includes an option to count up instead of count down if that makes more sense to you.)
Instead of a white background, the app lets you select “Legal Pad” or “Old Paper.” Both seem like horrible options to me because the backgrounds are way too busy. To my eyes, at least, they make the text too hard to read.
The large column on the right side of the screen is a place to type notes. The idea is that if you think of something at the last minute in the courtroom, or come up with a point to say in rebuttal, you can tap in the column (which brings up the iPad keyboard) and then type it here so that you have it in the margin.
Unfortunately, this notes feature also has a flaw. If you want to create a note near the bottom half of your screen, you can tap to place a cursor down there, but then when the iPad on-screen keyboard comes up, it covers the note. Thus, you cannot see what you are typing. In the previous picture, when I typed “I have another note” I couldn’t see anything that I was typing until after I made the keyboard go away. Ugh again.
Utah attorney Peter Summerill reviewed this app on his MacLitigator website a few months ago, and he pointed out that the app is missing a search feature. If you have a long outline and you need to quickly find some part of it, it seems logical to have a search feature. (I presume that virtually every other iPad app that handles Word or text files includes some sort of search feature.) Perhaps that feature will come in a future update.
Ultimately, I see two reasons that I am unlikely to ever use this app. First, I just don’t think that I gain enough reading an oral argument outline on the iPad. I’d rather use the iPad to hold all of my additional materials but just keep the outline on a few sheets of paper. If I want to have additional information on a particular point (the Pop-Up Box feature of this app) I can always make space for it in the outline or on another sheet of paper.
Second, even if I was going to use an iPad to hold an oral argument outline, the current version of this app (version 1.01) just has too many flaws. The editor is poorly implemented. Adding Pop-Up Boxes is time-consuming. Adding notes in the margin on the right during oral argument by typing them on the iPad screen seems to me to be MUCH slower than just jotting down notes on a legal pad, or in the margin of my printed-out outline, using a pen, and when you are in Court every second matters. TabLit CEO Jeffrey May posted a comment back on February 15, 2012 on Summerill’s review of the app saying that improvements to the app are being worked on, including a better editor, and that is good to hear.
The TabLit website says that it is working on two other apps for the legal market: a trial notebook app and an app to use when taking depositions. I look forward to seeing how those apps work. A nicely-designed deposition app sounds like a great idea. But as for TabLit’s Oral Argument app, perhaps some of you would find an app like this useful, but this doesn’t seem like the type of app that I would want to use in court, and even if I felt differently, the flaws in the design of this version of the app are problematic. For now, the next time I have an oral argument, my iPad will be with me, but my outline will stay on paper.
UPDATE: Jeff May of TabLit posted a comment to this review that I was thought was worth including at the end of the review itself:
Thanks for the review! Everyone here at TabLit Apps appreciated the time and the honest feedback. As I said a while back on Pete’s blog, we have been working on an update for Oral Argument, and I anticipate a release in the next few weeks. While we’re addressing a few other issues and bugs, the major overhaul will be to the editing interface. In addition to a few other features, we’re using the extra space that you noted to increase the size of the on-screen buttons. We hope that our users will continue to provide feedback so we can improve Oral Argument and our future apps.
To kickoff Apple’s WWDC conference yesterday, Apple CEO Tim Cook and other Apple executives announced many new Apple products. (If you want to watch the entire two hour presentation, you can do so here.) Apple announced new Mac hardware (including the cool new MacBook Pro with a Retina Display) and new features in the upcoming Mac OS X Mountain Lion due next month. And although not mentioned during yesterday’s keynote, Apple also released a new product similar to the the iPad Smart Cover called the iPad Smart Case; it’s like the polyurethane version of the Smart Cover but it covers the back as well as the front of the iPad.
Cook also announced that there are now over 650,000 apps in the App Store, and over 225,00 of those are designed specifically for the iPad. Cook said that as of March of 2012, Apple has sold more than 365 million iOS devices.
But I think that the most exciting announcements yesterday had to do with iOS 6, the next version of the iPhone and iPad operating system that will be available this Fall. Apple says that there are over 200 new features in iOS 6, and some great new features were demonstrated yesterday. Here are some of the reasons that lawyers will love iOS 6:
Mail
The iPhone and iPad can do lots of fancy things, but the Mail app is probably the most important and most-used app for most lawyers. Enhancements to Mail in iOS 6 will make this app even more useful.
First, Mail will support a feature called VIP. You can designate certain people (such as your biggest clients and your spouse) as VIPs, and when one of them sends you an e-mail, you will get specific notification, similar to when you get a text message. In your inbox, messages from your VIPs will have a star next to them so that they jump out at you more easily. A VIP mailbox gathers all of these messages in one central location. All of this should make it faster and easier to get and respond to the e-mail messages that matter the most to you.
Currently, if you are composing an e-mail message and you decide to add a picture, you need to go to the picture in the Photos app and start a new e-mail. In iOS 6 you will be able to insert a photo or video into an e-mail that you are already composing.
If you have different mail accounts on your device, such as a work account and a personal account, you can now have different automatic signatures for different accounts.
If you like to flag messages, there is now an inbox of all items that are flagged.
If someone sends you a Microsoft Office document that is password protected, the iPhone will now give you the option to enter a password to view the document.
Finally, to refresh your inbox, you can now pull down the screen to refresh—the same feature used by others apps such as Facebook and many Twitter apps.
Phone
Apple is making the iPhone a more useful phone, or at least a less annoying phone.
If there is a period of time when you don’t want to be bothered by a phone ringing or a text message tone or other alerts (such as when you are sleeping or when you are in a meeting), you can turn on a do not disturb setting to stop the phone from making noise or the screen from lighting up. At the same time, however, you can designate specific people for whom the phone will make noise and light up. And you can also ensure that other urgent calls get through by telling your iPhone that if someone calls twice in the last three minutes, the call should come through even if you are in do not disturb mode.
Also, when the phone is ringing but you cannot pick up, you can instead choose to reply with a text message such as a message that I’ll call you back later. And you can also tell the iPhone to remind you to call back later—either call back at a later time, or even call back when you leave your current location, so that when you leave your meeting the iPhone will remind you to return the call.
Siri
For me and many other lawyers who I know, the best part of Siri is simply the ability to convert voice to text so that you can dictate an e-mail instead of typing it. There were no announcements on this.
However, Siri is also useful a useful way to tell your iPhone to do something or to ask your iPhone to answer a question. This part of Siri will see major improvements in iOS 6. First, Siri will be able to cover more subjects. For example, Siri in iOS 6 knows about sports and can answer questions about sports scores, player statistics, schedules, etc. With iOS 6, I suspect that Siri will be able to settle many bar bets. Apple also expanded Siri support for restaurants by partnering with Yelp to get more information and reviews and by partnering with OpenTable to let you make reservations. Apple also expanded Siri support for movies, with integrated reviews, movie trailers and show times.
Second, you will able to use Siri to tell your iPhone to launch apps. This will be useful when you have a lot of apps and cannot remember the page on which an icon is located.
Third, Apple is working with a number of car manufacturers (such as BMW, GM, GM, Mercedes, Audi, Jaguar, Toyota, Honda, and others — but notably not Ford) to add a Siri button to the steering wheel so that you can talk to Siri without your hands leaving the wheel. This feature should be coming to cars in the next 12 months.
Fourth, Siri will understand many more languages and be available in many more countries.
Fifth, full Siri support is coming to the third generation iPad.
FaceTime
FaceTime works well for videoconferencing, but currently you can only use it if you have Wi-Fi access. With iOS 6, you will be able to use FaceTime over a cellular connection. And when a FaceTime call comes in on one device, you can now choose to answer it on either an iPhone, iPad or your Mac.
Passbook
iOS 6 will add a new app called Passbook, an app to store boarding passes, store cards, movie tickets, and other similar items. These are the sort of things that traditionally existed in paper or plastic form so you would stuff them into your wallet or purse. Nowadays, more companies are offering digital versions, but they are scattered throughout your iPhone in e-mails, different apps, etc. Passbook will be a central location to store all of this information so that it is always at your fingertips.
Safari
Safari will add a feature called iCloud tabs so that you can see any tab that you have open in Safari on your iPad or computer.
Safari also adds an offline reading list to make it easy to read an article later, even when you don’t have internet access.
Safari also gains a few other features such as the ability to upload photos to websites.
Facebook
If you use Facebook, you’ll appreciate full Facebook integration throughout Apple’s apps. Third parties will be able to easily add Facebook integration to other apps.
Maps
Apple is getting rid of Google Maps support in the Maps app, and instead will use a new mapping system that Apple designed from the ground up. It will include turn-by-turn navigation which may make it unnecessary to purchase a third party GPS app. It also includes beautiful 3D, full-color renders of buildings in cities. (No indication of which cities. [UPDATE 6/13/12: David Pogue of the New York Times reveals that Flyover is finished for 35 cities with more to come.] [UPDATE 6/14/12: Cult of Mac says that the following cities are included: Cupertino, Chicago, Copenhagen, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Montreal, Sacramento, San Francisco, Seattle, Sydney.]) It also includes local search to find businesses.
The Maps app will also add traffic information which is based in part on anonymous, real-time crowdsourced data from other iPhone users. Thus, as long as other folks with iPhones are on the road, their misery from being stuck in traffic and moving slowly can be your gain by learning that you should take an alternative route. When the iPhone is navigating you to a destination and it notices that a faster route is available, it will suggest the route and tell you how much time you can save by taking the alternative route.
The new Maps app will also work with Siri, which should make the turn-by-turn directions even more useful while you are driving and need to look at the road, not the iPhone screen. It also lets your kids ask the age-old question “are we there yet” and get a response with the estimated time remaining.
One of the things that I like about Google Maps support is the ability to use Street View to see what a building looks like from street level. Apple did not announce any such feature in the new Mail app. To give you access to this feature and other features unique to Google Maps, I wonder if Google will soon offer its own Maps app for the iPhone.
And more to come
Apple was clear that these are only some of the many new features. It wouldn’t surprise me if Apple has a big, new feature or two waiting in the wings just so that it has something exciting to announce when iOS 6 is finally available. Plus there will be tons of tiny new features that didn’t merit mention in the keynote but will be appreciated by many, such as putting a Bluetooth on/off setting just below the Wi-Fi entry in the Settings app instead of keeping it buried in sub-menus.
Apple says that iOS 6 is coming this Fall. My guess is that, like last year, we will see both iOS 6 and the 2012 version of the iPhone in October. I can’t wait!
Today is the start of WWDC, Apple’s developer conference. Most of the conference is confidential, but the event always starts with a public keynote that provides details on what Apple has planned for the future. This year, Apple CEO Tim Cook will give the keynote presentation today at 10:00 a.m. Pacific / 1:00 p.m. Eastern. I am sure that there will be many announcements that relate to the iPhone and iPad. If you want to follow the event as it happens today, there are a number of websites offering live coverage. Based on their coverage of prior events, I suspect that these will be some of the best (click to jump to their page with live coverage):
