iPhone J.D.

Happy New Year!

No iPhone J.D. this week.  See you in 2014!

In the news

It won't surprise you when I say that this has been a pretty slow week for iPhone and iPad news, although I'm sure that there were a huge number of folks who founds new Apple devices under their Christmas tree this week.  Here are the articles that I ran across that I thought might be of interest to you.  

• South Carolina attorney Justin Kahn recommends apps for attorneys.
• I was impressed when I reviewed PDF Expert by Readdle almost two years ago, and recently Ben Brooks wrote a review for The Sweet Setup in which he concludes that PDF Expert is the best app for managing, editing and reading PDFs on the iPad. 
• Philip Michaels of Macworld recommends nine apps for new iPhone users.  The ones on his list that I use and like are 1Password, IMDB, Weather Line and Fantastical 2.
• Luke Dormehl of Cult of Mac transcribes part of an interview with Bill Clinton in which he recalls some of his interactions with Steve Jobs, including the time that Jobs gave Clinton the first iPhone before it his the market.
• Jordan Oplinger of The Verge has advice for taking perfect pictures on the iPhone.
• And finally, UK artist Kyle Lambert used the iPad app Procreate to make this very realistic picture of Morgan Freeman.  Lambert calls it the world's most realistic finger painting, and he may well be right.  It took him 200 hours, but the below video (or click here) shows it all in just a few minutes.  Very cool.

Merry Christmas

Apple has a tradition of running some pretty great Christmas commercials, and the one that they are running this year is, in my opinion, one of the all-time best, in large part because of the twist at the end.  The commercial is called Misunderstood.  If you haven't seen it yet, I'm embedding the video below (or click here) so that you can watch it before I ruin the ending for you.

This 90-second spot, which was reportedly filmed in Edmonton, Canada, does a great job of showing off what even a misunderstood teenager can do with Apple technology.  Indeed, Apple even posted the video that the teenager would have created, titled "A Harris family holiday."  That video was shot using an iPhone 5s and takes advanage of some 5s-only technology such as slow motion video.

Want to see some other great Apple videos from the ghosts of Christmas past?  Here are the ones from the last few years that feature the iPhone and iPad:

• Christmas 2012, I'll be home for Christmas, featuring the iPad, iPad mini and FaceTime.
• Christmas 2011, Santa, featuring the iPhone and Siri.
• Christmas 2010, Under the Covers, featuring the iPhone and FaceTime.
• Christmas 2009, 12 Days of Christmas, featuring the iPhone and some useful apps.

I think that my all-time favorite Apple Christmas ads were from 2007 and 2008, part of the Get a Mac campaign featuring John Hodgman and Justin Long.  They were an homage to the great Rankin/Bass Christmas shows that I used to love when I was a child and that my own kids still love to watch today.  Here is the first one (or click here):

The two follow-up commercials in 2008 were also cute.  Here they are (or click here):

I hope that you and your family enjoy this most wonderful time of the year.

In the news

For all of you who were waiting until the very last minute to vote for iPhone J.D. in the ABA Journal Blawg 100, that moment has come.  The polls close at the end of the business day today, and I would appreciate your support.  Voting is quick and easy; just click here to start.  iPhone J.D. is in the Legal Tech category.  And now, the news of note from this past week:

• New York attorney and TechnoLawyer publisher Neil Squillante has some great tips for using the iTunes Match service to clean up your library and improve iTunes Radio.
• California attorney David Sparks wrote a wonderful retrospective on practicing law for 20 years.  Nothing iPhone related in there, but a great read.
• Ina Fried of All Things D reports on a speech by Apple CEO Tim Cook in which he reveals that witnessing a cross-burning as a child in Alabama motivated him to fight for equality.
• In legedendary tech reporter Wall Mossberg's last column for the Wall Street Journal, he identifies the top products that he has reviwed over the last 22 years.  Items on the list include the Apple Newton, the Palm Pilot, the iPod, the iPhone, and the iPad.
• AppleInsider reports that Apple has announced its iTunes Best of 2013, naming the best apps, music and videos of the year.  The Disney Animated app is the best app of the year, a digital book about Disney Animation.  I've heard great things about this one and I've been thinking of getting it for a while now.
• Paul Boutin of the New York Times discusses the Evernote app.
• Macworld unveiled their Editors' Choice Awards, the best products of 2013.  There are lots of iPhone and iPad-related apps and accessories that made the list.
• Dan Frakes of Macworld updated his buying guide for iPad keyboards.  If you are considering getting an external keyboard for your iPad, this article is a great resource.  As for me, I prefer the Apple Wireless Keyboard.
• Alyssa Bereznak of Yahoo Tech has advice for setting up a new iPad Air.
• Harry McCracken of Time reviews new smartpens for the iPad and really likes the Livescribe 3, a product that was also in Macworld's list of best products of 2013.
• David Pogue reviews an app and iPhone accessory called the Pop Dongle  that emits smells while you play a game.  Only 30 were made, and the proceeds go to the American Red Cross.
• Over on Yahoo Tech, David Pogue has his annual Pogie Awards for the best ideas in tech.  First on the list is the new iPhone feature that makes it impossible for a thief to erase your iPhone or turn off Find my iPhone without a password.  I agree; this really is a fantastic idea.
• And finally, you can make some impressive music using the GarageBand app on the iPad.  The below video (or click here) is a pretty amazing example.  This little drummer boy has pushed the virtual GarageBand drums to the limit.  (via The Loop)

How to view unread emails on an iPhone or iPad

I often leave an email marked unread so that I remember to deal with it at a later time.  This is sometimes a risky practice because there are a number of ways to access an email by accident such that it becomes marked read, but I admit that I frequently take the risk and do it anyway.  After doing so, I sometimes want to see a list of just the emails that are marked unread.  Fortunately, there are two easy ways to do that on the iPhone and iPad in the Mail app in iOS 7.  Here are the instructions for using both methods.

The built-in Unread mailbox

One approach is to use the iPhone's built-in Unread mail folder, a new feature in iOS 7.  To access it, tap the word Mailboxes at the top left of any screen showing a list of emails. 

This will bring you to a list of your mailboxes, starting with the iPhone's built-in mailboxes, and then followed by any mailboxes that you have created using Outlook or whatever other program you use on your computer for email.  Just tap on Unread to see a list of only unread messages.

If you don't see that Unread mailbox, you can easily add it.  Just tap Edit at the top right of the screen and then tap to the left to enable the Unread mailbox.  While you are there, you can also choose to display or hide other built-in mailboxes, such as a mailbox with all Flagged messages, a mailbox with all messages that have Attachments, etc.

Note that you may see different options then the ones shown in the above picture depending upon what you use for your email (my law firm uses Microsoft Exchange) and how many email accounts are active on your iPhone (I only have one).

This built-in Unread mailbox is useful, but be aware that it only displays unread emails in your Inbox.  If you have created your own mailboxes (folders) to file away emails and some of those contain emails that are marked unread, you won't see them here — so you'll want to use the second method explained below.

The above images show an iPhone screen, but this works almost exactly the same way using the Mail app on an iPad.

Search for unread mail

The second approach is to search for unread mail.  When you are looking at a list of emails either in your Inbox or in any other mailbox (folder) of messages, if you touch your screen and slide down, you will see a Search box appear at the top of the screen.  Of course, you can use that search bar to search for emails that are from or to a specific person or that contain a certain word, but you can also use the search bar to find unread messages.  Simply type "unread" in the box and you will see a list of unread emails.

 

You can toggle between seeing all unread emails on your iPhone or just unread emails in the current mailbox.  To do so, after you search for unread, just put your finger on your screen and slide down again.  This will display two more options below the search bar where you can choose to search all mailboxes or just the current mailbox.

The above images show an iPhone screen.  You can do the same thing on an iPad, but it is a little eaiser because the search bar is always visible at the top of the list of messages, so you don't have to pull down on the screen to view it.  You do, however, need to pull down after you run a search to see the All Mailboxes / Current Mailbox selections, just like on an iPhone.

In the news

I purchased my first Apple product shortly before my Sophomore year of college.  I had used a Commodore 64 my entire Freshman year to visit BBS's, play games and type my reports for classes (and print them out on a Smith Corona TP1 printer – a letter-quality printer that was essentially an electric typewriter without a keyboard connected to a computer) but after making some money from a Summer job, I purchased a Mac Plus in 1988 with an external 20 MB hard drive.  The Mac Plus was the computer that I started law school with, so I have been using Apple products in one form or another ever since I started my legal career.  I mention all of this because John Gruber of Daring Fireball linked to a fun story by software developer Jeff Keacher about how he had his mother send him his old Mac Plus, and through a LOT of work and persistence, he was able to get a (very slow) web browser working on it.  Very cool.  I think my old Mac Plus is still sitting in a closet a my parent's house.  I can't even imagine how many orders of magnitude more advanced my iPhone and iPad are compared to that Mac Plus, but after reading Keacher's article, now I'm curious to see if my old computer will still boot up.  That external hard drive probably still has my old 1L Contracts outline on it, not that I've had much need for that recently.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• As noted by South Carolina attorney Ben Stevens of The Mac Lawyer, Apple recently released its "12 Days of Gifts" app, an app that will give you free songs, movies, etc. every day from Dec. 26 to Jan. 6.  Last year Apple had a similar app in other countries but it wasn't available in the U.S.  Click here to download the free app.
• With our iPhones and iPads we have a very digital lifestyle, but in light of the NSA revelations, who is reading over your shoulder?  California attorney David Sparks of MacSparky has an interesting post on electronic privacy. 
• TechnoLawyer announced the TL NewsWire Top 25, a list of products reviewed  in the TL NewsWire in 2013 for which there was the most reader interest.  iPhone and iPad-related items on the list include the Transporter, TIMBS (an app that lets you track your time), Parallels Access (remote access to your computer), NoteSuite and Remarks (note-taking apps), the Clio iPhone app and LexisNexis TextMap,
• If you are having trouble with your iPhone 5s Touch ID fingerprint sensor, Serenity Caldwell of Macworld has some tips.  I haven't had any issues at all with mine; it works great, and I wish I also had Touch ID on my iPad Air.
• Richard Devine of iMore reports that if you are flying Southwest and you want to send text messages from your iPhone using iMessage but you don't need full Internet access, Southwest is now offering a $2.00 in-flight iMessage plan.  That's a very inexpensive way to keep in touch with folks on the ground.
• Jeffery Battersby reviews PDFpen Scan+ for Macworld and comes to the same conclusion as my recent review:  scanning is just so-so, but the OCR features are excellent.
• Battersby also reviews Receptionist, an iPad app that replaces a full-time receptionist at your office.
• PDF Expert by Readdle is a great PDF app (my review is here).  It was just updated to version 5.0, and Federico Viticci of MacStories has a comprehensive review of the new features.
• Viticci also wrote a great post on his must-have iPad apps, many of which would be useful for attorneys.
• Why yes, you do still have time to vote for iPhone J.D. in the ABA Journal Blawg 100.  And yes, doing so does constitute admissible evidence that you are awesome.  Voting is quick and easy; just click here to start.  iPhone J.D. is in the Legal Tech category.
• And finally, Skew is a fun, 42 second video that recreates an iPhone screen using real objects.  I've embedded the video below (or click here), but the "making of" video (click here) is even more fun to watch.  Very clever.

Review: Easy Annotate -- view and edit two PDF documents at once

There are lots of great iPad apps that let you work with PDF documents, but if you need to work with two documents at the same time, your options are more limited.  There are some great apps like iAnnotate that include tabs so you can quickly tap at the top of the screen to switch between documents, but you are still not looking at two documents at the same time.  Easy Annotate is a PDF viewer and editor app that has one unique feature:  you can view two documents at the same time, side-by-side.  The developer sent me a free review copy of this $2.99 app, and I've been trying it out for the last few weeks. (The app is currently $2.99, but the developer says that this is just an introductory price and that the app will eventualy sell for $5.99.)

The easiest way to get a document into Easy Annotate is to use the standard iOS "Open in..." command.  So if a PDF file is attached to an email, just open it in Easy Annotate and it will appear on the left side of the screen.  Or from within the app itself, tap the folder icon — there is one on each side of the screen — to open a document from Dropbox or to open a recent document.

Once you have two documents open, you can read them both at the same time.  Simply swipe left and right to move through pages, or you can use the page thumbnails at the bottom to quickly move through pages or jump to a specific page.

There are a series of icons, duplicated on both sides of the screen, that let you perform actions unique to the document on that side of the screen such as open a document (e.g. open from your Dropbox), search for text, export the document, undo and redo. 

At the top middle of the screen are two icons which apply to both documents.  The icon on the left lets you select annotation tools:  highlight, underline, strike-through, note, pencil and add text.  It is an interesting that you see different buttons for each possible color, so unlike other apps where you first select a pen and then choose the color, in this app you click directly on the blue or the red pen icon.

The second icon at the top middle is a gear icon.  From here you can connect the app to your Dropbox account, view the User Guide, switch to a night mode that reverses the colors, choose whether you want to look at one or two documents at a time (more on that below) and swap the documents so that the one on the left appears on the right and vice versa.

Although the marquee feature of this app is the ability to view two documents at once, that isn't always easy.  On my iPad Air, 12 point text in a document is rather small and hard to read when the document it shrunk to fit only half of a screen.  It is still legible, thanks the iPad's Retina display, but it isn't ideal.  You can pinch to zoom, but because only half of your screen is devoted to that document, you end up seeing only part of a line and you need to scroll back and forth to read the entire line.

But if you want to get a better view of a specific document, Easy Annotate provides a quick and easy solution.  Simply turn your iPad to portrait mode and the document on the left will fill the screen.  This makes it easy to read the document on the left, turn my iPad when I need to see both documents again, and then turn my iPad back to see a larger version of the document on the left.  Or better yet, if you tap twice on the screen using three fingers, you swap the left and right documents, so using that gesture in portrait mode will instantly show you the other document.  The gesture is a fast way to swap between the two documents.

Read the Users Guide to learn other useful gestures, such as tapping with two fingers on the right side of the screen to jump forward 10 pages or on the left side of the screen to jump back 10 pages.

If you want to see just one document when you are in landscape mode, then as noted above, one of the gear icon choices is to switch to a single document mode.  When you do that, you see one page on the left and the next page on the right, or you can pinch to zoom so that one page of the document fills the entire screen.  Even in this mode, you still have two documents open at a time, and tapping a button at the top right lets you quickly switch back and forth between the two documents. 

Over the last few weeks, there have not been many occasions when I needed to view or edit two documents at the same time, but when there is a need, the app works well.  You can look at a Complaint on the left side of the screen and an Answer on the right side of the screen.  You can look at a brief on one side of the screen and an exhibit (such as a contract being discussed in a brief) on the right side of the screen.

While the app has worked well on my iPad Air, I don't like using it on my first generation iPad mini.  The screen is just too small to read a document with 12 point text when it only fills half of the screen, and because my iPad mini does not have a Retina display, the text is too hard to read.  If you have a second generation iPad mini with a Retina display, and if you have better eyesight than me, then perhaps you'll still find this app useful on an iPad mini.  For my tastes, I will only use the app on the larger screen of my iPad Air.

Easy Annotate doesn't include all of the features found in sophisticated PDF apps such as iAnnotate, PDFpen or PDF Expert, but it includes the basic features that you are most likely to want to use when reading a document and making simple annotations.  And when it comes to the one feature unique to Easy Annotate — working with two documents at the same time — this app handles the task extremely well.  The developers of this app had some clever ideas and did a very nice job implementing them.  If you ever find the need to work with and view two documents at the same time, Easy Annotate is a fantastic app.

Click here to get Easy Annotate ($2.99): 

 

ILTA survey reveals extensive lawyer use of iPhones, iPads

The International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) is a peer networking organization for people who work in the legal technology field, such as the people who work in law firm IT departments.  I know that the folks in my law firm's tech department frequently take advantage of ILTA resources when seeking advice on selecting and working with hardware and software designed for the legal market and when recruiting new hires.  A few months ago, I reported on the ILTA 2013 Annual Technology Purchasing Survey, and while that survey about what law firms buy was interesting, there is a limit to how much it tells you about the iPad and iPhone because so many attorneys purchase those devices themselves.

ILTA recently released the results of ILTA's 2013 Technology Survey, which is based on the input of 494 law firms composed of more than 88,000 attorneys.  This comprehensive survey reveals a lot about the technology being used by lawyers.  Obviously, I was most interested in the part of the survey that discusses mobile devices.

iPad Use

The survey revealed that 89% of law firms have attorneys using iPads, 39% of law firms have attorneys using an Android tablet, 29% have attorneys using a Windows-based tablet, 9% have attorneys using a BlackBerry Playbook, and 8% report that none of their attorneys use a tablet.  Even though 8% is not a large number, it is higher than I would have expected.  As for the 89% of law firms that report iPad use at their law firms, that is an increase from previous years:  88% in 2012, and 74% in 2011. 

When asked to estimate the percentage of attorneys that use tablets such as iPads, the average response was 37%.  These results are somewhat smaller than the numbers in the 2013 Legal Technology Survey conducted by the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center, a survey that asks questions directly to attorneys as opposed to the ILTA survey that asks questions to IT departments.  As I noted a few months ago, the ABA survey revealed that almost half of all attorneys now use a tablet, and over 90% of those using a tablet use an iPad.

iPhone Use

The ILTA survey did not ask which percentage of attorneys use an iPhone.  Instead, the survey asked about platforms in use at law firms, such as the number of law firms that have attorneys using iOS, which includes both iPhones and iPads.  The survey revealed that basically all law firms, 97%, have attorneys using iOS, whereas 74% of law firms have attorneys using an Android devices, 68% have attorneys using BlackBerry devices, and 35% have attorneys using some version of Windows Mobile or the newer Surface operating system.

About 80% of law firms report that they provide some sort of financial support for smartphones, which includes about 50% that purchase the hardware plus about 30% that provide a stipend or allowance towards the purchase of a smartphone.  44% of law firms reported that they have attorneys who bought their own smartphones and connected them to the firm's network.

Mobile Security

About 80% of law firms report that they force their attorneys to use a passcode on the lock screen.  One way to do this is to use Mobile Device Management (MDM) software, and 60% of law firms report that they do use MDM, with popular choices including Good Technology, MobilIron, BlackBerry Mobile Fusion and Airwatch.

Popular Apps

The ILTA survey asked law firms to indicate "to the best of your knowledge, which non-native tablet/iPad apps are most used at your firm for business purposes."  I doubt that IT departments know all of the apps being used by their attorneys, but I'm sure that most do have some sense of the popular apps.  The top 30 apps, identified by at least 5% of the law firms, were:

1. Citrix Receiver
2. LinkedIn
3. Dropbox
4. Adobe Acrobat
5. Skype
6. Facebook
7. Documents to Go by DataViz
8. Evernote
9. GoodReader
10. Mimecast
11. iAnnotate
12. Dragon Dictate
13. Twitter
14. TrialPad
15. WestlawNext
16. TouchDown
17. Pages
18. Good Messaging Enterprise
19. WebEx
20. RSA
21. LogMeIn
22. WorkSite Mobility
23. Quickoffice
24. PocketCloud
25. VMWare View
26. NetDocuments
27. iTimeKeep
28. iTap
29. GoToMyPC
30. FlipBoard

For some reason, the survey specifically asked about time management apps.  It's been a very long time since I took a comprehensive look at this category of apps because most attorneys tell me that they don't use them.  Neither do I, but I've often thought that they might be helpful when traveling.  Consistent with this, the ILTA survey reveals that 80% of law firms do not report any lawyers using time management apps.  For those who do use these apps, the most popular ones mentioned are iTimeKeep by Bellefield Systems, and the DTE and Time Builder apps, both of which are now sold by Intapp.

In the news

Sorry for the late In the news post this week, but I was working out of town for the last few days.  Indeed, it was the first time that I've been on a plane since the new rules on using electronic devices took effect, and it was quite liberating (and productive) to be able to start reading some documents after I took my seat and then continuing reading after the cabin door closed and as the plane rose to 10,000 feet.  That extra productivity meant that when I finished my work about two-thirds through my flight, I had time to finish watching an episode of Breaking Bad on my iPad, which I could continue to watch until my plane got to the gate last night.  I really like being able to use an iPhone or iPad the entire time that I am on a plane.  And now, the latest news of note:

• Almost every attorney who uses an iPad is interested in solutions for viewing and editing Microsoft Word documents on the iPad.  While there is no single perfect solution, Apple's Pages app has long been one of the best tools.  Apple recently updated Pages to version 2.0, and I wrote an extensive review last month for the TechnoLawyer SmallLaw and BigLaw newsletters.  Hopefully, all of you subscribe (the newsletters are useful and free, so you really ought to subscribe), but in case you missed it, TechnoLawyer has graciously reposted the full article on their website, and I hope you enjoy reading it.
• New York attorney Nicole Black posted her 2013 holiday gift guide for tech-savvy lawyers.  It includes some great items such as useful apps and books.
• Alan Cohen of Law Technology News reviews the iPhone 5s.
• James Podgers of the ABA Journal reports that the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct are now available in an app, in an article that quotes Lucian Pera, an attorney in my firm's Memphis office who spends a large part of his law practice litigating legal ethics.
• Not that it has anything to do with the iPhone, but I'm always fond of a good cocktail, and Ian Monroe writes for the ABA Journal that we should all celebrate the 80th anniversary of prohibition with a Mens Rea cocktail.  I haven't tried the recipe yet, but it sounds good.
• Since I'm talking about cocktails anyway, I was on a Southwest flight this week, and the cover story on the this month's issue of the airline's Spirit magazine is a truly excellent article by Rien Ferterl about the current hand-crafted cocktail scene in New Orleans.  If this article doesn't make you want to come to New Orleans to enjoy a great drink, I don't know what will.  But even if you don't make it here any time soon, the article is also full of great cocktail recipes.
• You know what they say — a second thirds it — so here is my third and final cocktail entry today:  Lora Smith of Punch wrote a great article on New Orleans cocktails after sitting down with Lally Brennan and Ti Martin of Commander's Palace — my favorite restaurant in the world.  Brennan and Martin wrote a great book called In the Land of Cocktails which I often use as a resource for making drinks, plus it is a good read.  If you are looking for a good Christmas present for someone (or a gift to yourself), it is well worth $14.18 on Amazon.
• Before this website turns into Cocktail J.D., let's get back to the iPhone.  Luke Dormehl of Cult of Mac reports that Yahoo announced the most searched for tech items of 2013.  The iPhone is #1 and the iPad is #4.
• Daniel Egan Dilger of Apple Insider reports that many companies switching from the BlackBerry to the iPhone are using Good Technology to do so.
• One person who hasn't yet switched from the BlackBerry to the iPhone is President Obama.  Will Oremus of Slate explains why.  The president has a special, ultra-secure setup that only works with his BlackBerry.  For example, his BlackBerry has a personal email address than can only receive messages from 10 specific people.  But President Obama is no stranger to the iOS.  It is well known that he uses an iPad, and Oremus reveals in the article that Obama's daughters use iPhones.
• Serenity Caldwell, Macworld's resident expert on iPad styluses, wrote a new iPad stylus buying guide.  For taking notes, she likes the new Adonit Jot Script and the Bamboo Stylus Duo.  (My review of the Bamboo Stylus Duo is here.)
• Tony Vincent of the Learning in Hand website explains seven ways to show your iPad on a projector screen.  The article is written for teachers but is equally useful for attorneys.
• Have you voted in the ABA Journal Blawg 100 yet?  If you made it this far in today's In the news post, that alone makes you a dedicated iPhone J.D. reader and I'd appreciate getting your vote.  Voting is quick and easy; just click here to start.  iPhone J.D. is in the Legal Tech category.
• And finally, here is a useful video from PhoneBuff that shows 50 ways that you can make good use of Siri on your iPhone.  I use many of these every day, but I learned a few new ones too.

Lawyer iPhone stories: Joe Suhre

Lawyers often write me to share stories of how they use their iPhone or iPad in their law practice.  Those emails frequently result in an item in my Friday In the news posts, and occasionally those emails turn into guest posts that I call Lawyer iPhone Stories.  Hearing about how other attorneys use their iPhones and iPads always gives me new ideas for making better use of thoe devices in my own practice.

I recently heard from Joe Suhre, a former police officer who is now a criminal defense attorney in Ohio and Kentucky.  (His firm also has an office in Chicago.)  Joe told me about the four apps that he uses the most on his iPhone, and he turned his recommendations into a guest post.  Take it away, Joe!

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It used to be that a law office was a suite in an office building. It had big windows, offices in the back, a receptionist out front, and a conference room in the middle — end of story.  iPhones and iPads are beginning to play an integral role in my law practice as cloud computing has become increasingly popular. Here's what's changing — your law office could also be your car, your client’s home, a hospital room, the courtroom, or the cafe where you stopped for lunch. 

Having a mobile office allows better service and a more convenient experience for the attorney. There are several apps available to help you manage your information in this new environment. However, with thousands of legal apps available, which are the best for your practice? I can't answer that for you, but here are a few apps we use successfully in my firm. They are certainly worth checking out. 

Clio by Themis Solutions Inc.: The Clio app is an entire practice management system all in one place. Need a fast, easy place to organize your calendar? Done. What about a list of all your contacts? No problem. How about storing boat loads of files all neatly organized in one place? That’s right here, too. It also has all of your task lists, and has convenient billing features, which is key for us. If you haven't started using Clio at your firm, it's time to get with the game.

[Note from Jeff: Clio is a current sponsor of iPhone J.D., and I appreciate their support!]

Dropbox by Dropbox, Inc.: It has never been easier to use and share documents. With Dropbox, we're able to upload a file and access it on computers, phones and tablets. Document sharing is faster and more eco-friendly now than it's ever been at Suhre Law. This software is also great for sharing those files that are too large or cumbersome to send as an email attachment. 

Genius Scan by The Grizzly Labs: Genius Scan allows us to take a picture of the document using an iPhone, and quickly convert it to a PDF so that it can quickly be added to a client's file. You can group pages to make multi-page PDFs, give them tags to organize them, or quickly share them to your computer, or with colleagues through email. 

Dictate + Connect by Jotomi:  Obviously, talking is faster than typing. The Dictate + Connect app allows us to quickly hash out a rough draft for a client or the opposing counsel, or dictate a brief or a motion. The dictation is electronically shared with someone who can then type and edit the dictation. A good reason to use Dicatate + Connect is its portability. You can dictate a file memo or client correspondence in between court appearances. The app lets you record the information quickly while it's still fresh in your mind.  For example, I may have five or six court appearances in one morning. If I were to go to room 174 and appear for a client, I can dictate a memo about that appearance or correspondence to send to the client while I'm walking to the next courtroom. Then, for example, if I have an appearance in room 280, I could dictate a note, memo, or client letter immediately. Those files can be emailed to our secretary while I'm still in court, and by the time I get back to the office the letters will be ready for my review and signature so they can be mailed out.

My office is no longer defined (confined rather) by four walls and a desk. With the use of these and other apps, I carry my firm's business in my pocket and I am able to work surprisingly efficiently from just about anywhere. 

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Thanks, Joe, for sharing some of your favorite apps with iPhone J.D. readers!

If you are willing to share your experiences using an iPhone or iPad in your law practice with other iPhone J.D. readers, I'd love to hear from you too.  And in case you missed them, here are reports that I previously shared from other attorneys:

• William Axtell:  2/19/13
• Zane Cagle:  1/1/12
• Megan Erickson:  5/11/11
• Tom Freeland:  7/13/10
• Cliff Maier:  12/22/08
• Lindsay Rakers:  12/18/12
• Alfred Saikali:  5/4/11
• Mike Schneider:  4/28/09
• Clark Stewart:  7/22/10
• John Walker:  7/2/13

ABA Journal Blawg 100

The ABA Journal keeps track of over 3,600 law-related blogs in its comprehensive Blawg Directory, and for seven years now has compiled a list of favorites at the end of the year.  The 7th Annual ABA Journal Blawg 100 has now been announced, and I was pleased to learn that iPhone J.D. is on the list for the fifth year in a row.  All 100 blogs are listed in alphabetical order in a cover story in the December edition of the ABA Journal.  Better yet, the blogs are also organized by category, making it easy to discover great blogs that you might not already know about, on this page where you can also vote for your favorites.  The polls close in just a few weeks, and voting is quick and easy.  Simply provide a name and email address (a requirement there just to deter people from voting more than once), and then select your favorites.  I voted for my favorites, and the process took me less than a minute.

You'll find iPhone J.D. listed in the Legal Tech category.  If you have enoyed reading iPhone J.D. this year, I would really appreciate it if this site received your vote.  Just click the below picture to get started.  To all of you who take the time to vote: thanks a lot; y'all are awesome.