This past Saturday morning at ABA TECHSHOW in Chicago, Brett Burney, Chad Burton, Reid Trautz and I presented the 2014 installment of 60 Apps in 60 Minutes. We highlighted a variety of apps including some great new apps, some perennial favorites, and some that were thrown in mostly for the entertainment value. Here is a the full list. Many apps are free, but note that some of those require subscriptions or can have extra fees associated with them (e.g. the WestlawNext and Lexis Advance apps). All of them are worth taking a look at.
Except for the Hangtime! app. I don’t care what Reid said, I beg you to avoid that one. Seriously, just don’t do it.
For the apps that I previously reviewed here on iPhone J.D., I added a link to the app name.
I’m at ABA TECHSHOW in Chicago right now, and the big news on Thursday was that Microsoft released a version of Word (and Excel, and PowerPoint) for the iPad. I have been kicking the tires on this app since it was released Thursday afternoon, and I am incredibly impressed. Unlike Microsoft Office Mobile for iPhone released last year, the new Word app for the iPad has virtually every feature that lawyers want to use. Every attorney who uses an iPad will want to get this app. [UPDATE: Click here for my full review of Microsoft Word for iPad.]
Unlike the iPhone app released last year, this app works great with track changes (redline edits). You can view redline edits, you can create your own redline edits, and you can control how they display (inline with text or off to the side). The app also displays footnotes. And unlike some of the other apps that can revise Word documents, this app seems to preserve formatting. Thus, someone can email you a document, you can read and edit the document, and then you can send it back to them, all using your iPad and not a computer.
So far, my only complaint with Word for iPad is that while it it easy to get a file into the app, it is difficult to get files out. You can open a Word document attached to an email by simply holding down your finger on it to see the “Open in” menu and then selecting the Word app. But once a file is in Word for iPad, you can only save it (to your iPad or to your Microsoft OneDrive) and the only way to get the document out of the app is to email it. You cannot choose to “Open in” another app, nor can you print, nor can you save to DropBox, Box, or any of the other cloud storage services. As a workaround, you can email to yourself, and from there you can work with the attachment to your self-directed email.
Anyone can download the app for free and use it to view Word files, and if you have an Office 365 subscription ($100 a year) you can edit and save files. The release of this app is going to cause a huge number of attorneys to purchase Office 365 accounts. And all of the third party apps that we have been using for years to view Word documents are going to have to find ways to distinguish themselves. For example, Reader 7 does a great job of displaying your document full screen, an option not in the current version of Word for iPad.
I haven’t started looking at the new Excel and PowerPoint apps for iPad, but my hope is that they are as good as Word for iPad.
Kudos to Microsoft for releasing such an amazing iPad app that every attorney is going to want to have.
I’ve heard from many iPhone J.D. readers who will be in Chicago for ABA TECHSHOW 2014 this week. This will be my sixth TECHSHOW, and it is always a great opportunity to learn about technology from formal CLE sessions, vendors showing off cutting edge legal technology and (best of all) other attorneys who enjoy using tech. This is the first year that TECHSHOW will have an entire track devoted to the iPad, and even outside of the iPad track I’m sure that there will be a lot of talk about the iPhone and iPad in other sessions. Plus, I expect to see lots of vendors showing off iPhone and iPad related apps and accessories in the exhibit hall.
Who wants free stuff?
I love to meet iPhone J.D. readers at TECHSHOW, and this year I have something special for you when you see me. I’ve long been a fan of the micro material cloths sold by MOBiLE CLOTH because they do a fantastic job of keeping an iPhone and iPad screen clean. I have one at my desks at work and at home, and I carry them around in my briefcase. MOBiLE CLOTH now makes custom logo cloths, and the company was nice enough to send me dozens of them with iPhone J.D. custom logos to give out to iPhone J.D. readers at TECHSHOW. Just introduce yourself to me as an iPhone J.D. reader and it is yours for free, thanks to MOBiLE CLOTH. (Do me a favor, though, and try not to ask me for them right after I finish one of my presentations because that tends to be a time when there are lots of people trying to ask me questions.) And whether or not you can make it to TECHSHOW this week, for a limited time, MOBiLE CLOTH is offering 25% off & free shipping on any custom package. Just go to mobilecloth.com and use the promo code iPhoneJD when you order. A big thank you to MOBiLE CLOTH for doing something nice for iPhone J.D. readers!
THE SCHEDULE
One of the best — and worst — things about TECHSHOW is that with seven different tracks going on at the same time, plus the exhibit hall, plus the concierge booth where lots of people hang out to chat during the day, there is just too much to choose from at any one time. Here is where you are likely to find me at TECHSHOW, and these are the events that I recommend for iPhone J.D. readers.
Wednesday, March 26:
There are two compelling events at the same time Wednesday night, and I’m not sure which I’m attending yet.
6:00 – 7:00: LexThink.1. A fast-paced event at which 10 speakers each have 6 minutes to give presentations on improving the law. Click here to get free tickets.
6:00 – 7:00: Legal Networking presented by Tom Mighell, at the Apple Store located at 679 North Michigan Avenue.
Thursday, March 27:
This is the day of the iPad track, so you’ll find me in Salon A-5 most of the day. All of the sessions are taught by experienced presenters who know a ton about the iPad and iPhone.
9:00 – 10:00: iPad in Action presented by Jim Calloway and Tom Mighell.
10:15 – 11:15: iPad in Trial / iPad for Litigators. This is the first of three iPad-related sessions that I am doing. Judge Hebert Dixon of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia and I will provide advice and show off solutions for litigators who use iPads.
11:30 – 12:30: This is probably when I’ll start to check out the endless booths at the Expo Hall.
12:45 – 1:45: Luncheon / James I. Keane Memorial Award.
2:00 – 3:00: iGadgets and iGear for the iLawyer. This is my second session. Ben Stevens of The Mac Lawyer and I will team up to discuss some great iPhone and iPad accessories.
4:00 – 5:00: Advanced iPad: Working with Word and So Much More. The timing of this presentation by Brett Burney and Mark Unger could be perfect, because as I noted last week, there are rumors that Microsoft will release Office for the iPad, including a version of Microsoft Word for the iPad, on March 27. I’m sure that Brett and Mark will talk about that if it does happen, plus show off lots of other advanced iPad tips and tricks.
5:00 – 6:30: Welcome Reception – EXPO Hall.
7:00 – ???: Taste of Techshow – iStuff (iPads and iPhones). Brett Burney and I are hosting this Taste of Techshow dinner at Emilio’s Tapas (Sol Y Nieve). (UPDATE: Thanks to WestlawNext for sponsoring our dinner!) The dinner was sold out soon after the ABA started taking reservations, but there is usually a waiting list just in case someone cancels so if you really want to join us, maybe you can still do so. If you can’t, there lots of other great Taste of Techshow dinners where you can meet some great people and enjoy a great meal.
Friday, March 28:
8:00 – 10:00. I still haven’t decided which sessions I will attend for the two morning sessions. I might even use this time to see more booths at the Expo Hall.
10:00 – 11:30: Concierge Booth. The Concierge Booth is technically the place to go if you have any questions. You can see the conference schedule, sign up for Taste of Techshow dinners, etc. But the Concierge Booth also tends to be the central location where lots of people hang out to talk with others. So whether you have a question or just want to talk about your favorite apps, I’m signed up to be there from 10:00 11:30 on Friday, and I’m likely to be there other times as well.
11:30 – 12:30: Lunch ‘N Learn Sessions. There are lots of great sessions where you can also get a free lunch. I’ll probably attend the WestlawNext one.
12:45 – 1:45: Keynote by Rick Klau. Klau is now a partner at Google Ventures but few lawyers have been as involved in technology as Klau. For example, Klau is one of the people responsible for Google Scholar. This should be a great keynote — even though it will be tough to top the fantastic Keynote given last year by David Pogue of the New York Times (now of Yahoo Tech).
2:30 – 3:30: I’m trying to decide between two sessions. Lincoln Mead and Nerino Petro of the Utah and Wisconsin State Bars will present Road Tested: Gear, Gadgets & Guides that Smooth the Bumps in the Practice Road, which sounds interesting. But at the same time, there is a session called Lone Wolf: Being the Only Mac in a PC Firm, presented by Randy Juip and Ben Stevens. Even though I use a PC at my office, I do use a Mac when I work at home. More importantly, not only is Stevens a great presenter, but Juip is often one of the funniest, most entertaining presenters at TECHSHOW, so any session that he does is worth seeing.
3:45 – 4:45: Again, I’m trying to decide between two sessions. Bill Latham and Catherine Sanders Reach will present Mobility Killed the PC-Star – Can A Tablet Replace the Attorney’s PC? But at the same time, Tom Mighell and Reid Trautz will present Less Paper More Mobility as a part of the Paperless Track.
5:00 – 6:00: 60 Tips in 60 Minutes. This fast-paced session is always full of great legal tech tips.
5:30 – 7:00: Beer for Blawgers. This is always a fun social event, sponsored by Kevin O’Keefe of LexBlog. You won’t see it on the official TECHSHOW schedule, but it should be in the Hilson’s Lakeside Green Lounge.
8:00 – 9:30: I might sign up for a Taste of Techshow dinner this night, but if not I’ll probably attend Cocktails and Comedy.
Saturday, March 29:
8:30 – 10:00. Nixon’s Watergate Abuses: The Hackings That Forever Changed Legal Ethics, presented by John Dean, who was White House counsel to President Nixon.
10:15 – 11:15: 60 Apps in 60 Minutes. The room was packed when we did this presentation in 2010, 2011 and 2012. Now it is back and better than ever. This year, my co-presenters are Reid Trautz (Reid and I did the first two in 2010 and 2011), Brett Burney (Brett joined me for the 2012 version, along with Josh Barrett, who at the time published Tablet Legal) and Ohio litigator Chad Burton.
Horace Dediu of Asymco has an interesting chart showing iPhone share of phone industry shipments, revenues and profits from 2007 to today. On all three scales, the iPhone started at 0% when it was introduced in 2007. In terms of shipments, it has now made it up to 10% of all mobile phones. But in terms of revenue, the iPhone now sees 30% of all mobile phone revenue. And most importantly, the iPhone now sees over 60% of all mobile phone profits. No wonder that Apple is now the most valuable company in the world. And now, the news of note from the past week:
Texas attorneys Carolyn Latimer & Patrick A. Wright interview Texas attorneys Erin Hendricks and Rick Robertson to find out how they use an iPad in their law practice in this article for Law Practice magazine.
Massachusetts lawyer Heidi Alexander provides a few simple iPhone security tips.
I’m sure that many of you have already upgraded your iPhone and iPad to iOS 7.1, but whether you have already upgraded or you plan to do so in the future, Rene Ritchie of iMore posted a great, extensive overview of everything that is new in iOS 7.1
John Arlidge interviewed Jony Ive, the chief designer at Apple, in an article that appears in Time magazine.
Geoffrey Fowler of the Wall Street Journal reviews and likes Sonos if you are looking for a sophisticated wireless speaker system for your iPhone.
Nick Guy of iLounge reviews the Bad Elf Charge & Sync Cable, a Lightning to USB cable that has a bent end at the Lightning side that might make it the perfect cable for many situations, such as when your iPhone is in a windsheild mount.
Do you want to hear what Siri sounds like in other languages? Vocab Ninja has a page where you can listen to the famous movie line “Luke, I am your father” as said by all of the different Siri voices. (via Cult of Mac)
And finally, Jeffrey Stephenson created an enclosure for an iPad mini and a Jawbone Jambox speaker that is a throwback to a DuMont TV from the 1950s. (via The Mac Observer)
Tom Warren of technology website The Verge reported on Monday that “Sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans” have told him that Microsoft will release Microsoft Office for the iPad next week. Microsoft recently promoted Satya Nadella to be its new CEO, and on Thursday, March 27, Nadella will hold his first press event as Microsot CEO. Warren reports that Nadella will use the occasion to introduce Microsoft Office for the iPad. I didn’t write about this rumor yesterday because we have been hearing rumors of an upcoming version of Microsoft Office for iPad since 2011. But the more I look into it, I think that there might be something to this latest rumor.
First, rumors are generally most reliable when they predict something that is not very far away. This rumor concerns something happening next week.
Second, the reporter who wrote the story for The Verge, Tom Warren, has credibility. He is the Microsoft reporter for The Verge, he has been covering the company for years and he seems to know quite a bit about what is going on at Microsoft. For example, on March 12, 2014, Warren reported that according to sources familiar with Microsoft plans, Microsoft would release OneNote for Mac in March … and sure enough, that software was released this week. On September 9, 2013, Warren reported that according to his sources, Microsoft would reveal the Surface 2 on September 23, 2013 … and sure enough, it did. On August 24, 2013, Warren reported that his sources were telling him that Windows 8.1 would be available to download on October 17, 2013 … and sure enough, it was.
Third, other experienced reporters are saying that their sources tell them the same thing. Barb Darrow of GigaOm reported yesterday that her sources confirmed Tuesday morning that Office for iPad would be revealed next week. Additionally, Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet, who has been covering Microsoft for decades, reports that “According to several sources of mine, Microsoft’s latest timetable calls for the company to finally introduce the long-rumored Microsoft Office for iPad suite of applications before the end of March 2014. This March 27 event sounds like it might be the time and place.”
For these three reasons, I think that there may be something to this rumor that we will see Microsoft Office for iPad next week. But in my mind the more important question is: will it be a full-featured app or one of more limited usefulness? Microsoft released Microsoft Office Mobile for the iPhone in June of 2013, and as I noted in my review, it is a mixed bag. The good news is that you can read and edit Word documents without losing any of the document formatting. So if someone sends you a draft of a brief, you can revise it and email it back without worrying about deleting some of the styles, messing up the fonts, etc. Other iPhone apps — including Apple’s own Pages — are far less successful.
The bad news is that the features in Microsoft Office Mobile for iPhone are limited. For example, you cannot see redline edits (tracked changes) in a document, nor can you see footnotes — two features that attorneys use every day. You can view, but you cannot edit .doc files; the app only edits .docx files. You also cannot change fonts, paragraph formatting (even simple formatting like a bullet list or a numbered list), line justification or indents.
Darrow and Foley’s articles say nothing about the features of the rumored app, and Warren’s article doesn’t tell us much more. First Warren says that the “iPad variant of Office will be similar to the iPhone version,” which concerns me. But then he says: “We’re told that document creation and editing is fully supported.” That certainly sounds good, albeit inconsistent with the first statement about the iPhone version.
For years now, the #1 iPad question that attorneys ask me has been what is the best way to work with Microsoft Word files on an iPad. My fingers are crossed that Microsoft will unveil an app next week that satisfies the needs of attorneys.
According to the 2013 ABA Tech Survey, over half of all attorneys use iPhones, and over 90% use a smartphone. When the 2014 numbers come out in a few months, I suspect that we will see even more lawyers using smartphones. And of course, our clients are increasingly using iPhones and other smartphones too. Virtually every law firm has a website (and those that don’t, should). Considering that the primary visitors are clients (current and potential) and other lawyers, and that so many of them use mobile devices, I think it makes good sense for a law firm to have a mobile version of its website, one that is optimized for the smaller screen of a smartphone.
For the past three years, the Law Firm Mobile website has conducted a study to look at mobile efforts by large law firms, including the number of AmLaw 200 firms with mobile websites. The 2013 results were released in three parts (1, 2, 3) and the last part came out yesterday. The results surprised me.
The first part of the report reveals that the number of AmLaw 200 law firms with mobile-optimized websites increases every year, but it is still less than half. As of the end of 2013, only 85 of the AmLaw 200 law firms had mobile sites.
The report also reveals that if you look at the 2013 Global 100 list, only 39 (39%) have mobile sites.
The upward trend for AmLaw 200 firms — 54 in 2012 and 37 in 2011 — is no surprise. However, by now, I would have expected to see mobile websites from well more than 50% of the AmLaw 200 law firms. I joked when last year’s report came out that my law firm, Adams and Reese, was #1 on the list, and we are still #1 this year — which sounds good until you realize that it is an alphabetical list. But with still less than 50% of AmLaw 200 firms having mobile websites, every law firm on the list should be proud to be a member of this surprisingly small group.
What do good law firm mobile websites look like? The second part of the survey explores that very issue, pointing out that some law firms aim for simplicity while others seek to do something creative for mobile devices. By way of example, here is what my law firm’s mobile website looks like. It comes up automatically when a mobile device goes to our website (or you can manually go there by going to m.adamsandreese.com, but mobile websites feel wrong on the large screen of a computer).
The third part of the report reveals that 36 (18%) of the AmLaw 200 firms create apps. Virtually all of them are iPhone apps, but some law firms offer Android apps and very few offer BlackBerry apps. As a general rule, I have a mixed feeling on a law firm creating an app. A few are good, but many of them offer no real value over a website, require a lot of upkeep, and are unlikely to be downloaded by many people. I think that most law firms are better served just by creating mobile versions of their websites, although I am certainly intrigued to see the rare law firm apps that are compelling.
If your law firm doesn’t currently offer a mobile version of its website, I encourage you to consider creating one. As this study reveals, doing so will help you to stand out in the crowd.
Thank you to Connected Data and Drobo, maker of the Transporter, for sponsoring iPhone J.D. this month. Last year, the company sent me a review unit of the original Transporter, the one that has a cone shape, so that I could check it out for iPhone J.D. I continue to use it every single day in my law practice and I recommend it to other attorneys all the time. Last month, the company sent me a review unit of the new Transporter Sync so that I could try it out for a few weeks and tell iPhone J.D. readers about it. It is a great product for any attorney who wants secure cloud storage for files. [UPDATE 8/12/2014: Click here for my more recent post on the Transporter.]
Let me start by talking about what you can do with both the original Transporter and the Transporter Sync. Both products let you put your files on a drive that is available online 24/7 so that you can access your files from your work and home computers (either PC or Mac) and from an iPhone and an iPad. You technically have two copies of every file that is on a Transporter — the copy on the Transporter’s hard drive, and a local copy saved on your computer’s hard drive. The advantage of working this way is that when you want to use the file, you can do so quickly with the local copy without waiting to get the file over your network. But as you edit the file, the new version is sent to your Transporter’s own hard drive, and is then synced to any other computers set up to work with your Transporter.
Because Transporters have large hard drives, you can also use them to add extra virtual storage to your iPhone and iPad. For example, you can have many thousands of documents on a 1 TB Transporter — a device far larger than an iPhone or an iPad which don’t come in sizes larger than 128 GB — and then you can use the Transporter app to access any specific files when you need them on your iPhone and iPad (as long as you have a network connection on your iPhone or iPad).
Everything I’ve described above you can also do with Dropbox and other cloud storage services, but Transporters also offer some unique advantages that make them particularly attractive for lawyers.
First, your documents are stored on a hard drive that you control and which sits in your office (or house or wherever you put it). Thus, you don’t have to worry about whether some third party is maintaining the security of your documents. For most attorneys, this is the key feature of the Transporter that matters the most. Your files are always available to you, wherever you are, but the files are securely encrypted on a hard drive that remains solely in your possession, so you can feel comfortable putting confidential attorney-client communications on it. Nobody else can access your Transporter without your permission. On the other hand, if you do want to give someone, such as a client, access to lots of documents, photographs, videos, etc. you can simply place them in a Transporter folder and then give only that specific person, or a specific group designated by you, access to that folder.
Speaking of the Transporter being in your possession, I should note that the light that surrounds the Transporter is actually a handy status indicator ring, which makes it easy to keep an eye on things. It is typically blue in the front and green in the back, but the lights change color to tell you if something out of the ordinary is going on. Here is what the color codes mean. For example, if you run out of disk space, the light turns solid red. If you lose an Internet connection, either because of a problem with your provider or if you accidentally unplug the Ethernet cord, the light flashes from red to yellow, back and forth. The lights make it very easy to keep on eye on the Transporters to make sure that everything is okay.
Second, Transporters offer the special Transporter Library. If you don’t want a file to take up space on your computer’s hard drive, simply put the fie in the Transporter Library folder. Anything that you put in this folder is not also stored on your computer. For example, you may have a large video file that is taking up too much space on your computer’s internal hard drive, so you can move it to the Transporter Library. Once there, you can still access it on your computer, but it just takes a tiny bit longer to load because you are getting the file from the network.
Third, Transporters also offer a Selective Sync function so that you can control which folders are synced to your computer. For example, you might decide to keep local copies of all of your Transporter documents on the computer in your office, but you might select only a few of your most important folders to sync to the smaller (but faster) SSD drive on your MacBook Air or other laptop computer.
Fourth, Transporters give you a lot of storage space for a fraction of the cost of other services. When you use Dropbox, the first 2 GB is free, but you have to pay $100 a year for 100 GB, $200 a year for 200 GB or $500 a year for 500 GB. You can get the original Transporter for $200 for 500 GB, $249 for 1 TB or $349 for 2 TB. And that is a one-time price. There is no yearly fee.
This is where the new Transporter Sync offers some unique advantages. The Transporter Sync looks like the original Transporter with the top of the cone cut off. And that is exactly what is going on because the top of the cone in the original Transporter contains the hard drive, but the Transporter Sync does not contain a hard drive.
You pay $100 for the Transporter Sync and then attach any USB drive that you want to it. So if you already have an extra USB drive to use — note that the drive will be erased when it is formatted to use with the Transporter Sync — then you can get all of the advantages of a Transporter for only $99. If you don’t already have an extra hard drive, you can buy 1 TB hard drives for well under $100 on Amazon, so instead of spending $200 for a Transporter with built-in 500 GB, you can spend under $200 for a Transporter Sync plus an external USB 1 TB hard drive. You can use any USB 2.0 or 3.0 drive with the Transporter Sync. For example, for my tests, the Transporter folks sent me a Touro Mobile Pro 1 TB hard drive which you can buy on Amazon for $74.95. If you need more space, you can currently get 2 TB drives on Amazon for under $150 and 4 TB drives on Amazon for under $200.
In my tests, I have seen no performance differences between using the original Transporter with a built-in hard drive and a Transporter Sync with an external hard drive. The original Transporter offers the advantage of aesthetics — I think it looks better to have a single device on your desk versus both a device and a hard drive with a cord between them — plus it takes up less space to not have to deal with an external drive. But as noted above, a Transporter Sync can be cheaper, and you have the advantage of choosing whatever size and type of hard drive that you want to use. And if you ever need to change a hard drive (such as if it crashes), my understanding is that you can open up the original Transporter and replace the drive, but I suspect that it is easier to simply plug in a new USB hard drive to a Transporter Sync.
Speaking of drives crashing, remember that all hard drives die eventually. Some do so in a few months, others last for many years, but they are all ticking time bombs — and unfortunately, you can’t see the countdown timer, so you don’t know how much longer you have. That is why it is essential to backup your data. Transporter makes this easy to do.
First, as noted above, files on your Transporter are also stored on your computer’s hard drive (except, as noted above, for files in the Transporter Library and files in folder that you are not syncing to that specific computer using the Selective Sync function). And if you sync both your home and your work computer to your Transporter, then you have two backups or every file on your Transporter.
Second, you can purchase an additional Transporter or Transporter Sync to use it as a backup drive. The process of doing so is incredibly simple. If you already have one Transporter, wen you first connect your second Transporter it asks for your existing username and password. Then the default is for the new Transporter to serve as a backup of everything on your original Transporter. When files are changed on your first Transporter, the are quickly (and invisibly to you) also changed on your second Transporter. The means that you can use a second Transporter for off-site storage. For example, you might put an original Transporter in your office, and then you might put a Transporter Sync with an external hard drive in your home. That way, if there is a disaster at your office such as a fire and both your computer and your original Transporter in your office are destroyed, you still have all of your files securely stored on that Transporter Sync at your house.
Transporter is a great sponsor for iPhone J.D. because the Transporter and Transporter Sync are incredibly useful accessories for any lawyer, and they are especially useful any lawyer who uses an iPhone or iPad. You have constant, secure access to your files from any of your devices, while at the same time you can rest assured that your confidential documents remain under your control.
I know that many of the attorneys who read iPhone J.D. were, like me, high school and/or college debaters. (In high school, I debated for Isidore Newman in New Orleans, and in college I debated for Emory.) Lynn Reed — a friend of mine who was a Louisiana high school debater in the 1980s — wrote and co-produced a movie set in the world of high school debate. It is called A Sort of Homecoming, and filming has wrapped and the movie is now in the editing process and will soon be shopped around to film festivals. They have an Indiegogo page to raise money for the final stretch where you can, for example, pre-order a copy of the final movie. If you want to support a debate-related project, I know that Lynn and the rest of the cast and crew would appreciate your support. And now, the recent iPhone and iPad news of note:
Florida attorney Katie Floyd reviews Calendar Paste, an app that lets you work with calendar entry templates.
Minneapolis attorney Sam Glover of Lawyerist.com reviews the Pad & Quill case for the iPad mini.
Kevin O’Keefe, lawyer and CEO of LexBlog, discusses the new Bloomberg Law app.
California attorney David Sparks discusses the Find My Friends app.
Jesse Londin of Law Technology News discusses two law-related apps: one by Mayer Brown that provides a guide to restrictive covenants, and one that helps people challenge a parking ticket.
John Edwards of Law Technology News recommends apps for securing confidential information.
Marco Tabani of Macworld reviews iPhone chargers that work when you have no easy access to electricity, such as when camping or during a power outage.
Allyson Kazmucha of iMore reviews Writing Aid, a new type of dictionary/thesaurus app.
Serenity Caldwell of Macworld has tips for customzing the appearance of your iPhone in iOS 7.1.
Jared Newman of Macworld discusses CarPlay, Apple’s new technology for connecting your iPhone to your car.
Andrew Cunningham of ArsTechnica reviews the Mophie Space Pack, a case that doubles your iPhone’s battery and storage.
And here is a review of the Mophie Space Pack from Alex Colon of GigaOm.
How does your iPhone know what time it is? A fascinating video from The Atlantic provides the answer.
And finally, Patrick May of the San Jose Mercury News discusses the new Oscar Mayer Wake Up & Smell the Bacon app, a free iPhone app that wakes you up to the sound of sizzling bacon and which, when connected to a special hardware device given away by Oscar Mayer, also produces the scent of bacon. Unfortunately, the Oscar Mayer website for the app is no longer accepting applications for a chance to get the bacon-scent accessory, so you’ll have to just dream of what it would be like to have an iPhone that smells like bacon. Click here for the app (free):
[UPDATE: Be sure to also read the supplement to this post that I published on January 21, 2015.] If you paid attention to the calendar screen shots in my post yesterday, you already know how I took advantage of my kids having no school last week because of Mardi Gras. My family headed to Disney World last week, and we had a great time. After my 2012 trip, I wrote about iPhone apps that you can use to improve your trip to the most magical place on Earth, so I wanted to write an updated post after this trip. Disney is a fun but tiring vacation, so I encourage you to take advantage of the available tools to get the most out of your trip. And quite has bit has changed when it comes to Disney and gadgets in just the last few months.
For example, Disney has a new FastPass+ system. A FastPass means that you can wait in a very short line for a ride, and with normal wait times of an hour or more for popular rides like Space Mountain and Peter Pan, you definitely want to take advantage of FastPasses when you go to Disney. With the new FastPass+ system, everyone in your family gets a wrist band with embedded RFID that you use to enter the parks, validate your identity for FastPasses, pay for meals and merchandise, etc. It works very well. Also, with the new system you can reserve FastPasses many months in advance of your trip, and you can change them whenever you want using the website or a special app described below. Unfortunately, unlike the old system, you are now limited to three FastPasses a day, only one of which can be on a major ride.
Here are the apps that I recommend that you use for a trip to Disney World.
My Disney Experience — Walt Disney World
This is the new official Disney World app, and it is free. You will want to get it, but I had a real love-hate relationship with this app.
On the plus side, this app contains lots of useful information about your trip. The main screen of the app shows you your FastPass selections, gives you the option to delete and add new FastPasses, and shows you your dining and entertainment reservations. And by tapping what many folks call the “hamburger icon” at the top left, you can gets lots of other useful information such as the park hours (including information on which parks open early or stay open late for guests who are staying at a Disney resort hotel), information on restaurants and rides, wait times for rides, maps, etc.
The app also does a pretty good job of showing you the current wait times for rides. Thus, for those times when you don’t have a FastPass, you can decide if you want to go across the park to wait in line for the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad roller coaster or stay in Tommorowland for the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor with a much shorter wait.
In theory, this is the one app that you need for your vacation.
In practice, however, this app has a lot of shortcomings. First, every time you open the app, you see this screen:
I hope that you like that screen because it stays there for a VERY long time. I’ve never used an iPhone app that takes this long to launch. I imagine it is talking to a server, but it does so in such a slow fashion that you can almost see each of the seven dwarfs walking, step by step, from Cinderella’s Castle to your iPhone to load the information.
Once the app starts, even though the key advantage is that the app shows you your reservations, there are limitations. First, not all reservations show up in the app (or on the website). Second, changing reservations does not work very well. What you want to be able to do is see that you have a FastPass for a ride and then see what alternative times are available for that ride so that you can consider moving the FastPass to a different time. But the app doesn’t let you do that. You have to first cancel your existing FastPass, and then the app lets you select a new one. And if the new times are even less convenient, then you have already lost the reservation that you originally had.
Third, the app falls flat when different people in your party have different reservations. The app associates your Disney user ID with a specific master reservation number, but then doesn’t let any other user associate with that same reservation number. So if I go to the Disney website and say that all four members of my family want to have a Fast Pass for the Haunted Mansion, but then only my son and I want to go to Space Mountain while my wife and my daughter go to It’s a Small World, the app on my iPhone only shows me what I am personally signed up for, and my wife cannot use her own iPhone to see the It’s a Small World FastPass that is unique to her and my daughter. Disney needs to either (1) let more than one person associate a user ID with a master reservation or (2) let the single person who can access the reservations see all reservations for all people in the party so that a single person coordinates everyone’s FastPass from a single iPhone. Option 1 would be better, but the app doesn’t currently give you either option.
Hopefully, Disney can find a way to address these flaws because this really has the potential to be a fantastic app. Right now, however, it is just as likely to make you use words that would make even Captain Jack Sparrow blush.
Click here to get My Disney Experience — Walt Disney World (free):
Disney World Maps
I discussed the Disney World Maps app by VersaEdge back in 2012, and it remains a very useful app. I wrote this next paragraph back in 2012 and it remains true in 2014:
When you launch the app, you are instantly presented with an easy-to-read, full screen map that even takes advantage of the longer screen on the iPhone 5 [and 5s]. Attractions are clearly labeled in red along with the current wait time. Restaurants are clearly indicated in green. Bathrooms are clearly marked — essential information when you are with young children. I found this map much more useful than the map in the [official Disney] app. Dotted lines show the path of the frequent parades. And you can simply press the location services arrow at the bottom left to have the app instantly show you where you are on the map.
Last week, I used this app all the time. The maps are very easy to read, and the app quickly shows you the wait times for rides that are close to wherever you are located. Tap on any attraction or restaurant to see a picture of what it looks like from the front — useful in finding it — along with information on the attraction. The information is different from what is written in the official Disney app, and sometimes it is nice to get a different perspective on what a ride or restaurant is all about when you decide where to go next.
One very nice feature is that you can submit your own wait times (which are displayed at the front of every ride) while you are in the park, and then you can tap one button to see recent wait times submitted by users. If I see a ride that currently has a long wait time but I see that not too long ago the wait time was short, that is usually a good indication that if I wait a little longer, the line will be much shorter again.
There is also a free version of this app, but I recommend that you spend the $2.99 to get the paid version because it doesn’t have banner ads, which take up screen space and cover up a part of the map.
Click here to get Disney World Maps ($2.99):
Disney World Dining
Disney World Dining is another app by VersaEdge that I recommended in 2012, and it remains just as useful today. While the official Disney app includes a good description of all of the places that you can dine, and the Disney World Maps app also has a basic description, the Disney World Dining app gives you much more information on each restaurant, including virtually every single item on the menu and (unlike the official app) info on the items. For example, the official Disney app (the first picture below) will simply tell you that you the Chicken Breast Provencal is an item on the menu at the new (and popular) Be Our Guest Restaurant in Fantasyland, but the Disney World Dining app (the second picture below) explains that this dish is “Pan-seared and simmered in a rustic blend of Heirloom Tomatoes, Olives, White Wine, and fresh Herbs with Seasonal Vegetables and Roasted Fingerling Potatoes.”
I used this app virtually every time we made a decision on where to go for lunch or dinner. And even for the times when we had a reservation so we knew where we were going, it was nice to be able to read the full menus before we got there.
Click here to get Disney World Dining ($1.99):
Walt Disney World Secrets Gold
The last app that I will recommend is called Walt Disney World Secrets Gold. Although presented in an app format, it is really just a book with 250 tips and secrets for the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. The tips range from obvious to arcane, and some are far more useful than others, but there is a lot of good information in there. For example, the app told me that just before the Magic Kingdom opens in the morning, Mickey, Minnie and lots of other Disney characters arrive on a train at the Main Street Railroad station, so if you get right in the center you can get some nice pictures in the morning. The app also told me that the Winnie the Pooh ride replaced the Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, and gives you a tip to look out for a small picture in the ride of Mr. Toad handing over a deed for his attraction to Owl — a small item that brought a smile to my face when I looked for it and then found it in the ride because I used to love Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride when I was a child.
Browsing through the chapters in this app doesn’t take very long — I went through the entire app in less than an hour during my plane ride to Orlando — and it is similar to spending some time with a Disney World expert who gives you tips on what to do and see, the back-story on attractions, and info on things that might be right in front of your face (such as hidden Mickey outlines) but you might miss them if you didn’t know that they were there. The app will definitely get in you a mood for your trip, and is also something to look at again while you are killing time waiting in line for a ride. This is a universal app so it works on all of your iOS devices, and I liked reading it cover-to-cover on my iPad while I was on the plane to Orlando, and then looking at specific sections of the app on my iPhone while I was at the park.
There are two versions of this app, the regular version for $1.99 the and Gold version for $3.99. For the extra $2 you get photos in the app, which are often helpful for finding the secrets, so I recommend that you get the Gold version.
Click here to get Walt Disney World Secrets Gold ($3.99):
Disney World is always a fun place to be, and I especially enjoyed being there during Mardi Gras week. Based on the number of Mardi Gras-themed shirts that we saw on others in the parks, it seemed like 25% of the folks at Disney last week were from the New Orleans area. But whatever time of year that you go, I recommend that you spend a few dollars on useful iPhone apps to make the most of your trip.
Yesterday afternoon, Apple released iOS 7.1, an important update to iOS, the operating system for iPhones and iPads. I recommend that you install the update on all of your devices. Here is information on how to update, and what is changed in iOS 7.1
How to update
The best way to update your device is on the device itself. First, plug your device in to a power source, or if you can’t do that make sure that you have 50% power remaining on your iPhone or iPad. Then tap on the Settings app and tap General. Next tap Software Update and then follow the instructions to download and install iOS 7.1.
Alternatively, you can connect your device to a computer with iTunes and then update uisng iTunes.
I had no problems at all updating my iPhone 5s to iOS 7.1. However, when I updated my iPad Air to iOS 7.1, I initially found that it was very slow to type with the keyboard, both the virtual keyboard and an external Bluetooth keyboard. This is a problem that some folks also experienced after updating to iOS 7.0. The fix for me was to go to Settings -> General -> Reset -> Reset Keyboard Dictionary.
Once you update, here are the improvements that I think will be most appreciated by lawyers.
Fewer crashes
One of the things that I always loved about the iPhone and iPad was that they almost never crashed. But ever since I started using iOS 7 on an iPhone 5s and an iPad Air, I would sometimes be using my device and then suddenly see a black screen with the Apple logo on it, and I would have to wait for the home screen to reset. Arrgh. iOS 7.1 is supposed to fix that. The update has been out less than 24 hours so I’ll have to wait and see if this is really fixed … but if it is, I’ll be very happy.
Calendar app
I use the Calendar app sometimes, but most of the time I use Fantastical 2, an app that provides a useful list view for your events and makes it fast and easy to make new entries. (Here is my review of Fantastical 1.) Recognizing that it can be useful to see a list of events, iOS 7.1 adds to improvements to the built-in Calendar app. First, when you are looking at a specific day in the Calendar app, you can tap the new list icon at the top to switch to a list view of your events of the day.
Second, when you are in the month view, you can tap the list icon at the top to also see a list of events underneath the calendar — a great improvement that lets you see both individual events and the month as a whole at the same time.
Bold is even bolder
iOS 7 includes a beautiful new system font, but I find it a little hard to read. Fortunately, iOS 7 also provides ways to make the font larger and bolder, a look that I find more functional. This post I wrote last year describes how to take advantage of this.
In iOS 7.1, if you turn on bold text (Settings app -> General -> Accessibility -> Bold Text), you also get bolder icons. In the following two images, the first shows bold text turned off and the second shows bold text turned on. Look at the icon row at the bottom to really see the difference.
I like the bolder icons for the same reason that I prefer bolder text — they might not be quite as pretty, but they are more obvious to my eyes and thus make my iPhone more functional. But again, if you don’t like the look, you don’t have to use bold text.
The letters on the keyboard are also a little bit bolder than they were in iOS 7.0 when you have bold text turned off, and they are noticeably bolder when you have bold text turned on.
Siri adds hold to talk
In iOS 7, if you hold down the home button for a few seconds, Siri starts to listen to you. In iOS 7.0, Siri decides when it thinks you are finished talking, and if you paused for a second, Siri may have stopped listening before you were done. This can be very annoying. In iOS 7.1, if you continue to hold down the home button after Siri launches, Siri will keep listening until you release the home button. Thus, you can ensure that Siri will keep listening to you until you are finished talking. I find this approach much better and I suspect that I will use it all the time now.
You can also use this feature when you use Siri to dictate a text message. First tell Siri that you want to send a text — for example, say “Send a message to my wife.” Then, when Siri asks you what you want to say in the message, hold down the button and keep holding it down until you are finished with your message. You no longer have to worry about pausing as you think about what you want to say next.
Better Touch ID
If you use an iPhone 5s with the new fingerprint sensor, you know how useful this feature can be. I find Touch ID to be incredibly accurate for my fingers, but sometimes I hear from people who find it to be more prone to errors. Apple says that iOS 7.1 has improved Touch ID fingerprint recognition, so hopefully that will be helpful to those who have had problems.
Faster on iPhone 4
iOS 7 runs pretty slow on an iPhone 4. If you are an attorney still using an iPhone 4, it is really time for you to upgrade to a new model. But for those who do still use an iPhone 4, it is nice to see that iOS 7.1 runs a little faster on the iPhone 4. Andrew Cunningham of Ars Technica explains the improvements.
The optional return of buttons
When the iPhone was new, a large touchscreen with few hardware buttons was something different for folks to get used to, so prior versions of the iOS made it very obvious when there was a virtual button that you could tap. Now that we all understand how an iPhone works, iOS 7 took a bold new approach and removed most of the buttons, replacing them with words that you are supposed to just know that you can tap. I’ve now gotten used to this approach, but if you want to return to the good old days of a virtual buttons, in the Settings app you can go to General -> Accessibility -> Button Shapes to turn on those virtual buttons again. In the following two examples, look at what happens to General at the top left when I turn the option on.
I think I’m going to keep button shapes turned off now that I have gotten used to iOS 7, but I’m glad to see the option to bring back buttons for those who want it.
Etc.
Those are the major improvements that I think that many of you will appreciate, but there is a lot more that is new in iOS 7.1. There are cosmetic changes everywhere that you look, such as slightly different icons that tend to use darker and richer colors, slight differences in the way that the keyboard looks (such as new caps and caps lock buttons), a new green circle (instead of a long bar) at the bottom of the keyboard in the Phone app that rotates when you tap it to dial, etc.
Apple also added support for CarPlay, a new service announced last week that allows new CarPlay-compatible cars work even better with an iPhone.
If you use an iPhone 5s, the camera app now has an Auto HDR feature that kicks in whenever you take a picture where HDR could be helpful, such as when you have lots of light in part of the picture but less light elsewhere. And if you use the Auto Flash function in the Camera app, in iOS 7.1 a yellow box with a flash icon shows up at the bottom of the screen whenever the iPhone thinks a flash would help so that you know that when you press the shutter button that the flash will be used.
If someone tries to call you using FaceTime, you might have multiple devices ring at the same time, such as both your iPhone and iPad. In iOS 7.1, once you answer on one device, the notifications are cleared on your other devices.
And there is lots more in iOS 7.1 such as improvements to iTunes Radio, better support for iBeacons, and many other small improvements.
I’ll end with my favorite of the small changes, and will do so by quoting from the Apple release notes: “Fixes display of Mail unread badge for numbers greater than 10,000.” If you still have more than 10,000 unread messages in your Inbox, you’ve got much bigger problems to worry about than the badge on the Mail app … but I guess that the first step is recognizing that you have a problem, and maybe the new badge icon will help.
