Jeff Richardson

I’ve enjoyed reading about the reactions to Apple’s WWDC announcements earlier this week.  Sure, there were lots of great individual announcements of new features that I’m going to love in iOS 8.  But most of all, I love that Apple has set the stage to open up iOS and let developers do some really neat things with the iPhone and iPad that were never before possible, such as letting apps work within other apps and the sharing of files between apps.  I completely agree with Jason Snell of Macworld (and I’m not alone) who said:  “The ways Apple is opening up app access to iOS in particular will change the experience for users more than any single OS feature. And it will happen in unexpected ways, because those developers are very, very clever, and tend to think of approaches that nobody — not even the people at Apple who enable them — has anticipated.”  We won’t see these advances overnight, but over the next year or two, the usefulness and magic of the iPhone and iPad is going to vastly increase.  How awesome is that.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• New York attorney Nicole Black notes in an article for The Daily Record that three more state ethics advisory authorities have weighed in on cloud computing.
• North Carolina attorney Brian Focht recommends new apps for lawyers on his site, The Cyber Advocate.
• Mark Gerlach of Law Technology News discusses the latest update to ABBYY Business Card Reader Pro.  I reviewed an earlier version of the app in early 2012
• Macworld put together an excellent FAQ on all of the highlights of iOS 8.
• One of the cool new features of upcoming iOS 8 is that it makes it easier to find an iPhone or iPad via the Find My iPhone feature.  Currently, if you try to use it but the device is turned off because the battery is died, the location service does not work.  In iOS 8, you can turn on an option that your device automatically submit it location when the battery drains to a critical level so that when you use the Find My iPhone service, you will see the last known location of the device.  AppleInsider provides this explanation of the feature.
• Joshua Topolsky of The Verge believes that this year’s WWDC keynote reflects a new, better Apple.
• Horace Dediu of Aymco tweets that Apple will cross the 1 billion iOS devices sold mark at some point this year.
• Nick Guy of iLounge reviews Just Mobile’s AluCable Flat, a flat USB/Lightning cable that is supposed to resist getting tangled.
• And finally, just in case you didn’t think that your iPhone was useful enough, you can now get the IN1 Multi Tool Utility Case for iPhone 5 and 5S, a case which adds to your iPhone (1) blue pen, (2) red pen, (3) Phillips screwdriver, (4) flat screwdriver, (5) kickstand, (6) nail file, (7) tweezers, (8) scissors and (9) toothpick  And somewhat surprisingly, the company says that it is TSA complaint.  It is available on Amazon for only $44.99.  The video has more info:

The iPhone and iPad are amazing tools for lawyers because they are relatively easy to use, but are also incredibly powerful.  But as lawyers (and others) start to master the basics of iOS, they often start to want more powerful features.  Every year, Apple adds more advanced features to iOS, and now it is hard to imagine that there was a time when we didn't have third party apps, copy and paste, or even Siri.  But based on the announcements made by Apple yesterday, when iOS 8 comes out this Fall, Apple will make huge advancements to the operating system, with lots of advanced features for power users and lots of ways to make iPhones and iPads more powerful for everyone.  Apple announced a huge number of new features yesterday and I won't even try to mention all of them today — not only because there are so many of them, but also because many of the features have so much potential that it is going to take a while for their importance to really sink in.  Moreover, Apple only gave us a taste of the highlights of iOS 8, and I'm sure that when it is actually released in a few months there will be even more surprises.  For all of those reasons, today's post provides only a few of the reasons that I am confident that lawyers are going to love iOS 8.

Mail

For many lawyers, Mail is the app that you use the most on your iPhone and iPad.  Mail will see some great improvements in iOS 8.  First, you know how you start to compose a an email message and then realize that you need to check something in another message to add to your email?  Currently, your only option is to cancel out of the current email (although you can save a draft).  But in iOS 8, you can simply swipe down to move the current draft of your email to the very bottom of the screen, then use the Mail app to find whatever you were looking for, then bring that draft right back up again to work on it more.  What a great and useful feature.

It will also be faster to work with messages.  With a simple swipe you can mark an email as read or unread, or add a flag so that you remember to go back to it later.  If Mail sees that a message contains a reservation, a flight confirmation, etc., a notification appears at the top where you can simply tap to add it to your calendar.  Or tap on a phone number to add it to a contact. 

It will also be easier and faster to type in Mail — and in all other apps.  The new iOS 8 keyboard predicts the words that you are likely to type next and displays them at the top of the keyboard so that you can tap a word to enter it.  Instead of typing a letter at a time, you may be able to type a word at a time.  Apple even customizes the suggested words based on the context, such as what you are talking about or who you are writing to — a co-worker versus your spouse, etc.  At this point I don't know how Apple is pulling this off and how it will work in practice, but clearly this is very sophisticated technology behind the new predictive text feature.  And not only is the Apple keyboard much more powerful, but Apple will also let you select different types of keyboards including keyboards offered by third parties, such as the Swype keyboard that lets you drag your finger across the screen instead of lifting up after pressing every key.

All of these little features will let you do more, more quickly, with Mail.

Working with files

Currently in iOS, each app has its own files.  You can store a bunch of files in an app like GoodReader, but no other app can see those files.  To share, you need to use the Open In feature, one file at a time, and then a second copy of the file is created in a different app, which can lead to confusion over which is the latest draft.  iOS 8 lets multiple apps work on the same file, much like you can a computer.  You can edit a Word file in one app and those changes will be there when you open the Word file in another app.

Apple is also integrating access to cloud services and file servers.  Apple itself is adding something called iCloud Drive to store your files, but it appears that you can also use third party services such as Box, Microsoft's OneDrive, your company's file server, etc.  Note that I didn't mention Dropbox because neither did Apple yesterday, but I'm sure that Dropbox will also be supported.

Moreover, using iCloud Drive, you can access the same file from your iPhone or your iPad or your Mac or even your PC (although it may Windows 8, which I doubt many lawyers are using yet).  When you edit a file on any one device, the new version appears on all of your devices.  This sounds a lot like Dropbox, and that's probably the reason that Apple didn't mention Dropbox yesterday:  Apple's iCloud Drive will be real competitor to Dropbox.  Over the coming months I really look forward to seeing how iCloud Drive compares to Dropbox in terms of security, usability, price, etc.

Continuity

iOS 8 will make it incredibly easy to handoff from one device to another.  You can start writing an email with your iPhone, then with a simple tap can continue writing the email on your iPad.  Or start working on a document on your iPad and then pick it up on your iPhone.  Mac users are going to really love this feature because it also works with Macs.  Start working on a message on your iPhone, and then hand it off to your Mac to finish off the message.  (Just what I needed; yet another reason to wish that I was using a Mac in my office.)

You can even use a Mac or an iPad to make a call, as long as your iPhone is in the same room.

Less intrusive notifications

How often are you doing one thing on your iPhone or iPad when you see an alert that you have a new email or text message?  It happens to me all the time, and if I want to respond to that email or text, I have to switch over to the Mail or Messages app to do so, and then switch back.  In iOS 8, notifications are interactive, so you can take action on emails, texts, calendar invitations, reminders, and certain messages from other apps (like a Facebook invite) right from the notification banner.  So if you see a text, you can respond to it right there on the same screen without having to go to the Messages app.  When you see an email, you can mark it as read or delete it right then and there — much like you can do on a PC when Outlook gives you that pop-up notification that you have a new email. 

By the way, when you do use the Messages app to send and receive text messages, you are no longer limited to text.  You can simply tap a microphone and speak and the other person receives a voice message in their Messages app.  And of course they can send voice messages to you, too.  By going back and forth with voice messages, the Messages app becomes almost like a Walkie Talkie, except that the other person doesn't have to listen to your voice until they are ready to do so, so it is a less intrusive Walkie Talkie.  This also works with video messages.

The end result is that you can deal with messages, emails and other notifications more quickly, more easily, and with minimal interruption.

Security

Security is so important to lawyers that I have to mention that iOS is even more secure.  Apple says:  "The enterprise-grade security technologies built into iOS are even more powerful in iOS 8. We’ve expanded data protection to more apps and enabled finer control over mail encryption."  I need to dig deeper to find out everything that is changed, but more security is always good.

Siri

Siri is going to be a heck of a lot more powerful in iOS 8.  When your iPhone is plugged in, such as in your car, you no longer have to press a button to activate Siri.  Instead, just say "Hey Siri" and Siri will listen and do what you say.  Some Android users have had a similar feature with technology called Google Now, and I look forward to trying it out on the iPhone.

Siri will also understand what you are saying while you are talking, which should mean that Siri responds even more quickly.  Siri also includes Shazam support so you can use Siri to identify a song that you are hearing on your TV, radio, etc.  Siri can also be used to purchase iTunes content.

Extensions

Many apps will be more powerful in iOS 8 because they can add extensions from other apps.  For example, I hope that means that 1Password support can be added to within the Safari browser.  Apple showed off Apple's Photos app taking advantage of filters offered by other apps, all from within the Photos app.  Allowing apps to talk to each other in this direct way has the potential to pave the way for huge improvements, and I cannot wait to see what developers do with this new feature.

And so much more

I cannot say this enough … there are just so many new features in iOS 8.  It will be easier to share apps, songs, etc. among your family members.  HealthKit will add a single place for all of your health-related data.  HomeKit adds a single place to control all of your different home automation devices that you buy from different manufacturers.  Technology Apple calls Metal will allow developers to create apps that are 10x faster.  There is a new In Case of Emergency card.  There are improvements to the Maps, Photos and Camera apps.  You can get information on which apps are draining your battery the most.  Touch ID (the fingerprint reader) will be supported by many apps.  And I could go on more, but you get the point.

iOS 8 is going to be one of the biggest iOS updates ever released by Apple, not only because of what it directly does, but also because of what it lets developers do with their apps.  Advanced iPhone and iPad users will be particularly delighted by the huge number of power-user features.

And finally, with all of these improvements to iPhone and iPad software, I can't wait to find out later this year what Apple has planned for the next generation of iPhone and iPad hardware.

Today is the start of WWDC, Apple’s developer conference.  At 10 am Pacific / 1 pm Eastern today, Apple CEO Tim Cook and other Apple executives will give the keynote address, an event Apple typically uses to preview new iPhone, iPad and Mac software.  I’m sure that we will see a preview of iOS 8, which will likely be released later this year when the 2014 model of the iPhone is released.  We will probably also hear more about Apple’s $3 billion acquisition of Beats last week, and perhaps we will even hear from Beats executives Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre.  And perhaps there will be other surprises.

One sign that Apple thinks that this will be an interesting keynote is that Apple is offering a live stream, something that they do not always provide.  It appears that you need to watch it using Safari on an iPhone, iPad or a Mac, or using an Apple TV.  I believe that this is the link to watch the event. 

If you are curious about the rumors and speculation on what Apple will announce at the keynote and cannot wait until 10 am Pacific, Mark Gurman of 9to5Mac offers a great roundup of WWDC keynote rumors.  John Gruber also wrote a good preview.

On Tuesday, I’ll offer my thoughts on what the WWDC keynote announcements mean for attorneys who use an iPhone or iPad.

Next week (June 2 – 6) is Apple’s annual Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco.  This is the premier events for folks who develop Mac, iPhone and iPad software, and it is so hard to get a ticket that this year Apple instituted a lottery for tickets.  The keynote address is at 10am Pacific time on Monday, June 2, and will be streamed live (but you need a Mac, iPhone, iPad or Apple TV to watch).  Apple typically uses this event to preview new software, and sometimes to announce new hardware.  Last year at WWDC, Apple previewed iOS 7, and two years ago, Apple previewed iOS 6.  I suspect that apple will preview iOS 8 on Monday, and even though the new operating system probably won’t be available until September or October, it will be interesting to learn some of the new features that are coming later this year.  And if you believe the rumors, Apple may have some other interesting announcements next week too.  We’ll see.  But enough looking ahead, here are the news items of note from the past week.

• Sam Glover of Lawyerist.com links to an article on The Legal Skills Prof Blog that links to a studies collected by Education Week that show that people tend to skim text when they read it on a screen instead of paper.  As Glover notes, considering the increasing number of judges who reads briefs on an iPad, this is something for legal writers to keep in mind.  I think that it underscores the need to use an introductory paragraph that quickly gives the gist of your entire argument so that the judge doesn’t miss it in the brief.
• Another interesting article in the Legal Skills Prof Blog describes the commencement speech that Apple’s General Counsel, Bruce Sewell, gave at his alma mater George Washington University Law School.  I wrote about Sewell when he took the job at Apple back in 2009.
• This week, Apple announced that it is buying Beats, which manufactures premium headphones and has a streaming music service.  Apple is paying $3 billion, making this by far the largest acquisition in Apple’s history in terms of dollars.  I’m sure we will learn more about the acquisition at WWDC on Monday.
• Karen Haslam of Macworld UK wrote an a good article on Ken Segall, the man who was responsible for lots of Apple’s ads, but as Segall himself notes, will probably be best remembers as the man who come up with the name “iMac” (which of course led to the name for the iPhone and iPad).  Segall is also one of the guys behind the funny site Scoopertino, which I discussed back in 2010.
• Speaking of Segall, he recently wrote a good post on his blog about the origins of the Apple Store.
• Darrell Etherington of TechCrunch says that he reviews a lot of smartphones and explains why the iPhone is the best.
• If you have ever given an iPad or iPhone to a kid, you know that they basically need no instruction and can figure it out in minutes … and give them a week or two and they probably know more than you do.  Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac posted a cute video in which today’s kids react to an Apple II.  Funny stuff.
• And finally, here is a cute video created by Marty Cooper, an animator who has worked at Blue Sky, ReelFX, and Rovio.  He has an interesting technique where he draws on a transparency and then holds that up in front of objects in the real world and then takes a picture with his iPhone.  By changing the drawings on the transparency and combining all of the pictures taken with his iPhone, much like a stop motion film, Cooper creates animations.  He posts many of these animations to his account on Instagram, and he recently combined some of his best animations into a short movie that he calls Aug(De)Mented Reality.  In this interview of Cooper on the House/Fire blog, Cooper explains his process and shows off how he does it in some pictures.  Here is the Aug(De)Mented Reality video, which is great fun:

I’m always interested in data that reveals the number of lawyers using iPhones and iPads, and there is new, interesting data from TechnoLawyer.  TechnoLawyer was created by New York attorney Neil Squillante, and the company publishes a number of free newsletters distributed by email to lawyers and other legal professionals such as LitigationWorld, BigLaw, SmallLaw, BlawgWorld and Fat Friday.  I’ve written lots of articles for various TechnoLawyer publications over the years, and if you don’t already subscribe to one or more of the newsletters, you are missing out on some good stuff.  Although the newsletters are free, you need to complete a short survey to subscribe.  As a result, TechnoLawyer has current data on over 14,000 subscribers, almost 9,000 of which are attorneys.  TechnoLawyer used that data to release its first Demographics Report last week, which you can download here.

Survey respondents

Before discussing the results, let’s consider the survey respondents.  My understanding is that there are over a million attorneys in the U.S., so even if all of the almost 9,000 TechnoLawyer lawyers were U.S. attorneys, this would still be less than 1% of all U.S. attorneys responding to the survey.  (In actuality, 88% of the TechnoLawyer survey respondents work in the U.S.; another 5% work in Canada.)  Nevertheless, as statistics go, around 9,000 is a pretty good sample size — especially considering that there is 100% participation because all readers have to complete the survey.  For example, every year the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center conducts a survey to gauge the use of legal technology by attorneys in the United States, and while the 2014 numbers are not out yet, the 2013 survey results that I reported on last year were based on 918 completed questionnaires out of 12,500 survey invitations sent out by email.

Moreover, attorneys who are interested enough in technology to subscribe to one or more TechnoLawyer email newsletters are surely more technologically capable than the typical lawyer.  That doesn’t mean that every TechnoLawyer reader is a tech expert, and indeed I know that is not the case.  Nevertheless, I think it is fair to say that the average TechnoLawyer reader is at least tech-curious and is most likely reasonably tech-savvy.

The report itself characterizes the respondents as legal technology “decision-makers and influencers,” and that seems fair.  Two-thirds of survey respondents serve on their law firm’s technology committee, and over four-fifths of survey respondents recommend, make or approve tech purchases at their law firms.  You can get lots more information on the respondent population in the report.

(One interesting data point not in the report:  Squillante tells me that 97% of the respondents use Windows and 30% use a Mac — which adds up to more than 100% because some attorneys use both.  It is no surprise that some attorneys use both; I myself use a PC at work and a Mac at home.  But that 30% number for Mac users was higher than I would have expected.)

Overall, I view the TechnoLawyer survey as giving us information on the tech preferences of a population of tech-savvy lawyers.  If you are interested in legal technology, this is a good population to study as these are likely to be the trendsetters in the industry. 

68% of lawyers use an iPhone

The TechnoLawyer Report states that 50.3% of respondents use an iPhone, 29.4% use an Android smartphone and 14.3% use a BlackBerry.  However, just over a third of TechnoLawyer subscribers are not attorneys; they include technology consultants, law firm IT managers, paralegals, etc.  Thus, I asked Squillante if he would provide me attorney-specific information that I could share with iPhone J.D. readers and he was kind enough to break down the numbers for me. 

The results for attorneys are:  68% iPhone, 37% Android, 13% BlackBerry, 4% Windows Phone, 2% other smartphone, and 5% don’t report using a smartphone at all.  This adds up to over 100% because some attorneys have multiple devices, such as a work phone and a personal phone. 

These numbers are largely consistent with the other data out there on lawyer smartphone use, except that iPhone and Android use is larger.  For example, in the ABA 2013 report that I reported on last year, the percentages were 62% iPhone, 22% Android, 16% BlackBerry, and about 1% Windows Mobile.  When the ABA releases its 2014 survey, I suspect that BlackBerry numbers will be lower than the prior year the other categories will be higher.  In the Clio survey that I reported on in February of 2014, the percentages were 75% iPhone, 18% Android, and very few BlackBerry or Windows Mobile, but keep in mind that the Clio survey reflects mostly Mac users, who one would suspect to be more likely to use an iPhone.

63% of lawyers use an iPad

The TechnoLawyer Report states that 51.1% of respondents use an iPad, and 14.5% use some other tablet.  Once again, Squillante provided me the lawyer-specific percentages, which do not appear in the published report.  63% of lawyers use an iPad and 17% of lawyers use some other tablet.  7% of lawyers use both an iPad and some other tablet (i.e. 57% use only an iPad and 10% use only another tablet).  That leaves 26% of respondents who do not (yet) use a tablet.

These numbers were somewhat surprising to me in that there was far more tablet use than I would have expected — 74% of all attorneys.  This may be a result of TechnoLawyer readers being more tech-savvy.  For example, in the 2013 ABA survey, only 48% of all attorneys reported using a tablet.  When the ABA’s 2014 numbers come out, I’m sure we will see even more than 48% of attorneys using a tablet this year, but I’d be surprised if it is was up to 74%.

As for the percentage of tablet-using lawyers who use an iPad, the numbers are essentially consistent with what we have seen before.  Of the 74% of TechnoLawyer attorneys who use a tablet, 86% use an iPad.  In the last three years of the ABA survey, roughtly 9 out of 10 tablet-using attorneys report that they use an iPad. 

It was interesting to learn that 7% of lawyers report using both an iPad and some other tablet operating system.  It is unclear whether that means an Android, a Windows tablet, or perhaps even some sort of Kindle tablet.  I can see using both a work-issued smartphone and a personal smartphone, and I can even see using multiple iPads (perhaps a full-size iPad and an iPad mini), but I was surprised to see that as many as 7% use two different tablet operating systems.  If any of you reading this fall into that category, I’d love to hear why you use two different tablets with two different operating systems.

A big market

The numbers in this 2014 TechnoLawyer survey are interesting enough on their own.  However, Squillante tells me that he plans to release reports like this annually, and it will be especially interesting to see how these numbers change over time.  We have gotten to the point where almost all attorneys use a smartphone, but I suspect that the number of attorneys using tablets like the iPad is still on the rise.

One thing that is clear in both the TechnoLawyer survey and every other survey that I see:  a huge number of attorneys are using iPhones an iPads.  For any company in the field of legal technology, this should be a huge incentive to create iOS apps, either as stand-alone apps or as apps that work in connection with the other products sold by the company.  And as more law-related iOS apps are released, iPhones and iPads become even more valuable for attorneys.

iPhone J.D. was inaccessible for most of the day this past Monday, as were lots of other great websites that use Typepad as a host.  As Typepad’s General Manager explained in a post on Tuesday, the company was once again the victim of a criminal DDoS attack.  (You may recall that there was a similar attack last month.)  Meanwhile, as Nicole Perlroth of the New York Times reported, this week eBay announced that hackers had breached that website and gained access to the personal information of 145 million customers.  And as noted by Kelly Hodgkins, two hackers in the Netherlands and Morocco claimed this week to have found a way to crack the activation lock that is supposed to stop a thief from using a stolen iPhone.  The whole mess almost makes you long for the pre-Internet, halcyon days of the 1980s … although as California attorney David Sparks notes, back then it was much harder to solve a Rubik’s cube.  And now, the rest of the news of note from the past week:

• California attorney Scott Grossberg discusses Microsoft Word for iPad.
• GOkey is an interesting device on IndieGoGo, mentioned by California attorney David Sparks, that charges an iPhone, connects it to a computer, can help you find your iPhone, and includes Flash memory.
• California attorney and FindLaw writer William Peacock writes that 62% of lawyers using smartphones use an iPhone.  However, I don’t think that is a new number based on current data.  He bases his article on a MyCase infographic, and it appears that the infographic gets its information from my post from July of 2013, which was based upon the annual survey by the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center, which collected its 2013 data earlier in 2013.  So I believe that the 62% number is over a year old.  My prediction is that the iPhone and Android percentages will be even higher in 2014 and the BlackBerry percentage will be even lower, but that’s just a guess and we’ll have to wait for the 2014 report from the ABA to see what the number looks like this year.
• John Edwards of Law Technology News recommends iPhone travel apps.  He should have included the iExit app I reviewed earlier this week on that list.
• Han-Yi Shaw, who was in charge of the design of the new Microsoft Office apps for iPad, explained the design philosophy of the apps in an article on the Office Blog.  For an interesting article on Han-Yi Shaw himself, check out this article by Lance Ulanoff at Mashable.
• PDFpen for iPhone and iPad just added Transporter support, letting you import and export to your Transporter directly from the app.  In my tests, it works well, and I hope to see more apps add native Transporter support.  (Transporter is a current sponsor of iPhone J.D.)  My reviews of the PDFpen apps are now two years old, but they are here and here.
• If you fly Southwest Airlines, you’ll be interested in this report by Mark Gurman of 9to5Mac about how you can now use the Southwest app on your iPhone as a mobile boarding pass at 28 airports … including New Orleans, for any of you headed to my neck of the woods.
• If you have an iPhone 5s or an iPhone 5c, (or an iPad Air or a Retina iPad mini with LTE) and you use Verizon, you’ll be interested to know that you can use Verizon’s new XLTE network to get up to 2x the bandwidth.  Derek Kessler of iMore has details.  I have yet to see reliable reports on how XLTE works in the real world, but hopefully it will be an improvement for many.
• Dan Rubin of the British weekly newspaper The Observer wrote a good article recommending iPhone photography apps.  There is an excellent video that accompanies the article and it is worth watching as it shows you what the apps can do.
• Lauren Crabbe of Macworld offers some more basic tips for taking pictures with an iPhone.
• And finally, if you like the sound of your iPhone ringing, then you are going to love the iPhone Remix by MetroGnome.  The video is below, and you can download the song for free here.  (via Cult of Mac)

The kids are almost done with school, which means that Summer road trips in the car are just around the corner.  If you close your eyes, you can almost hear the refrains of “Are we there yet?”  Whether your upcoming long trips on the Interstate are for business or pleasure, it is incredibly useful to know what is at the upcoming exits.  Sure, you can read the signs before each exit, but how do you know if it is better to wait one or two more exits to get better food options?  The solution is an app called iExit.  This free app has been around for some time, but I didn’t know about it until one of my co-presenters sang its praises during the 60 Apps in 60 Minutes session that I was a part of at ABA TECHSHOW earlier this year.  I’ve since used it on several road trips, and now I cannot imagine not having it.  This is a great, useful app.

The app works best when you are on the Interstate.  Obviously, if you are the driver, you need to pay attention to the road so this app works best when used by someone in the passenger seat.  Start the app and iExit figures out which Interstate you are on and which direction you are headed, and then it displays a list of the upcoming exits.  This main screen gives you lots of information such as the exit number, how far away you are from the exit, and an icons to indicate what is available at each exit.  As you get very close to an exit, it starts to fade away, and then when you pass that exit it disappears and the others move up — animation that is both fun and useful.

 

Tap on an exit to see a list of what is available at the exit, organized by the distance from the exit plus a useful indication of whether you need to turn left or right at the end of the exit to get to the establishment.  Tap on an establishment to get more information, or tap the phone icon to call.

 

One of the options for each establishment is Google Streetview.  For some addresses on Interstate exits, Google Streetview is not very useful at all, not showing you the correct location.  But other times it works very well, letting you quickly see what the place will look like from the street, which can make it easier to find the place.  One quick glance at the first picture below makes it easy to find that McDonalds.  And for businesses that have a 3D walk-through of their business available on Google Streetview, you can even get a virtual tour of a place as you decide whether to go there.  For example, the second picture below is the inside of a great restaurant in Covington, LA called Dakota.

 

You can also use the app to search or nearby restaurants.  So if you are on the Interstate and have a taste for, say, Chick-Fil-A, you can search for that restaurant and see how far the next one is.  Or you can search for a category of establishments, such as restaurants or gas or rest areas.

 

If you are not yet on the Interstate but instead are just planning ahead, the app includes an option to Plan Your Trip.  Select a state and then an Interstate number, and the app will list all of the exits, so you can make decisions before you go on where you want to stop along the way.

Best of all, and as you can tell from the above pictures, iExit does a nice job presenting information, making it quick and easy to see what you need to see.

While on the Interstate, I’ve only used this app on an iPhone, but I see that it is a universal app so it will work on an iPad too — although if you only have a Wi-Fi iPad, it won’t have a GPS to automatically find its location.  On an iPad, all of the information is displayed on the left, and right portion of the screen provides you a map.

As I think back on road trips I have taken in the past, I can think of so many times when this app would have been so useful to have.  I’ve already found it to be so useful in the last few months, and I’ll never take another road trip without having this app on my iPhone.  Neither should you.

Click here to get iExit (free): 

 

For many years, there was no one, best way to review and edit Microsoft Word documents on an iPad, but there were lots of apps that could be used for the task, each with their own strengths and limitations.  The landscape changed in March of 2014 when Microsoft introduced the Word for iPad app – a powerful app that can handle almost everything that you would want to do with a Word document on an iPad.  Ever since then, I have wondered about the future of the other apps that handle Word documents.  Some apps may be abandoned, but my hope is that others will find ways to distinguish themselves from Microsoft’s app.

That’s exactly what has happened with the new Reviewer 7 app.  This a new name for an updated version of an app that used to be called Reader 7, and I reviewed it this past February.  Reader 7 was created by German attorney Maren Reuter and her husband, who is a software designer, and I thought when I reviewed it that it was one of the very best apps for reading Word files on an iPad.  The app’s name was changed because while it is still an excellent viewer, you can now get the app for free and spend $1.99 for the in-app Review Tools upgrade and then the app will let you create redline edits in a Word document.

Review documents in full screen mode

Let me start by discussing what is not new.  Before Microsoft Word for iPad was released, I considered Reader 7 the best iPad app for viewing a Word document because Reader 7 preserved all of the document formatting, showing you the document almost exactly the same way that it would look in Word on a computer or when printed out.  I now consider it equal to the Word for iPad in terms of a document formatting, and Reviewer 7 offers one main advantage over Word for iPad — an excellent full-screen view mode.  Here is a sample memo in the Word for iPad app.  I’ve tapped the toolbar to collapse it and devote as much space as possible to the document, but a portion of the top of the screen is still consumed by menus:

Here is the same document using the full screen mode in Reviewer 7.  The only menu item on he screen is the x-in-a-circle at the top right that brings the menus back; otherwise all of your iPad screen is devoted to the document.  In this example, I can see an extra two lines of text:

So if you want to review a Word document, you don’t want the formatting to be messed up, and you want to view a document in full-screen mode, Reviewer 7 is currently the best option on the iPad.  And Reviewer 7 is free if you just want to view documents.

PDF support

Reviewer 7 can also handle PDF documents.  I have a million ways to view PDF documents on my iPad, so I don’t need Reviewer 7 to do that.  But Reviewer 7 does give you the ability to turn a Word document into a PDF file, which not many other apps can do, and you can do that with the free version of Reviewer 7.  So if you want a quick and easy way to convert from Word to PDF, that’s another reason to get Reviewer 7.

Unique editing tools

If you spend $1.99 for the in-app Review Tools upgrade like I did, then you can also create redline edits in a document.  And the way that you do this in Reviewer 7 is very different from the document editing in Word for iPad.  Start by tapping on a word that you want to change.  At the bottom left of the screen, alternative words are suggested.  If you want to use one of them, just tap the alternative word and the change is made in redline.  In my tests, the suggestions were very good, and tapping a word is a fast and quick way to edit a word.

If you are trying to fix spelling errors, I prefer to edit a document in the Word for iPad app because it puts the squiggly red line under words that it thinks are misspelled, making it easier to find those errors.  Reviewer 7 doesn’t give you a clue that a word is misspelled.  Nevertheless, this is an interesting way to edit words in a document.

For more extensive edits, tap the Edit button at the bottom right of the screen.  This brings up not only a keyboard to type edits but also an enlarged view of the text, making it easy to put the insertion point in exactly the right spot.  Again, suggested words show up so you can tap one of them, or you can type your changes on the keyboard.  Again, all edits are made in redline.  (There is no way to edit a document in Reviewer 7 without making redline edits.)

Undo

All word processors have some sort of undo feature, and most include a multiple undo feature, but typically you don’t know all of the things that you are changing if you, for example, undo three times.  Reviewer 7 has a unique approach to the undo function.  When you are in the edit mode, tap the Undo button in the middle on the right.  This brings up a wheel that you spin with your finger.  Each item on the wheel shows an item that you can undo, so if you scroll back three or four items you will be told everything that will be undone on the bottom potion of the wheel and everything that will not be undone at the top portion of the wheel.  Thus, you can make a precise choice on how far back you want to undo your edits.

There is a good deal of wasted white space both above and below the wheel which is unfortunate.  I’d rather see the app use all of that space to show all edits that you can undo.  And like most word processors, you cannot use the Undo button to only undo one specific edit that was five edits earlier without also making the edits that took place after that.  This seemed like a missed opportunity for Reviewer 7 to offer a feature that doesn’t exist in Word for iPad and other apps.  Nevertheless, even in its current implementation, Reviewer 7 offers a unique approach to the venerable undo function.

Conclusion

As a document viewer, I like Reviewer 7 because of the full screen mode.  I recommend that all attorneys download the app for viewing documents because it is free and you never know when you will want a way to devote your entire screen to a Microsoft Word document.  Additionally, this app can be very useful as a way to convert from Word to PDF.

As a document editor, I love that Reviewer 7 is trying some new things.  So far, I still prefer editing documents in the Word for iPad app, perhaps just because Word for iPad works the same as Word on my computer and that is the approach that I am used to.  After all, I’ve been using Word in one form or another since the 1980s.  Nevertheless, Reviewer 7 does seem to work well, and it gives you the ability to create redline edits in a Word document for only $1.99 — far, far cheaper than the cost of an Office 365 subscription.  I think the Word for iPad app is so good and so useful for attorneys that I still recommend that most attorneys pay for an Office 365 subscription to use the iPad app.  However, for anyone who has only the occasional need to create redline edits in a Word document, or who otherwise doesn’t want to pay for Word for iPad, Reviewer 7 is a good alternative at a great price.

Thanks for Maren Reuter for giving us an app that takes a different approach to viewing and editing Word documents.  I hope that, notwithstanding the existence of the Microsoft Word for iPad app, we see even more innovative, alternative approaches to Word documents from other app developers.

Click here to get Reviewer 7 (free; $1.99 in-app purchase to edit documents): 

I received an email from a Kansas attorney earlier this week asking if I had ever had a problem opening PDF attachments to an email.  He told me that a few weeks ago he started to have problems with certain PDF files where the text would be replaced by black lines, would be blank, or there would be other display problems.  He sent me some files that exhibited the problem and while I saw it happen once, I could not get it to happen again.  However, I see a thread on the Apple Support Communities indicating that a number of people have been having the same problem since iOS 7.1 was introduced in March of 2014.  He also told me that he found a workaround — go the bottom of the email message, tap the blue text “Download full message” and then tap the attachment.  I haven’t had enough experience with this problem for me to write a full post on it, but just in case some of you out there are not as lucky as I have been and have had trouble reading some PDF attachments, you might want to try that workaround.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• Ohio attorney Paul Unger reviews Microsoft’s PowerPoint app for iPad.  The title of his article gives away his conclusion:  “It’s a Good Start, but Needs Improvement!”
• Nerino Petro of the State Bar of Wisconsin Law Office Management Assistance Program wrote an overview on using an iPad in a law practice for Wisconsin Lawyer magazine.
• South Carolina attorney Jenny Stevens reviews Aduro’s Rotata iPad mini case, a case with a rotating screen.
• California attorney David Sparks notes that iThoughts — a mind mapping app — is updated and is now on sale for only $1.99.
• As tweeted by longtime analyze of all things Microsoft Paul Thurrott, Microsoft announced at the recent TechEd Conference that about 27 million people have downloaded the new Office for iPad apps so far.  That doesn’t tell you how many folks have also paid to become new subscribers of Office 365 so that they can use all of the features in the new apps, but I suspect that Microsoft has seen quite a few new paying users due to the iPad apps.
• I use the app GoodNotes when I take handwritten notes on my iPad.  People often ask me if I can search my notes, and while I’ve never really found a need to do so, I can understand how it would be a nice feature.  Yesterday, the developer of GoodNotes tweeeted “Handwriting search demo” with the hashtag “#soexcited” and a link to this video.  I suppose that means that we will see a GoodNotes upgrade that adds the ability to turn handwriting into text that can be searched, which will be interesting.
• Jordon Kahn of 9to5Mac noted that yesterday Apple updated its Podcasts app to add Siri support and improved episode browsing.  I listen to a lot of podcasts, but a few weeks ago I stopped using Apple’s Podcasts app to see if there was something else that I might like more.  I used Downcast for a few weeks, and earlier this week I started using Castro.  I haven’t yet decided whether to stick with one of them, keep trying more apps, or go back to Podcasts, but the Podcasts app will be much more useful now that Siri works with it.
• Adam Zeis of iMore notes that in a small but growing number of cities, you can now send a text to 911 in an emergency.  I can definitely imagine a situation when you don’t feel safe talking out loud on a phone but you are able to send a text seeking help — but note that if you text, you’ll need to tell 911 where you are located, unlike with a phone call when they can track your location.
• Michael Brown of PCWorld explains why you might want to use a travel router when you are on the road and reviews six new devices.
• Some people have been talking about the recent rumor that Apple is buying Beats, but as Scoopertino reports, the real news is yet another recent acquisition.
• And finally, here is a new video showing off the $300,000 Bentley Mulsanne.  I mention it for two reasons — neither of which is that I own one, or am likely to ever own one in my lifetime.  First, one of the optional configurations of the car is for the backseat to have “twin electrically-deployed picnic tables with concealed iPad holders, integrated charging and dedicated space for Apple wireless keyboards, Naim Audio, Rear Seat Entertainment System and wi-fi hotspot, providing a supremely comfortable working environment or a world of entertainment at your fingertips.”  Second, this entire video was filmed using an iPhone and edited using an iPad in that backseat “electrically-deployed picnic table.”  The end of the video gives you a behind-the-scenes look at how it was created.  It is all very neat, but the only thing that I could think of while I watched that video is that the only ones who ever sit in the backseat of my car are my son and daughter (age 8 and 6) and I don’t ever see the day when I will give them integrated, backseat, electrically-deployed iPad tables.  (via Apple’s Phil Schiller on Twitter)

Courtney Stafford Hickey is a personal injury attorney at The Stafford Firm in Palm Beach County, FL.  She recently told me about an iPad app that she uses both in her law practice and to manage her personal life called Circus Ponies NoteBook.  I have heard of the note taking software before — it has been available for the Mac for a long time, and just a few days ago the Mac version was updated to version 4.0 — but I have never tried it on either the Mac or the iPad.  Hickey was nice enough to write a review of the iPad app and give me permission to share her review with iPhone J.D. readers.  Here is what she has to say about the Circus Ponies NoteBook app for the iPad:

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I highly recommend the Circus Ponies NoteBook app for your iPad. You can use it on a Mac as well, but I prefer to use it on my iPad for convenience/mobility reasons both at home and at work. As a lawyer, small business owner, mom, wife and the director of all social activities in my household, it’s helped me stay organized on a number of levels.

My favorite feature is the voice-annotated notes. This allows you to simply lay your iPad down and record every word that is

being said, which can be very helpful in client meetings, oral statements, or simply trying to draft correspondence to clients and opposing counsel in between feeding my 1 year old. Can’t find a pen in your purse and don’t want to take notes in pink crayon – no problem.  It makes things much easier when you can record rather than type or handwrite notes, memos, letters and court documents.  Furthermore, when at work, I can be hands-free and fully pay attention to what someone is saying rather than concentrating on whether my handwritten scribbles are legible and make sense.

After an early morning of diapers and Mickey Mouse Club House, sometimes client depositions are long and my notes become out of control, unmanageable and illegible. Although I cannot use my voice-annotated feature during these events, I can map out details and diagrams of the things discussed during these proceedings. At a later date, I can quickly access my thoughts and perceptions, which will assist me in formulating my arguments in court. I also use this app to keep a thought map of every detail in an easy to read diagram. I can create flow charts on the go of what I need to remember and also sketch notes on the diagrams if any additional information needs to be added in the future.

Another great thing about the NoteBook app is how easy it is to stay organized with its user-friendly interface. I can customize the way my notes are filed and it allows me to choose how I view them as well. I enjoy the virtual sticky notes to flag different pages if there is a key point I want to refer back to.

In addition, the Multidex feature allows me to tag my notes with certain keywords or phrases that I can then use to search for them. It even keeps a record of when the notes were edited or last viewed so I can quickly open up any of my notes from my current case within just a few seconds. Manically shuffling through a massive stack of papers is (thankfully) not something I have to do anymore and carrying a ton of paperwork in my already overflowing “mom bag” is a thing of the past.   Probably the most helpful capability of the NoteBook app with my line of work is the ability to wirelessly sync my notes via Dropbox from my iPad to my computer … in my case, a Mac. I feel relieved knowing I have a backup of all my notes saved in more than one place. It is one less headache (and Tylenol) I have to take every day.  

Circus Ponies NoteBook looks exactly like you would imagine a real notebook would look.  The iPad app costs $4.99 and the Mac software costs $49.95. 

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Thanks to Hickey for taking the time to write about Circus Ponies NoteBook.  It sounds like a useful app for taking notes and a useful organizational tool.

Click here to get Circus Ponies NoteBook ($4.99):