We are less than a week away from Thanksgiving in the U.S. What does that have to do with the iPhone and iPad? I haven’t seen an official announcement from Apple, but Apple traditionally offers discounts on its products on Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving). The discounts are usually modest, but it is typically the only day each year that Apple offers any discounts at all on numerous products so for that reason it is notable. If you are planning to get an Apple device or accessory and you want to save a few bucks, plan to check out the Apple Store — online and the retail stores — one week from today to see if there are any good deals that appeal to you. And now, the news of the week:
San Francisco attorney Deanne Katz of FindLaw’s Technologist discusses TranscriptPad, one of my favorite legal-specific applications on my iPad.
Lit Software, the developer of TranscriptPad, also sells TrialPad, a powerful app for presenting an annotating exhibits at trial or in meetings. The app was recently updated to version 3.0, and Ian O’Flaherty of Lit Software wrote a free iBook to explain how to use TrialPad with its new features. Click here while you are using your iPad (or iPhone) to download the iBook to your device.
New York attorney Nikki Black shares her thoughts on lawyer use of the iPad for LLRX.com.
South Carolina attorney Justin Kahn discusses Timeline 3D, a new app for the iPhone and iPad that lets you create a timeline.
California attorney David Sparks is also pretty excited about Timeline 3D for iOS.
Sean Martin discusses mobile apps for lawyers based on discussions he had at this year’s ILTA conference in this article for Law Technology News.
Indianapolis law librarian Cheryl Niemeier recommends iPad apps for attorneys and paralegals in this article for Res Gestae, the Journal of the Indiana State Bar Association. (Link is to a PDF file)
This past October I reviewed MobileLaw, a great app for statutes and rules on your iPhone or iPad. I noted in that review that the app lacked a highlight feature. The app has since been updated to add support for highlighting, and it seems to work great. Click here to get MobileLaw (free):
I’m still testing an iPad mini and compiling my thoughts on what it means to lawyers. John Paczkowski of All Things D reports that according to one survy, very few people buying an iPad mini are doing so to replace an iPad. Instead, most iPad mini purchasers were enticed by the device to buy their first tablet.
Jilly Duffy of PC Magazine recommends 20 iPad apps for productivity.
The power adapter that comes with an iPad is larger than the one that comes with an iPad mini or an iPhone. Traditionally it was a 10W adapter, but Jordon Kahn of 9to5Mac reports that Apple is now shipping a 12W power adapter with the latest, fourth generation iPad. You can also buy it separately for $19 from Apple. I know that it usually takes around 3 hours to charge a third generation iPad to about 80%, plus another 60 to 90 minutes to get it to 100%. Insanely Great Mac reports, in a video discussed in a follow-up article by Kahn, that the new 12W power adapter shaves about 30-45 minutes off of that 4 to 4.5 hour charging time. You can use the 12W power adapter with any iOS device, but I suspect that you will only see reduced charging time with an iPad.
I often talk about people who used the Find My iPhone feature to find a stolen iPhone. Kathrene Herndon of KSBY in Santa Barbara, CA reports that a father used the feature to locate his son after his son was in a car accident. Police found the vehicle on the side of the road, but not the son who was driving the car because he had walked away from the car at some point during the night. Find My iPhone helped the police to find the driver so he could be brought to the hospital.
And finally, Toronto attorney Michael Schmidt alerted me to a new music video by The Elwins for the song Forgetful Assistance that features band members shuffling four iPhones and an iPad around a tabletop. It’s a good song and a very cool effect. Worth watching. (Thanks, Michael!)
If you have any of Apple’s new iOS devices — the iPhone 5, the fifth generation iPod touch, the iPad mini, the fourth generation iPad — or for that matter a new seventh generation iPod nano, then you have the new, small Lightning connector on your device. The Lightning connector replaces the 30-pin connector that Apple had been using since it was added to the third generation iPod that was introduced in April of 2003:
The 30-pin connector was pretty cool back in 2003, much slimmer and more convenient than the Firewire connector that had been on the top of the first two iPod models introduced in 2001 and 2002. But it is now almost 10 years later, and I consider the new Lightning connector a vast improvement. First, it is very small and thin, helping Apple to make the newest iPhones, iPads and iPods even thinner and lighter. Second, it is reversible, so you never again need to be annoyed when you try to make a connection only to discover that you need to flip over the connector. Third, it seems much more durable than the prior connector.
The only problem is that we are still waiting for third party manufacturers to update their devices to work with a Lightning connector. And if you already have peripherals that you used with your prior Apple devices, you cannot use them with the newest Apple devices without a connector.
Apple sells two 30-pin to Lightning connectors: the $29 Lightning to 30-pin Adapter and the $39 Lightning to 30-pin Adapter (0.2 m). I purchased both of them when I purchased my iPhone 5 and I have been using them since late September with my iPhone 5, and more recently with my iPad mini.
If you are trying to use an iPhone 5 in a device that features some type of dock connector in which the iPhone stands up, you may or may not have much luck with these connectors. For example, on my nightstand I have an iHome alarm clock that includes an iPhone dock. I place my iPhone in that dock every night so that it is fully charged the next morning, and if I want to listen to music or a podcast on my iPhone while I am in my bedroom, the speakers on the iHome clock sound much better than the built-in iPhone speaker. For this device, I find that the $29 connector works well. The connector makes the iPhone 5 sit up much higher than an older iPhone would sit without the connector, but fortunately the iHome has a small nib that supports the back of an iPhone so that the iPhone 5 remains stable. The only problem is that when I lift my iPhone out of the iHome dock, more often than not the adapter comes up as well, so I need to disconnect it from the iPhone and put it back in the dock so that it is ready to use the next time. I’m sure that at some point iHome will release an alarm clock with a Lightning connector, but the $29 adapter works well enough that I doubt I would ever get a new iHome device just to get the Lightning connector.
On the other hand, I also have a Bose SoundDock Portable Speaker Dock in my living room. It lacks any support for the back of the iPhone, so when I use the $29 adapter, the iPhone sits up very high and leans back, so much so that I worry it will break the 30-pin connector on the Bose. Fortunately, the Bose has an audio input in the back so I can run a cord from my iPhone 5’s headphone jack to the back of the Bose — not nearly as elegant as the dock, but it works. I’m also testing a Bluetooth solution for the Bose that I’ll review in an upcoming post. [UPDATE 1/30/13: Here is that review.]
The $29 adapter works well when you want the iPhone to stand up and rest on the connector. However, if you just have a cord to connect to the iPhone or iPad, such as a cigarette lighter to iPhone charger in your car, I prefer the $39 adapter that includes a small cord. Placing the large edge of the $29 adapter next to the iPhone or iPad certainly works, but it looks and feels awkward because it is so large. The $39 adapter has a tiny Lightning connector (similar to the USB to Lightning cord that comes with the iPhone and iPad for charging and syncing) that is much more enjoyable to connect to the device.
For example, at my desk in my office, I have an Apple USB power adapter plugged in to an outlet, then I have a USB extender cable to reach all the way to my desk, and then I have a standard Apple USB to 30-pin cable on the edge of my desk so that I can charge an iPhone or iPad while I am working at my desk. I could have purchased another $19 Lightning to USB cable from Apple, plus another $19 Apple power adapter, plus spent a few more bucks for another USB extender cable, but then I would have to have two cables on my desk (one for my third generation iPad and one for my iPhone 5 and iPad mini). I’d rather just have one cable on my desk, and for the same amount of money, I can use Apple’s $39 Lightning to 30-pin Adapter (0.2 m). When I’m charging one of my newer devices, I just plug in the $39 adapter. When I’m charging my third generation iPad, I just disconnect the $39 adapter.
The $39 adapter also gives you a little more flexibility if you are using an older accessory that was created to fit around or mold to the iPhone 4/4S. That accessory might not fit the taller iPhone 5, but the 20 centimeter (almost 8 inch) cord on the $39 adapter gives you an (awkward) way to make the device work. It won’t look pretty, but it will work in a pinch. For example, here is my iPhone 5 connected to a PowerSkin battery case:
The $39 version of the adapter also might be necessary if you have a case on your iPhone or iPad. The cord on the $39 adapter might fit in an opening that the larger $29 adapter will not accommodate.
The Lightning to 30-pin adapters will not always provide a solution. In my car, I use a Kensington AssistOne to listen to music or a podcast from my iPhone through my car stereo. I can still use the device for that purpose with my iPhone 5 because the AssistOne communicates with an iPhone via Bluetooth. I just keep my iPhone in my pocket and press one button on the AssistOne to make the connection. However, my iPhone 5 is too long to fit into the dock of the AssistOne so I cannot charge my iPhone using the AssistOne while I am driving, nor can I use the AssistOne as a holder so that I can view maps on the iPhone screen while I am driving. Ultimately I’m just going to have to get another solution for the car, and I’m sure that companies like Kensington are busy working on new products for the car with Lightning connectors.
Note that these adapters will not send video from a 30-pin connector to a Lightning connector. Also note that with some very old accessories made for the iPod, charging is not supported becuase those devices used Firewire charging and these adapters only support USB charging. And if you have an accessory that supports the special iPod-out mode in which the iPhone generated a menu that was displayed on a device such as a car, that also doesn’t work with these adapters.
While I focus here on the Apple adapters, I see that some third parties will be selling cheaper adapters. However, these are not licensed by Apple, and until they undergo rigorous testing, I myself wouldn’t want to trust those products with my expensive iPhone or iPad. For now, if want an adapter, I recommend buying one sold by Apple.
You no longer hear anyone complaining that the iPod lacks a Firewire connector, and before long there will be little reason to worry about the lack of a 30-pin connector on the iPhone and iPad. For now, however, we are in a transition period in which you might have the latest Apple device, but the accessories on the market require an adapter. Hopefully my experiences will help you decide whether an Apple Lightning adapter is a good solution for you and, if so, which one to get.
Click here to get the Apple Lightning to 30-pin Adapter from the Apple Store ($29).
Click here to get the Apple Lightning to 30-pin Adapter (0.2 m) from the Apple Store ($39).
I’ve reviewed several legal dictionary apps for the iPhone and iPad — Black’s Law Dictionary, Barron’s Law Dictionary, Nolo’s Plain English Law Dictionary, the Book of Jargon series by Latham & Watkins — but considering that dictionaries were traditionally books, it makes sense that an ebook dictionary could be just as useful on the iPhone and iPad as an app. Proof of this is found in the Louisiana Civil Law Dictionary, an ebook by Chalmette, Louisiana attorney Gregory Rome and Houston, Texas attorney Stephan Kinsella. You can purchase this ebook in several formats including Kindle and Nook, and this review is based on the iBooks version of the ebook. The book is published by ebook publisher Quid Pro Books, the brainchild of Tulane Law Professor Alan Childress. Prof. Childress sent me a free review copy a few weeks ago.
As you may know, unlike the other 49 states where the law is based on English common law, the law here in Louisiana is based on civil law from jurisdictions such as France. That means that we have concepts in Louisiana that are very similar to common law concepts but have different names (e.g. “liberative prescription” instead of “statute of limitation”), plus we have many civil law concepts that are unique to Louisiana. Black’s Law Dictionary does a decent job with some civil law terms, but a dedicated source like the one has the ability to offer more … and I was impressed by this book.
The Louisiana Civil Law Dictionary includes all of the civil law terms that I use in my practice and a bunch more that were new to me. (I may have learned some of them when I took the bar exam back in 1994, but that space in my brain has long since been replaced by other knowledge.) The definitions are clear and complete, and the book includes lots of hyperlinks that make it easy to jump around in the book. Plus it is easy to slide the marker at the bottom of this ebook to jump to different sections.
Being an iBook, it also works fine on the iPhone:
Like all iBooks, you can also search for words in the book, which is helpful in a dictionary.
If you practice law in Louisiana, or if you just want to impress your friends with legal terms that almost sound naughty such “naked owner” and “usufruct,” then consider getting this ebook for your iPad and iPhone.
Click here to get Louisiana Civil Law Dictionary ($9.99):
I read Microsoft Word files on my iPad almost every day, for the most part with much success. However, when I do so, I know that I am rarely seeing the document formatted the same way that it will look when printed out. This is usually not a problem because my focus is on the words, not the format. But sometimes there is a need to see a document with all of the formatting preserved.
Maren Reuter (pictured at right) is a German attorney who works in the third party liability department of a large insurance company that is based in Frankfurt, Germany. She works with Word documents every day and wasn’t satisfied with the way that current apps display redline track changes, footnotes, etc., so she and her husband (who is a software developer) set out to create a better app. She started a company called Naverage, and her first app is Reader HD. She sent me a free review copy of the $2.99 app a few weeks ago, and I’m impressed. Right now the app only handles .docx files, not files in the traditional .doc format, but for those files the app does a better job with the formatting than any other iPad app. Reuter tells me: “The heart of Naverage Reader is the layout engine my husband Florian developed. The NativeOpenXML layout engine is built from ground up according to the ISO/IEC 29500 standard — the standard behind Microsoft’s new .docx, .xslx and .pptx formats. That’s why it enables the high layout fidelity with Microsoft .docx documents.”
For example, consider the simple formatting in a Table of Authorities. In this example, my first line is at the left margin but subsequent margins within an entry are indented, the right margin is indented except for page numbers, and there is a right-formatted tab with leading dots. Here is what the top of the page looks like on a computer:
In the iPad’s built-in Word viewer (what you see if you just tap an attachment to an email) the formatting is not preserved: the page break is missing, the page numbers are too far left, there are no leading dots for page numbers, etc.
When viewed in Quickoffice Pro, the formatting is also incorrect, but in different ways:
When viewed in Office2, different aspects of the proper formatting are preserved while other aspects are wrong:
Documents to Go probably does the best job of this bunch, although it is also not perfect:
Here is what the page looks like in Reader HD. All of the formatting is preserved, and the result looks almost exactly the same as it looks on a computer or when printed out:
Because Reader HD handles virtually all Microsoft Word formatting, this means that it can also show redline edits. It shows them the way that Word does by default, with deleted text noted in a column on the side. I personally prefer to see all redline edits inline in the text, which is how Documents to Go handles it, but I understand that people have different preferences. I won’t start by showing the built-in Word viewer because it doesn’t show any redline edits at all. You just see how the final document would look with all redline edits accepted.
Quickoffice Pro just added the ability to see redline track changes last month. Quickoffice still doesn’t support footnotes, which is why I don’t use it for any of my litigation files., but if that is not a problem for you and if you prefer to see your edits in the margin on the right, Quickoffice Pro does a very nice job:
Office2 also puts the edits in the right margin, but does so in type that I consider too small to read. Note, however, that you can tap on the balloon on the right to see a window with the edit in larger text:
Here is what Documents to Go does with redline edits, with all of the edits shown inline:
Finally, here is how Reader HD handles redline edits. Note that if you don’t want to see the right margin with information on the redline edits, you can tap the “Sidebar” button to make it go away.
I haven’t shown Apple’s Pages app in any of the above examples, but just for the record: (1) it also does not correctly preserve formatting in the Table of Authorities and (2) Pages doesn’t show any redline edits at all.
Reader HD handles footnotes just fine. The footnote reference is in the text, and the footnote text is at the bottom of the page, the same way it looks when you print out a document.
If you have a document with even more complicated formatting, Reader HD will often handle it quite well. I looked at a few files with multiple columns (such as newsletters). Reader sometimes displayed those files perfectly. Other times, the formatting was not perfect (with some background colors missing and some lines around boxes appearing that were supposed to be invisible). But every time, Reader HD did a better job displaying a file with complicated columns, margins and other sophisticated formatting than any of the other apps on my iPad (Documents to Go, Quickoffice Pro, Office2 and Pages).
I noted above that Reader HD only works with .docx files. I don’t know about your law practice, but in my practice it seems like 90% of the files that other attorneys send me are in .doc format, so that is generally the format that I use as well, although I admit that over time the number of .docx files that I see continues to increase. Reuter tells me that she decided to focus on .docx files because her thought was that with Windows 8 coming out, .docx would become accepted more quickly. I suspect, however, that it will be MANY years before most law firms move to Windows 8 — at this point, it seems like a huge number of attorneys are still using Windows XP — so I think that the transition to .docx will also take a long time. However, Reuter also tells me that .doc support is being worked on right now and will be added to Reader HD in a future update.
Reader HD does not let you edit files, but if you want to view .docx files on your iPad, Reader HD is a great option because it does such a good job with most formatting. For most of my document viewing, I think I’ll stick with Documents to Go because I prefer the way that it lets me focus on the text. But as I have been testing Reader HD over the last few weeks, I’ve found myself using it many times when I wanted to see how a .docx file will look when printed. (And I’ve also had several occasions when I wanted to use the app, but the only version of the file on my iPad was in .doc format. I’ll be very happy to see .doc support added to Reader HD!) If you work with Microsoft Word files in your law practice, I think it is worth purchasing this app so that you always have the ability to view a document as it was intended to be viewed.
Rumors of Microsoft Office coming to the iPad have been around forever, but Tom Warren of The Verge got a company spokesperson to say this week that “Office will work across Windows Phone, iOS and Android.” The rumor is that the app will provide basic viewing functions for free, but to edit files you will have to subscribe to Office 365, which appears to currently cost $6 a month. I’m glad to see some confirmation that this is coming — it sounds like early next year — and my hope is that Microsoft produces something that is really useful for lawyers looking to work with MS Word files while they are away from a computer. We’ll see. I’m still catching up from my vacation, but here are a few other recent news items that caught my attention:
Florida attorneys Christopher Hopkins and Spencer Kuvin recently gave a presentation to the Palm Beach County Bar that discussed using an iPhone and iPad in a law practice. Click the last word in that post to view their slides in PDF format, which includes the apps that they discussed.
New York attorney Nikki Black recommends pre-trial iPad apps for attorneys.
I started using an iPad mini three days ago. It is still too early for me to reach a judgment on it, but I do like that it is so light and easy to hold. Some of the notable iPad mini reviews that I have seen this week including this one by Dan Frakes of Macworld and this one by attorney Jeremy Horwitz of iLounge.
I wrote a pre-review of the iPad mini Smart Cover, which was severely limited by the fact that I still didn’t yet have my iPad mini at the time. Lex Friedman of Macworld reviews the new Smart Cover, and I agree with him that I don’t like it as much as the Smart Cover for the full-size iPad, mainly because it only had two folds instead of three, making it impossible to fold the cover in half and hold it behind the iPad mini.
And finally, if you have been using Apple products for as long as I have — the first Apple product I purchased with my own money was a Mac Plus when I was in college — then you’ll want to check out the Padintosh Case for the iPad from ThinkGeek. For only $25, the latest and greatest Apple technology can look just like the first Apple product to revolutionize human interfaces.
[UPDATE: This post is now somewhat out of date. However, I wrote an updated review of Disney World apps on March 12, 2014, and further updated that post on January 21, 2015] Sorry that it has been somewhat quiet on iPhone J.D. for the past week, but my wife and I took our son (age 7) and daughter (age 5) to Disney World for their first time. It was an amazing trip, although I’m still tired from five days of walking around. Although I’ve been to Disney World before, one thing that was new this time was the ability to use an iPhone app to enhance the trip. There are a lot of these apps in the App Store, but I had difficulty finding good, recent reviews to help me select the best one. So for any of you who plan to head there yourself, here are the apps that I found the most useful during our trip.
Before talking about specific apps, there were three features that I found most useful for any Disney World app. First, it was useful to have a good map that is clear and easy to understand and that can quickly show you where you are located on the map. It is so useful to be able to take your iPhone out of your pocket, tap the app icon, tap the location services arrow to find yourself on the map, and then instantly understand where you are located so you can figure out the best way to get to the next attraction, restaurant, etc. A map on the iPhone is must easier to use than a paper map because the iPhone quickly shows you your current location in the park.
Second, it was useful to have an indication of wait times so you can decide, for example, whether it makes more sense to head left towards Splash Mountain or head right towards Space Mountain. These apps not only tell you the current wait time, but also tell you the window for a Fast Pass. With the aid of the app, I could quickly decide that I didn’t want to wait in line for 30 minutes for Space Mountain when I could instead get a Fast Pass for Space Mountain that would work in 45 minutes and I could use that 45 minutes of time to go to another attraction in the vicinity that had no wait, and then after that use the Fast Pass lane (which was usually only about a 5 minute line) and pass up all of the people waiting in the 45 minute line.
Third, it was useful to get information on restaurants to decide where to eat.
Disney Mobile Magic
Disney Mobile Magic is the official Disney Parks app. It is free, and since it is the app that Disney itself offers, it is worth getting. The app provides you with a wealth of useful information about each of the parks. The app gives you a map, and can even show you where you are located on the map. If you use an iPhone 5, however, the app is not optimized for the screen. I also don’t like that the map is covered with unidentified purple balloons, and you must click each one individually to figure out which attraction it is indicating. But when you do tap, you can get some very basic information on the ride and information on the current wait for the ride and the time for the next Fast Pass.
The app also includes information on restaurants at each of the parks and even information on each of the Disney-owned resorts.
The best part of the official Disney app is that it offered the most accurate information on ride wait times and Fast Pass wait times. Otherwise, however, I preferred to use two other apps.
Disney World Maps
Disney World Maps by VersaEdge Software, LLC was the most useful app during my trip to Disney World. 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. 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 Disney Mobile Magic 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.
Tap on any attraction, restaurant, etc. to get more information. Almost every time, I found the descriptions in this app to be more useful than the descriptions in the official Disney app.
As noted above, the main advantage of the Disney app is that is had more accurate current wait times for rides — the same time that is posted outside of every attraction at Disney World. This makes sense; they must be using official Disney sources to get this data. The Disney World Maps app, on the other hand, relies on crowd-sourcing to get wait times — other people using the app who recently indicated the current wait times. If nobody has submitted a wait time in a while, then the app gives you old data. But I was surprised how often this app did provide accurate information. Moreover, this app allows you to see a list of the most recent wait times that were submitted, which often lets you see trends of when the ride was more busy and when it became less busy. And it is super-easy to submit the wait times that you see when you get in a line, so I often found myself submitting recent wait times just to help the cause.
There is a free version of this app so you can try before you buy. My only gripe with the free version is that it shows ads at the bottom of the screen. The ads are a little distracting, but even worse the placement of the ad made it harder to press the location services arrow. After about a day of using the free version of the app, it was easy to decide to spend $2.99 for the paid version with no ads. Here is the free version on the left and th paid version on the right:
Disney World Dining
VersaEdge Software sells another useful app called Disney World Dining. Although the free Disney Mobile Magic app gives you basic information on dining, the $1.99 Disney World Dining app provides much more information on each restaurant, including virtually every single item on the menu, making it easy to decide which restaurant to visit, and also making it easy to decide what you are going to get once you get there.
For example, we had a character lunch in Magic Kingdom at a restaurant called The Crystal Palace. The free Disney Mobile Magic app gives you only the most basic information about the items available at the buffet:
On the other hand, the Disney World Dining app gives you information about the restaurant (including the characters who will visit your table at the restaurant) and virtually every single item on the menu, or in this case since it was a buffet, available at the buffet.
The menu information wasn’t always perfect, but it was certainly good enough.
Note that VersaEdge also sells an app called Disney World Magic Guide that appears to combine both the Disney World Maps app and the Disney World Dining app into a single app for $4.99. I preferred having two distinct apps so that I could launch the Disney World Maps app and instantly see a map without having to navigate through menus to get there.
Disney World Wait Times, Dining and Maps Free by UndercoverTourist.com
The most useful apps for me were the two VersaEdge apps and the Disney Mobile Magic apps, there was one more app I downloaded that is worth mentioning: Disney World Wait Times, Dining and Maps Free by UndercoverTourist.com. The map is not as easy to read as the one in the VersaEdge app, although it does provide more information at a glance than the Disney Mobile Magic app, and the restaurant information is not as good as any of the apps mentioned above. But the app does include nice descriptions of rides and restaurants, and when I was looking for additional information about something, I often found this app very useful. The app was not useful enough for me to purchase the $3.99 version that doesn’t have ads, but the free version was a helpful complement to the above apps.
If you find yourself headed to The Most Magical Place on Earth at some point in the future, don’t forget your iPhone, and grab these apps to have an even better experience.
Click here for Disney Mobile Magic (free):
Click here for Disney World Maps by VersaEdge Software ($2.99):
Click here for Disney World Maps Free by VersaEdge Software (free):
Click here for Disney World Dining by VersaEdge Software ($1.99):
Click here for Disney World Wait Times, Dining and Maps Free by UndercoverTourist.com (free):
Thank you once again to Rocket Matter for sponsoring iPhone J.D. in November. Rocket Matter sells legal practice management software for small to mid-size firms. The software is online, so you can use it on a PC or a Mac to track your time and manage your clients and matters.
Last month I told you a little about the new Rocket Matter app for iPhone. This month, I want to mention a free ebook that Rocket Matter is offering to all attorneys, even those who don’t use Rocket Matter. Attorney Michael Moore, who is the CFO and VP of Business Affairs for Rocket Matter, wrote Ridiculously Remarkable Legal Billing: How Better Billing Practices Improve Your Law Firm and Your Life. This book is in PDF format, and is only 60 pages with a font that is large and easy-to-read on your iPad. It only took me about 15 minutes to read the book, but it is full of helpful tips for any attorney in private practice — i.e., any attorney who bills clients. The book starts with reminders on the importance of billing timely, something that all of us know in our hearts even if we don’t always practice what we preach, and then offers great tips on improving billing practices.
Some of the tips offered in the book I have heard before in other seminars I have attended, such as the Pomodoro Technique, but other tips on capturing time were new to me. I must admit that I have often been a victim of what Moore calls “timesheet sudoku” — the (often unsuccessful) attempt to recreate a day when you failed to keep track of your time contemporaneously.
So for some free, good tips on improving your billing practices, click here to get the ebook. You can learn more about Rocket Matter at their website, and don’t forget that you can download the free Rocket Matter iPhone app on the App Store:
From time to time, attorneys who read iPhone J.D. write to tell me how they are using their iPhone or iPad in their practice. I love to read these stories, and with permission I like to share them here on iPhone J.D., but it occurs to me that I haven’t done so since I wrote about Iowa attorney Megan Erickson back in May of 2011. Thus, I was happy to hear from personal injury attorney Zane Cagle of the Cagle Law Firm in St. Louis, Missouri who shared the following with me about how he uses his iPad. Stories like this always make me think about additional things that I can do with my own iPhone and iPad, so hopefully you will also enjoy reading this. Take it away, Zane Cagle:
– – – – –
Modern
technology has changed the way businesses operate and law firms are no exception.
This is especially true at The Cagle Law Firm where both I and many of my colleagues
use iPads on a daily basis for numerous tasks.
Leveraging technology allows us to stay in constant communication with
our clients, the courts, other law firms, and internally. Whereas the desktop changed the corporate landscape
and laptops brought freedom – the iPad takes the technology revolution to a
whole new level.
When I meet with clients it is
important to have an understanding of exactly where their case is, the law
surrounding it, and the steps forward.
Meeting in someone’s home as I often do means that I typically do not
have instant access to law libraries, factual information, or the current court
records. I can call my legal secretaries
and paralegals to assist by looking things up or bringing in files but that
requires taking time away from the client to speak with another staff member.
In addition, our staff members tend to work more traditional business hours
while it is not uncommon for me to meet with clients at all hours of the day.
Having an iPad gives me a way to access necessary information day and night,
seven days a week.
I also use my iPad for client acquisition. Cell phones have become advanced enough to search the web and store contacts fairly easily but I have found that using an iPad allows almost the same portability as a cell phone but with many more options for providing potential clients with useful information as well as storing detailed contact information. While an iPad probably isn’t the best thing to write lengthy briefs it can be used to take notes during initial meetings. I use it with a note keeping and sharing application called Evernote which allows me to sync information entered into my iPad with my cellphone, laptop, and desk top computer as well as share it with my colleagues.
I often use Google Earth and other similar applications with my iPad to increase the
quality of service that I can provide to my clients. When meeting with clients
in their homes I can use these tools to help the client discuss and reference
exact locations and circumstances of their accident. I often use the iPad
camera as well, but perhaps not as often as I could be. I have used it in meetings with clients and
at the scene of an incident to document injuries and other images relevant to
the case. The camera can also function as a scanner with DocScanner which allows us to scan needed documents and file the
originals away. This ensures that I will have all relevant documents at all
times and that the originals will remain safe. Again, this feature works great
with Evernote which I use to attach a photo or a scanned document to client
notes and organize, store, and share these with the necessary parties.
I use the iPad in all steps of my
process and this includes the trial itself. Rather than carrying in several
heavy boxes of documents we can use the above method to quickly scan, save, and
access all necessary paperwork instead of carrying in several heavy boxes full
of documents. Exhibits such as jury
instructions can be easily altered after rulings when in the past, this meant
crossing out words or running to the printer to have items reprinted. Revising
on the iPad and then projecting onto a wall or other surface is much more
convenient and eco-friendly. Exhibits for trial are easily saved and
transported to the court through the iPad which makes preparing for trial less
like an office move!
Using an iPad has definitely helped me
become more efficient and organized in my practice and it allows me to better
serve my clients. For those of us at the firm who currently use them I don’t
think we will be giving them up anytime soon, and those who are not will most
likely be getting one in the near future.
– – – – –
Thanks, Zane!
If you are interested in letting other iPhone J.D. readers know how you use your iPhone and/or iPad in your law practice, just let me know. My contact information is on the left of this website. I’d love to hear from you!
I ordered an iPad mini so that I could see how it might be used in a law practice and compare it to the iPhone and the iPad. It is due to arrive on Friday, so you can imagine my surprise when I received a small package from Apple yesterday. When I opened it I saw my very own iPad mini … Smart Cover. Oh well.
As I await the iPad mini, this Smart Cover gives me a preview of the size of the iPad mini, plus it was interesting to see what has changed from the Smart Cover for the iPad. Here is what it looks like in the box:
As I held the iPad mini Smart Cover in my hand, I started to get a sense of the size of the iPad mini, and I have to admit that I really liked it. It reminds me of a small 5″ x 8″ legal pad that you might use to take notes in your office. (The iPad mini is 5.3″ x 7.87″ according to Apple.) If a size can be “friendly” this is it. Indeed, when my wife saw me holding it, she immediately said: “That’s cute. I want one too.” She may have only been half-joking. Placing the iPad mini Smart Cover on top of my iPad with Smart Cover gives you a sense of the difference in size:
In fact, I noticed that you can even attach the iPad mini Smart Cover to an iPad. Of course it doesn’t cover much, and thus appears to be somewhat risqué:
The back of the iPad mini Smart Cover has a microfiber lining to help keep you screen clean, just like the iPad Smart Cover. Unlike the iPad Smart Cover, the iPad mini Smart Cover doesn’t come in leather and only comes in polyurethane. It comes in six colors: dark gray (what I purchased), gray, pink, green and blue.
Another difference between the model for the iPad mini and the model for the iPad is the lack of the metal hinge. The metal hinge generally works well for me on my iPad Smart Cover, but every once in a while it won’t catch the right way and I need to adjust it to get the right connection. If you have an iPad and a Smart Cover, you probably know what I am talking about. But the iPad mini Smart Cover has a hinge that is part of the fabric itself so it should do a better job of connecting. And I like the way that it looks wrapped around the side of the iPad, so I imagine it will look very nice around the iPad mini:
Select members of the press were given an iPad mini to review last week, and the reviews were posted last night. All of them are pretty glowing, but this paragraph from the review by Scott Stein of CNet struck me as I contemplated the new size:
What’s unique about the Mini? Without a doubt, it’s the design. It’s
cute, it’s discreet, and it’s very, very light. It feels like a whole
new device for Apple. It’s light enough to hold in one hand, something
the iPad was never really able to achieve for extended periods of time.
It’s bedroom-cozy. Other full-fledged 7-inch tablets feel heavier and
bulging by comparison. This is a new standard for little-tablet design.
It makes the iPad feel fresh. After a week of using the iPad Mini, it
seems to find a way to follow me everywhere. It’s extremely addicting,
and fun to use.
The size of the iPad mini Smart Cover is starting to get me excited
about the size of the iPad mini itself. Of course I knew that it would
be smaller, but now I’m starting to think about what that actually
means, how I might find myself using an iPad mini in ways that I would
never use an iPad.
As for the Smart Cover itself, this is only “sort of” a review because I have not yet had the opportunity to try it with the iPad mini itself. Nevertheless, it looks like another fine Apple product that will become an essential part of using the iPad mini.
On October 25, Apple released the results for its 2012 fiscal fourth quarter (which ran from July 1, 2012 to September 29, 2012) and held a call with analysts to discuss the results. This is typically a transitional quarter for Apple considering that so many sales take place in the October to December quarter that contains holiday sales. Even so, this was Apple’s best fiscal fourth quarter ever, with revenue of $36 billion and net profit of $8.2 billion. If you want to get all of the nitty gritty details, you can download the audio from the announcement conference call from iTunes, or you can read a rough transcript of the call prepared by Seeking Alpha. Apple’s official press release is here. As always, however, I’m not as concerned about the financial details as I am the statements of Apple executivies during the call that are of interest to iPhone and iPad users. Here are the items that stood out to me:
Apple sold 26.9 million iPhones last quarter, the most that Apple has ever sold in a fiscal fourth quarter. By my count, that means that as of September 29, 2012, Apple had sold over 267 million iPhones.
Apple sold 14 million iPads last quarter, the most that Apple has ever sold in a fiscal fourth quarter. By my count, that means that as of September 29, 2012, Apple had sold just over 98 million iPads. Apple CEO Tim Cook announced on October 23, 2012 (the event at which the iPad mini was announced) that as of that date Apple had sold over 100 million iPads.
Almost all of the Fortune 500 companies are
using or testing the iPad. Over 80% of the Global 500 are using the
iPhone and iPad.
There are over 700,000 apps in the App Store, and 275,000 of them are designed for the iPad.
Apple continues to think that there is a potential to sell many more iPads. Tim Cook stated: “We continue to be very confident that the tablet market will surpass the
PC market. There is incredible development in both ecosystems and
product going on in the tablet space. It is already extremely compelling
for many, many customers to choose the tablet, in particular an iPad,
over PC. And when you look at the size of the PC market, there is an
enormous opportunity for Apple there. Pretty much each quarter you see 80
to 90 million PCs being sold. And so, we do think that the iPad and the iPad Mini and the iPad 2 will all
be extremely attractive offerings for people in lieu of PCs, and we are
going to continue to be very much focused on the future of iPad, and we are
very, very confident with what we have in the pipeline. And we are
extremely pleased to have launched iPad mini and can’t wait until next
Friday, when we begin selling the very first unit.”
Microsoft launched its own tablet computer this week, the Surface. When asked to comment on it, Tom Cook said: “I haven’t personally played with the Surface yet, but what we are reading
about it is that it’s a fairly compromised, confusing product. And so I
think one of the toughest things you do with deciding which products is
to make hard trade offs and decide what a product should be, and we’ve really
done that with the iPad and so, the user experience is absolutely
incredible. I suppose you could design a car that flies and floats, but I
don’t think it would do all of those things very well, and so I think
people, when they look at the iPad versus competitive offerings, are going
to conclude they really want an iPad and I think people have done that
to-date and I think they will continue to do that.”
When asked about the $329 introduction price of the iPad mini and why it wasn’t even cheaper, Apple’s CFO Peter Oppenheimer stated: “When we set out to build the iPad Mini, we didn’t set out to build a small cheap tablet. We set out to build a smaller iPad that offers the full iPad experience as our customers would expect. As a result, the difference between the iPad Mini and the competition is profound. Our iPad Mini begins with a 7.9 inch display, which is 35% larger than 7 inch tablets, providing a much better experience. We are shipping two great cameras, FaceTime HD front, and a 5 megapixel 1080p iSight rear camera, versus typically one from our competition. We are shipping our fastest communications with dual-band Wi-Fi and it included the A5 chip, which has higher performance than our competitors. And finally, the fit and finish of our precision, unibody aluminum closure is breathtaking when held in your hands. And so that’s what we’ve done. The iPad mini has higher costs, and the gross margin is significantly below our corperate average. We are beginning at the height of the cost curve, but in addition to wanting to make a large number, we are going to work to try and get down the cost curves and be more efficient in manufacturing as we have been in the past with our other products.” Tim Cook then stated: “One of the things we try to do is to create a product that people will
love for months, years after they purchase it and continue using it in
a robust way. So that’s what iPad Mini has been designed to do. And you
can really see that more broadly on iPad by looking at the usage
statistics. As I had mentioned earlier this week, over 90% of the web
traffic from tablets are from iPad. And so Apple will not make a
product that somebody may feel good about it for the moment that they’re
paying for it and then when they get it home they are really never using again. That’s
not what we’re about. It’s not a kind of experience we want our
customers to have. And I think when you – I would encourage you to use
an iPad Mini and I don’t think you’ll be using anything other than maybe
another iPad or something after you do that.”
One of the first things I thought about when the iPad mini was announced was a comment that Steve Jobs made two years ago when Apple announced the results for the 2012 fiscal fourth quarter. He talked about a 7-inch tablet extensively, and said that it was a bad idea because the screen is too small. He joked that someone would have to use sandpaper to make their fingers smaller to use a 7-inch display, and that 10-inch was the “minimum” size for a great tablet. I still have a recording of that conference call, and here is what Steve Jobs said two years ago:
“I’d like to comment on the avalanche of tablets poised to enter the market in the coming months. First, it appears to be just a handful of credible entrants, not exactly an avalanche. Second, almost all of them use 7-inch screens as compared to iPad’s near 10-inch screen. Let’s start there. One naturally thinks that a 7-inch screen would offer 70% of the benefits of a 10-inch screen. Unfortunately, this is far from the truth. The screen measurements are diagonal, so that a 7-inch screen is only 45% as large as iPad’s 10-inch screen. You heard me right. Just 45% as large If you take an iPad and hold it upright in portrait view and draw an imaginary horizontal line halfway down the screen, the screens on the 7-inch tablets are a bit smaller than the bottom half of the iPad display. This size isn’t sufficient to create great tablet apps in our opinion. While one could increase the resolution of the display to make up for some of the difference, it is meaningless unless your tablet also includes sandpaper, so that the user can sand down their fingers to around one quarter of their present size. Apple’s done extensive user-testing on touch interfaces over many years, and we really understand this stuff. There are clear limits of how close you can physically place elements on a touch screen before users cannot reliably tap, flick or pinch them. This is one of the key reasons, we think, the 10-inch screen size is the minimum size required to create great tablet apps.
* * *
The reason we wouldn’t make a 7-inch tablet isn’t because we don’t want to hit a price point, it’s because we don’t think you can make a great tablet with a 7-inch screen. We think it’s too small to express the software that people want to put on these things. And we think, as a software driven company, we think about the software strategies first. And we know that software developers, they’re not going to deal real well with all these different size products when they have to redo their software every time a screen size changes. And they’re not going to deal well with products where they can’t put enough elements on the screen to build the kind of apps they want to build. So when we make decisions on 7-inch tablets, it’s not about cost, it’s about the value of the product when you factor in the software. You see what I’m getting at? So we’re all about making the best products at aggressive prices. And that’s what we will do, and that’s what we’ve done with the iPod, and that’s what we will do with the iPad as well.”
During last week’s conference, Tim Cook was asked about that prior statement. How can Apple now sell the Apple mini in light of Steve Jobs’ comments two years ago. Here is how Tim Cook responded to what a litigator might try to characterize as a prior inconsistent statement:
“On your question about iPad mini, the comments that I think you are referencing are comments that Steve had made before about 7-inch tablets. And let me be clear: we would not make one of the 7-inch tablets. We don’t think they’re good products, and we would never make one. Not just because it is 7 inches, but for many reasons. One of the reasons, however, is size, and so I’m not sure if you saw our Keynote, but the difference in just the real estate size between 7.9, almost 8, versus 7 is 35%. And when you look at the usable area, it’s much greater than that, it is from 50% to 67%. And also the iPad mini has the same number of pixels as iPad 2 does. So you have access to all 275,000 apps that are in our App Store that have been custom-designed to take advantage of the full canvas. And so iPad mini is a fantastic product. It’s not a compromised product like the 7-inch tablet. It’s in a whole different league.”
Did Tim Cook have a legitimate response to the prior statement of Steve Jobs? Is there really that much difference between 7.9 inches and 7.0 inches? Is that really the difference between a screen that is large enough to be useful versus a screen that should come with sandpaper? And how much of Steve Jobs’ statement can be attributed to the lack of good software for a 7-inch Android tablet, something that doesn’t apply to the iPad mini that will run apps that already exist for the the full-size iPad? We’ll find out this Friday when people start to receive the first shipments of the iPad mini.
