Jeff Richardson

Scanner Pro is an app that I have been meaning to check out for a long time because several lawyers have told me that it is their favorite app for using an iPhone to scan documents.  I just bought the app last night and I can see why so many people love it.  Normally I like to wait a week or more before I write a review of an app to have ample time to try it out, but I am posting this review today because Readdle is celebrating its fifth birthday right now by discounting its apps.  If you buy Readdle apps before the end of the day on August 2, there is a huge discount:  $1.99 instead of the normal price of $6.99.  And all of the other Readdle apps are on sale too, so for example you can get PDF Expert (which I reviewed three months ago) for only $4.99 instead of the normal $9.99.

Scanner Pro lets you scan a document and then converts it into a PDF file.  I presume that you can use any iPhone or the third generation iPad to take the picture, but to get the best quality picture you’re going to want to use an iPhone 4S with its improved 8 megapixel camera, and that’s what I used for my tests.  It works best if you place the document against a darker background.  Alternatively, if you already have an image of a document on your iPhone, you can use an image that you already have.

After you get a picture of the document, the app automatically tries to straighten the image.  In my tests, it often does a great job on its own.  However, if you want to tweak it, the app has fantastic tools for doing so.  Just drag each of the four blue dots to a corner of the page.  Of course, you cannot see what is under your finger as you are doing so, so the app helpfully provides a zoomed image to the side so that you can move the blue dot to just the right place.  After you are finished adjusting all four sides (or after you are satisfied with what the app did on its own), click the Next button.

Next, the app automatically adjusts the black text and the white background of the page to make the text on the page as sharp as possible.  In my tests, what the app did automatically was great, but if you want to adjust the contrast or the brightness, tap the top left button to do so.  And if you need to rotate the image, the button at the top right lets you do that.

After you tap save, you are finished with the first page of your scan.  If the document has multiple pages, just go through the prior steps again to add more pages.

Once you have all of the pages, there are a few things you can do.  The button at the bottom left lets you send the scanned document as a PDF attached to an e-mail.  The button at the bottom right gives you many more options including print, fax (for a fee), upload to services such as Google Docs, or open the PDF file in another app on your iPhone.

But you might not need to choose any of those options because of two built-in cloud storage options that are very helpful.  First, if you use the Dropbox service, you have the option to have the app automatically upload every scan to a folder called “ScannerPro” in your Dropbox.  (This also works with Evernote.)  I love this option because it lets you take a scan, do the quick adjustments, and then you are done.  The document will be in your Dropbox folder on your computer (and on your iPhone, iPad, etc.) whenever you need to access it.  So for example, you can scan receipts when you are on a trip and then they will automatically go to your Dropbox folder so that they are all waiting for you on your computer when your trip is done. 

Second, you can use iCloud to automatically share documents with Scanner Pro on your iPad.  (This is a universal app, so you can just pay for it once and then use it on both your iPhone and your iPad.)  This lets you use the better camera on the iPhone 4S to scan a document, but then use the larger screen on your iPad to review the document. 

As you can see from that picture of the iPad app, the scans are kept in the app itself.  Thus, even if you don’t send your scans to Dropbox or someplace else, you can always go back to the Scanner Pro app to review your scans.  You can also create folders to hold multiple documents.

The quality of the scan is quite good.  It is not as good as you would get with a real, stand-alone scanner, but it is more than good enough to read and share a document.  I created a sample document and then used Scanner Pro on my iPhone 4S to scan it, and here is a link to the PDF file that the app created if you want to see the results for yourself.

Note that Scanner Pro only creates an image of a document; it does not OCR the document to make the text searchable.

If you want to use your iPhone or iPad to turn paper into PDF, Scanner Pro is a great way to do it.  Although it takes a few steps create the PDF, each of these steps works very well and is very fast. 

Click here to get Scanner Pro ($6.99, or $1.99 today only): 

Thank you to GoodCase Apps for sponsoring iPhone J.D. this month.  New York attorney John Upton started GoodCase Apps and created the $14.99 app CaseManager for iPad so that attorneys can have access to the key information about their cases in one place.  The app provides a central location to store all of the key information that you need.  You can add documents to the app to carry around the key pleadings, contracts, etc.  You can add contact information, calendar entries and tasks that are unique to each case.  The app even includes a Facts section so that you can track the key events in the timeline of a case and can help you track your time and expenses.  All of the information is stored in the app itself, so you can access your information even when you don’t have an Internet connection.  The following screenshots give you a sense of how the app works, and as you can see the app uses large, bold fonts to make everything easy to see:

Click here to get CaseManager for iPad ($14.99): 

One of my most-used iPad accessories is the FreeOneHand, a device that fits around the iPad and adds a grip so that you can more easily hold the iPad or stand it up at your desk.  The FreeOneHand works well as a holder, but it is not a very sturdy stand.  Several iPhone J.D. readers who saw my review of the FreeOneHand asked if I could compare it to the Octa Vaccum Dock + WhaleTail, a unique looking device that also adds something to the back of your iPad that can be used to grip the iPad or stand it up.  Octa sent me a free review sample of the device and I’ve been trying it over the last few weeks.  My verdict is that the weaknesses of the FreeOneHand are the strengths of the Vacuum Dock + WhaleTail, but the opposite is also true.

To explain what I mean, let’s start by talking about how Vacuum Dock + WhaleTail works.  As the name implies, there are two parts to this product:  the Dock and the WhaleTail.

To attach the WhaleTail you remove a rubber circle from the back of the Vacuum Dock, place the circular portion of the WhaleTale against the Dock lined up at the right spot, and then turn the WhaleTail to lock it into place.

To connect the product to the iPad, simply place the Vaccum Dock against the back of the iPad and press the large button a few times.  This creates an incredibly strong vacuum that attaches the Dock to the iPad.  Octa says that it will last for days.  I haven’t tested it for that long, but it does seem very strong, and over time you can press the button again to make the vacuum a little stronger.  To remove the Dock, just pull up on the two small tabs at the base.  It is very easy to add and remove.

You can bend the WhaleTail to adjust the angle, and the Vacuum Dock + WhaleTail can thus prop up your iPad in lots of different positions.

It works well if you want to prop up your iPad to watch the screen.  However, this device won’t prop up the iPad at a slight angle, such as the angle that you would use when typing on the iPad’s virtual keyboard.  Nevertheless, for the angles that the product supports, it works great — much better than the FreeOneHand, which I often find to be unstable when being used to prop up the iPad.

Octa says that this product is also good for adding a handle to the back of your iPad so that you can hold it in your hand.  This is where I was less impressed.  I found that the Dock itself was so large that it felt uncomfortable in my hand (and I have large hands), and the WhaleTail itself is too skinny to add much support.  I suppose it is better than just holding the iPad on one edge with one hand, but only somewhat better.  Moreover, if you are looking for a device to hold your iPad with one hand in public — such as in a meeting or in court — you may not desire the look of having a whale’s tail between your fingers. 

Note that you can attach the Vacuum Dock to the iPad without using the WhaleTail at all, just gripping the dock in your hand.  I also found that to be uncomfortable.

Octa says that it plans to release additional “tails” to use with the Vacuum Dock to give the product even more flexibility.  And unlike a product like the FreeOneHand which is molded to the precise specifications of specific iPads, the Vacuum Dock can attach to any product with a flat back.  Thus, if Apple comes out with the rumored “mini” version of the iPad, or if you have some other tablet-size device with a flat back, the Vacuum Dock should work with it as well.  I like that the product is future-proof and has the ability to become even more useful in the future.

So in sum, unlike the FreeOneHand, the Vacuum Dock + WhaleTail is a great, adjustable stand.  Also unlike the FreeOneHand, you are very likely to be able to use the Vacuum Dock + WhaleTail with future generations of the iPad, plus there should be options to expand the product in the future.  However, I do not like using the Vacuum Dock + WhaleTail as a device for holding the iPad in one hand because I don’t find it to be very comfortable.

Click here to get the Octa Vaccum Dock + WhaleTail on Amazon ($49.99).

CanLII is a non-profit website that provides free access to court judgments, tribunal decisions, statutes and regulations from all Canadian jurisdictions.  Toronto attorney Garry Wise — publisher of the great Wise Law Blog — thought it would be useful to have an easy way to access and search CanLII on his iPhone.  After a year of development, the result is WiseLii (pronounced “Wise Lee”), a free mobile research tool for Canadian lawyers that was released last week.  WiseLii is not affiliated with CanLII, but it was created with CanLII’s blessing.

Buttons at the bottom of the screen provide constant access to the two primary features — access case law or access legislation.

After you choose to search either cases or legislation, you select either “Federal” or a Province.  Within each juridiction you can select specific courts or sources of statutory law.

 

If you select cases, you next enter some search terms to see a list of hits.  If you instead select legislation, you can choose to browse or search.  When you select a case or a statute, any search terms that you used are highlighted and thus stand out if you scroll through the document.  I wish that there were a way to quickly scroll through a long document, such as by sliding a finger on the right edge as some other apps do; right now, you often have a lot of scrolling to do.  However, the app does give you a way to jump to specific words in the document.  At the top, you can either enter your same search terms again, or enter any other terms, and now the search terms within that specific document are highlighted plus you get buttons at the bottom that let you advance to the next and prior instance of the search term in that document.

 

When you find a useful case or statute, you can tap the star at the top right to add it to your list of favorites.  Also, at the top of each case or statute there is an option to send a link by email, which will open up an email containing a URL to the item in the CanLII database.

Not being a Canadian lawyer, I cannot comment on the scope and limitations of the CanLII database, but the WiseLii app does seem to do a good job of presenting a version of that resource formatted for the iPhone.  Unfortunately, I did have some problems with the app crashing when I would run certain searches.  Garry Wise tells me that he is aware of the occasional crashes and is working on a fix right now, so hopefully this will be resolved in a future update.

WiseLii has a nice interface, and like CanLII itself, the app is free.  Hopefully the crashes will be fixed soon, because this has a potential to be a must-have app for every Canadian lawyer with an iPhone.

Click here to get WiseLii (free): 

There was no In the news post last week because I was on a family vacation at the beach and also because I instead wanted to report on the new numbers from the ABA on iPhone and iPad use by attorneys.  (By the way, while at the beach, I used the DryCASE on my iPhone 4S and took some great videos while my kids and I were enjoying the waves in the Gulf of Mexico.  Being able to record videos without worrying about the iPhone getting wet was a lot of fun.)  So anyway, I now have two weeks of iPhone and iPad news to catch up on, and here are the highlights:

• Apple is currently suing Samsung, alleging that Samsung improperly copied the iPhone when creating Samsung’s phones.  The discovery process has revealed some interesting photographs of early prototypes of the iPhone and iPad.  Click here and here to see some of the most interesting ones, as collected by The Verge.
• Similarly, Yoni Heisler of NetworkWorld shows what may be the earliest picture of an iPad prototype.
• Virginia attorney Rob Dean of WalkingOffice describes using TrialPad on his iPad in a trial.
• Evan Koblentz of Law Technology News reports that lawyers are moving from the BlackBerry to the iPhone, providing anecdotal support for the ABA’s recent tech survey numbers.
• California attorney David Sparks and Florida attorney Katie Floyd discuss their favorite tools for getting work done on their iPads in Episode 94 of the Mac Power Users podcast.
• The WestlawNext app was recently updated to support folder sharing, West km integration, retina graphics, improved fonts, and more.
• Lexis also unveiled a major update to the Lexis Advance website and the Lexis Advance app, as noted in this press release.  South Carolina attorney Justin Kahn writes about the new features of the iPad app on his iPad Notebook website.
• Massachusetts lawyer Robert Ambrogi of LawSites reviews the new Merriam-Webster legal dictionary app.  It costs $25, about half the price of the Black’s Law Dictionary app.
• New York attorney Niki Black recommends iPad resources for attorneys.
• Cops seize an iPhone from a drug dealer and them impersonate the owner in text messages to lead to the arrests of others.  Legal?  Yes, according to this report from Timothy Lee for ArsTechnica.
• Hopefully you know that I write a monthly column for BigLaw about the iPad and iPhone.  (You can subscribe for free.)  A few of my old columns are now posted on the TechnoLawyer website, including this article from a few weeks ago about enhancements to the next iPhone/iPad operating system, iOS 6, that attorneys who travel will really appreciate.
• Speaking of attorneys who travel, Kit Eaton of the New York Times recommends apps to use at an airport.
• It starting to look like the next version of the iPhone will be coming out in October, but if you can’t wait, Alex Heath of Cult of Mac reports that you can currently save $100 on the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S if you buy through Radio Shack.
• Apple wasn’t the only company to report financial results this week.  AT&T reported as well, and I see from their press release that 3.7 of the 5.1 smartphones that the company sold last quarter were iPhones — almost 73%.
• Jacqui Cheng of ArsTechnica reviews four iPad writing apps.
• If you like to read a lot of magazines, Harry McCracken of Time reports on a new iPad app called Next Issue that lets you pay one price for a bunch of magazines such as Time, The New Yorker, Bon Appetit, Esquire, Fortune, People, Golf, Vogue, Wired, and more.
• Serenity Caldwell of Macworld reports that you can now search Google on an iPhone or iPad by drawing on your screen.
• Jeff Darlington of NFL.com explores how the iPad is being used by NFL players and coaches.
• And finally, I’m not sure what I think about Apple using celebrities in its latest iPhone commercials, but I have to admit that the one that came out this past week showing Martin Scorsese using Siri made me laugh.  Trivia for movie buffs: the license plate on the cab is 3S96, the same one on the taxi driven by Robert DeNiro’s character in the 1976 Scorsese film Taxi Driver.  (Credit to Buster Heine of Cult of Mac for noticing that.)

Yesterday, Apple released the results for its 2012 fiscal third quarter (which ran from April 1, 2012 to June 30, 2012) and held a call with analysts to discuss the results.  This is typically not a big fiscal quarter for Apple; the important quarter for Apple every year is the first fiscal quarter containing the holiday sales season.  Nevertheless, it was yet another profitable quarter for Apple, with Apple announcing quarterly revenue of $35 billion and quarterly net profit of $8.8 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. There were only a few things said on the call yesterday that I think would be of interest to iPhone and iPad users:

• Apple sold a record 17 million iPads last quarter, the most that Apple has ever sold in any quarter.  It appears that a lot of people were eager to get their hands on the new third-generation iPad, but Apple is also selling a ton of the iPad 2 models now that Apple has discounted them to $399 — especially to K through 12 schools.  If my math is correct, as of June 30, 2012, Apple has sold just over 84 million iPads.
• Apple sold 26 million iPhones last quarter.  That number is smaller than the 37 million iPhones sold two quarters earlier when the iPhone 4S came out and the 35.1 million iPhones sold last quarter, but it is still the third best quarter in Apple history for iPhone sales.  By my count, that means that as of June 30, 2012, Apple has sold over 240 million iPhones.
• Large companies love the iPhone, and Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer said that the number of iPhones in the Fortune 500 has more than doubled in the past year. 
• Large companies really love the iPad, and Oppenheimer said that the number of iPads in the Fortune 500 has more than tripled in the past year. 
• Both Oppenheimer and Apple CEO Tim Cook stated that rumors and speculation of an upcoming new iPhone are causing some people to hold off on buying one.  Cook noted:  “We try very hard to keep our product roadmap secret and confidential, and we go to extreme, do extreme activities to try to do that.  That, however, doesn’t stop people from speculating or wondering.  And we’ll never do that.  And so it’s a great thing about this country, people can say what they think and so forth.  And so I’m not going to spend any energy trying to change that, that’s just the environment we are in.  You know, I’m glad that people want the next thing.  I’m super happy about it.  And there are obviously quite a few that want what we’re currently doing as well, as witnessed by the amount of products that we’re selling.  And so, I’m not going to put any energy into trying to get people to stop speculating.  I don’t think it would – I don’t think that’s going to amount anything.”
• These comments about iPhone speculation might have been an attempt to get analysts to understand why iPhone demand may decrease over the next few months until the 2012 version of the iPhone comes out.  And because Apple did not predict that it will have a huge 2012 fiscal fourth quarter (July-Sept.) this could be interpreted as suggesting that we will not see the next model of the iPhone before October of 2012.  That would be consistent with last year, when the iPhone 4S went on sale on October 14, 2011.  Thus, if you are thinking of getting a new iPhone but you feel that you can wait until October, the statements made on yesterday’s call cause me to think that October is probably a safe target date for you to keep in mind for the 2012 model of the iPhone.

Every year, the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center conducts a survey to gauge attorney use of legal technology.  My discussion of the 2011 report is here, and my discussion of the 2010 report is here.)  No survey is perfect, but the ABA tries hard to ensure that its survey has statistical significance, and every year this is the best resource I am aware of to reveal how the approximately one million attorneys in the United States are using technology.  This year’s report reveals a surge in iPhone and iPad use among U.S. attorneys.

BlackBerry’s loss is the iPhone’s gain.

This year, 89% of attorneys reported that they use a smartphone for law-related task.  Last year the number was 88%, so there is essentially no change.  The big switch is in the smartphone that attorneys are using.

In 2011, 46% of the 88% of attorneys using a smartphone reported that they used a BlackBerry, which means that about 40% of all attorneys were using a BlackBerry.  This year, only 31% of the 89% of attorneys using a smartphone were using a BlackBerry, which means that only 28% of all attorneys were using a BlackBerry.  What happened to those 12% of all attorneys who had been using a BlackBerry?

Almost all of them switched to the iPhone.  The number of attorneys using an Android increased from 15% in 2011 to 16% in 2012.  However, the number of attorneys using an iPhone increased to 44%.  This 44% number is 49% of the 89% of all attorneys using a smartphone in 2012, so another way to look at this is that if an attorney is using a smartphone, there is about a 50-50 chance that he or she is using an iPhone.

Here is a chart that I prepared to show all of this.  Yes, I see that the pie chart adds up to 101%; that is because I rounded to whole numbers to keep it simple and account for the margin of error:

If you take a look at my similar pie chart from last year, it is easy to see the surge in attorneys using an iPhone.

As I reported last year, there are around a million attorneys in the United States, so that means that around 440,000 attorneys in the U.S. use an iPhone.

How are these attorneys using their smartphones?  30% of attorneys using smartphones report downloading a law-related app, most likely a research app such as the apps offered by Fastcase, Westlaw and Lexis.  (Fastcase had the most use reported, which doesn’t surprise me because it is a fantastic app and unlike the competition is free.)  Other apps that attorneys report downloading include Dragon Dictation (which is of course unnecessary for new iPhones that have Siri), Documents to Go, LinkedIn, Adobe Reader and Dropbox. 

Attorney iPad use surges

In 2011, 15% of attorneys reported using a tablet device for law-related tasks, and 13% of that 15% were iPad users.  In 2012, this number more than doubled.  33% of all attorneys now report using a tablet device for law-related tasks.  91% of that 33% are using an iPad, so that means that about 30% of all attorneys now use an iPad.  (For the 3% of attorneys who use a non-iPad tablet device, virtually all of them report using an Android device.)

What are those attorneys doing with their iPads?  Pretty much what you would expect.  Over 80% are regularly using an iPad to read e-mail and use the Internet, and almost everyone else reports doing so occasionally.  Over half regularly use their iPads to work with their contacts and calendars, about about another 25% do so occasionally.  About a third regularly use iPad research apps (which I’m sure includes the same apps they are using on the iPhone:  Fastcase, Westlaw and Lexis).

I’m always interested to learn how often lawyers use their iPads to create documents. According to the survey, 21% of lawyers do so regularly, and 29% do so occasionally.  Those numbers are actually higher than I had expected.

It also appears that attorneys are mostly buying their own iPads and just bringing them to the office to do work.  86% of attorneys using tablets report that they bought their own device.  This is how it works at my law firm; attorneys buy their own iPads, but the tech folks at our firm help people to configure the devices.

I can’t vouch that the ABA survey numbers are 100% accurate, but they do match what I have been seeing anecdotally; lots of attorneys giving up the BlackBerry to switch to an iPhone, and a surge in iPad users.  In fact, the ABA data was collected during the first few months of 2012, but I know a bunch of attorneys who purchased their first iPad during the last few weeks.  I suspect that one of the biggest changes between the numbers in thie 2012 report and next year’s 2013 report is that we’ll see even more attorneys using iPads next year.

When taking notes or drawing on an iPad, you get better results with a stylus than with your finger.  There are countless stylus options available, but I believe that Wacom was the first company to create a stylus with a smaller tip that allows you to be more precise when you draw or write.  In large part because of that feature, the Wacom Bamboo Stylus has been my favorite stylus for the iPad, although I prefer the slightly longer model that includes a real pen. 

Kensington, a company that has been making iPad accessories since Day 1, sells lots of styluses for the iPad.  Indeed, before I switched to the Wacom Bamboo Stylus, the Kensington Virtuoso Stylus for Tablet was my favorite iPad stylus.  Kensington sent me a free review sample of the new Virtuoso Pro Fine Tip Stylus, a completely new model in the Virtuoso line that includes a fine tip.  The tip is similar in size to the tip on the Bamboo Stylus, but the Virtuoso Pro Fine Tip Stylus costs less than the Bamboo Stylus.

The Virtuoso Pro Fine Tip Stylus comes in either black or white.  Kensington sent me the white model.  There is a silver band in the middle of the stylus that gives the appearance that the top is a cap that can be removed, but the band is just cosmetic; no part of the stylus can be removed or twisted.

The tip of the stylus is essentially the same size as the fine tip on the Bamboo Stylus.  In the following picture, the original Bamboo Stylus is at the top (a model that Wacom is now calling the “solo”), the Virtuoso Pro Fine Tip Stylus is in the middle, and the Kensington Virtuoso Stylus for Tablet (which has a traditional size tip) is at the bottom:

I suspect that many customers will try to decide between the Bamboo Stylus and the Virtuoso Pro Fine Tip Stylus, and I see five things to consider.

Tip.  The fine tip is the defining feature of both of these styluses, and they are incredibly similar.  They are the same size and feel almost exactly the same when you are using them.  The Bamboo Stylus tip is just slightly softer so you have slightly more give when you touch the screen, but I doubt that you would ever notice the difference in actual use.  Thus, both of these have excellent, fine tips.

Length.  The regular Bamboo Stylus is 4.75", which is shorter than a regular pen, and for that reason I prefer the duo version of the Wacom Bamboo stylus that is almost a half-inch longer.  The Virtuoso Pro Fine Tip Stylus is about the same length as the Bamboo Stylus duo and (as you can see in the above picture) is about the same length as the Virtuoso Stylus for Tablet. 

Weight and Feel. The Virtuoso Pro Fine Tip Stylus feels hollow and light.  It weighs about 0.6 oz.  By comparison, the regular Bamboo Stylus weighs about 0.7 oz and the Bamboo Stylus duo weighs about 0.8 oz.  These sound like minor differences, but they are noticeable, and I prefer the weight of the Bamboo models, especially the duo, which feel more substantial.  Having said that, I’m sure that others might prefer a lighter stylus.

You should also consider that the Bamboo Stylus has a metallic feel.  Indeed, it sticks to the iPad’s built-in magnet that is used to attach the Apple Smart Cover.  The Virtuoso Pro Fine Tip Stylus has a plastic feel.

Style.  You can see in the above picture that the Virtuoso Pro Fine Tip Stylus has a sleek look to it with tapered ends.  I won’t try to pick a favorite here, but you’ll have to decide which look you prefer.

Price. The regular Bamboo Stylus (also called the Solo) has an MSRP of $29.95, while the Virtuoso Pro Fine Tip Stylus has an MSRP of only $19.99.  The prices are a little closer if you buy on Amazon; you can currently get the Bamboo Stylus on Amazon for $22.05 while the current price for the Virtuoso Pro Fine Tip Stylus on Amazon is $18.98.  Note, however, that if you want the version of the Bamboo Stylus that is the same length as the Virtuoso Pro Fine Tip Stylus, you need to purchase the Bamboo Stylus duo — currently unavailable on Amazon, so you need to pay the $39.95 MSRP when you buy on the Wacom website.

The Virtuoso Pro Fine Tip Stylus is an excellent stylus.  Because of the fine tip, I consider it better for writing or drawing than most other iPad styluses on the market.  I still prefer the Bamboo Stylus because I like the slight increase in weight and the metal finish, it feels more substantial in my hand.  However, the version of the Bamboo Stylus that I prefer (the duo) costs twice as much:  about $40 versus around $20 for the Virtuoso Pro Fine Tip.  Thus, I’m sure that many people looking for a fine tip stylus will opt for the cheaper Virtuoso Pro Fine Tip Stylus, and I think that they will be happy with the purchase.

Click here to get the Virtuoso Pro Fine Tip Stylus on Amazon ($18.98)

If you want to use a stylus with your iPad to take handwritten notes, there are a number of good apps to choose from.  After I tried GoodNotes earlier this year at the suggestion of an iPhone J.D. reader, it quickly became my favorite of the bunch for the reasons that I explained two months ago in my review.  A recent update to the app adds significant new features that keep the app at the top of my list.

Shapes

First, the app can now recognize shapes.  This is a feature that I had first seen (and really liked) in Notes Plus.  If you are taking notes and want to drop a circle, box or line — either because you are making a diagram or just because you want to place a box around some text to make it stand out — Notes Plus can automatically convert your drawing into a shape with perfectly straight lines (or, for a circle or orval, perfectly curved lines).

GoodNotes adds the feature but does so in a way that I think makes more sense.  Tap the pen tool once to write on the screen, or tap it a second time to toggle the shape recognition mode.  Implemented this way, instead of the app trying to guess whether you are trying to make a perfect shape, the app responds to your explicit instruction on what you want the app to do.

Improved zoom window

A zoom window is an essential feature of an iPad notetaking app to fit a reasonable number of words on a page.  GoodNotes now makes it easier to get in and out of that mode by adding a shortcut at the far left of the toolbar to toggle the window on and off.

Also, it is now even easier to resize the zoom window to a size that makes sense for your writing because there is a resize handle in the corner of the window.

Improved eraser

Typically when I use the eraser tool, I want to fix one small mistake and then get back to writing.  Previously you would have to tap the eraser tool, then erase then tap the pen tool again to go back to writing.  Now, GoodNotes includings a setting (in the iPad’s Settings app) called “Auto-Deselect Eraser.”  When turned on, you tap the eraser tool to turn on the eraser, erase, and then as soon as you lift up your stylus the app returns to the pen mode (or the highlighter mode if that was the last tool you used).  This feature saves you a step and makes you more efficient when using the eraser.

Another update is that the eraser tool now comes in three sizes, and a visual outline on the screen shows you the size of the eraser as you are using it so you can see precisely what will and won’t be erased.

Note that the updated version of GoodNotes, version 3.2, is already in the App Store if you purchased the app when you first got it.  If you instead downloaded the free version of the app (GoodNotes Free) and then paid for an in-app upgrade to remove the two notebook limit, Apple has not yet approved version 3.2 of the app but the developer expects it to be approved this week.  [UPDATE 7/17/12:  Version 3.2 of GoodNotes Free is now available in the App Store.]

And fortunately, the developer of GoodNotes (Steven Chan) has even more improvements coming soon.  His blog shows off an upcoming variable line width option that allows the pen size to vary as you write.  I presume that this feature will be similar to the fantastic fountain pen feature in the Paper app, although it looks like the widths will be not quite as dramatic and thus more realistic for a pen.

I am the first to admit that taking notes on an iPad involves tradeoffs.  Even with a good stylus, you cannot write on an iPad as quickly as you can write on real paper with a real pen.  If I am trying a case or arguing a motion in court, I stick with pen and paper.  On the other hand, when you take notes in GoodNotes, you can quickly undo or erase, change line size, store virtually every note you have ever taken in one space, and easily send notes via email to share them with others.  In meetings and other settings, I often find an app like GoodNotes on my iPad to be the best option.

Click here to get GoodNotes ($3.99):  [removed]

Click here to get GoodNotes Free (free):  [removed]

NOTE:  Those old links no longer work; here is an updated link to the GoodNotes app ($7.99): 

Earlier this year at ABA TECHSHOW, California attorney David Sparks showed me an impressive spreadsheet that he uses on his iPad during settlement negotiations, such as during a mediation.  Yesterday he wrote about his spreadsheet on his MacSparky website and even generously made his spreadsheet free to download at the end of his post.  (To use it on your iPad, you need to have Apple’s fantastic $9.99 Numbers app, which you can get here:  )  I plan to start using his spreadsheet.  I always find that there is a lot of down time in a mediation or settlement negotiation while you wait for the other side to decide what to do next, and this spreadsheet is a valuable tool to help you and your client evaluate your next move and be productive during your down time.  Additionally, I find it interesting that Sparks talks about how he used to do this on his laptop but now prefers an iPad because “the client was always a bit detached from the spreadsheet sitting over on the attorney’s” laptop.  I agree that the iPad is much better than a laptop for sharing.  Another advantage of an iPad in a meeting or in Court is that when people across from you see the back of your laptop screen, it gives the impression that you are hiding something, as if you are playing a game of Battleship.  However, the iPad instead creates the appearance that you are more engaged with the other people and not trying to hide anything, even though they can’t really see your screen unless they are very close to you.  Check out his post, download the spreadsheet, and hopefully you can find a way to incorporate strategies like this into your next settlement negotiation.  And now, the rest of the news of note from this week:

• Most of us just use Safari on the iPad to access websites, but there are other browser options.  I use Safari 95% of the time, but when I want advanced features I use Atomic Web Browser.  Dallas attorney Tom Mighel reviewed five alternatives to Safari — Atomic, Dolphin, iCab, Opera and Chrome — and concludes that iCab is his favorite.  You can read his full report in these three posts:  1, 2 and 3.
• Attrorney Edward Tan discusses the WestlawNext app on the FindLaw blog.  It’s a fantastic app, and my review is here.
• I consider Dropbox an essential service if you are using an iPad because it makes it so easy to share documents between the iPad, iPhone and computer.  For many people, the free 2 GB plan will be enough, but you can pay for more storage.  $10 a month used to get you 50 GB, but as Joel Mathis writes at Macworld, Dropbox improved its plans this week so that you now get 100 GB a month for $10 a month.
• Harry McCracken wrote an article for Time magazine about creating documents and other content on an iPad.  He notes that while some things are easier to do on a laptop, the iPad has many other advantages such as weight and long battery life.  Whenever I travel or work out of the office, I virtually always rely on just my iPad (and iPhone).  There are certainly some compromises to be made when you do so, but like McCracken, I find that the advantages far outweigh those shortcomings.
• Andy Ihnatko of the Chicago Sun-Times reviews the TouchFire keyboard, a thin rubber overlay for your iPad’s onscreen keyboard that costs $49.  He likes it, but I’m not convinced yet.  Ihnatko posted some photos of the TouchFire on Flickr.
• Briam Beam of Macworld reviews iOS scanner apps.
• Josh Ong of AppleInsider writes that the App Store has a new category:  Food & Drink.  The new category includes thousands of free and paid apps for the iPhone and iPad.
• And finally, I’ve always been a fan of the iconic Apple Store on Fifth Avenue in New York.  I was there when the store first opened on May 19, 2006.  (Apple had a camera taking pictures every few seconds and you can see me wearing the red shirt in this picture, and here is a panoramic picture I took of the crowd after I entered the store.)  Thus, I was tickled to see the detailed Lego version of Apple’s Fifth Avenue store that was created by artist H.K. Leung.  Click here to view photos of his creation on Flickr, and click here for an interview with Leung by Giles Turnbull of Cult of Mac.