Jeff Richardson

My sister got married last weekend and with all of the family activitiy, there was no time for me to publish In the news last Friday.  Thus, in this 150th edition of In the news — didn’t we just have the 100th edition? — I am highlighting some interesting stories from the last two weeks.

• This week was the LegalTech West Coast conference.  According to an article by Monica Bay of the Law Technology  News, there was a lot of focus on the iPad.  (Sounds similar to what I saw at ABA TECHSHOW earlier this year.)
• Florida attorney Katie Floyd writes about how to save an iPhone after you spill water on it.
• Tampa, Florida attorney Jenny Byars Gribbin of Fowler White Boggs had an idea for an iPhone app to manage lists for busy parents.  The result is the app Mothern Belle, and Gribbin was profiled by Margaret Cashill of the Tampa Bay Business Journal.
• Carol Gerber of Attorney at Work compiles iPad shortcuts useful to lawyers.
• Massachusetts lawyer Robert Ambrogi reports that the North Carolina Bar switched from Casemaker to Fastcase, in part because Fastcase has a great iPad app.
• Adam Lashinsky wrote a great cover article for Fortune on how Tim Cook is changing Apple.  It’s a good read.
• Joshua Topolsky of The Verge wrote an interesting article for the Washington Post about how so few companies outside of Apple are coming up with innovative designs for their tech products.
• I often write about people using Find My iPhone to locate a stolen iPhone, but Alex Heath of Cult of Mac writes about a woman who used the iCloud Photo Stream service to do the same thing after her iPhone was stolen on a Disney cruise.  The iPhone thief was an employee of the cruise ship and he used the iPhone to take pictures of himself and his friends — which were promptly uploaded to the woman’s iCloud and appeared on her computer.  Based on the pictures, the thief was apprehended and was fired.
• Ben Worthen of the Wall Street Journal wrote an interesting article about young children using iPads.
• Kevin Tofel of GigaOm writes that if you get internet access from cable companies Bright House Networks, Cablevision, Comcast, Cox Communications or Time Warner Cable, you’ll soon be able to access a bunch of Wi-Fi spots across the country.  Initial access will be in New York, Los Angeles, Tampa, Orlando, and Philadelphia.
• Ken Shirriff analyzed what makes up an iPhone charger.  It’s more sophisticated than you might think.
• David Pogue of the New York Times discusses tracking smartphone data usage.
• Pogue also reivewed the Jawbone Big Jambox and the Bose SoundLink Wireless Mobile Speaker, Bluetooth speakers that work with the iPhone.
• The App Store has been around for four years, and Federico Viticci looks at those lat four years for MacStories.
• Georgia of iMore reviewed several iPad styluses, including the Bamboo Stylus that I like so much.  I disagree with several of the opinions in her article (including her take on the Bamboo Stylus), so it is a good read if you are looking for a different perspective from mine.
• Borys Kit of The HollyWood Reporter reports that Aaron Sorkin (of The West Wing and The Social Network fame) is writing the screenplay based on the Walter Isaacson biography of Steve Jobs.  I’ve seen it reported elsewhere that Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak will a consultant on the film. 
• Harry McCracken of Time compares the two upcoming movies on Steve Jobs.
• Geri Drelling of LawyerTechReview writes about one judge’s use of an iPad in court.
• Simon Sage of iMore recommends his favorite free iPad games.
• And finally, there was a short but very nice tribute to Steve Jobs at the recent 16th Annual Webby Awards with tributes from Presidents Clinton and Obama, Bono and others.  It is worth watching, and you can watch it in this clip from CNET:

As the school year comes to an end and Summer is about to start, I find myself looking forward to water activities with my kids:  swimming pools, the beach, water slides, etc.  Activities that involve water are usually not good for the iPhone, but earlier this month at the CTIA Wireless convention in New Orleans, I saw two products that make your iPhone waterproof.  I tried out both products with the aid of company representatives working at booths so I did not get a chance to do “real world” tests, but both booths featured iPhones being dunked into aquariums over and over again and, as far as I could tell, the iPhones held up great.

driSuit

The first product I saw was the driSuit.  This is a case made for the iPhone 4 and 4s.  You place your iPhone inside the case, close two locks to seal it, and then the iPhone is waterproof.  Here is a picture from the website:

And here is a picture I took at CTIA of iPhones working while they are submerged in an aquarium:

The screen portion of the case actually has two membrames with a gel in between.  You need to touch the screen a little bit harder than normal for the gel to make contact with the screen, but it does work quite well.  With the driSuit, you can use your iPhone while you are skiing, snowboarding, fishing, snorkling, etc. without fear that water will damage your iPhone.  The iPhone camera still works even when it is in the case.

There is a small space behind the iPhone where you can store a credit card, room key, driver’s license, etc.

The case costs $60.  You can get a wrist band that also floats for $10 and the company sells waterproof headphones for $20.

DryCASE

A similar product that I saw at CTIA is the DryCASE.  Unlike the driSuite which is made specifically for the iPhone 4/4S, the DryCASE is a bag that comes in different sizes and can hold lots of different devices, including the iPhone and the iPad.  The company has been making waterproof protection for casts and prosthetic limbs for the last 13 years, and decided to use the same technology to protect iPhones.

To use the DryCASE you place your iPhone or other item inside of it, plug in the included headphone jack, seal the top, and then use the included one-way pump to remove the air.  This creates a vacuum.  You can then plug a pair of headphones into the port on the outside of the bag (or use waterproof headphones sold by the company).  You can use the iPhone touchscreen or camera through the bag, and the company has tested it to depths of 100 feet. 

As you can see from the above picture, the iPhone at the right had been underwater for 2 hours and 41 minutes when I saw it.  They kept the iPhone in that bag throughout the CTIA show for several days and it continued to work underwater. 

The case has a black band on the back of it so you can attach the DryCASE to your arm.

I was told by company representatives that your iPhone doesn’t work well as a phone when it is in a case, although you can use the speaker phone in a pinch.  However, if you plug in a pair of headphones with a microphone you can use the phone that way.

The retail price is $39.99.  You can buy it for less at Amazon, but DryCASE tells me that if you instead get it from a retailer or from the DryCASE website you get a one year warranty.

Both of these products look like great solutions for bringing your iPhone with you to the beach, the pool, etc.  The driSuite seems to provide a little more protection and is a great fit for the iPhone 4/4S, but the DryCASE is half the price and very versatile because it can be used with devices of multiple sizes.

Click here to get the driSuit from the manufacturer ($59.95)

Click here to get the DryCASE from Amazon ($28.77)

Click here to get the DryCASE from the manufacturer ($39.99)

Just over a year ago, when I still used the first generation of the iPad, I reviewed an innovative product called the FreeOneHand, a device that fit around the four corners of the iPad and provided a handle so that you can hold the iPad in one hand.  It quickly became one of my favorite accessories for my iPad, and I continued to use it with the iPad 2, even though it wasn’t a perfect fit (for example, it covered up the camera).  There is now a second generation version of the FreeOneHand that works with both the iPad 2 and the third generation iPad.  It combines everything that I loved about the original FreeOneHand with a design that better fits the newer iPads and with a new collapsible handle.  Ever since the company sent me a free review unit of this $40 product a few weeks ago I have rarely removed it from my third generation iPad.  I love this iPad accessory.

The company sent me the white version of the new FreeOneHand, but it also comes in black.  Since I use a black version of the iPad, that is the version I would have selected if I had purchased this item myself, but the white version looks fine too.

Like the original, this version fits around the four corners of the iPad.  To use it, you first slide the side of your iPad with the home button into two of the corners, then you snap each of the other two corners around the iPad.  Because the iPad 2 and third generation iPads are thinner than the original iPad, the second generation of the FreeOneHand is slightly harder to attach to the iPad, but you get the hang of it quickly.

Once your iPad is in the FreeOneHand, there is a knob on the back of the iPad that you can easily hold with one hand in multiple positions.  Holding the iPad by this knob is much easier on your hands than holding the iPad just by the sides.  Because less effort is required, you can hold your iPad with just one hand and for much longer before your hand experiences fatigue.  If I have a long deposition or brief to read on my iPad, the experience is much better when I can hold my iPad with the FreeOneHand.

There are two primary ways to hold the device, both of which are shown off in these two pictures from the FreeOneHand website that I used with my review of the original unit.  The first position is to slide the knob between your fingers.  The second position is to put your thumb through the holds and grip the knob.  I find myself alternating between both positions.

Here I am using the first position with the new FreeOneHand:

I also like using the FreeOneHand when I am giving a presentation with my iPad or when I am using it in court.  The FreeOneHand gives you a much better grip on your iPad so that it is far less likely to slip out of your hand.

The second generation FreeOneHand has cut-outs to accommodate all of the holes and switches on the iPad 2 and third generation iPad, plus a hole for the camera.  But the best new feature is the collapsible grip.  With a simple push you can make the grip almost completely flat.

My main problem with the first version of the FreeOneHand is that it took up a lot of space when traveling.  The collapsible handle solves this problem completely.  I now keep my iPad in the FreeOneHand almost all of the time, and when I travel back and forth to work I simply collapse the handle and slide it into the Tom Bihn Ristretto bag that I take back and forth to work every day.

One final improvement in the new FreeOneHand is that the knob itself is more rubbery.  Thus, you can use the FreeOneHand to prop up your iPad at an angle on your desk and the more rubbery knob provides enough friction to keep the iPad in place when you tap the screen.  (The prior version would slip.)

The new FreeOneHand works with the Apple Smart Cover.  I usually remove the Smart Cover completely when I am using the FreeOneHand since it just gets in the way of the FreeOneHand, but I like that I can easily attach the Smart Cover to protect the glass on my iPad when I slip it into a briefcase or the Ristretto.

The FreeOneHand is a fabulous device that makes it much easier to hold your iPad in one hand for an extended period of time.  The new collapsible grip is great for when you want to slip your iPad into a briefcase or bag, and allows me to keep the FreeOneHand on my iPad pretty much all the time.  If you like to lean back in a chair or a sofa and hold an iPad with one hand, I suspect that you will love the FreeOneHand as much as I do.

Click here to get FreeOneHand (second generation) ($39.94).

It wasn’t long after I started using an iPad that my wife saw how useful it would be to have her own.  Earlier this year, I upgraded to the third generation iPad, which meant that we became a three iPad household.  Having two children in the house (age four and six) made it easy to decide what to do with the extra iPad.  There are lots of high-quality apps designed especially for young children to help with spelling, math, etc.  Indeed, my son’s school even has an iPad lab that the children use, and the school has a good list of recommended apps.

Although I only let the kids use the iPad when I am around or at least nearby, I was still nervous about letting them handle an iPad that could be broken with just a single drop on the ground, so I’ve always limited them to using the iPad in one spot on carpet or on a bed.  Recently, however, iPad accessory manufacturer X-Doria sent me a free review unit of a product called the Widge.  This $40 product is a protective cover and handle for the iPad 2 and third generation iPad that makes the iPad much more safe for kids.

The unit itself is made of foam rubber and is wrapped around the iPad.  Once inside, the iPad is very sturdy and won’t come out unless you manually take it out.  The website for the product says that it is “squishy.”  I wouldn’t go quite that far because it holds its shape well, which I consider a plus.  But the substance definitely has some give, making it easy to grip and also providing protection for the iPad if it is hit on a side. 

The name “Widge” is a play on the fact that it has a wedge shape.  Thus, this case has a built-in stand that props up the iPad at a slight include, perfect for using an app.  You can also flip it over and prop up the iPad like a screen for watching a video.  Note that you cannot stand up an iPad in a portrait orientation in the Widge, but I saw my son play several games of checkers (a portrait-only game) with the Widge on his lap and he didn’t seem to notice much that the Widge placed the iPad at a slight angle.  To the contrary, I think he liked having something around the iPad that made it easier to hold.

Speaking of holding the iPad, the back of the Widge has a built-in handle.  This provides an extra grip and makes me feel much less nervous to see my child carrying an iPad.

There are holes at all the right spots so that you can charge the iPad when it is in the Widge and so that you can use the camera and hear the speaker.  There is also a hole for the headphone port and the switch on the side.  For the volume buttons and the Sleep/Wake button, the Widge covers those buttons but makes it easy to still use them because of indentations in the foam rubber.

Finally, there is something about the shape or color of the Widge that makes the iPad seem more fun.  My kids both like using the iPad when it is in the Widge, and I feel more at ease with the extra protection.

If you are looking for a way to make your old iPad 2 more kid-friendly (or if you are letting them use a new third generation iPad), the Widge is a great product.

Click here to get the Widge on Amazon ($39.99).

Dallas attorney Tom Mighell wrote iPad in One Hour for Lawyers, a great introduction to the iPad that I reviewed last year.  His follow-up book is iPad Apps in One Hour, a book that describes about 200 apps that are recommended for lawyers who use an iPad.  Mighell gave me a free review copy of the soft cover version of the book, but I see that it is also available on the iBookstore.  True to its name, you can read this entire book in about an hour, and after doing so you will have a good handle on the apps that you can use to make the most of an iPad in your law practice.

After providing some introductory information on getting and using apps, the book is divided into six sections:

1. Apps for getting organized and being productive
2. Documents:  creating and organizing them
3. Apps for the law office
4. News, reading and reference apps
5. Utilities
6. the iPad on the road

In each section, Mighell provides an overview of how you can use an iPad to be more productive and then he describes apps, starting with his recommended apps for each task and then listing other good alternatives.  Each app gets a one-paragraph description, and for many apps there is a screenshot to show you what the app looks like.

Although Mighell gave me the paper version of this book to review, I actually recommend that you get the version on the Apple iBookstore.  That way, when Mighell describes an app and provides a link, you can just tap the link to get the app on your iPad instead of having to search for the app or type a URL.  Also, the iBookstore version of this book is cheaper.  The paper version costs $34.95 when you buy it through the ABA, or costs $19.95 if you are a member of the Law Practice Management section.  The iBooks version of the book costs $17.99 so you save $2 and can download and can start reading the book almost instantly.  Note that this is a traditional iBook; you don’t get the advanced graphics and videos that you get when someone uses the iBooks Author tool, such as the book I reviewed yesterday, Paperless by David Sparks.

iPad Apps in One Hour for Lawyers provides what the title says and is a helpful resource for a lawyer looking for an overview of useful apps.

Click here to get iPad Apps in One Hour for Lawyers from the ABA ($34.95 or $19.95)

Click here to get iPad Apps in One Hour for Lawyers ($17.99): 

In January of this year, Apple introduced iBooks Author, software that allows you to create beautiful and sophisticated books for the Apple iBookstore that can be read on an iPad.  This powerful software lets authors integrate text, pictures, videos and more.  One of the first titles that I have seen that takes advantage of this new publishing system is Paperless, a a $5 book by David Sparks.  Sparks is an attorney in Orange County, CA and he is well known for his MacSparky website and the Mac Power Users podcast that he does with Florida attorney Katie Floyd.  Sparks also wrote iPad at Work, a book I reviewed earlier this year.

Paperless teaches you how to use Apple technology (the Mac and the iPad) to go paperless.  This is a subject that I know a lot about, and when Sparks asked me to edit an early version of the book, I assumed that all I would be doing is checking for typos and offering a few suggestions.  Little did I know that reading the book would teach me so much about a topic that I thought I already knew so well.  The extensive content (over 26,000 words) is incredibly informative.  I don’t even use a Mac at work (I have a Mac at home but use a PC in my office) but I still learned a ton that has already made me more productive working with files on the PC at my desk and I picked up lots of useful tips on making the most of my iPad. 

But the words in this book are only half of the story.  This book takes advantage of the advanced features of iBooks Author, which means that the book is full of well-designed graphics and helpful videos that walk you through the steps described in the book.  It is one thing to read a description of how to do something, but when you watch a video where Sparks walks you through every step of a process, you gain a deep understanding of what you need to do.  It almost seems wrong to call Paperless a “book” because it is so much more than just a collection of text in chapters.

After introductory sections that provide an overview on reducing the paper in your life, Sparks gives specific recommendations on how to capture information in a digital format including suggestions on the best hardware and software to use.  He then gives tips on creating a process to manage digital files.  Another section provides tips on using your paperless documents.

Although Sparks is an attorney, this book is aimed at a general audience.  Nevertheless, the law is definitely a field in which you can become more productive by becoming paperless, especially when you have an iPad.  I suspect that virtually any lawyer would learn a lot from this book that would make them more productive in their practice.

And finally, I must mention that this book was incredibly pleasent to read.  While much of the credit goes to Sparks and his writing style, credit also goes to Apple for making iBooks and the iBooks Author platform so powerful and beautiful.  While reading this book, I often felt like I was seeing the future of publishing.  This book is the poster child for what great iPad publishing can be — incredible design and interactivity.

By self-authoring and producing this book, Sparks cut out the publisher and thus he can make these books incredibly cheap.  It is a steal at $5.  The knowledge you will gain from this book will make much more of an impact on your life than the fancy cup of coffee that costs almost as much.  And apparently I am not the only one to be excited about this book; Paperless has been in the Top 10 of all paid books on the iBookstore almost since the moment that it came out.  It is amusing to see a book about going paperless just a few notches behind the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy that has been dominating the charts.  Perhaps best of all, Paperless is just the first in what will be a series of MacSparky Field Guide books.  I cannot wait to see what David Sparks publishes next.

Click here to get Paperless ($4.99): 

I saw several references on the web this week (such as this one) to a letter that Apple sends new employees when they join the company.  It contains a nice message that could apply to many other professions, including many law firms:  “There’s work and there’s your life’s work.  The kind of work that has your fingerprints all over it.  The kind of work that you’d never compromise on.  That you’d sacrifice a weekend for.  You can do that kind of work at Apple.  People don’t come here to play it safe.  They come here to swim in the deep end.  They want their work to add up to something.  Something big.  Something that couldn’t happen anywhere else.  Welcome to Apple.”  I hope that you find your own work that satisfying.  And now, the news of the week:

• New York attorney Niki Black recommends websites for lawyers who use the iPad in her latest Daily Record article.
• Alan Cohen writes about what the 2012 edition of the iPad means for lawyers in this article for Law Technology News.
• Dallas attorney Tom Mighell reviews VirusBarrier, an app that can scan e-mail attachments to see if they have viruses before you open them.  I’m not aware of any iPad or iPhone viruses so I’m not sure how necessary this app really is.  [UPDATE:  Mighell notes in a comment to this post that even if you can’t get a virus on your iPhone/iPad, this app would help guard against your passing along a virus to a computer by forwarding an e-mail with a virus attached.  I suppose that is something.]
• Apple updated the iOS software to iOS 5.1.1 this week to fix a few bugs.  You can update directly from your iPhone or iPad.  Just open the Settings app and go to General -> Software Update.
• If you missed the Steve Jobs patents exhibit when it was at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in Alexandria, VA last year, Glenn Künzler of MacTrast reports that the exhibit will be at the Smithsonian’s S. Dillon Ripley Center in Washington, D.C. today through July 8.
• I was impressed with PDFpen for iPad when I reviewed it this year.  Brian Beam of Macworld wrote this favorable review.
• Andy Ihnatko of the Chicago Sun Times raves about iPhoto on the iPad, a very impressive app, albeit one with a learning curve.
• Brian Chen of the New York Times writes that Amtrak conductors are starting to use iPhones to check train tickets.
• An iPhone waked into a bar … and performed bar tricks, thanks to several apps reviewed by Bob Tedeschi of the New York Times.
• And finally, Marco Tempast is a magician who has come up with a clever way to combine three iPod touches and slight of hand.  This is really fun.  Check it out:

Around 40,000 people are in New Orleans this week for the International CTIA Wireless convention, the largest meeting of the wireless industry in the world.  Apple itself does not have an official presence at the show (although I’m sure Apple employees are here), but the convention is full of companies that are a part of the iPhone and iPad ecosystem.  I spent some time on the exhibit floor yesterday and saw lots of interesting iPhone accessories.  I also bumped in to the Android robot wearing a pair of Mardi Gras beads.  I didn’t ask the robot what it had to do on Bourbon Street to earn them.

While some of the products I saw are available now, many were brand new with exhibitors looking for distributors.  For example, a company called Perch was looking for distributors for a new product that sits between a wall outlet and your iPhone/iPad plug.  The idea is that you take the device with you when you travel, and if you disconnect your iPhone and don’t disconnect the charger within a period of time, the device chirps to warn you before you forget your charger in your hotel room.

If you are looking for iPhone cases, you’ll all but trip over them at a convention like this, especially if you are looking for something sort of interesting like a skyline on an iPhone case:

And if you are looking for an iPhone case with some “bling” your options at CTIA are endless:

Over the coming weeks, I’ll talk about some of the more interesting iPhone and iPad related products that I had a chance to preview yesterday. 

I’ve recently updated the tools that I use to take handwritten notes on my iPad.  First, I updated my hardware; I now use the Wacom Bamboo Stylus that I reviewed two days ago.  Second, I updated the software that I use on my iPad.  For a long time I had been using Note Taker HD.  It is a powerful app but has a confusing interface and it lacks one feature that I found in another great app Notes Plus, the ability to see your prior writings in a magnification window (I’ll explain what I mean by that in a moment), but Notes Plus lacked the speed of Note Taker HD.  And then there is Noteshelf, an app that has a beautiful interface but isn’t quite as powerful as those other two.  For a few weeks now I’ve been using another note-taking app called GoodNotes.  GoodNotes is a $3.99 app (the developer sent me a free version to review) that includes the best of all of the features that I loved in Note Taker HD, Notes Plus and Noteshelf.

[For an update to this review, see this post from July 16, 2012.]

Interface

GoodNotes has a nice interface that is easy to use.  You take notes in notebooks (which can contain as many pages as you want).  You can create covers for notebooks if you want.  You can organize notebooks into folders, and you view the notebooks in each folder on a series of shelves that mimics the iBooks interface.

Viewing a Notebook

Once you tap on a notebook, you can view the pages.  Just swipe left and right to move between pages and pinch to zoom.

The button at the top right allows you to take notes on a page using, for example, the pen tool.  The button at the top left shows you the different pages in the notebook and gives you a link to return to the main library. 

From here you can rearrange pages, delete pages, copy and paste pages, export individual pages from a notebook, etc.

Pen, Highlighter and Eraser

You have a choice of three pens.  First, you have a thick highlighter with two different pen sizes and five different colors.  When you highlight text, the text underneath the highlighting stays dark — unlike some apps that make the underlying text hard to read when you add highlighting.  Second, you have a pen with three different tip sizes and ten different colors.  Third, you have an eraser.

Magnified Input Field

All good iPad note-taking apps include a magnified input field so that you can write in a large window at the bottom of the app and have the text appear smaller on the page itself.  This is the only way to get a large number of words on an iPad page because the iPad cannot recognize input that is as small as the tip of a real pen.  Apps like Note Taker HD and Notes Plus notice when you are getting to the end of the magnified input window and let you continue writing in the left portion of the window.  In Note Taker HD, however, it is tough to know exactly where you need to start writing again.  Notes Plus solves this by showing you the text you have already written in that left portion of the magnified window so that you can see exactly where to place the next letter.  GoodNotes works the same way and it works great.  Better yet, the text input is very fast even when in the magnified window mode, just like Note Taker HD, and unlike Notes Plus which I find to have a slight lag.

You can change the magnification in this input field by pinching inside of the magnification window, making it easy to add the small print that some lawyers are famous for.  You can also adjust the side margin so that when you get to the end of one line, you don’t start all the way at the edge of the page.  (In the pictures above, that dotted blue line represents the left margin that I created.)

Select and Move Text

Sometimes you write something, and then you realize that you want to put something else just before it.  Thus, it is nice to be able to select something that you have written and move it around.  GoodNotes has the best feature that I’ve seen for this.  Just tap the selection tool (right next to the eraser) and circle some text.  (If you select any part of a pen stroke, the entire pen stroke is selected, even parts that fall out of the circle.)  Then you simply drag the text to some other location.

Add Typed Text

Sometimes you want to type something on a page instead of writing with a stylus (or your finger).  You can create a text input box by tapping two fingers at the same time on the screen.  Depending upon how far apart your fingers are, that is the size of the text input box.  You can then type using the keyboard, or paste text that you have copied from some other app, or dictate text if you have a third generation iPad.

Import and Annotate Files

You can import files into GoodNotes a number of different ways.  For example, the app lets you import a picture from your Photos library (or take a picture using the iPad’s camera) and then you can use the tools to annotate a photograph.  (Read this post from a year ago to understand why this can be incredibly useful in a deposition.)  In addition to using a picture as your entire page, you can also insert a picture into a page and then resize it to make it take up as much of the page as you want.

You can also use the “Open in…” menu to open a file such as a PDF file from an e-mail.  Or, from within GoodNotes, you can import a file from Dropbox or Box.net.  I have found this to be very handy when a colleague sends me a PDF file and I want to annotate it.  Using the pen and highlighter, I can circle things, draw in the margins, highlight text and then e-mail back the annotated file when I am done.

You can also import a file and then use it as a template for future notebooks.  GoodNotes comes with several notebook templates including a blank page, a page with lines on it, a page with a grid (like graph paper) and even a page with music staffs.  But you can create any other background on your computer and then use it as a basis for a new template.  For example, I thought it might be nice to have lined paper that also had a dotted red line on sides to create a left and right margin, so I took the built-in template with lines (called “Ruled Paper”) and then used a PDF program on my computer to draw two dotted lines.  I sent that file back to GoodNotes and made it my new default template:

Conclusion

GoodNotes does not have every feature of those other apps I mentioned.  For exaple, unlike Notes Plus, it cannot convert handwriting into text or create perfect circles and squares.  In fact, unlike many other apps, GoodNotes cannot insert shapes at all (although the developer says that this is planned for a future release).  But when it comes to the features that I find most useful in other apps when taking notes, GoodNotes has them all, and the app itself is very fast to use.  And while there is always tension between ease of use and features, I find that GoodNotes strikes the right balance, packing a lot of capability into a good looking and relatively intuitive interface. 

If you want to take handwritten notes on your iPad, I highly recommend that you get yourself a stylus and download a copy of GoodNotes.  This is an excellent app that has quickly become one of the most-used apps on my iPad.  If you want to try before you buy, there is a free version of the app that limits you to two notebooks, a limitation that can be removed with a $3.99 in-app purchase.

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): 

I’ve recently been testing out two styluses that have tips different from all of the other styluses on the market.  Yesterday I reviewed the Wacom Bamboo Stylus, a product that is unique for its smaller tip which allows for more precise drawing on the iPad screen.  Today I’m reviewing a stylus released by BoxWave just a few weeks ago called the EverTouch Capacitive Stylus that has a unique fabric mesh tip.  BoxWave sent me a free review unit of this $15 stylus, and it works great.

The stylus itself is 5" long, a good length for a stylus and about .25" longer than the Bamboo Stylus I reviewed yesterday.  The aluminum barrel of the stylus is hollow, which makes the stylus slightly lighter than some other great styluses such as the Bamboo Stylus and the Kensington Virtuoso Touch Screen Stylus (which I reviewed on 3/30/11).  I prefer a slightly heavier stylus, so I don’t like the fact that the EverTouch has a lighter, cheaper feel to it.

I have the silver model, but it also comes in black, orange, red and blue.

The marquee feature of this stylus is the tip, so let’s talk about that.  Unlike most other styluses which have a rubber tip, the EverTouch has a tip constructed of soft but durable tightly woven conductive fibers.  Boxwave calls it FiberMesh^TM and says it is a “breakthrough in stylus technology” that “is precisely engineered with an extremely soft yet durable conductive woven fiber.”  It feels almost like a Q-tip.  This results in a tip that is much smoother than a rubber tip, making the stylus glide across the iPad screen.  It is clear that a lot of thought went into this design, and I really like the way that it feels on the screen.

For writing or drawing, a rubber tip seems to me somewhat more precise — especially the Wacom Bamboo with its smaller tip.  But there is something very appealing about the way that the EverTouch glides across the screen with much less drag than a stylus with a rubber tip.  After you use an EverTouch for a while and then go back to a regular stylus with a rubber tip, you can really feel the difference in friction. 

I mentioned yesterday that while the Bamboo Stylus is fantastic for drawing, the small tip is awkward for other tasks on the iPad such as flicking through screens or pages.  On these tasks, the EverTouch excels because it feels so good against the iPad screen.  And if you are taking notes with the EverTouch, although it seems less precise, the reduced drag does seem to reduce hand fatigue somewhat if you are writing for a long time.

BoxWave claims that another advantage of the woven fiber tip will last much longer than any stylus with a rubber tip.  I can’t comment much on that after just a few weeks, but the tip certainly seems much more durable than soft rubber that can tear or wear down with use.

The EverTouch has a clip on the end and comes with three lanyards.  First, there is a 2" lanyard that attaches to the headphone jack of the iPad (or iPhone).  Second, there is a 12" lanyard with an elastic coil that also attaches to the headphone jack. Because of the elastic coil, you could actually use the stylus while it is still attached to your headphone jack, although that seems a little awkward to me.  Third, there is a 2" lanyard with a ring that can attach to something like a key chain. 

I’ve never really understood the appeal of these sorts of stylus attachments.  Are you really going to let a stylus just dangle from your iPad?  I’d rather just use a standard pen-style clip to put a stylus in a pocket of my shirt or a briefcase.  Having said that, I’ve seen other lawyers use attachments like this with a stylus, so I suppose there is some demand for it. 

If you are looking for an alternative to a stylus with a standard rubber tip, the EverTouch is definitely worth checking out because of the unique and appealing way that the fabric mesh glides across the screen.

Click here to get the BoxWave EverTouch Capactive Stylus on Amazon ($15.00)