If you want to be one of the first to start using an Apple Watch, Apple will start accepting pre-orders tonight — or rather, early tomorrow morning to be more exact. Starting at 12:01 a.m. Pacific / 3:01 a.m. Eastern on April 10, you can pre-order an Apple Watch on the online Apple Store. And starting tomorrow morning, you can go to an Apple Store and take a look at the watch yourself. The Apple Watch will not ship for another two weeks (you will be able to buy them in the Apple Stores starting on April 24), but my guess is that the initial supplies will be constrained, so if you want to be one of the first to start using an Apple Watch, plan to stay up late tonight, or set an alarm.
Early last week, Apple gave Apple Watch review units to a small number of journalists, and all of their reviews were posted online yesterday morning. Raymond Wong of Mashable posted this article with links to all of the reviews. Overall, the reviews are positive but mixed. All of the reviewers agree that the Apple Watch is far, far better than any other smartwatch on the market. Most agree that the Apple Watch can not just show you the time but can also save you time by moving notifications from an iPhone that you have to take out of your pocket or purse to a device on your wrist that you can quickly glance at. But some reviewers worry about this being a 1.0 product and recommend waiting to see what Apple does in the next version of the Apple Watch. If you just want to read a few Apple Watch reviews, I recommend that you read this one by David Pogue of Yahoo Tech, the reviews by Joanna Stern and Geoffrey Fowler of the Wall Street Journal, and the review by Nilay Patel of The Verge. The embedded videos in those reviews are definitely worth watching.
If you decide that you want to be one of the first to try this new technology, the least expensive model, the Apple Watch Sport, costs $349 for the 38mm model or $399 for the 42mm model. The standard Apple Watch model starts at $549/$599 and goes up to $1049/$1099 depending upon which band you get. And if you are in the market for the high-end 18-karat gold Apple Watch Edition, which starts at $10,000, feel free to buy a second one to send to me so that I can post a review on iPhone J.D., tapping into my vast experience of reviewing high-end luxury goods.
I am thrilled to welcome JetPens as a new sponsor of iPhone J.D. JetPens is an online store that sells high-quality pens and other writing instruments and associated stationery products. A big part of my life may be paperless and digital, and I frequently take handwritten notes on my iPad using a stylus, but that doesn’t mean that I have stopped using a pen and paper. In many circumstances — such as when I am in court, taking a deposition, or in some meetings — pens and paper are still the best tool for the job. Ever since I discovered JetPens last year (and long before JetPens and I discussed this sponsorship), JetPens has been my go-to place for ordering excellent pens.
JetPens was started in 2004 by three Stanford students who wanted to use the high-quality pens made in Japan but had trouble finding them in the U.S. Over ten years later, you can now find an amazing collection of pens on the JetPens website, including many excellent and inexpensive pens that you cannot find easily anywhere else — ballpoint, roller ball, gel ink, fountain pens, etc. And the site makes it easy and fun to discover new types of pens because of the numerous guides published on the website. For example, a few weeks ago, the site published an extensive guide to finding the best paper to use with a fountain pen. Last year, the site featured an extensive guide to finding the best felt tip pen.
My personal preference is for an inexpensive pen (since I tend to lose them) that has dark ink. After exploring the JenPens website, I learned that to get that result, I needed a gel ink pen with a larger tip. I considered the well-regarded Pilot Hi-Tec-C and the Uni-ball Signo line, but ultimately found the JetPens comprehensive guide to the Zebra Sarasa line of pens. There are seven pens in that family, each with a multitude of tips, clips and features. After reading the guide, I decided that the best one for me was the Push Clip model:
I bought a bunch of them in the 0.7 mm size, and that is the size that I like the best. (I also tried the 0.5 mm size, but the lines that it drew are a little too fine for my tastes.) The smooth ink looks fantastic, the pen feels great in my hand, and the spring-loaded clip works great. This pen is simply a joy to use.
I also purchased some in the 1.0 mm size. That size is a little too large for my tastes for taking notes, but it is nice when I want my ink to be just slightly larger and bolder, such as when I am signing my name or making a list.
You can order the Zebra Sarasa Push Clip in 20 different colors. (And the other varieties in the Sarasa line come in even more colors.) I also ordered some red and blue pens, and while I tried some of them in the 0.7 mm size, I prefer to use those in the 1.0 mm size, the reason being that while I take notes in black ink, I use red or blue when I am writing on and around text that is typically printed in black, and when I am doing so I want my writing (such as my edits) to be larger and bolder. Sometimes I use the blue pen to sign my name, and again I think that the 1.0 mm size looks better for that.
As much as I love and value these pens, they are a steal at only $2.20 each. That means that you can buy a whole bunch of them — keep some in your desk, some in your briefcase, some at home, etc. — and it is not the end of the world if you lose one or if someone else “borrows” one. You can also order refills for only $1.35 each.
But I don’t want this post to just be about the Zebra Sarasa pens. JetPens sells lots and lots of other pens, so depending upon your own personal taste and style, you’ll find exactly the right pen for you. For example, the folks at JetPens told me that iPhone J.D. readers might also be interested in the Uni-ball Signo 207 BLX, which contains archival quality, fraud-proof ink in unique off-black colors; the Uni Jetstream Rubber Body Ballpoint, a smooth and comfortable ballpoint pen with water and fade-resistant ink; and the Ohto Graphic Liner, which features archival quality ink and a sturdy metal tip that won’t wear down with heavy use.
And not only does JetPens offer an incredible selection of the best pens, JetPens also has a great selection of pencils, markers, and office accessories from around the world. Perhaps you want durable bag organizers with various pockets and compartments to hold tablets, notebooks, and more; or convenient index tab stickers perfect for marking documents without looking crooked or worn; or innovative highlighters that are capable of three highlighting functions in one unique tip design.
JetPens was nice enough to put together a special offer for iPhone J.D. readers. During April of 2015, if you click this link and make a purchase of over $35.00, JetPens will include a free Zebra Sarasa Push Clip Gel Ink Pen (0.7 mm, black), the pen that I love to use so much, so that you can try it out yourself. So even if you just get some office supplies, you can try out a Sarasa pen for free and see what you think, and then if you like it as much as I do you can go back and order a bunch more. Complete details of the offer are available when you click that link.
If you are reader of iPhone J.D., then you are most likely (1) an attorney or other professional who uses pens every day and (2) someone who appreciates high-quality products. JetPens is perfect for people like us. I encourage you to have fun exploring the JetPens website and treat yourself to some of their great products. And thanks again to JetPens for sponsoring iPhone J.D. this month.
My wife and I both like to take pictures, both with an iPhone and a Nikon DSLR camera. Although I use a PC at work, I use a Mac at home, and there is where I store our almost 40,000 photos. I only sync a portion of those photos to my iPad and iPhone, but I like the idea of making all of my photos available on my iPad and iPhone for those times when I want to see and/or share a photo from years ago. That is one of the features (the iCloud Photo Library) of Apple’s replacement for iPhoto, a program called Photos. Apple has a page of its website devoted to the upcoming Photos software, which Apple says is “coming this spring.” While iPhoto isn’t the only photo-related software I use on my Mac — for example, I also use Photoshop Elements and GraphicConverter — it is the place where I store and perform simple edits on every single one of my pictures so I consider it a pretty big deal for Apple to replace iPhoto with something new. I’ve been very curious about how Photos will work. A few days ago, Jason Snell (who was the lead editor of Macworld for more than a decade who now runs the great site Six Colors) released a $10 digital book on Photos called Photos for Mac: A Take Control Crash Course. I purchased a copy to check it out.
This is the first time that I have purchased an incomplete book. [UPDATE: Snell tweets that rather than viewing this as an incomplete book, “I prefer to think of this as a pre-order where you get the first half of the book now. But either way…”] Because Photos is not officially out yet, the version of the book that Snell released last week only contains some of the chapters from the final book, chapters that discuss things like how to import an iPhoto library into Photos, the interface of Photos, using albums and smart albums and coping with the lack of Events in iPhoto, etc. But the book does not yet include chapters on using the iCloud Photo Library, editing pictures in Photos, sharing pictures, creating projects, etc. You can buy a copy of the 30 page book now, and then you will be able download the additional approximately 30 pages when Apple releases a final version of Photos and the rest of the book is finished. [UPDATE 5/22/2015: The full book (Version 1.1) was released on May 22, 2015.]
I enjoyed reading this book. Jason Snell is one of the best in the industry when it comes to explaining how to do something on a Mac. He is also incredibly knowledgeable on the subject of working with photos, and fortunately knows how to explain complex concepts clearly. If you want to get a sense of Snell’s writing style on this particular subject, he wrote a an article with his initial impressions on Photos for Mac back in February for TidBITS. In addition to the text being informative and entertaining, the layout of this book is excellent (which has been my experience with all of the Take Control series of ebooks). There are tons of pictures and sidebar entries, and when there is a picture associated with something in the text, you see a number in a circle in the text, which corresponds to the picture with the same number in a circle next to it.
My only complaint about this book is that I found myself wanting more — which I suppose was inevitable because this is an incomplete book. The chapters that I am most interested in reading (such as the chapter on the iCloud Photo Library that I can use to make my entire photo album available to my iPhone and iPad, and the new features for editing pictures) are the very chapters that won’t be released until the Photos software is final. I hope that the chapter on the iCloud Photo Library includes both Mac and iPhone/iPad tips.
When you purchase this book, you can download it in PDF format (what I used), plus other formats like EPUB and Mobipocket. I read the PDF file in the GoodReader app on my iPad, which worked great.
It was nice to be able to start to read some of this book even before Photos for Mac is released. I look forward to reading the rest of the book to learn more about how to get the most out of the Photos app on my Mac. You can click here to view a free sample of the book, and if you like what you can see, click below to get the book for only $10.
A lot has changed at Apple since Steve Jobs was running the company, and as successful as the company was under Jobs, I think it is doing even better under Tim Cook. It seems that Cook kept all that was good about Apple while introducing welcome changes such as more openness, more support for charities (including matching employee contributions), and most recently taking a stand against discrimination, such as the law recently enacted in Indiana, on which Cook wrote a powerful editorial in The Washington Post this week. It is worth reading, and it is interesting to see Apple take a public stand on social issues. And now, the other news of note from the past week:
South Carolina attorney Bill Latham of The Hytech Lawyer has published his Summer 2015 list of useful iPad apps for attorneys. His list includes a bunch of great apps that I use all the time in my law practice.
Toronto attorney Phil Brown shares his thoughts for getting the most out of ABA TECHSHOW. Worth reading if you are headed to the conference in Chicago in a few weeks.
Normally it is a very bad thing when someone steals your iPhone. But Matt Stopera of BuzzFeed had his iPhone stolen when he was in a bar in New York in 2014, and a year later he learned that someone in China was using it. He posted about it, and his story ended up going viral in China. Stopera and the new owner of his iPhone started chatting, and then Stopera flew to China to visit the man and get his iPhone back — with Stopera learning that he became a minor celebrity in China. Stopera wrote this article describing the whole situation, and while his story is rather long, it is a nice story of how something that started out bad ended up very positive.
HBO’s CEO Richard Piepler revealed in an interview with CNBC that 60% of viewers of HBO-GO use an Apple device.
Joseph Keller of iMore reports that Lisa Jackson, Apple’s VP of Environmental Initiatives (and former head of the EPA) talked about Apple’s impact on the environment in a conference sponsored by the Wall Street Journal.
The fantastic 1Password app was updated again this week. Federico Viticci of MacStories writes about the new features. But he doesn’t mention my favorite new feature. You can now tap a password and have the app display the password in a very large font. This is great because, in those rare instances where a website doesn’t let 1Password on my computer enter the password automatically, I can just look at the password on my iPhone, and this feature makes the password large and very easy to see, making it easier to type even a long and complicated password. I just cannot say enough good things about 1Password.
The Apple Watch won’t be in stores until April 24, but Juli clover of MacRumors reports that the App Store is already starting to include iPhone apps that include the ability to install apps on an Apple Watch.
The SnapPower Charger looks like an interesting KickStarter project. Just replace the faceplate on your outlet — no rewiring required, and in the video it takes just a few seconds — and the SnapPower Charger draws power from the screws in your outlet to give you a 1 Amp USB power port (suitable for charging an iPhone, or slowly charging an iPad) without getting in the way of the two outlets. Only $14.
And finally, amid rumors that Apple is working on an electric car, Tesla has announced that it is working on its answer to the Apple Watch, the Tesla Model W. Oh, did I mention that they made this announcement on April 1st? Click here for all of the details of this revolutionary device.
Late last year, I purchased an app called Workflow just as soon as it came out. I wasn’t really sure what to do with it, but the idea sounded interesting: an app that lets you automate certain tasks on the iPhone. But after poking around the app a little, it seemed a little complicated and I wasn’t exactly sure what I might do with it, so I never really started to use it in earnest, and thus never talked about it on iPhone J.D. Then a few weeks ago, California attorney David Sparks released a video tutorial — Sparks calls it a video field guide — explaining exactly how the app works and what you can do with it. Sparks was nice enough to send me a free copy of his Workflow Video Field Guide for review purposes, which was nice because I was actually about to buy a copy anyway (it is only $9.99) to see if this video would help me to figure out exactly what the Workflow app is all about. I had high hopes for the video field guide because Sparks has done such a great job with his prior e-book field guides (e.g. Paperless, Email, Presentations, and his prior book iPad at Work), but even though I expected something really special, this video tutorial is excellent so I was not disappointed.
The Workflow app lets you combine tasks done by different apps and do them all at once, making you more efficient on your iPhone (and iPad). For example, you can create at workflow that lets you press one button and then the app figures out how far you are from home, determines how long it will take you to drive home from where you are, and sends a text and/or email to multiple recipients to say what time you are expected to arrive. Another workflow lets you press one button and have your iPhone take a series of photographs and then stitch them together into an animated GIF and then post that GIF on Twitter.
In this video, Sparks walks you through every step of creating a complicated workflow, sometimes starting by downloading one of the many (free) downloadable workflows and then modifying it, other times by creating a workflow from scratch. By the time I finished watching the one hour video, I finally felt like I understood how the Workflow app works and how I can integrate it into my life.
For example, I’ve long wanted to stop saving paper receipts and instead save them electronically, but I never thought it was worth the hassle of setting up a system. This video field guide helped me to create my own workflow (it just took a few minutes to create) in which I press one button and my iPhone asks me to enter one string of text — the name of a vendor, restaurant, etc. Then the iPhone turns on the camera and waits for me to take a picture of a receipt, then the app converts the picture into PDF format (my preferred format for saving documents), then the app creates a title for the PDF file in the format of the date plus the text I entered (such as “2015-03-30 – Commander’s Palace”), and then the app saves the PDF file into a folder of my Dropbox called Receipts. So all I need to do is press a button and enter a word or two, and the app does everything else automatically, and I don’t have to save the paper receipt. If I ever need the receipt in the future, all receipts are stored by date in that one folder in my Dropbox, which I can access from any computer, iPhone, iPad, etc. And best of all, because the workflow is right there on my iPhone, I can image the receipt immediately after I receive the receipt and before I forget about it, and then I no longer need to think about it again — much better than other systems that require me to bring the receipt home and then find time to remember to scan a bunch of receipts and make sure that each has the right date.
That’s just one workflow that appeals to me. Maybe that one doesn’t appeal to you. But by devoting just an hour of your time to this video, you’re sure to come up with ideas for lots of other tasks that you can do more efficiently with the Workflow app.
I realize that the Workflow app is geeky and not for everyone. But if you think that the app might be for you, you can watch the first 11 minutes of the Workflow Video Field Guide for free by clicking here. That preview is more than long enough to demonstrate the high quality of the video tutorial that Sparks has created. If you like the first 11 minutes, I encourage you to buy the full video and then find an hour one night — or maybe even find some time while having lunch in your office — to watch the full video and learn all about Workflow. It’s a fascinating app, and an excellent video.
This past weekend, the ABA Journal sponsored its second Hackcess to Justice legal hackathon, where attorneys and programmers worked all weekend to create apps that help lawyers and increase the ability of individuals to gain access to legal services. This year the event was in my hometown of New Orleans, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to go. Victor Li of ABA Journal describes the winning apps. The first prize went to an app called Legal Proof that helps an attorney or a client collect and organize evidence. Second prize went to New Orleans attorney Ernest Svenson and Massachusetts attorney William Palin for their PaperLess app. Read the ABA Journal article to find out about the other best entrants. It is great to see that there is still so much creativity in the field of law-related apps. And now, the news of note from the past week:
Fantastical is my favorite calendar app for the iPhone and iPad. This week, the company released a Mac version, and California attorney really likes it for the reasons he explained in this review of Fantastical 2 for Mac.
Charlotte Jee of Computerworld UK reports that all 650 British Members of Parliament are all getting an iPad Air 2 and a laptop when they begin to serve in May. The program will cost £200,000 a year, but it is estimated to save £3 million a year by getting MPs and staff to read and annotate electronically instead of printing hard copies.
Jim Schoettler of the Florida Times-Union reports that a Jacksonville attorney was arrested this week for smuggling an iPhone 6, phone charger and Bluetooth headset to his client in the Seminole County Detention Center. I’m a big fan of attorneys and their clients using iPhones, but this went a little too far.
Adam Lashinsky of Fortune wrote an interesting profile of Apple CEO Tim Cook, in connection with Fotune naming Cook #1 on its list of the world’s 50 great leaders.
Apple recently showed off to Good Morning America its previously unseen by the public health and fitness lab, being used to improve the Apple Watch. You can watch the report here.
And finally, do you find it annoying that every time you throw your iPhone to the ground and then drop a 50 pound safe on it, the iPhone breaks? Well then you need a rugged case made to stand up to insane abuse. Justin Johnson and Eric Beck of Wired torture-test four rugged iPhone cases and declare a clear winner in this video. Warning — do NOT try this at home:
Last week, a federal appellate court ruled that two law firms missed an appeal deadline in a $40 million case notwithstanding the defense that the law firms were misled by a notice of electronic filing email sent by the trial court. The decision has been the subject of quite a few news articles (such as this one in the ABA Journal) and for good reason — there is a lesson to be learned here, and attorneys who use an iPhone or other mobile device ought to know about this opinion. The decision is Two-Way Media LLC v. AT&T, Inc., No. 2014-1302 (Fed. Cir. March 19, 2015). You can get a PDF version of the opinion here, or you can read the opinion for free on Google Scholar here.
In that case, AT&T lost a jury trial and then filed, under seal, motions for a renewed Judgment as a Matter of Law or a new trial. The trial court issued orders denying the motions and entered a final judgment, which caused appeal delays to start running. However, the notice of electronic filing email that linked to the orders stated that the orders granted the motions to file under seal, without indicating that the orders also denied the relief sought in the motions. AT&T’s attorneys say that they did not discover this until after the appeal deadlines had already run, but on appeal, in a 2-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that it was too late and that the trial court correctly denied the defendant’s motion to extend or reopen the appeal period.
You can read the decision to learn why the court ruled, and you can read the dissent to get the opposing view. Reasonable minds can differ on whether the majority opinion or dissent reached the correct result. But in light of this decision, the lesson for lawyers is that you should not trust the wording in those notice of electronic filing emails that attorneys who practice in federal courts (and attorneys who practice in state courts that use electronic filing) get all of the time. Instead, you need to actually click the links to see what the documents say.
It seems to me the iPhone has the potential to make this situation worse, or make it better, depending upon how you use your iPhone. The danger is that many people (myself included) use the Mail app on the iPhone to triage important emails, taking a quick look at everything as it comes in so that the urgent stuff can be dealt with right away and the rest can be handled when you return to the computer in your office. I can certainly see someone reading the description in a notice of electronic filing on an iPhone, decide that the order does not require further attention, and then move on. And then later in the office, if the message is already marked read, I can see the attorney assuming that he has already dealt with the email and doesn’t need to deal with it again. I don’t know whether that was how it happened here — the opinion merely mentions that the notice of electronic filing was emailed to 18 attorneys for the defendant at two different law firms, without mentioning how those attorneys received and read the email. But it certainly wouldn’t surprise me if at least one of those 18 attorneys first read the email on an iPhone or other smartphone.
But the iPhone also has the potential to help you avoid what happened to the defense lawyers in that case. First, you could always mark notice of electronic filing emails unread after you first look at then on your iPhone so that they will still be unread when you return to your computer and you will remember to look at the email again and download the document.
Second, you can make it a practice to always look at the actual documents on your iPhone (or iPad) when you receive the notice of electronic filing email and not just trust the label in the email. Federal court ECF links can be opened on an iPhone (and iPad), so when you get that email with the notice of electronic filing, instead of just reading the label given to the document, you can also click on the document link and read the actual document on your iPhone. Then you can see exactly what the document says. There is, however, a downside to doing this. Once you have viewed a file once using your ECF link, the next time that you try to open the document, you’ll get an error message that your free view of the document has already been used, and thus you will have to go to PACER and pay to download the document to read it again. Fortunately, there are ways that you can avoid having to pay for the document to view it again. Here are two suggestions.
First, when you are viewing the document on your iPhone, save the document. There are a few ways to do this, but one easy one is to tap the icon in the middle of the bottom of the screen (the box with the arrow), and then tap on the Mail app icon. This will create a new email with the PDF file attached. You can just email it to yourself, your assistant, or whoever so that you can look at the PDF file again in the future, save it in your document management system, etc.
Second, I know that at least some federal courts let you have more than one email address associated with your account when you register for electronic filing. You can add your secretary’s email address, or you can add an alternative email address for yourself. My secondary email address is my Gmail account, so if I ever use up my free view when a notice is sent to my primary email, I can always find the notice that was emailed to my Gmail account and use that ECF link to view the file again. For example, here is the form for the Eastern District of Louisiana which gives you the option to designate a second email address:
I’m sure that there are other solutions that work just as well. The key, however, is for you to come up with your own method of dealing with notice of electronic filing emails on your iPhone or other mobile devices. In light of the Two-Way Media decision, it is important that your plan for dealing with these emails includes a way to read the actual document at some point, whether it be instantly on your iPhone or iPad or later on your computer.
A calculator may not seem like a very important app to buy for your iPhone. After all, the iPhone has a built-in calculator that is easily accessible by swiping up from the bottom of any screen. Also, I often find that the fastest way to do simple calculations is to hold down my home button to activate Siri and then ask something like “what is 93 divided by 6.” But Calcbot, which was updated just a few weeks ago to version 2, is worth looking at. There is a free version so that you can get a feel for the app, but you’ll want to spend $1.99 in the app to upgrade to the Pro features to get the full value from this app. It is certainly worth two bucks. Here is why.
A great calculator
Of course, Calcbot is calculator. Fortunately, it is a great calculator. What sets it apart from the iPhone’s built-in calculator is the way that it shows your work and gives you an answer faster than other calculators. Let’s say that you want to add 75 and 45. First tap 75, then tap the + key, and then as you type 45 — even before you hit the equal key — you already see the result (120). This is not how calculators normally work; normally you see the number that you are typing. But in Calcbot, what you are typing goes into the equation, in a small font just below the answer. In this way, you can see your work, and as you continue to add, subtract, multiply or divide other numbers your equation gets longer, but you always see the current result based on the numbers you have typed so far. Once you get used to the way that Calcbot works, it is a much better approach than what you get on other calculators because you see the answer more quickly and you always see all of the numbers that got you to that answer.
When you are done, tap the equal key, and this does two things. First, it adds the equation to the tape of prior calculations. Second, it gives you the ability to hold a finger on the result to copy it so that you an paste it elsewhere on your iPhone.
A really like the tape function of Calcbot. For each prior entry, you can see both the prior equations and the prior answers. The free version of the app limits you to the past 10 records; when you pay $1.99 to upgrade to Pro you have an unlimited history tape.
Tap on any prior calculation and you can either use the result (the final number), use the expression (bring the equation back so that you can do even more calculations), copy the answer, or send as an email the entire equation plus the answer. And if you want to see more than the last two entries in the tape, just swipe down from the top of the screen to see the full history.
When you are looking an entries in the tape, you can tap a star next to any of them to make it a favorite. That way, in the future, you can tap on the star button on the calculator to see prior results that you have made a favorite. It is like the memory function on a typical calculator, except that you typically get only one number in memory (and you have to remember what it is), whereas in Calcbot you can have lots of numbers in memory and you can see what each of them is and select just the one that you want.
If you turn your iPhone to landscape orientation, you get scientific functions. That’s not something that I ever use as a lawyer or in my every day life — I don’t think that I have used the sine or cosine function since high school — but if you want it, there it is.
Unit Conversion
Calcbot is a fantastic calculator, but that is only half of what it does. After you spend $1.99 to upgrade to the Pro version, you gain access to the other half of the app: unit conversion. Swipe your finger across the main part of the app (where the numbers appear) to switch to unit conversion mode. For example, type the number 78 and then swipe from left to right to change to unit conversion mode. You will then see icons representing different units. If you are in the currency mode, the app can tell you, for example, that $78 in U.S. currency is currently equal to €71.94. Swipe up and down to change the currency you are converting from and you are converting to. Or swipe up and down on the icons on the left to change to other categories such as weather (e.g. Fahrenheit to Celsius), weight (e.g. ounce to gallon), area (e.g. acre to square mile), etc. Just about any type of unit conversion that you might want to do is just a few swipes away.
Etc.
The app has some other features that you might find useful. Although I like the default theme, you can change it if you want. When you upgrade to Pro you can select the Pro theme, or you can purchase optional theme packs.
Although I normally keep the sounds off for virtually every app on my iPhone, Calcbot is one of the very rare apps that I permit to make noise, because the sounds provide feedback as you are entering numbers and getting results, and the sounds used by the app are noticeable but not obnoxious.
You can also clear your history tape or send the entire history tape as an email. And if you are dealing with currency you can opt to have all of your calculations rounded off to two decimal places.
All of these are minor but nice touches that make it that much better of an app overall.
iPad version
This is a universal app, so it also works on the iPad — useful because the iPad, unlike the iPhone, doesn’t come with a built-in calculator. Although I do like Calcbot on the iPad, especially all of the advanced features that I mentioned above, I typically use my iPad in landscape orientation, and I don’t like that this means that I always see those scientific function buttons, buttons that I never use.
I wish instead there were an option to just display larger keys. For example, I am a big fan the large iPad buttons in the Digits app.
Having said that, one thing that is really nice about the iPad app is that both the iPhone and iPad apps share and sync the history tape. Thus, if you want to revisit a calculation from the past, you don’t have to worry about remembering whether you did it on the iPhone or the iPad; it’s there in both apps.
Conclusion
Given the iPhone’s built-in calculator and the usefulness of Siri, a calculator app needs to do something really special to be worth recommending. But Calcbot is special, and I definitely recommend it, especially on the iPhone. The calculator function is a big improvement over the built-in calculator app, the unit conversions are incredibly useful, and the other features add to the value of the app. This one is worth checking out.
Click here to get Calcbot (free, but $1.99 for Pro version):
In 2012, the ABA adopted Comment 8 to Rule 1.1 of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct stating that lawyers have a duty to be competent in technology. Massachusetts lawyer Bob Ambrogi reports that 13 states have adopted this duty of technical competence. But of course, if you care enough about technology to be a reader of iPhone J.D., then I suspect that you are more than fulfilling this ethical duty.
California attorney David Sparks discusses Ulysses, a writing app for the iPad.
Next month at ABA TECHSHOW, one of the sessions I will be presenting on April 16 is called iUse Microsoft Office on My iPad. Yesterday, the TECHSHOW blog posted an excerpt of the materials that I wrote for that session if you want a small sample of what I will be discussing.
ResearchKit is Apple’s new platform that lets the iPhone and Apple Watch be used to facilitate medical research. Daniela Hernandez has an article in Fusion describing the origin of ResearchKit.
Speaking of health, law professor (and iPhone enthusiast) Nick Terry asked me to announce that he and Professor Frank Pasquale started a new podcast called This Week in Health Law.
Neil Hughes of AppleInsider reports that yesterday Apple (AAPL) replaced AT&T as a member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Want to learn all about the Apple Watch? There are good overviews of just about everything that is known about the Apple Watch over at Six Colors and at iMore.
Want to learn how Apple makes the Apple Watch? I strongly recommend that you read this analysis by Greg Koenig, a product designer in Oregon. It’s a great read.
Want to print out a paper Apple Watch to see how the different sizes and bands fit on your arm? Then check out this page on the ExactFitness website.
Want to make your own Apple Watch? Chris McVeigh has created instructions (PDF file) for making your own Apple Watch out of Legos.
If you own an Apple TV, then you should read this article by Rene Ritchie at iMore with tips on using the Apple Remote with the Apple TV. There are some great button combinations in this article that I didn’t know about.
The GoodReader app is one of the most frequently used apps on my iPad because it has such great tools for organizing my documents, syncing them to my computers, and annotating PDF files. And perhaps best of all, the developer is constantly finding ways to make the app even better. This week, GoodReader version 4.10 was released, and it adds the ability to create and add signatures to your documents. I've used many other apps with a signature feature, but GoodReader does such a nice job of implementing the feature that it may now be the best way to sign a document on an iPad or iPhone.
Being able to sign a document with your iPad or iPhone is very useful. Someone sends you a document that you need to sign, such as a permission slip for school. Rather than print out the document, sign it with a pen, and scan it again, it is so much faster to just sign the PDF file. Of course, you can use just about any PDF app to get a drawing tool and sign your name, but it is much faster to just sign your name once and have the app save your signature so that you can quickly use it in the future without having to manually sign every time.
To use the signature feature in GoodReader, just hold your finger or stylus down on (or near) the spot where you want to sign. This brings up a contextual menu with annotation tools which now includes the "Sign" tool at the far end. Tap on Sign.
The first time that you use the tool, GoodReader prompts you to create a signature. Use the large white area to sign — preferably with a stylus if you have one, but you can certainly use your finger if you are neat about it. GoodReader gives you the ability to save more than one signature. Just tap the plus sign to create another one, so you can have a full formal signature, a more friendly first name signature, etc. When you are done, tap save.
Once your signatures are saved, tapping the Sign tool will invoke a pop-up menu with thumbnail images of each of your signatures. Just tap the one that you want to use, and the signature is inserted. Or if you need to create additional signatures or change the ones that you already have, tap the icon at the far right with a pencil on a box to bring you back to that same screen where you created a signature in the first place.
Once you have inserted your signature, you can move it around to place it in the exact right spot. If it is too big or too small, drag the corners to resize the signature.
Once the signature is where you like it, you are done. Now you have a signed document. You can now use GoodReader to email the document, save it to your Dropbox or some other location, etc. I recommend that you select "flatten annotations" as you send the document so that your signature becomes a permanent part of the document.
GoodReader also lets you modify your signature, just like you can modify other types of annotations. For example, perhaps you used a blue pen when you saved your signature but you want to change this particular signature to black. And perhaps you also want to use a thicker pen stroke, as if you had used a marker instead of a fine tip pen. You can make any of those types of changes just by tapping on your signature and then tapping on the appropriate options in the pop-up menu.
Some people are worried about saving their signature in an app because someone else could theoretically use the app with your saved signature and put your signature on documents that you did not intend to sign — such as a child getting access to your iPad and applying a signature to a permission form without asking you. This is not a big concern to me. There are copies of my signature all over the place — for example, on hundreds of pleadings filed in courts throughout the state of Louisiana — so if anyone wanted to get a copy of my signature, scan it, and use it again, they could do so. Nevertheless, it is nice that GoodReader gives you the option to use TouchID with the signature feature, assuming that you are using an iPad (or iPhone) with a fingerprint scanner. With this option turned on, every time you invoke the Sign tool, you are first prompted to put your finger on the home button so that the app can verify that you are truly you before letting you apply a signature. Even though I'm not really concerned about someone using my signature in GoodReader inappropriately, this feature works so well and it is so easy to scan my finger on the home button that I'll probably leave it on anyway.
As an added security measure, signatures are stored in the GoodReader app in an encrypted form, are never uploaded anywhere, and are not backed up to a computer or to the cloud when your iPad or iPhone is backed up.
I've been taking about using this feature on an iPad, but it also works on the iPhone, and in some ways is even more useful on an iPhone. You can save your signature on your iPhone at a time when you are sitting at a desk and concentrating on creating a neat signature, using either your finger or a stylus. That way, when you are out and about and you want to sign a document quickly, you can do so with just a few taps — first tap where you want to sign and select Sign, then select the signature you want to insert, and then resize and place it in the right spot. Send off the signed document, and you are done. In just a few seconds, you could sign a document while waiting to check out at the grocery store.
The new signature feature makes GoodReader an even more useful app, and confirms that it is one of the few apps that I consider to be a must-have for most attorneys.
