Every year, the ABA Journal looks at the 3,600 law-related blogs and prepares a list of their favorites. Yesterday, the ABA Journal announced the 6th Annual ABA Journal Blawg 100, and I was pleased to see that iPhone J.D. was on the list for the fourth year in a row. Click here to see this year’s list in alphabetical order. As always, this list is a fantastic resource for discovering new law-related blogs, so I guarantee that you’ll find some great posts to read.
The ABA Journal asks you
to vote for your favorites among the 100 by going to this page.
You have to register to vote (even if you registered last year), but it’s quick and easy, and the
requirement is there just to prevent one person from voting multiple
times. Plus, that page actually provides a better way to explore the list of the 100 blogs because they are divided into 14 categories. I’d be honored if you
voted for iPhone J.D. in the Legal Technology category. Some of my other favorites among this year’s picks are the Jonathan Turley blog, Taxgirl, the always funny Lowering the Bar, Abnormal Use, and the definitive source for U.S. Supreme Court information SCOTUSblog.
I love using my new iPad mini, so much so that I find that I am using it far more than my full-sized third-generation iPad. I never expected to type that sentence when I ordered the iPad mini last month. I almost didn’t order it at all — $329 is cheaper than a regular iPad, but certainly not an impulse buy — but I wanted to be able talk intelligently about whether attorneys should consider getting an iPad mini instead of (or for those feeling decadent, in addition to) a full-sized iPad. After almost a month of use, I am incredibly impressed by this device, and for many attorneys, this is the iPad to get.
Yes, it is simply a smaller iPad, with a screen that is about 80% of the size. But to just stop there is about as silly as saying that an iPad is just a big iPhone. In both cases, the difference in size has a drastic impact on how you use the device. The iPad mini is so much lighter than a full-sized iPad that I find myself wanting to pick it up and carry it around with me. I love that it weighs so little when you hold it in your hand, even if you are holding it for a very long time, that your arm and hand doesn’t get tired and distract you from the content on the screen. Because of the weight, I find myself reaching for the iPad mini, not the iPad 3, when I want to lean back in my chair and read pleadings in my office. Because of the size, I often found myself reaching for the iPad mini, not the iPad 3, when I was headed to court to attend a status conference or monitor a hearing. The iPad mini fits in the pocket of most of my pants, and also fits in the outside pocket of my suit jacket, so I could slip the iPad mini in one pocket and pick up a stylus to use when taking notes and head off to court without worrying about a briefcase. Sure, for some tasks like looking at my calendar or reviewing emails, an iPhone would have been enough, but when you need to look at pleadings or take notes in court, you need a larger screen, and the iPad mini is vastly better than an iPhone for those tasks. And because of both the size and the weight, I found that when I was at home and headed to a couch, it was the iPad mini that I reached for to surf the Internet.
Of course, there are disadvantages to using an iPad mini versus a full-sized iPad. When I use the GoodNotes app to take handwritten notes with a stylus, the full-sized iPad is better if I have a table because of the larger, nicer screen — and when resting on a table, the weight is not an issue. But if I am sitting in a chair and holding a device while I take notes, the iPad mini is often preferable because it is so much lighter and easier to hold.
Similarly, when I am using a device to review pleadings in GoodReader, it is tough to decide which device to use. Documents are larger and text is easier to read on the iPad, but when I am working with a document with large enough text — such as deposition transcripts, which usually have a wide margin that I can crop off in GoodReader to fill the screen with just the text — a lighter device is usually the better device if I am going to be holding it for a while.
The iPad mini uses the same processor as the iPad 2, so I know that means that it is slower than the fourth generation iPad and the iPhone 5. In every day use, however, I really didn’t notice it being much slower. I suspect that much of the processor oomph in Apple’s latest devices goes towards powering the Retina display, which the iPad mini lacks so the more advanced processor is less necessary.
Speaking of the Retina display, the lack of that display is the biggest drawback of this first generation of the iPad mini. As Rene Ritchie of iMore noted in this post, there are good reasons that Apple did not include a Retina display in the first iPad mini — in brief, a desire to keep the device thin and light with a long battery life. As battery technology improves and becomes cheaper, I fully expect to see a Retina display in an iPad mini in another year or so. But for now, the lack of a Retina display is an important consideration for anyone trying to decide between an iPad and an iPad mini. This is not something that I notice all the time (and if you don’t already have experience using an iPad 3 or an iPad 4, you might not notice it at all), but I definitely notice that text is not as crisp when I am reading emails or other text. Yesterday, I was reading the New York Times using the nice New York Times app on my iPad mini, and it was slightly annoying that the text was not as crisp … enough that I actually put down the iPad mini and picked up my iPad 3, but then after a few minutes I decided to go back to the iPad mini after all.
I suspect that most people will find a full-sized iPad preferable to an iPad mini when using the device as a laptop replacement. For example, I started typing this review using the Pages app and a Bluetooth keyboard on my iPad mini, but within a few minutes I switched over to my iPad 3. The larger, brighter, Retina-quality screen provides a much better experience, whereas I was squinting somewhat to read on the iPad mini screen. Of course I could have worked around this — for example, I could have increased the font size. And in the past I’ve been known to connect a Bluetooth keyboard to my iPhone and use that to type a memo or long email, and the iPad mini’s screen is certainly much larger than the iPhone. But with the iPad mini, I really felt like I was using a compromised substitute for a laptop. With my iPad 3, I don’t feel like I am making compromises. And I didn’t just notice this when typing text. For example, when I use the LogMeIn app to connect to my PC, the experience is far better using the iPad 3’s larger and more detailed screen.
For photos and videos, the full-sized iPad is also much better. Pictures look amazing, and 1080p video is stunning, on the iPad 3 or 4. The only time I noticed any advantage for the iPad mini for photographs was on Thanksgiving day when I was showing off some picture to relatives. The light iPad mini was easy to pass around, and photos of our recent family trip to Disney World looked good enough on the iPad mini to provide a springboard for sharing stories of our trip. Similarly, on Thanksgiving my family had a FaceTime videochat with my brother who was across the country, and the video quality on the iPad mini was fine for a video chat and the weight made it easy to pass around the iPad mini among family members who wanted to provide long-distance greetings.
For several weeks now, I’ve been struggling with the answer to one question: if a lawyer wants to get an iPad right now, would I recommend the fourth generation iPad or the iPad mini? Before I started using an iPad mini, I thought that the answer would be that the iPad mini is a fun little device for some, but most attorneys will prefer a full-size iPad to get real work done. Now, I’m not so sure. I estimate that over the last few weeks, I’ve used my iPad mini about three times as much as I’ve used my iPad 3. Some of that is just because it is the new gadget, but more often it is because the iPad mini is better suited for the work I’m trying to do. For a more casual iPad user, such as an attorney who will mostly use it as a consumption device to read websites, briefs, and someone who doesn’t expect to watch many HD movies, the iPad mini is an excellent device. You can hold it for a very long time without your hand getting tired, it is super-easy to carry around in a large pocket or a purse of almost any size, and the size is, frankly, fun. On the other hand, if you plan to use the device as a replacement for a laptop to do more sophisticated work, such as word processing, or if you are already used to the Retina display on an iPhone 4 / 4S / 5, and you want text, pictures and videos to look their best, then I think you are likely to be happier with a fourth generation iPad.
The problem is that I think that most attorneys will fall between these two extremes. Sure, you want something light and easy to carry, but you also like the idea of traveling with just an iPad and an external keyboard to get work done on the road. So for most, the decision will be tough. If you can only have one car, do you want a full-sized luxury car, SUV or mini-van that is comfortable and carries lots of people and tons of groceries, or do you want a two-seater convertible that is fun to drive and fits in even the smallest of parking spots?
Ultimately, after weighing the pros and cons, I cannot imagine not having a full-sized iPad, so if I were forced to buy only one today, I’d buy Apple’s fourth generation iPad. But I am someone who really pushes my iPad to the limits, and I realize that I am not the typical attorney buying an iPad. For many attorneys, the iPad mini will handle just about everything that they want to do, and the reduced size and weight will more than compensate for the smaller screen and lack of a Retina display.
The iPad mini is a great device that any attorney would enjoy using. There are still some tasks that are better suited for a full-sized iPad, but for a large number of the things that you will want to do with an iPad, the iPad mini is fantastic. Good luck to those trying to choose, and I hope that this review helps to nudge you one direction or the other, depending upon how you see yourself using your iPad. On the other hand, for a few of you who just want to have it all, you’ll get both and enjoy getting to decide between the sedan and the convertible every time you hit the road.
Every year, the American Lawyer ranks the top 200 law firms based on revenue, a list called the Am Law 200. Firms on the list include megafirms with thousands of lawyers such as Skadden, Baker & McKenzie, Latham & Watkins and Jones Day, relatively smaller firms with very high profits per partner such as Wachtell and Cravath, and successful regional law firms such as Lewis and Roca and my firm, Adams and Reese. For the last 17 years, The American Lawyer has conducted an annual technology survey of the AmLaw 200 firms. This year’s survey has information about iPhone and iPad support.
iPhone support
Back in 2008, only 5% of the firms reported having
attorneys using an iPhone. In 2009, that number jumped to 55%, leading
me to report (back when iPhone J.D. was not even one year old yet) that “Over half of the most profitable law firms use iPhones.” That number rose to 77% in 2010, 96% in 2011, and according to this year’s survey results, it is now at 99%. Suffice it to say that virtually every profitable law firm in America has lawyers using the iPhone. (Virtually all of the firms still support BlackBerry as well. 74% now support Android, and 37% support Windows Phone 7.) Given that we now see iPhones everywhere that we go, it no longer seems surprising to say that lots of lawyers use iPhones, but when you consider how dominating the BlackBerry was four years ago when only a few lawyers were using iPhones, this has been a big shift.
iPad support
This year’s AmLaw survey also asked about tablets. In 57% of the AmLaw 200 firms, over a quarter of the firm’s lawyers are using tablets. In 10% of AmLaw 200 firms, over half of the firm’s lawyers are using tablets. My own law firm has almost 300 attorneys, and while we’re not yet at the point where half of our attorneys use an iPad, we’re getting very close. And I say “iPad” not “tablet” in the context of my own law firm because while we have a handful of people using other platforms, virtually all of our attorneys using a tablet are using an iPad. I suspect that the same is true at most other AmLaw 200 firms. This year’s survey reveals that 99% of AmLaw 200 firms support the iPad, 31% support Android tablets and 12% support a BlackBerry tablet.
The survey also reveals that only 8% of AmLaw 200 firms pay for iPads. As I wrote in an article for the Big Law newsletter earlier this year, I don’t recommend that most law firms buy the iPads that their attorneys use. Instead, the key is to support iPads, including having someone in the tech department who can help people configure new iPads and select the best apps. Based on this year’s survey, that seems to be the approach that AmLaw 200 firms are taking.
On November 17, 2008, I took a picture of my iPhone for the banner of this website and started iPhone J.D. with the post “Why I use an iPhone.” That makes this website four years old now. It seems hard to believe that I’ve now spent more time on iPhone J.D. than I did in college.
Popular posts. It’s a tradition on iPhone J.D.’s anniversary to identify the most popular posts over the prior 12 months because it often reveals something about the topics that iPhone and iPad owners have been thinking about lately. I think that is certainly true this year.
1. Reviews of Notes Plus and GoodNotes. Many lawyers have explored taking handwritten notes on the iPad. There are many great apps that let you do that. Notes Plus includes lots of great features, including the ability to select something that you wrote and then translate it into text. GoodNotes remains my favorite app for taking handwritten notes, and I use it every week when I attend meetings.
2. Reviews of Wacom Bamboo Stylus Duo, Wacom Bamboo Stylus Solo and the BoxWave EverTouch Capacitive Stylus. If you are going to use your iPad to take handwritten notes, in addition to an app you need a good stylus. There have been lots of pageviews of these three reviews. The Wacom Bamboo Stylus Duo has been my favorite stylus for most of the past year, but I’m currently in the process of trying out a new version of the Adonit Jot Pro that I reviewed this year, and it is very impressive. My full review of the new Jot Pro will be posted here soon.
3. Missing apps in the “Open in…” menu. I mentioned in January of 2012 how frustrated I was that I would sometimes hold my finger down on an email attachment to try to open a document in an app only to have that app not show up in the list. Given the large number of pageviews of this post, I wasn’t the only one frustrated. But fortunately, Apple solved this problem when it released iOS 6 in September of 2012. The new “Open in…” screen has a much better layout, and now always shows the apps that I want. Finally!
4. Review of Office². There is little question in my mind why this post got so many pageviews. Office² was the first app to let you both see and create redline (track changes) edits in a Microsoft Word document. As of October of 2012, Quickoffice Pro now has the feature as well. Unfortunately, Quickoffice Pro does not show footnotes, which for my practice as a litigator is a huge omission.
5. 60 Apps in 60 Minutes. The 60 Apps in 60 Minutes session that I co-present at ABA TECHSHOW in Chicago every spring is always a packed room, and the post that lists those apps is always a popular post on iPhone J.D.
6. Review of PDFpen for iPad. For most attorneys using an iPad, I suspect that the most valuable use (besides handling emails) is handling PDF files. PDFpen for iPhone and iPad is a great app, so I wasn’t surprised to see so many people reading this post. My review of GoodReader was posted in mid-2011 so that post isn’t eligible for this year’s list of most popular posts, but that review also continues to get a huge number of page views this year. Fortunately there are lots of great options for attorneys looking to read and annotate PDF files on the iPad (or iPhone), and PDFpen and Goodreader are some of the very best apps.
7. Review of TranscriptPad. Of all of the legal-specific apps that I reviewed over the past 12 months, my review of TranscriptPad received the most pageviews. If you read and annotate transcripts in your law practice, this is a fantastic app.
This time last year, I noted that some of the older posts on iPhone J.D. continue to see a lot of traffic. These same five “old favorites” once again saw a ton of traffic again this year:
1. iPhone “No SIM card installed” message. When I first had this problem with my iPhone 4, it didn’t seem like many other people were talking about it. This post from July of 2010 has now been viewed well over 100,000 times. Clearly, I was not the only person to have the problem, and it must continue to be an issue for some if people are still reading that post today. As I noted in a follow up, the only real solution was to have the Apple Store replace my iPhone 4, leading me to believe that this is a hardware flaw affecting a small number of iPhone 4 devices.
2. My favorite iPhone shortcuts. iPhone J.D. was only a week old when I wrote this post in November of 2008, and it continues to see a lot of traffic. The tips are as useful today as they were four years ago.
3. A look at the iPhone passcode lock feature. This post from September of 2009 continues to be popular, and I hope that means that lots of people — especially attorneys — are using the passcode lock feature on the iPhone. You never know when someone else might pick up your iPhone.
4. iPhone Tip: create an Apple folder. I wrote this tip in June of 2010, and I continue to use an “Apple folder” on both my iPhone, my iPad and now my iPad mini.
5. Why the “i” in iPhone? If you were ever curious about the origin of the name of the iPhone, this is the post for you.
Visitors to iPhone J.D. My favorite part of publishing iPhone J.D. is hearing from readers, and once again I’d like to use this as an opportunity to talk about what I know about those of you who read this website.
About 43% of iPhone J.D. readers during the past year accessed this site using Windows, about 19% used a Mac, and over a third of visitors accessed the site from an iPhone or iPad. There were also about 1,000 visits from a BlackBerry device over the last 12 months. My guess is that those were mostly people looking to upgrade from a BlackBerry to an iPhone, something that I continue to see all the time.
Most iPhone J.D. visitors are in the U.S., but there continues to be viewers from cities around the world. For the fourth year in a row, there were more visitors from New York than any other city. London continues to be the top non-U.S. city, and I frequently get emails from barristers and solicitors in the U.K. who love their iPhones and iPads. Nine of the top 10 cities were on the list last year too. Last year, Singapore was #10 on the list. This year, Singapore just barely missed the top 10 (it was #11) and Sydney (which was #14 last year) moved up to the #8 spot. G’day, mates!
New York
Chicago
London
Los Angeles
Houston
Washington, DC
San Francisco
Sydney
Dallas
Atlanta
One of these days I suppose I should update the banner picture on iPhone J.D. Many of the apps that were important enough to me four years ago to be on my first homescreen have been replaced. Instead of TwitterFon, my favorite Twitter client is now TweetBot ($2.99): . I rarely play 2 Across or Wurdle any more. My current word game obsession is Letterpress (free, but you’ll want to spend $0.99 for the in-app upgrade to add features): Feel free to send me a GameCenter friend request if you want to play a game of Letterpress with me; I’m jeff@iphonejd.com. And instead of the built-in weather app, my home screen now features a folder with many of the weather apps I mentioned this past August, plus a new weather app that has quickly become one of my favorites: Check the Weather ($1.99):
On the other hand, I appreciate the nostalgia when I look at that banner picture and think of the state of the iPhone four years ago. The iPhone 3G was the hot new model and it would have seemed foolish back in 2008 to think about a Retina display. There were no folders on the iPhone, no copy and paste, no push notifications, no tethering, no landscape keyboard on the iPhone’s screen and no support for external Bluetooth keyboards, no Find my iPhone, no multitasking, no ability to open email attachments in another app, no FaceTime, and no Siri. Back in 2008, only 5% of AmLaw 200 law firms had attorneys using the iPhone. Now, there are lawyers using iPhones at almost every law firm.
Publishing iPhone J.D. for the last four years and discussing all of these improvements has been great fun. This website has given me a good excuse for learning how to make the most of my iPhone and iPad, it has given me the opportunity to meet some fascinating attorneys from around the world, and it has been so gratifying when people tell me that they learned something interesting and new from this website. Over the last four years, iPhone J.D. has served well over two million pageviews to well over a million different people. As the number of lawyers and others using the iPhone and iPad grows, I’m sure that I’ll continue to see many new visitors, but I especially appreciate those of you who continue to read iPhone J.D. every week, either in your browser, in your RSS reader or by subscribing to the email version of this website. Please continue to share with me your ideas for topics and apps worth considering on iPhone J.D. during the next year.
We are less than a week away from Thanksgiving in the U.S. What does that have to do with the iPhone and iPad? I haven’t seen an official announcement from Apple, but Apple traditionally offers discounts on its products on Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving). The discounts are usually modest, but it is typically the only day each year that Apple offers any discounts at all on numerous products so for that reason it is notable. If you are planning to get an Apple device or accessory and you want to save a few bucks, plan to check out the Apple Store — online and the retail stores — one week from today to see if there are any good deals that appeal to you. And now, the news of the week:
San Francisco attorney Deanne Katz of FindLaw’s Technologist discusses TranscriptPad, one of my favorite legal-specific applications on my iPad.
Lit Software, the developer of TranscriptPad, also sells TrialPad, a powerful app for presenting an annotating exhibits at trial or in meetings. The app was recently updated to version 3.0, and Ian O’Flaherty of Lit Software wrote a free iBook to explain how to use TrialPad with its new features. Click here while you are using your iPad (or iPhone) to download the iBook to your device.
New York attorney Nikki Black shares her thoughts on lawyer use of the iPad for LLRX.com.
South Carolina attorney Justin Kahn discusses Timeline 3D, a new app for the iPhone and iPad that lets you create a timeline.
California attorney David Sparks is also pretty excited about Timeline 3D for iOS.
Sean Martin discusses mobile apps for lawyers based on discussions he had at this year’s ILTA conference in this article for Law Technology News.
Indianapolis law librarian Cheryl Niemeier recommends iPad apps for attorneys and paralegals in this article for Res Gestae, the Journal of the Indiana State Bar Association. (Link is to a PDF file)
This past October I reviewed MobileLaw, a great app for statutes and rules on your iPhone or iPad. I noted in that review that the app lacked a highlight feature. The app has since been updated to add support for highlighting, and it seems to work great. Click here to get MobileLaw (free):
I’m still testing an iPad mini and compiling my thoughts on what it means to lawyers. John Paczkowski of All Things D reports that according to one survy, very few people buying an iPad mini are doing so to replace an iPad. Instead, most iPad mini purchasers were enticed by the device to buy their first tablet.
Jilly Duffy of PC Magazine recommends 20 iPad apps for productivity.
The power adapter that comes with an iPad is larger than the one that comes with an iPad mini or an iPhone. Traditionally it was a 10W adapter, but Jordon Kahn of 9to5Mac reports that Apple is now shipping a 12W power adapter with the latest, fourth generation iPad. You can also buy it separately for $19 from Apple. I know that it usually takes around 3 hours to charge a third generation iPad to about 80%, plus another 60 to 90 minutes to get it to 100%. Insanely Great Mac reports, in a video discussed in a follow-up article by Kahn, that the new 12W power adapter shaves about 30-45 minutes off of that 4 to 4.5 hour charging time. You can use the 12W power adapter with any iOS device, but I suspect that you will only see reduced charging time with an iPad.
I often talk about people who used the Find My iPhone feature to find a stolen iPhone. Kathrene Herndon of KSBY in Santa Barbara, CA reports that a father used the feature to locate his son after his son was in a car accident. Police found the vehicle on the side of the road, but not the son who was driving the car because he had walked away from the car at some point during the night. Find My iPhone helped the police to find the driver so he could be brought to the hospital.
And finally, Toronto attorney Michael Schmidt alerted me to a new music video by The Elwins for the song Forgetful Assistance that features band members shuffling four iPhones and an iPad around a tabletop. It’s a good song and a very cool effect. Worth watching. (Thanks, Michael!)
If you have any of Apple’s new iOS devices — the iPhone 5, the fifth generation iPod touch, the iPad mini, the fourth generation iPad — or for that matter a new seventh generation iPod nano, then you have the new, small Lightning connector on your device. The Lightning connector replaces the 30-pin connector that Apple had been using since it was added to the third generation iPod that was introduced in April of 2003:
The 30-pin connector was pretty cool back in 2003, much slimmer and more convenient than the Firewire connector that had been on the top of the first two iPod models introduced in 2001 and 2002. But it is now almost 10 years later, and I consider the new Lightning connector a vast improvement. First, it is very small and thin, helping Apple to make the newest iPhones, iPads and iPods even thinner and lighter. Second, it is reversible, so you never again need to be annoyed when you try to make a connection only to discover that you need to flip over the connector. Third, it seems much more durable than the prior connector.
The only problem is that we are still waiting for third party manufacturers to update their devices to work with a Lightning connector. And if you already have peripherals that you used with your prior Apple devices, you cannot use them with the newest Apple devices without a connector.
Apple sells two 30-pin to Lightning connectors: the $29 Lightning to 30-pin Adapter and the $39 Lightning to 30-pin Adapter (0.2 m). I purchased both of them when I purchased my iPhone 5 and I have been using them since late September with my iPhone 5, and more recently with my iPad mini.
If you are trying to use an iPhone 5 in a device that features some type of dock connector in which the iPhone stands up, you may or may not have much luck with these connectors. For example, on my nightstand I have an iHome alarm clock that includes an iPhone dock. I place my iPhone in that dock every night so that it is fully charged the next morning, and if I want to listen to music or a podcast on my iPhone while I am in my bedroom, the speakers on the iHome clock sound much better than the built-in iPhone speaker. For this device, I find that the $29 connector works well. The connector makes the iPhone 5 sit up much higher than an older iPhone would sit without the connector, but fortunately the iHome has a small nib that supports the back of an iPhone so that the iPhone 5 remains stable. The only problem is that when I lift my iPhone out of the iHome dock, more often than not the adapter comes up as well, so I need to disconnect it from the iPhone and put it back in the dock so that it is ready to use the next time. I’m sure that at some point iHome will release an alarm clock with a Lightning connector, but the $29 adapter works well enough that I doubt I would ever get a new iHome device just to get the Lightning connector.
On the other hand, I also have a Bose SoundDock Portable Speaker Dock in my living room. It lacks any support for the back of the iPhone, so when I use the $29 adapter, the iPhone sits up very high and leans back, so much so that I worry it will break the 30-pin connector on the Bose. Fortunately, the Bose has an audio input in the back so I can run a cord from my iPhone 5’s headphone jack to the back of the Bose — not nearly as elegant as the dock, but it works. I’m also testing a Bluetooth solution for the Bose that I’ll review in an upcoming post. [UPDATE 1/30/13: Here is that review.]
The $29 adapter works well when you want the iPhone to stand up and rest on the connector. However, if you just have a cord to connect to the iPhone or iPad, such as a cigarette lighter to iPhone charger in your car, I prefer the $39 adapter that includes a small cord. Placing the large edge of the $29 adapter next to the iPhone or iPad certainly works, but it looks and feels awkward because it is so large. The $39 adapter has a tiny Lightning connector (similar to the USB to Lightning cord that comes with the iPhone and iPad for charging and syncing) that is much more enjoyable to connect to the device.
For example, at my desk in my office, I have an Apple USB power adapter plugged in to an outlet, then I have a USB extender cable to reach all the way to my desk, and then I have a standard Apple USB to 30-pin cable on the edge of my desk so that I can charge an iPhone or iPad while I am working at my desk. I could have purchased another $19 Lightning to USB cable from Apple, plus another $19 Apple power adapter, plus spent a few more bucks for another USB extender cable, but then I would have to have two cables on my desk (one for my third generation iPad and one for my iPhone 5 and iPad mini). I’d rather just have one cable on my desk, and for the same amount of money, I can use Apple’s $39 Lightning to 30-pin Adapter (0.2 m). When I’m charging one of my newer devices, I just plug in the $39 adapter. When I’m charging my third generation iPad, I just disconnect the $39 adapter.
The $39 adapter also gives you a little more flexibility if you are using an older accessory that was created to fit around or mold to the iPhone 4/4S. That accessory might not fit the taller iPhone 5, but the 20 centimeter (almost 8 inch) cord on the $39 adapter gives you an (awkward) way to make the device work. It won’t look pretty, but it will work in a pinch. For example, here is my iPhone 5 connected to a PowerSkin battery case:
The $39 version of the adapter also might be necessary if you have a case on your iPhone or iPad. The cord on the $39 adapter might fit in an opening that the larger $29 adapter will not accommodate.
The Lightning to 30-pin adapters will not always provide a solution. In my car, I use a Kensington AssistOne to listen to music or a podcast from my iPhone through my car stereo. I can still use the device for that purpose with my iPhone 5 because the AssistOne communicates with an iPhone via Bluetooth. I just keep my iPhone in my pocket and press one button on the AssistOne to make the connection. However, my iPhone 5 is too long to fit into the dock of the AssistOne so I cannot charge my iPhone using the AssistOne while I am driving, nor can I use the AssistOne as a holder so that I can view maps on the iPhone screen while I am driving. Ultimately I’m just going to have to get another solution for the car, and I’m sure that companies like Kensington are busy working on new products for the car with Lightning connectors.
Note that these adapters will not send video from a 30-pin connector to a Lightning connector. Also note that with some very old accessories made for the iPod, charging is not supported becuase those devices used Firewire charging and these adapters only support USB charging. And if you have an accessory that supports the special iPod-out mode in which the iPhone generated a menu that was displayed on a device such as a car, that also doesn’t work with these adapters.
While I focus here on the Apple adapters, I see that some third parties will be selling cheaper adapters. However, these are not licensed by Apple, and until they undergo rigorous testing, I myself wouldn’t want to trust those products with my expensive iPhone or iPad. For now, if want an adapter, I recommend buying one sold by Apple.
You no longer hear anyone complaining that the iPod lacks a Firewire connector, and before long there will be little reason to worry about the lack of a 30-pin connector on the iPhone and iPad. For now, however, we are in a transition period in which you might have the latest Apple device, but the accessories on the market require an adapter. Hopefully my experiences will help you decide whether an Apple Lightning adapter is a good solution for you and, if so, which one to get.
Click here to get the Apple Lightning to 30-pin Adapter from the Apple Store ($29).
Click here to get the Apple Lightning to 30-pin Adapter (0.2 m) from the Apple Store ($39).
I’ve reviewed several legal dictionary apps for the iPhone and iPad — Black’s Law Dictionary, Barron’s Law Dictionary, Nolo’s Plain English Law Dictionary, the Book of Jargon series by Latham & Watkins — but considering that dictionaries were traditionally books, it makes sense that an ebook dictionary could be just as useful on the iPhone and iPad as an app. Proof of this is found in the Louisiana Civil Law Dictionary, an ebook by Chalmette, Louisiana attorney Gregory Rome and Houston, Texas attorney Stephan Kinsella. You can purchase this ebook in several formats including Kindle and Nook, and this review is based on the iBooks version of the ebook. The book is published by ebook publisher Quid Pro Books, the brainchild of Tulane Law Professor Alan Childress. Prof. Childress sent me a free review copy a few weeks ago.
As you may know, unlike the other 49 states where the law is based on English common law, the law here in Louisiana is based on civil law from jurisdictions such as France. That means that we have concepts in Louisiana that are very similar to common law concepts but have different names (e.g. “liberative prescription” instead of “statute of limitation”), plus we have many civil law concepts that are unique to Louisiana. Black’s Law Dictionary does a decent job with some civil law terms, but a dedicated source like the one has the ability to offer more … and I was impressed by this book.
The Louisiana Civil Law Dictionary includes all of the civil law terms that I use in my practice and a bunch more that were new to me. (I may have learned some of them when I took the bar exam back in 1994, but that space in my brain has long since been replaced by other knowledge.) The definitions are clear and complete, and the book includes lots of hyperlinks that make it easy to jump around in the book. Plus it is easy to slide the marker at the bottom of this ebook to jump to different sections.
Being an iBook, it also works fine on the iPhone:
Like all iBooks, you can also search for words in the book, which is helpful in a dictionary.
If you practice law in Louisiana, or if you just want to impress your friends with legal terms that almost sound naughty such “naked owner” and “usufruct,” then consider getting this ebook for your iPad and iPhone.
Click here to get Louisiana Civil Law Dictionary ($9.99):
I read Microsoft Word files on my iPad almost every day, for the most part with much success. However, when I do so, I know that I am rarely seeing the document formatted the same way that it will look when printed out. This is usually not a problem because my focus is on the words, not the format. But sometimes there is a need to see a document with all of the formatting preserved.
Maren Reuter (pictured at right) is a German attorney who works in the third party liability department of a large insurance company that is based in Frankfurt, Germany. She works with Word documents every day and wasn’t satisfied with the way that current apps display redline track changes, footnotes, etc., so she and her husband (who is a software developer) set out to create a better app. She started a company called Naverage, and her first app is Reader HD. She sent me a free review copy of the $2.99 app a few weeks ago, and I’m impressed. Right now the app only handles .docx files, not files in the traditional .doc format, but for those files the app does a better job with the formatting than any other iPad app. Reuter tells me: “The heart of Naverage Reader is the layout engine my husband Florian developed. The NativeOpenXML layout engine is built from ground up according to the ISO/IEC 29500 standard — the standard behind Microsoft’s new .docx, .xslx and .pptx formats. That’s why it enables the high layout fidelity with Microsoft .docx documents.”
For example, consider the simple formatting in a Table of Authorities. In this example, my first line is at the left margin but subsequent margins within an entry are indented, the right margin is indented except for page numbers, and there is a right-formatted tab with leading dots. Here is what the top of the page looks like on a computer:
In the iPad’s built-in Word viewer (what you see if you just tap an attachment to an email) the formatting is not preserved: the page break is missing, the page numbers are too far left, there are no leading dots for page numbers, etc.
When viewed in Quickoffice Pro, the formatting is also incorrect, but in different ways:
When viewed in Office2, different aspects of the proper formatting are preserved while other aspects are wrong:
Documents to Go probably does the best job of this bunch, although it is also not perfect:
Here is what the page looks like in Reader HD. All of the formatting is preserved, and the result looks almost exactly the same as it looks on a computer or when printed out:
Because Reader HD handles virtually all Microsoft Word formatting, this means that it can also show redline edits. It shows them the way that Word does by default, with deleted text noted in a column on the side. I personally prefer to see all redline edits inline in the text, which is how Documents to Go handles it, but I understand that people have different preferences. I won’t start by showing the built-in Word viewer because it doesn’t show any redline edits at all. You just see how the final document would look with all redline edits accepted.
Quickoffice Pro just added the ability to see redline track changes last month. Quickoffice still doesn’t support footnotes, which is why I don’t use it for any of my litigation files., but if that is not a problem for you and if you prefer to see your edits in the margin on the right, Quickoffice Pro does a very nice job:
Office2 also puts the edits in the right margin, but does so in type that I consider too small to read. Note, however, that you can tap on the balloon on the right to see a window with the edit in larger text:
Here is what Documents to Go does with redline edits, with all of the edits shown inline:
Finally, here is how Reader HD handles redline edits. Note that if you don’t want to see the right margin with information on the redline edits, you can tap the “Sidebar” button to make it go away.
I haven’t shown Apple’s Pages app in any of the above examples, but just for the record: (1) it also does not correctly preserve formatting in the Table of Authorities and (2) Pages doesn’t show any redline edits at all.
Reader HD handles footnotes just fine. The footnote reference is in the text, and the footnote text is at the bottom of the page, the same way it looks when you print out a document.
If you have a document with even more complicated formatting, Reader HD will often handle it quite well. I looked at a few files with multiple columns (such as newsletters). Reader sometimes displayed those files perfectly. Other times, the formatting was not perfect (with some background colors missing and some lines around boxes appearing that were supposed to be invisible). But every time, Reader HD did a better job displaying a file with complicated columns, margins and other sophisticated formatting than any of the other apps on my iPad (Documents to Go, Quickoffice Pro, Office2 and Pages).
I noted above that Reader HD only works with .docx files. I don’t know about your law practice, but in my practice it seems like 90% of the files that other attorneys send me are in .doc format, so that is generally the format that I use as well, although I admit that over time the number of .docx files that I see continues to increase. Reuter tells me that she decided to focus on .docx files because her thought was that with Windows 8 coming out, .docx would become accepted more quickly. I suspect, however, that it will be MANY years before most law firms move to Windows 8 — at this point, it seems like a huge number of attorneys are still using Windows XP — so I think that the transition to .docx will also take a long time. However, Reuter also tells me that .doc support is being worked on right now and will be added to Reader HD in a future update.
Reader HD does not let you edit files, but if you want to view .docx files on your iPad, Reader HD is a great option because it does such a good job with most formatting. For most of my document viewing, I think I’ll stick with Documents to Go because I prefer the way that it lets me focus on the text. But as I have been testing Reader HD over the last few weeks, I’ve found myself using it many times when I wanted to see how a .docx file will look when printed. (And I’ve also had several occasions when I wanted to use the app, but the only version of the file on my iPad was in .doc format. I’ll be very happy to see .doc support added to Reader HD!) If you work with Microsoft Word files in your law practice, I think it is worth purchasing this app so that you always have the ability to view a document as it was intended to be viewed.
Rumors of Microsoft Office coming to the iPad have been around forever, but Tom Warren of The Verge got a company spokesperson to say this week that “Office will work across Windows Phone, iOS and Android.” The rumor is that the app will provide basic viewing functions for free, but to edit files you will have to subscribe to Office 365, which appears to currently cost $6 a month. I’m glad to see some confirmation that this is coming — it sounds like early next year — and my hope is that Microsoft produces something that is really useful for lawyers looking to work with MS Word files while they are away from a computer. We’ll see. I’m still catching up from my vacation, but here are a few other recent news items that caught my attention:
Florida attorneys Christopher Hopkins and Spencer Kuvin recently gave a presentation to the Palm Beach County Bar that discussed using an iPhone and iPad in a law practice. Click the last word in that post to view their slides in PDF format, which includes the apps that they discussed.
New York attorney Nikki Black recommends pre-trial iPad apps for attorneys.
I started using an iPad mini three days ago. It is still too early for me to reach a judgment on it, but I do like that it is so light and easy to hold. Some of the notable iPad mini reviews that I have seen this week including this one by Dan Frakes of Macworld and this one by attorney Jeremy Horwitz of iLounge.
I wrote a pre-review of the iPad mini Smart Cover, which was severely limited by the fact that I still didn’t yet have my iPad mini at the time. Lex Friedman of Macworld reviews the new Smart Cover, and I agree with him that I don’t like it as much as the Smart Cover for the full-size iPad, mainly because it only had two folds instead of three, making it impossible to fold the cover in half and hold it behind the iPad mini.
And finally, if you have been using Apple products for as long as I have — the first Apple product I purchased with my own money was a Mac Plus when I was in college — then you’ll want to check out the Padintosh Case for the iPad from ThinkGeek. For only $25, the latest and greatest Apple technology can look just like the first Apple product to revolutionize human interfaces.
[UPDATE: This post is now somewhat out of date. However, I wrote an updated review of Disney World apps on March 12, 2014, and further updated that post on January 21, 2015] Sorry that it has been somewhat quiet on iPhone J.D. for the past week, but my wife and I took our son (age 7) and daughter (age 5) to Disney World for their first time. It was an amazing trip, although I’m still tired from five days of walking around. Although I’ve been to Disney World before, one thing that was new this time was the ability to use an iPhone app to enhance the trip. There are a lot of these apps in the App Store, but I had difficulty finding good, recent reviews to help me select the best one. So for any of you who plan to head there yourself, here are the apps that I found the most useful during our trip.
Before talking about specific apps, there were three features that I found most useful for any Disney World app. First, it was useful to have a good map that is clear and easy to understand and that can quickly show you where you are located on the map. It is so useful to be able to take your iPhone out of your pocket, tap the app icon, tap the location services arrow to find yourself on the map, and then instantly understand where you are located so you can figure out the best way to get to the next attraction, restaurant, etc. A map on the iPhone is must easier to use than a paper map because the iPhone quickly shows you your current location in the park.
Second, it was useful to have an indication of wait times so you can decide, for example, whether it makes more sense to head left towards Splash Mountain or head right towards Space Mountain. These apps not only tell you the current wait time, but also tell you the window for a Fast Pass. With the aid of the app, I could quickly decide that I didn’t want to wait in line for 30 minutes for Space Mountain when I could instead get a Fast Pass for Space Mountain that would work in 45 minutes and I could use that 45 minutes of time to go to another attraction in the vicinity that had no wait, and then after that use the Fast Pass lane (which was usually only about a 5 minute line) and pass up all of the people waiting in the 45 minute line.
Third, it was useful to get information on restaurants to decide where to eat.
Disney Mobile Magic
Disney Mobile Magic is the official Disney Parks app. It is free, and since it is the app that Disney itself offers, it is worth getting. The app provides you with a wealth of useful information about each of the parks. The app gives you a map, and can even show you where you are located on the map. If you use an iPhone 5, however, the app is not optimized for the screen. I also don’t like that the map is covered with unidentified purple balloons, and you must click each one individually to figure out which attraction it is indicating. But when you do tap, you can get some very basic information on the ride and information on the current wait for the ride and the time for the next Fast Pass.
The app also includes information on restaurants at each of the parks and even information on each of the Disney-owned resorts.
The best part of the official Disney app is that it offered the most accurate information on ride wait times and Fast Pass wait times. Otherwise, however, I preferred to use two other apps.
Disney World Maps
Disney World Maps by VersaEdge Software, LLC was the most useful app during my trip to Disney World. When you launch the app, you are instantly presented with an easy-to-read, full screen map that even takes advantage of the longer screen on the iPhone 5. Attractions are clearly labeled in red along with the current wait time. Restaurants are clearly indicated in green. Bathrooms are clearly marked — essential information when you are with young children. I found this map much more useful than the map in the Disney Mobile Magic app. Dotted lines show the path of the frequent parades. And you can simply press the location services arrow at the bottom left to have the app instantly show you where you are on the map.
Tap on any attraction, restaurant, etc. to get more information. Almost every time, I found the descriptions in this app to be more useful than the descriptions in the official Disney app.
As noted above, the main advantage of the Disney app is that is had more accurate current wait times for rides — the same time that is posted outside of every attraction at Disney World. This makes sense; they must be using official Disney sources to get this data. The Disney World Maps app, on the other hand, relies on crowd-sourcing to get wait times — other people using the app who recently indicated the current wait times. If nobody has submitted a wait time in a while, then the app gives you old data. But I was surprised how often this app did provide accurate information. Moreover, this app allows you to see a list of the most recent wait times that were submitted, which often lets you see trends of when the ride was more busy and when it became less busy. And it is super-easy to submit the wait times that you see when you get in a line, so I often found myself submitting recent wait times just to help the cause.
There is a free version of this app so you can try before you buy. My only gripe with the free version is that it shows ads at the bottom of the screen. The ads are a little distracting, but even worse the placement of the ad made it harder to press the location services arrow. After about a day of using the free version of the app, it was easy to decide to spend $2.99 for the paid version with no ads. Here is the free version on the left and th paid version on the right:
Disney World Dining
VersaEdge Software sells another useful app called Disney World Dining. Although the free Disney Mobile Magic app gives you basic information on dining, the $1.99 Disney World Dining app provides much more information on each restaurant, including virtually every single item on the menu, making it easy to decide which restaurant to visit, and also making it easy to decide what you are going to get once you get there.
For example, we had a character lunch in Magic Kingdom at a restaurant called The Crystal Palace. The free Disney Mobile Magic app gives you only the most basic information about the items available at the buffet:
On the other hand, the Disney World Dining app gives you information about the restaurant (including the characters who will visit your table at the restaurant) and virtually every single item on the menu, or in this case since it was a buffet, available at the buffet.
The menu information wasn’t always perfect, but it was certainly good enough.
Note that VersaEdge also sells an app called Disney World Magic Guide that appears to combine both the Disney World Maps app and the Disney World Dining app into a single app for $4.99. I preferred having two distinct apps so that I could launch the Disney World Maps app and instantly see a map without having to navigate through menus to get there.
Disney World Wait Times, Dining and Maps Free by UndercoverTourist.com
The most useful apps for me were the two VersaEdge apps and the Disney Mobile Magic apps, there was one more app I downloaded that is worth mentioning: Disney World Wait Times, Dining and Maps Free by UndercoverTourist.com. The map is not as easy to read as the one in the VersaEdge app, although it does provide more information at a glance than the Disney Mobile Magic app, and the restaurant information is not as good as any of the apps mentioned above. But the app does include nice descriptions of rides and restaurants, and when I was looking for additional information about something, I often found this app very useful. The app was not useful enough for me to purchase the $3.99 version that doesn’t have ads, but the free version was a helpful complement to the above apps.
If you find yourself headed to The Most Magical Place on Earth at some point in the future, don’t forget your iPhone, and grab these apps to have an even better experience.
Click here for Disney Mobile Magic (free):
Click here for Disney World Maps by VersaEdge Software ($2.99):
Click here for Disney World Maps Free by VersaEdge Software (free):
Click here for Disney World Dining by VersaEdge Software ($1.99):
Click here for Disney World Wait Times, Dining and Maps Free by UndercoverTourist.com (free):
