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Most attorneys who use an iPhone can make good use of an app that contains the text of frequently used statutes or rules.  It is helpful to have the language at your fingertips for when you need it.  The App Store has quite a few choices in this genre, but a few developers have taken steps to stand out from the field.  One such app is PUSH Legal, an app by Alex Torry of Houston, TX, that contains select federal and state rules and statutes (including California, Delaware, Florida, New York and Texas).  The distinguishing feature is that PUSH Legal recognizes that sometimes what matters most is not the text of the rule, but instead how the rule has been interpreted.  Thus, for many rules (and by “many” I mean a very large number of them, virtually all that I have seen so far in the federal collections), the app also includes summaries of seminal cases discussing the rule.  You can even click a link to read those cases via Google Scholar.  (I discussed Google Scholar when it debuted in late 2009.)  And if you want to read even more cases discussing the rule, every rule in PUSH Legal has a link that composes a search to run in Google Scholar to look for more cases.

The PUSH Legal app itself is free, but you have to pay for a subscription through the PUSH Legal website for $29.95/month or $299.00/year.  That price gives you access to all of their bodies of law, not only on the iPhone but also on their website.  (If you are a criminal defense attorney who belongs to NACDL, there is a 20% discount.)  When you sign up for PUSH Legal on their website, you can cancel your subscription within seven days at no charge. 

The main screen of the app shows you the bodies of law that you have downloaded.  To get more, tap the Library button.  There is also a link to Google Scholar if you want to jump right there to do research.  Keep in mind, however, that Google Scholar is a free resource so you can always just use Google Scholar in Safari on your iPhone without paying for this app.

If you know the rule that you need, just browse to it in a list and the rule is there under the “Article” tab. You can read the rule on your iPhone or you can tap a button to email the text.

To see the selected seminal cases, tap the Leading Cases tab.  Under Fed. R. Civ. Pro 19, for example, there are six leading cases included. 

 

Are these selected cases really the seminal cases?  Obviously that will be a topic on which reasonable minds can disagree.  The developer tells me that these “Leading Cases” are selected by professors, legal scholars, and practicing lawyers.  I practice class action law, and I see that PUSH Legal selects 12 cases for Fed. R. Civ. Pro. 23.  The first listed case is the recent Wal-Mart decision, and that probably is a good place to start to see the current application of Rule 23, the last case listed is the important Zahn case from 1973, and between that there are some good federal appellate decisions.  If someone was trying to get an overview of Rule 23, they could do far worse than look at those 12 cases, so that gives me hope that the rest of the selected cases are equally useful.

The third tab says “Google Scholar” but that just brings you a blank search screen.  If you want more cases discussing a rule, the better option is to scroll to the bottom of the Article tab where there is a “Click here for more annotations” link that will automatically run a search in Google Scholar for cases discussing the rule.

 

After you click that link, you will see your search results in Google Scholar and you can tap any case to read it:

 

Although the PUSH Legal app is only designed for the iPhone, you can also access the PUSH Legal website on your iPad to get the same features.  And the website is designed to look very nice on the iPad:

There is a lot to like about PUSH Legal, but there are some areas that need improvement.  First, if you run a search for a term, the app searches only the titles of the rules.  So if you search for “sanction” in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the app will show you Rules 11 and 37, but won’t show you the other eight rules that include the term “sanction” in the text.  Second, there is no way to search within a specific rule.  The developer tells me that there are plans to address both of these issues in a future update.

Third, there is no way to bookmark frequently used rules or statutes, a feature that is common in other apps like this.

Fourth, there are no shortcuts when working with long rules.  You need to manually scroll all the way down — no sidebar on the right to speed up that process.  And unlike many other apps, you cannot simply tap at the top of the screen to quickly scroll back to the top.

Thus, while PUSH Legal’s “Leading Cases” feature is a great option that makes it better than every other iPhone app in this genre, when you want to search and browse the text of rules, PUSH Legal lacks many of the helpful features contained in other apps. 

Another difference between PUSH Legal and similar apps is price.  Apps containing rules often cost just a few dollars, a fraction of the cost of a PUSH Legal subscription.  Having said that, you can debate whether that difference in cost is a pro or a con.  I’ve seen many other apps in this genre come out with much fanfare, only to then die a year or two later when the author fails to update the apps as the rules change.  Indeed, there is a serious danger associated with relying on out-of-date rules.  Due to the subscription model, the developer of PUSH Legal, Alex Torry, will hopefully have the financial incentive to keep the law current in this app.

I’m happy to see PUSH Legal come to the iPhone.  If you practice in a jurisdiction covered by this app, I can see this being a very useful, albeit pricey, tool.  And fortunately, you can try before you buy because of the seven day cancellation policy, which should give you time to decide if this app is right for you.  I think that the user interface needs to be updated to turn this into a really great app, but it is a good start.

Click here to get the PUSH Legal app (free): 

Click here to sign up for PUSH Legal on the PUSH Legal website.

I’ve reviewed a lot of styluses here lately in my search for the one that has the best tip for writing on an iPad screen.  In fact, to help you find all of those reviews, I updated my Index to Prior Posts (click here, or see the link at the top of every screen on iPhone J.D.) to collect all of my stylus reviews in one place.  Some of those styluses I have tried have also included a traditional pen, but that hasn’t been very important to me, mostly because they have been ballpoint pens.  I’ve long thought it would be nice to a have a good stylus that also included a great rollerball pen with dark ink.  Thanks to Kensington, now we have exactly that:  the Virtuoso Pro Pen Stylus & Pen.  The company sent me a free sample for review, and I’ve been trying it for the last few weeks.

The body of the stylus has a great weight and feel.  It has a larger circumference than most other styluses, but I use some traditional pens that are just as thick.  It feels like a nice, sturdy product in your hand.  Having said that, when you use the stylus, it feels a little more like a marker than a pen because of the thick body.  I am reviewing the black version, but there is also a white version.

The tip is a standard size soft stylus tip.  This means that it is not as precise as the fantastic tip on the Wacom Bamboo stylus or the fine tip on the Kensington Virtuoso Pro Fine Tip Stylus.   The following picture shows the Virtuoso Pro Pen on top, the Wacom Bamboo duo in the middle, and the Adonit Jot Pro at the bottom:

Where this product really shines is when you remove the cap to reveal the rollerball.  The ink is dark and fluid, and the ink cartridge is replaceable.  You can snap the cap to the back to cover the stylus when you are using the pen.

In my opinion, the ink is infinitely better than the ballpoint pen on the otherwise fantastic Wacom Bamboo duo.  But keep in mind that this is my personal preference.  I always prefer a good rollerball to a ballpoint pen.

I’ve been using this Virtuoso Pro Pen on and off for the last few weeks.  While I really like it, I find myself reaching for the Wacom Bamboo when I need to use a stylus because of the better tip, and then I reach for a regular pen when I need a regular pen.  But if you like the idea of carrying a single device that works as both a pen and a stylus, and if you prefer a rollerball over a ballpoint pen, this is a great solution.  The stylus tip might not be as good as the Wacom Bamboo stylus, but it is still a good stylus tip that will get the job done.   You can buy this stylus from Kensington for $29.99, or you can save three bucks if you get it on Amazon.

Click here to get the Virtuoso Pro Pen Stylus & Pen from Amazon ($26.95).

Today, I will be a panelist on This Week in Law, the great podcast hosted by Denise Howell on Leo Laporte’s TWiT Network.  Also on the show will be TWiL regular and Chicago technology lawyer Evan Brown of the Internet Cases website and Toronto attorney Monica Goyal of i5 Capital and My Legal Briefcase.  If you want to listen or watch as the show is recorded, the show airs at 11 am Pacific / 2 pm Eastern at http://live.twit.tv and usually lasts about 90 minutes.  (It’s a law-related podcast, so that counts as work, right?  And you can actually get CLE credit for watching TWiL in some states.)  Otherwise, you can download the audio or video podcast from iTunes tonight.  And now, here is the news of note for this week:

• Virginia attorney Rob Dean of WalkingOffice explains how to crop U.S. Supreme Court opinions to make them easier to read in GoodReader on an iPad.  I do the same thing with most of my GoodReader files.  The smaller margins make the text larger and easier to read, and also makes it easier to swipe through pages.
• If you were thinking of purchasing California attorney David Sparks’ book on going paperless that I reviewed three months ago, get it right now before the price goes up from $5 to $10 next week.  And next month, Sparks will release a free update to Paperless adding “new screencasts, new sections, the works.”  I love the idea that an electronic book can easily gain new content without the need to use those annoying pocket parts stuck in the back of a book.
• The Attorney at Work website asked me and several other attorneys about alternatives to the iPad’s on-screen keyboard.  I talked about the Apple Wireless Keyboard and the speech-to-text feature of the third-generation iPad; others discussed different solutions.
• In a related note, Ellis Hamburger of The Verge posted an extensive review of external keyboards for the iPad.
• PDF Expert by Readdle is an advanced tool for editing and annotating PDFs that I reviewed a few months ago.  This week the app was updated to version 4.2, adding a presentation mode that lets you connect your iPad to a projector and present documents in a non-linear fashion, something that could be useful in meetings or even in court.  Click here to get PDF Expert for iPad ($9.99): 

  

• I know that many attorneys use Things, an iPhone/iPad/Mac app to manage tasks.  Version 2.0 of the app was released yesterday, a major update that (finally) adds cloud syncing.  Megan Lavey-Heaton of TUAW describes the update, and Dan Frakes of Macworld says “I’ve been testing Things Cloud for several months, and it’s been rock-solid and, indeed, quite fast.”
• David Pogue of the New York Times explains how to configure and use Find My iPhone so that you can (hopefully) locate your device if it is lost or stolen.  As I noted last week, Pogue’s phone was recently stolen on an Amtrak train, but using the service he was able to trace his phone to Maryland and the police caught the thief and recovered his iPhone.
• Speaking of tracking an iPhone, Mark Sullivan of TechHive wrote an interesting description of the history of GPS.
• Someone else that I mentioned last week was Ken Segall, the author of Apple’s famous Think Different ad campaign when he worked ag Apple’s advertising agency, TBWA\Chiat\Day, and one of the funny guys behind the Scoopertino site.  Harry McCracken of Time magazine recently interviewed Segall about his new book called Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple’s Success.  The interview is just over an hour and I haven’t had a chance to listen to the whole thing yet, but so far it is fascinating.
• Speaking of Scoopertino, they have an funny, albeit fake, story explaining the much-maligned new Apple ads featuring Apple Store Geniuses.  (I know that Segall doesn’t like the ads, but I don’t think that they are THAT bad, although I admit Apple has also had much better ads in the past.)
• Roy Furchgott of the New York Times describes xPrintServer, calling it a pricey ($100) but effective device that provides AirPrint capability to any printer, meaning that you can print to it wirelessly from an iPhone or iPad.
• For two years now, the best perk of being a customer of Chase bank is that I have been able to deposit checks on my iPhone.  Bryan Wolfe of AppAdvice writes that Bank of America customers can now do the same thing.  I know of at least one attorney who is excited about this new feature, and if you use an iPhone and are a Bank of America customer, you’ll love this feature too.
• Charlie Sorrel of Cult of Mac explains how to create a macro lens for your iPhone for only $1.
• There is lots of great coverage of the interesting and ongoing Apple vs. Samsung trial regarding iPhone and iPad IP, but if you had to pick one source, I’d suggest this page on The Verge which has links to their coverage.
• Conan O’Brien has a funny video purporting to show the Samsung side of the litigation.
• The New Yorker has a new iPhone app, and to talk about the new features, Lena Dunham (of the HBO show Girls) created a short video staring herself and Jon Hamm of Mad Men.
• And finally, while I realize that this has nothing to do with the iPhone or iPad, as someone who loves technology I have been more excited about the landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars than the Olympics this week.  I stayed up late on Sunday night to watch coverage of the landing, and I’ve enjoyed following the tweets “from” Curiosity, both the official account and the fake but hilarious SarcasticRover account.  NetworkWorld put together this great, splitscreen version of the last few minutes as we learned that Curiosity landed on Mars.  If you have any interest in space, you’ll enjoy watching this one:

Have you been watching the Olympics?  I’m not as fanatical as some of my friends, but I have been recording the show on my iMac using an Elgato EyeTV and I have enjoyed watching many of the events.  I have also been particularly impressed by how sharp the HD video looks on my computer screen using the EyeTV.

But a picture does not have to be razor sharp to be amazing.  Exhibit A for this argument is the work of Dan Chung, a photojournalist for The Guardian, a British national daily newspaper.  He has been taking pictures at the Olympics with his iPhone 4S using the $4.99 Snapseed app (Link:  ).  The iPhone 4S lacks an optical zoom, but he has gotten around that by holding his iPhone up to a pair of Canon binoculars.  And the results have been amazing.

Note that for some of the pictures he is using other equipment with his iPhone 4S, such as the iPro Lens System by Schneider which can cost up to $299, depending upon which lenses you purchase.  But other photographs were taken with the iPhone alone, with no extra equipment.

Click here to see Dan Chung’s pictures.  And make sure you click on that link again later this week because Chung continues to add more fantastic photographs throughout the day.

It just goes to show you that if you use an iPhone 4S, you already own the same equipment used by Olympic-caliber professional photographers.

My search for the best stylus for taking handwritten notes on an iPad has caused me to try out lots of different stylues.  Some styluses have special features that make them best for certain tasks, but my overall favorite has been the Wacom Bamboo Stylus duo because of its comfortable small tip and the weight and feel of the stylus.  But no stylus has a smaller tip than the unique Jot Pro stylus by Adonit.  Adonit sent me a free review sample and I’ve been testing it extensively over the last week.

[NOTE:  This is a review of the first generation Jot Pro.  On November 1, 2012, Adonit released a second generation Jot Pro with an improved tip.  Click here for my review of the current version of the Jot Pro.]

The unique feature of this stylus is the tip.  It has a very fine point on it, about the same size as a pen.  That would be far too small for the iPad to sense — the iPad is made to sense something the size of a fingertip — so the Jot Pro tip is connected with a ball to a disc that touches the screen.  The disc is clear so you can see exactly where it is touching the screen.

To prevent damage to the disc when you are not using the stylus, the Jot Pro comes with a cap that twists on the top.  When you are using the stylus, you can twist it to attach it to the back.

The stylus feel great in your hand.  This is clearly a high-quality product.  It has a good weight.  It has a rubber grip that makes the stylus comfortable to use and gives you a bit more control over the stylus.  (Adonit also sells the regular “Jot” stylus without the rubber grip, but I think most would prefer spending a few more bucks for the grip.) 

The Jot Pro will attach to the magnet in the iPad 2 and the third generation iPad.  This is not just because the Jot Pro is made of metal, but also because there is a magnet inside of the Jot Pro.  (That’s the other difference between the Jot Pro and the Jot.)

The Jot Pro has a great length, just over 5.5 inches.  Here it is compared to the Wacom Bamboo Stylus duo (in the middle) and the original Bamboo Stylus (bottom):

My only complaint about the body of the Jot Pro is that I wish it had a clip to make it easier to attach it to a pocket.

You can get the Jot Pro in four colors: Gun Metal (shown above), Silver, Turquoise and Red.

But the real question is whether the unique tip makes this a better stylus, so I have been going back and forth between the Jot Pro and the Bamboo to consider the pros and cons of each.  Let’s start with the good news.  The Jot Pro really does create the illusion that you are writing with a pen instead of a stylus.  The see-through disc allows you to be very precise on where you place the tip.

But there are some negatives.  First, this is a very noisy stylus.  Every time you pick up the stylus and put it down again on the screen (which I do all the time because I print when I take notes instead of using cursive) you hear a tap when the plastic disc hits the screen.  I like to take notes in meetings, in court, or other environments where there are other people around.  The Jot Pro is too noisy for me to feel comfortable using in any environment when there are other people near me. 

[UPDATE:  Two people have now written comments to this post stating that they don’t find the noise to be a problem.  This caused me to wonder if I was the only one to notice this, so I did some research to follow up.  On the one hand, several other reviewers have noted the noise:

• iMore:  “It’s also noisy when tapping or swiping, which can be distracting in a quiet setting.”
• Android Central:  “As quiet as the Bamboo is, the Jot Pro is loud – making a clicking sound as the stylus touches the screen.”
• The Verge:  “In fact, the Jot Pro makes an audible tap on the screen whenever you press it down to the screen to write. It sounds almost like if you were to tap your fingernail on the iPad’s screen.”
• Judith Leist:  “Second, it’s noisy. While soft tips cushion the sound, the Adonit Jot Pro’s hard tip does not. So if you’re doing a lot of small actions, you’re literally tapping out a drum beat.”
• GadgetMac:  “The second drawback I found is that the plastic tip makes a sound when it comes in contact with the iPad’s glass screen. Maybe I’m just used to the silent rubbery stylus tip, but I think Adonit should at least add a thin layer of dampening coating to minimize that “tick” sound each time you tap a certain spot on your touch screen.”
• MyGreatPhone:  “It does give the feel of metal against glass though, makes an audible tapping sound and can feel a bit scratchy.”

On the other hand, while I did not find any reviews that claimed that the Jot Pro was quiet, several sites have posted very favorable reviews of the Jot Pro without saying anything about the noise at all, which I presume means that it was not a problem for them.  For example:  GDGT, The Gadgeteer, PC Advisor, TechRadar, TUAW.  And even some of the reviews that noted the noise concluded by giving the Jot Pro a high recommendation.  For example, the review at The Verge concludes:  “If you’re serious about writing on your iPad, the Adonit Jot Pro is the clear choice…”  This range of opinions is something for you to keep in mind when deciding whether to purchase the Jot Pro.]

Second, the Jot Pro is somewhat less responsive than other styluses when you need to tap once, such as to tap a button on the screen to select a feature in an app.  I often found myself having to tap twice or more to get a response.  This is less of a problem when you are writing, especially if you write in cursive.  But if you are looking for a stylus to use to tap icons, this is the wrong stylus.

Third, there is more friction on the screen than with a traditional stylus.  I suppose some might see this as a plus, but I found it far more enjoyable to use the soft tip of the Bamboo Stylus which easily glides across the screen than to use the Jot Pro.

Finally, because the disc is made of a plastic, it is harder than the tip on a traditional stylus.  This made me wonder if the disc could scratch the iPad screen.  I certainly never saw any evidence of this in my tests, but if there were dust on your iPad screen and you placed the disc on top of the dust, might that scratch the screen?  There is a long page in the forum on the Adonit website discussing the risk of scratching with a few people complaining of damage but others seeing no issue.  Adonit recommends using a screen protector, which I don’t use on my iPad because I don’t like the way that they feel on my screen. 

I’m very impressed by the Jot Pro.  This is a high-quality product with a distinguishing feature that makes it stand out from the crowd.  For some tasks, I can see the Jot Pro being the best choice.  The Adonit website shows many artists sitting by themselves in a studio (where noise is not an issue) using the Jot Pro.  I’m sure that many will find that the precise tip makes it an excellent choice for that task.  I can also see an engineer or an architect preferring a tip like this for certain drafting activities on an iPad.  But for taking notes in a meeting using an app such as GoodNotes (which remains my favorite note taking app), I prefer the Bamboo Stylus.

The MSRP for the Jot Pro is $29.99, which is $10 more than the MSRP for the original Jot (which lacks the grip and magnet).  Adonit also sells a shorter Jot Mini with an MSRP of $21.99.  But you can get the Jot Pro for much cheaper on Amazon using the link below.

Click here to get Adonit Jot Pro from Amazon ($23.70).

Are you ready for a new iPhone?  Apple comes out with a new model every year, and considering that the 2011 model was announced on October 4, 2011 and went on sale on October 14, 2011, I thought that we might see the 2012 model announced in early October this year.  But this past Monday, Rene Ritchie of iMore posted a rumor that the next iPhone would announced on Wednesday, September 12 and would go on sale on Friday, September 21.  Then Jim Dalrymple of the Loop — who has a great track record for predicting things like this based on his sources at Apple — confirmed this rumor, as did the Wall Street Journal affiliate AllThingsD, Bloomberg, The Verge, the New York Times, and then Reuters.  That’s a lot of publications with good track records and good sources confirming the same rumor, so if you are wondering when you can get a new iPhone, now you have a likely date.  Here’s the rest of the news of note:

• Ritchie asserts that along with the new iPhone we will also see a new, smaller version of the iPad, something that many people are calling the iPad mini.  This one also has a lot of rumors behind it, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see that announced on September 12th as well.
• New York attorney Niki Black writes about the new ABA statistics on lawyers using iPads and recommends resources and apps for iPad-using lawyers.
• Attorney Jeff John Roberts reports for PaidContent about a recent federal court ruling that Steve Jobs biographer Walter Isaacson is protected by the reporter shield privilege and doesn’t have disclose his notes for use in a class action suit about alleged e-book price-fixing.
• We know that many iPhone games are insanely popular, but how much money can a developer of iPhone business apps make?  Readdle — developer of the Scanner Pro app I mentioned yesterday — reveals that if you sell one of the 200 top grossing apps on the App Store you make over $75,000 a month, and there are over a dozen productivity apps in that list.
• Alan of Art of the iPhone has a good list of 10 useful tweaks to your iPad that you can make in the Settings app.
• Craig Jarrow, the “Time Management Ninja,” provides tips for using your iPad to manage PDF documents.
• David Pogue of the New York Times tested 40 different iPad styluses and recommends some of the best ones. 
• David Pogue also wrote an article for Scientific American in which he discusses Siri.
• Here’s one more David Pogue story:  his iPhone was stolen on an Amtrak train this week, but he was able to use the Find My iPhone feature to help the police in Prince George’s County, Maryland recover it.  Unlike most of us, however, he had the ability to tap into his 1.4 million Twitter followers to get some help.
• Bryan Chaffin of The Mac Observer reviews Projectbook, a new notebook and task management app for the iPad that also lets you keep all of your documents in one place.
• Apple recently paid $356 million to buy a company called AuthenTec.  Among other things, AuthenTec makes fingerprint sensors, which of course has fueled speculation that Apple wants to add this technology to the iPhone.  Steven Davidoff of the New York Times discusses the acquisition.
• Ken Segall was the author of Apple’s famous Think Different ad campaign when he worked ag Apple’s advertising agency, TBWA\Chiat\Day.  (Segall is also behind the always funny Scoopertino site.)  He has a new book out called Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple’s Success.  One great story that he apparenly left out out his book has to do with the voiceover for the Think Different ad.  Richard Dreyfuss spoke on the final version, and Segall considered having Steve Jobs read the script which would have made sense to me.  But in a post on his blog, Segall reveals that another person brought in to record a voiceover for possible use in that commercial was none other than Phyllis Diller.  Read his post to find out why that turned out to be an even worse idea than you might imagine.
• And finally, when I reviewed the WhaleTail earlier this week, I mentioned that some might think it strange to see the tail of a whale connected to your iPad, especially if you are in court or a serious meeting.  But for those who want to push the envelope even more, Florida attorney Rick Georges shows us the iDuck Stand.  Read his post for more information, but this picture may well speak for itself.  When you are ready to make your purchase, get $19.90 in your hand and click here to get it from KON store.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

Click here to get WiseLii (free):