Chris Mills, an attorney in the New Jersey office of Fisher & Phillips, wrote to me yesterday to say that he sometimes uses his iPhone as a speakerphone but wishes that the volume was louder so that it would be easier for others in the room to hear the speaker. He asked me whether the Scosche BoomCAN that I reviewed yesterday might be solution to this problem. It is, although there are some limitations. I’ve been asked about making the iPhone speakerphone louder in the past so I’m using this post to share my answer to that attorney with all iPhone J.D. readers.
First, the basics. Hopefully, you know that you can turn your iPhone into a speakerphone simply by pressing the “speaker” button on the phone:
Apple uses noise cancellation technology so that when the other person is speaking and that voice comes through the iPhone’s internal speaker, that voice isn’t picked up again by the iPhone’s microphone and send back to that person (causing an echo).
If you find that your iPhone’s internal speaker isn’t loud enough when using your iPhone as a speakerphone, you can certainly use an external speaker to make it louder. The Scosche BoomCAN that I reviewed yesterday and which you can pick up on Amazon for around $20 is a very portable and inexpensive option, but obviously you can use more expensive external speakers to get even better sound.
Unfortunately, in my experience, when you use an external speaker there is a greater chance that the person on the other end of the call will hear an echo when speaking. I suppose the iPhone knows how to cancel noise when the source is the iPhone’s own internal speaker, but once you add an external speaker into the mix, the iPhone will start to send back some of that same audio. You won’t hear anything wrong on your end, but the person on the other end will hear a slight echo. It isn’t horrible, but it might be enough to be annoying. You can eliminate this echo by manually tapping the mute button on your iPhone. The other person will still sound loud through your external speaker, and they won’t hear any echo. Of course, once it is time for you to talk you’ll need to turn off mute and then press it again when you are done so that the other person is talking. For some conversations this will be a real pain. Other times, though, you may find yourself on a big conference call where you don’t plan on speaking much anyway and you would normally stay on mute for most of the call, and in these circumstances, using the mute button is not a big deal.
There are more expensive solutions to this problem, such as an external Bluetooth speaker that has a speakerphone function. Examples include the Soundmatters foxLv2 ($200), the Jawbone JAMBOX ($180) and the Uniden BTS200 ($100). I haven’t had the opportunity to test a speaker in the category yet. They all advertise some form of noise and echo cancellation to eliminate the problem I noted above, but frankly I’ve seen both good and bad reviews of the speakerphone functions on these types of devices.
So if you find yourself wishing that you could get more speaker volume when you use your iPhone as a speakerphone, there are several solutions. It really just depends on how much you want to spend. If you are looking for something that is portable and inexpensive, and either don’t mind the slight echo that it will cause or are willing to use your mute button to avoid it, then the BoomCAN that I reviewed yesterday is a good solution.
Yesterday I reviewed the iMainGo X, an iPhone case that doubles as a portable speaker. But if you are looking for the ultimate in portability and aren’t looking for premium quality sound, the new $25 BoomCAN from Scosche is just what you need.
Let’s start with the most obvious feature. This thing is small. Seriously small. It is about 2.25" high and about 1.75" wide. The press release calls this item “slightly larger than a film canister,” for those of you who can remember the days when one had to wait to have pictures processed at a lab before viewing them. (I know, crazy, right?) It only weighs 2.25 ounces, less than half the weight of the iPhone 4. You can easily toss the BoomCAN into a purse, a briefcase, or even a pocket. It is the most portable iPhone or iPad speaker that I’ve ever seen.
The BoomCAN comes with a cord that has a mini-USB plug at one end that connects to the BoomCAN. Two cords are attached to that plug. One has a standard 3.5 mm headphone jack on the end that you can plug into an iPhone or iPad (or virtually any other audio device). The other cord has a USB plug that you use to charge the BoomCAN.
The BoomCAN contains a rechargeable 300 mAh lithium-ion battery that is advertised to last for 4 to 7 hours. (I never had a need to use it for more than a few hours so I never tested the battery life.) A light on the BoomCAN is red while charging and changes to blue when the charge is complete. (When you are not charging the BoomCAN, the light turns blue when it is on.) You can use the USB cord to charge the BoomCAN at the same time that you are using it.
A switch on the bottom of the BoomCAN has three settings: off, Volume 1 and Volume 2. Volume 2 is louder than Volume 1, but Volume 1 is still much louder than the iPhone or iPad’s internal speakers. The bottom of the BoomCAN also has a rubber ring that does a great job of keeping the BoomCAN in place:
The BoomCAN has a 3.5 mm audio out port on the side, so you could daisy-chain multiple BoomCANs together for more volume (but not stereo).
You can get a BoomCAN in black, blue, red or silver.
The trade-off for the small size is less audio quality compared to other external speakers. The sound is nowhere close to a high-quality external speaker like my Bose SoundDock Portable, but of course that speaker is a foot by six inches and weighs five pounds, not to mention the cost of several hundred dollars. As much as I love my Bose when I’m listening to music at home, I’ll never be able to toss the Bose inside of my pocket. The sound quality and maximum volume is also somewhat lower than the portable iMainGo X that I reviewed yesterday. Keep in mind, for example, that the BoomCAN only has one speaker on the top, so you are not getting stereo.
On the other hand, compare the BoomCAN to the speaker inside of the iPhone itself. I often listen to music or a podcast on my iPhone 4 by just tapping play and not using headphones. Similarly, I’ve watched videos on my iPad 2 just using the internal speaker. I’m sure that you have done this too, and as you know the mono internal speakers on the iPhone and iPad are reasonable enough to get the job done, although not very loud. The BoomCAN sounds a little better than the internal speaker on the iPad, and is many times louder, more than enough to fill a room. So if you are in a room listening to something on your iPhone or iPad’s normal speakers and you find yourself wishing that the sound was louder, the BoomCAN is a major improvement.
I really like the BoomCAN. The small size and weight is great for travel, but also has an added benefit. The compact size makes it easy to keep it nearby all the time by storing it in your briefcase, purse, iPad bag, etc. That way, whenever you want to show off something with sound on your iPhone or iPad to someone else, you can quickly attach the BoomCAN and have a lot more volume. You can buy the BoomCAN directly from Scosche for only $25, which is a good value for a useful product like this, but if you click the below link you can get it for even less at Amazon, a great value. This is an inexpensive, useful and fun accessory for your iPhone or iPad.
There are tons of external speaker systems for the iPhone and iPod. In my house, I’ve used the Bose SoundDock Portable for over three years and I love that device. The sound is fantastic, and with the rechargable batteries and handle on the top it is easy to carry around from room to room or to the backyard. But even though “portable” is in the title and you could certainly take it with you in the car, the Bose is too big to take with you when you fly someplace or want to put something in a briefcase. For the last few weeks I’ve been testing two portable speakers for the iPhone that are small enough to take anywhere. Today, I’m reviewing the iMainGo X. (Thanks to RichardSolo for sending me a free review unit a few weeks ago.) There is a lot to like about this device. Tomorrow I’ll discuss the Scosche BoomCAN.
The iMainGo X is an interesting device whose size reminds me of the 1980s version of the Walkman, except instead of putting a casette tape inside of it, you put an iPhone inside of the iMainGo X. It is small enough to be very portable, but certainly isn’t tiny. (5.7" x 3.8" x 2.4") And it has some weight to it — the iPhone 4 alone weighs about 4.8 ounces; the iMainGo X without an iPhone inside weighs almost double that at 9 ounces. To use it you unzip the device. The left side contains the speaker and a rechargeable battery. The right side has a plastic lid that you remove to place your iPhone in the unit, along with one or more foam pieces (depending upon what model you are using) to keep it snug in the unit. You attach a plug to the headphone port on the iPhone.
Once the iPhone is inside, you zip the iMainGo X closed. One side of the device has a clear plastic window so that you can still touch the iPhone’s screen. Touching the screen through the plastic worked fine, but it is a little difficult to press the iPhone 4’s button when it is in the case; I wish the plastic screen was just slightly longer.
Once you start playing your music, podcast, etc., you flip the unit over so that you can hear the speakers. Unfortunately there is no built-in way to prop up the speakers, so I often just left it sitting on a table with the speakers pointed up. Sometimes I would lean the unit against something to prop it up somewhat.
There is no volume control on the unit itself; you control the volume on your iPhone. I don’t have any way to measure the loudness, but suffice it to say that this speaker is substantially louder than the iPhone’s built-in speaker. I found it way too loud (and distorted) if the volume was all the way up, but at around 50% the speakers were loud enough to fill a relatively quiet room. Obviously, a device of this size is not going to rival a full stereo system or my Bose, but the music sounded very good to my ears, and obviously podcasts sounded fine.
I love that this unit is small enough to be so portable for travel, but I wasn’t a big fan of accessing the iPhone through the plastic screen. As a result, often when I used this unit, I would take the cord out of the iMainGo X but otherwise zip it up and keep the iPhone outside of the unit, making it much easier to access the iPhone’s controls. Also, there was one time a few weeks ago when I wanted to show off my iPad’s GarageBand app to someone, and I found that the iPad’s internal speaker was not loud enough to hear in a room with background noise. Thus, I attached my iPad to the iMainGo X and it sounded great and was more than loud enough.
On the other hand, there will be times when having an iPhone inside of the iMainGo X is an advantage. First, it is nice to carry around just one unit containing both your iPhone and the speakers. Second, using the iMainGo X is a case could be useful when you want to protect an iPhone from the elements. The device is not completely waterproof, but it is water resistent. I can see using a device like this at the beach if you don’t want sand getting in the iPhone.
Note that if you are just using the iMainGo X to protect your iPhone, you don’t have to use the speakers and share your music with everyone in the vicinity. The device has two headphone ports on it, so you can keep your iPhone protected in the case while you listen to your music in privacy or share with one friend. There is also an audio input port that I didn’t test but opens up the possibility of using this device to record to your iPhone using a microphone or using this device as an external speaker for an electric guitar (although you may have to use an adapter to work with the standard 3.5 mm headphone plug).
This is the third generation of this product. The original iMainGo was for the iPod. (Here’s an iLounge review of that product from 2006.) The iMainGo 2 (which is still on sale for $40) works with the iPhone and is powered by AAA batteries. This third generation iMainGo X uses rechargable batteries (it comes with a charger), which is much more convenient and saves money on batteries. The iMainGo X also adds the headphone and microphone ports. In fact, if you wanted to go louder, you could actually use the headphone port to hook the iMainGo X to an additional external speaker.
So in sum, I love the portability of the iMainGo X. You can easily pack it in a suitcase or briefcase, although it is a little large for a smaller bag like the Tom Bihn Ristretto that I’ve been using lately. The sound quality is very good. What I’m not completely sold on is putting my iPhone inside of the iMainGo X. There could be circumstances in which this is a big plus, such as protecting your iPhone from the elements, but I’m not sure that I like having my iPhone zipped inside of something that makes it three times heavier, and I find it a little cumbersome to use the iPhone controls through the plastic window, although it does work. Still, if you are in the market for a portable speaker, you should consider this one. It might be the perfect fit for your needs, and I’ve enjoyed using it.
Note that if you purchase this item between now and the end of this month (Sept. 30, 2011), RichardSolo was nice enough to give iPhone J.D. readers a 15% discount, so you can get it for around $60. Just use the discount code “jeff” in the coupon code field during order entry.
Today is the last day for you to nominate your favorite law-related blog for the ABA Journal’s Blawg 100. You don’t need to register with the ABA to nominate a blog, and the form includes only a few questions so it is quick and easy to make a nomination. Click on this link if you want to tell the ABA Journal editors about one or more blawgs that you enjoy, whether it be iPhone J.D. or any other blog. And now on to the iPhone and iPad news of the week:
It seems like I report on this one every year, and I guess I do. For the sixth year in a row, Apple was the #1 smartphone manufacturer according to J.D. Power’s customer satisfaction survey, as noted by Jim Dalrymple of The Loop.
Even though the iPhone 4 has been out for well over a year, Neil Hughes of AppleInsider reports that it is still the #1 phone sold by both AT&T and Verizon. And on AT&T, the two year old iPhone 3GS is the #2 phone sold. (Verizon only sells the iPhone 4.) If the old iPhones are still selling this well, one can only imagine how many new iPhones Apple will sell when it releases the 2011 model — which I presume will be within the next six weeks.
You will soon be able to use your iPhone from virtually anywhere. Tim Greene of Network World reports that Iridium is coming out with a new device that will provide satellite-based internet access on your iPhone or iPad.
Julie Cohn of The Daily reports on iPads in the White House.
For the first time, the FTC has barred the sale of an iPhone app on the grounds that it makes an unsubstantiated health claim. As Grant Gross of IDG reports, the FTC has reached a settlement that stops the sale of apps that claimed to treat acne by using blue and red lights. Apparently there is some scientific support for treating acne with lights, but not at the intensity produced by an iPhone.
NBC updated its iPad app so that it now streams full episodes of shows, much like the ABC and CBS apps, as reported by Sue Megrund of AppAdvice. Click here for the NBC app (free):
Attorney Bill Latham of The Hytech Lawyer reviews and compares TrialPad, Exhibit A, and RLTC Evidence — three trial presentation apps for the iPad.
Latham also analyzes whether it is ethical for lawyers to store confidential documents on Dropbox.
Bob Tedeschi of the New York Times shares iPhone battery-saving tips learned from Hurricane Irene.
I often write about people using the Find My iPhone feature to locate a lost or stolen iPhone. Jesus Diaz of Gizmodo reports that Find My iPhone was used to locate the remains of a military plane that crashed over Chile.
A few weeks ago, I reviewed the PowerSkin, an iPhone case that includes a battery. Lex Friedman of Macworld reviews eight other iPhone cases with a battery.
MG Siegler of TechCrunch explains why the iPad is often such a good replacement for a PC.
And finally, in an apparent attempt to prove that the iPad is universally loved, Jan Uebelherr of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that orangutans at the Milwaukee Zoo love their iPads. Here is the video that accompanies the article:
Have you ever tried to look at an e-mail on your iPhone only to find that it seems to take forever to display the content of the message as you watch a wheel spin at the top of your screen, and then when something finally does appear, it is just an error message? Sometimes your iPhone tells you that the message cannot be displayed because of the way it is formatted. Other times it tells you that this message has not been downloaded from the server. Here is an example of one such error message that I encountered yesterday:
Once you get an error message like that, even if you go to another e-mail and then come back, you’ll still see the error message.
The solution: restart the Mail app. To force a restart of any app on your iPhone, hold down the Sleep/Wake button until a red slider appears, but don’t touch that slider. Instead, next hold down the Home button for a few seconds. This will force the app to quit. You can then tap the Mail icon to launch the app again and Mail will try again to download the content of that message.
In my experience, the most likely cause of this problem is a poor data signal. I encountered this problem yesterday the same place that I encounter it most of the time — at the Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, right after my plane landed while taxiing to the gate. I frequently have a hard time getting a reliable AT&T data signal on the runways of that airport, which means that it often takes a long time for new message to appear, and even when I finally see my list of new messages, I sometimes run into error messages like the one noted above.
Here are two related tips. First, sometimes you will see the content of an e-mail message, but your iPhone will have trouble downloading an attachment. After trying for a while, it will give up, and instead of seeing the correct icon for the attachment (such as Word file icon) you will see a blank box. Tapping that blank box does nothing. The solution is the same; restart the Mail app, and then let the iPhone try to download the attachment again.
Second, when you are in an area with poor data coverage and you get tired of waiting and waiting for Mail to appear, I often have good luck putting the iPhone into Airport Mode for a few seconds. (Go to the Settings app and then Airport Mode is the first option at the top.) Then turn off Airplane Mode, and the iPhone will try to get a new 3G signal. In my experience, I often have luck getting a better 3G signal for at least a little while, although sometimes in an area like an airport where there is heavy demand for limited resources, the signal will get worse over time. When that happens, I just use this same trick again and turn on Airplane Mode for a few seconds.
By the way, for new readers of iPhone J.D., here are some of the prior iPhone tips that I’ve covered on this website:
I suppose it is book week here on iPhone J.D. After yesterday’s review of iPad in One Hour for Lawyers, today I am reviewing another great book for beginning iPad owners, iPad for Dummies (2d ed.) by Edward Baig and Bob “Dr. Mac” LeVitus. I suspect that all of you are at least somewhat familiar with the For Dummies series of books — 1,600 titles that try to make just about any subject easy to understand. The book’s two authors are perfect for a subject like this. Ed Baig writes about personal technology for USA TODAY, Bob LeVitus has written the “Dr. Mac” column for the Houston Chronicle for 15 years and has authored dozens of books. Both men are experts at making complicated technology easy to understand.
The book is organized in five parts, each of which has multiple chapters. Here is a list of all of the chapters. The playful nature of many of the chapter titles gives you a sense of how this book was written to be a very approachable for all levels of users:
Unveiling the iPad
iPad Basic Training
The Kitchen Sync: Getting Stuff to and from Your iPad
Going on a Mobile Safari
The E-Mail Must Get Through
Surfin’ the Web without a Board (or at Least without Safari)
Apply Here (to Find Out about iPad Apps)
Get in Tune(s): Audio on Your iPad
iPad Video: Seeing is Believing
You Oughta Be in Pictures
Curling Up with a Good iBook
The iPad at Work
Setting You Straight on Settings
When Good iPads Go Bad
Accessorizing Your iPad
Ten Appetizing (and Free) Apps
Ten Apps Worth Paying For
Ten Hints, Tips and Shortcuts
As you can tell from this list, unlike the book that I reviewed yesterday which is designed to be consumed in about an hour, this book is comprehensive. It will take a while to read it straight though, and because of the way that the book is organized you can skip around — and this makes it a great resource. Even if you don’t read every page of this book, you’ll still like having it so that when you are trying to figure out how to do something specific — such as get pictures on your iPad or use the Map app to get directions — you can find those topics in the table of contents or index and jump right to that section. The text is easy to understand and presented in a straightforward format, plus the book is full of color pictures that help to walk you through exactly what you need to do.
In some ways, this book is like an owner’s manual for the iPad because it tells you how to do everything, what buttons to press, etc. The iPad is easy enough to use that there are surely many things that you can figure out on your own, but this book takes the guesswork out of those tasks, telling you for example exactly where you need to go in the Settings or Photos or Safari app to do a particular task and everything you need to tap to do so. As you do so, you’ll probably find yourself saying “oh yeah, this makes sense,” but the book leads you down those paths that you might not discover on your own.
Note that while this is the second edition of this book, this version came out in May of 2011. I was just sent a free review copy of the book a few weeks ago, and I find that even four months later, this book remains a great and timely resource for all of the basics. Having said that, when iOS 5 (the next version of the iPad operating system) comes out — which could be this month or next month — there may be some parts of this book that seem a little dated, but I suspect that the large majority of it will remain quite relevant.
You can purchase this book in either a hard copy or an electronic copy. I think this book is more useful in the hard copy format so that you can keep the book open to a page while you follow the steps on the iPad itself. (Plus, when someone else in your life gets their iPad, you can loan them your book to get them started.) Having said that, if you want to get more of a sense of this book before you buy it, take a look at the electronic version of this book in the iBookstore (link at the end of this review). You can download a free sample of the book which includes the full table of contents and the first five pages of Chapter 1 (which in total is 14 pages).
iPad for Dummies is a great manual for new iPad users. It covers tons of topics, it is easy to understand, and the writing style is casual and fun. The retail price is $25 but you can get it for less than that through these links:
I am constantly seeing lawyers get their first iPad. The first question many of them have is: OK, I have this iPad, now what? I often point people to this post I wrote in June that has advice for new iPad owners, but what if you want more? A great resource is the book iPad in One Hour for Lawyers by Tom Mighell. Tom is an attorney but now spends his time as a consultant, helping companies with records management and e-discovery issues. He is also the co-host of the Kennedy-Mighell Report, a legal technology podcast, and he publishes the website iPad 4 Lawyers, a great source for iPad tips and app reviews.
The aim of this book is to teach a lawyers the essentials of using an iPad but to do so in a book that can be consumed in just an hour. And you really can read this book in about an hour. There are six lessons in the book:
Navigating Your iPad and Browsing the Web
Setting Up Mail, Calendar, and Contacts
Managing Your iPad: Multitasking and Folders
Adding Files to Your iPad and Syncing Them
Being Productive on the iPad
Doing Lawyer Things on Your iPad — Legal Apps
The first four lessons are essentially iPad basics, information that would be useful to anyone who uses an iPad, but information that all iPad owners should definitely know. If you are coming to the iPad from an iPhone you may already know about much of what is in Lesson 1 (although maybe not), and if you work in a large law firm, you may be lucky enough to have some IT folks who can help you with much of what is in Lesson 2, but it is still useful to have a straightforward, short guide to these steps.
Where the book gets most valuable for any attorney using an iPad is Lessons 5 and 6. This is where the book offers all sorts of tips for using the iPad as a lawyer, things like taking notes on the iPad, creating and editing documents, and using lawyer-specific apps to do things like pick a jury or do a trial presentation. After the six lessons, the book then includes a “beyond the lessons” section that discusses some advanced topics like security, shortcuts, and advanced e-mail options.
The paper version of this book was released earlier this year, just as the iPad 2 was coming out, but the electronic version of the book just came out a few weeks ago and the ABA sent me a free review copy of the new electronic version. While a lot has happened in the world of the iPad since earlier this year, I didn’t come across anything in the book that is incorrect due to the passage of time. This book provides a great foundation for attorneys who are new to the iPad, who can then get more advanced and up-to-date information at websites like this one, iPad 4 Lawyers, Tablet Legal, etc. Any lawyer who is new to the iPad will get a lot out of this book.
You can purchase a hard copy of the book from the ABA for $35, or only $20 if you are a member of the ABA’s Law Practice Management Section, but I discourage you from doing so. [UPDATE: The book is also now available on Amazon.] Instead, you should purchase an electronic copy of this book to read on your iPad. Just the simple act of reading a book like this on your iPad will get you even more used to using the iPad, plus it will give you a chance to use the iBooks app on the iPad so you can see what it is like to read a book on an iPad. The ABA sells an electronic version of the book that works in the iBooks app for the same price as the hard copy of the book ($35 or $20), but you can buy this book in the Apple iBookstore for only $18. I consider $35 to be substantial amount of money for a book that you will largely consume in an hour (although you may use it as a resource long after that), but $18 is a great price for all of this information. Plus, buying a book in the iBookstore from within the iBooks app on the iPad is by far the easiest way to get a book on your iPad — an important consideration for the new iPad users who are the target of this book. Thus, while I am providing all three links below, I encourage you to use the last one:
The talk about Steve Jobs resigning as CEO continues, but what I find most interesting is how well Apple and Jobs handled this transition. There has been no major drop in Apple’s stock price and the consensus is that Apple is in good hands with Tim Cook. I’ll start today with three Steve Jobs-related articles that are worth reading, and then move on to the rest of the iPhone and iPad news of the week:
First, Casey Newton of the San Francisco Chronicle interviewed some famous Apple alumni to get their take on Jobs.
Third, moving from big publications to tiny publications, Lisen Stromberg wrote an article in the Palo Alto Patch called My Neighbor, Steve Jobs which provides some insight into Steve Jobs not as the CEO of Apple, but instead as just a regular father. You know, considering that Newsweek sold last year for only $1.00, the Palo Alto Patch may be actually worth more than Newsweek.
South Carolina Attorney John Martin writes about e-discovery implications of company employees using iPads in this article for Corporate Counsel.
The DOJ is moving to block AT&T’s merger with T-Mobile, as reported by the Dealbook blog of the New York Times.
As many folks discovered in unlikely places such as New York, Boston and Vermont, it is hurricane season. Andy Ihnatko, a Boston resident who writes for the Chicago Sun-Times, wrote an article with disaster preparation advice for you and your digital devices.
Amber Singleton Riviere of GigaOm recomends iOS apps to help you go paperless.
New Orleans attorney Ernest Svenson describes Adobe’s new iOS app in an article with a title that gives away the ending: “Adobe’s new iOS PDF app is lame.”
Stewart Wolpin of NBC writes “It’s an iPad World and We Just Live In It.”
Robert Frank of the Wall Street Journal writes that millionaires love the iPad.
Eli Milchman of Cult of Mac reviews six different styluses for the iPad. My current favorite stylus, the Kensington Virtuoso Stylus for Tablet, for some reason was not included in that stylus roundup.
And finally, this video is about two months old, but there is something strangely mesmerizing about watching The Pope use an iPad. It looks to me like this is the first time that His Holiness had either used an iPad or seen Twitter:
The Young Lawyers Section of the Maryland State Bar Association thought that it would be useful to create an iPhone and iPad apps for attorneys with the Maryland Rules of Professional Conduct and important rules for lawyers. After a grant from the Maryland Bar Foundation, the result is the free MSBA app, which just appeared on the App Store this week. Thanks to Erek Barron, chair of the YLS of the MSBA, for bringing this app to my attention.
The main menu of the app has two modes. When the app starts you are presented with five buttons (the app calls them “tabs”) that you can select: (1) The Maryland Rules of Evidence, (2) The Maryland Rules of Professional Conduct, (3) rules on Attorney Trust Accounts, (4) the Maryland Ideals of Professionalism and (5) the MSBA Code of Civility. Alternatively, you can display “list” mode which simply lists the chapters of all of these bodies of law in one long list. I’m not sure why the “list” view would ever be easier to use than the “tabs” view.
When you tap on a chapter you see all of the rules in that chapter. For example, tap on Rule 1"Client-Lawyer Relationship” and you see a long list of every rule and comment, from Rule 1.1 to Rule 1.18, in one long list divided up into four different parts. It is nice to get all of the text of the rules and comments in a free app, but I don’t understand the thinking behind putting all of the rules together. For example, if you want to review Rule 1.13"Organization as Client” you need to first tap Rule 1, then scroll all the way down to the bottom, then tap a button to go the next part, then scroll all of the way to the bottom again, then tap a button to go to the third part, and then you can find the rule. It would be so much faster to have all of the rules in an index so that you can jump straight to Rule 1.13. The other bodies of law, such as the Rules of Evidence, are similarly grouped into long lists under each chapter.
There is a search feature which allows you to do a full text search. Hits are highlighted in yellow making them easy to find … except that you have to scroll through that long list of rules to find the hits. You can also add bookmarks to each of the long sets of lists … which once again would be a much more useful feature if you could add bookmarks to jump to a specific rule.
The app also includes a Links button at the bottom which provides links to parts of the MSBA website including the MSBA Hotline, MSBA Ethics Opinions (for members only) and Fastcase (for members only). The inclusion of Fastcase is curious. Lawyers in Maryland who want to use Fastcase on a computer need to first login at the MSBA website because (like many other state bars) the MSBA purchased Fastcase access for its member attorneys. But if you are on an iPhone or an iPad, the Fastcase app is free to everyone, regardless of whether your state bar has a contract with Fastcase. Why would anyone want to tap a link to the Maryland website on an iPhone to access the web version of Fastcase when they can instead just use the fantastic Fastcase iPhone / iPad app?
I love that the Young Lawyers Section of the Maryland Bar saw the need for an app and created something that is free for all attorneys. This is even a universal app so you can use it on both the iPhone and the iPad. I disagree with the decision to lump sets of rules together because it makes it harder to find the one rule that you need, and perhaps a 2.0 version of this app will address that. Nevertheless, if you are a Maryland attorney, you should still get this free app in case you want to look up any of these rules. For everyone else, perhaps this app can serve as an example and an impetus for other state bar associations to provide useful iPhone and iPad apps to their members.
I know of a large number of attorneys and non-attorneys who use an iPad instead of a laptop when traveling. Because it is nice to use an external keyboard with the iPad when you don’t have access to a computer with a real keyboard, people have frequently asked me about cases (such as the original Kensington KeyFolio that came out last year) that hold both the iPad and a keyboard, transforming the iPad into something that looks sort of like a netbook. Thus, when Kensington offered to send me a free review sample of its new KeyFolio Pro which was announced in late June of 2011, I was eager to try out the product. For many people this will be a great iPad accessory, but for me I found the keyboard a little too small.
The KeyFolio Pro is an iPad case. The iPad slips into one side of the KeyFolio Pro. It is secured by a simple tab that doesn’t have velcro or a snap of any kind but does a great job of holding the iPad in place. When you close the case, the iPad is essentially protected on all sides. (The iPad’s four corners are technically exposed, but they are recessed from the corner of the KeyFolio so if something bumps the corner your iPad will probably be fine.)
The closed KeyFolio is 8" wide, 10.25" long and about an inch thick. So in other words, it is about the size of a typical high school yearbook. My iPad 2 weighs 21.0 oz. by itself; when in the KeyFolio Pro they together weigh 41.4 oz., so you are essentially doubling the weight. As a case, I really like the KeyFolio Pro. It feels very nice in the hands, includes a hole in the back for the camera so you can take a picture without removing the iPad 2, and is very sturdy. Note that the case does not lock in any way to stay closed, so if you drop the case it could open up and damage the glass on the iPad 2. But you can walk around with the KeyFolio in your hands and know that your iPad or iPad 2 has more protection than it would have without any protection at all or with just the Apple Smart Cover.
Of course, the reason to get this case is not just to cover the iPad but also to use the built-in keyboard. The keyboard works like the Apple Wireless Keyboard in that it pairs with the iPad via Bluetooth. The keys are study, perhaps just a slight bit more mushy than the Apple Wireless Keyboard, but they work well. The keyboard includes at the top the following keys which are also present on the Apple Wireless Keyboard:
Rewind
Play/Pause
Fast-forward
Mute
Decrease Volume
Increase Volume
Show/hide keyboard
The only special keys on the Apple Wireless Keyboard missing from the KeyFolio Pro are the increase and decrease brightness buttons. The KeyFolio Pro also includes additional dedicated keys that perform the following functions:
Home: just like pressing the Home button on the iPad, but you don’t have to lift your fingers from the keyboard — very handy.
Slideshow: instantly launch a slideshow, no matter what you are doing on the iPad. Normally you have to first go to the iPad’s lock screen to then see the button to launch a slideshow.
Search: a button that instantly brings you to the iPad search screen, which normally you have to access by pressing the Home button twice or swiping to the right from the first Home screen.
Lock: instantly turn off the iPad screen, just like pressing the Sleep/Wake button on the side of the iPad.
.com: instantly type “.com”
Control key: the Apple Wireless Keyboard has a single control key on the left; the KeyFolio Pro has one on the left and one on the right
Note that many of these keys — the Lock key for sure, but also the Home, Slideshow and Search keys — provide a privacy feature of some sort. If someone approaches your iPad and you want to instantly hide what is on the screen, you can press the Lock key to instantly make the screen turn black or those other keys to change what is on the screen.
There are a few other keys on the KeyFolio Pro that, to my knowledge, don’t do anything with the iPad 2. They are labled “Pause Break” “PrtSc SysRq” and “insert.” There is also a “delete” button at the top right that does the same thing as the backspace key just below it. The KeyFolio Pro also has a special button at the top of the keyboard called “connect” that you use to pair the keyboard with the iPad via Bluetooth. There are some lights at the top right of the keyboard that indicate things like power on, caps lock on, when the keyboard is ready to be paired via Bluetooth and when the keyboard is charging.
There is an on/off switch on the right side of the keyboard making it easy to save power. The keyboard charges via USB and Kensington advertises 90 hours of working time and 45 days of standby time. I did charge the keyboard every once in a while over the last few weeks, but I never had it run out of power so I wasn’t able to confirm the 90 hours (although I don’t doubt it).
One special feature of the KeyFolio Pro is somewhat hidden in the part that holds the iPad — that part spins. Thus, you can use the iPad in the landscape mode (the mode you would expect for a case like this) but you can also twist clockwise to put the iPad in a portrait mode.
If I were to stop now, this would be a fairly glowing review of the KeyFolio Pro … but I have one problem with this keyboard. The keys are too small for me. The Apple Wireless Keyboard has keys that are each 5/8" wide and which have about 1/8" between each key. The KeyFolio Pro keys are 9/16" wide and have just under 1/8" between each key. From one edge of the Q to the other edge of the P on the Apple Wireless Keyboard is about 7 3/8"; on the KeyFolio Pro that same span is about 6 3/4". Those differences sound small — we are talking about only around 1/16" per key —but they sure do make a difference for my fingers. The Apple Wireless Keyboard feels like a full-size keyboard because it is a full-size keyboard; it is the same keyboard that comes with many Macs. But whenever I type on the KeyFolio Pro, I feel like I am squishing my fingers together.
I recognize, however, that the problem here could just be me. I have larger hands, and in the past I’ve also found some compact netbooks too small for me to type on comfortably. Thus, I loaned the KeyFolio Pro to one of my colleagues who was seriously considering purchasing something just like this for her iPad and who has smaller fingers. (Is it sexist to say “typical female-sized fingers”? Maybe it is, so I won’t.) She used the KeyFolio for a week and told me that she had no problem with the key size at all. She did have some other complaints, though. First, she didn’t like the extra weight, which made her iPad feel more like a notebook computer, which defeated the purpose of the iPad for her. Second, she missed the Apple Smart Cover feature of putting the iPad to sleep automatically when covered; with the KeyFolio Pro you must first press that Lock key on the keyboard or press the Sleep/Wake button on the iPad and then close it. She also had some complaints that apply to any external keyboard, including the Apple model such as (1) the frequent need to reestablish a Bluetooth connection to the iPad before using the keyboard and (2) the need to frequently switch between touching the screen and using the keyboard. Thus, after a week of using the KeyFolio Pro, she decided that it wasn’t worth it to her to purchase a device like this.
For me, however, if it wasn’t for the keyboard being too small for my hands, I think that this would be a fabulous accessory for taking the iPad to meetings, court, or anyplace else when you want to give the iPad some protection (which of course adds weight, but that will be true no matter what kind of case you use) and you want to have an external keyboard. Indeed, an all-in-one option can be a nice advantage over carrying both the iPad and then also a keyboard.
So if you have larger hands like me, I cannot recommend the KeyFolio Pro. But if not, I would give this one a close look. It is a nicely designed, second-generation product gives you a simple way to protect your iPad while you also carry around and use an external keyboard, and it is quick and easy to remove the iPad from the KeyFolio Pro when you are not using it. The retail price is $99, but you can get it for only $62 on Amazon — $7 cheaper than the $69 Apple Wireless Keyboard, which is just a keyboard and doesn’t also include a case.
