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One of the biggest iPhone stories this week took place just yesterday, when Facebook debuted a new feature called Facebook Places for the iPhone, a location-based social network.  Simply tap one button in the Facebook app to see a list of nearby places, tap the one that corresponds to where you are (a restaurant, a bar, a park, a zoo, etc.) and a Facebook status update announces where you are to your friends.  It is similar to other location-based social networks such as Foursquare and Gowalla (although it lacks the extra features of those services such as the game aspects).  Of course, if you are like most attorneys who I know, you have no desire to let other people know where you are and indeed may consider that an invasion of your privacy.  If so, you’ll still want to pay attention to Facebook Places because if you are one of the 500 million people with a Facebook account, even if you don’t use the feature, any of your Facebook friends can use it for you and check you in at a location.  So if a friend joins you at a restaurant, or even just sees you across the room at the restaurant, he can indicate on Facebook that both of you are at the restaurant — or, for that matter, at a bar or other location.  If you want to prevent others on Facebook from doing this, you’ll have to change your Facebook privacy settings.  Thus, for some people Facebook Places will be a cool new feature, but for others it will be an annoying invasion of privacy that forces them to change privacy settings to opt out.  For more information, including advice on protecting your privacy, check out these articles by Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal, Miguel Helft and Jenna Wortham of the New York Times and Adrian Chen of Valleywag.  By the way, the new version of the Facebook app for the iPhone also lets you upload pictures and video in the background.  Other news of the week that might be of interest to you:

• If you practice bankruptcy law, you’ll be interested to learn that West has released the Norton Bankruptcy Dictionary as an iPhone app.  Click here for Norton Bankruptcy Dictionary ($4.99): 

  

• Oxford, Mississippi attorney Tom Freeland writes about Pano, an iPhone app that lets you take panorama photographs.
• Nick Spense of Macworld UK writes about updates to LogMeIn Ignition, an iPhone app that I use all the time.  (My review is here.)
• Steven Sande of TUAW reports that Apple was awarded patents for two iPhone features: slide to unlock and keyboard letter pop.  I use both features every day, and I bet you do too.
• David Pogue of the New York Times describes three iPhone 4 tips.
• David Kravets of Wired reports on a federal Second Circuit ruling that using an iPhone to secretly record a conversation does not violate the federal Wiretap App if used for legitimate purposes.  (Keep in mind, though, that you also need to be aware of state laws on recording conversations, and if it is an attorney recording the conversation, the state rules of professional conduct may also limit or prohibit the practice.)
• Brian Chen of Wired writes that the director of Apple’s App Store also has apps that he wrote in the app store, including a fart app.  No word on whether Apple will soon release an official, Apple-sanctioned fart app.
• One of the reasons that Apple has resisted putting Adobe Flash on the iPhone is that, until recently, there was no software that allowed one to run Flash on a mobile device.  There is now a Flash app for Android, and according to Avram Piltch of Laptop magazine, it has serious flaws, suggesting that it is probably a very good thing that we don’t have Flash on the iPhone.  (Link via Daring Fireball.)
• I recently wrote about a backdoor method to use the volume buttons to take pictures with the Camera+ app.  Apparently Apple wasn’t too happy about that undocumented feature because the app was pulled from the App Store. Lex Friedman of Macworld argues that Apple should let developers access the volume button.  I agree and I hope that Apple reconsiders.
• And finally, Rene and Georgia at TiPb tested two skins for the iPad — the Invisible Shield (which I reviewed here) and BodyGuardz — against a severe scratch test.  If you have the stomach for it, you can watch the brutal test below.  (Spoiler alert:  both held up quite well and the iPad was protected.  Whew!)

As I noted this past Friday, this is a slow time of year for iPhone news, especially iPhone news that I think might be especially interesting for lawyers.  I’m working on some app reviews, but they are not ready to post yet, and as a result I had nothing iPhone-related to post yesterday and the same is true for today.

While we have this pause in normal operations, I thought that this would be a good time to recommend that you become a regular reader of the great legal humor blog Lowering the Bar.  The blog is the creation of Kevin Underhill, an attorney in the San Francisco office of Shook, Hardy & Bacon and (like me) a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center.  Underhill consistently provides humorous takes on law-related news of the day, and it is rare that I make it through one of his posts without laughing, or at least smiling.  (Heck, even his “About” and “Disclaimer” pages are pretty humorous.)  

I believe that Underhill is an iPhone user [he told me after this post went live that he uses an iPhone 3GS], and every once in a while he might happen to mention something about the iPhone on Lowering the Bar — such as his post on the Phoenix Wright iPhone game or his post “Epic Trademark Battle Erupts Between Makers of Competing Fart-Sound Software” — but don’t expect to hear much about the iPhone on his blog.  Instead, expect to read about absurd scenarios giving rise to even more ridiculous lawsuits, funny contractual provisions (I love this one) and Kevin’s sometimes bizarre but always funny take on the events of the day.

If you use an RSS reader, I encourage you to add his site to your feed.  Otherwise, be sure to visit Lowering the Bar from time to time, whenever you need a good laugh.

I am often asked about using the iPhone to take dictation, and when this happens next, I plan to refer to this recent post by Ernie Svenson.  I have never really used dictation, even when I started my law practice over 15 years ago and it was the norm for attorneys, because I am a good typist and I know my way around Microsoft Word.  Thus, I have never been able to say much on the topic.  The only dictation that I do on my iPhone is that I dictate short e-mails and have them transcribed using the amazing and free Dragon Dictation app that I reviewed late last year.  I love Dragon Dictation, but you are not going to use that app to dictate even a section of a brief, let alone a whole brief; that app works best for just a few sentences.

Earlier this year I reviewed SpeakWrite, an iPhone app and service that will transcribe what you record on your iPhone, and I know that many lawyers love that service. Keep in mind, however, that you need to pay for every word that you have transcribed.

If you would prefer to have the computer handle dictation instead of paying a person to do it, the best iPhone solution appears to be to record your voice using an iPhone app and then transfer the recording over to your computer so that a robust program (like Dragon NaturallySpeaking on the PC or MacSpeech Scribe on the Mac) can turn what you said into a brief, letter, etc.  New Orleans attorney Ernie Svenson recently described his solution which uses the $9.99 Dictamus iPhone app and the $149 MacSpeech program on his Mac.  Svenson points out that it is handy to use your iPhone to do the recording because you are always going to have your iPhone with you, unlike a dedicated recorder or a headset connected to your computer.

If you are interested in learning more about using your iPhone to handle your dictation, check out Svenson’s good article on his Ernie the Attorney website to read about how he is doing it.

My law firm has offices across the Gulf Coast, from Texas to Florida.  Quite a few have joked that my firm only puts offices in states that are targets for hurricanes.  (Not true, we also have three offices in Tennessee!)  Thankfully, this has been a quiet hurricane season so far, but one cannot get too comfortable with headlines like this:  Despite Slow Start, Government Still Expecting Heavy Hurricane Season.  Lovely.  But one thing that attorneys know is that if you plan for contingencies, you’ll be prepared even when bad things happen. 

There is a new $3.99 app that will help you prepare for the next severe hurricane, especially a hurricane that forces an evacuation.  The flagship app is called iVacuate, and it is designed especially for people here in New Orleans.  But there is also $1.99 app called iVacuate – Basic which is aimed at people elsewhere in the Gulf Coast region and lacks the New Orleans-specific features.

iVacuate tries to take all of the information that you would need during a hurricane and put it into a single app.  First, the app includes Twitter-style updates on the latest hurricane.  The app also includes a world map that shows you the current location of a hurricane.  Fortunately, we don’t have anything in the Gulf of Mexico right now, but here is a screen shot that I took on August 7, 2010 when Tropical Storm Colin was in the Atlantic:

  
 

You can zoom in or out on the map, and the blue dot shows your current location.  One feature I would like to see added to this map is a tail on the hurricane / tropical storm so that you can see the track.  I also wish that the app included some of the projected paths from the National Hurricane Center and the major computer models.  

The app has lots of features to help you plan an evacuation.  First, the app includes information on the New Orleans contraflow plans.  Contraflow is a system designed to speed up the evacuation of a city by reversing the flow on the Interstate lanes that would normally be headed into a city so that all lanes head outward.  The system works well to speed up an evacuation, but you need to be prepared for it because certain lanes will force you to go a certain direction.  If you plan to leave New Orleans and head towards Mississippi, you need to be careful not to be in the lanes that force you to go towards Houston.  Because contraflow is not something put into effect very often, it is difficult to remember which lanes you need to be in.  This app shows you your current location and helps you to plan for the lane changes.

  
 

To plan for a hurricane you should also prepare a disaster supply kit for those times when you don’t plan to evacuate but you know that it is possible to lose power, water, etc. for a long period of time.  The app has a section to help you prepare your kit.  The app also includes a checklist of things to do to prepare for a hurricane.

  

The app is full of interesting information, some of which was provided by Evacuteer, a volunteer organization that assists with evacuations.  Almost all of the information in this app can probably be obtained from other sources if you want to do the legwork yourself, and there are ways to duplicate some of the features of iVacuate.  For example, the app helps you get a list of nearby gas stations to use when you are driving, but you can do that yourself just by using the Maps app and searching for “gas.”  But even though you can reproduce many of the app’s features without iVacuate, the value of the app is to put a lot of information in one place.  When preparing for a hurricane, it is easy to get nervous and forget something, so having a central location for lots of important information can be helpful.

If you want more information, the New Orleans ABC affiliate television station did a short piece on iVacuate, which you can view here.

Click here to get iVacuate ($3.99): 

Click here to get iVacuate Basic ($1.99): 

 I didn’t run across very many interesting iPhone-related news items this week that I considered worth sharing here, but perhaps the quality helps to make up for the lack of quality?  I suppose that we are in the technology doldrums of Summer when not much happens of note.  Or maybe it’s just because it is Friday the 13th?  Anyway, take a look at these if you missed them this week:

• Apple released iOS 4.0.2 for iPhone this week.  The update fixes a single security flaw that could be used by a website to install software on an iPhone without the user knowing about it..  There are no reports of any bad guys exploiting this flaw to harm an iPhone, but this was the flaw that was being used by many for the last two weeks to jailbreak an iPhone by simply visiting a website. I’m sure that the jailbreakers already have a new technique planned, but I am glad that Apple addressed this serious security flaw so quickly before it was used for evil purposes.
• John Gruber of Daring Fireball shares his thoughts on a possible Verizon iPhone in January of 2011.
• Eric Taub of the New York Times reviews some new battery chargers for the iPhone.
• Jeanna Wortham of the New York Times wonders about rules of etiquette on using your smartphone to text or check e-mail.
• Nashville attorney Barry Shrum provides four thoughts on the iPhone 4.
• iSmashPhone reviews CardMunch, an app that scans business cards.
• Lifehacker posted a list of its editors’ favorite iPhone apps.  I don’t agree with all of the choices, but there are certainly some great ones in there.
• According to this statistical analysis by an online dating service, people who take their profile picture with an iPhone, without a flash, in the afternoon are more likely to have sex.  So now you know.
• And finally, following up on recent studies indicating that a huge percentage of BlackBerry owners plan to move to an iPhone, the always funny web comic The Joy of Tech shared this tale of breakup:

Have you ever found yourself out and about, perhaps visiting another city, looking for a free Wi-Fi hotspot?  Perhaps you want to download an app or a podcast that is too big to be downloaded over 3G.  Here are two quick ways to find free Wi-Fi zones on your iPhone.

First, using the iPhone’s built-in Maps app, just do a search for “Free wifi” and you will see some entries:

 

Second, you can find one of the thousands of free AT&T Wi-Fi locations (such as McDonald’s and Starbucks) by using the free AT&T Mark the Spot app.  When I reviewed that app last year, I noted that even if you never want to use the app for its intended purpose (alerting AT&T when you find a spot with poor 3G coverage), the app is a very useful way to select a spot on a map and immediately see (1) the latitude and longitude coordinates of that specific location and (2) the street address.  The address feature is especially useful — it’s a quick way to look at a map and learn whether a part of the street is, say, the 800 block or the 900 block. 

Additionally, the Mark the Spot app added a feature since I reviewed it last year to show you all AT&T hotspots on a map.  To use this, just start the app and tap the “Map” button on the main screen.  This will bring you to a map, where you can tap a button to see your current location or you can scroll around the map.  Orange icons show you where you can find an AT&T hot spot.

  
 

In my tests, the information in Google Maps and the AT&T Mark the Spot app is sometimes out of date.  You may walk to a spot only to find that the facility is now closed or under new management with free Wi-Fi no longer offered.  But most of the time these two methods have proved accurate for me, so don’t forget about these two easy ways to find free Wi-Fi next time you need it.

Click here to get AT&T Mark the Spot (free): 

 Camera+ is a very useful app
if you use your iPhone to take photographs,  It includes lots of great
editing features and gives you the option
to have the iPhone wait until you are holding the iPhone perfectly still
before a picture is taken, reducing the risk of blurry pictures.  It can display an onscreen grid when you take a picture so that you can make sure that your picture is straight.  The app also greatly improves on the built-in Camera app’s ability to focus and set white balance while taking a picture by tapping a spot on the screen; this app lets you tap once for focus and then tap a second time for exposure, allowing you to focus in one one part of the image while adjusting the white balance based on another part of the image.  That one feature alone, while somewhat difficult to describe in words, let’s you take much better pictures that you can with the built-in Camera app.

Another nice feature is that Camera+ saves pictures to a “lightbox” within the app itself so that you can later select the pictures that are worth saving to the Photos app on the iPhone.  Besides editing pictures in the lightbox by cropping them, adding borders, etc., the app comes with a bunch of great filters, far better than any other camera app I’ve seen.  For example, the “flash” filter does a great job of adding (fake) light to a picture that you took in a dark room.  Other filters can really make your pictures pop or make them much more artistic.  The filters were created by photographer Lisa Bettany.  All of this in an app that costs only $2.

  
 

But I’m not reviewing this app today because of any of the great features noted above.  Instead, I love that this app has finally enabled the feature of using the volume buttons on your iPhone to take a picture.  I find that whenever I press the onscreen virtual button to take a picture, I always move my iPhone slightly, which sometimes makes the picture somewhat blurry.  But by holding an iPhone firm in my hand and then just pressing one of the volume buttons on the side, I find it much easier to take pictures, plus the iPhone shakes less so the pictures are more sharp.

But the thing is, this feature is hidden in this app.  The developers at TapTapTap have wanted to add this feature for a long time.  The last update to this app submitted to Apple actually contained NOTHING new except for this one feature just to force Apple to focus on whether to allow it.  But unfortunately, as the developer explains
on the TapTapTap blog, Apple rejected the version of the app with this feature on the
grounds that it might cause user confusion.  I strongly disagree, and if
you do too, the post includes information on how you can let Apple know
that it should change its mind. 

If Apple rejected the version of this app with the feature, why am I talking about it?  Well, apparently a little birdie told Dan of the UneasySilence blog that anyone with the Camera+ app can enable the volume button as a shutter feature just by going into the Safari app on the iPhone and typing as the URL:  camplus://enablevolumesnap — which will cause the Camera+ app to open with the secret feature added.  If you ever want to disable the feature, just go back to Safari and type camplus://disablevolumesnap.

Is Apple going to let the developers get away with this backdoor?  I hope so.  If Apple’s only concern is user confusion, this solves that problem.  Nobody is going to type in that command in the Safari browser unless they know exactly what they are doing and why they are doing it.  No confusion at all.  Everybody’s happy.  Right?

I’m not sure whether Apple will let this one continue to work, but for now at least, an app that I already use all the time whenever I take pictures has now become much more useful because of this little hack.  I hope it lasts, and frankly I hope that Apple changes its mind and lets TapTapTap add this as a non-hidden feature.

[UPDATE 8/12/10: It looks like Apple removed Camera+ from the App Store.  Oh well.]

Click here for Camera+ ($1.99): 

Back in early 2009, I noted
that when an app developer tried to be cute in the descriptions of the
update to his app by adding to the legitimate descriptions of what is
new in the update the note “Extra Dragons,” Apple rejected the app
update until the developer removed that joke.  A few months later, I noted that Google updated its Google Mobile App and Apple approved an update description that included the jokes “Longer version number”
and “Ninja.”  Either the jokes slipped by Apple, or Apple is more lenient towards Ninjas than Dragons.

Last month, Bump Technologies LLC updated its free Bump app to version 2.0, and I chucked when I saw in the description the item “Extra Magic”:

The Bump app has since been updated again and the joke about magic is no longer there.  Nevertheless, it was fun to see Apple letting developers show a little sense of humor.  Either that, or Apple just considers “magic” to be on the approved list of what a developer can say, along with “ninjas” and unlike “dragons.”  After all, Apple likes to talk about its own products being magical, and is now even selling two products with “magic” in the name: the Magic Mouse and the Magic Trackpad.  (If you are thinking about buying the Magic Trackpad, New Orleans attorney Ernie Svenson wrote a favorable review.)

For the record, there is no discrimination here on iPhone J.D., and I afford full rights to magicians, ninjas and dragons.

If you spend a lot of time working at a desk in an office, I strongly encourage you to invest in a dock for your iPhone.  It gives you a specific location to place your iPhone while you are working at your desk so that you always know where it is and don’t have to hunt for your iPhone under a stack of papers.  It allows the iPhone to stand upright so you can easily see the screen to check the time or display a document or a photograph.  Although the iPhone screen is small, it allows you to have a second monitor at your desk, so that for example you can use your entire computer screen to draft a brief while your iPhone screen shows you the latest e-mails.  Plus, as long as the iPhone is in the dock it is charging, so whenever you pick up the iPhone to go someplace you know that you have a full charge.

 

I first purchased an Apple iPhone 3G Dock back in 2008 (and I reviewed it here) and that same dock worked with my iPhone 3GS.  Because the iPhone 4 has a different shape I knew that I would need a new dock, and I did not hesitate to place my order right away.  The Apple iPhone 4 Dock is $29.00, which seems somewhat overpriced for what it is.  You don’t even get a cable; just a tiny box that is barely large enough to hold the dock itself.

 

If you are like me, you have extra iPhone cables from your previous iPhone models so you won’t have to go out and buy another one.  To set up the dock at your desk, you can of course connect the USB end of the cable to your computer, but I actually don’t do that at my office.  I sync my iPhone with my Mac at home, not my PC at work, so I just need to get power to the dock.  The iPhone cable is not long enough to reach to a power strip on the floor or an outlet on the wall, but you can purchase extender cables to solve that problem.  I use this simple, $8 white 3 foot cable that I purchased on Amazon.  Place the dock in a convenient location on your desk (I keep mine right next to my computer monitor) and you are good to go.

 

The back of the dock has ports where you can plug in an Apple Component or Composite AV Cable to send video from the iPhone to a TV or video projector, or you can connect an AV cable to play the music from the iPhone on a stereo.  I have never used those ports so I cannot comment on how they work.

If you own a prior model of the dock, how does this one compare?  The size is very similar, although not quite as deep.  Because of the squared-off design of the iPhone 4, it fits in the dock more snugly than the iPhone 3G or 3GS fit in the older version of the dock.  I’ve seen some people online claim that this means that you need two hands to take the iPhone 4 out of the base.  That is wrong; they just don’t know how to do it.  Just place the side of your hand on the back of the base, grab your iPhone 4 with your thumb and index finger, and lift the iPhone out. 

 

One downside of having docks custom made for the particular iPhone model is that you may need to get a new dock when the next iPhone comes out.  The 3G and 3GS had the same shape, and who knows whether next year’s model of the iPhone will have the same shape as the iPhone 4.  If you want to future-proof the dock, an alternative is to get the $49 Apple Universal Dock.  As the name implies, the Universal Dock will work with most any model of iPod or iPhone, you just have to use the correct size dock adapter in the Universal Dock. The Universal Dock is larger; here is the iPhone 4 Dock and the Universal Dock (with an iPhone 4 insert) side by side:

 

Unlike the iPhone-specific dock, the Universal Dock comes with a remote control (the same remote that comes with Mac computers).  If you decide to hook up your dock to a TV or a stereo, I’m sure that having the remote makes it more convenient to play and pause, skip forward and backwards, etc.  Again, I haven’t tested that feature.

Currently, when you purchase the Universal Dock, it comes with dock adapter inserts that fit the iPod nano (4th and 5th generations), iPod
touch (2nd generation), iPod classic (80GB and 120GB/160GB) and iPod
with video (30GB) and iPhone 3G and 3GS.  Thus, you’ll need to also purchase an insert that fits the iPhone 4.  I’m sure that in the future, the Universal Dock will include iPhone 4 adapters.  For now, Apple separately sells a 3-pack for $9.  Since I bought a Universal Dock many years ago to use with an iPod, I just had to spend $9 to make the Universal Dock compatible with my iPhone 4.  I usually keep the Universal Dock in my bedroom so that I have a convenient place to place my iPhone 4 for it to charge overnight.

 

There are other companies that make docks for the iPhone, but I’ve always been happy with the Apple docks.  They have a good weight to them so that your iPhone isn’t going to fall over, plus they have a rubberized bottom to keep the dock in place.  

For now, I believe that the only place to buy the iPhone 4 dock is through Apple, either a store or the website.  Here are some direct links.

Click here for the iPhone 4 Dock ($29.00).

Click here for the Apple Universal Dock ($49.00).

Click here for the Apple iPhone 4 Universal Dock Connector 3-Pack ($9.00).

Click here for the white USB extender cable on Amazon ($8.07).

There was no iPhone J.D. last week, so here are some of the news items that I ran across over the last two weeks that you might enjoy reading if you missed it the first time.

• George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley notes that rape charges were dropped against a man in Australia after forensic examination of the accuser’s iPhone revealed evidence that the relationship was consensual.  You usually hear these sorts of stories in the context of a divorce (evidence of extramarital relations).  It is interesting to see it in this context.
• Neil Hughes of AppleInsider reports on a new survey of iPhone 4 owners that determined that iPhone 4 owners have fewer dropped calls than iPhone 3GS owners.  I rarely got dropped calls with my iPhone 3GS, and the same is true with my iPhone 4, so I cannot report it being any better or worse.
• Attorney Robert Ambrogi reports on an iPhone app from MSI Global Alliance that provides a directory of member law firms.
• According to Paul Miller of Engadget, Nielsen reports that 89% of iPhone owners plan to get another iPhone, but 50% of BlackBerry users plan to defect to iPhone or Android.
• Similarly, Robert Cyran and Peter Thal Larsen write
  
  in an article in the New York Times that Blackberry’s
  
  dominance may be ending now that more than 80% of the Fortune 100
  
  companies are testing or deploying the iPhone and Google’s Android
  
  operating system is also making inroads.
• On a related note, John Cox of Network World reports that according to Forrester Research, the iPhone is not quite as secure as the BlackBerry, but is now secure enough for large enterprise organizations to approve the iPhone for deployment.  (Link via Niki Black)
• Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal wrote one of the very first reviews of the iPhone 4.  Six weeks later, he writes a follow up review, explaining that as long as you are in an area with decent AT&T coverage, the iPhone is “the best of the super-smartphones.”
• The last time that Minneapolis attorney Randall Ryder wrote about
  
  the iPhone on the Lawyerist, he said that lawyers don’t need it.  As
  
  you can tell from my review yesterday, I disagree.  About a week ago, Ryder wrote about the iPhone again, suggesting that any lawyer who does use the iPhone should consider using Skype as an office phone.  I
  
  can’t imagine making Skype my primary office number, but Skype is a
  
  useful app, and I’ve used it in the past when I was in another country
  
  looking to call home for pennies and when I’ve needed to make calls in
  
  places with Wi-Fi but little to no AT&T signal.
• The Mobile Transcript app, which I reviewed this past May, allows you to view  depositions formatted for your iPhone or iPad.  A recent update added some great new features including keyword search, the ability to jump to the next highlight or a specific page, and the ability to email transcripts from within the app, including PDF versions containing your yellow highlights.
• Attorney David Sparks wrote an extensive review of OmniFocus for iPad.
• Attorney Craig Ball reports on using his iPad in trial.
• Attorney Finis Price discusses using the iJuror app on an iPad to assist with jury selection.
• And finally, Rainn Wilson, the talented actor who plays “Dwight” on The Office, has a Posterous account on which he often posts pictures that (I believe) he takes with his iPhone.  You never know what you will find there.  One day he takes a picture of co-stars at a Comic-Con 2010 panel, another day he posts a picture of a prop from The Office.  He recently posted what I imagine must be a 100% true (ahem) picture of his iPhone inbox.  (It contains adult themes, so avert your eyes if you are easily offended.)