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The iPhone 4 has been out for over a month now, and there are numerous, comprehensive reviews on the Internet.  However, one topic that I haven’t seen addressed elsewhere is whether an attorney who is currently using an older model of the iPhone should upgrade to the iPhone 4.  I was recently interviewed by the Quebec legal site Droit Inc. (Law Inc.) to discuss this very question, so you can read some of my thoughts here as long as you can read French (or don’t mind reading this imperfect Google translation).  If you’d rather get my complete thoughts directly from me (and in English!), the focus of this “review” of the iPhone 4 is whether those current iPhone owners who have been on the fence ought to upgrade.  In short, if you own an iPhone 3G (or earlier model), the answer is yes.  If you own an iPhone 3GS, the answer is probably.

The screen

Attorneys read a lot of text on their iPhone — e-mails, documents attached to e-mails, web pages, PDF and Word files that you keep with you, cases and statutes in an app like Fastcase, etc.  Unlike previous iPhones that had a 480 x 320 screen, the iPhone 4 doubles both
dimensions to provide four times the pixels, and thus the iPhone 4 has a 960 x
640 screen.  But those are just numbers, what does it mean in real life?  It means that text on the screen looks beautiful.  You cannot see the dots that make up the characters; it feels like you are reading a printed publication.  The reading experience is so much more pleasant that now, whenever I find myself looking at text on an earlier model of the iPhone, I am taken aback by the difference.  (And until about a month ago, I thought that the iPhone 3GS had a wonderful screen.)

Of course, it’s not just text.  Photographs are much richer on an iPhone 4, just beautiful to look at, and apps that have been optimized for the iPhone 4’s screen look much better.

Nevertheless, the #1 reason to upgrade to an iPhone 4 is that you will love the screen.  Reading text on a small screen is often less than ideal, but with the amazing iPhone 4 screen, you won’t mind.

Speed

If you are upgrading from an iPhone 3G (or earlier model), the speed increase of the iPhone 4 is incredible.  If you have an iPhone 3GS, the speed increase is noticeable, but not dramatic.

Why does speed matter?  It’s not like you are using your iPhone to create the next Star Wars movie (although it has been noted that the iPhone is more powerful than the computers that were used way back when to create Star Wars).  It matters because the increase in speed makes the iPhone so much more responsive.  E-mails, pictures and web pages jump to the screen more quickly, you can switch between apps more quickly, everything just has much more pep.  This speed makes you forget that the iPhone is doing work for you and instead lets you just focus on the subject of the task that you asked the iPhone to do.  With a faster iPhone, you are more efficient, and more importantly you feel much more efficient.

Of course, if you are a “power” iPhone user, the speed has other advantages as well.  For example, if you want to edit video shot on your iPhone using Apple’s iMovie app, you need to have the iPhone 4 because of its speed (and additional memory).  Older, slower iPhones are not really up to the task.

The iPhone 3GS is fast enough for most tasks that it is debatable whether the speed increase alone is a reason to upgrade.  But if you have an iPhone 3G, speed is likely to be one of the top reasons that you will be happy that you made the jump to the iPhone 4.

Kids

The iPhone 4 has a much better camera.  It can take five megapixel pictures (up from three on the iPhone 3GS, and up from two on the earlier models), plus it does a better job taking pictures in low light, plus it has an LED flash to take pictures in very low light.  And the improved camera also allows you to take HD video (720p at 30 fps).  Will that camera help your law practice?  Probably not, although it is worth noting that if you ever use an iPhone to take a picture of a document as a cheap substitute for a portable scanner, the better camera on the iPhone 4 will be a vast improvement.

But we all know that your life is more than just your law practice, it is about your loved ones, including, if you have them, your kids.  The better camera on the iPhone is great for people who have kids.  You never know when you will be at the park, the zoo, or just around the house when your child will start to do something cute.  Unless you are a professional photographer, you are unlikely to have a nice camera with you at all times, but you will have that iPhone and in just a few seconds you can get it from your pocket and shoot a picture or take a short video.  The iPhone lets you capture those moments to bring you smiles months and years from now.

As a side benefit, if you ever let your kids play with your iPhone (and in my experience, most children over two years old can figure out an iPhone and love to play with it), once you upgrade to an iPhone 4 you will have a spare iPhone that you can let them play with without worrying so much about whether they drop it.  (And without a working SIM card, you won’t have to worry about them making a call — unless you left your Skype app on there!)

While I’m talking about kids, I should mention that the iPhone 4 has a front-facing camera that allows you to do FaceTime video chats.  Right now the other person has to have an iPhone 4 for this feature to work, but I’m sure that any day now, Apple (or someone) will make it possible for an iPhone 4 to conduct a FaceTime session with a desktop or laptop computer running a program such as iChat.  Once this happens, you’ll be able to more easily use video chat to tell your kids goodnight when you are traveling, as long as you have Wi-Fi in your hotel room.

Better reception

Notwithstanding all of the recent news stories about how you can decrease the bars on your iPhone by touching a certain spot on the bottom of the left side, in my experience the reception on the iPhone 4 is much better.  I now get a 3G signal in locations where I never got one before.  In my opinion, Apple’s decision to put the antenna on the outside of the phone was one of trade-offs.  It leaves more space inside of the phone so that you can have a larger battery and longer battery life, plus the antenna on the outside usually gives you a better signal — unless you are in an area of weak coverage and you place your finger in that one spot.  Those trade-offs are definitely worth it, in my opinion.

If you love your current iPhone except for the fact that sometimes it doesn’t get a signal in certain locations, I suspect that you will find that the iPhone 4 does a better job in those problematic locations.

In sum

There are lots of little features of the iPhone 4 that I also love.  For example, the new three-axis gyroscope makes some iPhone games much better.  The LED flash makes a mighty fine flashlight when you are walking around your house in the dark.  A second microphone near the top of the iPhone works to cancel background noise while the microphone at the bottom of the iPhone picks up your voice, improving the quality of phone calls when you are in a noisy environment.  The battery life is a little longer, especially compared to the iPhone 3G and earlier models, so you are much more likely to go a full day without needing a recharge.  But as nice as these features are, I can’t say that any of them qualify as independent reasons to upgrade (except perhaps for the better battery life).

The iPhone 3GS is a great phone.  It is almost as fast as the iPhone 4, and if the camera and video chat features don’t matter to you (and I know that for many attorneys they will not), then it really just comes down to the screen.  It is a gorgeous screen, and I think that the screen alone is a good enough reason to upgrade, but reasonable minds could differ on that.  Thus, I think that the iPhone 4 is probably a worthy upgrade if you own an iPhone 3GS, but it is something to think about.  On the other hand, if you own an iPhone 3G or earlier model, stop reading this website and go buy an iPhone 4 now!

UPDATE: Tom Freeland
shared some thoughts in a comment to this post that I thought were
worth elevating to the post itself to provide another perspective on why
you might want to upgrade:

I upgraded a week ago and have a slightly different list:

1) Speed and some other not-quite tangible improvements in how it works.
In addition to working faster, I have the sense it works better, both
in using apps (I’m having less apps just bomb out in mid-use) and have
noticed other small improvements that add up to a lot.  [Jeff adds:  I suspect that this is because the iPhone 4 has twice as much memory as prior models.]

2) The camera is huge in what it offers. The two banner pictures on my
blog now were taken with it. I can’t overstate how much better is.

3) The device is much better designed in ways that suggest to me it will
be far more durable. Look at the buttons, just for starters.

4) I’m thinking it does get better reception, although I have had at
least a half-dozen dropped calls that are a really startling
experience — boom! Call gone! — like nothing I ever had before, so this
may be a wash. I’ve ordered a free case.

5) I did a road trip last week using the map, and have the sense there
are some tweaks and improvements to how it works.

Finally, if you installed the 4.0 software on a 3G phone, you may
encounter some bumps in the road that cause you to upgrade (that
happened to me. Apple tech support did not say kind things about the
advice I got from AT&T about how to deal with the problems, which
included ending my ability to get both voice mail and text messages).

All said, this is quite an improvement of a device I already liked a
lot.

Many banks and other financial institutions have helpful iPhone apps that allow you to see your account balance and recent transactions, locate ATMs and transfer funds between accounts.  These are all very useful functions, and the Chase app that has been out for a long time now handles these functions well.  But a new feature added to the app last month lets you use the app to deposit a check without having to go to the bank.  Just scan the check using your iPhone’s camera and the check is deposited.  That’s it.  It’s a really neat function and makes this a must-have app for anyone who uses Chase as their bank.

Let’s start by talking about the basic features.  When you launch the app you can quickly find close ATMs.  The app figures out where you are and lists all of the close ATMs giving you the address, the distance from your current locations, and all of the relevant information for the ATM such as features, hours of operation, etc.  This is very useful when you need to get money and you don’t know where to go.

Once you log in, you can also see your account balance and recent transactions for all of your accounts, transfer funds between accounts, schedule payments, etc.  These are mostly standard features for a bank’s iPhone app, but it is nice to see all of them here.  (By the way, all of the black boxes in the following pictures are my redactions of account numbers and other confidential information — not something that you see when you use the app.)

  
 

What I love about the latest version of this app is the third button at the bottom of the app:  Deposits.  You can actually deposit a check using your iPhone app without even having to go to the bank.  To test this feature, I used a reimbursement check from my law firm that had been sitting in my wallet for a while because I hadn’t had a chance to go to the bank.  The first time you use the feature, you will need to enroll your account in the Chase Quick Deposit program.  It’s free, but you need to read and agree to a legal agreement first.

Once you are ready to proceed, the app asks you to select the account for the deposit (I chose my checking account) and enter the amount of the check.  Then the app brings up a screen with the camera activated and a blue box.  Put your iPhone about a foot above your check, make the check line up within the blue box, hold the iPhone steady, and then tap the button to take a picture.  You can zoom in to make sure that the numbers are not too blurry.  You can retake the picture if you were shaking your hand too much or if the lighting doesn’t look right, or you can tap the Use button when you are ready to proceed.

  
 

After you take a picture of the front of the check, you need to also take a picture of the back of the check (with your signature endorsing the check).  Then click the Next button.  The app will then send the image to Chase and Chase’s server will read the check and make sure that the amount that it sees on the check is the same amount that you entered.  If not, the app will ask you to take another picture of the check.  If the numbers match, then you will see a confirmation screen telling you that your funds have been deposited.

  
 

If you have an e-mail address associated with  your Chase account, you will also immediately receive an e-mail confirming the deposit.  That’s it, and as you can see from the timestamps on the above pictures, the entire process just takes a few minutes.  (Indeed, it took me longer than it normally would because I was kicking the tires on the app, for example seeing what would happen if I submitted a really blurry picture — the app wouldn’t let me go forward until I took a better picture.)

The app tells you to hold on to the paper check until you get your next statement in the mail, just to make sure that everything worked well.  After that, you can just tear up the check.  You can currently only deposit up to $1,000 a day and up to $3,000 a month using the app.

Many Chase ATMs have the ability to let you deposit checks using a similar technique; the ATM scans the check.  I’ve noticed that sometimes the ATM will not accept a handwritten check when it has trouble reading the numbers.  I haven’t tried this yet with the app, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it also has trouble with handwriting.  But for a printed check, I suspect that the app, like any ATM machine, will work just fine.

I should mention that there is one more cool new feature in the Chase app, although I haven’t tested it yet myself.  The app now includes a Person-to-Person QuickPay feature which allows you to pay another person directly from your Chase account, without the need to write a check.  All you need to know is their e-mail address.  It looks like this is Chase’s attempt to compete with PayPal.

Chase isn’t the first bank to let you make a deposit your your iPhone.  In August of 2009, a bank called USAA added the feature, but that is a small bank and I believe that you need to have served in the military (or have someone in your family in the military) to use that bank.  Even so, USAA tells the Chicago Sun Times that it has already deposited more than 1.5 million checks using its iPhone and Android apps, almost a billion dollars in deposits.

Chase, on the other hand, is one of the largest banks in the country.  (I believe it is #2, behind Bank of America and ahead of Citibank.)  For the large number of Chase customers with iPhones, being able to deposit a check while sitting at a desk or at home without having to drive to a bank branch or ATM and wait in line will be incredibly useful.  The Chase app has been on my iPhone for a long time now, but I think it’s time to move it up to one of my front pages.

Click here for the Chase app (free): 

There have been a few times over the last few weeks that I’ve looked at an entry in the calendar on my iPhone and something hasn’t looked quite right.  It wasn’t until today that I actually realized the problem, and it looks to me to be a bug in iOS 4:  certain events in my calendar were supposed to show up on one day but instead showed up the day before in the List View. 

For example, I had an “all day” entry on my calendar for today telling me that it was a friend’s birthday and I had an 8am entry in my calendar for a meeting tomorrow morning.  However, when using the List view in the Calendar app, the birthday was showing up on Monday August 2, not Tuesday August 3, and the 8am August 3 entry was showing up at the bottom of the list for entries for August 2.  In the “Day” and “Month” views the entries showed up correctly, and if I tapped on a particular items all of the information was correct.  It was just in the List view that things were askew.

A quick Google search pointed me to this page on Apple’s website in the Support Discussions section.  Apparently, I wasn’t alone.  Other people who synced their calendar either with Microsoft Exchange (which I do), with Google Calendar or with MobileMe were reporting the same problem.  The recommended solution posted by several people was to go to Settings –> Mail, Contacts, Calendars –> [the name of my Exchange account] and then, on this screen, turn Calenders to OFF:

The iPhone warns you that this will delete all Calendar data from the iPhone, which is fine because all of my data was on my corporate Exchange server.  I then turned the Calendars ON again, and my calendar entries started to download again from my server.  It took a few minutes for all of the entries to be restored, but now all is well and birthdays and meetings and other events are showing up in the right place in my List view.

My hope is that this is the end of the problem for me, but I’ve seen others post that this is just a temporary solution and that the problem can return.  The very last post on that thread, from “b-gee” on August 1, says:  “Apple has responded to my bug report at bugreport.apple.com, saying that this is a known issue.”  Hopefully this is true and Apple is working on a fix right now.

For the time being, though, if you are looking at Calendar entries using the List view and something doesn’t seem quite right, switch to the Day or Month view to see if entries are showing up different in those views.  And if that is your problem, consider doing what I did and flush your Calendar data and then download it again it from your server.

Every year, the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center conducts a survey to gauge attorney use of legal technology.  I don’t know whether the results are scientifically valid, but they do provide some interesting insight into the technology used by lawyers.

The 2010 survey is now out and it includes several details that might be of interest to iPhone-using lawyers.  Note that the survey did not ask about iPhone use specifically.  In the mobile category the survey simply asked about “PDAs/Smarphones/BlackBerrys.”  The term “PDA” seems somewhat outdated, and mentioning “BlackBerrys” without mentioning other smartphones seems a little odd, but I suppose it reflects the BlackBerry’s traditional stronghold in the legal market.  Despite these limitations, the report reveals a few things about how lawyers use smartphones, and I’m sure that many of the lawyers talking about “PDAs/Smarphones/Blackberrys” were talking about their iPhone.  (I’ll refer to the entire category as “mobile devices” in this post.)

Mobile device use

Around 80% of lawyers responding to the survey report using a mobile device, an increase from prior years.  Interestingly, that number is almost 100% for large law firms with over 100 attorneys, but only 65% for solo practitioners and 80% for people in firms with less than 10 people.  At first, I assumed that the high number for large law firms was because large law firms might be more likely to give away smartphones to all attorneys, but the survey reveals otherwise.  In firms with more than 100 attorneys, respondents reported that around half used a personally owned mobile device and around half used a device permanently assigned by the law firm.

The numbers for smaller law firms surprised me because I thought that they would be higher.  The lawyers I know who work for themselves or in small law firms tend to be some of the most tech-savvy attorneys I know, mostly because they see more direct benefits from the efficiencies that can be achieved from using mobile technology.  Perhaps I just have a lot of tech-savvy lawyer friends.

The survey also reveals that about half of all lawyers either regularly or sometimes use their mobile devices in the courtroom.  Unsurprisingly, the most common spots for regular mobile device use outside of the office are at home or while traveling.

iPhone support?

Just over a third report that their law firms support “multiple platforms” and in large firms with more than 50 lawyers that number rises to over 50%.  Given the historical use of BlackBerrys in law firms, I can’t help but wonder whether “multiple platforms” is in large part a reference to supporting iPhones in addition to BlackBerrys.  About 40% of all law firms, and less than 20% of law firms with more than 50 lawyers, do not support multiple platforms.

Top uses for mobile devices

The survey asked about what mobile device features are used the most.  The phone is the most commonly used feature of a mobile device, with 88% of respondents reporting that use.  Unsurprisingly, e-mail use is right up there as well at 84%.  If anything, I would have thought that more attorneys would rank e-mail use above phone use.  Calendar and Contact use are very popular.  About half of all respondents report using their mobile device for internet access, and about half report using their mobile device for text messaging.  I suspect that if you just asked the iPhone-using lawyers, 100% would report using their device for Internet access.  On BlackBerrys, especially older models, the web browser is so poor that it doesn’t surprise me that few use that feature.

Other mobile device uses

Only about a third report using their mobile device for GPS/Maps functions.  I use that all the time on my iPhone, and I presume that many other lawyers using iPhones do as well.  Over 60% report that they never use a mobile device for expense tracking or time and billing.  There are tons of these apps for the iPhone, and even though I can understand the value, I don’t use them either.  I probably would use a time and billing app occasionally if it directly connected to my firm’s billing software (which I know is possible for many billing software programs) but the idea of using a third party product and them manually importing that time over to my firm billing system just seems like a lot of work to me. 

The survey also reveals that a large percentage of mobile device owners never use their mobile device to work on spreadsheets and presentations.  The survey revealed the same for documents, but here it may have turned on the wording of the question.  The question asked about CREATING documents on a mobile device, something that even I do very rarely.  However, I frequently use my iPhone to review and revise documents while on the go, and I suspect that if the question had been worded differently — asking how many attorneys READ documents on their mobile device — the survey would have revealed much more use.

Security

About 65% of respondents report using password protection on their mobile device.  I realize that a resourceful and dedicated hacker can probably bypass many forms of password protection, but even so I encourage lawyers using an iPhone to create a password lock.  It is too easy to leave an iPhone in a restaurant, taxi, etc. and that one simple form of protection is likely to prevent someone who finds your iPhone from reading  your confidential e-mails.

No iPhone J.D. this week.  See you in August!

Most of the iPhone news of note this week concerns updates to iPhone apps that may be of interest to attorneys:

• Dragon Dictation is one of my favorite apps for the iPhone.  (My review is here.)  You can often dictate a quick e-mail or text much faster than you can type one.  The app was just upgraded to version 2.0 and adds several new features such as (1) the ability to paste text directly into an SMS client (the old version just put it on the clipboard so you had to manually paste into a text message), (2) the ability to paste the text directly into Facebook or Twitter, (3) multilingual support and (4) iOS 4 compatibility so, for example, dictated text in a scratchpad isn’t lost if you accept an incoming phone call.  Click here for Dragon Dictation (free): 

  

• Courtroom Objections (which I reviewed last month) was updated to add references to rule numbers in the Federal Rules of Evidence and the Texas Rules of Evidence, making this app much more useful (especially for Texas attorneys).  The update also adds iOS 4 compatibility.  Click here for Courtroom Objections ($2.99): 

  

• Trying to come up with a good quote to spice up a speech?  Joel Mathis of Macworld reviews Who Said, an app that offers quotes by subject.
• If you want to use your iPhone as a remote control for your TV, Christopher Breen of Macworld reviews two options.
• Fred Vogelstein of Wired wrote an extensive article on the relationship between Apple and AT&T.
• Earlier this year, I reviewed Note Taker, an app from Dan Bricklin (who created the legendary VisiCalc app in 1979).  It is a neat app, although the iPhone screen is a little small to do much handwriting on it.  But the iPad is much larger, so Bricklin developed Note Taker HD.  Fritz Nelson of InformationWeek reviews the iPad version.  Click here for Note Taker ($1.99): 

  

  .  Click here for Note Taker HD ($4.99): 

  

• It is hard for me to believe that there is a popular video game based on being an attorney, but Phoenix Wright is a popular game on the Nintendo DS that was ported to the iPhone earlier this year.  I haven’t tried it myself, but if you want to, it is currently on sale for $2.99 instead of the normal $4.99.  Click here for Phoenix Wright ($2.99 on sale): 

  

• And finally, the UK rock band Squeeze (who had so many great songs in the 1970s) appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and played a version of Pulling Mussels from a Shell that featured a solo on the iPad.  Yes, the iPad.  Look at the video at the 2:25 point:

One of the most powerful things that an attorney can do with an iPhone is use it as a mobile law office, allowing the attorney to get work done no matter where the attorney is located.  Clark Stewart, a solo practitioner in Gadsden, Alabama who specializes in criminal defense and family law, demonstrates this in the following story that he sent me about how his iPhone helped him to get a client out of jail:

Back in May, my wife and I were enjoying a quiet night of sleep before driving the 6 hours with a toddler to Panama City for a much needed vacation. I got up to get a glass of water around 4am and checked my iPhone for new mail out of habit. I had several missed calls and voicemails. Upon playing my messages I learned that one of my clients was in jail on a bench warrant. The problem was that the judge in her case had recalled said warrant the afternoon before!

I called the booking officer on duty at the jail who was less than sympathetic to my client’s plight since he didn’t have a copy of the order quashing the writ. However, I did.

Earlier that day his Honor had e-filed said order. Since any new filings in all cases assigned to me come directly to my iPhone via email I now had proof for the jailer. But how to get it to him? He was unable to access his email from the booking computers due to policies and security firewalls. He could receive a fax though.

Being a sole practitioner at 29 years old, I don’t have the capital for a fax machine and all the extra expenses they entail, but I do have the fax to email services of MyFax for $10 a month. I simply forwarded the judge’s order to the jail’s fax machine while I was talking to the officer, all from my iPhone.

30 minutes later my client was back on the street, and I could go back to sleep rather than facing the moral dilemma of sleep versus a cross town drive to my office to print out the order had I not had an iPhone.

In short, MyFax and my iPhone saved the day — at least, as far as my client was concerned. The next day drive to the beach with Elmo playing over and over on my kid’s DVD player is another story!

What a great story.  Because my practice is mostly class actions, complex litigation and appeals, I know that my natural tendency on iPhone J.D. is to talk about the use of iPhones in civil litigation.  I’d love to hear from more criminal defense lawyers and prosecutors who have made good use of the iPhone in their practice.

I started posting an iPhone-related recap of Apple’s quarterly fiscal earning conference calls back in early 2009.  Back then, the calls were about all sorts of topics, and I thought it useful to tease out the iPhone-related angles from the call.  But over time, the calls have become more and more iPhone-centric as the iPhone, and now the iOS, have become so much more important for Apple.  We reached a turning point yesterday because it appears that around half of Apple’s quarterly revenue came from iOS products.  Wow!

If you want to hear the full call yourself, you can download
it from iTunes or you can read
the transcript provided by Seeking Alpha.  You can also read Apple’s press release here.  Here are the iPhone-related highlights for the quarter that struck me as interesting:

• Apple’s total revenue for the quarter was $15.7 billion.  The
  
  company recognized $5.33 billion in revenue from iPhone sales (and
  
  related sales like iPhone accessories and carrier payments).  The
  
  company recognized iPad and iPad-related revenue of $1.27 billion.  Together that is $6.6 billion, which was 42% of Apple’s revenue.  Apple also had $1.5 billion in iPod revenues, which was
  
  9.6% of Apples revenue.  Apple didn’t reveal what part of that 9.6% was
  
  iPod touch units (running the iOS) versus other iPod models except to
  
  note that there continues to be a shift towards iPod touch sales and
  
  away from other models.  If those iPod touch sales were 8%, then Apple is
  
  now getting 50% of its revenue from iOS devices.  It may be that the
  
  iPod touch sales are not quite that high, but the point
  
  remains the same — around half of Apple’s revenue now comes from the
  
  iPhone and its siblings.
• 
  And it’s not like the percentage increases are just the result of declining Mac sales.  Apple said that it sold 3.46 million Macs last quarter, another quarterly record for Apple (topping the previous high by about 100,000 units). 
• Apple sold 8.4 million iPhones last quarter, 20% of which (1.7 million) were the iPhone 4, even though it only became available on June 24, 2010 and the quarter ended on June 26, 2010.  It will come as no surprise that Apple called the iPhone 4 launch the most successful product launch in the company’s history.
• One analyst asked whether Apple causes iPhone (and other product)
  
  shortages during the initial days in which the product is on sale just
  
  to create buzz.  Tim Cook, Apple’s COO, strongly disagreed.  “In terms of the new product, we do not purposely create a shortage for
  
  buzz. I’m not sure where that comes from, but that is certainly not our
  
  objective. We would like to fill every customer’s order as quickly as we
  
  can. The demand for iPhone 4 is absolutely stunning. And we’re working
  
  very hard to catch up with demand and I can’t predict when that will
  
  occur that I can tell you that everyone is working very hard to do it. … [L]et me be very clear on this. We are selling every unit we can make currently.”
• Combining the sales to date of the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, Apple says
  
  there are now 100 million devices running iOS.  By my calculations from past earning call announcements, almost 60 million of those are iPhones.  We know that 3.27 million iOS devices were iPads (because that is how many Apple said that they sold this past quarter and the iPad started selling on April 3, which was during this last fiscal quarter).  That leaves around 36 million of the iOS devices sold as of June 24, 2010 that must have been iPod touch devices.  Going forward, it will be interesting to see how this mix changes.
• Apple said that there are over 225,000 apps in the App Store, and over 5 billion apps have been downloaded, resulting in Apple paying over $1 billion to app developers.
• 
  Apple estimates that it will cost $175 million to provide cases to iPhone 4 owners.  Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer said that “our most important objective there is to take care of every customer and delight them.”
• The iPhone is doing well in corporate America.  More than 80% of the Fortune 100 are deploying or piloting the iPhone, and that percentage is over 60% in the Fortune 500.  And 50% of the Fortune 500 are deploying or testing the iPad.
• When asked about the acceptance and rejection of new iPhone apps in the App Store, Tim Cook noted that “the vast majority of Apps are retrieved within seven days of their
  
  submission” and “many of the apps that aren’t approved have bugs in
  
  them, and are eventually resubmitted and approved.”
• One analyst asked Apple when FaceTime (the iPhone 4 video chat software) would be available on the Mac or Windows PCs.  Tim Cook punted, saying merely:  “I want to make sure that we get to all of the financial related questions today. So I’m going to hold that one for another day.”
• One analyst asked about the future of Apple’s exclusive relationship with AT&T in the U.S.  Tim Cook gave a non-answer:  “I would say that we’re very happy to be a partner with AT&T, and you
  
  know, they have been a first-class partner and have really pioneered
  
  the smart phone growth from a network point of view in the US, and
  
  that’s all I have to say about that.”

So in short, Apple had another phenomenal quarter, and the iPhone was a huge part of the reason why — so much so that it is now impossible to think about Apple’s product line without thinking of the iPhone.  Hard to believe that the first iPhone just came out in 2007.

[NOTE:  This app was purchased by Corel and is now called WordPerfect Viewer.  Click here for a review of the current app.]  Although Microsoft Word is the dominant word processor used by lawyers, there was a time when WordPerfect ruled the legal market and the program still has loyal fans in the legal community.  Unfortunately, if someone e-mails you a WordPerfect document on the iPhone, you cannot view the document with the iPhone’s native document viewer.  The smart folks at LawBox LLC (makers of the LawBox app that I’ve previously reviewed) have come up with a solution, a $4 app called WPD Viewer for iPhone that lets you view WordPerfect files.  (There is also a $6 version for the iPad.)

To use the app when someone e-mails you a WordPerfect file, simply tap and hold down on the attachment.  This will cause a pop-up box to appear in which you can tell the iPhone to open the document in WPD Viewer.

The iPhone will then launch the WPD Viewer app and the app will translate the document into a format that the iPhone can display (HTML) and then you can view the document.  Some of the formatting gets lost, but the text is all there.  You can scroll through and read the document, and if you want to search for terms just enter a search term at the top and the words will be highlighted in the document.  Using the iPhone’s standard copy-and-paste features, you can select text to copy and then paste into some other app. In fact, when you select text the pop-up menu allows you to not only copy but also bookmark or email, so in just one step you can select some text and then email only that text to someone.

If you double tap anywhere on the screen, or if you press the button at the top right with the arrow pointing to a line, a menu bar pops up on the left side.  The four buttons on the menu bar allow you to (1) e-mail the text of the document (the text becomes the body of your e-mail), (2) bookmark the document, (3) export an HTML version of the document to another app (such as Good Reader) or (4) refresh the document.  The refresh document button is necessary because in addition to getting documents into WPD Viewer via e-mail attachments, you can also use iTunes to send a document to the app, and using the refresh button you can reload the file list.

Speaking of file lists, the app stores the WordPerfect files that you send to it so that you can view them later.  If you are done with a document, just swipe to delete it.

This is not a document editor app like Documents to Go or Quickoffice so you cannot revise WordPerfect documents with this app.  Nevertheless, if you just want to be able to read a WordPerfect file when someone sends it to you, plus have the ability to copy and paste text from that document or convert the file into a pure text format, then this is the app for you.  Indeed, to my knowledge, this is the only app for the iPhone or iPad that allows you to view WordPerfect documents, and thus I can pronounce that this is THE BEST WordPerfect viewer for the iPhone.

This past Friday, Apple announced that because a small number of people are experiencing problems with phone reception on the iPhone 4 when they touch the antenna on the bottom left side of the device, Apple is allowing all iPhone 4 customers to get a free iPhone case.  Apple will allow you to select either its own Apple iPhone 4 Bumper case or other select cases.  We don’t know yet what the other choices will be, but I have been using the Bumper on my iPhone 4 for about a week now, and for the most part I like it, although there are some drawbacks.  If you are considering whether to select the Bumper as your free case, perhaps my experiences will help you make your decision.

 

THE GOOD

Easy to put on and off.  Putting on the bumper is easy, as demonstrated by the simple instructions printed on the back of the packaging.  You just slip it around the iPhone 4.  It only takes a few seconds.

  
 

Doesn’t distract much from the feel of the iPhone.  I am not a fan of cases for the iPhone, and I have never used a case for my prior iPhones (the iPhone 3 and the iPhone 3GS).  For the most part, I feel the same way about the iPhone 4.  I like the feel of the iPhone in my hand, and I don’t like the feel of anything on the glass of the front of the iPhone.  For people like me, the Bumper has the advantage of being the “un-case” because it is so minimal and does not cover the front or the back of the iPhone.

Doesn’t distract too much from the design of the iPhone.  Another reason that I don’t like traditional cases is that they completely cover up the iPhone.  I love the design of the iPhone and I hate to hide it.  Although the Bumper does hide the distinctive stainless steel antenna that surrounds the iPhone (a look that I really like), the design of the Bumper itself is very nice.  I’ve heard people say that you can just take a rubber bracelet and wrap it around the iPhone to duplicate the bumper.  That is wrong.  The bumper is not just a piece of rubber.  The actual sides of the bumper are a nice, smooth plastic, and the feel is similar to the feel of the curved sides of the iPhone 3 / 3GS.  The rubber part is about and below that strip.  As a result, you don’t feel like you are holding rubber in your hand when you hold an iPhone in a bumper, instead the feel is quite smooth.  Nevertheless, the presence of the rubber part of the Bumper does add friction (which I discuss below).

Additionally, the case doesn’t just have cutout holes for the buttons, but instead includes its own very nice volume and power buttons that sit on top of the iPhone button.  There is just a hole for the ringer on/off switch, which means that you need to use a fingernail to really reach that switch.  If you frequently turn your ringer on and off, this might be a problem for you.  But using the other buttons works great and looks great too.

If you want some great close-up pictures of the Bumper, check out this iLounge post by Jeremy Horwitz (who happens to be an attorney, just FYI).

Keep a grip on your iPhone.  Many case manufacturers advertise that their product provides added protection for the iPhone.  Interestingly, Apple does not.  Here is how Apple describes the Bumper on the iPhone portion of the website:

Nevertheless, I do think that the Bumper gives you real protection, not so much because it can withstand a fall onto concrete, but instead because the Bumper reduces the chance that you would drop the iPhone in the first place.  The added friction of the rubber portion of the Bumper makes it much less likely for the iPhone 4 to slip out of your hand or out of your pocket. 

Indeed, this is both a blessing and a curse.  At work, I always keep my iPhone in my shirt pocket, and without a case it is easy to slip the iPhone in and out.  With the Bumper, it is more difficult to do so.  I have less concern about the iPhone falling out by accident if I lean over (the good) but it is more of a pain to pull out my iPhone and return it to my pocket when I am done (the bad).  And this humorous post points out how this might be a problem if you wear tight blue jeans.

Indeed, this is the #1 reason that I like the Bumper.  It significantly reduces the chance that I will drop the iPhone when it is in my hands.  Just yesterday, for example, I decided to use the Bumper while I was in my house, and while I was walking upstairs my foot caught a stair the wrong way and I started to trip.  Yes, I really am that graceful sometimes.  I have no doubt that but for the Bumper, I would have dropped my iPhone, and I can only what would have happened to it as it fell down each of the stairs in my house.  Ouch.  But with the Bumper, I kept my grip on the iPhone.  It was at that moment that I realized the true value of the Bumper.

Fashion.  Since Apple plays up the fashion aspect of the Bumper, I suppose I should mention it here.  Apple offers bumpers in different colors, so if you are looking to add a splash of color to the iPhone 4, you can get that with a Bumper.  I’m not looking for that, so I just chose the basic black.  But if you want to add color without getting in the way of the beautiful glass front and back of the iPhone, the Bumper will give you what you want.

Antenna.  And of course, if you find that you accidentally touch the part of the iPhone antenna that reduces reception, you won’t have that problem with the Bumper.  Obviously, that is the reason that Apple decided to give away cases like the Bumper for free.  If you usually talk with your iPhone in your left hand, and if you are often in areas with marginal AT&T coverage, the Bumper may make it less likely for you to lose a signal and drop a call.

THE BAD

Accessories.  My main gripe with the Bumper is that it doesn’t work well with many accessories.  It has a hole in the bottom for the connector port, so you can easily plug in the cord that connects to the USB port on your computer.  But I also have a similar cord on the equipment that I use to connect my iPhone to my car stereo, and I suppose that plug must be a tad bigger because I cannot get it to fit in the slot of the bottom of the Bumper.  I can see what is happening — Apple doesn’t just cut a hole in the bottom of the Bumper, but also reinforces the hole with a plastic frame, as you can (sort of) see in the following picture.  (You can click to enlarge.)  That design decision helps to keep the Bumper more sturdy because there is a plastic frame around the Bumper, but because of the amount of plastic in the hole, it reduces the size of the hole for the connector port.  It’s a tight fit, and while it works for the cord that Apple gives you to connect to your computer, it doesn’t work with some other cords.

 

Similarly, I use (and love) my Bose SoundDock Portable speaker system but the connector doesn’t make sufficient contact when the Bumper is around the iPhone 4.  And it’s not just third party accessories:  I use an Apple iPhone 4 Dock and because that dock is molded to the exact shape of the iPhone 4, you have to remove the Bumper every time you want to use the dock.  What a pain.  On the other hand, you can use a Bumper with the Apple Universal Dock if you don’t use any insert adapters.  (To be more specific, none of the iPhone adapters work; there might be a larger adapter made for an iPod that could be used.)

The headphone jack hole is also more recessed when you use the Bumper and the hole itself is tight.  So far, all of my headphones do fit, but it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that some third party headphones don’t fit as well with a Bumper.  For example, Art of the iPhone reports that a pair of Sennheiser CX300s headphones wouldn’t fit with the Bumper attached.

[UPDATE: Attorney Katie Floyd — who hosts the great Mac Power Users podcast along with attorney David “MacSparky” Sparks — posted a long comment to this post that is worth reading.  Regarding accessories, she had this to say:

1) My
friend Allison Sheridan of the Nosillacast Podcast hosted at podfeet.com
notes that if you use a dremmel tool and file out the little “ledge” on
the inside of the bumper at the dock connector, you can get a few more
connectors to fit. I’ve been a little hesitant to do so.

2) I spoke with the folks over at SendStation about their Dock
Extender product. Unfortunately, it does not work with the Apple bumper.
But they’re working on an updated model that will. They say it will
likely be a few months before they have something in production.

3) SendStation’s suggestion was to “modify” your existing peripherals
by slightly filing off the edges of the plugs by a few millimeters to
make them fit. Again, makes me nervous so I haven’t tried this myself.
Apparently there are some videos on YouTube of people doing this. I
advise caution.

4) The Universal dock sold by Apple will work with the bumper but
without any inserts. It won’t work even with larger iPod insets. The
problem is that because the case ads a few millimeters of distance
between the dock connector and the port the connector isn’t long enough
to fully connect. You have to remove the universal adapters all together
and you’ll find that this allows the connection. This approach works as
well with some of my third party accessories including my iHome
speakers with a dock connector. Of course, the universal dock connector
is $50 compared to the iPhone dock’s $30 price tag so you’re spending
$20 more per dock.

Thanks, Katie, for the information.]

Oleophobic Screen.  One of the things that I love about the iPhone 3GS and the iPhone 4 is the oleophobic screen.  I get smudges on my iPhone screen all the time, but with just a simple wipe on my shirt, the smudges disappear thanks to the coating on the screen.  Unfortunately, with the Bumper on the iPhone, this is harder to do.  The rubber around the edges causes friction so you cannot easily slide an iPhone in a Bumper against your shirt.  Instead, you have to more deliberately take a part of your shirt or some other cloth to wipe the screen without touching the Bumper.  It’s a minor inconvenience, but one that I don’t like.

Minimal Protection.  I noted above that an advantage of the Bumper, for people like me who are not big fans of cases, is that it is so minimal.  But if you are looking for more protection, the Bumper might not be enough for you.  For example, my wife tells me that she likes knowing that she can toss her iPhone into a purse without worrying about keys or some other items scratching the iPhone.  Thus, she wants a case that completely covers the back and sides of the iPhone and wants something like the InvisibleShield protecting the front screen.  Of course, you could just use the Bumper along with an InvisibleShield on the front and back, but with a full rubberized style case that surrounds the entire iPhone, you are likely to have more protection if you drop the iPhone and something (like a concrete sidewalk) hits a corner or the back.

Conclusion.  Because I know that I normally don’t like to use cases, I forced myself to use the Bumper for an entire week so that I could get to know all of the advantages and all of the quirks.  Now that my self-imposed deadline has passed, I plan to remove the Bumper for most of my everyday use.  But that doesn’t mean that I don’t like the Bumper and won’t use it from time to time.  Hopefully, I’ll be using it the next time I trip on the stairs.  I also plan to use the Bumper whenever I travel to make it less likely for the iPhone to slip out of my hand at an airport or out of my pocket in a cab.  And I’m sure that I will use it from time to time at home or at the office when I want to more easily prop up my iPhone on its side or when I want to put the iPhone on a flat surface such as a table without worry about it sliding off.

At its original price of $30, I would have said that the Bumper was overpriced but valuable enough that you should consider getting it for your iPhone 4, even if (like me) you are normally not a fan of iPhone cases.  But now that Apple is giving Bumpers away for free, it seems like an easy decision to get one — unless you prefer the features in another case that Apple will be offering starting later this week.