One year ago today was the debut of iPhone J.D. with the post “Why I use an iPhone.”  In the 250 posts to iPhone J.D. since then, I have reviewed 125 apps, posted countless tips and tricks on using the iPhone, analyzed lots of iPhone-related hardware including the current top-of-the-line iPhone 3GS, and written on topics as varied as cocktails, the New Yorker, and dragons and ninjas.  (The significant posts are indexed at the iPhone J.D. Index link on the right.)

A lot has happened in the world of iPhone over the past year.  We’ve gone from under 10,000 apps to over 100,000. A huge number of new features have been added to the iPhone, especially in iPhone Software 3.0.  The 8 GB Phone 3G now sells for only $99, half of what it sold for a year ago, and the iPhone 3GS is the most impressive smartphone on the market.  Over the past year, we have also seen a significant increase in the number of attorneys using iPhones, and unlike this time last year, a large number of law firms are now supporting the use of iPhones by their attorneys.

It’s been a lot of fun writing about the world of iPhone over the last twelve months, both in general and focusing on what is especially relevant to attorneys.  The most popular post on this website over the past year was actually one of the very first posts, a list of my favorite iPhone shortcuts, a page that has been viewed over 45,000 times.  (Wow!)  Other posts on iPhone shortcuts such as this one, this one and this one have been very popular.  And in what I view as a testament to the fact that iPhone users (especially lawyers) are smart folks who pay attention to the niceties of grammar and punctuation, the second most popular post on iPhone J.D. over the past year was “The em and en of iPhone 3.0,” a post about the ability to use the em dash—like this—on the iPhone keyboard.

But enough about me, let’s talk about you.  Naturally, there were not too many of you at the start, but readership started to grow after the first month and has grown steadily ever since.  Thanks to Google Analytics, a tool that provides statistical information on websites, I can see some information about the visitors over the last year.  There have been over 300,000 page views at iPhone J.D. from 130,000 different people.  Or to use a point of reference, we’ve had more different people come to iPhone J.D. than there are apps in the App Store!  (At least, so far….)

Most of the visitors to iPhone J.D. have just stopped in to read a few articles here and there.  It’s always fun to have visitors drop in for a quick visit, but I appreciate the many thousands of you who have become regular daily visitors to the site or who have added me to your RSS reader.  I especially appreciate those of you who have taken the time to send an e-mail or post a comment.  Countless articles on iPhone J.D. originated from reader feedback.

Want to know more about yourselves?  73% of you live in the U.S., followed by 5% from the UK, 4% from Canada, 3% from Germany, 2% from Australia, and the rest from 174 other countries.  The following countries have had only one person visit iPhone J.D. in the past year:  Solomon Islands, Congo, Laos, Zamba, Vanatu, Reunion, Cape Verde, Mauritania, Botswana, Martinique, Cuba, Ivory Coast, Armenia, Kyrgzstan, Palau and Togo.  Whenever iPhone J.D. gets an infusion of cash from a rich venture capitalist, I’ll know where to visit to increase site awareness.  To focus on cities instead of countries, by far the largest number of readers are in New York, which makes up about 5% of visitors.  The full top 10 list is as follows:

1. New York
2. London
3. San Francisco
4. New Orleans
5. Washington, D.C.
6. Chicago
7. Atlanta
8. Houston
9. Dallas
10. Sydney

A special thanks to all of the readers here in New Orleans.  We should all meet up for a crawfish boil or something.

And finally, what operating system are you using to view iPhone J.D.?  Half of you use Windows, a third of you use a Mac, and just about all
of the rest of you access iPhone J.D. on your iPhone.

It’s been a great year at iPhone J.D., and I look forward to the next one.  Please keep your e-mails, comments and suggestions coming!  Or if you see something interesting on Twitter, pass it along to me at @jeffrichardson.  I love hearing about how you use your iPhone and sharing your good advice with others.

When I discuss apps on iPhone J.D., I try to focus on apps that attorneys would find useful.  Today, however, I want to instead discuss an app that attorneys themselves won’t use but should know about because it is an app that provides an alternative to hiring an attorney.  The app is iNDA.

iNDA is a simple app that contains the text of a standard non-disclosure agreement (NDA).  In short, you enter the names of the two parties, the person receiving the confidential information signs on the iPhone screen, and then the app e-mails everyone an agreement.  The goal is to make it quick and easy for a person with a good idea to be able to share the idea with someone else while maintaining confidentiality.

When you first start the app, you are prompted to enter the identity of the disclosing party, something you only have to do once (although you can always change it if you need to do so).  Then, whenever you encounter someone with whom you want to have an NDA, you fire up this app and have that person enter their information.

The app will display a PDF file on the screen containing a two page NDA.  If the signee agrees with the terms of the NDA, the next screen presents a place for the signee to use a finger to enter a signature.  In the below example, I signed in portrait mode, but the app also lets you turn the iPhone on its side to that the person can sign in landscape mode.

Finally, the app displays the final NDA, including the signatures of the signee.   Tap the e-mail button at the bottom right, and the app will e-mail the signed PDF copy to both the disclosing party and the signee.  Here is what the PDF looks like, but note that I have purposely blurred the text out of respect for the work product of the author of this app.  When you use the actual app, the text is legible, and like any PDF file can be enlarged (or the iPhone can be turned to landscape mode) to make it even easier to read.

 

The app also adds a copy of this signed NDA to a list in the app so that you can easily review it or e-mail it in the future. 

The developer tells me that he tried to make an easy to use app
that takes advantage of the portable nature of the iPhone.  He said: 
“People often have informal meeting where they would like to discuss
ideas with colleagues, friends, or prospective employees. We want to
promote these meetings by giving people legal protection available to
them at all times.”  He also compared this app to the Time Machine
backup technology in Mac OS X in that it is easy to use, quick to set
up, and covers most use cases and therefore actually gets used, whereas without it, perhaps nothing would be used and there would be no protection at all.

Of course, the ease of use and simplicity has a price.  For example, it is impossible to change the terms of the NDA, so if the signee insists on any extra provisions, or if disclosing party wants to add any additional protections, this app cannot handle that.  Moreover, the app only provides for a signature from the signee, so even if the disclosing party wants to sign, that cannot be done.

The app asserts that the documents are “legally binding and are fully compliant with the 2000 U.S. Electronic Signatures in Global and Natinol Commerce Act (ESIGN) and the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA).”  I have not myself analyzed whether the NDA created by this app is legally binding under the laws of any state or country.  I don’t mean to imply that it isn’t; I just don’t know and I don’t provide legal advice on this website.  The developer, who is not an attorney, tells me that he hired an attorney to draft the NDA.  

I am intrigued by iNDA because it is a preview of what is yet to come for the iPhone.  Indeed, the developer of this app told me that he hopes to create similar apps in the future that cover other types of contracts.  There are, of course, entire industries that have grown up around the idea of putting the law in the hands of consumers without needing to hire an attorney, first through books and then through software and online efforts.  For example, Nolo sells on its website forms for a will, living trust, corporation, lease, promissory note, etc.   I presume it would be easy for Nolo to convert some of these products into iPhone apps, and indeed, Nolo already has one iPhone app, the excellent Nolo’s Plain English Law Dictionary which I reviewed a few months ago.

Click here to get iNDA ($4.99): 

Apple is about to open a new store in New York City, and like the others in the Big Apple, this one is architecturally stunning.  The store, which opens tomorrow, is located in the Upper West Side on Broadway at 67th Street, and as ifo AppleStore writes, the store will be a beacon visible for several blocks at night and in the daytime will look different throughout the day and throughout the seasons because of the way that sunlight enters the store.  The store has huge walls made of marble and stainless steel, walls made of glass and a 50-foot ceiling made of glass.  At first look, it appears that the store has just one level with super high ceilings, but on closer inspection you see that there is also a spiral staircase that leads to a level below.  ifo AppleStore has pictures here.  Other iPhone-related news from this past week:

• Ron Johnson is Apple’s Senior Vice President for Retail, the guy responsible for all of the Apple Stores.  (I had a chance to chat with him once at Apple’s Fifth Avenue store in New York; that’s us in the picture at the right.)  In connection with the opening of the Upper West Side store, Johnson made some announcements yesterday about the Apple Stores in general.  First, he announced that going forward, Apple will start to open larger stores.  He also announced that about 50 more stores (over half outside of the U.S.) will be opened in 2010 (up from around 26 in 2009), including a few large, significant stores such as this Upper West Side store and the Apple Store that recently opened at The Louvre in Paris.  Apple certainly isn’t have trouble finding people to work at the stores; Johnson announced that there are over 100,000 job applications on file for Apple Stores worldwide, and for the new Upper West Side store there were 10,000 applications for 200 jobs.  Apple is also replacing the Windows Mobile-based handheld devices that they used to use for checkouts with specially modified iPod touch units.  You can get more details on these announcements at the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, ifo AppleStore and Gizmodo.
• Speaking of stores, back in February, I wrote
  
  that there are five places to buy an iPhone in the U.S.:  an Apple
  
  Store, an AT&T Store, Best Buy, Sam’s and Walmart.  We are now
  
  about to see a six retailer:  RadioShack.  iLounge reports
  
  on a RadioShack announcement that stores in Dallas and New York will
  
  offer the iPhone this month, and the iPhone will be rolled out
  
  nationwide next year.  RadioShack has sold iPods for a while now, and
  
  they sell other smartphones, so hopefully this will be a good match for
  
  both Apple and RadioShack.
• Apple is successful not because it sells the most, but because it sells premium products on which it can make a profit.  MG Siegler writes for TechCrunch that “While Rivals Jockey for Market Share, Apple Bathes in Profits.” 
• There are lots of apps that allow you to stream live radio stations, but if you want  your iPhone to truly operate as a radio and pick up local stations, iBiquity Digital has created an $80 accessory that allows an iPhone to receive HD radio.  AppleInsider has the details.
• Earlier this week, I posted some humorous ads from Verizon in which Verizon claims that its 3G network exceeds that of AT&T.  AppleInsider takes a closer look at Verizon’s claims, pointing out that AT&T’s network is faster and that its coverage reflects the concentration of the U.S. population.  The article notes, for example, that Verizon is comparing “its entire data network against just the faster portion of AT&T’s
  
  3G mobile data network while ignoring AT&T’s existing 2.5G network
  
  that approaches Verizon’s EVDO in speed.”  [UPDATE:  AT&T itself has issued a formal response, available here.]
• Whenever I include video on iPhone J.D., I always try to use YouTube because that displays so well on the iPhone.  Sometimes, however, I run across a website which uses Vimeo to host video, and you can’t view those on an iPhone.  Fortunately, in the future, this should change.  Ramu Nagappan reports for Macworld that Vimeo is starting to re-encode its content using H.264 so that it will play on an iPhone.  Only a few videos work now, but they will roll out more in the future.
• And finally, Gizmodo reports on a Japanese design house that has an idea of connecting 50 iPhones or iPod touch devices into one giant touch display.  To show how it might work, they put together a demo with 20 iPod touches, and here is a video of what that looks like:

We all know the importance of reading the fine print.  Unfortunately, as we get older, that is sometimes easier said than done.  Have you ever found yourself straining to read small, fine print on a page, on a prescription bottle, a menu, a receipt, etc.?  Your iPhone can now help you if you have the $3 app from Freeverse called Eye Glasses

The app does one thing but does it well: it acts as a magnifying glass.  You can choose 2x, 4x, 6x or 8x magnification.  Just hold your iPhone’s camera lens over the small print, and it will appear much larger on the screen.

For example, last week I was trying to use an iTunes Gift Card.  You use a coin to scratch the back of the card to reveal a number, but the number was so tiny that even with a bright light, I was having a lot of trouble reading it.  Thus, I fired up Eye Glasses, selected 4x magnification, and suddenly I could read the code with no trouble at all:

Here is an example of using the app to read the legal fine print in a software manual.  The text is about 5 point type, which is barely legible but very small.  Using the Eye Glasses app, even with just the 2x magnification, the text becomes very easy to read.

 

Although this app will run on any iPhone, you’ll likely be disappointed if you are not using an iPhone 3GS.  The 3GS has a better camera and has the ability to auto focus in a macro mode, and that combination is really what lets the Eye Glasses app do its magic on small text.

If you ever have difficulty reading small text, I think you will really like this app.  David Pogue of the New York Times raved about this app last week, noting, “As an over-40-year-old, I’ve become addicted to this app.  …[T]he 2X and 4X views have saved me more than once.”  Me too.  It was definitely worth $3.

[UPDATE 12/13/09:  Wouldn’t you know that the same day I review this app, it receives its first update.  You can read the details here, but in short, the update includes a “new, sleeker frame with capability to rotate between landscape and portrait modes.”  Thus, the app now looks slightly different than the pictures I posted above, but it still works great.]

Click here to get Eye Glasses ($2.99): 

I see a lot of people with iPhones, and it seems that most of them have some sort of protective case.  While I understand the desire to protect the iPhone, I love the small and slim size of the iPhone and have no desire to bulk it up, so I have never wanted to use one.  Of course, this means that it is possible for the iPhone to get scratched.  Small scratches on the back of the iPhone don’t bother me at all (it just adds character) but a scratch on the iPhone’s screen can be really annoying.

And I speak from experience.  The glass that Apple uses for the iPhone screen is incredible durable and many times I have felt my keys run across the surface, making me fear for the worst but relieved to discover that the screen held up just fine.  But on my prior iPhone (an iPhone 3G) I did somehow get a scratch about a inch long near the top of the screen, and it would always annoy me to see it there.  Even with this scratch, my desire to not have a bulky case still stopped me from getting protection for my iPhone 3G, and likewise my current iPhone 3GS has no protection on it. Nevertheless, I am uncertain whether I have been making the right decision.

I was recently contacted by a representative of Invisible Skinz, an authorized dealer for the Invisible Shield product made by ZAGG.  He asked if he could send me a free sample of the $25, full body version of the Invisible Shield to do a review here, and at first I politely declined, telling him about how I don’t like products that take away from the iPhone’s clean design.  He encouraged me to try it anyway, pointing out that I can always remove it and it leaves no residue on the iPhone if you do so, so I finally agreed.  I’m glad that he urged me to do so because this is a very nice product.

When you order the product, you get two very thin (.2 mm) transparent shields, one for the glass on the front of the iPhone and one for the back that wraps around to the sides.  You also get a spray bottle that you apply to the shields before placing them on your iPhone to help it stick, and a small squeegee to work out any bubbles that may occur during installation.  You can watch a video of the installation here.

 

When I first tried to apply the shield, I will admit that I was a little nervous and I’m not sure that I did it correctly.  The back looked fine, but on the front there were large bubbles under the shield that I couldn’t work out.  Here is a picture from my first attempt, which you can click to enlarge:

But Invisible Skinz has a money back guarantee and a lifetime guarantee; just send them a shield that didn’t work and they’ll send you a new one.  The second time I tried, it took me less than a minute to apply it and the result looked great.  In fact, it was so easy that I’m still not sure what I did wrong the first time.  Here is a picture from the second, successful application:

 

What do you get with the Invisible Shield on your iPhone?  First, you get a lot of protection.  Even though the shield is small, it seems to hold up very well to attempts to scratch it.  Here is what Invisible Skinz says about the protection:

Guaranteed for life, it’s a higher quality than all other transparent
Apple iPhone 3G skins because it was originally a military technology
developed to protect helicopter blades from dirt and debris. It’s the
toughest material of it’s kind, and it will keep your device in
pristine condition for life. In fact, it’s so tough that if anything
ever happens to your invisishield, just send it back to us and we’ll
send you a brand new one for free!

I admit that I didn’t want to put my iPhone through a true torture test, but this video shows what the shield can do:

Second, with the shield on the iPhone, the iPhone has more of a rubbery grip to it.  I find that this makes it even more difficult for the iPhone to slip out of my hand, which is good to prevent dropping the iPhone.

I was worried that the shield would have some impact on viewing the iPhone screen.  It really doesn’t.  The skin is truly transparent.  On the other hand, the shield does make the surface of the iPhone feel different.  Instead of the nice feel of glass, the surface has more resistance and feels slightly rubbery.  Not very much, but just enough to take some getting used to.

Do I recommend this product?  Yes, but with some reservations.  I actually installed this shield on my (old) iPhone 3G, a unit that no longer has a SIM card in it and which is now essentially an iPod touch.  I’ve been using this unit when I travel to put on some long movies that wouldn’t fit on my regular iPhone and I’ve been letting my four year old use this iPhone instead of my 3GS when he wants to play a game.  Between throwing the old iPhone in a travel bag and risking damage from my son, I feel so much more secure with the shield on it.

Now I’m trying to decide whether to buy one of these for my iPhone 3GS.  There is no question that this product would give me lots of protection and prevent me from getting a scratch on the screen of my 3GS like I did on my 3G.  On the other hand, I really like the feel of the glass iPhone screen and I love the ability to easily wipe off smudges thanks to the oleophobic coating.  The Invisible Shield actually does a very good job of resisting fingerprints and smudges and any smudges do seem to go away if you wipe the iPhone against your shirt, but it still isn’t quite the same as the glass with the oleophobic coating.  So I’m still undecided; I may buy another Invisible Shield for my 3GS, and I may even use just the back portion to give added grip to the back of my iPhone 3GS to guard against dropping it.  If I was still using a 3G without the oleophobic coating as my primary iPhone, the scales would tip in favor of getting this product.  But with the 3GS, I’m still trying to decide.

Although you can buy an Invisible Shield directly from the manufacturer, ZAGG, the unit that I used came from independent dealer Invisible Skinz.  If you want to try out the product yourself, I encourage you to order an Invisible Shield from Invisible Skinz because they have set up a discount for iPhone J.D. readers.  Just use the discount code iphonejd20 when you order and you will get a 20% discount.  The product costs $14.95 for just a shield to cover the front, or $24.95 for the full body protection of a front and back shield, so with the discount code you can save about $5.00 on the full product.

Every year the American Lawyer ranks the top 200 law firms based on revenue, a list called the Am Law 200.  Firms on the list include megafirms with thousands of lawyers such as Skadden, Baker & McKenzie, Latham & Watkins and Jones Day, relatively smaller firms with very high profits per partner such as Wachtell and Cravath, and successful regional law firms such as Lewis and Roca and my firm, Adams and Reese.

The American Lawyer conducts a technology survey of those firms every year.  The Am Law Tech Survey 2009 was just released, and I was curious how the iPhone would rank on the list.  In 2008, only 5% of the firms reported having attorneys using an iPhone.  While that percentage was low, I cannot say that it was surprising.  Although the iPhone was released back in 2007, it wasn’t until the iPhone 3G was released in mid-2008 with support for Microsoft Exchange and third party apps that most larger companies, including law firms, started to adopt the iPhone.  Thus, at the time that the Am Law Tech Survey 2008 was being conducted, successful law firms were just starting to look at iPhones.  The 2008 survey revealed that virtually all of the law firms had attorneys using a Blackberry (98%) while a good number of law firms had attorneys using Windows Mobile (30%) and Palm OS (14%).

The 2009 survey reports a huge jump in iPhone use.  Whereas 5% of the Am Law 200 law firms reported attorneys using iPhones in 2008, 55% were supporting iPhone use in 2009.  As for other smartphones, virtually all firms continued to support Blackberry (99%) and more firms reported having attorneys using either a Windows Mobile (40%) or Palm OS (26%) phone.  New to the list in 2009 were Palm webOS (3%) and Android (1%).

All of the percentages increased from 2008 to 2009, reflecting that the number of attorneys at every law firm using smartphones increased from 2008 to 2009.  The rising tide lifted all boats, with Windows Mobile and Palm OS seeing about 10% more users from 2008 to 2009.  But the iPhone’s rise from 5% of law firms reporting iPhone use to 55% of the law firms reporting iPhone use is quite dramatic. 

I’m sure that at most law firms today, the main smartphone used is a Blackberry.  Blackberry’s manufacturer RIM has done a good job of supporting law firms for many years, and for the foreseeable future, I’m sure that we will continue to see virtually 100% of Am Law 200 law firms allowing their lawyers to use Blackberries if they want to do so.  But it would be interesting to see the change in the percentage of attorneys using a Blackberry, Windows Mobile or Palm device over time, a statistic not revealed in the Am Law Tech Survey.  My guess is that you would see a lot of attorneys abandoning each of those three platforms, and that the primary beneficiary of those switchers would be the iPhone.  Indeed, I suspect that such a chart for lawyers would look very similar to this recent chart from ChangeWave Research of smartphone users in general (reported in this CNET article from late October):

 

Congratulations to Apple for making great inroads into law firms over the past twelve moths.  I look forward to seeing how the iPhone fares in the 2010 Am Law Tech survey.

Verizon has a new series of ads that assert that people should get a phone from Verizon instead of AT&T because Verizon’s 3G network provides “5X more 3G coverage.”  Small print on the ads states:  “Comparison based on square miles covered with 3G.  Voice & data services available outside 3G coverage area.”  While the ads may talk about AT&T, the ads are clearly taking on the iPhone, which is of course only offered on AT&T in the U.S. (although there have long been rumors that the iPhone will someday come to Verizon; I’ll believe it when I see it). 

AT&T isn’t pleased with the ads and has even sued Verizon in the Northern District of Georgia, alleging that the ads violate the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1125(a), and the Georgia False Advertising Act and Deceptive Trade Practices Act.  AT&T asserts that notwithstanding the disclaimer, “Verizon is still
conveying the message that AT&T has no coverage in the white or
blank space included in the maps, and thus AT&T customers cannot
use their wireless devices in large portions of the United States.”  Of
course, you can use an iPhone even if you don’t have 3G service.  (Engadget has a copy of the Complaint available here.)

Verizon’s newest ads in this campaign have Christmas themes.  One of them (my favorite) features the Island of Misfit Toys from the classic Rankin/Bass stop motion animation movie Rudolph the Red-Noised Reindeer.  Apple itself has paid tribute to the Rankin/Bass holiday movies in many of its Get a Mac ads, and for nostalgia reasons those are actually some of my favorite ads in that long running Apple campaign; the one that Apple ran in 2007 doesn’t appear to be on its website but can be viewed on YouTube here, and the two from 2008 are available on Apple’s website here if you click on the 2008 tab.  I hope that another one is planned for this year.

I’ll leave it to the courts to decide whether the Verizon ads are fair, but they are humorous. 
All three are set forth below.

Yesterday, I reported that there are now over 100,000 apps on the iPhone.  Suffice it to say that there is a heck of a lot that you can do with an iPhone, making it useful throughout the day.  With this in mind, I found it interesting that Om Malik reported this week on a study of the increasing number of iPhone addicts, with “addict” defined as someone who uses an iPhone “more than 100 times per month, or more than three times each day of the month.”  I haven’t tried to count how many times I pick up my iPhone every day, but considering that sometimes it is three times a minute, I think it is safe to say that I meet that rather lame definition of an iPhone addict.  Stop your snickering; I’m sure that the same is true for many of you.  So, fellow iPhone addicts, here are the iPhone-related stories that caught my attention this week:

• Fortune names Steve Jobs the CEO of the Decade.  This related article provides thoughts on Steve Jobs from Andy Grove (Intel), Andrea Jung (Avon; Apple board member), Larry
  
  Ellison (Oracle; friend of Jobs); Marc Andreessen (started Netscape);
  
  Bob Iger (Disney); Ralph de la Vega (AT&T); Jimmy Iovine
  
  (Interscope Records); and Bill Campbell (Quicken; Apple board member).
• Speaking of the decade, Mark Kellner of the Washington Times says that the iPhone is not just the gift of the year, it is the gift of the decade.
• A while back, I wrote about the history of the “i” in the iPhone.  If you are new to iPhone J.D. and missed that article, I think you will enjoy it.  We now know a little more about the origin of the “i” thanks to an excellent interview by Cult of Mac with Ken Segall who used to work at Apple’s advertising agency, TBWA\Chiat\Day.  He talks about how he coined the term “iMac” even though Jobs hated it at first, and also gives some more background on Jobs that serves as a nice complement to the Fortune articles noted above.
• Every year iLounge produces a great, free iPod + iPhone Buyers Guide.  This year’s edition is available here.
• Erin Geiger Smith recommends on The Business Insider 10 iPhone apps for lawyers, several of which have been reviewed here on iPhone J.D. and which I also like.
• It’s not just lawyers using iPhones.  The Orlando Sentinel writes about doctors using iPhone apps. 
• Similarly, David Pogue of the New York Times writes about medical apps for doctors and patients.  I wonder when someone will start iPhone M.D.?
• Here is a great tip from Dan Moren of Macworld:  a way to lock the Photos app in landscape mode so that you can hand someone your iPhone displaying a picture without the screen rotating as you move the iPhone itself.
• Michael Mace, who previously worked at Apple and Palm, writes on his Mobile Opportunity blog about which mobile phone apps are making money.
• Are you looking to create an iPhone app but don’t know anything about programming?  There are companies that will create simple apps for you using templates, and the price is quite reasonable.  BusinessWeek reports on Do-it Yourself iPhone Apps.  (Thanks to Alan Cohen for the link.)
• Here is yet another reason that I have not used a jailbreak utility to hack my iPhone.  Engadget reports that a Dutch hacker found a way to locate jail-broken iPhones in the Netherlands and display a message demanding money.
• Verizon’s new Droid cellphone, made by Motorola, has been getting
  
  very good reviews and, for some people, appears to be a decent
  
  alternative to the iPhone.  Here are three quick reports on the Droid
  
  versus the iPhone.  First, Greg Kumparak’s review for MobileCrunch
  
  is a great read if you are wondering what in Droid is different from
  
  the iPhone.  Kimparak concludes, after weighing the pros and cons of
  
  each, that it is difficult to say which is better:  “If you want a
  
  phone that just works and does damned near everything you
  
  could want and don’t mind Apple’s closed garden: by all means, get the
  
  iPhone. If you can handle a bit of complexity for the sake of
  
  flexibility and don’t mind having to tinker a bit: by all means, get
  
  the Droid. At this point, I honestly feel that either choice would make
  
  any sane person incredibly happy.”
• Second, David Pogue reviews the Droid for the New York Times,
  
  and his review is also mostly a comparison to the iPhone.  Pogue’s
  
  conclusion:  “Droid wins on phone network [Verizon], customizability,
  
  GPS navigation, speaker,
  
  physical keyboard, removable battery and openness (free operating
  
  system, mostly uncensored app store). The iPhone wins on simplicity,
  
  refinement, thinness, design, Web browsing, music/video synching with
  
  your computer, accessory ecosystem and quality/quantity of the app
  
  store.”
• Third, Andy Ihnatko analyzes the “iDon’t” ad for the Droid and explains why it is mostly wrong.  Ihnatko also posted a helpful set of pictures on Flickr
  
  that compares the iPhone 3GS’s 3 megapixel camera versus the Droid’s 5
  
  megapixel camera that even includes a flash.  On specs alone, the Droid
  
  should win, but as these photos show, because you can touch the screen
  
  to adjust the exposure on the iPhone, the iPhone pictures often come
  
  out better.  Finally, Ihnatko’s full review of the Droid is here.
  
• For those of you who know what it means to miss New Orleans music, you can now listen to New Orleans music for free with the new WWOZ app.  WWOZ is the community radio station in New Orleans run by the folks who bring us the amazing New Orleans Jazz Fest every year.  You can listen the the music in the app itself, or there is a button that launches a background stream via Safari so that you can listen to the music in the background while you use other apps on your iPhone.  (Thanks to Ray Ward for the link.)
• Speaking of music, are you going to the Opera?  There’s an app for that.  The Opera app from Italian developers Intermundia will give you lots of details on 24 famous operas, including the script in both Italian and English so that you can understand what is being said.  The text is white and gray on a black background so that you can use it in the Opera house.  I think you’d also need to turn down the brightness to not annoy the other patrons, but I suppose that could work.
• And finally, Boing Boing reports on German researchers who created a Dodge minivan that can be remotely operated by an iPhone app.  (Thanks to Ernie Svenson for the link.)  The app has buttons to accelerate and brake, and rotating the iPhone turns the steering wheel.  The app includes a live view from the car so that the iPhone user can see where he is driving.  As usual, a video is worth more than 1,000 words, so let’s roll the tape:

Yesterday, Apple announced that there are now over 100,000 apps in the app store
and “well over” two billion iPhone apps have been downloaded, an increase from September 28, 2009 when Apple announced 85,000 apps available and “more than” two billion apps downloaded.  A little history to put this in perspective:

• 7/10/08:  App Store opens
• 7/14/08:  10 million apps sold; 800 apps available  (Apple PR)
• 9/9/08:  100 million apps sold; 3,000 apps available. (Apple PR)
• 10/22/08:  200 million apps sold; 5,550 apps available  (Macworld)
• 12/5/08:  300 million apps sold; 10,000 apps available  (iPhone J.D.)
• 1/16/09:  500 million apps sold; 15,000 apps available  (iPhone J.D.)
• 3/17/09:  800 million apps sold; 25,000 apps available  (Macworld)
• 4/24/09:  1 billion apps sold; 35,000 apps available  (Apple PR)
• 7/14/09:  1.5 billion apps sold; 65,000 apps available  (Apple PR)
• 9/28/09:  “more than” 2 billion apps sold; 85,000 apps available  (Apple PR)
• 11/4/09:  “well over” 2 billion apps sold; 100,000 apps available (Apple PR)

And because a picture is worth a thousand words:

What apps do you use the most?  Here are some of the apps that I have been using lately, along with a brief description for the ones that I have not reviewed on iPhone J.D.

• Twitterific — Twitter client
• Quickoffice
• Documents to Go
• NotifyMe
• NetNewsWire — Google Reader RSS client
• Wikipanion
• Facebook — Facebook client
• DirecTV — DirecTV client that lets you program the DVR when away from home
• FlyCast — streams radio stations; I have been using it lately to keep up with Saints-related radio from WWL  (Go Saints!  Who Dat!)
• Bento
• DaysFrom
• FRCP
• La. Civil Code
• La. Civ. Pro.
• Speedtest — test your WiFi or 3G speed
• TWiT.am — live stream from Leo Laporte’s TWIT
• Mac OS Ken — stream episodes of the Mac OS Ken podcast, useful to listen to the newest one on the way to work even if I haven’t synced my iPhone yet
• WifiTrak — find open WiFi hotspots
• Grocery IQ — grocery list
• iPhunny — latest jokes from late night TV monologues
• Remote — remote control for Apple TV
• Rock Band — game where you play along with the music
• 2 Across – crossword game
• Bejeweled 2 — the classic game
• AWSolitaire — numerous solitaire games, but the only one I play is Klondike
• Peggle — I don’t play this one as much after getting to the end, but still fun
• Sokoku — I play the version from Electronic Arts
• Ramp Champ — my son plays this one more than I do, but I like it too
• Wurdle — word game

I personally have seen a huge increase in the number of iPhones in law firms and other companies, and apparently Deutsche Bank research analyst Chris Whitmore has seen the same thing.  Philip Elmer-DeWitt of Fortune reports on a research note that Whitmore released to his clients this week in which Whitmore estimates that Apple will have shipped 25 million iPhones by the end of 2009 and that 2 million of those will be to corporate users.  He predicts that this will give Apple a 7% share of the enterprise smartphone market in 2009, up from 2% in 2008.  Whitmore also estimates that around 6,000 of the almost 100,000 apps in the App Store are enterprise related.  Elmer-DeWitt reprints an interesting graph from Whitmore which estimates a large increase in corporate iPhone use next year:

 

The Deutsche Bank report is consistent with other recent reports.  For example, TechNewsWorld recently wrote on reports from Forrester Research and Barclays Capital Research which also predicted a big increase in the use of iPhones in companies.  Forrester even predicts that the iPhone share of the enterprise smartphone market will rise to 35% in the next three years.

The increase in corporate iPhone sales is no accident; Apple is actively pursuing the enterprise market.  Apple has a web page devoted to iPhone in Business, including this page which profiles numerous companies using iPhones ranging from Kraft to Gannett to even Blue Man Group.  (I keep waiting for Apple to add a law firm profile; I hope Apple isn’t waiting for one of us to paint all of our attorneys blue. UPDATE:  I stand corrected; as pointed out in the comments, there is a profile of the Sonnenschein law firm.)  Also, as I have previously noted,
many of the changes in iPhone Software 3.0 and the iPhone 3GS were
included specifically to address common security requirements of
corporate America.  Indeed, as Alan Cohen wrote in an article for AmLaw
that I referenced last month, many corporate IT directors at law firms who previously had hesitations about the iPhone are now supporting iPhone use.

I look forward to all of the new iPhone users at law firms and our clients.  The more the merrier.