I used to be the chair of my firm’s Ethics Committee and I currently have responsibility for approving all new file openings, so I frequently find myself analyzing legal ethics. As is true for many areas of law, there are lots of great Internet resources that can assist with an ethics analysis, from paid services such as the ABA/BNA Lawyers’ Manual on Professional Conduct to the free but excellent Freivogel on Conflicts. But none of these sites are optimized for the iPhone.
As a Louisiana attorney, I was thrilled to learn that Loyola (New Orleans) Law School Professor Dane Ciolino, an expert on legal ethics, recently started the website Louisiana Legal Ethics. The site includes not only frequent blog-style updates on legal ethics but also some great resources for Louisiana attorneys. For example, the site includes a free and updated version of the book Louisiana Professional Responsibility Law and Practice which was published by the La. State Bar Association in 2001 and updated in 2004 and 2007, but which is now out of print and out of date. Thus, you can easily view the current text of the Louisiana Rules of Professional Conduct along with background information on the rules, related ABA resources such as the comments to the corresponding ABA Model Rule and annotations including Louisiana case law.
The iPhone angle here is that Prof. Ciolino, who bought his first iPhone just a month ago, knew from the start that he wanted his website to work well on mobile devices because he hates working with websites that are not mobile-friendly. (Don’t we all.) Thus, he created his site using WordPress and then worked with a free plug-in called WPtouch iPhone theme to create a version of the website specially formatted for the iPhone screen (and which apparently also looks good on other smartphones). Ciolino tells me that it took some tweaking to get everything working, but it was fairly easy to do. Thus, if you go to the Louisiana Legal Ethics website on an iPhone, you will automatically see a version optimized for the iPhone screen:
You can even tap the arrow at the top right of every page to get a pop-up menu that allows you to search the site and jump to other main sections:
Ciolino plans to update Louisiana Legal Ethics on a daily basis, and even though the website is new, I know it will quickly become the go-to resource for Louisiana legal ethics issues. iPhone users will love the ability easily access the current rules, comments, etc. I am often asked to assess a legal ethics issue when I am not at my desk or at my computer but my iPhone is with me.
Ciolino’s website will primarily be useful for Louisiana attorneys, and while I know a bunch of them who read iPhone J.D. (and I love y’all!), the other reason for my post today is to express hope that other great legal resource websites will also create iPhone-friendly versions of their websites. iPhone apps may be all the rage, but an updated website that is optomized for the iPhone screen is often just as useful. (For example, my favorite iPhone weather app is not an app at all: the iPhone-optimized version of Weather Underground, located at i.wund.com.) Safari on the iPhone is better than any other mobile browser, but there are still some websites that don’t display great on the iPhone screen because they require a lot of back-and-forth scrolling. The solution is to offer an iPhone version of the website.
By the way, I have often thought about creating an iPhone version of this website, but I haven’t done so because I actually think that iPhone J.D. looks fine on an iPhone when you double-tap the middle column to zoom to the entries. I don’t use any fancy, wide-page formatting other than the single graphic at the top. Having said that, I still may do this one day just to figure out how it is done. If any of you have experience setting up an iPhone theme for a TypePad website, let me know what you did.
Thanks to Dane Ciolino for creating a great resource for Louisiana lawyers, especially those of us who use an iPhone.
I’ve written in the past about the usefulness of the Skype app when you are traveling internationally. If you find WiFi in another country, the Skype app lets you use VoIP (voice over internet protocol) to dial home for just pennies and avoid the exorbitant roaming fees associated with using the cell phone service of a provider in another country to call home. But when here in the U.S., the usefulness of an app like Skype was limited by the WiFi requirement. You could place calls from the U.S. to other countries using Skype’s relatively cheap plans, but only when you had WiFi access. You couldn’t use a VoIP app such as Skype with AT&T’s wireless service because AT&T viewed those services as competitors. Even with the WiFi-only restriction, Skype has been very popular; the company revealed yesterday that Skype has been downloaded to 10% of all iPhone and iPod touch devices. (Apple recently announced that 50 million devices have been sold, so that’s 5 million Skype downloads.)
A few months ago, when the FCC asked Apple, AT&T and Google to respond to questions relating to the Google Voice app for the iPhone, AT&T wrote extensively about why it was fair for AT&T to prohibit iPhone VoIP apps (see the bottom of this post), although AT&T did end its defense by saying that it “regularly reviews its policies” and that it planned to “take a fresh look at possibly authorizing VoIP capabilities on the iPhone for use on AT&T’s 3G network.”
Apparently, AT&T wasn’t just blowing smoke. About six weeks after AT&T wrote to the FCC, AT&T announced yesterday that it reversed its policy and will now let VoIP apps such as Skype use the AT&T wireless network. Thus, if you want to use your iPhone to make a call from the U.S. to another country, you can use services other than AT&T to try to save money on the call. I presume you can also use VoIP to make unlimited domestic calls without using up the minutes on your AT&T plan.
Skype is not the only iPhone VoIP app that will now be able to work without WiFi. Earlier this week, Vonage released an iPhone app that lets you make cheaper international calls. Some are unhappy with the app because it requires the user to establish a new account, so existing Vonage customers cannot use it with their current service.
It’s nice to have choices, and now if you want to use your iPhone to make international phone calls, AT&T’s policy’s change gives you more flexibility.
– – – – – –
The following is of just historical importance now, but it is interesting to read AT&T’s justification for not allowing iPhone VoIP apps now that the company has reversed that position. If you want more context, you can view the entire August 21, 2009 letter from AT&T to the FCC in PDF format on the FCC website by clicking here, but here is the part that discusses VoIP:
It is widely recognized by economists and jurists that parties to strategic alliances in competitive markets may enter into contracts to promote and protect their respective business interests and to refrain from taking actions adverse to those interests.12 Consistent with such lawful, economically efficient practices common among parties to strategic alliances, including participants in the mobile wireless marketplace,13 AT&T and Apple agreed that Apple would not take affirmative steps to enable an iPhone to use AT&T’s wireless service (including 2G, 3G and Wi-Fi) to make VoIP calls without first obtaining AT&T’s consent. AT&T and Apple also agreed, however, that if a third party enables an iPhone to make VoIP calls using AT&T’s wireless service, Apple would have no obligation to take action against that third party.
The parties’ concurrence on this provision was particularly important in light of the risks the parties assumed in bringing the iPhone to market. From the beginning, both AT&T and Apple recognized that each party would need to invest substantial capital and other resources to successfully develop, market and support the iPhone – a product with unprecedented features and capabilities from a manufacturer that had never before built a wireless phone.14 AT&T and Apple also recognized their mutual interest in stimulating sales in the highly competitive wireless marketplace by offering consumers the iPhone at an attractive retail price.
The parties’ willingness and ability to assume the risk of their investments in the iPhone and of their pricing strategy were predicated, in significant part, on certain assumptions about the monthly service revenues that would be generated by iPhone users. In particular, both parties required assurances that the revenues from the AT&T voice plans available to iPhone customers would not be reduced by enabling VoIP calling functionality on the iPhone. Thus, AT&T and Apple agreed that Apple would not take affirmative steps to enable an iPhone to use AT&T’s wireless service to make VoIP calls.
Without this arrangement, the prices consumers pay for the iPhone – particularly the broadband-enabled iPhone 3G – would likely have been higher than they are today. Indeed, AT&T offers the iPhone 3G to consumers at a price significantly below its cost as a result of the largest subsidy AT&T has ever provided on a wireless handset, on both a per-unit and aggregate basis.15 That subsidy has made the iPhone accessible to millions of consumers, at prices as low as $99 per iPhone 3G. Those consumers are taking advantage of its revolutionary features and capabilities for a wireless broadband Internet access experience that was not previously possible on any other handset. As a result, iPhone customers use their handset for broadband Internet access to a far greater degree than do customers of any other AT&T phone. As competitors roll out their own “iPhone killers,” customers of other phones undoubtedly will follow suit. In this sense, the iPhone and the subsidies that were instrumental in popularizing it, helped to spawn a sea-change in the way Americans access the broadband Internet.
During the course of the agreement, AT&T indicated to Apple that it does not object to Apple enabling VoIP applications for the iPhone that use Wi-Fi connectivity (including connectivity at more than 20,000 Wi-Fi hotspots operated by AT&T that may be used by iPhone customers for no additional charge) rather than AT&T’s 2G or 3G wireless data services. Although AT&T has no involvement in producing Apple’s iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK), which establishes the iPhone functionalities accessible to application developers, AT&T understands that the SDK enables application providers to develop VoIP applications that use the iPhone’s Wi-Fi capabilities and that such applications are currently available in the Apple App Store.
As noted above, AT&T regularly reviews its policies regarding features and capabilities available through the devices we offer in order to provide an attractive range of options for our customers. Consistent with this approach, we plan to take a fresh look at possibly authorizing VoIP capabilities on the iPhone for use on AT&T’s 3G network. AT&T will promptly update the Commission regarding any such change in its policies.
Footnotes:
12 See Continental T.V. v. GTE Sylvania, 433 U.S. 36, 54-55, 57-58 (1977) (“Vertical restrictions promote interbrand competition by allowing the manufacturer to achieve certain efficiencies in the distribution of his products. These ‘redeeming virtues’ are implicit in every decision sustaining vertical restrictions under the rule of reason. Economists have identified a number of ways in which manufacturers can use such restrictions to compete more effectively against other manufacturers” – such as inducing retailers to make “investment of capital and labor” or “engage in promotional activities,” as well as ensuring product quality and preventing free riding. “Such restrictions, in varying forms, are widely used in our free market economy. . . . [T]here is substantial scholarly and judicial authority supporting their economic utility. There is relatively little authority to the contrary.”). See also Richard J. Wegener, et al, Restricted Distribution 2009: Thirtysomething Sylvania and the State of Non-Price Vertical Restraints, American Law Institute – American Bar Association, SP050 ALI-ABA 43 (March 2009); William J. Kolasky, Jr., Antitrust Enforcement Guidelines for Strategic Alliances, Practicing Law Institute (July- August 1998).
13See, e.g., Google Android Market Developer Distribution Agreement at http://www.android.com/us/developer-distribution-agreement.html (“Non-Compete. You may not use the Market to distribute or make available any Product whose primary purpose is to facilitate the distribution of Products outside of the Market.”).
14 In AT&T’s only prior experience with Apple in the wireless market – a three-party alliance with Motorola to develop and market the iTunes-enabled ROKR – the end product received significant criticism. See Michael Mace, Motorola Rokr: Instant Failure, Mobile Opportunity (Nov. 2005) at http://mobileopportunity.blogspot.com/2005/11/motorola-rokr-instant- failure.html; Frank Rose, Battle for the Soul of the MP3 Phone, Wired (Nov. 2005) at http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.11/phone.html?pg=1&topic=phone&topic_set=.
15 In other countries where the iPhone is offered at similarly attractive price points, some wireless providers expressly prohibit customers from using VoIP while others impose surcharges on customers that use VoIP. See Orange Mobile Terms of Service § 6.4 at http://sites.orange.fr/ge/content/pdf/v2_pdf/documentation/Conditions_generales_abonnement.pdf; DT Replaces VoIP ban with surcharge, Telegeography (June 4, 2009) at http://www.telegeography.com/cu/article.php?article_id=28749.
I suspect that most of the readers of this website already know how to tie a tie, but just in case you forget, there’s an app for that on the iPhone. Actually, there are at least two: iTie and Tie-A-Tie.
iTie
iPhone developer Karl Klostermann of Lab48 in Munich, Germany developed the free iPhone app iTie. It includes instructions for five different knots, so even if you have been tying ties for decades, you might learn something new. The app includes Four-in-hand, Half Windsor, Double Tie, Oriental and Onassis. For each knot, you get illustrated step-by-step instructions that you can have play automatically as a slide show or you can just manually advance through each screen.
The illustrations are nicely done and easy to understand. On the options screen, you can choose how quickly you want the steps to appear in automatic play mode (from 3 to 8 seconds per slide), and you can choose to flip the orientation.
This app is bare bones simple, but it does exactly what it needs to do, and hey, it’s free. Although I did not check it out, if you want to splurge and spend $1.99 you can buy the premium version which adds more knots: Full Windsor, Pratt, St. Andrew, Atlantic, Italian, Diagonal-Right and, for those nights you want to go out on the town, the Bow Tie.
Tie-A-Tie
Another set of tie-tying iPhone apps comes from AppsCode. The free version of the app, called Tie-A-Tie Lite, only includes a single knot, the Windsor. Like iTie, Tie-A-Tie includes nice drawings of each of the steps to tie a tie. But for each step in Tie-A-Tie, you can also see a photograph of a person tying a tie, which is a nice addition.
The app also gives you some basic information on the knot, another nice feature:
Again, I only looked at the free version, but if you want more features, you can purchase Tie-A-Tie Deluxe for $0.99 and get seven different knots: Windsor, Half Windsor, Four-in-Hand, Small Knot, Cross Knot, Pratt and Bow Tie.
Tie a Tie and Tie a Tie Pro
I know that I said that there were two iPhone apps to teach you to tie a tie, but I also see two more in the App Store. One is called Tie a Tie from Pocket Fun Inc ($0.99). The description says that it shows you not only how to tie 13 different knots but also how to fold a handkerchief into six different pocket squares. However, I can’t seem to find a website for the developer, and each of the nine different apps sold by Pocket Fun Inc. links to a different website, none of which appear to be connected to the iPhone apps or Pocket Fun Inc. The other app is called Tie a Tie Pro ($0.99) from NBR-Soft, and the description says that it shows you how to tie 10 different knots. Once again, I don’t see a website for this app, but here the fault might be mine; the link on iTunes is to a Chinese website that does appear to have something to do with iPhone apps, but I don’t see any reference to Tie a Tie Pro in English and I cannot read the Chinese. In light of my confusion finding developers for these apps, I did not take a look at either one of them.
Tying it all up
Now that we’re covered with tying a tie, what we really need is an
iPhone app that fixes that broken button that you discover when you are
already running late to work and only have one clean shirt left because the
others are waiting for you at the cleaners. I would definitely pay for
the premium version of that app.
MeiLin Chan of Boston, MA graduated with honors in Psychology and Business Administration from the University of California at Berkeley, but her passion is making fun soaps, which she sells through her company Two Eggplants (website here and also on Etsy). She has come up with a whole line of iPhone soaps in different scents ranging from Kahlua Cafe-O-Lait to Buttery Croissant to Macintosh Apple, and they all look very cute. For only $7.99 each, it’s a fun gift for the iPhone lover in your life, or perhaps a gift to yourself. She has a ton of other interesting soaps too; check our her product listings and you’ll find it hard not to smile.
Alan Cohen writes an interesting article dated today for The American Lawyer titled “Is the iPhone Ready for Law Firms?” Cohen quotes law firm IT directors at firms where lawyers have been using iPhones for a while, and other IT directors who were reluctant to let their attorneys use iPhones before iPhone Software 3.0 and the iPhone 3GS because of security concerns, some of whom are still cautious today. “Tech directors who have already embraced the iPhone say it’s ready, now more than ever. Those who haven’t say that even with its enhancements, the platform still isn’t quite there yet. Our verdict: The pro-iPhone group is starting to make the better case.” Cohen also includes a few short quotes from me. The article is an interesting follow up to a similar article that Cohen wrote seven months ago on iPhones in law firms.
Law firm IT directors are right to be conservative when it comes to security, and I would agree that the original iPhone released in 2007 was not ready for law firms. But Apple has added important improvements to the iPhone to ensure that it works well in a corporate environment, and I have no doubt that today the iPhone is ready for law firms. When you consider how much power the iPhone puts in the hands of lawyers, law firms that don’t allow their attorneys to use iPhones are putting their attorneys at a competitive disadvantage.
DataViz has been promising a Documents to Go app on the iPhone that would be able to edit Microsoft Excel files since March of 2008. On September 21, 2009, DataViz finally submitted to Apple the 2.0 version of Documents to Go, and yesterday (10 days later) the update to the app showed up in the App Store. Editing Excel files isn’t as important for most attorneys as editing Word files, but I’m happy to see that this feature has finally arrived. I’ll let you know how it works once I have had a chance to use it for a while, and if you want to check out the app yourself click here for the $9.99 version and click here for the $14.99 version that works with Exchange e-mail. Other notable iPhone news of the week:
It was recently discovered that, this past July, Apple purchased a company called Placebase which was a competitor to Google Maps. One of the ways that this was discovered is someone checked out the LinkedIn page of Placebase founder Jaron Waldman and saw that he now says that he works for the “Geo Team” at Apple. Interesting; I didn’t know that Apple had a Geo Team. AppleInsider speculates that Apple could be building a Google Maps competitor. I suppose that is possible, but it seems just as likely to me that Apple sees the increasing importance of location-based services on devices like the iPhone and Apple bought the company so that Waldman and his team would bring their experience to help Apple on these initiatives. For example, I’m sure that you know that the Maps app on the iPhone works with Google Maps, but did you know that it was Apple, not Google, who wrote that app?
If you have a Mac with a TV tuner and the EyeTV software, you can record over the air TV shows on your Mac to watch later. MacNN reports that with the new EyeTV app, you can also stream that video to your iPhone. It sounds neat, and reminds me of the SlingPlayer Mobile app that streams video from your television to the iPhone.
iPhone owners in Switzerland who purchased the a traffic monitoring app called mogoRoad were surprised to get phone calls from the developer encouraging them to pay for an upgrade to the app. Apparently the app sends the user’s phone number to the developer so that he can give you a call to ask for more money. Sounds a little creepy to me. Art of the iPhone speculates that this violates Apple’s rules and that the app won’t last long.
I recently wrote about the AT&T MicroCell device that can use your internet connection to improve your 3G cell phone service. The device was first released in Charlotte, NC, and AppleInsider reports that the service is now available in Raleigh, NC. The service will eventually come to more cities, but apparently the rate of expansion is limited by complicated rules in other cities on complying with local 911 requirements.
And finally, I’ll admit that I’m a sucker for iPhone 3GS augmented reality apps. I don’t own any yet, but I enjoy reading about them. The latest one to catch my eye is Cyclopedia, and it is a neat idea. You just hold up your iPhone 3GS to look at the world around you and the app provides links to Wikipedia entries that correspond to what you are seeing. A video explains it better than I can, so click here to see the developer’s website and the included video. Click here to get Cyclopedia ($1.99):
Apple has been running its “there’s an app for that” television commercial campaign for some time now. (You can see all of them on Apple’s website.) Apple now has a section of its website titled Apps for Everything which includes nicely designed pages showing you the apps that are useful for Cooks, Keeping Current, the Great Outdoors, Music, Work, Students, Moms and Dads, Working Out, Going Out, Managing Money, Traveling and Fun and Games.
What, no page for lawyers? Actually, the Work page identifies many apps that lawyers would find useful, such as Quickoffice, Cisco WebEx Meeting Center, Nexonia Expenses and others.
Like everything that Apple does, these pages have generated discussion and even controversy. For example, Roy Furchgott, who covers smartphones for the New York Times and writes a weekly column that recommends iPhone apps, wrote an article titled “Is that a recommendation, or an ad?” in which he wonders whether developers paid Apple to be listed on this new page. I actually doubt that these are ads. I have seen developers write in the past that they were surprised to see their apps featured in a TV commercial or the icon for their app displayed at an Apple Store. Apparently, Apple has the right to use any images that it wants from an iPhone app without seeking prior permission from a developer, not that most developers would object to the free publicity. For this reason, I suspect that these developers were surprised, albeit tickled, to see their apps featured on these pages.
With over 85,000 apps, it is increasingly difficult to find the good ones. Even though relatively few apps are identified, it is always helpful to have some good apps pointed out. So if you consider yourself a person who likes to work, cook, go out, travel, etc., take a look at Apple’s new page. You just might find an app that you like.
Yesterday, Apple announced that there are now 85,000 apps in the app store
and over two billion iPhone apps have been sold (although, of course, many apps are free). Apple said that more than half
a billion apps were downloaded in the last three months alone. Indeed, it has
been less than three weeks since Apple announced
that there were over 75,000 apps and 1.8 billion downloads. 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: 2 billion apps sold; 85,000 apps available (Apple PR)
And because a picture is worth 1,000 words:
The growth in apps is nothing short of astonishing. When the App Store opened in July of 2008, I don’t think that anyone honestly thought that there would be 2 billion apps sold barely more than a year later. And we still have a few months left in 2009, including the holiday buying season. How long will it take to hit 3 billion apps downloaded?
The iPhone includes a passcode lock feature. About a year ago, when iPhone Software 2.0 was out, Apple received bad publicity because there was an easy way to bypass the passcode just by double-clicking the home button. That flaw was fixed last year and there have been other updates to the iPhone passcode lock feature in iPhone Software 3.1, so I thought this would be a good time to take a close look at this feature.
You enable the feature by going to Settings –> General –> Passcode Lock. The default is to have a four character passcode, all numbers (although as noted below, this can be changed to something more complicated). When the passcode lock is turned on, a person who picks up your iPhone cannot use it (except for emergency calls) without entering the four digit password. The passcode lock is a nice first level of security for your iPhone just in case it is picked up by a “bad guy” or, for that matter, a child.
A person who picks up an iPhone with the passcode lock enabled has 10 chances to enter the correct code, but that doesn’t mean that he can just try 10 different codes in a row. After six incorrect attempts, the person must wait one minute before trying again. If the seventh attempt is wrong, the person must wait 5 minutes before trying again. If the eighth attempt is wrong, the person must wait 15 minutes before trying again. If the ninth attempt is wrong, the person must wait 60 minutes before trying again. After 10 incorrect attempts, what happens next depends upon your settings. By default, after 10 incorrect attempts the iPhone tells you that you must connect the iPhone to iTunes to unlock it and does not allow you to try to guess the password again. Alternatively, in Settings –> General –> Passcode Lock you can turn on the “Erase Data” after 10 failed passcode attempts feature. With this on, after 10 incorrect attempts, the iPhone will erase all data. On an iPhone 3GS, this happens instantly because the 3GS simply removes the encryption key to all data on the device. On the original iPhone and the iPhone 3G, the iPhone erases all data by writing over the data, a process that can take two hours or more. (You can’t use the iPhone while this is taking place.) Note that one danger of telling your iPhone to erase all data after 10 incorrect attempts is that you will no longer be able to use MobileMe to track your iPhone’s location, send messages to the iPhone, etc. If you accidentally erase all data on your iPhone, you can still restore the data by using iTunes to apply your latest backup.
You can set how long it takes for the iPhone’s passcode lock to be enabled. The choices are immediately (every time you wake the iPhone), after 1 minute, 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 1 hour or 4 hours. However, starting with iPhone Software 3.1, if you are syncing with a Microsoft Exchange server for e-mail, contacts or calendar, you may find that you have fewer options. For example, here are two screen shots of the Require Passcode setting. The one on the left is from my iPhone; the one on the right is from another lawyer’s iPhone who does not work at my law firm. Both of us are using Exchange and both of us are running iPhone 3.1, but you can see that I have fewer options:
I am more limited because my law firm’s Exchange server imposes a “maximum inactivity time lock” on mobile devices. (I believe that ours is set to 20 minutes, and when you combine the up to 5 minutes before an iPhone auto-locks plus up to 15 minutes for a passcode lock, that is a maximum of 20 minutes of inactivity to lock the iPhone.) Before iPhone Software 3.1, the iPhone did not pay attention to an Exchange Server’s maximum inactivity time lock. This was a security flaw, one that was pointed out to Apple by iPhone users at PepsiCo, Intel Corporation, Edward Jones and Agilent Technologies. When Apple fixed this issue in 3.1, it explained what it had done on this page and gave credit to the individuals at those companies who pointed out the flaw. So if you, too, are looking to become famous on an Apple security page, let them know if you find another security flaw.
Speaking of iPhones and Exchange servers, the following Exchange ActiveSync password policies are supported in iPhone Software 3.1:
Require a password
Minimum password length
Maximum failed password attempts
Require both numbers and letters in the password
Inactivity time in minutes
Allow or prohibit simple password
Password expiration
Password history
Minimum number of complex characters in password
Even if a company doesn’t use Exchange, a company can set these settings by using device profiles. The following comes from the Apple Enterprise Deployment Guide (PDF link), which explains what the different passcode settings mean:
Require passcode on device: Requires users to enter a passcode before using the device. Otherwise, anyone who has the device can access all of its functions and data.
Allow simple value: Permits users to use sequential or repeated characters in their passcodes. For example, this would allow the passcodes “3333” or “DEFG.”
Require alphanumeric value: Requires that the passcode contain at least one letter character.
Minimum passcode length: Specifies the smallest number of characters a psscode can contain
Minimum number of complex characters: The number of non-alphanumeric characters (such as $, &, and !) that the passcode must contain.
Minimum passcode age (in days): Requires users to change their passcode at the interval you specify
Auto-Lock (in minutes): If the device isn’t used for this period of time, it automatically locks. Entering the passcode unlocks it.
Passcode History: A new passcode won’t be accepted if it matches a previously used passcode. You can specify how many previous passcodes are remembered for comparison.
Grace period for device lock: Specifies how soon the device can be unlocked gain after use, without re-prompting for the passcode.
Maximum number of failed attempts: Determines how many failed passcode attempts can be made before the device is wiped. If you don’t change this setting, after six failed passcode attempts, the device imposes a time delay before a passcode can be entered again. The time delay increases with each failed attempt. After the eleventh failed attempt, all data and settings are security erased from the device. The passcode time delays always begin after the sixth attempt, so if you set this vlue to 6 or lower, no time delays are imposed and the device is ereased when the attempt value is exceeded.
Another passcode lock change in iPhone Software 3.1 is that, if you use MobileMe, you can now jump on the MobileMe website and tell your iPhone to immediately lock itself and even supply a new four digit code, which will override any passcode previously set on the iPhone. This could be useful if someone gets access to your iPhone and knows your
prior passcode. I tested this feature and it works great; a fraction
of a second after I told MobileMe to lock my iPhone, my iPhone
immediately went into Auto-Lock mode and wouldn’t allow access until I entered
the new code. Of course, for this feature to work, your iPhone must be on and must be on the network. A smart thief could remove the SIM chip, which prevents MobileMe from finding the iPhone, or just turn off MobileMe on the iPhone. (By the way, in my tests, after removing the SIM chip, sending a lock command via MobileMe, then reinserting the SIM chip, it took a full 15 minutes before the MobileMe-initiated iPhone lock took effect.) But thieves are often not very smart, and there are many stories of people finding stolen or misplaced iPhones thanks to MobileMe (such as 1, 2, 3). Thus, with MobileMe, you have a possible solution to a lost iPhone that otherwise would not exist.
Does the use of a passcode lock mean that no bad guys could ever access your personal data on the iPhone? Unfortunately, no. Security experts such as Jonathan Zdziarski have come up with ways for law enforcement agents to recover data from an iPhone notwithstanding the iPhone’s built-in security features. If cops know how to do it, you can bet that there are some bad guys who also know. A garden-variety thief won’t know how to do this, but a smart and dedicated hacker can probably find a way to access data on your iPhone if he tries hard enough. (For example, see this article from Wired.)
While the passcode lock is not a perfect security solution for your iPhone, I still believe it is worthwhile feature to enable and I encourage you to do so if you are an attorney or otherwise have confidential information on your iPhone (such as in your emails). It is a minor annoyance to have to enter a passcode after 15 minutes (or up to 4 hours) of non-use, but it provides you with security that will stop all but a few elite hackers from gaining access to you e-mail and other personal data if your iPhone falls into the wrong hands.
[UPDATE 4/22/10: Here is an article from the Apple Knowledge Database on understanding the passcode lock feature.]
The October issue of the ABA Journal includes the article “70 Sizzling
Apps” identifying useful apps for the iPhone, other smartphones and
even the computer. [UPDATE 10/6/09: I just received my print edition, and the article starts on page 80.] The author, Chicago attorney Gabriella Filisko, included some of my
thoughts in the article. Like most ABA Journal articles, it is well done, and I think you will enjoy reading it. Having said that, this
article reminds me of the problems of a print publication in today’s fast-paced digital world. Filisko and
I spoke on May 21, 2009, which means it took four months for the article to be
published. Wow! Although the apps mentioned in that article are all
great ones, if I had to do the interview again today, I would have
mentioned some different apps. (For example, I wouldn’t have mentioned
Quickoffice without also mentioning Documents to Go; see here for more on both apps.) I love the fact that if there is something interesting in the world of iPhone that I think you should know about, I can post to my Twitter account and (if you follow me) you will know about it instantly, or I can make it a daily post on iPhone J.D. and you can know about it in the morning, or at the very least I can include it in my Friday weekly round-up and you’ll hear about it a few days later. I would never wait four months to bring you the news! I still subscribe to many monthly print magazines, but more and more often I find that articles which used to be considered “news” are now more like “history.”
Speaking of which, here are some of the iPhone-related news items that I ran across this past week:
Starting today, you will be able to download a new carrier profile through iTunes which will allow you to use MMS multimedia messages with the iPhone. This has generated a lot of publicity because MMS has been available for other cell phones for a long time and has been conspicuously absent from the iPhone. However, I, for one, don’t care much about this. Do people really use MMS that much anymore? If I want to send someone a picture, I just use e-mail, or maybe I upload the picture to MobilMe, Flickr, etc. But for those to whom this matters, the updated carrier profile will be available for download around late morning for those on the West Coast and this afternoon for those on the East Coast.
If you use Google’s Gmail for your email, calendar, etc., you can now have your new messages pushed directly to your iPhone just like you have been able to do with Yahoo! Mail and Microsoft Exchange for a long time. You get push Gmail by setting up a new Gmail account on your iPhone but acting like it is an Exchange account. For more information, see this article from Macworld and these instructions from Google.
Netflix is coming to the iPhone, just not any time soon. In response to a recent question from Reuters about the possibility of streaming Netflix movies to the iPhone, iPhone Alley reports that Netflix CEO Reed Hastings responded: “It’s something that’s likely to come over time.
But nothing in the short term. (With) movie watching, we are not
focused on mobile yet, but (instead) on the TV, on Blu-ray and on the
video game consoles. We will get to mobile eventually, including the
iPhone.”
Galen Gruman writes an article for InfoWorld about the use of the iPhone with Microsoft Exchange. Gruman is not a fan, but the article has some interesting information.
John Brandon provides advice in Macworld for getting the best video from your iPhone 3GS.
The always entertaining Michelle Slatalla used to write the Online Shopper column for the New York Times, and she then wrote the great but short lived column on raising a family in the digital age called Cyberfamilias. Her current Times column is called Wife/Mother/Worker/Spy, and in this week’s article Does This Pencil Skirt Have an App? she discusses the iPhone weight loss app Lose It!.
For the law students who read this website: I got word from the BARBRI division of Thomson Reuters that the free BARBRI Mobile Bar Review Application is now available in the App Store. According to the press release: “BARBRI
Mobile gives students with an iPhone or iPod touch the ability to
answer thousands of StudySmart MBE questions as well as study BARBRI’s
Conviser Mini-Review. The BARBRI app closely tracks each student’s
progress, compares the student’s performance to thousands of bar exam
takers nationwide and provides individual feedback throughout the study
process. The app also helps law students prepare for final exams.
Enrolled students can watch exam review lectures, work multiple choice
questions or review outlines on their iPhone or iPod touch. Students
who are taking the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination
(MPRE) can access the MPRE lecture, StudySmart questions and
mini-review content.” It appears that the app includes some free information, but is most powerful if you are enrolled in a BARBRI course. Click here to get BARBRI (free):
The latest version of the Black’s Law Dictionary app, version 1.1,
now brings you back to the page you were looking at when you last used
Do you often find yourself trying to charge your iPhone at an
airport, only to find that someone else is already using the only
convenient outlet? Divorce attorney Lee Rosen has a great solution: carry a mini surge protector with you and ask to share the outlet. Smart idea. You can get the Belkin Mini Surge Protector
for only $15.22 at Amazon.
And finally, for all of you Starbucks addicts out there, Starbucks now has two free iPhone apps. The first one is called myStarbucks, and it can tell you the location of the closest Starbucks, includes an interactive menu to help you plan your drink (or food), and lets you save your favorite drinks, get nutritional information, etc. You can even pinch to zoom to change your drink from a tall to a grande to a venti. It’s nicely done, and helpful for those of us who can never remember the difference between a Vivanno and a Macchiato. Click here to get myStarbucks (free):
The second Starbucks app is called Starbucks Card Mobile, and it lets you check the balance on your Starbucks Card, reload your card, view your transactions, and even pay using the iPhone app. The pay feature is currently only active in 16 test locations in Silicon Valley and Seattle, but it may be a sign of what is to come on the iPhone from other companies. Click here to get Starbucks Card Mobile (free):
I used to be the chair of my firm’s Ethics Committee and I currently have responsibility for approving all new file openings, so I frequently find myself analyzing legal ethics. As is true for many areas of law, there are lots of great Internet resources that can assist with an ethics analysis, from paid services such as the ABA/BNA Lawyers’ Manual on Professional Conduct to the free but excellent Freivogel on Conflicts. But none of these sites are optimized for the iPhone.
As a Louisiana attorney, I was thrilled to learn that Loyola (New Orleans) Law School Professor Dane Ciolino, an expert on legal ethics, recently started the website Louisiana Legal Ethics. The site includes not only frequent blog-style updates on legal ethics but also some great resources for Louisiana attorneys. For example, the site includes a free and updated version of the book Louisiana Professional Responsibility Law and Practice which was published by the La. State Bar Association in 2001 and updated in 2004 and 2007, but which is now out of print and out of date. Thus, you can easily view the current text of the Louisiana Rules of Professional Conduct along with background information on the rules, related ABA resources such as the comments to the corresponding ABA Model Rule and annotations including Louisiana case law.
Ciolino plans to update Louisiana Legal Ethics on a daily basis, and even though the website is new, I know it will quickly become the go-to resource for Louisiana legal ethics issues. iPhone users will love the ability easily access the current rules, comments, etc. I am often asked to assess a legal ethics issue when I am not at my desk or at my computer but my iPhone is with me.
