US Code for iPad

Back to our developer interview series! This time around, we are talking with Shawn Bayern, developer of the US Code app for iPhone and just recently released for iPad. I exchanged a couple e-mails with Shawn to learn more about his app, developing for the iPad and use of the iPad in the legal education market. Enjoy!

TL: So, how did you get into iPhone development?

Good question. It was haphazard but not really unpredictable. Before I started studying law, I was a computer researcher and programmer. I was involved with a variety of open-source projects at the Apache Software Foundation and helped write the specifications for several languages that are part of the Java web tier.

Anyway, I got an iPhone and, while using it, decided it might be fun to write something in a new language I didn’t know. Objective-C, the language Apple programmers need to use, is bizarre by modern standards, so that made it a minor challenge – something worth learning.

TL: Tell me about your US Code app.

It aims to provide an up-to-date copy of the official electronic version of the full US Code. The “official” version of the code is the one released by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel of the House of Representatives. It will lag a little behind the versions that are edited and annotated by others, like Lexis and Westlaw.

It’s an “offline” app, which means that it loads the whole US Code onto your device. This takes up space, of course, but most people don’t need the full storage on their devices, and the upside is that you don’t need a network connection to access the data. Of course, if you have a lot of music or videos, you might have to decide between that and the full text of the federal statutes! People who use iPod Touches and the non-3G version of the iPad tell me they particularly appreciate being able to access the US Code without a network.

TL: I have a wifi only iPad so I can see the benefit. Do you have plans for any other apps?

Not really. I may try, if I get time, to produce smaller, more targeted versions of the US Code app, like one for “criminal statutes and rules” or another for “tax statutes and regulations.” But it’s hard to know where that would end, and it might become difficult to keep all those applications up to date.

I do have an app I’ve already released that’s an iPhone interface to a website I set up back in 2000 called Time Cave. It lets you schedule email messages to yourself or other people in the future – like “Don’t forget your dentist appointment on Tuesday” or even, ten years from now, “I hope you haven’t sold out yet!” I’m planning an iPad version of that app too.

TL: Any special challenges you faced in creating an iPad version of your app?

Basically not. In submitting the updated version of the app — which works on both the iPad and the iPhone — Apple initially rejected it because a very small part of the interface didn’t conform with their interface guidelines. It wasn’t a big deal and took about two minutes to fix, but it held up the release by a few days. My sense, which may well be wrong, is that Apple is scrutinizing iPad apps more closely than iPhone apps at the moment.

That said, I haven’t been as critical as others of Apple’s process for reviewing apps. They’ve taken some bad press for it, but I imagine the process that Target uses to decide which jeans and mouthwash to sell would look similarly odd if it were more public.

TL: Anything you wanted to include in your app that you couldn’t because of iPad limitations or missing APIs?

Well, I initially wrote a search engine for the US Code app that was almost instantaneous – better than the current one that can sometimes take a second or two to produce its results. But because of an obscure bug in iTunes — not actually in the development APIs or the iPhone OS — it wouldn’t work. I had to rewrite it because of that, which was sad because the old technique was really much better.

TL: Do you have or are you contemplating any iPad specific features for your app? Why or why not?

I’d like to improve the interface over time – to take advantage of the iPad’s extra space to perhaps allow you to view code sections side by side, or take notes on statutes. But it all depends on whether I can find the time. I’d happily turn this into an open-source project if there are others who want to help contribute, but the logistics of that might be difficult at first.

TL: I understand you are a law professor. Many iPads among your colleagues? Your students?

There are a few iPhones among colleagues and students, but I’m struck whenever I leave Tallahassee (where I teach) at how much more common they are in the big cities. At the Oakland airport, everyone seems to have an iPhone.

I have yet to see an iPad in person other than my own. That said, I rarely seem to take mine out of the house, not really needing it when I’m around the city. I did bring it the other day to a very tedious eight-hour grantwriting workshop that my university required new professors to attend. When I got there, I found that the wireless network was apparently disabled, so I had to hack into it (which really just involved guessing a suitable IP address). I probably shouldn’t admit that, should I?

TL: What impact do you think the iPad will have on law schools / law students?

I may be a bit of a contrarian on this point; I’ve been skeptical for almost 15 years about how technology will change classroom education. There are broader but somewhat separate questions, of course, about whether and how the connectivity of the internet will provide alternatives to classroom education in the future. But I’m not so keen on using
technology in class itself. My best teachers in law school, only a few years ago, used essentially none.

I do let my students use whatever devices they want to take notes or even to browse the web; I tell them I relish the challenge of competing for their attention with the whole internet at once. But I find classwide tools like PowerPoint and mandatory discussions on courseware like Blackboard mostly distracting. Everyone learns differently, but I strongly suspect that taking notes by hand is more effective for most people in law-school classes.

Now, sure, maybe casebooks and other materials — commercial outlines? hornbooks? — will be available on the iPad. That would be great to save paper and perhaps to provide easier access, better searchability, and so on. But I don’t think it’ll change the classroom much — or at least I haven’t yet seen how it will. Honestly, in my own classes, the iPad’s biggest impact may come if I decide to use mine (plus a projector or big-screen TVs) to replace the whiteboard. That was one of my colleagues’ ideas, and it seems to make sense. If nothing else, I’ll inhale fewer marker fumes (which I’m sure is a good thing, even if they’re really “non-toxic”).

TL: Have you heard whether any case book publishers are eyeing the iPad as a distribution platform?

Great question. I haven’t been in touch with them yet about it. I don’t see why they wouldn’t want to consider it. I have to say, I love the video lectures available for free from many universities in iTunes, for both the iPhone and the iPad.

TL: Other than your app, any favorites you have on your iPad?

I’ve loved the new BBC News app. I watch British TV and follow their news — both UK news and the BBC’s coverage generally — and it’s nice to have it so conveniently on the iPad. I very rarely play computer games, but I downloaded a free game called Harbor Master HD after my family suggested it, and I thought it was remarkably well designed.

TL: Thanks, Shawn!