Archive | Apps RSS feed for this section

PaperDesk for iPad: Notes and Whiteboarding

By on May 11, 2010 in Apps

PaperDesk

Great run down of PaperDesk for iPad 1.2 over at TUAW. PaperDesk for iPad is a note taking app in the same family as Penultimate but with some additional features. While PaperDesk does address some of the shortcomings I noted in Penultimate (colored ink, online sync), the handwriting capture is far inferior to Penultimate which has a very true “pen on paper” look and feel (see my prior review of Penultimate). For my needs, the fast and accurate capture of Penultimate is more important than the additional features PaperDesk for iPad offers.

That said, there is one great feature of PaperDesk for iPad that will keep this app on my iPad. PaperDesk for iPad can output whatever you write on its whiteboard to a projector. Great for capturing and displaying brainstorming sessions and the like without the giant sheets of white paper that always seem to get taped all over the walls during these efforts. Your iPad notes can then be emailed out as pdf files. You’ll need the VGA out dongle from Apple to enable this feature.

Give it a try at your next brainstorming session and let us know how it goes in the comments.

Comments { 1 }

One Lawyer’s Home Page Apps

By on May 5, 2010 in Apps

Like many iPad users, I put my most frequently used apps on the home page of my iPad. After a recent round of promotion and relegation, I thought I’d profile my home page apps along with comments about recent moves. I think these are very representative of my workflow and how I use the iPad. Also, not necessarily a dig if an app gets bumped off the front page. Usually just means I don’t use it frequently enough to warrant a top spot. Links will take you directly into iTunes.

My Home Page

Home Page Apps

Recently Relegated – These apps were recently dropped from my home page

  • Pages. Sorry, Apple. Pages is a beautiful and functional word processor, but it doesn’t fit my workflow. Most of the text editing I do is in plain text with formatting and editing done back at the desktop. For those tasks, emailed text or Simplenote (with TextExpander) are ideal.
  • Weatherbug. One of the first apps I acquired. Accuweather puts today’s weather and the forecast front and center, which best reflects my weather needs. If I was a little more of a weather hound, I would probably appreciate Weatherbug’s focus on the maps. I still think Weatherbug is a great example of app design for the iPad.
  • WordPress. This app needs some updates. If they can get TextExpander integration and stabilize the app, this might be able to break back onto the front page. Needs to work at least as well as Simplenote (which is a tall order).

On the Bubble – These apps are potential candidates for home page status

  • LogMeIn Ignition. Killer screen virtualization app. I just don’t use it frequently enough to warrant home page status.
  • 1Password. Great app for managing your passwords and logins on the go. Allows you to have properly unique and strong passwords without having to remember them. These folks also just came out with a beta for Windows, so everyone can join in the 1Password greatness.
  • PrintCentral. My app of choice for printing from the iPad. I love it, but I’m not doing it with enough frequency to warrant first page status. Wish the interface was cleaner and easier to understand.

What apps are on your home page? Send me a screen cap of your home page along with whatever comments you want to share and I may just post it up here at TabletLegal.

Comments { 4 }

Dropbox for iPad

By on May 4, 2010 in Apps

I was very excited to see an update for my favorite file management cloud/app solution Dropbox in the App Store last night. Appears that they’ve optimized the app for the iPad and it looks terrific. In addition to being a universal app that works on the iPhone, iPod and iPad, looks like they’ve added a couple new features as well:

  • favorite a document to have it stored locally on your device (great for wifi only iPad users)
  • open docs stored in your Dropbox in your other iPad apps

I store a folder containing a bunch of my personal “forms” in my Dropbox. This is huge on the iPad as I can easily import a template into Pages or Office 2 (iTunes link) and begin editing for a specific client from anywhere. In my mind, Dropbox is a must have app and service for mobile professionals. Give it a look.

Comments { 10 }

This Time for Real: The iPad as a Legal Pad for Attorneys

By on April 19, 2010 in Apps, Reviews

If you have been wanting to use your iPad as a legal pad, go and install Penultimate right now (here’s an iTunes link to get you on your way). In a nutshell, this app turns the iPad into a very functional notetaking app. No fancy OCR or conversion of handwriting to text here. Just straight notes organized into notebooks. Notes you take are easily exported to pdf as an entire notebook or a page at a time.

Below is a sample of a short note I took using Penultimate. I found that I could write almost at full speed – I think my handwriting was only slowed from using my finger rather than a stylus.

Note from Penultimate

I’ve also attached the pdf export of my note to this post so you can see the actual export from the program. The app uses the familiar interface from the iWork suite for opening a new note and paging through existing notebooks. Instead of “My Documents” at the top of the screen, you see “My Notebooks.” Penultimate has a multiple undo feature, an eraser and a command to erase the entire page.

I love the real pen and paper feel of the app. The app uses earthy brown tones and has a natural or recycled paper feel to it – like a Moleskine. I found my handwriting to be just as legible (or illegible) as when using paper. I especially like how the app renders handwriting as though put down with a nice pen full of ink. No jagged curves, just smooth writing. You can select either grid, lined or plain paper. Though I would prefer not to carry around a stylus, I think a stylus is truly necessary to be able to write full speed.  I did not have a stylus available during my testing of this app – but I have a Pogo Sketch on order now.

I only have a few qualms about the program. First (and this isn’t Penultimate’s fault), the pages are sorta small. Consider the notes you take on a legal pad in a typical meeting. You should probably double or even triple your page count. Even though the iPad device is very close to the size of a legal pad, the writing surface is about 2 inches slimmer and 3 inches shorter.

Second (again, not a Penultimate problem), when you rest your palm on the iPad while you write at the top of the page, your palm “smudges” will sometimes register rather than the tip of your finger or stylus. So, you have to hover slightly when writing at the top of the page (especially in portrait mode).

I’d also like the ability to move pages around. Currently configured, this is exactly like a Moleskine notebook. Short of pulling pages out, you can’t move them around in the notebook. Of course, this is easily solved inside a pdf editor. Perhaps some page management will be available in a future version.

Finally, I might like to change ink colors sometime. This is a small nit, as I don’t use it when taking notes in a client meeting very often, but I can see where the option might be useful.

Those of you who caught my post this morning about Note Taker will note that I hastily declared the absence of functional note taking apps on the iPad. Shame on me. Penultimate was released over the weekend and has quickly climbed to the top of the charts in the Productivity section of the App Store. While I’m excited to see what Note Taker will look like on the iPad, I’m convinced that Penultimate is the ultimate note taking tool on the iPad right now. Get it while they have $2.99 introductory pricing in the App Store.

PDF export from Penultimate.

Comments { 9 }

The iPad as a Legal Pad for Attorneys

By on April 19, 2010 in Apps

Just this morning a colleague asked about whether he could use the iPad to replace his legal pad.  Perhaps unsurprisingly, I get this question a lot. I believe the question comes from the use of “pad” in the name and the similarity of the device’s form factor to a legal pad. Based on my survey of the app store, there isn’t currently a native application on the iPad that captures digital ink quickly and easily.

But, there is hope on the horizon. Take a look at the review of the iPhone app Note Taker over on iPhone J.D. today. Note Taker is an app that allows you to capture your handwriting (with finger or stylus) on an iPhone. Handwriting isn’t converted to text, but simply stored and may be exported in different formats (pdf, jpg).

Note Taker on iPhone

The author, Dan Bricklin, talks about the new version of the app in his personal blog. The implications for the iPad are obvious, and it looks like Dan thinks so as well.

I’m spending some time to get a feel for this device and then am planning to see what I should do with my Note Taker app to make it run better on it. So, for all of you who have been asking, yes, I am looking into making a Note Taker HD, but I need to craft it for the real device in my hands. I’ll only know when I’ll be done with it when I actually feel my changes and see if they are sufficient. As I move along I’ll probably send out some tweets on Twitter (I’m @danb). When done I’ll post here.

Implemented well, this could be an amazing tool for lawyers. I would expect the app to have a decent text buffer, allowing me to write full speed while the app digitizes my notes in the background. Multiple page note taking sessions would be critical as would the ability to easily flip back and forth among pages within a note session or different sessions. I’d hope to see the ability to append handwritten notes into an existing pdf (though from a development standpoint this is more of an annotation function than a pure note taking function) PDF export would be more than adequate, though some effort to avoid gigantic file sizes would be useful. I would like to also have Dropbox (or similar) integration for file management or a web based sync solution (like Simple Note).

I’ll keep you posted when Note Taker hits the app store.
Update: I spoke too soon. Go read my review about Penultimate!
Comments { 6 }

iPad Quick Review: Writing for Lawyers

By on April 3, 2010 in Apps

I’m putting together a series of quick reviews about iPad features in the next few days. There is lots to talk about regarding the iPad, but my goal is to keep things as focused as possible on issues that I think will be of particular interest to lawyers. If there are any features or capabilities you’d like me to tackle, please let me know in the comments.

For this first review, I gave Pages a quick spin to see how writing works on the device. Words are stock in trade for many lawyers and being able to wield them efficiently on a mobile device is critical. This post and the documents attached below were all written on Pages for iPad using the virtual keyboard only (some minor edits excepted). My real review is in the body of the attachment, but I’ve also pasted it below.

The attachments are .doc and .pdf versions of a my review written entirely in Pages for the iPad (WordPress doesn’t allow Pages files as links for some security reason I’m not able to figure out at the moment – suffice to say the native version looked fine). The exports were also created by Pages for iPad as well. You’ll see that the PDF export looks fine. The .doc export lost some formatting (seemingly related to the image mask), but the text is intact. Hopefully something that will be remedied in a software update.

Hello All:

Hi. Just test driving the Pages word processing application on the iPad. I am using the iPad in landscape mode which gives you a big keyboard. It is almost as big as a the standard Apple wireless keyboards (pictured below). I the iPad keyboard is shorter than the Apple wireless keyboard by about half an inch (from Q to P).

I was able to use the browser to snap this photo from the web (press home and power buttons simultaneously). That saves the image to the photo library. From there, I could easily insert the image into this document. I was also able to adjust the mask to hide the rest of the image (very pleasantly surprised to find that feature).

The keyboard is different in that you don’t rest your fingers on it. You sort of hover over it (even the slightest touch registers as a key press) Also, just sitting here in my bed, I find that I don’t use my pinkies to type. Sort of a three finger plus thumb thing. My typing is fairly accurate (I’ve had to go back and correct about 4 words in this letter). Now, this is all with the virtual keyboard. It also connects with any Bluetooth keyboard – in that case, the typing is normal.

In my testing, the .doc exports were a mess. The PDF exports appear fine. I’ll post all thee versions at TabletLegal for review.

My initial review is that I could easily draft letters or even simple contracts using just the virtual keyboard. Emails and such are also easily manageable from the iPad. Formatting is a bit slow going, but I’m attributing that to just not being familiar with the interface (having a pre formatted template from which to start would solve most of that) For longer bouts of writing, I’d want to have a Bluetooth keyboard.

Yours in Testing,

TabletLegal

Here are the exported versions for your viewing pleasure.

Review Letter – iPad Pages – .doc Export

Review Letter – iPad Pages – .pdf Export

Comments { 8 }

Legal Apps on the iPad: Great Expectations

By on March 30, 2010 in Apps, Opinion

With iPad delivery only days away now, I’ve been giving some thought to what things I’m most looking forward to trying out on the new device. Below I’ve listed the top 10 things I want to try on the iPad that I use currently in my practice. These aren’t all iPhone apps – some are SaaS services that I want to try in the larger version of mobile Safari. Also, where I mention iPhone apps, I’m specifically talking about running them in “maximized” mode rather than at their native resolution. Note that there are lots of other great legal applications out there for the iPhone that aren’t on this list. I’m specifically listing things that, because of how implemented on the web or the iPhone, will translate best or most interestingly to the iPad platform.

1.  LogMeIn Ignition (iPhone app | iTunes Link). Allows you to access and control your computer as though you were sitting in front of it.  This killer app was recently discussed at the 2010 ABA TechShow and mentioned in the ABA’s Law Practice magazine. The app works on the small iPhone screen by allowing scrolling and zooming into particular areas of the remote screen. While zooming and scrolling are what make remote access possible, it is also what would make a long session of remote access difficult. The larger iPad screen should simply scale your desktop screen to netbook size – more than usable for longer sessions.

Highrise

2.  Highrise (web app). I think the folks at 37Signals are simply geniuses and use many of the online tools they create. Highrise  is a web based CRM app that I use to manage my business development. While they just released a very nice iPhone app (iTunes link), I’m mostly looking foward to using Highrise in mobile Safari. While it works on the iPhone’s mobile Safari, there is a lot of panning and zooming. The iPad should make this webapp as easy to use as when I’m sitting at my desk.

Backpack

3.  Backpack (web app). Another webapp from 37Signals. While Backpack is very versatile, as a advocate and user of GTD, I use Backpack mostly for my numerous work and personal to do lists. Again, while it works on the iPhone both in mobile Safari (and in great apps like Satchel – iTunes link).

4.  Google Reader (web app). I use Google Reader on my desktop to manage my RSS feeds. I also use a weblink to Google’s mobile version of Google Reader on the iPhone (yes, I hear that Reeder is the best and I mean to try it out, haven’t gotten there yet). But I’m not interested in the mobile version of Google Reader on my iPad, I want to try out the desktop version in mobile Safari. Like many of Google’s mobile apps, you can opt out of the mobile formatting and get the regular desktop interface. I can consume my feeds much more quickly in the fullscreen web app mostly due to the keyboard shortcuts built into Reader (if you use Google Reader and don’t know these shortcuts, learning just the “j” and “k” commands will change your game – go do it). Will these shortcuts be available on the iPad without a keyboard connected?

Dropbox

5.  Dropbox (web app).  These guys already have a killer iPhone app (iTunes link) to let me have all my files with me on all my computers at all times without a USB stick.  This is another one where I want to see how the web version performs in mobile Safari because of the additional features available.

6.  Documents To Go Premium (iPhone app | iTunes link) and QuickOffice Connect Mobile Suite (iPhone app | iTunes link). Both of these are apps for accessing, editing and sending Microsoft Office compatible documents. Each program has its strengths and weaknesses as excellently documented over at iPhone J.D. I expect the iPhone based navigation systems to be a bit weak on the iPad. I’m mostly curious about text entry and document viewing. I worry that the document scaling built into these iPhone apps won’t be able to take advantage of the iPad screen as currently coded.

Zosh Signature Pad

7.  Zosh (iPhone app | iTunes link). I discussed this app just the other day. This app allows you to access, electronically sign and deliver documents from your iPhone and has made my day on more than one occasion. I fully expect the app to have the same functionality on the iPad but with better document viewing, manipulation and editing. The magic of this application is its “signature pad” feature which I predict will not translate terribly well onto the iPad as it will take up the entire screen rather than a more natural signature sized piece of the screen. Already looking forward to the iPad version of this app that (I hope) they are developing.

8.  RightSignature (web app). I also just covered this app. Another tool for managing, signing and delivering signatures on contracts and forms. RightSignature tackles the signature process via SaaS tool – a completely different approach than that taken by Zosh. At present, accessing RightSignature on an iPhone presents users with the mobile version of the webapp. My understanding is that the version of mobile Safari on the iPad is the same as that on the iPhone. As a result, visiting a website that automatically detects and displays a “mobile” version for the iPhone will do the same thing on the iPad. I’m hopeful I’ll be able to bypass the mobile version of the website on the iPad (like is possible on the Google apps) so I can use all the features of the product.

stanza interface

Annotate, share, copy and more in Stanza

9.  Stanza (iPhone app | iTunes link). This is an excellent eBook reader. But I don’t use it to read books. No, I use it to quickly and easily create ebooks out of the statutory compilations I use frequetly. Using the Stanza Desktop application, you simply input a url and the application generates an eBook version of the website. Like many states, Oregon publishes its statutes online – each chapter separately. I’m a business lawyer so I like to have the corporations code, the LLC statute, etc. with me at all times. Stanza allows me to easily turn these into ebooks I can read, search, copy, annotate, share, etc.  Sure, the iPad will have its iBooks application that reads the open ePub format. But, as far as I know, it doesn’t have the copy, annotation and sharing features built into Stanza. Stanza has a brilliant text scaling feature that should translate well to the iPad allowing users to take full advantage of the larger screen with just the iPhone app.

Text Entry in Pages

10.  iWork Suite (iPad app). This is the big one. On the release date, I think these will be the only iPad specific productivity/work  applications that have been developed with the benefit of having an actual iPad in hand. Ostensibly, these are apps developed by the folks who know the device the best, who have had it in hand the longest and know how to take advantage of its features. Looking at the Guided Tours Apple posted yesterday, the iWork apps demo well and seem to have a ton of features.

So, that’s my list. Do you have an app or service you are looking forward to try? Let us know in the comments!

Comments { 10 }

Lawyers: Use an iPad to Close the Deal

By on March 16, 2010 in Apps, Tips

A reader e-mailed me the other day asking about solutions for getting documents signed using your iPhone. While I’ve tried one such product in the past, the question got me looking at what else is out there. I think the iPad is the natural platform for these products. While there is no emotional substitute for wet ink on paper at the end of a long transaction, many signatures are almost a formality and the iPad offers an opportunity to collect such signatures with little overhead. Expect to see the apps below and similar products more fully utilized on the iPad.

I looked at two products for this post – both of which I’ve used. For each, I gave them a quick run through with a focus on how these products might be deployed or extended on the iPad.

RightSignature. This SaaS product pairs with an iPhone app to provide “easy online document signing.” A user uploads documents for signature to the RightSignature website. From there, documents can be distributed, signed, monitored, and archived. While the iPhone app doesn’t allow management or distribution of documents for signature from the device, it does act as a digital signature pad, allowing you to obtain signatures while mobile.  The RightSignature online interface also allows users to create custom input fields on documents. RightSignature looks like it shines for users with high volume of contracts or users that need signatures on lots of different standardized forms. I used the free trial and found it easy to use (as did the recipients of contracts through RightSignature). They offer three different pricing models, with the first starting at $14 per month. RightSignature is a very powerful tool and for the right user could be indispensable – a full description of the service is beyond the scope of this post. For a full tour and explanation of benefits, check out the very informative RightSignature website.

RightSignature wrote on its blog the day the iPad was announced and spilled the beans about iPad development straight away:

You’re probably already thinking ahead, so we’ll spare you the drama and answer the big question. Not only will the RightSignature app be fully compatible with the iPad, it will thrive on this groundbreaking device. You’ll be able to have clients fill out and sign documents anywhere … in the lobby or waiting room, on a job site, or at a trade show. Imagine handing over your iPad and having a client sign with his finger on the vibrant 9.7-inch color screen. RightSignature on the iPad will satisfy a host of new use cases and has the potential to make the clipboard a thing of the past.

The image at right looks to be the RightSignature website in mobile Safari. While RightSignature has an iPhone app, its strength is in the SaaS application which one would expect to operate identically to its desktop companion. I think the size of the iPad is no accident and its parallels to a standard piece of paper make it a compelling device for document management. I’d expect people to consider using RightSignature on the iPad even more than on the iPhone because of this.  That said, I wonder if the pricing structure could benefit from a plan for the “occasional” user. Even though the web app is very powerful, many of its features aren’t needed for simple signings. If an iPad app is deployed, I’d like to see the core functionality of easy document review and signing brought to the fore with the document distribution and management tools pushed to the back or offered in more contextually appropriate places.

Zosh. Zosh is at its heart a pdf annotation tool that allows users to sign, annotate and deliver documents all from the iPhone. Zosh lacks some of the powerful document management features of RightSignature, but its iPhone application is much more powerful. More than just a signature pad, the Zosh iPhone application controls the entire process. Users set documents for signing through Zosh by emailing them to their Zosh account. Docs in your Zosh account appear on your iPhone library where they can be annotated, signed and delivered. Zosh’s strengths are many. Its iPhone app is soup to nuts document management and has the ability to add more than a signature to a document while on the go. It also supports a variety of document formats including .doc, .pdf, .xls, .ppt, .jpg, .png, .tif and .bmp. The gallery below gives hints as to the features of the $2.99 app. For more details, check out the Zosh website or iPhone J.D. for a full review.

I’ve not seen specific mention of an iPad specific version of Zosh though I’d be surprised if one isn’t already in the works. Of course, full screen document viewing will make the annotation and execution process much easier. The menu system will need a rewrite to take advantage of the iPad form factor, though I suspect we will see the screen split with library and tools to one side or available via contextual menu. I like the more robust annotation tools and I’d like more development in that area. I’d especially like to see integration with file storage services like Dropbox or MobileMe to avoid having to go through the Zosh servers. Zosh is terrific for a periodic need or where price is an issue.

Note a key difference in the core of these applications: RightSignature is at its core a SaaS product while Zosh is an iPhone/iPad app. The full page views and power of the online app through Mobile Safari will make RightSignature a compelling product. That said, one of the great things about Zosh is its simplicity and integration (a fortunate byproduct of good iPhone development). If redesigned for the iPad, I think Zosh may be a compelling tool and a terrific fit for many users. RightSignature on the other hand allows power without compromise through its full featured website through mobile Safari. How these products develop on the iPad might be an interesting test case for apps generally: is the better bet more robust SaaS development for use through mobile Safari or will lean and integrated iPad/iPhone apps with highly customizable interfaces be preferable to users?

What are you looking forward to?

Comments { 7 }

Lawyers, Note This: Evernote for iPad

By on February 22, 2010 in Apps

I missed this when originally announced on January 27, but I still think it warrants a post. The smart folks over at Evernote are developing an iPad specific version of their killer note taking, organizing, everything remembering web / mobile / desktop superapp. A number of lawyers use the product (Evernote even features one among their user profiles). If you aren’t using Evernote as part of your practice, you should consider looking into it. A number of folks have already written about use of Evernote in the practice of law and are worth checking out – here are just a few:

The iPad will make it much easier for a user to see and interact with his or her saved items. One of the many things I use it for is to capture ideas for future blog posts – I suspect others use it similarly. Would be interesting to see if Evernote for the iPad could be integrated with WordPress or other applications to facilitate turning ideas captured in Evernote into content that can be put to work. While not currently a feature even on a desktop version of the app, this would be particularly handy on the iPad where multitasking isn’t currently an option.

Look forward to seeing this on the device!

Comments { 0 }

Bar Review on your iPad: BarMax

By on February 16, 2010 in Apps

The folks over at BarMax have gotten a lot of press recently, and deservedly so. For those who haven’t heard, BarMax is a complete bar exam prep course made for the iPhone. I mention it on this blog about the iPad for two reasons:

First, this seems like an absolutely perfect application for the iPad. While being able to study while on the go is certainly a benefit, more of the time a person will have dedicated time at a desk or chair to really study. The iPad is a natural in this environment, and the larger form would give more room for text, answers, outlines and related study material. Perhaps an iPad version would play a video lecture on one part of the screen and an editable outline on another part of the screen that scrolls in time to the video. The ability to tag and cross reference materials through the different media in the application would be a terrific help with focusing on difficult areas.

Second, BarMax may be the first of many examples as to how the iPad and electronic book format affects the market for otherwise printed materials. Only weeks after BarMax was introduced, TechCrunch reports that BarBri, has made significant changes to its pricing and course offerings to compete. In apparent response to BarMax, BarBri is now offering unlimited online access to course materials and free retakes for those that fail the bar exam. TechCrunch notes:

This is a great example of why competition in any market is a good thing. BarBri has gone on for decades without bending its offering that students often feel is ridiculously priced. Now, in just three weeks, an app has come along and forced it to do just that.

Considering the benefits of the iPad in terms of horsepower and screen space, I suspect we will see plenty more developers tackling the course material space. As someone who felt like I paid too much for BarBri back in the day, I’m rooting for BarMax to stay one step ahead of BarBri in helping people prepare for the bar exam.

Comments { 0 }