Posts Tagged ‘iphone’

Dragon Dictation for the iPhone

Tuesday, December 8th, 2009

“Finally, dictation software you might actually find useful. Nuance the makers of dragon dictation, released an iPhone application today. Unlike Mac speech,iTunesthere’s no training required and the dictation software work works remarkably well. In fact, this entire blog entry was dictated using DragonDictate for the iPhone . Dragons the iPhone is free for the taking from the app store.”

The above was dictated using Dragon and is presented unaltered from the original. You’ll notice the error with the period at the second to last sentence and the last sentence itself should read “Dragon for the the iPhone is …”

The error from the period arises because the app can only handle a limited amount of dictation before it stops dictating, then you must start dictating again. Still, a pretty useful little app to have around. It lets you cut n past from app into SMS, email etc which can make it very handy for responding to emails and SMS without needing to type. For longer dictation projects, probably not all that useful.

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3 Reasons to Join MILO

Friday, September 11th, 2009

MILO is the Google Groups forum “Macs In Law Offices.” Recently, there have been three reallyMILO Logo great posts by users on that forum.

  1. You can tether an iPhone to your Mac for internet access over the 3G network without hacking or jailbreaking. MILO user Christian Frank pointed everyone to www.benm.at. But, there are better instructions at mydigitallife.
  2. MILO user Grace Suarez revealed a superb Firefox plug in called CiteGenie. If you’ve ever struggled with getting a properly quoted and cited copy/paste from Westlaw or Lexis into your document, this plugin eliminates hassle, allowing you to focus on the legal and analytical aspect of your work. CiteGenie truly represents the goal of getting computers to do the grunt work so you can focus on higher reasoning skills.
  3. You cannot tether an iPhone with the new 3.1 software update, as hinted at by MILO user Rob Ruffner and confirmed by comments in the mydigitallife how-to.

MILO is a great place to learn and ask questions, a superb resource for any Mac using lawyer.

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iPhone File Transfer and Viewing

Friday, October 31st, 2008

There are at least two programs out there handling that situation where you just gotta get and view files on your iPhone. 

Briefcase (Lite = free & Pro = $4.99) promises to connect, download, view and upload files. Reviews on the AppStore are overwhelmingly positive with most users upgrading to the Pro version shortly after testing out Lite. Briefcase works without installing anything on the Mac side, but is only Mac/Linux compatible. And, it works very very well. Connecting to my MacBook Pro over the wireless took practically no effort (just be sure that you allow remote login SSH connections in System Preferences). Briefcase supports many file types, including iWork, MS Word, .MP3 and PDF. Testing reveals that loading PDF works extremely well and fast, with the iPhone allowing rotation of the screen for landscape viewing.

FileMagnet

Offers much of the same as Briefcase. No word from developer regarding .MP3 or video files. In order to transfer files, software must be installed on the host computer. But, on the other hand, FileMagnet offers Windows XP and Vista support. Further, FileMagnet incorporates an intriguing ’tilt to scroll’ documents by using the iPhone’s accelerometer. Because Briefcase fits the bill, and because FileMagnet requires installation of host software, I chose not to test out FileMagnet. FileMagnet has no ‘free’ version and runs a flat $4.99 in the AppStore.

One last note: Either FileMagnet or Briefcase completely eliminate the hack work-around for emailing PDF’s as tipped for loading Flashcards onto your iPhone in this post.

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Better than a dream journal, simpler than a string on your finger.

Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008

You just rolled into bed, you’re about to doze off, you remember you need to (insert: call client in morning; file answer to pleading; pick-up dry cleaning) and now you must either get out of bed and write a note or toss and turn while the carnival starts rolling (warning NSFW, turn the speakers down).

Note2Self (crappy Parker Lewis reference aside) is a very simple app that does one thing and does it well. You push the button, put the iPhone to your head, tell yourself whatever and drop the phone as you doze off into a peaceful rest.  Note2Self emails you the voice memo (or emails your assistant or who ever you designate). Next morning, hey, checking email, oh yeah, I gotta go get me some frozen yogurt with gummy bears (crappy Parker Lewis reference).

There are a few other apps for the iPhone that do the same thing, but Note2Self won my heart with its cheap price, .99¢, and its ultra-simple approach.

Other similar apps include: EccoNote (free); EccoNote Pro (.99¢ does email notes, but requires more involvement); Audio Recorder ($2.99, can email AND can add more to a prior recording). Whatever one works for you, its still better than keeping a dream journal and simpler than tying a string around your finger.

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Cut and Paste Coming to iPhone?

Thursday, August 28th, 2008

Playing around with a 3G iPhone last night. While surfing through the Apple store refurb site, looking at Airport Express details, my left thumb placement made the screen darken. At first, I thought some part of my hand was covering up the ambient light sensor, used to make screen darker or lighter depending on conditions. However, while trying to move my hand around to make it stay dark, this little sweet nubpopped up… an “Action” item. Sort of like Command-Click or Right-Click on a regular Mac. I can only assume this is a future Command-Click interface that was somehow inadvertently triggered, or in non-lawyer speak, a bug. Unable to reproduce on a different web page (expedia.com), so don’t know quite what that means. But a Command-Click on the iPhone would be much welcomed for cut-n-paste and other applications!

On a sad note, this could not be duplicated on a 2G iPhone, so might be a limitation there. More photos below.

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Stevenote – The Two Best Announcements

Monday, June 9th, 2008

For those of you who don’t know yet, Steve Jobs gave the keynote at WWDC today. The two best announcements are (1) a new 3G iPhone, built in GPS and excellent price ($299 16gig); and, (2) push services for calendar, email, pretty much everything (a.k.a. lookout Exchange and RIM). The upgrades for push services require a $99 per year Mobile Me subscription which includes 20 Gigabyte (?!?!) of storage. Mobile Me replaces .Mac and, hopefully, results in services that are not painfully slow (iDisk is pretty useless IMHO). In the meantime, .Mac is down probably due to the changeover or, just because it’s still .Mac and still sucks.

While waiting for .Mac Back to My Mac to come back up, you can watch the new 3G iPhone commercial here.

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Killer iPhone Tip

Monday, May 12th, 2008

Some time ago MacLitigator showed you how to use your iPhone for flash cards. Now, a genius in the blogosphere shows us how to use your iPhone to replace all those ‘club cards.’ In short, scan your membership card (local bar, federal bar, Costco, gym membership etc.) and save them as photos in iPhoto. Create a folder that syncs with your iPhone (call the folder ‘wallet’ or ‘wallet cards’) and automagically you get all your cards in one convenient location. And, best of all, the bar codes can be read and scanned. Of course, this technique can also be used as an alternative to MacLitigator’s technique of emailing yourself a set of evidence flash cards.

Wallet Cards on my iPhone via Lifehacker

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iPhone SDK Announced, Alphabet Soup Down 3 Letters

Thursday, March 6th, 2008

Today Apple (formally) announced the release of a Software Development Kit.  An SDK allows independent third party developers to create applications for the iPhone.  Applications will be distributed through iTunes and subject to Apple approval (Good: no crap malware sneaks through. Bad: you must Trust Apple’s discretion in allowing/disallowing applications onto iTunes).  In any case, this comes as really good news for me, someone too timid to jailbreak/hack their iPhone into third-party software submission. Also, for you Enterprise drones in the big firm or corporate world, Apple licensed ActiveSync to wash away all of your Microsoft Exchange woes and ease the minds of IT Staff everywhere.  Oh, yeah, and ActiveSync will allow push email, calendar and address book syncing… a.k.a. watch out Palm & RIM.  You can get all the gory details at either tuaw or Lifehacker.

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OK, This One Is Mine.

Thursday, February 28th, 2008

Unless you are in trial ALOT (in which case you probably aren’t reading this), you may want a way to stay fresh on your evidence (objections, hearsay etc.). Or, maybe you just want to expand your Spanish vocabulary or brush up on those periodic tables… who knows. But, just as in school, one way to keep fresh can be to flip through a set of flash cards from time to time.

But, who can stand to carry several decks of flash cards around? Well, if you have an iPhone, you can stand it, and listen to some smooth tunes while you learn as well.

Evidence Flash Card AnswerEvidence Flash Card Q

Step 1: Either scan a set of flash cards (Fujitsu Scansnap or any business card scanner should do) or create a set in Pages/Word (if creating a custom set, be sure to set the paper size to no larger than 3X5 and landscape mode, not portrait).

Step 2: Email those suckers to any account which your iPhone uses.

Step 3: Open email on your iPhone, download the document, turn that iPhone sideways, and enjoy.

No more dropping, losing, or inadvertently shuffling up your flash cards. Plus, they all now fit in the slim slim iPhone.

One caveat… if you are using Adobe Acrobat Pro, you might want to avoid OCR’ing the document and/or saving it out under Preview. Some OCR’d flash cards refused to display properly on the iPhone, but once stripped of their text and saved from Preview worked just fine.

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