Posts Tagged ‘iphone’
September 22nd, 2009 | 
Author: Apple is proving its apps aren’t just for games and trivial time wasters. Legal practitioners are flocking to the flood of new apps developed specifically for them. Earlier this year, Thomson Reuters released its Black’s Law Dictionary as an app. So far, it has been a success and the company anticipates releasing its more popular titles in the app store. The best part about the Black’s Law Dictionary app is that not only does it regurgitate definitions, but it also has audio pronunciations. The embedded audio content can pronounce terms with different regional dialects—which can really save face next time you walk into a courtroom in the South and try to pronounce voir dire. Added bonus: no need to lug around the 6.5 pound, 1882 paged book! It is a more expensive app (at $49.99), but it is still cheaper than the paper version. Despite the high price, this legal dictionary is the holy grail of legalese, so other cheaper competitors just can’t stand up to it.
There are seven other legal dictionary apps out there, ranging in price from $0.99 – $14.99. Yup, you guessed it: the $0.99 app is the worst of the bunch. The Dictionary of Legal and Law Terms is not a comprehensive reference. It is better suited for a pro se defendant looking to sound the part while trying to get out of a traffic ticket. The other apps (Oxford and Barron’s) are adequate for definitional purposes, but they don’t offer the embedded audio content, which really makes the Black’s Law Dictionary app stand out.
You guessed it. Google’s developers have been hard at work, because they just released Google Earth for the iPhone. That amazing program that we have all spent hours playing with, is just a touch away. This version of Google Earth is as ever bit impressive as the desktop application.
Pros
The multi-touch interface makes this application very easy to use and navigate around. It has all the same amazing satellite and aerial imagery as the desktop version. Leave it to Google to integrate the browser into this app which allows you to directly link to Wikipedia article and photos from Panoramio. Plus you can seamlessly jump from the browser back to Google Earth. It also has the ability when you tilt your phone to adjust to the terrain.
Cons
One problem with the tilt function built into Google Earth is if you hand it to someone, it will tilt and move the focus which can get annoying. On a positive note, you can turn the auto-tilt feature off under the settings option. Each time you start the program it will zoom in to the last place you looked at, which wastes unnecessary time. The current version does not have the ability to show street names. It looses functionality points with us on this part.
Outcome
This is probably one of the better Apps we’ve seen in a while. It really shows of the processing power and graphic ability of the iPhone. Google Earth’s iPhone App, is a definite winner in our book.
9.6 out 10
