Originally published on August 2, 2009 in our free SmallLaw newsletter.
I recently reviewed Apple's iPad in the TechnoFeature newsletter. Below you'll find reviews of two iPad apps on which I've come to rely — Aji's iAnnotate for reading and annotating PDF files and Culture Code's Things for project and task management.IANNOTATE
iAnnotate serves as a competent PDF reader that enables you to create notes and highlight portions of PDF files. It is very easy to use and a potentially valuable tool for lawyers. iAnnotate costs $9.99.
iAnnotate's tools include sticky note comments, underlining, highlighting, strikethrough, freehand drawing, and bookmarking. The highlight, underline, and strikeout annotation features only work with PDF files that you upload through the iAnnotate PDF Service.
The what? The iAnnotate PDF Service is a software program for Mac and Windows that enables you to sync your iPad with your computer via a WiFi connection to transfer PDF files.
File transfer represents iAnnotate's greatest weakness. Computers with extra layers of security sometimes preclude the application from working. iAnnotate does not support the most popular cloud storage locations yet. As with other document apps, you can sync the documents through your iTunes software.
iAnnotate has great potential and already qualifies as very useful. I hope later releases will fix some bugs and address the deficits, especially the issue of file transfer. Until the developer resolves these issues, iAnnotate will not realize its full potential. Nevertheless, if you buy an iPad, you'll find iAnnotate worth the $9.99 investment.
THINGS
Things offers rudimentary project management functionality on your iPad for $19.99. I should note that the developer also sells an iPhone version ($9.99) and a Mac version ($49.50). They all do basically the same thing (no pun intended), although the interface appears slightly different in the various versions.
Things organizes projects by lists of activities that you must complete to finish the project. Things is well designed and fairly simple and straightforward to use. It enables you to view your information in several different perspectives including:
- The "Next" list, which shows all of the next actions for each project, organized by project. You can also sort this list by due date by touching the alarm clock icon.
- The "Scheduled" list provides a view for tasks to start at a later date, which is helpful if you need to schedule something that could take several days to complete.
- The "Someday" list enables you to park the tasks that you'll get around to "someday" whether it is working toward a paperless office or buying a new billing program.
- The "Projects" area lists all of tasks associated with each project. Tap on a project to open it and see the list. Like the other lists, you get an icon bar at the top with which you can filter by tag, move an item to another list or project, mark items you want to pay attention to today, or add new items.
- The Logbook stores your completed tasks.
Things' organization of tasks by project makes it a useful addition to the standard "to-do" list program or calendar. I think it costs more than it should. Accordingly, I downgraded its Technoscore as a result of my cost-benefit analysis.
Conclusion
Both iAnnotate and Things make the iPad more useful as a legal tool. iAnnotate offers potentially greater utility, but has more flaws. Things is more polished, but in my opinion somewhat overpriced. Nevertheless, I plan to keep both apps on my iPad (I use iAnnotate more often).
Written by Jeffrey Allen of Jallenlawtek.
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