For a variety of reasons I have struggled to find time to write much on iPad Lawyer recently.

For the time being I have decided that it doesn't make sense to try and focus on two different blogs, so I will be writing any iPad related articles on my main Peninsulawyer site.

I may still post here from time to time and I will be leaving the site up as a resource for the iPad acquiring lawyer.

Thanks for reading and commenting... hopefully see some of you over on Peninsulawyer.

A quick explanation for the lack of iOS5 and iCloud material on iPad Lawyer. As well these exciting developments there was another new arrival over the last couple of weeks which has been keeping me otherwise occupied (a new baby!). There have been great reviews and comment from the usual suspects anyway and not much I could add to these. I have been making heavy use of iOS5 and iCloud though and normal service will be resumed shortly with some more specific posts about how these are relevant to iPad using lawyers.

The hottest topic on iPad Lawyer over the last year or so has been the issue of transferring documents to the iPad.

To summarise the options:–

1. Use iTunes and a USB lead for file transfer (urgh!)
2. Transfer files using a USB lead and Diskaid (secure and fairly quick and easy)
3. Sync files with specific apps like iAnnotate using WiFi (convenient, but requires both devices to be on the same network which can be a problem in the office)
4. using DropBox (easy, widely supported across most platforms and apps, but not appropriate for client data)
5. (as from 12 October) using Apple’s iCloud (seamless integration, but data security status isn’t yet clear. Also limited to Apple devices)

For those who are tied to a PC in the office, DropBox is the easiest solution, but as I pointed out in the post linked above it isn’t an enterprise grade solution for client information or personal data. Once again, I’m not picking on DropBox; the same issues apply with most consumer level cloud services.

Not everyone agrees with me on this last point (although I still stand by it!). The September / October 2011 edition of the Internet Newsletter for Lawyers includes an article from a UK law firm who use DropBox to share files with expert witnesses and others.

What the iPad Lawyer needs is an enterprise grade solution which syncs as smoothly as DropBox, but:–

• has terms and conditions which comply with the 7th Data Protection Principle
• guarantees that data will be stored in the EEA or is a member of the US Safe Harbour Scheme (to avoid 8th Data Protection Principle issues).

For the last few months I have been testing a system called ProjectFusion which satisfies both of these criteria. Disclosure:– I have been trialling it for free up to now.

ProjectFusion is primarily an online deal room service (i.e. a secure extranet which can be used to share due diligence and other documentation with people outside your firm).

The servers are located in the EU and their terms and conditions contain the necessary provisons in relation to data protection and security.

What is interesting for iPad users is that the deal rooms themselves are accessible via the WebDAV protocol.

Various iPad apps (including Apple’s iWork suite) have the ability to save documents to WebDAV servers. More importantly so does GoodReader which allows you to view pretty much any document on the iPad (and also annotate PDF documents).

This makes the iPad an ideal tool for reviewing data room documents.

However, it is also straightforward to create an iPad deal room folder in ProjectFusion and then set this up to sync with GoodReader. Once set up a press of the sync button on your iPad will synchronise the local folder on the iPad with the ProjectFusion folder.

To complete the loop you can install GoodSync on your PC, Mac or both, which will automatically keep a local folder on your machine in sync with ProjectFusion.

Imagine you have a contract on your desktop machine which you want to review on your iPad. All you need to do is save it into the ProjectFusion folder on your desktop machine. Goodsync then syncs it with your iPad folder on ProjectFusion.

When you want to read the document on your iPad you simply hit the sync button in GoodReader and it pulls the document from ProjectFusion to your iPad. If you annotate a PDF then any changes can be synced back in exactly the same way.

This is just as easy as using DropBox to access documents on the iPad, but without the security or data protection concerns.

IOS5 and the iCloud may be game changers in terms of seamlessly syncing your data, but unless you only use Apple products the iCloud won’t be a complete solution.

It also remains to be seen what the Data Protection Act implications of using the iCloud for personal data are. Apple are registered with the Safe Harbour scheme, but I doubt that the terms and conditions for iCloud will impose any binding obligations on Apple in terms of data protection and security.

Project Fusion’s iPad sync functionality is a real bonus if you are looking for an online data room service. No matter how slick the iCloud turns out to be, this type of secure sync is still a must-have for lawyers (especially those who are tied into a mixed PC and Apple ecosystem).

I am typing this post on my iPad using Elements by Second Gear Software, which is a plain text editor.

Elements links with DropBox so if I need to tweak the post later on my Mac I will open it in ByWord, which is another plain text editing app.

Windows users don’t seem to have access to anything as elegant as these two apps, but can easily open and edit plain text docs in WordPad or (my personal choice) Notepad++ (which is very functional and also boasts green credentials – apparently due to using less CPU capacity than Microsoft Word!).

For formatting, links and lists I use Markdown, which is a very basic text formatting language. For example to add emphasis to a phrase in Markdown you just use an asterisk symbol like *this*.

Most blogging platforms allow you to post in Markdown and will automatically convert the Markdown document into HTML. This means that you have total control over the formatting of your text (rather than relying on a WYSIWYG editor, but without having to learn the detailed HTML tags (or equally important on the iPad, without having to type them).

The process is even easier if you use TextExpander to automatically add in Markdown syntax for links. For example, to add a link I have copied from Safari I simply type “mdl” and hit the spacebar and TextExpander adds in the full Markdown link including the URL from the clipboard. All I have to do is add in the anchor text.

All of this means that I don’t have to worry about using or finding an iPad app for the blogging platforms I use or needing an Internet connection so that I can log in and compose a post online. It is by far the best workflow I have found for iPad blogging.

However, there are a few other advantages to the plain text approach.

If I decide that I want to use a different editor on one or more platforms then there are no concerns about my data being tied into one platform. Any text editor can open the files on any platform. This should also avoid any problems in the future as I am not tied to any proprietary platform.

Forgetting about styles and formatting really allows you to focus on the important part: what you are actually writing. Some documents do require the formatting options which are built into MS Word (legal contracts for one), but for notes, articles and blog posts the formatting can be an unnecessary distraction.

You can always use Markdown to add some formatting or let someone else deal with it in Word at a later stage, but plain text is a great way of just getting the content onto the page.

It is easy to see plain text writing as a compromise which is forced on you as a result of using the iPad (and to extent this was the driver for me). However, I have found myself using it more and more across different platforms and embracing the distinction between the writing process and the formatting / typesetting operation.

This isn’t an iPad post as such, but I wrote over on my Peninsulawyer blog about terms and conditions for iOS apps.

If you are interested in iPad apps from this perspective it might be worth a look.

What are the most interesting parts of Monday’s Apple WDDC announcement of IOS5 and iCloud for lawyers?

There isn’t much I can add to the general reports and posts on the keynote and TabletLegal’s US perspective on the iCloud. However, there are a couple of specific points which are very relevant to UK lawyers.

Data Security

I have posted before about Data Protection and DropBox on the iPad and one of the most important aspects of the iCloud for lawyers is how (or if) it will address these issues.

One of the mysteries which the iCloud announcment cleared up for me was why Apple haven’t developed a decent file management system for the iPad. Clearly, they don’t see USB transfer of files onto iDevices as the future.

Instead, all your data will be pushed into the cloud and accessible across all your Apple devices.

I presume that all apps will have access to your iCloud documents so that changes you make in one app will be synced back to the iCloud.

In theory this sounds great, but will this work for lawyers from a Data Protection and client confidentiality perspective?

Apple are at least signed up to the US Safe Harbor scheme (explained concisely here by Out-Law) so it may be that transfers of data to their iCloud servers will be allowed under the 8th data protection principle. However, I’m not sure the iCloud terms and conditions are likely to fulfill the 7th data protection principle requirement that there is a written contract with the data processor which requires the data processor to:

“take the same security measures you would have to take if you were processing the data yourself”

For the iCloud to be of use for UK-based lawyers this is essential; however, I suspect that the reality is that the terms will just include the usual raft of “no warranty” and “provided as is” exclusion clauses (see for example the MobileMe Terms of Service).

NewsStand and the FT web app

The other interesting feature is the NewsStand which will debut in iOS 5 (which seems to be a Flipboard style feature to aggregate content from all your news subscriptions in one place).

This is particularly interesting in the light of the FT’s recent launch of an HTML5 based web app which is intended to avoid the need for a download from Apple’s iTunes store (and also avoid the 30% cut taken by Apple from subscriptions sold through the store).

The app looks and works spectacularly well (the first week’s subscription is free so definitely check it out on your iPad) and seems to have been well received by the tech blogging community. The TechCrunch article is a good primer for anyone who has managed to miss the PR blitz.

However, a very canny move by the FT seems to have been out-flanked by the launch of the NewsStand (at least so far as iOS devices are concerned).

Once you have all your news subscriptions in one app which is built into iOS 5, will it really still be attractive to have to access a separate web app for your FT content?

Time will tell if I am right or the FT is, but I would be interested to know if they were aware of the launch of NewsStand whilst they were developing the web app model.

How long until Autumn?

iOS 5 and the iCloud are coming “in the fall” so there is plenty of time for speculation in advance of the general release, but I am really hoping there will be enterprise grade data security built into iCloud (and its terms and conditions) or at least a premium enterprise version available.

Apple’s vision clearly involves the cloud more than the USB lead and lawyers really need to be able to get into the iCloud if they are going to get the full value from the iPad.

I have used a lot of text editors on the iPad and until now my favourite for composing blog posts has been Elements from Second Gear.

There are a number of good writing apps around, but Elements wins out for me because I write blog posts in Markdown and Elements has a handy built-in preview mode which shows you the HTML output from your Markdown text.

I am writing this post on an interesting new app called Writing Kit, which also features Markdown preview along with a bunch of other features which are very useful for blogging on the iPad.

I haven’t explored it in full yet, but the most obvious feature is probably the built-in web browser, which makes it very easy to search for links and supporting material to copy across to your post. Once you find a suitable page you just hit a button to import the link into your post. You can do this with Safari, but it involves more navigating between apps and has an annoying tendency to need to reload pages once you have swapped to another app.

Other interesting features include:

• an extended keyboard with buttons for common Markdown syntax like inserting images or lists

• a new navigation system allowing you to move the cursor back or forward by one letter or word by tapping in the margins

• DropBox sync (pretty much essential in a text editor these days)

• a “quick research” button which allows you to do a basic search for any term whilst editing your post

I’m sure there are a lot more features and I will definitely be testing this out in more detail as it seems squarely aimed at Markdown blogging. As the name suggests it is more of a suite of tools than a simple editor.

The detail features are good too, like a button to export your Markdown code into the Mail app (ideal if you blog using Posterous) and support for sending items to OmniFocus (one of my most used apps) and for TextExpander.

Incidentally, I imagine that the reliance on Markdown will limit the mass market appeal for lawyers, but actually it is a very straightforward way to write blog posts (or anything else) on the iPad and this app makes it very easy to use without really having to learn the language.

As of this morning the price on the app store was £2.99, which seems like a bargain if you are looking for a Markdown focussed blogging tool.

The iPad was launched in the UK one year ago today.

Reports of overnight queues for the launch in London were not matched in my town, where I walked into the high street branch of PC World and picked up my choice of iPad that morning without any need for queuing. Today represents a year of iPad use for me.

Over that year I have used the iPad for many different purposes, and have now settled down to one major use. This post looks back over the first year of my iPad use, and explains what I now think the iPad is best at.

1. The big iPod Touch

The iPad was initially dismissed by some as simply being a big iPod Touch.

For me, at first this was my primary use for the iPad. I had previously been using an iPod Touch, but sold it to fund the iPad purchase. I am a podcaster, and a big fan of podcasts in general (legal podcasts of note (apart from mine) - Without Prejudice and the 11KBW series). Without the iPod Touch, the only way I had of listening to podcasts on the move was the iPad. 

This seemed ok for a while, but the iPad is really too large for this sort of mobile use, and required regular syncing to iTunes to update the podcasts. Syncing with iTunes is one of the ongoing frustrations of iPad use, and syncing daily (or sometimes more often) in order to download podcasts is a time-consuming exercise.

After a few months of this, I settled on using a borrowed iPod Shuffle for much of my podcast listening, which still required regular syncing.

Earlier this year I got my first iPhone, and now use that for listening to podcasts, downloading them using the Podcaster app, which does away with the need for iTunes syncing for podcast subscriptions, and has made by life much easier. The iPhone is also now my primary music player. The only media files that remain on the iPad are video files, and as things have turned out there was no need for me to get the (most expensive) 64Gb iPad.

2. Dropbox arrives, notes are taken

Complaints about the difficult process of getting files on and off the iPad were a common feature in the early days of iPad use, and to some extent remain today.

Dropbox, the cloud storage and syncing service, had an API by the time of the iPad launch in the UK, but it was not until a few months later that it really started to be used as a solution to the problem of getting files on and off the iPad. There seemed to be a rush of Dropbox-compatible apps, and any document-related app now really has to have Dropbox storage enabled. It was at this time that note taking apps took off. Designed to be simpler and more elegant than the official Pages app, these new apps included the likes of PlainText and iA Writer - and each one was simpler and more elegant than the last. I bought them all, chasing after the dream of being able to run a client meeting or even an employment tribunal hearing from my iPad.

I still use the iPad occassionally for meeting notes, but as Jon has pointed out, consumer-grade cloud services like Dropbox don't pass scrutiny for use in a regulated profession, and recent scares over Dropbox security have reinforced these initial doubts.

Recently I have conducted my first employment tribunal hearing running all my notes digitally - but it was from laptop rather than an iPad, and I have given up the goal of running an employment tribunal hearing from my iPad. 

3. Email and calendar

One of the core items of business or professional use of the iPad would have to be using it for email and calendar appointments.

I was initially keen on email on the iPad. At the time I was using a Blackberry as a phone, and the larger screen and keyboard on the iPad was much more attractive than using the Blackberry. Since then, I have got an iPhone and use that far more often for email. It is easier to carry round.

As for the calendar app, it seems to me that both on the iPad and iPhone Apple's Calendar app is not so good as it could have been. It never seems to have the right screen for me. The monthly view which does not actually show you your daily appointments until you scroll down seems particularly bad. I did switch to Calvetica for a while, but this was not much better. I can't help feeling that Apple could do better with both email and the Calendar app.

4. An e-reader

One of the original selling points for the iPad was as an e-reader, either using Apple's iBooks (and the iBookstore) or the Amazon Kindle app.

My experience at using the iPad for heavyweight legal books has been similar to Jon's. It is not really up to it, and it does not seem to be able to cope with the large files.

However, for shorter works, such as case reports and lecture notes, it comes into its own.

I have recently had some lengthy commuting to do on the train, and being able to catch up on reading on the iPad has been very useful. Most lawyers will have a pile of unread articles that they mean to get to some day, or updates that they need to read. Putting all of these on the iPad keeps down the paper, and means that you don't forget them and leave them behind on the train journey.

Many iPad lawyers will also have RSS feeds - law-related or not, that they keep up with. The iPad is excellent for keeping up with RSS fees. My app of choice for this is Byline, with an honourable mention for the good-looking Pulse. 

Finally, there many be articles from websites to read. Instapaper allows you to click on a bookmarklet, and then read the article or web page later. It is an essential app for me. 

In practice, this is the single most important use of the iPad for me, and the one for which there is no better tool. Music and podcasts are best handled on an iPhone - a smaller device. Note taking is best done on a laptop - a larger device. For reading short articles, RSS feeds and longer web pages, the iPad is the best device I have, and the right size.

Conclusions

One of the challenges for the iPad has always been finding its space in the market - not necessarily against other tablets, where there is still relatively little competition, but against alternative devices and form-factors such as the smartphone and laptop.

In the course of my year of iPad use, I have changed my phone (from a Blackberry to an iPhone) and also bought a new laptop. Each of these decisions have affected my iPad use considerably. The iPhone has taken over the media player role, and the laptop has taken over the note taking. This has left the iPad with a relatively small, but important, niche as an e-reader.

The future

Reports suggest that WWDC will showcase a preview of iOS 5. Back in July last year I set out my initial view of the way in which the iPad would benefit from improvement. Here is a more considered "wish list" for improvements over the next year or so.

1. Desktop widgets and improved notifications

Noted in my early post as my hope for iOS 4, and now my hope for iOS 5. Desparatly needed if Apple is not to lose further ground to Android.

2. A better Calendar app

Tied in with the improved notifications.

3. Improved syncing and cloud connections

Why is the iPad so reliant on a third-party service (Dropbox) to make it usable? This cannot be what Apple want.

While they are improving syncing, how about also permitting syncing of information between iOS applications on different devices? When I am not reading legal articles on my iPad, it would be good if my iPad recognised the progress I had made on Choo Choo Steam Trains on my iPhone, so that I could swap between devices when playing that and other games and apps.

One way in which Apple may be able to improve on the current Dropbox syncing would be to allow some sort of background wireless syncing. At present, Dropbox-compatible apps only sync when they are open - so if you change a note in iA Writer while you are offline, you have to open iA Writer again when online and upload and sync the note with Dropbox. Apple ought to be able to implement a system where the files are synced next time the iPad, not the app, goes online.

Comments

Now over to readers in the comments - how has your first year with the iPad been? 

 

When it’s on your iPad?

The latest version of GoodReader comes with some very useful features including the ability to “flatten” your PDF annotations (basically converting them to part of the PDF file so that they are compatible with a greater number of viewers and can’t be subject to any further editing).

It also comes with a very educational briefing on iPad security as part of a new Data Protection feature.

I have referred a few times on this blog to the fact that iOS4 brought 256-bit AES encryption to the iPad so that all data on the device is encrypted.

I mentioned in my post on iPad data security that this encryption is dependent on having a strong password set as the data can be accessed when the device is unlocked.

However, it seems this isn’t the full story. The data on the iPad is encrypted in hardware so that it is decrypted on demand when needed. One of the primary reasons for this was to allow the remote wipe feature to work (basically it allows the remote wipe to simply delete the AES key rather than having to delete and overwrite the data which could take a long time).

However, if your iPad is connected via USB to iTunes on a computer with which it has been paired (or an application like DiskAid on a paired computer) then it is possible to access and download any files which are stored in third party apps (such as GoodReader prior to this latest update and almost all other apps) even if the iPad is locked with a passcode.

Apparently even though the files are encrypted, Apple chose to make the iPad decrypt them on demand when requested by iTunes file transfer rather than making the iTunes sync experience more clunky by requiring the device passcode to be entered. The passcode security is at the initial pairing stage only (you will notice if you try to pair a locked iOS device with iTunes for the first time that you have to enter the device passcode before you can do so).

On the face of it this seems like a reasonable compromise. After all, if someone has open access to your computer already then it is probably too late to be worrying about data security on the iPad.

However, it appears that a determined intruder can still access the file system in this way by Jailbreaking the iPad and using USB file transfer or with commercially available forensics tools. This isn’t something I have ever looked into myself, but apparently in this situation the iPad hardware encryption will not protect your data.

iOS4 does offers proper Data Protection via a security API which individual apps can use. This prevents data from being decrypted when the device is locked by adding your device passcode to the hardware encryption key. It then deletes this element of the key when the device is locked so that the data can’t be decrypted until it is entered again.

The iPad Mail app takes advantage of this (and therefore should be secure), but up until now few third party apps implemented it.

GoodReader have now implemented this function via the latest update (hence their handy guide to iOS4 Data Protection) which instantly puts GoodReader at the top of the “must have” document reading apps for lawyers as it is basically the only one in which client data can be stored with this level of security.

Another important thing to note is that if your iPad has been upgraded to iOS4 (rather than shipping with it installed) then the Data Protection function is probably not enabled at all (even in Mail). A rather involved process is needed to activate it as described in this Apple KnowledgeBase article which involves restoring the iPad from a backup.

You also need to set up the security in GoodReader, which is a lot easier to do thanks to their helpful manual (which also has a good summary of how iOS Data Protection operates).

Kudos to GoodiWare for incorporating this and stealing a march on the competition. The only other app I have found so far with Data Protection enabled is Cortado Workplace, which seems to be a potentially useful enterprise focused cloud storage service (with the 2GB service available for free). Their iPad app also allows you to securely encrypt data stored locally on the iPad using the Data Security API.

None of this is a revelation as there is a lot of information around about how iOS security works. However, a lot of users may assume (as I did) that the encryption which is built into iOS4 is sufficient to secure your data in most circumstances if a strong pass-code is used. In fact, for sensitive or confidential information best practice may be to only use apps which have Data Protection enabled.

For those who want further information I refer you to a great post on the detail of iOS Data Protection by Anthony Vance which explains the technical side and another post explaining iOS hardware encryption.

I can’t understand why Apple don’t simply include an option in iOS4 for security conscious users where all data stored in apps on the iPad is securely encrypted and cannot be accessed when the device is locked with a passcode. Without this it is hard to shake the feeling that iOS devices prioritise convenience over security – something which I am sure RIM will be happy to capitalise on when marketing the Playbook.

Unless (and until) that happens we are in the hands of the app developers – and having looked into the reality of iOS encryption in more detail I hope that more of the providers of enterprise apps follow GoodReader’s lead and start to incorporate the Data Protection API.

It’s not all iPad veneration on this blog (not quite!), which is why I am highlighting an interesting post by Venkat Balasubramoni on his Spam Notes blog entitled What is the iPad for Lawyers crowd smoking?.

I don’t agree with a lot of what he says (probably not a huge surprise!). For example, see how far you get reviewing tracked changes on your laptop without investing in some software over and above the operating system… like Microsoft Word… and ask yourself how this is different from needing to download an app (other than being more expensive and complicated!).

However, it is interesting to see this perspective from someone who has tried the iPad for legal work and doesn’t like it. Maybe there is a tendency on the part of the iPad enthusiasts to be too ready to embrace “workarounds” rather than asking why things like a central filing system are missing from the iPad in the first place?

Personally I find that the iPad fits well with my workflow, but it’s good to recognise that it isn’t a one size fits all scenario.