Apple Briefs

Marketcircle released Billings Pro today.  It’s a multi-user time-tracking system based on the quite successful Billings application.  We’ve used Billings for some time and are quite pleased with the workflow.

The main problem with Billings is that it is very inelegant at handling time from multiple workers.  It’s not even just that Billings runs on a single computer.  Billings simply doesn’t allow for multiple workers to be handled in a simple and transparent way.

Billings Pro aims to solve all of that, allowing multiple workers to enter their time from their OS X computer, via the web, and on their iOS devices.  But it’s not cheap.  Billings logs in at a svelte $39.95.  By comparison, Billings Pro costs $199.95 per user.

Given all that it Billings Pro does, the price is probably about right.  But small firms with only a couple of billing workers face a steep price climb by using Billings Pro, from $39.95 (lumping work for two people into one timesheet in Billings) up to $399.90 (managing two workers properly with Billings Pro).

But that one-time bump in cost may be worth it.  I’ll be checking it out over the next few weeks and report back.

I’ll admit it.  One of the reasons I like using Apple products is that Apple really gets it.  When I bought my first Mac back in 2003 (a Mirror Drive Doors PowerMac G4), I was just looking for something new.  I had followed the technical development of Mac OS X and was quite impressed.  But I was mostly just taking a leap of faith.

Today, Apple has so much more to offer.  But it’s not just about the products.  Apple is arguably the most successful company in the US right now.  And that means there are lots of lessons to be learned from Apply for any business, including a law firm.

In the past week I came across two articles that delve into the marketing of Apple computers.  Neven Mrgan posted this quick comparison of the all-in-one computer web pages of Apple, Dell, and HP.  It’s fascinating to see the difference in approach taken by Apple.  Dell and HP seem to assume that you’re only going to visit their website if you have already decided to buy one of their computers.  For all the talk about the Steve Jobs reality distortion field and Apple “tricking” people into buying their computers, it often seems to come down to Apple’s competitors completely forgetting about this thing called “marketing.”

Case in point, a post on Minimal about product lines.  If I wanted to go shopping for a Dell or HP today, I wouldn’t have any idea where to start.  They both decided to copy Apple from the early 1990s — the time when Apple had completely different model numbers for computers that only differed in their amount of memory and storage.

Dell has the following small and medium business laptop lines:

• Latitude
• Vostro
• Inspiron Laptops
• Studio Laptops
• Precision Mobile Workstations
• Gaming Laptops
• Studio XPS Laptops
• Mini Netbooks
• Adamo

Has Dell really identified nine discrete markets for their laptops?  And, if so, why do they does their website do such a terrible job of telling me which line is perfect for my needs?  It’s important that a product or service speak to the customer’s needs.  Dell and HP seem to really be lacking there, whereas Apple has really hit the mark.

Apple is clearly worth watching.  They’re not without fault.  But there is a lot to be learned from observing how they do business.

Have you ever come across a program that was just so cool that you really wanted to use it, but just didn’t know what to use it for?  For me, that program is Ortelius.  It’s software for making maps.  Very awesome-looking maps.

Some day I have dreams of making the world’s most beautiful map showing the location of our office.  I’m not sure that’s worth the trouble of learning how to use it, though.  Until then, I’ll just file the bookmark away.

If you were anything like me, you were probably checking the Omni Group forums every few hours for the past week.  So you would know by know that OmniFocus for iPad (iTunes link) was approved by Apple today.  I have only had a chance to play around with it for about 30 minutes, but I figured I would never live it down if I didn’t share my initial thoughts today.

There are a handful of developers, and the Omni Group is one of them, that are really pushing the envelope on the iPad.  I used Things for months on the desktop.  And when the iPad was released, I took it for a spin for a few weeks there too.  The iPad version was pretty much a well-executed port of the desktop version.  Except for the placement of buttons and some eye candy, Things looks and works fairly similarly on the desktop and the iPad.

Not so with OmniFocus.  The second you start up OmniFocus on your iPad and sync your data, you’ll see that the iPad application was designed from scratch with a smaller touchscreen in mind.  It’s absolutely gorgeous (dare I say, lickable?).  And from my limited use, I actually like it better than the desktop application.  It’s like the Omni Group redesigned OmniFocus from the ground up based on how the interface should work, completely disregarding the desktop version.

Some of the new features are just delightful.  I love the +1 day, +1 week, +1 month buttons on due dates.  I love the Forecast screen, allowing you to see how many tasks are coming due each day.  This was the one feature that I really started to feel like was missing from the desktop version as I transitioned to using OmniFocus for all of my task tracking.

And then there’s the new mapping feature.  OmniFocus for iPad allows you to associate a map location with a context.  I am sure someone will come up with an awesome way to use this feature (but right now it’s not coming to me).

The bottom line is that OmniFocus for iPad makes me want to use my iPad rather than my desktop when it’s time to sit down and plan my day or see what’s next.

EDIT:  MacSpark already has an in-depth review up (but frankly, he cheated a little because he was a beta tester).

The DRM, it’s got holes in it.

The big news from today (apart from the news that will apparently be breaking tomorrow) is that the Library of Congress came out with its new list of DMCA exemptions (a task it takes up every three years).

The headline, that everyone is talking about, are the new rules on circumventing cell phone software to enable interoperability of software (a.k.a. jailbreaking).

As an IP lawyer who hasn’t jailbroken his iPhone, I latched onto a different change.  The Library of Congress now explicitly permits circumventing DRM on DVDs to incorporate short portions of the movie for “non-commercial” use.

This is highly interesting for two reasons.  First, they specifically named DVD and the CSS protection used by commercial DVDs.  That means this exemption does not apply to Blue-ray disks.

Second, the additional exemptions may usher in an era of legal de-CSS software.  Sure, DVD ripping software is fairly easy to find, and some of it can be purchased.  But the movie industry has been pursuing the companies that sell the software and winning lawsuits against them.

The threat of litigation may finally be over for vendors of DVD ripping software now that the Library of Congress has sanctioned such a broad-reaching use for the software.

Everyone now has the right to rip a movie to extract a few clips, mix them together, and throw the results up on their blog.  People have been doing that for years.  But it’s nice to know they now have the right.