Sometimes innovation starts with a trip to a bar.
Literally.
While winding down at the end of a day of recruiting new talent for West at Michigan State University last October, Dan Bennett and Jay Peyer started talking about the kinds of iPhone and iPod touch applications they could create.
Little did they know that conversation would put them on a path to develop the first Thomson Reuters app for the popular Apple mobile devices.
Today their creation, a Black’s Law Dictionary app, is officially for sale on iTunes.
The app features the 8th edition of the relied-upon and respected dictionary, edited by Bryan A. Garner. Black’s is considered by many attorneys, legal professionals and law students to be the most citable and credible legal dictionary. And a mobile version just made sense, to provide easy access to its legal terms and phrases and embedded audio of that information which does not require an Internet connection.
The process to create the Black’s Law Dictionary app allowed Bennett, a senior director in New Product Technology at West, and Peyer, a senior software engineer in Application Technology, to break new ground.
In this video interview, they explain how they made it happen:
The Black’s Law Dictionary app from Thomson Reuters is available for purchase on the App Store in Apple’s iTunes for $49.99.
Even Garner, himself very much a fan of books, is excited to see Black’s Law on the iPhone.
“The idea that you can have a very full, elaborate, complex and richly textured book like Black’s available at your fingertips is fantastic,” Garner says. “I myself am stubbornly in favor of print sources, but I like to watch my daughters use their iPhones. And I know that there’s another generation of people who really prefer the electronic medium at their fingertips.”
While Black’s Law Dictionary is the first iPhone application from Thomson Reuters, there’s more in the queue. We’ll keep you posted as more apps are launched.
More coverage:
ABAJournal.com
Posted by Kevin Hunt, senior communications specialist, Thomson Reuters
Well done gents.
How were you able to get the high quality photos of the application running on the iPod?
Thanks for the comment. Those screen shots were designed for the marketing materials, not from the actual app.
Kevin Hunt
Thomson Reuters
Hello. I would very much like to buy this app. However, I do already own the print edition (8) and am aware that the 9th edition is now available. Were I to buy this app, and were edn. 9 to subsequently be made available, would I be granted a gratis update? Thank you for your help.
Dear Sirs
I am a Legal English teacher and materials developer. As such, this app would be invaluable. However, as the 9th edn. is now available in paperback I would like to know if a) you are planning to adapt this new edn., and b) if you do so, and I have already purchased the 8th edn., would I be entitled to a free update.
As secretary of the European Legal English Teachers’ Association this information would be useful to our members, and I look forward to your reply.
Kind regards
Matt Firth
West’s developers are still discussing whether to come out with the 9th Edition of Black’s in iPhone or any other electronic format.
If that decision is made West will be releasing it as a separate product and not replacing the 8th edition. It would be a separate product just like in the print form.
Will your developers ever be working on a Blackberry version of Black’s? The iPhone is far from ubiquitous, and many law students, as well as newbie associates, carry a Berry.
Do you have this application for the blackberry storm?
A decision has not been announced about a BlackBerry version of Black’s.
Hey guys,
I’d really like to encourage you to release this app for the Blackberry. I’m a 1L at a top-tier law school and there are way more Blackberrys than iPhones floating around our class. We’d all love to have it.
Thanks, Matt… I’ll pass that feedback along to the developers, who I know did consider the BlackBerry for this app before focusing on the iPhone – Kevin Hunt
Thanks. I’ll hold out for the ninth edition. If it were to be available as an update, or even at a modest price for those who adopted the 8th edition, I’d buy it straight away. I’m just cautious about being Mr Betamax
I’ve been waiting all year for the 9th edition to appear for the iPhone. I’ll gladly pay the $50 (I recently paid sometime like that for the OED on iTunes – best money I’ve spent in ages), but I don’t want to buy the 8th edition.
I see lots of iPhone around me in law school, though granted there are more Blackberry’s in law firms. I think this may start to shift over time though. Apple is making the iPhone even more enterprise friendly with OS 4.0 this summer. And the iPhone is a much friendlier experience for using something like a dictionary.
P.S., I do hope that West is not gauging the success of the application based on sales of the 8th edition for iPhone. If sales were disappointing (and I don’t know if they were), I think it might be in large part because the 9th edition was on its way already. Release the 9th edition for iPhone and see what happens.