Apple Apps to Take a 'Breather' and Help Protect Civil Liberties

Procurement makes the world go around. Lawyers working with clients on World Bank deals may want to pop open their iPad and dig into a warehouse of data for recent major contracts awarded under projects funded by the U.N.’s financial institution, created in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in 1944, to work on reducing global poverty by promoting investment and trade. The World Bank Procurement Project app features procurement data from fiscal year 2004 to date and scrutinizes ratios, trends, supplier rankings and more. The app is organized into plain, old-fashioned pie charts and bar graphs, which can’t compete with all the snappy, colorful infographics populating the Internet—but never mind. Explore procurement data by categories, including civil works, consulting services and goods; and by sectors, such as agriculture, transportation, finance and energy. The app launched in October 2014 and is updated with new data and navigation. Less poverty, more data. Free for Apple Inc.’s iPad from the iTunes Store.

Mobile Justice CA

Judging by recent national news, there is no shortage of citizens armed with smartphones ready to videotape public interactions with law enforcement. Mobile Justice CA, launched last month, is the latest mobile app from the American Civil Liberties Union to facilitate what has become a national pastime. This service, from the ACLU of California, enables witnesses to break out their trusty smartphone to make a videotape of an encounter with police which gets automatically uploaded to ACLU servers for review by lawyers. Just open the app and click Record. Use the report option to submit information related to the videotape that may help with a later investigation. Activate the witness function to receive alerts about any nearby incident in progress. The app also features ACLU materials covering legal rights for citizens. As lawyers and a growing number of savvy citizens know, photographing or videotaping the police in action is lawful and protected everywhere. Be sure not to interfere with the enforcement of justice. Free for Apple’s iOS devices from the iTunes store and for Google Inc.’s Android devices from the Play Store.

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