Better, Cranking and Quitting

By on May 2, 2012 in Admin

Apologies in advance to Mr. Merlin Mann for riffing on two of his great essays[1] in titling this post, but the lawyerly-but-overused “Diddy, Cheatem & Howe” didn’t really fit the theme. More on that in a minute, but first a little iPad exercise, an announcement and finally another iPad tip.

A couple weeks ago I wrote about a couple practitioners who enjoy huge gains in productivity and effectiveness in their practice using a very small number of iPad apps. As I mentioned then, my experience is similar. I suspect 95% or more of my work on the iPad is accomplished using just four apps: Readdle Docs, PDF Expert, Byword and Keynote.[2]

I thought this was typical, but when I was at the ABA TechShow recently, most iPads I saw were chockablock full of apps. Not just a few more than I had, mind you, but pages and pages and pages full of apps. And within those pages were folders full of even more apps. Most were apps I’d seen or tried but had long since deleted. Sure, its fun to try out apps after reading about them on blogs like this. And, unlike piling the day’s mail on your kitchen counter, having more apps doesn’t take up more space. So what’s the problem?

For me, its about reducing friction to getting my work done and making good choices. Those extra apps you tried out months ago just get in the way. Those extra apps force you to make needless, repetitive choices about where to find the tool you need or how to get some small task done. In its own small way, its the paradox of choice where more is in fact, less.

So here’s your project:

  • backup your iPad
  • delete all your apps
  • add back apps only when you need them and only add the ones you need

This isn’t a novel tactic, but hopefully you’ll find it to be a helpful one. If you can’t abide by it after a couple days, restore your backup. But I’m guessing you’ll find that you are able to move through your tasks just a little more quickly and with a little less fiddling.

TabletLegal was born at an interesting time for me. Had the iPad been introduced 6 months earlier or 6 months later, I probably wouldn’t have given it a go. But at the time, my workload was light (despite my marketing efforts) and I wasn’t finding opportunities in my firm to do the things I wanted to do. So, in this lull (and because I was interested in learning WordPress, wanting to try out blogging and having a love of Apple products), I created TabletLegal. With some effort, the blog enjoyed a minor amount of success. More importantly, I connected with some great people, I got to do some new things and I learned a whole lot. It was good.

But time marches on and other opportunities presented. I’ve since opened my own firm which, knock on wood, has been tremendously busy in a very good way. I’ve also become heavily involved with a charity that I care deeply about. TabletLegal, on the other hand, no longer provides the rewards and interest it once did. While I feel like I’ve learned what many of my readers really need and/or want from this blog, I’ve also realized that those things are decidedly not what I’m interested in writing.

To abuse the metaphor, TabletLegal has become that extra app on my home screen, the distracting choice, gumming up my ability to get the stuff I want to do, done. I need to delete some apps and TabletLegal is the one to go.

Fortunately, if you like this sort of thing, many excellent choices remain. I encourage you to check out all of the sites listed below (there are more, but these are my favorites in this category). They are all excellent and full of reviews, comparisons and news about using the iPad in your practice.

Finally, thanks to the readers, commenters, developers, hecklers, fellow blawggers and others who helped or contributed to TabletLegal. I appreciate it. Really.

A final tip.

The authors of the other blogs listed above will probably agree with me that the number one question we get asked is “what apps should I get.” I originally thought TabletLegal would answer that question with a continuously rotating list of new and great apps. There certainly are enough apps to talk about and new ones being rolled out all the time.

Over time, my answer changed to “it depends what you want to do.” While I believe that is the right question, I think the answer is simpler than that open ended question suggests. As I’ve maintained before, the list of computing tasks for many lawyers is relatively short. No surprise then that the list of apps needed for a lawyer to be more productive while mobile and to have choices about when and where they work is also relatively short.

So grab what you need, quit reading this silly blog and get back to doing that other thing.

That’s what I’m doing :)

  1. TweetBot, Reeder and Instapaper get a ton of use as well, but strictly speaking, those are more for staying up on the news than practicing law.  ↩

  2. For the uninitiated, those essays are Better and Cranking. Required reading if you’ve ever felt like you aren’t making your best stuff right now.  ↩

Comments { 1 }

Guest Post – Andrew Nettleman: iPad, Galaxy Note & More

By on April 10, 2012 in Lawyers Using iPad, Legal Workflows

One of the things I love about writing this blog is connecting with readers and finding out how they use the iPad in their mobile workflow. I recently had the pleasure of connecting with reader Andrew Nettleman, a lawyer out of Wilmington North Carolina. I asked if he was interested in putting together a guest post about the tools he uses in his practice and he kindly agreed. While Andrew’s workflow isn’t what I’d put together for myself, I love how he has built something that fits his practice and workflows perfectly. I added a couple links to some of the sites he mentioned to provide a bit more context, otherwise, its all Andrew.

Take it away, Andrew!

The purchase of my iPad was a watershed moment in my ability to effectively practice law. As you will see, mine is a practice on the go and my iPad allows me the freedom and mobility to be both mobile and efficient. I am constantly approached by attorneys who ask me one of two questions: “Does that thing help you at all?” and “What apps are you using?” I hope that this article affirmatively answers the first question and helpfully answers the second. We will begin by discussing the nature of my practice and the tools I use on a daily basis. We will then move into the apps I use and how my iPad allows me to practice on the go.

But for my iPad and my cellphone, I would not be able to effectively practice law and run a law firm. For the purposes of this post, I will not discuss the built in apps (like Mail) that I use daily. I will instead focus on the key apps that I have downloaded and/or purchased.

OFFICE TECH

We opened our firm approximately three years ago. At the time, hosted practice management and client management software was on the bleeding edge of law office tech and I was uncomfortable putting all our confidential client data in the cloud. We therefore chose to go with locally hosted applications, choosing Amicus Attorney and PC Law running on a SBS 2008 local server. These programs necessitated a Windows-based operating environment for our PCs. Once these investments run their life cycle, we will look to fully join the cloud. We recently migrated Exchange from our server and to Office365.com for our email needs. We have saved a ton of money on support costs and haven’t looked back. We use Paperport for file management and Microsoft Lync for secure inter-office IM communication. We have clients located all over the country and use either Lync or Skype for video and web conferencing and Basecamp for client collaboration. We have been utilizing a hosted VOIP solution for telephone and will shortly be migrating to a new local supplier for this service.

A PRACTICE ON THE GO

Our firm is located in a coastal city of about 105,000 people in the smallest county by geographic area in North Carolina. It is very common that I will travel to two or three counties a week and I weekly appear in at least two counties and often three on any given day. Needless to say, I put a lot of miles on my car and I spend a lot of time outside my office. I have also recently been sworn in to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, which covers the eastern area of North Carolina from Raleigh to the coast, and I anticipate traveling even more than I already am to appear in the 5 Federal courthouses in this District, several of which are significantly more than 100 miles away from my office. I tell you all this to illustrate that I don’t spend much time in my office–or even within my home zip code–and it is vital that I be able to work while on the go. The map below shows the locations of all the courthouses I may frequent.

As the Managing Partner of a small firm, I wear a lot of hats. I practice law, I program and monitor our web site, I manage our billing, and I coordinate our marketing and technology adoption. Doing all this and being gone from the office means that productivity on the go is a must.

MY OFFICE ON WHEELS

I have experimented with a number of different mobile combinations and have arrived at the following solution. This combination works well for me, but your mileage may vary (pun!).

iPAD

I currently use a 1st generation 64GB WiFi and 3G enabled iPad. I purchased my iPad several months after its release and the AT&T model was the only one available at the time. There are several rural areas in eastern NC where AT&T service is spotty at best, and I had to purchase a mobile hotspot through Verizon for coverage in those areas. I anticipate upgrading to a comparable version of the new iPad, probably through Verizon, when the contract on my hotspot runs out towards the end of year. My 1st Gen is beginning to show its age, particularly when attempting to handle some of the newest processor-intensive apps to hit the App Store. The addition of LTE mobile speeds where available is also a major reason I see for the upgrade.

SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE

An Android-powered smart phone? GASP! There were several reasons for my choice of this phone. If you haven’t seen one in person, you seriously need to stop by an AT&T store and check one out. The stylus function of this phablet (phone + tablet) is incredibly useful for note taking and the extra screen real estate is great when using the phone to read a Kindle Book or utilizing the inbuilt (and free!) Google Maps Navigation app. The vast majority of apps are cross platform compatible with iOS and Android and the benefits of this particular model were many. I will include a screen shot from my Note where appropriate below.

MOBILE ACCESSORIES

While on the go, I often carry a couple of additional accessories. I use a BlueAnt S4 Bluetooth speaker phone in my car. The S4 will connect to two Bluetooth enabled devices at once and stays connected to my phone and iPad throughout the day. I have a family member and client that is currently living and working in China on a direct 12 hour inversion from the East Coast. If my iPad is connected to my Wifi hotspot I can Skype with him while driving, an enormous cost savings over international cell calls.

I often also carry an Amazon Basics Bluetooth keyboard for my iPad if I plan on doing any heavy data entry. This keyboard allows me to prepare orders in motions practice from prior templates and email or print the documents without ever leaving the courthouse. If I am not planning on doing intensive data entry, I leave the keyboard in my office to keep my briefcase weight down.

I also have a Laptop and a Kindle Touch that don’t often travel with me. My Laptop is a 17 inch monstrosity that weighs about 12 pounds and is basically a high powered desktop packed into a quasi-mobile frame. It only leaves the comfort of my home or office when I am traveling to a conference or will be away from home for more than a few days. My Kindle lives by my bed and really only leaves the house when I am going to be reading for an extended time period in direct sunlight (such as on the beach) where the iPad’s screen really doesn’t perform well.

CONSIDERATIONS IN PICKING MOBILE APPS

I constantly experiment with new apps for my mobile devices. When choosing apps I look for the following considerations. If I can satisfactorily answer these questions, I will give the app a spin.
Is it Cross-Platform Compatible? (iOS, Android and PC)
Will it make my work more efficient?
Is it easy to get data into and out of the app?
If data lives in the cloud, is it secure?

APPS I LIVE IN

The following are the two apps that I constantly use for the practice of law. I literally couldn’t do my job while on the go without these apps.

Evernote (iTunes link)

I use Evernote every day and more than any other app I own. The basic version of Evernote is free. Evernote is a conglomeration of a word processor, a checklist app, a photo album, a web clipper and a voice memo app. I write posts for my firm’s blog in Evernote. I wrote this article in Evernote across three days and four counties on my PC, my iPad and my phone. I save web pages and online reference materials with the web clipper. I draft almost every document I create from scratch in Evernote, and I often paste documents into the word processor to use as a template to rework for different clients. The killer feature of Evernote in my estimation is that it automatically syncs to all your connected devices in near real time. This means that I can begin to draft a document on my computer in my office before court in the morning and then open the document on my iPad or cellphone while in calendar call or waiting for a witness, victim or officer in court and Evernote has automatically synced my work. I read a number of blogs and websites every day on my mobile devices and can automatically clip URLs or entire web page contents to a new note to refer to later when I have time to review them. Evernote is also incredibly intelligent. If you have a meeting scheduled on your calendar on your mobile device, it will use that data to automatically populate fields in the note. Evernote also has a clipper for Outlook that lets you save contents of emails for later viewing if you wish.

Evernote refers to each new entry as a note and organizes them in Notebooks which you can sort and name. The paid version of Evernote allows you to share specific notes or notebooks with other people and you can determine whether they can only view the notes contained within the notebook or edit them as well. This means that I can share a notebook with my Paralegal. If I finish the draft of a document while I am away from the office, I simply email, text or IM her to let he know the document is ready and she can then copy from Evernote into Word, format and proofread the document, and it is ready for my signature when I return to the office. I have often shared a note in non-editable form with a client to show them a picture, document or the like. The app also provides you with an email address that you can send documents or pictures to that will automatically upload your information.

A non-confidential example: My wife and I are building a house and we have created a shared notebook called “New House”. We keep checklists of questions and concerns we have for the builder, pictures we have taken with our cell phones of products and designs we like, and cost information. This notebook is updated on all our devices and we have a record and a central repository of information that automatically updates. You can see a bulleted list of initial thoughts, followed by checklists of follow up items in the note itself below. I have provided screen shots for all three devices where I use Evernote for comparison purposes.

This is a clip of the Evernote interface in Windows for our New House Notebook. A note is open in the right pane of the app. You can see a bulleted list of initial thoughts, followed by checklists of follow up items in the note itself.

Here is the view of the same notebook on my iPad

Here is the notebook view on my Galaxy Note

I snapped each of these screen shots on my individual devices and saved the screen shots to my Evernote notebook for Blog posts to access anywhere. It really is an incredibly powerful app.

Dropbox (iTunes link)

Dropbox is a cloud-based storage app that has a number of very powerful positives and two glaring negatives. For the moment, I still utilize it extensively on my iPad, but I am currently looking for a viable substitute. The basic version of Dropbox is free and Dropbox also has apps for iOS, Android and PC. You simply save a document on your computer to the Dropbox folder on your PC and it appears on all your devices, much like Evernote. Dropbox allows you to save your documents in their native format and edit them in the same format, if a native editor is available on your device. This feature looks more and more attractive with the rumored release of Office for iPad. Dropbox also integrates with an incredible number of apps, which allows you to save, open and edit virtually any document type on your connected device and automatically sync them to everywhere Dropbox is installed. For instance, my Dropbox account is on my Paralegal’s computer and she can save a PDF document to the folder for my review. I can open the document with PDF Expert (or any other PDF editor and annotation app), make changes, and the changes automatically save back to her computer for printing.

There are two major drawbacks to Dropbox. The first is that your documents must be saved to a specific folder before you can access them from your device. This means that if the document doesn’t “live” in that folder, I have to email, IM or text my paralegal and ask her to put the document in the Dropbox folder before I can access it. You can increase your storage on Dropbox and could theoretically keep all your client’s files in your Dropbox folder, but this would be expensive and leads to the second concern. The second drawback is that Dropbox security has been breached once before. The breach was apparently not widespread and like most companies Dropbox security is probably better because of it, but the prior breach is a concern.

Because of these two drawbacks, I have begun to look to other services for cloud-based storage. SugarSync looks like a product that might satisfy my needs, and I am experimenting with it now. I would love to hear feedback from anyone who has used it in the comments below.

APPS I USE FREQUENTLY

These are apps I often use for work, but that aren’t as mission critical as the above.

Lync (iTunes link)

As I said above, Lync is a secure IM application that we use in our office. It comes included with our office365.com plan. Lync functions much like any other IM product on your iPad, but conversations are automatically saved to your email account and accessible on your PC through Outlook. Lync allows me to securely communicate with my firm from anywhere as if I was in my office and is my default communication medium while on the road. I often use it to communicate with my paralegal to get her to put documents in my Dropbox folder or the like.

Quickoffice Pro HD (iTunes link)

I use Quickoffice for editing Office applications. This app is the best I have found in terms of cost and functionality. You sometimes end up with formatting irregularities when opening documents you have edited with Quickoffice in Word. Quickoffice also integrates with Dropbox and other cloud storage services for ease of access to documents.

PDF Expert (iTunes link)

For the longest time I used GoodReader for PDF review and annotation, but PDF Expert has won me over. This app allows you to read and annotate PDFs, draw and add notes and fill in PDF forms. That is probably enough said. It also integrates with Dropbox, Google Docs and other iOS apps. I don’t do a ton of PDF editing while on the go, but I use PDF Expert when I do.

Analytics <(a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/analytics-app/id303689911?mt=8">iTunes link)

Analytics is the app I utilize to monitor my Google Analytics web traffic and site performance while on the go. Analytics uses the Google API to access your account data and display graphs and reports of web metrics. This is often my first line of defense to determine if there is a problem with my site. You can develop custom report on the Google website that will display in Analytics and I use this to monitor my Adowrds campaigns as well.

GPS Drive HD (iTunes link)

If I am not using my Galaxy Note and Google Navigation, I use GPS Drive HD to get from Point A to Point B.

Audible (iTunes link)

I love to read, but don’t have much time for pleasure reading. I use Audible, which is an Amazon-owned company, to purchase and listen to audio books. Audible is a tiered monthly subscription service that allows you to download so many books per month. I find audio books make the time go faster while in the car and help me to relax and not overly dwell on cases and problems.

Kindle (iTunes link)

When I do get to read for pleasure, I use my Kindle app on my iPad, my phone or my Kindle Touch. The major legal publishers have also started producing documents in Kindle format and I recently purchased North Carolina Criminal Law and Procedure from Lexis for my Kindle. I refer to it frequently and find the search function to be highly useful when I need a statute at my fingertips.

Basecamp Mobile

Basecamp Mobile a web app, not a native iOS app. This means that you visit the webpage from your mobile device and can save a link to your iPad desktop. We use Basecamp to communicate with our clients in complex litigation cases and the service allows everyone with access to upload, download and save revisions to documents. This is particularly helpful in litigation when your client is not in the area and you need to get them documents for their review and input. It consolidates files in a central repository and tracks and saves revisions. You can set notification preferences and there will no longer be 43 different versions of documents living in individual email accounts.

I hope that the above use case for my iPad-based practice on the go will be helpful to those of you who already incorporate an iPad into your practice flow and to those of you who are contemplating adding an iPad and are wondering if the addition will prove to be a valuable one. I would love to hear feedback on my app choices and suggestions for mission critical apps in the comments below.

Andrew Nettleman is the Managing Partner of The Nettleman Law Firm, PLLC, a criminal defense and family law firm located in Wilmington, NC. Andrew’s practice is primarily focused in the areas of Criminal Defense, Debt Defense and Unemployment Appeals. You can follow him on Twitter @HeelEsq or contact him via his firm’s contact page.

Thanks, Andrew!

Have a workflow utilizing the iPad that you’d like to share? Drop me a line!

Comments { 7 }

60 Apps in 60 Minutes 2012: ABA TechShow

By on April 3, 2012 in Apps

Last week I was at the ABA TechShow in Chicago where I presented the ever popular 60 Apps in 60 Minutes with Jeff Richardson of iPhone J.D. and Brett Burney of Macs in Law. As in past years, our giant room was filled to the brim with people standing in the back – a true testiment to the popularity of the iPad amongst legal professionals.

This was the best 60 Apps presentatation in the two years that I’ve been involved. To make it a little easier to find what you need, I’ve reorganized things into a few categories. We have a great roundup of new apps, old favorites, utilities and a few just for fun. So check out the list below and pick up some of your favorites!

Legal Specific

Word Processing and Note Taking

  • CloudOn – use full versions of Microsoft Word, Excel PowerPoint through the cloud
  • SoundNote – note taker and audio recorder, links notes to audio
  • Notability – note taking app with audio recordings, PDF annotation, word processing and handwriting support
  • Notes Plus – note taking app with typing, voice recording and powerful functions to organize your notes
  • Documents to Go – Microsoft Office suite compatible file editor
  • WPD Viewer for iPad – viewer for WordPerfect files
  • Phraseology – text editor with writing analysis and text rearrangingbtools

PDF Management, Creation and Annotation

  • GoodReader – file manager and PFF annotation tool
  • PDF Pen – PDF annotation tool with iCloud support
  • Adobe Reader – PDF viewer
  • PDF Provider – Create PDFs from other files all on the ads
  • PDF Expert – powerful PDF annotation with forms and page management

Presentations

  • ConferencePad – present PDF presentations to up other iPads in the room
  • GoToMeeting – attend video conferences via iPad
  • Keynote – powerful presentation builder, exports to PowerPoint (if you must)
  • Keynote Remote – control your Mac or iPad Keynote presentation from your iPhone

General Productivity

RSS / News / Social

Lifestyle / Games / Photo / Entertainment

Utilities

  • AirDisplay – extend your desktop onto your iPad
  • Reminders – task manager on iPhone and iPad, Siri aware, built into iOS 5
  • LaunchCenter – create shortcuts for common tasks
  • Voice Brief – reads the weather,your calendar, the news and more

Travel / Location

  • GateGuru – get advice on terminal resources while traveling
  • HipMunk – search for airfares, hotels and cars; avoid agony
  • Sit or Squat- public restroom locator with ratings
  • AppStart – beautifully desgned magazine of app recommendations

Hope to do it again next year at ABA TechShow April 4–6, 2013!

Comments { 5 }

More on CloudOn

By on March 9, 2012 in Cloud

As I mentioned before, I’ve been following the progress of CloudOn, the virtual Microsoft Office solution for the iPad. With rumors of a true Microsoft Office suite coming to the iPad, I wonder how virtual solutions like this will fare in the face of that competition. I’m hopeful the competition will be good for both apps.

I find myself using CloudOn when I need to work on something that is already formatted as a Word document. At this stage in my workflow, the formatting matters and the WYSIWYG view of your document in CloudOn is simply superior to apps like Documents to Go, QuickOffice, Office2 HD or even Pages. The touch interface leaves a lot to be desired though when you do want to format to something. Those menus are just not designed for a touch based interface.

That said, I’m interested in where CloudOn is going. I took a tour through CloudOn’s support pages and looked at the company’s responses to user requests for features. I’ve categorized those responses below based on the different responses given by CloudOn. If CloudOn hasn’t responded to a feature request, I did not include this in the list. While we have no idea when many of these features will find their way to the app, the list does provide a bit of a roadmap for development.

Features “Started”

  • Availability outside of the US (currently only US, UK and Canada)
  • Integrated PDF viewer (scheduled for release in February 2012…oops)

Features “Planned”

  • Send documents via email
  • Support for password protected files and folders
  • Ability to copy text from another app and paste into a CloudOn workspace
  • Inserting images into an Office document
  • Box.net support
  • Search for files
  • Android version
  • View image files
  • Google Docs support

Under Review

  • Support for ctrl, alt, shift and function keys on extended keyboard
  • Multiple Dropbox account support
  • Open URL links in Office documents in Safari
  • Access files on PC
  • Share files through Dropbox from CloudOn app

Any features you are looking for in CloudOn?

Comments { 1 }

Just Two

By on March 8, 2012 in Apps, Legal Workflows, Opinion

I recently met with some lawyers to prepare an “iPad for Lawyers” presentation. I wanted to see how these lawyers were using the iPad so I could tailor my presentation to their work.

The small firm I met with had recently implemented an almost completely paperless workflow. They used iPads almost exclusively when presenting at hearings. They were readers of Tabletlegal and other legal/tech blogs, had heard my prior presentations about using the iPad and one had even attended TECHSHOW. In other words, these lawyers were not technophobes nor new to the iPad.

We talked a little bit about workflows generally before turning to discuss the apps they use to run their practice. I paged to a fresh sheet in my Moleskine expecting to take down a long list of new and old favorites. Instead, the more senior attorney answered simply:

Just two. Dropbox and PDF Expert.

The younger associate echoed the response.

Same for me. Oh, and sometimes I use Keynote.

To read the legal tech blogs (this one included), one might guess that a power user would need 10, 20 or more apps to truly incorporate the iPad into his or her practice. It’s no surprise, really, considering the headlines:

  • “Best apps…!”
  • “Top apps…!”
  • my favorite, “Must have apps…!”
  • and the jam packed “60 Apps in 60 Minutes”

I’m not saying there is anything wrong with these roundups or the apps in them. Heck no. To be sure, I’ve created and delivered these compendia myself and will be so doing so again in March at the ABA TECHSHOW. A curated list from someone you trust can be a great way to weed through the hundreds of thousands of apps on the App Store. But the story of the lawyer only needing two apps is more than an isolated anecdote. I’ve seen the same thing with other lawyers as well as in my own practice. While new apps are fun to explore and the stuff that drives many tech blogs, the answer for most of us can be much simpler.

With the exception of the built in apps (mainly Mail), an overwhelming majority of my iPad practice revolves around just four apps: PDF Expert, Notesy, Keynote and only just recently CloudOn. Sure, I use Reeder and Instapaper to consume news, but to make the stuff of my practice, the list is pretty short.

Does that make me any less of a “power user”? I don’t know. The way I see it, a power user doesn’t necessarily use more apps. To me, a power user is a person that gets more yield from the same amount (or less) of effort. For many people (perhaps especially lawyers), more apps can just create friction.

I think this is actually a great thing for a lawyer on the fence about whether to include the iPad or any other piece of technology into his or her practice. It doesn’t take a complicated workflow of apps, duct tape and bailing twine to make it work. Even for someone like me who has used the iPad since day 1 and downloaded hundreds of apps, the few apps I’ve settled on are all I need. When I think about my iPad workflow, I’m more interested in increasing my yield/effort ratio on the few apps I use than adding more tools to the drawer.

Spending time with apps or tuning your workflow is expensive time. You can’t bill for it and worse yet, it’s time not spent with your family, friends or whatever else you love. So if you are considering the iPad or other technology in your practice, don’t sweat the apps. You may find yourself enjoying greater productivity with just a handful.

Or maybe just two.

Comments { 4 }

iPad 3 Announced: New Tools for Lawyers

By on March 7, 2012 in News, Uncategorized

A couple weeks ago I collected some rumors and made my predictions about the iPad 3. Apple unveiled the new tablet today, calling the new device “resolutionary.” Let’s check out the new device and see how my predictions fared.

  • Launch Date. I “predicted” a March 7 announcement and that was correct. I hedged on availability hoping for March 9 or 10. Actual availability in the US will be on March 16th with pre-orders being taken now. 2 dozen more countries on March 23d. Looks like I will be able to get one before I go to Chicago for ABA TechShow on March 28th. Looks like memory configurations remain unchanged as does pricing: 16 GB $499, 32 GB $599 and 64 GB $699.
  • Retina Display. You bet. 2048×1536 resolution, double that of the iPad 1 and 2. For context, that is 1,000,000 more pixels than your HD television at home. 264 pixels per inch, for those counting. Apple claims the new display will have 44% better color saturation than the previous model, which should be a difference you can see. All the stock applications on the iPad have been updated to take advantage of the new resolution. App Store apps will be able to take advantage of the new resolution as soon as they are updated by their developer. Apple did preview a couple apps that take advantage of the high resolution display including an air combat game called “Sky Gamblers”, professional drawing application “Autodesk.” and a new Infinity Blade release called “Dungeons.”
  • 8 inch iPad?. Nothing more than a silly rumor, as predicted.
  • 4G/LTE. I missed this one. The iPad 3 will support high speed LTE networks. That means speeds of up to 21 Mbps on HSPA+ plus, 42 Mbps on DC-HSDPA networks and 73 Mbps on full LTE networks. That’s faster than your home connection people. LTE partners are Verizon, Rogers, Bell, Telus and AT&T as well as others around the world. Sounds like Apple will still have separate devices for AT&T and Verizon networks. Also contrary to my expectation, Apple is claiming the same battery life as past models, 10 hours (9 for LTE devices). LTE models will be $629 for 16 GB, $729 for 32 GB and $829 for 64 GB
  • Thicker. Yes, it is thicker. 9.4 mm. The iPad 3 was 8.6 mm. About a 10% increase. Weight goes up to 1.4 lbs compared to 1.33 lbs for the iPad 2, a 5% increase. I suspect all these changes are to accommodate more battery.
  • Better Camera. Yep. 5MP iSight camera with 5 element lens, IR filter, illuminated sensor. That is the same camera as the iPhone 4 which is incredible. The new camera has auto-exposure, auto-focus, face detection, video stabilization. The front camera is now described as “iSight” quality. Unknown what that means.
  • A6 Chip. I missed on the name. The new iPad will have something called an A5X chip. The new chip has 4 times the performance of the Tegra 3 chips that powers many Android tablets. I’m reading that this chip is dual core CPU and quad-core GPU. Will need that horsepower to drive that giant screen.
  • Siri. Close, but not quite. Looks like Siri will still be an iPhone 4S only capability but the iPad will support Siri’s dictation capabilities. I think Siri is terrific for dictation. For me, the iPad is a much more natural place for that type of task. I think lawyers will like this feature.
  • iPad 2 Discontinued? As predicted, the iPad 2 will continue with improved pricing. $399 for 16 GB wifi model.
  • RAM. I didn’t offer a prediction for RAM configurations, but commentators infer from Apple’s comments that the iPad 3 will have 1 GB of internal RAM.
  • New Apps.I didn’t offer predictions here either. Sounds like Apple updated its iWork apps (Pages, Numbers and Keynote) to take advantage of the Retina display. iMovie and Garage band got display updates as well as a few new features. The big app news was a new app, iPhoto for iPad. Lots of user-friendly editing and management functions as well as an easy way to move photos between devices. The new iPhoto will be $4.99. The other apps are at the same price as before (free upgrades if you already have them).
  • Will I Be Getting One? Yes. :)

So there you have it. Will you be getting one?

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CardMunch Review at iPhone J.D.

By on March 6, 2012 in Reviews

This has been sitting in my queue for a couple weeks – just forgot to post.

Great write up about CardMunch from Jeff Richardson at iPhone J.D. yesterday. CardMunch is my preferred business card scanner app because of its integration with LinkedIn. I find LinkedIn very helpful for networking with potential clients and referral sources. Jeff makes a good point about setting the app’s preferences to match your preference as to whether you automatically want to connect on LinkedIn with every person’s card you scan. I like to take a little time to read through the LinkedIn profiles of people I meet before I deciding whether they would be a good connection to follow up on. As a result, I don’t mind the time delay between scanning and processing the card info as I tackle those tasks separately. The increased accuracy of human transcription is also valuable to me.

If we get a higher quality camera in the iPad 3, I wonder whether these apps will make universal versions for the iPad. I can’t really see the benefit of a larger form factor for this type of task, though from time to time I’ve wished the iPad camera was a bit better so I could quickly “scan” a document using my iPad when my iPhone wasn’t handy.

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Microsoft Office on iPad (photos)

By on February 21, 2012 in News

Matt Hickey at The Daily reports this morning that a Microsoft Office suite for iPad is just “weeks” away. The Daily provides a photo showing a Metro inspired interface and options for Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

I’m hopeful that Redmond has designed a truly touch interface for its ubiquitous suite instead of porting a ribbon crammed with buttons to the iPad.

(via RWW)

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Follow Up on Trial Presentations Using Keynote and Keynote Remote

By on February 20, 2012 in Legal Workflows, Tips

Be sure to check out the great “how-to” from Rob Dean over at WalkingOffice about using Keynote (iTunes link) and Keynote Remote (iTunes link) as a trial presentation tool. I’m not a trial attorney, but I’ve often thought that a well organized Keynote deck would be a great presentation tool if you don’t need the advanced features of something like TrialPad (iTunes link) or ExhibitView (iTunes link).

While Rob imports a presentation he created on his PC in PowerPoint, you could create the whole thing entirely on the iPad with Keynote. Note that you will need images of your exhibits rather than PDF files to use them in slides. To “convert” a PDF into an image on your iPad, simply open the PDF file on the iPad in your PDF viewer of choice (I recommend ReaddleDocs (iTunes link)), position the page you want to use as an exhibit and then press the iPad Home and Power buttons at the same time to take a screenshot. The screenshot will be added to your Photo library as a jpg. Those screenshots can then be easily added to your Keynote slides.

I also like this approach as you can highlight, circle or otherwise annotate the portion of interest in ReaddleDocs so they are highlighted in your exhibit. If you have lots of text on a page, consider taking one image without the text highlighted and a separate image with the text highlighted. Add them both to your Keynote deck as separate slides (the highlighted version as the second slide). A subtle dissolve between the slides can help focus attention on the portion of interest.

One other tip. If your courthouse has HD TVs or if you can bring along your own HDMI projector (instead of VGA), consider picking up a $99 Apple TV instead of using a Digital AV Adapter and cables. The Apple TV will allow you to project your presentation to the TV wirelessly. This may give you a bit more freedom of movement around the courtroom.

Let us know your experience using Keynote or other apps for exhibit presentation in the comments.

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Interview: TranscriptPad – Legal Transcript Review and Annotation

By on February 16, 2012 in Apps, Interview

I’ve been trying out the new TranscriptPad app (iTunes link) from LitSoftware, the folks that brought us TrialPad (iTunes link) (I wrote about TrialPad in February of last year in a post that generated a record number of comments at TabletLegal). Jeff Richardson over at iPhone JD has, as usual, put up a stellar, comprehensive review of TranscriptPad that I encourage you to check out. Rather than subject you to another review, I reached out to Ian to get his thoughts on app development for lawyers and the future for TranscriptPad.

One thing I’m really interested in is what you are seeing as a developer of apps specifically for lawyers. Will iPad use come to be normal in courts and law offices rather than the exception?

I see tablet computing in general, and the iPad in particular, as something that will drastically change the practice of law. It has really already begun to do so. I really think the reason for this lies in the simplicity the tablet offers, without having much of a tradeoff in functionality. People like to say that lawyers are slow to adopt new technology, but I think that is an unfair assessment. When fax came out, lawyers as a whole adopted it because it was a simple alternative that didn’t have much of a tradeoff when it came to functionality. The same happened with email, and mobile phones, and is now happening with tablets.

With regard to courtroom presentation, for example, the trend has gone from hiring a trial presentation specialist with all the necessary equipment and know-how, to a lawyer bringing in his own iPad to connect to the court’s system, and feeling comfortable doing so. Many courtrooms are becoming “wired” which further simplifies the use of TrialPad, and many other apps that are capable of displaying information on a secondary device (i.e. projector or flat panel) using the built-in mirroring on the iPad 2 and later.

I have received many emails from lawyers trying to use complicated desktop software like TrialDirector, one recently described needing to get his IT involved, and bringing a laptop, with power cords and all the cabling (much more cumbersome) to court only to see the opposing counsel using an iPad. It is a huge compliment for Lit Software, but perhaps more of a harbinger of the way tablets are being adopted into law practice, that on the lunch break he asked his IT manager to get him an iPad and load TrialPad and his docs for use the next day. There was also the email I received from the head of the plaintiff’s steering committee in a huge matter, with a very big budget, who has his whole team using TrialPad, and now TranscriptPad, to research and prepare their evidence. Not because they couldn’t afford a support specialist, but because they just found it more efficient for their work flow.

Tell us a little about TranscriptPad.

TranscriptPad was going to be the app that we would release first, but I had gotten further along with TrialPad, and it seemed more logical to get that out the door.

TranscriptPad evolved out of the many trials I had worked on as a trial presentation consultant. I was constantly given marked up paper transcripts (with sticky notes, red pen marks, highlighting, cross-outs, opposing counsel designations, etc.) in order to create exhibits to be printed, mounted and laminated, or to create video edits of designations to be played during mediation or trial. Invariably, because of all the markups, there were many times when it wasn’t clear what was to be in and what was supposed to be out. I thought there had to be a better way to read and mark up transcripts, and that there also had to be a better way to transport them other than as piles of paper.

Who is TranscriptPad best for?

TranscriptPad was designed for anyone who has to read a transcript. Obviously that includes trial lawyers, but it is also immensely useful for judges, appellate counsel, divorce lawyers, and expert witnesses. It is even useful for a doctor who is a defendant in a medical negligence matter who wants to read not only his own depo(s), but the depos of the plaintiff, and even the plaintiff’s experts to flag certain areas for his counsel to follow up on.

What kind of feedback have you received from about TranscriptPad?

TranscriptPad is still in its early days, but the feedback from our users has been great. A lot of our users had been trying to accomplish the same thing by re-creating their files and using two or three separate apps to perform different functions.

How is that feedback affecting your future development of the app?

I personally read every single email sent to support@litsoftware.com and respond to them accordingly. As with TrialPad, all suggestions and feature requests are considered for a future update, with the more frequently requested features rising to the top of the development schedule.

Do you think the iPad will become standard equipment for lawyers?

Most definitely. I don’t think you’ll be seeing boxes of documents strapped to a wheelie device with a bungee cord for much longer. This ILTA survey speaks volumes (no pun intended!).

TranscriptPad is $49.99. Your other app, TrialPad, is $89.99. I know you received some strong feedback (some on this blog) about how you priced your first product, TrialPad. Did that experience affect how you priced TranscriptPad?

Not at all. Our motto is “serious apps for serious professionals”. Litigation is not a game. We justified the price for TrialPad by continuing to develop the app with numerous updates adding many new features, and we continue to develop it. The response we’ve had from our users, new and old, confirms that we made the right decision when it came to that price point.

The same is true for TranscriptPad. We chose a fair price for a serious app that does serious work, and we will continue to develop and refine it with user requested features and improvements. I have not received any heat about the pricing of TranscriptPad, maybe because users know our history with TrialPad and see us as a developer that builds and updates quality apps, or maybe comparing TranscriptPad to a desktop equivalent shows how inexpensive it really is. I think a lot of our users also know that the sales market also has to be considered in the pricing of an app, if you have a limited user base because of a specialty app, you have to be able to recoup the effort put into creating the app, and updating it, as Apple does not allow us to charge for updates. There are other apps who have tried to compete in this market, and who have now stopped further development as the price they have chosen to charge is too low to justify the effort in continued, and necessary, updates.

Do you think Apple could structure the iTunes App Store differently to benefit consumers and developers of “pro” apps?

I have heard calls for a “Legal” section, similar to the Medical section, but a Pro section would be great to encompass these two fields as well as other professional areas. Apple could raise the bar and demand a higher standard for development for these Pro apps allowing developers to charge a higher price but also giving professional consumers the peace of mind that they are in an area where they can view and purchase “serious apps for serious professionals”.

What’s next for Lit Software?

We have many plans. Our goal is to turn this industry upside-down. It’s not making a lot of the 800lb gorillas very happy, but our goal has been to put affordable and powerful apps into the hands of professionals to allow the David’s to take on the Goliaths.

Thanks, Ian!

TranscriptPad is $49.99 and available in the App Store (iTunes link)

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