Affinity Law Office Technology Blog

Palm Treo 755p is slimmer smart phone

Sprint is now offering the slimmed-down Treo 755p.  It lacks the antenna nub of its Treo 600, 650, and 700p predecessors.  Internally, it is very similar to the 700p with wireless broadband EVDO network service and 128 MB of RAM (60 MB of which is available for end-user software or data).  Because of the smaller form factor, the 755p uses a mini-SD flash memory card instead of a full-size SD card like the 700p.

Because it runs the familiar Palm OS, it will sync with most popular practice management and time/billing/accounting programs used by law firms.   

iPod without iTunes?

Apple's iPod is a nifty music and video player, but buying an iPod locks you into Apple's iTunes software.  iTunes isn't awful, but you may prefer something else.  And I've run into cases where iTunes crashed the computer on which it was running. 

Now you can have an iPod without being forced to use iTunes to sync music to your player.  EphPod is a free program that will let you manage playlists on your iPod and transfer music to the device without using iTunes. 

Find cheap gas prices

In this era of $3 per gallon gas, finding cheap gas is a welcome relief.  Many lawyers travel long distances on a regular basis to court, depositions, meetings, etc.  Once you roam outside your neighborhood, you may not know where to look for low-priced gas.  Before you leave your home or office, go to Gas Buddy and type in your city or zip code. Gas Buddy will respond with a listing of the lowest-priced gas in your area. 

Don't get caught in iPhone hype

Now that the Apple iPhone has finally been released, it is all too easy to get caught up in the hype.  If you are a lawyer or law firm staff member and you are looking for a mobile business tool, the iPhone isn't it.  You'd be much better off with a Palm OS-based Treo such as the 755p, 700p or 680.

The iPhone has an attractive design, but it is more a mobile entertainment system than a business-class productivity tool.  And if you find the ability to sync with your practice management system's calendar and contact list valuable, forget about the iPhone.  It can't do it.  And if you use MS Exchange with Outlook for your email instead of an ordinary POP account from your ISP, the complications and compromises associated with switching your email to the iPhone will frustrate you.

As technology consultants, we know that some of the lawyers we support will rush out and trade in their Treo or other smart phone for an iPhone, then call and ask us to make it work with their existing software.  In most cases, that will be an impossible task.

It is worth noting that the inability to sync with the iPhone is not the fault of your law office software.  The blame lies with Apple.  Apple, as it has done with the iPod with its iTunes software and store, wants to limit access to the iPhone.  As it now stands, Apple will not allow software developers to write programs that will run on the iPhone, including synchronization conduits.  Instead, third-party developers are limited to writing applications that can run in the iPhone's Safari web browser.  That is a huge limitation.  Therefore, it is unlikely that we will see iPhone sync conduits for Amicus Attorney, Time Matters, PCLaw, or other popular law office programs anytime soon, and possibly never.    

So heed this warning.  At this point, with the lack of third-party software support and only a clunky workaround for MS Exchange email using Outlook Web Access, the iPhone is not ready for prime time if you are a law firm user interested in a productivity tool. 

Low price on 20" wide screen LCD monitor

I've written many times about the advantages of a large LCD monitor (or, even better, two large monitors).  Here is your chance to pick up a 20" name brand LCD monitor at a very low price - and with free shipping. 

Buy.com has the Acer 20" wide screen LCD monitor on sale for only $169.99 with free standard shipping.   

Do you really need an office suite on your PC?

The July 2007 issue of Laptop magazine (one of the best reads for lawyers interested in mobile computing) contains a short, but provocative, article about Google Apps.  It is actually a cost comparison between Google Apps Premier Edition and Microsoft Office.  In short, Google Apps Premier offers much of the functionality of MS Office at a fraction of the cost.

What is Google Apps Premier?  Essentially, it is the concept of "software as a service" taken to a high level.  Instead of a typical office suite installed on the hard drive of your PC or server, your word processor, email program, calendar software, etc., run in your web browser and actually exist on-line at Google's secure servers.  You can import and export (download or upload) files and data to and from Google Apps.  I exported my MS Outlook contacts and calendar to standard .csv (comma separated value) format and imported them into Google Apps without a problem.  You can also upload and download MS Word files (MS Word document templates will soon be added to the file formats supported by Google Apps).

The advantages of the software as a service model are many.  There is no software to buy, install, maintain and upgrade on your PC.  And you can access your documents, calendar, email, etc., from any computer (or other device) with Internet access anywhere in the world.  And it is dirt cheap. 

There are some disadvantages as well.  If you lack an Internet connection, you are dead in the water.  Also, at the present time there will be no integration with practice management or documents assembly programs (although that could come as the technology matures and browser-based applications become commonplace.   

Google Apps Premier is only $50 per user per year, and there is a 30 day free trial.  Many solo and small firms may be able to get by with the free standard version of Google Apps (on which I have been running my own informal tests).  I think we are seeing the future of law office computing, and it is the software as a service model.  Once wireless high-speed Internet access becomes widespread and the cost falls to current cable/dsl levels (which could happen in the next couple of years), this technology will really take off. 

As noted by one of the comments to this post, users of any service that transmits potentially confidential data over the Web should carefully examine the security policy of the provider.  This applies not just to Google Apps, but on-line backup services, remote access and control services, etc, on-line payroll services, etc. 

The sad truth is that for most solo and small firms, the security risks posed by services such as Google Apps may be the least of their worries.  Many small firms fail to use strong passwords on their PC's and networks, never change those passwords, leave passwords on sticky notes attached to monitors, carry unencrypted USB backup flash and hard drives around without proper precautions, leave backup drives and tapes in unsecured locations at their offices, etc. 

There are also the low-tech security problems such as inadequate locks and alarm systems, confidential documents thrown-out in trash instead of being shredded, not changing locks when an employee quits of is discharged, misdialed fax numbers, misdirected snail mail, etc.  In reality, all of these are more likely to result in a breach of client confidentiality than services such as Google Apps.

But the commenter is right, we do have a lawyer on staff, and it was that lawyer who wrote the post on Google Apps.  Mention should have been made of the potential security risks with any on-line service such as Google Apps.  Thanks for the reminder.     

Remote Monitoring - Preventative Measures!

When was the last time that you actually checked the event logs on your server? As the most critical component of your network, you need to ensure that your server is functioning flawlessly 100% of the time. If only your server logs were as easy to check as the gauges on your car! Think of a "Low Disk Space Warning" on your server as something akin to a "Check Engine Light" on your car.

Too often, firms just lurch from one hardware disaster to the next, ignoring all of the warnings that are out there...if only you knew where to look.

InTouch Legal are installing a proactive monitoring system that allow us to see issues on your server, and take preventative measures BEFORE your server crashes! The good news is that this technology is readily available, and in it's simplest form it will email pertinent error messages and logs to you as they happen.

Bottom line....make sure whoever is responsible for your hardware and network is proactively monitoring.

Free MS Word Alternative

OK, so you use MS Word at the office and you think you need to buy an expensive second copy of MS Office to use on your home PC?  Think again!  There are a number of free or inexpensive alternatives to Word that read and write MS Word's .doc file format. 

One of the most interesting is AbiWord.  It is a free compact word processor that uses comparatively few of your PC's RAM and processor resources.  It runs quickly on even a very old computer.  It has most of the features of Word (except for the more advanced features favored by true power-users).  So if you have an old PC at home that is sitting idle, turn it into a word processing machine with AbiWord. 

Stream digital music to your audio system on the cheap

OK, this isn't really a law office tech product, but there has to be room for some pleasure in every lawyer's life, right?  In my experience, there are many music-loving lawyers.  Some are actually very accomplished musicians for whom music is extremely important and enjoyable.  Others just like to listen to their favorite tunes. 

These days, those tunes are more likely than not to be digital files stored on a PC.  Unfortunately, few PC's are directly connected to high-end music playback systems.  Connecting a PC to an audio system is often difficult because, by the nature of the work we do on our computers, they are rarely located in the same room as our audio or home theater systems. 

The solution to the connection problem is the wireless media receiver.  There are many fairly expensive ($100+) choices that work very well, but there is also a bargain-priced wireless media receiver currently available on-line from Buy.com.  It is the SMC EZ Stream 802.11g Wireless Audio Adapter available for the very low price (for this type of device) of $30.95 with free ground shipping.

This device has received very good reviews and works seamlessly with the Library Sharing feature of Windows Media Player 11 and the Universal Plug n Play server built into the Rhapsody subscription music service (a truly excellent service for the music lover).  The price is so good that I just ordered one for myself. 

Back to the future

Palm's recent announcement of its new Folio device reminds me of an experiment I am currently conducting with a comparatively ancient NEC MobilePro 900c handheld computer.  The $500 (after $100 rebate) Folio is designed as a companion to Palm's Treo smart phones such as the 700p and 680.  I can appreciate the concept behind the Folio.  I am a generally delighted user of the now-discontinued Treo 650.  It is a great traveling companion.  I have the Palm Universal Wireless Keyboard and it works well for typing longer items on the Treo.  But the real limitation of the Treo as a notebook PC replacement is the tiny screen.  Although bright and sharp, it is small (especially as my eyes get older and I become totally dependent on my reading glasses).  Having a larger screen (10" in the Folio) and a full-sized keyboard in a single companion device makes sense.  The Folio has its own Wi-Fi connectivity built in, and its Bluetooth radio allows it to use the Treo's wireless connection to get on the Web if Wi-Fi is not available.  Overall, a great idea. 

But the Folio is pricey.

That, and the fact that the Folio didn't exist when I started my experiment, led me to buy an old NEC MobilePro 900c on eBay for about $130.  It runs the Windows CE .Net operating system.  It came with a decent Wi-Fi card that plugs into the 900c's PC Card slot (it also has a USB port and Compact Flash slot.  The 900c has a nearly full-sized keyboard (about 92% of full-sized) and a half-VGA color screen.  It is very readable for web browsing or text editing.  I also picked up an extended battery (also on eBay) for a little over $20.  I can use the 900c with the Wi-Fi connection going for about 10 hours on the extended battery.  One of the first things I did was "flash" a new ROM (the 900c's internal operating system) using one developed and tweaked by a European user nicknamed cmonex and posted on the web as a free download along with many other useful items for the 900c.  The new ROM contains an updated version of Pocket Internet Explorer that greatly improves browsing speed and page rendition.  There is even a Compact Flash Bluetooth adapter available (again on eBay) that will allow the 900c to do as the Folio does and connect to the Web using a smart phone.  I don't have the Bluetooth adapter yet, but I may pick on up soon.  So far I've found Wi-Fi hotspots wherever I've wanted to connect to the Web.

The experiment so far is a success.  The MobilePro 900c's keyboard, although not quite full-size, is fairly easy to use for touch-typing.  The screen is easy to read in everything but the brightest sunlight.  With some web pages, I have to scroll a bit to see everything, but it is much better than the tiny Treo screen.  The 900c comes with software to let you view Word, Excel, PDF, and PowerPoint files.  It also comes with an email application, although I downloaded and installed a much faster and more configurable one called nPop.  It will also play music (MP3, WMA, etc.) and video files using the free TCPMP media player available on the Web. 

Yes, the Folio is very nice, but I think I'll keep my much cheaper 900c for a while.  If the Folio falls substantially in price over the next couple of years, then maybe I'll make the leap.  The concept is sound even if the price is a bit much.  But if you are not the tech geek I am and don't want to cobble together the hardware and software you need to make the 900c work like a Folio, then the Folio, even at $500, makes a lot of sense.