Affinity Law Office Technology Blog

Law Office Tech Deals for Week of June 29

Radio Shack has the well-reviewed budget-priced MIO Moov 200 and MIO Moov 300 (widescreen) GPS units on sale for $129.99 and $169.99, respectively.  Both have text-to-speech for audible and well as visual driving directions. 

If you want a sleek portable USB hard drive to back up your notebook PC, Best Buy has the Western Digital My Passport Essential III USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive in black or sun yellow on sale for $79.99.  The 160 GB capacity closely matches the size of most notebook PC hard drives.

If you need more screen space to see every application window you keep open on your PC, step up to a 22" wide-screen LCD monitor.  Circuit City has the LG 22" widescreen on sale for $269.99.  This monitor received excellent user reviews.   

Law Office Tech Deals for Week of June 22

As summer travel season hits (assuming you can afford to travel by car with $4 plus per gallon gas), there are many good deals on portable GPS navigation devices.  One of the best budget-priced GPS devices, the TomTom One, is on sale at Office Depot for $129 after a $50 mail-in rebate.  TomTom GPS devices usually get high ratings for their easy-to-use interface and free map updates.  Another well-reviewed budget GPS is the Mio Moov 200 on sale at Kmart for $129.99.  If you want to take a step up to a widescreen GPS device, the Garmin Nuvi 200W is on sale at Office Depot for $199.99.  All of these units have on-screen and spoken word turn-by-turn directions.

If you are an AT&T wireless customer or willing to switch, you can get a great deal on one of the most compact smart phones on the market, and one likely to sync with your practice management or time/billing software.  The Palm Centro is just $29.99 at your local Radio Shack store with a two-year AT&T cellular contract. 

I love Skype's voice over Internet protocol telephone (VoIP) service.  The basic (computer to computer) service is free, but you can add the ability to make unlimited calls to any regular or cell phone in the U.S. and Canada for just $2.95 per month.  Go world-wide for only $9.95 per month.  If you have an international practice or clients who travel abroad, this is a bargain.  If you install Skype on your notebook PC, you can make free calls anywhere you can find a Wi-Fi connection and save your cell minutes.  Skype is much more pleasant to use when you wear a computer headset with built-in microphone.  I use the Radio Shack Gigaware VoIP USB Headset.  It is half-price at $14.99 after a $5 discount and a $10 mail-in prepaid card that can be used anywhere that credit cards are accepted.  It comes with the Skype software on a mini-CD.  On-line reviews of the headset have been mixed, but it works very well for me, and the price is hard to beat.         

Law office tech deals for the week of June 15

Color touch-screen GPS units for in-car use are all the rage these days.  With gas now topping $4 per gallon, you can't afford to get lost and drive around searching for your destination.  Just as Radio Shack's sale on the budget-priced but full-featured Mio Moov 200 GPS ended, Sears and its sister store, Kmart, placed the same model on sale for $149.99. 

My favorite wireless notebook mouse (which I've been using for the last two years without a single problem), the Microsoft Wireless Laptop Mouse, is on sale at Circuit City for only $14.99 after a $15 mail-in rebate.

I've been very impressed with my Wenger Swiss Gear notebook backpack.  Wenger also offers a more traditional Swiss Gear notebook case for those who need something more formal than a backpack.  The Impulse notebook case fits 15.4 inch notebooks.  It is on sale at Circuit City for $39.99.  The on-line user reviews are very positive.  It appears to be a stylish, rugged, and practical case at a very good price.

It may be time to take your wireless network to the Nth degree (in other words, upgrade to the draft 802.11n standard).  The compact, nicely-styled, and well-reviewed Linksys Wireless N Ultra RangePlus Router is on sale at Circuit City for $79.99.  It is backward compatible with wireless B and G devices, but the real magic in terms of speed and range comes when you mate it with a Wireless N network adapter on sale for $69.99.

Add huge file storage and remote access to your network with the Western Digital 1TB My Book World Edition external hard drive on sale at Best Buy for $229.99.  Unlike other external drives that attach to a USB port on one of your PC's, this drive connects via Ethernet cable directly to your router or switch.  1 Tera-byte of storage is huge at this price point. 

Two words of caution about this drive.  Make sure you update the drive's firmware from the Western Digital web site and you may want to skip the Mionet remote access software installation if you don't need it.  Go to Appendix A in the manual instead.  You'll find that the drive has a browser accessible control software embedded on the drive that lets you set this drive up in a snap.   

Wide-sceen monitor at bargain price

If you are looking for a highly-rated 19-inch wide-screen LCD monitor, browse to NewEgg's web site where you can pick up the Acer AL1916WAbd for only $149.99 with free shipping. 

4GB SDHC Card at Sears

We don't usually think of Sears as a technology store.  But this week (through May 9), Sears has the PNY 4GB Secure Digital High Capacity flash memory card on sale for only $24.98.  This is a roomy storage card for your digital camera or Asus Eee.

4GB SDHC Card at Sears

We don't usually think of Sears as a technology store.  But this week (through May 9), Sears has the PNY 4GB Secure Digital High Capacity flash memory card on sale for only $24.98.  This is a roomy storage card for your digital camera or Asus Eee.

Tech deals about this week, May 4-10

There are many useful law office tech items on sale this week at Staples.  For example, if you need a high-capacity external backup drive, the huge 500 GB Maxtor One Touch 4 is one sale for only $89.98.  I don't recall seeing a name-brand 500 GB external hard drive for less than $100 before.

Printers also abound at sale prices this week at Staples.  The dirt cheap Samsung ML-2510 is only $49.99 after a $50 Easy Rebate.  If you need an all-in-one laser printer, the Samsung SCX-4725FN is only $139.98 after a $140 Easy Rebate.  If a color laser is what you need, you can pick up the Samsung CLP-3000 for only $99.98 after a $150 easy rebate.

If you need a wireless router, they are also on sale this week.  One of the most popular routers of all time is the Linksys WRT54G.  The Speedboost version of that router, the WRT54GS, is on sale for only $29.98.  If you wanted to create a separate wireless network at your office for clients and guests to use without giving them access to your firm's network, you could pick up one of these for that purpose.  It is also useful if you need to expand the range of your wireless network, though this may require using third-party firmware on the router.         

Good deal on 4GB SDHC Card and Alternate Form of Transportation

Secure Digital flash memory cards are increasingly useful, especially now that most desktop and notebook computers come with SD card readers, they are used in many major-brand digital cameras, and also work in some smart phones.  The Asus Eee mini-notebook also has a SD card reader. 

This week (April 27 - May 3), both Circuit City and Office Depot have the SanDisk 4GB SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity) card on sale for $28. 

This isn't a law office tech item, but it is something worth considering with the high cost of gasoline.  Many lawyers live within bicycling distance to their offices.  Many local independent bike shops sell decent commuter bikes (a cross between a mountain bike and a road bike, often with a 7-speed rear derailleur, but no front derailleur) in the $250-$300 range.  Higher-price commuter bikes will be lighter and have a front derailleur for 21 speeds.  Either is usually a much better choice than department store bikes that really don't cost that much less.  Plus a local bike shop usually provides much better service after the sale than a department store.  If you don't need to dress for court on a particular day, biking to the office can be a nice alternative that saves gas and provides great exercise.      

$50 off on Refurbished Asus Eee 4GB Model with Integrated Webcam

Usually selling for $399 new, a refurbished version of the Xandros Linux-based Asus Eee 4GB mini-notebook PC is available at Computer Geeks for $349. 

Good tech deals this week, April 13-19

At Radio Shack the Gigaware optical mini-mouse is on sale for $9.99.  This mouse is small enough to easily fit into your pocket for traveling.  If you play music or movies on your notebook or desktop PC, you should look into the Kensington Slimblade Media Mouse on sale at Circuit City for $29.99 after instant and mail-in rebates.  It will let you control media file playback wirelessly from up to 30 feet away. 

Staples has a great deal on a 2 GB USB flash drive.  The Sony Micro Vault is on sale in stores for just $12.98.