TechnoLawyer: Computer Accessories

Originally published in the December 14, 2012 issue of TL NewsWire. Instead of reading TL NewsWire here, sign up now to receive future issues via email.

In 2012, we reported on 205 new products in TL NewsWire. In what has become an annual tradition, today in this year's last issue of TL NewsWire we present to you the TL NewsWire Top 25 Products of 2012. You'll find commentary on the Top 10 products, a list of the next 15 products, and links for all 25 products.

How do we determine the winners? We don't. You do. Each TL NewsWire article about a new product contains a link to that product's web page. We anonymously track everyone's clicks on these links to help us figure out which types of products most interest TL NewsWire subscribers, and also to create the annual TL NewsWire Top 25 Products.

THE 10 HOTTEST TL NEWSWIRE PRODUCTS OF 2012

Congratulations to the 10 hottest products in the TL NewsWire Top 25!

1. Total Attorneys App Store

After raising a significant round of capital, Total Attorneys came out swinging this year with two cleverly framed blockbuster announcements.

Several companies announced "application programming interfaces" or APIs this year, which enable other products to more easily integrate with theirs. To its credit, Total Attorneys chose not to use this term given that most lawyers are not programmers and therefore don't know what it means.

Instead, Total Attorneys announced an app store. Thanks to Apple, everyone knows what that means! Using this colloquial term vaulted Total Attorneys App Store to the top of the TL NewsWire Top 25. So congratulations to Total Attorneys not only for the add-ons it announced, but also for how the company framed this announcement.

2. Total Attorneys

Before launching its app store, Total Attorneys relaunched its cloud practice management system. This alone would have likely earned it a spot on the TL NewsWire Top 25. But Total Attorneys also announced an incredibly low price of just $1 per user per month, which explains its second place ranking.

Total Attorneys isn't crazy. Instead, like Amazon's strategy of selling its Kindle tablets at or below cost and later earning a profit on ebooks and other content, Total Attorneys essentially gives away its practice management system with the hope that you'll purchase apps such as credit card processing.

3. CitePin

When we reported on CitePin, we called it the "Evernote of the Legal Industry" as it's a cloud application designed to keep track of legal information such as legal research in a freeform manner but with legal-specific features.

CitePin clearly excited many of you. Just one caveat. This company reminds me of the Pink Floyd song, Is There Anybody Out There? We could not find an email address. We filled out the contact form requesting a screenshot to no avail (our thanks to LawSites for letting us use one of its screenshots).

4. TheFormTool PRO

According to the CEO of TheFormTool, the TechnoLawyer Network, including TL NewsWire, enabled the company to grow much faster than it originally anticipated.

TheFormTool PRO adds document assembly functionality to Microsoft Word without the need for programming skills. Because of the intense interest in TheFormTool PRO, we reviewed it twice from two perspectives in our BigLaw and SmallLaw newsletters.

5. MobileScan Pro 100

It would shock me if a scanner didn't make the TL NewsWire Top 25. In many law firms, scanners have become as essential a peripheral as printers. In fact, many law firms find that they need several types of scanners — high-volume, network, desktop, and mobile.

Ambir's new scanner garnered so much attention from TL NewsWire subscribers because it's the Batman of scanners — highly mobile with a dual personality. It functions as both a sheet-fed scanner and as a wand scanner. Also, it can scan without any cables to a Micro USB card.

6. Workshare PDF Professional Plus 2.0

Workshare PDF Professional 1.0 ranked second in last year's TL NewsWire Top 20. And here is version 2.0 ranked sixth in this year's TL NewsWire Top 25. Acrobat XI Pro also made the list this year but it's further down. That's because while PDF software is a hot topic, PDF software designed specifically for lawyers is an even hotter topic.

You probably found Workshare PDF Professional's support for PDF/A and its file size shrinking technology of interest given that many courts require this format and have file size limits. Version 2.0 also offers integrations with Autonomy Worksite and Microsoft SharePoint, two popular document management systems used by midsize and large law firms.

7. eBillity

eBillity has interesting origins. One of its co-founders used to work at Bill4Time, a cloud legal billing software pioneer. As a result, the two products share a number of features, chief among them an iPhone app as well as desktop widgets for Mac and Windows. Also, the pricing for Bill4Time and eBillity is identical.

Perhaps because of its late entry into the marketplace, eBillity has teamed up with larger companies. For example, it powers Thomson Reuters' new Time and Billing product. And when Intuit abandoned its cloud billing product, it recommended that its customers switch to eBillity.

8. Harvest

Harvest serves the billing needs of several industries, including legal. It offers both iPhone and Android apps, thus covering the majority of TechnoLawyer members (49% use an iPhone; 28% use an Android smartphone). For law firms with three or more timekeepers, Harvest costs less than rival products.

9. CaseFox

Clearly, TL NewsWire subscribers like cloud billing software as CaseFox also falls into this category. We cited CaseFox's ability to accommodate temporary contract lawyers as its Killer Feature. CaseFox also falls on the less expensive end of the pricing spectrum.

10. PDF Converter 8

We covered three new Nuance products this year. Not surprisingly, its PDF software received the most attention.

PDF Converter 8 is practically a word processor given its editing capabilities. That's why you'll find some of Nuance's Dragon speech recognition technology built into the software. Like Workshare PDF Professional, PDF Converter 8 integrates with a number of products popular among lawyers, including CaseMap and Worldox.

THE NEXT 15 HOTTEST TL NEWSWIRE PRODUCTS OF 2012

Congratulations to the 15 remaining products in the TL NewsWire Top 25 Products of 2012!

11. OmniOutliner for iPad

12. Leap

13. Amicus Attorney Premium Edition 2012

14. Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover

15. HoverBar

16. Acrobat XI Pro

17. Apollo

18. Standzfree

19. TranscriptPad

20. Disconnect

21. DocMoto

22. Amicus Cloud

23. Samsung ML-2165W Mono Laser Printer

24. iPad 3

25. SwingHolder

How to Receive TL NewsWire
So many products, so little time. In each issue of TL NewsWire, you'll learn about five new products for the legal profession. Pressed for time? The newsletter's innovative articles enable lawyers and law office administrators to quickly understand the function of a product, and zero in on its most important features. The TL NewsWire newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published in the July 6, 2012 issue of SmallLaw: Up until 2011, the legal technology world speculated which of the cloud practice management startups LexisNexis would acquire. Then LexisNexis surprised everyone by launching Firm Manager, its own cloud practice management system. In this issue of SmallLaw, practice management consultant Seth Rowland reviews Firm Manager from top to bottom and then some — features (including the new client portal and document management system), interface, speed, underlying technologies, etc. Seth tested Firm Manager on two PCs, a Mac, an iPad, an iPhone, and a Droid Pro. What's Seth verdict and TechnoScore? Read his review to find out. Also, don't miss the SmallLaw Pick of the Week for a visual walkthrough of Cloudon, the iPad app we recently reviewed that runs Microsoft Office on your iPad.

How to Receive SmallLaw
Small firm, big dreams. Written by practicing lawyers who manage successful small firms and legal technology and practice management experts who have achieved rock star status, SmallLaw provides practical advice on management, marketing, and technology issues in small law firms, as well as comprehensive legal product reviews with accompanying TechnoScore ratings. SmallLaw also links to helpful articles in other publications about solo practices and small law firms. The SmallLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published in the May 11, 2012 issue of SmallLaw: In the entertaining book, "Inside Apple," Adam Lashinky describes the NSA-like secrecy policies at Apple. It's unlikely anyone at Apple uses Dropbox or USB flash drives. But the iTwin might make the cut. Today, New Jersey lawyer Edward Zohn, SmallLaw's senior product reviewer, evaluates the iTwin, a remote access device that Ed describes as an "endless hard drive cable." As usual, Ed used the iTwin for about a month in his own small law firm before penning this review. He not only discusses its features in detail, including security, but compares it to alternatives such as cloud storage, portable storage, remote control, and virtual private networks. If you still don't have an ideal remote access solution, read Ed's review and share it with your colleagues. Also, don't miss the SmallLaw Pick of the Week for five secrets to winning over a company seeking outside counsel.

How to Receive SmallLaw
Small firm, big dreams. Written by practicing lawyers who manage successful small firms and legal technology and practice management experts who have achieved rock star status, SmallLaw provides practical advice on management, marketing, and technology issues in small law firms, as well as comprehensive legal product reviews with accompanying TechnoScore ratings. SmallLaw also links to helpful articles in other publications about solo practices and small law firms. The SmallLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published in the March 26, 2012 issue of LitigationWorld: If the Mesopotamians had their way, we'd have a $60 and $120 bill. Fortunately, the Greeks and Egyptians intervened to give us our Base 10 math system. However, computers use a different math system. In this issue of LitigationWorld ediscovery consultant Tom O'Connor continues with his third Ediscovery 101 installment, discussing how computers understand our input. These "bits" and "bytes" represent the building blocks of electronically stored information so it's essential to understand how they work when working with electronic evidence. Also, don't miss the LitigationWorld Pick of the Week for hot technology trends in litigation.

How to Receive LitigationWorld
All practice areas evolve, but none faster than litigation. Written by successful litigators and other litigation experts, LitigationWorld provides you with practical tips related to electronic discovery, depositions, litigation strategy, litigation technology, and trial presentations. LitigationWorld also features in-depth litigation product reviews with accompanying TechnoScore ratings, as well as links to the most noteworthy litigation articles in other publications so that you'll never miss anything. The LitigationWorld newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TL Answers contains these articles:

Nick Sacco, Review: Adobe Acrobat Pro for Bates Stamps

Henry Murphy, File Naming Tip for Users of iPads And/Or Worldox

John Ahern, How to Secure the Computers in Your Office

Cary Mcreynolds, Why Two Small Monitors Beats One Large Monitor

Don't miss this issue — or any future issues.

How to Receive TL Answers
Do you believe in the wisdom of crowds? In TL Answers, TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers. This newsletter's popularity stems from the relevance of the questions and answers to virtually everyone in the legal profession. The TL Answers newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Coming today to LitigationWorld: Our editorial team has selected and linked to 95 articles from the past two weeks worthy of your attention. Below you'll find a sample article from each section of today's issue, including our LitigationWorld Pick of the Week.

Lexis Advance Advances Again

Organizational Advice for the Commercial Litigator

LitigationWorld Columnist Tom O'Connor on Predictive Coding

What Is a Reasonable Search, Anyway?

Congratulations to David Sparks of MacSparky on winning our LitigationWorld Pick of the Week award: Free Settlement Spreadsheet for Numbers on iPad

How to Receive LitigationWorld
All practice areas evolve, but none faster than litigation. Written by successful litigators and other litigation experts, LitigationWorld provides you with practical tips related to electronic discovery, depositions, litigation strategy, litigation technology, and trial presentations. You'll also receive in-depth litigation product reviews as well as links to the most noteworthy articles in other online litigation publications so that you'll never miss anything. The LitigationWorld newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TL NewsWire covers an online storage service and related hardware and software (see article below), a Microsoft Wordd add-on that suggests edits, an online video production exchange, two-factor authentication software, and document comparison software. Don't miss the next issue.

A PAPERLESS ECOSYSTEM

Apple has demonstrated that hardware, software, and services work well together when one company creates them all. The media has co-opted the biological term "ecosystem" to describe this business model. Plenty of other opportunities exist for ecosystems. For example, the paperless law office. Imagine one company that provides scanners, software, cloud storage, and even outsourced scanning.

NeatCloud … in One Sentence
Launched this week, The Neat Company's NeatCloud is an online document storage and syncing service that integrates with Neat's scanners, software, and other services.

The Killer Feature
Neat makes two scanners — NeatDesk and NeatReceipts — as well as accompanying NeatDesk software (Mac and PC) for organizing your scanned files. These scanners now integrate with NeatCloud. However, the company made two other announcements that together with the scanners and NeatCloud comprise a paperless ecosystem.

Meet NeatMobile and NeatScan. NeatMobile is a free Android and iPhone app that enables you to scan documents to your NeatCloud account using your smartphone's camera. NeatScan is a bulk scanning service. The company scans your documents into searchable PDF files, and uploads them to your NeatCloud account.

Other Notable Features
In addition to scanning documents to NeatCloud, you can also upload them or email them. NeatCloud syncs your files across all of your registered devices. You can also access your files using any web browser. Up to five people in your office can access your NeatCloud account. You can also share designated files and folders with clients and others.

The desktop and mobile applications resemble an email program with an inbox and folders. The OCR software can place information from business cards and receipts into defined fields. The company offers a human-powered service called NeatVerify for business cards and receipts you scan from your smartphone to ensure accuracy.

What Else Should You Know?
NeatCloud costs $5.99 per month for 1 user, $14.99 per month for 2 users, or $24.99 per month for 5 users. NeatScan costs $19.99 for an envelope of documents (about 50 pages) or $89.99 for a box of documents (about 500 pages). NeatVerify costs $4.99 for 30 verifications per month or $6.99 for 60 verifications per month. Learn more about NeatCloud.

How to Receive TL NewsWire
So many products, so little time. In each issue of TL NewsWire, you'll learn about five new products for the legal profession. Pressed for time? The newsletter's innovative articles enable lawyers and law office administrators to quickly understand the function of a product, and zero in on its most important features. The TL NewsWire newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TL Answers contains these articles:

Ben Schorr, Everything You Need to Know About Microsoft Hosted Exchange

Steven Silberman, Tips for Using WordPerfect With Two Monitors

Tobias Crush, Tip: iPhone Wired Tethering (Hotspot)

Don't miss this issue — or any future issues.

How to Receive TL Answers
Do you believe in the wisdom of crowds? In TL Answers, TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers. This newsletter's popularity stems from the relevance of the questions and answers to virtually everyone in the legal profession. The TL Answers newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TL Answers contains these articles:

David Hudgens, Review RingCentral's Extreme Fax Service

Jay Geary, A Report From the Trenches on Small Firms Moving to the Cloud

Bryan Sims, How I Added a Third Monitor and Why

Kathleen Hunt, Review: X1 for Desktop Search

Don't miss this issue — or any future issues.

How to Receive TL Answers
Do you believe in the wisdom of crowds? In TL Answers, TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers. This newsletter's popularity stems from the relevance of the questions and answers to virtually everyone in the legal profession. The TL Answers newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers a new accounting and billing system (see article below), a document and records management system, a litigation project management application, a secure email message service, and a Windows troubleshooting utility. Don't miss the next issue.

Keep Your Cash Flow Positive and Your Clients Happy

Predicting the weather? Difficult. Predicting the level of interest in this article? Easy. From the associate just starting their career to the managing partner running the firm, every lawyer has a deep interest in billing. You see, lawyers spend so much time working that billing often gets short shrift. But if you don't bill your time, why work so hard? Hence, the deep interest in billing — specifically in finding software that makes it as easy as possible to record your billable time, identify missing time, and get paid on time. If you work at a midsize or large firm, this quest becomes an order of magnitude more challenging because of the increased complexity of a larger group of timekeepers.

Juris v2.5 … in One Sentence
LexisNexis' Juris v2.5 is an accounting and billing system for law firms with new technologies designed to shorten the time it takes to get paid and keep your cash flow in positive territory.

The Killer Feature

Looking at your law firm's income statement can make you feel like a million bucks. But then when you look at your balance sheet and see how much of your assets consist of receivables versus cash and short-term investments, you suddenly don't feel so wealthy. As any accountant will tell you, cash isn't king. Cash flow is.

The new Juris Suite Collections available in v2.5 focuses on improving your cash flow through automation and business intelligence. For example, the Centralized Account History enables you to locate all the salient details concerning a delinquent account, including whether anyone has bothered to contact that client.

Even better, the Communications Templates enable you to send a client-specific dunning letter with one click — including via email. You can customize the templates if you wish.

Juris Suite Collections also features customizable alerts and reports. The latter enable you to drill down as deeply into the underlying data as you want. You can have reports sent to you automatically, and also have alerts sent to whomever you designate (e.g., have your comptroller call the client if no payment is received after two dunning notices).

"In many law firms, information on who has done what to obtain payment from a client resides with multiple individuals, LexisNexis Vice President Jonah Paransky told us. "As a result, firms may duplicate their efforts, leading to a poor client experience. By enabling firms to document collection activities in a central location, the new Juris Suite Collections fosters internal collaboration and provides a better client experience, even in difficult situations."

Other Notable Features
You've heard of "the cloud" no doubt. The most secure type of cloud is your own at your firm. Thanks to Juris' support for Microsoft Windows Terminal Server, you need not install Juris on each desktop or laptop, reducing the support burden on your IT department. Juris also integrates with Microsoft Outlook 2010, enabling your users to share financial reports.

Other features include customizable dashboards that enable you to quickly assess your firm's financial health, support for LEDES and electronic billing, client-specific rules-based billing to prevent disputes and misunderstandings, and the ability to provide your lawyers with a real-time view of their billed hours versus their billable goals.

What Else Should You Know?
Juris features a built-in WebEx Web conferencing link for technical support so the technician can actually "see" the problem you're experiencing. Juris v2.5 is free for customers with an active Juris or Juris Suite subscription or current Software Maintenance and Technical Support Agreement. The new Juris Suite Collections module is included in Juris Premium subscriptions. Learn more about Juris v2.5.

How to Receive TechnoLawyer NewsWire
So many products, so little time. In each issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, you'll learn about five new products for the legal profession. Pressed for time? The "In One Sentence" section describes each product in one sentence, and the "Killer Feature" section describes each product's most compelling feature. The TechnoLawyer NewsWire newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.