TechnoLawyer: Entertainment/Hobbies/Recreation

Coming November 9, 2007 to Fat Friday: Mitchell Herbert explains how to get the best tech support from Dell, Caren Schwartz responds to a recent post about the stability of Time Matters 8, David Garretson provides a few Treo 650 Bluetooth headset tips, David Caracappa adds to Neil's TechnoLawyer Summer Mix with some of his favorite tunes about the law, technology, and more, Rush Wels reveals which word processor has a built-in Rosetta Stone so to speak. Don't miss this issue.

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BlawgWorld 2007-08 with TechnoLawyer Problem/Solution Guide is a free eBook in PDF format. Actually, it's two eBooks in one.

BlawgWorld enables you to explore and discover legal blogs (blawgs) without spinning your wheels. It features the best essays of the year from 77 of the most influential blawgs.

TechnoLawyer Problem/Solution Guide uses a question/answer format to help you find solutions to problems commonly encountered by law firms. It contains 185 solutions organized into 58 topics.

Thanks to the eBook's inspired design, you're never more than three clicks away from what you want to read. BlawgWorld 2007-08 with TechnoLawyer Problem/Solution Guide has received glowing reviews from many publications. For example, LLRX writes:

"The substance of both books is exceptional, while the eBook format is innovative and inviting.... [The eBook] was designed to open in just about any PDF viewer and it worked very well in my various tests.... The best part of the entire eBook is that it is free."

Download Your Free Copy Now
BlawgWorld 2007-08 with TechnoLawyer Problem/Solution Guide is truly free — no registration hassles.

So please download your copy now (PDF file).

And then enter our sweepstakes.

I've gone on record as declaring the PDA dead. My declaration might be a wee bit premature thanks to Apple's introduction of the iPod touch, which touched down at stores this weekend.

Children treat Blue's Clues, Sesame Street, etc. as entertainment, but they also learn from these shows. Likewise, people who buy the iPod touch for its iPod will find that they also get a PDA as part of the deal — contacts and calendar — plus Safari, a real Web browser.

Safari is the star attraction, especially since the calendar application is crippled (you can add/remove/edit contacts on the iPod touch, but not appointments). A number of Web services already exist with iPhone-optimized interfaces. For example, you can create Word documents with gOffice, manage your tasks with Ta-da Lists, and check your email via Yahoo mobile.

Palm tried to attract people interested in personal productivity — not a mass market as it turned out. Maybe Apple has found the key to mass market success with a PDA — attract people looking for entertainment and slip them some personal productivity in the process.

I declared the PDA dead because why buy a PDA when you can get that same functionality in a phone? I personally wouldn't trade my iPhone for an iPod touch, but a lot of people already carry an iPod and a phone and don't seem to mind. Plus, the iPod touch has no camera so you can bring it to any courthouse.

Is the iPod touch a suitable PDA for lawyers? No, though many lawyers will buy one primarily for the iPod and Web browser. But the iPod touch has a lot of blank space for applications on its home screen. Make no mistake about it — Apple has created a new platform that could someday become the ultimate personal productivity tool — with or without a phone. I suggest you watch the iPod touch (and iPhone) closely. Perhaps the device that's truly in danger of becoming irrelevant ten years from now is the laptop.

See also: Is the iPhone Ready for Business?

Photo by Josh Mobley.

About TechnoEditorials
A TechnoEditorial is the vehicle through which we opine and provide tips of interest to managing partners, law firm administrators, and others in the legal profession. TechnoEditorials appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

We don't publish our regular newsletters during the last week of August. This break gives us an opportunity to kick off our wingtips and publish some lighter fare.

With Labor Day weekend looming, we figured you could use some new tunes for your backyard barbecue, beach picnic, etc. So we've put together a playlist for you.

But not just any playlist. This one features five songs about lawyers and the law, six songs about technology, and five songs about work and — once you make it through that gauntlet — five feel-good summer songs.

All the songs fall within the pop genre so our apologies to aficionados of other genres, but neither Mozart nor Charlie Parker wrote about lawyers or the Internet. Eminem did, but his lyrics are not family-friendly.

Got iTunes? You can sample (and purchase if so inclined) all the songs here. If you don't have iTunes, you'll find the playlist below along with a few teaser lyrics. Enjoy!

Five Songs About Lawyers and the Law ...

1. Fountains of Wayne, Someone to Love (above photo taken from the video)
2. Fountains of Wayne, California Sex Lawyer
3. Jackson Browne, Lawyers in Love
4. New Pornographers, The Laws Have Changed
5. Green Day, I Fought the Law

"Seth Shapiro got his law degree. He moved to Brooklyn from Schenectady, '93. Got some clients in the food industry. He says it's not the money, it's the recipes."

Six Songs About Technology ...

1. Electric Light Orchestra, Yours Truly, 2095
2. Styx, Mr. Roboto
3. Flaming Lips, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Part 1
4. Barcelona, I Have the Password to Your Shell Account
5. Weird Al Yankovic, eBay
6. The Accountants, Email Junkie

"I met someone who looks a lot like you. She does the things you do. But she is an IBM."

Five Songs About Work ...

1. Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Taking Care of Business
2. Boston, Peace of Mind
3. Fountains of Wayne, Bright Future in Sales
4. Belle & Sebastian, White Collar Boy
5. XTC, Earn Enough for Us

"And if your train's on time, you can get to work by nine, and start your slaving job to get your pay."

Five Feel-Good Songs ...

1. Jill Cunniff, Lazy Girls
2. Stars, Ageless Beauty
3. Eddie Money, Shakin'
4. Trammps, Disco Inferno
5. Duran Duran, Taste the Summer

"Hey lazy girls and laid back boys. You got it right, life's to enjoy, eating orange popsicles."

About TechnoEditorials
A TechnoEditorial is the vehicle through which we opine and provide tips of interest to managing partners, law firm administrators, and others in the legal profession. TechnoEditorials appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

As you may have heard, one week ago we released two eBooks in one PDF file: BlawgWorld 2007 with TechnoLawyer Problem/Solution Guide. Currently available for free download from about 65 Web sites, you can download a copy here.

A compendium of 77 outstanding blawg posts, the BlawgWorld 2007 section of our eBook follows a well-proven model — repurposed content reaches new audiences.

For example, some people watch movies in theaters, but even more people watch them on DVD, HBO, network television, iPods, airplanes, etc.

Also, popular newspaper columnists and comic strip artists often collect their work in books. And those who write books often publish a chapter in a magazine.

Why should blogs be any different?

That's what we think, and that's also what the folks at SharedBook think. Talk about timing — the same week that we released our eBook, SharedBook released Blog2Print.

On-demand vanity publishing for blogs, Blog2Print enables bloggers and their readers to order a blog as a book (you get both a PDF eBook and a printed version). You can select the entire blog or posts within a date range, and add cover art, a dedication, and other material. At this point in time, you cannot cherry pick blog posts. Also, Blog2Print currently supports only Blogger.

Blog2Print joins Blurb in an increasingly crowded space.

Now, I personally think it's more interesting to read a collection of essays from different blogs than from one blog, but I think Blog2Print and Blurb have many potential uses.

For example, law firms that publish a blawg could use Blog2Print to send a book of their blawg posts to their clients every year.

Also, a number of blogs exist that have a beginning, middle, and end just like a book. For example, my personal favorite, The Darth Side, is a diary of Darth Vader written during Episodes V and VI, the last two Star Wars movies (sequence-wise). It's hilarious and a perfect candidate for printing in book form. In fact, the author has already made a PDF file of the blog available for download — and it's certainly easier to read the PDF file than to read the blog.

So, how well does Blog2Print work? My printer industry blogger friend Jim Lyons has already given it a spin using his own blog as the proverbial guinea pig. Read his post, Enhanced SharedBook Blogger Widget.

Also announced last week, Wikitravel introduced Wikitravel Press, a new service that enables you to print your own travel books using information from Wikitravel, a user-generated online travel guide.

(Blurb and Wikitravel Press links provided by Bob Ambrogi of Lawsites.)

About TechnoEditorials
A TechnoEditorial is the vehicle through which we opine and provide tips of interest to managing partners, law firm administrators, and others in the legal profession. TechnoEditorials appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

BlawgWorld 2007 with TechnoLawyer Problem/Solution Guide is a free eBook. Actually, it's two eBooks in one PDF file.

BlawgWorld 2007 is the best way to explore and discover legal blogs (blawgs). It features 77 remarkable essays from 77 of the most influential blawgs. Each blogger handpicked their best essay of the year for inclusion in the eBook.

The 2007 TechnoLawyer Problem/Solution Guide is a revolutionary new way to find Solutions to Problems your law firm is experiencing. Specifically, it contains 185 Problems and corresponding Solutions.

Each Problem is written in the form of a question from the point of view of a law firm and organized by topic. Topics include case management, depositions, discovery, document management, legal research, time-billing, and many more — 58 topics in all.

Download Our eBook Now
Our eBook is truly free. You click the link and it downloads. No registration hassles.

Download your copy of the eBook now.

And then watch our press conference.

Inevitably, every pop culture phenomenon gets a rap parody. The latest such parody skewer's Apple's "I'm a Mac. I'm a PC." ads.

Of course, leave it to David Pogue to go retro and use the standard pop tune "My Way" to cover the iPhone frenzy.

Finally, I presume you're aware of the film Michael Clayton starring George Clooney as a corporate lawyer. Like most large firm lawyers, he ends up in the inevitable car chase with bullets whizzing past him. Why do they never tell you about that aspect of the job in law school? 

About TechnoEditorials
A TechnoEditorial is the vehicle through which we opine and provide tips of interest to managing partners, law firm administrators, and others in the legal profession. TechnoEditorials appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

Don't feel like reading about the iPhone? How about watching and listening instead? Check out these iPhone gems.

In iPhone: A Guided Tour, Apple draws the curtain and takes you on a 24 minute tour of the iPhone's 16 applications. If you're considering an iPhone, it's a must-see. If you're considering using online video for marketing purposes, it's also a must-see.

In TechCrunch's Take on the iPhone, Steve Jobs is Jesus Christ and the iPhone is the Holy Grail — an amusing spoof.

Better still, The Future Is Calling uses footage from 2001: A Space Odyssey (think iPhone as black monolith).

Finally, two worthy podcasts:

Apple Phone Show

Today in iPhone

About TechnoEditorials
A TechnoEditorial is the vehicle through which we opine and provide tips of interest to managing partners, law firm administrators, and others in the legal profession. TechnoEditorials appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

Dubbed the "Jesus Phone," Apple's iPhone has technology pundits squaring off — fans who predict iPod-like success and haters who predict a flop. But everyone agrees that the iPhone is the biggest technology product launch ever in terms of media coverage. Therefore, I thought I'd take you on a tour of some of the more interesting coverage.

(Disclaimer — I'm an unabashed fan of Apple because of the company's obsession with simplicity and usability. We try to do the same here at TechnoLawyer — e.g., you can contribute a post by just replying to any of our newsletters.)

On our first stop, Wayne Smallsman of Blah Blah Technology in his article Apple iPhone: DOA? explains why he won't buy an iPhone:

• Not waterproof to depths of 1,000 meters.
• No multi-lingual translation of voice calls.
• Built-in camera cannot scan retina.
• No EMP shield for use during a nuclear attack.

And many more sound and logical reasons.

Next, on a more serious note, Daniel Eran of RoughlyDrafted has penned an insightful analysis entitled Secret iPhone Details Lost in a Sea of Hype and Hate. In this article, he discusses the motivations behind some of the iPhone critics, none of whom have used an iPhone yet.

Over the weekend, USA Today published Top Secret Tests, an article about 200 AT&T technicians who have secretly tested the iPhone throughout the country over the past few months. Their conclusion — it's ready. This article exemplifies Apple's flawless public relations campaign to date, which has pretty much steamrolled all the critics.

For example, Apple responded to criticism of the scratch-prone plastic screen with a surprise announcement that the iPhone would have a glass screen. Apple also made a surprise announcement about battery life (8 hours of talk time). In this USA Today article, Apple addresses voice quality and bandwidth.

Incidentally, I hope it doesn't come as a shock to you that virtually every business article you read in a newspaper is placed there by a public relations firm.

Given Apple's success at steering public opinion, the iPhone will undoubtedly end up in the hands of many senior partners. InfoWorld has two takes on the issue of supporting these users within an organization.

In iPhone: The Device IT Managers Will Love to Hate, Matt Hamblen quotes a number of analysts who predict a nightmare scenario for IT departments.

But in Seth Weintraub's opinion piece in the same publication, Analysts Miss the Point on the iPhone, he makes the case for the iPhone in the enterprise. Among his arguments, the iPhone's support for open standards like POP and IMAP email, and Apple's ability to build superior user interfaces that boost productivity.

About TechnoEditorials
A TechnoEditorial is the vehicle through which we opine and provide tips of interest to managing partners, law firm administrators, and others in the legal profession. TechnoEditorials appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

Coming June 29, 2007 to Fat Friday: Dean Birch explains the advantages of his firm's file naming convention, Jay Solomon offers seven tips for those thinking about buying a high-definition TV, Miriam Jacobson responds to a recent TechnoFeature about software training and shares her preferred method, Carolyn Thornlow reviews Vindigo for the Palm Treo, and Jere Wilson praises "recovered attorney" Seth Rowland. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Fridays, Fat Friday is a weekly newsletter that features a grab bag full of genuinely useful product reviews and tips on a wide variety of topics. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.