TechnoLawyer: TL NewsWire

Today's issue of TL NewsWire covers PDF software with functions many law firms require (see article below), a cloud dictation workflow system with support for digital recorders and smartphone apps, an encryption utility for Dropbox and other cloud storage services, and a web application for streamlining the recruiting process. Don't miss the next issue.

PROFESSIONAL PDF SOFTWARE AT A BASIC PRICE

Disruptive products usually begin modestly. In the software world, they often cost nothing. Then — bam — they eventually provide robust features while keeping their price low (albeit no longer free). This scenario plays out repeatedly in the hyper competitive world of PDF software thanks to Adobe's decision to make PDF an open standard.

Foxit PhantomPDF Business 6 … in One Sentence

Launched last month, Foxit PhantomPDF Business 6 is PDF software.

The Killer Feature

Foxit originally launched a free PDF viewer, which still exists and is also now at version 6 (Foxit Reader). However, the new version of Foxit PhantomPDF Business offers many "professional" features law firms need.

Chief among these is the ability to create PDF documents, including with one click directly from Microsoft Office. You can also use Foxit PhantomPDF Business for scanning paper documents into searchable PDF documents thanks to the built-in OCR technology. The software also offers batch processing and drag-and-drop PDF creation. It supports all PDF variations, including PDF/A, which some courts require.

Other Notable Features

Foxit PhantomPDF Business also provides editing tools that go beyond minor touch-ups. You can edit entire paragraphs with your document layout reflowing automatically. You can also insert and edit images, change headers and footers, and even adjust the margins and other page layout properties.

You'll also find commenting and drawing tools, including the ability to track who made which annotations when multiple people review a document. Foxit PhantomPDF Business integrates with Evernote and SharePoint, but perhaps more importantly it enables you to email a document directly from the application.

Other features include organizational tools for moving and removing pages, changing page numbering, etc. Bates stamping, watermarks, document comparison, full-text searching, form creation and filling, digital signatures, and document security settings (including password protection).

What Else Should You Know?

Foxit PhantomPDF Business runs on Windows XP and later (including Windows 8), and integrates with Microsoft Office 2003 and later. It costs $129 with volume discounts available. If you don't need some of the professional features, the Standard version costs $89. Learn more about Foxit PhantomPDF Business 6.

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 NewsWire covers a cloud file server and remote desktop service (see article below), a stand for the iPad and iPad mini, an iPad keyboard case, and an email management app for the iPhone. Don't miss the next issue.

A FILE SERVER SANS THE SERVER

Once fearful about cloud services, law firms have since embraced them. And right on cue, bar associations have started providing cover much like with email back in the day. However, most cloud services seem built for individuals rather than for teams. Therefore, using them is like taking a step back for law firms that once used a file server.

Pertino … in One Sentence

Launched this year, Pertino is a cloud file server and remote desktop service.

The Killer Feature

File servers essentially provide access to your documents from anywhere, the downside being that you need to buy a computer, set it up, and maintain it — or more likely, hire a consultant for these tasks.

Pertino provides the same benefits without the expense of hardware and the hassles of configuring it. For example, it doesn't use an IP address for your login. You don't need to create a VPN. Etc. Instead, you create a volume and then invite people to whom you want to give access. Each person creates a login and password using Pertino's software.

You can create as many "networks" (volumes) as you want and remove people anytime. For example, you can create a temporary network for exchanging exhibits during a deposition and a permanent network for your everyday work. Pertino uses bank-grade encryption.

Other Notable Features

Pertino works like a file server. Everyone with access sees the same folders and files. Users can create new documents, edit existing documents, and delete documents (you can limit how users can use a network using the administration tools). Pertino currently offers a Windows client with a Mac client en route soon. The company will offer apps for the iPad and smartphones later this year.

Pertino facilitates other network services as well. For example, you can use it for remote desktop access. Thus, employees working from home can use Microsoft Word or any other application on their work computer via Pertino. This eliminates the need to buy additional software licenses.

What Else Should You Know?

Pertino offers two plans. The Personal Plan is free. It limits access to three users and three devices per user. The Professional Plan costs $10 per month per user with a cap of 250 users and three devices per user. Learn more about Pertino.

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 our free TL NewsWire newsletter. Instead of reading TL NewsWire here, sign up now to receive future issues via email.

BECOME THE STEVE JOBS OF TRIAL PRESENTATIONS

It's a time-honored tradition to hand witnesses a document in court (and in depositions) so that you can ask them questions about it. But a trial is as much about optics as the facts and law. Imagine handing a witness your iPad displaying a document that the jury could also see on a large display. You'd look like the Steve Jobs of the legal profession. This coolness factor is now within the reach of any litigator.

ExhibitView iPad 4.0 … in One Sentence

Launched last month, ExhibitView iPad 4.0 is an iPad presentation app.

The Killer Feature

Tech-savvy litigators who use trial presentation software still hand witnesses paper documents for two reasons. First, if you're using traditional software it's awkward to hand a witness your laptop. Second, even if you're using an iPad, you can't risk the witness pressing the home button, displaying a different document, etc. You can display a document on a screen and have the witness testify about it, but this technique doesn't enable a witness to mark it up and lacks the psychological impact of tactile handling of the document.

ExhibitView iPad 4.0 features a new Deposition/Witness mode. It enables you to hand your iPad to a friendly or hostile witness without having to worry about them viewing anything but the displayed document, photograph, illustration, etc. The app also features a whiteboard on which you or the witness can draw and create demonstrative evidence on the fly — again, locked down.

You tap a button to enter Deposition/Witness mode, after which the screen rotates and locks the orientation, and provides a set of markup tools along the top that the witness can use for annotations. You can save any annotations to the case file and submit it as evidence without altering the original document.

"ExhibitView iPad's new groundbreaking Deposition/Witness Mode stems from our roots in trial consulting," Co-Founder William Roach told us. "Our trial presentation applications for iPad, Windows, and Mac give litigators more choices, flexibility, and power for for their presentation needs."

Other Notable Features

Also new is Max Viewing Size, which keeps your documents at the maximum size while projecting them (i.e., documents consume the entire screen). This makes it easier for the witness, jury, and others to see what you're displaying. According to the company, competing apps don't use the entire screen of the iPad from edge to edge.

Other features include support for retina iPads, improved callout and freehand drawing tools, the ability to zoom in with a tap, and more printing options.

You can use ExhibitView iPad on its own, but it also integrates with the company's two other applications — ExhibitView for PC and DepositionPro. With the former, you can create presentations on your PC and then move them to your iPad via iTunes (many litigators find it easier to present from an iPad, especially if the case is too small to warrant a trial consultant). With the latter, you can review and annotate deposition transcripts (including video), and then export clips you want to present into ExhibitView iPad.

What Else Should You Know?

ExhibitView iPad costs $49.99. You can obtain a discount via Apple's Volume Purchase Program. Learn more about ExhibitView iPad 4.0.

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 our free TL NewsWire newsletter. Instead of reading TL NewsWire here, sign up now to receive future issues via email.

COMMUNICATE WITH PROSPECTIVE CLIENTS WHILE YOU SLEEP

The web giveth and the web taketh away — especially when you're away. Assuming you're mortal, you need to sleep and spend time with your family. It's likely that your staff has these same needs, which means your law firm lacks a 24/7/365 operation. However, people who need a lawyer often look for one at night and on weekends — when you're not around to field inquiries. A new service enables your law firm to respond to client inquiries immediately around the clock.

Web Visibility Solutions … in One Sentence

LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell's Web Visibility Solutions is a law firm web site creation and marketing service that launched a new service called Martindale-Hubbell Live Chat (Live Chat).

The Killer Feature

When you add the new Live Chat service to your LexisNexis web site, prospective clients can initiate a chat any time of day from any page. LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell’s trained personnel respond to chat requests immediately. They don’t dispense legal advice, but instead collect information such as contact information and the general nature of the pr ospect’s legal needs.

You can customize the information that chat representatives collect to fit your case assessment workflow and client intake system. You can also provide specific information about your firm that the representative can provide to prospects. Live Chat works in both traditional and mobile web browsers. LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell stores all Live Chat transcripts so that you can review them before contacting prospects.

“Web Visibility Solutions with Live Chat can help consumers connect with consumers in various stages of their search for legal counsel,” LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell’s Director, Acquisition Marketing Lydia Pickens told us. “Search engine optimized web sites help potential clients find your firm when they search for a specific practice area and geography. The new Live Chat feature enables your firm to convert visitors into potential clients with 24/7 live help, which consumers cite as among the most important features of a web site.”

Other Notable Features

As noted above, Live Chat is a new option for law firms with Web Visibility Solutions web sites. LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell offers six web site solutions and various add-on services depending on your budget and goals.

For example, the Web Professional Presence solution consists of a web site with 10 professionallydesigned web pages about your law firm’s lawyers, practice areas, achievements, history, etc., a Google+ Local Profile so that your firm appears in local searches, a blog for adding thought leadership articles, press releases, and other written material to your site. Also, LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell will optimize your web site for mobile web browsers such as those on smartphones and tablets, and provide lead tracking so that you can analyze which prospects contacted your firm via your web site (email, telephone calls, and web forms).

The services vary by solution. You can upgrade from one solution to another at anytime. The more advanced solutions include customwritten articles for your blog, link building to improve your web site’s rank in Google for keywords related to your geographic location and practice areas, building social media profile, and much more.

What Else Should You Know?

LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell offers free consultations to analyze your current web presence and explain the various Web Visibility solutions so you can choose the one that best fits your goals and budget. Learn more about Web Visibility Solutions.

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 NewsWire covers a practice management system for small law firms with a new mobile time-tracking technology (see article below), a cloud document management system, an iPhone app that increases reading comprehension and speed, and a cloud collaboration application. Don't miss the next issue.

Bill Your Time Everywhere Your Practice Takes You

The best billable time-tracking tool is the one you have with you in your pocket — namely, your smartphone. But you can't run your entire law practice on your smartphone. There's no app for that. Accordingly, your firm's billing and practice management system and your smartphone seem like two silos with regard to time tracking. Instead, they should function as an integrated system.

Amicus Attorney Small Firm Edition … in One Sentence

Launched recently, Gavel & Gown Software's Amicus Attorney Small Firm Edition (Amicus Small Firm) is a billing and practice management system with a new mobile billing technology.

The Killer Feature

Amicus Small Firm runs on a server, but the hardware requirements are modest — a low cost Windows PC is all you need. The server facilitates the use of Amicus TimeTracker, a new billing technology that works in mobile and desktop web browsers, including the iPad and iPhone.

With Amicus TimeTracker you can create new time entries, edit previous time entries, and see a list of time entries with running totals for each day, week, and month. You can also view time entries by client and file (matter). To facilitate faster time entry, you can create shortcuts.

When you create or edit a time entry, Amicus TimeTracker uses bank-grade encryption to update your Amicus Small Firm database at your office (if you don't have an Internet connection it updates as soon as you have one again).

"We're very excited about Amicus TimeTracker, which is only available in the 2013 versions of our products," Gavel & Gown President Ron Collins told us. "Lawyers receive so many calls and email messages on their smartphones that it's essential to track that billable time. The fact that Amicus TimeTracker pushes these time entries to your firm's practice system enables you to work out of the office for days yet still get your bills delivered on time."

Other Notable Features

Gavel & Gown describes Amicus Small Firm as being designed "from the lawyer down, not the technology up." For example, the Time Entry Assistant lists all your unbilled activities so that nothing slips through the cracks. Amicus Dailies enables you to stay on top of your agenda and, if you work in management and have full administrative privileges, the entire firm. The software even suggests client development opportunities based on your data, thus enabling even solo practices to benefit from "business intelligence" just like much larger law firms.

Other features include legal calendaring, document and matter management, tasks based on triggers such as court rules or a prior dependent task, and the ability to create automated time entries upon completion of designated tasks. Amicus Small Firm's "Do" button enables you to automate some of your work from dialing telephone numbers to creating documents.

What Else Should You Know?

Pricing for Amicus Small Firm starts at $399 for the first license for new users and $299 for those upgrading from prior versions. Additional user licenses sell at a significant discount. You can add Amicus Small Firm Accounting for an additional charge or choose from a number of third-party accounting programs that integrate. Amicus TimeTracker is included at no additional charge if you're on an annual maintenance plan. Learn more about Amicus Small Firm.

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 our free TL NewsWire newsletter. Instead of reading TL NewsWire here, sign up now to receive future issues via email.

A SCANNER AT HOME IN YOUR BAG AND IN YOUR OFFICE

Paper remains the gold standard in certain situations, many of them involving law practice. For example, regulations often require mailing a paper version of a document. Perhaps most importantly, paper remains the cheapest and easiest way to share documents at closings, depositions, and other legal settings. Notwithstanding paper's persistence, it's easier than ever to go paperless thanks to the increasing mobility of scanners.

ProductName … in One Sentence

Launched last week, Canon's imageFORMULA P-208 "Scan-tini" (imageFORMULA P-208) is a portable document scanner.

The Killer Feature

Most portable scanners spend their time in a drawer when you're not traveling because they lack the power and speed you expect to have in your office. The imageFORMULA P-208 has desktop-class features in a small package, making it feasible to use both in your office and on the road.

For example, it has a 10-page automatic document feeder, scans duplex at up to 8 pages per minute (16 images per minute), provides a maximum resolution of 600 dpi, features embedded optical character recognition technology for creating editable and searchable documents, accommodates the ISIS and TWAIN standards for connecting to legal-specific and other software, and has a daily duty cycle of 100 scans. In addition to paper documents, it can handle business cards, driver's licenses and other plastic and embossed cards, and photographs.

Other Notable Features

The imageFORMULA P-208 measures 1.5 x 12.3 x 2.2 inches when closed and weighs 1.3 pounds. It connects to your PC or Mac via a single USB cable. You can scan wirelessly as well using the optional WU10 Wireless Adapter and Battery Pack. And with the CaptureOnTouch Mobile app, you can scan to an iPad, iPhone, and Android device.

Speaking of software, you can start scanning out if the box with no setup thanks to the embedded CaptureOnTouch Lite software. For more control over various settings such as document format, resolution, and output location, you can install the free CaptureOnTouch software on the PCs and Macs with which you primarily use the scanner. Canon also bundles Presto! BizCard business card software.

The imageFORMULA P-208 has a number of advanced technologies designed to improve quality and speed and eliminate problems, including deskew, elimination of blank pages, and automatic color, page size, text orientation, and double-feed detection.

What Else Should You Know?

The imageFORMULA P-208 has a list price of $229. In addition to the optional WU10 Wireless Adapter and Battery Pack, Canon also offers an optional soft carrying case. Learn more about imageFORMULA P-208.

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 our free TL NewsWire newsletter. Instead of reading TL NewsWire here, sign up now to receive future issues via email.

SEND YOUR CLIENTS INVOICES THEY'LL PAY FAST

Many lawyers mistakenly believe that the secret to clients paying on time and without complaining lies in performing quality work for them. That's certainly one factor, but the ability to send detailed, professional-looking bills in a timely fashion is equally important. Making it easy for clients to pay you also helps.

Chrometa 4.5 … in One Sentence

Launched this week, Chrometa 4.5 is an automatic time capture application with new invoicing capabilities.

The Killer Feature

After finalizing your time sheet for one or more clients and matters for a period of time such as a month, you can create a bill with one click, and then email it to your client with a second click. Most law firms send more than one bill per month. Chrometa features batch processing so that you can email multiple bills with just one click.

Chrometa's new invoicing technology integrates with LawPay (a credit card processor for law firms) and PayPal. At your option, you can include live payment links on your bills so that clients can pay them with a credit card or via PayPal. You can toggle these payment options on or off on a per-bill basis.

Chrometa worked with a graphic designer to create professional-looking invoices. By default, the standard invoice template includes your firm's name and address assuming you've previously entered this information into Chrometa. You can further customize the template, and even create one or more templates. The customization tools function like a word processor. For example, you can add your firm's logo, and also add information such as your firm's payment terms, the partner overseeing the matter, and other such information into the header or footer.

"For the past four years we've been busy working to perfect passive time capture," Chrometa CEO and Co-Founder Brett Owens told us. "Now that we've accomplished this mission, we resolved to close the loop on billable time by helping you get paid for it fast."

Other Notable Features

Chrometa 4.5 retains all its core functionality, including automatic capture of the time you spend on your Windows PC, Mac, iPhone, and/or Android smartphone.

A new report lists all your unbilled captured time so that you can quickly assign it to a client and matter. Other tools that help you process the time you capture into time entries more quickly include plugins for Outlook and Gmail, filters that automatically categorize captured time, and intelligent timesheets.

What Else Should You Know?

Four of Chrometa's six plans include the new invoicing tools — Plus ($29 per month), Premium ($49 per month), Team Plus ($29 per user per month), and Team Premium ($49 per user per month). The invoicing tools are optional since Chrometa integrates with many third-party applications such as Clio, QuickBooks, PCLaw, and Rocket Matter. You can also export your time entries and import them into virtually any accounting or billing application. Learn more about Chrometa 4.5.

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 NewsWire covers a hybrid cloud-native practice management system (see article below), a web site testing tool, a stand for tablets, and a metadata removal utility for Microsoft Word. Don't miss the next issue.

PRACTICE MANAGEMENT ANYWHERE

As technology advances, it becomes simpler, which creates a rift between users and software developers. What once existed only in science fiction novels becomes routine — and most users don't appreciate the hard work involved to achieve such breakthroughs. For example, we may use the term "smartphone," but these devices are actually computers with an app for telephone calls. Thanks to smartphones and tablets not to mention the Internet, lawyers' expectations of their practice management and billing software has escalated to epic proportions. Legal vendors must now rise to this challenge.

Amicus Attorney Premium Edition 2013 … in One Sentence

Launched this month, Gavel & Gown Software's Amicus Attorney Premium Edition 2013 (Amicus Attorney) is a practice management and billing system with mobile Internet technologies.

The Killer Feature

The new version of Amicus Attorney offers law firms the security and speed of native software housed in their office, as well as the ability to bidirectionally use all functions from any web browser (similar to cloud software).

Amicus Attorney has accomplished this via a new technology called Amicus Anywhere, which enables you to access Amicus Attorney from any web browser on a Mac, PC, iPad, and smartphone (Amicus Anywhere's interface adjusts to the device on which you use it). Unlike remote control software, your computer in the office need not be running (a security risk). Instead, Amicus Anywhere accesses the Amicus Attorney database on a server in your firm.

With Amicus Anywhere, you can access all functions such as calendars, client files, contacts, tasks, telephone messages, time entries, etc. Importantly, you can enter information, not just read it. In other words, Amicus Anywhere is just as functional as the native Amicus Attorney software on your PC at work.

"Our customers love Amicus Attorney," Gavel & Gown President Ron Collins told us. "Now that they can use it with a browser anywhere, anytime, the reaction has been fantastic. Many lawyers spend a great deal of the day out of the office, so the ability to manage their practice from smartphones, tablets and laptops is a huge plus for them."

Other Notable Features

Also new is Amicus TimeTracker, which works in any desktop or mobile web browser and connects directly to your Amicus Attorney database. Amicus TimeTracker enables you to enter your billable time as it occurs before you forget, as well as review and edit existing time entries in a list view separated by day. It displays your total billed time per day, enabling you to quickly spot days that might be missing time entries.

Two years ago, Gavel & Gown introduced Time Entry Assistant, which lists all your unbilled activities. Because Amicus TimeTracker integrates with Amicus Attorney, it removes items from Time Entry Assistant in realtime as you bill for them.

Other features in Amicus Attorney include a dashboard that provides an overview of your firm and your personal agenda (Amicus Dailies), another dashboard on which you can view all communications by client and matter, bill creation, remittance, and reports, matter management, shared and personal legal calendaring, contact, document, and task management, notes, telephone messages, and more.

What Else Should You Know?

If you already use Amicus Attorney and have a current annual maintenance plan, you can upgrade to version 2013 at no additional cost, including Amicus Anywhere and Amicus TimeTracker. Otherwise, pricing for the first user starts at $499 for upgrades or $999 for those new to the product. The price per additional user is significantly lower. The company also offers Amicus Premium Billing 2013 for integrated accounting (you enable it by simply purchasing a license as there's no additional software to install). Learn more about Amicus Attorney Premium Edition 2013.

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 NewsWire covers the most highly anticipated Android smartphone of the year (see article below), an iPhone app for VoIP systems, a service that gives you a second virtual phone line, and an iPad app for creating lists. Don't miss the next issue.

THE NEXT BIGGER THING

Most lawyers likely buy a smartphone based on its accompanying app ecosystem. But hardware is also important. In this regard, the smartphone world has diverged thanks to the laws of business and physics. A smaller screen begets a lighter weight, one-handed use, better pocketability, etc. A larger screen begets less squinting. Those in the latter camp now have a new smartphone to crave.

Galaxy S4 … in One Sentence
Announced yesterday and shipping in April, Samsung's Galaxy S4 is a smartphone running Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean).

The Killer Feature

Some people say smartphone users are rude, receding into their own world with no regard for others around them. Smartphone users argue that there's a time and place for interacting with people.

With the Galaxy S4, interruptions by people who just don't understand will no longer annoy you as much as before. When you look away from a Galaxy S4 when playing a video, the video will automatically pause (Smart Pause). Also, you can have the Galaxy S4 scroll text you're reading by tilting it (Smart Scroll). Scrolling will stop when you have to look away from the screen.

You won't find these features on other Android smartphones (yet) because Samsung adds a proprietary software layer to Android called TouchWiz.

Other Notable Features

On the hardware front, the Galaxy S4 sports a five inch 1080p screen at 441 pixels per inch, measures 5.38 x 2.75 x 0.31 inches, weighs 4.59 ounces, features a 13 megapixel rear camera and a 2 megapixel front camera, supports NFC and WiFi, and has a microSD card slot. You can choose from two colors (black mist or white frost), and from 16, 32, or 64 GB of built-in storage. It uses Qualcomm's quad-core Snapdragon 600 CPU.

In addition to Smart Pause and Smart Scroll, the Galaxy S4 has a number of other new software features. For example, S Translator enables you to say something in your language and have the Galaxy S4 translate and speak it to another person in their language. S Drive provides hands-free GPS navigation with turn-by-turn directions.

Other features include Air Gestures to control the smartphone without touching the screen (useful when eating a greasy cheeseburger), an IR blaster for controlling Samsung and other televisions, and S-Health for monitoring your health (some S Health functions requires the optional S Band).

What Else Should You Know?

All four major carriers as well as some regional carriers will offer the Galaxy S4. They have not yet announced prices. Learn more about Galaxy S4.

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 NewsWire covers cloud storage appliance under your physical control (see article below), an iPhone app for web site monitoring, software for managing and migrating PST files to Exchange and Office 365, and an iPhone calendar app. Don't miss the next issue.

SECURELY BEAM YOUR FILES TO OTHER INTELLIGENT LIFE FORMS

Lawyers fall into two camps — those who don't trust cloud storage and don't use it, and those who don't trust it but use it anyway because of the convenience. Once upon a time, even solo practices had file servers, which can provide secure cloud storage. But file servers have fallen out of favor among many law firms seeking a simpler and less expensive solution that doesn't require technical knowledge or the help of a consultant.

Transporter … in One Sentence

Launched this month, Connected Data's Transporter is an Internet appliance that enables you to create your own private cloud storage.

The Killer Feature

Transporter is a cone-shaped device that plugs into your network. It contains a 2.5 inch hard drive up to 2 TB. You can access anything you store on the Transporter over your local network or remotely over the Internet.

On a PC or Mac, you can access one or more Transporters after you install the free software and create a password-protected account. Because the documents remain on your computer you don't experience any lag when using them. Any changes you make get replicated to the Transporter and other computers to which it syncs. The company is working on an iOS app for access from iPads and iPhones. All transmissions to and from Transporters are encrypted.

Other Notable Features

In addition to sharing with yourself among your various devices, you can use Transporter as a file server with your colleagues and also share select files with clients and others. If you buy two Transporters, you can use them for offsite backups. For example, the Transporter in your office would replicate all documents to the Transporter in your home.

Transporter contains a ring of lights around its side. You can turn them off but they don't exist to set a mood like some sort of digital lava lamp. Instead, they provide visual information. For example, the light turns from blue to yellow if you're running low on disk space and to red when the disk becomes full.

What Else Should You Know?

Pricing for Transporter starts at $199 just for the device. If you go this route, you'll need to purchase and install your own hard drive. Alternatively, Connected Data sells a 1 TB and 2 TB Transporter for $299 and $399 respectively. There's no ongoing cost after the initial purchase. Learn more about Transporter.

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.