By Neil Squillante | Monday, July 13, 2009
Coming today to BlawgWorld: Our editorial team has selected and linked to 51 articles from the past week worthy of your attention, including our Post of the Week. Here's a sample:
Stop Using Cell Minutes With Google Voice
Six Market Trends You Can't Afford to Ignore in 2009
6 Things Lawyers Can Learn From Billy Mays About Marketing
Don't miss this issue or future issues.
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Our newsletters provide the most comprehensive coverage of legal technology, practice management, and law firm marketing, but not the only coverage. To stay on top of all the noteworthy articles published in blogs and other online publications you could either hire a research assistant or simply subscribe to BlawgWorld. The BlawgWorld newsletter has received rave reviews and is free. Please subscribe now.
By Sara Skiff | Friday, June 26, 2009
Coming today to
Fat Friday: Mark Raby reviews his first week using the Palm Pre, YouLaw columnist Gerry Oginski reviews Avvo from a lawyer's perspective, Philip Franckel discusses running Dragon NaturallySpeaking on Linux, Ann Byrne discusses Microsoft Response Point and Aastra telephone systems, and Harvey Ash shares some news about the new Palm Pre's ability to sync with iTunes. Don't miss this issue.
How to Receive Fat Friday
Our most serendipitous offering, Fat Friday consists of unsolicited contributions by TechnoLawyer members. You'll no doubt enjoy it because of its mix of interesting topics and genuinely useful knowledge, including brutally honest product reviews and informative how-tos. The Fat Friday newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.
By Sara Skiff | Thursday, June 25, 2009
Coming today to Answers to Questions: Kenneth G. Miller reviews using Amicus Attorney on his iPhone, Channing Strother shares his latest struggles with Nuance software and support, Lee D. Cumbie shares some Bates stamping shortcuts, Julian Garcia explains how to switch word processors, and Wandal Winn reviews magicJack. Don't miss this issue.
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By Sara Skiff | Friday, June 19, 2009
Coming today to Fat Friday: Rob Foos reviews the new Palm Pre, Lane Trippe responds to a recent BigLaw issue on the "assignment memo," Morris Tabush reviews the BlackBerry Bold and his favorite apps, paralegal Leigh Crawford points to an article about how her small firm survives in a big city, and David Gulbransen compares Dimdim to WebEx for online collaboration. Don't miss this issue.
How to Receive Fat Friday
Our most serendipitous offering, Fat Friday consists of unsolicited contributions by TechnoLawyer members. You'll no doubt enjoy it because of its mix of interesting topics and genuinely useful knowledge, including brutally honest product reviews and informative how-tos. The Fat Friday newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.
By Neil Squillante | Monday, June 15, 2009
Coming today to BlawgWorld: Our editorial team has selected and linked to 62 articles from the past week worthy of your attention, including our Post of the Week. Here's a sample:
Review: Two Days With My Palm Pre
Staying Competitive During an Economic Downturn
Ten and a Half Good Reasons to Blog
This issue also contains links to every article in the June 2009 issue of Law Practice Today. Don't miss this issue or future issues.
How to Receive BlawgWorld
Our newsletters provide the most comprehensive coverage of legal technology, practice management, and law firm marketing, but not the only coverage. To stay on top of all the noteworthy articles published in blogs and other online publications you could either hire a research assistant or simply subscribe to BlawgWorld. The BlawgWorld newsletter has received rave reviews and is free. Please subscribe now.
By Neil Squillante | Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers a new smartphone (see article below), a secure online communication system for lawyers and clients, an online document management system, new practice management software, and an iPhone printing utility. Don't miss the next issue.
A New iPhone Blooms Every June
How do we cover a product every mainstream publication has already covered? Normally, we wouldn't bother, at least in the feature section of this newsletter. But Apple's iPhone platform is too important not to cover even though most legal vendors and law firms have yet to leverage its potential. So rather than ignore it or relegate it to the Roundup below, we'll explore the features most relevant to law practice.
iPhone 3G S … in One Sentence
Apple's iPhone 3G S is a new smartphone that runs iPhone 3.0, and is available in the United States on the AT&T wireless network.
The Killer Feature
Thanks to the simultaneous release of the iPhone 3G S and iPhone 3.0, owners of the two older iPhone models can take advantage of many new features for free. But the iPhone 3G S' faster processors (CPU and GPU) gives it some exclusive capabilities, one of which is Voice Control.
The Voice Control technology enables you to make phone calls and play music. To make a call, you can speak the name of a contact or a phone number. For music, the iPhone understands songs, albums, and artists as well as other commands such as "Play more songs like this one."
Other Notable Features
The iPhone 3G S includes a 3 megapixel autofocusing camera capable of capturing photos and video. If you're unhappy with the autofocus, you can tap an item on the screen to manually focus on it. After capturing video, you can trim your footage on the iPhone and directly upload it to YouTube.
Also new is a digital compass that integrates with the Google Maps application, and built-in Nike+ functionality for runners and walkers. The digital compass can help you with the most difficult aspect of driving from place to place when traveling — getting started.
iPhone 3.0 includes a number of new features for all iPhone models, including cut, copy, and paste, landscape keyboard, remote wipe, voice memos, MMS, universal search, and tethering (not yet available in the US). iPhone 3.0 also paves the way for GPS-based turn-by-turn voice navigation apps (TomTom for iPhone ships next week).
What Else Should You Know?
Third-party developers continue to crank out iPhone apps at a mind-boggling pace as the App Store now contains more than 50,000 apps, including a growing library of legal productivity and reference apps. In the US, everyone except AT&T customers with more than 6 months remaining on their contract can purchase the iPhone 3G S for $199 (16 GB) or $299 (32 GB). Apple dropped the price of the 8 GB iPhone 3G to $99. Learn more about the iPhone 3G S.
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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.
By Sara Skiff | Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Coming today to TechnoFeature: Jott converts voicemail messages into text and emails them to you. It also uses its voice-to-text technology to make a growing number of tasks accessible by voice. But how well does it work? We asked business attorney and frequent TechnoLawyer contributor Mike Schley to test Jott Voicemail and Jott Assistant, and assess their usefulness for the legal profession.
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By Mazyar Hedayat | Monday, June 1, 2009
Originally published on May 25, 2009 in our free SmallLaw newsletter.
How did you pick your last office computer? Your doctor? Both decisions can have serious consequences, but one was probably preceded by research and comparison shopping, while the other was based on faith.
In fact the only thing these decisions probably had in common was that they most likely involved guidance from colleagues, friends, family, trade publications or, you guessed it, the Internet.
Welcome to the recommendation economy. Don't think for a moment that professionals can't be talked about, recommended into success or criticized into infamy. In the recommendation economy anything goes, and usually does.
Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Guess
Even the most independent among us constantly takes cues on how to behave, what to wear, and who to trust. Some cues arise organically from the environment. Others are specifically placed by companies to influence our decisions. The most influential cues of all come from ordinary experience with people who seem the most like us. It's a fact that most people who agree with us seem smart, and most who disagree seem stupid.
For instance, how do prospective clients choose a lawyer? Rates? Win/loss ratio? Articles published or seminars given? Most small firms and sole practitioners observe a "don't ask don't tell" policy on this point. And maybe that's best, because even when asked most clients don't know, aren't sure, or just lie about how they made their choice. So if you can't trust client answers, where can you go to get the straight story? Don't worry — the Internet is here to help.
Behold the Power of the Crowd
If the Internet is an ocean, Twitter is a raging, white rapids river of real-time impressions and feedback. It is also the rawest of feeds from the largest group of voluntary participants on the Internet. You might wonder (as I did) how this all came about. It's simple, really:
- 25% of Twitter users are voyeurs.
- 25% of Twitter users are exhibitionists.
- The other 50% heard about it on Oprah.
In fact, since Oprah's announcement last month the service has grown at an annualized rate of over 1000% per year. Never mind that most of these new users will be casual at best and most likely move on to something else in a month. The point is that Twitter is becoming the focal point for a nation of increasingly vocal consumers that share, and expect, instant feedback. Reputations can now be made or lost in days instead of years.
Go ahead and try a search in Twitter.
Instant Karma's Gonna Get You
Of course your last client probably didn't learn about you on Twitter. Instead, they most likely got your name from friends or neighbors. Maybe it came from another lawyer, a family member, or a Google search.
As it turns out, these sources are only once or twice removed from your Twitter reputation. Each of them is influenced by, and influences, the service. And as Twitter and its spin-offs gain traction in every corner of search-engineland, their impact is felt still more. The result is a vicious or virtuous cycle — depending on whether you are the recipient of good publicity or bad.
Just imagine: more search engines returning more Twitter-related posts about a given lawyer, which reach more people than ever, who in-turn are free to Twitter about their experience, and so on. The "I told two friends" shampoo commercial of our youth is now more like "I told 10,000 followers."
The result is unmistakably viral. Those who "get it" shoot up and up faster than ever, while those who don't are buried further and further in the rankings at light-speed. Twitter doesn't leave much room for "in between" or "middle-of-the-road" reputations.
So, how can you elicit recommendations rather than criticism? Provide your clients with quality work of course. But beyond that obvious strategy, I've developed some others that you and the other readers of this column can use to harness the power of Twitter and other tools to influence prospective clients before they pick up the phone. Stay tuned, and may the Tweets be with you.
Written by Mazyar M. Hedayat of M. Hedayat & Associates, P.C.
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Small firm, big dreams. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, SmallLaw provides you with a mix of practical advice that you can use today, and insight about what it will take for small law firms like yours to thrive in the future. The SmallLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.
By Sara Skiff | Friday, May 29, 2009
Coming today to Fat Friday: Douglas Simpson offers advice on phone systems for law firms, Lincoln Miller takes Ross Kodner to task again for his SmallLaw column promoting netbooks, Robert Rice reviews IBM's Omnifind Yahoo! Edition, Tom Trottier discusses fire resistant safes and CDs/DVDs, and Carolyn Elefant responds to Ross' SmallLaw article on BigSolos. Don't miss this issue.
How to Receive Fat Friday
Our most serendipitous offering, Fat Friday consists of unsolicited contributions by TechnoLawyer members. You'll no doubt enjoy it because of its mix of interesting topics and genuinely useful knowledge, including brutally honest product reviews and informative how-tos. The Fat Friday newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.
By Neil Squillante | Monday, May 25, 2009
Coming today to BlawgWorld: Our editorial team has selected and linked to 46 articles from the past week worthy of your attention, including our Post of the Week. Here's a sample:
Top Ten iPhone Apps for Large Firm Lawyers
How to Lose a Client in 10 Days
What the End of Television Means for Lawyer Marketing
Don't miss this issue or future issues.
How to Receive BlawgWorld
Our newsletters provide the most comprehensive coverage of legal technology, practice management, and law firm marketing, but not the only coverage. To stay on top of all the noteworthy articles published in blogs and other online publications you could either hire a research assistant or simply subscribe to BlawgWorld. The BlawgWorld newsletter has received rave reviews and is free. Please subscribe now.
