We would like to thank everyone who attended TechnoLawyer Festa 2010 on January 31, 2010 at A Voce Columbus Circle. You helped make it our best party yet. We'll post more details soon. In the meantime, check out the photos from the party.
TechnoLawyer Festa 2010
By Neil Squillante | Wednesday, February 3, 2010
How Your Law Firm Can Get Started With Twitter Risk Free
By Neil Squillante | Monday, November 23, 2009
If a car jumps the median into your lane, you need to act instantly to avoid a life-threatening collision.
Many legal marketing gurus would have you believe that you must act just as quickly to embrace Twitter, the leading micro-blogging platform. Don't believe them. Your law firm won't disappear tomorrow if you don't start tweeting today.
While I don't recommend taking a few years to think about how to incorporate Twitter into your marketing plan, giving it some serious thought before diving in will benefit rather than hurt you.
Below you'll find three ways to get started with Twitter, none of which require a serious investment of time or pose any risk. I also point out a few pitfalls to avoid.
1. Search for Real-Time Competitive Intelligence (Spying)
People can't help themselves — especially those who grew up with instant messaging (IM). Twitter is a lot like IM except that it's public (you can create a private account but most people don't).
Before you read another sentence, bookmark Twitter Search.
Start searching it on behalf of yourself and your clients to monitor people, companies, and other keywords you care about. At the very least, you'll find it interesting plus you may hit the jackpot and learn about a competitor's strategies or possible legal work for existing clients (e.g., infringement). You may even find someone seeking legal services in your field. Using Twitter Search for spying monitoring keywords doesn't require an account.
Unfortunately, Twitter does not make its complete archive searchable. In fact, it only goes back a day or so. However, Google archives Twitter — sort of. If you save your Twitter searches as RSS feeds, and then place those feeds in Google Reader, you can build your own archive of tweets that never disappear.
If you start tweeting someday, don't make the same mistake many others do. Think twice before tweeting about your personal life or your law firm's finances, strategic planning, etc.
2. Start Tweeting With Direct (Private) Messages
When you start searching Twitter, you'll find a lot of "replies to nowhere." Much like that famous bridge to nowhere, which stood to benefit just a few dozen people, these replies are essentially directed at one person or at most a small group of people so they don't make much sense to anyone else. It's like hearing the punch line of a joke without hearing the setup.
Inevitably, you'll come across a tweet and want to reply to the author. Try replying to these tweets privately rather than publicly to prevent cluttering up your stream with replies to nowhere, especially if you have not yet started publicly tweeting or if your reply is unrelated to the topics you typically tweet about.
To contact someone privately, use a Direct Message as opposed to a public @reply. However, you can only send a direct message to someone who follows you — a spam prevention measure that creates a catch-22.
But don't despair. Unless you're trying to contact a celebrity, if you follow the person you want to contact they will usually return the favor and follow you, after which you can direct message them. If they don't reciprocate, try searching Google, LinkedIn, etc. for their email address. If all else fails, you can use an @reply, and later delete it once you've established a dialogue.
3. Tweet Your Blog Posts and Retweet Related Tweets
Because the foregoing activities don't involve public tweets, they pose no risk. If you want to start posting publicly so that you can attract followers and network on a larger scale, the tips below will safely get you started.
If your firm publishes a blog, you can start tweeting immediately. Most blog platforms integrate with Twitter (see, e.g., TypePad, which we use). Once configured, every time you publish a new article in your blog, you can automatically post the title and corresponding link to your Twitter stream. In other words, you can tweet and generate traffic to your blog with zero effort.
You should also consider Retweets — reprinting relevant tweets by other Twitter users. Originally created by Twitter users through a simple copy and paste preceded by the letters RT and the original author's Twitter name, retweeting has become such a phenomenon that Twitter recently unveiled its official retweeting tool.
Retweeting dovetails nicely with searching Twitter for keywords, and tends to attract followers. For example, suppose you want to focus on trademark issues. Every day, you search Twitter for "trademark" and other related keywords. Invariably, you'll find some interesting tweets, perhaps pointing an article somewhere on the Web. Rather than tweet about that same article yourself, you could quickly retweet it instead.
Publishers such as AllTop and Huffington Post have amassed large audiences aggregating the related content of others into one convenient location. Aggregation works just as well on Twitter
Twitter has not (yet) addressed the copyright issues surrounding retweets in its terms of service, but given that an official tool now exists, I suspect Twitter will require all users to permit retweets (Twitter enables you to block the retweets of those you follow, but you cannot prevent people from retweeting your tweets).
Beyond these two starting points, treat your Twitter stream as you would any publication — stick to a theme. This disciplined approach will not only attract a larger audience than a random stream of non-sequiturs, but also attract the kind of people with whom you want to connect. Also, you can still have fun and showcase your personality. Most topics have their lighter side, plus your tweets will hopefully spark some lively debates. Just stay away from listing what you ate for dinner. Few people care about that stuff — unless perhaps you dined with Jennifer Aniston and Ashton Kutcher at Per Se.
Follow Up
You now know a lot more about Twitter than you did a few minutes ago — enough to get started. You may also want to read Twitter 101, Twitter's guide for businesses. Just one more thing. While we welcome you to follow us, we encourage you to join us.
Originally published October 26, 2009. Updated to include Twitter's new retweet tool.
About TechnoEditorials
A TechnoEditorial is the vehicle through which we opine and provide tips of interest to lawyers, law office administrators, and others in the legal profession. We link to each new TechnoEditorial and much more in our BlawgWorld newsletter, which is free. Please subscribe now.
Why State Bars Should Steal MLB's Web Site Strategy
By Neil Squillante | Monday, September 28, 2009
A decade ago, the Web sites of Major League Baseball (MLB) teams mirrored the standings. Wealthy teams like the Yankees had the best sites. Recognizing this disparity and the growing importance of the Web, MLB persuaded the teams to dismantle their individual sites, and join forces under the mlb.com domain name. Nowadays, the team sites share a similar layout, features, and navigation. MLB and the teams have enjoyed enormous financial success as a result of this collective effort.
The Web sites of today's state bars resemble the MLB team sites of yesteryear. Some offer a better design and better content than others. Although the state bars do not belong to a centralized organization like MLB, they should consider teaming up on the Web under a shared domain name.
Notwithstanding the differences among state bars, they more or less perform the same functions, resulting in considerable overlap among their online needs — similar to baseball teams. Consider the benefits of an MLB-style network of state bar Web sites:
- Lower Costs: By splitting the cost of the underlying infrastructure and the people require to manage it, state bars would save money and have a better Web site than they could afford on their own.
- More Content: Shared technology would also enable state bars to spend more time and money on content, resulting in greater loyalty among their members and more search engine traffic.
- More Revenue: State bars have ceded revenue opportunities to startups such as Avvo (lawyer ratings) and LegalMatch (client prospecting). With an advanced technology platform, state bars could collectively compete for this revenue with offerings of their own. In fact, it's shocking that state bars don't dominate the lawyer ratings and search marketplace given their natural advantages such as mandatory membership.
- CLE Partnerships: It's unlikely that every state bar would agree to the same CLE rules, but if they could agree on what an online CLE course should entail, they could pool online CLE courses and share revenue. For example, if a Florida lawyer takes a CLE course created by the State Bar of Texas, the Florida Bar might receive a 15% commission.
- Autonomy: I don't find it confusing when I visit the Yankees site at newyork.yankees.mlb.com. Similarly, each state bar association would retain its identity as an independent organization thanks to their own sub-domain and tools to publish state-specific content such as ethics rules, a live events calendar, the staff address book, etc.
A Long Shot But Not Impossible. What About Voluntary Bar Associations?
We've worked with several state bars over the years. Although some state bar executives have the authority to close deals, others must receive approval from committees that don't meet frequently.
Therefore, such an initiative would face an uphill battle. But such collaborations have occurred in other industries. For example, the movie studios created the MPAA for film ratings and other functions. Also, most state bar executives already know one another — it's a small world.
A coalition of state bars with a common Web presence would likely pose a threat to voluntary bar associations. However, there's no reason why voluntary bar associations can't create a network of sites as well. In fact, many local bar associations struggle with their Web sites given their small size and budget. Their need to share Web development resources is even more pressing than that of the state bars.
With baby boomers about to start retiring, the majority of lawyers will inevitably demand better online resources from their state bars and especially from voluntary bar associations. MLB has hit a home run with its network of team Web sites. State bars and their voluntary counterparts should take note and steal this strategy while they still have time to win the online game.
About TechnoEditorials
A TechnoEditorial is the vehicle through which we opine and provide tips of interest to lawyers, law office administrators, and others in the legal profession. We link to each new TechnoEditorial and much more in our BlawgWorld newsletter, which is free. Please subscribe now.
Why Avvo's Top Legal Blogs List Is a Joke and How to Fix It
By Neil Squillante | Monday, May 18, 2009
Avvo's Top Legal Blogs list (TLB) — a ranking of the top legal blogs (blawgs) — is a textbook example of smart marketing. It provides interesting information and attracts inbound links (especially from the featured blogs).
I applaud the list in the abstract, but deplore its implementation. It strikes me as a lazy effort designed purely for marketing purposes with little to no regard for accuracy — strange for a company whose mission revolves around providing actionable information about lawyers.
Avvo's TLB has two major problems — sample pool and data source. A list by its very nature depends entirely on these two components. In other words, TLB is unreliable. It's also a slap in the face to legal bloggers, most of whom frankly need a slap in the face, just not of this variety (I'd like to see legal bloggers debate each other more often and also criticize lists like TLB).
Avvo's Sample (Kiddie) Pool
Many a blogger has no doubt wondered why their blog does not appear on TLB considering that as of today 15 blogs on the TLB have such a miniscule audience that scant data exists. And then they see the reason:
"[W]e could not include every blog we would have liked to (no subdomains or folders on non-blog sites), but we are working to change that. In the mean time [sic], if you wish to inquire about adding your blog to the list, please send an email to ..."
As you can see, Avvo admits that it does not include any blogs which exist as part of larger sites, eliminating many of the top blogs in one fell swoop.
But what about a blog such as Jonathan Turley, which won the ABA's Blawg 100 contest earlier this year in the Professors category? It resides at its own domain name and has an Alexa ranking of 158,350 (see below) yet is absent from Avvo's TLB.
It seems like Avvo put together an initial list and has since relied on bloggers to let them know about the existence of their blog.
What's the point of a list that omits such a large chunk of the legal blogosphere? The result is a kiddie pool of data a mile wide and six inches deep.
Alexa = Garbage In, Garbage Out
I suspect if you got Jeff Bezos drunk, he would express deep pride in and enthusiasm about all of Amazon's services — except Alexa, which he would admit is useless.
Avvo uses Alexa as its data source for TLB.
Alexa collects data on Web site usage from people who install its toolbar in their Web browser.
Remember your college statistics class? No? Well, here's a quick refresher. You can rely on statistical data about a group in only two situations:
- When everyone in the group provides data (100% participation).
- When you obtain data from a random sample of the group that is representative of the whole group (a small margin of error applies to the results).
Data collected in any other manner might be entertaining, but it won't be reliable. Like Alexa.
Not every Internet user has the Alexa toolbar installed so participation is not 100%. And Alexa does not engage in random sampling. Instead, anyone can install the toolbar (self-selection).
Don't believe me? Google executive Matt Cutts conducted a very simple experiment to demonstrate Alexa's flawed data.
Using Alexa to gauge the popularity of legal blogs is like using a group of lawyers hanging out in a trendy lounge to determine the country's best-selling beer. Your survey might conclude that it's Peak Organic Pale Ale when in fact the answer is Budweiser.
How Avvo Can Fix TLB and Make It Useful
I would not criticize TLB without offering a solution. In fact, many possible solutions exist, including:
- Forget about statistical rankings and instead provide editorial rankings. Avvo could take it a step further and invite people to vote for their favorite blogs from the pool it selected in a variety of categories. The only problem with this solution is that it already exists — the ABA Blawg 100.
- Drop Alexa as a data source and instead use Compete or a similar service. Like Alexa, Compete obtains data on Web usage from people who have installed a toolbar. Unlike Alexa, Compete controls the distribution of its toolbar so that it doesn't suffer from self-selection problems. While the data is not as reliable as that from a true random sample, it's about as good as the Nielsen system that networks and their advertisers use for TV ratings.
- Require legal blogs that wish to participate in TLB to install SiteMeter or some other free javascript-based Web analytics tool on their blogs and share the data with Avvo for ranking purposes. This method would provide the most reliable rankings thanks to data from 100% of the group — legal blogs that opt to participate. In this scenario, legal blogs absent from the list would have only themselves to blame.
Each of these methods would require Avvo to invest more resources into TLB. Because TLB seems to have little to no relation to Avvo's core business, Avvo may not want to make a significant investment. That's perfectly understandable, but Avvo cannot have it both ways. In its current incarnation, TLB does not, as Avvo claims, enable you to "[k]now who has the most popular legal blog [sic] based on objective, third-party data."
About TechnoEditorials
A TechnoEditorial is the vehicle through which we opine and provide tips of interest to lawyers, law office administrators, and others in the legal profession. We link to each new TechnoEditorial and much more in our BlawgWorld newsletter, which is free. Please subscribe now.
TechnoLawyer Wins ABA Blawg 100 Award (Harry Truman Style)
By Neil Squillante | Monday, March 9, 2009
On January 2nd at midnight central time voting for the ABA's Blawg 100 contest ended. The raw vote count didn't look good for us:
1,931: FutureLawyer
1,545: TechnoLawyer
Nonetheless, I still felt hopeful that justice would prevail because I knew that we was robbed.
On January 7th, the ABA declared TechnoLawyer the winner of its Blawg 100 contest for Best Technology Blog. Here's the final vote count in this category:
1,499: TechnoLawyer
295: Slaw
256: The MacLawyer
241: FutureLawyer
150: Jim Calloway’s Law Practice Tips Blog
105: Real Lawyers Have Blogs
102: Ross Ipsa Loquitur Blog
93: Ernie the Attorney
82: DennisKennedy.com
64: Inter Alia
The winner changed in two other categories as well, which had many scratching their heads.
The ABA announced the results in an article euphemistically titled, Some People Love the Blawg 100 a Little Too Much.
The ABA wrote:
For a handful of blogs, multiple votes were cast from the same computer in quick succession. Some of those votes came from blog owners, but others were coming fast and furious from computers overseas that were apparently unconnected to the blogs for which they were voting. After voting closed on Jan. 2, we stripped those bogus votes out of the totals. The totals that now appear on each of the category pages include only votes that were legit.
Years ago, the ABA was behind the curve when it came to the Internet. That's no longer the case as evidenced by its sleuthing of the Blawg 100 results and by its ever-impressive Web site. Nice job ABA.
Thank You for Your Vote (Singular) ...
The ABA's fascinating explanation leaves several unanswered questions. I love a good mystery so over the past two months, I've developed a theory about what happened, especially the source of those overseas votes. But after much heated debate, my colleagues have persuaded me to drop my JFK-like musings and just announce our victory ...
I'm thrilled that TechnoLawyer won the ABA's Blawg 100 Award. I'm equally proud of the fact that we lost only 46 votes from the raw vote count because it means that you and your fellow TechnoLawyer subscribers followed the rules. You deserve a round of applause. We would like to thank everyone who voted for us once and only once.
Please look at the official results and visit all the excellent blogs in the technology category.
How to Receive TechnoEditorials
A TechnoEditorial is the vehicle through which we opine and provide tips of interest to lawyers, law office administrators, and others in the legal profession. We link to each new TechnoEditorial and dozens of other articles on the legal Web each week in our BlawgWorld newsletter, which is free. Please subscribe now.
Live From the TechnoLawyer Party: Mobile Legal Apps
By Sara Skiff | Monday, February 9, 2009
We would like to thank the 102 people who braved the snow on February 3, 2009 to attend the TechnoLawyer Party (2009 Edition) in New York City. We'll have photos and a more detailed report on the festivities soon.
In the meantime, I'd like to share with you a short video interview of TechnoLawyer publisher Neil Squillante that was filmed just as our party was getting underway by West's senior communications specialist Angelique Schaffer and posted on West's Westblog. Angie was joined by Scott Augustin, West's director of communications. (You can see Angie, Scott, and Neil from left to right in the above photo.)
In the video below, Neil discusses one of his top five 2009 predictions for the legal profession — robust legal applications for next-generation smartphone platforms like the iPhone, BlackBerry Storm, and Palm Pre. Neil discussed this prediction and others in greater detail in his recent article, TechnoLawyer's 2009 Legal Industry Predictions.
Transcript
What's the top legal tech trend for 2009?
Earlier this year I published an article with my top five predictions for 2009. I think one of the biggest is going to be the development, the explosion really, of mobile applications for lawyers. With the advent of the iPhone, the BlackBerry, the next version of Windows Mobile, Google's operating system for telephones, I think that's probably going to be the big story this year, although it may take till the end of the year for us to really start to see it gestate.
Why?
Well lawyers have always been pretty mobile, and while they've always been described as technology laggards, the one thing that lawyers really adapted to very early and quickly were these mobile smartphones like BlackBerrys, Treos, iPhones, etc. The fact that you can now almost do anything that you can do in your office on these phones, particularly with these rich applications that are coming out, will change the way lawyers work and make their lives a lot better actually. They won't have to go back to their office after court, for example, to do something. They can get it done right there and then go home.
About TechnoEditorials
A TechnoEditorial is the vehicle through which we opine and provide tips of interest to lawyers, law office administrators, and others in the legal profession. We link to each new TechnoEditorial and dozens of other articles on the legal Web each week in our BlawgWorld newsletter, which is free. Please subscribe now.
TechnoLawyer's 2009 Legal Industry Predictions
By Neil Squillante | Monday, January 5, 2009
We made five predictions a year ago and pretty much nailed all five.
We did so because we don't make off-the-wall predictions designed to generate buzz. But we admit that predictions out of touch with reality are more fun to read because they appeal to our innate sense of wonder. So this year we present to you five realistic predictions and five predictions we would like to see but won't.
Five Realistic Predictions
1. Lots of iPhone Legal Apps
Can anything stop the iPhone? Did anything stop the iPod? No and no. Apple's competitors don't understand interface design, and interface design has become paramount in importance. That's because geeks no longer determine the winners and losers in technology. A larger class of consumers has emerged.
For example, I (a geek) bought the first iPhone. My sister (not a geek) didn't. But she bought the iPhone 3G. Similarly, she ignored iPods until the iPod mini arrived. It's deja vu all over again.
The iPhone has another advantage -- a desktop-class operating system and programming tools. That's why it will emerge as the most important mobile device for legal applications by the end of 2009.
The BlackBerry isn't going anywhere and neither is Windows Mobile. But the iPhone will be the biggest story.
2. Legal Software and Web Applications Both Win
Practically every week in TechnoLawyer you read about case management solutions. And legal accounting solutions too.
But most law firms don't use case management solutions. And many firms use QuickBooks for accounting.
In other words, both legal software and legal Web applications have a lot of room for growth without competing against each other.
Don't expect an all out war between the two camps anytime soon, certainly not in 2009.
3. Electronic Discovery Becomes More Challenging
Sorry about the downer nature of this prediction, but electronic discovery is going to get worse before it gets better.
As more litigators realize they need to deal with electronic evidence, you're going to have to deal with their ignorance. While you may benefit, it will also annoy you to no end.
On the software front, acquisitions and bankruptcies will not reduce the number of eDiscovery products faster than new ones emerge so it'll become even more difficult to figure out which product best suits your needs.
Finally, corporate counsel will continue to handle more and more of the early stage litigation work on their own, depriving law firms of the fees they once enjoyed.
4. Trade Shows Will Feel Pain But Won't Die (Yet)
What's the most expensive form of marketing? Trade shows hands down. They're also expensive to attend.
I suspect LegalTech New York will experience flat or negative attendance growth next month. If that happens, vendors may pull out of some of the lesser trade shows this year. In fact, that may happen no matter what.
But legal technology trade shows won't die in 2009. The legal technology trade show is something of an anomaly.
In the general technology industry, trade shows have pretty much died, the latest being MacWorld Expo thanks to Apple's recent announcement that 2009 would mark its last appearance. Conferences without exhibits that focus more on learning and especially networking have taken their place.
The legal market always lags. Trade shows are no exception. The sooner they die, the better. Then media companies can create cheaper conferences designed for networking.
5. Twitter Will Not Become Mainstream But Blogs Will
Remember a few years ago when the early legal bloggers told you that your firm needed a blog or else?
Many of these early bloggers have stopped blogging. Now they tweet using a service called Twitter.
They blogged and now tweet because they like sharing their thoughts with a small group of like-minded people.
The rest of us blog because Google is king. Publishing on a daily basis increases your search engine ranking and traffic.
In 2009, law firms will realize that they need to become publishers, and that the best way to do so is with a blog. Publishing on a daily basis is difficult so expect some law firms to outsource the content creation.
Five Fantasy Predictions
1. Microsoft Word Becomes a Web App
Technology pundits love to rave about Google Docs, which leads me to wonder if they've ever used it.
We use it to collaborate with freelance writers. I think it stinks.
But I love the concept because a Web-based document eliminates the biggest hassle of traditional documents -- different versions.
Who better to create the ultimate Web-based word processor than Microsoft? But don't hold your breath.
2. Matte LCD Screens Make a Comeback
I'm writing these predictions on a Mac Pro -- not because I need the horsepower, but because I need a matte LCD screen. Apple's iMac and notebooks all feature glossy screens. The same is true of most Windows laptops and all-in-one computers.
The people have spoken and I wish I could collectively slap them across the face. Who cares if the colors pop more if you're essentially staring at a mirror?
Matte screens won't completely disappear, but expect to pay steep prices for them as glossy screens continue their dominance.
3. Businesses Enforce the Use of Email Signatures
I would say that 99% of the email messages I receive don't have an email signature listing the sender's contact information.
Contrast this with our company in which I require everyone to use an approved signature in every message they send from their computer or iPhone.
Have you ever wanted to call someone who emailed you only to find you have to look up their number because they didn't use an email signature?
Try to remember that annoyance the next time you send a message without your signature.
4. Legal Vendors Offer Mac Versions of Their Software
With Mac market share at 9% now in the United States, developers have flocked to the platform.
But don't expect Mac versions of Amicus Attorney, Time Matters, Tabs3, etc.
Why? Because if legal vendors decide to devote resources to platforms other than Windows, they will focus on mobile apps and Web apps, not Mac apps.
Mac users will still benefit, however.
5. LegalTech New York Becomes LegalTech Las Vegas
Yes, I've trotted this one out before but I can't resist. We all get together in February for five days of partying, I mean networking, in a state of the art convention center.
Plus TechnoLawyer throws a blowout party attended by 500 people. And what happens in Vegas is soon seen by all on YouTube.
Not enough predictions for you? How about 32 more! Read Ross Kodner's Ringing in 2009 With 30+ Predictions.
What do you predict for 2009?
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. Please subscribe now.
If You Can Spare 3 Seconds, Please Vote for TechnoLawyer Blog
By Neil Squillante | Wednesday, December 31, 2008
We have never won an award. But we have a good explanation.
Most publishing awards from the Pulitzer on down require the payment of an entry fee. We've never bothered to enter any of these competitions.
But after years of apathy, we've decided that we would like to win an award.
The American Bar Association has nominated TechnoLawyer Blog (this site) for the Best Legal Technology Blog. And to its credit, the ABA chose the nominees on merit without requiring an entry fee.
The ABA has made it very easy to vote. No registration is required. Just scroll down the page and check the box next to TechnoLawyer Blog.
If you can spare 3 seconds, please vote for TechnoLawyer Blog now.
Voting ends on January 2, 2009! Thank you!
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. Please subscribe now.
TechnoLawyer's 2008 Holiday Gift Guide for Tough Times
By Neil Squillante | Monday, December 8, 2008
Walk one block west from our office and you'll arrive at Ground Zero. Walk two blocks east and you might see Ben Bernanke entering the Federal Reserve. These two sites remind me every day about the challenges we face.
However, even closer to our office — right in our building in fact — resides Century 21, an outlet department store that remains as mobbed as ever. Notwithstanding the credit crisis and recession, it would seem that the holidays will not be canceled. Therefore, I thought I'd share with you five techno-gift suggestions that I consider a good bargain.
Make Someone's Smartphone Smarter ...
Apple and RIM devote virtually all their engineering resources to their respective smartphones. As a result, the earphones that ship with BlackBerrys and iPhones don't sound good and don't block external noise, encouraging people to crank the volume to dangerous levels.
Show someone you care by giving them quality in-ear earphones that block external noise.
A few weeks ago, I reviewed the Ultimate Ears triple.fi 10 vi, which I use with my iPhone. With a list price of $420, I wouldn't dare recommend them this year — not even at the $371 price I paid.
However, Ultimate Ears just shipped a less expensive model with the same feature set — the super.fi 5 vi. These earphones enable you to control music playback and answer and talk on the phone without having to fish your BlackBerry or iPhone out of your pocket. They sell for $190.
Enlighten Someone About Espresso Economics ...
If all espresso drinkers brewed their own coffee and invested the money they would save by doing so, we could eliminate the credit crisis without a bailout.
You think I'm joking?
A single shot of espresso at home using a capsule-based machine costs about 50 cents per cup versus $1.90 at Starbucks and other cafes. That's a $1.40 difference for the most basic espresso drink. Get fancier and the gap widens.
So why don't people make their own espresso?
Some people don't think they can make as good a cup at home when in fact the opposite is true. While a professional barista can certainly best a home machine, how many of these people do you think work at Starbucks? Yet Starbucks still uses machines that require skill. By contrast, capsule-based home machines eliminate all the guesswork.
Others balk at the up front price of buying a machine. Clearly, they have never crunched the numbers. Assuming two espressos per day, even a $1,000 machine would pay for itself in about one year (357 days to be exact).
By purchasing a machine for your favorite espresso lover, you could make these savings immediate. And you need not spend $1,000.
The Nespresso Essenza C100 and D100, which sell for $250, make the exact same cup of espresso as much more expensive Nespresso models, but lack the ability to make milk-based espresso drinks. If the person you have in mind likes cappuccinos or lattes, Nespresso will sell you a milk frother for $50 if you order it with a C100 (the frother sells for $100 if purchased separately).
How good is a Nespresso espresso? Very good. Here in Manhattan we have the only Nespresso cafe in the country. Despite charging $3.50 for a shot of espresso, the place is always packed. And the baristas use the C100.
Encourage Someone to Not Run With the Pack ...
Convergence is good when it solves a problem. Otherwise, not so much.
You may have heard about Nike+iPod, which enables you to capture the distance, pace, calories, and time of your runs and walks. You place a sensor in your Nike+ sneakers (or fasten it to your non-Nike sneakers), and use your iPod nano or iPod touch (2008 model only) to view your progress, pause your workout, etc. You then upload each workout to your Nike+ Web account so that you can view your statistics by day, week, month, etc.
It's all very cool and makes workouts addictive or at least more fun.
However, even if you use one of those armbands to hold your iPod, fiddling with it during your workout will slow you down. Plus, not everyone has an iPod. Some have iPhones and others have iPod alternatives or simply don't play music.
Realizing that Nike+iPod doesn't suit everyone, Nike recently released Nike+SportBand, which offers the same functionality in a wristwatch with just two buttons. Press the large button to check your distance, pace, calories, and elapsed time, and the small button to pause. It sells for $59.
A Good Time to Give Someone a Plasma TV ...
Timing is everything, especially when buying technology. Take TVs for example. Every January at the Consumer Electronics Show, companies unveil their new models for the year. As a result, you'll find discounts galore on this year's models right about now.
No doubt you've heard about the debate between LCD TVs and plasma TVs. Even though LCD TVs outsell plasma TVs, the latter offer a better picture. While I wouldn't place a plasma TV in a kitchen or an office, I prefer them for a typical den or living room except perhaps if the room has skylights.
Those in the know will tell you that Pioneer makes the best plasma TVs — with prices to match.
Panasonic offers a good alternative at recession-friendly prices. For a house, I like the 46 inch TH-46PZ80U, which originally sold for $1,700, but now sells for as little as $1,200. For an apartment, the smaller 42 inch TH-42PZ80U might make more sense. It now sells for about $900, reduced from its original $1,300 price.
Give an Apple to the Apple of Your Eye ...
In the introduction, I mentioned Century 21, an outlet store that sells irregular and overstocked designer clothes.
Outlet stores also exist in the technology world, including one operated by Apple, a company not known for discounting.
Apple offers both clearance items and refurbished products. Many good deals exist, but beware — Apple lists the original price of the product. In some cases, the newer version of a product sells for less than the old version did.
Of the iPod deals, I like two in particular — the 2007 8 GB nano, which sells for $99 and the 2007 160 GB iPod Classic, which sells for $249. The so-called "fat nano" sports the same screen as the new 8 GB 2008 model ($149), but in an orientation that seems more logical to me. Meanwhile, the old iPod Classic provides 33% more storage space than the current iPod Classic for the same price.
I also like two Mac deals — the previous generation 15 inch MacBook Pro 2.4 GHz laptop, which sells for $1,600 (new) or $1,349 (refurbished), and the 1 TB Time Capsule, which sells for $419 (refurbished). If you know someone like me who does not like glossy screens, the previous generation MacBook Pro is the last one with a matte screen.
On Second Thought ...
You know, maybe instead of exchanging gifts this year we should save our money and just enjoy each other's company.... Wait a second. For a moment there, I forgot that we Americans never save money. We would just end up spending more on ourselves. Never mind. Happy shopping!
Photo of Nike+ Sportband by Richard Roberson. All rights reserved.
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. Please subscribe now.
Don't Buy OEM Hard Drives Unless You Have More Time Than Money
By Neil Squillante | Monday, November 17, 2008
Earlier this year we bought four 1 TB Seagate Barracuda hard drives for our new server for $211 each — a great price at the time.
How did we get this price? We bought OEM drives.
When companies like Dell buy hard drives, they buy them by the thousands. The drives don't come individually packaged as they do at your local superstore (just imagine the outcry from environmental activists if they did). Instead, they come in volume packaging.
Nowadays, anyone can buy OEM drives from online retailers. But few of us can buy enough of them to receive the original crate from the factory as Dell does. Instead, retailers uncrate these hard drives and resell them individually using their own packaging. The risk of physical damage significantly increases as a result.
We lucked out earlier this year. All the drives worked so this issue didn't even cross my mind.
When I recently bought a new home computer, I ordered three more of these OEM drives. The price had dropped to just $133 each.
This time I was not so lucky. None of the drives worked. One had obvious physical damage.
Instead of rolling the dice again, I visited J&R Computer World (a local electronics superstore). There, I bought three Western Digital 1 TB Caviar Black internal hard drives.
Unlike OEM drives, these drives were each boxed in protective retail packaging. At $190 each, they cost considerably more than the OEM version. But I considered the premium for the packaging an insurance policy. Sure enough, all three drives worked well.
If you need an internal hard drive, buy the retail version versus the OEM version unless you have more time than money. Incidentally, you can buy the retail version online — from companies that operate brick and mortar stores — such as Best Buy and J&R Computer World.
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. Please subscribe now.
