Recently in Law Firm Hardware Category

Though lawyers are becoming increasingly mobile, we can’t do everything on a tablet or cell phone. Truth be told, there’s nothing quite like the ol’ QWERTY keyboard and 100 wpm typing to burn through a brief or blog post in a hurry.

It’ll be awhile before we reach the “post-PC” age. You likely still do most of your lawyering on your computer, and it you are nearing your upgrade time, you might be perusing your options.

Wait.

Last week, a friend and colleague forwarded this hilarious ABA Solo Newsletter piece which appears to be from … 1923 or so. There’s no date, but the tech suggestions for briefcase essentials are amusing. No, the author wasn’t recommending an Apple Newton, but it’s almost that bad.

If we had to guess, we’d tag it around 2004 or so — the heyday of the PDA and Palm Treo devices. So what were the recommendations? And what would today’s list look like?

Though it may seem a bit heavy-handed to tech-savvy users, and though the email restriction has left Joe Patrice at Above the Law practically apoplectic, King & Spalding did the right thing last week by announcing that as of May 1, they will block access to personal email accounts on work computers.

No Gmail, Hotmail/Outlook, or Yahoo! at work? Whatever will those poor lawyers do?

They could start by using their work email accounts. And for those little excursions into personal space, they almost certainly have smartphones.

Last month, I mentioned that Google was hosting a competition to select mere mortals to become Google Glass pioneers. The #IfIHadGlass contest, which ended February 27, promised to reward winners with the opportunity to pay $1500 for their own Google Glass units.

Other than the fact that Glass looks cool in the promotional video, the only reason I could imagine a lawyer pining after one of these futuristic wearable computers was because -- hello! -- gadgets are fun.

But then I saw the future. Through Google Glass. And it was incredible.

Paper is passé.

You no longer need a legal pad to track your favorites during jury selection. You can do doc review from your tablet. Printing cases? What is this, 1994? You don’t even have to lift a pen to record the six-minute-intervals of your work day: There’s an app for that.

But in a time where the trend is to go digital, law remains tactile. Sometimes you need to kill a tree to help your client. That’s why you should consider a portable printer.

You may have heard of these newfangled Google laptops. Some are as cheap as $250. The newest Chromebook, the Chromebook Pixel, costs a whopping $1,300 for the base model. But what in the heck are they?

Lets start with what they are not. They aren't Windows or Mac laptops. They aren't Ubuntu Linux laptops. They are laptops that run Google's Chrome OS - a stripped-down and speedy quick operating system that runs from the familiar Chrome browser.

“You see that? His eyes bear into your soul, searching for your innermost secrets. Imagine being cross-examined by that guy. Swag. Pure, unadultera …”

[Audible grind. Black screen.]

“Hard drive not found. Press F5 to run diagnostics.”

It’s every computer-user’s worst nightmare. Midway through your mocking of a lawyer’s awful commercial, or midway through your appellate brief to the Supreme Court, your hard drive fails. To be honest, we’ve only experienced spontaneous system failure once or twice on our lives, but you still need to be prepared. What do you do when your system abruptly dies?

Did we say free? Well, kind of.

You see, the geniuses at ObiHai designed a box that takes Google's free calling, and a free Google Voice number, and routes it into a normal phone. Pay for the Obi box, which is $30-$70, depending on the model, and you have free phone service for as long as Google Voice remains free.

How much is your monthly office phone bill? $100? $200? Extrapolate that over a year or two and the saved overhead is truly significant.

You've probably heard of lawyers using iPads in practice and in court. But you're not one of them, either because you didn't want to plunk down $500 for something so sinfully luxurious or perhaps you are simply an Android user and didn't want the fragmented ecosystem that comes with mixing mobile operating systems.

Until recently, Android tablets have received some less-than-favorable reviews. They were (allegedly) iPad ripoffs with cell phone software stretched to fit an overpriced $500 screen. Google fixed the software with the release of Android 4.0. Did they fix the hardware issues with the Nexus 7?

Windows 8 has been out for a few months now, but reviews seem to indicate that it's not a good pick for lawyers who work on a laptop or desktop.

It's always a little jarring when a software upgrade comes out and users are forced to learn all the small differences in the newer version. But in this case, the difference is stark and the overall effect is that Windows 8 is confusing for many users.

There are lots of little problems with how Windows 8 works, and it all leads to the conclusion that it's not ready for lawyers to use just yet. Here are eight issues that attorneys may find annoying: