Recently in Computers / Laptops / Netbooks Category

Little Jimmy is about to venture onward and conquer the world. You watched him cross that stage after three years in hell, three years of Socratic interrogation, three years of working towards an uncertain future in a profession suffering from unprecedented contraction.

But you don't want him to think about that last part. This is a time for happiness, optimism, and preparation for the next phase of his life (bar review!). You're probably considering graduation gifts. Instead of a traditional gift, such as a watch, how about a pragmatic gadget instead? These three tech toys will not only delight him with hours of Angry Birds, but also will help him study for the bar, send and receive job-related correspondence, and give him access to vast quantities of information from apps, the web, and the cloud.

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.

Lawyers make up terrible passwords. You know, like “password.” Or “12345!”

But it’s not as though we have lots of confidential, important information trapped in the hardware or software or clouds that we’re password protecting.

Oh wait, we do.

Last week, my beloved, five-year-old MacBook Pro was on its way to that big tech heap in the sky, and I was facing an impossible choice: MacBook Air or iPad? (I love Apple. Sorry, I'm not sorry.)

My oversized Pro is great, but it's practically a desktop compared the sleek little laptops on the market now. It has a 17 inch screen and weighs almost 7 pounds, so it's never been that portable. My next computer, by contrast, needs to be tiny.

But does it need to be a laptop?

New York City courts are overloaded. There are long delays to resolve cases and many cases are dismissed or are pleaded to much lesser offenses due to mistakes and inefficiencies. Would giving iPads to police officers solve this problem?

In a recent The New York Times op-ed piece, a law student stated the case for giving the popular consumer device to police officers. He argued how arming cops with tablets would promote the efficiency of the justice system, lower costs, and reduce errors.

Here are three ways an iPad can help, as argued by law student Steve Cohen:

Before holiday travel gets into full swing, it might be good to warn your clients that their laptops and digital devices may be subject to a border search if they travel abroad.

That's true for now, though it may not be the case for long.

Border searches are an important part of national security, and traditionally involve a search of both people and property entering the United States. For tech-savvy travelers, that also means their electronic devices can sometimes be seized and searched. But an upcoming court ruling could change that.

When was the last time you picked up a pen and a pad of paper? Attorneys these days are armed with any number of high-tech tools. Laptops, iPads, and smartphones are all useful gadgets for any lawyer's tool belt. Why write things down, when you can just type notes onto your smartphone?

Well, maybe because there are some benefits to handwriting documents, as Fast Company has pointed out. Some benefits are even applicable to hardworking attorneys.

Here are just a few:

Former CIA Director David Petraeus and his biographer Paula Broadwell reportedly used a draft email trick well-known to teenagers and terrorists in an attempt to conceal their intimate relationship.

The two would compose draft email messages using a shared Gmail account, reports The Washington Post. Instead of actually sending email to each other, both Petraeus and Broadwell left unsent messages in a draft folder or in an electronic dropbox. The other person could then log into the same account and read the emails there, without creating an actual email trail.

While this may seem new to many, this draft email trick has been used for years by anyone trying to hide illicit relationships and communications, according to the Post.

Trial presentations using computers are fairly common now but wouldn't it be easier if you could use an iPad instead of dragging around your laptop and get the same functionality?

Enter the TrialDirector app for iPad released at the beginning of October. Maybe you already have the TrialDirector app for your iPhone or the desktop version of the software? If that's true and you don't already have the app for iPad, whatare you waiting for?

If you haven't used TrialDirector before but you find yourself considered computer-directed presentations in court, then you might want to consider this an early birthday present from all of us at FindLaw.

Will law firms ever migrate toward Mac computers? The whole world is going iPhone, iBook, and iPad and yet firms seem stuck on Blackberries, Dells, and just scratch their heads to the concept of iPads.

Law firms were never the most technologically advanced places to work for. When I started as an associate, one thing I was told was to never type. That was the job of secretaries and I was handed a dictating device. That was in 2004.

It took me twice as long to dictate a memo. And oftentimes, I resorted to typing it myself anyway, after spending the time to dictate. Clearly, a time waster.

And with the marriage to Windows, Pentium Processors, and Blackberries, law firms continue to insist on wasting the time of their associates and even partners.