Futurelawyer

Roger And Me - Motorola Droid versus iPhone and Blackberry For Email

2009-11-08T06:56:23-05:00

Death By Email Blog: Motorola Droid vs. iPhone vs. BlackBerry for Email Around The Clock. This post by Roger Matus emphasizes his passion for email. He is the email expert, and he agrees that the Droid is the de facto best mobile email solution. Say what you want about the Droid's flat slide out keyboard, it gives those of us with fat fingers an option, other than the virtual keyboard iPhone users have become familiar with. Droid is about choice and options, and email looks great on the big, beautiful capacitive screen. Capacitive Resistance screen just means you use your fingers to navigate, and a stylus won't work. In addition, the Droid has the best network, Verizon, a fast processor, a removable battery, I could go on and on. Best bet? Check them out yourself. Handle them. Use them. We report. You decide.

Aldiko - eBook Reader Application for Android

2009-11-07T15:48:25-05:00

Aldiko - eBook Reader Application for Android. I have spent a pleasant Saturday geeking out the Verizon Droid phone. If you are looking for a new cell phone, you should look at Android. The totally open OS will free you forever from the draconian strictures of modern cell companies. Anybody can develop apps for Android, and you get to pick the ones you want. I found Aldiko by browsing the web, looking for Android ereader apps. It works a lot like Stanza on the iPhone and iTouch, and you can download all the classics for free. I recommend paying $2.99 for the premium app, (come on, you can afford three bucks). Books look awesome on the Droid's big, beautiful screen. Another thing I like about Android is that you can browse the app store on the phone and click once. The downloads happen in the background, even when you aren't at the phone. Now, we have to get the legal publishers to put out some law specific apps and books for Android. Now, do I want to read the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, or an Edgar Rice Burroughs novel?

iPhones Are For Sissies

2009-11-07T12:30:27-05:00

Droid Verizon Wireless.
Finally, a phone for the rest of us. I got a Droid yesterday, and it is a geek dream. Compared to the iPhone and iPod Touch, it feels geek serious, is heavy but not too heavy, and has a removable battery that lasts 6 and 1/2 hours. That is about 4 hours more than I have ever gotten out of my iPod Touch. This thing feels like a man's phone, and makes the iPhone experience feel more suited to a latte drinking, girly man, fashion conscious wimp. The whole Motorola build is really amazing, solid, boxy and a real keyboard. Some people have been trashing the flat keyboard; but, it is so far superior to the iPhone virtual keyboard, it isn't funny. The Droid syncs with Google Calendar, Contacts, and all the other Google stuff right out of the box. It does so wirelessly and without user intervention. I sync Outlook with Google, so my calendar will always be up to date. The phone is Verizon classy, and there are more apps than you will ever use. The whole 100,000 iPhone app thing is spin. Trust me, there are, and are going to be, more open source Android apps than you will ever be able to read about. If you buy one of these, and, in my not so humble opinion, you would be crazy not to go look at them, buy it at BestBuy. Verizon will make you mail in the $100 rebate coupon. BestBuy gives it at the store. With tax and a screen protector, around $236. The monthly charge minimum for new customers is $39.95 for 450 minutes, and $30 for unlimited data and email. Finally, this screen is so far superior to the iPhone and iPod Touch, it is like the difference between analog and HD TV. Once you look at it for a while, you will never be able to go back. Let the games begin.

Seven perfectly legal ways to get Windows 7 cheap (or even free)

2009-11-06T10:53:50-05:00

Seven perfectly legal ways to get Windows 7 cheap (or even free) | Ed Bott%u2019s Microsoft Report | ZDNet.com. I installed Windows 7 on my backup computer, so that I could test it, and compatibility with my stuff, over time. I am still using Windows XP on my principal system. If it isn't broke, don't fix it, right? However, Windows 7 is sleek, fast and runs anything I throw at it. I will definitely be upgrading sometime in the next year or so. In the meantime, She Who Must Be Obeyed and the kids each have notebook computers. I was browsing at Office Depot yesterday, and discovered a promotion called Window 7 Family Pack upgrade. For $149, I got 3 Windows 7 licenses, and, since She Who Must Be Obeyed and Daughter both use Vista, the upgrade is very smooth. I upgraded one last night, and it brought all of the Vista programs and settings over with no problem. Son might be a problem, since he is a gamer, and loves XP. In any event, I have the licenses and the software available when they are ready. This ZDNet article will make you an expert on how to get Windows 7 for yourself. Happy Hunting.

Who Says Technology Isn't Making Work For Lawyers?

2009-11-05T09:28:32-05:00

UK Law Firm Sets Up Special Team To Hunt Down Anonymous Commenters | Techdirt. Here is a great use for high-priced legal talent that is conversant with the Internet. Set a group of lawyers loose with computers and a firm client list, and go out on the net and find all those nasty anonymous persons who are saying nasty things about our clients. Once identified, I suppose that the firm will get some more litigation business suing them for defamation. Hey, I get it. Internet defamation is one of the fastest growing tort areas. It can be extremely damaging. People shouldn't be able to hide behind privacy laws to post anonymous defamatory comments. However, actively trolling for them seems a bit much. What do you think?

Look! Up In The Sky! It's Geek Phone!

2009-11-05T07:42:47-05:00

New Verizon Scifi-ish Ad Promotes Motorola%u2019s DROID.The Droid drops tomorrow at Verizon stores everywhere, and at your favorite big-box retailer. This new ad gives a Halo sci-fi alien feel to the product launch. The message seems to be that iPhones are for metro-sexuals, and Droid is for real geeks. I suppose that is one way to spin the fact that Droid is boxier and not as sleek as the iPhone. Real geeks, however, like the FutureLawyer, really like being able to customize tech without controls. The Android OS, being completely open, provides endless opportunities to trick out the phone with all sorts of cool stuff. Expect to see geek additions to the Droid almost immediately. Of course, all this has more to do with modern marketing than anything else. You are the consumer. You decide. Do you want a man's phone, with a cowboy attitude, or a girly phone? I suppose Tim of Tool Time would be grunting about now.

DROID tethering? It's coming early 2010, says Verizon

2009-11-04T08:04:01-05:00

DROID tethering? It's coming early 2010, says Verizon. The Droid already does so many things the iPhone doesn't, it stands to reason that Verizon and Motorola would also get tethering right. AT&T is so upset with the "We've Got A Map For That" ad that they have sued Verizon. They should probably spend their money figuring out ways to allow iPhone users to tether their notebooks to the iPhone. For the unititiated, tethering allows a wired, or bluetooth, connection to a smart phone, allowing a computer to use the phone as a pathway to the Internet. I have done this for years with Verizon, using Palm OS smart phones. It is a little slow, but an effective backstop alternative to situations in which Internet access is unavailable. AT&T alleges in its lawsuit that the Verizon ads wrongfully infer that AT&T doesn't have phone access in the blank areas of the map. Actually, I think that the ads quite clearly show that the red and blue areas are areas in which there is 3G access, required for data transfer, and Internet access at an acceptable speed. Maybe the large blank space is the reason AT&T doesn't permit tethering. Either way, Verizon is the superior carrier, and tethering will give the Droid another advantage.

Sprint Netbook- Pick Your Poison

2009-11-03T08:10:27-05:00

Sprint Netbook Isn't The Deal It May Seem - Business Center - PC World. I like netbooks. Netbooks are friends of mine. I have even bought a couple of them; although, when my fat fingers tried to use the tiny keyboards, they got passed down to She Who Must Be Obeyed and She Who Someday Will Be A Nun. Dell makes some pretty nice netbooks, and they are cheap, like $299. Take that, Apple. But, in the case of the new Sprint netbooks, with a broadband card built-in, you have to get married to Sprint for two years (that's a deal killer from the start), and you have to live with the fact that the broadband modem will only work on the netbook. That means you can't transfer it easily to your notebook or desktop or use it with a portable router to share access with your family and friends. So, if you are going to buy a netbook, try the keyboard first, and, then, buy one without a Sprint contract. If you want broadband, get a Verizon USB broadband stick. Then, you can use the Verizon stick with any number of computers and in many situations.

What, No WiFi?

2009-11-02T14:43:50-05:00

rgeorges

It Was A Horse Race For A While; But, The Long Shot Is Pulling Away

2009-11-01T10:06:28-05:00

PalmAddicts: Palm Pre App Catalog Hits 300 Titles. The Palm Pre looked so good in the beginning. But, it had serious flaws. First, Palm gave Sprint a 6 month exclusive. That is like telling customers, the real product will be out next year. Then, along with all of the innovation, it failed to have expandable memory; no SD card slot. Palm users who had spent years collecting data wanted to use the programs and data on any new phone. Backwards compatibility was available with a software emulator; but, where to put all the programs and data on the Pre's limited memory? Then, the coup de grace; only 300 apps after 6 months? While the thousands of apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch, contain thousands of dogs, there are clearly many more choices. That is one of the reasons I have supplemented my use of the Palm Centro with a Touch. However, by waiting 6 months to give Verizon the Pre, Palm has ceded the category to the new Android phone from Verizon and Motorola. The Droid has everything the iPhone and Pre lack, and then some. And, it has a sweet spot of 10,000 software applications to choose from, with the promise of thousands more to come. Not to mention that the OS is free, and open source. Are you ready for a Derby run?