While attending the Mac Power Users session at TechShow in March, renowed Mac-using attorney Randy Juip discussed Spotlight.¹  For those of you unfamiliar with Spotlight, it is one of the great reasons to own a Mac. Released with OS X 10.4 Tiger in 2005, it is a system-wide, real-time search function built directly into every modern Mac.

At its most basic, clicking on the magnifying glass in the top right corner of your menu bar, Spotlight lets you search your files by numerous criteria.²  When you begin typing, Spotlight instantly narrows matches as you continue typing. Spotlight searches by file name, metadata, and even file contents. It searches your documents, emails, addressbook, and calendar items. Spotlight can even launch applications and perform simple math. If you’re not using Spotlight yet, it’s an excellent way to speed up your file access.

Having said that, you may quickly run up against Spotlight’s usability limits. By making this feature so approachable, Apple hid much of Spotlight’s power.³  Fortunately for Spotlight fans, a third party program has stepped into the gap. Houdah Software created HoudahSpot, which approachably exposes the full capabilities Apple built into Spotlight. HoudahSpot’s easy access to Spotlight’s complete functionality makes Spotlight a topflight stand-in for legal document management on the Mac.⁴

Why is that important? As I joked to an older friend at a technophobic law firm, the future of storage is not in bankers’ boxes. If you’re not making a strong, successful effort to go paperless in your law practice, you’re wasting time (searching for documents), space (storing documents), and ultimately money. Either you’re wasting billable hours handling paper or you’re paying subordinates or offsite companies to do it for you. HoudahSpot lets you take scanned documents and access last year’s client matters as quickly as yesterday’s.⁵

When you launch HoudahSpot, a main application window opens, as well as menubar item called “BlitzSearch”. The main application window should be familar to anyone who has created a Smart Playlist in iTunes. The lefthand side of the program divides a search into “What”, “Where”, “Exclude”, and “Limit”.

The “What” section asks for details about the file(s) you’re looking for: name, text content, tags, and last modified. These are the default options, probably familar to Spotlight users, but you can add literally dozens more; everything from actors in a movie ⁶  to the aperture of a photo, to the number of pages in a document. The “Where” section lets you specify folders or any drive the Finder can mount. With “Exclude”, you can eliminate any sub-folder from the folder or drive you selected in “Where”. Finally, “Limit” controls the number of results and the criteria that controls the results’ cap.⁷

Once you have used these tools to create a search for, say, “Word documents containing ‘summary judgment’ tagged as relevant for the ’6th Circuit”, last modified within one year,” then you can save that search like you would an iTunes Smart Playlist. The next time you need to draft an MSJ or response for a 6th Circuit case, it’s easy to pull up the relevant past documents.

In additon to this main application window, HoudahSpot includes the BlitzSearch menubar item that can be configured to launch at startup. Clicking on this icon brings up a search window. The default function of BlitzSearch is not much different than Spotlight. Where it shines is if you use the main HoudahSpot application to create a search template, which could be as simple as saving the 6th Circuit search I described above as a template. Then, by clicking on the BlitzSearch icon, and selecting the “6th Circuit” template and typing §1983 into the box, you do a deeper search for “Word documents containing ‘summary judgment’ tagged as relevant for the ’6th Circuit, that also mention §1983.” The advantage here is quicker, any-time acess that is easier than creating HoudahSpot saved searches for each specific need. It’s this sort of functionality that is impossible in Spotlight out-of-the-box.

The final, major way to access and use HoudahSpot is the HoudahSpot Tray. With either the main HoudahSpot application or the BlitzSearch menubar item running, just guide your cursor over to the lefthand side of the screen. Up pops the Tray. You can double-click to launch searches based on tenplates you have created or tags you have applied to documents.⁸

Overall, HoudahSpot adds tons of functionality to a core Mac OS X technology and fully fleshes out the promise of Spotlight. I highly recommend it as part of your paperless office strategy. HoudahSpot is available directly from the Houdah website for $30 for a one-seat license or $45 for five seats.⁹

TechnoLawyer has some of the best tech-related newsletters aimed at lawyers. It’s completely FREE to subscribe and the information is invaluable. Plus, TechnoLawyer does one of the best jobs of covering how Macs and iPads are being used in the practice of law.

I know this will be disappointing, but I can’t post my full articles here on the blog – you’ll need to visit TechnoLawyer.com and sign up for the SmallLaw Newsletter which is where most of my columns are published. Don’t miss another one of my iPad app columns!

Here are the topics I’ve covered so far this year:

January 2012: The Best iPad Stylus

In my first column I wanted to discuss the best stylus for the iPad since I knew that several of the subsequent columns were going to work better with a stylus (e.g. handwriting apps, signature apps, etc.). The styli I review are:

1. Kensington Virtuoso Touch Screen Stylus and Pen
2. Adonit Jot Pro
3. Wacom Bamboo Stylus

February 2012: The Best iPad Handwriting App

My second column discussed the best app for handwriting notes. I wanted to duplicate the experience of writing with a ball point pen on a yellow legal pad. Here are the iPad handwriting apps I review:

1. Penultimate
2. Notes Plus
3. Noteshelf

March 2012: The Best iPad Signature App

Following the best handwriting app, I was excited to look at the best iPad app for obtaining signatures on PDF documents. You could use these apps to sign a document yourself, or it could be a way to have your client sign a form. Here are the iPad signature apps I review:

1. Sign Docs
2. SignMyPad Pro
3. PDF Expert

April 2012: The Best iPad App for Annotating Documents

Last month I determined the best iPad app for highlighting and marking up PDF files, similar to how we annotate a paper printout. Instead of hitting the print button, you can save a document as a PDF and then use these apps to highlight text. Here are the iPad annotation apps I review:

1. PDFpen
2. GoodReader
3. iAnnotate

May 2012: The Best Trial Presentation App for the iPad

This hasn’t been published yet but I’m working on it! This column will actually not appear in the SmallLaw Newsletter but will be published in the LitigationWorld Newsletter. So as long as you’re visiting TechnoLawyer.com, make sure you sign up for both the SmallLaw and LitigationWorld Newsletters!

Here are some of the topics coming up later this year:

• The Best App for Creating PDF Forms on the iPad
• The Best App for Typing Notes on the iPad
• The Best Word Processing App on the iPad
• The Best Calendar App on the iPad
• The Best Task Manager Apps for the iPad
• and much more!

All of the TechnoLawyers Newsletters are FREE! So sign up now so you don’t miss another iPad column through the rest of the year!

I am thrilled to be presenting “Shred Your Legal Pad, Get an iPad” with my friend Chad Burton of Burton Law at the Columbus Bar Association this Thursday, April 19, 2012. This is a special presentation for the Small Firm / Solo Practitioner Committee Meeting.

Chad and I have spoken on the iPad before and we make a great team. I cover the technical considerations of using an iPad in your practice, and Chad discusses how he actually uses it every day in managing his firm and interacting with his colleagues & clients.

Visit the Columbus Bar Association calendar of events to get more details and sign up for the session which takes place over the lunch hour 12:00pm-1:00pm.

I figured the room was going to be packed since I saw an AMAZING number of iPads at the TECHSHOW this year. iPads far, FAR outnumbered laptops this year. It was quite the game-changer to look over a room at TECHSHOW and see nothing but iPads everywhere. So I knew that the “60 Apps” session was going to be popular.

Jeff posted his list of apps yesterday and I wanted to mirror the list here, add a little color commentary, and add a few extra apps that didn’t make the final cut for the show.

1. Agenda Calendar (99¢) – an alternate calendar for both the iPhone and iPad.
2. Instacast ($1.99) & Instacast HD ($4.99) – Josh’s preferred app for downloading and organizing podcasts.
3. Conference Pad ($4.99) – I’m glad Josh included this in his list since I’ve been wanting to try it out. Instead of showing a presentation from your iPad to a projector, Conference Pad allows you to share your presentation wirelessly to other iPads in a conference room.
4. GoodReader ($4.99) – Jeff had the honor of mentioning this absolute must-have app for any lawyer using an iPad. You can read Jeff’s in-depth review on iphonejd.com.
5. PDFpen ($9.99) – while PDFpen may be relatively new to the iPad, just about any Mac-using lawyer will be familiar with the excellent PDFpen software for Macs from Smile Software. I am very interested in taking advantage of using iCloud behind the apps on my iPad and my Mac. Jeff also wrote up an excellent review of PDFpen for iPad.
6. Adobe Reader (FREE!) – Adobe’s free PDF reader now ported over to the iOS platform. You can read Jeff’s review here.
7. PDF PROvider ($6.99) – I don’t need to create a PDF file on the iPad very often, but when I need to convert a web page to PDF, this is the app I use. I copy the URL from Safari into PDF PROvider app and it generates a nicely formatted PDF file. I originally was going to discuss PDF Converter from Readdle, but I went with PDF PROvider mainly because you can merge multiple PDF files together.
8. PDF Expert ($9.99) – one of my must-have iPad apps for every lawyer. And while I think PDF Expert is great for reading and annotating PDF files, the two things that I use it for is 1) filling in PDF forms and 2) applying signatures to PDF files. Readdle just released version 4.0 which supports the new iPad’s retina display and PDF Portfolios!
9. Mr. Reader ($3.99) – this is my preferred RSS reader on the iPad. I still use Reeder on the iPhone, but I just enjoy using Mr. Reader more on the iPad. Both Mr. Reader and Reeder sync with your Google Reader account.
10. PaperKarma (FREE!) – I admit that I didn’t completely understand this app from Josh, but theoretically, it allows you to snap a picture of junk mail that you receive and the company will take you off the respective mailing lists.
11. Voice Brief ($1.99) – reads aloud your calendar, weather, Twitter feeds, as well as your e-mail with an in-app purchase.
12. Cards (Free, except each Card sent in the US costs $2.99) – create digital postcards on your iPhone that can be sent around the country and the world.
13. TranscriptPad ($49.99) – an excellent app for reading and summarizing transcripts on the iPad from the developers of TrialPad. I spied the CEO of Lit Software, Ian O’Flaherty, in the middle of the room recording Jeff’s discussion on TranscriptPad, so I’m hoping Ian will post that video soon. I was thrilled to see Ian at ABA TECHSHOW, since I had seen him at LegalTech in NYC and mentioned to him how great TECHSHOW would be. Jeff Richardson wrote an excellent review of TranscriptPad on phonejd.com.
14. Documents To Go ($9.99) & Documents To Go Premium ($16.99) – probably one of the best office suites on the iOS platform, although I find myself going to Quickoffice more often. I think I just like the interface a little more.
15. WordPerfect Viewer for the iPhone ($4.99) & WordPerfect Viewer for the iPad ($5.99) – only in a legal audience are you going to get the question about viewing WordPerfect files on an iPhone and iPad. Fortunately, Jeff explained that the WordPerfect Viewer is the best method for doing so, which is now owned by Corel. I usually point folks to Jeff’s review as well.
16. CloudOn (FREE!) – Josh explained the concept behind CloudOn which allows you to edit Microsoft Word documents stored in your Dropbox folder in an almost full version of Word. My only complaint is that the version of Word accessed through CloudOn is not fully finger-compatible.
17. Phraseology ($3.99) – Josh introduced us to a very nice streamlined text editor called Phraseology. My favorite part is that the app will rate your writing against some various reading standards.
18. Day One ($1.99) – a journaling app that connects to iCloud and Dropbox.
19. Picture It Settled (FREE!) – Jeff pointed out that Don Philbin, the developer of Picture It Settled, was sitting in the audience. Picture It Settled “helps you visualize the negotiation dance and calculate your next steps.” Jeff wrote a great review of the app on iphonejd.com.
20. Note Taker HD ($4.99) – one of several note-taking / handwriting apps we featured.
21. Notes Plus ($7.99) – another note-taking / handwriting app, and probably my second favorite in this category.
22. Notability (99¢ since it is still on sale for 80% off) – this was the note-taking / handwriting app that I was assigned to discuss, and I am very impressed some of their recent updates. I still, however, keep launching Noteshelf when I need to handwrite notes – it’s still my favorite for handwriting.
23. SoundNote ($4.99) – even though Notability above can record audio while you’re taking notes, I still prefer to go to SoundNote for this task. SoundNote will record audio while I’m typing notes, and it will sync the audio and text. Later, when I tap in the middle of a paragraph, I can start playing the audio from that location.
24. Air Display ($9.99) – when I’m in my office, I have three monitors in front of me. I am a HUGE proponent of having multiple monitors. But when I’m out of the office at a coffee shop or client site, I can’t take my extra monitors with me, but I do have my iPad! Air Display can extend the desktop of my MacBook Air on to my iPad or iPhone and it works wonderfully!
25. PhotoSync ($1.99) – Josh introduced this app as an excellent method for transferring photos back and forth between your computers and iOS devices.
26. AutoStitch Panorama ($1.99) – an app that lets you take multiple pictures from your iPhone and “stitch” them together to form one picture. I think Josh showed another app for doing a 360 degree image, but I can’t remember what app that was.
27. GroupShot ($1.99) – one my favorite apps that Josh mentioned that I wasn’t aware of. When you take a great picture of the family except one person is picking their nose, GroupShot lets you select that one person and replace them with a better shot from another picture. The app uses facial recognition to enable you to do this.
28. iPhoto ($4.99) – Apple’s version of iPhoto now brought from the Mac to iOS. One of the best photo editors that you can purchase for the iPhone or iPad.
29. Photoshop Touch ($9.99) – an excellent photo editor from Adobe for the iPad.
30. Reminders (included with iOS 5) – Jeff mentioned Reminders, the task management app that is built into iOS 5. The best part is the integration with Siri.
31. Scanner Pro ($6.99) – one of two “document scanner” apps that I offered. I tend to like Scanner Pro’s interface better than others, and so this is usually my go-to app when I need to “scan” a document with my iPhone.
32. DocScanner ($3.99) – I included this document scanning app for the iPhone because you have the option of performing OCR on the image of the document. It’s not perfect, but it’s great to have access to this option when you need it.
33. Print Central & Pro for iPhone ($4.99 & $5.99) & Print Central & Pro for iPad ($8.99 & $9.99) – one of the questions I am always fielding is “how can I print from my iPad?” Apple’s official response is that you must purchase an AirPrint-enabled printer that must be running on the same wireless network as your iPad. However, apps such as Print Central claim they can print to other wireless printers. And while I’m skeptical, they can absolutely print through your computer that has a printer attached – you simply download the free WePrint software from EuroSmartz for your Mac or PC and the iPad can print through that application.
34. Toodledo ($2.99) – I like Toodledo’s interface and features, and most importantly, the way that it constantly syncs with the Internet service so that I can alway access the most up to date version of my task list.
35. Timeli (FREE!) – Josh offered this gem of an app that presents nice visual timelines.
36. OmniFocus for iPhone ($19.99) & OmniFocus for iPad ($39.99) – if you have OmniFocus for Mac, then you would be foolish not to pick up OmniFocus for iPhone and iPad. Check out the excellent videos from the OmniGroup, including the Screencasts from fellow-TECHSHOW-speaker David Sparks at Mac Power Users.
37. Launch Center (99¢) – Josh discussed this interesting app that can basically act like a quick-launcher for the apps on your iPhone.
38. LogMeIn (FREE!) – Jeff did a great job introducing LogMeIn, and I agree with him that it is probably the best way to remotely access a desktop computer via the iPad. You can read Jeff’s extensive review on iphonejd.com.
39. ABBYY Business Card Reader ($4.99) – Jeff offered this app as one of the best business card scanners available, and authored an excellent review on iphonejd.com. I prefer to use Card Scanner from Readdle, but they’ve apparently dropped that product from their line.
40. CardMunch (FREE!) – Jeff discussed this free app from LinkedIn, although he cautioned that he’s a little nervous about how it automatically pulls and posts information via the LinkedIn service.
41. GateGuru (FREE!) – as I stated on Saturday, this is my second favorite app after TripIt. As soon as I land and we’re allowed to turn on our phones, I check TripIt to find what gate we’re arriving at, and then I switch over to GateGuru to find out where I’m going to eat in the Concourse.
42. Hipmunk (FREE!) – I know a lot of folks like Kayak, but I’ve started to use Hipmunk to find flights. And I really, really like the interface on the iPad app. Jeff has a great review on iphonejd.com.
43. SitOrSquat (FREE!) – it’s fantastic that the iPhone can determine your location for restaurants, maps, and travel information. But what if you need to find a bathroom quick? SitOrSquat to the rescue. This free app pinpoints the closest public restroom for your needs, complete with ratings and pictures.
44. Sparrow ($2.99) – Josh described this as a more streamlined way to check and manage e-mail on the iPhone, except he did say it doesn’t yet support “push” mail.
45. OfficeTime ($7.99) – Josh briefly described the advantages of using OfficeTime for tracking time on your iPhone or iPad.
46. WestlawNext (Free but requires WestlawNext subscription) – I agree with Jeff’s comments that this is so far the best online legal research app available for the iPad. Here is Jeff’s review.
47. Lexis Advance & Lexis Advance HD (Free but requires LexisNexis subscription) – as Jeff stated, Lexis Advance is not quite all the way there yet, but it should improve steadily as it matures. Read Jeff’s review here.
48. Fastcase (Free but requires subscription for some items) – this is an excellent alternative instead of Lexis or Westlaw, especially for those folks who are members of a local bar association that subscribe to Fastcase. Jeff also reviewed Fastcase.
49. Klammer (99¢ plus $1.99 in-app upgrade for .MSG files) – I shares two apps that are important for opening Outlook-specific files on an iPad. First is Klammer that easily handles .EML and .MSG files when they are attached to e-mail messages. Klammer also handles those pesky winmail.dat files that sometime haunt your Inbox.
50. PST Mail ($9.99) – this second app opens .PST files that are created from Outlook. Usually a .PST file is created by archiving e-mail messages out of Outlook using the File > Export command. The app is fantastic for “offline” viewing of .PST files and does a great job keeping the formatting intact.
51. GoToMeeting (FREE!) – I have become a big fan of attending online conferences with my iPad. All of the major services including Webex, GoToMeeting, and join.me now offer a free iPad app for joining online meetings.
52. AppStart (FREE!) – Josh offered this free app as a great way to get app recommendations.
53. 1Password Pro ($14.99) – I agree with Josh, this is the best way to keep confidential information secure, as well as carry important passwords. And it syncs with Mac and Windows versions of the software.
54. DaysFrom (99¢) – one of Jeff’s favorite apps for quickly calculating the number of days until something is due.
55. Do Date (99¢) – Jeff reviewed Do Date on iphonejd.com back in December, but it doesn’t look like it’s still available. It was developed, however, by the fine folks at LawOnMyPhone who also make the excellent Court Days Pro.
56. Tweetbot ($2.99) – I agree with Jeff, this is probably the best Twitter client available for the iPhone right now. I can put up with the standard, free Twitter app, but I found myself enjoying the Twitter experience so much more throughout TECHSHOW with Tweetbot.
57. Keynote ($9.99) – I find myself thoroughly enjoying work in Keynote on the iPad. It’s just so amazing to be able to interact with a presentation using your fingers. I know that sounds a little silly, but you gotta try it for yourself.
58. Keynote Remote (99¢) – I don’t even carry a “clicker” with me anymore when I go give presentations because I already have my iPhone! As long as my MacBook Air and iPhone are on the same wireless network (I usually carry my own hotspot for this purpose), then I can control the Keynote presentation with my iPhone from anywhere in the room.
59. Google Translate (FREE!) – I don’t use this very often, but Jeff continues to be amazed at what this app can do.
60. Infinity Blade II ($6.99) – of course we had to stick at least one game in the mix! Jeff stated that if you have a new iPad and need to convinced that the screen is superior, than this is the app you need.
61. Action Movie FX (FREE!) – for our finale, Jeff crushed the entire room with an Apache attach helicopter. See video below:

As usual, we couldn’t get to all of the apps we wanted to show, so I wanted to add three more to the list:

1. Craigslist (99¢) – if you can’t stand navigating the online craigslist.org website, then try Craigslist for the iPad. I prefer to search the service through the iPad now, and I love the fact that I can easily change the city and area that it searches.
2. Cymbol ($1.99) – you can type a section symbol (§) on the iPad by tapping and holding the ampersand on the symbol keyboard. Then someone asked if there was a paragraph symbol (pilcrow ¶) and I couldn’t find one! Thankfully, I was able to find the Cymbol app that not only gives me a paragraph symbol, but also daggers (†) and double-daggers (‡) along with a whole set of subscripts and superscripts. You still have to type what you need in Cymbol and copy & paste to your other app, but hey, it’s great to have access to so many symbols on the iPad!
3. Accordéon ($3.99) – I can play a mean Chicken-Dance on this instrument. It makes me feel like Weird Al up on stage.

Thanks to everyone who made it to ABA TECHSHOW and our “60 Apps” presentation. I hope to see all of you back next year!

When Apple first introduced the iPad, they described the web-surfing experience as like “holding the Internet in your hands.” Not only were you literally holding the Internet browser in your hands, you simply touched a link with your finger instead of clicking it with your mouse (although curiously, watch what happens to your mouse cursor when you hover over a link in Internet Explorer or Firefox).

Apple’s web browser for Macs and PCs is called Safari. On the iPad and iPhone, Apple still calls the built-in browser Safari, although most people differentiate the iOS version by calling it “Mobile Safari.”

With iOS 5, Apple significantly upgraded Mobile Safari, offering an even better browsing experience than before. So as long as you have the iOS 5.0 upgrade on your iPad, these tips will help you get the most out Mobile Safari:

Tabbed Browsing – every modern Internet browser offers tabs today, and Mobile Safari now does as well. Simply tap a tab to switch to it, and close it by tapping the small “x” on the left side of the tab. To create a new tab, tap the “+” sign to the far right.

Re-Open a Recently Close Tab – if you close a tab too quick and want to recover it, you can tap and hold the “+” sign on the far right. This will pop up a list of “Recently Closed Tabs.”

Open Links in the Background – by default, a link opens in the same tab that you’re currently viewing. But if you go to the into the iPad Settings and select Safari on the left, you can turn on the option to “Open New Tabs in Background.” Now back in Safari, you can tap and hold a link to access the option “Open in New Tab” which will open and load the link in a new tab while leaving you on your current tab.

Quick Access to Back History – the back arrow on the far left side of Mobile Safari will take you back one page. But if you tap and hold the back button, you’ll get a pop-up list of all the sites you’ve visited.

Reader – when you visit a site that that you want to read, but are completely distracted by all the ads and boxes that surround the text, look in the URL bar of Mobile Safari and tap the “Reader” button. This brings up an overlay window that beautifully presents just the text from the article, minus all the other junk. When you’re done, simply tap the Reader button again to go back to normal.

Reading List – while everyone knows how to create Bookmarks, Apple introduced a similar feature called “Reading List.” You can add a webpage to your Bookmarks or Reading List in the same way – tap the Share/Open In button (the one that looks like a rectangle with an arrow coming out of it) and tap “Add to Reading List.” As long as you have iCloud set up across your devices (Mac, iPhone, iPad, etc.), your Reading List will automatically be synched to each device.

Tweet a Link – with iOS 5, Apple also integrated the use of Twitter in apps like Mobile Safari. So when you want to share a webpage, you can simply tap the Share/Open In button and hit “Tweet.”

Change your Default Search Engine – next to the URL bar at the top of Mobile Safari, you’ll see the search box that probably displays a grayed out “Google.” Most of us are happy using Google, but if you go into the iPad Settings and select Safari, you can change this default search engine to either Yahoo! or Bing.

Add to Home Screen – since the first iPad, we’ve always the option of creating a “shortcut” to a webpage by adding an icon to the home screen of the iPad. To do so, tap the Share/Open In button and select “Add to Home Screen.” A small pop-up will show you what the icon will look like on your home screen, and you can name the page whatever you like.

AutoFill Contact Info – if you find yourself regularly typing in your name and contact info to webpages in Mobile Safari, you can save yourself some frustration by having the info auto-fill. You can turn on this option in the iPad Settings under Safari by tapping AutoFill. There you can turn on the option “Use Contact Info” and then underneath tap “My Info.” This brings up your iPad’s address book where you can select a contact (presumably your own information) that can get automatically filled in on a webpage.

BONUS TIP: Convert a Webpage to PDF on the iPad – this can’t be done within Mobile Safari – you’ll need to purchase another app to do this. But I’ve found it to be an excellent way to save a page or article and mark it up right from the iPad. My preferred app for this is PDF PROvider from Dar-Soft Solutions (www.dar-soft.com). When I want to convert a webpage to PDF, I tap in the URL bar of Mobile Safari and copy the entire URL. Then I switch over to PDF PROvider and select the built-in web browser where I paste in the URL. PDF PROvider then converts the page into a PDF that I can use in GoodReader or iAnnotate to markup, annotate, and then e-mail to a co-worker.

If you’re looking for more great tips on using iPads and iPhones in your practice, then you won’t want to miss these great sessions at the ABA TECHSHOW:

Tablet Wars (Thurs., March 29, at 10:30am – Josh Barrett & Nerino Petro)

iWin: iPads for Litigators (Thurs., March 29 at 4:00pm – Paul Unger & Tom Mighell)

60 iOS Apps for Lawyers in 60 Minutes (Sat., March 31 at 9:45am – Brett Burney, Josh Barrett & Jeff Richardson)

We’ve all done it. In fact most of us still do it. You probably did it before you fired up your browser to read this article. You logged onto your computer or network with a mediocre password: your spouse’s name, your child’s birthday, your pet’s name. Maybe you feel bad about this. More likely you don’t think about it at all. I didn’t used to either.

The importance of password security didn’t dawn on me until I was attending a CLE conference in Michigan a couple of years ago. It was July of 2010, about four months after I bought an iPad. I decided to travel light and only carry my iPhone and iPad – no MacBook. For the most part this worked wonderfully. Taking notes was simple. I could check and respond to email. And both devices had 3G service, which was faster than the hotel’s overpriced, mediocre wifi. The problem was that part of the conference involved team exercises where our work was handed in for review.¹ At that time, the iPad and iOS had no printing mechanism.² Of course, I was not alone in this problem. The participants who brought laptops did not bring printers.³ We would have to use the the hotel’s business center. And I drew the short straw.

While the hotel was respectable enough, its business center computers looked and behaved like they hadn’t seen an upgrade since the 90s. They ran Windows 98 and Office 2000. The machines themselves were dirty, a physical representation of their software’s state. To access my document for printing, I would have to login to either my email or my Dropbox. Which one of my passwords did I want to share with this questionable computer? I did the deed and immediately reached for my iPhone to change the exposed password.

That moment was my epiphany. I had to get serious about electronic security. Having long been a fan of the TWiT podcasts, I knew there was no better place to start than Steve Gibson and Security Now. Episode 90 of Security Now laid out the blueprint of how we should think of online security:

So all of this discussion so far, the whole issue of passwords, is known in the security trade as “single-factor authentication,” that is, you’re only being asked to provide a single aspect for authentication. . . [P]asswords are something you know. The next two types of factors are something you have, and something you are.

In layman’s terms, the greater variety of knowledge or possessions necessary for someone to gain access to your data, the harder it is for a hacker or thief to do so. Some examples in the real world:

• The key to your home is a single factor authentication method; something you have. Anyone with the key can get in.
• Getting money from an ATM is a two factor authentication method. It’s a combination of something you have (your ATM card) and something you know (your PIN). Neither one alone is sufficient for access.⁴
• Three factor systems are rare in everyday life. Such a system requires something you know (like a PIN code), something you have (like an ID badge or swipe card), and something you are (think fingerprint or iris scan).⁵

My password at the hotel business center could have been compromised by malware on the computers – my fear at the time. I could eliminate that risk by changing my password, as I did, or by requiring a two-factor authentication scheme to access my email or Dropbox. It would have to be portable⁶ and work on lower-end computers or public terminals without installing additional software.⁷

Steve Gibson to the rescue again. Enter the Yubikey. In Episode 143 of Security Now, Steve and co-host Leo Laporte interviewed Stina Ehrensvard, the founder and CEO of Yubico, maker of the Yubikey. The Yubikey is a thin device, smaller than most flash drives, that plugs into a computer’s USB port. When the user taps on the lighted portion of the Yubikey, the device generates a one-time password in whatever text box or web form your curser is in. This one-time password is authenticated against your account, and can be implemented by a site either in place of a text password you know or as an additional login requirement.

The benefit of Yubkey is to bring two-factor authentication to the masses. In the past, big firms or corporations could pay for on-site servers and token-generating dongles for employees.⁸ Small firms and solo practitioners can’t afford this infrastructure or the IT staff to manage it. While Yubico is happy to sell you thousands of Yubikeys and integrate its software into your on-premises server, where it excels and distinguishes itself from past solutions is that it’s affordable and integrates with cloud-based solutions you’re probably already using.

If you run your practice on Google Apps, store confidential files in encrypted volumes using Disk Utility, the open source (and Steve Gibson-endorsed) Truecrypt, or my favorite Knox⁹, or use a password manager, then the Yubikey can easily integrate into your workflow. Take a look at Yubico’s Personal Use page to get an idea of what online and off-line data you can secure by spending $25 to give your and your clients’ data an extra level of protection.

I use my Yubikey daily for password management with LastPass, a cross-platform password manager deserving of its own post, Knox¹⁰, and FastMail, my personal email provider. In combination with LastPass (and Chrome Portable for Mac and PC on a keychain flash drive, my Yubikey lets me login in safely and securely from the most suspect of computers. If there’s an accessible USB port, I’m in good shape.

If you’re looking for an inexpensive way to add a second layer of security to your online data, and you should be, give the Yubikey a look. Its an opportunity to add a “something you have” to the “something you know” protecting your information.¹¹

The ABA TECHSHOW comes to Chicago March 29-31, 2012 (next week!).

This annual get-together is a tremendous opportunity to learn about new technology, understand how to better use what you already have, and network with other lawyers on how they use technology in their practice.

One of the highlights of TECHSHOW (I may be a little biased) is the “Mac Track” which has grown to a full day’s worth of educational sessions, not too mention the additional sessions that cover iPhones and iPads.

I’ve been honored to serve on the ABA TECHSHOW Planning Board for the past three years and I’ve enjoyed inviting some of the most prolific Mac-using lawyers to speak. The “Mac Track” takes place on Friday, March 30, and features an incredible lineup of sessions and speakers:

A Day in the Life of a Mac Lawyer (8:00am-9:00am – Victor Medina & Ben Stevens) Ben and Victor share some of their day-to-day tips and tricks for using Macs in their practice. This is a great session if you’re a newbie to the world of Macs, but even the most fluent Mac-using lawyer will walk away with a tip or two they didn’t know before.

The Fine Art of Getting Paid on a Mac (10:00am-11:00am – Randy Juip & Mark Metzger) This session will focus on the time and billing tools available for the Mac in a legal practice. Admittedly, it’s not the most exciting topic, but it sure it important.

Paperless Productivity on a Mac (2:15pm-3:15pm – David Sparks & Ernest Svenson) Everyone is interested in slimming down their paper usage, and this session is guaranteed to give you what you need. David and Ernie will provide some golden nuggets of working with less paper.

Mac Power Users (3:30pm-4:30pm – Brett Burney, Randy Juip & Hon. Paul Mathias) If you still need more Mac by the end of the day, then this session will fill your cup. Brett, Randy and Paul are covering a ton of tips, tricks, and apps that are guaranteed to help you be more productive and more efficient throughout your workday. This session is fast-paced and packed with info!

Those four sessions  are JUST the “Mac Track” of the show, but there’s also a lot for people interested in iPhone and iPads:

SmartPhone Wars (Thurs. March 29, 8:30am-9:30am)

Tablet Wars (Thurs. March 29, 10:30am-11:30am)

iWin: iPads for Litigators (Thurs. March 29, 4:00pm-5:00pm)

60 iOS Apps for Lawyers in 60 Minutes (Sat. March 31, 9:45am-10:45am)

But that’s not ALL!!

I don’t have room to mention all the others session covering cloud computing, paperless practices, e-discovery, digital marketing, time & billing, etc.. You’ll just have to jump over to the full TECHSHOW Schedule and take a look at all the sessions.

Last but not least, the ABA TECHSHOW is one of the best opportunities for you to talk face-to-face with all of the legal software vendors in the market. All the biggies are at TECHSHOW, but you’ll also have direct access to the developers from Clio, Rocket Matter, Nextpoint, and more.

Even better, this will be the THIRD year that Marketcircle (makers of Daylite and Billings) will be exhibiting at TECHSHOW. That may not sound impressive you understand that they are one of the ONLY Mac-only software companies that has ever graced the doors of TECHSHOW! Say hello to Amin Rahmani in the booth when you pay them a visit.

I know time is running short, but if you can make it to Chicago next Friday, you’ll enjoy a fantastic day of Mac-focused education and get to meet hundreds of colleagues that are there for the same reasons.

I hope to see you there!

We had a standing-room only crowd for the “iLove for the iPad: Tips, Tricks & Apps” session on Monday at LegalTech NYC 2012.

I had the privilege of speaking with David Neesen, CIO of Greenberg Glusker in Los Angeles. David did an excellent job covering some of the challenges in supporting iPads at a large law firm, and I had the pleasure of sharing some of the best apps available for legal professionals on the iPad.

After the presentation, I was interviewed by Colin O’Keefe for the excellent LXBN TV from the LexBlog Network. Colin and his team have been very busy interviewing folks at LTNY and posting information about the conference.

You can view the full interview on LXBN.

I welcome Jeffrey Schoenberger to Macs in Law for his first guest blog post. I met Jeffrey a few years ago at a state bar presentation, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed getting to know him and his passion for Macs. Here, Jeffrey answers a question I get a LOT from lawyers looking for a Mac-compatible docking station.  Jeffrey’s bio is at the end of the post. Also, please comment on the post if you found it helpful. And thank you for reading!

Docking stations have a mixed history on the Mac. From 1992 to 1997, Apple manufactured the PowerBook Duo line and a set of accompanying docking stations. The Duo docks functioned the same as modern PC docking stations and port replicators. They added additional connections and eliminated the plug-unplug routine. Once Steve Jobs returned to Apple, the Duo docks were shown the door.

Starting with the Wall Street/Main Street line of PowerBook G3s, Apple-blessed docking solutions vanished. Apple left the market to third parties to fill. One of the most prominent was BookEndz, which created a series of docking stations for PowerBooks and MacBooks. These solutions filled a gap, but did so awkwardly. Apple offered no engineering assistance and its placement of critical ports on both sides of the laptop meant that the user had to carefully align his computer so that each port precisely met its mate on the BookEndz unit. But, so long as Apple neglected the market, third parties would do what they could to fill a real need.

If you visit BookEndz’s website today, you’ll notice something interesting. Their latest product revision addresses MacBook Pros and Airs released in 2010, prior to the February 2011 unveiling of Thunderbolt, Apple’s PCI-e technology co-developed with Intel. There are a few possible reasons for this:

1. The Pros and Airs released in 2011 are physically identical to those of 2010 and, Thunderbolt being a relatively nascent technology, has not been included yet;
2. Licensing restrictions or terms prevent its inclusion ¹;  or,
3. Apple has finally reentered the docking station market with a competitive offering.

Having recently acquired Apple’s newest display offering, the 27 inch Thunderbolt Display ($999), I can say that it is the simplest, best docking solution Apple has offered. The display itself is a brilliant 27 inch IPS panel with the ability to angle from −5 to 25 degrees ².  Only three cables protrude from the back of the unit. One is for AC power, the second is the Thunderbolt cable that connects to your 2011-era MacBook, Mac Mini, or iMac. The third is a MagSafe cable to power your MacBook. That’s it.

Were I to stop there, you would be right in seeing little difference between the Thunderbolt display and the 27 inch LED Display it supplanted in the Mac lineup. What you have not seen yet is the magic and promise of Thunderbolt. Although it’s the same shape as the Mini Display port it replaced, it is far more capable. That single cable carries not only your video signal, but the “logic” to turn the display into a docking station. On the back of the display, you will find three USB 2.0 ports, a FireWire 800 port, a Gigabit Ethernet port, and a Thunderbolt port. On the front of the display are a FaceTime HD camera and 2.1 speakers.

My initial reaction was, “Nice, but so what?” When I went to law school in 2005, I bought a 20 inch Cinema Display to accompany my 12 inch PowerBook. The Cinema Display had USB 2.0 and FireWire 400 on it too. Newer, faster, more ports, but not fundamentally different, right? Wrong. I did not realize the beauty of the Thunderbolt display until I began using it daily with my MacBook Pro. Every time I wanted to use the display, or anything attached to it, I only had to plug in the Thunderbolt cable³.

That single cable gives me instant access to any devices plugged in via the USB 2.0, FireWire 800, or Thunderbolt port on the display. Plugging in also gave me a FaceTime HD camera and far more powerful speakers.

The answer to the “so what” question between the BookEndz, Cinema and LED Displays, and the Thunderbolt display is the sheer simplicity of connecting and disconnecting. On the BookEndz, one must carefully align each port; try doing that when you are in a hurry. On the earlier Apple displays, you had one cable per function or port type; my 20” Cinema Display had an AC power cable, a USB2 cable, and a FireWire 400 cable. All had to be plugged in separately to the wall or the PowerBook. And the display had no capability for charging the laptop, meaning, in my case, spending another $70 for a second power adapter to leave next to the display.

Apple’s renaissance has focused on delivering power and functionality in beautiful, simple devices. The Thunderbolt display achieves this. A single cable connects your Mac to all the ports that Apple supports ⁴.  For those sporting a MacBook Pro or Mac Mini, we are talking a tremendous bump in screen real estate, much simpler access to your external hard drives and wired mouse or keyboard, plus a vastly quicker “pack up and go” ability ⁵.  For those of you sporting Airs, your potential benefit is even greater. Do you miss FireWire 800? Does your law firm or business still rely on wired ethernet, and you would rather have gigabit ethernet than occupy one of the Air’s two USB ports with a 100 megabit ethernet dongle? How about more powerful speakers to watch YouTube during lunch? The Thunderbolt display addresses these Air limitations with the minimum impact on your mobility.

The Thunderbolt display has a few downsides. First, 27 inches is large. It consumes a lot of desk space. Second, it is expensive. From Amazon, a 27 inch South Korean brands sell for $300-$650. Amazon sells a Dell 27 inch UltraSharp display for $870; $130 less than the Thunderbolt display ⁶. A couple of counterpoints on price: First, I know of no non-Apple display that supports FireWire or Ethernet, much less over a single cable along with a host of other features ⁷.  Second, I do not believe that Mac users shop primarily focused on up-front price. If you do, you shouldn’t ⁸.

My final two irritations with the display are Apple-specific. The display is a glossy one. Yes, the colors are more vibrant and “pop” better than on matte displays, but for we lawyers who write for a living, I would gladly trade “pop” for not seeing my face or overhead light reflected on the display ⁹.  The only way to avoid it in the Mac lineup at all is to customize a MacBook Pro with a high-res display. I do not notice the glare often, but I also made a conscious attempt to set the monitor out of direct sunlight. If you buy this display, you should too.

My last criticism is, I hope, something that Macs in Law readers might be able to help me solve, and has more to do with Lion and secondary displays than any defect with the Thunderbolt display. That problem is that any app the user sets in Lion’s full screen mode via the two diagonal arrows in the top right window corner, takes over both the Thunderbolt display and the MacBook’s secondary display, replacing the secondary display with a black linen desktop image. I cannot find a way to prevent this. For example, I like to watch iTunes TV shows and movies on the MacBook while writing on the Thunderbolt display. I cannot run a video or Lion-enabled full screen app without the app taking over the Thunderbolt display and “blacking out” the MacBook’s display. I think this is a “works as designed” moment that makes the end user think, “Why?”. I just wanted to point that out in case you had visions of watching your favorite comedies (Community) or secret guilty pleasures (Gossip Girl) full screen on one display while getting real work done on the other.

Aside from those four criticisms, some of which are expected (size and price) and one of which Apple could change with a Lion updater if it chose (full-screen mode), the Thunderbolt display is the Apple fan and Mac-using lawyer’s best docking solution out there. It provides tremendous screen real estate, enhances your MacBook’s connectivity and convenience, and prepares you for when other Thunderbolt devices become available and affordable. It is available from Apple.com, the Apple Store, and all the usual websites and retailers for $999.

Jeffrey Schoenberger has been using Macs in his personal and professional life since 2005. He passed the bar in 2008 and most recently completed an Equal Justice Works / AmeriCorps legal fellowship with the Legal Aid Society of Southwest Ohio. He can be reached at jeffrey@macsinlaw.com and on Twitter at @jrsch.

I will be presenting “iLove for the iPad: Tips, Tricks & Apps” at LegalTech New York on Monday, January 30, 2012.

I will be joined on stage David Neesn, CIO of Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger LLP.

David will cover the appeal and proliferation of the iPad in the legal world, as well as the challenges the iPad poses for law firm IT professionals. He’ll also discuss some of the options available for mobile device management (MDM).

I get the “fun stuff” in covering the best and most useful apps for iPad-toting legal professionals – everything from note-taking to document editing to legal research to remote access.

Check out the agenda for LegalTech New York 2012 and I hope to see you there!