Criminal Defense Law With An Apple

It was a great and, once again, diverse group of legal bloggers. In attendance was  Trial Ad (and Other) Notes, Copyright or Wrong, China Law Blog, Law According to Michael Rice, Employment Law Blog, Washington Employment Advisory, Speeding Ticket Blog, Seattle Trademark Lawyer, and the Avvo Blog. Topics included: the word blawg, ways we track, use and justify our blogs, the potential (or lack of potential) in twitter, the value of social networking tools, dealing with unsavory comments in the comments and more. It is a good cross-section of the blogging community and nice to share about the blogging experience. I look forward to meeting with them all again at the next gathering. 

Expect an angry call from Ballmer!

I just read the article posted on the 16th, from well-known Mac user Kern Lewis. Mr. Lewis goes through his set of reasons to switch to a Mac and, like any great trial lawyer, makes a very cogent case. The title of the article is Trial Preparation Made Easy With Macs and you can read it here. 

I recently wrote this article for GP Solo: Law Trends and News. You can view the article here.

Criminal Defense Law With an Apple: Seven Reasons to Switch to an Apple

By Aaron A. Pelley

Don’t worry. I am not the smug kid from the Mac commercial trying to tell you that your Windows computer is not cool enough. For attorneys, a computer is a tool, not an accessory. But there are some good reasons to switch to a Mac. In this article I hope to tell you why it works for my practice and persuade you to take a look at an Apple for your practice.

First a short caveat: I was practically born with a PC on my desk. My father worked for IBM when I was a kid. We owned one of the first personal computers. I have lived through each version of Windows. I remember loading DOS onto my PC Jr. with floppy disks. I have continued to work with PCs throughout my adult life and work with Windows computers to this day. But despite all this, I ended up using Apple computers for my law office. Here is a list of the reasons I think you should consider switching tools.

Simplicity

First and foremost, an Apple computer is simple to use. The saying for Apple software and their computers is, “It just works.” And it does. This is not to say that there is not a learning curve. There is, but nothing you can not handle. The good news is that everything on an Apple was made for an Apple. The same company that made the hardware made the operating system and much of the software, and thus they work together seamlessly.

If you have iTunes on your PC, you already understand much of how the Apple user interface works. The premise of Apple products is almost militant utilitarianism. This is the Apple aesthetic and makes new users easy converts and long-time users grateful. The trick is to understand that although it looks simple and acts intuitive, all the features you would expect in a given program are there, under the hood.

Time

How much time do you spend running virus scans, Trojan scans, spyware, adware, and firewall programs? Do you regularly defrag? How many pop-up windows do you click a day telling your computer it can do what you told it to do? Ever had your email client turned into a zombie base from an Outlook virus? Eesh. There are entire industries built on these “problems,” volumes of articles written on how to deal with these “problems.” Not to mention, the thousands of hours wasted or lost and millions of dollars spent to either solve or prevent these “problems.”

I won’t tell you don’t need to protect your Mac. Anything connected to the Internet has a chance of being compromised. But there are more than 114,000 viruses for the PC. How many known viruses are there for a Mac? The answer is zero. Bonus: Firewall is built-in and works behind the scenes (without those annoying pop–up windows). In the end, this is what makes the Apple such an attractive choice for the solo crim-lawyer. We should spend our time using a computer, not maintaining it.

Finally, there are the time saving features of Spotlight. Now Spotlight has been emulated in Vista, so, presuming you went to Vista and stayed, you can enjoy a similar, albeit less elegant, version of Spotlight. If not, this built-in indexing system should be your first and best friend. You just start typing in the name of the document you are looking for. Before you have even finished typing, Spotlight is already finding everything within your search criteria. It is like having Uber-Google for everything that resides on your computer.

Price

Yes, I know, an Apple computer costs more straight off the shelf, but there are certain considerations you need to make. If you were to custom build the same computer with the same quality components and provide similar software, the price would be very close. It would still be a bit more expensive to buy an Apple—we pay a premium for our logo (and you do too, if you bought a Sony Vaio). I would posit, as you read on, it is worth it. That said, these computers are on the bleeding edge of technology and are built with high–end components that will last twice as long as most straight off the shelf preconfigured PCs. Often every file for our firm is on the computers we use. I often see attorneys using cheap PCs. With so much at stake, why risk using cheap computers?

Community

With our small numbers comes an incredibly supportive community. I believe as our numbers grow, this will only get better. At any given point, if I run into a problem, I can call upon either (or both) of the listserves for Mac-Lawyers: Mac In the Law Office http://groups.google.com/group/milogroup or Mac Users Law Group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MacLaw/ and ask for sage advice from the lawyers who use Macintosh to run their law offices. Answers often come back within the hour. Often the developers of the products are on the listserve and will answer you directly. The listserves are also a great resource for just following the day–to–day developments for all things Apple and law. If you are thinking of making a purchase of software or hardware, you will find honest answers here.

Software

The front-running program for running the law office is Daylitehttp://www.marketcircle.com/daylite/. This program has a special template that was built just for lawyers that has integrated billing software. In addition, there has been a lot of bloggers that have been giving a nod to Rocket Matter. This is a web-based practice manager and can be used by either Mac or PC users. I think the popularity of this program among Mac users is based largely around the design of this product, which is very Apple-like.

Most other programs on a PC, you will find on a Mac. Quickbooks, Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Office: Word, Outlook (called Entourage), Power Point, and Excel, all have native support on a Mac. In addition, there is the ability to run emulation software so that you can run any Windows program that you might still be attached to. Of course, over time you will let go.

Customer Service

True story: I purchased a Macbook and then 10 days later they came out with the Macbook Pro. I called the Apple store and they let me bring the computer in for an exchange (return policy is good for 14 days). Cool right? Well, it gets better. I went in to the Apple store to point out that the power supply cord had started to fray. An Apple store employee replaced my cord on the spot. Then I had an issue when I did a restart while my Mac was updating its firmware. So every time I turn on the computer I get this irrelevant pop-up window. So I just go to the Mac store and have them fix it. I have Apple Care service covering my computer for three years. Where are you taking your PC computer when Windows is not working? Is there a Microsoft store rep that will help fix the problem? Do you think you could even talk to any human from Microsoft? The people who sold me my computer are the people that make my operating system. They know how it works and how to fix it.

Creativity

People always point out that an Apple computer is for “creative types.” I am not sure if I know what that means. Nevertheless, as criminal defense lawyer Mark Bennett pointed out to me, criminal defense is the most creative endeavor one could pursue. For that reason, perhaps we are just the type of person a Mac was made for.

I close with this: at least consider making your next home computer or laptop an Apple. Go to an Apple store and try using an Apple computer. See what you think. I bet within a few months you will be trying to figure out why you did not switch your office over sooner. 

If you live in, around or near Seattle, please come join the 2nd Seattle Law Blogger Meet-up.  Details can be found here, at Mike Atkin’s Trademark Lawyer website. The last meet-up was a lot of fun. We had a diverse crowd and it was a great opportunity to discuss blogging with your peers.

How much is that iPhone going to really cost me? The answer, it seems, is not much more (or less) than the last iPhone. Head on over to Gizmodo for the breakdown. It is strange, seeing how much we pay for these cell services. This will be my first time with ATT. And yes, I have heard the horror stories regarding ATT’s less than stellar customer service. Here’s me hoping they turn the corner on that issue by the time we integrate the iPhone into our practice. I have been with T-mobile since 2003. So much for customer loyalty.  

Well, there it is. WWDC Conference excitement has come and gone. You have the new iPhone. As predicted by many. It is tough for Apple to bring the big surprises like they used to. Still, we have 3g and we have mobile me. This has inspired me to re-up my dot mac account (it was expiring this month). Also, as suggested, the snow cat is on its way. And, of course, I will be in line for the new iPhone. Great price and promising battery life.

As a criminal defense attorney, one wonders about the implication of GPS. I presume one could subpoena the records of an ATT user to see where they had been and help either prove or disprove a persons whereabouts. There is something strangely 1984 about GPS tracking and video conferencing, in that companies have found a way to sell this and not make it seem ominous. In any event, the sword cuts both ways. We shall see.

I suppose that this is one of the more substantiated rumors regarding the upcoming OS. There is some good news and bad news. The good news is that it will probably be wicked fast and battery efficient. The bad news is that PPC users may be getting passed over on this one. I know, I know. But we go through this every time people. If you don’t like it, write your local Apple Rep. Some more details from Jacqui Cheng in Ars Technia:

“[T]he release is heavily focused on performance and nailing down speed and stability. With Apple’s current (and future) focus on smaller, thinner, and more mobile devices, this move makes perfect sense. Things like the MacBook Air, iPhone, iPod touch, and other mysterious devices that have yet to be announced need better performance for better battery life, and that’s definitely something Apple wants to excel at in the years to come. Our sources did not note whether Apple planned to discuss Snow Leopard at this year’s WWDC.

Something else that may happen is that Apple may eventually wrap everything in Cocoa—things that are currently only Carbon accessible will be no longer. This (which is reportedly not yet in stone) should make many Objective-C programmers happy, although those who are married to Carbon may get a bit bristly at the news.”

Seriously, this is an early bird rumor. We knew the iPhone was coming out ages before it actually did. So true is Snow Leopard. The rumor mill says that the earliest launch date is set in 2009.

Check out the incredible potential of Rocket Matter when paired with the super-powers of Larry Staton. The idea behind the Script is to extract data from Rocket Matter interface and merge it in a Word document. Read Larry’s post here. Scroll to the bottom to watch the video.

A bit inconvenient for those that use their .Mac email professionally. In fact some folks are angry. And you wouldn’t like them when they’re angry. Dot Mac has been down for a number of hours (at last count 6 hours). If you have been following the rumor mill, big changes are coming to dot mac. The new name? Mobile me. The new features? Plenty of guesses. Only Steve and a few others know for sure.