Criminal Defense Law With An Apple

Today I was going to upgrade my OS to Snow Leopard. Literally minutes before I was going to shove the Snow Leopard disk into my iMac, I got an email from my friend Jonathan, a Lynnwood DUI Lawyer. Jonathan asked whether ScanSnap was compatible with Snow Leopard.

I thought to myself, why wouldn’t it be? I typed in ScanSnap and Snow Leopard into Google and…boo. I have posted numerous times on my love affair with the Fujitsu ScanSnap. But this is really sad. The fact that it has still not been address by Fujitsu, even worse. There is a universal praise from Mac users everywhere for ScanSnap. I hope Fujitsu realize how quickly that tide can turn. In the meantime, Snow Leopard sits in my drawer, waiting for a fix.

You can read about the compatibility issues here.

Microsoft got taken to task for airbrushing out a black guy in an advertisement. The best part, the ad pictures a Mac. Who buys these stock photos? You can read the full story here.

Meaningful relationships?

PC World article looks at how the tide is turning:

Some lawyers still prefer the BlackBerry for its keyboard and longer battery life. But the iPhone’s big screen, slick interface and easy-to-use touchpad makes it an enticing device. The touchscreen makes it a snap to switch between browser windows and zoom in and out of documents.

The full article in PC World can be read here.

Apple continues to surprise with this offering, combining the iPhone with medical marijuana sites. The app is appropriately named Cannabis  and is available for $2.99. From the company Anjang, the idea behind the app is to direct medical marijuana users to places were they can obtain their medicine. You can find the app here.

Just a few posts ago, I wrote about how I lost my iPhone and the precautions I had taken to make sure my information was protected. I would strongly advise any lawyer that keeps confidential or sensitive data on their iPhone to look into Apple’s latest iPhone update.

The new 3.0 update added the “find my iPhone” and remote data wipe features. Users are already posting found iPhones. These features are currently available for MobileMe users. I think that is an unfortunate decision on Apple’s part and they should have enclosed this feature set into iTunes. But I have MobileMe already, so it works out okay.

If you don’t have Mobile Me and none of the other features of Mobile Me appeal to you (I understand), then the price tag for a find and data wipe might be a bit high. If you have it already, go into the Settings and get that those features set up.

I think the dock should contain your key programs. The ones you use everyday. I love Bee Docs Timeline and App Zapper, but those programs are not part of my daily routine. I keep the dock down to the necessities. Here is what you will find in my dock.

First we have the Apple trilogy. That is Address Book, Mail and iCal. I am always saddened that I haven’t found a practice management system that would reduce this down to one Outlook-esque icon in my dock. A few programs have hacked the three together with mixed results. Having tried Entourage and a number of others, nothing has captured my heart. But I digress.

Next we need a browser. I have Safari. I still find myself having to check in on Firefox. It is the browser for interesting add-ons and customization. I am using Apple’s Safari with no complaints.  The latest release of Safari 4 did not offer any groundbreaking advances in my web browsing experience. But it wasn’t as though I was longing for a better browsing experience either.  I do look forward to seeing Google’s Chrome on the Mac.

Of course there is security. No, not for viruses or trojans. After all, “I’m a Mac.” I just need a safe place to keep my passwords. And having the same password for every account is just foolish. Enter 1Password. A super-accessory to my browser that also has some nifty auto-complete tools.

The Word Processor is a sore point for me. I have been on the fence with Pages. I get frustrated with Pages and go back to MS Word. As of today, the newest version of Pages is in my dock. Who knows what tomorrow will bring?

Next we have Scan Snap Manager. It sits right next to Adobe Acrobat. These two programs keep my desk free of clutter (and a less-paper office). I have Adobe forms for all my intake, communications and other court event records. And of course anything coming into the office is taken to the Scan Snap and goes to PDF land. Throw in a handy script from the MILO list-serve, that handles OCR, and I am grooving in Spotlight style.

Now we need a place to keep all those documents. Many of my fellow travelers just use folders. They are nice, if you get a solid naming structure organized. But they don’t truly capture my former paper-filled-three-ring-binder life. I continue to use Circus Ponies Notebook. Although the company name does not conjure up serious criminal defense work, a number of lawyers rely on this program as a way to organize and manage the documents for a case. As some of the long-time readers of this blog know, I am a big fan of Circus Ponies Notebook.

Recent evictions from the dock include:

Skype. Skype was dropping calls to the point of silliness. It would be faster to build a fire and send smoke signals. My testing with Google voice has been promising but it is a different animal.

Quickbooks. Everyone says the Mac version is lacking. I never had the PC version of QB, so I do not know what I might be missing. Plus, I do not handle the books anymore. Good reason not to look at that icon. I am having my Office Manager try out MYOB, at my accountants prompting, but we have not committed.

Sugar Sync. I stood by this program for synicng across computers. After three months of no problems, I was impressed. However, even the slightest hiccup in file retention is unacceptable (same goes for you MobileMe). I plan to write a further review. For now, consider this my withdrawal of endorsement.

See. Not that complicated. Just the basics. Speaking of basics, I guess a closer inspection reveals that the core programs we use to run our practice came with the Mac. With the exception of 1Password, Notebook (both clocking in under 50 bucks for a single user license), and Acrobat (it comes with the Scan Snap). Yet another example of the value built directly in the purchase of an Apple computer.

In case you were living under a rock, Apple updated just about everything. The real excitement and media buzz is focused on fanboy favorite: iPhone. See the guided tour here.

I had a chance to do a web conference with Nick Lightbody, at Desk Space, to take a look at the new Case Management program that is being released in the coming days.  We spent about an hour looking at the interface and a bit of time looking at the programming behind the scenes of this Legal Practice Management Program.

Desk Space is a very robust program and it looks as though Nick, and his team, have been taking notes on what people want. What do they want? Well, for starters, a lot of folks want control of their data. Desk Space is a child of the File Maker program.  As such, the program resides on your computer. What else is the legal community looking for? Not much else, except…everything. Contacts, calendars, billing, documents (with merging capabilities) and accounting all within one program. Enter Desk Space.

Like similar File Maker Practice Management programs, Desk Space uses a tabs and icon interface but still provides a very clean interface. Like any good Mac program designer should, Desk Space focuses on elegant simplicity. To appreciate what is really going on with Desk Space, underneath the simple design, there would likely be a learning curve, to get the most out of the program. I believe this would be true of all robust practice management systems.

There are some tools (such as job or workflow tracking) that would not be a meaningful tool in my practice. However, if your practice blends civil work, this would be a critical tool. On the other hand, the merge tools built into this program is a unique feature not offered by many competitors. The program also has many of the tools we would expect in a comprehensive program: time management, client management, contacts with “spotlight” search, financial reporting, billing and more.

An immediately noticeable criticism is that many of the naming conventions for the tabs and icons were inconsistent with my own practice. Good news. All the names can be customized to suit your practice. Everything is constructed “soft wired” and the team at Desk Space can change the way anything is described. In addition, many of the features can be finessed to the way you practice. 

Desk Space is also platform agnostic. Meaning it can run on that old PC collecting dust in the closet. But why would you do that?

Overall, I was impressed with the time and thought that was put into Desk Space. It has all the markings of a comprehensive Practice Management tool. Of course, I have not used Desk Space myself, so I am limited to say that it looks very useful. If you are a Desk Space user, we would welcome your first hand impressions in the comments. 

Prices for Desk Space are competitive to what you would see for similar Practice Management Systems on a Mac. Nick did provide that for a short time he would be allowing users to purchase Desk Space at a discount, with some features limited, in order to determine whether this was the right tool for your practice.

For those not ready for SaaS and think the other Practice Management alternatives require to much bending, Desk Space may be for you. The program is designed to be flexible and simple to use. According to Nick, during the beginning phase of introducing Desk Space, early adopters are going to get special attention.  You can contact Nick for a demo: nick.lightbody at deskspace.com

I have been slowing testing the stability and reliability of Mobile Me for the last 6 months. It is always difficult to go back to a program that has proved problematic in the past. But I had a one year subscription and even Apple deserves to have a bumpy software roll-out.

After six months of using calendar and address book things have been going remarkably well. The program has synced across all three computers and an iPhone.  My caveat, I have only used Mobile Me for my personal contacts and calendar. Also, I have not used mobile me for document management or email. 

The one thing I did discover was that using Onyx will wreak havoc on Mobile Me. I am sure if it is a bug that needs to be worked out or who needs to work it out. If you run Onyx, then open up your calendars, you may experience multiple repeated calendar titles (as many as five). I suppose that is better than having them disappear. I am not married to Onyx, but it is a nice program to keep things clean, zippy and spiffy. But I am liking the idea of having a constantly synced calendar and address book. Now we are in search of a new tweaking/optimization program.