The Mac Lawyer : Ben Stevens : Using Macs In The Practice Of Law

MacMerc.com recently published its Best Freeware of 2006:

The Google Browser:

Browser Sync and Toolbar beta
Google grabs top web browser honors - without a browser. With tools to synchronize your data between computers and drag-to-window Word and Excel editing the Web OS is here.

Honorable mention: Firefox 2, Flock 0.7

Freeware Classic:

NeoOffice
OpenOffice.org meets Aqua. We know OpenOffice.org is working on a Mac native version, but for now count on NeoOffice to let OpenOffice.org 2.0 loose from X11.

Honorable mention: Abiword

System Extension:

Quicksilver
This free application has grown from a novelty to a whole new way to use your Mac. QuickSilver has a cult following and powerful time-saving features.

Honorable mention: YASU, rooSwitch lite

Best Plugin:

PodTube
This was the year of YouTube. Get PodTube and get all those dancing ninja clips off YouTube and on your iPod.

Honorable mention: Flip4Mac WMV, Growl

Best Cross-Platform:

Firefox 2
With 2.0 Firefox is fast and more Mac-native that 1.x. Hundreds of cross-platform extensions help Firefox deliver a great experience on both OS X and Windows.

Honorable Mention: YamiPod

Best Mac Switcher:

Skype
Skype introduced a feature-par version for the Mac, including support for video calling.

Honorable Mention: Google Earth

Best Web Service:

activeCollab
This web service is a do-it-yourselfer. The ability to enjoy Bascamp-like project management online for free is indispensable to the creative Mac professional.

Honorable Mention: Writely (now Google Docs), NetVibes

Best Mac-Only:

ImageWell 3
With version 3, ImageWell is only getting better. New features offer a better interface and more editing tools to know out and upload images easily.

Honorable Mention: iSquint, Xcast

Pro App:

Scribus
This Open Source page layout application runs without X11 support and includes powerful document management capabilities.

Honorable Mention: Google SketchUp

Road Warrior:

iStumbler
iStumbler sniffs out WiFi, Bluetooth and Bonjour. You won't find a free wireless detector with a more refined interface and feature set.

Honorable Mention: Chicken of the VNC, Hotspot Shield

Source: "Freeloader Friday Download of the Week: Best of 2006" by Brian Burnham, published at MacMerc.com.

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I posted this article recently at my South Carolina Family Lawyer blog, and I thought that my readers here might find it helpful as well:

"A picture is worth a thousand words." There are many opportunities for family law attorneys to use graphs in presenting their cases at trial.  For instance, graphs can be used to illustrate the nights that a child has spent with each parent, various asset/debt distributions, or even income earned over a given period of time.

The National Center for Eduction Statistics offers Create A Graph, a Web 2.0 graph program available for free.  This program allows you to create 2-D, 3-D, or drop-shadow graphs in pie, bar, line, and area formats.  Better yet, you are able to easily export your graphs to *.pdf, *.jpg , or other image formats.  If you are interested in creating helpful demonstrative evidence for free, be sure to visit this NCES site and give it a try.

Source: "Create a Graph" by Tom Mighell, posted at his Inter-Alia blog.

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Both VMware and Parallels have released new betas of products that let users of Intel Macs run Microsoft's Windows operating system alongside Mac OS X. This process, known as virtualization, is generally preferred to Apple's Boot Camp, because it does not require users to reboot their Macs in order to switch between operating systems.

Parallels Desktop was the first virtualization product to hit the market earlier this year, and it has received many favorable reviews. Even Apple has openly praised the advantages offered by Parallels. With it's public "Beta 2" release of Desktop last week, Parallels introduced several new features including a new user interface, USB 2.0 support, an improved coherence mode, the ability to burn optical discs under Windows, and tight integration with Boot Camp partitions.

Also last week, VMware released the first public beta of a competing virtualization product that it calls "Fusion". VMware claims that Fusion can run any of the over 360 virtual appliances available at its Virtual Appliance Marketplace. Fusion's initial features include USB 2.0 support, drag-and-drop of files and folders between Mac OS X and Windows, and support for all Intel Mac hardware. However, Fusion also allows users to designate multiple virtual processors in order to leverage the dual-core Core Duo chips available in the latest Intel Macs.

Source: "VMware, Parallels Release New Virtualization Betas for Mac" by Prince McLean, published at AppleInsider.

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If you were lucky enough to get a new Mac for Christmas, you might find the following article helpful:

Someone must love you, since there was a shiny new Mac waiting under the tree for you this morning. I know you're excited to get it up and running, and it'll be easier than you think. There are some tips I would like to share with you, oh newly inducted acolyte to the Cult of Mac, that should make your Mac adventure even more fun.

Toss aside the included mouse: All desktop Macs now come with the Mighty Mouse (except the Mac mini, of course), which is a multibutton mouse that pretends to be a one button mouse. Toss it aside and get yourself a real mouse (the Logitech MX Revolution Wireless Laser Mouse is currently my favorite mouse of all time). If you received a portable Mac you should also pick yourself up a mouse. The included Trackpad is nice, but a mouse is much nicer.

Download Quicksilver and Growl: You might not get why Quicksilver and Growl are awesome. You might not get it for awhile, but when it clicks your Mac experience will become even better. Trust me, would a blogger lie to you?

Enable Tabbed Browsing in Safari: Launch Safari, go to 'Preferences,' 'Tabs,' and check the 'Enable Tabbed Browsing.' You might also want to check out many of the Mac only variants of web browsers: Omniweb, Optimized Firefox, Camino (which is still my personal favorite), and Shiira.

Drag your Applications folder to the Dock: I wrote a post, about a year ago, detailing how to move your hard disk into the Dock for easy access. I have since amended my setup to include only the Applications Folder in the Dock, since that is where I needed to go most of the time anyway. Follow the instructions in my previous post, but just drag the Applications Folder in the Dock instead of the entire hard disk.

Charge the battery, but not too much: If you found a MacBook or MacBook Pro under the tree make sure that you plug it in the first time you use it. Apple has a list of tips for maximizing the battery life of portables, give it a read to ensure many happy cycles on your battery.

Read TUAW: I admit that I am a little biased, but we here at TUAW strive to be that Mac geek friend of yours that knows where to find all the cool Mac stuff on the web. Our knowledgeable bloggers (and me!) are always ready with new tips, tricks, and news to share so make sure you come back often.

Source: "Getting Started With Your New Mac" by Scott McNulty, published at The Unofficial Apple Weblog.

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Fellow attorney, blogger, and Mac enthusiast Grant Griffiths has posted two articles touting the security offered by Macs:

• "114,000 Virus: Not on a Mac" posted at FutureLawyer
  
• "Why Macs Are More Secure" posted at the Home Office Lawyer

In these articles, Grant highlights the following key factors:

• Mac OS X has a superior UNIX foundation and security features that go above and beyond the norm for PCs.
  
• He does not run a virus program on his Macs, and he has never had a virus.
  
• Dialog boxes alert you whenever you even download a file that could contain or conceal executable code (that is, a program, as opposed to a document).
  
• You can opt to make your Mac invisible to 'pings' from the Internet, a common tactic of spammers who are looking for available machines to turn into spam relay stations.

Source: "114,000 Virus: Not on a Mac" by Grant Griffiths, 'guest' posted at FutureLawyer and "Why Macs Are More Secure" by Grant Griffiths, posted at the Home Office Lawyer blog.

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With Griffin's new iTalk Pro, you may be able to find another legitimate business justification for an iPod. This product allows you to create voice memos into the iPod, which are automatically time/date stamped. You can read a full review of this product HERE.

Source: "Review: iTalk Pro from Griffin Technology" by Brian Burnham, published at MacMerc.com.

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With only a few shopping days remaining until Christmas, if you haven't already gotten a gift for your loved one (or for yourself), I bring good tidings of great joy. The Apple Store's Special Deals page allows you to get great deals on certified refurbished products with little risk.

For instance, you can currently choose from a variety of Macs (including MacBook, MacBook Pro, PowerBook, and iBook) at savings of 25% to 34%. You can also buy with confidence, because each of these products undergo Apple's stringent refurbishment process and are covered by Apple's One-Year Limited Warranty.

If you have been considering becoming a Mac user, these refurbished machines provide an excellent way to find out how Macs can improve your practice and the way you work, while requiring a smaller initial investment. The Special Deals page frequently includes deals on other hardware, such as desktop models, displays, and even iPods. Check it out.

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A few weeks ago, the Washington Post published an article called "Mac vs. PC: How to Decide", which concluded that "you should shop for a Mac." As with all the other glowing reviews, this article points out how Macs are easier to setup, how Mac OS X has a stellar security record, and how the included software on a Mac is better than the titles found on a PC.

A few of the money quotes from the article:

• "[F]ind out how the computer will be used once it's plugged in. If the user isn't interested in installing new software but would rather use the tools that come with it, you should shop for a Mac."
  
• "A Mac Mini, iMac desktop or MacBook laptop -- starting at $599, $999 and $1,099, respectively -- will often cost more than a PC with about the same storage and processing power. But it is the easiest option."
  
• "An Apple machine will be much simpler to set up and maintain, thanks in large part to Mac OS X's outstanding record of security. It will also include Web, e-mail, photo and music software far superior to the junk on most PCs."
  
• "A Mac can read and write almost all PC files, including Microsoft Office documents. Apple's switch to Intel chips even lets a Mac impersonate a PC, running Windows with the help of such software as Apple's free Boot Camp."

Source: "Mac vs. PC: How to Decide" by Rob Pegoraro, published at the Washington Post. Thanks also to Switch To A Mac for its post about this article.

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One of my favorite blogs is Tim Gaden's Hawk Wings, which is devoted primarily to Apple Mail. With it being the holiday season, Tim recently listed the following reasons to be thankful for Mail:

1. Lean and extendable

   Apple's design strategy for Mail has created a lean and efficient email client. Unlike other email clients for Mac, Mail.app is not packed full of features and bloat that you never use. While some missing features niggle (for example, the inability to adjust the timeout delay on server connections or to opt out of format=flowed quoting if you want to), the overall result is a pared-down focussed app that is second to none.

   Its power purrs away under the hood, yet it is simple enough that you can explain its workings to your mother-in-law. I know.

   Because of this restricted focus, developers have launched an amazing array of plugins and utilities that extend what Mail can do. You chose the plugins that you want to make the email client you need on top of the rock-solid base that Apple provides. It doesn't get much better than that.

2. Unified Inbox

   Since I use it all the time and familiarity breeds contempt, I often overlook things like the beauty of Apple Mail's Unified Inbox. You can with some jiggery and pokery create a unified inbox in other email clients, but right out of the box Apple gives you the single collection bucket you need to process and deal with everything in one place. Gotta love that.

3. Looks the part and does the job

   Some email clients look the part but can't do the job. GyazMail, for example, has a nice Mail-like interface, but doesn't support IMAP or manage other core functions quite as well.

   Some email clients can do the job but look (and feel) like a wildebeest's backside. Thunderbird, I salute you (from a distance).

   Mail.app has married looks and power like no other email client on the platform. That's something to be thankful for.

4. Integration with other iApps

   While Mail keeps its focus on just doing mail and doing it well, it opens its arms to iCal, Address Book and iPhoto in ways that make life easier and more productive. There is a hack to get iPhoto to send images to other email clients, but nothing like the native, two-way interaction Mail users enjoy.

5. Address Book pictures

   This might seem like a small thing, but I love it to death. As I wrote in one of the first posts on Hawk Wings (An Ode to Apple Mail):

   I love the way Apple Mail places pictures from my Address Book into the emails I receive.... I spend a lot of the day answering emails or shunting them from one place to another. It can be a dehumanising experience. With the pictures, it's easier for me to remember that the posters are real people and that this is real interaction (even if it's happening in the rather thin, ethereal realm of the internet). I finish the day with a better feeling of having dealt with real people with real problems. I love that.

Source: "Mail.app: Reasons to be Thankful" by Tim Gaden at Hawk Wings.

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Until you are lucky enough to get a new laptop which has the MagSafe Power Adapter, you might find the following suggestion from Mac OS X Hints helpful to maximize the lifespan of your power cord:

This may be old news, but I thought it was a worthy suggestion to prolong the life of any Mac power adapter cord that has the small u-shaped sliding cord keeper. Slide the cord keeper right up to the reinforcement at the male end, as seen in the image at right. Insert the plug into your Mac. About three inches from Mac, make a loop and double the cord back on itself and insert the doubled portion into the cord keeper to maintain the loop. This reinforces the connection to the computer, holding it at a 90 degree angle from computer. It also serves as a shock absorber, as the loop will release first before pulling the cord from the computer.

Source: "Reduce Pressure on Laptop Power Cord Connectors" published at Mac OS X Hints.

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Apple recently gave a guided tour of its upcoming server operating system, Mac OS X Server 10.5 (Leopard), which it expects to release in the spring of 2007. This will be the seventh release of the server operating system since 2000 and the second version to run natively on Intel processors. You can read this "first look" by clicking HERE.

Source: "Computerworld's Guided Tour of Leopard Server" by Yuval Kossovsky, published at MacWorld.

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What if you could take your own video depositions for an investment of less than $100.00? Well, believe it or not, you can. The new Mac laptops (MacBook and MacBook Pro) have built-in iSight cameras, which allow you to easily create movies/video with iMovie HD.

Now, I can hear you thinking, but the iSight camera is designed to film the person facing the monitor, not the person on the other side. Never fear, a solution is near -- meet Huckleberry, a tiny webcam mirror which attaches to the screen to reflect the camera's field of view. The Huckleberry is made by Ecamm, and it comes with their award-winning iGlasses software, which provides iSight video enhancement and manipulation, including mirror image functionality.

Total cost to you: iMovie (included in iLife) $79.00 + Huckleberry $19.95 + iGlasses $0.00 = $98.95. Let's see a PC beat that -- or even come close!

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Earlier this week, Adobe released the newest version of its ubiquitous *.pdf viewer, Adobe Reader 8. The interface has been redesigned, and it offers new options for viewing information more efficiently. Adobe says that the new version provides more security to your documents and even allows you to launch online meetings directly. Of course, Reader remains a free program, and there are both Mac and Windows versions. You can go to the Adobe Reader 8 download page by clicking HERE.

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If you are an attorney, you probably use email on a regular basis. If you lost your email, it would probably cause problems for you, which could range anywhere from inconvenience to disaster. Fortunately, there is an easy way to backup your email files - for free! The program that makes this possible is Email Backup. It allows you to backup email from several email applications, including Apple Mail, Entourage, Eudora, or Thunderbird.

The process works like this:

1. Specify which email application you use.
   
2. Select a location for the backup file to be stored.
   
3. Specify the day and time to perform the backup.
   
4. Save the configuration and breathe a sign of relief.

There is also an Email Backup Pro, which costs $9.95. The Pro version allows you to backup from more than one application and to keep more than one backup at a time. The restore process is also automatic in the Pro version, which come in handy if you have more than one application being backed up.

Source: "How To Back Up Mail On Mac OS X: Free" by Alexis Kayhill, published at Mac360.

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If you are like me, you try to avoid typing documents from scratch if possible. I see no need to waste time "reinventing the wheel" if there is a template I can work from and modify as needed. With that in mind, I have just learned that there are over 250 free MS Office templates available on Microsoft's website.

While not law office specific, these templates include many that are useful to attorneys, including:

• Financial Analysis Worksheets
  
• Application for Employment
  
• Balance Sheets and Ledgers
  
• Bylaws, Policies, and Rules
  
• Various Calculators
  
• Flowcharts and Family Trees
  
• Note / Message Forms
  
• Survey Forms
  
• Wills
  
• Various Announcements

Source: "250 Free Office Templates and Documents" published at the Dumb Little Man blog. Thanks also to LifeHacker for its post on this topic.

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I have previously posted about Parallels, the software that enables Macs to run Windows under "virtualization." Last week, Parallels released a beta version of their next update, which includes the following new features:

• Totally new and redesigned interface
• Boot from BootCamp partition directly into Parallels Desktop for Mac
• Read/Write a Boot Camp partition
• Drag-and-drop filesharing between Windows and Mac OS X without the need for shared folders
• Parallels Transporter Beta - migrate a Windows PC image, VMWare or Microsoft Virtual PC VM to Parallels
• Make Windows applications in a VM appear like Mac ones via Coherency
• Convert Windows installations and VMWare VMs into Parallels VMs with Parallels Transporter

The Parallels Support Forum post detailing the many updates and a link to the download is HERE. From all reports, it looks as though these improvements will only help Parallels' already excellent product.

Source: "New Parallels Beta on The Street" published at The Unofficial Apple Weblog and "Parallels Beta Released Quietly, But With Loads of New Features" published at MacUser.

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With Apple having released several fantastic new products within the last few months, the holiday season, and the end of the year quickly approaching, many of you may want to make purchases in the next few weeks. AppleMatters recently published the following tips on getting the most Apple for your money:

• Look at the store, but buy online :: The best deals are always on the web. Now, you have to wait for your order to ship to you and so you must buy early, but that is a small price to pay for saving a few hundred bucks as you will see below.

• Educational discounts rock :: To qualify for the educational discount you have to be a student, teacher or in some way affiliated with an institution of learning. To use the discount all you have to do is go to the online Apple Store and click on the "savings for students, faculty and staff" link. Follow the directions, find your school and then when you are returned to the Apple store you will magically find that all computers, monitors and iPods have been reduced in price by 5% to 15%! Limits apply as to how many items you can purchase in a year. Be warned though that this discount can only be used at their online store. For clarification see tip #1.

• There is no shame in refurbished products :: Did you know that Apple sells refurbished iPods, Macs, monitors and Airport Base stations? Well, a lot of people don't, much to their loss. Go to the online Apple Store and click on the red "sale" tag (located on the bottom right of the page). From there you will be able to see all of Apple's refurbished products as well as any sales or promos they are currently running. Sometimes you can get deals up to 40 percent off their original price.

• Check out other sites :: Apple.com isn't the only place to go for great deals. If you want harddrives, memory, optical drives and just about anything that can be inserted into a Mac check out MacSales.com and have a look at all of their wonderful stuff. They tend to have fair prices (and they ship fast) so be sure to use them if your Mac needs an upgrade this Christmas. If you like bundle deals then skip Apple's store and head over to MacMall.com and see what they have for sale. Their prices match Apple's (assuming you don't use any discounts) but come with lots of free stuff and special offers. For example, if you buy a laptop you can get a free Lexmark printer and the option of buying Parallels desktop for $9.99 or a Sling backpack for $4.99. An even better deal (for some) is to buy one of their Mac/Windows bundles that has Bootcamp and Windows XP pre-installed. This can save you last minute shoppers from the hassle of buying XP and installing it yourself.

Source: "5 Tips For Getting The Best Deal on Apple Purchases" by James R. Stoup published at AppleMatters.

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In talking with PC users about their reasons for not switching to Macs (yet), one of the most frequent excuses given is the relatively small percentage of people that use Macs. Yes, the vast majority of computers used in the U.S. today are PCs, but Macs are gaining in market share at a very impressive rate. For instance, the market share of Mac OS X has risen 31 percent over the last twelve months (November 2005 to November 2006), while its web browser, Safari rose 45 percent over that same time period.

However, I don't believe that market share should really factor into the decision of whether to switch to a Mac. Some people simply want the cheapest computer available, not the best computer available. When I receive sales circulars touting PCs for a rediculously low price, I can't help but recall the old adage that you get what you pay for. If you have a need for an automobile, you can buy a very inexpensive car (Kia, Hyundai, etc.) or you can buy an ultimate driving machine (BMW, Mercedes, etc.). Both will get you from point A to point B (at least for a little while), but shouldn't a potential purchaser consider other aspects, such as which has better safety features; which will require more maintenance in the future; and perhaps even which is more fun to drive?

The PC has really become the "Yugo" of today -- apparently cheap on the front end but full of headaches over its lifespan (however long or short that may be). This blog has many posts (here, here, and here for example) touting the Mac's superiority to PCs. If you are interested in finding the BEST computers on the market today, give them a read and take a look at Macs. There is no reason for an attorney to be caught driving an Yugo, or using a PC, today. Which computer do you want your clients to see you using -- the cheapest or the best?

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