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

Yesterday, I discussed The Register's article comparing Macs vs. PCs for business use.  In conjunction with its analysis of that article, LifeHacker is running a poll which asks the question:  If you were buying right now, would you choose Mac or PC for business?

As of the time I write this post, less than 30% of the responders would choose Windows, and over 60% believe that Macs are the superior platform choice for businesses.   You can view the current results and vote for yourself by clicking HERE.

Source:  "Reader Poll: Mac or PC for Business?" published at LifeHacker.

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Which machine is better for business use -- Mac or PC?  You know my opinion, but let's look at another analysis of this issue, this time by The Register.   

Ability to Run Other OS:  Macs allow you to run either the BootCamp public beta, which allows you to dual boot a system with OSX and Windows XP, or a virtualisation product like Parallels which supports a range of operating systems, including OSX, Vista and "older" operating systems like XP, 2000, NT and DOS.  Of course, PCs offer no such options, and you cannot run Mac OS X on a PC.

Price Comparison:  When comparing prices between a Dell laptop and the latest MacBook, both with the Intel Core 2 Duo processor, the author found that they cost roughly the same for an equivalent load of software. However, he noted that there's really no comparison between the free iLife products that you get with a new Mac and the random mix of crippled and evaluation software that ships with the average PC. 

Availability of Peripherals:  The author notes that it is often times harder to find peripherals that supports Macs. He does acknowledge that as more Macs are sold, this may change.  On a personal note, I have never had any trouble locating peripherals, as the few that cannot be picked up locally at an office supply store or an Apple Store can easily be ordered online and in hand a day or two later.

Software Options:  Whatever you want to do, you're liable to be able to find a range of products to choose from for the PC, but in many categories you will be restricted to a choice of one for the Mac, and you may well have a job finding a place to buy it.  I won't argue that there are more software titles available for PCs, but does more translate to better?   I say no.

Technical Issues:  As is widely acknowledged, the author notes that he has spent close to zero time while on the road trying to fix compatibility and technical issues with his Mac, whereas it is a regular issue with my desktop PC.

You can read the whole article by clicking HERE and decide for yourself which system is best for your business.

Source:  "Mac or PC? You've Seen the Ads, How Do You Choose for Business?" by David Perry, published at The Register.

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Rumors have surfaced that Apple may release its highly anticipated new operating system, OS 10.5 Leopard as early as next month.  Apple's planned release was in the "spring", but T3.com reports that date could be pushed up to the end of March, far earlier than initially expected.  Even better, Apple may release updated versions of iLife and iWork at that same time.

Source:  "Leopard Set For March" published at T3.com.

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The use of vCards (electronic business cards) can make exchange of one's personal information much easier and more efficient.  Including an option to download your vCard in your email signature line is a quick, easy option that you should consider.

Mail.app guru extraordinaire Tim Gaden has posted a great "how to" at his excellent Hawk Wings blog, which offers two ways to add a vCard with your contact information to a Mail.app signature.

• Option One  ::  Add it as a hyperlink to a remotely-stored vCard file, so that recipients can easily download it into their Address Books.  This is the method I recommend, and you simply follow these steps:
  
  • Select the desired text in your email signature;
  • Control-click on it;
  • Select the new Edit Link option; and
  • Enter the web address where your vCard is stored. 

• Option Two  ::  Export your card from Address Book and drag into the desired signature pane of Mail's preferences, which send your vCard with every signed email.  (Note: This method will make your emals larger and can slow their transmission.)

Here is my new and improved Mail.app signature:

J. Benjamin Stevens
Stevens - MacPhail, P.A.
1188 Asheville Highway
Spartanburg, SC 29303
(864) 598-9172 or (800) 897-8856
Email:  Ben@StevensFirm.com
Family Law blog:  www.SCFamilyLaw.com
Family Law website:  www.StevensFirm.com
Mac Legal Technology blog:  www.TheMacLawyer.com
Personal Injury blog:  www.SCPILaw.com
Download vCard

Source:  "Adding a vCard to a Mail.app Signature" by Tim Gaden, published at his Hawk Wings blog.

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Apple is offering a free online seminar titled "New to the Mac and Compatibility with Windows".  Apple describes this seminar as follows

The Mac is the best tool for both the office and the home, making it the ideal computer for a business. If you're one of the many businesspeople who is contemplating a move from another computer to the Mac, watch this online seminar to pick up useful tips and valuable information to help you make the transition seamless. Kenny Lee, from Apple's Small Business Marketing group, and Travis Fears from the Apple Store San Francisco present and demo specific content for new Mac business users.

The seminar runs approximately 27 minutes, and it consists of two parts:

• Part One: New to the Mac  ::  Useful tips for starting out on and customizing the Mac, including shortcuts and quick keystroke/mouse commands.  Recommended for small business users who are new to the Mac, or contemplating a Mac for the first time.

• Part Two: Compatibility with Windows  ::  Connecting your Mac to existing workgroups and other office computers. Reviews and demos how to share files, share printers and even instant message with video between Apple and other computers.  Recommended for small business users with a typical office workgroup scenario, who are interested in sharing/interfacing with other users with different computers and peripherals.

You can get more information and/or view this free, on-demand seminar by clicking HERE.

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Ever see a fight developing in which you already knew who the winner would be?  I am in just such a position right now.  The "fight" I'm referring to is actually an online discussion/debate about the relative benefits and shortcomings of PCs and Macs as hardware platforms for solo practitioners.

• In the PC corner is Ben Cowgill, an attorney in Lexington, KY and publisher of SoloBlawg.com.  Ben has been a PC user for over 20 years, and he believes that "the PC World continues to offer many more options and solutions than the Mac World."

• In the Mac corner is Grant Griffiths, an attorney in Clay Center, KS and publisher of the Home Office Lawyer blog.  The motto of Grant's blog is "A Mac, A Blog, A Home Office... What more does a lawyer need?"

I'm reminded of Sean Connery's quote from The Untouchables about "bringing a knife to a gun fight..."  Anyway, the first salvos have been fired by each of the combatants.  You can read Ben's here and Grant's here.  Grant claims that by the time this is over, Ben will buy a Mac for his own law office.  For the record, my money is firmly on the Mac guy in this one -- no big surprise!  With apologies to Michael Buffer, "Let's get ready to rumble!"  This should be fun to watch.

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I want to apologize to my readers for a snafu that I discovered today.  For some reason, I had not received notice of any of the comments submitted over the last 3 to 4 weeks.  As a result, they were not published and were just sitting there probably feeling neglected and lonely.

I have gone through all comments posted through today, and I have notified TypePad of this problem.  Their technical support department has always been very responsive in the past, and I am hopeful that this situation will be resolved quickly.  In the meantime, I will check the comment section every day or so.

I have always welcomed comments from you, and I hope that you will continue to submit them in the future.  Your comments have been interesting and helpful, and I assure you that I learn as much from you as you do from me.  In other words, keep those comments coming!

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I am pleased to present this following, insightful guest post from David Sparks:

I've been practicing business litigation and transactional law for 15 years.  For all of those years I've been using various iterations of Windows.  I've actually become quite adept at Windows.  I can defrag, de-virus, anti-spy, kill phish, and alt-cntrl-delete in my sleep.  But at a certain level it has always annoyed me how much time I need to spend just keeping the machine running. 

So about 3 weeks ago I was loading up my laptop with the third necessary anti-spyware program and a computer consultant I sometimes work with was telling me how I should not touch Vista until "at least" the first service pack release is out.  It got me thinking about how much time I waste just keeping my computers "running" and I began to think there must be a better way. 

I remember Macs from my college days.  The ones that had a built in handle and said "Hello" when you turned it on.  It's been 20 years, and I had given up on Macs when I first entered law school and was told I could NEVER use a Mac in any firm.  But I started looking into it.  I actually found Ben's excellent site first. 

Then I went in an Apple Store with a thumb drive loaded with several contracts and briefs in the midst of changes, powerpoints, and other files I regularly use.  The people at the Apple store are incredible.  Unlike every other computer store I've been in, these people do not look at you like an idiot when you ask basic questions.  They were very helpful.  I was running my work files on the store Macs in no time.

Making a long story short, after several visits and many questions answered, I found myself buying a brand new Macbook Pro 17".  I couldn't be more pleased with it.  I bought the machine with the extended warranty and several programs (iWork, Office:Mac, and .Mac).

I've had it for two weeks now and am happy to report quite a few things:

1. The Mac learning curve is very small.  It is a really well designed OS and the software fits it hand in glove.  I'm sure there is more for me to learn.  However, it boots up and I am "at work" in very short order.
2. MS Office to Mac:Office and back again.  Flawless.
3. The two windows programs I must have (Casemap and Textmap) do not work on "Crossover Mac" but with Parallels they work perfectly fine.  My goal is to see that windows logo as little as possible but when I do need it, it is there.
4. Keynote looks fabulous.  I can not wait for my next mediation/arbitration/trial where I make those powerpoint users look like cavemen scratching stick figures in rocks.
5. The Built in OS X encryption is perfect for my needs.  If someone were to pick up my Mac they will not get access to my client documents or my personal financial information.  It even encrypts my Quicken file.
6. I am working with an IT guy to get remote access to our windows based network.  He says it will not be a problem but hasn't really described the fine details to me yet.

Put simply, this elegant little machine does everything my PC did, only better, faster, and without crashes.

Now for the icing on the cake ... iLife runs circles around my PC suite of photo and dvd software for which I used to make the family picture/video dvd's.  Its so easy with the templates and the final product looks absolutely professional.  I've even set up a .web family blog.  My wife has a lot of relatives in the Philippines and my family is spread all over the country.   These things were virtually effortless to set up and has got everyone in my stretched out family excited.

Did I mention that in 10 days ... despite loading and unloading software and all the other nonsense a new owner puts a new computer through it has crashed exactly zero times?

When I first showed up at the office with it the IT people and other partners laughed and called me a geek.  I then booted up Parallels and their jaws dropped.  Wait until they see my first big Keynote presentation.

Having been a PC user for 20 years there are a few things I still can not get over.

1. Everyone says I don't need virus software.  That is difficult to wrap my mind around.
2. Everyone says I don't need to bother with the usual spyware, adaware, defrag, and other nonesense that I did on a regular basis with my pc.  Basically, I just turn it on and work.
3. I can't get over how NICE and HELPFUL people are at the Apple Store.  They want me to be happy.  They want to solve my problems.  Even AFTER they got my money!

To put it simply ... I am drinking the cool aid ... and it is delicious.  Switching to a Mac was something I should have done years ago.  I have a few old windows computers at the house, and I'm now in the process of selling those so I can put an iMac at home for my kids.  I knew they'd be good for something.

David W. Sparks is an attorney with George & Shields LLP in Irvine, California. He specializes in litigation and transactional practice.  He is described as a "creative thinker focused on precision, detail-oriented litigation preparation and strategic business planning to obtain the best possible outcome for clients."  David can be reached via email by clicking HERE.  My thanks are extended to David for his great guest post.

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AppleMatters recently looked at the resale value of Macs.  It compared the purchase price and resale values (from eBay) for models over a seven year period.  The conclusion was that after a decrease over the first two years, the resale values leveled off.  In fact, even a six year old Mac laptop could sell today for $400.  Does anyone think that a six year old PC could sell today for $400?  When you consider that new PC laptops can be purchased starting at about $600 these days, I think the answer is an obvious and resounding NO.

The article concludes that Apple machines retain their value for two main reasons:

• Since Apple faces no hardware competition, prices stay artificially high.
• Apple's hardware stays relevant longer than its "equivalent" in the PC world.

The bottom line is that "Macs remain competitive long after their PC brethren have gone to that great recycling heap in the sky. Which means, in the long run, your Mac cost less. Just something to think about next time you get ready to put your old Mac out to pasture. Somebody still wants it."  This article is well researched and well written.  There are graphs to illustrate the points being conveyed, and if you need yet another reason to purchase a Mac, be sure to read this article.

Source:  "The Amazing Resale Value of Your Mac" by James R. Stoup, published at AppleMatters.

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A few days ago, I wrote a post about the basics of the Dock.  Today, I want to tell you how to use the Dock to save time in your day-to-day fuctions and thus increase your efficiency.  You can use Mac OS X's drag and drop functionality with the Dock to do the following:

• Grab text and drop it onto Mail's icon  in the Dock to automatically open an email with that text included in the body of the message.
• You can use the same drap and drop method to email documents (*.pdf, *.doc, etc.) by grabbing their icons and dropping them onto Mail's icon.
  
• Grab a web address and drag it onto your preferred web brower icon (Firefox, Safari, Camino, etc.) and it will open in a separate tab or window.
• Grab text and drag it onto Safari's icon to automatically conduct a Google search for those terms.
  

This process is something that should be more widely promoted by Apple and Mac enthusiasts because it can really change (and improve) your approach to several frequently performed tasks.  Hopefully, now that you are aware of it, you can use it to help yourself and spread the word to help your fellow Mac users.  If you have any other Dock tips, please feel free to submit them to me for publication here.

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AppleMatters recently published a review of Adium v. 1.0, which did a nice job of comparing and contrasting its features with Apple's iChat.  Here's a quick comparison of these two programs:

Adium:

• 16 Supported Chat Networks, including AIM, Yahoo, Jabber, MSN, .Mac, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, Google Talk, ICQ, LiveJournal, Lotus Sametime, Novel GroupWise, QQ, SIP, Yahoo Japan, and Zephyr.
• Ability to sign in with up to five different accounts at the same time.
• Flexible status management options give you the ability to preset length of time before Adium shows your status to "inactive" or "idle"
• Does not support video or Audio chat at this time.
• Many customization options, including ability to change your contact list themes, dock icons, emoticons, message styles, scripts, service icons, sound sets, status icons, etc.

iChat:

• 4 Supported Chat Networks:   .Mac, AIM, Jabber, and Bonjour.
• Ability to have different accounts, but you can only log in to one at a time.
• Allows you to manually set your status as "away".
• Does offer and enable video and/or audio chats.
• Some customiztion options, primarily relating to message appearance and sounds.

In my opinion, each program has a signficant drawback/flaw.  Adium allows you to basically chat with anyone, no matter what chat client they use, but it lacks audio and video capabilities.  iChat offers those options, but only for its supported platforms, which are limited.

I typically use Adium as my day-to-day chat client, and I switch over to iChat when I want to have a video chat with someone.  Admittedly, this is a little frustrating, but it allows me to come pretty close to having the best of both worlds.

Source:  "Review: Adium 1.0" by Tanner Godarzi, published at AppleMatters.

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I have been recently trading emails with Basquette, who describes herself as a recently separated, mother, writer, blogger, and newly minted as a solo practitioner.  What have we been talking about ... Macs, of course.  About two weeks ago, Basquette swiched from a PC to a Mac, and she has written a series of posts on her entertaining blog, the basquette case, about her experience.  Some of her quotes about the conversion are:

• I know it's just a computer. But for the briefest of moments, I ... sheesh ... I get the Rabid Mac Freaks. I don't condone it, mind you, but I get it.
• I wanted to show those remaining skeptics out there that in this, at least, the RMFs are right: it works right out of the box, without any fuss.
• It's been a week, give or take. And what I've found is that while the initial giddiness might have worn off ever so slightly, it didn't wear off by much and the experience is still vastly different (in a good way) from the initial use of any Windows PC or laptop I've ever played with.

You can read some of Basquette's posts for her first hand account of her "conversion":  switch-hitter; was it as good for you as it was for me?; and the adventures of mac babe, part 2.  She has a penchant for provocative titles (which I borrowed for the title of this post) and a distate for uppercase letters (e.e. cummings would be proud), and her blog is both great and unique for it!  I'd say "you go girl" but that would make my middle-aged male whiteness even more comical than it already is.

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It's always been there for you, but do you appreciate it?  I'm referring, of course, to the Dock -- that little strip of icons sitting there on your screen.  This feature of Mac OS X can make your life much easier, and all you need to do is spend a few moments to learn some of the neat things it can do.

Fortunately, the excellent Silver Mac blog posted an article that gives a great look at the Dock. This article covers the basic ("what are these icons?"), the intermediate ("what do the black triangles under them mean?"), and the advanced ("how can I customize the Dock?").

There is one other cool feature that the Dock can do that wasn't covered in this article, but I'm saving that for a separate post later this week.  Sorry to be a tease, but it's worth the wait.  In the meantime, check out this article to tide you over.

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As part of his current series, "Legal Technology Trends for 2007", Dennis Kennedy predicts that there will be a noticable increase in the number of lawyers using Mac notebooks.  He attributes the anticipated increase to the complexity and potential costs of moving to new Microsoft versions of Windows Vista and Office 2007.

The Intel-based Macintoshes, with the ability to run Windows and Windows programs in a virtual machine or to boot up directly in Windows, have changed the thinking of many lawyers about Macintoshes. The Macs have excellent reputations on usability and security, perhaps the two biggest issues for lawyers. As we do more work on the Internet, our capacity to work on the Internet, more so than our operating system, becomes the biggest factor in what our computing needs are. Lawyers who examine closely what their needs actually are beginning to make the move toward Macintosh, and the number of Macintosh resources for lawyers, including blogs, will surprise many lawyers.

It is certainly good news for Mac enthusiasts for a legal technology guru like Mr. Kennedy to give the Mac such high praise.  However, in mentioning the ease of use and security inherent in Macs, he fails to mention the many other advantages that Macs afford attorneys and law firms, such as increased productivity due to fewer technical problems; savings due to no need for anti-virus software; ability to use Apple's superior presentation software (Keynote); and lower maintenance costs resulting from few (if any) technical problems.

Source:  "Dennis Kennedy's Seven Legal Technology Trends for 2007 - Widening the Digital Divide in Law Practice - Part 2" by Dennis Kennedy, published at his blog.

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Mitch Ratcliffe at ZDNet is running a series comparing the MacBook Pro and ThinkPad X60, which consists of the following articles:

• The Great Vista/Mac Showdown: Before the starting gun
• The Great Vista/Mac Showdown: Unboxing the ThinkPad X60 and MacBook Pro
• The Great Vista/Mac showdown: Hardware is where customization begins and ends
• The Great Vista/Mac Showdown: Minimum requirements; Vista isn't bloatware
• The Great Vista/Mac Showdown: Mac migration a breeze, Vista's migration is a headache

If you're interested in a thorough side-by-side comparison of the Mac vs. PC debate, you should definitely check out these articles.

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Switch To A Mac has released several Guides to help those interested in switching from a PC to a Mac, which it states will serve as a resource that will help Mac users of all skill levels to become familiar with Macs, Mac OS X, and the software runs on Mac OS X. The topics to date are listed below.  You can view these Guides by clicking HERE.

• Switch Between Expose Modes
• Expose Preferences
• iLife Guides are on the way
• What is Expose?
• Dashboard Tricks
• The Widget Directories
• Install a Widget
• Widget Preferences
• Dashboard Preferences
• Configure and Customize Dashboard
• What is Dashboard?
• How to Browse a Hard Drive?
• Power Up - Shut Down - Sleep - Restart
• System Preferences and Spotlight
• What is System Preferences?

Source:  "Switch To A Mac Guides Launched" published at Switch To A Mac.

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To change active windows in OS X, you have several options:

• Cmnd (⌘) + Tab switches between applications.
• Cmnd + ~ (tilde) switches between windows within an application.
• Witch by Peter Maurer (a freeware utility) allows you to switch between all of your windows by pressing a shortcut and choosing from a clearly arranged list of window titles.

Source:  "Switching Windows in OS X" by Mike Sivcevic, published at his excellet Silver Mac blog.

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Reporter Joe Hutsko conducted an experiment to write a story for anyone considering switching from Mac to PC in the wake of the release of Vista, Microsoft's new operating system.  Mr. Hutsko gave up his 12" PowerBook and began using a 17" HP widescreen notebook running Vista.

In his very thorough article, he describes the following areas in great detail:

• Impressions of Vista's appearance and actions;
• The process of moving his data to the PC;
• Multimedia, mobility, and security aspects of Vista; and
• Miscellaneous other impressions about Vista.

So in the end, which does Mr. Hutsko prefer?  He concludes his article by saying, "For me, [Macs] just works right, without really having to think about it.  So I decided to switch again. From Vista, back to the Mac -- to the brand new, white MacBook on which I told this story."

If you are interested in an honest, first-hand comparison of Vista and OS X, read Mr. Hutsko's article.  It shows what can happen when you go over to the "dark side" (i.e., Windows) only to see the light and come back again.  Seriously though, it is a good read, and you can read the full article by clicking HERE.

Source:  "A Mac User Switches to Vista" by Joe Hutsko, published at MSNBC.com.

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