Monthly Archives: June 2008

PC/Mac Smackdown Discusses “Mac vs. PC” Article

By J. Benjamin Stevens on June 30th, 2008 Posted in Mac vs. PC

Last week, PC/Mac Smackdown had an in-depth discussion on their podcast about the "Mac vs. PC" article in the ABA Journal. The hosts, Cal David and David Flashner, called this article "a really good smackdown read." It is always interesting to me to hear others discuss my work, particularly my thoughts on Macs, and I… Continue Reading

Parallels vs. VM Ware Fusion

By J. Benjamin Stevens on June 27th, 2008 Posted in Product Reviews, Software

For some time, I have had both VMWare Fusion and Parallels Desktop for Mac on my MacBook. As part of my Mac "diet" to slim down the data on my hard drive, I decided that I would only have one virtualization program on the MacBook Air, so that meant that one had to go. I… Continue Reading

Putting My Mac on a Diet

By J. Benjamin Stevens on June 25th, 2008 Posted in How Do I ... ?

In anticipation of the move to my new MacBook Air, I decided to spend this past weekend trimming any unnecessary “fat” from my MacBook. Before this “diet,” my hard drive weighed in at just approximately 102 GB, which was too big for the Air’s 80 GB hard drive. After taking the steps set forth below,… Continue Reading

The Mac Lawyer Now “Air” Powered

By J. Benjamin Stevens on June 23rd, 2008 Posted in Hardware

I will now confess that the new iMacs weren’t my only purchase last week. This morning, my new MacBook Air arrived. I had been wanting one since they were announced, and I simply couldn’t hold out any longer. I used Apple’s Migration Assistant to transfer all of my data over from my black MacBook to… Continue Reading

New iMacs Arrived and Installed

By J. Benjamin Stevens on June 22nd, 2008 Posted in Hardware

As I posted last week, I recently ordered two new iMacs for our legal assistants. They arrived early Friday morning (as scheduled), and I am pleased to report that they are now installed and running perfectly. This post will explain how easy the transition process was. I used Apple’s Migration Assistant to copy all of… Continue Reading

Trial Preparation and Macs

By J. Benjamin Stevens on June 20th, 2008 Posted in Switching to Macs

My friend Kern Lewis published an article earlier this week in the Texas Lawyer which discussed his firm’s transition to Macs four years ago and the benefits they have enjoyed since doing so. I have summarized his article below, but I strongly recommend that you read the whole thing, as these excerpts don’t do it… Continue Reading

Pages, Pages, and Only Pages

By J. Benjamin Stevens on June 19th, 2008 Posted in Software

Since switching to Macs over three years ago, my firm has continued to use Microsoft Word. Why? Well, for no reason other than it is what we were used to, since we had used it back in our PC days. Honestly, doing something a certain way because "it’s always been done that way" is not… Continue Reading

How to Pair Apple’s Remote with Your Mac

By J. Benjamin Stevens on June 18th, 2008 Posted in Articles

One of the cool, under-publicized features of the Mac is the Apple Remote. This little fellow is barely larger than a stick of gum, but it gives you the ability to control iTunes and even Keynote presentations from across the room. Despite the fact that I have a third party "presenter" tool, I have stopped… Continue Reading

New iMacs for My Office

By J. Benjamin Stevens on June 17th, 2008 Posted in Hardware

I am happy to announce that yesterday I ordered two new 20" iMacs for my law office. When our firm made the switch from PCs to Macs over three years ago, I bought our two legal assistants Mac Minis, which have served admirably since that time. I made these purchases through Apple’s "Business Unit," which… Continue Reading

WWDC Wrapup

By J. Benjamin Stevens on June 16th, 2008 Posted in Technology

Sorry that this post is a little late, but I want to cover the three big announcements from last week’s WWDC. I have had several projects going on at work, which I will discuss in subsequent posts later this week. Of course, the 3G iPhone was formally announced, as widely expected. It not only includes… Continue Reading

One Mac Lawyer That Gives Back

By J. Benjamin Stevens on June 13th, 2008 Posted in Miscellaneous

I want to give public kudos to David Sparks, who publishes the excellent Mac Sparky blog, for his efforts to help educate elementary school students. You can read about David’s efforts in the following post from his blog: Every year, about early June, I volunteer at the local elementary school where I give a presentation… Continue Reading

What Would YOU Like to Learn About Macs and the Practice of Law?

By J. Benjamin Stevens on June 10th, 2008 Posted in Offline Resources

I have been asked to serve on the Advisory Board for the "Mac Track" at the 2009 ABA TechShow by track leader, Reid Trautz. The focus of this track is to help lawyers better understand how Macs can be useful in their law practices, and we are currently in the process of discussing potential topics… Continue Reading

WWDC Rumors

By J. Benjamin Stevens on June 8th, 2008 Posted in Technology

As everyone knows, Apple’s WWDC begins tomorrow in San Francisco. There have been many rumors circulating about what will / won’t be announced at this conference. Steve Jobs will deliver the keynote speech at 10:00 a.m. (PDT), so in less than 24 hours we’ll know for sure. In the meantime, here are some of the… Continue Reading

Guest Post :: Using A Mac-Mini for a Media Server

By J. Benjamin Stevens on June 6th, 2008 Posted in How Do I ... ?

The following guest post is from my friend and blogger extraordinaire , David Swanner : I have a wall of DVD’s at home (probably about 175) and the bookcase is starting to get wobbly. I wanted a simple way to pull these movies onto the computer and store them all on a hard drive. I’d seen… Continue Reading

How Could the New iPhone Affect Your Practice?

By J. Benjamin Stevens on June 4th, 2008 Posted in iPhone

The following article was posted last week at the Res Ipsa Blog: The new iPhone is set to be unveiled in less than two weeks. Here are the top new features of the second generation iPhone: 1. Browse Westlaw and Lexis Faster: 3G Connectivity The new iPhone will run on a “3G” or third-generation network…. Continue Reading

Rocket Matter Featured in TechnoRelease

By J. Benjamin Stevens on June 2nd, 2008 Posted in Software

TechnoLawyer issued a TechnoRelease last Friday featuring Rocket Matter, the premier web-based legal case management and time/billing program. This article highlighted the following features that Rocket Matter offers: Designed to be simple to use Calendar, contacts, to-do’s, and time/billing are integrated ‘Bill as you Work’™ technology captures more billable time Easy to implement and maintain… Continue Reading