Futurelawyer

This Is What Happens When Everyone Has Access To The Internet

One of the friends I have met, only because of Google+, is +Rohan Blake. He has posted a video about the history of public involvement through the use of public squares, and public forums that encourage different viewpoints, and which have sparked reform movements in areas such as civil rights, the American Revolution, and other worthy causes. This Google+ commercial was posted by Rohan, and is a great corollary to my post about Project Loon.  It is also why Google+ is more important to the future of our human race than Facebook.

What If Everyone Really Could Access The Internet?

One of the myths that we citizens of developed countries live with, is that everyone in the world can access the Internet. In fact, the truth is that Internet connected people are a distinct minority. What if everyone could access the Internet? Great gains could be made in medicine, science, and politics. It would be quite difficult for governments to wage war, oppress their citizens, and for generally bad people to do their thing. So, Google's engineers came up with a crazy idea, what if we could send up balloons with WiFi broadcast equipment, and provide Internet access to everyone on the planet? Pretty loony, right? Well, Project Loon aims to do just that. Here is a video that will give you an idea of what is involved. This is my new favorite idea.

Google Upgrades Chrome For Android And Google Drive

Chrome & Drive for Android updated with interesting new features | AppsZoom Blog. I am really enjoying the upgrades to Chrome for Android and Google Drive. Google never stops improving its products and services, and the scan feature of Drive is becoming one of my favorites. See something you want saved across all your computers and devices? Just take a photo in Drive, and it is saved to Google Drive. Google Drive is also getting a Google Now card style interface. Want full screen browsing and tabs on your tablet. Just update Google Chrome for Android. Want to voice search on your desktop? You can do that too. Don't worry Apple, you don't really need to innovate these features. Google is adding them to Google for iOS. How do you like them apples?

Google I/O 2013 - Watch It All

Google I/O 2013. As I posted previously, if you missed Google I/O, you can watch it all at this site. So, instead of watching that marathon of whatever lame TV floats your boat, spend a few hours learning about the future of computing, Google style.

The Frugal Lawyer - Google Now Voice Search In Chrome

Google Now style voice search now live in Chrome stable channel | Android Central. While we are on the subject of inexpensive legal dictation systems, you should be aware of the new Chrome upgrades that bring voice search to your notebook or desktop browser. If you use Chrome as a browser, (and you should be), just click Settings, and Help, and you will be updated to the latest stable Chrome iteration. When you relaunch and go to Google.com, you will see a little microphone in the search box. You can now do voice searches on your computer, and full text dictation is on the way. So, you won't need to use the Android phone trick anymore once this functionality is plugged in. Just click, and dictate. 

From The Horse's Mouth

Official Blog: Live from Google I/O: Mo%u2019 screens, mo%u2019 goodness. If you want to know all the announcements being made today at Google I/O, and you don't want your news filtered third hand through he mouths of pundits, this is the place to go. The Google blog has published the announcements officially right here. If you want, there is a link to watch the conference live; but, there will be plenty of recordings available later. For now, check out what's new in the GoogleVerse right here.

It's 1993. Welcome To The World Wide Web

The World Wide Web project. When I first launched FutureLawyer, in 1993, and began running around Florida talking to lawyers about the coming changes in the way they practiced law, this is what the Web looked like.World Wide Web In 1993 It was a hyperlinked text looking thing, with links to documents primarily. The linking to other information was the chief distinction from prior text based Internet usage, which required command line interfaces, and the mere fact that you could click a hyperlink and move around the world of information seemed magical. Fast forward 20 years, and imagine what the next 20 years will bring. Amazing.

Inactive Account Manager - Not A Substitute For A Will

Google Public Policy Blog: Plan your digital afterlife with Inactive Account Manager. Friend Bill Holmes highlighted Google's new Inactive Account Manager, which allows users to have up to ten family members and trusted friends to access a Google Account if it remains inactive for 3,6,9 or 12 months. The user sets an inactivity period, and after the account goes inactive, the friends are emailed, and given, after authentication, up to 3 months to download your Google stuff. You still need to have a lawyer insert language in your Will giving your Personal Representative ownership of your digital property, however, for many reasons. First, whatever delay you choose will probably be too long for your loved ones, who will want access as soon as the Courts will allow it. Second, your digital life lives in many places, and a blanket access for your survivors will be needed; especially, your bank access, and other financial sites that will be required to be accessed. You need to have an estate plan anyway. Just find a lawyer who will be able to deal with your digital assets, as well as your other assets. If you do use inactive account manager, however, be aware that Google doesn't know when you're dead. So, if you let the account go inactive for more than your chosen period, and you are merely so ill that you can't update it, you may be giving access to your data while you are still alive. Just another reason for heeding my mom's good advice. Never say anything on paper (or the Internet) that you wouldn't be comfortable seeing on the front page of your local newspaper.

Give A Teenager A Tablet - Lose Him For A Lifetime

Tablet Owners Watch More Media, Teens Use Tablets More - Deloitte - Peter Kafka - News - AllThingsD. I have mixed emotions about giving tech to teens. On the one hand, I am FutureLawyer, and I know the impact that phones and computers and tablets can have on a life: connections, access to information, learning opportunities, all are life necessities in this age. However, tech can become an obsession, and typical teenager angst can be worsened by immersion in the tech world. The key is balance. When number one son began consuming online content at an alarming rate, I made it a point to engage him in other ways. On the other hand, he has become a history and government expert using his tech to access the world of information on the Internet. This is a good thing. He is more aware, and knows more, than I did in my Thirties. We can't protect our teenagers from the world. We can only engage them about what they see and learn, and show them by example that it is not the only world. 

Weather Prediction - It's Cloudy Outside

How to Use Cloudy to Attach Online Files to Gmail Messages. By now, you are using email for all sorts of things; not the least of which is attaching pleadings and files to email correspondence to other attorneys, and for filing things electronically with court systems. Email is now as much a part of law practice as typewritten letters were in the Eighties and Nineties. I can remember when some attorneys were proud to tell me that email was for secretaries and associates. They refused to use it. Oh my. If I could get in a room with those guys now, the I Told You So would be 100 feet tall. But, I digress. Cloudy is a Chrome add-on that permits the attachment of any file anywhere to your GMail messages. If you are like the rest of us, you are storing files in several cloud locations, such as Google Drive, Microsoft Live Drive, Dropbox, and others. This cool little add-on gives you the option of attaching a file directly from the cloud service. No more downloading it to the drive before you can send it. Very nice.