Futurelawyer

Predicting The Future Of Apple

Verizon Nexus One Coming March 23rd?

Verizon Nexus One Coming March 23rd? | Android Phone Fans.  If a CDMA version of the Nexus One comes to Verizon late in March, it will really complicate the choices available to mobile professionals. Both the geeks and the literati and the techno nerds are gushing about the beauty of the phone; it has had some network issues with T-Mobile, which pundits expect will disappear on the largely reliable Verzion Wireless network. It is as beautiful as the iPhone, and is the real deal. Google has a hit with the Nexus One. When it comes to Verizon, watch out.

Palm's Woes Are All About Image -

Palm's Woes Are All About Image - PCWorld.  Is Palm dead in the water? They lost many original Palm users when they took the innovative Web OS phones, and tied them to Sprint. As this author points out, however, Palm's decline has many other fathers; not the least of which is the iPhone and the new Android competition. Palm spent way too long with an antiquated OS, and not enough compelling new reasons to buy the new one. The Sprint marketing has been skewed to a female audience, and has turned off many male geeks, who are generally first adopters of new tech. Look at the success of the male oriented Droid marketing for proof of this. So, would a new ad agency solve Palm's image problems? Probably not, but it couldn't hurt.

Yelp Accused of Extortion

Yelp Accused of Extortion | Threat Level | Wired.com.  Given the recent problems Google has had with Buzz, and the allegations that Google was not careful enough about users' privacy, Google is probably glad this week that Yelp walked away from buyout talks with Google. Yelp salespeople have allegedly been offering businesses "protection" from negative reviews, by offering subscription plans that will remove or re-order reviews in order to hide negative stuff. The Plaintiffs allege that Yelp salespersons aggressively marketed the service. If true, does this rise to the level of extortion? It certainly sounds similar to a protection racket taken to the Internet. If the allegations are true and proven; a serious blow will be dealt to Yelp, and its review process.

91% Of iPhone Users Would Recommend Device Vs. 69% Of webOS Users

91% Of iPhone Users Would Recommend Device Vs. 69% Of webOS Users: AdMob. My first response to this headline was "What About Android?" It is a no brainer that Palm's Web OS was too little too late in the mobile wars. Reading further in the article, the survey found that 84% of Android users would recommend the OS. It is possible, of course, that if you only interviewed Droid users, the percentage would be higher; but, the choice of mobile OS, and phone, is intensely personal to the user; so, no choice is right or wrong. Sometimes, the less popular choice is the better one, in computing terms. You are less of a target that way. Given iPhone's two year head start, the Android numbers are impressive. It is clear that Palm is in trouble; too bad for the company that invented the mobile phone/pda space.

Do You Know What Browser You Are Using? If It Is Internet Explorer 6 - It Is Dead

Announcement | IE6 Funeral.  It is possible that you use a computer every day, and don't know the iteration of your browser. This is common among lawyers and others who see the computer as a tool that other people will fix if something goes wrong. This is a mistake. Internet Explorer is inherently a security risk; especially, earlier versions, such as IE 6. IE 7 and 8 are more secure; but, they are rapidly being supplanted by savvy computer users of Firefox and Google Chrome. You probably were involved in the firm's decisions about legal billing, and word processing software. You need to know all about the browsers that expose your firm to the wide, wide world of the Internet.

Spring Design's Alex - Would You Carry This Around?

Spring Design's Alex pushed to first week of March -- Engadget.  If you are absolutely certain that you want an iPad when it comes out, stop reading. If you aren't sure, you should look at the Alex, which is an Android computer about the size of a large smart phone, with a 6 inch Ereader built in. The only problem with this is the same as with iPad. Would you carry it around? It is around a hundred bucks cheaper than the iPad, and uses the open source Android OS. But, it's computer screen is a lot smaller than the iPad. Of course, you may not need an Ereader at all, if you are comfortable reading text on a smart phone screen, as I am. 

Execupundit.com: Thinking about Products, Services, and Customers

Execupundit.com: Thinking about Products, Services, and Customers.  These rules about customer service are just as applicable to the practice of law, if not more so. Lawyers are often perceived as charging a lot for very little. We know better, and we all have clients who forget they had a problem after we solve it. However, the care and feeding of clients requires some thought, and some action. Do you respect your clients and their needs, or do you see them as a source of income only? Food for thought. Thanks to Michael Wade for his advice and wisdom.

What Happens In Vegas - Should It Stay There?

Slashdot News Story | What Happens In Vegas Happens In Afghanistan.  I am of two minds on this story of the drone pilots, who sit in dark rooms in Nevada, and pilot armed drones in Afghanistan that seek out and kill people. Has technology removed us too far from the horrors of the battlefield? Of course, I would rather all of our fighting be done 7,500 miles away, in the safety of a Las Vegas bunker. However, I am reminded of the Randall Jarrell poem about World War I, "Death of the Ball-Turret Gunner". In the first world war version of raining death from the sky, a gunner sat in an exposed turret hanging from the bottom of the plane, shooting at other airplanes and at the objects and persons below on the ground. Jarrell's last line is a killer: "When he died, they washed him out of the turret with a hose." If war becomes like a video game, do we risk making it seem like a fantasy?

Professor Murders Innocent Notebook Computer

I have had days in which I harbored murderous thoughts about my computers. Once, I shook my notebook computer so hard a hinge broke. However, I have never been accused of actually killing one of the poor, innocent, non-sentient creatures. I do remember dropping a couple of hand-helds in a swimming pool, one in a lake, and drowning them. However, I swear by all that is holy that the drownings were accidental. That's my story and I am sticking to it.