Futurelawyer

Nexus Q - Designed And Manufactured In The U.S.A.

Google shows Apple: We made ours in the U.S.A. | Business Tech - CNET News. Good for Google. On top of the rousing success of Google I/O this week, it announced that the new media device, the Nexus Q, was designed AND manufactured in the United States. With more big companies sending jobs overseas, it is really great to see a company that has the interests of U.S. citizens at heart. I will buy one of these, and not only because it is a cool gadget. It is still more expensive to buy items made here; but, the gap is narrowing. Will U.S. consumers pay the price? Will Apple take a hard look at bringing the manufacturing process back home?

Sony SmartWatch - Wearing A Wrist Watch Again

SmartWatch | Android Watch - Sony Smartphones (US). I have been playing with, and wearing, my new Sony SmartWatch for a couple of weeks now, and it has become part of my arm. I stopped wearing wrist watches last year. They were so "last century", and they only told me the time and day; although, my recent versions had temperature, barometric pressure, altimeter and other cool sensors. I had my smartphone and computer for time and day, and I wasn't spending a lot of time mountain climbing. However, the bluetooth integration, and the tiny Android apps that connected live with my phone convinced me that it was worth $150 to try the smart watch. Now, my wrist buzzes when I have incoming email, gives me the time and date in digital numbers when I want it, tells me my exact location with the press of a button, acts as a long distance viewfinder for my phone's camera, vibrates and buzzes when a call comes in on the phone, and more. The cool thing about it is that I can have my Jabra earset simultaneously connected with bluetooth 3.0, and I can take and make phone calls without using my hands. The earset has a pleasant female voice that announces the call, from what phone number it comes, and I can answer or ignore the call merely by saying answer or ignore. Pretty cool. I am going to start calling myself robot man. 

I prefer metal watch bands, and the watch comes with a metal base to clip the watch on, so I got rid of the rubber wrist band that came with the watch. You can also clip the smart watch to clothing, or just carry it around if you like. Here are a couple of photos of mine:

 

Google I/O Keynote - Day One

I know most of you don't want to spend two hours watching the Day One Google I/O Keynote. However, if you are curious, you can check in here:

Google Chrome Is Number One Free iOS App

Google Chrome already No. 1 among free iOS apps | Webware - CNET. That didn't take long. Apple may have developed its own mapping software by buying other mapping companies in order to avoid Google. However, its users, after one day, have made Google Chrome the number one browser on Apple iPhones and iPads. I am surprised that Apple hasn't banned Chrome from the iTunes app store. Apparently, the lure of opening tabs on all your devices is a feature that everyone wants. Perhaps Apple can "innovate" that feature in the next version of mobile Safari. 

Apple Used To BE Google

Google Wins the War for Developers (This Week) | Wired Business | Wired.com. I don't know how many of you are old enough to remember; but, Apple used to be the new kid on the block. It was the small company going uphill, and saying "I think I can, I think I can", and "Think different", and reveled in its rebel persona. Apple gatherings had the feel of fun and community and a me against the big corporations feel. Do any of you remember that feeling? That is the feeling generated this week by Google I/O. Google has spent a lot of time figuring out how to keep the community aspect of the company front and center. The presentations were fresh and risk taking, and the food, and drink, and, let's face it, the Swag, was like looking into a window during the dot com boom. Apple's last WWDC looked more like an old IBM shareholder's meeting. I may be wrong about this; but, I don't think so. The lesson here is that a company has to remember how it felt to be hungry, and to keep that feeling going. Google nailed it this week.

Chrome Browser And Ice Cream Sandwich

Chrome Browser. I have been fooling around with the new features of Chrome and Ice Cream Sandwich on my computer and ICS devices. I have a Galaxy Nexus phone running ICS 4.0.4, and am eagerly awaiting Jelly Bean 4.1. I have an ASUS Transformer tablet, running ICS 4.0, and I have installed the Chrome web browser on both of them. Chrome just came out of beta this week, and it automatically syncs with Chrome on my notebook. Then, when I leave the house or office, I am instantly looking at the same open tabs on all 3 devices. Any changes I make during the browsing, instantly are available on the other devices. Amazing. Here is a photo of the tablet with a list of the currently open tabs on my notebook computer:

Samsung Chromebox -A Portable Computer That Goes Anywhere

Samsung Chromebox Unboxing Hands-on Video | AndroidTapp. Announced at Day Two of Google I/O 2012 was the new Chromebox. Rather than a notebook computer running Google's Chrome OS, this guy is a small flat box with six USB ports, two HDMI ports, 4 gigs of RAM and 16 Gigs of storage, and a fast core I5 chip. It will support Bluetooth or USB keyboards and mouse, and any monitor with HDMI or Digital In ports. It is plug and play easy, and boots in no time. It runs everything inside the Chrome browser, and is an appliance before it is a computer. Google gave one of these to each attendee, and they look pretty cool. At $329, however, I don't see them supplanting notebooks or tablets anytime soon. But, as Google Docs and other cloud services become more ubiquitous, you will see more of them in the enterprise. 

Google Chrome And Google Docs - Updates At Google I/O

The second day of Google I/O just got started on the West coast, and the improvements to Google Chrome and Google Docs are quite impressive. Google Chrome will now sync automatically across platforms. So, all of the tabs I keep open on my notebook computer automatically appear when I load Chrome on another device. Now, I can be working in Chrome at my desk, grab my Nexus phone, and, while out and about, say at lunch, can open Chrome and be looking at the same sites and pages. If I browse on the phone, it is automatically synced with the notebook back at the office. You need an ICS or later device, so I can't do this on my tablet until it gets ICS later in the summer. But, now I will have the same tabs wherever I go. Google Docs now works seamlessly on or off line. So, any document you are editing online can be continued without an Internet connection. When the Internet connection is restored, the document syncs instantly. Good stuff from the Google engineers. As an aside, all of this new functionality will now be available on iPhone and iPad. So, Apple lovers, keep your devices. Just switch to Chrome from Safari.

 

Lawyerbots - Will They Someday Practice Law By Themselves?

Lawyerbots Given the Green Light in the US. This post from Gizmodo opines that the recent predictive coding ruling, which allowed the use of computer software to sift through millions of discovery documents for relevant material, may be the vanguard of a computer invasion of the courtroom. In a recent post, I considered the possiblity of computers replacing lawyers in the courtroom. Is predictive coding software the first volley of the lawyerbots? Apparently, the predictive coding software outperformed an army of lawyers in a test of the review of the Enron discovery documents. Next, software will be researching and writing appellate briefs. I wish I could use a robot to interview some of my more difficult clients. "Save the Drama For Your Mama" might go over better coming from a non-human.

Android Jelly Bean 4.1 - What's New?

What's New in Jelly Bean Android 4.1 | AndroidTapp. Think of a smoother, faster, Android experience, and you get close to Android 4.1. Think best in class Notifications, and now you can actually make and return calls from the Notification screen. Think automatically resizing Widgets, and a host of other improvements, and you have Jelly Bean Android. It will be coming to the Nexus line, and select other devices in July; but, you can experience it first if you buy one of the new Nexus 7 tablets. While I am happy with Honeycomb on my tablet, and Ice Cream Sandwich on my Galaxy Nexus smartphone, I must say that I will be looking for Jelly Bean on both devices this year. Google has raised the bar, again. Your move, Apple and Microsoft.