Futurelawyer

Pressreader - Some Light Daily Reading For You

PressReader. What if I told you that you never had to get newsprint on your hands again, and that you could read thousands of newspapers and magazines online for $29.95 a month? Of course, nobody has the time to read that many; but, the choice of what to read is yours. For about the price of a subscription to the TampaBay Times, and a couple of magazines, I have access to thousands of papers and magazines from my computer. You can check out the offerings free for 7 days. The only problem you will have is that you won't have time for the rest of your life, once you get hooked. Learn to speedread. You will need the skill.

Wear OS Or Tizen? No Contest.

WearOSorTizen. I am probably the world's best living expert on Android Smartwatches. I have bought and used them all, and I have some definite opinions. While many Smartwatch functions are equally good on both platforms, and Samsung is the only manufacturer using the Tizen OS, I use my Tizen Galaxy Watch 95% of the time. The biggest factor for me in using a Smartwatch is smooth, quick function, and Tizen is fast and smooth. I have never looked at a Tizen watch and noticed lag. It happens with Wear OS watches all the time. I hate lag. It just feels like the watch is mired in quicksand. If you are contemplating entering the Smartwatch world, spend the money and get a Galaxy Watch. You'll be glad you did.

If It's Tuesday, I Must Have Notifications

aoDNotify. Actually, I have notifications all day long. Unlike some, I want to know if a text, call, or email comes in so that I can decide when I want to check it. Unfortunately, while my Watch vibrates, and my headphones vibrate, I may not notice all the time. Without the phone doing something to get my attention, I may miss a notification. So, enter aoDNotify, which lights up the screen when in always on mode, and becomes just another way for my gadgets to get my attention. I know. Sometimes, you just want to check out. That is what the airplane mode is for. Just turn the gadgets off, or, in the case of watch and headset, take them off. Free, or for premium features, $2.95. Duh.

 

Augmented Audio -AR Is For The Ears

Augmented Audio. When I got the Bose Alto glasses, I was blown away by the quality of the Bose engineered sound. I can't stop giving the glasses to people I meet so they can hear the wondrous quality of the sound through their glasses without any earphone plugs, and without the person next to them hearing a thing. But, Bose is always one step ahead, and they keep adding AR apps to the Bose Connect collection. These apps take advantage of enhanced sensory input that adds new layers to the sound we hear. The new StarWars inspired app makes the movie scenes in the Rise of Skywalker explode inside your head. In the future, location aware GPS and mobile networks will bring amazing sound to you depending on where you are. A Bluetooth future in which we get ads when we pass billboards or stores in the mall, will be accompanied by incredible sound experiences everywhere we go. Wearing the Bose glasses, running Bose Connect, and travel and museums and the world will come alive with enhanced sound. The lawyer in me sees a future in which every person in the courtroom will be wearing audio enhanced glasses, and the sounds of the trial or the evidence will be piped to them via bluetooth. The best part of this is that our reality won't change; it will be enhanced. Welcome to the future.

Your Phone Companion - Finally You Can Make Phone Calls

Your Phone Companion - Link to Windows - Apps on Google Play. Finally, the Your Phone Windows app can do what phones are supposed to do, make calls. For some time, a connection with Android phones permitted viewing of photos, sending and receiving texts, and so forth, has been available while working on the notebook or desktop. Now, an update permits the user to make calls from the notebook. Very cool.

Software Developers And User Interface Hell

I have a few candidates for the software user interface hell awards of the year. I am certain I am not alone. Does anyone here know what they're doing? I remember the early days of computing, when bugs appeared in software. The marketing guys said "It's not a bug! It's a feature!" Spin doctors unite. This is your time.

 

Dragon Anywhere - There Be Dragons In That Phone!

Dragon Anywhere. What if you could pull out your smartphone, start dictating a letter or pleading, and have a digital transcript immediately? What if the accuracy of the transcription approached 99%? Sound like a lawyer's dream? Not. For $15 a month, Nuance hosts the Dragon Anywhere cloud service, that stores and distributes any recording you make, wherever you are. Call it dictation on steroids. I am often away from the office or my desk computer, or driving in the car and can't use a notebook computer or tablet. An idea comes to me, or a letter needs writing, and, with the touch of an app icon, I can be dictating to my heart's content. The transcription is immediately available, and stored in the cloud for retrieval. The RoadWarrior dictates a memo. Enemies fall.

Android Phone? Install Malwarebytes Now.

Unrelenting %u201Cad blocker%u201D plasters users with%u2014you guessed it%u2014ads | Ars Technica. Unwanted ads, while not necessarily dangerous, can ruin the computing experience on a smartphone. If an ad pops up every minute on your phone, annoying is not a strong enough word to describe a user's frustration. So, a false flag app that claims to be an adblocker that actually serves up ads really sucks. You may have Malwarebytes or other antimalware, antivirus program on your computer. But, you need it on your phone as well. I don't know why ad serving programs are called PUPs (Potentially Unwanted Programs). Trust me, they aren't wanted on my phone. Be safe out there.

#WhyIAmASolo - Quicken Is My Accountant

Quicken Home & Business Download | Quicken. Okay, I still use an accountant for tax returns and monthly financials. But, a $99 a year subscription to Quicken is all I need to have control over my finances, both personal and law firm, and, with connections to my bank, daily monitoring and control of all the bank accounts. Office accounts, trust accounts, asset and liability listings, are all available at all times. I know balances, checks clearing, deposits, and anything I need to manage my finances instantly. My entire financial life can be encrypted and backed up to the cloud for instant retrieval; and, with a mobile app, I can do it from a phone or tablet. Are you a solo lawyer yet?

Spies Are Everywhere - Protect Yourself

How to Protect Yourself From Unethical or Illegal Spying. The best security software for Windows is Malwarebytes, and I have written about it before. It is the first program I install on every new computer. Less than $50 a year, and worth ten times that. But, it is also available for Android, and is a great way to stop spyware in its tracks. Since you have your phone with you everywhere, and your life and its data and your clients' data resides on it, or is accessible in the cloud, it is essential that you do everything possible to protect it. The Android version is only $12.99 a year. Do it now.