Futurelawyer

Internet Everywhere - How Fast Is Your Hotspot?

Sluggish Hotspot Made Faster With One Setting. Gone are the days when a mobile lawyer had to find a hotel lobby or airline waiting area or hotel room with a cabled or WiFi Internet connection. No longer are we subject to insecure WiFi hotspots, with spotty reception, or hotels that want an arm and a leg for Internet access. I am old enough to remember crawling under a motel room bed to find the phone jack so that I could connect a dial up modem that could hardly handle a text based email transmission. These days, the biggest problem is learning how to connect your phone to a 5Ghz connection for fast hotspot data. For less than $15 a month, I have several devices (phones and tablets) that can use up to 40 Gigabytes of hotspot data a month, which is enough for all my Internet needs when traveling in the RV, and that includes TV streaming. You don't need Cable TV. You don't need Satellite TV. You don't need to call the front desk about the spotty WiFi. Learn to use your Smartphone Hotspot, and better yet, have a second phone to use as a Hotspot. It is secure. It is easy. Just make sure you configure the Hotspot to the fastest connection you can use, either 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz.

How Comics Shaped The FutureLawyer's Lifelong Love Of Gadgets.

When Chester Gould began Dick Tracy in 1931, it was an homage to Eliot Ness, during a time in which the good guys went after the bad guys, and their exploits were chronicled in the paper based newspapers and comic books. In 1946, Dick acquired a two way wrist radio, which later became the idea for a wrist phone that sent video back and forth. As a young boy, I was fascinated with the wrist communication device, and it sparked the later development of the SmartWatch, using tech developed for Smartphones. 

"On January 13, 1946,^[7] the two-Way Wrist Radio became one of the strip's most immediately recognizable icons, worn as a wristwatch by Tracy and members of the police force. This radio wristwatch inspired Martin Cooper's invention of the mobile phone, and may have inspired later smartwatches.^[8] The two-Way Wrist Radio was upgraded to a two-Way Wrist TV in 1964.^[9] This development also led to the introduction of an important supporting character, Diet Smith, an eccentric industrialist who financed the development of this equipment. In a conspicuous coincidence, the idea of a radio built into a wrist watch played an important role in the story line of "Superman – The Talking Cat" broadcast on the Mutual Broadcasting System on January 9 through 28, 1946 (episodes 878 through 891)."

So, the next time you take a call or text or email on your wrist, you can thank a comic book character. And Dick Tracy.

Why I Prefer Being A Mobile Lawyer In An RV To Being In A Hotel Or Motel.

RV Over Hotel. While the Pandemic had a lot to do with my purchase of a used RV last year, it was other factors that make me happy I did. Not having to spend hours in airport waiting areas, and crowded airplanes, and renting cars, and worrying about other people, and paying a lot of money for a single ticket, and sleeping in a space that only had my imprint on it, and having inexpensive drinks and snacks available all the time, and having a work area that I was comfortable in, and not having to pack and unpack all the time, and not worrying about who cleaned my space, and whether they did a good job, and being able to come and go whenever I wanted to, were the primary reasons I am happy with purchase. Don't be fooled by the huge prices that recent vintage RVs command. No plus hundred thousand purchases for us. You can get a great RV for no more than the price of a good, used car, if you spend time looking. Mobile lawyering isn't much different these days, wherever you go, and however you get there. Smartphones, tablets and computers, which can connect to the Internet anywhere in the country that has mobile phone access, and Internet access that makes TV antennas and Satellite antennas and cable TV obsolete, make you a lawyer wherever you want to be, and it doesn't matter if you drive in an RV or fly in a plane. Of course, the RV allows you to see much of the real USA on the ground. RV travel isn't without its problems, of course. Equipment malfunction, and accidents, and all the other things than can happen on a road trip, can create a bad day. But, automobiles suffer all the same maladies, and airplane travel has a whole host of problems. So, while I will practice law until the end, I will take some time to smell the roses of this country, while being really a mobile lawyer, and keeping in touch with that modern marvel of communication, the Internet. You know how to reach me. If you want personal contact, Zoom or Google Meet me. We can be sure I won't be getting any diseases over the Internet, and that the only viruses I will be exposed to are digital.

Samsung Is A New Kind Of Crazy.

Reserve a Galaxy Fold 3 Before The August 11th reveal. The Headline screams that Samsung must be crazy to require a pre reveal reservation system for the upcoming Galaxy Fold 3. When I read that, it occurred to me that the headline didn't go far enough. It should have read that Samsung must be crazy if they think we are going to pay over $2,000 for a Smartphone just because it folds up. In fact, this is a new kind of crazy. And you all thought the FutureLawyer was crazy because of all the gadgets I buy. There's a new Sheriff in town. Jeez.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 - WiFi/LTE Is Coming August 11th.

Pricing for Samsung's Upcoming Devices Is Leaked. The headline of this article scared me, as it implied the new Galaxy devices would be very expensive. So, I was pleased to see that the Watch 4 LTE would only be $375-$495, depending on size and design. That is a lot less than I expected, and I am anxious to see if the Tizen OS features I love are retained in the new hybrid Tizen/Wear OS. Wearable and Pocketable devices have advanced to a state in which 2 or more years of competent use are expected, and I am still happy with my Galaxy Note 10+ 5G phone. But, at $495 for the Classic, I will probably upgrade my trusty Galaxy Watch 3 to the new version. If you have been on the fence about a Smartwatch purchase, I recommend waiting to see what the Watch 4 is like.

Zoom Isn't The Only Video Conferencing Game In Town.

How to Use Google Meet To Stream. Zoom has become the go to app for video streaming and conferencing since the Pandemic made remote computing a big thing. Hearings, trials, client conferences, and social events have been streamed, and everybody uses it. But, if you are a member of the Googleverse, you owe it to yourself to give Google Meet a try. It has become much easier to use and more functional, and the integration with Google Calendar makes it a necessary add on to your Web presence. Everyone who uses Google is a potential Google Meet partner, and you can create events from within the Calendar app. Check it out, and broaden your video conferencing options.

Can You Take A ScreenShot On Your Phone?

How To Take A Screen Shot On Android. Ediscovery is a burgeoning field in law; primarily because most of us now keep our lives preserved in digital form on computers, and tablets and smartphones. So, when I read this article on how to take screenshots on a cell phone, it occurred to me that scrrenshots are a good way to preserve evidence. Want to prove what was texted, emailed or saved to the photos app? Check the screenshots. For regular use, this is a good way to show something to someone who isn't available at the moment. I love the fact that, by setting up Palm Swipe on my Samsung phone, I can save a screenshot anytime by swiping right with my palm. The screenshot is saved to Google photos and preserved forever. Be careful, however. Digital is as forever as it gets these days.

Lawyers - You Should Be Using Signal For Text Messaging.

Signal Is Catching Up To WhatsApp In The Text Messaging Space. Lawyers who deal with client confidential information all day are tempting fate if they aren't using secure, encrypted from end to end, text messaging apps. Computer and data security is risky enough these days, and, while perfect data security is impossible, lawyers are required to use reasonably available means to protect client confidentiality. Signal is free. Signal looks and works just like your current text messaging app. Signal is encrypted from end to end.  There is a phone app and a Windows app. Why aren't you using it?

#WhyIAmASolo - I Don't Have To Work For Google.

Google's Hypocritical Remote Work Policy. Large corporations treat their executives differently from other employees, as regards work policies, as this story about a Senior Google Executive who chose to work in New Zealand, while lower ranked employees didn't have the option of choosing where to work. This is just one reason I am an advocate of solo law practice. I have tailored my life and law practice since before most of you were born, to be able to PFA (Practice From Anywhere). Feel free to publicize my new meme. Just make sure you give me credit. As for Google and other large companies, I get it. There is a pecking order. But, if you are going to act like every other large corporation, you shouldn't have, as your company motto: "Don't Do Evil".

Boox Note Air - It's An Eink Pad, It's A Tablet Computer, It's An Android Tablet, It's An EReader.

Onyx Boox Note Air Review. I have had my Note Air for a few days now, and it is a replacement for my Samsung tablet, my Remarkable Eink tablet, my paper calendars, and my Kindle Ereader. I passed on my Remarkable RM2 to Diane, who loves to make lists, and draw. Like the RM2, the Note Air's software is difficult to use, but learnable. It is an Android 6 tablet, so it is slow to respond, and it has an Eink monochrome screen. But, it does a little bit of everything, and is a good replacement for the RM2. It is easy to transfer PDF and Ebook files, and it has a great backlight which makes for a bright reading screen. I will be carrying it around with me and putting the Samsung tablet, the Kindle, and the RM2 elsewhere. Work from home is so passe. Work Form Anywhere (WFA) is the new normal.