Law Office Technology

I flashed my Phone and did not get any beads

I spent Thanksgiving Day completely wiping and reinstalling everything on my AT&T Tilt, aka TYTNII, aka Kaiser, AKA AT&T 8925.

The Tilt has been a great phone but the crap that AT&T has thrown on it, especially since the upgrade to windows mobile 6.1 has really slown my phone down.  I decided to spend Thanksgiving Day wiping my phone and redoing everything on it.    My first goal in wiping my phone was to remove all the bloatware on it and installing a different ROM. 

Q: What is a ROM?

A: A ROM contains the operating system and often additional software which can be "installed" to your mobile device. Most ROMs provided by the chefs (people who create customized ROMs) just contain the operating system and additional applications. Shipping ROMs (ROMs provided by the manufacturer or official providers) also contain a Radio ROM and a bootloader.

Unlike a computer, So to put a new rom on your phone, you first have to unlock it.  Unlocking it will allow you to install any ROM that you want, however if done improperly, it can brick your phone making it unusable.  I am not going to talk about how to unlock a phone.  You will need to find that out yourself.  After flashing my ROM, I needed to reinstall the keyboard driver.

SOFTWARE

ROM

Garmin DK7 ROM Free

This is the Rom I used to run my phone after it was unlocked.  It has no bloatware and seems to be faster.  Install 7.1 not 7.0.  So after I installed it I noticed that my phone will now charge via my usb cable, something that would not happen when I was using the Official AT&T Rom.  With the AT&T Rom, I had to have 4 phone chargers (29.95 each).  With my new ROM, I just need a usb cable.  I wonder why AT&T shuts that feature off? I also wonder how the government can go after Microsoft for violating antitrust laws and not go after the phone companies for doing something way worse.  

SKINS  / VIEWS

Winterface  $19.95

Basically Winterface makes your Windows Mobile Device look like an IPhone.  It takes about 2 seconds to get to anything on the phone and you do not need to use a stylus. 

 

View of my Applications

 

View of my Contacts

Wisebar Advance 3 $9.95

This basically makes the menus on your Windows Mobile act like menus on a Windows PC.  When you click on the start menu now, you can browse all your programs and settings.  Much better then the limited Windows Mobile view.

FunContact 19.95

This makes it possible to easily scroll through your contact list with one hand and no stylus.

 

Registry

AT&T does not want you to go into your phone’s registry.  Can you imagine if Dell had the same possibility.  AT&T has the PPT button on their phone.  If you do not use PPT it is useless.  Going into the registry can help you change the button.

KaiserTweak FREE

This free app allows you to edit certain settings on your phone.  The main reason I use this is to stop my phone from going to sleep when I am talking to someone. 

MemMaid $24.95

This basically frees up memory on your phone.  Pretty essential if you are running all these apps, like I am.

PHM Regedit  Free

Allows me to edit the registry on my phone.

INTERNET APPS

Skyfire  FREE

Supposed to be the fastest Browser for a Windows Mobile Phone.

NewsGator  FREE

Allows me to view my RSS Reader on my Phone.

Typepad FREE

Allows me to blog from my phone.

Entertainment

I have the philosophy that all entertainment content should be streamed and not stored to a Windows Mobile Device.  Therefore my TV, Audio Books and Music all involve streaming solutions.

Audible Air – Free

Allows me to download my Audible Books over the internet.

NuTsie 19.95

Allows me to stream my iTunes to my Windows Mobile Phone.

SlingPlayer $29.95

Allows me to view my TV and DVR from my phone.  You have to have a Slingbox.  It works pretty well.  I watched LSU’s Super Regional stuck in traffic in Lafayette.

 

OTHER

Sharepoint FREE

I have found that the IE Browser is the only good browser to view Sharepoint in.

However, if I put an ‘m’ at the end of the url the Site will open up in a mobile version.  This is pretty blazing fast. 

When you click on a document, it will then download it your phone where you can open it up and edit it. 

Jeyo Mobile Extender $19.95

This allows me to sync my text messages into outlook so I keep a record of them.  Since this is being used more and more for business applications, I find it important to have a record of texts.

 

Communicator Mobile Free

Allows me to instant message securely with my office.

 

Sprite Mobile  Backup and Terminator $19.95

This is what I used to Backup my phone.  The cool thing about Terminator is that if I lose my phone, I can text it and my phone will text back with the GPS Coordinates of my phone.  This really works!

Searching for Files Closed Today in Amicus

This search will not bring up files closed today.

This search will bring up files closed today.

When you mark a file Closed, the date is actually Today and not today’s date. 

Now if I were to make a file closed and then type over today with the date, 11/24/2008, it would show up when I ran a closed date for 11/24/2008.

So if you want to run a search for files Closed today, you need to do this search:

On Patching

Recently there has been a lot of chatter going back and forth about patches that cause more problems then they fix.  A couple of vendors have released some patches and service packs and have quickly pulled them when they realized that they caused problems.  A lot of my fellow brethren have been up in arms over this situation.  Here is a little secret that I have used to keep me sane:

I NEVER RUN ANYWAY UPDATE OR PATCH UNTIL IT HAS BEEN OUT FOR AT LEAST 2 MONTHS 

I NEVER INSTALL A NEW VERSION UNTIL IT HAS BEEN OUT 3-6 MONTHS

Microsoft spends billions on research and they still release service packs that cause issues.  Vendors in the Legal Market do not have billions to spend and their products are often buggy when first released.  That is the reason I  shut off all the automatic updates (for legal software) at my client’s offices.   

There is a saying in war that “The best-laid plans work well until the first bullet is fired.”  Well in the software world, “The most carefully researched and studied upgrades work will until the first piece of software is installed at your client’s office.”

Don’t be a Guiney Pig!

Office Communication Server

Our firm has begun to use Office Communication  Server for instant messaging.  We were using MSN Messenger but there was underlying concern about using a personal instant messenger for Business Communications.

Yahoo, MSN, AOL, and other instant messenger programs are not secure.  Therefore if you send messages with confidential client information you are potentially allowing your client’s information to get stolen.  I know many firms that use these type of instant messengers and this can leave an open door for a breach of client confidentiality.    

Office Communication Server is completely secure so when I am at a client’s office and ask my assistant through communicator what is the admin password for the client’s server, I do not have to worry about that information being leaked to the entire world. 

OCS give us three ways to connect:

1. Through Software downloaded on the workstation.

 

2. Through a web based portal available in Internet Explorer and Fire Fox.

3. On a Windows Mobile or Blackberry Device

Tight Outlook Integration

1. Conservations are archived and can be searched in outlook.

2. Easily allows you to send an Email Message through Communicator

3. When replying to an email in Outlook, you can send it as an instant message

4. Communicator will look at your Outlook Calendar and set your Availability Status depending on your appointments.

Advantages:

• Can send attachments through a secure network.  Attachments in Emails are not secure.  Ours allows files up to 50MB and is faster then an attachment on an email. 
• Can be used with VOIP and Video Conferencing

Disadvantages:

• Can only communicate with OCS Users
• Available only on Windows Mobile and Blackberry.  Not on I-Phone or Palm Based devices.