Law Office Technology

iPhone Scheduling Feature

I got an email from my friend Kirby the other week inviting me to his Tailgate for an LSU Game.

I noticed that my iPhone highlighted tomorrow afternoon, so I clicked on it.

An event popped up on my Calendar with the correct Date.  The event title was the subject of the email, and since Kirby wrote tomorrow afternoon in the email,  my iPhone scheduled it for Tomorrow Afternoon, which was Sept. 25th at 3pm. 

It even put Kirby’s address as the location.  Pretty productive feature. 

Use SQL to Change All Mobile Labels to Cell Labels in Amicus Premium Edition

A problem with Amicus Attorney is that it has too many labels for phone numbers

Having the labels Cell and Mobile ensures that half the firm will use one and the other half will use the other.  This becomes a big problem when setting up the Amicus Outlook Sync.  Outlook has a label for Mobile , but not one for Cell.

The iPhone has a label for Mobile as well, but not one for Cell

The end result is that I get clients complaining to me that they cannot find their customers numbers on their iPhones.  My solution is tell the clients to only use the Mobile Field in Amicus, which I have mapped to the Mobile Field in Outlook, which is mapped to the mobile field in the iPhone.  This is a great solution moving forward, but what about all the legacy contacts with phone numbers in the cell field?

Simple, we run a script in SQL that automatically changes all the Cell Fields to Mobile Fields.   

As we can see from above,  Cell is labeled 7 and Mobile is labeled 11.  Therefore when we run  the following script:

Use amicus
UPDATE dbo.Phone
SET PhoneLabelID = 11
WHERE PhoneLabelID = 7

All numbers labeled Cell will be changed to Mobile.

This is a lot easier then going into each label and changing all the contacts. 

Traveling with the iPhone

Heading up to Seattle for the LSU Game and then Vancouver to do some work.  Since I have the iPhone now, there several apps I use to help me travel.

Flight Track Pro

http://www.appvee.com/t/flight-tracker-pro

Allows me to see where my airplane is.

Navigon

http://www.navigon.com/site/us/en/mobile_navigator/iphone

Turn by Turn GPS App

AroundMe

http://www.tweakersoft.com/mobile/aroundme.html

Lets me know what Bars, Restaurants, ect are around me

Since I am going to be in Seattle, I also downloaded a whole bunch of apps related to Seattle.

Skype for the Iphone

Skype is now available for the Iphone.  It looks slick, my one phone call I tried on the train did not work.  I had bad reception so I will need to wait to Chicago to try again.

Technology and the Whitehouse

I have found the whole ideal that the president of the United States cannot use email utterly ridiculous.  How can someone lead in today’s environment without using email?  George Bush gave up email when he became president.  The two reasons I hear given is the security threat and the President Records Act of 1978 created after Watergate which make basically forces the president to keep all records of all communications.  Here are several things that I don’t get:

• If the president cannot use email, does that mean that no one in the West Wing uses email?  Because if the president cannot use email but everyone else can, don’t you think that the president is just dictating to his staff and they are sending the emails.  And then those emails can be hacked.  Obviously the president should not send nuclear launch codes in emails but he could use it for basic correspondence.
  
• Why don’t they just put in an exchange server in the Whitehouse that is not connected to the internet?  That way the president can securely email his staff without any risk of the email going to the outside world.
  
• So what is the big deal about the Presidential Records Act of 1978?  All of the presidents phone calls and letters are recorded so what if his email.  Just don’t send links to porn to anyone.  Problem solved. 

Bye Bye Treo 750, Hello HTC Tilt

 



You might say I have been pretty loyal to the Treo Brand of Phones.  I have owned the Treo 600, 650, 680, and 750.  I started with the palm operating system and made the move to the Windows Mobile Treo.  I had a BlueTooth GPS Device and a wireless Keyboard that carried along with my phone as well as many spare batteries and chargers.  The Treo 750 was a great phone, but as I added more application to it, it became less reliable.  Towards the end, it seemed like I was hard resetting it once a month.     

I walked into the AT&T Store to purchase and additional battery last week and looked and the new phones they had.  After no careful thinking, I decided to purchase the Tilt, which is a Windows Mobile Device.  It gets its name because the keyboard slides out and you can tilt the screen so it mimics a laptop.

 

This spur of the moment purchases was one of my better notions because my smartphone is now increasing my productivity and not leaving me frustrated.

  It my next post I will cover the apps I have added to it.

Here are list of my improvements over the Treo and other Smartphone's:

 

• Large Screen

• Built in  WiFi

• Built in GPS

• Large Keyboard

• Built in Backup Software

• 3 Mega Pixel Camera

• Voice Dialing

• Fast

• Tons of space

CNET REVIEW:   http://reviews.cnet.com/smartphones/at-t-tilt/4505-6452_7-32638455.html?tag=pop

 

Technical Specs

• Weight 6.0 ounces

• Dimensions: 4.4 x 2.3 x 0.73 inches

• Talk Time: Up to 4 hours

• Standby Time: Up to 8 days

• Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) support

• Stereo Bluetooth® 2.0

• Supports up to 6 simultaneous Bluetooth® pairings

• 3 MP camera with 10x zoom and autofocus

• Large 2.8" 240 x 320 64K tilting color touchscreen

• Powered by Qualcomm MSM7200 400 MHz processor

• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 MHz

• 3.6 Mbps Tri-band UMTS/HSDPA 850/1900/2100

• 256 MB Flash ROM and 128 MB SRAM

• microSD expansion slot supports up to 2 GB expandable memory

• Built-in GPS for use with AT&T Navigator

• Warranty: One year warranty on new phones & accessories, 90 days on refurbished

• All talk, data & standby times depend on network configuration

CLE Speaking: How to Be a Professional While Not in the Office: PDAs, Laptops, and the Web Get a Life

Tom and I will be speaking in New Orleans at Ralphs on the Park.

 

Sponsored by the LSBA's Professionalism & Quality of Life Committee, this program will discuss how with today's technology of Internet access and collaboration tools, lawyers can now work instantaneously with clients and colleagues, whether they're across the hall or on the other side of the world and whether they are at the beach or at home. This session will help attorneys decide whether it's finally time to make a virtual law office reality, and the online services that can help make it happen. Tom O'Conner, Director of the Gulf Coast Technology Center, will also cover the ethical, professional, and due diligence issues attorneys must work through to keep the virtual office as safe as one made of bricks and mortar.

7/11/2008
Ralph's on the Park
900 City Park Ave.
New Orleans
LA
70119
(504) 488-1000
Credit Hours
Total Hours: 1
Ethics Hours: 0
Professionalism Hours: 1
LPM Hours: 0

 

http://www.lsba.org/2007cle/seminardetail.asp?CLEID=85

Amicus Mobile has Been Released

Here is the deal.  It only works with Windows Mobile Devices, not with Blackberry's or Palm Based Devices,  It is updated real time by a connection to your Firm's Amicus Server so you will not have to sync your device.  It cost $149.00 a user.

You can view all your files on your phone

After a phone call on your mobile, Amicus will ask if you would like to record the Phone Call and if you want to create a time entry:

 

 

Check out these links for a full list of features:

Amicus Mobile Tour

Amicus Mobile Video

Updated the AirTime PCLaw Manual

I have updated the AirTime PCLaw Manual to go into more detail about editing the PCLaw matter list csv before importing into AirTime.  For those of you that don't know, AirTime is a software that sits on your mobile phone and asks you if you want to bill for your phone calls and emails.  The first month I had AirTime I captured an additional $1000.00 that was slipping through the cracks.  It costs $30 a month, or the way I look at it, it gives me $9,970.00 a month. 

 

Reader Beware, Since AirTime has a link to this blog, I do feel morally obligated to say good things about them.

Remote Support for Mobile Phones

As our customers across the country know, we offer a wide variety of technologies to remote into your office and fix issues.  Setting up and supporting smart phones has been problematic because a consultant must actually be on site.  Law Office Technology's Support Desk now has the ability to remotely control mobile phones.  A consultant will send your phone  a text message which will prompt you to install some software and click yes to connect.  Once you do, we will be able to take over your phone.  Here are the following phones we can support: 

•  Palm Treo 700 w/wx
•  Palm Treo 750 (GSM version)
•  Moto Q
•  Samsung BlackJack

 

This list will continue to grow.