60 Legal Apps

Jeff Richardson, Josh Barrett, and Brett Burney gave a great session summarizing their favorite 60 legal related apps at ABA TechShow. Jeff Richardson summarizes them here.

MPU 79: Hazel 3.0

Mac Power Users Episode 79, Hazel 3.0, is live. Katie and I cover everything to love about the latest version of Hazel, one of the best utilities you can get for you Mac. Get the episode over at 5by5. Also, don’t forget to subscribe in iTunes.

Sponsor: One More Thing - iOS Conference

Interested in the design, development and business of iOS apps? At One More Thing, our goal is to get developers confident, psyched, and ready to move from dreaming of making apps to just doing it. Learn from awesome developers & designers such as:

• Loren Brichter (Tweetie/ex-Twitter)
• Neven Mrgan (Panic)
• Karl von Randow (Camera+)
• Raphael Schaad (Flipboard)
• Matt Rix (Trainyard)
• Shaun Inman (Last Rocket) and many more…

They’ll be in Melbourne, Australia on the 25th & 26th of May, 2012. Register before April 12th for discounted early-bird pricing. It’s a perfect excuse to visit Australia too!

iPad Lawyers

I’m back from spending several days in Chicago for the American Bar Association’s annual TechShow conference. As always, I had a great time and met many readers and MPU listeners, which is kind of awesome.

While last year, the iPad was a novelty at the conference, this year it almost appeared to be standard issue. Almost everyone had one. During my talk about technology at trial, I looked out to a packed room and was able to count the number of open laptops on one hand. Just about everybody else was using an iPad. The title of this post is “iPad Lawyers” instead of “Tablet Lawyers” for a reason. In three days I only saw a few Kindles and one Samsung. Every other tablet was an iPad.

The reason this seems such great news for Apple is that the law profession is legendary for it’s disdain of the Mac and its love of Windows. I’d venture that a healthy majority of the iPad toting lawyers I saw don’t own Macs. While the glut of iPads at Macworld | iWorld didn’t shock me, at the ABA conference it does.

I know that real competition for the iPad is supposed to show up any day now but in the meantime, I can’t help but wonder how that game of catchup plays out with all of these users getting attached to their iPads. Times are a’changing.

National Back Up Day

Yup. It actually exists. Moreover, you should be doing it. If you are already a back up ninja, find a loved one and show him or her the ropes. You could also listen to an excellent, if somewhat dated, podcast.

iCloud Security Checks Out

My friend Chris Foresman (yes that Chris Foresman) took a hard look at iCloud security and reports back (generally) favorably.

See Me at the ABA Techshow

As I write this, I'm sitting in John Wayne Airport preparing to board my flight to Chicago and the American Bar Association's annual TechShow. If you do anything related to the profession of law to pay for your shoes, you really should be there. This is not your average collection of blowhard lawyers but instead the premier technology-minded professionals from around the country. I've been attending for years and never thought I could have so much fun with lawyers.

If you are attending, I'm giving a session tomorrow on technology at trill and Friday on going paperless. I'll also be at the show's Concierge Desk tomorrow at noon. If you are in Chicago, make sure to seek me out and say hello.

The iPad Mini

I never take Apple rumors seriously until John Gruber posts about it. Now I’m on notice.

OmniFocus Communication Perspective and MPU 78

Kourosh Dini posted an intriguing OmniFocus screencast where he uses a combination of perspectives and TextExpander snippets to track “Waiting for” tasks. I’m not entirely sold (yet) but it is really smart. Also, Kourosh joined me on MPU 78 to talk about his technology workflows. (Kourosh is a physician.) While I started the interview with the best of intentions, we inevitably digressed into an OmniFocus nerd-fest. Get the episode over at 5by5. Also, don’t forget to subscribe in iTunes.

RSS Sponsor: PopClip for Mac

When Apple announced they were bringing iOS features “Back to the Mac” with OS X Lion (and doubled down on it with Mountain Lion), the iOS implementation of copy and paste was not included.

PopClip is a clever Mac app that brings iOS-style copy and paste to OS X, and raises the question of why Apple hasn’t done this already. If you’re curious as to how well it works, the answer is: pretty well. The most common sentiment in the user reviews is: “I’m hooked.”

If you have a Mac, you should check this out. You can download a free demo at Pilotmoon Software. The full version costs $4.99 on the Mac App Store.