TechnoLawyer

Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers a new smartphone (see article below), a secure online communication system for lawyers and clients, an online document management system, new practice management software, and an iPhone printing utility. Don't miss the next issue.

A New iPhone Blooms Every June

How do we cover a product every mainstream publication has already covered? Normally, we wouldn't bother, at least in the feature section of this newsletter. But Apple's iPhone platform is too important not to cover even though most legal vendors and law firms have yet to leverage its potential. So rather than ignore it or relegate it to the Roundup below, we'll explore the features most relevant to law practice.

iPhone 3G S … in One Sentence
Apple's iPhone 3G S is a new smartphone that runs iPhone 3.0, and is available in the United States on the AT&T wireless network.

The Killer Feature
Thanks to the simultaneous release of the iPhone 3G S and iPhone 3.0, owners of the two older iPhone models can take advantage of many new features for free. But the iPhone 3G S' faster processors (CPU and GPU) gives it some exclusive capabilities, one of which is Voice Control.

The Voice Control technology enables you to make phone calls and play music. To make a call, you can speak the name of a contact or a phone number. For music, the iPhone understands songs, albums, and artists as well as other commands such as "Play more songs like this one."

Other Notable Features
The iPhone 3G S includes a 3 megapixel autofocusing camera capable of capturing photos and video. If you're unhappy with the autofocus, you can tap an item on the screen to manually focus on it. After capturing video, you can trim your footage on the iPhone and directly upload it to YouTube.

Also new is a digital compass that integrates with the Google Maps application, and built-in Nike+ functionality for runners and walkers. The digital compass can help you with the most difficult aspect of driving from place to place when traveling — getting started.

iPhone 3.0 includes a number of new features for all iPhone models, including cut, copy, and paste, landscape keyboard, remote wipe, voice memos, MMS, universal search, and tethering (not yet available in the US). iPhone 3.0 also paves the way for GPS-based turn-by-turn voice navigation apps (TomTom for iPhone ships next week).

What Else Should You Know?
Third-party developers continue to crank out iPhone apps at a mind-boggling pace as the App Store now contains more than 50,000 apps, including a growing library of legal productivity and reference apps. In the US, everyone except AT&T customers with more than 6 months remaining on their contract can purchase the iPhone 3G S for $199 (16 GB) or $299 (32 GB). Apple dropped the price of the 8 GB iPhone 3G to $99. Learn more about the iPhone 3G S.

How to Receive TechnoLawyer NewsWire
So many products, so little time. In each issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, you'll learn about five new products for the legal profession. Pressed for time? The "In One Sentence" section describes each product in one sentence, and the "Killer Feature" section describes each product's most compelling feature. The TechnoLawyer NewsWire newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Coming today to TechnoFeature: Jott converts voicemail messages into text and emails them to you. It also uses its voice-to-text technology to make a growing number of tasks accessible by voice. But how well does it work? We asked business attorney and frequent TechnoLawyer contributor Mike Schley to test Jott Voicemail and Jott Assistant, and assess their usefulness for the legal profession.

How to Receive TechnoFeature
Our flagship newsletter never disappoints thanks to its in-depth reporting by leading legal technology and practice management experts, many of whom have become "household names" in the legal profession. It's in TechnoFeature that you'll find our oft-quoted formal product reviews and accompanying TechnoScore ratings. The TechnoFeature newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Coming today to BlawgWorld: Our editorial team has selected and linked to 53 articles from the past week worthy of your attention, including our Post of the Week. Here's a sample:

Technology Is Great, but Prove Your Point

A Study in Why Major Law Firms Are Shrinking

Your Firm's Future Is Tied To Your Referral Sources

This issue also contains links to every article in the June 2009 issue of Law Practice. Don't miss this issue or future issues.

How to Receive BlawgWorld
Our newsletters provide the most comprehensive coverage of legal technology, practice management, and law firm marketing, but not the only coverage. To stay on top of all the noteworthy articles published in blogs and other online publications you could either hire a research assistant or simply subscribe to BlawgWorld. The BlawgWorld newsletter has received rave reviews and is free. Please subscribe now.

Coming today to Fat Friday: Anthony Campbell discusses consultants versus the DIY approach to technology, Simon Kogan reviews the HP Officejet 9210, Stelios Antoniou shares his firm's strategy for a successful Web site, Kathy Mergulhao reviews Interwoven Worksite for document management, and Carroll Straus discusses the security risks of scanners with built-in data storage. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive Fat Friday
Our most serendipitous offering, Fat Friday consists of unsolicited contributions by TechnoLawyer members. You'll no doubt enjoy it because of its mix of interesting topics and genuinely useful knowledge, including brutally honest product reviews and informative how-tos. The Fat Friday newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Coming today to Answers to Questions: Peter Conway shares the details of his dual monitor setup and his thoughts about integrating a third, Channing Strother discusses Nuance's products and tech support, Nicholas Corona Jr. reviews the many versions of Dragon NaturallySpeaking, Charles Diorio reviews the MacBook Pro, VMWare Fusion, and other related products, and Adam Drennen shares some tips for creating macros in Word. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive Answers to Questions
Do you believe in the wisdom of crowds? In Answers to Questions, TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers. This newsletter's popularity stems from the relevance of the questions and answers to virtually everyone in the legal profession. The Answers to Questions newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers software that automatically captures billable activities (see article below), a new smartphone, a case management and accounting system for large law firms, an online technical support service, an iPhone app for storing passwords and other confidential information. Don't miss the next issue.

Don't Track Your Time, Capture It Instead

In the old days, working on a client's matter involved fetching a folder from a file cabinet. While you might receive a phone call about another matter, multitasking as we know it today didn't really exist. Thanks to the combination of email and computers that can run many programs simultaneously, you fly from task to task on different matters, making it challenging if not impossible to accurately track your billable time using old-fashioned methods. It's time to track your time differently.

Chrometa 1.1 … in One Sentence
Chrometa 1.1 is a billing program that automatically captures and categorizes the billable time you spend on your PC.

The Killer Feature
Although time tracking for many lawyers has long since moved from a ledger to computer software, the method remains the same. Lawyers must actively enter the time they spend on tasks. Timers can help, but they too essentially operate manually.

Chrometa takes a different approach. You just work. And Chrometa watches in the background. It logs all your computer activity and also tracks the time.

For example, if you spend three ten minute sessions working on a Word file named Smith Motion, it'll list the name of that document, display your three sessions and the time for each, and also provide the 30 minute total.

"Our product was built to prevent law firms from leaving revenue on the table by enhancing and even replacing some of the antiquated methods for time tracking," Chrometa founder Brett Owens told us via email.

Other Notable Features
Chrometa logs all computer activity, including time spent on documents, email, and online research. However, Chrometa does not log keystrokes or any other content, thus preserving confidentiality — plus you can block certain applications from being tracked. To create a time entry, you apply a client/matter tag to a captured activity.

Chrometa doesn't just track your computer activity, it also learns from your input. For example, after you tag the time spent on a document or its folder with a client/matter, Chrometa automatically assigns any future work on that document to that client/matter.

Chrometa doesn't just live on your PC. You can export data into Excel, so that administrators such as your assistant or your bookkeeper can access your logs. You can also generate a wide variety of reports for internal purposes as well as audits.

What Else Should You Know?
Chrometa starts at $49 for a single user license. The company also sells team licenses ($229 for 5 users, $439 for 10 users, etc.). The team license includes network tracking. All licenses include email support. Learn more about Chrometa.

How to Receive TechnoLawyer NewsWire
So many products, so little time. In each issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, you'll learn about five new products for the legal profession. Pressed for time? The "In One Sentence" section describes each product in one sentence, and the "Killer Feature" section describes each product's most compelling feature. The TechnoLawyer NewsWire newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers a PDF conversion program (see article below), knowledge management software, a Web browser, an online billing application for corporate legal departments, and a task manager for iPhone. Don't miss the next issue.

King of All Documents

The PDF format reigns as the king of document sharing, but Microsoft Word has a lock on document creation. Because Adobe and Microsoft get along about as well as Oliver and Barbara did in "War of the Roses," don't expect them to work together anytime soon. You need to find another way to bridge these two formats not to mention other document formats you may encounter such as WordPerfect.

PDF Transformer 3.0 … in One Sentence
ABBYY's PDF Transformer 3.0 creates PDF files from Microsoft Office and other applications, and also converts PDF files into Microsoft Office and other document formats.

The Killer Feature
The more things change, the more they stay the same — albeit with a few new twists. ABBYY made its name with its OCR software, which can convert scanned paper documents into editable Word and Excel files with the original layout preserved.

Nowadays, lawyers are just as likely to receive a PDF file as a paper document. Maybe more likely. While you can search PDF files and make small changes, you cannot engage in significant editing.

The new version of PDF Transformer doesn't just convert PDF files into an editable Word or Excel file, but it retains all the formatting as well thanks to ABBYY's Adaptive Document Recognition Technology, which it initially developed for its OCR software. This technology preserves footnotes, tables, fonts, headers, footers, page numbers, and more.

Other Notable Features
PDF Transformer now features batch processing for converting multiple PDF files simultaneously. On the flip side, PDF Transformer also features new tools for managing PDF files. For example, you can combine multiple PDF files into one PDF file, and add PDF files to an existing PDF file.

Litigators will welcome the new redaction, stamping, and Bates stamping tools. As an added bonus, if you convert a PDF file with redactions into Word format, PDF Transformer omits the redacted information from the Word file. Thus, you can create a clean PDF file by redacting, converting to Word, and then converting back to PDF.

Other new features include support for the latest document formats such as DOCX and PDF/A, a customizable interface, improved tools for navigating long PDF files, improved compression for creating smaller PDF files, and support for 184 languages.

What Else Should You Know?
As always, PDF Transformer adds a Create PDF button to Microsoft Office and a Print to PDF function to all other applications. It requires Windows XP, Vista, or Server 2003/2008. It costs $49.99 with volume licenses available. Learn more about PDF Transformer 3.0.

How to Receive TechnoLawyer NewsWire
So many products, so little time. In each issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, you'll learn about five new products for the legal profession. Pressed for time? The "In One Sentence" section describes each product in one sentence, and the "Killer Feature" section describes each product's most compelling feature. The TechnoLawyer NewsWire newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Coming today to TechnoFeature: You cannot effectively evaluate any ergonomic device for your computer without considering the conditions in which you'll use it — your entire system so to speak. So says technology consultant B. Jefferson Le Blanc. In this article, Jefferson lays down the law for ergonomic lighting, chairs, equipment positioning, and especially input devices. If you're still using the keyboard and mouse that shipped with your PC (and which cost the company a few cents to manufacture), you owe it to your wrists, arms, neck, and back to read this TechnoFeature article and take Jefferson's advice.

How to Receive TechnoFeature
Our flagship newsletter never disappoints thanks to its in-depth reporting by leading legal technology and practice management experts, many of whom have become "household names" in the legal profession. It's in TechnoFeature that you'll find our oft-quoted formal product reviews and accompanying TechnoScore ratings. The TechnoFeature newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Coming today to BlawgWorld: Our editorial team has selected and linked to 53 articles from the past week worthy of your attention, including our Post of the Week. Here's a sample:

Potholes to Avoid When Using Courtroom Technology

How to Reduce Your Accounts Receivable to Zero in 120 Days

Law Firm Sues Google Over Use of Its Name in Rival's Ads

This issue also contains links to every article in the June 2009 issue of Law Technology News. Don't miss this issue or future issues.

How to Receive BlawgWorld
Our newsletters provide the most comprehensive coverage of legal technology, practice management, and law firm marketing, but not the only coverage. To stay on top of all the noteworthy articles published in blogs and other online publications you could either hire a research assistant or simply subscribe to BlawgWorld. The BlawgWorld newsletter has received rave reviews and is free. Please subscribe now.

Watch the Video

TechnoScore: 2.0
1 = Lowest Possible Score; 5 = Highest Possible Score

From the corny introduction by a receptionist, to the offbeat background music, to the pregnant pauses by the attorneys at Florida law firm Levin Tannenbaum, I got the sense that the producer of this video needed some help with his editing skills. Lighting needs improvement as well. "Hello! Anyone hear of white-balance?" The video tries to introduce everyone in the office and give everyone a speaking part. Not a great idea especially when some people are, diplomatically speaking, more dynamic than others.

What's with the over-the-ear microphone by attorney Levin while he's talking to the camera? Looks goofy. Ditch the microphone off your ear. This isn't Star Trek. The b-roll footage of the conference room and buildings are okay, but stay on way too long. Edit, edit, edit.

Levin Tannenbaum's managing partner says he wanted to create a law firm that uses sophisticated technology to better handle construction cases. Another attorney says the firm uses technology to lower your cost, but he fails to tell you how. I don't understand how showing us LCD monitors (even dual monitors), a postage meter, or a printer while a secretary types explains why Levin Tannenbaum is technologically advanced.

"What do you want from a lawyer?" asks Attorney Tannenbaum asks. That's a good question. However, it seems like he was told to wait a few moments between each sentence. Not very natural — especially for a trial attorney. This video runs 2:45. With good editing it should run no more than 1:10.

Tip #1: Set Your White Balance Before Shooting

Notice the dark beige background in the video. Notice the attorney's shirts do not stand out from the background. I can't even tell what color the lawyer's shirts are. There's no contrast. The camera can't tell accurately which color is supposed to be white. Can you fix it after you've shot the video? Yes, in post-production editing you can brighten the background, but your producer/editor needs to know how. If it's not fixed, you get this dull color that dampens your message.

What I want to know is why didn't the editor realize the colors were off before putting this video out for public consumption?

Tip #2: Speed Me Up, Bones!

"Dammit Jim, I'm a doctor, not a video producer." Attorneys have long drawn-out pauses between their sentences because some video producer is telling these lawyers to sloooow down. Talk too fast, and nobody will understand you. Guess what? They're wrong. By slowing down to the extent seen on this video you give your viewer a reason to leave. If this lawyer can't discuss his own firm in a smooth flow, how can he try my case? This problem is common with video producers who are not lawyers and who have not vetted the video with real viewers before putting it online.

Edit your video. This video was painful to watch. With good editing and producing, it would have been worth watching. When you watch a commercial, notice that each scene is no more than 3-4 seconds. Why? The common thinking is that a viewer needs to see change. Keep it interesting. Don't use the same camera angle for long periods of time.

Tip #3: Use the Sidebar

Some video companies still don't get it. The sidebar serves two important functions: (1) search engines, and (2) contact information. Yes, this firm uses it well to describe what they do in Florida. Okay, they get my nod for the search engines. Yet there's no phone number or address. Why not? It should be in the sidebar. Don't make your viewer jump through hoops to contact you. If you do, they'll lose interest and go on to the next lawyer.

Conclusion

Somebody forgot to edit this video. At the end of the clip, the logo stays on for 13 seconds with background music playing. Why? I have no idea. That's 12 seconds longer than necessary. Cut out the non-essential fluff. Edit out the people who do not liven up the video; set your white balance and then speed up the lawyers to 78 RPM (like in a Fred video) speed.

Making these tweaks will liven up your video and make it special. Stand out from the crowd, and don't go along with everything your video producer wants you to do.

Till next time, see you on video!

The Back Bench

Certified Family Law Specialist and online video producer Kelly Chang Rickert says: "This video reminds me of the opening of hit comedy The Office — without the humor. I like how they focus on everyone's role in the firm. They convinced me that they run a good company. And they are technologically savvy — we love that! But what area of law do they specialize in again?"

TechnoLawyer publisher and online video producer Neil Squillante says: "While this video needs more polish — especially the cheesy opening, the managing partner with the microphone dangling from his ear, the flying logo, and the painfully drawn out closing remarks — it provides a good overview of the firm."

About YouLaw
YouTube offers law firms a free advertising platform with tens of millions of potential clients. But a poor video can hurt more than help. In this column, lawyer and online video expert Gerry Oginski reviews and rates the latest law firm videos. A panel of fellow experts (The Back Bench) add to Gerry's reviews with pithy remarks. We link to each new YouLaw column and all other noteworthy law firm marketing articles in our weekly BlawgWorld newsletter, which is free. Please subscribe now.

About Gerry Oginski
New York trial lawyer Gerry Oginski has created more than 150 informational online videos for his medical malpractice and personal injury practice. Realizing that most video producers don't have a deep understanding of the practice of law and what potential clients look for, Gerry launched The Lawyers' Video Studio, which provides free tutorials and video production services. If you need help producing a video, please contact Gerry now.

Contact Gerry:
T: (516) 487-8207
E: lawmed10@yahoo.com