This is a short endorsement of the iAnnotate application for the iPad, produced by Aji and available on iTunes for $9.99.

I used to maintain piles of case law on a bookshelf, working my way though cases one highlighter at a time. I bought an iPad to rid myself of the enviro-guilt borne by my case law habit and was also happy to get rid of highlighters – my suits, shirts, linen, pets and kids too-often marked with indelible pink, green and yellow. The iPad, however, was a less than perfect replacement until I installed iAnnotate about a week ago. . . . [more]

According to the Official Google Blog:

Second, today we demonstrated new mobile editing capabilities for Google Docs on the Android platform and the iPad. In the next few weeks, co-workers around the world will soon be able to co-edit files simultaneously from an even wider array of devices.

This is good news for iPad owners who will no longer need to buy an app to edit Google Docs. (Not to mention making a number of iPad-owning SLAW contributors very happy.) . . . [more]

Hat tip to Susannah Tredwell (@hannasus) for retweeting:

Google Docs now supports web fonts – we’ve added 6 new fonts to documents & more are on the way

The article starts out with: “Documents without font choices are like photographs without colors. Just as shades of color can add depth to a picture, smart font choices give your text another dimension.”
This is just the beginning for font additions to Google Docs.

A question for Slaw readers: Does this font addition create enough of an incentive to start using Google Docs if you aren’t using it now? . . . [more]

Over the last decade cloud computing vendors have invested heavily in making Software-as-a-Service secure as possible. Daily security audits, SSL-based encryption, and SAS 70 Type-II-certified data centers are now the norm, rather than the exception, and data stored in the cloud is now privileged to receive some of the best security technology can afford.

However, as with any security framework, cloud computing security is only as good as its weakest link, and in many circumstances the weakest link is the password used to access a web-based application. Passwords are often easier to guess than users think, and are all too . . . [more]

Monterey College of Law in California is partnering with BARBRI, a law exam review/prep provider, to bring iPads to students in their first year law program this season. Students in their law school program tend to be older (average age 38), and the iPad is meant to help them better keep up with readings and study for bar exams.

From the August 25/10 article in Campus Technology:

“Many of our law students work the equivalent of three jobs. Between law school, work, and family, it is a constant challenge for them to set aside enough time during the

Yesterday the Twitter was awash with messages about this revolutionary new Gmail Priority Inbox. The beta version just arrived in my email, and have to say that I am already in love with it. Essentially what it does is bring new, unopened, important messages to the top, then lists those messages that are “starred” (which I have flagged with a star), and then lists everything else. It learns which are important messages over time depending on which are opened and which are responded to. In other words, its accuracy gets better over time.

This entertaining little video explains it . . . [more]

I saw an intriguing tweet from Westlaw today:

@Westlaw: WestlawNext New delivery format: WordPerfect http://ow.ly/2oiFw

Why am I intrigued?

File formats for downloads from free and fee services may seem innocuous, but every change has an effect. For instance, when Queen’s Printers in some jurisdictions changed their format (from HTML to PDF) for publicly available legislation, CanLII had to come up with new collection practices as PDF formats made point in time comparison with existing HTML files ‘difficult’. That is a grand scale example of a file format issue.

A smaller scale example would be rewriting user materials to . . . [more]

The International Legal Technology Association has its annual conference ILTA 2010 just around the corner. This association and its conference includes some of the leading law firms in North America and looks at not only technology but also records management, information management, knowledge management, social media and related areas. This year’s theme is “Strategic unity”

a concept that resonates the need for law firms and law departments to unite their technology with the practice of law. These disciplines must come together as never before in order to survive and thrive in the future. Conference sessions will be developed around this

The Canadian Judicial Council is a source of publications that should interest lawyers. The most recent report is The Canadian Justice System and the Media [PDF], a 2010 update to their publication of the same name in 2007. Although written explicitly for the benefit of members of the press and other news media, the section on Publication Bans and Other Restrictions on Media Coverage provides a handy review of the law in this area.

The Council commissions more frequent analyses on technology and its impact on the judicial system. For example, thus far in 2010 they’ve released four pieces by . . . [more]

There has been much written on Slaw and other places about the paperless office, or the virtual office. 

My personal view is that for the most part, we either already have the tools to accomplish it, or if we don’t have them, they can be acquired at low cost. The barrier is mostly our will to do it. Some people don’t see the need, or have a hard time giving up paper, or just find it hard to change.

Technolawyer points to an article that’s worth a read by New York lawyer Jay Fleishman entitled Being a Virtual Lawyer is . . . [more]

This story by Erika Kinetz (AP) is on Google news with an AP logo, but I’m not sure what you’d say was the most authentic source for it. I found it serendipitously on Roger Ebert’s Journal (from which it appears since to have been removed.)

Christopher Dawson of ZDNet has also commented. . . . [more]

♫ For whom the bell tolls
Time marches on
For whom the bell tolls…♫

Lyrics and Music by: Clifford Lee Burton; James Alan Hetfield; Lars Ulrich, recorded by: Metallica.

Microsoft has officially cut the life support on a number of products this week. Prominent among these products are:

Now to be fair, these products won’t stop working, however, Microsoft has stopped issuing any further support or patches or security upgrades.

Microsoft has stated:

Unsupported products