It’s become my December routine. First, get the Clawbies season started: check. Then, turn my attention to legal web trends and predictions for the upcoming calendar year. Now, yes, I am the guy who told you in 2012 that Twitter was going to become a Facebook acquisition, so you know I’m not afraid to take a shot in the dark. (And that I’m going to have a little fun in the process.) No guarantees that I’ll be that creative this year, but your mileage may vary.... So, let’s see what law firms might have coming to them in the new year.

After more than 300 frivolous Friday Fillips, I feel I can hijack one fillip to do a bit of administrative business, namely to announce that as of this coming Sunday, Slaw will have a new design. I want to tell you a little bit about it here.

Webdesign styles change quite rapidly, and in the two years and more since our last makeover there’s been quite a movement towards enhancing readability. This makes great sense, especially for a publication that works its magic in words. As of Sunday, Slaw will load more quickly than ever before, and the text will . . . [more]

Clio’s third annual Apple in Law Offices Survey is a wrap with over 1,200 respondents. The survey’s results show Apple products, ranging from the iPad to MacBooks, are rapidly increasing in popularity among lawyers.

iPad

The iPad continues to be a game-changing device for lawyers: over 57% of respondents indicated they currently use an iPad in their law office. Of those that don’t, nearly 60% planned on purchasing an iPad in the next year:

Enthusiasm for the recently-announced iPad mini was also high: 23% of respondents indicated they plan to purchase an iPad mini in the next twelve months.

Mobile . . . [more]

I spent today at London’s 5th annual DIG (Digital Interactive & Gaming) Conference along with about 1500 others. The conference is divided into 3 tracks. One for game developers, another for web developers, and another for students interested in game development.

Here are some random things from the conference.

The concept of an independent device lab, which is a place where various devices are available, such as iPhones, iPads iPad minis, android phones, android tablets, windows 8 phones, surface tablets, xboxs, etc. The idea is to provide hardware for independent developers to test their apps and web pages on. Larger . . . [more]

I’m not sure when it happened but at some point people just lost their minds. Even otherwise rational people are behaving like sugar-loaded children on Christmas morning; running around in circles screaming for no apparent reason.

I’m speaking, of course, of the mobile device market.

A snappily dressed fellow goes on a stage and says the words “iPhone” or “Surface” and next thing you know thousands of people are lining up to pay hundreds of dollars for one without the slightest idea of what it really IS. In the consumer world this has become commonplace but what’s startling is how . . . [more]

Mobile devices provide lawyers with increased opportunities to unwittingly share confidential or private client information. One of the more common scenarios is when a lawyer or law firm staff has left the office and is using a wireless network connection. It is common to focus our hand-wringing on coffee shop wireless networks, but a home network or one in an airport, public library, courthouse, or opposing counsel’s office poses the same issues.

You can secure your activity outside the office by using a virtual private network (VPN) to encrypt your activity. If your practice is entirely cloud-based, working through an . . . [more]

Apple announced a new iPad mini yesterday as expected, along with upgrades to several other products. Surprisingly, an iPad 4 is now available, just a few short months after the iPad 3 was introduced. Apple is a master of innovation and marketing, and somehow manages to make evolutionary changes to its products seem revolutionary.

But they are not the only game in town. 

Microsoft has an event on Oct 25 to launch its Surface tablet, on Oct 26 to launch Windows 8, and on Oct 29 to launch Windows Phone 8. Early reviews show they are solid products. I find . . . [more]

♫ And I could change the world
I could be the sunlight in your universe…♫

Lyrics and music by Tommy Sims, Gordon Kennedy and Wayne Kirkpatrick, recorded by Eric Clapton.

The University of Victoria has been asking law students about the technology that they use for the last 12 years. The latest survey, released in September this year, makes for interesting reading. They had a 90+% response rate, which is astounding in and of itself and indicates the depth of the information revealed in their survey.

Their Executive Summary is a nice recap of their results: . . . [more]

Apple fans will already know that Apple has scheduled an event for next Wednesday. While Apple did not specifically mention the iPhone 5, it is rather obvious from the invitation.

Rumour has it that the iPhone 5 will be available September 21.

This comes on the heels of the jury decision in the US that awarded Apple a billion (yes, that’s a “b”) dollars in damages against Samsung for violating Apple patents. No word yet on whether it will be appealed, but given the amount of the damage award, and what the decision could mean for the future of Android . . . [more]

In today’s Huffington Post Canada, Mitch Joel poses the question “Is Podcasting Poised for a Comeback?”

Podcasts, you may or may not know, are like internet-based audio or video shows, created in a series, syndicated via the internet often through iTunes, and portable i.e. viewable on computer or mobile devices such as iPods, tablets or smartphones.

Mitch points specifically to five podcasts that could help the medium make a resurgence:

• Foundation with Kevin Rose. 
• Here’s The Thing with Alec Baldwin. 
• Nerdist Podcast with Chris Hardwick.
• Pursuit of Spark with Julie Burstein.
• WTF with Marc

. . . [more]

July has brought some relief to my workload. A few major projects have moved to the done list and there are only 5 items on my July projects list. Connie’s Summer Reading List is a great idea, but I can’t copy it, so I have decided to create a Summer Writing List.

My writing list has been rattling the cage for some time now. It consists of material that is frequently requested by lawyers in my office and will be crafted for use by my law firm. Can you guess what it is?

A hint: there are not enough annotated . . . [more]

An almost overwhelming amount of information is generated and stored in disparate places in our digital world. Email, documents, tweets, posts, status updates, reports, and other data flow through our computers, tablets and smartphones. Cataloging and retrieving this information is a challenge. Fortunately there are a variety of tools that make simultaneously searching through these data mines a little easier.

At Your Command

Operating system search tools, including MS Window 7 and Apple’s OS X Lion Spotlight, allow users to search files and emails locally and on external drives. They both can also be extended to search Web sources, . . . [more]