Hardware To Get Excited About
Legal tech apps take up the bulk of the news, but investing in hardware can make a huge difference in productivity.
There’s been a big emphasis on software and legal apps, so people often miss the cool developments in hardware. Since Christmas is coming up, I thought I’d discuss some of the coolest hardware for law offices:
Ultimate Settlement Conference and Mediation Tablet – Lenovo Yoga Tab 3 Pro
Earlier this year, I was in a settlement conference in judge’s chambers and we had a video that we needed to show. I opened up my tablet, pointed it at a blank wall and turned on the built-in projector, showing our high-def video on half the wall of the judge’s chambers. The tablet has excellent speakers and is loud enough to fill up a conference room.
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When we go to mediations or depositions or settlement conferences, sometimes we have videos that we want to show. We have two alternatives: (1) carry around a full projector, a/v cables, a power strip, and a power cable, or (2) show everyone on a laptop screen. The problem with the laptop screen is that you’ll have five or six people huddled around watching the same thing and it’s cramped. With a tablet with a built-in projector, you can sync your PowerPoint from Dropbox or create it on the tablet, and just run it without any wires. It has about a 10-hour battery life, so it’s good for all-day use. And, of course, it’s a fully functional Android tablet, so you can put all of your other case documents on it and review PDFs, Word files, email, access the internet, etc. It’s also a great note-taking tool and uses Lenovo’s Any Pen technology that lets you use things like car keys or even a carrot as a precision stylus.
Link here (affiliate link).
Computers with an Active Stylus that Can Help You Stay Organized and Go Paperless
Last week I was in court. Opposing counsel had a cart with several boxes of exhibits, discovery, pleadings, deposition transcripts. I had my Surface Pro 4 and was taking notes in OneNote. The other side spread out binders and clipped stacks of documents across the table to get ready for oral argument. I opened up a couple of PDFs and had them along my taskbar. When the judge had a question about a pleading, I could answer it before the other side could even find the pleadings binder. I had my motions, oppositions, PDF versions of cases, and exhibits at my fingertips in a non-cluttered and easy-to-carry way. When the judge asks you a question and is ready to make a ruling, it helps to have the answers and the sources for those answers at your fingertips.
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It’s also important to get a tablet with a good stylus because it makes note taking easier and faster. When you are taking notes at a deposition or in a hearing, any lag or inaccuracies that come from using a foam-tipped stylus can really set you back. An “active” stylus will be more responsive and more accurate, more closely mimicking using a real pen. Office just released a recent batch of updates that includes enhanced functionality for using an active stylus to markup Office documents. So, if you are not at your desk, you can open up a Word doc and more easily highlight, annotate, and take a red pen to any Word document, making it easier to be more productive on the go.
Lenovo just released an interesting tablet called the Yoga Book. It looks like a laptop with a second screen where the keyboard would go. That second screen actually has a touchscreen keyboard and pen input pad to use your precision stylus to mark up the screen. You can also put a pad of paper over that second screen and the touch-sensitive second screen will translate your pen-on-paper marks to digital ink. So, for those who complain that using a stylus is not as good as using a real pen, with this, you can use a real pen and have it function as a stylus.
Microsoft Surface link here.
Yoga Book link here.
Large 4k Monitors to Enhance Productivity
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If you only have one monitor, get yourself a Christmas present of a large second monitor. It makes such a huge difference. Once you start using a second monitor, it’s really hard to go back to a single monitor. Now, with the rapid proliferation of 4k televisions, 4k computer monitors are coming down to reasonable prices.
In case you get spoiled at your desk with a second monitor and want to casually surf the internet from the couch with a second monitor, maybe to watch Netflix or simply to have twice the screen space, but you don’t want to plug in a second monitor to a power supply and balance it on the couch with video cables running to your laptop, ASUS makes a portable second screen. It’s 100% USB-powered for video and power, so you just have one USB cable connecting a second tablet-like screen and that one USB cable powers it and sends the video signal. It’s a very convenient and portable way to set up a second screen.
ASUS portable screen link here (affiliate link).
Conclusion
Although legal tech apps take up the bulk of the news, investing in your hardware can really make a huge difference in productivity. Before you start planning your 2017 technology budget, make sure you leave some room for some cool hardware toys.
Jeff Bennion is a solo practitioner at the Law Office of Jeff Bennion. He serves as a member of the Board of Directors of San Diego’s plaintiffs’ trial lawyers association, Consumer Attorneys of San Diego. He is also the Education Chair and Executive Committee member of the State Bar of California’s Law Practice Management and Technology section. He is a member of the Advisory Council and instructor at UCSD’s Litigation Technology Management program. His opinions are his own. Follow him on Twitter here or on Facebook here, or contact him by email at [email protected].
