LET CAMCARD ORGANIZE YOUR BUSINESS CARDS

It seems that I am constantly trading business cards with other attorneys, social welfare agencies, and just random people. I think it is something that goes with practicing law. However, keeping all of them organized and usable has been a challenge to say the least. So, I've been trying out different Android apps to see if any of them could help.

Today, I want to talk about CamCard. CamCard, which offers a free and paid version, allows you to take pictures of your business cards, both front and back, and it stores the image for you. It then reads the information from the image and creates a contact based upon what it read on the card.

This reading of the information is not perfect, though the simpler the card is, the more accurate the result. In fact, I've had a number of cards where I didn't have to make any corrections at all.

One of the things I truly love about CamCard is its ability to sync across platforms. I can save the resulting contact information in my phone's contacts, as well as having it sync with my Microsoft Exchange account. Additionally, since the information is backed up to CamCard's website, I can access the information from any computer connected to the internet.

I'd highly suggest you give CamCard a try if you are looking for a good way of organizing your business cards.

HEMINGWAY - ANOTHER TOOL TO TELL YOU THAT YOUR WRITING COULD BE BETTER

If you read Bryan Garner's articles in the ABA Journal or read any books on writing clearly, there are a number of recurring suggestions. Avoid the passive tense. Avoid adverbs. Avoid legalese or complex words when simple ones will do. Avoid overly long sentences. While I fall into the group that thinks these are good ideas, but not hard and fast rules, I do generally try to follow them in my legal writing.

The challenge, of course, is finding these issues in your writing. Microsoft Word's grammar checker is helpful, and it is what I often use as a first line tool. However, thanks to LifeHacker, I came across Hemingway today.

Hemingway identifies hard to read sentence, adverbs, words and phrases that could be simplified, and uses of passive voice. You can either draft directly in Hemingway or you can copy and past in what you have written. It will then highlight the problematic phrases.

The benefit of Hemingway is the visual aspect. Each type of problem is highlighted in a different color, making it easy to see where the problems are. I find this visual element to be much more user friendly than Microsoft Word's visual identification of problems - the green squiggly line that covers all grammar problems. Additionally, the ability to flag adverbs is something I don't believe Word is able to do.

However, Hemingway is limited to these five categories. With Word, you can check for jargon, the use - or non-use - of the serial comma (a must in my book), and numerous other stylistic issues. Additionally, the copying and pasting into Hemingway is undoubtedly more time consuming and likely to result in problems than just sticking with Word.

If you're looking to try something other than Word's grammar checker or really want a more visually understandable grammar assistant, then I would give Hemingway a try. Personally, I'm not sure it is going to be a regular tool in my toolbox.

TYPOGRAPHY FOR LAWYERS - A MUST READ FOR EVERY LAWYER

There have been a number of posts on here about how to tweak Word to help you in your day-to-day practice. But little attention has been paid to how everything you create in Word should look. In fact, that is a topic I didn't take seriously until a couple of years ago when I stumbled across Typography for Lawyers. 

The Typography for Lawyers site and book goes in depth in the importance of the type of font you should use, when to use it, and a vast array of formatting issues. I frequently refer to it and I send my colleagues to it whenever I have a question about how something should look in a brief.

Learning every Word trick and tip out there will do you know good if you don't follow good typographical principles.

USE CHROMECAST TO DISPLAY YOUR LAPTOP'S SCREEN

For those not familiar, Google's Chromecast is a $35.00 dongle that you plug into your television (or any display with and HDMI input) and connect to your WiFi network. Then, other devices on that same WiFi network can "cast" certain apps to the display through the Chromecast. For example, if you are watching Netflix on your phone or tablet, you could cast it to Chromecast and watch it on your television.

It is limited in that you can only display apps that are designed to work with Chromecast. You can't, out of the box, display local files and videos from your mobile devices.

However, on your laptop or desktop, you can mirror your entire screen through Chromecast. This is marked as being experimental, which is Google's way of telling you that you should not expect perfection and that it could very well not work well or at all for you.

To enable this, you first need to install the Chromecast app for Chrome. Once that is done, there will be a new symbol next to your address bar. Click on it, then on the down arrow next to "Cast this tab to..." and choose "Cast entire screen (experimental)".

Now, your television will show what is on your screen. I found that there was a second or two display between what I saw on my laptop's screen and when it happened on the television. I also noticed a slight flickering on my laptop display; however, it was tolerable. The television display was smooth and not choppy.

By doing this, you can display local files (music, videos, games) on your television without the need for wires. Be cautioned that if you are going to display non-local files, you may experience choppiness unless you have a fast internet connection as you will be putting quite a strain on your WiFi connection.

For $35.00, Chromecast can turn your regular television into something closer to a smart TV. In future posts, we'll explore whether this can be used in the court room.

LET TRIGGER ADJUST YOUR PHONE FOR YOU

In a prior post, I had explained how you could use an app called NFC Task Launcher to program and read NFC tags on your phone. That app, which is now called Trigger, has other uses as well.

I have been using Trigger for several months now not only for programming NFC tags, but also to adjust my phone's ringer and notification settings based on what wi-fi network I am on, and if you purchase the full version, you can even have changes occur based on your GPS location.

As an example of how I use it, when I connect to my home's wi-fi network, Trigger turns my phone's ringer and notification setting to a mid-volume setting, turns the media volume up higher, and disable's driving mode. It also can change the ring tone and notification tone.

I have a different setting for when I connect to my office's wi-fi that turns the ringer and notification volumes down and turns the media volume completely off.

And where I am able to connect to a court's open wireless network, I have it programmed to turn all of the volumes off in case I forgot to when I enter the court.

I also have it set to automatically adjust my settings once I disconnect from any of those networks.

In addition to adjusting settings based upon your wi-fi location, the free version also allows triggers based upon your connection to a bluetooth device or by NFC tag.

In the premium version, battery status, time of day, whether you are charging your phone, presence of a headset, and GPS location can all act as triggers.

I highly recommend anyone with an android phone get at least the free version of Trigger for their phones. I have found it an amazing time saver in terms of making sure my volume settings are always appropriate.

MY REVIEW OF THE JAWBONE JAMBOX

For the last few weeks, I've been using the Jawbone Jambox, and I think it is worth talking about here.

If you're not familiar with it, the Jambox is a relatively small Bluetooth speaker at less than 6 inches in length and 2" inches in depth and weighing less than a pound. Yet, I've found the sound quality that comes out of it to be clear and rich, containing decent sound at both the high and low ends. I regularly have been using it to play both audio-books as well as streaming music from Spotify and have been happy on both counts.

It has a 3.5 mm stereo jack that you can use to plug in your phone if you like or any other audio output device. However, I have found that using the Bluetooth capabilities to be wonderful. I've been able to walk throughout both my house and the office and still maintain connectivity with the Jambox.

And I think the best part has been the battery life. It boasts one the website a 15 hour battery life. But I've used it for 8 hours straight and it said that it still has 3/4 battery life left.

As far as down sides I've found is that the total overall volume could be louder. And the volume is fairly directional, so that I've found that you really want to have it pointing directly at you. Yet these downsides are not deal breakers by any means. The biggest downside could be the price, which seems a bit steep for a speaker this size.

Now, for the reason for bringing this up on this blog. Where I practice, I find myself in relatively small domestic relations court rooms on a somewhat regular basis. Rooms where the sound output of the Jambox would be sufficiently loud to be heard throughout the court room. I often have situations where I want to play a voice message left on my client's phone or the audio from a video they took on their phone. The Jambox would be an ideal way to play these things directly from my client's phone for the court and have better sound quality than the phone's speakers.

Over all, I've been exceptionally happy with the Jambox, and I think others who like to use their phone to play audio will find it's ease of use and quality make this a useful device for some offices.

SPOTIFY ON MOBILE

In case you're not familiar, Spotify is a music service that let's you play your favorite songs whenever you want. Best of all, it was always free on the desktop (ad supported of course). However, to get it on your mobile phone, you had to pay a monthly fee.

I've been a big fan of Spotify for well over a year now, and I actually prefer it over other streaming services like Pandora because I get to choose the songs I want to hear when I want to hear them. But I never could justify spending the money to get it on my phone.

As of yesterday, Spotify is now free on your mobile device. When you log in, you can listen to your music, ad supported, as well as listen to radio stations built around songs you like. It even has your playlists from the desktop version. The only catch is that you can't choose when to play your songs in your playlist. Instead, it is always on shuffle mode. A small price, as far as I'm concerned, to be able to listen to my music on the go.

All-in-all, if you're already a Spotify user, you've probably been waiting for this day for a while. If you're not using Spotify, what are you waiting for?

MY WEEK WITH THE FITBIT FLEX

Staying in shape, or getting there in the first place, can be a struggle for anyone, but for attorneys, the time commitment can be daunting. Anything that can help out would seem to be a plus.

The wife got a Fitbit Flex a while back, but she hasn't been wearing it since she has been sidelined. So, I thought I would wear it for a week and see if it added anything to my life.

If you aren't familiar, the Fitbit is a band you wear on your wrist that acts as a pedometer, sleep tracker, and silent alarm. The Android App and the website allow you to track your caloric and liquid intake and explain your sleep patterns. In short, it is designed to help you get into shape by allowing you to keep track of what you do.

On the plus side, the silent alarm feature was nice as it woke me up without waking the wife by vibrating the bracelet. The Android App was fairly user friendly, and the Bluetooth syncing with the phone made syncing a snap. It held a charge for several days before needing plugged in, and even then, charging didn't take very long. Plus, you could tap on it twice during the day and see how far you had progressed towards your walking goal for the day.

However, those were the only real positives as far as I was concerned. First, you're supposed to wear it on your non-dominant hand, which is where I usually wear my watch. Unless I wanted to wear two things on my left wrist - and I very much did not - then the watch had to stay at home. So, for a week, I kept looking at the Fitbit to figure out the time and date.

Staying on the topic of style, the Fitbit isn't garish. In fact, it looks like one of those wrist bracelets that are supposed to signify your support of cancer awareness or ecology or whatever other cause you might imagine. I suppose if you don't mind those types of things, you wouldn't find the Fitbit a problem; however, those things simply don't do anything for me. Clearly a minor, and probably personal issue, but I point it out for others who are indifferent or turned off by the cause bracelets.

As far as functionality, I do question its accuracy as a pedometer. It said I had walked nearly half a mile over the hour and a half it took to mow the lawn, which I could understand had I used a push mower. However, that entire time was spent on a riding mower. It also registered quite a few steps while I was talking during meetings (full disclosure, I talk a lot with my hands). I didn't find it to be as accurate as belt loop pedometers that I have worn in the past.

Additionally, I found it cumbersome to keep track of my food intake and water using the app. My prior experience with MyFitness Pal was more positive. Don't get me wrong, it did an ok job, I just preferred the other app for doing intake tracking.

Lastly, as a sleep tracking device, I found it lacking. It didn't provide much detailed information regarding my sleep patterns. Plus, the way I slept, the bracelet kept getting caught on my other arm or the pillow. It also didn't adjust the alarm to go off during the part of your sleep cycle where you would be least disturbed by an alarm. Prior experience with apps like Sleep as Android provided better sleep cycle analysis and functionality without the intrusion of a bracelet and they would adjust the alarm time to go off during the most restless part of your sleep cycle.

Overall, I think there is promise in the idea of the Fitbit. But I'm not sure there aren't better free apps out there to help you monitor your fitness. I'll be curious to see how the next generation of these devices function.