Top 9 Web Apps in your Sidebar

Firefox and Opera browsers allow you bookmarking option to open in sidebar. For Firefox, bookmark, then in properties, check “load this bookmark in the sidebar”.  Opera users, just check “Show in panel” for the same result.

The sidebar ultra-handy view is great for a number of web applications:

Google mobile view:  no doubt, you’ve seen this on your phone; with search, maps, iGoogle, youtube, calendar … what’s not to love;

Gmail mobile: in case you don’t have it in 9 other places already;

Google mobile Reader:  personal preference will tell you quickly rather you prefer your reader here or its regular spot;

Google mobile Notebook:  if you’re a researcher or web-clipper of any magnitude, the notebook belongs in your sidebar;

gTalk:  a chat client you already love

Meebo: simplify your chat; for those times your trying to juggle your mother on MSN, friends on google and your nephew on AOL;

Hahlo:  it’s a Twitter client, designed for the iPhone, but give it a go (yes, on your PC even);

MojiPage:  designed for the mobile web; register, then see your Twitter, Friendfeed, Digg, Google search, weather, del.ic.ious, RSS reader;

Yahoo mobile: okay, so the list is a little Google heavy; Yahoo mobile offers mail, messenger, news, address book, calendar, flickr & more

So, give ‘em a try — your favorite web apps … on the side.

What do you want in your sidebar?

Clio: More Terms of Service

Lawyers read contracts.  It’s akin to swearing like a sailor … just part of the deal.  And having heard everyone’s doing it, the FutureLawyer has begun scrutinizing terms of service agreements himself, before checking the “Accept” box for installations.  Like a healthy early-adopter, he found a well-recommended beta service, and thought he would give the free trial a shot.

I can appreciate his hesitation as he launched into registration.  I’m thinking he’s thinking, “what kind of language will be in the terms of service to give me comfort that I can entrust these people with my day-to-day practice, my livelihood, and ultimately, even my good standing with the state bar.”  But, I nearly digress.

So, there’s Rick, excited about trying out this new software as a service (Clio, by Themis Software), and he takes a few moments to scan the terms for how well he might be protected in the event something goes wrong. Then he comes across just what he’s not looking for (what’s a good antonym for glee).  In his words, here are

[j]ust a few of the gems on the hit parade: “1. You expressly understand and agree that Themis Software shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or exemplary damages, including but not limited to, damages for loss of profits, goodwill, use, data or other intangible losses (even if Themis Software has been advised of the possibility of such damages), resulting from your use of the API or third-party products that access data via the API. 2. Abuse or excessively frequent requests to Clio via the API may result in the temporary or permanent suspension of your account’s access to the API. Themis Software, in its sole discretion, will determine abuse or excessive usage of the API. Themis Software will make a reasonable attempt via email to warn the account owner prior to suspension. 3. Themis Software reserves the right at any time to modify or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, your access to the API (or any part thereof) with or without notice.”

What does the FutureLawyer do; how should he react?  The suspense is killing you.  You’ll have to read the punch line at FutureLawyer.  (You didn’t think I would mooch his ENTIRE post, I hope; but here’s a hint: it ends with sarcasm.)

And for those following a now-stale thread on these premises: know that neither Erik Larson nor anyone at Adobe has lived up to their “we’ll get back to you” promise regarding the new Acrobat.com terms of service.  You’re stunned.  I know.  Apparently, we gave way to more recent posts showing up on the Google Finance page for ADBE.  (Yes, I would feel bad if I suspected they just paid us a little lipservice while shareholders were watching.)

SoloSmallTech

Thank me later.  Sam is writing SoloSmallTech, and while the name says so much, I’m going to tell you all you need to know.  Here are the categories in SST’s sidebar:

- Be More Productive

- Go Paperless

- Online Marketing

- Presentations

- Save Money

So, go there.  Prosper.  (You’ll be glad you did.)

Tiny Twitter: it’s good. portable. Twitter.

From Tiny Twitter –

Tiny Twitter is just what you are looking for and it will work on ANY Java enabled device (that’s a bunch & includes the CrackBerry) and ANY Windows Mobile Pocket PC or Smartphone (they’re pretty cool).

If you like Twitter, but wish there was an app out there to allow you to tweet from you cell, look no further.  Web Worker Daily comes through again, and shows us just the ticket:

“On my Windows Mobile phone the interface is crisp and clean and Twhirl like.  I can see and browse through my timeline and tweet, reply or direct message easily. Options let me choose how often it checks for updates which is great with the ever changing API limits that Twitter seems to be imposing.”

What’s not to love?

Jott Feeds comment + true Lifehacker feedback = innovation

So, you know (thanks to Lifehacker) that Jott will read your feeds to you. Suppose yours truly left a comment on Lifehacker regarding another potential use:

If I’m not mistaken, can’t one get a feed of his gmail inbox? If it’s not too cumbersome, I could see listening to email during morning commute.

But wait! It’s not that simple (read: it does not work). What to do?

Leaping tall buildings in a single bound, LH’s own Kevin Purdy comes through with a way:

You’ve always been able to email yourself with a phone call through voice-to-text service Jott, but with the introduction of Jott Feeds, Gmail (and Google Apps) users can now have a summary of their messages read to them by phone. The secret sauce lies in Gmail’s RSS feeds and a go-between web site that handles password requirements. I’ll show you how …

You know what Wayne and Garth would say, no?

Lifehacker, “we’re not worthy!”

Adobe, Erik Larson, a Real Answer, Please.

After License to Display Your Online Files … Beware, Adobe’s Erik Larson assured he’s “checking with lawyers” and will be “looking into it”.  See for yourself in the comments to that post.  I’m feeling less and less assured that anyone’s actually checking with anyone.

All I can say for sure is that “Adobe Systems” has visited the site every few hours the last few days.  No additional comment — only views.  Perhaps those are the people Erik Larson is checking with? Wanna know what I think: someone’s looking over their shoulder every now and then, just to make sure this one blows over.

First ever Quick Poll:  Do you think we’ll actually hear anything meaningful back from Mr. Larson?  As a matter of fact, if you don’t think so, take a minute to write your best PR-speak follow-up line we might expect to get back from he and Adobe on the topic.  Example: We at adobe enjoy such a great trust relationship with our customers, that most of them will use acrobat with the current terms of service and simply trust us to do the right thing.  : )

(What I wish readers could see, but Erik could not see, is that I’m guessing Erik will write something very thoughtful and take the edge off this issue even before my readers get online to comment tomorrow morning.  Shhhh…)

YouMail Public Beta

I’ve been using YouMail for a year, but this is certainly a nice improvement on an already great service.  From the folks at PinStack.com: 

“Our new visual voicemail service represents one more free and useful feature in our powerful and unique product offering.” said Alex Quilici, CEO of YouMail. At a glance I can see all of my voicemails and choose which to play and in what order. For people who get a lot of voicemails per day, this provides an organized way to determine priority. In a world where we seem to find bite-size messages in SMS or Twitter form preferable, many people find this approach better than spending time listening to and often forgetting an audio message.”

From YouMail,

With YouMail Mobile’s “click to play” beta feature you’ll save time and avoid having to make another call to listen to your messages. Plus, you can go directly to any of your messages without listening to the prior messages. It’s voicemail at-a-glance!

• Instead of calling your voicemail box to retrieve messages, simply click the message you want to hear for instant playback
• Instantly see who called, message length, city/state, date/time
• Includes auto-transcriptions of messages
• Works on Blackberry, Treo, iPhone and Windows Mobile

Sign me up!  Oh wait…

Acrobat.com Erik Larson interviewed by Scoble

(This is of special personal interest since this morning, prior to the interview Erik Larson was commenting (below) on my post regarding concerns with Acrobat’s service agreement terms.)

Jott Reads Feeds

So you know Jott will transcribe your 30-second voice blurb, and send it as a text, email or RTM, but now it will also read feeds to you! What’s not to love? Thanks (once again) to Lifehacker:

Voice-to-text service Jott has up and reversed their game a bit with their latest service offering—having custom-picked feeds read back to you, over your phone connection. If you’re already a Jott member, you should see a feed notice when you log in starting today, where you can choose highlighted feeds (including Lifehacker) or give Jott your custom feeds. Call into Jott, say “Jott feeds” when asked “Who do you want to Jott?” and you’re on your way. …

It’s Jott, and it’s nifty. What kind of use might you make of it?

License to display your online files … BEWARE

Adobe Air Acrobat.com. It seems like a great new pdf-conversion, file sharing, screen-sharing, collaboration, video-conferencing tool. Caveat: remember my post only a couples weeks ago regarding how ADrive (online file service) apparently reserves the right to share your metadata with its partners?

Say hello to the new adobe air acrobat.com services agreement, paragraph 5.1 regarding “Your Content”:

…By maintaining your Content on the Services, you grant to Adobe a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free and fully paid license under all intellectual property rights to copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, transmit, and reformat your Content solely to deliver the Services to you. Adobe shall make commercially reasonable efforts to block the uploading of Content to the Services that contains viruses detected by using industry standard virus detection software.

(Attorneys, especially) Yes, that was the hair on the back of your neck standing up. If a file service of any type reserves the right to “copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display” your communications or work-product, please re-consider. As always, a little due diligence goes a long way; read the services agreement.

*Update: see Erik Larson’s (from Adobe) comments (below) in response to this post (thank you Erik), as well as his interview by Scoble, later the same day:  http://tinyurl.com/67otq8

100 Best Products of 2008

Link: PC World.  So here are their top 10:

Is PC World right?  What are you personal top 3 best products of the year (even if you didn’t buy any of them)?

Law 2.ooooooooooooooooooooh. Why so great?

Why develop an online law practice?

Recall Jeff Goldblum as Ian in Jurassic Park: “Your scientists were so pre-occupied with whether or not they could they didn’t stop to think if they should.” I’m not suggesting we should not practice online, but I do know folks (especially folks like me who love to discover “look what this software can do”) who get so caught up in making it work, watching it work, and telling how it works that we forget to talk about why we’re doing it. I would invite some folks who have their “boots on the ground” in the cutting edge of online law practice to tell/remind the rest of us of the many benefits and opportunities this venue makes possible.

Enter Grant Griffiths and Stephanie Kimbro. Grant has developed an exceptional expertise and following in the legal blogging world. (If you’re here you likely already know this, but…) He is Home Office Lawyer, Home Office Warrior and G2WebMedia, among other things. Stephanie is a North Carolina attorney and catalyst who provides legal services online via Kimbro Legal Services. Stephanie has worked with G2 to develop the website and blog at VLOtech (virtual law office technology) “with the purpose of providing a secure, software as a service, web-based product that connects solo and small firm law practices with the online consumer.”

With the combination of their unique expertise, who better to answer the question, “why so great?” Perhaps you can already imagine some of the benefits to attorney and/or client, but if these two do not delight you with at least one new nugget, I will be very surprised.

So Grant, Stephanie, do tell.

Metadata: is it in your attorney’s vocabulary?

Web Worker Daily » Archive ADrive: Big Bucket of Free Storage «
“… There are a few minor catches to the plan: their required registration includes your full address and phone number, their uploader is a java tool, and they reserve the right to share metadata about your files with partners - which implies context-sensitive advertising in the future. But if you need somewhere to park a bunch of data online without paying for it, the size here is hard to beat. …”

This is a test. It is pass/fail. You are an attorney. You are about to backup client files to online storage. As you actually read the pop-up terms of service agreement, you come across “provider reserves the right to share metadata about your files with partners…”.

Do you –
a) “accept” and go forward;
b) pause a minute to call your nephew to ask “what is metadata”; or
c) close your web browser on the service wanting your metadata.

If you chose “a” you should go ahead and call your nephew, then call your insurer and ask something like “is it okay if I post privileged client information on my website, just in case someone might find it useful?” Because guess what, the difference is only one of degree.

You use computers in your practice, so metadata is a fact of life. Start learning about it. You are a fiduciary.

Disqus: better comment dialogue

Comments: simple, fun, collaborative.  Disqus comment system makes that possible, so the service is now part of the Kansas Business Attorney.  Does it live up to the promise that it …

makes your comments more interactive for readers and easier to manage for you — all while connecting your community with other blogs.

We shall see.  Have you tried it elsewhere?  on your own blog?  Leave a comment regarding experience you’ve had with the Disqus comment system before, or how you like the mechanics or look of Disqus as used here.

iPhone Connected: ACU

Link: Abilene Christian University. It is no secret the Kansas Business Attorney has been skeptical of the iPhone. The rest of the story. While the AT&T 8525 has certainly filled the bill for mobile connectedness, there is a quiet concession to be made. Fewer keystrokes may have value. Some may have had a tendency (due to an old stereotype that Apple products are merely “more expensive and prettier”) to bash the iPhone in favor of the Windows Mobile (first 5, now 6) platform. True, it still seems the Windows Mobile can ultimately do more (and it already meshes well with Outlook), but for what it will do (and yes, that list is growing and many are eager to be its primary grower) the iPhone will do it faster than than a WinMo device.

Remarkable Concept: ACU Connected: Convergence and the 21st-Century Classroom. In its brief discourse (”Implications for the Emerging Classroom”) on the “flexibility, creativity, and community manifest in Web 2.0″ ACU suggest today’s students are

“born multitaskers for whom convergence is second nature.

Rather than fighting against a change that’s old news for our students, and rather than passively waiting for the development of new pedagogical models, we think it’s important to embrace and nurture the trends demonstrated by the 21st-century classroom and Web 2.0. We believe that the best way to fulfill these goals is to encourage communication and convergence. We see the new generation of converged mobile devices like the iPhone or Blackberry as devices uniquely suited to this purpose, offering multiple communication technologies - phone, voicemail, email, multi-session chat - while also bringing together an unprecedented level of media and information access - audio, video, photography, and the web.

At their core, these devices offer compelling support for the strategies of the 21st-century classroom. Further, they offer students, faculty, and staff unprecedented opportunities for building academic and social community, bringing technologies together in a way that encourages participation, creation, and exploration rather than passive consumption. We see them as ideal platforms for developing innovative and integrative applications for higher education.”

What are those terms Jobs always throws around: remarkable … fascinating … groundbreaking. Pick one. Any way you slice, convergence and the classroom — the iPhone on any campus = pretty cool.