What is the "iPad for Lawyers" Crowd Smoking?
I'm not sure what exactly the "iPad for lawyers" crowd is smoking, but whatever it is, it's potent.
A quick bit of personal disclosure on my own work experiences with the iPad. I tend to be pretty free in my purchases of gadgets and tech. tools. I don't have any sort of committee I have to ask when I buy something, and as a small business owner, I have the relative freedom to buy and experiment. (Some would say that I freely indulge.) I own an iPad and use it frequently (daily). However, I find it fairly difficult to use the iPad for anything more than "light work" without jumping through a lot of hoops. I may read a document here and there, send a few emails, but beyond that I rely on my iPad for one thing: surfing the web. (And for this, it's wonderful, unless you like to frequent flash sites.) My first jarring realization that the iPad could not function as a workhorse came when I decided to take the iPad instead of my computer on a trip. I was sitting in an airport lounge trying to crank out a blog post, and it was easily one of the clunkiest experiences of my entire life. I decided to scrap the post and move on to more mundane tasks such as paying my bills. This was easily as clunky. Let's just say that if you have to log on to a site in order to accomplish something, the iPad does not make this easy. Well, that's not entirely true, it can be easy, if you have the right app or add-on! The same goes with producing any sort of written material. If you want to crank out a short letter on the iPad, you have to hen-peck your way through the iPad's keyboard. I guess this can be made easy as well, if you have the auxiliary keyboard that you can use with the iPad. As I contemplated my increasingly poor-looking choice of deciding to use the iPad instead of a laptop (or netbook/Macbook air) an email popped up in my in-box. Someone had suggested redlines to a document I had written. I opened the email and the document. No redlines. Another task which would have been dead simple on a laptop seemed Herculean on an iPad. Again, it is accomplishable, if only you had the right app. (I think.) The fact that you could not even see the redlines on a document someone emailed you without purchasing something additional was a pretty clear indicator to me that the iPad was not going to be a substitute for my laptop any time soon. (On a loosely related note, Seattle lawyer and app mogul Michael Schneider released a track changes app for the iPhone. Check it out here.)
With this in mind, I'm constantly surprised by the refrain from many lawyers and consultants about their wonderful time and energy saving-experiences using the iPad. You almost get the sense that the iPad has transformed their practice (and their lives). Exhibit A: "A day in the Life of an iPad Lawyer." In this post, Josh Barrett provides an example of how he incorporates his iPad into his daily professional life, and uses the iPad in his lawyering. He wakes up, surfs a bit on his iPad. He listens to a podcast on his way to work on the iPad. Next he's at a client meeting and he takes notes on the iPad. Later in the day, a client asks for a current version of the agreement, and he accesses the document using GoodReader, annotates it and sends it off to the client. The post contains many similar examples, but they all have one thing in common. For every task, he calls on an app (e.g., Goodreader, DropBox, Elements, PlainText). (See "The iPad for Lawyers: All About Apps.") After reading this post, I'm left with a big question - "why?" What's the benefit of using the iPad and jumping through all these hoops to complete tasks which would be otherwise simple on the laptop? Does the one extra minute it takes you to boot up your laptop totally undermine your work experience? Does the profile of the laptop (which interposes a screen between you and the person you are meeting with) really detract so much from a client meeting? Does the extra 0.7 pounds that the MacBook Air require you to lug around really weigh you down that much? To each his or her own, but the choice to jump through a bunch of hoops to incorporate the iPad into your practice seems forced. We all know people who try a bit too hard telling you (and in the process themselves) that everything is going great. This is the iPad lawyer, when it comes to the iPad and productivity.
There's another question that's lurking in the background, and that is, does the modern lawyer really need to work so much "on the go?" Do we really need to be listening to podcasts in the car, and reviewing documents while at Starbucks? (I understand if you actually work from Starbucks full time, but that's a separate issue.) Even if you take the view (which I do) that the old style view of the work/life balance could use some shifting, it seems like a stretch to think that lawyers need to work on the go in order to maintain a liveable work/life balance. It's one thing to work remotely, work from home, etc., and have some flexibility in terms of where you work from. But do we need to really work from 4 or 5 different locations in a given day? Do we really need to work from mobile devices? And how does this affect the quality of our work? I don't know about everyone else, but I find it harder and harder to focus these days (thanks internet!) and my work product while I'm on the go (e.g., from an airport lounge) just lacks. There's no two ways about it.
The real question isn't the mobile work issue. If people want to work from the road, that's fine, but what about the time spent that is spent figuring out how to use your iPad in your legal practice. This is what gets me. There are entire sites devoted to "how to be an iPad lawyer." In this day and age, if you need to read stuff to figure out how to use a tool in your professional life (and the tool is not accomplishing something you otherwise could not do) it's probably a waste of time to incorporate this tool into your professional life. There's a reason why you don't see masses of blog posts devoted to "how to be a laptop lawyer," or "how to be a mobile phone lawyer." No one would read these posts. They state the obvious. At the end of the day, the iPad for lawyer guidance just seems overwrought. It would be one thing if people were telling you how to be more efficient, but they're just telling you how to get what you can get easily and effortlessly done on a laptop on an iPad. (In their defense, there is a coolness factor when you are working on the iPad. You may or may not be cranking out the work, but hey, at least you look cool. Seriously, if you are pressed for time, trying to juggle the various aspects of your life, wouldn't ramping up to use the iPad be the last thing you want to do? As a young lawyer who is trying to soak up as much experience and knowledge as possible, do you want to spend your precious time trying to figure out how to incorporate the iPad into your budding legal practice?)
Crazily, someone actually wrote a book for lawyers about how to incorporate the iPad into your legal practice (actually, it may be an app, not a book): "iPad in One Hour for Lawyers." I don't run any bar organizations, but if I did, I would consider automatically revoking the bar card of anyone who buys this book.
See also: "Bye Bye iPad" (William Carleton)
Added: if you go down the "iPad for Lawyers" route, check out this column by Niki Black "iPad Apps for Lawyers." I'm sure it's useful. (See also "The iPad as an Indispensable Lawyering Tool" from the Lawyerist.)
Also, a funny tweet from ABA's TechShow:
A quick bit of personal disclosure on my own work experiences with the iPad. I tend to be pretty free in my purchases of gadgets and tech. tools. I don't have any sort of committee I have to ask when I buy something, and as a small business owner, I have the relative freedom to buy and experiment. (Some would say that I freely indulge.) I own an iPad and use it frequently (daily). However, I find it fairly difficult to use the iPad for anything more than "light work" without jumping through a lot of hoops. I may read a document here and there, send a few emails, but beyond that I rely on my iPad for one thing: surfing the web. (And for this, it's wonderful, unless you like to frequent flash sites.) My first jarring realization that the iPad could not function as a workhorse came when I decided to take the iPad instead of my computer on a trip. I was sitting in an airport lounge trying to crank out a blog post, and it was easily one of the clunkiest experiences of my entire life. I decided to scrap the post and move on to more mundane tasks such as paying my bills. This was easily as clunky. Let's just say that if you have to log on to a site in order to accomplish something, the iPad does not make this easy. Well, that's not entirely true, it can be easy, if you have the right app or add-on! The same goes with producing any sort of written material. If you want to crank out a short letter on the iPad, you have to hen-peck your way through the iPad's keyboard. I guess this can be made easy as well, if you have the auxiliary keyboard that you can use with the iPad. As I contemplated my increasingly poor-looking choice of deciding to use the iPad instead of a laptop (or netbook/Macbook air) an email popped up in my in-box. Someone had suggested redlines to a document I had written. I opened the email and the document. No redlines. Another task which would have been dead simple on a laptop seemed Herculean on an iPad. Again, it is accomplishable, if only you had the right app. (I think.) The fact that you could not even see the redlines on a document someone emailed you without purchasing something additional was a pretty clear indicator to me that the iPad was not going to be a substitute for my laptop any time soon. (On a loosely related note, Seattle lawyer and app mogul Michael Schneider released a track changes app for the iPhone. Check it out here.)
With this in mind, I'm constantly surprised by the refrain from many lawyers and consultants about their wonderful time and energy saving-experiences using the iPad. You almost get the sense that the iPad has transformed their practice (and their lives). Exhibit A: "A day in the Life of an iPad Lawyer." In this post, Josh Barrett provides an example of how he incorporates his iPad into his daily professional life, and uses the iPad in his lawyering. He wakes up, surfs a bit on his iPad. He listens to a podcast on his way to work on the iPad. Next he's at a client meeting and he takes notes on the iPad. Later in the day, a client asks for a current version of the agreement, and he accesses the document using GoodReader, annotates it and sends it off to the client. The post contains many similar examples, but they all have one thing in common. For every task, he calls on an app (e.g., Goodreader, DropBox, Elements, PlainText). (See "The iPad for Lawyers: All About Apps.") After reading this post, I'm left with a big question - "why?" What's the benefit of using the iPad and jumping through all these hoops to complete tasks which would be otherwise simple on the laptop? Does the one extra minute it takes you to boot up your laptop totally undermine your work experience? Does the profile of the laptop (which interposes a screen between you and the person you are meeting with) really detract so much from a client meeting? Does the extra 0.7 pounds that the MacBook Air require you to lug around really weigh you down that much? To each his or her own, but the choice to jump through a bunch of hoops to incorporate the iPad into your practice seems forced. We all know people who try a bit too hard telling you (and in the process themselves) that everything is going great. This is the iPad lawyer, when it comes to the iPad and productivity.
There's another question that's lurking in the background, and that is, does the modern lawyer really need to work so much "on the go?" Do we really need to be listening to podcasts in the car, and reviewing documents while at Starbucks? (I understand if you actually work from Starbucks full time, but that's a separate issue.) Even if you take the view (which I do) that the old style view of the work/life balance could use some shifting, it seems like a stretch to think that lawyers need to work on the go in order to maintain a liveable work/life balance. It's one thing to work remotely, work from home, etc., and have some flexibility in terms of where you work from. But do we need to really work from 4 or 5 different locations in a given day? Do we really need to work from mobile devices? And how does this affect the quality of our work? I don't know about everyone else, but I find it harder and harder to focus these days (thanks internet!) and my work product while I'm on the go (e.g., from an airport lounge) just lacks. There's no two ways about it.
The real question isn't the mobile work issue. If people want to work from the road, that's fine, but what about the time spent that is spent figuring out how to use your iPad in your legal practice. This is what gets me. There are entire sites devoted to "how to be an iPad lawyer." In this day and age, if you need to read stuff to figure out how to use a tool in your professional life (and the tool is not accomplishing something you otherwise could not do) it's probably a waste of time to incorporate this tool into your professional life. There's a reason why you don't see masses of blog posts devoted to "how to be a laptop lawyer," or "how to be a mobile phone lawyer." No one would read these posts. They state the obvious. At the end of the day, the iPad for lawyer guidance just seems overwrought. It would be one thing if people were telling you how to be more efficient, but they're just telling you how to get what you can get easily and effortlessly done on a laptop on an iPad. (In their defense, there is a coolness factor when you are working on the iPad. You may or may not be cranking out the work, but hey, at least you look cool. Seriously, if you are pressed for time, trying to juggle the various aspects of your life, wouldn't ramping up to use the iPad be the last thing you want to do? As a young lawyer who is trying to soak up as much experience and knowledge as possible, do you want to spend your precious time trying to figure out how to incorporate the iPad into your budding legal practice?)
Crazily, someone actually wrote a book for lawyers about how to incorporate the iPad into your legal practice (actually, it may be an app, not a book): "iPad in One Hour for Lawyers." I don't run any bar organizations, but if I did, I would consider automatically revoking the bar card of anyone who buys this book.
See also: "Bye Bye iPad" (William Carleton)
Added: if you go down the "iPad for Lawyers" route, check out this column by Niki Black "iPad Apps for Lawyers." I'm sure it's useful. (See also "The iPad as an Indispensable Lawyering Tool" from the Lawyerist.)
Also, a funny tweet from ABA's TechShow:
LOL RT @Ethics_Maven: 1/2 lawyers here have iPads, but conf materials are only on USB drive. Why no web download option? #fail #ABAtechshowless than a minute ago via TweetDeck 
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Jason Wilson
jasnwilsn
Yours is still one of my favorite blogs to read, because I can count on you to be sensible and funny in a good spirited way.
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This author is nothing more than a troll trying to get a response from the crowds of people who own iPads. Nowherre within the body of his article does he mention how much more time he has on battery life on the iPad and can avoid the 5 minutes it takes him on the netbook or notebook to find an outlet. Nowhere does he say how much extra weight he carries due to hard drives, CD ROMs, power supplies and/or cables. He doesn't mention immediate access to his travel itinerary and electronic ticket that can be read from the iPad into the scanner at the security line at the airport.
As for the redlining, is it not better to spend under $5 for the app to do this than the hundreds of dollars for a bloated word processing package which claim 1000 functions of which he may use 10% of.
Nowhere does he mention how the netbook's keyboard is really too small to do serious touch typing, how he will need to purchase any additional software he finds he is in need of at a brick-and-mortar store, instead of having it purchased and installed in under a minute, and how much easier it is to find room to use the iPad while on his flight.
Consider the article for what it really is - trash.
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There is much anger in this comment. I'm not sure exactly why. I've watched employee after employee (including myself) try to implement the iPad in our workflow and guess what? It doesn't work! Sure, I can check travel itineraries, etc., and read the paper and all that other good stuff. But guess what you can't do? Research the law (even with w/the WestlawNext app very well) or write documents, etc. I think we should ask, what is this guy smoking?
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Did Joseph just call YOU a troll? He actually came on here to defend his Ipad lawyering? Is this ironic? I don't know. I think he means it.
I liked the old days better when you had to have a desktop and couldn't work if it wasn't there.
I NEED IMMEDIATE ACCESS TO EVERYTHING RIGHT NOW OR ELSE I WILL -
ummm. Shit, Venkat, what will happen?
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Funny.
I wonder if the old style lawyers said the same thing about computers and email. Probably an academic question at this point.
I do think the issue of how "mobile work" affects the quality of lawyering is something worth exploring.
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I'm a lawyer who happens to own an iPad, which I consider a great second screen -- to have email up, or maybe a PDF file, or a legal-research session -- while I type on my laptop.
The idea of it being the only machine used in a law practice is still fantasy. It seems like a particularly fruitless kind of futurism -- what would need to be reengineering is not a new App, but a new legal system that no longer depends on shuffling around pieces of paper.
The "iPad for lawyers" articles I've seen strike me as half advertising for apps, half support group for those who want to justify spending the money. Trying to help people find the right app for our strange little profession is actually, if you think about it, pretty useful. The App Store isn't meant for professional niches.
So that's the best I can do to explain it. You won't see many lawyers really trying to do all their work off an iPad -- unless the biggest part of that work is writing self-referential blog posts about the iPad.
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I have had the fortune of sitting next to Don while using an iPad. I had to use my Bluetooth keyboard and I don't think I used it all that much during the Law.gov session we attended. After Apple released it's new Mac Airs, I switched to the 11" and I haven't looked back. You want a productivity machine that travels well, that's what you get. You want a reading/consumption machine, get an iPad. I have both, and love them both. But they serve drastically different purposes. Lawyers who say otherwise are dopes.
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Could not agree more. There are so many products and services out there that are "cool" that actually hamper functionality. I'm currently dealing with 4 companies that are bragging about their SaaS cloud capabilities, but they cannot even provide simple data-entry solutions that would save hours of work. If I could save the multiple hours of data-entry, perhaps I would not be forced to access your SaaS from home...
The iPad is no different. It is cool, but it does not solve a functionality gap. First, the myriad of software required to achieve basic functionality requires a learning curve that sees no returns on investment. Secondly, the "burden" of carrying a laptop and its associated plug-ins are a fraction of those required for the iPad to achieve it's full functionality. Lastly, the iPad still runs on proprietary platforms and applications that do not function well together. This means that the more apps you have, the less your apps actually "work."
Lawyers are rarely recognized as a frugal bunch, and can be afflicted by similar buyer's remorse as much as the next guy. However, don't believe that you can wedge an iPad into your operations enough to see a true return on investment. Accept it for what it is, and what it is intended to be: a very cool web-surfing device, not a content generator.
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The number of inaccurate assumptions in the post are amazing. First of all, you are obviously a transactional lawyer who spends all day drafting long documents. If that is all you want or need to do, the iPad is not for you. For the lawyer who goes to trial, the iPad is a great tool and much more discrete to hold while talking to a jury or judge than any prior laptop or tablet. Plus you can do many useful things like online research, not-taking, document annotation or checking your e-mail during breaks. It is relatively simple to sync numerous documents to the iPad in a number of ways and apps like TrialPad make it a great courtroom presentation tool. Mmany lawyers find themselves out of the office a great deal and it is a great way to make use of spare minutes. And guess what, Einstein? A decade or mroe ago, there were tons of articles and at least one book written on how to be a mobile/laptop lawyer. The number of blogs and articles doe not prove the iPad is difficult. Quite the opposite. People are learning new ways to use it in a law practice all the time and want to share.
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I would find Jim's arguments more persuasive if he learned to edit and spell check his comment posts. Outside of that, I think the idea of being a mobile/laptop lawyer (whatever that means) is a myth. I'm going to assume that Jim doesn't spend a lot of time reading over his pleadings and motions. Hell, for all I know, he uses the magical iPad and Pages to draft and file everything electronically.
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I do think a reliable OneNote notetaking/PDF reader stylus annotator would be extremely useful to lawyers--the digital equivalent of writing on a pad of paper or marking up a printout. Despite the iPad and Tablet PCs, no one has created a machine that can do these simple tasks. I regret killing so many trees with printouts but haven't found a slate machine that can do this well. The Kno was promising but it looks like it's been canceled. Can anyone please recommend a device that can do this well?
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Will, have you tried any of the notetaking apps on the iPad? There are literally dozens of them. Penultimate or Note Taker HD are two of my favorites - they are indeed the digital equivalent of writing on a pad of paper. If you want to mark up a PDF file, there are also some great apps that can do that - GoodReader and iAnnotate are two great apps that do that, among other things.
As for OneNote, I'm waiting for the iPad version to come out, because I'd definitely use it - OneNote is available as an iPhone app, but I find that screen too small.
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Your comments are true, but whether they mean the iPad is useless in a law practice is still up for debate, in my mind. While at TechShow this year, Aaron and I kept Lawyerist running primarily from our iPads. I needed to use my laptop only once, to upload an image to go with a post, and Aaron used it to send out our weekly email newsletter.
One of the things I keep seeing people say is that the iPad is useless for content creation. That doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
I can type 60 wpm on the iPad. I get about 80 wpm on a regular keyboard, which makes the iPad pretty good for content creation.
In fact, I typed up our recent e-paper on my iPad, in Pages, and fine-tuned the formatting later in Word. I've also drafted a couple of blog posts (including my post about the iPad) on my iPad, and found the experience quite good.
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Not going to quibble too much with Sam, but at Legal Tech in NYC, I saw many, many iPads and lawyers trying to "take notes" with them. Most ended up reading email while I typed away blissfully on my Mac Air. The reason? We were sitting in chairs without tables because the seminars were too full and the lawyers didn't really know how to use their iPads. The most successful, like Mary Abraham, whom I adore, used a BT keyboard and sat in the front row. Other CIOs that I saw had integrated keyboard/covers and used them somewhat successfully.
In the end, I give the nod to Mac Airs and the Mac App store over iPads when it comes to true productivity. Lawyers are fooling themselves right now if they think it will replace paper in the office.
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Not going to quibble too much with Sam, but at Legal Tech in NYC, I saw many, many iPads and lawyers trying to "take notes" with them. Most ended up reading email while I typed away blissfully on my Mac Air. The reason? We were sitting in chairs without tables because the seminars were too full and the lawyers didn't really know how to use their iPads. The most successful, like Mary Abraham, whom I adore, used a BT keyboard and sat in the front row. Other CIOs that I saw had integrated keyboard/covers and used them somewhat successfully.
In the end, I give the nod to Mac Airs and the Mac App store over iPads when it comes to true productivity. Lawyers are fooling themselves right now if they think it will replace paper in the office.
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As the crazy guy who may eventually be responsible for the disbarment of hundreds of lawyers, I feel compelled to respond. ;-) Great post, with lots of thoughtful points. I too am puzzled by those who claim (Steve Jobs being the loudest, perhaps) that the iPad is a PC replacement. It can't be - at least not yet. When I'm working out of the office, I *always* bring my laptop - I'd never rely solely on the iPad for the any heavy lifting.
I do think it's a little premature, though, to declare the iPad a "bust" for lawyers. After all, it (and the apps) have only been out a year; traditional desktop programs had a big head start. Just a few weeks ago, Adobe announced a full-featured version of Photoshop for the iPad; can Microsoft Office be far behind? Well, that may be too much to ask from Redmond.
To me the better question is, "can the iPad *complement* a lawyer's current technology?" Apps are of course the issue: just like you can't use a laptop without programs and applications, you can't use an iPad without apps. So if you use the WordPress or SquareSpace apps (both free), they make drafting blog posts a breeze. The DocsToGo app will help you view redlines; you're right that it's easier on a laptop, but you obviously need software (Word or Acrobat) to do that, too.
I like to think of ways the iPad can do things where the laptop may suffer in comparison. For example, I can easily take written notes during a meeting, without the lid of the laptop getting between me and my client. Lawyers who go to court can now carry all of their rulebooks, codes, caselaw, and other paper on one device, which is easier to manipulate in front of a judge/jury than a laptop. And for small trials/hearings, there are some great, cheap apps that can help you pick juries and present documents to the judge/jury, without having to use Sanction or Trial Director, which are considerably more expensive.
It's true you won't find books on how to be a laptop lawyer, or how to be a mobile phone lawyer - today. But I'm willing to bet that there were plenty of books/articles on those topics years ago before lawyers started using them. They just didn't have blogs and Twitter to constantly push it in our faces.
Ultimately, I think that the technology you use has to be what makes the most sense in your practice, to allow you to provide the best service to your clients. If that's an iPad, laptop, or Selectric, so be it; just because it doesn't work for one certainly doesn't mean it can't be a terrific tool for another.
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The author focuses on the fact that every lawyer need seems to require the purchase of a specialized App or piece of equipment such as a separate key board. While this is generally true, the Apps generally range in price from free to less than $10, with the majority probably averaging $3. With a $100 App budget and a little prior research, a lawyer can put together a potent set of Apps that facilitate work in that lawyer's preferred style. Compare this cost to that of a suite of PC or Mac software, and you are likely find a suite of Apps to be a bargain.
While I agree that the iPad cannot completely replace a laptop (I frequently travel with a laptop and two iPads- for the reason see my blog article Depo Prep with the iPad), it can come quite close in many situations. I am a road warrior with most of my cases being located out of my home jurisdictions of SC and NC. The multijurisdictional practice of law, which has been the norm for me for many years, is becoming more and more common. The iPad is a compliment to this practice. The 25 minutes I can use the iPad while the plane is boarding is valuable time. Because of its size, the iPad is also much easier to use on a crowded commuter jet in flight. In the real world, my laptop generally stays packed up until I get to the hotel.
The iPad is also clearly superior to a laptop for:
Reading documents;
Making and sharing hand annotations and edits to pdf files;
Taking, storing and sharing handwritten notes;
Paper free depo prep (see my blog article- hytechlawyer.com);
Marketing presentations;
Travel logistics (reservations, directions);
Websurfing (ok-- flash is an issue, but less and less so);
Battery life;
Truly mobile computing.
Right now, we are at the tipping point where using the iPad for real lawyer work may be practical only for those on the cutting edge that are willing to invest substantial time and effort into molding the iPad into the tool they need. However, that's the way it is with revolutionary technology- early adopters pave the way for mass use. I predict that iPad and similar tablet devices will soon become as routine and ubiquitous as lawyer tools, as the smart phone and the laptop are today. Remember when lawyers first adopted Blackberrys (just a few short years ago).
If you enjoy being a part of adopting new technology to transform work, this is a wonderful time to be practicing law.
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I don't think the real issue is whether or not the iPad has a place in law, but rather if/how it can be used, without having to reinvent one's practice in order to do so. If you can use it as a helpful tool, that’s great. If you find yourself devoting too much time in finding ways to use it, or trying to figure out how to accomplish otherwise simple tasks, not so great.
FWIW, I've posted a review/comparison of the iPad and the new HP Slate (and a number reviews of iPad apps for lawyers). I would expect that Windows-based tablets (full Windows operating system and capabilities) will become a serious contender in the near future.
http://trial-technology.blogspot.com/2011/04/has-ipad-met-its-match-maybe-not-yet.html
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As a prosecutor, the iPad has completely transformed my practice.
Rather than print documents, I print to .pdf and annotate on the iPad. Rather than take notes on a yellow legal pad, I take hand-written notes on the iPad to be saved in the electronic case file.
Does the iPad replace the desktop computer in my office? Of course not.
Does the iPad replace carrying a laptop to court, where I try 10-12 cases per week and need instant access to information? Absolutely.
Rob Dean
http://www.walkingoffice.com
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The author is right; there is no analog for Word in the non-Microsoft tablet universe and I was an evangelist for full power tablet PC's (I'm typing on a HP 2740p right now since I am at my desk) until recently. I "discovered" the original iPad thanks to incredible fire sale bargains at AT&T; and have not looked back. I would not undertake writing a 50 page purchase and sale agreement on an iPad, but short of that, it fulfills most of my daily needs, including legal research, note taking, calendaring, contact management, and email without leaving my side. It is much less intrusive in a client meeting or the courtroom than even writing on my HP.
PDF - that is the answer to most of the objections the author sites in this blog. Absent Office for iOS (which I wager will never happen) I find using "publish to PDF" and any of a number of low cost iPad PDF annotators a great way to review and edit drafts of documents with my assistant. If I anticipate a rapid exchange of redlined drafts near closing with opposing counsel, then yes, I break out the HP and exchange gunfire. However, day to day working with my legal assistant, I have come to enjoy the productivity the iPad affords me - to even exchange information during the meeting or deposition (iOS multitasking really helps here).
I was around when the first lawyers started "drafting their own documents" on a 1986 Toshiba T1100 Plus, while all of the more "senior" lawyers snorted and reviled us for doing "secretarial work" instead of good old fashion number 2 pencil and red ink on bond paper drafts. We soon learned that the keyboard liberated our creativity as we could "think" live rather than rereading a dictation from four hours ago. The heavy lifting was still done by our secretaries, but rough drafts and editing was so much more instant and productive.
Fast forward 25 years later, and the iPad is a liberating force again. Is it a power laptop replacement - NO. Is it a good alternative to my yellow legal pad, hand written markups on paper, and my old netbook - INDEED. No sir, cannabis is NOT a part of the equation. Just like my former partners 25 years ago, one just needs to be willing to see past their own current "preferred" technology to embrace change.
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The iPad is great, but has limitations. Although other tablets also have their shortcomings, HP has released the Slate 500, running on Windows 7.
http://trial-technology.blogspot.com/2011/04/has-ipad-met-its-match-maybe-not-yet.html
With the ability to run MS Office and other common business applications, this type of tablet may be the real competitor.
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I tried the Slate 500 (in fact got one in the only batch shipped in Dec) - it has future potential, but Win7 is not well suited for a tablet, which has a lot to do with the small 16x9 type screens that are the rage these days. The 4x3 aspect ratio is so much better for viewing letter size documents and web pages (so what you have black borders around you precious movies). The Slate's really Achilles heal is the N-Trig digitizer - Win7 is a fair tablet OS with a good and accurate digitizer - and I think N-Trig fails on both counts. It so noisy (loud tapping sounds) that it is too distracting to write it during meetings.
I've been a Microsoft devotee since 1984 (PCjr) so I am no Apple fanboy. I've tried the XOOM, Slate 500, Nook Color (rooted) and the iPad (even my aging model 1) laps the field. If DocsToGo or QuickOffice EVER unlock tracking/document compare, they (and iPad) will own the tablet market with a true productivity replacement for low to medium power laptops. Until then I guess I'll keep my HP 2740p on the charger (in my office thanks to Logmein Ignition).
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"In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists."
The iPad is not perfect (yet). But the world it has ushered in these past 12 months is profoundly different. Lithe, tablet computing is sweep away the standard computer.
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