As most readers know, I write a column for NYC-based TechnoLawyer called SmallLaw (formerly known as, no joke, “Crazy Mazy”). Anyhow, as TechnoLawyer’s intrepid Chicago reporter I’ve written about the ABA TechShow since 2008; and before that for this blog.
Here are the 12 videos we shot at this year’s TechShow. Feel free to subscribe to my YouTube Channel for more legal tech news and check out my TechnoLawyer pieces as well.
In February 2010 Google announced plans to build out a fiber-optic network for some lucky US city and promised connection speeds 100x faster than broadband (around 1Gb/s). 1,100 cities rushed to apply for the Google makeover and today the company announced that Kansas City, Kansas won the contest. Google even launched an informational page outlining their plans. The company says service should begin in the first quarter of 2012 and pricing will be “competitive.” More communities will surely follow – and the result may even be to give AT&T, Comcast, and the rest a kick where it counts.
Foursquare, the mobile application that allows you to check into locations around town like a lab-rat in a maze, can now tell you where to go as well. Now that’s a feature! Impress your friends by earning meaningless badges. Get drunk at your favorite watering hole and post compromising picturesRobert Scoble does it. Who are you to decide it’s a pointless waste of time?
You know about Google Voice, right? You use it … or you know someone who does .. or you’ve heard of it. It’s the system that allows anybody, or any company, sound professional and do dozens of things with telephone calls that they never thought they could. All for the low low price of $0.00.
Nice.
But until recently you also had to use one of Google’s phone #’s or forward your own # to it, all of which tied you back into AT&T or whoever and just made the whole exercise seem that must less valuable.
Well now it looks like Google is going to let you port your number over to their service for about $20 and enjoy all the features of the system without letting your Clients or anyone else know about the switch.
It’s a sole-practitioner’s best friend. But don’t take my word for it, check out Google Voice or read the full post on TechCrunch
Thinking of upgrading to one of those dynamite new 4G smart-phones? Well too bad. The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) says 4G doesn’t exist yet in the U.S. So why does every cellular carrier claim to be able to offer “4G” or “4G speed” (which is like offering processed pasteurized cheese-like substance instead of, you know, cheese)? The answer: it turns out that lying to millions of cellphone users is good marketing. The reality behind the hype is explained succinctly in this article from ZD NET, which explains that in order to reach the coveted 4G level, AT&T and T-Mobile just said they were. Way to display integrity, telecom industry. You’ve really earned my loyalty.
But since “real” 4G networks built for data and voice traffic won’t be here for nearly a decade, you might as well go ahead and get that upgrade. Just don’t believe the hype.
TechnoLawyer ABA Techshow
