Eugene S. Melchionne — Legal Practice Pro

How Tethering Your iPhone Can Save You Money

August 1, 2009 By Eugene S. Melchionne

Multitasking. Productivity. Using technology to achieve both. IPhone tethering can solve a number of problems. Last year when preparing to give a presentation in Hilton Head on technology in the law office, I worried that WiFi would not be present in the seminar room. I had planned to stay in touch with my office and my clients while out of town and I wanted, no, needed, internet access.

After some research and a trip to eBay, I purchased a 3G connect card for my laptop. There are many versions; a USB ‘dongle’ that sticks out of the computer or PC or Express cards that fit into the machine. Essentially, this is cell phone hardware that allows your laptop to connect to the internet over the 3G or EDGE cell network. My service plan allows for 5 Gb of data transfer for the grand sum of about $60.00 per month. Not free certainly, but not a sum that will break the bank.

Now with tethering, I can use my iPhone in place of that card. I no longer need to carry extra hardware. I don’t have to pay that extra charge on my phone bill. Since I didn’t buy the connect card through my cell provider, I’m not tied into an extended contract and can cancel at any time.

But tethering solves many other problems. My summer weekend hideaway offers free WiFi, but it is so slow that it is usable. (Not all WiFi services are equal.) I don’t have to use that.

I can use the tethering feature to connect to my office network with my iPhone, through a VPN, and access my office server from anywhere.

I can fax through that VPN to the fax server on that office network so faxes appear to come from the office instead of where I happen to be at the moment.

I can print to any printer in the office while I am away. That means a client can come in to sign documents that I have drafted without waiting for me to return there to print or faxing the document from the nearest Kinko’s.

I can video-conference with the laptop’s built-in camera, through the iPhone tether, to anyone.

I can place a Skype phone call through the laptop, through the iPhone tether without paying AT&T for the long distance call! All free. Did I say that I like free? Free, free, free!

The possibilities are endless. What can you do with a tethered iPhone today?

Filed Under: Office Technology Tagged With: iPhone, tether

Turn Your iPhone Into A Modem For Portable Productivity

July 31, 2009 By Eugene S. Melchionne

More and more lawyers are using their laptops to access information and work remotely. Though Internet access is readily available at many coffee shops and airports, the charge for connectivity can be extreme. And when you need to hop online for only an hour, paying the full day-rate seems wasteful.

For some, the answer is getting one of those neat little wi-fi cards from the cell phone company. But these, too, often cost $25-$50 per month plus the hardware costs (unless you can get a freebie from the company). Up until now, most lawyers have only dreamed of being able to use their iPhone as a means of getting connected to the Internet with their laptop.

Other cell phones can do this and the feature is enabled (but not activated) in the latest version of the iPhone OS.

I did just that recently. Pressed for time, I needed to send an email with substantial attachments to a Chapter 7 Trustee in a client’s case. I had a 45 minute drive ahead of me to get to Court and the calendar call was in 30 minutes. So I belted my MacBook Pro into the passenger seat with the lid open, connected the laptop to the iPhone by BlueTooth and set my email program sending that email out. Strapped myself into the driver’s seat and headed off to court some 35 miles away. By the time I got to Court, the email had been sent over the G3 cell network and the Trustee had acknowledged receipt by return email!

Next time, I’m going to extend this feat by making a phone call through my car’s handsfree connection while emailing through the laptop at the same time. You can activate the tethering feature in your iPhone easily.

How many things can you do at once?

Filed Under: Office Technology Tagged With: iPhone

10 Steps To Turning Your iPhone Into A Modem For Your Laptop

July 29, 2009 By Eugene S. Melchionne

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Note that this tutorial was valid and wonderful in 2009 when originally published. iOS has evolved significantly, to the extent that there are many other means of tethering your iOS device – including ponying up a few bucks to the carrier each month or buying an app. This article is current, so don’t try this at home.

Tethering is the process by which you can connect your cell phone to a computer as a method of connecting to the internet. This is most helpful when there is no WiFi available and there is no other internet access. Tethering is built into the latest version of the iPhone OS. You can set it up without hacking or “jail-breaking” the iPhone.

Follow the step by step instructions here:

On the iPhone, goto help.benm.at in Safari.
On that web page, scroll down to Mobileconfigs -> Downloads -> USA -> ATT and install the profile.
On the iPhone, go to Settings -> General -> Reset -> Reset Network settings (this step is to enable Visual Voicemail).
Restart the iPhone just in case, especially if it does not reboot at this point.
Turn on Bluetooth on the iPhone in Settings -> Bluetooth.
On the iPhone, turn on tethering in Settings -> General -> Network -> Internet tethering.
On the Mac, click on BlueTooth icon in upper right menu bar or in System Preferences -> Bluetooth. Choose “Set up a BlueTooth Device”
Setup and pair the Mac with the iPhone, make sure the iPhone is in BlueTooth discoverable screen.
Click on BlueTooth icon again in upper right menu bar, choose your phone from the drop-down menu and connect to network.
Oops, my mistake, there is no step 1o.

Now the steps for a Windows machine are a little different requiring trips to the Control Panels folder, but the concepts are the same.

You can undo the process at any time by going in your iPhone Settings -> General -> Profile -> Remove ATT profile and restart the iPhone. If you want to use USB instead of BlueTooth, skip all the BlueTooth steps and just click on WiFi in the upper right-hand menu bar, open Network Preference and choose Ethernet Adaptor (en5). Everything installs itself.

USB tethering is automatic when you plug the iPhone into the laptop using the USB cable. You will see a blue bar at the top of the iPhone screen that says internet Tethering. A few warnings though: AT&T doesn’t currently support tethering so don’t expect to call them or Apple for help; and the lastest beta version of the iPhone OS (3.1) is rumored to disable tethering until AT&T can figure out a way to charge for it.

Photo courtesy of mag3737.

Filed Under: Office Technology Tagged With: iPhone, tether

How Can Lawyers Get A Productivity Boost from Syncing?

July 14, 2009 By Eugene S. Melchionne

Sync is the gateway to new productivity. Imagine having your assistant (virtual or otherwise) or those in your office know what changes you’ve made to your schedule immediately without liftig a finger. Or getting that new client’s contact information without having to input a single keystroke. Using some simple tools, many of them free, you can have all of your information at your fingertips without very little effort.

Start with calendaring. If you use the latest vCal standard, your calendaring program can communicate with any number of other calendars automatically, sharing only the information you want. So some people or computers or devices can see various parts of your schedule with as much detail as you want. You can give some to make changes to your day according to permissions you set or others only to see that you are ‘busy’. So if you are in court and receive a continuance date for a hearing, you can put that information in and your assistant will know immediately to reschedule that two o’clock deposition. Or a scheduling assistant can book appointments for you without having to ask you if you are available and that appointment will show up on your laptop or smartphone immediately.

The same can be accomplished for your contacts lists or your email, phone messages, faxes, or even your documents, whether it is a forms library or pleadings in a client’s case. It doesn’t matter whether you are on a Mac or a PC or a Blackberry or iPhone. If you can connect to the internet in some fashion, you can sync up and always have the latest information at your fingertips.

Here are links to some of the tools to begin the process with calendaring: