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?
