3 Gadgets Actually Worth Buying for Lawyers
Now that we've had the Consumer Electronics Show and Apple's unveiling of the Apple Watch, the question becomes what you can or should buy with your tax refund dollars. Not every piece of technology is worth your time.
Should you spend hundreds on a watch? Or a "learning" thermostat? Or a wireless light bulb? Probably not. Here are three gadgets that are actually worth buying.
1. A Document Scanner
If you don't have the benefit of a copy machine in your office that can also scan-to-email, you're not really living, are you? Machines like the Fujitsu ScanSnap series of portable document scanners sit on your desk and let you turn your sad old paper documents into exciting digital ones with the push of a button. The more high-end ones even do automatic OCR, you suddenly have a machine-readable PDF in no time at all.
If you're not scanning your paper documents into PDFs, you're missing out on a whole world of copy-and-pasting, as well as using your tablet to read things. Which brings us to our next point ...
2. A Tablet Computer
We say "tablet" and not "iPad" or "Surface" because you should decide for yourself which brand you want (also, neither one is paying us anything to promote them, which is a real shame). Microsoft is positioning its Surface not as a competitor to other tablets like the iPad, but to other computers like the MacBook Air. The Surface Pro runs full-on Windows and desktop versions of the apps you love, like Microsoft Office. The iPad runs different versions of those apps, but the interface is snappier and there are way more apps available to download. Either way, a tablet is a tremendous convenience that is worth spending the money on.
3. Portable Bluetooth Speaker
Whether you're in the office, at home, or in the car, a portable Bluetooth speaker provides way better sound quality than the puny little speakers on your smart phone. You can listen to your music (or episodes of Serial) in any room in the house or in your office (so long as you've got the door closed). Dump the giant boombox speakers; they're not portable, and do you really need to pump up the jam like it's party night? Even Andrew W.K. is getting old.
What gadgets do you think are actually worth buying? Tell us on Twitter (@FindLawLP) or Facebook (FindLaw for Legal Professionals).
Related Resources:
- Cool Gadgets: The Best Tech You Can Buy in 2015 (Tech Radar)
- Logitech's New Wireless Mouse Is a Fistful of Awesome (Wired)
- 5 Totally Useless Gifts for a Tech-Savvy Lawyer's Office (FindLaw's Technologist)
- 5 Cheap Gadgets Every Road-Warrior Lawyer Must Have (FindLaw's Technologist)
