High-tech gifts not always just for geeks

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It’s the holiday gift-giving season again, and time for my annual run-down on favorite goodies for the tech-savvy lawyer on your list. It’s also perfectly acceptable to leave this column in a prominent place if someone needs a little help picking out something for you.

Apple iPad. The best gifts are the ones you’d want to receive. If you already have an iPad you know what I’m talking about. If you don’t have one yet, you want one – trust me. It is fast, incredibly simple to use and very portable. The touchscreen is crisp and easy to read. It runs the same applications as the iPhone, which include both business productivity tools as well as law-specific titles. With the 3G version, you can access Web resources and Web apps from pretty much anywhere. The iPad doesn’t replace your laptop, but you’ll spend a lot less time lugging the laptop around. You’ll spend between $500 and $800 depending on capacity and 3G options.

Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500. If there’s someone on your gift list that is saving stacks of magazines and journals, this is a gift that can turn those into searchable electronic documents and free up some real estate. The price, functionality and usability of the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500 make it one of the best personal scanner choices available. Set-up is easy and the bundled software (including Adobe Acrobat Standard) makes scanning to searchable PDF files as easy as pushing a button. It will automatically detect if the original is single or double sided and correctly skip blank sheets. The document feed mechanism is well designed and rarely misfeeds. Best of all, it’s fast. The ScanSnap isn’t designed for large-firm scanning volumes but it’s a great addition to the home office. Around $400 at Amazon.

Boxee Box. Dlink’s Boxee Box is a cool little black cube with a remote that streams 1080p high definition video from your wireless Internet connection to your television. It works with Hulu, Netflix, YouTube and other streaming audio and video sources. Even if Netflix is the only thing it’s used for, it’s worthwhile, but if you have a decent amplifier and speakers in your entertainment system, check out streaming audio sources like Pandora. I have no clue how to spin this as legal technology – it’s just cool. If you need to justify it as a business accessory, use it to play the media files from that deposition. Street price is around $200.

Roku XD. If the Boxee is a little out of your gifting budget, the Roku XD is a good, inexpensive alternative. Like the Boxee, it is a small device with a remote that streams internet audio and video to your television. It doesn’t have the Boxee cool factor but the price is attractive for essential high definition streaming. Composite outputs make this a good option if your giftee’s television doesn’t have HDMI connections. Around $80 from Amazon.

Solid State Drive. Solid state hard drive manufacturers have boosted capacity and dropped prices to the point where these are becoming practical as a replacement for mechanical drives. Solid state drives have no moving parts so they are not subject to the mechanical failures that can cause a traditional hard drive to crash. They are also generally noticeably faster than mechanical drives – this is a nice option to squeeze a little more performance out of a laptop. As a bonus, since there are no moving parts, the laptop will run cooler and quieter. Prices vary depending on the vendor and the drive capacity, but generally fall in the $100-$400 price range.

Windows 7 Upgrade. If there’s someone on your list who is still suffering with Windows Vista, an upgrade to Windows 7 is a stocking stuffer that will be appreciated throughout the year. The improvements to stability, usability and performance are worth the price of the upgrade if the computer won’t be replaced anytime soon. Around $175 from Amazon.

Ron Phillips is a self-described attorney-computer nerd with more than 15 years of experience as a software architect and technology entrepreneur. He has helped to design and build enterprise systems for large and mid-size corporations, developed commercial software products and authored several books and articles concerning software development, applications and technology. He enjoys helping fellow attorneys with their technology questions one-on-one and on the Practice 411 forum, and looks forward to sharing his technology perspectives in this column. You can reach Ron at [email protected].