Saying Good-Buy: What to Think about when Buying Technology

Episode Notes

Transcript

The Kennedy-Mighell Report

Saying Good-Buy: What to Think about when Buying Technology

09/14/2018

[Music]

Intro: Web 2.0, Innovation, Trend, Collaboration, Software, Metadata… Got the world turning as fast as it can, hear how technology can help, legally speaking with two of the top legal technology experts, authors and lawyers, Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Welcome to The Kennedy-Mighell Report here on the Legal Talk Network.

[Music]

Dennis Kennedy: And welcome to Episode 221 of The Kennedy-Mighell Report. I am Dennis Kennedy in Ann Arbor.

Tom Mighell: And I am Tom Mighell in Dallas. Before we get started, we would like to thank our sponsors.

Thanks to the great TextExpander for sponsoring our show. Communicate Smarter with TextExpander. Gather, Perfect, and Share Your Knowledge. Recall your best words instantly and repeatedly. Learn more at textexpander.com/podcast.

Dennis Kennedy: And we would also like to thank ServeNow, a nationwide network of trusted, prescreened process servers. Work with the most professional process servers who have experience with high-volume serves, embrace technology, and understand the litigation process. Visit serve-now.com to learn more.

In our last episode, we discussed cybersecurity in the context of collaboration tools and previewed a presentation Tom and I will be giving in October 2018 College of Law Practice Management Futures Institute in Boston.

In this episode we go back to basics. I noticed that Tom seemed to be mentioning more and more new hardware in his recent parting shots and I have been thinking myself that I was due for a new laptop and iPad, especially with new iPads coming out this fall.

So what’s out there, what might you buy if you are in the market and should you buy something new at all at this time?

Tom, what’s all on our agenda for this episode?

Tom Mighell: Well Dennis, in this edition of The Kennedy-Mighell Report, we will indeed be discussing laptops, tablets and other hardware from the perspective of a prospective buyer.

In our second segment we will talk about the notion of presence and status indicators in our communications tools and whether or not they are a good thing. And as usual we will finish up with our parting shots, that one tip, website, or observation that you can start to use the second that this podcast is over.

But first up, buying new hardware. This time of year always makes me happy because the major manufacturers start to come out with new hardware, both for back-to-school and also for the holiday season and it usually starts coming out in September and October so that people can be ready for it in time for buying gifts and whatnot.

Not surprisingly at this time of year a lot of people find themselves in the market for new laptops, new tablets, new phones, new other gadgets.

Dennis, other than trying to keep up with me, which is clear, what got you back into the market for laptops and tablets?

Dennis Kennedy: It is shockingly clear that keeping up with you is one part of my thinking, but I guess the other thing is that I was just thinking about how long I have had my current MacBook and my current iPad and it is a really long time. So it’s more than probably — it’s either four or five years, but it’s definitely more than my usual three year replacement cycle.

So I know that Apple is coming out with announcements of new iPads and I am many generations behind on iPads and it works fine, but I have had it a long time and I sometimes run into just memory issues with it, because it doesn’t have a lot of storage. So those things kind of came together.

But it was an interesting thought process Tom because I just sort of felt psychologically it was time to move, even though I don’t really have any disappointment with the computers I have, which is sort of unusual, because I remember in the old days, especially with work computers, I would be ready to throw them out of the window and jump up and down on them just to try to get something new, because it seems like they wore out and became obsolete really quickly.

So it’s kind of a different place I am in now. So I don’t know Tom, whether you are in the market for laptops and tablets or maybe you are just always in the market?

Tom Mighell: Why, I guess you could say I am always in the market. I tell myself that I need to buy hardware regularly in order to keep up to date for this podcast or for articles that I write, hopefully for the blog that I hope to start posting and publishing again soon. But I guess to be honest I am always looking at the next new thing.

So I don’t usually keep — lately anyway, have not kept a laptop for longer than two years, because something new and interesting comes along and I want to try something new.

It’s one of the few things that I — I have got no kids, we don’t have a ton of expenses, technology is what I spend my money on, and I always tend to upgrade to the latest phones, the latest iPads. So I guess you could say that I am in the market for a new phone and a new iPad because that’s what’s really next to come out in the next few months.

(00:05:07)

But I think that I am kind of — other than people who are gadget freaks, that’s really not the standard and that most people are closer to what you do, the common drivers of new purchases, to my mind, tends to be that the old hardware is giving out or is not working the way it used to and you want something, you are not satisfied with what you are getting that you used to be satisfied with; maybe it’s a hand-me-down, maybe you are — maybe your child is going off to school and they need something and you may just give them something old and you get something new or vice versa. Or sometimes it’s a new need that you are doing something different either at work or in your personal life and that requires new hardware. Those seem to me to be the main drivers of new purchases.

Anything I am missing there, Dennis?

Dennis Kennedy: No, I agree with you, the spouse/child issue is often a big driver on personal computers, because when you have a spouse or a child who needs a new computer, the temptation is to say well, wait, I am the one who should get the new computer and I will just pass mine down to you, because it’s perfectly fine for you, because I in fact am the power user and I should have the new thing. And like you said Tom, I am a big time podcaster and blogger and technology expert so I should have new stuff.

So I think that is one thing, but sometimes you do — it just seems like in the work situation more so than the personal that you do run into things that start to become obsolete. I think part of it is a software issue, because sometimes in work as opposed to personal, you can be behind a version or two on the operating system, on Microsoft Office, things like that, whereas on the home computer you tend to — I tend to be super current, so that can be a thing that will drive it.

I mean I guess what’s interesting as you start to look at new hardware though Tom is that all the hardware out there, all the laptops, all the tablets seem to be powerful enough. You don’t hear a lot of complaints about having computer equipment that can’t do what you want. And in fact, I think the biggest complaint that I hear about technology comes down to that the Internet isn’t working well enough or fast enough.

Tom Mighell: I agree. I think that in terms of the capabilities of hardware these days, we are not hearing the same things before, what’s more or less powerful. I think that the chips have gotten to a stage where power is something that you can get pretty easily and at a reasonably good cost.

I guess I would agree with Internet. I think frankly where I see that there is still room for improvement, at least in some kind of devices and especially the ones I am going to talk about today, is battery life, is being able to get a full day of battery life out of a device really is something that I think is important and I think that the major manufacturers, some are better than others, some have nailed it, some have not done quite as good a job and I think that’s one area where users really are still demanding better improvement in the hardware that they buy.

Dennis Kennedy: So I guess the first stop these days is always, so what’s the current state of the Mac-Windows debate, and to me, it’s like you pick the one that you like and you go with it. I don’t know how much debate there really is at this point.

Tom Mighell: Well, I mean I would characterize it not as a Mac-Windows debate, I would call it now a Mac-Surface debate. I don’t know that Windows is there, unless you are talking operating system, then you are right, it’s the one that you like, but if we are talking hardware, it’s a Mac-Surface debate.

Dennis Kennedy: As opposed to the Dell, HP, Lenovo you are saying.

Tom Mighell: Well, that’s right. I mean I think, and I can talk about this more, I think that the major hardware manufacturers outside of Microsoft and Apple all put together, for the most part, reasonably good devices. But I think that in terms of the leaders in the market, I think it’s a Mac-Surface issue and I think we will dive into that a little bit more, but I think those are right now sort of the leaders in terms of quality hardware.

Dennis Kennedy: I think I am going to be forced to agree with you on that. Can we agree on this one too Tom, are desktop computers extinct at this point?

Tom Mighell: I am going to go halfway there. I think that unless you need a big screen computer like an iMac in the Macworld or a Surface Studio in the Microsoft world, I think that other than that desktop computers are extinct, but I also think that it’s going to depend on what you use a computer for.

If you need to use a computer for video creation, if you do a lot of work with depositions or that you are doing other types of creative things, or if we move over into the personal world and you happen to like playing computer games, a laptop is probably not going to get that job done, it’s not going to be powerful enough unless you get — I mean there are some pretty powerful gaming computers that are laptops. But I think for most lawyer work these days a laptop or I guess we will get into this, some would argue a tablet or even a phone would be enough.

(00:10:02)

So I mean, I am sitting here staring directly at my Surface Studio, which I love to death, but I would imagine that once you get outside of that type of desktop, I don’t see ads or reviews for any type of desktop computers anymore these days.

Dennis Kennedy: Yeah. I think that in a lot of cases that if you are — even if you are thinking about upgrading a desktop or upgrading a fairly recent computer, even a laptop, the purchase of a second or even a third monitor might be a better use of money than buying a new computer.

Tom Mighell: Yeah, agreed, I think that’s right.

Dennis Kennedy: So back to the basics. It always seems like we come down to hardware, whether we are driven by the new shiny thing or well, I always like to call it the job to be done, so do we want it just because it’s new and cool or do we want it because we have a specific job that we need to do.

I think that job to be done thing really drove people to laptops, because that mobility, portability, being able to go from one room to another, from work to home, to travel, that was all really important, but I don’t want to minimize that some part of my decision, especially on a new iPad, is just the fact that — Tom, as you know, a month ago when I was talking to you about iPads and whether I can get by with a new iPad rather than a laptop, that whole conversation and my whole effort toward doing that came to a screeching halt when I realized that Apple was going to introduce new iPads in the next week or so and so I obviously wanted the newest one.

Tom Mighell: Well, I have to say in my mind I don’t think that it either is or has to be the new shiny versus the job to be done, because to be honest, although I am always looking out for the new shiny, if it doesn’t fit the job to be done, I am not going to get it.

So I think that last year the iPhone X, great, great phone. I loved it. I thought it was great, but it doesn’t fit my job to be done, because I am not in Apple’s world anymore. And so I think that if you are looking at new hardware, I would resist the urge for the new shiny if it doesn’t fit what you really need to get done and accomplished either in your work or your personal life.

Dennis Kennedy: Yeah, I think you raise a great point, because I am firmly in the Apple world. I have sort of gradually moved. I mean I was in it for a long time, but I have sort of gradually kind of moved completely into it, because I don’t have a work situation that drives me to be in both Windows and the Apple world these days, so that’s going to drive my purchases. And so the apps — I am more of a — definitely more of a software person than a hardware person when you come right down to it.

But when I look at this MacBook that I now use, there’s a lot of great features, don’t get me wrong, but if you boil everything down what I like about in the Apple world is I just think the build quality is so great. This laptop is actually old and it’s great, it’s solid, it’s a pleasure to use it. But I think that build quality and reliability have become a big thing for me.

And we can kind of jump into the Surface world now Tom, because I think you have gone that direction. I don’t know whether we just sort of paralleled, but I think you found a comfort in the Surface world in the same way that I have in the Apple world.

Tom Mighell: Well yeah, but I will — let me start out with Macs first, because I think Macs are great machines. I think that some reviews said that the most recent MacBook, the new MacBook that came out recently is the best laptop you can buy, period. And I agree with you that the build quality of Apple is just tremendous.

But I am going to argue, and I am hoping that the Apple fans out there don’t completely disagree with me that it feels to me that Apple’s maybe been resting on its laurels when it comes to its laptops lately. That they are not innovating like they used to, which I think is what has kind of allowed the Surface to, I would argue, catch up somewhat, because I would make the argument that the build quality of some of the more recent — the Surface Book, the Surface Laptop is equal to Mac now or at least a very close, close second to it, if it’s not equal.

I happen to — it’s funny, I had an iMac here at home, I used a Mac for many years, and when the Surface Studio came out, I thought I am just not — I think Apple is great, I think Mac is great, it wasn’t for me, and I gave it up, and I have been very happy and pleased with all of my Surface devices. And I think that they all just — they look nice, they work well. I think the build quality for me is just as nice as any Apple device that I have ever had or that I have ever seen other people have. So to me it’s a tossup.

(00:14:52)

I would argue that there are a lot of Dells and a lot of Lenovos and a lot of other laptops out there that also have very good quality, but you don’t hear that as often. They tend to be the workhorses, they tend to be the things that companies buy or law firms buy to pass out to their employees because they are less expensive.

So the Macs and the Surface devices are going to tend to be a little bit more expensive than some of these other brands, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the build is — it’s not quite as good, but I would still say that they are worth looking at if you are in the market for a laptop.

Dennis Kennedy: And my experience with Windows Surface was great as well. I mean it did have a few things I struggled with, but no big deal. You learn to live with that. But there were a lot of things I liked about it.

And I think this moves us to tablets, because I think the Surface brought us to that hybrid world of where you can say hey, it’s a laptop and it’s a touchscreen at the same time, and I think we are now because of phones and stuff so used to being able to touch screens and how things happen that the — like my MacBook here, I know sometimes my wife will come up and put her fingers on the screen and be surprised that something doesn’t happen when she is looking over my shoulder.

So I think that that is an interesting thing as our habits of using computers have changed and I guess that brings us to tablets, because kind of what prompted this discussion was me saying a while back, can I — instead of replacing this MacBook, maybe I just keep it and get an iPad Pro and a nice Bluetooth keyboard and maybe that’s all I really need and that was the basic question I was asking you Tom.

So you have been known as Mr. Tablet for a long time, but where are we at on tablets and whether they can really take the place of that sort of workhorse laptop that people use every day for work?

Tom Mighell: Well, you bring up a good point that I am going to mention first is when I said earlier that Mac has not been innovating the way that Surface has, that’s the main way that’s happened. I mean I am sort of stunned that the MacBooks don’t have touchscreens. Microsoft actually has computers that have touchscreens because that seems to be the next step is to have laptops that have touchscreens.

But in terms of tablets, I think that there’s really not an alternative to the iPad. There are no Android tablets out there that are really worth looking at, they are just not as good. I would say, and those of you who listened to the last episode in my parting shot I talked about the Surface Go. Surface Go is the latest Surface device. It is the same size as an iPad Pro. It’s a little bit thicker, but it has the same screen size, although the bezel on it is pretty large. I would really like for this to be an iPad competitor, but I just don’t think it is.

On the one hand, you have got full Windows on the Surface Go. You can easily use it as a work computer if you needed to, although I would really probably prefer a slightly larger laptop. I would probably prefer something with better battery life; the Surface Go’s battery life just isn’t that great.

But I use the iPad as a content consumption device. It has some really great apps for doing that. In comparison, the Windows App Store just isn’t that good. The RSS, the Twitter Readers, they are okay, but you know what, the thing that kind of shocks me is there’s no Kindle Reader in the Windows App Store. Amazon pulled the Kindle Reader so I can’t read books on the Surface Go. Frankly, that’s a deal breaker for me, because that’s one of the things I use it for.

So coming back to your question Dennis, I think that it depends again on the job to be done. If you are enjoying your I guess semi-retirement, now that you are teaching in school, I think that for what you do right now an iPad might be a good replacement for you.

If you intend to do something more that requires — I still don’t — I am still not convinced that an iPad is a workhorse the way that a laptop, a MacBook or a Surface laptop would be. I am just not convinced about that. I mean there are a lot of lawyers who are making it happen. There are lawyers who are working on iPhones as their primary device. So I am not about to say it can’t be done, I just find that it’s — the limitations are too much when you get to the tablet function right now unless you are in a world where you really only need to do content consumption and limited content creation.

Dennis Kennedy: Right. I mean I think the real question for me and possibly for you as well is to say if we write a new edition of our book or a new book, can you do that on an iPad with a keyboard and I don’t know the answer to that.

Tom Mighell: I think so. You probably could. I mean if we — because we use Google Docs to use it, it’s easy to use Google Docs on an iPad, I think it’s perfectly reasonable.

Dennis Kennedy: So Tom, I remember not so long ago, but you used to see like several thousand word reviews of hardware that we would all read really carefully, we compare hardware feature by feature.

(00:20:05)

So, here’s my thought. I think that buying hardware is actually easier than it’s ever been, and I’m not really sure that, I mean, I sort of think it’s difficult to make a bad choice when you’re buying sort of right in that mainstream of hardware like we talked about with either the Apple line or their Surface line. You think I’m wrong in that?

Tom Mighell: I don’t think you’re wrong, but I still think that reviews — well, for me anyway, reviews are important. I don’t — frankly, I’m a big fan of the verge and I will read the reviews word-for-word, if necessary, but usually I’m just headed to the very bottom to see the rating that they gave it. The rating tells me what I think I need to know.

If I look in PC Magazine, I want to see how what the star rating is for certain devices. And so, I’m kind of a slave to the reviews on that, but I think that you generally still want to pay attention to what the experts are saying about these devices. I don’t think that you can automatically take it at face value, but I think that if you are in the market for a laptop but you’re looking for more of a budget buy or something that is probably not as expensive as a Mac or maybe even a Surface, then doing a Google search or going on PC Magazine to say best mid-range laptops or something like that.

And you’re going to find a review that compares and contrasts them in a way that is accessible and easy to read, it’s not thousand word reviews that you have to pour over every single detail because I do think that they would probably all be good choices, but it is probably good to know, here are some of the differences you need to pay attention to.

Dennis Kennedy: And I guess the one thing we haven’t discussed but we’ll mention so people didn’t think we purposely left it out is Chromebooks, which is that the sort of low-end approach that you could take which could work out perfectly well for certain situations and certain people, depending on what your requirements are.

So, my thought is that I’m now going to this notion on hardware if anybody ever asked me the question of is that sort of personalization, so what matters to you, what do you like, how does it look? I think you can make that more important, obviously what you’re doing it for is important, how much you travel, how you collaborate with people?

But, I think that sort of personal, what is it you like, because I just don’t — I think it’s kind of hard to go wrong with what you pick. So, I think that’s a good thing, and I don’t know.

So that’s my thought on that, Tom. We were going to talk about maybe some other hardware things. So, maybe we can do like a lightning round on that but other hardware that I am interested in because like I said, it always seems like slow Internet is what drives you crazy but if I’m looking at hardware, it’s probably going to be like a new router and we’ve talked about that before.

Tom Mighell: Mesh network, Dennis, mesh network, that’s what you need.

Dennis Kennedy: And then, this cool YubiKey thing for security is another $50 purchase, that hardware purchase that seems to make sense. Anything on your list?

Tom Mighell: Well, it’s funny. You should mention YubiKey because Google actually has come out with its own recently and I purchased it. It’s going to take a while to get to me. So, I’ll report on it in a future episode of the podcast but Google has come out with its own security key as well, and I’m looking forward to trying that out.

So that’s — I think that’s my most recent purchase, of course, phones are coming out. I’m sure we’ll be talking about it in that coming podcast, but I’m always in the market for the next Pixel from Google. Those are pretty much the things I’m looking forward to.

All right, before we hit our next segment, let’s take a break for a message from our sponsors.

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(00:25:00)

Tom Mighell: And now, let’s get back to The Kennedy-Mighell Report. I’m Tom Mighell.

Dennis Kennedy: And I am Dennis Kennedy. We used to do a segment called Tom’s Rant on this podcast because Tom was always getting outraged by some new technology development. Well, ranting Tom is back for this episode. This time it’s because of a suggestion that we all should turn off those presents and status indicators and tools like Skype for Business.

The concept here is that Tom goes into a tirade about this topic and then I calmly try to express a reasonable counterpoint, and Tom either demolishes my arguments or ignores them completely because he is so disgusted with them. Tom, you me far away.

Tom Mighell: So, as I was preparing for the podcast I probably got less energized about this topic than I was beforehand, but I’m going to give it a shot anyway.

In a recent post, Jason Fried, who is the Founder and CEO of Basecamp, which by the way is a tool that I use, we used Loved to Death, but he talks about the presence indicator.

So, if you use Skype, if you use other Instant Messaging tools, you’ll know that they have some sort of indicator that shows green if you’re available, yellow if you’re away, red if you’re busy. There’s a do not disturb and he brags that the folks at Basecamp have turned off presence indicators.

His reasoning is that everyone’s status should be implicit. I’m trying to do my job please respect my time and attention, and I get that and it makes sense. But he also says that we should be shifting our mindset away from, and I’ll quote him, I have to call Jeff into a meeting now to discuss this new idea to “I’ll write up my idea for Jeff to check out when he has the time and we can chat about it live later”, which in my opinion it’s not the point of the presence indicator.

If you use it right, if you use it the way that it should be used, if I’m working on something right now and I need some quick information right now, I’m not going to schedule a meeting with Jeff two hours or two days away, I need it right now. If his presence indicator is green, that’s in it, and what I would expect is we would have an understanding that that means I’m available to be bothered.

At that point, it’s up to us to be respectful of what that means and I would want to have expectations around that. For me, that means that I can send Jeff a quick instant message that says do you have time for a quick call? I’ve got a question that needs to be answered. If I want more time with him, of course, I’m going to schedule a meeting with him but if I’m just going to take a minute or two of his time, green tells me that he can do that.

If he doesn’t have time to talk to me, then he should mark his Presence Indicator as red or as Do Not Disturb, and I will leave him alone, and set up some time to talk to him.

I think that used correctly, the Presence Indicator can achieve what he’s talking about, what Jason is talking about, I want you to respect my time and attention but I’m going to give you some help by telling you when I’m busy or when I’m free to talk because it’s not always about meetings, sometimes it’s about just getting a quick bit of information that you might need.

If my presence is green, I am telling people, you can bother me if you need to. If you need to talk longer, let’s schedule a meeting to do that. But without the indicator, we are I think forced into scheduling meetings or assuming or not knowing whether that person is available or not.

I think that that Presence Indicator actually helps you to be more respectful of the person’s time as long as everyone understands what it means. I don’t know if that’s enough of a rant to count, but I think that’s my position on the subject.

Dennis Kennedy: As you were talking, Tom, I was thinking that the red indicator is actually the important one. Like I don’t like the green indicator because it’s on by default typically and sometimes it’s tied to your activity on your computer, and to me it just says, hey, I’m accessible that if you want to send me something now and I’m around you got a good chance of getting me.

If it’s red, that means I’m in a meeting or I can’t do that and we’ll need to work around that. I think what people sometimes do is say, oh, it’s green so you should be right there to answer what I’m doing and it’s kind of like people sometimes get on the phone, they’ll call you, they won’t leave a voicemail and then you’re like, I don’t know whether that was important or not, and then later they’ll say, I called you, you didn’t even answer.

And you go like, oh, yeah, I was in the bathroom, I was talking to somebody, something like that, it’s the same thing if you are green. Well, I instant messaged you and it was green and you didn’t reply right away and it’s like, no, that means you can send me an instant message and if I’m around and I’m able to respond to it, I will do that, but I am doing other things at the same time.

So I think the reds work and some of the other things work. But I think this green thing is a little tricky and then sometimes where it times out and so you’re not available or sometimes people think you’re sneaking home early if you have a meeting late in the day, so, I don’t like that aspect of it.

(00:30:02)

So, I wouldn’t do away with it. Tom, like you said, but I do like the notion of people being smarter about it. It kind of goes back to what we used to talk in the old days about doing really good subject lines on emails. I mean you can use these tools really well or you can just use them to get yourself irritated and not consider other people. So, I think it’s a place we can all be smarter.

Tom Mighell: So, I think that you and I essentially agree on this. I think that you’re right about green. I think it can be hard to interpret and that’s why having an understanding of what green means among friends or colleagues or whatever is important.

I think that for us, I use Skype for Business and Skype for Business is automatically going to turn me red when I have a meeting on my calendar. It’s going to say that I’m in a meeting. So, I think that that’s really helpful. I think that part is helpful. I think it’s the other stuff that’s a little bit harder.

I think that the reason why I got set off on this is that this felt like a topic we’ve talked about in the past which was email bankruptcy. People were saying, email is hard, I don’t know how to do email. Email is failing, so instead I’m just going to declare bankruptcy, get rid of all my email and tell people tough, and it sounds the same thing here.

It’s like dealing with other people is hard, so I’m just going to make you have to deal with me in a different way rather than help tell me what it is and I just don’t think it’s that simple. I don’t think it should be that touchy-feely, I think that there are ways around it and there are ways that we can respect people in the workplace without having to say that we’re going to do away completely with a tool that I think is potentially pretty useful.

Dennis Kennedy: And one other — one last thing, I think, we both can agree on is that there needs to be some nuance or a different color on the red that you’re in a meeting, there should be a status that says, I am going to be on yet another horribly boring conference call, please for the love of God interrupt me with instant messages so I have something to do.

Tom Mighell: Color is a dark brown or a purple or a black or something, just the most depressing color in the world, yes.

Dennis Kennedy: Just, please, please interrupt me with something entertaining.

So now it’s time for our parting shots, that one-tip website or observation that you can use the second this podcast ends. Tom, take it away.

Tom Mighell: So the tip that I have is a website and I will caution that this website I think is kind of in its early days, so it may not be — it’s got some useful information but I think it will grow, I’m hoping it will grow over time. It’s called podstand.co, and what it is, is it allows you to browse people’s podcast subscriptions, so you can upload your own podcast subscription up there and then you can see what others listen to for inspiration or if you want to find a new podcast or see what people who in the tech-world what you admire from them, what kind of podcast they listen to, I think it’s a really useful and interesting tool.

Right now the people who are uploading things are people who happened to be in the tech-world so you may find that we’re really heavy on tech podcasts but there’s nothing in this website that says it is limited to tech people.

So, I’m inclined to maybe — I don’t know if I want to go and upload everything right now when it’s just me and other people in the tech-world, but it looks really interesting, I’ve looked at a couple of people’s feeds and there are some new things in there that I might be interested in trying out; so podstand.co.

Dennis Kennedy: Tom, mine is called Anki, and it’s a flashcard application and it’s built on some scientific principles that help us memorize things. And so the basic idea is that once I’ve learned something becomes easy, those flashcards are shown to be less often. I’m greatly simplifying this. And the stuff that’s I’m having a hard time with, it shows them to me more frequently, and that’s going to help me memorize. So, a lot of people are using this for study for exams obviously things like that.

So I’m intrigued as we all get older and memory doesn’t seem to be what it used to like could this be useful in a number of ways where I have to memorize things. So, I’ve always wanted to try it and now I have — you always need that job to be done, so I’m trying it in my class because I have a — the pictures of all my students and we’ve just had our first class and so I am doing the student pictures on the — in the Anki system on flashcards to help me learn names.

So, tomorrow will be the first class I have with the students since I got the picture sheet, so I’m kind of excited to see how this works, because I’m actually doing a fairly good job of learning names. And so, what I’m really curious about is whether I’ll have learned how to identify people from their pictures and does that translate to them in real life.

So, that will be an interesting thing, but hopefully, I always wanted to be able to like impress just by knowing their names quickly, so this is my way of trying to do that.

So Anki, A-N-K-I.

Tom Mighell: And so that wraps it up for this edition of The Kennedy-Mighell Report. Thanks for joining us on the podcast. You can find show notes for this episode at tkmreport.com.

If you liked what you hear, please subscribe to our podcast in iTunes or on the Legal Talk Network site, where you can find archives of all of our previous podcasts.

If you’d like to get in touch with us, remember, you can reach out to us on LinkedIn, or leave us a voicemail, we always like to get voicemails for our B segment. That number is (720) 441-6820.

So, until the next podcast, I am Tom Mighell.

Dennis Kennedy: And I am Dennis Kennedy, and you have been listening to The Kennedy-Mighell Report, a podcast on legal technology with an Internet focus.

If you liked what you heard today, please rate us in Apple Podcasts, and we will see you next time for another episode of The Kennedy-Mighell Report on the Legal Talk Network.

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Outro: Thanks for listening to The Kennedy-Mighell Report. Check out Dennis and Tom’s book, ‘The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together’ from ABA Books or Amazon, and join us every other week for another edition of The Kennedy-Mighell Report, only on the Legal Talk Network.

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