BlackBerry is facing some stiff competition, but BB is still the most popular smartphone for lawyers. There are thousands of BlackBerry apps, including a broad selection of lawyer-specific apps that can help boost productivity. With an eye to enhancing your productivity, here are some of the best choices.Cortado Flight Mode. Get your BlackBerry ready for takeoff with iust one click. Turn this app on and it downloads all e-mail texts that have not yet been completely retrieved, and then turns off your wireless connections. This puts all your e-mails in their full length at your disposal during flight so you can effectively use the time to work. After landing, the deactivated connections are iust as easily re-established.RDM+ : Remote Desktop for Mobiles. App allows remote access to your desktop via your BlackBerry, dates, DateMathica, from Shrunken Head Software and costs $39. 99. A date calculator add-on that costs $9.99 is worth a look.Google Apps. Google offers a number of powerful apps for BlackBerry users.* Gmail for BlackBerry gives you full access to your Gmail account, including all contacts and attachments. It's almost like being on your PC (iust give us a bigger screen and keyboard).* Google Talk is a nice way to keep in touch with those Gmail contacts via IM.* Google Voice, allows you to listen to voice mail, send free short message service (SMS) messages and call internationally at low rates.* Google Sync automatically synchronizes your Google Calendar and Contacts to your BlackBerry.* Google Mobile App allows you to operate your BlackBerry with voice commands.* iGoogle for Mobile opens your personalized content from your iGoogle page anywhere, anytime.* Google Maps (it's better than the BlackBerry Maps app) with Google Latitude enabled, allows you to track a cell phone user's location online - and finally answer the question, "Where is my associate?"Documents To Go. On top of letting you view PDF files, this app from DataViz turns your BlackBerry into a minicomputer by allowing you to view, editand create Microsoft Word, Excel,and PowerPoint files.eOffice 4.6 Mobile Office Suite is another documents-specific alternative. It is priced at $29.95, and allows you to work with Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. Files you've created can beshared using the Bluetooth FileSharing app, which costs only $9.99.Twitter Berry and UberTwitter. These are both decent tools for keeping ? ? with thetweets and sending a few of your own.RememberTheMilk. This is an intuitive task managerthat you can customize with lists, tags and notes - it iust makes managing tasks fun. Collaborate with others (your spouse or significant other) and receive reminders via e-mail, SMS or instant message. (All major IM services are supported.)Instango. Instango gives you free access toall popular IM networks, so you can take your instant messaging buddies with you. Simply enter your GoogleTalk, ICQ, AIM, MSN, Yahoo, QQ, Gadu-Gadu, or XMPP/Jabber credentials and Instango will show all your buddies on these networks in its contact list.Vlingo. This voice command app gives you hands-free voice control. You can instantly send a text or e-mail message, call friend, search the Web, update your Facebook or Twitter status or create a "note to self" by simply speaking into your smartphone. Vlingo Everywhere, a newfeatu re of Vlingo 4.0, lets you use your voice to add text anywhere you'd normal Iy type, for example, when instant messaging, making calendar entries, adding contacts or getting directions.The Law Pod Federal Rules series. Thisappoffersfullsearchablecopiesofthe federal rules (Civil, Criminal, Appellate, Bankruptcy and Evidence). Can anyone remember carrying around an actual set of the rules in book form?Pandora Internet Radio. Listen to great music on your mobile phone in the car, at the gym, on the train - wherever and whenever.Verizon VZ Navigator. Here's the frugal lawyer's GPS. No, it's not quite the real thing, but it's reasonably close.Timekeeping tools. These are all great options fortrackingyourtime, billed and unbilled, when you are on the road:* DTE InHand by Advanced Productivity Software* BizTracklt by Shrunken Head Software* MyTimesheet by aBs JMicro SRL* Time and Expense by Exgis, Inc.UPS Mobile. This app lets you track your courier packages, even when you are moving around as much as they are.Evernote. Evernote is an amazing way to capture and save all your ideas and the things you see or read in one place on the Web so you can easily find them all from any computer or device you use - and it's all for free. Wow!Virgo. Bring the world to your BlackBerry. If information is out there on the Web, Viigo will collect and download it to your BlackBerry. The list goes on and on - weather; sports; business and finance; local interest; shopping; social networks; entertainment; flights and travel; audio and podcasts and more.CarFinder. Yes, iust because sometimes you can't remember where you parked.BlackBerry App World. You can download this at www.blackberry.com/ appworldtogetaccesstoan entire catalog of all the more popular BlackBerry apps. Though not on the scale of the Apple Apps store, there's plenty here for BlackBerry addicts.All is not roses with BlackBerry App World, however. It is easy to locate this official BlackBerry app store, but one can only peruse the app store if the app store program is downloaded first - using only Internet Explorer or a BlackBerry. Unfortunately, that creates a significant barrier for Mac users.CA, TX, FL Statutes. These are produced by lawpda.com.Beiks Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Lesser known than Black's Law Dictionary, this one is fine. It's available for $1 9.95.Skype, the well-known VOIPsoftware that provides unlimited long- distance phone calls, now is available for BlackBerrys as well, and it's free.Winscribe dictation software also is available, and provides online and offline functionality with secure data and voice transmission.Wikipock Basic Edition allows you to have access to all of Wikipedia, even if you have no Internet connection.If you havea BlackBerry either because you are a fan or simply have no other choice, there are apps out there that can improve your BlackBerry experience, increase your efficiency and improve your law practice.
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