When I get excited about some new tech or discover new things about an old standby, I tend to skip a few steps in the explanatory chain.

With the iPad, I skipped right to the end with visions of a practice and life unencumbered by logistic and administrative burdens and enabled by astounding new capability.

Now that the dust has settled, I think it might be helpful to take an unassuming look at how the iPad works, what it comes with, what it can do, how much it costs, and answers to a few questions that regularly arise.

Let's start with a few answers to some common questions.

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I am a collector of legal materials and love to have things close at hand. With the iPad, we can now have thousands of pages, not only close at hand, but actually in one hand. 

There are certainly a number of ways to get this done, here is one way I have tried and found it easy and convenient enough to share with you.

This plan involves two apps:

1. GoodReader

This app is a place to store and read files of all types, I use it for PDF, but it will take MS Office files, video and even audio.  You can transfer files to GoodReader using Wi-Fi, download them from the Internet, from email attachments or connect to a popular server. 

I chose the last option and used Dropbox to load up the iPad with cases and statutes.  As you can see from the screen shots, GoodReader also connects to Mobile Me and Google Docs.

2. Dropbox

After reading a post by Ben Stevens at the Mac Lawyer on Dropbox I wanted to check it out.  Dropbox is a way of sharing files across computers and devices and also makes them available online.  It's just like Mobile Me's iDisk but I think the sync is better...

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Apple has reworked their iWork suite of productivity programs for the iPad. Let's see what Pages for iPad can do.

I'm sitting in court waiting to be called and I'm writing this blog post with the iPad on my lap. There is no doubt that the keyboard will take some getting used to but it is nearly full size and I am starting to get the hang of it. And there is also no question. that getting the iPad out to get a few words down is much easier than pulling out a laptop; something I would never actually do in court.

Right away, the iPad pickups up convenience points.

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I started the Off-Site Law Center to help lawyers move their operations off-site, out of the office, to a home office or anywhere else they wanted to get work done. The basic idea is to grease the rails of information storage and exchange via a computer system or application of some type.

Before today,  there were several good options and approaches. Today I saw the future and it's called iPad.

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