The Dell XPS 13 is a great-looking, well-built, and well-integrated ultrabook. One of the last ultrabooks to market, Dell used its time wisely to put together what is definitely the best ultrabook I’ve reviewed. I’m kind of in love with it, actually.

And while it certainly takes some styling cues from the Macbook Air, it doesn’t feel like a knockoff. In fact, I kind of prefer the XPS 13′s carbon fiber base and soft-touch palm rests to the Air’s sharp edges.

Price and features

The Dell XPS 13 starts at $1,000 with a 1.6 GHz processor and 128 GB SSD. The version Dell sent me to review had the top-of-the-line options (1.7 GHz processor and 256 GB processor) and costs $1,499. The range of options means the XPS 13 undercuts the Macbook Air on price, but not necessarily on features. I would call it comparable. Other ultrabooks with similar specs are cheaper, but other ultrabooks with similar specs don’t have the polish of the XPS 13.

After all, the XPS 13 is not really competing on price. It is competing on its total package. And because the total package is excellent, so is the value.

Hardware and design

Sitting with its lid closed, the XPS 13 looks like a Macbook Air with a Dell logo. Flip it over, though, and it’s a different story. The bottom is carbon fiber with a soft-touch coating. The rubber pads run in two lines across the bottom and anchor the Dell solidly, whether on a table or on your lap.

Open it up, and the same soft-touch material coats the palmrest. It feels great to touch, and does a good job of concealing smudges and fingerprints.

Size-wize, the XPS 13 is noticeably smaller than most 13″ ultrabooks, including the Macbook Air. Dell has crammed a lot into a small package. Since I value compactness quite highly, this makes me really happy. You won’t have trouble sliding the XPS into smaller bags and briefcases.

Keyboard and touchpad

The keyboard is very good, and the rounded, sculpted keys make for comfortable typing with very positive feel. A minor complaint: the keys feel just a bit on the small side. I don’t think the keyboard itself is any smaller than a standard laptop keyboard, but the rounding-off of the keys themselves make it feel smaller than usual. It’s easy to adjust to, though, and after about an hour, typing on the XPS 13′s keyboard felt natural.

I’ve griped about the generally poor state of buttonless trackpads/touchpads on Windows computers. The Samsung Series 9 was an exception, although it took a lot of tweaking to make it work properly. The Asus UX31 Zenbook was next-best, but felt like a chore to use. The buttonless touchpads on nearly every other Windows computer I have tried range from barely usable to worse than not having any pointing device at all.

The XPS 13 is, fortunately, a completely different story. Out of the box, the touchpad is refreshingly easy to use. It functions just like you would expect a touchpad to function. (It’s kind of sad that what should be a baseline has become an exception, but whatever.)

As a footnote, this apparently wasn’t the case when the XPS 13 first shipped in March. At The Verge, for example, Sean Hollister said “I did … spend a whole lot of my time with the XPS 13 fighting its terrible touchpad.” Dell fixed this problem with later drivers, which ship pre-installed on newer units. I was quite pleased with its performance. (If you have an XPS 13 and are frustrated with the touchpad, get the newer driver.)

Display, sound, and port selection

The XPS 13′s 1366×768 display has decent horizontal viewing angles, but the vertical viewing angles are quite narrow. As long as you are looking at the screen straight on, the picture quality is excellent. But it washes out if you are just a little bit above or below a straight-on perspective. Given all the other good things about the XPS 13, I’m inclined to go easy on it for the less-than-perfect display, but it is the one blemish on this otherwise-excellent ultrabook.

The lid’s hinge is solid, but does allow some play that doesn’t get in the way. The screen has a tendency to jiggle a bit, whether you are working on a surface or on your lap. This is true for most of the ultra-thin-screened ultrabooks I have tested to date.

Like the Zenbook, the XPS 13′s sound is surprisingly good. You won’t want to try hosting any dance parties, but it’s definitely good enough that you can get lost in a movie or game.

Some will also dislike the extreme lack of ports. The XPS 13 only has two USB ports (one is USB 3.0) and a Mini DisplayPort. On the road, that’s more than enough for me. I rarely plug anything in while I’m away from my desk, anyway. At my desk, I would probably plug in a USB hub if I were to use the XPS 13 as my primary computer, and that would get me all the ports I would need.

Included software

While the XPS 13 is fairly free of add-on software, there are two things you will want to remove immediately: McAfee Security Center and the FastAccess facial recognition program (facial recognition is still in the gimmick phase; it’s no more secure than a good password). I got rid of the Bing Bar, as well.

Otherwise, the included software is mostly unobjectionable. And you get that familiar copy of Microsoft Office Starter 2010 that you’ll want to replace with Office Home and Business (or Professional) right away.

Performance

The ultrabooks I have tested have mostly had the same hardware, which means they all perform about the same. I used the XPS 13 for about a week, and it definitely felt on par with its class.

I continue to be impressed by the capabilities of ultrabooks. The XPS 13 doesn’t behave like I would expect a processor with a full GHz less processor speed than my ThinkPad. Unless you really load up on open programs and browser windows, you won’t feel like you are missing out on any power, and you could absolutely use this as your primary computer (plugged into an external display and keyboard, of course).

For example, Netflix plays HD video without stuttering. I realize Netflix is not a key tool in a lawyer’s toolbox, but being able to stream Netflix in HD without stuttering is a decent baseline for testing whether a computer meets basic standards of competency.

The XPS 13 also wakes from sleep in a second or two — as fast as anything else I have tried. It boots plenty quick, too. This is important to lawyering, especially if you are paperless. The ability to get quickly to your files is key whether you are in the courtroom or the boardroom.

The only real negative when it comes to performance is the battery. Most ultrabooks get about 5.5 hours unplugged. The XPS 13 doesn’t even get to 5. That is not awful, but it is well behind the competition.

Who should buy the Dell XPS 13?

If you are in the market for a 13″ Windows ultrabook, this is the one to get. Sure, it’s a little more expensive than the competition, but the reason why is apparent as soon as you pick it up. Dell took a little more time to build a slick, integrated package that works well and looks good. This is the Windows ultrabook I would buy.

Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook Review is a post from the law firm marketing blog, Lawyerist.com

Why in the world would anyone combine a stylus and pen? Why in the world would anyone put the stylus nib where the eraser ought to be? Why in the world would you put a cheap ballpoint cartridge in a $35+ pen?

The Alupen Pro iPad stylus poses all of these questions, but it doesn’t provide any good answers.

What I like about the Alupen Pro

The best thing about the Alupen is the all-aluminum construction. It feels solid in the hand. Unfortunately, that’s also the only good thing about it.

What I don’t like about the Alupen Pro

Let’s start with the design. First, the Alupen Pro is shaped like a pencil, with the pen at the pointy end and the stylus at the end that ought to have an eraser. That means when you use the stylus, you feel like you are holding the thing upside-down, or else like you ought to be erasing something. On paper. It’s a bit jarring.

Either way, using the stylus isn’t a great experience. It feels like it is intended for a finger substitute — something you use for a moment to poke at an icon, not something you would spend time writing or drawing with.

To use the pen, you have to twist the tip, which does not have anything grippy on it to make the job easier. It’s doable, but not optimal. The pen itself is nothing special. It is a ballpoint, and it writes.

Writing with the Alupen Pro — using either end — is fine for short notes. If you try to use it for any length of time, you will discover why pencils are not made out of aluminum with sharp edges. (In other words, it isn’t very comfortable.)

Who should buy the Alupen Pro

If you own one of those iPad cases that hold your iPad and a legal pad side by side, then you’ll probably love a combination pen and stylus. Although if that describes you and you are willing to spend $35+ on a pen, you will be happier with the Bamboo Stylus Duo, which doesn’t feel like an eraser when you use the stylus, at least, and doesn’t have sharp edges to dig into your fingers.

Or, if you just want a nice, chunky iPad stylus, try the regular Alupen, which is what I had hoped to review in the first place. Because the stylus nib isn’t masquerading as a pencil eraser, it might actually be nice to write with.

In other words, nobody should buy this.

Summary

Alupen Pro iPad Stylus Review is a post from the law firm marketing blog, Lawyerist.com

Minnesota consumer lawyer Bryan Battina got this letter from his nephew, Charlie, who is interested in suing Skyzone, which is apparently an indoor trampoline park.

Two things. First, Charlie’s letter is adorable. Second, INDOOR TRAMPOLINE PARK! Why was I not aware of this?

This Potential Client’s Letter is Adorable is a post from the law firm marketing blog, Lawyerist.com

Pro se litigant Kyle Greene, like many pro se litigants before him, felt put upon by the judicial system. Determined to do something about it, he filed a “Motion for Disclosure of Chamber of Papers,” demanding U.S. District Court Judge Patrick Schiltz’s bench memo because he “suspect[ed] he was the victim of a law clerk usurping the function of an Article III judge.”

It didn’t work. In his opinion (PDF), Judge Schiltz explained:

Greene has not cited — and the Court has not found — a single statute, regulation, rule, or judicial opinion holding that a litigant has a right of access (under the First Amendment, the common law, or anything else) to communications between a judge and his or her law clerk, including draft opinions and orders. Rather, all of the authority of which the Court is aware is to the contrary.

(Thanks, Deb and Jess!)

Silly Litigant, Bench Memos Are For Judges! is a post from the law firm marketing blog, Lawyerist.com

Internet marketing & advertising company Yodle has been off our radar for a while. I first wrote about Yodle back in May 2009, I got a call from a pushy Yodle salesperson, and I expressed my annoyance on Lawyerist:

what Yodle actually does, as far as I can tell, is employ a bunch of jerks to call me (four times last week, plus an email for good measure), insult me, and try to bully me into becoming a client

Commenters reported similar experiences. Yodle responded by offering three months of its services to prove its worth. We called it the Yodle Challenge, and bankruptcy attorney Brea Buettner agreed to take part. In the end, Yodle did generate some profit for Brea, who called the campaign a success even though she decided not to stick with it.

But recently, the comments thread has gotten lively again (we’ve also discussed Yodle in the LAB), and it sounds like not much has changed in Yodle’s sales department over the last few years.

Full disclosure: Yodle is a long-time advertiser on Lawyerist.com.

Here is a sampling of the recent comments:

Never have I handled a more unprofessional and insulting sales call then I have with Yodle’s sales reps. – Brianne

Not only does Yodle attempt to be deceptive about their intentions, but I also had one call back and threaten to send an angry e-mail to my boss. They not only call every day on at least one of the phone lines if not more at our office, but hey also send e-mails which is disruptive. – B

They incessantly called me for like three weeks and I told them no. They somehow got in touch of one with my managing partners who transferred it to me. Then Yodle tried to bully me into setting up a phone call saying my managing partner was interested. I sent an email saying no again and the Yodle guy replied to MY E-MAIL and CC’ed my managing partner. My managing partner told him no again. Shouldn’t this be illegal? – Erin

I tried them out for a while a couple of years ago. The return on investment was horrible and needless to say, I didn’t renew. They have started calling me again, and as they did in 2009 as noted in comments above, they claimed to be “with Google” and “from Google” but when pressed, admitted they were calling from Yodle. – CA lawyer

The last comment in particular struck a chord. I remember hearing lots about how the sales reps were “with Google” or similar language, and didn’t mention Yodle until I went into cross-examination mode. It seems to me that, if Yodle is still provoking these kinds of reactions three years later, it has a systemic problem with its sales department. I’m guessing it encourages this kind of behavior, either explicitly or implicitly, probably because it works despite the bad press it generates.

Have you been contacted by Yodle? Did you feel like the sales reps you spoke or exchanged email with were deceptive, pushy, or insulting?

Or, have you hired Yodle? How did it work for you?

Yodle Once Again Provoking Ire with Pushy Sales Tactics is a post from the law firm marketing blog, Lawyerist.com

Alison Monahan, writing at Ms. JD, certainly thinks so. As the father of two little girls, I’m on high alert for anything that could get in the way of them being whatever they want to be. But as I reflect on my own law school and law practice experiences, I have to admit I’ve seen evidence of attitudes that could lead to the kind of sexism and harassment Monahan has experienced.

While women who find themselves in such situations do have some options, men can make a big difference just by speaking up when we see these attitudes and behaviors on display: “Hey dude. Not cool.”

Is Law Practice Sexist? Misogynistic, Even? is a post from the law firm marketing blog, Lawyerist.com

Ambir makes document scanners that are apparently widely used in the healthcare industry, and the company is just starting to push into the legal industry. It sent me the ImageScan Pro 820i when I asked for a scanner comparable to the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500, and at first glance, that’s exactly what it is: a compact, desktop scanner with a simplified user experience.

While there are things to like about the Ambir ImageScan Pro 820i, it didn’t deliver the performance I expected.

Price and features

The ImageScan Pro 820i is currently just under $360 on Amazon. That’s just a little more than the Epson WorkForce Pro GT-S50 (about $340) and a little less than the ScanSnap S1500 (about $415).

Feature-wise, well, it’s a document scanner. It has a 50-page feeder tray, duplexing capability, and a simple, 3-button interface that lets you pick from a number of preset scanning modes.

AmbirScan, the scanning software that comes with the ImageScan Pro 820i, includes blank page removal as well as all the options you would expect from scanning software. It is similar to ScanSnap Manager and the Epson scanning software that came with the GT-S50.

Finally, like most document scanners (the ScanSnap line being a notable exception), the ImageScan Pro 820i supports TWAIN.

After all, most document scanners have similar feature sets. The distinctions come in design and performance.

Hardware and design

The Ambir 820i doesn’t look markedly different from any other desktop scanner when you pull it out of the box. You do have to snap in the paper catch tray, which is a separate piece, but that’s all the assembly required. Once you have snapped it into place, the scanner folds up kind of awkwardly, though. And if you install the larger paper guides that come with the scanner, you can’t close the lid.

If you generally leave your scanner open on your desk, I guess this won’t matter. And, for what it’s worth, the ImageScan Pro 820i has a power switch on the back, so you don’t need to close the lid to turn it off. But my office is in a very old building, and the ceiling occasionally drops ancient dust and mortar crumbles on my desk, so I kind of need to be able to close my scanner when I’m not using it.

I’m not impressed with the design of the ImageScan overall. It feels cobbled together. While the ImageScan Pro 820i definitely doesn’t have the polish of the ScanSnap S1500, even the businesslike Epson GT-S50 comes off as a better-designed machine.

While I wasn’t impressed at the hardware and design, I did like the crapware-free software disc that came bundled with the ImageScan.

Software

The Ambir’s software is quite possibly the first I have ever installed where the express installation does not include a bunch of crapware. Install the CD, click the Express install button, and the basic scanning software, AmbirScan, installs. This made me very happy.

AmbirScan is utilitarian, and many of the options aren’t exactly clear. It isn’t very user-friendly, but it is functional, and just about every option you might want seems to be present. Whether you enjoy using it or not, you won’t ever have to look at it again once you set up your presets. On the right is what you see when you open the preferences (click to enlarge).

The one feature I wish AmbirScan (and every scanner, really) had is the ability to pop up a save dialog when finished scanning. Like the Epson’s scanning software, AmbirScan just dumps your scans into a folder (or, it can launch a program). That’s not awful; it just means you have to create an inbox folder, then visit it after scanning and sort your documents to the place they belong.

If you want them, Presto! PageManager 9 and ABBY FineReader 9.0 Sprint are also on the disc. I didn’t bother installing them because I don’t like using document management software, and I already know that ABBY FineReader is a perfectly-good OCR engine in its various incarnations.

Performance

The Ambir ImageScan Pro 820i claims to be able to handle 25ppm/50ipm. By comparison, the ScanSnap S1500 claims 20ppm/40ipm. (For reference, ppm means pages per minute, and ipm means images — each side of a page — per minute.) Those are ideal numbers, obviously. Once you set the scanner up for the kind of scanning you want to do, the speed will reflect your preferences.

In regular use, the ImageScan Pro 820i is noticeably slower than the ScanSnap S1500. I scanned 6 one-sided pages (one page upside-down to test the blank page removal) using the settings you see above, and it took 33 seconds. That’s only about 11 ipm. My ScanSnap S1500 took just 23 seconds to get through the same pages using settings as identical as possible. That’s a bit less than 16 ipm.

But remember, the ScanSnap is supposed to be slower. In normal use, then, the ImageScan’s numbers aren’t so impressive.

Besides the speed discrepancy, the ImageScan Pro 820i works just fine. Scanning is a simple matter of selecting the preset you want to use from the buttons on the front of the scanner and pushing Scan. You can set it to wait for more pages once it finishes the first load, and when it is finished, it drops the file into the folder you selected in the settings. The quality of the scans is fine, too. No complaints there.

Who should buy this?

If the Epson GT-S50 is too big for your desk and the price tag of the ScanSnap S1500 is too rich for your blood, you might want to get the Ambir ImageScan Pro 820i.

But while there is nothing much wrong with the Ambir ImageScan Pro 820i, but I can’t think of a good reason to recommend it over the Epson WorkForce Pro GT-S50, which is cheaper and heavier-duty, or the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500, which is a bit more expensive, but easier to use and comes with Adobe Acrobat.

Summary

Ambir ImageScan Pro 820i Document Scanner Review is a post from the law firm marketing blog, Lawyerist.com

According to the ABA’s law school placement survey, “Nearly two-thirds of new grads who go into the private sector are going to small law firms rather than BigLaw, an analysis of ABA data shows.”

I’m not surprised, really. Big firms aren’t hiring, so new lawyers are left with few options. Not that going solo out of desperation is a particularly good idea. (Via Greedy Associates)

More Law School Grads Go into SmallLaw than BigLaw is a post from the law firm marketing blog, Lawyerist.com

The Griffin iPad stylus is essentially identical to the Boxwave stylus. The only noticeable difference is the clip on the Griffin, which is a bit heavier, and feels more sturdy. Whether or not they are actually the same, the similarity is a good thing. As I noted in my in-depth review of the Boxwave, it is a “solid, durable stylus for a great price.” So is the Griffin.

The Griffin iPad stylus is currently just over $11 on Amazon. That’s a few bucks more than the Boxwave, but I think the clip of the Griffin is better-looking enough that I wouldn’t mind the extra cost. Then again, I’m picky about writing utensils. If you want a lanyard to plug your stylus into your tablet’s microphone jack, get the Boxwave. If you plan to keep your stylus in a bag or pocket, get the Griffin.

Otherwise, my review of the Boxwave applies equally to the Griffin. It is a huge improvement on trying to take notes or draw with a finger, and it should last you a good, long time.

Score

Griffin iPad Stylus Review is a post from the law firm marketing blog, Lawyerist.com

To the extent it is known at all, Thomas Cooley law school is mostly the butt of jokes, often about its independent law school ratings in which it appears second every year. (Apparently, Cooley doesn’t think its rankings would be credible if Cooley came out ahead of Harvard.) But now, Cooley has a new hobby sure to raise its profile: attempting to silence its critics by serving them with subpoenas. At least, that’s what happened to Paul Campos, who writes Inside the Law School Scam. In response, Campos went ahead and outlined Cooley’s abysmal value proposition. It’s enlightening reading, especially for those who are considering Thomas Cooley Law School. (HT Simple Justice.)

Thomas Cooley Law School’s Ineffective Attempts at Intimidation is a post from the law firm marketing blog, Lawyerist.com