The world of gadgets has evolved in the last decade from being a pure luxury item to a necessity. From state-of-the-art conference rooms to smartphones, these gadgets allow you to carry your office around the globe. You could sit in any corner of the world and make that your virtual office. Gadgets are the new best friends of tech-savvy lawyers – meeting in person is almost old school.

So what are the cool tech tools lawyers are using these days? From start-ups to large law firms, various hardware and software gadgets are being tested to increase efficiency and productivity. Law firms' management are more focused on finding best billing software, and lawyers are more into cool gadgets. ‘Connected’ is the new theme of the day, but gets you into a catch-22 because of multiple choices. We asked a diverse set of lawyers to choose their most important gadget; some were unable to limit themselves.

Stay in ‘touch’ with everything that matters to you. The iPhone and the BlackBerry dilemma, is a common one. The Apple iPhone, targets its niche market with its glossy appearance and touch screen charisma. With new applications coming out every day, this one is a keeper. However, the iPhone experience comes at a costly price. Indian users have to dish out a whopping Rs. 30,000 ($ 637) for a 3G 8GB base model. The great advantage of iPhone is its applications – what I call the super connector. You will probably find an application for every possible thing you can imagine – if it is not there, create one. Teleport - keeps you connected with your computer no matter which part of the world you are in and setting the pace with social networking sites, the iPhone truly rocks. Abhishek Khanna, a litigator, while getting bored, sometimes at our courts likes playing Scrabble on his iPhone. Abhishek says that iPhone applications are interactive and user friendly and once you start searching, you just can’t save yourself from downloading.

The lawyer’s best friend before the coming of iPhone, the BlackBerry (BB), is still going strong in the market. Not many like to respond to detailed queries from clients on the touch screen iPhone, BB leads on that front – thank god that the need to feel the keys still holds a place in many people’s heart. BB has interestingly Indianised itself and comes with popular Indian Application Programming Interfaces such as 'Viigo India' which provides one click access to weather, entertainment, live sports scores, stock portfolios, flight schedules and status, news feeds, etc. The BB Messenger is an instant messaging application sent using a PIN system and works between BB devices only; probably one of the most widely used BB application in recent times. Its users not only include the corporate arena but people from across the board, such as law professors, litigators, judges, etc. Seema Sukumar, senior associate at J. Sagar Associates, Bangalore, says that the BB (Boon/Bane) addiction has moved the lawyers away from using a traditional laptop for emails, meetings, viewing PDF files and PowerPoint presentations. Seema says the camera functions well and the BB comes with built-in bluetooth technology. BB helps you plan your day and allocate time accordingly. The bane being that it can give you stressful holidays. BB has marketed its users in India strongly and effortlessly, with  starting prices of Rs.11,600 ($ 246) for the BB Curve 8300, at almost one-third the price of an iPhone. Such phones with 3G networks offer greater security than their 2G predecessors. It allows the User Equipment to authenticate the network it is attaching to, and hence the user can be sure the network is the intended one and not an impersonator.

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