Google released a great new app today for iOS.  Called Google Now (and included in the Google Search app for iPhone and iPad) it provides live weather and traffic updates, sports scores and a lot of other useful features.

From Lifehacker:

 

If you have a wireless connection and then plug into your wired network, Windows might continue to use your wireless connection for your network usage. Here's how to change it so Windows uses your wired connection by default.

As explained on Microsoft, when more than one network connection is available, Windows will choose the one with the lowest metric value (automatically assigned based on the network connection's rated speed). Previously, to change the default priority of each interface you would change the metric value for each connection. NirmalTV suggests a newer, simpler method:

• Go to Network Connections under the Control Panel
• Under the file menu, go to Advanced > Advanced Settings
• In the Adapters and Bindings tab, click on the connection you want prioritized (e.g., the ethernet connection) and use the up arrow to move it to the top of the list

That's it! Hit OK and now your wired connection will be the default (when you're plugged in, that is).

How to Make Windows Select Wired Connection Instead of Wireless Connection | NirmalTV

Believe it or not: starting today, the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority is rolling out Wi-Fi and cell service to 30 stations across the city.

Previously, Wi-Fi was available at a handful of stations on the L and C/E lines, but as of today it can be found at locations like Times Square, Columbus Circle and other stops on the West Side from 18th to 96th street in the from of free, corporate-sponsored Boingo hotspots. There will also be underground cell service...but for the moment it is limited to those with AT&T or T-Mobile service.  Verizon and Sprint service is on the way. 

In phase two of the project, Wi-Fi and service will come to queens and midtown by 2014 with the Bronx and the East Side to follow. By 2016, the MTA says all stations will be hooked up. 

via Gizmodo

I may have written a post about this feature before...but it saved me a bunch of time last night so I figured it would be well worth revisiting here.  I'm currently in the process of refinancing my mortgage and received an email from our broker that three of the documents we had recently sent him were left unsigned and undated.  The normal (tedious) procedure would be to print out the PDFs, sign and date them, re-scan them, and email them back to our broker.  The PDFs were also legal sized (and I did not have any legal paper at home) so I faced the prospect of printing out 6 letter sized sheets to print, sign and re-scan.  Arrrrgh.  

Then I remembered a great feature using the Mac's Preview software where you can create a digital version of your signature by holding a piece of paper (containing a written version of your signature or whatever else) in front of your Mac's web cam.  I went ahead and created the necessary digital versions for my wife and myself and also a handwritten scan of the current date.  Then I opened each one of the documents and added in all the signatures and dates, carefully resizing them as needed and placing them in the correct spot.  After I saved each signed file, I was able to email them directly back to our mortgage broker in about 10 minutes!  There was no waiting for my printer to slooooowly scan each page and even better was the fact that I didn't have to burn through a drop of any of my printer's (seriously overpriced) toner cartridges.  Amazing.  


If you're ever in a similar boat, give the following tutorial a shot.  I borrowed (and reprinted) the directions below directly from MacLife's website: 

This morning a client asked me for a way to edit a PDF form on their Mac.  This is easy to do if you own a copy of Adobe's Acrobat software but there is also a free way if you are running the Mountain Lion OS on machine.  I found a great little article on the Mac Observer website that shows you how to fill out your PDF forms using the Preview software that comes with your Mac.  When you open the form with Preview, the software will analyze your PDF and look for any text boxes, check boxes, or radio buttons on the form and allow you to fill them in or edit them.  Important: to make this work, Preview needs to be in Text Selection Mode before you start your editing.  Check out the original article here on Mac Observer for more information.   

A short video from Tekzilla for help with finding animated gifs and transparent images with Google image search.  

Yet another iOS update in what seems to be an endless string of recent iOS updates for the iPhone.  This update, 6.1.3 is supposed to fix a huge security flaw that allows someone to get past the iPhone's lock screen....even when you have a passcode enabled to unlock your phone.  

If you've been using Apple's Airplay technology on your Mac or PC to stream audio to an Airplay device (such as an AppleTV or Airport Express) then I think you'll really like Rogue Amoeba's Airfoil software.  What's a little frustrating about Airplay is that Apple only allows you to stream audio from their iTunes program on your Mac.  With Airfoil, you can now stream audio from ANY application on your computer: Pandora, Spotify, a radio station streaming through your web browser, etc.  The software also allows you to send audio from your computer to your Apple devices, your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad.  I love it because I can listen to podcasts playing on my Mac on my iPhone and carry it with me from room to room as a portable speaker.  Why Apple doesn't allow you to do this in the first place is a little hard to understand...I've been trying to figure out how to get this functionality on my Mac for a while and was happy to hear about Airfoil a few days ago!

The software costs $25 bucks but you can demo it for free.  Be warned, though: the trial version cuts off the audio after about ten minutes. If you decide to purchase a license for the software, you can save $1 off the price by using the coupon code: BUCKOFF.  For me it was $24 well spent.  

I just read on Gizmodo that CBS has released an iOS app, so you can watch any of their shows on your iPad or iPhone.  My wife will be very happy about this as the Sunday football schedule often played havoc with her DVR recordings of the Good Wife.  Let's hope this trend continues with other TV content that wasn't readily available...I don't think any of us mind watching commercials as long as we can stream what we want, when we want.