Have a Little Google Fun

The Google search engine has quite a few hidden secrets, called Easter Eggs. To get the most fun out of them, go to www.google.com and type in the suggested search words. Then click the I’m Feeling Lucky button to activate the Easter Egg.

If you don’t see the I’m Feeling Lucky button, click on the gear in the upper right corner, click Search Settings, then, under Google Instant, choose Do Not Use Google Instant, then scroll down to Save Preferences in the bottom right corner.

1. Google Tilt: Search the term “askew” and you’ll get more than just the definition…

2. Google Gravity: Search “Google gravity” and then click the I’m Feeling Lucky button. Whoa!

3. Google Sphere: Search “Google sphere” then click the I’m Feeling Lucky button. Yeah.

4. Barrel Roll: Search “do a barrel roll” and hold onto your stomach!

5. Google Rainbow: Search “Google rainbow” and then click I’m Feeling Lucky. Can you see the rainbow?

6. Ask Google “where is Chuck Norris?” and click the I’m Feeling Lucky button.

7. Pig Latin Google: For some Pig Latin fun, Google “ooglegay igpay atinlay”

8. Google Pacman: View the awesome Google Pacman Doodle by searching “Google Pacman” and click the I’m Feeling Lucky button. Use your arrows to play a real game!

9. Google Guitar: Search “Google guitar” and click I’m Feeling Lucky. Strum away with the musical Google Doodle to honor Les Paul’s 96th birthday.

10. Google Pirate: Arrr! Search “Google pirate” and click I’m Feeling Lucky. (This one made me giggle.)

11. Google Hacker: Google gets hacked! Type in “Google hacker” and then click I’m feeling lucky.

12. Google Loco: Search “Google loco” and uh, it gets a little crazy. (Try searching something now!)

13. Weenie Google: Search “weenie Google,” click the I’m Feeling Lucky button, and watch it shrink away!

14. Epic Google: Or, search “epic Google,” click the I’m Feeling Lucky button, and see what you get.

15. Gothic Google: Feeling a bit dark? Search “Google gothic” and click the I’m Feeling Lucky button.

16. Google Flight Simulator: Enjoy the Flight Simulator when you go to Google Earth, click on Tools > Enter Flight Simulator and you’re off!

17. Ask Google “what is the loneliest number?”

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

This month’s apps are all about pure, simple, no experience necessary FUN!

MyPaint Free requires no artistic talent. Just pick a color, adjust the thickness of the brush and drag your finger on the blank page to create your very own masterpiece.

Taiko brings a set of Japanese Taiko drums to your iPad. The harder you hit the drums, the louder the sound. Swirl your finger for faster or slower rolls. For one or two drummers!

Songify turns speech into music, automatically. Speak into your device, choose a rhythm, then sit back and laugh.

Note: Even if an app is only available for the iPhone, you can still install it on the iPad and even enlarge it to full screen!

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How to Back Up Your Address Book

Even if you use Time Machine to backup your computer, it’s a great idea to have a separate backup of just your Address Book that you can save onto a flashdrive, just in case.

Here’s a free video lesson that will teach you how to do this!

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Emailing More Than One Photo

It’s pretty simple to email one photo:

1. Tap the Photos icon on the Home screen

2. Tap the Photo

3. Tap the arrow icon in the top right corner

4. Select Email Photo

To send more than one photo at a time:

1. Tap the Photos icon on the Home screen

2. Tap the arrow icon in the top right corner

3. Now tap the photos you want to send and a check mark will appear on the photos

4. Tap Share in the top left corner

5. Choose Email

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Private Browsing with Safari

Are you doing a lot of online shopping for the holidays and don’t want your family members to see what you’ve been buying?

You can set Safari to NOT include your visited websites in the History.

From the Safari menu, choose Private Browsing

Done. No more snooping or spoiled surprises.

 

iPad Tip of the Week

Typing an Apostrophe

How often do you need to type an apostrophe. It’s such a pain to press the ?123 key to switch to the punctuation keyboard.

Here’s an easy trick:

Press and hold on the ,! key and the apostrophe key will appear. Just slide your finger on it to use it.

ATTENTION iPOD NANO USERS

Some 1st Generation iPod Nanos have Faulty Batteries

Apple is recalling a series of 1st generation iPod Nanos and replacing them, free of charge. The affected products were sold between September 2005 and December 2006 and have the risk of overheating and possibly even catching on fire.

 

Click here to determine if your iPod is one of the affected units and for all of the details on replacement.

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Changing What Appears When You Re-Open a program

Lion’s Resume feature automatically re-opens all of the windows you were working in when you Quit the program. This can be a handy, time-saving feature for some people, and an annoyance for others.

To turn off the Resume feature in only certain programs, hold down the Option key when Quitting and the choice will say “Quit and Close All Windows”.

To disable Resume for all programs, in System Preferences, choose General. Below the choices for Number of Recent items, remove the check mark next to “Restore windows when quitting and re-opening apps”.

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Auto-Complete Text

Do you type the same phrases all of the time on your iPad or iPhone? The new iOS 5 has a slick new feature to help you with this.

Let’s say you often type “Love you much” in your emails. You can create a shortcut so that, when you type LYM it will automatically type the complete phrase.

1. Tap Settings

2. Tap General

3. Scroll all the way down to Keyboard

4. Scroll down to Shortcuts

5. Tap Add New Shortcut…

6. Type in the complete phrase, ie: Love you much!

7. Next to “Shortcut” type the letters you want to use for that phrase, ie: lym

8. Tap SAVE

9. Open up Mail and try it!

10. You can create many different shortcuts. I’m not sure if there is a limit to how many you can create.

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Reading Articles in Safari Just Got Easier

Have you found an interesting article to read, but you find all of the ads on the screen so distracting?

Safari has a built in READER feature that will open most articles in a new window with just the article. No distractions.

1. Find an article in a newspaper

2. Click on the word READER that appears at the far right side of the page’s address (this may not be available for all articles)

3. The article will open in a new window

4. Click READER again to get back to the full page in Safari

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Format Text in Mail with iOS5

It’s true. Now you can bold, italicize and even underline text in Mail. And you can indent paragraphs too.

1. Select the text you want to change

2. Tap the right arrow at the far right of the Cut, Copy, Paste menu

3. Tap BIU to change the format or Quote Level if you want to indent

4. Tap your desired format choice

5. Tap on the page to get out of the menu

 

 

 

Are You Missing Emails?
Losing Emails You Thought You Saved?

Many of my clients are telling me that they aren’t getting emails. Or that when they delete one email, suddenly many are gone.

There is a feature in Apple Mail that automatically groups emails together that are related, part of the same “conversation.” In Snow Leopard, this is called THREADS. In Lion it’s called CONVERSATIONS.

Some people like to see all related emails grouped together. But for many of us, it’s an extra step that is causing confusion.

To turn this feature OFF, in Mail, click on the View menu and choose Organize by Thread or Organize by Conversation to remove the checkmark.

Now all of your emails will appear individually, in the order that they were received.

iPAD and iPHONE TIP OF THE WEEK

Missing Emails?
Losing Emails You Thought You Saved?

This same Threading feature is available on your iPhone and iPad.

To turn it OFF

1. Click on Settings

2. Click on Mail, Contacts, Calendars

3. Scroll all the way down, almost to the bottom

4. Next to Organize By Thread, slide the switch to OFF

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Sharing Google Maps and Directions

If you’ve ever tried to send someone directions from Google maps using the Mail Link to this Page, you’ve probably discovered that the recipient gets a blank page.

To share a map or driving directions:

1. Map out the route on your computer

2. Under the File menu, chose Print

3. In the Print window, click on the PDF choice in the bottom left

4. Choose Mail PDF

5. A new email message will appear with an image of the map already attached.

iPAD and iPHONE TIP OF THE WEEK

With more than 200 new features in the new iOS 5, it was hard to choose just ONE to share. this is one of my new favorites.

Quick Scroll To The Top

When you reach the bottom of an article, or an email or the news feed in FaceBook, instead of scrolling all the way back to the top, just tap in the very top black horizontal menu space where the time and battery are displayed and you’ll zip right up to the top of the screen.

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Resizing dpi of Photos

If you’re an artist you may need to resize your photos to certain parameters for submissions.

iPhoto does not include a feature to do this but you can resize your images in Preview.

1. Drag the photo to the Desktop

2. Drag the photo from the Desktop on top of the Preview icon in the Dock. If you don’t have it there, from the Go menu, choose Applications, find Preview and drag it onto your Dock

3. In Preview, from the Tools menu choose Adjust Size

4. Make your desired changes, either in inches or pixels (dpi means dots or pixels per inch)

5. You’ll see that the file size changes as you make adjustments

6. Click OK when done

7. From the File menu, choose either Save As (Snow Leopard) or Duplicate (Lion)

8. Title the new version

9. Click Save

iPAD and iPHONE TIP OF THE WEEK

Setting Picture Frame Preferences

When your iPad is asleep and locked you can still view Photos. this is called Picture Frame mode. It’s different than the Slide Show mode when you are in your Photos

To set your preferences for Picture Frame:

1. Click Settings

2. Click Picture Frame

3. Choose your Transition

4. Choose how long it shows each photo, whether to Zoom in on faces, and if you want them Shuffled, in a random order

5. Choose which photos and albums to show

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Adjusting the Brightness

Does your computer screen seem dim? Does the screen get dark if you don’t touch it for a while?

One way to brighten the screen is by pressing the key on your keyboard above the number 2 with the picture of the sun on it.

To change the setting that automatically dims the screen:

1. Under the Apple menu, choose System Preferences

2. Click on Energy Saver. It looks like a light bulb

3. Adjust the time settings for the Display Sleep

4. Remove the check mark next to Automatically reduce brightness before display goes to sleep

IPAD and IPHONE TIP OF THE WEEK

Turn Off the Clicking Sound When You Type

If you find the clicking sound annoying or disruptive, it’s easy to turn off.

1. Tap the Settings icon

2. Tap General

3. Tap Sounds

4. Slide the button next to Keyboard Clicks to OFF

This is also where you can turn off the sounds for New Mail and more.