1. Capture your signature in Preview. In Lion “Preview” has the ability to capture your signature using your iSight camera. Simply write your signature with black ink on a white piece of paper, then go to Preview/Preferences and click on Signature. Hold your signature up to the camera and it will save the image so you can easily sign PDFs electronically.

2. Change your iCal and Address Book skin. The updates to Address Book and iCal take a realistic approach that some people don’t seem to be particularly fond of. If you aren’t a fan of the new leather skins, Codeus over at Macnix created a clean aluminum skin for both applications that you can download and install yourself, following his simple installation instructions.

3. Three finger/double tap dictionary look up. Snow Leopard already had the ability to look up a word in the dictionary by highlighting the text and pressing Command + Control + D, which was a useful feature but difficult to remember. In Lion you can now double tap on a word with three fingers to look up the word in the built-in dictionary as well as Wikipedia. You can find this feature in System Preferences/Trackpad.

4. Hold down a key to bring up accented characters. Ever wonder how to type a ñ or è quickly without having to open up the character map? Accessing accented characters in OS X Lion is a breeze. Just hold down the letter and a dialog box will appear that lists all alternative and accented characters.

5. Hold Shift when launching Launchpad. This little trick is an oldie but a goodie. Hold down the Shift key and click on Launchpad from your dock. The apps will slowly fade in from the background. This trick shows off the OS X aqua effects and also works when minimizing windows. Although it may not be the most useful feature, it’s a fun way to open up Launchpad.

By Vivian Kim.

Sony VAIO Z – Combine an ultra portable laptop with the power of a desktop and you have the Sony Vaio Z. It has the style and portability of a Macbook Air and has an external box that you plug it into using Light Peak (aka Thunderbolt). The box houses AMD external GPU, Blu-Ray, HDMI out, ethernet and a USB 3.0 port.

ASUS EEE PC X101 – This netbook from ASUS is just as thin as a Macbook Air and $600 cheaper. The “instant on” MeeGo version comes at the cheap pricetag of $200. Running on a single core 1.33 Atom processor, it’s the fastest netbook we’ve seen with an amazing price and expensive looks.

Samsung Series 5 3G Chromebook – If you’re looking to purchase a Chromebook you have a two choices from either Acer or Samsung. The Samsung has a more polished look and is available in either silver or white. With instant web and integrated free 3G, this Samsung Chromebook is a great option.

HP Envy 14-2050SE Beats Edition – The Beats Edition of this PC notebook is incredibly sleek looking with a black aluminum finish. It features Beats Audio for studio-quality sound and a full-sized red backlit keyboard. Photos and videos can be streamed to your HDTV using Intel Wireless Display and you can print wirelessly and sync the Envy with your smartphone and other devices using integrated bluetooth.

By Vivian Kim

[via engadget]

The statistic/infographic geniuses over at Hunch polled their readers and discovered 72% of their readers keep their computer desktops tip-top and tidy, an impressive figure considering the average person’s desktop looks like someone spilled mahjong tiles. What was even more interesting was the conclusions they came to with their desktop organization findings, which may or may not apply to Unplggd readers, but gives insight about how we organize our virtual workspaces. Key findings include:

*Men are more likely to have neat desktops, but are also apt to have too many icons on their desktop (a no-no, since it slows down OS performance).

*The older you are, the more apt you are to have a messy desktop. 12% of those belonging to the 35-49 age category had a mess on their computer.

*The more education and more liberal you are, the more likely you are to have a messy desktop. Hunch’s readers tend to skew to the left, as noted in their findings, but it makes sense those who are more conservative and like order would have neater desktops.

*Those who live in urban areas have desktops that reflect their environment: “…users with messy desktops are 42% more likely than those with neat desktops to live in an urban environment.”

*No surprise, neat freaks like ourselves, have desktops that reflect their overall neat and organized tendencies. Neat types also tend to own and use external hard drives.

*Work for yourself? Your desktop is 5% more likely to be messier than the average.

*Math geeks and the scientifically minded have an irrational tendencies to chaos on their desktop, 12% more so!

*And finally, those with neater desktops place their personal priority of overall quality of life over the importance of professional work (well, maybe because the messy ones are still trying to find files while us neat freaks are quicker to find what we need!).

By Gregory Han

[Go over to Unplggd to do their desktop survey. I'd love to see Lifework reader's desktops. Mine is below. It's only this "neat" because my computer was running slow and I thought if I cleaned up it might run faster. Wrong. I think I will have to bite the bullet and get more RAM.]

Last Friday, developers were able to get their hands on the latest developer build of Apple’s upcoming operating system 10.7, aka OS X Lion. Along with updated features came some new desktop wallpapers. Apple has always been known for their beautiful and epic wallpapers. This bunch are nature-themed, featuring animals and scenic landscapes.

What’s interesting about these wallpapers is the actual size of them. At 3200 x 2000, these are larger than any display Apple currently ships today (the highest being the 27” iMac, topping out at 2560 x 1440). It’s nice to get such high quality wallpapers that are sure to be large enough to fit any screen you have, as well as span beautifully across two displays. ItsAllTech.com put together a bundle of these high quality wallpapers, which you can download here for free.

By Vivian Kim

[via cultofmac.com]

1. Run a default virus scan: Deep virus scans are thorough, but if you have a lot of data, they can take a lot of time. They can last anywhere from a few hours to over a day, so use the default level scan unless you really want every nook and cranny of your machine scanned.

2. Free up space on your hard drive: The more data the virus scanner has to check, the longer the scan will take. Delete anything you don’t need, and try to keep the apps to a minimum.

3. Run scans selectively: Instead of scanning all of your hard drives, program your software to scan only one hard drive per scan. The other hard drives can be scheduled for scans on other days. That way, you are only scanning one hard drive per scheduled virus checkup.

4. Run scans on your main hard drives: If you use a multiple USB hard drives which aren’t plugged in all of the time, then you can keep scan time to a minimum by running the scans only on your main hard drive. Periodically, you should scan also those hard drives, say every two to three weeks.

5. Pause your scan: Start your scan when you go to bed on a week night, pause it when you get up if you have to use the computer, then start it up again once you leave for work. This gives your computer time to scan pretty much everything.

By Range.

(Image: HD Free Wallpapers)

Aside from the slick touch UI, we’re definitely loving the ability to hook the tablet itself up and project it onto an HDTV via a dock. It was one of my #1 requests for the iPad, but I guess we’re just going to have to wait a little bit longer for Apple to catch up with the needs of consumers.

If teasers are your thing, be sure to check out the 30 second HP Slate trailer. If the quick editing and cinematic orchestra doesn’t sell it for you, the features might certainly will.
Let us know what you think! Does HP have a solid winner on their hands?

[Via Engadget]

By Anthony.”