Google Maps has added a saucy new terrain overlay to its already impressive view options. In addition to geographic terrain, this view also displays buildings in metropolitan areas à la Google Earth. You may also notice that the Hybrid view is now missing from the top row of buttons, but Hybrid view (which displays satellite imagery with street information overlaid) is now the default for Satellite view (though you can toggle the street information).
Google Maps [via Google Operating System]Windows only: Send print jobs to any computer from any computer over the internet—like to your home printer from work—with freeware application PrinterAnywhere. Just install the software and register for a free PrinterAnywhere account (requires a username and email address) to get started. PrinterAnywhere is simple to set up, and when it comes time to print a document remotely, you can just choose the shared printer from the regular Windows print dialog. Because PrinterAnywhere queues print jobs to their server, your computer doesn’t even need to be on for PrinterAnywhere to work—it just fires up the job as soon as the application runs. PrinterAnywhere is freeware, Windows only.
PrinterAnywhere [via Confessions of a freeware junkie]Google is gearing up to store your data online, according to the Wall Street Journal, meaning the much anticipated GDrive may be just around the corner. Until then, these stop-gap solutions will suffice.
Your internet connection is an indispensable part of your life, but between BitTorrent, Xbox Live, web browsing, and VoIP, sometimes there’s not enough bandwidth to go around. But rather than running around the house shutting down all of your computers next time you’re experiencing a little lag on Xbox Live or Skype is breaking up on you, you can set up Quality of Service (QoS) rules on your router to distribute bandwidth to your different gadgets and applications based on your priorities. Today I’ll show you how.
While it’s not as good as the excellent Filter Assistant user script, Gmail’s added a useful feature to messages: the ability to filter email like the one you’re viewing. To do so, click on the drop-down on the top right, and choose “Filter messages like this.” That will open a new filter form with the From: field filled in with the sender (and in the case of mailing lists, the list email address.) You can also add folks to your contacts, report phishing and other actions from that menu.
5 little-known Gmail features you may not yet know about [Official Gmail Blog]Windows only: Synchronise the contents of two folders, either across your home network or on the same PC with a free utility from Microsoft, SyncToy. The 2.0 beta’s been released and gotten smarter since the first time we pointed out SyncToy, adding smart drive letter detection (for when your USB drive gets assigned a different drive letter when you plug it in) and a more robust mechanism to include or exclude files from the synchronise action. Great for sync’ing files from your desktop to a USB drive or between two different computers on your home network, Adam uses it to sync his iTunes library between PC’s. The SyncToy 2.0 beta is a free download for Windows only.
Download details: SyncToy v2.0 Beta [Microsoft Download Center]Windows Vista only: Make your Vista windows feel a bit more Mac-like with Leftsider, a small application that moves the close, minimise, and resize icons to the upper left corners of windows. Leftsider runs from an icon in the taskbar that lets you switch the left-alignment on and off, and since the program doesn’t touch your registry or system files, it’s up to you whether to put Leftsider in your “Startup” folder or delete it entirely. For those dual-system users who find their mouse muscles occasionally confused, Leftsider is a no-hassle fix. Leftsider is a free download for Windows Vista (32 and 64-bit) only.
leftsider [via CyberNet]Linux.com has put together a good overview of Firefox extensions that keep your browsing, searching, and emailing secure and private. A few of these, including Privoxy and SafeHistory, have been cited here before, but this list includes a few new ideas, like using the PetName extension to leave “reminder” notes on trusted websites to defeat phishing attempts. For more secure browsing tweaks, check out our Technophilia feature on protecting your web searches.
Ten Firefox extensions to keep your browsing private and secure [Linux.com]Google’s Experimental Search section has added a feature that lets users enable auto-completion of search queries from their main Google pages. While certainly not a new function in the search world, “Keyword suggestions” can help you spell out hard-to-remember words like onomatopoeia and harness the searches used by other Google searchers to find what you’re looking for. Unfortunately, turning on keyword auto-complete will turn off any other Experimental features you have enabled, such as keyboard shortcuts, and doesn’t carry over to iGoogle home pages yet. For those who still use the streamline basic Google page, however, it couldn’t hurt to try it out.
Google Experimental Search [via Google Blogoscoped]
