 Southwest has been added to a growing list of the airlines that is offering in-flight Wi-Fi. For $5 charge, Southwest will provide Wi-Fi access, with the price remaining the same regardless of the device used or flight time. As of now, 32 planes is Wi-Fi enabled and Southwest plans to have a total of 60 planes Wi-Fi ready by the end of 2011. Southwest is also making it easy for you figure out whether your plane is Wi-Fi-friendly by sending you an email 24 hours prior to take off. A placard will also be on board for added notification. Southwest hopes to keep the $5 charge in place until Wi-Fi is added to all of its’ 346 planes by end of 2012, which at that time an increase in price is possible.Because of my obsession and need to be connected, I find that I do choose airlines according to in-flight Wi-Fi access. With most airlines using GoGo in-flight internet, I often head to their website to find out which airline has go-go coverage prior to booking a flight. With more and more airlines becoming wi-fi friendly, have you used in-flight internet services? Would you?
 I have to confess- I have an addiction to Wi-Fi. I like the fuzzy feeling I get when I know I am connected. Sometimes, I even make plans according to Wi-Fi connectivity - hotel reservations, airline reservations and even where I am going to eat. While I currently seek help for this obsession, I still need to be connected. To feed this need I used Wi-Fi finders that helps me find free Wi-Fi. One in particular is Jiwire’s Global free Wi-Fi app. This application allows you to filter your search according to free and paid hotspot locations. It lets you save your search and it can be added as a favorite. With new locations added daily this app makes finding Wi-Fi easy and you never have to be at a lost for internet connection. This app is free and available for the iPhone and android phones as well. Happy Hunting and Appy Friday!
 Social Networking games such as FarmVille have been blamed for many things. Many find this game so addicting that some have lost their jobs or incurred major financial debt. Now, a 22- year old mother from Jacksonville, Florida has been charged and has pleaded guilty to second – degree murder for shaking her baby to death. Why? His crying interrupted her FarmVille game. According to The Florida Times-Union, the mother, Alexandra V. Tobias, told investigators she became angry when the baby didn’t stop crying. She proceeded to shake the baby, stopped to smoke a cigarette so as to compose herself and then continued to shake him some more. According the mother, the baby may have hit his head during the incident. Tobias could face up to life in prison, but because of state guidelines could get 25 to 50 years.
Considered by Time magazine as one of the 50 worst inventions in recent decades, FarmVille is a game filled with “a series of mindless chores on a digital farm”. I have seen the addiction first hand. I have friends who have set their alarm to wake up in the middle of the night just so they can ‘harvest’ their farm. I am a former virtual farmer who was sucked in but I finally broke free from FarmVille’s grasp when I came upon a deal breaker-I realize I couldn’t eat my crop.
For months many have wondered and speculated about the release of the White iPhone 4. Well Apple surprised many today with an update to the Apple store iPhone application that had the White iPhone sitting in the reserved section. Now keep in mind I said ‘HAD’.  Yes, Apple apparently got wind that the new addition was out stirring trouble and causing heart palpitations around town and quickly removed the image. This begs the question- Will the white iPhone 4 ever have a release date? Since the phone’s launch in the summer, Apple has skirted around the topic of a release date, just saying that “they will not be available until later this year.” Oh well, I guess for those of you who are highly anticipating it’s release will have to continue to use a white case to feed your need for the color option.
 My cable company frustrated me this week when my DVR did not record one of my favorite shows. I thought my last ditch effort would be to wait until this episode went on repeat. Alas, Hulu Plus came to my rescue. I’ve had the app for some months now and while I have used it to watch old episodes as well as new, I never had that desperate need to turn to the app to watch an episode until now. Hulu Plus is a premium service that offers more content than the free based website, Hulu. It does come with a monthly subscription of $9.99 but with that you have access to even more shows not found on their free website, in addition to past seasons of new and old shows that are no longer on the air. Hulu Plus not only gives you more content but you also have the ability to view them in more places including your iPhone, iPod, iPad, Playstation, and Xbox 360. You can watch many of the current and popular shows including 30 Rock, Modern Family, Glee, and The Office. I honestly would never tell anyone to completely get rid of their cable company because you aren’t able to watch news or sport show, but it makes a great mobile complement.
 In its Back to the Mac Event, Apple announces a slew of new goodies. On the list are two new MacBook Air laptops, which basically give us a picture as to what the offspring of a MacBook and an iPad would look like. Having no optical drive and no hard drive, they are instead equipped with flash storage, making them thinner, lighter, quieter and having better battery life. Both Airs come with up to 30 days of standby time and has a core 2 duo processor. The difference between the two- one has a 13.3 inch screen size like the previous Mac Air, offers 7 hours of wireless use and is available in 128GB and 256GB for $1,299 and $1,599, respectively. The second, the younger sibling of the two, boast an 11.6 inch screen size, offers 5 hours of wireless use and comes in 64GB and 128GB, priced at $999 and $1,199.
The one major yet familiar feature that is coming to all Macs is FaceTime. Now all devices that have the FaceTime application on it can make video calls amongst each other. This feature is available today and you can head over to Apple's website to download the beta version of FaceTime on your Mac.
 Verizon has answered the call of consumers on a tight budget by making plans to start a tiered data plan. According to WSJ, Verizon is adding the option of data service for $15 per month. For that price you will have a monthly allotment of 150 megabytes of data with a charge of 10 cents per megabyte that is over the limit. The $30 plan will remain which offers unlimited access. The new plan will be available on Oct. 28th for new customers and will require a 2 year activation, while existing customers can simply switch their plan, if they so choose. This, however, is just a test and if all goes well, we could see even more options to the data plan. Verizon’s competitor, AT&T, has had a tiered data plan in place since the early part of summer. AT&T replaced its unlimited data plan with a $15 plan that offers 200 megabytes and a $25 plan offering 2 gigabytes of data. With everyone penny pinching right now, this can be seen as a win-win for the consumers and phone carriers trying to entice new customers.
 It is Friday and you know what that means- I’m shining a spotlight on an app that I feel is worthy of a shout out. Today’s app is Angry Birds. I first saw this game on a friend’s iPad and the name alone sparked my curiosity. After downloading it, that was all she wrote. Hands down I am addicted to this game. The premise of the game is to destroy castles belonging to pigs. Using strategy and a slingshot, you have to use the various birds that have their own set of powers, to eliminate the pigs and destroy the castles that are rigged a certain way. Flinging a set of birds and knocking out a bunch of green pigs does something for me. And I’m not the only one that has a mild, I meant intense addiction to the game. This game has been number one in the US, UK, Canada and every corner of the earth. Up until today, iPhone/iPad/iPod users were the only ones having fun with this app but now Android users can get in on the action. You can find the free version of this app at GetJar.com. Warning: THIS GAME IS HABIT FORMING. Side effects can include seeing birds in your dreams, forgetting to finish your chores, and using a slingshot to pass things to others.
What is better than two great companies coming together and working in one accord? Why, when you reap the benefits of course! And on October 28th, the benefits start to roll in with the iPad finding a new home with Verizon. Verizon will bundle the WiFi-only iPad with its own mifi 2200 Intelligent Mobile Hotspot with prices to start at $630, $730 and $830 for the 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions of the tablet. The plan that is offered as of now is access to 1GB of monthly data for $20, without a contract. This is of particular interest for those that own the Wi-Fi only models. Because, even though AT&T will match Verizon in upfront prices for each model, as it stands, AT&T can only accommodate the WiFi+ 3G model.
Yes, I know, I know- It isn’t the device that many of you are sitting on your edge of your seat for, but lets look at it as a sign of things to come.
 Recently, Apple was awarded patented rights to a 2008 parental control application that filters and prevents certain words from being sent or received from an ‘administered device’. According to the patent’s description “a message will be blocked (incoming or outgoing) if the message includes forbidden content.” Some see this as another way Apple is trying to gain control over its devices but many parents welcome the help as a way to help a parent who is trying to protect their children from unwanted dangers.
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