checking

Save it with Clipboard Help and Spell

Clipboard Help and Spell is a free tool that saves and stores your text Clipboard entries, letting you search, filter, and open just the right entry among many. It offers hot keys, text formatting, image capture, and more options than we could describe, even if that's all we did in the allotted space.

Clipboard Help and Spell has a main window that we could open from the program's system tray icon, but most of the time that tray icon is the program's primary interface. Clicking it calls up a handy menu of common operations like opening clips, … Read more

Amazon PriceCheck app: Use it, get a discount

People who use Amazon's PriceCheck app to compare prices while holiday shopping can score a 5 percent discount this coming Saturday.

Here's how it works:

Amazon's free PriceCheck app lets you look up almost any item to compare the store's price with that of other retailers. You can either scan the product's barcode, snap a picture of it, speak its name, or just simply type its name. In return, the app shows you prices from both online and offline retailers, including of course, Amazon.

The new holiday promotion will start on December 9 at 9 … Read more

The 404 959: Where we lower our carrier IQ (podcast)

Today's 404 podcast topics include who to blame for the Carrier IQ bug, a digital rape whistle for shaming street harassers, a preview of tomorrow's Xbox Live update, and a quick game of "guess-the-Apple-iOS-dev-code-names!"

We're also running a contest all week, so send in your creative 404-related video voice mails to the404(at)cnet(dot)com for a chance to win an 16GB Apple iPad 2 or an 4GB Xbox 360/Kinect bundle! Thanks to Target.com for the prizes.

Video submissions should be thirty seconds or less, with you declaring lifelong loyalty to The 404. Or whatever.

Leaked from 404 Podcast 959:

Facebook increases status update character limit to 63,206. iHollaback is the new rape whistle: Shaming street harassers with cellphone pics. Here are a few funny code names Apple used for iOS version updates. Xbox Live update comes with 40 entertainment services and Live TV.… Read more

New Path 2.0 automatically chronicles, shares your life

The year-old semi-social network app Path is getting a major update that adds scary but interesting automatic life-tracking features, as well the capability--finally--to share Path items with larger social networks.

A refresher: Path was designed as a mobile service that lets you share what's important in your life with only your closest friends. It's not a wide-open social network like Facebook, nor a broadcast platform like Twitter. It's designed to keep you in touch with your family and your close, intimate friends only.

Path now makes that even easier and, in my opinion, more enjoyable. The new … Read more

iOS shopping apps: bar code scanners

This week's post is a special early edition of my weekly iOS app collection. Black Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year, and though I can't help you beat the lines or navigate through the crowds, I've rounded up a few apps that might make your holiday shopping a tiny bit easier.

These apps are made for price-checking on the go, so you know you're getting the lowest price for the item in front of you. The best apps in this category are the ones that locate the item online and in nearby stores, but even apps that are only strong at scanning will definitely help to organize your holiday shopping and will hopefully result in fewer Black Friday headaches.

This week's iOS app collection is all about tools for holiday shopping. Get quick access to a huge database of products and prices and some helpful shopping tools.… Read more

Rafe's solution to check-in fatigue: Check out

It's a sunny weekend day. I'm out with my son, who's 5. We've just walked to that hipster sniffing post, the Bi-Rite Creamery. I'm about to get a cone for the kid, I'm proud to be his dad, he's happy, I'm happy, and all is right on Earth. It is, obviously, the perfect time to share my love of life and ice cream with the world. It's time to check in on my iPhone.

But on which app? This is how my thought process went:

The default is Foursquare. That'll … Read more

Kevin Rose demos Oink: Check-ins for things, not places

SAN FRANCISCO--At the Web 2.0 Summit, Kevin Rose of Digg fame showed off Oink--a service for checking into and rating "things," as opposed to places. Oink is the first product from Rose's new company, Milk.

You can rate, for example, the best teas at a specific location (Example: Samovar Tea Lounge) or all the teas within walking distance. Rose says early Oink users are mostly rating food and drink. But also seats at venues, attractions at theme parks, and so on.

There's a gamification element to Oink that will pay users back. "I'… Read more

Foursquare moves toward ditching check-ins

SAN FRANCISCO--Interviewed at the Web 2.0 Summit, Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley talked about how the location check-in app is becoming more passive.

"One of the big hurdles we have is that you have to think about using it," he said of Foursquare. "If we can lower that barrier, we can juice the experience."

That's why the company recently launched the Radar feature, which, once you turn it on, collects info about where you are, the direction you're going, and so on. It'll tell you if people you like are nearby, and "… Read more

Moby's private location sharing hits Android

Moby, the free, multiplatform location-sharing app, has just extended its reach to Android.

Previously the app was only available on the iPhone and BlackBerry platforms, but it appears Contigo Systems, Moby's developer, is making good on its promise to connect families no matter what devices they may be carrying.

Considering the release of Apple's Find My Friends app and the continued adoption of Google Latitude, some might feel like Moby is pushing its way into increasingly dangerous territory. But to Moby's credit, it seems to be taking a different route from the others. While most of the … Read more