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Use the iPhone's camera to interact with your surroundings in Tap Tap See

The iPhone and iPad are both intuitive devices that offer a range of options for people of all walks of life, including those with impairments of sight. One such app is Tap Tap See, which uses the built-in accessibility functions of iOS 6 to activate a remote network that can rapidly identify and announce objects using the device's built-in camera. Native for the iPhone (but perfectly functional upscaled to an iPad), Tap Tap See is a marvelous app that does one very basic thing very well.

Before you use Tap Tap See, you'll need to turn on the … Read more

Amazon satisfies mobile buyers most; Apple ties with QVC

Amazon proved No. 1 among consumers shopping for the holidays via their mobile devices, according to a new report from analytics firm ForeSee.

Released today, ForeSee's "Mobile Satisfaction Index: Holiday Retail Edition" awarded Amazon a score of 85 out of 100 based on satisfaction among shoppers who used its mobile retail store.

Apple tied with QVC for second place with a score of 83. After that came NewEgg, Victoria's Secret, Barnes & Noble, Footlocker, HSN, Costco, and Hewlett-Packard to round out the top 10.

The poll specifically focused on the 25 largest U.S. mobile retailers … Read more

Amazon again tops in e-tail customer satisfaction; Apple slips

Amazon continues to reign as the most popular online store for customer satisfaction, according to a report out today from ForeSee.

Measuring the top online retailers for the holiday shopping season, ForeSee awarded Amazon a score of 88 out of 100, matching the company's top grade from last year. Amazon has scooped up the highest scores in the index for eight straight years, in large part because of the appeal and variety of its products, ForeSee said.

"At this point, Amazon has been dominant for so long and has such a history of focusing on the customer, its … Read more

Surveillance device uses Wi-Fi to see through walls

Researchers in England have created a prototype surveillance device that can be used to spy on people inside buildings and behind walls by tracking the frequency changes as Wi-Fi signals generated by wireless routers and access points bounce off people as they move around.

The device, which is about the size of a suitcase and has two antennae and a signal processing unit, works as a "passive radar system" that can "see" through walls, according to PopSci.com. It was able to successfully determine the location, speed, and direction of a person behind a one-foot-thick brick wall, but can not detect people standing or sitting still, the article said.

The U.K. Ministry of Defence is looking into whether the device -- designed by Karl Woodbridge and Kevin Chetty of the University of College London -- can be used in "urban warfare" for scanning buildings, PopSci reported.

… Read more

Apple scores big bump in customer satisfaction

Apple took home a 5-point jump in customer satisfaction, according to the E-Retail Satisfaction Index published today by customer analytics site ForeSee.

The iPhone maker's retail Web site scored 85 out of 100 in this year's index, compared with 80 last year. Only one other retailer, RueLaLa.com, managed a 5-point gain though that site grabbed an overall grade of only 75.

Despite Apple's ascent, it could only rise to second place, having achieved the same grade as QVC. On top as usual was Amazon.com, which captured a score of 89, up from 86 last year.… Read more

Save the Screens with Gaia 3D Jigsaw Puzzle Screensaver

It seems like many years since massive CRTs dominated the desktop display market, not to mention the desktop: anything over 17 inches was a sure hernia, and 21 inches was the practical limit. But what many people remember is screensavers, which were as important as Flash is today, and critical for preventing burn-in. Not only are screensavers still with us in the LCD era, they're better than ever, even if they're no longer needed much for their original mission. That's OK, because they have a new one, and that's to place something visually interesting on all … Read more

Bring a world of TV to your desktop with anyTVPro

There's no doubt that online streaming is TV's future, and lots of programming is available all over the Web, including not only live streaming but also on demand and archived. We've tried several programs that attempt to bring as many of these scattered resources together in a single, user-friendly interface, including anyTV, a free program offering thousands of links to Internet TV and radio sites. AnyTV Pro is a shareware version of anyTV that offers some 3,000 additional channels, a full-screen view, automatic updates, and some other upgrades. While it definitely works better and offers more … Read more

The 404 996: Where it's the end of an era (podcast)

It's been an awesome journey with this guy, but we'll send him off with a proper farewell from listeners who have been with us from the beginning.

"Uncle" Henry Tapchus joins us as the chat room liaison to help us screen voice mails and get through Adele's "Someone Like You" with our dignity intact. … Read more

Walking and texting just got a tiny bit safer

Using real-time camera trickery, Transparent Screen for Android makes your mobile device "see-through" so you can use it to text or check e-mails while you're walking. It's a fun tool that could definitely come in handy for the multitaskers among us.

After downloading the free app from the Android Market, fire it up and adjust the settings. You can manipulate resolution, camera orientation, and transparency level. Once you're done, tap Start and you'll be able to use your device as normal, but you'll see a semitransparent layer of whatever your camera sees in … Read more