We live in a digital age, so why do business cards refuse to die? They're a hassle to store and an environmental suck to produce. Plus, who among us has time to manually transcribe contact info into a phone, PDA, or PC?
Needless to say, I was geeked to try Business Card Reader, a $5.99 app that turns business cards into iPhone Address Book entries.
Specifically, BCR leverages your iPhone's camera to take a snapshot of a card, then uses built-in optical character recognition (OCR) to convert the image into text and populate the appropriate contact fields.
After snapping a photo, Business Card Reader scans the card and adds the data to a new contact.
That's the theory, anyway. In practice, BCR requires near-perfect lighting conditions and decidedly non-fancy cards to achieve reliable recognition.
Make no mistake: This is a terrific app, one I'd absolutely buy despite its limitations; it's just that handy. But let's not overlook those limitations.
For starters, it requires an iPhone 3GS. Older models lack the autofocus capabilities necessary for sharp close-ups (though you might be able to get by with one of those third-party macro lenses).
Next, while BCR does a decent job identifying names, e-mail addresses, and phone numbers, in my tests it rarely got the company name right. Likewise, if a name included a middle initial, it placed that initial in the Last Name field and ignored the actual last name altogether.
It's also a challenge to get sufficient lighting while avoiding glare off the card itself--particularly if it's a glossy card. And what with all the fancy logos, layouts, and color schemes these days, it's no wonder BCR encounters its share of difficulties.
That said, when it works well, it's a thing of beauty, and it's a lot faster and easier to edit a few OCR mistakes than it is to manually enter the information.
I also like the app's option to look up a contact on LinkedIn and/or merge the scanned card data with an existing iPhone contact. Plus, it recognizes not only English, but also French, German, Italian, and Spanish.
Another perk: the Card Holder view, which stores the actual scans in a slick-looking mock-leather "holder."
Business Card Reader may not be perfect, but it's about $150 less than a dedicated bizcard scanner--and it works right on your iPhone.
Have you found another card-scanning app you like better? If so, hit the comments and tell me about it!
Print Magic can produce hard copies of text, photos, and Web pages.
The App Store offers a handful of solutions for transporting data from iPhone to printer, but few work as easily as Print Magic.
The $6.99 app makes it a cinch to print text, Web pages, and photos, all without wires: it connects via Wi-Fi to any printer on your network (or any shared printer on your Mac).
Well, almost any printer. While the app had no problem detecting my Brother HL-2170W laser printer and MFC-440CN multifunction, it couldn't figure out how to print to the latter.
Ideally, you should take Print Magic for a test drive before plunking down your 7 bucks. You can't just yet, but developer Wellala says a printer-testing trial version of the app was just submitted to Apple for review. Look for it in about two weeks.
Assuming you're able to print successfully, you'll definitely enjoy the results. You can print any text just by copying it to the iPhone (or iPod Touch) clipboard, then firing up the app and tapping Print.
Web pages work much the same way, except you copy the URL. As for photos, Print Magic provides direct access to your library--just tap the one you want to print.
The app doesn't support documents or e-mail attachments, but it's ideal for turning snapshots into prints, Web pages into real pages, and any copyable text into hard copy.
My only suggestion: wait for the trial version to make sure Print Magic can work its magic on your printer.
iFotoGuide has released its digital guide to on-location nature photography, a nature guide to select national parks. The first in a planned series to be released is iFotoGuide: Arches, about Arches National Park.
The iFotoGuide app allows you to look up travel information like hotels and weather, and park information like wildflower blooms and entrance fees. It enables you to find places to shoot; you can look for prime shooting locations to photograph a sunrise or a sunset. There are instructions for getting to the locations, as well as information on how to best shoot from them. It has a photo gallery of images from the park. You can just select the photo and the app provides the information to get there, and to photograph there.
"iFotoGuide: Arches" sells for $4.99 on the iTunes app store. It can be updated for free to allow new content such as additional locations in the park.
Where's the Grinch? In this uninspired game, only his hand appears. Grinchmas, indeed!
(Credit: Oceanhouse Media)Maybe I'm feeling extra Grinchy today because stupid iTunes keeps timing out when I sync my iPhone, but I don't like Grinchmas.
In this new game from Oceanhouse Media, you're a disembodied Grinch hand that flings snowballs--or presents, if you're in more of a "Merry Grinch" mood--at houses down in Whoville.
And that's it. The challenge, if you can call it that, lies in flinging accurately: you have to swipe at just the right speed and in just the right direction to score a hit.
If I'm any indication, grown-up players will tire of this in about 18 seconds. The littler Whos in your house might enjoy it for longer--the game skews cute, colorful, and Seussian--but ultimately, Grinchmas works so hard at being "casual" that it forgets to be fun. Skip it.
Give your snapshots a fun, Grinch-ian makeover with Dr. Seuss Camera.
(Credit: Oceanhouse Media)The real Dr. Seuss-inspired fun lies in Dr. Seuss Camera: The Grinch Edition, which uses the iPhone camera to create whimsical, Grinchy holiday cards you can share with friends.
Start by choosing from 20-plus different cards, then point your iPhone camera (sorry, Touch users) at the kids, the dog, cranky Uncle Fred, etc.
Each card has either a face cutout area or an empty space alongside a Grinch-related character (if not the ol' meanie himself).
After you snap the photo, you can decorate it further with stamps and borders, then save it to your Camera Roll and/or e-mail it to friends and family.
It's a cute little app, easy to use, and a perfect slice of holiday fun. Here's hoping that "The Grinch Edition" subtitle means there are other versions in the works. (I've always wanted a photo of myself next to Horton the Elephant.)
Apple's original Newton
(Credit: Apple)Back when CNET UK was a baby, it pitted an Apple Newton MessagePad against a Samsung Q1 UMPC in a brutal boxing match to the death. The Newton, despite being 10 years the Q1's senior, emerged victorious and the crowd--that's you lot--went wild.
Today, we've taken the reigning champion, the very same Newton, out of retirement to put it up against a brand-new contender. This time, the opposition is no Windows-tainted experiment doomed to failure. Oh no--this time it's the Newton's very own grandchild, the iPhone 3GS.
It would be a little unfair to compare the two devices on a like-for-like basis. One's a phone, for goodness sake, and one's a 400-year-old tablet thingy. CNET UK's Flora Graham and Rory Reid take a relative look at each, focusing on how innovative they were for their respective times...
Read more of "Apple Newton vs Apple iPhone at Crave UK.
(Credit:
memeticians.com)
If you're cursing yourself for sleeping through Black Friday, you can still indulge your inner cheapskate today on Cyber Monday! No, it's not what you're thinking, dirty birdy--Cyber Monday is the first Monday after Thanksgiving when all the vendors come together to tempt you with online deals and take whatever coins are left in your bank account.
Since it's our first day back, we take the first half to update each other on our holiday festivities: Jeff visited the Norman Rockwell Museum, Justin is missing an arm after shooting guns in the Garden State, and Wilson stuffed himself silly with a batch of be-deviled eggs. I also suffered through "Twilight: New Moon" and "Ninja Assassin" over the weekend. Which movie deserves the award for least entertaining flick of the year? Check out our full review!
And speaking of Cyber Monday, Wilson digs up a controversial story about an "Adult-only" app arriving on the Android marketplace. The steamy app is pseudo-cleverly called "MiKandi" and according to Phandroid, the app only works with the Android. Sorry, iPhone users, your Web browser will have to do.
We're super excited to be back and ready to tackle the rest of 2009 with more giveaways, surprise guests, and a series of year-end wrap-up episodes coming your way, so don't miss an episode of CNET's The 404 Podcast. While you're listening, leave us a voice-mail at 1-866-404-CNET and give us your two cents. You can also send us an e-mail at the404(at)cnet[dot]com or just leave a comment on this blog!
EPISODE 476
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(Credit:
Novothink)
The greening of homes and gadgets is a growing consumer trend, and many exhibitors will debut their eco-friendly products at CES 2010. Last week, we highlighted the Electronic Houskeeper and the PICOwatt, two devices that monitor in-home energy use. Today allows us to highlight the Surge, an iPhone and iPod Touch case with solar panels.
Solar chargers like Solio are chunky and need to be carried around. But the Surge solar case is sleek, ergonomic, and certified by Apple. Two hours of sun exposure power 30-60 minutes of talk time. The Surge features an LED battery-level indicator.
The charger is manufactured by Novothink, a company that vies to pair solar technology and portable devices. The California-based company is focused on creating solar chargers for devices in high demand, as the mission is to allow consumers to live off the grid easily.
The Surge may seem like a gimmick on the face of it, but it might be a perfect solution for Apple iPhone and iPod owners on the go. Emergency chargers are available, but those are often cumbersome, especially for men, who generally don't have the luxury of a purse for portable storage.
Alternatively, the option to replace a dead battery with a backup is impossible for Apple device owners, as the battery isn't (easily) removable.Those looking to harness the sun's energy will have to fork over $70, but it could be the right investment for consumers on the move. Novothink has already released the Surge for the iPod Touch and will make it available to iPhone users on December 15.
How you choose to protect--or not protect--your iPhone is a matter of personal choice. Sure, plenty of people like to leave their iPhone naked, reasoning that any protective cover diminishes its sleekness. But the majority of iPhone owners realize it's probably a good idea to give your precious device some degree of armor, particularly if you don't like the idea of seeing your iPhone's lovely finish dinged and scratched up over time.
Going rugged isn't always pretty.
If that's the kind of heavy-duty shielding you're looking for, this is the list for you. Now, we can't guarantee all these cases will protect your iPhone--and particularly its screen--in the event it gets dropped or has a large object fall on it, but at least they give it a better chance of surviving unscathed.
While we tried to pick tough, protective cases that look good and don't make your iPhone too bulky, we should point out that a few of the cases have more extreme designs that aren't intended for everyday use. We should also note that some of the more rugged cases can be a bit of a chore to remove and aren't friendly toward iPod docks. And finally, before slipping your iPhone into any of these case, be sure to wipe your iPhone off carefully because having any bigger dirt particles wedged between your case and the back of your iPhone or the chrome trim can lead to scratches.
Click on any image to begin slideshow.
Note: The top 20 is listed in alphabetical order, not by ranking. If you don't agree with our choices or feel we missed some, please submit a comment, and we'll consider making changes in our next update of the list.
(Credit:
Scott Stein/CNET)
My Thanksgiving was spent in the New York City area, since my family all live on Long Island. But, since I live in the city in an area that's not conducive to owning or parking a car, I'm a renter when it comes to trips. As a result, services like Zipcar and other rental agencies are of great importance to me, as is the quality of their services as opposed to their apps.
When it comes to Thanksgiving car rentals, the city's supply dries up incredibly quickly--weeks in advance, if my attempts were indicative. In particular, Zipcar--the service that's high-tech enough to have an app that unlocks your car for you and offers a mobile rental portal for phones--showed me a map full of unavailability. My car savior came from another service, Connect by Hertz, that happened to have plenty of cars available. And, by coincidence, there's no app. I'm also an iPhone user, and I've become dependent on my apps. But this weekend, I learned a bit of a lesson about phone dependence: sometimes, perhaps, it's better not to have an app for everything.
A me-too competitor to Zipcar, Connect by Hertz is another car-sharing service that has prices and vehicles similar to Zipcar's, as well as a system that uses your membership card as the access key. Connect by Hertz requires a yearly membership equivalent to Zipcar's and works off the same car-sharing model, using your membership card as the car key and offering free gas fill-ups.
It's far from ideal to be subscribed to multiple services, as I am. But the difference is availability: a day before Thanksgiving, Hertz had cars in the city ready to go, many of them, on its Web site. I'm inclined to shift over to Hertz simply to not be stuck on major holidays.
Now, the question is: does not having apps or mobile portals make services like Connect by Hertz more off-the-beaten-path, and thus paradoxically easier to reserve with? Does not having an app make you the equivalent of that below-the-radar cafe that's somehow avoided crowds despite serving delicious food? And am I, by posting news of this, possibly doing the very thing I'm trying to avoid in the first place, blowing this secret up?
Of course, there's always lesson No. 2: don't drive anywhere for Thanksgiving.
A month after Apple started selling its iPhone in China, the device expanded its Asian reach Saturday with a much-heralded launch in South Korea.
In keeping with the tradition of waiting in line for hours in advance of an iPhone launch, hundreds queued up overnight outside the Olympic stadium in Seoul to snag the smartphone as soon as it officially landed amid blaring music and strobe lights. The hoopla appeared to far trump the phone's more subdued arrival in China, where it launched in the October cold and rain to smaller-than-expected crowds.
(Credit:
Apple)
KT Corp, South Korea's second largest mobile carrier (after SK Telecom) and the local distributor of the iPhone, says about 65,000 people have preordered the device, which hit the South Korean market two months after the government approved its sale.
Mobile penetration in South Korea is high--an estimated 93 percent of the country's population subscribes to a mobile service--but smartphones have yet to take off there due to cost, lack of apps, and high data rates by mobile carriers.
"We're hoping that this iPhone will be a trigger point for the smartphone market in Korea," said Yang Hyun-mi, chief strategy officer at KT Corp, according to the Canadian Press. Smartphones make up just 1 percent of all cell phones in South Korea, she said.
KT is pricing the 32GB iPhone 3GS at 396,000 won ($338) for customers who subscribe with a monthly service fee of 45,000 won (about $38). Customers who subscribe with a monthly fee of 65,000 won ($55) can get the phone for 264,000 won ($225). And premium users who sign up for monthly plans based on a 132,000 won ($113) basic rate can get the phone for free.
An 8GB iPhone, meanwhile, can be had for 132,000 won for subscribers signed on the 45,000 won monthly plans.
KT projects that iPhone sales will fall anywhere 200,000 to 500,000 units, a showing that's widely expected to shake up the country's mobile market. For years, the Korea Communications Commission used technical rules to stifle competition, allowing homegrown giants like Samsung and LG Electronics to take over the market, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Indeed, in good news for cost-conscious consumers, Samsung has already slashed the price of its 8GB Omnia 2 smartphone by 44,000 won ($37.50) to 924,000 won ($788).
Watch a South Korean iPhone television spot below.
