FoodScanner for iPhone is a calorie counter's dream come true.
When my eating starts getting out of control, I usually fire up the Lose It app to keep tabs on my calories for a few days.
Of course, it's a hassle to have to manually enter the foods I eat. Enter FoodScanner, a new app that scans package bar codes for quick and easy calorie logging.
Does it work? It does. Is it just as cool as it sounds? It is. Will it earn a spot in one of Apple's "There's an app for that" commercials? Almost certainly. It's just that slick.
To use FoodScanner, just tap the little lightning bolt, then point your iPhone's camera at a UPC bar code until it's centered within the arrow guides.
In a matter of seconds, the app scans the bar code and presents the matching food (complete with a thumbnail picture). I found the scan process remarkably fast and accurate, especially compared with the somewhat unforgiving scanner in the pic2shop app I mentioned yesterday.
Once you've looked up your food, you can review its nutrition label or tap "I Ate This!" to record it in your daily database, which keeps a running tally of your caloric intake.
Of course, restaurant foods and other non-packaged items (like most fruits and veggies) have no bar codes--but FoodScanner also features a search option that ties to developer DailyBurn's database of more than 200,000 foods. So you can look up just about anything you can't scan.
No bar code? No problem. FoodScanner lets you search for non-packaged foods.
Speaking of DailyBurn, there's an eponymous app that's much more robust at tracking your calories, exercise, weight goals, and the like. FoodScanner is kind of a companion app.
Thankfully, it can sync with your Web-based DailyBurn account, which in turn syncs with the DailyBurn app. It's unfortunate that FoodScanner wasn't just built right into DailyBurn, but ultimately the data lands there.
The DailyBurn Web service and app are free, while FoodScanner costs $2.99.
If packaged foods make up a sizable portion of your diet, you're sure to find the convenience of bar code scanning (to say nothing of the off-the-charts cool factor) well worth the price.
This flatbed scanner can be yours for 20 bucks--if you don't mind a mail-in rebate.
(Credit: Visioneer)Update: This appears to be sold out already. (Check back later and even tomorrow, as Newegg often gets replenished stock.) My apologies to those of you who get Cheapskate via e-mail, as it's occasionally out of date by the time you receive it. All the more reason to visit the site directly!)
Update #2: As of 1 p.m. ET today (Thursday), the scanner is back in stock! The code still works, and the rebate is still available.
Scanners are insanely handy. They can turn old snapshots into digital photos, archive paper documents electronically, turn any printer into a copier, and so on.
Alas, they're still on the pricey side, which is why I'm excited about this deal: Newegg has the Visioneer OneTouch 7400 flatbed scanner for just $19.99 shipped.
Note: that's after signing up for Newegg's free newsletter, applying coupon code EMCLXNN27 at checkout, and mailing in this $20 rebate form (PDF).
The OneTouch is a USB-powered scanner, meaning it requires no bulky AC adapter--just plug it in to your Windows-based PC (sorry, Mac users) and go.
It's extremely slim, measuring just 1.4 inches tall, and it sports five convenient one-touch buttons for various scan jobs: scan, copy, e-mail, OCR, and custom. The lid is hinged in such a way as to accommodate thicker items like books.
Visioneer bundles photo-editing software and Nuance's classic PaperPort, one of my all-time favorite apps. It provides a virtual filing cabinet for scanned documents, but also lets you drag and drop scans to various applications.
(I'm not sure which version of PaperPort comes with the OneTouch, but it's worth noting that the current version sells for $99.99.)
Although this is a new scanner, not a refurb, Visioneer's standard warranty is just 90 days.
That's kind of annoying. On the other hand, you're getting a full-featured flatbed scanner for the unheard-of price of 20 bucks. That's pretty tough to pass up!
Lexmark's 4.3-inch touch-screen LCD.
(Credit: Lexmark)Not to be outdone by HP's recent touch-screen printer, the folks at Lexmark just debuted their line of Web-connected touch-screen all-in-ones.
The big difference between the two is that although they both have touch technology, the HP Photosmart Premium with TouchSmart Web is meant to live in the home, while the three printers featuring Lexmark's MyTouch technology are designed to increase productivity for the business market. Nevertheless, this won't stop us from putting them side-by-side in the first ever Web-connected, touch-screen-printing kumite.
Only three out of the eight new products include a large 4.3-inch touch screen, coincidentally the exact same size of HP's LCD screen. I had a chance to preview the entire lineup, and I was impressed with the comprehensive set of new features built into each device. The "SmartSolutions" button layout lets SMBs streamline their work flow by customizing their home screen with easy-to-use applications that include template shortcuts, address book favorites, RSS feeds, ID and ID card copies--all built into the machine with updates available through the host computer.
Four of the new printers also feature 802.11n wireless connectivity and all eight include Lexmark's Vizix technology that uses individual ink tanks to produce higher quality output at a cheaper refill cost. Business users will also be happy to see Lexmark's new business card scanning technology that recognizes and automatically uploads contact information into popular desktop software suites. One drawback: the technology isn't available for Apple's vCard address book sync.
All of the new printers will be available in September, and we'll be getting units into the CNET Labs as soon as possible to begin testing, so check back soon to see who will win in a head-to-head match.
The LG LH55 series does cut blur, but its picture quality falls short of other 240Hz LCDs.
(Credit: Sarah Tew)At CES this year, LG made a big deal out of its 240Hz technology, claiming it bested similar blur-busting tech from other LCD makers. The LH55 series represents the company's least-expensive HDTV equipped with a 240Hz refresh rate, and when it comes to that feature, as usual, we weren't particularly impressed. The results were similar to those seen on other 240Hz displays--reduced blur that was difficult for us to really discern, although test patterns prove it's there--but we were a bit annoyed that you have to engage the smoothing effect of dejudder if you want to reduce blur.
In its favor the LH55 brings a boatload of other picture quality adjustments to bear, most of them leading to excellent color accuracy, but its overall picture is hampered by lighter black levels, among other minor problems. If you can handle those issues, are sensitive to blur, and enjoy picture tweaks, the LH55 is one of the more tempting LCDs out there.
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Hz so good: The marketing of 240Hz TVs may rely heavily on test patterns.
(Credit: Akihabara News)Every year it seems there's a new catchy spec in the HDTV realm everybody likes to talk about. A few years back it was 1080p resolution. Then we heard about 120Hz, which is supposed to reduce motion blur in fast-moving images on LCD TVs. Well, this year, the latest and greatest spec is 240Hz, which is supposed to do what 120Hz does, but better.
Not too long ago, our video guru David Katzmaier gave his initial impressions on 240Hz in a post titled "Is 240Hz worth waiting for?" When he wrote that piece, he'd just seen his first 240Hz TV in action and wasn't sold on the new technology. Now that he's reviewed four 240Hz HDTVs and has a fifth review (the LG 47LH55) in the works, he's still not sold, but he admits the verdict isn't totally clear-cut.
Part of the problem is that there's a difference between what your eye sees in everyday material you watch and objective testing done with test patterns. As Katzmaier notes in his post, "Standard LCD and plasma TVs refresh the screen 60 times per second, or 60Hz, which is plenty fast enough to eliminate flicker and create the illusion of motion from a series of still images. In fact, most sources sent to your display arrive at the nominal rate of 30 frames per second, and each frame is repeated once by the television to achieve 60 total fps."
For most people, including me and Mr. Katzmaier, it's very difficult to see the impact that "faster" LCD sets have on picture quality. We spent some time in our AV lab watching various source material from 120Hz TVs and 240Hz models and it's really hard to detect any difference (it's hard to detect any difference between 120Hz and 60Hz models, too). To be clear, I'm referring here to motion-blur reduction because of faster refresh rates, not to dejudder processing, which smooths out motion and makes film-based material shot at 24fps look more video-like. When dejudder is engaged, you can easily spot its impact on the picture. (It's also worth mentioning that the dejudder processing on the 240Hz TVs we tested so far wasn't any better--or worse--than than the dejudder on 120Hz TVs).
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Toshiba's 240Hz ZV650U series uses a scanning backlight to fight blurring.
(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)As LCD and plasma vie for popularity and picture-quality bragging rights, one perceived weakness of the LCD camp has provided a reason for TV makers to charge more for step-up models: image blurring. Higher refresh rates like 120Hz and now 240Hz aim to clean up blurring with newfangled technology, and Toshiba's ZV650U series is one of the least expensive of such sets available.
Unlike such sets by Samsung and Sony, the Toshiba ZV650U uses a scanning backlight to reduce blurring--and, in fact, the company is careful to call its technology a "240Hz effect" to differentiate it from true 240Hz models. In most normal program material we find it nearly impossible to appreciate the antiblurring effect, but some people are really bummed by blurring, and for them the new LCDs--or perhaps the nearly blur-free images produced by plasmas--hold appeal.
Unfortunately for this particular Toshiba, high-tech-sounding processing can't overcome lighter black levels and a few other picture quality foibles. On the other hand, for those dead set on LCD who don't mind paying a bit extra for 240Hz, the relatively low price of the Toshiba ZV650U series makes it worth considering.
Read the full review of the Toshiba ZV650U series.
ScanCafe is showing off a new service in testing to digitize entire photo albums. Below is the original; above ScanCafe's version.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET News)LAS VEGAS--ScanCafe, a start-up that digitizes film images using relatively cheap labor in Bangalore, India, announced a new service on Tuesday to scan black-and-white negatives.
The Burlingame, Calif.-based company already scanned color slides and negatives as well as prints, but film scanners have trouble with black-and-white negatives. ScanCafe uses a "wet mount" process for which the company has applied for a patent, said Wade Lagrone, vice president of marketing, in an interview at the Photo Marketing Association (PMA) show here.
The process is more expensive but still competitive, Lagrone said. Color negatives cost 24 cents each, color slides 29 cents, prints 27 cents, and black-and-white negatives 69 cents apiece. The cost includes retouching and color correction.
... Read more
Office jockeys and home entrepreneurs take note: Canon's two newest batters in the Pixma lineup of all-in-one printers are packing some serious heat. The Pixma MX860 and Pixma MX330 multifunction inkjets are generally suited for small businesses operating out of the home, but don't let the "business" moniker fool you; they also feature Canon's ChromaLife 100 ink system that uses both dye and pigment ink to get the best image quality possible in a small printer. Both printers are available for purchase now at their respective prices. Here's a closer look at their individual features:
Canon Pixma MX860
- $199.99
- Built-in wireless 802.11b/g print server in addition an Ethernet network port
- Auto-duplex paper handling lets you print on both sides of a single sheet
- Capability to print and scan at the same time, decreasing the time it takes to complete a project
- Super G3 fax capabilities can handle up to 250 incoming pages in memory
- Large 2.5-inch TFT color screen
- Five color individual ink tank system
- Max resolution: 9,600x2,400 color dpi
Canon Pixma MX330
- $109.99
- Auto photo fix detects types of photos and automatically corrects brightness and contrast
- Includes 1.8-inch TFT color screen
- Printer can produce a "photo-lab" quality four inch by six inch photo in 41 seconds, according to Canon
- Max color resolution: 4,800x2,400dpi
- Features Canon's Quick Start feature that changes from the start-up screen to stand-by mode in seconds after pressing power key
An Android-based smartphone, the G1 from T-Mobile.
(Credit: T-Mobile)After preloading an iPhone app on Sansumg camera phones and expanding to Mexico, Scanbuy announced Tuesday that its ScanLife multi-bar code reader is now compatible for mobile phones running on Google Android.
As in any other mobile device, the ScanLife application allows for scanning a 2D bar code and automatically performing an action or function associated with that code. The action can be displaying a specific Web site, launching a video, dialing a phone number, or anything else a smartphone can do.
This way, bar codes can help eliminate the need to use the phone's tiny keyboard. You can even go to Scanlife's Web site to create your own bar code and associate it with whatever Web page or contact information you want.
The application supports major 2D bar code formats (including Datamatrix, EZcode, and QR) and can be downloaded for free from www.getscanlife.com when you visit the site on the mobile browser.
With the addition of Android, the ScanLife software is now compatible with virtually all popular mobile operating systems including BlackBerry, iPhone, Java, Symbian, and Windows Mobile.
Bar codes have become more popular in the last few years. If you fly now, most airlines allow you to print your own boarding pass that contains several types of bar codes. American Airlines even lets you use your mobile phone that displays a bar code to board their airplanes at selected airports.
This multifunction photo printer normally sells for $150 or more.
(Credit: Epson)Epson's having a rare sale: you can get a refurbished Epson Stylus Photo RX595 all-in-one printer for just $55 shipped.
What's significant about this model? Most of the cheapie multifunction printers I come across have low-end print engines, meaning they're not great for photos. The Stylus Photo RX595, as you might infer from the name, was built with glossies in mind.
It accepts just about any memory card on the planet (USB drives, too), previews images on a 2.5-inch color LCD, and prints using a six-cartridge system. It can also print on CDs and DVDs, scan directly to PDF, and crop/edit photos--no PC required.
CNET hasn't reviewed this model, but it rates 3.5 stars from Amazon customers. It's Windows- and Mac-compatible; all users will need to supply their own USB cable. Thankfully, even though this is a refurb, Epson backs it with a full one-year warranty.
One final note: Yes, replacement ink is expensive. That's true of all printers. So you might as well get the best possible deal on the hardware.
