How to scan photo negatives with your smartphone
With each new smartphone and tablet, consumers are given yet another portable photographic and imaging device that can be used not only for casual photography, but also for serious purposes such as archival and preservation. Recently, I began experimenting with my smartphone to see if I could convert photo negatives into workable digital positives without having to buy a single-purpose device like the ION Pics 2 Go smartphone negative scanner.
There are quite a few smartphone applications and accessories to help people use their phone's camera to scan photographs and documents. The $15 Kickstarter project called Scanbox places smartphones an ideal distance from photos for scanning purposes, and mobile apps such as Shoebox by 1000 Memories uses edge detection and perspective correction to clean up digital shots of printed photos.
The Church of Appletology
So there I stood, in the middle of the Gardens Mall, transfixed by the sight in front of me. On my left, a seemingly endless line of bohemian-looking individuals stretching away from the doorway to the Apple Store. On my right, the much quieter entry way to the New Religion Jeans Company. Apple on one side. New Religion on the other. And then, the epiphany: Apple is a lot like the Church of Scientology!
Now before you click away at least hear me out. I'll start with origins. Scientology is the creation of one man, L. Ron Hubbard, a science fiction writer who once famously stated that "if you want to get rich, start a religion". The modern day Apple is also essentially the creation of one man, Steve Jobs, who once famously stated "Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to me". Clearly, both were keen financial minds -- kindred spirits, if you will, sort of opposite sides of the same coin.
5 reasons why Microsoft Surface will struggle
What? You're looking for iPhone 5 stories, since it launches today. I want to break with the pack, and write about something else. Shocking, isn't it? Windows tablets is worthy topic.
While you can expect many different Windows 8 or RT tablets next month, Microsoft's own Surface is the trailblazer. I've got some concerns, which apply to other tabs running the new OS -- five big barriers I think Surface will face at launch.
Will Apple Maps keep you from upgrading to iOS 6?
I've wanted to ask this question all day. But we needed an Apple Maps review first -- Wayne Williams delivered a good one -- and it needed a few hours live on the site. But I can refrain no longer. Will Apple Maps keep you from upgrading to iOS 6?
Considering the bad reaction to Apple's homegrown replacement for Google Maps, it's no idle question. About three quarters of US smartphone owners use location-based services, with mapping programs ranking among the highest, according to Pew Research. If you're among them, and actually would like to reach a destination using an Apple device, iOS 6 may not be for you. That is if the default mapping program is your primary one.
Windows 8 tablets are the right post-PC response
Microsoft is taking a considerable risk with the Windows 8 ecosystem and major push into the post-PC era. There is no room for error and to get it right all the parts must work in perfect harmony. Windows 8 faces stiff competition and must dismount all preconceptions it's a weak tablet operating system.
Microsoft enters the market fully prepared to take its opponents head-on. Instead of copying adversaries, the company takes the more mature approach of offering a different user experience. Every competitor should fear Windows 8 tablets, and I've got five reasons why.
Apple iOS 6 Maps -- headed in the wrong direction [review]
I upgraded one of my Apple devices to iOS6 last night and the first thing I did, once finished setting it up, was to launch the new Maps component. This, as you’ll no doubt be aware, replaces the aging Google Maps app. I knew from other articles I’d read previously that Apple’s own mapping service wasn’t going to be as good as the old Google one. After all, Apple is new to this mapping lark, and the search giant has years of experience in the field. But I was prepared to give it the benefit of the doubt, and forgive any minor problems. After all, how bad could it be?
I started, as I am sure most people do, by typing in my address. Well, actually as I live in the United Kingdom I typed in my post code. Apple found my road, Prince’s Drive, but decided it was called Princess Drive. Not the most auspicious of starts.
Nitro Pro 8 review
These days, free PDF tools do a heck of a lot more than simply display and print PDF files. Pick up a tool like Nitro Reader, for example, and you can create PDFs from within any application, plus sign, annotate and fill in PDF forms.
What you can’t do with free tools is edit, convert, split or combine PDF files, so if your needs are greater than the basic options provided by free tools, you’ll need to invest in a dedicated PDF editor. And when it comes to getting more bang for your buck, Nitro Pro has always delivered exceptional value in a package one third the price of Adobe’s entry-level Acrobat Standard.
Is patent peace possible in our lifetime?
Late this afternoon, in response to Motorola's requested, massive Apple product ban, Dan Gillmore posts to Google+: Come on, Google, don't abuse the patent system the way Apple does. Sheesh". I've seen similar sentiments expressed elsewhere. Gillmore and others are wrong. Google isn't playing Apple's game, but trying to end it. If Apple won't negotiate willingly, a show of force may be the only way to achieve patent peace.
Motorola Mobility is now a Google subsidiary, so legal demand from the one really comes from the other. From one perspective, the request is so sweeping as to dwarf any of the claims Apple makes against competitors like HTC and Samsung. Moto seeks a ban on virtually every Apple device -- iOS or OS X -- sold in the United States. It's reasonable to look at Google and to question whether the tactics are heavy-handed. They are not.
What do you think of iOS 6?
Today, two days before iPhone 5 launches, Apple releases iOS 6. We'd like to know what you think of the software, particularly compared to the previous version. Several features are sure to cause reaction, with Facebook integration and Apple's new maps app, which replaces the one from Google, being high among them.
To be honest, given my Apple boycott and iPhone-toting daughter going off to college, I have no iOS device for testing. I can't review, and my best Apple-using writers are in Europe and likely won't blast out anything until tomorrow. But we need reaction today, particularly if iOS 6 turns out to be the update some of you won't want to apply. Judging from some of the reaction on Twitter, many of you should wait -- lest Apple Maps directs you to the river bank instead of your local financial institution.
Has Microsoft lost the tablet war before it begins?
Asus' Windows 8 tablet roadmap leaked a few days ago, revealing the company's intention to launch three tablets powered by Microsoft's soon to be released Windows 8 operating system. Bloggers and journalists have used the roadmap to argue that the pricing is too high to compete effectively against Apple iPads and Android tablets. Taken aside that the pricing may not be final, it seems like they are right, if you only compare price and nothing else.
Asus' entry model, the Vivo Tab RT, for instance, lists with a starting price of $599. That's $100 more than Apple's cheapest new iPad model, and $300 more than Google's Nexus 7 tablet. But can you really make that comparison?
Friendly advice to a fellow post-PC traveller
You do even better! That's what I'd say to fellow BetaNews contributor Mihaita Bamburic if I ran into him in a hallway somewhere. As I watch with amusement, his "existential struggle" with the post-PC question, I have to chuckle a bit at his naïveté. Like most PC veterans, Mihaita tries to squeeze a square peg (tablet) into a round hole (desktop-centric thinking). He'll need to leave those preconceptions behind if he ever hopes to do more than scratch the post-PC surface.
For starters, reset your purchasing criteria. You need to forget about those expensive "clamshell" tablet/dock combos and start off with a simple, cheap Android tab. I picked up a dozen Acer Iconia A200s on eBay for use at the new school my wife and I are building. Prices ranged from $170-200 for refurbished units with 8GB or 16GB of onboard SD storage. At that price point, you can pretty much experiment to your heart's content without worrying about trashing some "transforming" device that costs more than a decent laptop.
What Office 2013 pricing means to you
Simply stated: Microsoft wants to end any pretense you own the software, while curbing software piracy in the process. Oh yeah, expect to pay more for Office than you do today. For many households or small businesses, that's lots more, particularly if they buy into the Office 365 subscription paradigm.
Office 2013 is all about subscription pricing, something Microsoft has attempted several times over the years in pilot form but never really brought to the mass market -- certainly not broadly. The company will continue selling boxed software but the big push is about subscriptions. Hell, I had to dig deep to find retail pricing. Today's pricing announcement pushed Office 365 versions instead. Right, the new subscription bundles.
Aliens zapped my toaster, or why you should care about space weather
The launch of the iPhone 5, and the fuss that’s being made over it (wow, 2 million sales in 24 hours) shows once again how far IT is embedded in every part of our lives. How lost would we be without any of the electronic kit and systems we so depend on? Even your toaster likely has a microprocessor embedded in it. And all of that makes us very vulnerable in ways that were almost totally unknown to our grandfathers. It’s not the natural world that has changed. It’s us.
You may remember that a few weeks ago there were widely publicized warnings of a solar storm which, in the end, had limited effects. And no doubt this caused many people to think that solar storms are never what you might call a real and serious problem. But consider this: 153 years ago, beginning on August 28th 1859, a super space storm occurred of such proportions as to make Hurricane Katrina look like a minor inconvenience.
Why won't Google pull that offensive YouTube video?
Let’s everybody beat up on YouTube for not pulling that offensive anti-Muslim video that is infuriating people around the world. No, wait. As disturbing as this story is let’s instead take a moment to try and figure what’s really happening and why YouTube and its parent Google are behaving this way.
It’s easy to blame Google’s algorithmic obsession for this mess, but I don’t think that’s at work here at all. Yes, Google is very good (which means very bad in this case) at blaming one algorithm or another for pissing-off users. Google customer support is, in a word, terrible for this very reason, and it often seems like they don’t even care. But this case is different, because it has less to do with algorithms than it has to do with intellectual property laws.
Windows 8 is a graphic shift in computing habits
Last in a series. If you read tech blogs as much as I do I am sure you have seen a number of articles criticizing Windows 8. Among these are articles that focus on the overall design of the Modern UI and its numerous inconsistencies. I saw a forum post on one website claiming that visual designers hate Windows 8?
The reason, hold on to your seat because this one is a doozy: the Modern UI design language has done away with drop shadows and realistic looking icons; in other words, the interface looks nothing like the skeuomorphic interfaces of Apple and to some degree, Google.
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