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Google Play Books gains OCR-based search

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

The Google Play Books app has received a nice update this morning which lets you search through the contents of scanned pages.

If you've used the Google Books service before, you know that the Internet giant supports a variety of book formats, including those with free-flowing text, scanned pages or even a combination of both.

Unlike the regular text which can be copied and pasted, scanned pages are regular images. Therefore, to make searching of scanned pages possible some sort of an optical character recognition (OCR) feature needs to run either on the device itself or on the server.

That's exactly what this Google Play Books update does for you...

Flint adds in-app invoicing, Passbook coupons, card scanning and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 10, 2013

Flint is a nice little mobile payment service that lets anyone easily accept and process credit cards on the go.

The service provides an interesting alternative to the likes of PayPal (which revamped its iOS app and just launched a digital gift cards shop) and Square (which just redesigned its credit card dongle).

Flint is cross-platform and fees start at just 1.95 percent.

Today, the company has refreshed its free iPhone application with notable new capabilities, like the ability to scan and redeem coupons using your iPhone's built-in iSight camera. Flint Mobile version 2.0 also lets you create invoices within the app and supports loyalty coupons in the form of Passbook passes...

Apple poaches top radio exec to lead iTunes Radio ad sales

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

In another move meant to capitalize on the success of its free iTunes Radio streaming-music service, Apple's hired a top radio exec as the company preps to offer iTunes Radio to advertisers in 2014 and take the service international, AdAge claims.

Former Cumulus Media Executive Vice President of Sales, Michael Pallad, has now joined Tim Cook & Co. and is now overseeing ad sales for iTunes Radio internationally, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke to AdAge. He will report into the iAd unit, which is led by Apple Vice President and former Yahoo exec Todd Teresi...

iPhone 5s now available within 24 hours from online Apple Store

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 10, 2013

Following reports last week indicating that Apple's iPhone 5s has finally achieved 100 percent availability across Apple's retail stores in the United States, the online Apple Store on Tuesday has updated its shipping times as well.

Web orders for the device are now shipping in 24 hours, another sign that Apple and its suppliers have fully caught up with demand, which is always good news with the Christmas shopping frenzy upon us.

All iPhone 5s models are now being advertised as available to ship within 24 hours, regardless of capacity, color or carrier...

VLC 2.1.2 is out with experimental decoding of HEVC and WebM/VP9

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 10, 2013

VLC, the free cross-platform desktop media player, has been through some turmoil as VideoLan, which manages the project, has undergone reorganization as the multinational development team now spans twenty nations.

The open source media player made its App Store debut back in October 2010 as one of the first iPhone apps that could render media file formats unsupported by iTunes and iOS. Unfortunately, the app got pulled in January 2011 over licensing issues.

The problems came down to the GNU General Public License (GLP) requirements as developer Rémi Denis-Courmont, lead contributor to the VLC project, filed a licensing claim based on the code he had contributed to the project.

Following a two-year hiatus, VLC made its way back into the App Store earlier this summer (you can download it for free). And today, VideoLan has pushed an update to VLC for Mac and Windows desktops, bringing a lot of fixes and a cool experimental decoding of media files in HEVC and WebM/VP9 file formats...

Verizon says it’s nearly fixed LTE issues in New York

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 10, 2013

The nation's top wireless carrier, Verizon Wireless, last month admitted its strained network in major cities such as New York, San Francisco and Chicago was underperforming, with many users experiencing their 4G data throughput dropping to slower 3G speeds.

Verizon yesterday blamed the sub-par network quality on “capacity constraints” and argued these data throughput hiccups are now a thing of the past as the carrier has successfully fixed its network in New York City...

Darklings review: possess your enemies by drawing symbols

Lory Gil ∙ December 10, 2013

If you find yourself attracted to visually stunning games, you are in luck. More and more unusual, atmospheric games are being added to the App Store on a regular basis.

Darklings is an atmospheric game that puts you in the world of Lum as he tries to save the light. Travel through forests and caves, battling Darklings and trying to bring light back to the world…

Starborn Anarkist proves that recycling really pays off

Lory Gil ∙ December 10, 2013

This article isn’t about how important I think it is that consumers reduce their excessive use of plastic, paper, and glass. I’m not going to get on my soapbox and tell you that you should be composting your leftovers. I am talking about recycling, but not in the way you may think.

Starborn Anarkist is a dual stick shooter that features an intergalactic garbage collector who has finally flipped his lid. Players go on a laser-guided rampage, destroying every ship in sight. Then, use the debris from your destruction to upgrade your ship and show those waste-makers how to take out the trash (these puns are just getting out of hand)...

Viber announces new ‘Viber Out’ feature for making low-cost outgoing calls

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

Popular VoIP and messaging service Viber announced today the release of version 4.1 of its mobile app for Android and iPhone. The update includes the full global launch of Viber Out, a new feature that allows users to make low-cost calls to any mobile or landline phone number.

The service uses credit that can be purchased through in-app purchases, or via credit card, and the minutes can be used on Android, iOS or your desktop. It's actually a lot like how Skype works, except it looks like Viber's rates are much lower and it won't charge connection fees...

Apple expands iTunes Match to Finland, Norway and other countries

Cody Lee ∙ December 10, 2013

Apple has expanded its iTunes Match service to several new European countries this week. Users in Finland, Denmark, Sweden and other areas are reporting that they have been granted access to the music-mirroring service.

First introduced in late 2011, iTunes Match allows users to match songs from their iTunes libraries to tracks in Apple's cloud. This way they can access their music from any device, without having to spend hours uploading it...

Apple updates ’12 Days of Gifts’ app for 2013 holiday season, opens it to US users

Cody Lee ∙ Updated March 16, 2018

You know it's getting close to Christmas time when outlets start publishing gift guides, and Apple updates its '12 Days of Gifts' application. The 2013 version of Apple's free-download-a-day app went live this evening, ahead of its December 26 kickoff.

Folks in European countries have become accustom to this yearly ritual, but it's never been available to those of us here in the US. I'm happy to announce, though, that this year, Apple has finally opened up the program to iOS users in the United States...

iDB holiday gift guide 2013: Cody’s picks

Cody Lee ∙ Updated October 12, 2018

Still having trouble picking out a special gift for that special someone? Don't worry, iDB is here to help with our second annual holiday gift guide. Just like last year, we've each compiled a list of our top picks for holiday gift ideas, and I've elected to go first.

Below you'll find a list of products that I'm either giving as a gift, hoping to receive as a gift, or are just known for being awesome. The items range from tablets to sunglasses, and everything in between, and come in at various price points. So let's get started...