receipts
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Amazon offers cashback rewards if you scan receipts through its Alexa app
Alexa has introduced "Shopping List Savings" to the Alexa App, letting you scan receipts on eligible products from any store to gain cashback rewards.
Google Photos makes it easier to take clear pictures of receipts
Google is making it easier to capture clear photographs of receipts and other documents. Following on from the AI-powered suggested actions feature unveiled out last year, which automatically brightens and rotates images, the company is this week launching a new crop and adjust function for snaps of printed items and text-heavy pages.
Tesco trials receipts sent directly to your smartphone
Some receipts are just about worth keeping -- you may have second thoughts on the fit of those new jeans, after all -- but the scrolls you receive at supermarket checkouts are basically just paper waste. Every under-the-kitchen-sink plastic bag has one of these unread companions, but things could get a bit lonelier under there if Tesco's latest tech trial is successful. At one store in Harlow, Essex, the supermarket is testing out a paperless receipt system that skips the printer and sends it straight to your phone instead.
Piikki is the best receipts scanner I've used
I've become religious about tracking paper receipts over the last year (and can't wait until all receipts are digital). That means I've tried most of the big-name iOS receipt scanner apps. Out of all of them, an app called Piikki (US$2.99, universal) is my favorite. On the surface, Piikki is similar to other receipt scanner apps. It photographs receipts and saves the image to your phone. But the beauty of Piikki is in its tagging and archival power. Every time you photograph a receipt, the date, time and geolocation are saved. Users can then enter a title for each receipt, select a category the receipt falls into, select the appropriate currency and add tags. Piikki can archive receipts in the app itself, or -- best of all -- it offers several export and sync options, including via Evernote, Dropbox and Google Drive. When browsing archived receipts on your iPhone, you can search via tags, names, locations, dates or more. Another great feature is the bar chart that displays receipt totals organized by category (such as "Travel" or "Food"). The app also offers a myriad number of settings, including passcode lock, image formats (JPEG or PDF), image quality, app themes and more. But my favorite part of Piikki is how it adds a small footer to the JPEG or PDF of the receipt. When I open a receipt on my computer (after it's been synced via Dropbox), not only do I see an image of the receipt, but the footer at the bottom shows me its name, location, date and time, category and tags. Piikki is well worth the $2.99 price and I highly recommend it to individuals who like to track their paper receipts and small businesses as well. Best of all it's a universal app, so it works on the iPhone and iPad. %Gallery-185909%
Daily iPhone App: Slice helps you track your online purchases
Slice is for the online shopper who likes to have everything right at his or her fingertips. If you take the time to set it up, the app will quickly become the central hub for your online purchases. You can organize your online receipts, track packages and even monitor recent purchases for price drops so you can request a price match refund. The key to Slice's success is your email account. Once you grant Slice access to your account, it will scan your emails for order invoices and shipping notices. Slice finds your purchases and then stores them in your Slice Purchase History. Using this information, the app can analyze your receipts and allow you to see where you are shopping and what you are buying online with its new "Thingerprint" feature. Slice also tracks your packages and alerts you when an item has been delivered. The Slice service is free, but it does require you to setup an online account. You also have to grant Slice access to your email account, which could make some people uncomfortable. The company says it scans your email only for order and shipping notices; other emails, which may contain personal information, are ignored. If you still have privacy concerns, you can always setup an email address that you use just for purchases. Slice also uses encryption to help keep your invoices safe. The latest version of Slice for iOS brings several new changes including email support for Hotmail, iCloud, and AOL email and a new Facebook Connect login if you're a Facebook user. You can also add shipments manually or by scanning the tracking barcode. I took the app for a test drive and was impressed at how it handled my purchases. I buy a lot of items online and the app did an excellent job picking out the order confirmations and shipping notices from a slew of spam. If you can get past the privacy concerns, Slice soon will become your favorite shopping companion. The Slice app is available for free from the iOS App Store. You can read more about the service on Slice's website.
Five apps to help you file your taxes (updated)
With only a few weeks before taxes are due -- the federal deadline is on April 17, and many states have followed suit -- plenty of Americans are scrambling to file before the clock ticks away. We've gone and found five apps that will help you make Tax Day, and waiting for that refund, a bit easier. TurboTax SnapTax (Free, but has in-app purchases) This app from Intuit allows those who are eligible to file with the simple 1040-EZ to do their taxes straight from the iPhone. Snap a photo of your W-2, answer the questions and hit the button to zip your return to the IRS. While the app itself is free, actually filing a return costs $24.99. TurboTax 2011 (Free, but has in-app purchases) Those who use TurboTax for their taxes can now do so via the iPad. The app itself is a free download, but like all of Intuit's products, filing the return will cost you. Those who have used TurboTax in the past will find the interface familiar. Filing returns starts at $49.99 for federal taxes and $39.99 for state. H&R Block Mobile (Free) This app from H&R Block allows you to check your Federal return status. It also allows you to create checklists for doing your taxes and estimate your refund, and it provides access to a tax help center that allows you to look up questions, define tax terms and more. And, if you throw up your hands in defeat, the app also provides directions to the closest H&R Block location. If you're a 1040EZ filer, you can use H&R Block at Home 1040EZ Tax to file for free. Receipts Pro - Expense Tracking with Reports ($4.99) Receipts Pro keeps track of all your business expenses as you make them so you're not struggling to recall them when doing your taxes. The app lets you take photos of your receipts and organize them into groups or categories. Custom fields can be used to attach tax or payment information to each receipt. An overview graph helps you keep track of spending and a reporting feature lets you print up a detailed list of expenses. IRS2Go (Free) Finally, we have the app developed by the IRS itself. Like other apps, it will allow you to check refund status. You can sign up to get tax tips emailed to you, how to contact the IRS, and you can follow the IRS Twitter feed from it. However, it does not provide access to tax code, forms or the sort of tools found in Tax Central. Still, if you feel more comfortable using the official app to check your refund status rather than Intuit or H&R Block, this app is not a bad way to go. [Kelly Hodgkins contributed to this post; updated to reflect separate apps for H&R Block]
Look the business with PlanOn's super-slim receipt scanner
Receipts. You request them every time you make a claimable purchase. Then you put them in your pocket, the washing machine, the dryer, an old envelope, until they've been everywhere except where they need to go. Sure, you can use a smartphone app, but wouldn't you be so much more diligent if you had a $140 dedicated portable scanner like PlanOn's SlimScan SS100? It's taken a while to come to market since we went hands-on, but it's finally available with immediate effect. You swipe the credit card-sized stainless steel device over your receipts and store the images -- up to 600 of them -- on its built-in storage. Then you hook it up to your PC over wireless-schmireless USB, auto OCR the images, correct any inaccurate fields and export the data straight to your spreadsheet. Then you wash it, dry it, put it in a drawer...
IRL: Spotify, Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300 and Oakley's AP backpack 3.0
Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment. In this, our last edition of IRL before worldwide eat-Chinese-food-and-go-to-the-movies day, we're unpacking our gifts a few days early. Darren replaced his document scanner after his old one went to wherever it is that deceased scanners go, Joe finally settled on a gadget bag stylish enough to go with his skinny jeans and Brian's given himself the gift of a Spotify premium account. So how's it going, here in real life? Head past the break to find out.
Receipt Racer makes printing fun, wastes more paper than you ever thought possible (video)
Sure, you could use your printer to spit out spreadsheets, but how about hooking up a DualShock 3 to play it like a video game? That's exactly what Joshua Noble and the undef duo did during a workshop related to OFFF last week, and the result is stunning (if not hilarious). The trio coded a game in openFrameworks, titled Receipt Racer, which uses a thermal receipt printer modded with a "light beamer" to display game info and represent a car, a DS3 to control it, and a laptop to connect the devices and run the software. A random track with obstacles gets rapidly printed while a player attempts to navigate it without crashing -- sort of like Lane Splitter -- or until the paper roll runs out after 164 feet. There's a tree-loving web browser version and the full details of how it works in the source link below. We scored just over 1,400 1,752 points; let us know how you do in the comments. [Thanks, Jesse]
TUAW Sneak Preview: Doxie scanner from Apparent Corporation
Apparent Corporation, makers of the popular Intelliscanner barcode scanners, has announced that their new Doxie document scanner is in private beta-testing and on track for release to the public in November, 2009. Doxie is a USB-powered 600-dpi photo, document, and receipt scanner designed to integrate with a number of undisclosed Web and Mac apps. While I'm personally disappointed that Apparent didn't go with the pink and white Good & Plenty candy color scheme, the Doxie is heart-friendly and comes emblazoned with a number of pink hearts. The biggest heart is on the single scan button, which is just visible in the top right of the photo above. I was shocked to find a mistake in the press release, in which they said there were 9 hearts on the device. There are actually 10: one above the "i" in the logo, 8 after the logo, and one on the scan button.A cool thing about Doxie is that it will automatically know when you're trying to scan a photo, clean up the photo (straighten it and trim if necessary), and then politely offer to put the photo into your iPhoto Library, Flickr pool, or other web apps. As an Apparent spokesperson noted, the company isn't interested in coming out with yet another piece of software to store your receipts and documents. Instead, they want Doxie to work with as many existing Mac, Windows, and Web apps as possible. One comment from the developers that may point to some rather unique functionality is that they recommend using Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. Doxie will retail for $129, and you can sign up for updates and early release information at the new website, which went live today.
NEAT Receipts for Mac Advance Release
Hey, slacker! You know who you are - the person who waited until 11:59 PM on April 15th to file your tax return. You've decided to get organized so you can file on April 14th next year. Windows users have had a leg up in the expense organizing world with a best-selling scanner/software combo called NEAT Receipts. Now Mac users are getting the love too.Consisting of a sleek little scanner and some proprietary software, NEAT Receipts for Mac Advance Release is a complete solution for capturing all of life's little expenses automatically. You scan a receipt, and OCR software captures the vendor, price, sales tax, and other data into a library along with an image of the receipt. NEAT Receipts for Mac Advance Release doesn't have all of the features of the PC version yet, but it will when the final version is released in January, 2009. For the time being, you can buy the scanner and software for $179.95 (a full $50 less than the PC version) and upgrade to the full Mac version for free when it ships.Thanks to Rachel for the tip!
