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Changes to Nuance developer program will result in a flood of voice enabled apps
The company behind the Dragon speech recognition applications for computers and iOS devices has announced a new developer program that will allow software to access Dragon Voice technology at no charge. It could result in a tidal wave of apps that harness the power of the Nuance speech recognition and text to speech technologies. Many of our readers have no doubt used Nuance tech in apps like Siri, and Dragon Go. I talked with Kenneth Harper, Senior Product Manager for Nuance, who says opening up the technology is a way to help Nuance become an even bigger standard in voice technology, as well as introduce developers to the company. Harper says that the free developer service, called NDEV Silver, will apply to about 90% of the app developers for iOS. Developers will also have free access to Nuance's connected text-to-speech (TTS) capabilities in over 30 languages, bringing natural sounding text-to-speech in the cloud. Further, NDEV Silver members get access to Bluetooth hands-free voice applications. For larger corporate customers, Nuance will offer higher levels of services at what they call the Gold and Emerald level, but even these services will cost much less than the previous developer programs Nuance has offered. Harper wouldn't comment on how all this will tie in with rumored voice technology built into iOS 5 and new hardware that Apple is expected to announce soon, but since Apple now owns Siri, and has used Nuance technology in the past, it is likely there will be synergies. Many developers will leap at the chance to add very sophisticated speech features to their apps, and iPhones are likely to get even much more useful. The new developer program will also support Android and Windows Phone 7.
Easy Calendar for iPhone works great and is free today
I use iCal on my Mac and the iOS calendars from Apple quite a bit. I would never have even thought about using a 3rd party app on my iPhone, but Easy Calendar has changed my mind. It's the 'easy' part that I like the most. Using it reduces the taps to create events, from 6 to about 3. Events can be edited with 2 taps, and navigating to different days or weeks is also easier than the stock iPhone calendar. The app syncs with MobileMe, Outlook, Google Calendar and other CalDAV apps. Alarms are supported, and it is multi-lingual in Spanish, German, French and Dutch. Easy Calendar is usually US $3.99, but the price has varied a bit over the months with sales. Of course free is the best price of all, so if you want to try it, grab it today and see if it makes keeping up with events and appointments a bit easier. Here's a video if you want to see how it works.
Mobiola Webcamera adds iPad 2 support and recording features
We took a look at the WebCamera iPhone app last fall. It's a clever piece of software that turns your iPhone into a portable webcam on a Wi-Fi network. Since our review, the price has dropped to US$2.99, iPad 2 support has been added, and you can now record the streaming audio and video right on your computer. Setup is easy. Install WebCamera on your iPhone or iPad, and download a free app for your desktop or laptop computer. Both Mac OS and Windows are supported. Run the app on your phone, select the computer running the app, and whatever your iOS camera sees shows up on your computer. It's nice for keeping an eye on kids or pets, or use it with any messaging app just as if you had a USB camera plugged in. On the iPhone or iPad 2, you can choose the front-facing or rear camera, mute the audio and use the flash on the iPhone as a light to brighten up the scene. Just beware of battery drain if you're not connected to a power source. The new recording feature allows you to grab a still or a movie with sound from your iPhone. The resulting video clip is a standard .mov file. The video doesn't work with iChat, unfortunately (it's an Apple issue). WebCamera worked fine on Skype, but of course you can run Skype directly from your iPhone rather than your computer. Running the app keeps your iPhone 'awake' so it does not time out and lock in the middle of a session. WebCamera is a good app made better with the updates. iPad 2 support is welcome, and the ability to record the webcam sessions on your computer is a nice feature. The app was stable in my tests, and if you have ever wanted a portable cordless webcam this might be a great solution. The app also runs on the 4th generation iPod touch. %Gallery-134579%
Canon adds AirPrint to Pixma printers
Canon today announced 3 of its all-in-one Pixma printers will now support AirPrint from Apple. The printers are the MG8220, the MG6220 and the MG5320. Canon has posted a web page with more details. Some of the printers may require a firmware update to function properly. AirPrint is the wireless printing technology Apple introduced in iOS 4.2, offering print services from the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Originally, AirPrint was heralded to work with a variety of printers networked to a Mac, but when actually released AirPrint worked with only a handful of HP products. Third parties have offered AirPrint functionality to get around the Apple restrictions. Printopia works quite well, and works with almost any networked printer. Another Bonjour-based printing solution is available from FingerPrint,
SiriusXM app needs updating or old version will stop working
That's a tactic that should get SiriusXM customer's attention. The new version of the SiriusXM app released this week has moved to version 1.6, but the app must be updated or the older version will stop working. The satellite radio company says the app adds "required location awareness in compliance with new content provider policies". If the app is not updated, the older version will stop working, so to avoid any surprises it would be best to get the new version. In a past update, many SiriusXM apps lost the login information, but this version seems to protect it, so after you get the new one, and it downloads some graphics, you should be good to go.
NearPics is a clever idea that could be a lot better
I'm always looking for free apps that blend well with my passion for photography. I've been playing with NearPics, a free app from UK developers The Mac Box. The idea is simple. Start the app on your iPhone and photos that have been taken near your location appear in a slide show. I tried NearPics in Southern Arizona and it worked quite well, bringing up a couple of dozen photos of nearby locations, including some parks, some pictures of a nearby mall, and some nice sunsets. That's as far as it goes, but it could be a lot better. The pictures are sourced from Panaramio.com, not from users of the NearPics app. It would be so much better if I could just use the iPhone camera and submit images directly. I noticed that on Wi-Fi, the app was pretty fast, but in several locations it was dog slow on 3G. I think some users might just give up. The app runs a slide show, but the user has no control of the interval that the images change. You get to choose start and stop. That's it. Support for Flickr and other image services would be welcome. A tap on an icon takes you to Google Maps to see where the photo was taken, which is handy if you want to go there and take some photos on your own, but rather than build the Google Map into the app, you have to exit, making for a somewhat jarring experience. NearPics is a good idea, but it could be so much more useful. Sure it is free, and I appreciate the effort, but with just a little more in terms of features and NearPics would be an app that lots of photographers would use. Then again, unlike Color, there is some utility to the app. You can see some example photos in the gallery below. %Gallery-133265%
Your personal, iPhone-powered SATCOM
The Scout Observer by Scout is an iPhone dock that is a bit too pricey and sophisticated for most of us. It's a six pound box designed for the military that turns into a portable satellite communication terminal when it's mated to an iPhone 4. It offers a spectrum analyzer, power meter, multimeter and a block downconverter which lets you locate and measure satellite signals. No cost is given for this mean machine yet. Tt's scheduled to ship in the 4th quarter of 2011. Note: The direct link to information on the Scout Observer seems down for the moment. Hopefully the device will work better than the website. Here's a link to the general company website.
Got acne? There used to be an app for that
The iPhone is pretty special, but apparently its magic does not extend to curing blemishes. The Federal Trade Commission has reached a settlement with the developers of AcneApp. The marketers of the app claimed that it "was developed by a dermatologist.... A study published by the British Journal of Dermatology showed blue and red light treatments eliminated p-acne bacteria (a major cause of acne) and reduces [sic] skin blemishes by 76%." There were approximately 11,600 downloads of AcneApp from the iTunes store, where it sold for $1.99. The FTC charged the acne treatment claims made for both the iPhone and a similar Android app were unsubstantiated. It also charged that the marketers of AcneApp falsely claimed that the study in the British Journal of Dermatology proves that blue and red light therapy, such as the type provided by AcneApp, is an effective acne treatment. Our own Chris Rawson was pretty sure the iPhone's oleophobic screen would take care of acne on its own, but apparently it is only good at resisting greasy fingerprints and ear wax. A couple of mysteries here: First, how did this kind of snake oil make it past the iPhone app store vetting, and why on earth did 11,600 people download it? Just thinking about this makes my face itch. Oh, if you still need some kind of acne fix, there is a free app called Acne Eraser that will gives you info and tips on getting rid of the facial blight. For our more light-hearted readers there is a free iOS game called Pimple Popper. You can figure out the rest. As they say, once you pop, you cannot stop.
On the road, and off with the Garmin USA nav app
Garmin has finally joined the ranks of GPS nav app providers that include maps on your device rather than requiring you to download them. I have tried a previous incarnation of the Garmin app on a trip to Northern Arizona, but I only saw a blue dot and no roads since I was in a place with no cellphone reception. No data, no map. As a result, I was pleased to make another trip up north for some landscape photography and try this latest version with full maps on board. It's a big difference. The maps seemed up to date and even had quite a few dirt roads. Even better, during a boat trip at Lake Powell the app was able to show me where I was and provide the boat speed. Although I couldn't really use the app for navigation because it could only give me a straight line route to my destination, it did show the buttes and mesas around me accurately, and if I zoomed out enough I could pretty much get where I wanted to go. As a traveling companion, the Garmin was just fine, and it mostly matched the capabilities of the Garmin stand-alone nuvi line. A built-in points of interest database worked pretty well when I was away from cell service, but when I had access to cellular data I could rely on the built-in Google services. I liked the ability to place a call directly from the points of interest screen, and the detailed and realistic graphics when exiting a freeway were helpful. When driving through Phoenix the larger buildings were rendered in 3D, and while I was more interested in looking at the road, the feature could be nice if you are stuck in traffic. Navigation continued during phone calls, and the voices provided were intelligible, although I always wish the iPhone speaker had a few more decibels. I only had one serious glitch. After getting back in the car and launching the app, it could never acquire a satellite signal. After ten minutes I gave up and tried again, but it still wouldn't lock on. I completely re-booted the iPhone, and the app quickly grabbed its location. It could have been a bug in the app, or something in iOS; I only saw it once. Traffic information is US$19.99 a year, while my preferred Navigon app offers a lifetime traffic subscription for the same price. On the other hand, the Navigon USA app is $49.99 while Garmin USA is $39.99. The Navigon series of GPS apps have been my long-time favorites. This new Garmin app is finally competitive, especially since the maps are on-board. Of course Garmin has recently purchased Navigon, and it will be interesting to see how the product lines merge and mix. I have no hesitation recommending the Garmin USA app if your travels take you out of the city and to places where data networks are sparse or non-existent. These apps also don't drain your data plan, unless you opt to use the built in Google services, optional gas price directory or traffic features. %Gallery-132828%
Sonos updates software for iOS 5, Lion
It has taken a long time but the Sonos software is now Lion friendly. When Lion came out in July, Apple substantially changed the way shares work, and the popular Sonos home music system depended on the SMB protocol to share with your iTunes library. In Lion, Apple moved to a proprietary method, and that started the problems and caused a lot of anger among Sonos owners. Streaming services like Pandora, SiriusXM, or Spotify worked fine, but you couldn't get access to you own music if you had your files on your main computer or an external drive. Some people had their music on a Network Attached Storage device, or NAS, but Lion broke some of those as well. I've tested the Sonos update, and it does the trick, which will make music starved Sonos customers happy. If you are using the iOS Sonos remote apps have an update today as well. Happy listening.
Redsn0w 0.9.8b7 gets tutorial for jailbreaking iOS 5 beta 6, iOS 4.3.5 and 4.2.10
Just like the Sn0wbreeze project, redsn0w recently added support for a tethered jailbreak of iOS 5 beta 6. While support for the iPad 2 still isn't in the mix, the latest version -- 0.9.8b7 -- adds additional support for Apple's latest beta on the original iPad, and the folks at Smash iPhone have provided a tutorial for those who move to the beat of a different drum. While redsn0w supports a tether-free solution for iOS 4.3.3, if you want to partake in Cupertino's freshest fruits, you'll be required to connect your phone or tablet to your computer whenever you power up the device. Also, while download links for iOS 4.3.5 and 4.2.10 are in the tutorial, if you're not a developer, it'll be on you to scrounge up the latest beta. Best of luck with the foray.
Apple patent application imagines iPhones that learn the sweet sound of your voice
Button-loathing Apple really wants people to stop dirtying its devices with sticky fingerprints. That's why it's applied for a patent that should improve the frustrating experience of using iOS's voice control -- precisely the kind of update we've been awaiting since Apple bought Siri last year. With the help of a technology billed as "User profiling for voice input processing," your device would identify your voice, check against a library of words associated with you without having to trawl through its entire dictionary. We just hope Apple doesn't do away with physical inputs entirely -- we'd hate to broadcast to the world all the guilty pleasures we have loaded on our iPods.
Daily iPad App: 7notes handwriting recognizer lets you take notes with one finger
7notes is a note-taking/handwriting recognition app for the iPad. It costs US$8.99; there is also a $4.99 iPhone version, along with feature-limited free versions. I spent several hours using the iPad paid version (7notes Premium) and found it did an excellent job of recognizing both my cursive words and individual letters, all done with my finger on the iPad screen. Handwriting recognition is not a trivial task, and 7notes has a very smart recognition engine. The app also has a predictive engine which worked quite well, figuring out my scrawl and giving me some words that matched the context of what I was writing. When there is more than one guess, you just tap the word you want. As you write, you can also add freehand graphics, with some choice of color and thickness of the stroke. I was able to easily add arrows and other simple symbols or diagrams. You can convert your words to recognized text at any time, on a word by word basis, or full sentences or an entire document at one time. The app allows you to write in 2 or 3 column format. You can save your document or send to email, or export to Evernote or Dropbox; you can save as a PDF, or if you are equipped, you can print directly to a local printer. When I tried printing everything worked as expected, and the graphics appeared within my text just where I wanted them. The app allows you to bring up an on-screen keyboard at any time if your words aren't being recognized, but in point of fact, I did not have to use it. In a way, 7note fulfills the promise of the Newton from back in the 1990s, only 7note works better and has a lot of formatting options the Newton never had. When I first started to use the app, nothing worked, but I pretty quickly learned to adjust my fingers to the screen and then recognition got very good. The app has a lot of icons on screen that aren't always readily obvious in purpose, but I quickly learned them; built-in help is available at any time. You can try a free version of the app to get an idea if it will work for you. It won't convert your handwriting to text, but it will give you a good introduction. I did not try the iPhone version, and the smaller screen might be more of a challenge. 7note works with a stylus, and that might be a preferred method of input. 7note provides a support page where you can get questions answered, and read what other users are saying about the app. If you are a note-taker and just can't get excited about the software keyboard on iOS devices, 7note may be for you. Remember that it will take some time to get used to writing with it, and you'll need to learn the purpose of the on-screen icons. You can see some screen shots in the gallery below. %Gallery-131597%
True HDR for iPhone adds features and goes on sale
I've looked at TrueHDR in the past and found it a competent app for getting good photos in challenging exposure situations. HDR techniques are excellent when you are faced with taking photos of people when there is a bright sky behind them. The app has been updated today with some worthwhile features and a sale price of US $0.99 for a limited time. New features include post-processing control of warmth, saturation and brightness, and there are now some effects like sepia, monochrome and vignetting. I gave the app a quick test this morning and found the image quality quite good when there was both a bright sky and some deep shadows. I've included some screen shots in the gallery. The app allows you to manually set exposure in different parts of the viewfinder or it can do it automatically. Images can be saved to your camera roll, emailed, or sent to Twitter or Facebook. This is a nice update to an already good app. Processing and merging images into an HDR finished product takes under a minute, but it would be good if the app did the processing in the background. If you exit for a call or to check email, the rendering stops then resumes when it is active again. If you are interested in better iPhone photos, TrueHDR is is a good way to start, and I think you will get better results than from the Apple built-in HDR feature. %Gallery-131346%
Luminance app for iOS has some pro features for image editing
The iPhone and iPad have really pushed developers to have more and better features for editing photos on mobile devices. I've used and been impressed with apps like Photoforge, PhotoStudio, PhotoWizard and more. Today I've been using and testing Luminance, which adds some clever functions for serious iOS photographers. First and foremost is the ability to add layers of adjustments to photos. While not the first app to do this, it's intuitive to add effects as layers, which can be removed or made transparent so other effects can show through. Another nice feature is the ability to save any effect as a preset, then apply it to other photos that you import. If you really like to tweak your images and have taken a lot of steps as you add to the original image, Luminance gives you unlimited undos, so you can walk the image back, or jump to any particular change and pick up from there. It's a powerful feature for an app designed to run on a phone and tablet. There are quite a few presets built in, and they can be modified to taste. As I edited my photos, the app was solid and speedy. I didn't see any crashes or bad behavior. The operation of the app is intuitive, and the developers say they were aiming for a blend between an iOS app and Lightroom or Aperture. I think they achieved that. There are some things I'd like to see, like some built-in help, even thought the app is very easy to use. I'd also like more tools, especially rotate and cropping. Posting to Twitter is coming soon, and I'm told users can look forward to Flickr posting, tilt/shift effects, and creating frames. I like Luminance because it pushes the editing envelope a bit, and I'm anxious to see how it evolves and improves. I've added it to my iPhone photo tool kit. Check our galleries for some shots of the app in action. Luminance is US$0.99, which is a sale price until August 23. %Gallery-131069%
WeatherTrends360 Pro lets you peer into your weather future
There are dozens of weather apps for the iPhone, but most are based on traditional data from places like the National Weather Service in the US, or the Met Office in the UK. For the last few days I've been using the US $0.99 WeatherTrends360 Pro which has a completely different approach to weather information and forecasting. Rather than a standard 5 or ten day forecast, this app lets you look months or a year ahead. The forecasts work pretty much anywhere worldwide, and are based on trends, historical data from 6.4 million locations in 195 countries. The company claims about 80% forecast accuracy which is certainly better than flipping a coin. Weather Trends International provides forecasting services for many Fortune 500 companies including Coca-Cola, Wal-Mart and Johnson and Johnson. In addition to the really long-range forecasts, the app offers animated maps of recent lighting strikes, wind speeds, satellite images, even earthquake locations. I can't vouch for how good the forecasts are a year out, but the app has lots of information that is useful on a daily basis. There are 10 regional animated weather maps, and more traditional short-range forecasts that can give you hourly predictions. I found those forecasts solid at my location. If found one glitch when I couldn't get my chosen location to stick, but when I exited the app and launched it again, everything was fine. If you want to play around with the data you can check the WeatherTrends360 website but at the low $0.99 price, this app will give you a lot of weather data for a very small investment. I'm already finding this app to be really useful, and expect that if you care about detailed weather information you'll agree. The app is not universal, but runs on the iPhone and iPod touch, and the iPad. It requires iOS 3.1.2 or later. %Gallery-130933%
TeamViewer update allows remote file transfer
TeamViewer for the iPhone and TeamViewer HD for the iPad have received new updates that provide support for transferring any file from an iOS mobile device to a computer (and vice versa). Windows PCs as well as Mac OS X Lion and Linux systems are supported. TeamViewer is free for private use, and will allow transfer pictures, videos or documents over a wireless or 3G network. I tried a couple of file transfers using my iPad and a remote Mac and all worked as advertised, although the file transfer screens only worked in portrait mode, which seems an odd oversight. Some other remote access apps have file transfer features as well. LogMeIn Ignition comes to mind. More info on the TeamViewer apps can be found here. TeamViewer for iPhone and iPad are available now in the app store.
Pew: Half of US customers use phones to get info in realtime
Have you ever been out and about with your cell phone, needed some information, and looked it up right there on the spot? You're not alone: The Pew Internet Research Project has released a report that says more than half of US cell phone owners have used their devices to get information they needed in real-time, right where they happen to be. That's a huge change in the way we used to deal with information -- remember when you had to print out maps or call ahead before you went somewhere, or just forget what the name of that '80s movie actually was? Nowadays, connected phones are so ubiquitous that all of that information is literally and conveniently a touch away. In fact, I'm surprised that number isn't higher. And looking up information isn't the only thing smartphone owners do with their phones: 92 percent text and take pictures, 80 percent send photos to others, and 76 percent send emails. Social networking in general is popular as well, with 59 percent of owners using those sites, and 15 percent going to Twitter specifically. We've heard before that people are actively doing these kinds of things with their smartphones, but the trend is definitely continuing.
Where To? gets a barrel of new features for your navigation pleasure
I've looked at Where To? before and found it to be a handy, easy to use local guide when I'm looking for anything from Art Galleries to the Zoo. It has info on nearby food, shopping, health care and attractions. The latest version of this app has added improvements to the animations in augmented reality mode, a new direction indicator, and support for Google Earth. It has connectivity to the Motion X GPS program for directions in addition to the existing TomTom and Navigon apps. Where To? also adds store hours when provided by a business. I found that many entries had that information. There's no shortage of these local info apps, and I've always liked Around Me which has some similar capabilities but without the links to nav apps. I like the improvements in this version of the Where To? app. It is an 11 MB download, works in 10 different languages and requires iOS 3.0 or later. I think it's a worthwhile addition to your basket of travel and information apps. Check the gallery for some screen shots. Where To? is available for US$2.99 from the App Store, but is on sale for $0.99 until Sunday August 21. %Gallery-130559%
Photo Stats tells you where and how you are using your iPhone camera
Photo Stats is a cool little US$0.99 iPhone app that provides statistics on your photo-taking habits, like number of photos taken, storage they occupy, frequent shoot locations and more. While none of the supplied information is of the "mission critical" variety, I found them interesting. Your compiles stats can be shared via email or Twitter. Photo Stats also tracks the time of day you're most likely (and least likely) to shoot, the frequency of portrait vs. landscape mode, ISO settings, shutter speed and more. I actually saw some things that will help me improve my pictures. I have lots of low light images, and don't usually use flash. It seems obvious, but I never think to turn it on. I like apps that collect and present information in an interesting and "hands-off" way. One thing I'd like to see added is a way to create these graphs from albums other than the camera roll. It would give me more data and therefore more information to evaluate my images. The UI is well done, and sometimes there are comments about my photo habits. Photo Stats is clever, and not a big investment. The app runs on an iPhone with iOS 4.2 or later. It runs on the 4th generation iPod touch, and the iPad 2. Check the gallery for a look at some of the graphs. %Gallery-130463%
