think differently big

Microsoft Demos Silverlight on the iPhone

For a couple of seconds I really thought this is the announcement of the year. Don’t get me wrong, but there were a lot of things to be read between the lines from such a headline. But then I paused for another second and re-read the announcement… and I realized there isn’t much about it (like with most of PR these days).

Let me reformulate the title so everyone can see why it is not a big deal: Microsoft has demoed streaming video from a “Silverlight server” in the ☞ H.264 format. The video is available in web pages through the usage of the HTML5 

UStream iPhone App: Does It Really Work?

I don’t seem to get it to work (not even over WiFi). Not to mention the search…

I am wondering if at least the new launched Android version works.

Read more articles about working iPhone apps from the iPhone apps reviews series.

Nokia Building an Android Phone

The rumors that Google might be building its own Android phone have been ☞ revived once again. I don’t think that would be a really big surprise. At the end of the day, just imagine for a second that the Android market will not take off even if there are ☞ quite a few devices available and ☞ new devices are announced every day. Google launching his own phone would probably be the last chance as that will most probably guarantee a lot of buzz and would attract a lot of users.

But let’s pause for a moment and think what would happen if one of the current market leaders would try to build an Android phone. Can you imagine Nokia launching an Android phone called Nandroid97, or RIM launching an Android phone called AndroBerry or even Apple launching an iNdroid?

Before jumping up and screaming that’s totally stupid (which I agree that’s probably 1000% correct) lets just imagine that due to the losses registered for the first time in the last decade and due to their platform ☞ not seeming to catch up with the competitors’, Nokia would decide to finally ditch ☞ Symbian and build a phone on the ☞ Android platform.

Nokia probably still has a lot of Java developers from their J2ME era. While not similar, these guys could start developing on Android almost right away and leave the company focusing mainly on innovating on the devices. Plus Nokia will not have to invest even more time and money into their own market place (Ovi Store) and could innovate their “cloud” offering (and why not push it as the common Android cloud).

So, what are the odds of seeing an Android phone made by Nokia (Nandroid97)?

Tumblr 1.1 iPhone App: My features vs Official Details

Finally I am hearing more official details about the upcoming Tumblr 1.1 iPhone app.

I will wait for the actual upgrade before concluding if I’m happy or not, but so far it looks like some of the 7 features I betted on for the upcoming Tumblr iPhone app will be on the update, while others will probably be considered for future versions.

iPhone Scanner

I know this will sound a bit weird, but I still do a lot of pen and paper. Well, I am not writing any books or novels, but rather jotting down different thoughts, ideas, possible solutions. And even if I don’t have talent I do a lot of “The back of the napkin” kind of drawings.

The thing I’ve always missed is an easy way to move from paper to digital. In the beginnings I was using my camera to capture paper shots. Then I have tried using my multi-functional printer. Unfortunately all these felt like a hassle.

But last month things have started to look better. I’ve bought myself a LiveScribe pen and since then I’m extremely happy with it. Unfortunately there are times when I don’t have it with me or I am missing the special LiveScribe paper, so I just use my Pilot pens (G-2 Pro and Shaker-X). So, I had to continue my search for the perfect way or tools to move from paper to digital.

Today, I’d like to introduce you to a couple of solutions that I have found lately.

JotNot Scanner vs finarX Capture

These two iPhone apps will transform your iPhone into a portable scanner. Basically, both of them allow you to shoot anything from a document, receipt, business card to a whiteboard and have it on your iPhone.

In case you are wondering how is this different from just taking a picture, then it looks like both these applications are offering support for free rectangular cropping and also performing some advanced processing on the pictures to remove the noise.

So, let’s take a quick look at their features. I have emphasized only those features unique to one or the other of the apps.

JotNot Scanner

• email scans as PDFs, PNGs, or JPEGs
• free rectangular-like cropping
• automatic paper sizing (letter, legal, a4)
• integration with Photo library
• WiFi server to allow access PDFs from your computer
• Evernote integration

Note: while using the Evernote integration, in case you are using the free Evernote account you may quickly get over your monthly quota.

finarX Capture

• email scans as PDFs or single images in full resolutions
• free rectangular-like cropping
• save all images in film roll
• convert images to greyscale or black&white
• create multi-page PDFs
• WiFi server to allow access from your computer

So the question is which one should you get? Unfortunately, I have no idea as I haven’t had the opportunity to test any of them. I just went through the tedious job to compile all the above information by searching through application descriptions, reviews, forum comments, etc. So, if you’d like me to test them and provide more details please send me a free code at iphoneapps at mypopescu dot com.

In case you don’t own an iPhone, then not everything is lost. There seems to be two online services offering similar functionality: ☞ scanR (requires a monthly fee) and ☞ Qipit (which apparently is free).

TheTumbler Tumblr iPhone App Goes on Promotion

Alternative Tumblr iPhone client: TheTumbler goes on promotion for $.99 (from initial $1.99). I assume this comes in reaction to the announcement of the official Tumblr 1.1 for iPhone and my advise would be to wait for the official Tumblr release as I really have high hopes of it (even if none of them was confirmed)