On Gear Live: Samsung S95C: The OLED TV You Can’t Afford (to Ignore!)

 

 Word Lens review 

There was a time when a jaunt through a foreign country meant stashing a translation guide on your pocket so that you could whip it out at a moment's notice to read a sign or understand a spoken word. It's a rudimentary system that's worked for ages, but Quest Visual looks to change the game with its Word Lens free iPhone (free, but language packs cost $4.99) app, which translates printed text on the fly.

How It Works
The concept behind Word Lens is a simple one: You point your iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, or fourth generation iPod touch's camera at printed text and the app translates the word on the fly simply by tapping the green button in the toolbar. That ability isn't included by default; you have to purchase one of the $4.99 language packs. Unfortunately, only two packs are available at the moment—English to Spanish, and Spanish to English—so the selection is extremely limited. Other undisclosed languages are in the works.

Click to continue reading Word Lens for iPhone review


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Flipboard, one of the best iPad apps for reading through your Facebook and Twitter feeds in a magazine format, just received a major update that brings  a bunch more features to the table. You can now view your Google Reader subscriptions, Flickr feeds and groups, and the app also boasts more features for Facebook and Twitter as well. You can use the app not only to check out all the content that's out there, but now it's easier to add your own updates, photos, and articles back into your social networks as well. Hit the video for a look. Flipboard is completely free.

Read More | Flipboard

iBooks 1.2iBooks 1.2 has just been released by Apple, and with it comes a bunch of new features. You get support for full illustrations, AirPrint functionality for printing PDFs and notes in books, and more text fits on the page in iOS 4.2 and higher with auto-hyphenation. iBooks 1.2 also brings a new feature called Collections. These allow you to group your books similarly to how you can group apps into folders.

You can download iBooks 1.2 now for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.

Read More | iBooks

Google has been in the location game for years now, but services like Foursquare and Facebook Places have been producing buzz faster, in part based on their mobile apps. Google has had their service, Google Latitude, integrated in Android handsets for some time now, and they've finally released an iPhone app to compete with the other already established players. With 9 million active users, mostly because it's baked into their Google Maps product, they have a somewhat credible offering. So far, Latitude has been mostly a passive service that people use when looking for local search results, or browsing a map. This is a model that's much different than Foursquare, Gowalla, and Facebook Place, which are all about checking in to a specific place rather than just showing a physical location.

The Latitude iPhone app keeps using that passive model, where the app shares your location automatically with your friends, even in the background, as long as you allowed them to view where you are. You can also browse the map and see where they are in real time. It can be argued that such a passive system is the wave of the future, as people tire of constantly checking into a location app, but it sure doesn't produce the same amount of hype for the service, so it remains to be seen which service people will decide to share their locations with.

Read More | Google Latitude

Infinity Blade was released yesterday, the first true game to run on the new Unreal Engine for iPhone. As such, it's been previewed and hyped a lot in the past months. At a $5.99 price point for the universal app that works on both the iPhone and iPad, was it worth the wait?

First, just like the Unreal demo Epic Citadel was, this game right from the start impresses with it's graphics and sceneries. As you start, the initial cinematic shows you a little bit of back story as to what you'll be fighting for, and the 3D environment seen on the screen is quite impressive. On both the iPhone 4 and iPad, the graphics use the latest tricks, usually reserved to console gaming, to provide a stunning experience. Adding to that is an impressive musical score, playing throughout the game and providing a great gaming experience.

Click to continue reading Infinity Blade review

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LogMeIn Ignition sale

Real quick, we wanted to let you guys know that LogMeIn Ignition for iPhone and iPad is on sale today. The app, which lets you control your PC or Mac remotely from your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, normally costs $29.99--one of the more expensive apps out there. However, for the next 24 hours, you can grab it for $19.99, 33% off.

Read More | LogMeIn Ignition

bbc iplayer ipad

When the BBC launched it's iPlayer service, a way for people to listen to shows from the BBC radio and TV stations from the past 7 days, it was hailed as a great step forward. With more than 139 million requests in October, it's currently the largest VoD service in the UK, comparable in scope with Hulu in the US. Unfortunately, the iPlayer service has been limited to UK citizens only. Now, the BBC has announced that it's coming to the US with a subscription based model, initially as an iPad app. The iPlayer app will allow people to watch popular BBC shows on demand like Dr Who. So far, the only way people outside of the UK has been able to get some of the BBC shows was through third party services like iTunes, or from networks who bought the rights to redistribute shows on their channels. Now, a single app will allow the BBC to provide that content directly to users for a monthly fee. The service should be live at some point next year.

Read More | PaidContent

Richard Branson and Virgin have released Project, which is now available in the App Store for iPad devices running the latest version of iOS. Managing to beat News Corp and their upcoming periodical The Daily, Virgin promotes their magazine as "a revolutionary multimedia magazine built specially for your iPad – packed with international culture, entertainment, design, business and travel." While the app itself is free, each magazine will cost you $2.99, and comes out once a month.

The magazine itself looks similar to other magazines available for the iPad, with multiple navigation options that take advantage of the device, although it includes more multimedia components. Each section starts with a video presentation, there's interactive images, sounds, and other little extras. Note that the magazine also has ads in it. Techcrunch made a video overview for it which shows it off pretty well. The app does come with a preview by itself, so check it out in the App Store.

Read More | Project Magazine

HTC HD7 windows phone 7 giveaway

We're giving away an HTC HD7 Windows Phone 7 device to one of you guys here in our "Doing More with Less" giveaway! Not too familiar with WP7? Be sure to check out our Windows Phone 7 review, and read on for the details on how to enter.

Over the past three years, we've seen smartphones shrink in size while gaining a ton of functionality. In fact, it's hard to imagine ever using the bulky QWERTY sliders that were just about as thick as the original Game Boy. With the iPhone, Android devices, thinner BlackBerrys, and now WIndows Phone 7 devices jumping into the fray, we've truly got a situation where we are able to do way more than we'd ever dreamed we could do with a mobile phone, in a device that is so small that it comfortably fits in our pocket while the manufacturers tout how thin they are. Speaking of doing more with less, did you know that the smartphone in your pocket has more technology in it than the first rocket that went to outer space?

Now we want to hear from you--hit the comments and give us some examples where you can do more with less. It can be technology-related, or not. We will be picking a random winner based on the comments received. Here are the official rules:

  • How to enter: Just leave a comment on this article, focusing on "Doing More with Less". You can leave one comment per day until the giveaway’s close. Each comment must be substantially different than the previous.
  • Timeframe: The contest ends on November 29th, 2010. At this time comments will be closed on this post and a winner chosen with Random.org.
  • Eligibility: The contest is open to US residents only who are at least 18 years old at the time of entry.
  • Prize: The one winner will receive the HTC HD7, a T-Mobile Windows Phone 7 device that's an approximate retail value of $500.

This giveaway is brought to you by the new Windows Phone 7. Learn more about Windows Phone online and see it in person at local T-Mobile stores today.


After a high hype and anticipation level, iD Software's Rage game called Mutant Bash TV finally hit the App Store this week. The creators of the original Doom and Quake games showcased the full Rage for consoles many times in the past, and promised to provide a graphically rich companion for the iPhone. Now that the game is out, is it worthy of all that wait?

First, the game is available in two different versions. Yet, unlike most apps, they aren't limited to iPhone and iPad. Both apps are universal, with the difference being the quality of textures. Rage, at $0.99, has regular graphics, while Rage HD, at $1.99, has high definition graphics, and is aimed at iPhone 4 and the iPad. This is a fairly large app, weighing in at over 700 MB, so it may take a while to download.

Click to continue reading Rage: Mutant Bash TV review


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