Category Archives: portable

Things to make portable computing, photography, anything really, easier to do.

Word Lens – Translate Spanish to English Instantly on your iPhone

Posted on December 23, 2010 | 1 comment

The Word Lens application is amazing, one of the best uses of augmented reality yet! word-lens-logo.pngYou just point it at a sign (or any text) and it removes the words that are there and superimposes the translation over the old text.

The program is free and if you want to test it out, it’s two translation modes: “erase the text” and “reverse the letters”, while not very useful, make a great demonstration. The Spanish-to-English dictionary is $9.99 (they also have English-to-Spanish for an additional $9.99).

spanish-sign-word-lens.jpg
Here’s the sign that was taped up that I wanted to read.

It’s not the best video, but I really wanted to demonstrate this in a real world example. And since in the middle of recording the video I realized it was time for my bus, it’s pretty real world…

You’ll want to make the video full screen to actually be able to read it (and maybe you’ll need to pause it to really see what’s going on).

As I said you’ll want to look at it full screen (in HD) or you won’t be able to see the action on the iPHone screeen, so be sure not to just watch the embedded version.

I forgot to mention, no internet connection is required to use it! Once you purchase a dictionary it’s on your device (I assume it runs on the iPod touch with the camera also), it’s actually got a “dictionary” where you can look up words.

UPDATE: Also available for Android devices and Glass.

UPDATE: Now they also have Russian, Portuguese, German, Italian, and French available. To be clear the program translates back and forth between English and the other languages, but does not translate between the other languages (yet!).

1 Comment

Posted in App Store

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

Video blogging at 20,000 feet. How cool is that!

Posted on December 19, 2010 | Leave a comment

Just testing out the Free WiFI on my plane! I shot this with my iPhone 4 and uploaded it and now I’m blogging it from my McBook.

And you can even watch it in HD!

The world of technology is an amazing place!

FYI: The WiFi is free because of a promotion Google Chrome is doing through the holidays.

Leave a comment

Tagged , , , , , , , ,

VLC free video player for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Get it now (while you still can).

Posted on October 31, 2010 | Leave a comment

So a nice free video player came out for the iPhone (which also works on the iPad and iPod Touch) called VLC Media Player;
vlc-iphone.png
it’s the video player for Macintosh and Windows (IMHO).

What’s great about this program? It lets you play all sorts of video files on your iDevice without converting them first. The other bonus is that it lets you delete them when you are done, freeing up space for photos and video. It plays more than a few formats, but if you try some high-def Blu-Ray files it’s not going to have enough power to play them.

Here’s the problem, it might get pulled from the iTunes store due to some weird legalities*. So download it now. I actually think it’s been out for the iPad for a while, but it just came out for the

* Short answer with small words – The (source code) software is free and the program can must be freely distributed, but technically the iTunes app store puts on protection, so technically it’s not freely distributed, you must have an iTunes account.

Leave a comment

Posted in App Store

Tagged , , , , , , ,

Verizon to start carrying the iPad. Only $20 for 1GB of data a month!

Posted on October 16, 2010 | Leave a comment

So Verizon will start to carry the WiFi iPad and sell it with a MiFi wireless access point for $130 more. What’s interesting is that they’ll sell it for $20 a month for 1 GB of data (and no contract). This is an interesting pricing plan as AT&T charges $15 for 200MB and $25 for 2GB, so it’s an interesting sweet spot for the data. Apple iPad MB292LL/A Tablet (16GB, Wifi) Apple Computer Verizon’s next jump is $35 for 3GB and $50 for 5GB (see the FAQ). Plus, they’re legitimately buying them from Apple (and they sell them just with WiFi too). So you can use the MiFi with other WiFi devices too, but you’ll obviously use more data (duh!)

I just thought it was some interesting competition for AT&T…

Leave a comment

Tagged , , , , ,

Checking out the iPad

Posted on April 3, 2010 | Leave a comment

So I checked out the Apple iPad today. It’s very cool. I just have a hard time justifying one when I already have a MacBook and and iPhone. And I wouldn’t want it without the data plan option either (so their’s more money).

ipad-IMG_0042.JPG

It’s a beautiful piece of hardware and simple to use. If you’ve got family members you’ve never been able to get into computing (parents/grandparents), this is the device for them to use…

ipad-IMG_0040.JPG

I did make sure that I did not bring my $100 in Best buy gift cards. It was calling out to me, “Buy me!”, and I’d have been sorely tempted. Everyone who walked by was very interested.

The display of this web site was very good, you can click for (slightly) larger images.

Leave a comment

Tagged , , , ,

iPad review by PCMag

Posted on April 1, 2010 | Leave a comment

hands_pad.jpgNot much to say other than if you’re interested in the iPad, this is a good five minute review. They pack a lot of info into a few minutes…

If the video doesn’t show up above or if you want to watch it in HD then watch the iPad demo at Vimeo.

I’m not (planning on) getting an iPad. But I think if a store were open right now that had one, I’d be tempted…

Leave a comment

Tagged , ,

I need a different kind of LCD display so I can use my laptop outside

Posted on March 31, 2010 | Leave a comment

It’s a beautiful day out. So instead of sitting in the house on this great day, I went for a bike ride and I’m sitting outside the library. They’ve got WiFi and it actually reaches outside pretty good.

The problem is the sun is really making it hard to see my screen. I could sit in the shade but then I’m not in the sun (I might as well as be at home). My XO laptop had this great LCD display that actually worked better in direct sunlight than it did in indirect sunlight. It has a color display but in the direct sunlight it washed out all the color leaving a very clear greyscale image. (I think it might have two different types of LCD displays sandwiched together.)

I’d like some kind of a high contrast display for my laptop that worked like that one (that wouldn’t get washed out in the sun). It’s just to get information typed in, it doesn’t need to be pretty ,have a fast refresh or anything. It’s got a clip at the top theat just rests on my current laptop display (the top edge of it could be a spall solar panel to help with power) and it’d plug into the video port on my laptop and the USB for some power.

Here’s a quick video to show you the quality of the display of the XO Laptop. It’s a little out of focus at times because I’ve got macro on and I keep moving the camera.

Watch a larger version of this video in YouTube.

If the XO didn’t have such a crappy keyboard, I’d be tempted to use it outside and use VNC to remotely access the display on my MacBook. But then I’d have to haul to computers around with me.

Anyone have any suggestions for something like this?

Leave a comment

Tagged , , , , , ,

The Apple iPad

Posted on March 7, 2010 | 1 comment

How could you not want one of these? The ad makes it feels like it’s something out of Star Trek and that’s before they run the Star Trek movie promo clip!!

Direct link to the Apple iPad commercial. hands_pad.jpg

Actually, I think I’ll pass this time around. I’d ditch my iPhone if it were a phone, but really don’t need another device to carry around and I have a laptop. To get the GPS it sounds like you need the 3G card (otherwise it just uses the WiFi for an estimate). And it doesn’t have a camera of any sort. Yet…

1 Comment

Tagged , , , ,