Year: 2012

Kooaba Shortcut [Sponsor]

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Thanks to Kooaba for sponsoring the 512 Pixels RSS feed this week!

kooaba Shortcut is a shortcut between real life and the Internet. Take a picture of what you are reading in a newspaper or magazine and instantly get connected to the digital version.

Using image-recognition technology, Shortcut recognizes what you’re reading. Once recognized, you can share the digital version of the pages via Facebook, Twitter, SMS, and email, or store them in Evernote. This works with over 1,000 newspapers and magazines worldwide. (See http://www.kooaba.com/products/shortcut for a list of publications.)

Shortcut also works with advertisements in newspapers and magazines, and billboards with the Shortcut icon. After taking a picture of such an ad, you gain access to extras such as coupons, sweepstakes, or store locators.

With Shortcut, you no longer need to type links into your phone, search Google for information, or cut out articles — just take a picture instead!

Shortcut is available for iPhone, Android, and Windows Phone 7.

NoMoreiTunes

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Florian Pichler:

NoMoreiTunes is an extension for Safari 5 that stops iTunes Web Preview pages and other links to the iTunes store from automatically launching iTunes on your Mac. On top of that it shows a familiar looking bar on the top edge of the browser viewport which informs you that the plugin has worked and let‘s you launch iTunes when you need it.

This is might be my favorite Safari plug-in. It doesn’t do a lot, but it scratches me right where I had an itch.

Update: It seems that I linked to this once before, but it is worth linking to again.

Path Uploads Address Book Data [Updated]

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Not cool, Path. Not cool at all.

Update: Path CEO Dave Morin, in a comment on that post:

We upload the address book to our servers in order to help the user find and connect to their friends and family on Path quickly and efficiently as well as to notify them when friends and family join Path. Nothing more.

We believe that this type of friend finding & matching is important to the industry and that it is important that users clearly understand it, so we proactively rolled out an opt-in for this on our Android client a few weeks ago and are rolling out the opt-in for this in 2.0.6 of our iOS Client, pending App Store approval.

Fifty Years

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The Commercial Appeal:

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital around the time of its February 4 formal opening. “It took a rabble-rousing, hook-nosed comedian to get your attention,” said Danny Thomas at the opening. “But it took your loving generous hears to make this dream come true.” Gov. Buford Ellington called the occasion “one of the greatest days for children that our state has ever seen.”

That original building is gone, but Danny’s promise lives on today:

On the Nokia Lumia 800

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Abdel Ibrahim:

For two and a half weeks, I mulled the Lumia 800’s merits. It’s a beautiful, sturdy phone with a great battery, a good camera, and a decent screen. But was it good enough to replace my year-and-a-half-old iPhone 4? I wondered. Well, it hasn’t. As impressive as the Lumia is, its ecosystem leaves a lot to be desired, and the apps I’ve come to know and love are nowhere to be found in Microsoft Marketplace.

I also feel that a smartphone ought to double as a pocketable computer. Unfortunately, the Lumia doesn’t fit that bill either. Too many pieces are missing from Mango. I am, however, confident that Microsoft and Nokia will hit their stride down the road, and when they do, the Lumia will be a force to be reckoned with. It’s just not there yet.

If anything, click through for the amazing photos on his review.

Redbox and Verizon Vs. Netflix

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The WSJ:

Telecommunications company Verizon Communications Inc. and Redbox video-kiosk owner Coinstar Inc. said Monday they will launch an online service in the second half of the year that features streaming videos and downloads.

The companies offered few details of the venture, in which Verizon will own a 65% stake and Redbox will hold the other 35%.

As a Verizon customer, I’d prefer better service over a Netflix rival, but that’s just me.