Intel Reader: A device that turns any book into an e-book

The Intel Reader (Click to enlarge.)
[PHOTO: Intel]

Today, Intel launches a mobile reading device that converts printed text to digital text and then reads it aloud. The device weighs a little more than one pound, has a 4.3 inch screen and a 5 mega-pixel camera with a flash. Similar to netbook computers, the Intel Reader is powered by an Atom processor and promises long battery life: more than 4 hours of book "reading" or the ability to remain in standby mode for up to 5 days.

This small, portable device will allow blind or dyslexic users to gain freedom and independence by being able to read everything from menus to tax forms without waiting for assistance.

Last week, I got a chance to try out the device and was impressed by its ease of use and versatility. For starters, it is significantly smaller than previous reading assistance devices that were often confined to a desk at a local library. Capturing text from a book or magazine with the Intel Reader was made easy by the fact that the camera faces downward, perpendicular to the screen, allowing the user to hold the device comfortably in front of them. This innovation may spread to cell phones and shopping devices as it is currently very awkward to photograph text or bar codes with the rear facing camera on most cell phones.

Photoediting software for your iPhone or iPod Touch

The Perfectly Clear iPhone app from Athentech, allows you to adjust the contrast, brightness, tint and other aspects of the digital photos and images stored on your Apple iPhone. (Click to enlarge.)
[PHOTO: Consumer Reports]

Cameras and accessories have been the major focus at this year’s PhotoPlus Expo in New York, but products for other devices with camera capability are getting attention, such as photoediting software for the iPhone.

At an industry event last night, Adobe, which makes Photoshop and Photoshop Elements image-editing software, announced that its free Photoshop.com Mobile for iPhone application has been downloaded over 1 million times from Apple's App Store, a milestone reached in less than one week of availability. Additionally, Adobe said, the application has held the No. 1 position for all ‘Top Free’ applications for 10 consecutive days. The app lets you edit, upload, view and share photos directly on an iPhone or iPod Touch and crop or rotate, as well as transform photos with filters and effects.

Another company, called Athentech, has been doing demos of its iPhone app called Perfectly Clear, for $2.99, on the trade-show floor. The app corrects a picture’s contrast, exposure, and tint. It can also tweak saturation and sharpen images.

Canon also recently introduced a free iPhone app called Canon Easy Photo-Print App, which they claim enables you to wirelessly print photos from your iPhone or iPod touch on compatible Canon PIXMA printers via a wireless network with a few simple taps.

All three applications are available at the iTunes App Store. —Terry Sullivan

U2 concert to stream live on YouTube

I recently attended a U2 show at Giants Stadium, and was excited to learn that this Sunday, October 25th, U2 plans to stream their final tour stop, live on YouTube for free. With 96,000 tickets sold to the Pasadena Rose Bowl show in California, this is expected to be largest concert ever streamed online.

This will be another first for U2 who produced the first concert performance to be shot in 3D for a theatrically released film.

Paul McGuinness, U2's manager tells of U2's desire to share their music across the Internet:

'The band has wanted to do something like this for a long time. As we're filming the LA show, it's the perfect opportunity to extend the party beyond the stadium. Fans often travel long distances to come to see U2—this time U2 can go to them, globally.'

The show starts at 8:30 Pacific time and can be found at: http://youtube/u2official

So fire up your computers, Internet connected televisions or Apple TVs and enjoy the free show. —Dirk Klingner

T-Mobile Sidekicks lose data, with lessons for phone carriers and users

Phones need to make it relatively easy to back up the data they carry, preferably locally to your computer, and cell phone owners should take advantage of those methods.

Those are among the lessons of the past weekend's T-Mobile sidekick incident, in which Microsoft irreparably wiped out the contacts, call history, and other data for an specified number of Sidekick owners.

Yesterday, T-Mobile said that Microsoft—whose operating system, with the now-ironic name of "Danger," developed a glitch that caused the mishap—was still working to retrieve data from affected Sidekicks. Meanwhile, sales of the popular smart phone have seemingly been halted. (T-Mobile's Web site was this morning listing Sidekick models as "temporarily out of stock.") T-Mobile also said those whose data proved irretrievable would receive a $100 gift certificate to apply against their monthly service charges or any other T-Mobile expense.

The company has also posted tips on how at least some Sidekick owners might be able to recover some of their data, even as the T-Mobile/Microsoft data-recovery efforts continue. The tips include ways you might be able to retrieve old messages containing contacts or obtain contact information that was sent via vCards, electronics business cards that are sometimes attached to e-mails.

T-Mobile has also warned Sidekick owners not to allow their phone to lose power as Microsoft struggles to retrieve data.

Movie streaming: Vudu can do HD

A comparison of HDX (left) and SD (right) streaming video quality, provided by Vudu, for the movie "Chronicles of Riddick." One might argue the quality of the picture exceeds the quality of the film. (Click to enlarge.)
[ PHOTO: Courtesy of Vudu ]

We recently had a chance to try out some of the newer streaming movies services that are available to owners of newer Internet-enabled TVs (as well as some Blu-ray players). What we've found, as we did several month ago when we tested a number of standalone streaming players supporting services such as Blockbuster OnDemand, Netflix and Amazon Video On Demand, is that all of the services are capable of sending decent-looking, DVD-quality video streams. However, none lived up their their HD billing.

The sole exception was Vudu's HDX-format video. When we tested it previously, it did look like real HD but was available only as a download, which could take several hours to process before it was stored on the playback device's internal hard drive. More recently, however, HDX video has become available as a stream on TVs from LG and Mitsubishi, as well as on LG's BD390 Blu-ray player. So naturally we were curious to see if the streaming version of HDX could match the picture quality we saw as a download.

Much to our—well, at least my—surprise, our preliminary tests showed the Vudu HDX movie streams continue to be head-and-shoulders above the other streaming offerings in terms of picture quality. They also include the Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 soundtracks that were available on the downloads. During our preliminary testing of streaming HDX, performed on LG's 60-inch 60PS80 plasma TV, the HDX version of "Lord of War" started up quickly, and image quality was impressive. We were able to pause, rewind, and fast-forward with no buffering delays, just as you do on a disc player or DVR, and return to the movie at the point we left off.

The Wizard of Oz turns 70, gets high-def makeover and free Netflix streaming

On October 3rd, Netflix will offer free instant streaming of The Wizard of Oz.
[PHOTO: Courtesy of Netflix]

For many of us, watching The Wizard of Oz was a childhood rite of passage (and for me, the beginning of months of nightmares starring flying monkeys). As this year marks the 70th anniversary of the release of L. Frank Baum’s rainbow-jumping children’s tale, which debuted at the Grauman’s Chinese Theater in August 1939, there are several of promotional events that should be of interest to fans of this classic film.

For example, tonight the digitally re-mastered Wizard of Oz is being shown in about 400 theaters across the country, and on Sept. 26th the movie will be shown in New York City at the Alice Tully Hall as part of the New York Film Festival.

On Sept. 29th, Warner Bros. kicks things off with the release of new, special digitally re-mastered DVD and Blu-ray “collector’s editions” of the movie. Later that night, New York metro-area residents are invited to a Netflix-hosted live event in New York City’s Central Park to see a concert featuring Jennifer Hudson, that starts at 7:30, followed by a showing of the movie, which will be projected onto a giant inflatable screen.

On October 3, Netflix is offering free instant streaming of the movie for a 24-hour period starting at 9:00 a.m. EST. However, while anyone can watch the movie on their computers by visiting the Netflix website, Netflix subscribers on any unlimited plan (starting at $8.99 per month) can stream the movie in HD on any Netflix enabled device, including some LG TVs, select Blu-ray players from LG and Samsung, Microsoft Xbox 360 videogame consoles, and Roku and TiVo video players/recorder.

For home-video fans, Warner Bros. is releasing re-mastered versions of the movie on DVD and Blu-ray, plus digital downloads and on-demand offerings. There will be special limited and numbered "The Wizard of Oz 70th Anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Edition" box sets for both DVD ($70) and Blu-ray ($85) that contain 16 hours of bonus features (including some previously unreleased materials) and other goodies. The Blu-ray version was completely re-mastered from the original Technicolor film negatives at a very high resolution—six times that of a standard DVD—accompanied by a Dolby TrueHD soundtrack.

I, for one, will be checking out both the Netflix streaming and Blu-ray versions of the movie in my home theater's 110-inch screen, and reporting on the experiences. I'd love to hear what others think about the newer versions, especially since there have been several previous reissues. But I'm also considering seeing it at a movie theater. If, like me, you've only seen the film on TV, viewing it on a giant screen in a real theater could be an eye-opener. —James K. Willcox

New iPod Nano: Video, radio, and features galore

Here's a First Look at Apple’s new, fifth-generation iPod Nano, the first iPod with an FM radio and the ability to take videos. It’s the same size and weight as the old Nano, though the display has been enlarged slightly, to 2.2 inches. Claimed playback time is five hours for video, 24 hours for music. The 8GB Nano costs only $149; the 16GB version costs $179.

"Smile, you're on Nanocam." Taking videos on the Nano is fun and fairly easy, as the video first look (at right) shows. The wide-angle lens gets in lots of background, convenient if you're in a tight space with lots of people. After synching with iTunes on your computer, you can easily e-mail your videos to friends, post them on Facebook and Youtube, or edit them in iPhoto.

You don't need to have iTunes running to see your videos. The Nano shows up as an additional drive on your computer, so you can just drag them off the Nano. However you manage content, you’ll need to ensure you leave sufficient capacity for shooting video after loading music and other content; as with other iPods, when you’re away from the computer, you can’t delete songs from the Nano to free up space for more video recordings.

In terms of quality, we found the Nano cam comparable to standard-definition pocket camcorders such as the Flip Ultra. That is, they’re fine for casual viewing and posting online but fall short of the quality you’ll get from a full-sized standard-def camcorder. Also like pocket camcorders, the Nano records only in mono. At normal sound levels, such as conversations, the sound quality was decent. But as our subject got louder, as in laughing and screaming, the audio became noticeably distorted.

Smart radio. The Nano is a latecomer to FM on MP3 players, but its Live Pause feature, also shown in the video, records the station you're listening to slightly ahead of the live broadcast, so when you hit the pause button, the program pauses. Hit play and it picks up from where you left off, or you can rewind up to 15 minutes, or fast-forward to catch up to the live broadcast. Another plus—you can see the name of the current song and artist on the display. On the downside, when in Live Pause mode, it’s nearly impossible to switch to another channel.

Tag, you're it. Another convenient feature is iTunes tagging, which allows you to tag a song that’s playing on the radio so you can order it later from iTunes. Great idea, but the station has to support iTunes tagging for the feature to work. And in our tests, we were only able to find one station that did—a local "lite FM” station.

Not-so-smart DJ. Music player updates include Genius Mixes, which scours your collection according to genre and makes up play lists that . Nice idea, but some mixes we ordered up weren’t that smart, as we also cover in the video. —Mike Gikas

Fall Cleaning: Back Up Your Computer

USB flash drives are small tools that can help back-up the data on your computer.
[PHOTO: Consumer Reports]

Any computer clean-up plan should also include a backup strategy. In fact, backing up your computer is probably one of the most important things you can do, and it won’t cost you much at all.

We recommend three ways to back up your data. You can either buy an external hard drive, use a high-capacity flash drive, or set up a subscription with a low-cost online storage site. Here’s a quick look at each option. For more details, take a look at our Computer Backup System Buying Guide (available to subscribers).

External hard drive. Easy to install, an external hard drive usually requires a simple USB connection to your computer. With some, you may not even need software to get the backups running. They also don’t cost much, so you should be able to get a drive that meets your needs for $150 or less. Get a drive that’s at least the size of your current hard drive. If you get one smaller than that, make sure you weigh your future needs as well. Homes with more than one computer will need a networkable hard drive, which costs a bit more and is harder to set up, but a convenient way to share files across all your systems. The downside of an external drive: Most are not very portable.

USB flash drives. Tiny and convenient, USB flash drives have gotten large enough to serve as backup devices. Like external drives, they’re easy to set up, and may run backups without requiring extra software. A 32GB backup drive should cost between $150 and $200. Best of all, you can carry the drive around with you. But that portability can also be a danger, since flash drives are easy to lose or steal.

Online services. One worry with storing backups at home is the potential for theft, fire, or other catastrophic loss. Online storage provides an option outside your house, adding an extra layer of protection by storing your data in multiple locations. We looked at a few sites, and found that they’re easy to use but slow, especially during the initial backup. But you don’t have to worry about setting up any hardware, and you can access your data from any Internet connection. Costs vary, but two of those we reviewed were about $50 a year for unlimited backup.

Subscribers can check out our Guide to computer backup products for reviews on various data storage solutions. —Donna Tapellini

Apple updates iTunes and the iPhone OS

The updated iTunes sync screen. (Click to enlarge)
[PHOTO: Courtesy of Apple]

In addition to unveiling a new lineup of iPods, Apple today announced upgrades to its iTunes music-management software and store, along with making available a new version of the iPhone software for its smart phones and iPod Touch. All are available immediately.

iTunes version 9 adds the following key features to all iPods with displays:

iTunes LP. This includes expanded visual features to downloaded albums, such as live performance videos, lyrics, artwork, liner notes, interviews, photos, and album credits. But it's only available for a handful of albums from such artists as Norah Jones, the Grateful Dead, and Dave Matthews.

iTunes Extra. Similar to iTunes LP, this features documentaries, deleted scenes, interviews and interactive galleries you can download from iTunes. But, it too, is only available for a small number of titles, which include "Twilight," "Batman Begins," "WALL-E," "Iron Man" and "The Da Vinci Code."

Home Sharing. As the name implies, this lets you transfer music, movies, and TV shows among up to five authorized computers, allowing up to five iTunes libraries to be shared on a home network. It claims to filter out the portion of the shared libraries each user already has, and allows content to be imported directly to their libraries and for new purchases made at any computer on the network to be automatically added to all users libraries.

Genius Mixes. A DJ application that plays endless mixes of songs from your library that Genius thinks "go together." Just click on one of the mixes, and start playing it—and it will go on and on and on, like a radio station.

iPhone OS 3.1, available now for free, will allows iPhone and Touch users to organize their apps on their computer desktop, using iTunes, and to automatically appear on your iPhone with the same layout. It also adds the ability to sync music by artist and genre and sync photos by Events and Faces. [[The upgrade is free for iPhones, and $4.95 for Touches]]—Mike Gikas.

Apple announces a “Nanocam,” tweaks the other iPods

[UPDATE Sept. 16, 2009: We've posted a video review of the iPod Nano evaluating its new video and radio features. See New iPod Nano: Video, radio, and features galore. —Ed.]

Apple today announced its first iPod equipped with a camera and modestly upgraded the rest of the iPod line.

The camera-equipped iPod isn’t the Touch, as we and others had predicted, but the mid-level iPod Nano. Available immediately for $149 (8GB) and $179 (16GB), the new Nanos will now sport a standard-definition video camera—and seemingly only a video camera; Apple’s press materials do not mention still-photo capability.

Apple chairman Steve Jobs, in his first appearance as an Apple spokesman since a prolonged sick leave, claims the Nano provides the same video quality as bulkier, so-called pocket camcorders, like the Samsung Pure Digital's Flip. (Such camcorders yield middling video quality that’s fine for online or other casual use, according to our tests, available to subscribers.) The Nanos also have a microphone and speaker built in.

The new Nanos boast the same diminutive size and oblong shape as their predecessors, though the display has been enlarged slightly, to 2.2 inches. Claimed playback time is five hours for video, 24 hours for music.

The Nanos are also the first iPods with built-in FM radios—the absence of which has long been a drawback for some consumers to Apple’s music player—with some innovative features. FM broadcasts can be paused, much like MP3 selections, and songs heard on the radio can be tagged for the later purchase on iTunes.

The Nanos also have a built-in pedometer that supposedly tracks calories you burned and comes in silver, black, purple, blue, green, orange, yellow, red, and pink.

Here are the modest changes to the other iPods:

Touch. Apple's flagship iPod, the iPhone without the phone, gets a subtle facelift, beginning with faster graphics (courtesy of support of a standard called OpenGL) and a doubling of maximum storage capacity to 64GB—for the same $399 price as the old 32GB model. There's also an 8GB Touch for $199, and 32GB model for $299.

Classic. Apple’s only hard drive player didn’t disappear, as we and others predicted, but was refreshed in a higher capacity, of 160GB. It costs $249, the same as the old 120GB model.

Shuffle. The tiniest MP3 player in our MP3-player Ratings, available to subscribers, the 4GB Shuffle remains unchanged and is available for the same price of $79. But it now has a lower-capacity (2GB) twin for $59. —Mike Gikas and Paul Reynolds.