Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

drag2share: Use Google Docs to Translate PDFs [Clever Uses]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5839079/use-google-docs-to-translate-pdfs

Need to translate a pdf from one language to another? Technology blog Tech Dows advises uploading the pdf to your Google Docs account, then opening the document and click on Tools then Translate document. Google Docs will make a copy of that document in the new language.

I play a lot of board games, many of them from Europe, and at times it can be difficult to find rules in English for newer games rather than German. Using this trick not only provides an English translation, but it also keeps the original copy as well. This trick also works for HTML, ODT, RTF, and DOC files. For more Google Docs tricks, see our guide to using Google Docs to convert file formats.

Translate PDF Files & Word Documents with Google Docs | Techdows

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drag2share - drag and drop RSS news items on your email contacts to share (click SEE DEMO)

drag2share: Insert Text Stores Blocks of Text For Quick Pasting [Chrome Extensions]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5839285/insert-text-stores-blocks-of-text-for-quick-pasting

Chrome: If you don't like Chrome's Autofill function for forms, Insert Text is an extension that stores any text you want for quick pasting into forms or emails.

With a right-click in any input field, you can pull up a list of the text you'd like pasted into the field, or create a new one. You can store as many different different notes as you like, from addresses to email signatures.

Insert Text | Chrome Web Store

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drag2share - drag and drop RSS news items on your email contacts to share (click SEE DEMO)

drag2share: Dolphin Browser HD Brings Its Gesture-Based Browser to iPad [Ipad Downloads]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5839307/dolphin-browser-hd-brings-its-gesture+based-browser-to-ipad

Dolphin Browser is already our pick for the best web browser on Android and as a great alternative for iPhone, and now it's available on iPad as Dolphin Browser HD.

Like its predecessors, Dolphin can recognize custom gestures to navigate to pages. It comes preloaded with a set to help you navigate, but it also allows you to add your own so you can quickly load pages without typing anything. The iPad build is similar to the Android and iPhone apps and runs on top of Safari, but it also includes the Dolphin Webzine, which allows you to flip through news similar to Flipboard.

Dolphin Browser HD | iTunes App Store via Mashable

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drag2share - drag and drop RSS news items on your email contacts to share (click SEE DEMO)

drag2share: Pixel Qi Hits the Big Time [Displays]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5839430/pixel-qi-hits-the-big-time-with-3m-collaboration

Pixel Qi's Transflective LCD technology has been blowing minds since late 2009 but has yet to gain much traction in the market—beyond the Notion Ink Adam, that is. But that may change with its latest round of funding, provided largely by 3M.

Traditional LCD screens are a pain to read in bright light and suck down power like electric Kool-aid because they have to brighten the display to compensate for the glare. E-Ink displays are great for reading outdoors because they lack that glare but can't display the vibrant color of normal LCDs. The disruptive display LCD technology developed by Pixel Qi, on the other hand, combines the best of both screen types into a single, low-consumption, full-color display that's easily readable indoors and out.

"The combination of Pixel Qi's low energy, reflective display technology with 3M's innovative technologies will create exciting products for the mobile, handheld, tablet and other display markets." said Jim Bauman, vice president of the 3M Optical Systems Division in a press release. It's expected that this investment by 3M will allow Pixel Qi access into larger consumer markets as well as digital touch-screen signage. 3M, alternately, will get access to Pixel Qi's sweet energy saving technology for its own displays. [Market Watch via Tech Crunch]

You can keep up with Andrew Tarantola, the author of this post, on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+.

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drag2share - drag and drop RSS news items on your email contacts to share (click SEE DEMO)

drag2share: The Most Wicked Optical Illusion I've Seen So Far [Wtf]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5839481/the-most-wicked-optical-illusion-ive-seen-so-far

This is sick. Sick because the spiral effect is making me sick and sick because it reminds me how flawed/awesome/trippy our color perception is. Believe it or not, the green and the blue in this spiral is the same color.

I couldn't believe it either, but I just measured the value in Photoshop: Red 0, Green 255, Blue 150 on both. Crazy. How could this be possible?

The reason why we are perceiving one color as different colors is because of the other colors surrounding the stripes. Each eye has six to seven million cones, which are concentrated in a central yellow spot known as the macula (I recently got mine lasered to fix some leaking blood vessels). These cones measure color in different wavelengths, overlapping in some of them. Our brain then compares those signals in an antagonistic manner, measuring differences in wavelengths between them. When some colors are combined, the brain can't process the info from the cones correctly and we simply get confused. [gsu and Techi]

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drag2share - drag and drop RSS news items on your email contacts to share (click SEE DEMO)

drag2share: Americans Spend 53 Billion Minutes A Month on Facebook, Wait, What? [Facebook]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5839561/americans-spend-53-billion-minutes-a-month-on-facebook-wait-what

Americans spend more time on Facebook than any other US website. And cumulatively, it's not a small amount of time, it's a lot of time. Nielsen estimates that Americans spent 53 billion minutes on Facebook during the month of May.

These 53 billion minutes are equal to 100,000 years or 36.8 million days. Before your mind blows up, this number represents the usage of 150 million Facebook users. Breaking it down, each user is spending about 350 minutes per month on the social network or about 10 minutes per day. Looking at it that way, 53 billion doesn't look so bad, does it? [Nielsen via SF Gate]

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drag2share - drag and drop RSS news items on your email contacts to share (click SEE DEMO)

drag2share: Photo Academy App Teaches You How to Be a Better Photographer [IPhone Apps]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5839557/photo-academy-app-teaches-you-how-to-be-a-better-photographer

You could have a fancy DSLR, an expensive lens, a sturdy tripod, an extra battery pack, heck even a gnarly camera bag but if you don't know how to take pictures, you don't know how to take pictures. Photo Academy is an app that teaches you how to take better snappies.

It's like a tutorial app, or a how-to-in-an-app, that covers the basics like how to hold your camera and what tweaking ISO and exposure do to more complex instructions like professional photographer tips and editing ideas. There's literally hundreds of different tips for various situations along with ideal camera settings to maximize your pictures—basically, if you're an amateur photographer, you're bound to learn something.

You can even add your photos to "track your progress" though it's sorta unnecessary given that the app's goal is for you to take pictures with your DSLR and not your iPhone cam. $1 [iTunes]

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drag2share - drag and drop RSS news items on your email contacts to share (click SEE DEMO)

drag2share: Fusion Garage hacks $200 off of Grid 10 tablet, aims to play the undercutting game

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/12/fusion-garage-hacks-200-off-of-grid-10-tablet-aims-to-play-the/

Looks like we're all indebted to HP in one way or another. Since the TouchPad fire sale began, we've seen a noticeable southward shift in tablet pricing -- it's as if iPad rivals finally figured out that battling on price was just about the only way to make a dent in Apple's enviable market share. Now, we're seeing Fusion Garage wipe a full $200 from its Grid 10 tablet... before the thing even ships. If you'll recall, the outfit was aiming for a September 15th release date here in the States, with initial pricing for its 16GB model set for $499 (WiFi-only) / $599 (WiFi + 3G). Out of the blue, those pre-order rates have plummeted to $299 / $399 this morning, giving prospective Grid OS adopters entirely more motivation to buy in. It seems that Amazon hasn't received the memo quite yet, so those hoping to get in the low-cost line should scurry down to the source link. Naturally, we'll be bringing you a full-on review as soon as we procure one, and we're guessing that just became a lot more relevant to your interests.

Update: A Fusion Garage spokesperson told Engadget that the company had planned to launch with the lower price all along, but negotiations with an ODM made it impossible to announce the price earlier. The company also added that the Grid 10 will experience a slight shipping delay, being pushed back to October 1st due to a "new criteria in [the] Adobe Flash Player (FP) 10.3 approval process."

Update 2: Looks like UKers can also get in on the fun! Those prices are listed at £259 (WiFi-only) / £359 (WiFi + 3G).

[Thanks, Jeff]

Fusion Garage hacks $200 off of Grid 10 tablet, aims to play the undercutting game originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Sep 2011 10:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Fusion Garage (US), (UK) | Email this | Comments

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drag2share - drag and drop RSS news items on your email contacts to share (click SEE DEMO)

drag2share: 3M makes Mary Lou Jepsen's dreams come true, showers Pixel Qi with cash

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/12/3m-makes-mary-lou-jepsens-dreams-come-true-showers-pixel-qi-wi/

Chances are you've heard plenty about Pixel Qi's super-efficient, transreflective displays. The odds are equally as high that you've never touched one before, either. Well, 3M aims to change all of that and make good on founder Mary Lou Jepsen's continued promises to get those screens out into the consumer wild. Infusing the LCD company with an undisclosed amount of cash, 3M's New Ventures investment arm is betting the combo of its Optical Systems Division's LCD film technology expertise and funding will not only ramp up production of the sunlight-readable color screens, but also innovate uses for it across "...consumer markets as well as digital signage and touch applications." It's a nice shot of confidence for the display maker's much-touted, albeit scarce tech, and could be the financial boost necessary to take Jepsen from underdog to industry heavyweight. We'll keep a close eye out for how this develops. In the meantime, you can jump past the break to read the hyperbolic PR for yourself.

Continue reading 3M makes Mary Lou Jepsen's dreams come true, showers Pixel Qi with cash

3M makes Mary Lou Jepsen's dreams come true, showers Pixel Qi with cash originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Sep 2011 11:16:00 EDT. Please see our t erms for use of feeds.

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drag2share - drag and drop RSS news items on your email contacts to share (click SEE DEMO)

drag2share: Intel reveals January 2012 Gingerbread arrival for the Atom E6xx (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/12/intel-reveals-january-2012-gingerbread-arrival-for-the-atom-e6xx/

Intel wants a piece of the smartphone market -- bad. The company has made no bones about its attempts to break into that booming space. Despite big talk, however, it hasn't really given smartphone manufacturers something they can work with. A new promotional video for its pint-sized Atom E6xx series, however, reveals that chipmaker may be taking a step in the right direction, highlighting a January 2012 date for bringing Android 2.3 to the processor. Keep in mind, of course, that this isn't a smartphone chip that we're talking about here -- the primary applications as outlined by Intel are retail, fitness equipment, digital signage and in-vehicle systems. Still, perhaps it marks a next step in the company's push toward your mobile devices, or moreover, a shift for Android into more non-mobile things.

Continue reading Intel reveals January 2012 Gingerbread arrival for the Atom E6xx (video)

Intel reveals January 2012 Gingerbread arrival for the Atom E6xx (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Sep 2011 14:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Netbook News, Carrypad | | Email this | Comments

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drag2share - drag and drop RSS news items on your email contacts to share (click SEE DEMO)

drag2share: Microsoft's Mouse Without Borders: the KVM that killed the KVM (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/12/microsofts-mouse-without-borders-the-kvm-that-killed-the-kvm/

Until now, running multiple computers with one keyboard and mouse has tended to require KVMs or wormholes, but Microsoft developer Truong Do has a better idea. Working at Microsoft's Garage -- Redmond's after-hours pet project program -- he built Mouse Without Borders: software that lets you control computers on the same wireless network with one set of inputs as if it was one machine with a multiple display. Up to four systems can be tied together and the software also provides for seamless drag-and-drop file transfer. Microsoft is releasing it free of charge at the source link, plus you can see Truong Do talking up his creation after the break.

Continue reading Microsoft's Mouse Without Borders: the KVM that killed the KVM (video)

Microsoft's Mouse Without Borders: the KVM that killed the KVM (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Sep 2011 14:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Geek.com | source

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Microsoft TechNet, Mouse Without Borders (Download) | Email this | Comments

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drag2share - drag and drop RSS news items on your email contacts to share (click SEE DEMO)

drag2share: Samsung pushes Galaxy Tab 10.1 through FCC with T-Mobile AWS bands

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/12/samsung-pushes-galaxy-tab-10-1-through-fcc-with-t-mobile-aws-ban/

Sure, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is great when using Verizon's LTE network, but what if you're looking for something in more of a GSM, magenta-colored flavor? You might be in luck, if a new tablet pushed through the FCC makes its way to store shelves. The device, identified only as the Samsung SGH-T859, comes complete with 1700MHz AWS for T-Mobile as well as 850 / 1900 GSM / EDGE / WCDMA / HSPA, and has the same dimensions as the WiFi-only version we saw in May. We can't say with a surety that it'll use the Galaxy Tab branding, but we think it's unlikely this would be anything else. And of course there's no guarantee it'll become a subsidized device on T-Mobile, but we know there's more than a handful of diehards that'd be willing to fork out a couple extra Benjamins for the privilege of using this beauty on their own carrier. So if your day is now a little bit brighter because of the news, feel free to check out the device in the gallery below.

Gallery: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 with T-Mobile AWS

Continue reading Samsung pushes Galaxy Tab 10.1 through FCC with T-Mobile AWS bands

Samsung pushes Galaxy Tab 10.1 through FCC with T-Mobile AWS bands originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Sep 2011 15:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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FCC | Email this | Comments

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drag2share - drag and drop RSS news items on your email contacts to share (click SEE DEMO)

drag2share: Ford electric E-Bike Concept packs a Galaxy S II on the bars, motor in the wheel

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/12/ford-electric-e-bike-concept-packs-a-galaxy-s-ii-on-the-bars-mo/

Ford E-Bike Concept

Ford already wowed us with the Evos concept, but the slinkiest hybrid we've seen so far here in Frankfurt has not four wheels but two. It's a concept bicycle from Ford called -- wait for it -- the E-Bike Concept. It packs an electric motor built into the front wheel that can power it up to a maximum speed of 25 km/h, driven by a 9.2Ah battery. Or you can power it the conventional way by pedalling, torque conveyed to the rear wheel over a carbon belt. (Oily chains are so last century.)

Perhaps even more interesting is what rests up on the handlebars. No, that's no iDevice -- refreshingly it's a Galaxy S II. Through some custom software, riders will be able to change suspension modes and of course monitor battery charge, not to mention get a little assistance from Google Navigation and maybe pump out some Pandora too. The word "Concept" in the title here and the spindly frame design should give you a clue about when this thing will see production -- probably never. But, we'll be back with an update if that ever changes.

Gallery: Ford E-Bike Concept

Ford electric E-Bike Concept packs a Galaxy S II on the bars, motor in the wheel originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Sep 2011 15:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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drag2share - drag and drop RSS news items on your email contacts to share (click SEE DEMO)

drag2share: Asus Eee Pad Slider up for pre-order at Amazon, starting at $480

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/12/asus-eee-pad-slider-up-for-pre-order-at-amazon-starting-at-480/

Still no official launch date for Asus's funny-looking 10.1-inch hybrid, but we've already seen evidence of a September release and now there's a whole drum-roll of pre-order pages up at Amazon. You're looking at $580 for the 32GB model in white or mocha, or $100 less if you settle for the 16GB variant and cram the rest of your digital possessions onto microSD or -- yes indeedy -- some USB 2.0 external storage. Needless to say, all shades come with the same Tegra 2 processor, Honeycomb 3.2, 1GB of RAM, Mini HDMI out, a 5MP rear camera and 1.2MP front-facer. At this point, all these sliders need to do is turn up.

Update: Looks like Amazon pulled those pages and spoiled our fun.

[Thanks, Peter]

Asus Eee Pad Slider up for pre-order at Amazon, starting at $480 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Sep 2011 15:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Amazon (1), (2), (3), (4) | Email this | Comments

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drag2share - drag and drop RSS news items on your email contacts to share (click SEE DEMO)

drag2share: Angelbird's PCIe-based SSD: it's real, it's shipping, it's 800MB/s

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/12/angelbirds-pcie-based-ssd-its-real-its-shipping-its-800mb/

Remember that 1GB/s PCIe SSD system from Angelbird we covered a year ago? Well, the company just let us know it's finally available. The performance claims are more modest than we saw in the beta phase, but we're not distraught: the new benchmark is 800MB/s reads and 750MB/s writes, achieved with a $3000 setup including four 240GB SSD modules mounted on a Wings PCI-e card with a 32GB SSD built-in. Need to hold something back for groceries? You can't reduce the number of SSDs without slowing everything down, but four 60GB drives on the cheapest Wings Lite PCIe card ought to satisfy most thrill seekers for just under a grand. We hope Smart Modular is paying attention.

Continue reading Angelbird's PCIe-based SSD: it's real, it's shipping, it's 800MB/s

Angelbird's PCIe-based SSD: it's real, it's shipping, it's 800MB/s originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Sep 2011 16:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Angelbird | Email this | Comments

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