Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Friday, September 12, 2008

Patent Search Finds Ideas and Their Owners [Webapps]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/388930198/patent-search-finds-ideas-and-their-owners

Access worldwide patents with Patent Search, a comprehensive and powerful webapp that features over 450 million patents in 15 languages. The unique thing about Patent Search is that the entire text of each individual patent is indexed in addition to offering the PDF application for download. Better yet, if you're interested in a particular patent, you can contact the owner and check availability for a possible project down the road. Patent Search seems to be miles ahead of Google's patent search, which searches through a mere 7 million patents and only provides the publicly-accessible PDF. Looking ahead, Patent Search seems like one of the better sites for finding inspiration for your very own project.

Patent Search [via Webware]

WebSource.it Compares Search Term Popularity [Search Techniques]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/388979404/websourceit-compares-search-term-popularity

Simple web site WebSource.it compares the number of search results for multiple search terms to help you determine which term is more popular. There are a lot of potential uses for a simple app like this—some of which are more useful than others. For example, after arguing with my brother-in-law for years that the phrase "play it by ear" is not "play it by year," WebSource.it works as a quick poll that gives a pretty clear answer. To compare more than two queries, just hit tab to create a new search box (up to five inputs). It may not do anything you can't already do with separate Google searches, but if you're looking to quickly compare the internet's barometer on a couple of topics, WebSource.it is up for the job.

WebSource.it

Yahoo OneConnect Brings Free SMS to Your iPhone [Featured IPhone Download]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/389114646/yahoo-oneconnect-brings-free-sms-to-your-iphone

iPhone/iPod touch only: Yahoo OneConnect is a free application that brings a handful of communication and social networking tools to your iPhone or iPod touch. Off the bat, the most notable thing about OneConnect is that it supports sending SMS messages to contacts in your Yahoo Address Book (provided you have a phone number in their contact card). That means you can text all day long from your iPhone (or iPod touch, if you have a Wi-Fi connection) without taking any texts away from your meager AT&T SMS plan.

The app's Pulse feature also supports a ton of social networking sites, from Facebook and Flickr to MySpace and Twitter. (Oh yeah, it works with Yahoo Messenger contacts, too.) It connects to and retrieves contacts from every single service, and you can update your status on all supported services from one box. Aside from all the functionality, it's also one of the more slick apps we've seen. OneConnect is a free download from the iTunes App Store, requires a Yahoo account to use.

Yahoo OneConnect [iTunes Store]

Google Docs Adds Table of Contents, Dictionary Tools [Google Docs]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/389612095/google-docs-adds-table-of-contents-dictionary-tools

Google Docs has gone and made the table of contents, dictionary, and thesaurus functions (once accessible only through JavaScript hacks) official in its "Insert" and "Tools" menus. The TOC creates live bookmarks from each heading in your document. [via]

Buy Online at the Holidays for HDTV Deals [HDTV]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/389666223/buy-online-at-the-holidays-for-hdtv-deals

The New York Times' Bits blog takes a look at surveys and pricing trends for LCD and plasma HD television models. The short version? If you wait until the holidays and buy online, waiting for a no-shipping-or-taxes deal to come along, you could save yourself more than 20 percent off the cost of screens anywhere up to 60 inches. Confused by all the jargon and numbers of big-screen buying? Check out our short and sweet HDTV guide. Photo by DeclanTM.