OCR with iOS4

I have played with OCR software on the iPhone off and on for many years now. I install the software, try to use it, get disappointed and remove the apps to make room for other apps.

A new version of OCRTool came out last week that uses a few of the iOS4 features. Running in the background is a key one. No longer do you snap a shot of a page of text and then have to sit and watch the OCR app work it’s way through the page. If you use OCRTool, you take the picture and move onto other things you need to get done, then come back later to get the text.

It still isn’t perfect, but that isn’t a reflection on the software or the iPhone… desktop software has many of the same issues. After having used it a bit more aggressively while doing this review it came to me that only have to clean up a little bit of text is WAY faster than having to type out all the text you needed to reference later. That includes copy/pasting into a email or other documents.

Snap a picture of any text… I generally have fun trying to make sure I don’t end up shadowing part of the page or too much reflective lighting. It might be time to break out my Ponoko stand.

After you take the picture, you are able to adjust it a bit to fit the page edge-to-edge. As well you can do a bit of clean up from a quick snap. You can see the color has been zero’d out to attempt to get maximum difference in black to white.

‘Done’ causes the OCR engine to run… which is the step that can take some time so with the new version of the software you can move off to another app while the process continues in the background. Your picture is kept on the screen above the OCR text. You can see there is a larger percent of text correct than not means it is only a matter of cleaning up some text rather than typing everything new.

Once you have the text as you like, there is a pretty good list of one-button options of what you do with that text. Copying the text to the clipboard allows you to insert it into another document you may be working on. As well, sharing the text with others can be done as text in the email, a jpeg image or as a PDF attachment.

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Your thoughts may get you a iPhone 4 iSkin

iSkin has iPhone 4 cases coming (rumored to be in limited stores). They sure look cool on the iSkin site.

For a limited time, you can give them your thoughts and get an email when the new iSkins are available. By signing up though, you are signing up to get their ‘other’ emails too. To make it worth your time, 10 subscribers will get a free iSkin case.

If you accept getting emails from a company with great products, then that isn’t really spam, right? There is a fine line between too many marketing/newsletter emails and just enough that a person doesn’t mind getting the updates from time to time.

Broken Apps in iOS4 – Back to the Basics

Have you installed iOS4 on your iPhone 3G or GS? Or, migrated to the new iPhone 4? Did you notice some of your apps stop working or start doing funny things? Maybe apps are launching then returning to the Launcher screen.

When something new comes out, we forget the basics and expect the worse. Nothing wrong with that, history has shown that we should expect major updates to bring a few disappointments in with all the new power and functionality.

First, try restarting the device… holding the ‘Home’ button and the top button at the same time will get you a Red swipe bar to ‘Shut Down’. After everything has shut down, tap the button on the top to start your iPhone back up, it will take less than a minute end-to-end. This will clear up most memory issues where you have an app that has gathered and holding memory another one of your apps want.

There are in fact a few apps on the market that just wont run on iOS4, no matter the hardware. Some need the power of the iPhone4 hardware. These apps have features that the developers where not able to create by following all of the ‘rules’ that Apple suggests, reaching into undocumented features that can at any time stop working when Apple stops bringing them forward in an update. These situations are few and far between, the developer will know if you ready out and ask. Most are working on a fix right now and need to go through the process of making it avail in the iTunes App Store.

More times than not though, something didn’t come through with the app that it needs to run. A few apps that seemed to be lacking some power after the release of the new OS where updated by the developers right away. Just doing the update through the iPhone’s App Store program will take care of a few. If issues continue, concider removing the app and installing fresh/new.

Removing/Reinstalling is fast and easy. Tap and hold on the icon, tap the ‘x’, then tap the ‘Home’ hardware button to return the Launcher to the regular view. Go to the App Store ‘app’, search for the app and choose to install. You will need to put in your account password, but you wont be charged for the app again.

There is some pain that can come from this removal/reinstall… some apps loose their settings or custom searches/history you may have.

Start with the basics before assuming the worse, it makes for a happier day when any of the above quick fixes work and you can return to your day.

Getting Serious About FaceTime

FaceTime on the iPhone 4? Hmmm… not sure that is something I want to do, video conferencing on a phone. It sounds cool, but why? A rumor of this feature has been floating around the net for years. Folks kept saying that everything pointed this direction and that it was in Steve’s plan.

Then Steve demo’d it… well, tried to demo it. Seemed kind of cool, and got the folks at the office talking.

When our phones arrived, we kicked it off to give it a try. All you do is call someone and choose the FaceTime button on the screen when they answer. As soon as the other iPhone owner accepts your request, the call moves from the AT&T cell network and over to a available WiFi. Keep that in mind, you have to have an available WiFi supported Internet connection to use FaceTime.

In this first test, we had one iPhone connected to the company WiFi, which connects to a network through a firewall to a support center across the US, through another firewall and out into the world. The other iPhone was connected to a MiFi (Verizon 3G sharing out as a WiFi network). The two iPhones are at each end of a hall, the video was pretty smooth but voice/video is delayed a full second.

The screen shots are a bit more pixalated than what we were actually seeing on the screen. Since we were using the iPhones we could use them to take a picture so we relied on doing ‘screenshots’.

The second test was both iPhones on the MiFi networks so basically, on the same WiFi network. There was no delay in voice/video with almost no pixalation.

The picture-in-a-picture (your image) can be moved to any of the four corners of the screen.

The buttons along the bottom of the screen are for muting (‘muted’ appears on your screen but not the screen of the iPhone your talking to), ending the call and for switching between the two camera’s on the iPhone 4.

Being able to switch back and forth really makes FaceTime much more usable if your doing more than just talking face-to-face with others. As you tell the other party about what your seeing, you can switch to the camera on the other side and share the view together. Should be great to help doing support when a friend or family member has a problem. The days of the joke of telling someone to sit the phone on the computer so you can see what is wrong will actually work now!!

A feature we didn’t know about what that FaceTime works in both Portrait and Landscape views.

If you want to see how good the connection can actually be or want to have some one-on-one tips – Apple offers a number you can call and chat directly with a representative using FaceTime. The free service is offered 8 am to 8 pm central via 1-888-FACETIME .

What is inside my new iPhone 4?

I’m pretty well known for breaking open my co-worker’s iPhones and replaceing screens, etc… Most often it is because they broke their iPhone and they would have to buy a new unit – no warrenty replacement is possible.

One of the best sources for knowing what is inside of your Apple device, how to get those inside parts and how to get the part free’d so you can replace it is iFixIt.com. They get their folks at the front of the lines to get the latest hardware and then tear into them so you know what your buying before most folks even have the final product in their hand.

An interesting item you will see right off for the iPhone 4 is that removing the two screws along the bottom will release the back cover rather than the front like on previous models. Think this just happened to work out this way when the phone was coming together or was it done on purpose because the back glass might be a regular replacement item?

Below is a screenshot of one of iFixIt’s shots, not my own iPhone 4. You can see they are not doing little quick snaps. Everything is in clear and shows nice detail.

Even if your not going to tear your iPhone 4 apart, the article is pretty enlightening for what parts where used inside. Where they are located can be handy too. Usually these parts are available from a variety of sources on the Internet with a brief search.