If you’re getting a tax refund this year in the U.S., and want to track the status of the refund, you can do so on your iPhone, iPad, or Android Device with an official IRS app, IRS2Go. The app is available as a free download in the iTunes App Store, and in the Android Market. Read more
Android users can get an automatic refund for a purchased app, by deleting the app from their devices within 15 minutes of purchasing it. This is a far cry from the 24 hour window that was provided to Android users until recently, but easier than the process in Apple’s iOS store. Shoppers in the iOS store can get refunds, too, albeit through a bit of a convoluted process. Read more
Last week, we asked you how you’ve tweaked your Android device, to make it all your own. Now, it is time for iOS. If you have an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch, let us known in the comments how you’ve tweaked your device. Admittedly, that can be a bit harder to do on iOS than on Android, but we have some pretty clever readers.
If you own an Android or iOS device – at least one with a camera – you can now regale all of your friends with how insanely smart you are. The new version of Google Goggles has been ripping up the web in the past few days, as people buzz about the ridiculously fast barcode scanning of the Android client, print ad recognition in (popular) magazines and newspapers, and – perhaps most importantly – the ability to solve even the most difficult Sudoku puzzles in barely more than a blink.
Why would Google Goggles need the ability solve Sudoku? Frankly… who cares? As with many of the things in this world that don’t make you any smarter, it’s fun! If you don’t believe me, check out the cute promo video below, courtesy of the Google clan.
If you decide to test the new Goggles’ Sudoku prowess, make sure you get a clear shot of the puzzle without any of the extra bits you might find on, say, a webpage. If you don’t you will most likely be presented with search results over the solve puzzle button. I was never able to make it work with shots of my iPad app, either. Ahh well. It’s good to apply your brain sometimes, yes?
Happy puzzling!
Google Goggles Gets Faster, Smarter, and Solves Sudoku [Google Mobile Blog]
The tech community seems to be almost overwhelmingly positive about the new Samsung Galaxy Tab. Some of that is because the tech community tends to love the openness of Android, and some of that is because the Tab is a shiny new toy — but much of it appears to be because Samsung’s new tablet is actually pretty cool.
Check out the video, below, from Stuff.tv. It’s one of many reviews and unboxings that I’ve come across that sings a balanced tune about the Tab’s goodness. Some highlights are as follows:
My last two highlight points, above, were mentioned in every single positive review I read, watched, or skimmed, and though there are a few negative reviews out there, many of them come of as Apple fanboys doing what Apple fanboys love to do: trashing things that are not Apple. There are a some reasonable points to take away from the negative reviews, however, such as the difficulty that first time users of the Tab can have with finding the “on” button, and the fact that Android 2.2 was simply not built for tablets (just like Google said it wasn’t) and that leads to the occasional performance hiccup.
Overall, it seems that the Samsung Galaxy Tab will be a reasonable alternative to the iPad, even if it will never quite achieve the elitist notoriety of an Apple product. What do you think?
Samsung Galaxy Tab Video Review [Stuff.tv]
