Visa launches iOS app that serves location-based offers

by Vlad Bobleanta on December 15, 2010 at 03:30 PM

Visa has launched an iOS application that shows you offers based on your location. There are currently over 50 merchant offers, in areas including clothing, entertainment and dining. The app allows retailers, among which are Planet Hollywood, Holiday Inn, Hard Rock Cafe, Zales and New York & Company, to automatically deliver offers to Visa account holders based on their location.

Those who own Visa Signature cards will also receive special Signature offers in addition to the standard offers that everyone else gets. The offers can be redeemed either online or at physical retail locations, and they are stored inside the app. You can also get a map and directions to ATMs in your immediate vicinity, as well as nearby retailers where you can redeem offers.

Visa also has an Android application out, but participation in the Android program is currently limited to select US Bank debit cardholders, whereas the iOS app is free and usable by all US-based Visa account holders.

Download Visa Mobile Application for iPhone, iPad or iPod touch (iOS 3.0 or newer required) from the iTunes App Store

Tags: apps, finance, IOS, ipad, iphone, ipod touch, IpodTouch, offers, Visa, visa iphone app, VisaIphoneApp

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Apple updates iBooks with folders and PDF printing and emailing, Canadian books are coming soon

by Vlad Bobleanta on December 16, 2010 at 11:30 AM

Apple's iBooks has received an update today, pushing it to version 1.2. New in the app are a few features that have long been requested by iBooks fans.

First off, iBooks now has support for folders. These work in a similar fashion to iOS folders, only they're called 'Collections.' The two default collections are Books and PDFs. Of course, you can create your own, name them however you like, and move things around from one collection to another.

Also supported is emailing PDFs, as well as printing PDFs and notes from iBooks using Apple's AirPrint. Strangely enough, you still won't be able to print actual e-books -- just PDFs or annotations to books.

Rounding up the new feature additions are support for fully illustrated books (such as children's picture books) and more words per page being displayed, thanks to the addition of auto-hyphenation.

Also in iBooks-related news, the Canadian government has approved Apple's iBookstore. The iBookstore had been available in Canada prior to this, but did not have any Canadian works in it. Now that Apple and Canada have reached an agreement, expect Canadian books to show up in Apple's book store pretty soon.

iBooks 1.2 works on the iPad, iPhone or iPod touch with iOS 3.2 or newer installed.

Download iBooks 1.2 from the iTunes App Store Tags: Apple, apps, Collections, e book, e book reader, e-books, EBook, EBookReader, folders, ibooks, ibookstore, ios, ipad, iphone, ipod touch, IpodTouch

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Microsoft reveals Bing update with tabbed image search and Facebook integration

by Jay Hathaway on December 15, 2010 at 07:30 PM

Microsoft's Bing search engine is getting a pile of new features, mostly focused on improving the search engine's visual experience, the company revealed Wednesday at the Bing Search Summit in San Francisco. Bing has added context-specific results for things like movies, sports tickets, and shopping, so you'll see relevant prices, locations and reviews tailored to your search. The coolest new features, though, are an improved image search (now with tabs!) and Facebook integration.

Bing's image search finally delivers something that Google's doesn't: tabs. When you search for an image, you'll see related searches in the tabs on top, and you can jump between them without leaving the page. That'll make it easier to narrow down your image searches and find exactly what you're looking for. Image searches now also have infinite scrolling, to save you the trouble of clicking any "back" or "next" buttons.

Facebook integration with Bing is also being stepped up a notch. Soon, Facebook likes will be a standard part of Bing search results, so you can quickly spot the pages your friends have liked. Likes are even going to figure into the search rankings for the first time. Facebook-licious!

Bing Maps is also getting some changes. It has (mostly) switched over from Silverlight to Ajax, added the ability for mobile users to take and upload Panoramas, and introduced Streetside to its mobile app. That last bit is potentially the most interesting, because Streetside is something like Google Street View for Bing, and the mobile version can zoom out even further than the current desktop version allows. For those of us who rely on public transit, the addition of nearby bus and train schedules to Bing's mobile mix is also quite welcome.

Tags: bing, facebook, image search, ImageSearch, microsoft, mobile, search

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Wifi Analyzer for Android helps you pick the best channel for your Wi-Fi network

by Erez Zukerman on December 16, 2010 at 03:30 PM

Most people rarely think about this, but your Wi-Fi hot-spot is actually broadcasting its signal on something called a channel. In North America, you can pick one of 11 channels; in most of the world you can pick one of 13.

Still, most routers and access points come with a pre-set default (that appears to be 11, at least for the routers around me). When you have several routers broadcasting on the same channel, this can lead to some interference and a performance hit. If you live somewhere fairly isolated and your Wi-Fi signal is the only one in range, you've got nothing to worry about.

On the other hand, if you're trying to survive in a dense urban jungle, surrounded by paper-thin walls and lots of Wi-Fi-using neighbors, you may gain a bit of a performance boost by switching your access point's channel to a less congested one.

Wifi Analyzer is an Android application that helps you figure out exactly what that channel is. The screenshot to the right shows how channels 9 and 10 are occupied by a couple of wireless network fighting over the same frequency, while my network (the red one) lives comfortably on channel 1.

Wifi analyzer offers several views, including a simple "channel rating" screen with no graph, if you just want to quickly figure out what's the best channel for you. A beautiful app, and free. QR code is after the jump.

Tags: 802.11, analyzer, android, networking, ssid, wi-fi, wifi, wifi analyzer, wifi channel, WifiAnalyzer, WifiChannel, wireless, wlan

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Adblock Plus for Chrome coming soon

by Erez Zukerman on December 17, 2010 at 06:15 AM

Adblock is already available for Chrome, and is working very well for us so far. But now Adblock Plus, of Firefox fame, may be joining making the jump to Google's browser platform.

AdBlock Plus' developer, Wladimir Palant, has had lots of time to convert the extension; after all, Chrome isn't exactly new. But so far, Palant has been reluctant to do the porting, due to the amount of work required and Chrome's limited blocking capabilities. Times have changed however, as according to TechCrunch, Adblock Plus is on its way. It won't be a complete re-write apparently, but based on an existing extension called AdThwart.

From an end user's point of view, having Adblock Plus for Chrome might not make a huge difference. After all, the existing options for Chrome do get the job done. But when you step back and look at the big picture, this is one more indication of the rapid rise of Chrome as a browser platform, and now, an OS. Tags: adblock, adblock plus, AdblockPlus, browsers, chrome, google, productivity

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ChromeBlock extension for Google Chrome puts the kibosh on third-party tracking

by Lee Mathews on December 16, 2010 at 02:30 PM

Third-party browser tracking -- and how to give users more control over it -- is a hot topic right now. Microsoft and the FCC have similar plans, one former Google employee recently took the wraps off his take, and now there's another Chrome extension which turns the tracking blocker knob up to eleven.

It's called Do Not Track (DNT) ChromeBlock, and it gives you an easy way to shut down around 90 different Web tracking networks. Just about every well-known harvester is listed: Google, MSN, Alexa, Doubleclick, Omniture, Quantcast, Tynt and Cleeki, to name a few. You can choose to block networks as DNT detects their presence on a page, or you can opt out in advance by clicking the show global settings link. The overlay on DNT's browser action button tells you how many networks are detected and how many you've chosen to block.

Do Not Track works nicely in tandem with Disconnect, so those of you looking for as much tracking protection as possible can go ahead and install both extensions. Even if you're not concerned with blocking the connections, it's very interesting to see which sites you browse are sending data to different providers.

Install ChromeBlock for Google Chrome

ed note: sorry for the confusion, the extension's name was changed prior to this post being published

Tags: advertising, chrome, disconnect, do not track, DoNotTrack, extensions, google, google chrome, GoogleChrome, privacy, tracking

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Chrome for a Cause extension contributes to charity with every tab you open

by Vlad Bobleanta on December 15, 2010 at 03:00 PM

Google's Chrome for a Cause extension promises to donate money to a charity for every new tab you open in Chrome until this Sunday, December 19. At the end of each day you can choose where the money will go, and you have five charities to pick from:
Doctors Without Borders -- an independent, international medical humanitarian organization that delivers emergency aid in 70 countriesThe Nature Conservancy -- a conservation organization working internationally to protect ecologically important lands and waterscharity:water -- a non-profit that aims to bring clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nationsRoom to Read -- seeks to change the lives of children in developing countries by focusing on literacy and gender equalityUn Techo para mi Pais -- works in 19 countries across the Americas to build transitional housing for impoverished familiesYou can choose a different charity each day, or the same one every day, it's up to you.

Here's how Chrome for a Cause works: you install the extension from the Chrome Web Store. Then, you go along browsing all day, and the extension button will show you how many new tabs you have opened that day. If you click on the button, you'll see details about how much difference you've already made -- for example, my current 17 tabs provide 0.7 vaccinations, 1.7 books, 1.7 trees (isn't it funny that the numbers for books and trees are always identical?), 0.2 square feet of shelter built, and 0.1 person's drinking water. As mentioned above, at the end of each day, you get to choose which charity the money will go to. You can also share the news about the extension straight from its menu to Facebook, Twitter, Google Buzz and Orkut.

The exact amount of money each tab opening collects is never mentioned. And you should know that there are limits to what you can do with this extension. A 250 tab per day limit is enforced for each user, and the maximum total contribution amount is $1 million.

Still, this is a neat idea from Google, so why not run and download Chrome for a Cause right now?

Tags: browsers, charity, chrome, chrome for a cause, ChromeForACause, donate, google, google chrome, GoogleChrome

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