iPhone Article Zone

DocScanner

As a child, i.e. currently, I used to love watching secret agents and private investigators sneak into offices/unauthorized areas and, using hi-tech tools (a camera; it’s no shoe-phone, but it got the job done), take pictures of confidential/top-secret/incriminating documents. How many times have you been in a situation requiring you to do the same (if your answer is anything other than zero, you can skip this review, as I’m sure you already have access to superior technology, e.g. micro-chip/camera embedded in eyeball(s), etc., that renders this review obsolete)?

So, imagine my delight) when I learned of DocScanner, a document scanner app created by (the assumedly non-espionage-related agency) Norfello. Among other features, it boasts Optical Character Recognition, automatic edge detection, automatic perspective and rotation correction and multi-page document support.

The premise behind DocScanner is simple: Take a photo (or an existing image) or a photo of any document with the application and save it to DocScanner or your Camera Roll, send it to Evernote or email it as an attachment (PDF or JPG).

DocScanner boasts the ability to do all the above automatically, without having to manually crop, rotate, etc. According to the developers, all one needs to do is take a photo of any document with the application, or choose a picture from your Camera Roll/Photo Library and determine the options you like, e.g. image quality, aspect ratio and paper size (as long as the target is lighter than its background, DocScanner will understand the edges of the document). The application then automatically determines the edges of the document and prompts its user to decide what they want to do with the image (see above paragraph). All the user needs to do is decide the quality and size of the document. DocScanner then automatically corrects the keystones, requiring no need for manual rotating, cropping or scaling.

Despite DocScanner’s claims, I encountered problems using the app.

DocScanner has no preset image settings and its options do not definitively delineate between color and black and white documents/images. The two image settings are “Background Whiteness” and “Sharpen Image.” “Background Whiteness” is subdivided among three settings: 1) Basic, 2) Enhanced and 3) Aggressive. While scanning color and black-and-white documents/images, I found I was receiving different results with all three options, leaving me confused as to what option was best or should be used in different situations. The other image setting, “Sharpen Image,” makes text easier to read when activated, but only speeds up the scanning process when “off.” Shouldn’t these two co-exist as a standard feature? I think modifying DocScanner’s current image settings/feature set, to include the use of “presets,” would make for an easier and more efficient use of the application.

Speaking of features, DocScanner’s current interface can be a little confusing. The functional hierarchy (especially regarding DocScanner’s OCR and its integration within the application) could be better-defined/interfaced, in a more linear, cohesive, user-friendly manner. The current interface has a separate “Spooler” option that serves as the app’s text-recognition tool (OCR). One basically has to save the scan to DocScanner, then open the “Spooler” feature to process the scan.

After taking/importing images (from the Camera Roll/Photo Library), DocScanner prompts you to crop the photo/adjust the image’s geometrical proportions/perspective, by dragging the corners of a purple crop-line tool to meet the alignment of the original image. This tool, when used with the optional magnification tool, is very precise, but not without cost: The line is hyper-sensitive to touch and I often became frustrated trying to move the line and have it stay in the spot where I moved it to (after lifting my finger).

Unfortunately, I had to do this with all images (and many documents), as there is no “select all” feature. It’s not a deal breaker, though, as, in the end, the tool’s precision overshadows it’s hyper-sensitivity. That said, I wasn’t impressed with DocScanner’s auto-recognition capabilities as they relate to images. Here’s an image I loaded from my Photo Library (isn’t he a cutie? I sure would hate to do anything to mar his cute face!):

Here’s the same image after loading it into DocScanner, showing the auto-recognition line(s):

Here’s the image after DocScanner scanned it, using it’s auto-recognition:

Aye Carumba! Move onto the next picture, STAT! Now, here’s the same image after I manually adjusted the auto-recognition lines and scanned it into DocScanner:

As you can see, the image’s integrity, while for the most part, is still intact, but it has been slightly compromised. I tried scanning the image under different image settings configurations, but the end result was consistently the same.

Here’s the same image, scanned with a comparable document scanning app, using that app’s built-in auto detection/recognition:

Photographing/scanning color documents with DocScanner, using their suggestion that the document be placed on/against a dark-colored object, works very well. The auto-recognition works as advertised and the quality/integrity of the image and its attributes remain(s), for the most part, uncompromised (uh, this is my wife’s magazine):

Photographing/scanning black and white documents also works well with DocScanner (using their suggestion that the document be placed on/against a dark-colored object). Unfortunately, I found DocScanner’s auto-detection/recognition only detects the edges of a document you are photographing [black-and-white and color] in these conditions. Otherwise you have to manually adjust/define the document’s/images edges, i.e. if you take a picture of a white letter/document on a white/light background, DocScanner can’t automatically detect the edges; the user has to do it manually.
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That said, I found it difficult to scan legible text-heavy documents, even with the use of DocScanner’s OCR (Optical Character Recognition is the mechanical or electronic translation of images of handwritten, typewritten or printed text [usually captured by a scanner] into machine-editable text). This problem is exacerbated by DocScanner’s somewhat confusing interface, which lists “Documents” separate from “Spooler,” the OCR/Text Recognition function, as opposed to integrating the two to make the app/these functions, more user-friendly.

When taking photos of any documents, especially those containing a large amount of text, the user must keep the iPhone/camera as still/steady as possible, or the words on the subsequent scan will be blurry, illegible and/or difficult to read. That said, DocScanner does not contain an on-screen camera stabilization feature in its current feature-set. Adding this feature would aid/prevent its user from taking unsteady pictures, thus saving him/her a lot of time and effort in the scanning process. Moreover, the ability to select the entire screen/image, without having to revert to (painfully) manually cropping the entire image is noticeably absent. Conversely, the option to share scans via WiFi is a nice addition to the app’s capabilities.

Despite its flaws, DocScanner works well. It’s a decent app (albeit pricey [at $5.99]) who’s developers have promised a variety of improvements/updates in the near future. They’ve created a solid foundation, but need to improve on those features the app currently boasts, e.g. automated edge detection, cropping, rotation and perspective correction (keystone mapping) and place more/added focus on simplifying their feature set/image options while adding integral features found standard in comparable apps, e.g. camera stabilization, making the app more user-friendly.

That said, I would suggest researching the free/cheaper alternatives in the app store before plunking down any of your hard-earned cash on any scanning app.

Scanner Pro

It seems the number of document scanning apps in the app store is slowly beginning to increase, as developers have (finally) identified the need for a utility which allows portable, on-the-go document/image scanning. Personally, this is a Godsend for me, as, until now, I had no way to scan and post old, embarrassing family photos of my siblings on-line (Now, I have many app solutions to choose from. One of these is Scanner Pro, a member of the Readdle document and file management app family.

Scanner Pro claims to transform the iPhone into a portable scanner, allowing one to scan multi-page documents, email them and even upload them to Dropbox, MobileMe iDisk or any other WebDAV enabled server. In addition to Evernote integration, it also boasts the ability to scan documents, business cards, receipts, notes and whiteboards and subsequently email them, all using special algorithms to enhance image quality and make the scan as readable as possible. Nothing we haven’t already heard (at least in theory). Does Scanner Pro deliver?

The very first thing I noticed when opening Scanner Pro, is it’s “New Document” menu/ interface:

It’s refreshingly clean, straight-forward and not confusing and the icons are all labeled, instructing you exactly where to go. Similar apps I’ve reviewed were clunky, confusing and non-linear. This is not the case with Scanner Pro, which also contains a built-in user guide.

Scanner Pro’s main screen is also clean, linear and intuitive. You can choose an existing document or press the “+” in the bottom-left corner to enter the “New Document” screen (above). Pressing “?” brings up the User Guide and the IP address is displayed at the bottom of the screen:

The only preset image settings within Scanner Pro’s main “Settings” are the ability to turn “Enhanced Image” on/off and the choice of using “Grayscale” by default. All other image options present themselves after the image is imported, during the “Preview” process, allowing you to make the proper adjustments after the image/document is initially scanned and before it’s final “process.” Users can make the correct image adjustments in “real-time,” (including changing the page size and image orientation) without having to rescan the image/document repeatedly, using different image setting variables. Simply choose the adjustment(s) you want to make (contrast, brightness and grayscale) and use/move the slider accordingly. After a second, the image is processed accordingly and the changes are displayed:

The “Preview” menu also features “undo” and “redo” options, making it much easier for the user to make corrections to the image. After processing the final scan, users can save the document in Scanner Pro, send it to Evernote or save the image to the Photo Library.

While Scanner Pro does not possess such advanced image processing features such as automatic perspective and rotation correction, it does feature advanced image/edge detection. Users simply tap anywhere on the screen to move the crop lines to their desired/target location. After taking/importing images (from the Camera Roll/Photo Library), Scanner Pro allows you to crop the image by dragging the corners of the image to your desired location. This feature is precise, but, like similar apps, the crop lines are sensitive to touch and I often had to move the line several times before I got it to stay in its proper spot. This issue in Scanner Pro is far less pronounced when compared to similar apps.

Because I’ve no tolerance for “sissy” applications, I went straight for the Achilles heel of those scanner apps I’ve tested/used; one area where similar apps have consistently failed: Scanning text-heavy documents.

The first document I scanned was a page from a W-9 tax form and I was amazed at the results:

The subsequent PDF scan was clear and legible. Additional scans would produce the same results. Scanner Pro: 1. Similar apps I’ve tested: 0. I was able to combine these scans, thanks to Scanner Pro’s “user-friendly,” linear interface, into a multiple-page PDF with relative ease.

Next, I scanned an imported image from my Photo Library. Here’s the original:

Here’s the scanned JPG I imported using Scanner Pro:

As you can see, aside from lighting enhancements, the image’s integrity is, by far and large, uncompromised.

Scanner Pro is capable of scanning any type of documents ranging from simple one page letters to multi-page documents. It’s “user friendly” interface allows it’s user(s) to add, move, delete pages and even combine pages in landscape and portrait orientations. These files can, in turn, be emailed, uploaded to WebDAV or any FTP application and can even be transferred to your Mac or PC via WiFi. I was able to connect to my PC via WiFi and by typing my IP address into my browser’s address bar with no problems.

In addition, to protect sensitive documents, users can assign passwords to documents/ images by tapping the lock icon on the bottom bar.

Other features included with Scanner Pro is a built-in PDF viewer which allows the user to preview his/her scans exactly the same as they will look on desktop computer, the ability to upload scans to online file storage venues, such as MobileMe iDisk, Box.Net, Humyo and any other WebDAV enabled online storage, the ability to print, via “Print n Share” provided by EuroSmartz (owners of both apps [Scanner Pro and Print n Share] can scan and then print documents to any printer via a Mac or PC), the ability to sync scans with Dropbox-enabled computers and the ability to upload processed images directly to an online Evernote account.

All said, As a result, I use Scanner Pro exclusively and it comes in handy often. At $6.99, it’s priced within the same range of other scanner apps in the App Store. I recommend Scanner Pro to anyone looking for a portable scanner app or anyone needing to scan, view or share documents (regardless of where you are), “on-the-fly.”

QuickOffice

On almost every modern computer there is likely to be a modern document creator. It’s a given. Be it Microsoft Office, OpenOffice or iWork, there’s no shortage of competition, and that isn’t just restricted to desktop computing side of things. Mobile versions of such software have boomed in recent years, and there’s one name that has appeared at the top of the list long before Apple’s App Store made its debut on July 10 2008: QuickOffice.

Symbian (S60, UIQ and QUI3), Palm and Android are just some of the platforms that QuickOffice have built on in the past. These mobile versions of Microsoft Office were widely accepted to be amongst the best, and it turned smartphones into very-smartphones. Now it is the turn of the largest app store for third party applications known to date: Apple’s App Store for iPhone and iPod Touch. Never before has the mobile market had so much choice with just one range of mobile devices. So, has QuickOffice rocked the App Store in the way that was expected? Well, it’s currently #1 in the Business section and that’s no easy task. Especially at $12.99 (£7.49).

QuickOffice is a fully-fledged, fully-featured mobile office application. Word, Excel and Powerpoint are some of many names that QuickOffice is built for. It bridges the gap between desktop and mobile writing, bringing the power of MS Office to the power of the iPhone. How does it do this? Well, let’s take a look at each individual part of the app.

QuickWord
The power of Word (or Apple’s Pages) in the power of the iPhone. As you can expect, it’s not exactly the same: 2GHz vs 400MHz and a 20″ screen vs a 3″ one (we’re assuming that you do live in the 21st century and that your computer is more powerful than your iPhone). But it does hold up well in our tests on an iPhone 3G and 3GS, where loading times of documents were minimal and navigating the application was relatively easy. It’s not just for viewing, it’s for editing and creating too and this is where the real creativity of the application shines. An impressive feature list includes:

* Text styles and sizes (bold, italic, 8-72pt)
* Fonts (Arial, Times New Roman and Verdana to name three of seven in total)
* Paragraph indentation and alignment
* Bullet/number lists
* Text wrapping

QuickOffice introduced cut/copy/paste before Apple did, and to top it off there’s a search and auto-save built in. Presently, you can view and edit .txt, .doc and .docx. But what use are these features if it has some ugly GUI or sluggish interface? Thankfully, this isn’t the case – even on our app and music filled iPhones. In fact – it’s quite the opposite. Loading times were quick and the GUI is a favoured minimalist approach; six options at the bottom reveal text formatting; indentation; a keyboard; bullet points; undo; and search. Over 80% of the screen is devoted to the document you are working on – as it should be with any professional application. QuickWord certainly holds up against its rivals in the App Store for documents.

QuickSheet
QuickWord’s sister is the mobile version of Microsoft Excel (or Apple’s Numbers), QuickSheet. Excel is the spreadsheet application of choice globally, meaning QuickSheet must hold up well on the iPhone. It does. Like its sister QuickWord, QuickSheet has an impressive array of features:

* Extensive formatting (bold, italic, symbols and cell background to name a few)
* Multiple sheets
* Full calculations
* Formulae dynamically updated
* Portrait / landscape mode

Preliminary testing was a painless procedure, and the only problem that we encountered was Apple’s keyboard. Having to constantly change to the = and + side of the keyboard made inputting data into cells a little bit lengthier-a-process than we had hoped. Detailed function categories show no shortage of formulae: Math & Trig; Financial; Logical; and Information to name four of nine. Without sounding try, there are pages worth of formulae and statistical methods to work with. Due to the extensive amount of options, the sheet itself covers around 70% of the screen. The bottom menu holds six options: text formatting; text wrapping; sheets; change rows/columns; undo; and search. Cut, copy and paste is in there too. Overall, QuickSheet is yet another no-holds-barred section of the mobile office application. Impressive. Presently, both .xls and .xlsx are editable.

Edit and send attachments, on-the-go
As mentioned in an earlier blog post, QuickOffice have added their piece-du-resistance to the ever popular mobile office application. Now, one can forward attachments to a designated QuickOffice e-mail address (free) and edit them on-the-go. Whilst the re-sending is hardly ideal, the attachment can be sent back again from the e-mail address the attachment was received from. It’s the best option there is on the App Store, and it should work with all mail servers. A welcome alternative to the void that has existed since day one of the iPhone release.

iDisk, MobileMe and drag/drop integration
For those who use Apple’s premium service, MobileMe, there’s an extra set of features that make this application that little bit extra more than you thought it would be. QuickOffice have integrated iDisk support, allowing you to view, download and edit any compatible files (which is no short list – .txt, .rtf, MS Office and iWork files are all in there). Our tests on an iPhone 3G did show some signs of sluggishness on Wi-Fi, but this time was more than acceptable based on how much this application is trying to do. Files can be moved from iDisk to iPhone and vice versa. Furthermore, your iPhone can be assigned a local IP and can appear as a networked drive on your mac or PC, allowing you to drag and drop files to and from the iPhone.

Conclusion
By all means, this application has it all. The experience was a tad slow on our app and music filled iPhone 3G, but for an application that requires so much power that should be expected. If you can live with nuisances that aren’t necessarily QuickOffice’s fault, such as proper e-mail attachment editing, it is an application that should be worthy of consideration. If you’re just a Word (Pages) or Excel (Numbers) user, QuickOffice have separate applications at reduced prices. We’d recommend going all out and buying the all-in-one, should you choose to. Its number #1 in the Business section is justified: this is one of the most powerful applications I’ve seen yet.

An application like QuickOffice has a lot to live up to. It must integrate well and be a seamless experience. It must work out of the box with no set-up menus or time wasting. It must, quite simply, work. And it does. We are thoroughly impressed. 5 stars.

Squash the $treet

This is a simple game that requires you to squish the business men as they make their way to their destinations. It’s a mole-in-a-hole (whack a mole?) style game, requiring you to pretty much squish them as they travel to their cars, airplanes, hotels…

The game definitely has a unique idea going for it, in terms of the content / context. Yes, there are tonnes of games where we are required to squish things, but this one has the banking theme which is at least topical. Having said that, that’s almost all it has going for it. It didn’t grip me in the way that I was hoping it would.

I did like the top-down view, which turned out to be a good idea. The graphics are pretty nice to look at, and there are 40 levels of game play for you. There are also powerups to boost your squish rate. I also liked the way your level scores was presented to you, as if it was in a newspaper. Again, this goes well with the overall theme.

I just think they need to have some other goals perhaps to it. I realize that there are games that have no goals, and they do work, but in this case, just tapping some tiny people wasn’t enough to satisfy a gamer like me.

There is a choice of squishing (tapping them on the device) or flicking them to throw them, but I’m not sure my device clocked any difference in the two ways to kill at all. My score seemed pretty consistent whether I tapped or flicked, so that became quite redundant. Other than a few kills, there was not a lot more to the game.

There is a lite version of the game so if you’re inclined, have a go yourself, but really, I wouldn’t even bother with that. I personally would invest my money elsewhere.

Squash the $treet

This is a simple game that requires you to squish the business men as they make their way to their destinations. It’s a mole-in-a-hole (whack a mole?) style game, requiring you to pretty much squish them as they travel to their cars, airplanes, hotels…

The game definitely has a unique idea going for it, in terms of the content / context. Yes, there are tonnes of games where we are required to squish things, but this one has the banking theme which is at least topical. Having said that, that’s almost all it has going for it. It didn’t grip me in the way that I was hoping it would.

I did like the top-down view, which turned out to be a good idea. The graphics are pretty nice to look at, and there are 40 levels of game play for you. There are also powerups to boost your squish rate. I also liked the way your level scores was presented to you, as if it was in a newspaper. Again, this goes well with the overall theme.

I just think they need to have some other goals perhaps to it. I realize that there are games that have no goals, and they do work, but in this case, just tapping some tiny people wasn’t enough to satisfy a gamer like me.

There is a choice of squishing (tapping them on the device) or flicking them to throw them, but I’m not sure my device clocked any difference in the two ways to kill at all. My score seemed pretty consistent whether I tapped or flicked, so that became quite redundant. Other than a few kills, there was not a lot more to the game.

There is a lite version of the game so if you’re inclined, have a go yourself, but really, I wouldn’t even bother with that. I personally would invest my money elsewhere.

Dear Steve, Please Fix the App Store Approval Process

Dear Mr. Jobs,

In all of these months since the app store launched, I’ve been hesitant to be negative of Apple and the app store approval process. Developers have responded passionately and repeatedly with stories of rejected apps and even apps removed from the app store for various reasons. Sometimes they were right, the rejection didn’t make sense. But many times, they were wrong, the app should have been rejected due to obvious reasons.

But today, it seems as though Apple has gone from being just mysterious in it’s approval process to outright complacent. With the removal of apps that use the Google Voice APIs to allow you to access their services, Apple has crossed a line into scary overlord territory. It almost seems as though roles in the 1984 commercial have been reversed.

So yes, these apps may duplicate some of the functions of the iPhone. But as many argue, they don’t, as the features they supply aren’t available on the iPhone. They no more duplicate functions than any of hundreds of apps that provide weather information, calendar interfaces, embedded browsers, contact management, sms services, heck, even the dozens of voice recorders already released now duplicate a default application in OS 3.0.

My big question is, what made this happen now? Is AT&T behind this rejection? If so, this adds to a list of innovative apps they have neutered. For example, SlingPlayer, an application that AT&T even publicizes for Blackberry was restricted to only working over Wifi for the iPhone. Ridiculous… that basically strips 90% of it’s functionality. And if they are behind the rejection of Google Voice related apps, an application that’s already available on Blackberries as well, on their network even, I have to wonder what’s going on? What are they thinking? What are they afraid of?

I can’t believe it’s really their network. They have been adding new customers regularly. Not just this quarter, but for the past 2 years. They’ve had time to upgrade their network as needed for all these new iPhone customers.

Further, why would Apple be in such a stranglehold from AT&T? Why would Apple allow AT&T to stifle innovation in this platform and restrict such applications? It’s boggling why AT&T treats iPhones and their users with such a lack of respect even though we pay more for the same service than other customers.

So, to get to my point, what all this adds up to is that the iPhone is still the best mobile platform to develop for, by far. We all know that. But the platform that freed developers in so many ways is being increasingly perceived as a hostile environment. There are too many unknowns for some developers to put the time and expense into developing the next big, innovative app for the platform when they have no way of even verifying that they can ever release their app.

People are starting companies, risking their livelihoods and their futures on the iPhone and the iTunes App Store. It’s just bad developer (not to mention public) relations to operate such a veiled process like this knowing that so many people depend on it for their livelihood. Not to mention that it will eventually end up in court and could cost Apple a bundle.

So, Mr. Jobs, I ask this of you. You have the power to fix all of these problems. Please do so and we can all be a big happy family again.

First, take the developer agreement and re-write it. At its core, the problem is that Apple has only published rules to developers that basically say, we’ll approve what we want to, here are a few very non-specific guidelines to follow.

Get your product managers in there and tell them to re-write it so that it is written for the benefit of the developers not Apple’s legal department. No blanket statements, be specific with details about what is and is not allowed. Leave nothing out. Then, open it up for discussion with your devoted developers to get their feedback. And then, stick to it. No exceptions like you made for AT&T (going around the in-app purchasing with their GPS app), or Google (use of undocumented APIs for the proximity sensor). We’ll all be happier if we are all on a well explained and level playing field.

Second, slap AT&T, tell them that they have no control over the app store. Apple, you have created a revolution with this platform and it’s bigger than AT&T. But, if they are restricting innovation it can never come close to it’s full potential.

And Steve, can I call you Steve? That brings up a bigger topic related to AT&T. Can you please do something about the AT&T exclusivity in the USA? They treat the iPhone like it’s a cheap Nokia feature phone, not like the best phone ever seen by man. They treat it like a nuisance and it’s users like second-class citizens. We aren’t treated as we should be treated, as their only hope for a future and the only reason they are still in business. AT&T are acting like narrow-minded, slow to upgrade, innovation stifling knuckleheads. So, please, use your powers, the ones that you so deftly used a few years to get your way with AT&T, to either get them to clean up their act, or move on to Verizon like everyone thinks is going to happen.

Respectfully yours,
Jeff Scott
Publisher / Founder
148Apps