Android users have been enjoying Google Goggles for a while; now, the image recognition feature has made it over to the iPhone. The first hints that GG would make the leap to iPhone came back in August, and we’re glad to see it here now.
Google Goggles delivers the kind of visual product search and recognition features found in SnapTell (now owned by Amazon) and Kooaba. While it’s a separate app on the Android Market, on iPhone it’s bundled in with the existing Google Mobile app.
As the video shows, with Google Goggles (not to be confused with other, similar sounding technologies), you can use visual recognition to search for information with your iPhone’s camera — even translate text from other languages into English on demand. The service works best on copy, logos, book covers, landmarks, wine labels and other easily recognized images; it doesn’t do so well with organic shapes like animals, people or food. Note that since it requires an auto-focusing camera, Goggles will only work on the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4.
If you update your Google Mobile app, you’ll see a new camera icon in the top bar. The first time you tap it, you’ll have to clear several screenfuls of instructions and accept a new version of the Google mobile usage agreement. You can, at your option, have your image capture history saved to your Google account.
More details are available on Google’s blog. Get Goggling!
TUAWGoogle Goggles image recognition debuts on iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 05 Oct 2010 20:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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WeatherEye is an easy to use weather app with a simple but attractive interface that gets the job done. When viewing the current weather you are given all the information you need, including the temperature, the “feels like” temperature, humidity, and wind. You are also give plenty of other information like the time of sunrise and sunset, visibility, pressure, and ceiling. The short and long term forecast also show plenty of information. WeatherEye also has an hourly forecast with just the temperature and conditions, as well as precipitation and cloud cover maps. All this is great to have, but it would be nice to have the option to update the information whenever you want. Instead it automatically updates everything hourly, which isn’t always frequently enough.
The first thing you notice upon using this app is bland interface, which isn’t too enjoyable to look at. When looking at current conditions, you are given the temperature, heat index, humidity, wind, rain, and dew point, which should be plenty of information for most people. You are also shown the forecast for the next day, but only the temperature, right underneath. The 7-day forecast does not provide as much info as WeatherEye does, but does give the temperature and a short description of the conditions, while its hourly forecast provides the heat index, humidity, and chance of precipitation in addition to the temperature. You are also given National Weather Service alerts, can view maps with many different layer options, watch videos, view a camera for your current location, and save up to 10 favorite locations. Weatherbug updates its information much more frequently and you can give it a shake to update the app to the most current info at any time.
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Considering this version of the Weather Channel app costs $3.99, you would think it has a lot of improvements over the free version. Surprisingly, this is not the case. The first thing you’ll notice is that while the free version of the app has a crystal clear, high-quality icon, this one is blurry and out of focus. While some may argue that the interface may be a bit nicer or cleaner, there certainly is no big improvement there either. However, there still are some improvements and new features. All ads are removed from this version, you have some more map features, and there is a beach and boat forecast. Another addition is that you are given many different videos instead of only a video for your local region, including a national forecast, travel forecast, and multiple international forecasts.
As soon as you open up this app you will notice its simple, elegant, and streamlined interface. This is the best looking interface of all the weather apps with great background animations, and while it would be nice to see support for retina display, the app still looks stunning. On the main screen, all that is displayed is the current temperature, high and low temperatures for the day, wind speed, time, and when it was last updated. Tapping the area where all of this is displayed will show you more information, including the humidity, pressure, dew point, sunrise and sunset, visibility, and even the moon phase, but there is no “feels like” temperature unfortunately. Scrolling sideways on the main screen will bring you to other locations you have added, and rotating into landscape mode gives you a 6-day forecast. This forecast shows the high and low temperatures and the conditions outside. One great feature is the ability to update the weather information at any time by giving the device a shake, and you can even set it to auto-update at certain time intervals. Unlike all the other apps up to this point, this app does not have any sort of maps, no hourly forecast, and no videos. These may be important to some people, and this app is not for them. If you do not need those features, which many people, myself included, do not use, then this app is perfect for you, as it looks beautiful and is simple to use.
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