MyScript Nebo review – CNET
The Good MyScript Nebo does some unique tricks, such as reflowing handwriting, mixed text/handwriting operation and equation recognition. And when it’s good, it’s very, very good.
The Bad It requires one of the pricier tablets and like many digital note-taking systems, it can be finicky to the point where you may not think it’s worth the effort.
The Bottom Line If you own a tablet with a good active stylus and you take a lot of notes, it’s definitely worth giving MyScript Nebo a shot while it’s free. But your mileage may vary.
Visit manufacturer site for details.
The latest candidate in my continuing search for the best way to take notes comes from MyScript, the company formerly known as Vision Objects, which renamed itself to match its MyScript Notes Mobile app launched in 2012. Named “Nebo” (I think it should have stuck with “MyScript Notes”) the app extends its capabilities with the company’s updated recognition engine and new Interactive Ink technology. It works pretty well, but still doesn’t provide the seamless experience I’d hoped for.
It currently works on some iPad and Windows 10 devices — Android is forthcoming — but not all of them. It requires devices that support active pens, like the Apple Pencil or Surface Pen. And the company stresses it needs to be a good one. Passive styluses work by pretending to be your finger and lack the precision necessary to capture all the necessary stroke data.
The app, which normally costs $9 but is free for the moment, tries to simulate the real writing-in-a-notebook experience, albeit with some useful and unique capabilities like mixed font/handwriting editing and handwriting reflow, equation recognition (from its calculator app) and solving (like its calculator) and conversion of drawn shapes to digital vector objects.
Like all note-taking apps, Nebo uses notebooks and pages as its organizing metaphor; unlike a real notebook or many other note-taking apps, which basically offer freehand pages, you have to create blocks for nontext content: local images, camera shots, drawings, diagrams and equations. That can slow you down. The trade-off is that because it “knows” what the type of content it’s looking at, it can convert equations to text as well as solve them and turn basic shapes into objects for diagrams. It supports the same operations as other good apps, such as cross-notebook searches.
As the text flows
My biggest issue with handwriting recognition is, well, software finds my scrunchy, squiggly handwriting pretty tough to recognize. That’s unsurprising: Even I can barely read it. But it ultimately makes cleaning up my “recognized” notes more of a chore than just retyping them from a hard copy. Interactive Ink lets you make corrections to recognized text by writing with the stylus rather than having to jump to a keyboard.
Nebo can convert basic shapes in diagrams. If you want to leave objects like arrows as they are, you flag it as a doodle.
Screenshot by Lori Grunin/CNET
Nebo does the best job of recognizing my handwriting that I’ve seen to date. But, as we saw with optical character recognition software, you have to reach a tipping point where the number of corrections you need to make is small enough to counter the hassle of making them. So OCR software usually preserves the original scan for reference. With Nebo, once you’ve converted to text, the handwritten version is gone (or at least not displayable); it’s not even there while you’re making corrections. In many cases, some incorrect characters aren’t a problem. And in the preview it can autosuggest corrections.
Best SIM-only plans available in the UK
Over the past few years, SIM-only contracts have seen something of a resurgence in the consumer market. There are at least two reasons for this. Firstly, carriers (or networks) don’t make much money on selling phones, and so they can make practically pure profit from selling you a SIM-only contract.
Secondly, consumers have watched as regular contract tariffs monthly costs have grown from around £35 per month to almost £50 pre month. SIM-only then, is much more affordable than a conventional phone+line contract.
SIM-only can often be the best way to get great value for money, especially if you already have a phone, or if you’d rather buy your unlocked phones direct from manufacturers.
UK network coverage checkers
In each of the categories we’ll break down offerings available from the UK’s big four networks as well as some of the more popular MVNO’s like GiffGaff, BTMobile and such. However, it is worth checking which carrier has the network coverage you need. After all, there’s no point snagging yourself a stonking deal if you can’t use the allowances you’re paying for.
Below you’ll find links to the four coverage checkers you need. Why four? Because any other network is an MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator), which means they don’t have their own masts and signal, they use the networks provided by Vodafone, EE or O2. GiffGaff and Tesco mobile, for instance, uses O2’s network, while BT Mobile uses EE’s.
- O2 coverage checker
- EE coverage checker
- Vodafone coverage checker
- Three coverage checker
BT Mobile
Best SIM-only plans: the cheapest available
If you’re a very light user and literally just want the most dirt-cheap contract available, you’ll have little reason to spend more than £10 per month. Most network operators have deals available that cost less than a steak dinner.
Unless otherwise stated, all plans are 12-month contracts (since that’s how you get the lowest monthly costs), allowances listed are UK only and up to 4G speeds.
BT Mobile – £10 per month (£5 for BT broadband customers) – 200 mins – unlimited texts – 500MB data
Virgin Media – 30 day rolling plan – £5 per month – 250 mins – unlimited texts – 250MB data
GiffGaff – 30 day rolling plan – £5 per month – 125 mins – 500 texts – 100MB data
Tesco Mobile – £7.50 per month – 250 mins – 5000 texts – 500MB data
Three – £8.00 per month – 200 mins – unlimited texts – 500MB data
Vodafone – £9.50 per month – 250 mins – unlimited texts – 250MB data
EE – £9.99 per month – 250 mins – unlimited texts – 250MB data
O2 – £10.00 per month – 250 mins – unlimited texts – 250MB data
If you’re a BT broadband customer, there’s very little reason to choose anyone other than BT Mobile. For £5 per month you’ll get half a gig of data as well as unlimited texts and 200 minutes.
If you’re not a BT broadband customer, other options could include Tesco Mobile’s £7.50 per month one year contract with half a gig of data, 250 minutes and 5000 texts, or there’s Virgin Media and GiffGaff who both offer a £5 per month 30-day rolling plan.
Of those two, Virgin Media’s is easily the most competitive offer since GiffGaff only includes 100MB data, 500 texts and 125 mins. With that said, for just £2.50 per month more you can get yourself 500GB data, with unlimited texts and 250 minutes.
Arguably however, Virgin Media’s next tariff up is better value for money. For £8 per month you can get a whole 1GB of data each month as well as 1000 minutes and unlimited texts. This is all on a plan that only ties you in for 30 days at a time.
Voda
Best SIM-only plans: with the most data?
If you’re a Pokemon Go addict, or are constantly connected and streaming videos on the go, you just want as much data as you can get. Amazingly, for just over double the price of the cheapest available tariffs, you can get more data than you’ll possibly need.
Three – Unlimited data – £23/£28/£33 per month for 200/600/Unltd minutes – (+30GB hotspot allowance)
Vodafone – 20GB data – £22.20 per month
Tesco Mobile – 20GB data – £29 per month
O2 – 16GB data – £28.90 per month
BT Mobile – 15GB data – £21 per month (£16 per month for BT Broadband customers)
Virgin Media – 10GB data – £23 per month – 30 day rolling agreement
EE – 8GB data – £27.99 per month
GiffGaff – Always on* – £20 per month – 30 day rolling agreement – (*speed restrictions after 6GB usage)
Unsurprisingly, Three are the kings of data. The disruptive carrier has been one of the few offering unlimited (all-you-can-eat) data for the past few years.
Depending on how few minutes you can live with, you can get unlimited data from Three from as little as £23 per month. And because it’s on Three’s Advance plans, you can use your allowances abroad in more than 40 countries. Plus, you get a 30GB allowance for tethering, in case you need to use your phone as a hotspot.
We’re hesitant to recommend GiffGaff’s “Always On” data, since you get penalised if you use more than 6GB, which is nothing close to unlimited. That means, surprisingly, Vodafone comes as our next recommendation after Three with its 20GB plan, which comes in at £22.20 per month and includes 4GB of data to use abroad in 40 countries.
Three
Best SIM-only plans: for roaming?
So you travel abroad a few times each year and you want to stop coming home to a bill filled with additional roaming charges. Thanks to the impending EU-wide abolition of roaming charges, carriers are already working on hard on getting the competition going.
Three – Feel at home on the Three Advanced plans lets you use your allowances in 18 countries abroad (more than 40 from September)
Vodafone – several plans include unlimited roaming minutes and texts plus some roaming data for use in 40 European destinations
EE – EE Extra plans come with unlimited mins and texts in Europe, £3 per day for 500MB data just text EURODATA to 150
Tesco Mobile – plans include European Roaming in 31 countries
O2 – O2 Travel bolt-on costs £1.99 per day in EU, £3.99 in Turkey and £4.99 in other destinations – 120 mins/texts and data
Virgin Media – Extra charges depending on country plus extra data bundles
GiffGaff – Extra charges depending on country
BT Mobile – Extra charges depending on country
Of all the offerings, Three, Tesco Mobile and Vodafone offer the most seamless experience when it comes to taking your phone overseas. Voda’s 12-month SIM-only plans all include unlimited minutes, texts and picture messages in 40 EU destinations, while many plans come with 4GB data to use abroad.
Three’s “Feel at Home” is the mostly widely advertised and is still, arguably the best offer for travellers. On its Advance plans from September, customers can use their allowances in over 40 countries across the globe, not just in Europe. Those include popular holidaying countries like the US, Australia, Spain, France, Italy and many others.
Tesco Mobile deserves a mention, since its SIM-only plans include roaming in 31 European countries.
Best SIM-only plans: for tablets and dongles
If you have an unlocked Wi-Fi dongle, data stick or SIM tray-equipped tablet and want to find the cheapest, best value for money way to stay connected on the move, you’ll be pleased to know several carriers offer data only SIMs just for you. All the prices listed below are for 30-day contracts.
Virgin Media – 500MB/1GB/2GB/4GB/8GB plans for £5/£8/£11/£14/£21 per month
O2 – 500MB/1GB/3GB/15GB plans with 100 texts for £5/£10/£15/£20 per month
Three – 2GB/5GB/15GB/20GB plans for £10/£15/£20/£23 per month
Vodafone – 1GB/3GB/10GB plans for £10/£15/£20 per month
GiffGaff – 500MB/1GB plans for £5/£7.50 per month
BT Mobile – No data-only SIMs available
Tesco Mobile – No data-only SIMs available
EE – Nothing without buying a WiFi dongle or tablet
As far as competition goes, it’s GiffGaff, O2 and Virgin Media that offer the cheapest monthly options at just £5 per month. Those only offer 500MB of data, but that could be enough if you just want to check the odd email, when you’re in the rare spot that doesn’t have Wi-Fi.
Three perhaps offers the most variation since the carrier sells their data plans as 12-month or 30-day options. The former cost roughly £2-£3 less than the 30-day rolling contract options, and also come with a 1GB data tier which is just £7.50 per month. Three’s 2GB deal looks a safe bet, especially at just £10 per month (or £8 per month on a one year plan).
Perhaps be-musingly, EE don’t sell monthly rolling contracts for data-only SIMs online (unless they’ve been hidden out of sight). It sells tablets and personal hotspots on contract, but doesn’t sell the data plans with just a SIM. Similarly, BT Mobile and Tesco Mobile don’t offer data-only plans.
Nissan BladeGlider first drive: Madcap concept hints at all-electric sports car future
It’s almost 34-degrees Celsius and we’re standing at the edge of a rickety karting circuit that’s located around 50-miles outside the centre of Rio de Janeiro. No, this isn’t the Olympics, this is our real-world induction to the Nissan BladeGlider.
The BladeGlider is bizarre looking sports car, featuring a skinny track at the front and a wider track at the rear that gives it the appearance of a motorised arrow head.
There’s a burly looking policeman guarding the gates to the track and every now and then the sound of human flesh sizzling under the fierce sun is interrupted by the high-pitched whine of its electric motor and the squealing of tortured rubber. It pounds the tight circuit with two rather bemused and behelmeted individuals belted into the rear seats.
But this is one all-electric prototype that’s highly unlikely to ever grace a Nissan showroom. So “completely and utter pointless”, you may be thinking but, hey, the caipirinhas here are supposed to be awesome, right?
Nissan BladeGlider prototype preview: Electric excitement
But let’s be serious for a second. Nissan first unveiled its BladeGlider concept at the Tokyo Auto Show in 2013, with its jaw-dropping styling borrowing elements from the DeltaWing Le Mans racer and electric powertrain promising equally racy performance without the nasty tailpipe emissions and the associated running costs.
Nissan
“We wanted to prove that electric cars can be exciting,” explains Gareth Dunsmore, director of EV Nissan Europe, when asked why the company invested so much time and money into a prototype that probably won’t see the light of day. “But the only way to do that is actually build something, to let people experience it for themselves,” he adds.
A cynic would have interrupted at this point and suggested that Tesla has been doing such a thing for a few years now – but BladeGlider is very different. If you had to compare it to a conventional car it would be a Caterham rather than a comfortable BMW 5-Series rival.
Nissan BladeGlider prototype preview: Flicking a V to convention
The driver, who sits at the very front of the three flying-v formation seats, is cocooned in a fighter jet-esque cockpit. There are three screens, the middle-most monitor providing power output information and battery charge details, while the flanking two displays replace the wing mirrors with a live video feed from outside.
Nissan
All three occupants are strapped in with a race-spec four point harness, while the F1-style steering wheel features a plethora of buttons and dials that control everything from the strength of the regenerative braking to the amount of power delivered to the rear wheels.
A conventional sports car this isn’t, because on top of the space age interior there’s an all-electric powertrain that sees a 220kW lithium-ion battery and two 130kW electric motors (one at each rear wheel) pair up to deliver around 268hp.
The angular machine weighs just 1,300kg, meaning the ludicrously instantaneous 707Nm of torque is enough to propel it from 0-62mph in under 5-seconds.
Nissan BladeGlider prototype preview: Sounds, smells and sighs
It feels like a true performance machine from the rear seats, with the open-top cockpit allowing all of the sounds, smells and sights to leak into the cabin.
Nissan
The lack of screaming V8 engine also means that every tyre squeak can be heard, while the sound of the wind rushing past is both slightly eerie and massively exhilarating.
We can only imagine what it’s like to pilot the machine, but the skilled helmsman sat in front wrestles with the steering wheel every time we exit a corner and he occasionally tackles certain sections completely sideways.
Nissan claims that a race-honed torque vectoring system offers the driver plenty of options when it comes to grip levels. The electric motors can be tweaked to constantly monitor and deliver optimum power for tidy lines or flicked into Drift Mode if you feel like acting the hooligan.
And that’s a given considering Formula E experts Williams Advanced Engineering were drafted in to help with the development of BladeGlider – and the UK firm’s experience on the race circuit is instantly obvious.
Nissan BladeGlider prototype preview: Coming to nowhere near you, ever
Scintillating stuff, then, but Dunsmore and the rest of the Nissan technical staff claim it’s extremely unlikely this thing will ever go into production.
Nissan
And as for the whole “electric cars can be exciting” thing, that’s all well and good when your model line-up actually contains an enthralling EV but Nissan is currently peddling the Leaf and the eNV-200. Both of which lack a certain amount of fizz.
However, Nissan is currently mapping out a future that sees its internal combustion engines slowly replaced by electric and hybrid vehicles, so let’s just hope that one of those is a bonkers, three-seat sports car that looks a bit like a Dairylea Triangle with wheels.
Because the BladeGlider is bonkers and brilliant.
Asus ZenWatch 3 to launch on 31 August, going head-to-head with Samsung Gear S3
In the world of wearables, 31 August is going to be a busy day. First of all Samsung pinned a date on its next Gear launch and now Asus has joined the fray, tweeting that it will also be lining up a launch on 31 August, just a few days before IFA 2016 opens its doors.
Asus is expected to announce the ZenWatch 3, which appears to be making the shift from a squared face to a circular face, joining the majority of other wearable devices out there – and leaving the Apple Watch as about the only device that’s sitting in a squared body.
Confirming its plans, Asus shared the news of a new launch on Twitter, the emphasis falling on that word “time”.
The time for something incredible is now! #IFA16 #ASUS pic.twitter.com/D7GgqHJvUW
— ASUS (@ASUS) August 17, 2016
The Asus ZenWatch 3 has previously revealed itself, passing through the FCC, along with a selection of images that confirm the design. It looks to be carrying three buttons on the body, so offers a slightly chunkier design than the previous ZenWatch models.
We’ve been fans of Asus’ Android Wear devices so far. The affordability and interesting design has set them apart from rival devices, along with comfortable straps and nice features like a decent clasp to make it nice to wear.
As it stands at the moment, little else is known about any features that the Asus ZenWatch 3 might offer, but we’ll know everything on 31 August.
You can keep up with all the IFA 2016 news on our hub and we’ll be reporting live from the show in Berlin, Germany.
NASA’s asteroid-bound spacecraft will blast off in September
It’s official: OSIRIS-Rex is blasting off to meet a near-Earth asteroid named Bennu on September 8th, NASA has confirmed at a press briefing. The spacecraft will launch from Cape Canaveral and travel for two years before it reaches its destination. Once it’s on the object, it will spend another three years to take its temperature, 3D scan its surface, and look around for the best site to collect the 2-to-70-ounce sample it needs to take back home. That’s right — OSIRIS-Rex will be the first US spacecraft to grab a chunk from an asteroid as part of its round-trip journey. It follows in the footsteps of Japan’s Hayabusa, which successfully brought home a sample after seven years in space. NASA expects the spacecraft to be back by September 24th, 2023, assuming everything goes according to plan.
The agency has also revealed during the briefing that it plans to give four percent of the sample to Canada’s space agency, which is a project partner. Another 0.5 percent will be given to JAXA (Japan’s agency) as thanks for the Hayabusa sample it gave NASA. However, most of the material (75 percent) will be stored and kept safe for future techniques that could yield more clues on the beginning of life on Earth.
Source: NASA
Airbnb takes down its experimental Trips app for Android
Airbnb has pulled down an unreleased app it was testing from Google Play shortly after people caught wind of its existence and what it can do. The experimental application represents the future of the company, you see, one that goes beyond vacation home rentals. While the test wasn’t open to the public, a Bloomberg report revealed that travelers will be able to use the app called Airbnb Trips to book restaurant reservations and even city tours. If it can truly offer everything you’ll need when you go on a trip, then it has the potential to become an essential companion for jetsetters and frequent travelers.
TechCrunch asked the company about the app, but company spokesperson Nick Papas only said: “We’re continually experimenting with new things and we don’t have anything to share right now, but we have a few exciting things in the works.”
Airbnb has been planning to offer services other than rentals for quite a while now, so Trips didn’t exactly come out of left field. While you can’t get a glimpse of the app on Google Play anymore, you might only have to wait a few more months to be able to use is. Bloomberg believes that Airbnb will officially launch an Android and an iOS version during its annual conference in November. That’s the same conference where the company is expected to reveal a new program that gives homeowners an opportunity to make some extra cash by offering guided tours to their guests.
Source: TechCrunch
Best Buy Launches 50th Anniversary Sale With Discounts on MacBook Pro, iPhone
Best Buy is celebrating its 50th anniversary on Monday, August 22 and in honor of the occasion, the retailer is offering 50 deals for 50 hours, dropping the prices on a wide range of products from television sets to computers.
Of interest to those potentially looking to purchase an Apple device, Best Buy is dropping the price of some MacBook Pro models by $150, and students can save an additional $150 for a total discount of $300 through Best Buy’s Student Deals program.
Best Buy is also offering the iPhone 6s for $1 or the iPhone 6s Plus for $99.99 with the purchase of a two-year contract on Sprint or Verizon Wireless. For those who want to buy an iPhone 6s or 6s Plus using AT&T Next, Best Buy is offering a $200 gift card with purchase.
Other discounts include $180 off Beats Studio Wireless Headphones and tons more. A full list of deals is available from the Best Buy website.
Best Buy’s sale kicks off at 10:00 p.m. Central Time on Thursday and lasts through 11:59 p.m. Central Time on Saturday.
To see the best prices on a wide range of Apple products, make sure to check out our deals roundup, which has tables featuring discounts from a number of different retailers.
Related Roundup: Apple Deals
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Instagram Apes Snapchat Again With New ‘Events’ Channel
Instagram has introduced a new “Events” channel in the Explore section of its app that highlights user photos and video clips captured during specific events from around the world.
Currently only available in the U.S., the new channel implements an algorithm to curate media from events like sports games and concerts, based on a user’s preferences and habits, according to a post on the company’s site.
Snapchat users may be experiencing a case of déjà vu all over again at this point, given that the new Instagram feature is extremely similar to the rival app’s Discover channel “Live Stories”, where reels of photos and videos are shared publicly by users at a particular event.
The addition of the new feature by Instagram certainly follows a trend. Earlier this month, the Facebook-owned photo and video sharing platform announced “Instagram Stories”, which functions identically to Snapchat’s Stories in that it lets users post customized images and videos on their profile, where they live for 24 hours before disappearing completely.
Surprisingly, Instagram has been upfront about its recent tendency to imitate Snapchat features. While demoing its new Stories feature for TechCrunch, Instagram CEO Kevin Systro admitted that Snapchat “deserve all the credit”.
Tag: Instagram
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McDonald’s pulls plug on Happy Meal activity trackers
McDonald’s Happy Meals might be beloved for their included toys, but the food inside is just as unhealthy as most of the menu at the Golden Arches. As the Rio Olympics approached, the franchise hoped to reverse its kids combo’s poor nutritional reputation by including an activity tracker in place of a normal toy. Unfortunately, reports of possible skin irritations prompted the chain to end the promotion early.
Instead of handing out the pedometers until the international games ceased their four-week run, McDonald’s will hand out a substitute toy while they investigate the potential dermal abrasions. The franchise gave no further details, according to The Associated Press, leaving it uncertain whether they will again attempt to urge athleticism using Happy Meal giveaways.
Source: The Associated Press
Wikiverse turns Wikipedia into a visual universe of articles
I’ve spent (too) many lazy evenings hopping from one Wikipedia entry to the next, reading things that could be useful for trivia night. It’s fun enough, but this website that visualizes Wiki as a universe could make the experience even better for a lot of people. You can zoom around to visit clusters of stars representing interconnected topics — clicking on one will load the article itself right within the interface. Since each star is visually connected to related entries with colored loopy lines, you can hop around like you would on the actual Wikipedia website.
Wikiverse is the upgraded version of an old Chrome experiment we covered back in 2014 called WikiGalaxy. It’s designed by French computer scientist Owen Cornec who wanted to find a way to display entries in “a more engaging way.” From what I can see, the new version is a lot more colorful compared to the older one. Cornec originally wanted to color code stars according to their super-categories, but he told us he wasn’t able to do so because there are too many super-categories to count. Instead, he decided to use colors to differentiate clusters from each other and to indicate whether an entry is within that cluster or in another one. Wikiverse also feels faster than its predecessor, even on browsers other than Chrome, so you’ll have zero issues pretending to be a spacecraft exploring a universe of knowledge.
Source: Wikiverse
AIVAnet 