Issuu delivers your favorite magazines direct to an Android device

In light of all the ereader news that’s been floating through the Android atmosphere in recent weeks, I thought I’d take the time to highligh Issuu Mobile, a new ereader app that will “revolutionze the way people read on phones” according to its creators. Lofty words of priase, but does the app live up to those words? No, not yet, but I will say that this app is very well put together and a cool way to read magazines.

Issu features an “EasyRead” technology that enhances the reading experience on mobile phones without sacrificing the design elements that set magazines apart. The app intuitively formats text to make articles friendlier to the mobile platform. Publishers upload a .pdf copy of their content to the Issu website, which automatically creates the EasyRead version of the magazine. Readers can then read articles from their favorite mags and maintain the basic integrity of the design created for print.

Android is the first platform to get Issuu, and a BETA version of the application is available in the Market. Features include

• The ability to read 1 million magazines, newspapers, and catalogs
• Subscribe to publishers to be notified of new issues
• Sync with a personal Issuu.com library
• Social features to track what friends comment on, publish, and bookmark

But why tell you when I can just show you?

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Turn your Android phone into an image-to-text scanner with SnapIt

Everyone has at some point read an interesting tidbit in a magazine and then purchased the mag, ripped a page out, scribbled on a napkin, or snapped a photo with a cellphone. With Android app SnapIt, you can avoid spending money or destroying paper and just let your phone be your own personal scanner.

SnapIt is a $1.99 app that can take photos of paragraphs in books, newspapers, and magazines, then convert the image to editable text. Give the limitations of Android cameras, SnapIt can scan only certain passages at a time, but it can prove fairly accurate and useful under the right conditions. Once an image is scanned, users have the option to crop and focus on a certain section, convert the words to text, and then send the text as an SMS message or email. It can even lead to translation online.

Below is a video showing an example of SnapIt in-use and a step-by-step collection of screenshots to show the process.

When SnapIt is launched, the image may be out of focus. Select the “+” icon and the image will autofocus.

Once the camera focuses and a photo is taken, press the “a” icon to convert to text or select the portrait icon to crop and focus on a certain portion of the image, as seen here:

The red square can be relocated to highlight only the desired text.

Your image is now text! Press the stamp icon to share it or press the “Hello” icon to launch a link to translation.

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How to remotely lock, wipe, and locate Android phones with WaveSecure

Those HTC “You” commercials remind me that the first thing I do when leaving the house is look for my phone. Before I even grab the car keys or wallet required for me to go anywhere, I instinctively place more importance on my phone. So you can imagine how me or any other Phone First person would respond if I lost my phone. How would I find the phone, backup my data, or prevent others from misusing my it?

A winner of the Android Developers Challenge 2, WaveSecure answers all of those questions. WaveSecure is an app and web service that allows Android users to maintain a link to their phone in the event that it is lost or stolen. By logging on to the WaveSecure website, users can lock the phone to prevent use, track it’s location within a general area, backup SMS/contacts/call logs/media, wipe phone data, and restore data if the phone is found. Here’s a video showcasing how easy it set-up and use WaveSecure.

If WaveSecure doesn’t meet your needs, consider trying the very similar Mobile Defense. We selected Mobile Defense as one of the Top 50 Android Apps.

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