Google today rolled out its Google Translate handwriting feature for the Web, allowing users to draw the phrases or words they need translated when a keyboard can’t do the trick.
Handwriting has been an option on the Google Translate Android app since Jan. 2012, but it is now available via the Google Translate website on the browser.
via Handwriting Feature Added to Google Translate Homepage | News & Opinion | PCMag.com.
Google To Launch Play Textbooks In August, Partners With 5 Major Publishing Houses | TechCrunch
The company has partnered with five major textbook publishers to launch this service. These partners are Pearson, Wiley, Macmillian Higher Education, McGraw-Hill and Cengage Learning. Google says it will have a “comprehensive selection” of textbooks from these publishers in the store that will cover subjects like law, math and accounting, but it did not announce exact numbers.
A new service scrapes your social network for books worth your time.
via BookVibe spies on social media to recommend reads | Crave – CNET.
Far from being a marketer’s worst nightmare, smaller, more focused networks are becoming places where people actually listen.
via The Rise Of The Niche Social Network ⚙ Co.Labs ⚙ code + community.
Five [Six] Free Online Tools to Learn Another Language | Gizmodo
See also: LaMP Teaches You a Foreign Language via Movie and YouTube Subtitles | LifeHacker. LaMP can be installed on Windows computers or accessed online.
Among other things, Google Glass is bringing to light how wearable computers and the new wave of web-connected objects collectively known as the Internet of Things are introducing new security vulnerabilities to the puzzle of mobile computing.
See the full article: Wearable Computers Create New Security Vulnerabilities | Gadget Lab | Wired.com.
The closure of Google Reader has put a spotlight on RSS and apps that people use to help make their way around the long tail of internet content. Lumi is tapping into a similar concept, but taking a very different approach.
RSS requires users to proactively select sites and information they wanted to track online — and some might argue that this proactive, sometimes technical element is what has prevented RSS readers from really going mainstream. Lumi, meanwhile, has been created with inactivity in mind. People can do nothing and still get relevant, current content delivered regardless, using algorithms that track where you travel online to provide links to what else you might like to see.
As long as you have downloaded the extension, which monitors whatever else do you on your computer, “you don’t have to do anything extra,” Stiksel told me in an interview. “You don’t click buttons or subscribe to new feeds. You can go away for two weeks and it’s even more fresh when you return. Because the system knows more about you.”
This is what lumi looks like. The sidebar menu will disappear once you scroll off of it. Lumi reminds me of Stumble Upon, except at the content-specific level, rather than the website-specific level. Unfortunately, lumi is not recognizing my version of Safari at this time though it supposedly does recognize Chrome, Firefox and Safari, so the extension could not be installed. A cool and colourful new content discovery web service!
However you choose to approach content in your web work, the lowly lorem ipsum text has certainly inspired a myriad of similar versions. In this post, we cover the most unique and humorous lorem ipsum text generators available, with a preview of each included.
via 56 Unique Lorem Ipsum Generators | Mashable.
Fun just to see all the unique options. My favourites:
How about using auto-generated text that will actually make people love your project even more? With Cupcake Ipsum, you can create a sweet, sugar-coated paragraph of text:
“Cupcake ipsum dolor sit. Amet I love liquorice jujubes pudding croissant I love pudding. Apple pie macaroon toffee jujubes pie tart cookie applicake caramels. Halvah macaroon I love lollipop. Wypas I love pudding brownie cheesecake tart jelly-o. Bear claw cookie chocolate bar jujubes toffee.”
17. Yorkshire Ipsum and Sagan Ipsum.
This is the perfect lorem ipsum generator for Yorkshire folks, and you can even fork and contribute to it on GitHub:
“Ee by gum. Nobbut a lad. Tha daft apeth. Nobbut a lad nobbut a lad mardy bum any rooad by ‘eck. Tell thi summat for nowt soft southern pansy. Where’s tha bin ah’ll gi’ thi summat to rooer abaht tell thi summat for nowt aye. Soft lad t’foot o’ our stairs. Big girl’s blouse will ‘e ‘eckerslike nah then is that thine ne’ermind wacken thi sen up.”
Inspired by the late astronomer Carl Sagan, Sagan Ipsum is a space and cosmos-related dummy text generator:
“Apollonius of Perga extraplanetary. Tingling of the spine. Orion’s sword, rich in heavy atoms cosmic ocean astonishment encyclopaedia galactica tesseract two ghostly white figures in coveralls and helmets are soflty dancing, rich in heavy atoms the only home we’ve ever known how far away.”
14 Pinterest Doppelgängers for Visual Inspiration | Mashable
The article reviews:
If you want to trim down your social networking, or if you would rather not friend your Aunt Josephine or your boss on Twitter and Facebook, consider switching to a more private network.
via 10 Private Social Networks for Discreet Interaction | Mashable.
The private social networks recommended include:
infophile 