7 posts and columns on scanning

Use Your AmEx, Scan a Bar Code, Get an iPod?

in Commerce on December 13, 2011 at 6:00 am PT

American Express Black Card holders might not strike some as the bargain-hunting kind, but AmEx is getting on board with mobile bar code scanning to offer more loyalty rewards to all cardholders.
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Apps for Androids

in Mossberg’s Mailbox on May 11, 2011 at 6:00 pm PT

Walt answers a reader’s question on Apple-compatible apps for Android tablets.

EBay Now Equipped With Frickin’ RedLasers

in Mobile on June 23, 2010 at 2:30 pm PT

EBay CEO John Donahoe says that a few years from now we’ll be making more purchases with our cellphones than from our wallets. And the company’s sales do seem to bear that out. At our D8 conference, Donahoe said eBay’s iPhone app was responsible for $600 million in sales last year. So the company’s acquisition today of RedLaser makes good sense.

Here’s Hoping Google “Speech-to-Speech” Translation Not as Hilariously Inaccurate as Google Voice Translation

in News on February 8, 2010 at 7:43 am PT

Google has built up quite a business scanning the written word for contextual advertising opportunities. Now it hopes to do the same for the spoken word as well. The company is reportedly developing a real-time translation technology for our phones.

DOJ on Google Book Settlement: Get Me Another Rewrite

in News on February 5, 2010 at 5:05 am PT

The Department of Justice still isn’t sold on the Google Books settlement agreement. In a brief filed late Thursday, the DOJ said that significant legal problems remain despite the considerable changes Google, publishers and authors have made to it.
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Nothing's Ever Good Enough for You Uppity Harvard Folk, Is It?

in News on November 3, 2008 at 8:37 am PT

Harvard University, which eagerly signed onto Google’s controversial book scanning project in 2005, isn’t so keen on the project now that the company’s agreed to settle the lawsuits questioning its legality. Troubled by uncertainties in the settlement, Harvard will not participate in Google’s in-copyright book scanning effort–even if Google’s recent $125 million settlement with the Authors Guild and an alliance of five major publishers is approved.

Nothing’s Ever Good Enough for You Uppity Harvard Folk, Is It?

in News on November 3, 2008 at 8:37 am PT

Harvard University, which eagerly signed onto Google’s controversial book scanning project in 2005, isn’t so keen on the project now that the company’s agreed to settle the lawsuits questioning its legality. Troubled by uncertainties in the settlement, Harvard will not participate in Google’s in-copyright book scanning effort–even if Google’s recent $125 million settlement with the Authors Guild and an alliance of five major publishers is approved.