Google’s new document scanner app has some cool tricks up its sleeve

Posted on by Nadeem Sarwar

Google’s Area 120 incubator recently came up with a solution called ThreadIt that allows users to record and share videos as links on mobile and desktop. Now, the company’s experimental products division has released (via AndroidPolice) another app called Stack, which describes itself as a PDF scanner and document scanner built into a single app. 

Did I tell you that it is free, and without ads?

As you might have guessed by now, it allows users to scan documents such as bills and receipts and quickly turns them into PDF files. Additionally, it is also able to import images from your camera roll and turn them into documents. However, the Stack app does more than just scan your documents.

The best part about the Stack app is that it lets you search through your scanned documents, thanks to optical character recognition (OCR) technology. And another huge convenience is that the app is fully ad-free, and it does not require you to pay for it upfront either. 

google stack

As per the Stack app’s description on the Google Play Store, it can automatically name your files and accordingly organizes your important documents into categories such as vehicles, banking, bills, receipts, ID, and home to name a few. Additionally, it can automatically identify important details such as the total amount and transaction date on a bill, and makes it easy for users to find them. 

It names and sorts your scanned documents into relevant categories.

In case you’re worried about the safety of your important documents, you can protect those files in the Stack app behind a layer of biometric security such as fingerprint or face unlock. And to make sure that your data is safe in case something happens to your phone, you can back it all up to your Google Drive. 

The Stack app is currently listed for download on the Google Play Store and looks like a great app for organizing and keeping track of your important documents. And for folks like me who often switch phones, the automatic Google Drive feature is a godsend convenience. 

The post Google’s new document scanner app has some cool tricks up its sleeve appeared first on Pocketnow.

Just another picture of the Dell Stack with its desktop dock

Posted on by Jules Wang

The Dell Stack was revealed by Evan Blass to be a Continuum-facilitated hub-distributed Windows 10 computing solution that may or may not ever be. Just because we’re learning about the mini-tablet product and seeing multiple pictures now doesn’t mean we’ve been put on the trail to a soon-to-be-released product.

But just because it’s been in the news, we decided to feature one extra picture from Blass of the Dell Stack in one of its designs being lodged into one design for a desktop dock.

Are your hopes and dreams alive?

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Dell Stack is/was the Intel x86-powered Windows 10 “phone”

Posted on by Jules Wang

The pictures of a thin phone running some version of Windows 10 on an Intel x86 processor as provided by Evan Blass now have a backstory, but as provided by Evan Blass.

Blass reported on VentureBeat that the device, non-cellular as it turned out to be in uncovered documents, may have just been the integral piece to an ecosystem of Windows 10 desktop and mobile devices envisioned from Dell. Thanks to Continuum and Universal Windows Platform apps, users would be able to move all of their computing tasks between a core phablet-sized device, other tablet form factors (such as the one pictured above next to the core device), a laptop and a desktop. The project was called Stack.

Documents showed that the tablet was originally envisioned as a 6.4-inch tablet with a full HD screen that could be equipped with an Intel Core processing unit built on the Kaby Lake architecture. Mind you, it wouldn’t be a full-blast U-series processor, but a more conservative dual-core Y-series processor (then using the Core m branding). Still, the design of x86 would give the tablet more power than an ARM chip (such as Qualcomm’s Snapdragons) to push more apps with Continuum. Docking the tablet to a desktop unit would allow Stack to harness more power — 12 watts instead of 3.5 watts.

surface-phone-evleaks

The renders we saw seemed a little too optimistic on getting this device as thin and mobile as possible — the goal was apparently to keep the tablet under 9mm in thickness. That was until blueprints were revised to reflect Dell’s design language and the size of phablet grew to 7 inches in diameter. Complicating the space were other specs like either 4GB or 8GB of RAM and solid state disks with 128GB or 256GB of room, plus a microSD card slot to boot. A five-megapixel selfie camera would double as an iris scanner. All of that would take up a lot of room and leave less of it for heat dissipation.

Stack was conceptualized in the middle of 2014. The company bet on a commercial launch by spring of 2017. There was even a cell-enabled 6-inch planned as a second-generation device. But at this point, it’s unclear if the project is still alive or dead and for what reason.

While Intel did cancel its recent mobile chipset efforts, it is still working on propagating Kaby Lake while also selling more fitting Apollo Lake chips. Did HP’s Elite x3 chill Dell’s plans by providing a satisfying Continuum experience with the help of an ARM chip? With Microsoft interested in keeping Windows 10 on ARM and cellular connectivity, perhaps the Stack would be going too far off the grain to garner it full-throat support?

There are plenty of questions, but only so much storyline. What is clear is that there is consumer interest for hub-distributed computing. It will be realized by a supplier at some point — Neptune wants to do it for Android — and if Dell doesn’t do it first for Windows, perhaps another OEM or even Microsoft will.

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