Google is serious about scanning books. Throughout the objections raised over the years by authors and publishers and the more recent delays in its settlement with the Authors Guild, Google has been scanning millions of books all along trying to digitize as many as it possibly can. It is so serious about capturing and indexing the knowledge stored in books that it has a patent, which was issued on March 24, 2009, on how to scan books quicker than was previously possible.

The basic technique it uses involves two infrared cameras which determine how flat or curved each page to be scanned is and then adjusting the optical character recognition software it uses to read the text accordingly. In other words, the infrared cameras help figure out a book’s three-dimensional shape and then back out any resulting distortions. This results in much quicker book scanning since each page doesn’t need to be flattened by glass plates and spines don’t need to be broken.

There are other book scanning projects besides the Google Book Project. The Internet Archive, for instance, runs 18 scanning centers around the world, which all together digitize only 1,000 books a day. I am not sure what kind fo technology the Internet Archive uses, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Google’s scanning operation is much quicker. Those are billions of pages of high-quality information just waiting to be indexed and searched. For Google, the quicker it can get those books scanned, the quicker it can start to serve ads against those searches. Now, I wonder how it flips the pages.

(Hat tip to Buzznewsroom).

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Just as Palm Pre hype has reached a deafening roar, out comes news of a second new Palm mobile and wireless device, code-named Pixie, as well as analyst feedback that Palm is facing hardware and software issues with the Pre and that Sprint doesn’t inspire users to switch carriers.
– Palm
is reportedly working on a follow-up to its soon-to-be released Pre smartphone
called the quot;Pixie, quot; which some suggest is a smaller version of the
new handset that could further challenge the Apple iPhone.
The Washington Post is one of
several publications that are reporting that …

Thanks to the new Invision by LG you don t need to stay home to watch your favorite sports programming or movie. You can watch them on the road in your office or at the gym via your mobile phone. Keep reading while we clarify how and take a close look at the phone….

Adobe Acrobat 9 – Download FREE Trial Unify Documents, Images, Video and More. Make the Richest, Most Engaging PDF ePortfolios.

In this part of the series we discuss how the sub menus including drop-down menus are removed from the screen. We shall also see how the series will progress. This is the ninth part of a ten-part series covering the creation of a common browser menu….

The new Intel® Xeon® Processor 5500 Series Smart. It’s The New Speed. Server processors that automatically adapt to your workload.

Hey, folks. Itching to get out of the office and network with your peers? Check out the roundup below of exciting upcoming events, a weekly feature here on ReadWriteWeb.

Know of an event taking place that should appear here? Let us know in the comments below or contact us.

Sponsor

19 – 20 May 2009: New York City

Web 3.0 Conference

In turbulent economic times, it is critically vital to know what opportunities exist to make our businesses run better. The emergence of a new era of technologies, collectively known as Web 3.0, provides this kind of strategically significant opportunity.

The core thought behind web 3.0 is to extract much more meaningful, actionable insight from information. At the conference, we will explore how companies are using these technologies today, and should be using them tomorrow, for significant bottom line impact in areas like marketing, corporate information management, customer service, and personal productivity.

ReadWriteWeb readers save 15% with the discount code XRWW.

8 June 2009: London

Corporate Social Networking Forum

Taking place at the Riba in London, England, the Corporate Social Networking Forum lets you learn from global brands that have successfully implemented a social networking framework. Find out what impact this has had on day-to-day business; know what products and tools are available to incorporate Web 2.0 functionality in your business; and listen to analysts, top commentators, and experts on how social media can improve employee satisfaction and output.

• Evening networking reception
• Discount for early booking (expires May 8th)

14 – 18 June 2009: San Jose

2009 Semantic Technology Conference

Business and government organizations have been pioneering semantics in knowledge-based applications. Increasingly they are now combining semantic web technologies to make even more powerful applications for data integration, SOA, collaboration, and publishing.

What are the huge players doing in semantic search? Which startups are challenging them? How does semantic technology change search results? What are the key advantages and new opportunities that semantics provide in both the consumer and business search markets?

Semantic Applications and Use Cases will be presented by product developers and technical experts with semantic solutions in a rich variety of fields including: advertising, biomedical, business process management, chemistry, cloud computing, digital asset management, disaster preparedness, ecommerce, and more.

22 – 25 June 2009: Boston

Enterprise 2.0 Conference

The Enterprise 2.0 Conference is “the one place where business and IT professionals looking to leverage 2.0 technologies and culture can learn from real enterprise case-studies, get a glimpse of the future from thought leaders, demo the leading solutions and benefit from each other’s experiences to help their organizations survive – even thrive – in today’s marketplace.”

22 – 23 September 2009: Singapore

Social Networking World Forum — Asia

This two-day conference hosted by the Social Networking World Forum – Asia features key speakers from social networking publishers, advertising agencies, industry analysts, software developers and equipment manufacturers, pay-TV and network service providers, mobile operators, and more.

• Joint exhibition combining social networking and mobile social networking formats
• Evening networking reception
• Discount for early booking (expires August 21st)
• Free pass for exhibition only

9 – 10 November 2009: Santa Clara, California

Social Networking World Forum — California

This event taking place at the Santa Clara Convention Center really consists of three conferences: two days dedicated to social networking, one day dedicated to enterprise social media, and one day dedicated to social TV. Key speakers include social networking publishers, advertising agencies, industry analysts, software developers and equipment manufacturers, pay-TV and network service providers, mobile operators, and more.

• Joint exhibition combining social networking and enterprise social media formats
• Pre-show online meeting planner for delegates
• Discount for early booking (expires September 25th)
• Free pass for exhibition only

15 – 16 March 2010: London

2nd Annual Social Networking World Forum — London

The 2nd Annual Social Networking World Forum takes place at the Olympia Conference Centre in London. The two-day event features four dedicated conference streams:

1. Social Networking World Forum
2. Enterprise social media
3. Social TV World Forum
4. Mobile Social Networking Forum

The event features key speakers from global brands, organizations, social networking publishers and developers, pioneering social media leaders, top agencies, content producers, and more.

• Full workshop program within exhibition area
• Evening networking reception
• Pre-show online meeting planner for delegates
• Free pass for exhibition only

Discuss

Microsoft today opened up its Windows Marketplace for Mobile to developers. The go, which brings Windows mobile up to date with Apple’s App Store and the Android Market, provides developers yet another way to generate revenue from their applications.

According to Microsoft, the process is simple. You’ll need a Live ID and $99 to sign up; to get paid, you’ll need to provide bank account and tax identification details.

Sponsor

The Marketplace is designed for Windows phones running Windows Mobile 6.5, which are expected to go on sale sometime in September 2009, and as pointed out by Microsoft last month, developers will receive 70 percent of the revenue from the sales of each application. Developers will also have the ability to set the pricing for their apps.

Vital to note, but, is the annual registration fee of $99 only allows you to place forward up to five submissions per registered year; additional submissions will cost $99. If you’re a student developer, the registration fee will be waived if you enroll in Microsoft’s DreamSpark program.

Although Windows Mobile only has a 5.98 per cent market share, Microsoft claims that more than 20 million smartphones were sold in 2008 that had its software on board. Given the Marketplace will be placed on every Windows phone, this is not an insignificant number, and one that may provide developers with the opportunity to earn a considerable amount of money.

More information can be found here.

Discuss

Apple took top prize in JD Power and Associates customer satisfaction survey in the smartphone category, while LG ranked first among dumbphones. But one nagging complaint kept the iPhone’s scores closer to the competition.

Those surveyed gave the iPhone top marks in all the categories save one: Battery life, where it scored a below-average two out of five. The survey measures ease of operation (30% of final score), physical design (30%), features (20%), and battery life (20%). Apple’s total score was a 791, above the industry average of 751, with RIM and HTC at 739 and 744, respectively.

As far as dumbphones, LG scored a high 772, with Samsung nipping at its heels with 759. Motorola tanked, which we all should have expected, with a far below average 659.

We should note, of course, that this survey does not include satisfaction with the wireless service provider at all, which we suspect would have brought the iPhone’s scores down to Earth. But at the moment, the iPhone seems to be top dog. [JD Power via CNET]

The Sap Cap isn’t just a logo-less baseball cap. It’s also a blackjack, one of those weighted leather weapons private eyes used to get socked with all the time back in the 1940s.

The bill is meant to be held like a handle, and the crown of the cap is heavily weighted, in case you want to bust some skulls but don’t have any pocket space for a normal blackjack. It’s not really clear what’s really providing the weight; apparently it’s a “unique material that is 110% the density of lead and will not rust,” which is thoughtful, because a rusty baseball cap is a dead giveaway that something weird is going on. [Product Page via Fashionably Geek]