Remember the old days, when you needed a scanner and pricey OCR software if you wanted to convert a page of text into editable text?

The old days are gone, man! Free OCR is a free Web-based OCR service that turns any uploaded image file into a text file you can load into Word or your document editor of choice.

LexJongg was, according to the author's Web site, written in nine hours. This may be a pretty impressive feat of coding, but its result is less remarkable. The free LexJongg is a fully functional, yet decidedly sub-par, MahJongg variant.

Command & Conquer 4 will be Windows-exclusive, says EA, in an announcement guaranteed to annoy no one. Guaranteed, because C&C4 won't be a first-person shooter. It's not about hopping between peripatetic floating platforms. You won't kick a football or swing a golf club. It's nothing to do with racing stock cars or sneaking around with a pair of sexed up fiber-optic night vision goggles. And motion control's a complete non-starter. It's not in the cards, the pack of cigarettes half-open lying nearby, or the cocktail it's time to knock back in celebration of this happy revelation.

Microsoft wants to be Google. Google wants to be Microsoft.

Well, sort of.

My Palm Pre dialed 911 without my knowing it. "How did you find out," you ask? The dispatcher called me back to make sure I was all right. You don't see that in many product reviews, do you?

Well, forget about being first--I'm perfectly happy to write the last few words on the iPhone 3GS and the Palm Pre. I spent two weeks with each, using them as a normal human would--not as a reviewer sprinting to get first-posting bragging rights would. Which smartphone is really better (for me, anyway)? I'll tell you. But first, let me explain where I'm coming from.

Moon to Google. Standby for liftoff of Google Earth 3D moon mapping. Well, maybe.

The gang at Google is preparing to embark on some new type of mission, and speculation is running rampant that it's going to be a groundbreaking three-dimensional moon-mapping utility. The G-team is keeping quiet for now, but it's not hard to track the signals and see why the moon's on everyone's mind.

Do you trust Google? If you use its multitude of online services on a daily basis you might, but is that assumption wise? For some, Google is a wonderful company with a broad selection of useful online tools that make life easier, but for others Google is a looming, unregulated monster just waiting for the moment to drop the ‘don't' from the company's unofficial motto, "Don't be evil."

Curiosity piqued about Rocksteady Studio's upcoming Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Windows action-adventure Batman: Arkham Asylum? Some days mine is, others not so much. I'm conflicted. Celebrity do-gooders always seem to come out done-bad in video game adaptations. It's Murphy's red-headed step-law.

The new 32- ($1,100), 40- ($1,700), 46- ($2,200) and 52-inch ($2,800) LE700-series Aquos LED TVs use Sharp's UltraBrilliant LED backlighting technology, which features a full array of evenly spaced LEDs behind a diffusing panel. The 120-Hz TVs are rated for 4ms pixel-response rates, and have motion-smoothing dejudder technology. The TVs also have an immpressively wide angle of view, 176-degrees.

Apple may enjoy smugly tooting its own horn, but it is particularly puffed-up today while celebrating a year of the iPhone and iPod Touch App Store.

"Light a candle and cue the music," Apple says on a special iTunes page for the occasion. "Okay, forgive us for sounding like doting parents, but we're just so proud -- having watched the App Store grow from promising newcomer to full-fledged revolutionary."

As usual on the upcoming Patch Tuesday next week, Microsoft will be issuing a series of critical patches to fix security vulnerabilities for its popular Windows computer operating system.

But this time, the company is getting a bit more attention than it's used to for its patch release schedule.

Google Images, formerly Google Image Search, has added new functionality that lets you find photos licensed for third-party use free of charge, and has made explicit image filtering much easier.

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