Intel AppUp Center is an App Store for Netbooks

If you own a Netbook with an Intel Atom processor, you might be looking for an easy way to find apps that are optimized for it. Today we look at Intel AppUp Center which allows you to quickly find and install Netbook apps.

Note: The applications are meant to be used with Netbooks that have an Intel Atom processor running XP or Windows 7. It’s still in Beta, so expect some quirks and perhaps not as many apps as you’d expect.

Intel AppUp Center

Installation is pretty straight-forward. One thing to point out is during the install process you need to select your location to get apps for your region of the world.

Launch AppUp and you can begin using the intuitive dashboard to quickly find apps from various categories.

It acts like other app stores where you can arrange the views and get previews of the available apps. It will indicate if they’re free or if you need to purchase them.

There are a lot of different categories…although there may not be a lot in each one as it’s still a work in progress.

Click on an app you find interesting to get more information about it such as screenshots, description, and reviews.

When you want to get an app you’ll need to log into your account or create one before downloading it.

The app will automatically install with no further action on your part.

Applications

Now you can begin using the programs you downloaded…like this cool one called fizy desktop which lets you easily find and play music from your desktop.

There are plenty of games available for you to play while you’re “taking notes” at the company meetings as well.

Here is an interesting one from Newsy that lets you watch videos of the latest news headlines…there are a bunch of apps so explore around and have fun!

Under My Apps you can see a list of all the ones you currently have.

It allows you to keep track of the apps you’re downloading or already have, and will show if updates are available for them.

Under the Recently Downloaded section you can launch apps or uninstall them.

Conclusion

Overall we found it to be a lot of fun for discovering new apps on our HP Mini. There are many to choose from so go ahead and try out any that interest you…the uninstall process only takes a couple of mouse clicks.

One thing we noticed however, is AppUp Center didn’t run as fast as we’d like. Of course it’s still a work in progress and hopefully that will be cleared up in the future. We tried out several different apps and after installed, they ran smooth with no issues…but your mileage may vary depending on the application.

If you’re a developer, they have a program section with instructions and helpful forums so you can start creating cool apps for Netbooks.

Download Intel AppUp Center (beta)

Intel Atom Developer Program (beta)

OCROnline - Extract Text From Scanned Documents

OCROnline is an advanced web app (works on optical character recognition technology) that can extract the text from scanned paper documents and digital photographs.

This free-for-use tool detects more than 153 languages automatically. It also recognizes fonts of the text.

Go to OCRonline. Select the language of text and the output format. Click on Browse button to browse the image file containing text. Now click the “Upload” button. Your file will get uploaded on the server (It will remain on server for 24 hours after conversion).

Note:

• Maximum file size upload limit is 10MB and it supports PNG and JPG formats.
• This service can’t support languages of the Far-East Asia area(Korea, China and Japan).

Geotagging a photo with Google Earth

The easiest way to match your photos to a specific location is to use Google Maps in Picasa. However, you can also use the original geotag feature in Picasa. which launched Google Earth to accomplish the same thing. Geotagging your photo does the following:

• Embeds location information within your photo.

• Displays your photo on a satellite map rendered by Google Earth.

You need to have Google Earth installed on your computer to use this feature. Download Google Earth at http://earth.google.com/

To geotag a photo, follow these steps.

1. Select the photos in Picasa.

2. Click the Geotag button in the Photo Tray. Google Earth opens up and a small Picasa window appears in the lower-right corner.

3. Navigate and zoom to the location in Google Earth that corresponds with where your picture was taken, and place the yellow cross­hairs on your chosen spot.

4. Click the Geotag button to place the selected photo. You can also click the Geotag All button to tag all of the selected pictures with the same location information.

5. When all of your pictures are geotagged. click the Done button to finish the placement.

6. When you exit Google Earth, click the Yes button to save the geotagged locations in your "My Places' folder. You'll then be able to access the photos in 'My Places' any time you open up Google Earth.

Picasa will write the longitude and latitude to the photo's EXIF GPS metadata. You can view this data (GPS Latitude and Longitude) by right-clicking (Windows) a geotagged image in Picasa and selecting Properties. Geotagged photos are marked in Picasa by a small cross-hair icon on their thumbnails.