As if it weren't already a breeze to spend money on Amazon, the retail giant's updated Amazon for iPhone app just made it even easier to instantly shell out for wares.

The latest version of Amazon Mobile, 1.2.8, contains a barcode scanner in its search screen. As with barcode scanners in other mobile apps, Amazon Mobile uses your iPhone's camera to take in a product's zebra-striped barcode. Amazon's servers then find a match, and after you select the item, you can sign in to your account to purchase the product on the spot.

As on the regular Amazon Web site, you've got gift options and a choice of multiple shipping addresses. Just like before, you can also add the product to your wish list or cart for later purchasing.

Although the app won't clear your latest search until you enter a new one, we would like the option of reviewing previously scanned items for later reference, especially if we find ourselves without the product later on.

Amazon's iPhone app isn't the first to match barcodes to items in a database, of course, and shopping comparison apps have existed for a couple of years. However, Amazon's addition will be an effective way to convert barcode scanning into concrete sales with the touch of a finger. As one colleague commented, "Amazon just made the world its showroom."

It's a sure bet that the online superstore hopes this iPhone app will help prop up its flagging second-quarter earnings, which failed to meet Wall Street's expectations.

Amazon Mobile is free. Barcode scanning will work on iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS devices running iOS 4.

Originally posted at iPhone Atlas

In terms of music apps, Napster lagged behind the competition until its caching-capable mobile program hit the iTunes music store. Luckily, what finally did arrive is a pleasure to behold. Clearly a lot of effort went into designing the look and feel of the Napster for iOS app. The interface is quite simply one of the best we've seen from a mobile music program, with options laid out in a handy grid of large buttons and a slick, graphically appealing theme. Sadly, sound quality falls very short of the offerings from Rhapsody and Slacker.

Read the full review at Download.com for all the details. And make sure to check out our gallery for an up-close-and-personal look.

Originally posted at iPhone Atlas

Plugged security holes and stability fixes come to fans of the Opera browser as its Norwegian publisher released version 10.63 on Tuesday.

Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, Opera 10.63 patches numerous problems that could have posed security risks, including a cross-domain check bypass that allowed data theft, a site address spoof, a reload and redirect problem that also could've allowed spoofing and cross-site scripting, a problem reported by Microsoft that allowed private video streams to be intercepted, and a flaw that caused JavaScript to run in the wrong security context after manual interaction.

Other problems that were addressed include Opera Link freezing on startup, Opera Unite Messenger not loading, the start bar blanking out after opening a background tab, and a ramping up of CPU usage to 100 percent when starting Opera.

Users who've enabled Opera's automatic updates should be upgraded from version 10.62 without having to do anything. Opera 10.63's changelog's can be read for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Like "30 Rock"? Got two bucks to spare? Then do yourself a favor and grab Scene It? 30 Rock, a new iPhone game that'll have you "lizzing" with joy.

In case you're not familiar with them, the Scene It? games are basically interactive trivia. You might, for example, watch a video clip from the show, then have to answer a question about the scene. Or unscramble the letters from one of Frank's hats. Or match a catchphrase with the proper character.

Scene It? 30 Rock serves up 15 different kinds of questions spread out across 30 "episodes," the latter tagged with amusing names like Blerg, What the What? and Suck It Monkeys.

All the questions are timed; the faster you answer (assuming you answer correctly), the higher your score. So even after you complete one episode, you might have incentive to go back and play it again.

Of course, like all Scene It? games, this one is best played with friends. The app supports local multiplayer via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi with up to four iOS devices. In an ideal universe, the app would offer online multiplayer--and Tina Fey would run away with me to a remote island...hey! Whoops, sorry, was that out loud?

There's also The Beeper King, a last-man-standing game played by passing your iPhone (or iPad, iPod, etc.) from one player to another. Each person has to answer a question correctly before passing the device; a random timer knocks out whoever is too slow.

Except for a rather annoying number of "Buy 30 Rock" come-ons that appear both during the game and after, I think Scene It? 30 Rock, well, rocks. It's a must-have for fans of the show.

Confession time: until now I didn't know the Scene It? games (which started out in DVD form) had migrated to the iPhone. As it turns out, there are four more of them, including Movies, Comedy Movies, Twilight, and the just-released Horror. Like 30 Rock, they're priced at $1.99 each.

Originally posted at iPhone Atlas

Google is among the browser makers rushing to accelerate their software by tapping into the power of a computer's graphics hardware, but it appears that ability will have to wait for Chrome 9.

Just as Google branched off the code that will become Chrome 8 work early this morning, indicating that it's time to iron out the bugs to release a stable version of Chrome 7, programmers also pushed back a lot of hardware acceleration features until Chrome 9.

Among the items on the hardware acceleration to-do list pushed back from Chrome 8 to 9 yesterday are support for large layers, opacity fixes, a variety of Canvas issues for 2D graphics, and support for CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) abilities to create reflections, drop shadows, and cutouts called masks. Hardware-based video decoding was pushed back to Chrome 9 a few days earlier.

Hardware acceleration, a flagship feature of Microsoft's IE9, is a top item for browser makers eager to stay competitive, speed up their products, enable new features impossible without it, and tackle mobile computing performance challenges. It's not an easy matter, though, with complications from the wide range of graphics hardware computers come with and the inconsistent software support they come with.

Though Microsoft hasn't been alone with hardware acceleration work, and the Internet Explorer 9 approach only will work with Windows 7 and newer versions of Windows Vista, Microsoft deserves credit for pushing the agenda, said Brad Neuberg, a former Google Web programmer who recently struck off on his own.

"They forced the other folks to wake up and realize the importance of hardware acceleration," Neuberg said in a recent interview.

A slip from one version to the next isn't as big a deal as it once was. With Google's faster release cycle, the Chrome version numbers called milestones are passing more often--roughly every six weeks nowadays. And those eager to try it out as it arrives will be able to with an about:labs option to use graphics hardware acceleration.

And for those who want to try experimental features, it looks like hardware acceleration will be an option through Chrome's new about:labs mechanism. Google is trying to make it easier to try new options this way, but it's also going to rename the feature to spook users who might be put off by raw features.

"We are going to rename about:labs to make it sound less friendly," Chrome user interface leader Ben Goodger said on a Chrome mailing list today. The reason for the feature overall is to try to make it easier to test new features, he said.

"The first rule of about:labs is about:labs is a simpler GUI [graphical user interface] for command-line flags. It's necessary because command line flags are such a PITA [pain in the ass] that developers on the team aren't eating important dogfood [trying out their own products] (e.g. Instant). When there's a GUI, it's much easier to get people on the team to change their configuration," Goodger said.

Originally posted at Deep Tech