One of the positive effects of Apple's recently introduced App Store guidelines is that there have since been a handful of applications that have made their way back after initially having been pulled or removed. The latest of that bunch is Infinite SMS, which is currently in review with Apple.

The thing is, Apple never pulled Infinite SMS. You can blame Google for that.

Infinite SMS shot to popularity when it offered a free text-messaging tool that had been built off of Google's Talk service. Not intending Talk to be used that way, Google ended up shutting down access to that data path, leaving the developers of Infinite SMS with a conundrum: do they build up their own SMS service and start charging users for it--thus canceling out any benefit over using the carrier's SMS service, or simply call it quits? The company ended up going with the second option.

Something that could have saved the app would have been be to use Google Voice, which also offered a free SMS tool. But at the time, Apple was not approving Google Voice apps, and the Google Voice service itself was still very much in private beta, limiting how many people could actually take advantage of it.

Fast-forward to now, where Google Voice is completely open (to those in the U.S.), and a handful of Google Voice apps can be found on the App Store, making room for Infinite SMS to make its return. During the year-and-a-half hiatus, the app has been updated to work with iOS 4. Infinite SMS is not coming out of the gate with push notifications, but the app's developer says that this initial version makes use of iOS 4's task completion feature to update you with an alert about new messages for 10 minutes after you last used it.

If approved, Infinite SMS would join GV Mobile+, Messenger for Google Voice, and GV Connect as apps that utilize Google Voice's features.

Related: How to text without a cell phone

Originally posted at Web Crawler

As a longtime user of both the iPhone and Android, I was pleased to see Google's Goggles service make its way to iOS devices this past week. Even though it's missing a feature or two compared to its Android sibling, both versions are able to figure out what you've just taken a picture of, and give it back to you as a Google search.

It's one of those simple applications that I keep coming back to, mainly for its speed and accuracy, which can be scarily good. Though, when Google released it on the iPhone, it got me wondering how well it matched up to the Android version, which is offered up as a standalone application.

The short answer? Android is just a tiny bit faster, but not by much. As for accuracy, in our testing it continued to be very good on both sides.

For out testing setup, we pitted an iPhone 4 against Google's Nexus One on 10 objects in controlled conditions. Both phones were set in airplane mode and sharing the same Wi-Fi hot spot. Each phone was set up on a different Google account, and all the photos were taken from the same angle in an identically lighted situation. We also switched the order of whatever phone was used first for each item.

Items tested:
1. Windows Live OneCare packaging
2. SSX PlayStation 2 game box
3. Box of chewing gum
4. A "Dilbert" book
5. A bottle of mustard
6. iPhone 4 dock packaging
7. Nikon SLR camera lens packaging
8. A Sprint Overdrive mobile Wi-Fi hot spot (out of the box)
9. A cheap bottle of wine
10. Text from a National Geographic magazine

The average time for each search on these items was 2.8 seconds on the iPhone and 2.4 seconds on Android. The shortest search was just a single second, which was on the iPhone for Windows Live OneCare. This item also ended up being the longest search over on the Android app at 5 seconds. Most searches in between that ran around 2 to 3 seconds.

The one thing that Goggles was not able to pick up was the front of our wine bottle, though both versions of the app were able to correctly scan the barcode on the back. Besides the bottle, there were a handful of other items, including the Overdrive and the iPhone's dock packaging where both apps came up short. These can simply be chalked up to Goggles being a labs product.

So what are some things Android users get that iPhoners currently don't? A shooting grid for one, which gives users a 3x5 grid overlay to line up their shot. The Android version also has a cropping tool, which lets you crop down an image before you shoot it using an on-screen guide.

Cropping ends up being pretty useful if you're using it on text, as became the case for us when we were scanning the text from the National Geographic magazine. The camera on both phones ended up picking out text that was slightly off the frame, since both cameras capture more than they let on through the digital viewfinder. Using the crop tool, we were able to get the text we needed the first time around.

So what can you learn from this? Google may have taken its time bringing Goggles to the iPhone, but it brought a product that's pretty much equal, spare a feature or two. Given different network conditions, and a different Android device, the iPhone very well could have come out on top.

Originally posted at Web Crawler

When the iPad first launched, we heard a lot of talk about possible uses for it in school settings. There was talk of downloading books (instead of carrying a heavy backpack); taking notes (even though the onscreen keyboard is less than ideal); and someday watching online lectures on the device (if sites would start using HTML 5 instead of Flash). So far, while the iPad has been a huge success with users, things that would really help students haven't quite come to fruition.

A new note-taking app called Note Taker HD ($4.99) for iPad might be the lecture companion students have been waiting for--that is, if they like to write by hand. Note Taker HD gives you a paper-notepad-like interface at the top with a large box on the bottom where you do the actual "writing" with your finger (or an iPad-approved stylus). I wasn't very good at taking notes with the app initially, but after some practice I moved along at a pretty good clip.

One feature that helps with the flow of your note taking is Auto-Advance. With it turned off, you need to manually hit Advance every three or four words, which sounds annoying, but you get used to it pretty quickly. With Auto-Advance turned on, a gray box appears to the left of what you're writing. When you reach the end of the input box, simply lift your finger and continue writing in the gray area on the left; Note Taker HD automatically adds a space and lets you continue writing a sentence without the need to hit extra buttons.

Note Taker HD originally came out in May, but recent updates have made the UI more accommodating and added several features to make your note taking easier. You have your choice of text color to make it easy to call out specific notes, for example. You also get highlighters to outline important sections so you can find them later. When you want to draw a quick diagram, you can switch to full screen and draw directly on the page in the color and line width of your choice. If you need to fill out a form (with signature) you can import the form as a background, fill out the information, and sign on the dotted line using the touch screen. When you're finished, you can export a single page or multiple pages of notes via e-mail as a PDF file.

While Note Taker HD is a great idea, it's hard to say whether it can take the place of a laptop keyboard for efficiency. But if you take the time to get used to writing with your finger or a stylus, Note Taker HD offers plenty of options for more colorful and stylized notes that might, for some students at least, be easier to read.

Originally posted at iPad Atlas