8/6/2024: Even easier document scanning

Tip of the week: Easier document scanning

Plus: The best ad blocker 🔒, concert seat scouting, and a Pixel phone discount

Jared Newman | August 6, 2024

Hey there! I’m Jared Newman, a veteran tech journalist, and this is the free edition of Advisorator, my weekly tech advice newsletter. If someone shared this newsletter with you, consider signing up to get it every Tuesday. Thanks for reading!

Even easier document scanning: As a current Samsung phone user, I’ve really appreciated having a document scanner built right inside the Camera app.

While pointing at a document—or looking at an existing photo in Samsung’s Gallery app—you can just tap the “T” to snap a photo with the edges automatically aligned and cropped. You can then tap the download button to save the cropped image, and it’ll remove shadows automatically. (To convert the image to a PDF, you can either hit the share button and use the “Print” menu, or use a free image-to-PDF service such as ILovePDF.)

Google’s Pixel phones have a similar feature. Just point at a document, and you’ll see a button to scan it into Google Drive. This method also supports multi-page documents, which Samsung’s app does not. For Android phones whose camera apps don’t have document scanning, the free Files by Google app is the next-best option. You’ll find a “Scan” button in the bottom-right corner.

What about iPhones? As I’ve mentioned in previous newsletters, you can scan documents through Apple’s Files app (by hitting the “…” icon), or the Notes app (by tapping the paperclip icon inside any note). You can also search in Spotlight for “Scan Document,” and hit the “…” button to add a shortcut to your home screen. The fastest method I’ve found, though, is just to say “Scan a document” to Siri.

The best ad blocker (and how to use it)

This week for paid subscribers, I wrote about why uBlock Origin is the best ad blocker, how to set it up the right way, and some hidden tricks that make it even better for blocking the web’s little annoyances. You can read the full column with a free trial →

News in brief

Google’s antitrust loss: A federal judge has sided with the U.S. Department of Justice in its antitrust case against Google, ruling that it has a monopoly in search services and advertising. For instance, US District Judge Amit Mehta called out Google’s payments to Apple—$20 billion in 2022 alone—for being the default search engine in iOS, claiming that this disincentivizes Apple from releasing its own search engine.

What does this mean for you? In the near term, not much, as the appeals process will take years to play out, and it’s unclear what any potential remedies would look like. But at the very least, it’ll be a distraction for Google, and such headaches alone can bring big changes; the department has argued that its antitrust case against Microsoft in the 1990s paved the way for Apple’s and Google’s later success.

Other news items:

Spotify restores song lyrics to its free tier after removing them in May.
Anyone still using Skype? Now its menus are ad-free.
Warning from RTings: Ultra-thin, edge-lit LED TVs have more risk of long-term durability issues.
Apple begins paying out a class action lawsuit settlement over faulty MacBook keyboards.
Chris Hoffman has some helpful tips for touchscreen Windows PCs.
Android beat writer on Google’s Find My Device network: “I’d rather use AirTags.”
KRUBBET: Ikea’s new $3 lounge chair for your phone.
By me, for PCWorld: A big comparison of cloud gaming services.

Try this app

Scout your seat: Over the weekend, my wife and I made last-minute plans to see Phish at ~~Deer Creek~~ Ruoff Music Center in Indianapolis, and we wound up with great seats thanks to AViewFromMySeat.com and and RateYourSeats.com. Both sites offer user-submitted photos of different vantage points at stadiums and concert venues, so you can get a sense of the view for the tickets you’re planning to buy. I find the RateYourSeats site easier to navigate, though it’s geared more toward buying second-hand tickets (which I prefer to do elsewhere) than just gathering seat information.

Spend wisely

I’ve been saying to wait for a decent price drop before buying Google’s Pixel 8a smartphone, and now it’s finally happened. The mid-range phone is currently on sale for $400 unlocked at Amazon and Best Buy, which is $100 off the list price. You can also take an extra $100 off at Best Buy with activation on Verizon or AT&T, or get an unlocked open-box model for $367.

In my experience, it’s a great Android phone for the price even if the AI features are a bit uneven, and it comes with seven years of guaranteed software updates.

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Until next week,
Jared