Overnight Recap: Scanner Pro 4.5, Hacked AT&T Update, VUDU Adds Offline

Yahoo! certainly kicked off the week in grand style Monday with news of its Tumblr acquisition, but it had one more trick up its sleeve that we'll get to in a moment, along with Apple going on the offensive over government accusations that the company isn't paying its full share of taxes on income generated overseas. But first, there's a whole batch of updates, tweaks and elaborations to enjoy, which includes some analysis on how T-Mobile US could one day leapfrog Sprint for third place!

Scanner Pro 4.5 Update Adds Automatic Border Detection

Readdle is back with another update to its universal Scanner Pro for iOS, and while Tuesday's version 4.5 release only adds a single feature, it's a pretty slick one: The app now detects page borders in real time. As you can see from the embedded YouTube video, the result is a neat visual trick, but it's a practical addition as well, cutting down on the time users spend on cropping and manually adjusting page borders. Real-time border detection will help users fly through a stack of documents in no time at all thanks to batch mode. The Scanner Pro 4.5 update is now available from the App Store.

AT&T Carrier Update Hacked for Faster Data Speeds

Cult of Mac reported Monday that the two developers who hacked T-Mobile's carrier update earlier this month are back with another tweak which promises to improve LTE and HSPA+ speeds on AT&T as well. The hack does not require a jailbroken device, and it works on the iPhone 5 as well as AT&T cellular-equipped third and fourth-generation iPads or iPad mini. This trick, which is done via iTunes, simply overrides built-in limits on certain bands, allowing devices to pull in the strongest signal available. The good news is that users can revert back to normal, but non-jailbroken users will need to do a full wipe and restore to do so.

Google Product Manager Elaborates on Google Voice Support in Hangouts

Google appears to be feeling the heat on current limitations with its new Hangouts product, so product manager Nikhyl Singhal has taken to Google+ in an effort to sort out any confusion. Singhal confirms our report Monday that Hangouts does not yet support outbound calls from a web browser, but inbound Google Voice calls are indeed possible. Google promises to get outbound calls working soon, and Singhal closes his post by noting "future versions of Hangouts will integrate Google Voice more seamlessly," which sounds promising.

VUDU Updates iOS App with Offline Playback, Closed Captioning

Back in January, Walmart-owned VUDU promised an update to their existing iOS app by mid-February. Flash-forward to yesterday, and the app is finally available, with no explanation of what took so long. The big news with VUDU Player 2.0 is its ability to download movies and TV shows for offline playback and overall better playback, while the iPhone version adds closed captioning support as well as now taking advantage of the larger iPhone 5 display. Unfortunately, you'll still need to use a web browser to rent or buy any content, and playback is still limited to standard-definition quality -- but hey, at least now VUDU users can watch video without an internet connection.

Analyst Predicts T-Mobile US Could Soon Claim Third Place from Sprint

TMoNews reported Monday that at least one analyst is forecasting a bright future for fourth-placed carrier T-Mobile US. How bright? Deutsche Bank's Brett Feldman predicts that T-Mobile's rapid 4G LTE expansion plans could help the company pass third-placed rival Sprint, especially now that it's empowered with both the iPhone as well as a successful merger with MetroPCS. That last part is expected to gain T-Mobile US an additional five million new customers over the next two or three years, which could help the carrier truly shake up the industry if that prediction should come to pass.

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