Almost e very cell phone now comes with a built in digital camera integrated into the phone. Depending on the phone, the carrier, and whether it is able to access the Internet a person can now use many different applications that will turn this diminutive little phone into a powerful shopping and price comparison tool. By using the apps mentioned below you can turn your cell phone into a bar code scanner that will then go out and search the Internet for the best deals on almost every product you can imagine.
What Do Bar Code Scanning Apps Do?
Most of these bar code scanning applications use the product UPC code to search various online shopping sites for items with the same code. Using optical character recognition and some very smart coding skills these apps look at a picture of the bar code, figure out the numbers in it, and then use that info to do the research. Of course, in order for it to be effective you have to have a reliable mobile Internet connection. Some apps such as RedLaser for the iPhone store recent scans in a file and allow you to search for the items at a later time if there is no data access in a given store.
Recommended Bar Code Scanning Apps For Mobile Phones
Not every phone is capable of running a bar code scanning app. The list below mentions some of the more well known and reliable applications and the handsets that they work on.
- RedLaser- A very highly rated bar code scanning app for the Apple iPhone. This version of the program works even on the older iPhone 3G when other similar apps have not. Simply hold the bar code in front of the camera, center it in the box on the screen, and when you hear the beep it will go out and compare that product against Amazon.com and other major Internet retailers.
- Google Product Search for Android- For owners of Android powered cell phones like the G1 and G2, you can now search Google's shopping area simply by scanning a bar code with your phone's camera. You can then use the data returned to find the best price for whatever your are shopping for.
- Edocrab- For Blackberry smartphone users this free app brings the utility of bar code scanning and price checking to the popular line of Blackberry phones.
