ShopSavvy Arrives on iPhone
ShopSavvy, one of 10 winners in the original Google Challenge contest last year, arrives today on the iPhone. With ShopSavvy, you scan a product barcode with your phone’s camera and the application does a price check, both online and at retail locations. This one was a long time coming and actually isn’t appearing for me on my iPhone’s App Store at the time of this writing. However, the Big In Japan blog offers a direct link to the app in iTunes, and it works just fine. I’ve installed the free application and it looks stellar, although the app is struggling on some bar codes. This may have to do with the iPhone 3GS auto-focus feature, but I’m not sure. The developers say
“Once you know how to scan with ShopSavvy for the iPhone it works great, but until you do it is a little hard. Our beta testers (thanks for your help) came up with a bunch of ideas that will make it MUCH easier to scan and we should implement those in the next couple of weeks. Look for an update every two weeks (I know this is annoying, but we promise the updates will be worth it). “
I’ve been running around the house scanning things, which is sort of silly since I already own these items, but what can I say: it’s fun. Well, it’s fun until you look at current prices — $29.99 for Beatles: RockBand? Ugh! ;)
ShopSavvy for iPhone integrates Google Maps for the locations of retail stores nearby that sell the scanned item. You can also add items to a wishlist, create lists, and get price alerts. All in all, it looks just as functional as the Android counterpart and there’s no need to shop around for it — it’s free!
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Kevin, I gotta hand it to you: excellent post! This application is far better than Red Laser and I’ll admit I just spent too much time making lunch just now due to scanning everything in sight as I worked. :-)
And I certainly had no idea Uncharted 2 was on sale at Best Buy for $19.95!!!
Thanks again!
Whats the main difference between this and red laser?
@kaffeboy Both apps are primarily used for checking product prices. I find RedLaser faster at scanning and a simpler, yet cleaner app. ShopSavvy was originally developed for Android and it shows it, as the user experience is kind of clunky. That said, ShopSavvy does more than RedLaser. For example, ShopSavvy allows users to check prices at local stores (not just online). This feature does not always work though. Also, ShopSavvy allows you to create a wish list of products.