I had somebody email me the other day about a cell phone recommendation, and I’m not sure how to reply. If anybody has a recommendation for which cell phone might work best for use while buying books, please comment.
“I am in the market for a new cell phone and would like one that would allow me to scan book isbn #’s. I shop at a lot of thrift stores and garage sales and believe some type of bar code scanner would be very helpful. Could you tell me what I need to look for in a phone?”
I am pretty sure any (most) smartphones have the ability to install barcode reading applications. I don’t think that there are any phone with a built in laser type scanner, but smartphones (iphone, blackberries, etc) can analyze a picture taken of a barcode.
Another option is a wireless, bluetooth barcode scanner. These work more like a traditional barcode scanner, but they are pretty expensive and finding a compatible phone can be tricky. The office blackberry is paired to one of the bluetooth scanners, so a blackberry is a good starting point.
Here are some examples of wireless bluetooth scanners.
http://www.google.com/products?hl=en&q=bluetooth+barcode+scanner&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=kRXBSdfJN6OIygWlmdlN&sa=X&oi=product_result_group&resnum=1&ct=title
-Tom
Here is another link that could prove useful:
http://scls.typepad.com/wicked_cool/2008/12/is-your-cell-phone-a-barcode-scanner.html
Thanks for those links Tom. The camera as bar-code reader looks interesting, but it seems like it would be kindof slow for doing many look-ups.