It’s been done with with many iOS devices before. In public, no less. Pretty much everyone has done it, but there’s no shame in it. I am, of course, referring to using an iPhone/Pad’s wifi (or 3G) capabilities to look up an item’s price online while still in the store. Maybe it’s to check for a better price or even to see if it can be “flipped” for a decent profit, but no matter the reason people do it all the time. Now TechCruch has pointed out a new app that makes the process super easy.

Amazon Student, along with a few other Amazon apps, enables users to do all that and more. A quick scan of a barcode is all it takes, really. The idea is that it makes looking for a good price on textbooks easy, but it works on just about everything sold en-masse in a retail environment. The big difference here is that it also allows users to scan their own items to sell on Amazon if they’re eligible for trade-in. Just scan it, and if it’s a “yes” then Amazon will pay for shipping and send out a gift card.

I think the word “neat” pretty much covers it.

[via TechCrunch]

FREE!

Amazon Student

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2011-08-15 :: Category: Lifestyle

The holiday shopping season is an incredibly stressful time. You find what you think is the perfect gift, but it seems a little expensive and you start to wonder if you couldn’t find it cheaper somewhere else. Of course, if you walk away now you may find out that the price is no better at other stores or, even worse, by the time you decide to buy everyone is sold out of the product you want. Amazon is trying to alleviate your fears at least a little by launching the new Price Check app, which should go a long way in helping shoppers find the best deals.

Price Check allows users to scan a product’s barcode with their iPhone, or even take a picture of the item in question or say or type its name into Amazon’s database. The app then scours the Amazon Marketplace to find the item in question and provide a price list. If the online price is better than what you can find in-store then you can buy the item with one click and then go on your merry way.

The app is constantly being updated, but Amazon promises that there are already “millions of products” in the database so hopefully you should be able to find what you’re looking for. All searches are automatically sorted with the lowest prices at the top, as well as information on shipping costs or if the product qualifies for free shipping. Is it handy? You bet it is.

Apps like these also force physical stores to be very upfront and honest about their prices. While department stores may claim that sweater or camera is “on sale,” a quick perusal of Price Check will let you know if the price being offered is truly a good deal or if the store is just deflating the price of an outrageous markup. For the informed shopper, the power is now in your hands.

FREE!

Price Check by Amazon

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2010-11-22 :: Category: Lifestyle