Camera Phones Help Buyers Beware
Amit Asaravala,
Wired News,
Jan 19, 2004
The CueCat - a bar code scanner magazine readers would use to get more information from advertisements - was an unmitigated disaster. This next device may be a little more successful - it is an attachment to a cell phone that reads bar codes on products in stores and returns information about the product. As curently designed - it brings up coupons and more advertising - it will be no more successful than CueCat. But if it should ever bring up genuinely useful information - such as the price, product reviews, learning - it may have a future. The idea that our phones could tell us anything we want about the products we buy is tantilizing. But it must comes from many sources, not just the vendor.
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