bar code

Can We Say Damage Control? Amazon Talks Up Its Role in the Success of Independent Businesses.

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on December 29, 2011 at 2:30 pm PT

Amazon is not all about squashing the little guy, or at least that is what it wants you to believe this holiday season.

The Mobile Coupon Is Broken and Procter & Gamble Has Found a Solution

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on December 19, 2011 at 2:00 am PT

Procter & Gamble thinks it has found a solution to distributing coupons on mobile phones.

Amazon Paid You $5 to Leave a Store; Now eBay Is Giving You $10 to Return

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on December 15, 2011 at 10:20 pm PT

Price wars!

Use Your AmEx, Scan a Bar Code, Get an iPod?

Lauren Goode in Commerce on December 13, 2011 at 6:00 am PT

American Express Black Card holders might not strike some as the bargain-hunting kind, but AmEx is getting on board with mobile bar code scanning to offer more loyalty rewards to all cardholders.

Retailers vs. Amazon: A Brick-and-Moral Dilemma

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on December 8, 2011 at 1:38 pm PT

Brick-and-mortar retailers are asking consumers to “buy it where you try it” after Amazon disclosed it will be encouraging consumers to treat stores as showrooms through the use of a one-day promotion on Saturday.

Who’s Using Those Ugly QR Codes? A Whole Lot of Us, Apparently.

Ina Fried in News on August 11, 2011 at 4:18 pm PT

Some 14 million mobile users — or six percent of U.S. phone owners — scanned one of the bar codes in June, according to comScore. Most of those are men, wealthy or aged 18-34.

Want to Transfer Data to Your Phone? Just Point and Shoot.

Ina Fried in Mobile on June 16, 2011 at 11:30 am PT

While cellphone cameras are handy for taking pictures, they are also increasingly being tapped as a key input mechanism, capable of recognizing everything from bar codes to objects. Researchers at MIT and Google have found a way to use the camera to transmit code, simply by pointing it at a computer screen.

Save The Date! Smart Wedding Invitations Use Smartphones

Ina Fried in Mobile on May 28, 2011 at 3:20 pm PT

With wedding Web sites now the norm, some folks are looking for new ways to push the state of the art when it comes to prenuptial technology. One couple is experimenting with using QR codes, special bar codes that can be red by a smartphone, to offer guests more than the standard save-the-date information.

Amazon Hints at Android Strategy With Latest App Promotion

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on April 24, 2011 at 11:16 am PT

Amazon is rolling out a new promotion on Monday that reveals how it could package together its various efforts in the wireless industry.

Occipital Uses Its 360-degree View, Sees Microsoft in Its Rearview Mirror

Ina Fried in Mobile on January 24, 2011 at 6:00 am PT

The tiny start-up, which sold its first app–RedLaser–to eBay, is looking to quickly improve on its latest venture, a photography app that creates 360-degree panoramas using the iPhone video camera. Microsoft has said it plans to add a similar feature to its Bing for iPhone app, so the five-person Boulder, Colo., company is hard at work on its next version.