If this cute trend in spywork takes off, retailers may soon demand you check your mobile at the door!
DANGER ZONE: Maybe the most nefarious of the apps is Flow, launched this season by Amazon.com for the iPhone. Dazzlingly fast and accurate, it uses a multipoint recognition system (note all the dancing blue dots on the phone's screen) to ID a product from the bar code or even - get this - the cover art of an object you hold up to the lens. Works especially well with books, video games, videodiscs and CDs.
Maybe a whole second later, the phone screen confirms the item, offers access to user reviews and serves up a price quote from Amazon. Tap one more button to buy.
BEAM ME DOWN, REDLASER: One of the original product scanning apps, RedLaser offers instant comparison-shopping from multiple sources aligned with eBay, which acquired RL 17 months ago, and from Google, TheFind, Half.com, Milo.com and Best Buy. Available for iPhone and Android mobiles, RedLaser scans bar codes and QRs. The new RedLaser 3.0 edition adds features such as "buy mobile and pickup local," with Toys "R" Us as its first partner; "in-app" checkout using PayPal; categorized shopping lists you can share via Facebook, SMS and email; plus an archived listing of all the books, CDs and DVDs you already own.
SAVVY AND SAVVIER? Rival apps with similar names, ShopSavvy and Savvy.com, both have their selling (or is that buying?) points.
ShopSavvy lets you find items by keywords, as well as by bar codes. It searches for products in Europe and the U.S. And, for serendipitous fun, it lets you "shake" the phone to summon up a good deal in . . . something.
