iPhone cleans out your wallet (in a good way)
The iPhone, as we know, is many devices consolidated into one: your music player, your phone, your email and Internet. But aside from meaning that you can save pocket room by getting rid of your other devices, the iPhone can also help you slim down your wallet.
Blogger Albert Alberts set out to prune his wallet of all those pesky membership cards; he scanned the front and back of each and created a Photo Album on his iPhone to keep them all organized.
To test it out I went to the local hardware store and asked the girl behind the counter if she could scan the barcode from my phone. The first look I got was pure amazement. To her the physical card was transformed into a picture on a shiny device. On top of that the barcode was scanned successfully. The result; a slightly confused girl and a happy me.
Like most iPhone tricks, this one falls in the “simple-but-brilliant” category. I don’t have a scanner to give this a try right now, but I’ll file it away for the next time I’m cleaning out my wallet.
[via Lifehacker]
Category: Tips & Troubleshooting
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Comments (9)
I think this is pretty neat. I just have to wonder if the barcode scanner will have ill effects on the iPhone??
Posted by Joel | May 13, 2008 11:20 AM
Why would you need a scanner? Can you just simply take a picture of the card?
Posted by Eugene | May 13, 2008 11:26 AM
That is a darn good idea. I'm going to give it a try with all these grocery and rewards cards.
Posted by Amazed | May 13, 2008 11:34 AM
I tried to do this with my Albertsons (grocery) club card a few months back, but I was unable to get it to scan correctly with the automated checkout system.
Posted by Ryan | May 13, 2008 11:44 AM
I have to call BS on this one...others have tried this in the past (on the iPhone) only to find out that the way a barcode scanner works is incompatible with the iPhone's screen technology.
Posted by Dan | May 13, 2008 12:08 PM
It does work. I've done it with Blockbuster to check out movies and redeem coupons for free rentals.
Posted by Mac ...really Mac | May 13, 2008 7:38 PM
Yeah - I turned my iPhone rebate credit into an image and sync'ed it onto the phone and the guy at the Apple Store couldn't read it with the hand-held scanners they all use. Had to enter the (very long) number in by hand.
Now, that being said, 2D bar codes might work. They are used in Asia where you can buy tickets for movies and shows and have them delivered to your phone as an SMS message. You just call the message up and have it scanned to enter. Dunno why that's not being done here with movie tickets (which are done so wastefully: you print a bar code at home which is the scanned and then they give you paper tickets. Hello? Even the airlines don't do that.)
Posted by Michael Lazar | May 13, 2008 11:18 PM
A few months back I had to fly into Houston, TX, which is a Continental Airlines main hub. They had scanners in place and let you display your boarding pass with a scannable image on the screen of your iPhone to check your bags, get through security, and at boarding. So scanning an image on your iPhone's screen is a reality, but the image was a big square of lines and shapes and not your normal bar code.
Posted by Steven | May 13, 2008 11:24 PM
I did this last night, and tried a card today that now won't scan. I only tried it full screen, not actual size, so not sure if that makes a difference at all.
Posted by PJ Mudd | May 15, 2008 12:34 PM