Month's Best Android Apps

[papy72]

Seems like none of the barcode scanners work for me. I fire them up and all i get is: camera focus...wait...camera focus...wait...etc etc etc.

It never actually picks up the barcodes. I gave up trying to figure out how to.

 

[takeshi]

Opera 5 or XScope? I wonder which one to use

Try them both. You can't beat first hand experience.

Seems like none of the barcode scanners work for me. I fire them up and all i get is: camera focus...wait...camera focus...wait...etc etc etc.

It never actually picks up the barcodes. I gave up trying to figure out how to.

Make sure lighting is good (especially since the Droid's camera is so awful) and that the barcode fills the box as much as possible.

 

[inkyhands]

My only tip for getting the barcode scanner to work better is "do not hold as close as you think you should - back up a bit". I have to repeat this to myself everytime I use it for any app! LOL

 

[Hugh Jass]

I find the pinch zooming on all the browsers so far to be clunky. But that is the reason I will switch back to stock when 2.1 comes since it will be excellent pinch zooming and it will be free.

Opera = no pinch zooming.

Cya...

By the time 2.1 comes out, everyone who owns the Droid will be changing out for the new best phone via the "New every two" program. :sleep:

 

[amuse]

Shopsavvy

My only tip for getting the barcode scanner to work better is "do not hold as close as you think you should - back up a bit". I have to repeat this to myself everytime I use it for any app! LOL

You are correct! The Droid focal length is longer than the G1 or Nexus - meaning to get the image in focus you need to hold it back a little to get a scan. More light resolves this.

The newer phones including the Motorola Devour (the Droid for women I guess?) has a fixed focal length camera meaning NONE of the existing barcode scanners in the market will work. We are launching a special version of ShopSavvy for the Devour that WILL work on blurry barcodes. If it is well accepted we may move it to the Droid to make scanning easier even if you hold the barcode too close to the camera.

 

[Rperry916]

Alex here from the ShopSavvy team. Why do you think Shopper is better than ShopSavvy? We have a LOT more data (i.e. retailers and prices) than Shopper. Is there something I am missing? Love some feedback.

Downloaded Opera 5, it's blazing fast. Replaced stock browser with it for now.

Downloaded Google Shopper - WAY better than Shop Savvy or Goggles, it just blows them away - uninstalled Shop Savvy and Goggles.

Downloaded Dial Zero - could come in handy having instructions on how to get a hold of an operator at any company. Works well.

Hey Alex, Im new here on the forums and new to the Droid world. Picked up a Devour a few days ago and been trying to find a Barcode Scanner that works with that phone. It doesnt have an auto-focus which throws everything off and no scanner seems to work. Manually inputting it in does though and love the app. Is there a way to maybe add a feature that allows us to zoom? Thats the only thought I had since it seems to be a little clearer from a farther distance. Might be the first scanner to work with this phone. Thank you Kindly

 

[amuse]

ShopSavvy and Devour...

You are correct, the Moto Devour does not have a AF camera. The fixed focal length camera renders the existing barcode scanners inoperable. Verizon is sending us a Devour to test with and we should be releasing a new version of ShopSavvy in the Android market that will work for you and other Devour users. Just follow our blog for more info: Big in Japan | Blog - I suspect it will take us a few weeks.

Alex here from the ShopSavvy team. Why do you think Shopper is better than ShopSavvy? We have a LOT more data (i.e. retailers and prices) than Shopper. Is there something I am missing? Love some feedback.

Downloaded Opera 5, it's blazing fast. Replaced stock browser with it for now.

Downloaded Google Shopper - WAY better than Shop Savvy or Goggles, it just blows them away - uninstalled Shop Savvy and Goggles.

Downloaded Dial Zero - could come in handy having instructions on how to get a hold of an operator at any company. Works well.

Hey Alex, Im new here on the forums and new to the Droid world. Picked up a Devour a few days ago and been trying to find a Barcode Scanner that works with that phone. It doesnt have an auto-focus which throws everything off and no scanner seems to work. Manually inputting it in does though and love the app. Is there a way to maybe add a feature that allows us to zoom? Thats the only thought I had since it seems to be a little clearer from a farther distance. Might be the first scanner to work with this phone. Thank you Kindly

 

[Rperry916]

Hi Alex, Thank you for responding. I was just there last night and either missed that blog or it wasn't up yet. thats awesome and great to hear. I will definitely be following it and excited to see the progress on how it goes. :biggrin: Now if I'm correct, AF is strictly a hardware right? Or is there an app that will implement an AF?
Again, Thank you for responding, its greatly appreciated. You guys are doing a great job.

You are correct, the Moto Devour does not have a AF camera. The fixed focal length camera renders the existing barcode scanners inoperable. Verizon is sending us a Devour to test with and we should be releasing a new version of ShopSavvy in the Android market that will work for you and other Devour users. Just follow our blog for more info: Big in Japan | Blog - I suspect it will take us a few weeks.


Hey Alex, Im new here on the forums and new to the Droid world. Picked up a Devour a few days ago and been trying to find a Barcode Scanner that works with that phone. It doesnt have an auto-focus which throws everything off and no scanner seems to work. Manually inputting it in does though and love the app. Is there a way to maybe add a feature that allows us to zoom? Thats the only thought I had since it seems to be a little clearer from a farther distance. Might be the first scanner to work with this phone. Thank you Kindly

[/QUOTE]

 

[amuse]

ShopSavvy Devour Barcode Scanning

@rperry - ShopSavvy's barcode library can support 'blurry barcode scanning', but we never enabled it on Android. We were about to release an update to the iPhone version of ShopSavvy that allows for scanning using the non-AF cameras on the 2G and 3G iPhones (i.e. everything but the AF 3GS) when we heard about the camera issue on the Devour. It is pretty simple to release the update for Android - starting with the Devour. There are a couple of other non-AF Android phones (Tattoo) we will release for as well. Anyway, give us a month or so.

 

[Andr0id]

Shopper impressed me because when I downloaded it and tried it on a few nearby books it got the cover right almost instantly. Unheard of with any other program.

On all of the other programs the picture never seemed to find the product - on this it was like magic.

That plus voice search was enough.

Alex here from the ShopSavvy team. Why do you think Shopper is better than ShopSavvy? We have a LOT more data (i.e. retailers and prices) than Shopper. Is there something I am missing? Love some feedback.

i uninstalled shopsavy because although i didnt use it much, everything i scanned was never found. i havent used shopper enough to compare the 2 yet but i found shopsavy pretty useless and i would prefer to have the added free memory from not having it.

Same here SS! I downloaded Shopper yesterday and was very impressed at how well it worked. Sarted scanning books, CD's, and games laying around and it scanned and displayed quickly and flawlessly.

As for Shopsavvy, I used to have it, but it was hard to scan with and never seemed to find any results! Now I don't really have a "need" for either, it's just a fun factor for me, and Shopper wins there. Now if I was using going to use an app to actually shop and save, I'd reconsider. Just my $.02