The iPhone Mom

RedLaser is on my iPhone because my husband kept raving about it, telling me how everyone at work loved it and it’d be a great shopping tool. So I went ahead and bought it to try out with my Christmas shopping. I don’t want to say this too loud but he was right, it’s a pretty terrific app.

You use RedLaser as a barcode scanner. With your iPhone’s camera you can scan any barcode. It’s as simple as pointing the camera and lining the barcode up within some guides. You don’t even have to tap any buttons, it begins to scan as soon as the barcode is within range. Now RedLaser will pull up a list of online shopping sources for the product. You’ll get results for Amazon.com and a whole list of results found in a Google search. It will also save a list of all your scanned searches. You can email out the list of scanned items and if for some reason the scanner doesn’t work you have the option of keying in the code.

I am absolutely loving this app, especially for Christmas shopping. I was brave/stupid enough to enter a ToysR’us store on Black Friday. As I was trying to keep my mind I scanned a few toys that seemed a wee bit overpriced to me. RedLaser pulled them up and I saw that they were quite a bit less on Amazon. So I waited and ordered online when I got home. It saved me quite a  bit of money.

The possibilities of the barcode scanner in shopping lists could be terrific. I would love to see a grocery shopping app where you could use the scanner to add something to your shopping list. RedLaser won’t do anything like that but they are marketing their technology to developers who want to try.

RedLaser has already helped me save money and it’s paid for itself several times over. It gets a great big endorsement from me for it’s ease of use and the value it brings.

Price when Reviewed: $1.99

Seller: Occipital, LLC