* Light. The most important thing is to scan in a well lit area. Most of the time we find that scanning problems are related to low light. Make sure there is plenty of light.
* Hold it Still. Try not to shake. Try to hold at least one of the items perfectly still. This is especially true on the 3GS because you need focus to scan. (the update should reduce this problem because it will be 90% faster)
* Glare. Of course in well lit areas there is often glare caused by bright overhead lights. This is especially true on high gloss items. Make sure the glare is not over the black lines of the barcode.
* Shadows. Just as glare hides the barcode from our view, shadows can prevent ShopSavvy from scanning your barcode. Make sure there are no shadows over the barcode.
* Alignment. Try to hold the item at the same angle you are holding the phone. The more angle between the barcode and the phone the longer a scan will take.
* Double Barcodes. Sometimes, expecially on books, there are two barcodes next to each other. Often the UPC is the bigger barcode on the left and the smaller barcode on the right is the ’suggested retail price code’. If you include both on the screen ShopSavvy can get confused. Try to ONLY include the bigger UPC barcode. (the update will mitigate this issue by filtering out the small barcode)
* Proximity. Try holding the scanner pretty far away and SLOWLY move closer until the item scans. Once you get the hang of the right distance you won’t need to do this, just hold it at the approximate distance and you should be good to go. But don’t move in and out – try to keep the item at a single distance for a period of time, maybe a second or two. (the update will provide hints to make this easier)
* Item Selection. Don’t try to scan food items. First, they don’t have great coverage and at the end of the day price comparison isn’t important on bottled water. Second, the barcodes are often on curved surfaces and ShopSavvy has problems with curves. (the update will work better on curved surfaces)
* Focus (3GS). Since you have an auto-focus camera the barcode MUST be in focus. (the update will make this easier)
* Focus (2G/3G). Since you have don’t have a focusable camera – don’t worry that the camera is out
* of focus – it will still work.

* Light. The most important thing is to scan in a well lit area. Most of the time we find that scanning problems are related to low light. Make sure there is plenty of light.
* Hold it Still. Try not to shake. Try to hold at least one of the items perfectly still. This is especially true on the 3GS because you need focus to scan. (the update should reduce this problem because it will be 90% faster)
* Glare. Of course in well lit areas there is often glare caused by bright overhead lights. This is especially true on high gloss items. Make sure the glare is not over the black lines of the barcode.
* Shadows. Just as glare hides the barcode from our view, shadows can prevent ShopSavvy from scanning your barcode. Make sure there are no shadows over the barcode.
* Alignment. Try to hold the item at the same angle you are holding the phone. The more angle between the barcode and the phone the longer a scan will take.
* Double Barcodes. Sometimes, expecially on books, there are two barcodes next to each other. Often the UPC is the bigger barcode on the left and the smaller barcode on the right is the ’suggested retail price code’. If you include both on the screen ShopSavvy can get confused. Try to ONLY include the bigger UPC barcode. (the update will mitigate this issue by filtering out the small barcode)
* Proximity. Try holding the scanner pretty far away and SLOWLY move closer until the item scans. Once you get the hang of the right distance you won’t need to do this, just hold it at the approximate distance and you should be good to go. But don’t move in and out – try to keep the item at a single distance for a period of time, maybe a second or two. (the update will provide hints to make this easier)
* Item Selection. Don’t try to scan food items. First, they don’t have great coverage and at the end of the day price comparison isn’t important on bottled water. Second, the barcodes are often on curved surfaces and ShopSavvy has problems with curves. (the update will work better on curved surfaces)
* Focus (3GS). Since you have an auto-focus camera the barcode MUST be in focus. (the update will make this easier)
* Focus (2G/3G). Since you have don’t have a focusable camera – don’t worry that the camera is out
* of focus – it will still work.

What is more interesting is how do they perform on average when scanning a multitude of items. Your post made me curious to try and measure that and i did some experiments, and here is what i got: I took sample of 10 DVDs and 10 books and timed scanning each batch with each application, in same light conditions – three times each and taking the best, the results are:

- pic2shop: 160 sec (10 DVDs), 170 sec (10 books)

- RedLaser: 366 sec, 444 sec

- ShopSavvy: 220 sec, 250 sec

So comparing to ShopSavvy, pic2shop is 30% faster and RedLaser is 72% slower. The reason for RL slowness is not the barcode scanning but the server access for product info – it’s blocking call and one has to wait for the information to get back or kill the app. Their server is slow or overloaded – otherwise RL was probably reading barcodes faster than the others.

In addition, most surprising was RL’s behavior of repetitively crashing at each 5th consecutive scan (usually. sometimes on the 4th time or sometimes the scan screen will be screwed up – looks like running out of memory). WTF, shame on Occipital – this is not release quality.

Also what trademark you think of claiming? I checked at uspto.gov and you had registered “ShopSavvy” as trademark – and using that in appstore does not find anything but your application. You can’t be serious claiming trademark on “savvy” – there are lots of applications comming on that search.

ps. and why doesn’t your website claim ™ anywhere?