Ravens vs Patriots
Winner: Patriots

Giants vs 49ers
Winner: Giants

At the end of the day fan loyalty might be a great predictor of who will win. We shall see. If this works we will definitely do it for the Superbowl.

A poll of 1,491 U.S. adults finds of those who have used a smartphone app or mobile browser while shopping, 44% have used a bar code scanning app such as RedLaser or ShopSavvy that lets them compare prices and learn more about products and services in stores. 38% have used a discount or deal app such as those from Groupon or LivingSocial that offer deep discounts, typically on local goods.

Step One: Create a QR code with your favorite creator

Step Two: Overlay QR code on Scan with ShopSavvy Badge

Step Three: Provide us the URL included in the QR code

Step Four: Launch!

Users who see your QR code will realize they can scan it with ShopSavvy (more than 10 million folks have downloaded the app with more than 6.5 million active users). ShopSavvy is free on Android and iPhone (coming soon on Windows Phone 7). The program is free – it helps the user and help us educate our existing users and potentially get new users.

DOWNLOAD ART HERE

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Here’s an excerpt from the release:

“If you’re tired of lugging textbooks, movies and other stuff around to retail establishments only to get low-ball offers, the YouSell app is the better alternative,” said Matt Stein, purchasing manager of MultipleStreams. “YouSell provides the fastest, most convenient way to get solid cash offers for your used items.”

When a YouSell user scans a UPC or EAN barcode, MultipleStreams delivers an instant price offer from its product pricing database. If the user accepts the offer, he or she ships the item to the company’s warehouse for free using a prepaid shipping label provided by MultipleStreams. Once the item passes a quality inspection, payment is promptly sent to the seller by check or PayPal.

“YouSell is a valuable app for selling used merchandise, and we are pleased to provide the technology that powers its scanning functionality,” said Alexander Muse, co-founder of Big in Japan. “YouSell is one of more than 200 apps now in development utilizing the ShopSavvy ScannerKit SDK.”

Matt at MultipleStreams was also interviewed by Dan Butcher at Mobile Commerce Daily:

“The ShopSavvy ScannerKit SDK is the best scanning technology available for app developers,” Mr. Stein said. “It was very straightforward for us to incorporate it into YouSell to make the app more attractive to users.

“While our app is not directly tied to the ShopSavvy app, we think the two apps are good complements to one another,” he said. “ShopSavvy allows users to find the best local price for an item they want to purchase, while YouSell provides the user with a live cash offer for something they wish to sell.

“Combining both apps, a user can both wisely purchase and sell items, assuring they are getting the best deal possible in both cases.”

Jake noted that there were a number of bugs in my app and mentioned that my icon sucked so he spent an evening making my app suck less (actually his update is really great). I submitted it to iTunes and hopefully it will get accepted soon. In the meantime you can download my version 1.0 QR Code Reader and Scanner.

Yesterday I wrote about the back story on our need to release an updated Scanner Kit SDK for the iPhone. If you are a developer who has already used our SDK in your app to scan barcodes or you are a developer thinking about using our SDK in your app – please download our new version ASAP. From the release notes:

NEW – (Friday July 30th, 2010) – Version 4.0.0

• Complete overhaul of underlying barcode scanning and camera frame grabbing logic.
• Vastly improved performance and API enhancements
• Full compatibility with iOS 4.0 and Apple’s App Store policies and guidelines. (No more “UIGetScreenImage()”)
• Full compatibility with iPhone 4, 3GS and 3G devices

Download the Scanner Kit SDK for iPhone today!

Earlier this month Apple stopped accepting apps that made use of UIGetScreenImage call (allowing apps like ShopSavvy to take a snapshot of the iPhone’s screen). This ‘call’ has always been private, but Apple made an exception to allow apps like ShopSavvy to work. Apple made it VERY clear from the start that this ‘private’ call would not longer be available once they released their new public API for the camera in IOS4. The new public API is amazing and makes ShopSavvy and our Scanner Kit SDK work like a dream.The downside is that if you have implemented our SDK in your app (or any other barcode scanning library that worked prior to IOS4) Apple will reject your app if you try to update it right now.

Our team saw this coming a mile away and has been working tirelessly to update our scanner kit to stop using the private call in favor of the new public API and as of today our Scanner Kit is working really well. We will be testing tomorrow, but hopefully by the end of the day we will release the SDK publicly.

The new SDK will use NONE of the private methods and will also work significantly better as we replaced all of our slow, shaky, hacky work-around code with Apple’s new officially supported, high-performance camera API calls. Our new 2.0 version scans faster, is more accurate and since it is not using any private, unsupported methods, it will not break whenever Apple releases an update.

Finally, another important thing to note is that Apple is dropping support for the iPhone 2G (original iPhone).  They aren’t allowing users to install iOS 4 on it.  Therefore it won’t be possible publish an app/update that does real-time barcode scanning on a 2G because iPhone OS 3.x can’t interact with the camera without UIGetScreenImage() which is now back on Apple’s blacklist.  Apple said they will grandfather in the old apps that use this and won’t pull them out of the store, they just won’t approve any updates or new apps that use UIGetScreenImage. If you are a 2G user or OS3.X user feel free to use ShopSavvy Classic as it will never be updated – it is Grand Fathered in the app store.

Lots of retailers like Best Buy plan to include QR Codes in their stores to help consumers learn more about the products they are selling. Look for the strange little two dimensional barcodes near product displays. You can scan these codes with ShopSavvy and you will receive the information that the retailer is interested in providing to you. Of course, you can still scan the one dimensional barcodes (i.e. the UPC or EAN code) on products and get the standard price comparison you have come to expect from ShopSavvy.

Just as ShopSavvy can scan these QR Codes from Best Buy we can also help retailers power their own apps with 2D reading technology. Both our iPhone and Android developer SDKs offer QR Code scanning support – just drop our libraries into a retailer’s mobile app and consumers can begin scanning right away.

Of course 2D codes are popping up on websites like Facebook and in stores thanks to Google’s Favorite places program. We support both of these programs today. Perhaps the most interesting use of 2D codes is by cities. In Washington DC we now support scanning of QR codes in DC Circulator Buses. This month the city added QR Codes on all bus stops and bus shelters. Riders who have ShopSavvy can scan these codes to see a map of their route, their current location and the next bus stop.