SnapTell, the awesome iPhone app that lets you take a photo of nearly any CD, DVD, book, or video game to get instant product reviews, has just released an upgrade that introduces a number of useful new features.
Most significant is the addition of local and online price comparisons through TheFind, which allows you to get a quick look at what the item you’ve photographed is going for at local retail stores as well as on online sites like Amazon. It seems to work fairly well, though I wish it had a more comprehensive price listing (a query for one of the Harry Potter books found only one online price, though it did find the book at a number of local stores). You can download the app on iTunes here.
The upgraded app also includes a number of UI changes (the ‘take photo’ button is now centered, as opposed to hidden up in the corner of the screen), and seems generally snappier.
Since launching a month ago, SnapTell has seen over 200,000 downloads and has been as high as #16 on the free apps list (which is frankly lower than it probably should be). And while a large portion of users are probably just trying out the app for the novelty of image recognition, SnapTell says that around 35% of its installs see repeated use, and that it has a 15% click-through rate to online stores.
See all
Post
and if it matters to the fans, the guys behind it, who i know and have worked with in the past, are truly good folks.
So can you have them explain to me why no book I ever search for provides a link to Amazon? B&N, wikipedia, ebay, yes, but never Amazon, which is always what I’m looking for, since I’m usually after the reader reviews (if I’m thinking about buying a book in a store). Does it actually offer Amazon search?
Maybe I need an iPhone.
Very thanks you >> http://tinyurl.com/4rdhmc
I took a picture of the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell and the app came back with Hitler’s Secret War in South America. Not good.
eh, the hitler book sounds more interesting.
Holy crap! the app exhibits AI
It recommends a real book when a customer photographs a bound collection of printed blather.
this is such a cool gadget….. i mean think abt it…all u need to do is take a picture of it. and the rest of the thinking is done by your iPhone……btw what is the price of this application?
Its free… for now, anyways…
The only thing is, not one item has ever been successfully identified by SnapTell on my iPhone. Great idea… just wish I could get it to work.
very cool and productive app
It is somewhat a copy of an android app that uses the camera to scan barcodes and looks up the price online. I think its called savvy shopper but I’m too lazy to walk over to my phone.
Savvy Shopper is free though.
this app uses image recognition technology they arent even in the same ball park.
i’ll take a “boring” barcode scanning app that works 100% of the time over a “spiffy” image recognition app that works 80% of the time any day.
The big problem with ShopSavvy is that their database of prices is so poor. They read the bar code (and my naked eyes can read the digits on the barcode too!), but never tell you what the thing is or where to get a good price on it.
Sure you’re not thinking of Compare Everywhere or another scanning app? ShopSavvy seems to have almost everything I’ve scanned, including items only carried by a certain chain of stores.
This is great. I wish i had an iPhone!
Is it a freeware? If not, what’s the cost like.
if you use apps like this in a Best Buy store, will they kick you out for “spying” (capturing their pricing)?
This reminds me of the Delicious Library application for the Mac..
This is way better than lugging my laptop to the store and scanning barcodes with my CueCat.
I was cleaning out my computer box and it had CueCat in it! I remember the company saying this was the future, what a good laugh.
Question on the iPhone, is it hard to line up the picture when taking it to make it work? I have the bar code scanner on the gPhone and sometimes I struggle to line up the bar code depending on the lighting conditions.
The :CueCat deserves respect, because it paved the way for mobile phone barcode scanning apps like the NeoReader. Unfortunately the :CueCat came way before it’s time.
LOL. I got a kick out of your comment. I actually new the wife of one of the Cue Cat executives. They both had a show called something like TechTV. It was absolutely awful.
Anyway, how does this app compare to the Amazon app? Does anyone know if the Amazon app does a better job of recognizing items?
Everyone should also check out TinEye Music for the iPhone. Its the same concept but just for cd’s.
I tried the app with a photo that was blurry and was not even an image of the full book (sides were cut off, including some part of the title). It still recognized the book, and came back with the price results.
The iPhone Amazon app is better right now, because you can take picture of any item (including books), it will try and find the exact item, or the closest match. I took a picture of my pliers type stapler, it came back with plier type one hole punch. I took a picture of my Casio watch, it came back with the exact Casio watch. I tried it with a book, and came back with the exact match. Don’t know how goofy I might look taking pictures in a BN store doing comparison shopping.
Like ShopSavy on Android just much, much worse…
Its also kind of like iTrackmine.com. I like it not only because it has product information and reviews, but since I have my DVD collection on the site, it also tells me if I have it or which ones of my friends have it or have it on their wish list.
how does it work… I’m amazed
SnapTell’s awesome! It’s saved me tons of money! I actually just saw a pretty cool demo of it too, check it out! http://tinyurl.com/d32gjw
Iam still not convinced by the IPHONE guys what do you thinks of the Blackberry Curve 8900???
I know it isnt touch screen but iam not sure if the IPHone has WI-FI