A9 Flow Augments Shopping Reality
November 4, 2011
Amazon is putting a new spin on search, as reported in Cnet News’ “A9’s Flow app: Augmented consumerism.” This new app for the iPhone allows you to point your device at a product in a brick-and-mortar store and compare and log the price at Amazon. If you wish, you can order it from Amazon right then. The existing Amazon app allowed you to do this, but writer Rafe Needleman finds A9’s Flow, which operates closer to real-time, to be a lot more fun:
The recognizer seems faster and more tolerant of operator sloppiness than other scanner apps. You don’t have to hold very still or align the camera at a right angle to what you’re pointing it at. It’s not like it will pick up multiple items as you just walk by them, but it’s faster and more intuitive than other apps of the type.
As a side note, you can do the same thing at eBay with that company’s RedLaser (though the author finds Flow to be superior to that app, too.)
As the author points out, this sort of app could be but one more nail in the coffin of local businesses. No surprise there.
Cynthia Murrell, November 4, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
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