This is pretty much genius. Like Albert, I have a bunch of "membership cards" in my wallet -- they're those cards with a barcode or number on them that you get from places like the local grocery store, or some other retailer. They're useful to have around, but they tend to pile up after a while, and pretty soon, your wallet gets to be a brick of barcodes rather than anything you'd actually want to carry around in your pocket. Albert's solution was to scan all of his barcodes into the iPhone, front and back, as an iPhoto album. And lo and behold, just like
the paperless boarding passes we posted about a while back, it worked. All of the barcodes were scannable, which means no more countless membership cards -- just a gallery in your iPhone.
We've already heard of
barcodes reading both on and off of the iPhone, of course, and we'll hopefully see more of this when the SDK drops in just about a month here (maybe, in the future, someone will write an app to generate barcodes from numbers, so you don't even need to get a clear scan). But even without an external app, this is pretty handy solution to clearing up some of the clutter in your wallet. Obviously, for anything important (driver's license, credit cards), an iPhone scan won't do. But just to get the membership prices down at the Jewel-Osco, scanning wallet cards into an iPhone seems to work just fine. Very nice.
[via
Waxy]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
5-14-2008 @ 11:12AM
Lior said...
There is only one problem.
It is much easier to fake an image than it is to fake a card.
Reply
5-14-2008 @ 11:14AM
Noal said...
Anyone tried this with an Albertson's preferred card or an LA fitness pass? I'm kind of embarrased to walk up to the lady at the front desk and flash my iPhone...Ecspecially if it doesn't work! :/
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5-14-2008 @ 11:18AM
Ryan Trevisol said...
I can't imagine a lot of places like Costco accepting this. Albertson's, CVS, LA Fitness I can see. But anything more restrictive than that, i don't know.
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5-14-2008 @ 11:31AM
kaching said...
I tried this at a Best Buy last night for an in-store pickup, with what appeared to be a nice large, clean barcode on the iPhone screen. Their scanner wouldn't pick it up though. How reliably does this work for people who have tried it?
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5-14-2008 @ 7:17PM
davidwells said...
Tried at the local library last night... no worky either. Think the screen is too shiny to 'see' the barcode ;(
5-14-2008 @ 11:39AM
matt said...
I use my iphone for checking in at the airport... Continental Airlines reader sees the barcode and I check my bags and print the boarding pass. I still need the paper part to get past the TSA security check, but Im not looking through my briefcase to find my boarding pass when Im in a hurry.
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5-14-2008 @ 11:46AM
Blaktornado said...
Well use common sense and just take your real one as well for the first few times. Then leave it at home when you know it definitely works.
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5-14-2008 @ 11:47AM
Pugho said...
Add'l tech to keep in mind, these cards sometimes have a mag stripe which must be read-in by company reader.
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5-14-2008 @ 12:09PM
Galley said...
I keep cards like that in my glove compartment. I like to keep my wallet as slim as possible
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5-14-2008 @ 12:11PM
iBSOD for iPhone said...
make sure the store will accept the scanned card! you'll be shooting yourself on the foot if you scanned all these membership cards while they don't accept them...
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5-14-2008 @ 12:11PM
BabyGotMac said...
Great idea. This could be handy for grocery stores, etc.
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5-14-2008 @ 12:12PM
krye said...
If the scan doesn't show up on the phone as actual size, I can't see it working, and like it's been said before, I can't see a lot of places considering this legit.
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5-14-2008 @ 12:35PM
DistortedLoop said...
"if the scan doesn't show up as actual size..."
Not necessarily something to keep it from working. If it's just scanning a barcode, any decent barcode scanner will be flexible, to some extent, on the size of the barcode. Just think about it...if they weren't, then every card that is scanned that way would have to be held at PRECISELY the same distance and angle each time to get a scan. Since scanners don't require that kind of accuracy, it shouldn't be an issue.
5-14-2008 @ 12:27PM
DistortedLoop said...
Man, this idea is like 11 months old, LOL. I did this with things like my insurance card and other similar items the weekend I got my iPhone last June.
Amusingly, when I got the Apple $100 "rebate" thing for the price drop on early buyers of the phone, the first thing I did was send the PDF of the coupon to my iPhoto as a picture. When I tried to apply the credit, the Apple scanner at the Apple Store could not scan the barcode.
As far as CVS and grocery stores - don't they all just use your phone number? All of mine locally (CVS, Savon, Albertsons, Vons, Ralphs, etc) do. I just key or speak my phone number at check out - a bit more handy than pulling out the wallet, or even the iPhone.
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5-14-2008 @ 8:38PM
Rand said...
And some of us were doing it on your other phones long before that, but bringing it to the masses doesnt hurt..
Coming off self important doesnt help anyone.
5-14-2008 @ 10:58PM
DistortedLoop said...
@Rand- spoken from the lofty heights of self rightousness, no doubt.
5-14-2008 @ 1:01PM
Jake said...
Yep, I shoulda thought of that before. I have scanned and printed my loyalty cards for years to keep down the bulk. This way the paper won't wear out!
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5-14-2008 @ 2:07PM
Pugho said...
It is a great idea though for companies to provide a downloadable electronic iPhone card.
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5-14-2008 @ 2:58PM
Will said...
I think I will wait till remote wipe is enabled before I try this.
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5-14-2008 @ 3:01PM
livepulse said...
why use a dutch swimming-membershipcard?
Reply