RedLaser — Barcode and QR Code Scan
Description of App
RedLaser - Impossibly accurate barcode scanning.
The ALL-NEW RedLaser is the fastest and easiest to use RedLaser yet! It has everything you loved in RL Classic and more of the functionality you have told us you are looking for! RedLaser is still free to download!
FEATURED IN AN IPHONE TV AD!
- Shop smarter. RedLaser searches thousands of ONLINE and LOCAL retailers for the best prices and features product results from Google, TheFind, eBay, Milo, and many more.
- Scan faster, even without autofocus! RedLaser uses state-of-the-art barcoderecognition that can read virtually any product barcode or QR code. Works great on both iPhone and iPod Touch!
- Organize and share your scans! RedLaser’s new list feature lets you create shopping or wish lists and share them withfriends and family to make shopping and gift-giving so much easier!
The best RedLaser yet!
We have made RedLaser even easier to use and added new advanced features to improve our best-in-class scanning technology and shopping tools:
- Redesigned interface with easier access to scanning, searching, lists, and QR code creation.
- Lists – you can now organize your products to create shopping lists, wish lists or gift lists. Or use lists to archive your books or CD and DVD collections.
- Easy sharing of lists with friends and family via Facebook, SMS, and email.
- Improved scan history with date stamps.
- In-app checkout. Now you can find the best prices AND purchase directly from within the app for home delivery or local in-store pickup from select stores.
- More pricing information for even better results and coverage.
- More and better product descriptions and reviews to help you make the right decision.
- Option to view barcodes for scanned items.
- Unbelievably improved awesomeness!
Features
- Scans UPC, EAN, UPC-E and EAN-8 barcodes.
- QR code scanning including URLs, contact info, calendar events, emails and more.
- Searches for prices with Google, theFind, Shopping.com, eBay, Milo.com, Half.com, and more.
- Keyword search functionality to find the best deal when you don’t have a barcode handy.
- Local search powered by Milo.com and TheFind.
- Local search locates books in nearby libraries.
- Buy directly from within the app for select stores.
- Create shopping, wish, and gift lists and share them with friends and family via Facebook, email, or SMS.
- Automatic search localization for USD, EUR, and GBP.
- Create a QR Code from your contacts, a URL, or text, and share with friends.
A quick note about installation ●
The new RedLaser is an all-new app, which means previous versions (RL Classic or RedLaser 2.9.8 or earlier) won’t automatically update, nor will installing the new RedLaser overwrite any previous versions you may have installed. If youhave a previous version of RedLaser on your iPhone and are no longer using it, you can safely delete it. Please note that your scan history will not migrate to the new app. If you want to save your scan history, please use the “share via email” feature in your old app before deleting it.
Version
Free or Paid
Compatibility
Device(s) App Was Tested On
Accessibility Comments
This app has some accessibility issues, but is still usable with VoiceOver.
The main page of the app shows a list of all past scans. The first item on this screen is a button labelled 'gear', which loads the Help & Settings page.
At the bottom of the main page VoiceOver will announce a series of what appears to be 6 buttons. Two of these, 'Scan' and 'RL nav scan', are actually 2 labels for the same button.
The barcode scanner is relatively accessible, although the first time that I used it there was a 'Did You Know' message overlayed on top of this page. This really messed with the way that VoiceOver read page elements. Eventually I found an unlabelled button that removed this message. A similar message has also appeared on the History page.
One element on the barcode scanner is announced by VoiceOver as an unlabelled button, but actually appears to be some text hints on how to align barcodes.
The app automatically recognizes and scans barcodes, which is a nice feature for those of us who can't guarantee that we are pointing the camera at the right area.
The list of search results is accessible, but I did find with some results that tapping on them would load a web page that wasn't itself very accessible.
When viewing a list of search results or a product details page there are two tabs (announced as buttons) that control what information is displayed. You might initially think that there are 4 buttons, 2 with clear labels and 2 with cryptic labels. There really are only the 2 buttons, but each has a clear and a cryptic label. Once you know this, the app is relatively easy to understand.
VoiceOver Performance
Button Labeling
Usability
Other Comments
I would strongly encourage people to read the terms and conditions that you are required to accept when first using this app. By accepting these conditions, you are allowing eBay access to a lot of information about you and the products that you are scanning.
Comments
#1 scanning still difficult
I have an iPod Touch 4th generation. My impression was that this app would pick up a bar code once it saw one, but you still have to get the code to line up with the arrows on the screen. I had sighted help the first time I got this app to work, then tried on my own with the same product. After much moving of the iPod, I happened to get the code to scan. However, I could not repeat this success on the same product, and I never had luck with two other products I tried. This might work if you get lucky or know a trick I don't but, well, I'll just say that I'm glad it was free.
#2 Some success
I haven't tested the app extensively, but I have found it fairly good at recognizing when a barcode appears in front of the camera.
I found the best results came when holding the iPhone about 4 to 6 inches from the product and panning the camera quite slowly until the barcode was recognized by the app. It seemed to work quite well in relatively dim lighting without need of the flash.
I do have some residual vision. Not enough to know that there are arrows on the screen that indicate where the barcode should be, but enough to usually have a good idea of where the barcode is located on a product. This must help somewhat, but scanning barcodes is always likely to be something of a slow and frustrating process.