ScanLife 2D bar code reader comes to Android
An Android-based smartphone, the G1 from T-Mobile.
(Credit: T-Mobile)After preloading an iPhone app on Sansumg camera phones and expanding to Mexico, Scanbuy announced Tuesday that its ScanLife multi-bar code reader is now compatible for mobile phones running on Google Android.
As in any other mobile device, the ScanLife application allows for scanning a 2D bar code and automatically performing an action or function associated with that code. The action can be displaying a specific Web site, launching a video, dialing a phone number, or anything else a smartphone can do.
This way, bar codes can help eliminate the need to use the phone's tiny keyboard. You can even go to Scanlife's Web site to create your own bar code and associate it with whatever Web page or contact information you want.
The application supports major 2D bar code formats (including Datamatrix, EZcode, and QR) and can be downloaded for free from www.getscanlife.com when you visit the site on the mobile browser.
With the addition of Android, the ScanLife software is now compatible with virtually all popular mobile operating systems including BlackBerry, iPhone, Java, Symbian, and Windows Mobile.
Bar codes have become more popular in the last few years. If you fly now, most airlines allow you to print your own boarding pass that contains several types of bar codes. American Airlines even lets you use your mobile phone that displays a bar code to board their airplanes at selected airports.
Dong Ngo is a CNET editor who covers networking and network storage, and writes about anything else he finds interesting. You can also listen to his podcast at insidecnetlabs.cnet.com. E-mail Dong. 
