Crave

FoodScanner for iPhone is a calorie counter's dream come true.

When my eating starts getting out of control, I usually fire up the Lose It app to keep tabs on my calories for a few days.

Of course, it's a hassle to have to manually enter the foods I eat. Enter FoodScanner, a new app that scans package bar codes for quick and easy calorie logging.

Does it work? It does. Is it just as cool as it sounds? It is. Will it earn a spot in one of Apple's "There's an app for that" commercials? Almost certainly. It's just that slick.

To use FoodScanner, just tap the little lightning bolt, then point your iPhone's camera at a UPC bar code until it's centered within the arrow guides.

In a matter of seconds, the app scans the bar code and presents the matching food (complete with a thumbnail picture). I found the scan process remarkably fast and accurate, especially compared with the somewhat unforgiving scanner in the pic2shop app I mentioned yesterday.

Once you've looked up your food, you can review its nutrition label or tap "I Ate This!" to record it in your daily database, which keeps a running tally of your caloric intake.

Of course, restaurant foods and other non-packaged items (like most fruits and veggies) have no bar codes--but FoodScanner also features a search option that ties to developer DailyBurn's database of more than 200,000 foods. So you can look up just about anything you can't scan.

No bar code? No problem. FoodScanner lets you search for non-packaged foods.

Speaking of DailyBurn, there's an eponymous app that's much more robust at tracking your calories, exercise, weight goals, and the like. FoodScanner is kind of a companion app.

Thankfully, it can sync with your Web-based DailyBurn account, which in turn syncs with the DailyBurn app. It's unfortunate that FoodScanner wasn't just built right into DailyBurn, but ultimately the data lands there.

The DailyBurn Web service and app are free, while FoodScanner costs $2.99.

If packaged foods make up a sizable portion of your diet, you're sure to find the convenience of bar code scanning (to say nothing of the off-the-charts cool factor) well worth the price.

The idea is instead of the traditional paper boarding passes, passengers will use their mobile phones or PDAs to board an airplane.

American Airlines tried out this new method for the first time on Thursday with passengers leaving on domestic flights from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.

Mobile boarding pass.

(Credit: cellphonedigest.net)

Starting Monday, mobile boarding passes will also be offered as an option for passengers departing on domestic flights from Los Angeles International and John Wayne Orange County airports.

This is how it works: when buying the ticket online, passengers must provide an active e-mail address to which their boarding pass will be sent, in the form of a 2D bar code.

Upon arriving at the airport, the passenger can open the e-mail on their Internet-enabled mobile device to have the bar code scanned at the Transportation Security Administration's checkpoints and at the airline's gates.

Passengers can also use the same method for check-in luggage at American Airlines' self-service machines, ticket counters, or curbside check-in facilities.

During the introduction of this new feature, there are a few minor restrictions. Passengers can list only one person in their reservation and must be traveling on American or American Eagle nonstop or a trip that doesn't involve changing planes, to a domestic destination.

The destination, however, can be anywhere within the 50 United States, as well as the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

This is just the beginning, if the tryout proves successful with the TSA, American Airlines will extend this new mobile boarding method to other U.S. airports.

Personally, I hope this will happen with all the airlines. It makes a lot of sense, especially when most cell phones are able to connect to the Internet these days.

Those people who copy DVDs need not apply, but if you've purchased tons of DVDs, there's now a nifty way to keep them all in your pocket.

It's a simple product called Groqit that reads, stores, and organizes barcodes and therefore is able to keep tabs on any barcode-based inventory (which extends to most consumer products, such as books, DVDs, and so on).

About the size of a pen, the Groqit can store more than a million barcodes.

(Credit: Grogit)

This battery-operated device is shaped like a pen and incorporates a little scanner. Once a barcode is scanned, it's kept within the device's 128MB built-in storage and you can assign it to a category for better management. The device can store more than a million barcodes.

The idea is that by keeping this "pen," you can immediately check to see if you have already purchased a product and therefore are less likely to buy a duplicate.

The device can work independently or can be used with a Mac or PC computer--via an USB connection--to connect to Groqit's Web site, where you can sync the device's data base with your account and translate the barcodes into the real products' names and information.

Groqit costs $95 and comes with 30 days or 300 free translations, whichever comes first. After that, you'll have pay $4.95 a month for the translation service. Another advantage of the Web site is that you can share the inventory with friends or family members so that you won't buy them something they already have and vice versa.

Personally, I think this is a cool device, though I do believe that if you have more stuff than you can remember, chances are it's time for a garage sale. Even then, Groqit definitely will still come in handy to organize successful sales. The best thing is if you have two Groqits--they'll keep tab of each other and you are guaranteed not to accidentally buy a third one.

Whenever we hear the word "dictation," we recall those cliched movie scenes of executives calling secretaries into their offices to take shorthand. But products like the "Digital Pocket Memo 9600" from Philips remind us how far technology has evolved the practice.

When used with its new docking station, the device can transfer dictations through a local network or the Internet to a transcriptionist or voice-recognition system without a computer, according to Gizmag. Real-time encryption and password protection ensure security, and a bar-code reader can be used to scan patient or client information and attach it directly to dictation files for simultaneous transfer.

Maybe doctors with illegible handwriting can use them to send prescriptions too.

(Credit: Appliancist)

"Roombas" and "Scoobas" are fine for what they do, but--how shall we say this--they're kind of dumb. The "Microrobot UBOT," on the other hand, is kind of like a Roomba with a college degree.

Rather than randomly vacuum or scrub as it bumps its way about the house, the UBOT senses its target floor, sweeping and mopping at the same time in a single pass while avoiding duplicate cleaning. But just like some overeducated humans we know, it can correctly perform its duties only with the help of others--in this case, bar codes that are printed directly onto the floor boards, which the machine then reads.

If you do go through all the trouble to construct a support system that satisfies this hothouse flower, Appliancist says it will dutifully follow the markings back to its docking station upon completion of its tasks or if its four-hour battery needs recharging, whichever comes first. But if money is no issue, we would suggest skipping class and going with the brute force of a $170,000 cleaning monster from Japan.

When bar codes became commonplace, we thought it would only be a matter of time before we'd all be using them to organize everything. That day may finally be near, only 30 years later.

The Flic Scanner Media Organizer builds personal media libraries by scanning and cataloging music, movies and books. Microvision, which manufactures the technology, makes it sound almost too easy to be true: "Scan your items, return to your computer, plug in the scanner and watch the Collectorz.com software work for you." You can retrieve such information as cover art and track information, which can be downloaded to portable devices or shared with friends on the Web.

If you're as poorly organized as we are--and that would be saying a lot--it might be worth springing the $200 to buy on of these. As handheld scanners go, you could do a lot worse on price.

(Photo: Microvision)