RadioShack's Newest Giveaway
by canyoumatrix (canyoumatrix@yahoo.com)
Everyone's favorite electronic superstore has a new toy for us to play with.
Participating RadioShacks are currently giving away a device called the :CueCat by Digital:Convergence (www.digitalconvergence.com).
It's a barcode scanner that scans special slanted barcodes called ":Cues."
It's a plastic cat shaped device that contains two optical sensors which are capable of scanning barcodes. The unit connects to Windows computers via wedging into the keyboard port (it plugs into your keyboard port and your keyboard plugs into it).
You pass it over a :Cue or a standard barcode and software that runs in the background retrieves a URL from a database that matches barcode numbers with product web sites. If there is no web page associated with the Universal Product Code (UPC) that you scanned, a page opens up that allows you to tell the makers of the :CueCat what should be associated with that UPC.
The concept started as a way to scan in barcodes from the 2000 RadioShack catalog and has been expanded to magazines, newspapers, and even cable shows, which use unique audio signals to bring up web pages from your TV.
When I got my first :CueCat, I refused to believe that it would work, or at least that it would work well. So I hooked it up, ran the software enclosed on a CD, and after a nice flash presentation and a restart I was ready to try it.
Well, what to scan? I picked up a pack of Wrigley's gum that was next to my keyboard, swiped it, and presto, wrigleys.com. Amazing. Well, I still wasn't too impressed so I looked around for more barcodes. Scanning a Pepsi can brought up pepsi.com. Scanned my copy of Wired Magazine, wired.com came up. I hope you're starting to get the picture. Wouldn't it be nice if all the long URLs in 2600 could just be scanned in instead of typed?
I recommend that everyone go to their local RadioShack and pick up a few (they'll mail you one for the shipping cost if you don't live near a RadioShack). Then go home and scan all your back issues of 2600 and make sure they add in the 2600 UPCs because at the current time, every magazine I've tried works with the exception of 2600.
Good luck scanning!