Try before you buy

While celebrating the new year in Thailand, which is a veritable water fest, my phone, a useful duo-sim Samsung D880, died, probably because of water seeping into the body. Even though I had the phone nicely protected in a sealable plastic bag.

While my phone is in the shop, I figured I needed either a permanent or a temporary replacement. Chinese knock off brands sell duo-sim phones for as little as the equivalent of 50 euros, while cheap brand name phones go for as little as 20. But then it struck me, why not get the cheapest camera phone with bar code reader support?

More expensive Nokia phones come with a homegrown bar code reader pre-installed, but I wasn't ready to fork out several hundred euros. And, if I was going to spend real money, I wanted a duo-sim phone anyway. Or an iPhone.

Beetagg claims to support the Nokia 1680, probably the cheapest brand name camera phone on the market, which was going here for 40 euros. A fair deal.
But, no, though the Beetagg installer recognized the phone, the application, once installed, could not access the camera.

A day later, I went back to the shop, explaining my problem. Now, try doing that in Thai, about a product no one here has ever heard of.
However, friendly guys and gals all around, we ended up trying another model, the Nokia 5000, also supposedly supported by Beetagg (as well as UpCode). But, here, too, the applications couldn't access the camera.

Yet another model later, the Nokia 3110classic, our trials were met with success, Beetagg installs and runs smoothly. It runs in snapshot mode, which is not as nice realtime mode, but it works. And at 70 euros, it's still not too bad a deal.

So, try before you buy. Phones that are claimed to be supported clearly don't always work.

One QR reader finder to rule them all

WIth so many QR readers for so many cellphones, visit tigtags to find the one which is right for you.

Where to get a bar code reader

J-walk.co.za uses two dimensional bar codes to aid you to obtain information on a particular location in the city, on your mobile phone. There are quite a few bar code readers on the market and depending on your phone, you might have to shop around to find a reader which works for you.
Keep in mind that, at least, you need a cellphone with a camera and internet access.

Here's a list of cellphone based bar code readers:

• BeeTag
• i-nigma
• UpCode
• Scanlife
• Quickmark
• NeoReader
• Kaywa
• SnapMaze
• Zebra Crossing

If we missed any, let us know.