RedLaser 2.2 Lets You Create Your Own Barcode Scanning App

iSmashPhone readers will be familiar with the RedLaser Barcode app which we had covered a while ago. Unlike most Barcode scanners, the RedLaser app actually worked and impressed us by its accuracy and its highly intuitive interface. Now a new version of the app is available on the Apple App Store and this one too looks like a winner.

What sets the RedLaser 2.2 apart from the competition is its ability to let iPhone users create custom apps in a few seconds. Yes folks, build your own apps in a few clicks and enjoy the ultimate customization. How you may ask? Well read on.

After you download and install the RedLaser app from the iTunes store ($1.99), click on your iPhone Safari browser and visit http://www.redlaser.com/apps. 

There you will  need to fill in some data relating to your app. Say if you want to look up prices at VGPC (http://www.videogamepricecharts.com) then you need to fill in the following information:

Name: VideoGamePriceCharts

URL: http://www.videogamepricecharts.com/search/?q=730865530137

Param: q

Icon URL: http://www.videogamepricecharts.com/static/images/vgpc-app-image.jpg

Convert to UPC: Check the box

Once you have entered this,  proceed to the Build App" option and click it. Voila you will get your own littl app in a few seconds. 

Here is some additional info you would appreciate:

Creation can be done from a PC/Mac OR on the iPhone directly.

If you create these from a PC/Mac, you will get a link.  You can shorten those with bit.ly, etc, to share them really easily.

Here is the link that gets created for the videogamepricecharts example:  http://www.redlaser.com/CustomApp.aspx?name=VG+Charts&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.videogamepricecharts.com%2fsearch&param=q&checkupc=true&imageurl=http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Dmi7Txvz7iI/St9DyhbZOdI/AAAAAAAABdg/jday-w3veCM/s400/vgpc-app-image.jpg

If you create it on iPhone directly, you will get the screen that lets you add it directly to your home screen (see pics below).

Once you create the "Custom App" you will see the icon on your homescreen, just like any other app, but it's actually a link that ends up launching RedLaser (as shown below). 

Tapping these custom apps launches RedLaser, but goes DIRECTLY to the scan screen (see pic).

After a scan, it then exits RedLaser and goes directly to the website of choice (as shown below).

Here's another interesting fact: You can technically launch other apps after scanning too.  So it's not limited to webpages. If somebody wants to create an app, they can use this feature to enable scanning without actually integrating our full SDK.  So far nobody has done this but one or two companies are interested.

If you tried this app out, do let us know what you thought of it. Its quite incredible how much this app offers and how easy and fun it makes barcode scanning on the iPhone.

Note: this post is not sponsored by RedLaser.  Our friends at VGPC asked us to test this feature out few weeks ago.