With the prevalence of smart phones and savvy shoppers, more and more consumers are turning to technology to save money and shop smarter. While most large stores, like Target, have price checking stations, its not always efficient to leave the aisle you’re in to find a station. That’s why there’s now an app for that. Target recently added barcode scanning capabilities to its existing iPhone app, in addition to a list feature that allows consumers to manage their shopping lists from their phone.

Even if the price of a product is readily available, by scanning the barcode, consumers will instantly gain visibility into not only the price, but also ratings, reviews, availability at nearby locations, and more.

Get the free Target app with newly added barcode scanning capabilities here.

RH Foster, a supplier of convenience stores, needed to find a more efficient way of labeling sandwiches for their client, Exxon-Mobile. Previously, the sandwich mogul underwent a tedious process just to get the sandwiches labeled correctly. Store clerks would have to:

• 1. Apply a label (by hand) that identified the sandwich and its ingredients.
• 2. Use a labeling gun to set and make the pricing label.
• 3. Get another labeling gun to set and date the freshness label.

As you can imagine, these three manual processes were very time consuming and tedious for the clerk to perform everyday. Even after completing these three steps, the sandwiches weren’t even barcoded, adding an additional step to the POS.

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Socket Mobile recently announced Apple iPad compatibility for their Bluetooth Cordless Hand Scanner 7X, in addition to their antimicrobial version, the 7XRx. The Apple iPad, in combination with the Socket 7XRx offers great potential for healthcare and medical markets requiring tablet displays and 2D barcode data collection, more specifically, for medication administration, patient ID verification, material management and pharmacy logistics.

While the iPad is a revolutionary device on its own, being paired with the Socket 7XRx could really change the way things are done in the healthcare industry. Even by using the standard 7X, applications can be developed for marketing and other consumer-related uses.

While developers are still working with the units, it’s anticipated that the process of piloting, beta testing and then deployment will begin shortly.

Learn more about Socket mobile and their product offerings here.

If you’re a fan of using Microsoft Word for your barcode needs, then there’s good news for you—TEC-IT has recently announced a new barcode add-in for Word.

The add-on, called TBarCode Office, works with Microsoft Word 2007 and 2010 on Windows XP or higher to meet al of your barcode generation needs. Once TBarCode Office is installed, a new task bar appears in Word, allowing users to select the required symbology, enter the data to be encoded and click “Insert Barcode,” and it’s generated!

In addition to barcode generation, the add-on offers advanced options such as bar width reduction, font color, human readable text, and international code page setting, making it the most advanced barcode add-on available on the market.

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There has been much debate over whether or not JAGTAG, QR codes or Microsoft Tag will be used most prevalently in the United States. While QR codes have, and still are, primarily being used in Japan, JAGTAG is gaining popularity in the US.

If you’ve seen the 2019 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue, you may have noticed bikini model JAGTAGs next to model’s photographs. Once a reader snapped a photo of the JAGTAG with their mobile phone, they received additional content of that model. This campaign had over 100,000 mobile engagements, making the Sports Illustrated JAGTAG campaign the most successful 2D barcode campaign ever reported in the US.

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