Smart phones bar code scanners.

If you were among the many hesitating to make the jump to smart phones, maybe this bit of information will give you a reason to take another look at them. The news here is that most of the smart phones like Google's G1, Apple's iphone or Samsung' s Instinct, are outfitted with third parties applications that can turn them into virtual shopping assistants. Take the case of the G1 for instance, it is loaded with an application from ShopSavvy which turns the phone into a bar code scanner. Here how it works: You go to a store and point the phone lens to a product bar code and it scans it and send the data to ShopSavvy's database for a quick price comparison online and at local stores and product reviews.
Another cool feature of this application is an email alert. For that to work, you submit your e-mail address and your preferred price for a particular product; ShopSavvy will then send you an alert when the price drops to your likening.

For more, see NYTimes.com