ShopSavvy perfects its Android app with better location and barcode scanning
ShopSavvy is one of the most popular applications on Google’s Android mobile platform. It has over 400,000 users who actively use it on their G1 phones to scan barcodes and look up items online to comparison shop in real-time. And the new version, dubbed "Gigan," which is launching today, should make the app even better.
The big new feature of this release is the addition of location provided by Skyhook Wireless. While the app previously had location features, it accessed them through the G1’s GPS chip. This process took anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes to work properly, Big In Japan’s (ShopSavvy’s developer) Alexander Muse tells me. And because GPS is really meant to be used outdoors, it also wasn’t that great at finding you even after you waited all that time. Skyhook Wireless’ solution, which uses a hybrid model of GPS data plus Wi-Fi and cell tower triangulation, will work much better.
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