Australia shoppers chasing bargains have a new tool - each other. Shopping aggregation site Lasoo has updated its app so that consumers can crowdsource the best price, location and availability by sharing barcode data scanned by their smartphones at multiple retailers.
Users can already use Lasoo to scan, shop and compare deals at stores. The new feature, Lasoo.it, also adds the sharing of images of scanned items.
Shoppers can follow products and people who share common shopping interests and share their shopping intelligence with Facebook and Twitter.
They can also add new product information if it doesn't exist in Lasoo's database. There's also a page for the most highly scanned products.
One can only imagine how the reinvigorated Lasoo will revolutionise the traditional Boxing Day sales.
Lasoo is planning to make shopping lists come to life with notifications when you are near a store that stocks an item you plan to buy.
BYOD for doctors
THE era of bring-your-own devices by doctors, physiotherapists, surgeons and paramedics is upon us.
A Melbourne plastic surgeon, a dermatologist and a burns specialist have joined forces to create an app that lets professional staff take medical photos of patients using their smartphone and send them to colleagues for diagnosis.
That may include getting second opinions.
PicSafe Medi is the brainchild of dermatologist Ted Carner.
An app that snaps medical photos may not at first sound a big deal, until you consider strict privacy and archiving laws governing electronic health records. And you can't have patient photos turning up on photo streams and, dare we say it, on public cloud.
The app starts by requiring a patient to legally consent to the photos. If needed, the app can record verbal consent. Using a strong encryption system, photos are then uploaded to the secure PicSafe Cloud Bank, where they can be accessed only by registered PicSafe users nominated by the photographer.
To enhance security, URLs of photos exist for a maximum of five minutes.
Patient data is stored for a minimum of seven years as required by law.
PicSafe Media for Apple and Android devices can be downloaded free with a monthly subscription of $4.99.
Regional travel aid
TRAVEL App Studio is more than an app.
It's a database platform that lets regional bodies and tourism authorities load information and photos for their local attractions via a website into a content management system.
The platform then spits out a mobile tourism site, and dedicated apps for iOS and Android can be built for that region.
The developer, Sydney start-up Argentum Webware, says it is possible for a tourism body to create a mobile site and channel in 30 minutes.
Appetiser downloaded the Mudgee Region Tourism Guide created by the platform and was impressed with the quality and organisation of the information.
Mudgee is the first customer to come aboard with Argentum.
