When I covered apps you might want to use when hunting down deals for the best Christmas deals, I had to draw the line somewhere for how many apps I would talk about. One that I really wanted in but didn’t make it was SnapTell. It is an app I have used quite a bit over the last couple years on my iPhone.

Maybe because it is so easy to use, it is so fast to give me my requested information or because it always seems to work, I have started to just assume everyone has it. After talking to a gent today in line at the store, it became obvious not ‘everyone’ does.

The SnapTell app accepts an image you take of either a product packaging front or the product bar code. It takes that information and tells you where else you might find the product and how much it is selling for elsewhere. The locations for the availability is both brick-n-mortar and online.

Snap an image of the cover or of the bar code, the results you get back are the same:

The first result screen you get is what the software thinks you may be looking for. In this case the cover was enough for it to know I was looking at the movie ‘Inception’ but not if it was a regular DVD or Blu-ray.

Choosing one brings up a list of the option SnapTell found for that item. Here is found 19 Online options and 2 local stores that have ‘Inception’. Farther down the list is the options for more information on the product. This can be handy for looking up who was in the movie, if there are any warnings about a toy, etc…

Choosing the local stores option, SnapTell shows the stores, distance from where you are, the price they are selling the product for, their address, and a short on the product it’s self. I actually used this in a store last week when there wasn’t a price marked on the item, SnapTell told me.

And, generally for ‘really good’ pricing or if your not finding any local stores that have what your looking for – the online available options is generally a much longer list. All of this from a simple picture of a cover or product box taken with the iPhone.