Amazon has really made itself home within Android. The popularity of the Kindle Fire is unparalleled among other Android power tablets. Their Appstore has become widely accepted and often used by everyday users. The Kindle and MP3 applications are both still popular, in fact I think I'm still using them both more than Play Books and Music. In my opinion it is a great partnership between Amazon and Android.

One of the more underutilized applications is Price Check. The main goal of this application is to provide Amazon's pricing when shopping at traditional brick and mortar stores. There are four ways to query these prices for comparison: search by typing, scanning a barcode, taking a picture of the item, and by voice. The app also updated last week, squashing a few bugs. I took the app out this weekend and here were my rough results. I'm naturally going to skip search. That works exactly the way a standard typed out inquiry should work.

I was at a local book store which provided an interesting backdrop especially since Amazon has done no favors for the traditional book selling business. With Amazon Books, Kindle, and Audible, bookstores such as Borders could only crumble within their own pre defined restrictions. The store even held their own price-wise with some items and the allure of having something immediately actually saved the day for the bookstore.

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The barcode scanner did work flawlessly for me. I was able to quickly pull up a book after about two full seconds of holding my camera in range of the book's barcode. From there I am given an interface where I can input the store's price and then scroll to see Amazon's prices along with their partners. I have heard that some devices have had no luck getting the barcode scanner to work. Hopefully they close that loophole soon for those users. I'm also able to quickly read reviews. I've never put too much stock in their reviews, but they have helped steer me away from something with exclusively bad reviews.

The "Snap It" search feature had mixed results. It worked well when taking a photo of a book or magazine. It barely or almost never worked when taking pictures of more obscure items. It failed to recognize a photo printer and took a couple tries to get it to recognize a board game. I let my fiancee take pictures of a few items around the house and had no luck at all. It might be wise to stick with content and media with this portion of the app until further refinements can be made in its functionality.

The third test was the voice search which is always fun in a public setting. I decided to hide out in a restroom stall to do some searches for Transformer Prime and for toilet paper. Both came up with great answers. I then spent ten minutes debating the benefits of having an Amazon Prime membership but decided even with free two day shipping, some items would just not arrive fast enough.

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This app actually shines for me with its extra features. I can see my cart, access my wish list (which turned out to be dangerous), and view my account information. From within my account info, I was able to track and order I had previously made last week. In fact I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to track down that order. I was then able to cancel that impulse buy from my wish list thanks to 1 click. Those headphones will have to wait.

Overall, this is a nice application to have at the ready. I know the online shopping age is here and traditional retail stores have been hurting as a result, but the bottom line for me is getting the best quality and better savings. It's up to these stores now to step up, match prices, and think about providing better complete service. As it is, Amazon continues to reign supreme for this consumer.

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