Is it possible to hack your way into a lounge? Of course it is, when access to an airline’s elite frequent-flyer lounges is controlled via barcode. One traveler couldn’t get into the lounge when he had gold status, and wondered whether he could encode a barcode with fake information that would gain him access that he didn’t deserve. [More]
barcodes
Walmart Taking Its Proprietary Mobile Payment App Nationwide
By 7.6.16
Two months ago, Walmart took its mobile payment app, the logically named Walmart Pay, live in 590 stores in its home state of Arkansas and in the neighboring state of Texas. The test apparently went well: the retailer is bringing the app to customers in the rest of the country as of today. [More]
What Information Is Available When Someone Scans My Driver’s License?
By 4.27.15 — Updated: 5.23.17
There’s a lot of information about you on the back of your state-issued driver’s license or non-driver ID card, but does scanning your license or making a copy of it give potential identity thieves key information about you? It’s not easy to find out what data is encoded in the barcodes on the back of your ID cards, and your state’s motor vehicles department may not want you to know. [More]
Evil Redbox Tricksters In Chicago Make Game Renters Sad
By 9.23.13
We’ve shared with you before first-hand accounts of what happens when you’re the victim of a Redbox scammer. These are people who copy a barcode and illicitly return a game or movie’s case without the disc inside, leaving the next person to check it out sad and disappointed, holding only a piece of paper. [More]
Study: College Students Have No Idea What To Do With QR Codes
By 12.2.11
In spite of the fact that every bit of marketing targeted at teens and college students seems to come with some sort of QR code for this smartphone-happy demographic to scan, a new study says that most college students don’t know what to do with the codes and have no interest in ever scanning them. [More]
Clever Manufacturers Turn Barcodes Into Art
By 6.23.11
The humble barcode needn’t be so. As long as it follows certain basic rules that allow it to be scannable, like being at least half an inch high, having blank space on either side, and not using a few colors, there’s actually a lot you can do with a barcode. [More]
NYC May Add Bar Codes To Restaurant Inspection Grades
By 2.23.11
It’s been about a year since New York City eateries began posting huge letter grades to reflect their latest health inspection results, but now the city’s Health Department is thinking about adding bar codes that people could scan to get more in-depth info on that restaurant’s specific results. [More]
United Airlines Begins Offering Digital Boarding Passes
By 3.12.10
In a move to cut down on paper and ID fraud, United Airlines has announced passengers can now opt out of paper boarding passes and have digital boarding passes sent to their Internet-ready phones. [More]
JCPenney Tries Out Mobile Coupons In Houston Stores
By 9.29.09
If you live in the Houston area, you can now use your mobile phone to redeem coupons for JCPenney through a trial-partnership with Cellfire. You have to register with Cellfire in order to receive the promos via SMS or email, and if you register today you’ll receive a mysterious “$10 in$tant gift” [sic].
By 5.18.09
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If you own a G1 phone from T-Mobile, Google has added a special barcode scanning feature to its Product Search page just for you. Yeah, you’ve already got other barcode scanning apps, but this one integrates with Google’s search functionality so you can scan and see product search results in Google immediately. [Phandroid]
