Wireless News

JCPenny and Cellfire have announced that they are launching a mobile coupon scanning program offering coupons on mobile phones that can be scanned in retail stores. The technology allows the user to download digital coupons that they can carry into the store to have scanned for a discount.

The coupon is displayed on the cell phone screen and the cashier can scan the 2D barcodes with new scanners at registers that can read them. The pilot program is starting at 16 stores in the Houston area.

The coupons offered through Cellfire are the same coupons that JCPenny offers via the mail to all customers. The program will run through the fall and holiday seasons with new coupons offered most weeks.

Shoot It became available for Blackberry users this week and is available as a download from the Blackberry App Store. Using the app people can take images and then create a personal message and have a real postcard mailed to anyone they want.

The app has been available on other platforms before and has just now hit the Blackberry. Pricing for the postcards is $1.25 for UK addresses, $1.50 for European addresses, and 99 cents for U.S. addresses.

There is an app for smartphones from FuzeBox called Fuze Meeting that lets mobile users participate.

Fuze Box announced that Fuze Meeting was now available for Blackberry users. The app allows users to connect to meetings over 3G or via Wi-Fi. Users can also chat securely with co-workers and friends.

Using the app people can view content, images, and documents. The app is available as a free download on the Blackberry App World. Compatible handsets include the Storm, Bold, and Curve 8900.

A new app for the iPhone has been unveiled called MoneyPass ATM Locator and the app will help users find ATMs near their location using the location-based features of the iPhone. The application works with all bankcards and debit cards that are part of the MoneyPass network.

The app will even provide you with driving directions to the nearest ATM that requires no surcharge for use. The app can also send directions to an email address. The application is available now for free on the App Store.

IDrive has announced an update to its IDrive Lite online backup app that supports the iPhone and Blackberry devices. The app backs contacts up to an account stored on a cloud computing network and allows the restoring of the contacts from anywhere.

The app also offers the option of importing contacts from Facebook. The new update includes performance fixes for both the iPhone and Blackberry platform. Users can also now restore contacts from another device if both devices are registered under the same account. That is ideal for moving contacts to a new device or a backup phone.