<<< Continued from previous page

Another great feature is the exclamation mark at the bottom right of the screen - the Info Screen icon. When pressed it shows the author, publisher, date, format, number of pages and weight of the book scanned. And next to the exclamation mark is a magnifying glass which allows you to type titles of books. This search will return several similar titles, and when you press the matching title a voice will speak the lowest price listed on Amazon. You can also use the Info Screen feature with the title search to make sure you have matched up the information with the book that's in your hand. Definitely a great tool for book scouts who might otherwise avoid books with barcodes and ISBNs!

Pocket Profit can also be used to read barcodes for CDs, DVDs, VHS tapes, video games, software and other products. You can use either simple or advanced criteria based on Amazon rank and price. You will also find the Watch List screen handy. It allows you to add and remove items from a watch list or output links for easy uploading to Amazon. You can save the links to an SD card to sell items on Amazon. These automatically save in the Pocket Profit folder on your SD card by default.

After using Pocket Profit for several weeks, I do have few complaints with the program. One issue involves the red "laser" line focusing on the barcode. It has a tendency to look blurry on the Android screen while the camera is focusing on it. If the beep alert is off, there is a long pause, and I wonder if the scan was completed. When I use the Amazon Android application, however, I have not experienced any camera blur. Recently, I've also been trying out the FBAScout application and it has the same camera blur issue as Pocket Profit. Maybe the differences between these applications and the camera blur have something to do with how the software was written?

Right before I turned in my old Android phone late last year, I briefly tested the Pocket Profit application and found that it crashed a few times while scanning. I would be willing to bet that this might have been due to a slower processor on the old Android phone. The Droid X phone has never crashed after multiple uses of Pocket Profit. It may not hurt to upgrade to an Android phone with a faster processor if you decide to use Pocket Profit during your book scouting.

All in all, Pocket Profit is full of many useful features and options. I found it very user friendly with easy to read instructions and icons that make sense. The cost is reasonable as well - $4.99 a month, $13.99 for three months, or $54.99 for a full year. With gas prices sky rocketing these days we can all use budget friendly book scouting programs.

Now, if you have no desire to own an Apple iPhone with it's bazillion available apps, or if you have poor AT&T coverage, then using an Android phone is the way to go! And in my opinion the Pocket Profit application is one of the smartest and best profit making programs you can use in the book scouting field.

Good luck and happy scouting!

EDITOR'S NOTE: MediaScouter's Manager, Chris Madison, informs us that using the Opticon OPN2002 scanner with this app will resolve the blurred laser line issue Mary reported on. See the MediaScouter website for purchase information.