Sorry, but that is utter rubbish. I could have done it with my phone six years ago (had anyone bothered emailing coupons with bar codes to me back then).

iPhone again?
BA (amongst several others) are way ahead of you - no Apple gear needed.

EEESH... tough crowd.

I'm honestly, sincerely asking for information on how this can be done. Using the two handsets I've mentioned, the email I received is HTML. Those Sony handsets convert it to text only in the email reader application. Trying to grab the hyperlink that is text that points to the barcode it might bring up the image, but the screen resolution is mediocre at best and the image quality would not be sufficient to be read. In my situation with the iPhone, it was easy to magnify the bar code and the resolution was quite good.

I can appreciate the point you're making that technically what I did could have been done in the past, but from a practical standpoint, the device makers didn't make it such that an average user could do it without some extra effort or gyrations.

Now, can we at least agree on that?

Not really

You are comparing 2 non-smartphones (2 SE models) to a smartphone with a large hi-res display.

I've scanned barcodes off my screen several times (and can even use the camera in my phone to SCAN the barcodes themselves).

If you had owned anything with a decent screen resolution then yes, you would have been able to do what the iPhone can do ages ago.

Now I will say this; what you did is probably EASIER on the iPhone, that is one thing that is revolutionary. The rest is just what any modern smartphone can do.

That said; couldn't you have just swiped your CC at Sears? You don't HAVE to scan the barcode Last time I did a merchandise pickup I also didn't have the pickup slip with me, so I just swiped my card and the merchandise arrived within 2 minutes. And I didn't even need an iPhone.

But you didn't and wasn't able to. SFO 1K did and was able to. Think about it.

You're obviously not understanding. Why wait for an airline to introduce technology to do something like this. One can now, potentially, log online, check-in, and present the barcode to the gate reader without the airline having to pilot any ticket on mobile programs.

Good luck with that when the gate reader is down. I'd love to see the look on the GA's face when you hand her your iPhone... And then the look on everyone in line behind you

ScottC nailed it on the head... it's the ease of doing something on the iPhone that makes it unique.

I very well may have been able to. I just followed the directions on the email which stated that I needed the email (with bar code) the credit card used for payment and my ID.

FWIW, when T-Mobile came out with the first Windows based mobile phone, I bought it and it crashed so many times I finally actually threw it in the garbage. I have talked to some folks with more recent Windows based mobile devices and they complain of crashes and slow response to this very day. They may be better than the first generation, but compared to what I've used in the past, this device has worked well for me. It is not the phone for everyone. It's not the greatest invention ever made. It's not going to change the world. But, it's nice, fun to use, looks good, and at least in the last two weeks, hasn't crashed, gone haywire, dropped a call or anything else that I could complain about from before. So, for me, it's good.

I love attention!

I didn't because nobody bothered emailing me a coupon with a bar code. I certainly would have been able to. Not quite getting your argument here... (Ok, I couldn't have done that nifty pinch thing to zoom in. I'll give you that.)

Of course I'm understanding. 1) Most any recent phone can display the barcode ok and have it scanned ok, not just the iPhone. That's what this trial shows. 2) Many phones can also retrieve the barcode in the same way as the iPhone can. It's hardly something new. They can also get them via MMS too - which the iPhone can't. 3) At least in the airports I've been to, doing as you suggest would involve giving one's phone to the gate staff. No thanks! Until the airlines round these parts pilot something like this (that make the scanner available to me with the phone in my hand), I have no intention of going without the piece of paper.

Of course, I could check in, open the online boarding pass and print it from my phone. The iPhone can do that too, right? Right?

Well said.

FWIW; my WindowsMobile device has been rock solid for close to a year now. I never reboot it and never encounter lockups.

Keep in mind though; a virgin WindowsMobile device will almost always be 100% stable, just like a virgin iPhone. I know of plenty of apps for WM that will crash my phone, and will make it unusable.

Why else do you think Apple has delivered it locked down? And the iPhone isn't perfect in that department either, many of the reviews DO complain about lockups, especially when trying to do too many things at the same time (listen to music and browse).

But once the iPhone starts opening up to applications it'll be interesting. I'm hoping Apple locks the thing down enough so applications can't crash the device.

Isn't that pinchy thing great!

Most of any recent phones still have screen size/resolution limitations.

The problem with that is how you give decent functionality to applications to do interesting things quickly, without exposing the OS. Good luck to them - I don't think any one else has come up with a particularly nice solution for it yet.

The pinch movement and the way it controls the browser in particular was enough to make me want an iPhone. (Until I saw how to input text - then I changed my mind. Still, I've not tried text entry on it yet, so we'll see...)

iPhone also seems to not like having an active EDGE session (dowloading, etc) and receiving a call at the same time.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305711

Note: While iPhone is actively transferring data over EDGE�downloading a webpage, for example�you may not be able to receive calls. Incoming calls may go to voicemail.

It could be the iPhone is only a GPRS Class C device - but probably more likely is that the AT&T network is a NOM 3 network. In other words, it doesn't matter what phone you have - when you're attached to GPRS, the network won't be able to route calls to the phone.

Edit: Having said that, some people over on Howard's are saying Apple told them this is a design decision by Apple - the network will route the call but the iPhone will silently refuse it. Pretty surprising if so, though it neatly avoids some nasty audio routing race conditions