Toshiba cameraphone to grab product reviews via barcodes

Toshiba may not be a huge player in the cellphone market (the Vodafone Japan clamshells pictured at the right were among the few recent-vintage Toshiba models we were able to find), but that doesn't mean the company can't come up with innovations for cellphone customers. Toshiba's latest idea: using a cellphone's camera to scan product barcodes, which are then transmitted to a computer that does a database lookup and checks hundreds of blogs for reviews of the product. The server then returns a yay or nay to the phone, based on the blogosphere's consensus. Similar data-mining services are already available online, but Toshiba hopes to capitalize on the convenience of making the zeitgeist available to shoppers instantly. Toshiba plans on beginning a test of the service in Japan as early as next month, before a full rollout sometime next year.