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November 11, 2004

Mmmm .... Delicious!

I'm having such an "I Love Software" kind of morning.

The swoon-inducing application is called "Delicious Library." It's the first (and, thus far, only) app from Seattle software company Delicious Monster.

Conceptually, Delicious Library is very simple: it allows you to track what books, music, movies and video games you own. It also lets you "loan" books to friends (and, given that one of my pals has had my "Teach Yourself UNIX System Administration In 24 Hours" for about a year now, this is somewhat close to my heart).

"So what's the big deal?" you say. "Just put all that stuff in a spreadsheet."

"Ah," I reply. "But what makes Delicious Library super-easy is that it uses Web services and - get this - barcode scanning to make the data-entry process unbelievably simple."

Works like this. Say I want to add a DVD to the library. I simply grab the movie off the shelf and flip it over to expose its UPC. I then point my iSight video camera at the UPC. Delicious Library makes a "beep" noise to let me know it scanned OK (just like in the grocery store), and then runs over to Amazon to grab all the details - artwork, title, recommendations, you name it.

Slick, slick, slick.

So I've been sitting here this morning, running around the apartment with my PowerBook and iSight, cataloging everything. It's addictive and fun - Zap! Zap! Zap!

The software does other cool stuff, too, like integrating with Address Book (so when I loan a book to someone, I don't have to retype any of their details) and iPod (so I can take a list of my stuff with me on the go - no more duplicate DVD buying!).

It's hot. If you've got a Mac, download the demo - it lets you add up to 25 items without a license.

Posted by Gavin Shearer at November 11, 2004 11:05 AM. Posted to Apple.

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