Self-service checkouts are increasingly common in supermarkets and chain stores, not to mention at airports. Lifehacker reader and frequent commenter 66biscuits offers a useful tip for ensuring your groceries (or tickets) are recognised quickly.

Dear Lifehacker, I have recently got with the current century and have an Android phone. Love it! But the thing that is missing for me is a good Australia-enabled shopping program. I would like to be able to scan barcodes, create and maintain shopping lists, and sync with an online website where I can also manipulate the list. I'd also like to be able to compare prices amongst stores. I have seen apps aplenty to do all or part of these in the US market - are there any focused on Australia? Thanks, Droppa Docket

The updated 2.1 version of eBay's iPhone app adds support for reading barcodes, making it easier to comparison shop for similar items on the site or to list your own items for sale. That's a great idea in theory, but in our tests it totally failed to be of any use.