A :CueCat was the cat-shaped handheld barcode reader, manufactured per nowadays-defunct Digital:Convergence in versions for a PS/2 keyboard and late USB and intended for printed catalogs and newspapers. By using these, readers may scan the barcode printed on the page and so exist as taken to a web page with related information. Ad containing :CueCat barcodes actually appeared—briefly—around occasionally high-circulation U. S. mass-market periodicals, notably PARADE magazine. For the instance, RadioShack published catalogs with these barcodes, & possibly distributed :CueCat gear at there is no charge. :CueCats were besides bulk mailed (unsolicited) to certain mailing lists, such as subscribers of technology magazines.

Joel Spolsky speculated[http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000037.html] on the apparently vast numbers of money expended on the unsuccesssful launch, noting that when of 2000, based on data from their webpage, Digital:Convergence had 200 employees. Spolsky forecasted a postage costs alone of mailing :CueCats to each Wired subscriber—as was apparently done—must stand been $1 million.

A format wwhen proprietary, existence scrambled and so when does'nt to exist as usable as plain text – however a barcode itself is closely related Code 128, and a market scanner was likewise capable of reading EAN/UPC and some other symbologies as well. Due to the feeble obfuscation of a data, a software system for decoding the CueCat's output quickly appeared using your internet browser, followed by the overplus of unofficial applications.

A :CueCat device was controversial, ab initio due to privacy concerns. Every :CueCat has the unique serial number, & users suspected that Digital:Convergence can compile the database of everthing barcodes looked by the given user and attach it to the user's title & location. For this cause, & because a demographic market targeted by Digital:Convergence was unusually tech-savvy, many site arose detailing videos for "declawing" a :CueCat — blocking or even encrypting a information it sent to Digital:Convergence.

A company's response to these hacks was to assert that users did not have a hardware & got there are no perfect to modify or even reverse engineer them. Threats of legal actiin against a hackers fleetly brought on additional contestation & criticism. A company's licensing agreement was changed many days, adding expressed restrictions, apparently around response to hacker activity. Hackers argued that a changes did non use retroactively to equipment that experienced been purchased under older versions of a license, & that the hundreds to thousands of users world health organization received unasked :CueCats in the mail got non agreed to nor were legally attached per license.

A :CueCat's failure to catch in in the early adopter market to which it was marketed prevented any chance of wider acceptance.

Although Digital Convergence & a :CueCat come usually assumed to exist as defunct, a Digital Convergence web site remained as a "ghost site" across 2004. Since September 21st, 2002 a homepage has said a equivalent tool: Within June, 2005, the liquidator offered 2 million :CueCats purchasable at $0.Xxx both (inside quantities of 500,000 or even thomas more).