Your phone used to pretend it was a beer glass.

Now it can read one.

Beer-maker Heineken recently adapted a new technology allowing users, with the help of their phones, to scan barcodes on Heineken products in order to download free applications for the iPhone, Android (News - Alert) or Blackberry.

The technology, made by Scanbuy, is a mobile application known as ScanLife. It converts an existing camera phone into a barcode reader. The barcodes it reads are specially coded to function with the application, and they can be placed on posters, product labels, or other media.

The advent of ScanLife allows a consumer to access a company's website with a wave of their phone. It is a lot more versatile than a standard advertisement.

And Heineken isn't the only company utilizing ScanLife. Newspapers, car manufacturers, and marketing firms are turning to this new option as a surefire way to reach consumers directly.