Apology

Wow the bug finally bit. I have to offer an apology to Scott Shaffer AKA The Pondering Primate who has been raving to me about QR codes for months in his very well read and very knowledgeable PWC/Mobile Marketing blog and to be honest I always thought it was too complicated too unworkable.

QR codes are a 2 dimensional barcode (stores information not only on the x axis but the y axis as well). They look like a series of random dots in a square shape. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_Code

You are able to use the camera on your phone to take a photo of these QR codes which will cause it to enable an event, either text, Vcard, URL etc.

I didn't realise until I went to the Barcamp Mobile NY conference last week that QR codes aren't proprietary eg any reader should in effect be able to read any other encoders output...ahhhh well that makes more sense.

EG I thought a scanbuy reader needed to be downloaded to read the dupont labels eg- whats the point of that my handset would have nothing but readers on it.

So I took my trusty HTC Tytn (otherwise known as the cingular 8525 for you USA based readers) off to http://www.quickmark.com.tw/English/download.asp downloaded the CHT9000 software (hmmm they must be so interchangeable that it doesn't really matter) copy the .cab file into the phone, install file and power up the software.

After searching the web for QR codes and finding some really cool ones - including business cards, urls, hyperlinks, click-to-call links etc, I came back to the Quickmark site to start encoding my own http://diy.quickmark.com.tw/sa_eng/?c=101

Now yes there are a whole heap of other sites that will encode for you however the function I really wanted was my business card and most of the other web based encoders were only doing simple single text or url encoding - I really wanted the Vcard function so now off you go to www.cognation.net/contact and snap a shot :)


Cheers,
Dean

P.S. In case you are wondering by this point in the post whats the point....experience will teach you otherwise, go download the reader on your phone and come back and comment-interested in your thoughts.

P.P.S. Yes Microsoft are going to make this huge https://barcode.ideas.live-int.com/ if only they can get it right eventually....their current encoder is crap and implemented incorrectly - stick with Quickmark for the moment.