First thing I did when I got my T-Mobile G1 was installing the zxing barcode reader, worked without problems. Scanning of QR Codes is picture perfect, provides a good viewfinder and renders the result of the scan nicely by displaying the code and the resulting URL. Excellent job!

The barcode reader component also supports 1D barcodes, the barcodes you virtually find on every product. My fav app using those so far is the Comparison Shop Application, scan a product and it tells you where to find it cheap online, show you close by stores and in case of books also shows libraries that have the book. You might never shop the same.

But it gets better, as it turns out the G1 browser has Google Gears preinstalled, Google Gears is a plug-in that allows javascript to store/retrieve data on the client and to get its location. On a desktop browser the location is determined via your IP address, on a G1 however it gives you the location based on Cell Towers and GPS. So now you can write location aware websites! It is supposed to work on windows mobile 5.x as well with a preinstalled Google Gears plugin, can somebody verify that? We made prototype, works on a desktop browser but test it on a G1 when you have a chance. Uses wikipedia, flickr and outside.in.

Google Gears Location Experiment

http://www.zdf.de/ZDFmediathek/content/606282?inPopup=true

Check him out;) Overall a very very good piece on QR codes.

Over the course of the last weeks we have been testing some QR Code Readers for the iPhone and we are happy to give you a recommendation if you are still looking for a good one. It quickly came down to two readers the Neomedia NeoReader and the Beetagg Reader. They both do very well what they are supposed to do: decoding 2D barcodes (besides QR Code they also support their own codes, but we will ignore that, you know what we think about proprietary codes;)). They both read QR Codes that have a shadow cast over parts of the code, upside down, from the side, codes that are behind reflective glass, codes that have graphics embedded, codes from a LCD Screen and codes on a bend surface like a bottle. And they do it fast.

Both don’t go to the URL right away but do a redirection over their own servers to collect usage data. That is why the NeoReader asks you for Demographic Information in the Settings, but luckily that is optional. Also both suffer from the iPhone camera lack of a videomode, so you have to take a picture, rather then just moving the iPhone over it like you would do on a Symbian or Windows Mobile Device.

Our favorite is the Beetagg Reader, for two subtle but important factors:

a.) appears much simpler, no menus, just scan
b.) better messaging, it asks you if you want to open the URL (which can be activated for the NeoReader) and it also tells you when it couldn’t scan the barcode, the NeoReader strangely just returns to the scan mode without letting you know, feels like a bug. (Correction: NeoReader Version 1.02 fixes that, tells you when it can’t find a code )

Enjoy, here are both download URLs:

Beetagg: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=286586449&mt=8
NeoReader: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=284973754&mt=8

That came in via a google alert on semapedia:

“Scanbuy, a global leader in mobile marketing solutions, today announced that it has secured a global agreement with Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. to preload the ScanLife mobile 2D barcode application on Samsung’s camera phones.”

CEO Jonathan Bulkeley of Scanbuy went so far as to call the agreement a

“watershed moment for the 2D barcode market.”

Watershed moment? Lets have a look, their Readers read their very own EZcodes, where is watershed here? You have to pay money for the creation of codes, more a moneyshed from you. QR Codes and Datamatrix are free, you can create as many codes as you want to for $0. And I believe you even have to pay for code usage. EZcodes are indirect, they don’t encode an URL but an unique ID that is resolved on their server to a URL and then send back to the user, very old school, just encode the URL please like you do for QR Codes and Datamatrix, straightforward and no added point of failure, when scanbuy is down so are the codes. That is by design. Also QR codes can be easily created in every environment, their are libraries for java, ruby, .net, python, you name it, so very easy to integrate, not so with EZcodes, creation always needs go through them, they own the numbers encoded in the barcode. They claim national and international interoperability via their centralized system, URL are interoperable by design and even decentral.

So to sum it up, expensive, proprietary, less stable and harder to integrate into processes. Hardly a watershed. Lets be nice as well, they work well on very low quality cameras, but we write the September of 2008 and not 2004. Cameras these days in phones are top notch and getting better every day.

So why does Samsung who creates modern handsets like the succesful Samsung Instinct use such a backward code system that certainly won’t spin off innovative projects from mobile entrepreneurs, to get a revenue from barcode usage? hardly, to show how innovative they are, hardly, barcodes are not such an unusual sight anymore, the last esquire had a big and loud ralph lauren QR code ad.

A company like Samsung should be a rolemodel and push for open standards, without open standards I wouldn’t be sitting here writing this post.

Edit:
Of course read that one here as well about CTIA and Scanbuy:
http://wapreview.com/blog/?p=1148

Our great supporters from Tagorg.com in Jordan managed to tag Sea Level, awesome idea!! See for yourself:

Been trying the Beetag Reader for Palm Devices on a Palm Centro, worked really well, can only recommend it. Also tried them on our www.videomeetsfunction.com project to see how it handles streaming video from youtube, not bad at all (Sprint PCS Network), pretty good quality!

Those are very good news, no Schadenfreude, but we are so glad that those ridiculous patent claims by the patent troll neomedia got rejected, they included reading an ID from a barcode or RFID chip from a cellphone, sending it to server, resolving it to a URL and sending the URL back to the cellphone, a pretty much standard procedure in one way or another. We got so many emails in the past if we are not afraid of neomedia and their patents. We never were and now those claims are finally over. Go create something and don’t be afraid of getting a letter from a neomedia lawyer.

http://theponderingprimate.blogspot.com/2008/07/us-patent-office-rejects-all-ninety.html

We finally had the chance (there was too much EURO 2008 soccer;)) to review the Beetagg MultiReader (QR Code, Data Matrix & Beetagg), works very fast, is easy to use and finally finally a Reader that supports some of the Blackberry Devices and the more aged but still popular Palm Treo 650 & 680. We added them to our list of QR code readers that you find on our homepage or you can integrate into your site as an iFrame.

Thumbs up to BeeTagg!

Good news, one more great working QR Code Reader for the iPhone from Beetag, works very very well, but no constant scanning yet, you still need to tap the screen. The Reader also supports Datamatrix and their own 2d barcode.

Installation instructions …