In the The Top 10 list from fosfor, there are some phones I mentioned as well like the PENCK or more recently the LG Chocolate. KDDI's au Design Project comes out as a clear winner. Sadly most of these au phones are not available here in Europe.
Notable: the RAZR doesn't get into the Top 10.

What still puzzles me, is the fact that we haven't yet seen a phone which has the usability of a Nokia, the beauty and sleekness of a KDDI phone, the camera and screen of a Sharp and which offers on top of that a great service.


See also:
Students at Central St Martins College of Art and Design in London have been coming up with designs for the biggest selling phone of 2015:
Mobiles of the Future

Editions Underbahn publish a QR Code on all their books which after decoding is an ISBN of one of their books:



You can take a picture of the QR Code and send it via MMS to their server. There it is decoded. Naturally you can also directly read it with this QR Code reader and send them an SMS (they could also encode the SMS right away - here is the result with my long message). It's cheaper and I guess they will be surprised;)

They promise to send you back an answer in 24 hrs. and give you an URL to access the bonus to your book.

Image: Sharp

Barcode Function explained here:

バーコード読み取り・作成／文字読み取り（OCR）
QRコードやJANコードの読み取りはもちろん､直接英数字を読み取ることも可能。読み取った情報は､電話帳に登録したり、インターネット接続や電話をかけるなど､様々な利用ができます。また､QRコードは作成することもできます。

The Sharp 902sh is distributed in France via SFR and in Switzerland via Swisscom. It comes with a QR Code Reader and can read mobile manga.

In France the QR Code Reader has not been taken out, I am interested to know how it is in Switzerland.

PS: And what about the Sharp 770sh?

http://denCity.net
denCity.net creates virtual networks of real places.

QR-codes (2D barcodes) are used to tag buildings and urban sites. your mobile camera phone can read these tags. simply shoot them and log in to denCity.net. denCity.net provides information to the specific place.

Smoothly combining the virtual with the real, each tag in denCity.net has a physical location. A map can be underlaid to allow easy orientation, even substituting a navigation system! There is no need for GPS, RFID and thelike: Each tag has its own coordinates by which the keitai knows its position.

Gerhard Fasol writes that

Mobile commerce (the mobile phone equivalent of mailorder) exceeded mobile content (music, weather, news, etc) first in 2004 in Japan.

Qponpon Manga Poster explains it in pictures.
Qponpon Official Site
Qponpon mobile interface

Via ITMedia


PS: If you can't travel to Japan there is an alternative, you only have to order the stamp yourself:

• Get a moblog at moblog.ch with a QR Code (you can change the language parameter to english by going to the admin, settings (Einstellungen), blog (Blog)
• Upload an image or a 3gp movie
• Create your own stamp by using the QR Code in the right column. Read Marco's Color Matters! to find out how to create a PDF
• Go to http://qrcode.kaywa.com and create the PDF
• Send the PDF to a stamp maker (size: 2x2cm or 3x3cm)
• Stamp the QR Code
• Scan the QR Code with your Kaywa Reader

Bus travellers in Paris will follow the Tokyo example, Yahoo News France says:

Pour les touristes, autres usagers particulièrement demandeurs de ces nouveaux services mobiles, elle expérimente un service de guidage jusqu'à leur destination finale, ainsi que des podcasts vidéo d'explications sur les transports en commun. Enfin, pour les usagers des bus, elle essaye un système de distribution de l'information via des codes-barres particuliers à deux dimensions, appelés "codes QR". «En photographiant ce code-barre avec son téléphone, qui renvoie vers une URL spécifique selon l'endroit où il est localisé, l'usager pourra accéder aux horaires de son bus», souligne le responsable.

Via Stéphanie


Related:
Taiwan market: Mobile service providers to provide QR Code support

If you didn't know yet, the Kaywa Reader not only decodes QR Codes, but also Datamatrix.

To test the Datamatrix capabilities of your Kaywa Reader, you can generate your own Datamatrix Codes here.

My personal preference goes clearly to QR Codes for many reasons, but if we can support the other important ISO-standard as well, then let's do it!


PS: The Java Version for Sony Ericsson is soon to be ready;)

Linux is gaining ground in the mobile arena, especially since Motorola supports it strongly. Motorola is naturally interested to back it, as an alternative to the Symbian and Windows OS.



In this regard Trolltech's announcement is particularly interesting:
Trolltech offers fully reprogrammable mobile phone

Trolltech's Greenphone is priced at around $690 and comes with all the software and source code necessary to develop a complete mobile phone model, including core Linux operating system controls, a phone dialler, address book and camera application.

[...] Trolltech's Eirik Chambe-Eng told delegates at the Open Source Business Conference in London that Linux is set to "make a lot of headlines going forward on embedded devices and mobile phones".

"We believe we are just now at the beginning of a revolution," he said on Wednesday, citing what he called the "five Cs"--complexity, control, customization, cost and community--as motivating factors for manufacturers to switch to Linux.

Mapfan
Check the QR Code function by going to this map. You find the QR Code icon and function on top of the map, next to the printer icon.


Via earthhopper