Before 3GSM there is MIDEM, the World's Music Market.

And thanks to 234, QR Codes and the Kaywa Reader make the first page of MIDEM NET Special Edition, next to an Ad of Nokia's new music phones (which are supported as the N70 or will be supported very soon).

And here are the QR Codes (from left to right: Music? Video? Infotainment?):


Music? Video? Infotainment? (The Ad as PDF)

Or should I rather say Taiwan as the characters do not look Mao style aka simplified?

Btw: Ogilvy Taiwan and Motorola did a survey on QR Codes in July and they used Chragi's illustration for it, naturally with our approval.

See also:
Chinese report about QR Code

Duncan Sample has made a cool Firefox QR Code Add-on. I had trouble refinding it in May (see comments in Kelly Goto's post) and use it since then. Now more and more people ask me for it, which brings me to make this post.

One warning though: This extension translates your URL straight away into a QR Code which means that you have to be sure that the site URL you are rendering is good to use on a mobile phone. If you have a Kaywa Blog, do not use the web address for now (this will probably change in the future), but add the /mobile to it. As an example do not use http://mobile.kaywa.com, use http://mobile.kaywa.com/mobile to generate the QR Code instead.

From the Mobile Barcoder site:

This extension generates 2D barcodes (called QR Codes) of the URL of the current page being viewed. You can then use a mobile phone to read the URL from the screen to save you typing the long URL using the phone keypad. Many Japanese phones already have this capability, Nokia S60 phones are beginning to get some/better applications.

Works with: Firefox 1.0 - 2.0.0.* ALL
Download

* By the way, you can also create your QR Code by going to http://qrcode.kaywa.com where you can also generate SMS, Text, Phone Numbers. And if you don't have a mobile version, there's always Feed2Mobile.

The 5 things you didn't know about me. Finally paying my dues.

• I lived and worked for 8 months in a place with no electricity, no telephone and great selfgrown food. I left this place three times during my stay, two trips to Domodossola to buy basic stuff like coffee, wheat, wine, rice, nails etc. and once to see Love Streams by John Cassvetes and Melvin and Howard by Jonathan Demme on the Piazza Grande.
• I didn't find the time yet to thank Kyle Barrow properly for the japanese magazines he sent me. I loved the latest Softbank catalogue with Cameron Diaz on the front page. Not only is the catalogue full of QR Codes, but it also shows how much more advanced the japanese are concerning mobile. A beautiful brochure which you want to keep.
• I just finished to read a great manga from Taniguchi Jiro, Haruka Na Machi He. If you have about the same age as me, you will understand.
• Mobile is really getting interesting;)
• I will be at 3GSM, I am now looking for a place to stay. Does anybody know a nice hotel or some other accomodation?

And if I am not coming completely late, I'd like to pass on the torch to NewYorkCityGirl, Smoothplanet, Nicolas Nova, Bruno and Kyle.
But don't feel it as an obligation - only si vous en avez envie.

Nokia-Visa's Mobile Payment Platform

The initial version of the mobile payment platform launched on Monday offers contactless mobile payment, personalization over mobile telephony networks, coupons and direct marketing. Subsequent versions of the platform, to be made available later in the year, will include remote payment -- also using mobile telephony networks -- and person-to-person payment.

See also:
Mobile Payment Forum

via MobileActive.org

[crossposting from blog.kaywa.com]

Today the third edition of Musicstar (aka American Idol, Superstar) will start on Swiss National Television. Kaywa provides the blogs for the candidates.

What's special is that the candidates can moblog their videos right from their mobile phone and everyone can then see their flash-movies some seconds later (see Sandros and Muhammeds Videos below).*
Another thing to mention are the mobile tags aka QR Codes which give an easy access to the mobile version of their blogs.

Although we know that the candidates are working hard (currently from 7
a.m. to 1 p.m) and that their main aim is to perform at their peak, we
hope they still find some time to blog. And hey, blogging is not like
schoolwork, it's freewheeling and random thoughts, images and videos.
And it's a great way to offer something to your fans from behind the
scene.

Currently the following blogs are open (one "hope candidate" will join them next week):

		Albresha's Blog Scan the QR Code or send a SMS to 202 with QR 2021700002 (SMS only in CH, Cost: CHF 0.20)
		Börni's Blog Scan the QR Code or send a SMS to 202 with QR 2021700003 (SMS only in CH, Cost: CHF 0.20)
		Brian's Blog Scan the QR Code or send a SMS to 202 with QR 2021700004 (SMS only in CH, Cost: CHF 0.20)
		Fabienne's Blog Scan the QR Code or send a SMS to 202 with QR 2021700005 (SMS only in CH, Cost: CHF 0.20)
		Luca's Blog Scan the QR Code or send a SMS to 202 with QR 2021700006 (SMS only in CH, Cost: CHF 0.20)
		Monica's Blog Scan the QR Code or send a SMS to 202 with QR 2021700007 (SMS only in CH, Cost: CHF 0.20)
		Muhammed's Blog Scan the QR Code or send a SMS to 202 with QR 2021700008 (SMS only in CH, Cost: CHF 0.20)
		Rebecca's Blog Scan the QR Code or send a SMS to 202 with QR 2021700009 (SMS only in CH, Cost: CHF 0.20)
		Sandra's Blog Scan the QR Code or send a SMS to 202 with QR 2021700001 (SMS only in CH, Cost: CHF 0.20)
		Sandro's Blog Scan the QR Code or send a SMS to 202 with QR 2021700010 (SMS only in CH, Cost: CHF 0.20)

We wish you good luck and a very good time.


HOW TO GO TO THE MOBILE VERSION OF THE BLOGS

To go to the mobile version, we use the example of Albresha's Blog:

1. Scan the mobile tag above with the Kaywa Reader or any other QR Code Reader.
2. Send a SMS to 202 with QR 2021700002 (works only in Switzerland)
3. Type 2021700002 in your Kaywa Reader ("Options", then "Enter short code")

* A similar technology from Kaywa is already in use on rebell.tv, but Rebell takes his videos with a digital video camera.

Dear Sirs,
I read your Mobile Codes Consortium Mission Statement (PDF) with great interest and I think this is a very good initiative.

However from outside this looks right now like a marketing operation by companies already working together. I am curious to know how you see this. Are you interested to let other parties in? If yes, this could be the start of something really interesting.

As Activeprint/Gavitec showed that they can do QR Codes, I think this would be one of the first things to settle. Define the codes to support, the two obvious candidates are the "open" ISO-Standards QR Code and Datamatrix. It is clear that any proprietory code would compromise this "open looking" initiative immediately. As a next step, it would be good to converge on the functionalities every reader must provide.

Finally, once this is settled, we certainly need to find the common ground on the business model.

So that's the first questions I have and I am happy to hear what you are thinking. I would encourage you to have an open discussion.

Best regards
Roger Fischer
CEO, Kaywa


PS: I publish this letter openly because I think it's in the public's greatest interest to have full transparence here.

PS 2: I think there are some great proprietory codes out there and I have great respect for the companies, however this threatens the wide-spread use of mobile codes. If all could converge on one code this would tremendously boost the whole 2D Barcode cause and I am sure that there is still enough space for everyone then.

Nobody will download three or four barcode readers and as we are living in a globalized world, it is no longer possible to have separate codes per country. 2D Barcodes could be one of the best accelerators of mobile 2.0 and have at least the same impact as SMS.

We all should be grateful to Japan's telcos to have shown the example of converging on one code very quickly, but also offering us daily examples of the many possibilities how to use QR Codes.

Jérôme over at Smoothplanet also opened a 2D Barcode category.

Read his post about Quickmark's piece of software that lets you decode QR Code with your webcam.

PS: And over at ForumOxford started a discussion about Mobile 2D barcodes . (You have to register first).

Flash Lite Visual Guide from Nokia
Old news - but I only discovered it now.

Via Luciano Ayres and then Flashcell (which has a QR Code in it's contact form. As it has japanese dimensions (read: small code), it will only be readable eventually by the Kaywa Reader on Nokia Series 60 3rd edition (N80, N73) for now. Hopefully they make it a bit bigger (or zoomable), so that I can also access it with say a Nokia 6670.

COORDINATING MOBILE LIFE
by Jonas Larsen, John Urry, Kay Axhausen

We have argued that mobile phones are as symbolic of contemporary modern societies, as pocket watches were when Simmel wrote about Berlin. This transition corresponds with a shift from punctuality to more fluid ‘networked time’ where ‘punctuality’ is negotiated on the move, so that time, venue and group can change with the next email or text. Whereas trains and pocket watches were early modern twins, mobile phones and cars are the late modern ones, raging against past rhythms and timekeeping of early modernity when transport and mediated communication were unconnected. The striking popularity of cars, email and mobile communications are thus significantly tied up with how they afford a flexible and mobile social life, with high network capital, with dispersed and personalised social networks and where coordinated arrangements and travel are necessary for the mundane business of meeting up, for doing social life.

I wonder how many people are already living the mobile life and how this is reflected according to age, gender and other sociodemographic factors. Does anyone have some statistical data on this?