Nice news from the UK: Harrods embraces mobile barcodes

The Knightsbridge store is understood to be the first British retailer to run print ads featuring 'mobile barcodes', tiny squares showing black and white shapes which, when a mobile phone takes a picture of them, provide information to the phone via the web.

[...] The codes will feature in a series of ads in London and national media to publicise a new exhibition put on by Harrods called Design Icons, which features Vivienne Westwood, the fashion designer, and the architect of the new St Pancras International station.

[...] At present only the most advanced phones, such as Nokia's 95, have pre-installed software which enables them to read the codes, but several providers offer 'code reading' software which can be downloaded onto other phones, and in the future more phones will have the capability 'out of the box', Nokia said.

[...] One group, which is backed by Nokia, the handset manufacturer, favours a particular type of format known as a 'QR code'. Another wants a rival standard, known as 'dot matrix', to be used.

I guess they meant Datamatrix instead of dot matrix;)