All about Mobile Life

Why a QR Code on a webpage?

Roger Fischer — 2009-06-29T11:01:25Z

USE CASE #1: QR Codes on a Webpage in general and QR Codes on DokoDare in particular

Why a QR Code on a webpage?
Many people say, that they don't understand why on earth someone should put a QR Code on a website as you are already have it before your eyes.

Well, in general, you are not glued to your PC screen 24 hours and so it makes a lot of sense to scan the QR Code and take the webpage with you when you are leaving the "big screen". Normally you also have more idle time when on the move than before a PC, so a QR Code helps you also to bookmark interesting things which cannot be read right now - as you are probably working.
Also the webpage and the mobile version can significantly diverge in what they offer as both screens have different advantages and disadvantages.

In the case of DokoDare this is even more true. The normal use case of going somewhere unknown was to 1) print the address with phone numbers and all 2) to go to map service 3) to print the map and note down phone numbers 4) to finally head to the place.
Now you find a place on DokoDare (example (web version not yet open to the public)), you scan the QR Code and you have everything with you - address, phone number, map, additional information. And even better, you have not only the place you are going to, but you also see nearby places (like nearest bus or tram station, a café where to wait when you are too early etc.)

Let me know if that has helped you or if you have something to add to it in the comments.

The Dubai QR Code Meme

Roger Fischer — 2009-06-19T20:18:38Z

1) September 17, 2007

After reading an article on the Dubai blog about Kufi, architecture combining QR Codes and Kufi's makes a lot of sense for me. I close with:

And imagine the use in architecture, on a middle eastern telecom building full of kufi's and QR Codes.

See: Kufi and QR Code, post from September 17, 2007

2) During #IranElection on Twitter, this idea of Kufi and QR Codes reemerges in my mind
12:49 AM June 15, 2009
@MAMK idea: QR codes to facilitate planned protests. => in England they got around the perimeter rule this way. We'll see and watch
1:10 AM June 15, 2009
Iranian people turn digital smugglers in battle for information - Guardian.co.uk http://bit.ly/2M6sk - Simple Text QR Code could help

After having seen the Kufi on Khamenei's site, I remembered my Kufi post. And I think that this similarity could be well used.

4:43 AM June 16 , 2009
@MAMK @rafik @AugmentedAdvert - Addendum : (old post) Similarity of Kufi and QR Code http://mobile.kaywa.com/p777 and http://bit.ly/mQZtW

3) Today I discover Söhne & Partner's QR Code Building in Dubai (planning begun August 2008)
See Code Unique, Studio City Hotel. There is also an infosheet about Code Unique, Studio City Hotel (L.C.).

The Dubai QR Code meme comes full cercle. Still I continue to think that the combination of Kufi and QR Code is what would be even more interesting. Especially as the QR Code could help to be scanned by people who cannot read well. Somehow I also think about the cathedrals with their paintings which were there for the majority of people who could neither read nor understand latin. And somehow, in another way, this persists in Iran with the use of farsi (persian) and arabic. So imagine, you could either read the Kufi or scan the QR Code and hear the text in your language.

As you can see this post got a bit long and I apologize if not everything is clear and I mix too many things. To make it easy, I continue to call it the Dubai QR Code meme, but it brings up much more questions than this meme's name could express.

The mobile browser should remain our common goal

Roger Fischer — 2009-06-10T07:17:44Z

Despite the avalanche of mobile apps that let people access local information, the mobile browser is still the king when it comes to finding out what’s going on in your city or neighborhood.

From TC

***

This will only increase in the future, when html 5 (see Wikipedia Entry as well) will finally show up. Apps became popular with the iPhone, but even if Apple gets even a bigger market share than now, the competition will increase (Android, Blackberry, Palm Pre etc.) and we get back to square one, meaning a heavily fractured marketplace.
The only way out of this, in the middle to long term is to see the web- aka mobile browser as the OS. So hopefully the current trend of the mobile browser remaining in the pole position will continue. It's in the best interest for all of us.

UPDATE (contrarian view):
Rohit Sharma's The Browser Is Dead — Long Live the Browser

Juki Card - New Resident Card with QR Code and Hanko Stamp

Roger Fischer — 2009-06-04T16:14:01Z

The new japanese resident card - the Jukicard - comes now with a QR Code. As Switzerland voted recently about biometric passports (see also NZZ in german), why not adopt this too. Kaywa went already half way (although the nicer part of it).

1. Brand New Medium 2. No Old Paradigms 3. Location is Monumental

Roger Fischer — 2009-06-04T10:27:38Z

Gil Beyda, managing partner at Genacast Ventures tells the MMF audience why Venture Capitalists are shy when it comes to investing in mobile. He goes on with:

“One: This is a brand new medium and device and we must look at it that way,” he said. “Two: It is not just a micro browser so we can’t take old paradigms and the way we were connected before and port it to mobile.”

Mr. Beyda also relayed that location is monumental, more so than with any other media.
He sees location based abilities as a differentiator for mobile devices because it is always with the consumer and is always tracking. Because of this, marketers can truly see the patters of usage and travel, giving them the advantage they need to turn basic metrics into revenue.

From Why venture capitalists aren’t eyeing mobile: MMF speaker via Mobile Zeitgeist

QR Code for MMF New York

QR Code for Grand Hyatt NYC

※ DokoDare

Mobile Swine Flu campaign from Singapore

Roger Fischer — 2009-05-23T21:02:52Z

This makes a lot of sense, especially in Asia: Mobile Swine Flu Campaign from Singapore:

via Twitter: Mobile Swine Flu campaign from Singapore

See also:
Updated Pandemic Alert via Feed2Mobile and QR Code

QR Codes and Mobile Literacy in rural India (by Adaptive Path)

Roger Fischer — 2009-05-23T20:33:30Z

MobilGlyph: Making Data Tangible

Our research in rural India for our Mobile Literacy project identified the task of entering and saving a contact information as the single most challenging tasks for non-literate users to perform. Yet it was a task identified as one of the most beneficial aspects of owing a mobile device.

[...] We then began to explore creative ways to make text and numeric information physical. Our question became: How might we make a physical representation of person’s name and phone number?

During our ideation sessions we tossed around a lot of ideas about tokens. When we looked across the mobile landscape, we realized QR codes and the QR code reader applications on many phones would be a viable solution for our text entry problem.

Flash QR Code Reader Library by Kenichi Ueno

Roger Fischer — 2009-05-22T21:40:27Z

Introduction of QR Code Reader Library

Kenichi UENO:

For people who want to use QR Codes within the Flash environment, LOGOSWARE (the company I work for) has released a QR Code Reader into the Spark Project.

It is essentially a library that recognizes and decodes any QR Code from any image source.

Cliffano Subagio with fresh QR Code examples

Roger Fischer — 2009-05-18T14:49:20Z

Cliffano Subagio speaks about the many good QR Code examples he has seen in Japan.

And adds this video of QR Code Craziness.

Latitude's Location-Sharing API

Roger Fischer — 2009-05-06T09:24:58Z

Google's Sneaky Launch of Latitude's Location-Sharing API

Brady Forrest theorizes that we will see some of the following features added for a formal release of the API:

User Control & OAuth
iPhone Client
Location History
Data Control
Additional Inputs
Accuracy Control
Reminders

See also:
Where 2.0 on Twitter and Where 2.0 Conference