The eye of the QR Code.

Quote from the movie Minority Report: "Why didn't I know about this?"

As soon as more and more people start using QR Codes, technical terms are thrown out the window and replaced by more popular term.

I had a discussion the other day concerning graphical enhancement of the QR Code, were there was a constant reference to the 'eye' of the QR Code.

It took me a while to understand that the reference was to the locators. The three squire shaped objects in the corners of the QR Code.

With the popularity of QR Codes ever increasing, how long will it take before other technical terms regarding QR Codes will be replaced as well?

QRbuntu.

Quote from the movie TRON: Legacy: "and most secure operating system is out there for free!"



Ubuntu is the Linux alternative for your desktop OS. What else can be said about Ubuntu? It's still not the mainstream OS for desktop devices, but the internet backbone holds quite some Ubuntu operated servers.

And Ubuntu is going mobile!
  
This raises the question; do we really need another mobile OS?

Looking at the way Ubuntu proposes to implement their operating system to really integrate mobile/desktop/server could be worth while.

Modern smartphones pack a lot of calculating power. The power of these smartphone exceeds the desktops of a couple of years back. It is a nice thought of just docking the smartphone in a cradle that connects it to a monitor, keyboard and mouse; and voila there is your workstation.
No need to synchronize mail clients, schedules, contacts, since it is all in one device. Want to develop your Apps? The development environment is already on your system, no need to have a virtual environment for debugging. One of the currently existing apps is a QR Code Reader, I just hope the code attached to this article scans with an Ubuntu phone, feedback is appreciated!

One of the mayor pluses of Ubuntu is that mayor release updates don't always require more powerful hardware. If they can offer this feature with their mobile OS, they will have exceeded the Windows mobile OS in my opinion. Meanwhile I will hold on to my Windows Mobile 7 Nokia Lumia, you know the one that cannot run WM8, and keep an sharp eye out for the Ubuntu phone.

Did I mention that the OS itself is free?

Precious QR codes.

Quote from the movie The Ninth Gate: "Silence is golden."

Make a QR Code part of your team.

Quote from the movie Men in Black: "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals."


"There is no I in Team." It seem to be the magical words to get an individual back in line with the approved behavioral pattern of a group. But upon analyzing the word TEAM, I couldn't find any reference to a words like WE or US in the word TEAM.
So it seems that the intention of using the phrase "There is no I in Team" is to have an individual to mindlessly follow the rules as set by a group, transforming the individual in MEAT. 
In my opinion the word TEAM does hold the letters to form the true intentions of the word. TEAM should stand for Me At or Me@. Me@work, Me@sports,
Me@<...>

If the goals of a team and my goals are the same; if the team wants me as member and just as important. if I want to be part of the TEAM, a team effort could be the right decision. If there is no common goal or interest, there is no team, just a group of individuals.

Why this introduction when this blog handles about QR Codes? It is the phrase common goal that is the key item in the story.

A QR Code by itself is not a magical instrument to enhance internet awareness for your product or campaign. A QR Code is most commonly used as a bridging tool between offline or printed material with online content. If the online content is just a mirror of the offline content, what is the reason someone should cross the bridge? Tracking and tracing the effectiveness of the QR Code supported campaign is a nice property of a QR Code, but it is not a common goal a business shares with the customer.

Think... Think about what your customer might want to see after scanning a QR Code, think about the device the customer is likely to use when scanning a code and going to online content. Think, don't just use a QR Code mindlessly, this will result in you blaming the QR Code itself when a campaign does not yield the wanted result. Think about how you make your customer part of your team. Think, that's why the i is printed as an exclamation mark

QR Code(s), hot or not?

Quote from the movie The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: "As the Improbability Drive reaches infinite improbability"

Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation and presentation of data. Using tracking on QR Codes can give great insight of how, where, when and by whom the qr code was used. By analyzing this data trends can be observed. Acting on these trends is the way to fine-tune advertizement and marketing campaigns.

There is also a risk in this however.
Just as in real live, if you ask the wrong questions you will end up with the wrong answers. the same will happen if the right question is asked based on insufficient data.




At the start of august there was an article that showed the picture as displayed below. This graph is generated using Google trends in order to check is a certain key phrase is popular or not.
The phrase "QR Codes" showed a peak that could be interpreted as an increase in popularity.

But when analyzing the popularity of both the phrases "QR Codes" and "QR Code" a different picture was painted, as can be seen in the following graphic. Both key phrases are plotted using the same scale, comparing the phrases to each other as well.
The graphs don't show the same increase in popularity for both phrases; the more popular key phrase does not even show an increase, but a decrease in the popularity of the key phrase at the same time period.

In order to check if something is actually becomes more popular all relevant key phrases should show the same trend in each of the graphics. Looking at the trend of the combined key phrases it cannot be concluded that QR Codes are becoming more popular at the moment.

Beware of QR Codes.

Quote from the movie Shoot 'Em Up: "Guns don't kill people."

There was a new discussion on Linkedin concerning the dangers of QR Codes. One of the comments was related to this story that mentions a QR Code wiping an android phone.
Sure it's a scary notion that scanning a QR Code can wipe you phone, but is it a QR Code danger?
The bug itself is part of the android OS, the article is over a year old; updates have closed the gap.

In an operating system that is popular some people will always look if there are weak spots that can be exploited.

Windows as the most popular desktop OS is the main target for virus and mall ware. Just surfing on the internet can be enough to infect the system.

With Android being the most popular mobile OS  it should not be a surprise that any weak spots will be exploited.

The QR Code being the best know and most used 2D bar-code is therefore being misused by people who mean to do harm.

My opinion with regards to QR Code is that the benefits outweigh the dangers. The qr code scanner apps available are constantly updated giving you the content of the scanned code first; and give you the choice to act in stead of automatically open an link, dial a phone number, or send a text message.
The trend that the internet will be more and more used by smart phone with regards to desktop computer just cries out for a technology that can link the real world to the internet, preferably by using the mobile phone sensors.