You know what reminds me of a roller skating horse? The Atlantic.

Some nice "old man yells at cloud" action going on in that article. Yep, a nearly 20-year-old technology is going to go away just because blog writers can't figure it out.

Oh wait, bloggers killed the CD. Maybe this guy is onto something.

I think QR codes will replace Bar Codes. However, right now to get a scanner that can read just a bar code is $40 and a reader that can read a data matrix is $300.

That's the thing, most of the time I see a QR code that I actually want to follow it's on my phone screen. Can't self-scan just yet...

Marcus Aurelius: [bm.sevenclick.com image 497x285]

Can't hold my phone still enough to read this. WTF is it, friggin' War and Peace?

unyon: mr_fulano: [qrcode.kaywa.com image 216x216]

Thread win.

Thanks! Maybe nobody has thought of it before, but public posters and billboards with these things would be so easy to hack. Just print off your own stickers sending people wherever you want. Nobody would even notice until they bothered to look up the code with their phone. You could print off absolutely lewd and rude t-shirts with QR codes and wear them on TV.

QR codes on business cards are quite useful. They can do a lot more than just take you to the URL of a website. You can put your entire contact information in a single code which can easily be scanned and imported quickly.

Marcus Aurelius: [bm.sevenclick.com image 497x285]

Whoa, Kate Perry nudes! Thanks!

downstairs: If you really wanted to know about a product that you saw in an ad, wouldn't you rather type its name into Google on your phone and see what comes up?

Yup, exactly what I do. Then you're presented with their official site, as well as other references/opinions about the product.

QR codes have been standard in Japan for more than a few years now. A lot of them link to specific coupons/deals that aren't readily accessible from the main page, but are a promotion tied to the specific QR code poster/event.

GleeUnit: Not terribly exciting, but possibly handy.

How much handier than typing LG584 into a search engine? That's my issue- even with modern phones, the time spent scanning a QR code outweighs the benefits. If phones had a QR mode, that could be activated without launching an application, there might be some benefit, but the way it stands now, "bit.ly/Qr574F" is more convenient than a QR code.

GleeUnit: I work for a marketing tech company (why yes, I am a subhuman piece of filth! How did you guess?), and I'm actually on a few projects right now that use QR codes in one form or another.

I agree that using them in the "traditional" sense (i.e. on a page in a magazine that just redirects to a mobile site about the product) is only useful in highly involved purchasing situations. Say you're at Best Buy and the kid whose supposed to be helping you find a TV is instead up at the front counter hitting on the new customer service girl (I use that example because I used to be that kid at Circuit City back in college). Anyway, for a quick download of pertinent facts like those you'd want to know about the pricey new LCD panel in front of you, scanning a QR code on the price tag make sense. Not terribly exciting, but possibly handy.

How marketing says it would work ^^

How it really works:

You walk into best buy and you've already researched your television and price checked it on google/amazon/newegg/tigerdirect/etc. Sometimes though, you just want to get a look at the physical thing. While you are checking it out, you forget every single experience you've ever had with a Best Buy salesdroid and you make the mistake of asking him a question. Not having yet realized that he doesn't work on commission anymore, the salesdroid attempts to answer your question by looking around you and at the sales tag in front of the TV. 'Rest easy dear sir, for this television provides *brilliant images with kenesiaphonian technology and *hyperaudio(r).

He blathers on tossing out useless trademarked marketing pitches... your mind, already dulled by trying to compare the pictures of two screens(both of which are the same model produced in the same Taiwanese factory) being fed by a 720p source split 8 ways. You idiotically think that perhaps the QR code might be the source for whatever question you thought to ask.

You pull out your phone, load up the app, click...processing.... error.... click... processing.... it worked.

Website loading....3 minutes...

To a bloated flash site: THE NEWEST IMPLEMENTATION OF KENESIPHONIAN TECHNOLOGY. NOW WITH HYPERAUDIO. CLICK HERE TO FIND THE NEAREST RETAILER!


The police say they found the employee with a QR code carved into his forehead.

t3knomanser: How much handier than typing LG584 into a search engine? That's my issue- even with modern phones, the time spent scanning a QR code outweighs the benefits. If phones had a QR mode, that could be activated without launching an application, there might be some benefit, but the way it stands now, "bit.ly/Qr574F" is more convenient than a QR code.

I'm new to the smartphone thing (despite working in the cellular industry for 15 years), but on my phone (a droid bionic), Redlaser comes up in under a second and is ready to scan. It's about the same amount of time that it would take to type letters on that tiny screen into google search, and shorter than it takes to launch dolphin.

I never really mess around with QR codes though, I'm all about the SKU barcodes. When I'm in a store looking at something I want to buy, I scan the SKU so that I can read reviews online (to make sure said item doesn't suck, like a clock radio that I was looking at), and make sure the price in the B&M store isn't ridiculously higher than the prices online.

/scanned one of the QR codes above by pointing my phone at the LCD monitor.

mr_fulano: [qrcode.kaywa.com image 216x216]

This is the one I posted back in May:




In this thread QR Codes going to be big (new window)



And here we discuss hacking billboards with qr code stickers (new window)

I haven't done anything about it though, I really want to.

I like it when there is a QR code on a for sale sign on houses. When I'm driving around the neighborhood, if I want to know how much the house costs and such, it would be great to just take a picture.

The Angry Hand of God: QR codes on business cards are quite useful. They can do a lot more than just take you to the URL of a website. You can put your entire contact information in a single code which can easily be scanned and imported quickly.

As opposed to putting your actual contact info in there where any simpleton with a 3rd grade education can use it? Instead of a 300$ 'reader' that may or may not give you the right info?

I figure you meant 'on the back' or something, in addition to regular business card stuff, but I found it funny to imagine you giving people a card with a QR code and nothing else.

RoyBatty: mr_fulano: [qrcode.kaywa.com image 216x216]

This is the one I posted back in May:


[i.imgur.com image 175x175]

In this thread QR Codes going to be big (new window)

Beautiful - you got me...


And here we discuss hacking billboards with qr code stickers (new window)

I haven't done anything about it though, I really want to.

kroonermanblack: The Angry Hand of God: QR codes on business cards are quite useful. They can do a lot more than just take you to the URL of a website. You can put your entire contact information in a single code which can easily be scanned and imported quickly.

As opposed to putting your actual contact info in there where any simpleton with a 3rd grade education can use it? Instead of a 300$ 'reader' that may or may not give you the right info?

I figure you meant 'on the back' or something, in addition to regular business card stuff, but I found it funny to imagine you giving people a card with a QR code and nothing else.

I just meant on the back.

mr_fulano: RoyBatty: mr_fulano: [qrcode.kaywa.com image 216x216]

This is the one I posted back in May:


[i.imgur.com image 175x175]

In this thread QR Codes going to be big (new window)

Beautiful - you got me...


And here we discuss hacking billboards with qr code stickers (new window)

I haven't done anything about it though, I really want to.

There is software that allows you to embed images into QR codes, not linking to an image, but the image is present in the QR code itself.



So if I had the time I would do a rickroll with this guy in the "halftoned" into the QR code

The Angry Hand of God: QR codes on business cards are quite useful. They can do a lot more than just take you to the URL of a website. You can put your entire contact information in a single code which can easily be scanned and imported quickly.

This is what I use it for - my business has several different applications, and different levels of user understanding. I can hand out different business cards with different QR codes and a bitly address, directing them to a short YouTube video or a landing page that is relevant to what they want..

It makes it easier to slice and dice my target market instead of handing out standard business cards and expecting clients to navigate to where I want them to go.

Ed Finnerty: I need to try this QR stuff.

I installed a free app called QBert but when I scan things it just swears at me in some incomprehensible language.

That's because you're a $#^#^#$

Marcus Aurelius: [bm.sevenclick.com image 497x285]

Aw shiat it's MissingNo, no one save the game! REMAIN CALM AND PUT THE POKEDEX DOWN

RoyBatty: mr_fulano: [qrcode.kaywa.com image 216x216]

This is the one I posted back in May:


[i.imgur.com image 175x175]

In this thread QR Codes going to be big (new window)



And here we discuss hacking billboards with qr code stickers (new window)

I haven't done anything about it though, I really want to.

A few of my friends and I priced out stickers with QR codes on them that would link to a rickroll. For ~$90 we could put 200 stickers up on billboards and see how many people we could get. We debated having it hop through a counter site to see how many we got from the QR codes themselves.

The plan fell apart a few beers later, but I think it could be a solid troll method if pursued.

NkThrasher: The plan fell apart a few beers later, but I think it could be a solid troll method if pursued.

I'm basically an idiot, but it seems that such ease of trolling basically will doom the QR code movement about 9 months after it becomes "BIG".

My phone was able to scan this off of the LCD screen, color me impressed.



I'm a 'prosumer' (hate that word) photographer, so I'm surprised that a shiatty smartphone camera lens was able to detect that. I guess it's because of the error correction built into QR codes (which is also why you can embed images into them and still have them work).

lordargent: Redlaser comes up in under a second and is ready to scan

If you can find the damn thing in your list of applications. Considering how often I use such apps, they're buried deep in the home screen someplace. It takes more time to find the find the app than use it.

Damn you Demetrious! You beat me to it. I also dimly remember magazines that would print programs out as long strips of bar code you had to cut out and scotch-tape together, then run thru your scanner or something....

QR codes will be our decade's version of the 70's "Smiley" smile: future generations will see one and know it was that short 10-year era in the early 21st century where the tech was just beginning to get interesting...

Demetrius: Can I read it with one of these?

Came here for this, leaving satisfied.

Any Pie Left: QR codes will be our decade's version of the 70's "Smiley" smile: future generations will see one and know it was that short 10-year era in the early 21st century where the tech was just beginning to get interesting...

I sincerely doubt that they will be that fondly remembered. They're one step away from utterly useless.

Contrabulous Flabtraption: See QR code. Open QR code app. Camera on phone tries desperately to focus long enough to get clear image, fails over and over and over....

Windows Phones are actually surprisingly good at scanning QR codes, MS tags, and bar codes. With WP 7.5, you can fire up the built in Bing app, select the scanning mode, and if the lighting is marginally decent it'll grab the code almost as soon as you point the phone in the general direction of the bar code. Unlike the abomination that was Windows Mobile, Win Phone is full of lots of little things that work shockingly well.

t3knomanser : If you can find the damn thing in your list of applications. Considering how often I use such apps, they're buried deep in the home screen someplace. It takes more time to find the find the app than use it.

I use ADW launcher, it lets me hide and categorize apps, plus I keep my app installs minimal (I'm one of those folks that has a practically empty desktop on winxp, and a completely empty desktop on ubuntu).

Not much of an issue for me.

/completely different story on my android tablet, but that's full of games :D

Contrabulous Flabtraption: See QR code. Open QR code app. Camera on phone tries desperately to focus long enough to get clear image, fails over and over and over....

Do phones have control over the intensity of their LED flashes?

I've had many occasions where when scanning business cards, documents, barcodes with my phone, no light was too dim, but light on, was far too bright.

It would be nice if the damn camera could be used along with auto-focus to turn the LED on just enough to illuminate the target.

t3knomanser: lordargent: Redlaser comes up in under a second and is ready to scan

If you can find the damn thing in your list of applications. Considering how often I use such apps, they're buried deep in the home screen someplace. It takes more time to find the find the app than use it.

Again, pretty fast on Win Phone. Press search button on the from of the phone, which launches Bing, tap eye icon to enter scanning mode, point phone at code, and you are done.

Mad_Radhu: t3knomanser: lordargent: Redlaser comes up in under a second and is ready to scan

If you can find the damn thing in your list of applications. Considering how often I use such apps, they're buried deep in the home screen someplace. It takes more time to find the find the app than use it.

Again, pretty fast on Win Phone. Press search button on the from of the phone, which launches Bing, tap eye icon to enter scanning mode, point phone at code, and you are done.

I use a HTC Thunderbolt and keep the RedLaser shortcut one swipe to the left of the home screen. Open app, tap QR codes, tap scan, ready to go. Even at a casual pace, we're talking under 3 seconds total.

I just wish QR codes were more popular where I am (Oklahoma City). I just haven't run across enough to really rate whether they're useful or not.

But I do love the barcode scanner part of RedLaser though.

Pancoaifo : I use a HTC Thunderbolt and keep the RedLaser shortcut one swipe to the left of the home screen. Open app, tap QR codes, tap scan, ready to go

Hmm, the version I'm using just has a big red 'scan' button at the bottom. Takes care of barcodes or QR codes.

So I hit the icon for the app, then hit 'scan', done and done in under a second.

/basically, the only thing that's impressed me about smartphones since I finally caved in and got one last December. It's the one thing I was a major tech luddite about (didn't seem worth the cost). I'm still not quite sold on it, but being able to scan a barcode while I'm sitting in a store and seeing if the item I'm looking at is a piece of crap is useful.

/finally gave up because it was too hard finding decent 3rd party batteries for my old phone

This is my old phone


/yeah, major technological leap

I wonder how long it will be before someone prints up some QR codes that take you to a google search for illegal stuff [child porn/how to threaten federal employees/etc], litter them around town and kill QR codes right in their tracks?

I cut open a potato once and inside I saw what looked suspiciously like a QR code. I scanned it and it took me to a church in PEI.

True story.

I work with a guy who has decided to put his contact info in a QR code in his email signature. It is supremely annoying when a huge email thread is doubled in length because of the huge QR code following his every response.