PowerMe Mobile signs agreement to market Scanbuy's 2D barcode scanning technology

PowerMeMobile, the Lebanese mobile solutions provider has signed an agreement with Scanbuy, Inc., a global provider of mobile marketing solutions, to market Scanbuy's two-dimensional (2D) barcode scanning technology in the Middle East and Africa.

TMS the “SMS 2.0”

TMS is the new mobile Service allowing you to find, access, chat, surf and buy contents or products with your mobile phone in just a click.

TMS is a Hyperlink to Mobile. A mobile link between offline and online contents and is also the link that makes Internet - Web site - and - Mobile site - compatible

TMS use Tags (2D barcode) as a shortcut for a user friendly Internet access. With the International TMS reader, you can scan the worldwide standard 2D barcodes online or offline and access in just a click to your favorite Magazine, Blogs, Contents, web sites…

Cell-phone secrets

COLIN STEWART

Innovation
Register columnist

You're walking through the grocery store, Web-enabled cell phone in hand. You wonder, is that gallon of organic milk really environmentally friendly?

Your cell phone can help answer that question, with information from greenscanner.net.

If you point your mobile browser to that site and type in the product code for Horizon Organic 1% Milk (UPC Code 742365264108), you'll tap into a database of environmentally focused consumer comments. For Horizon 1% milk, the overall rating is fairly good – 3.57 out of 5 – based on comments such as "better for people and cows too – fewer pesticides, etc." and "Locally-grown food is the best way to go."

The system still has many shortcomings, starting with its cumbersome requirement for entering UPC codes. In the future, consumers may be able to access GreenScanner data by taking a cell-phone photo of a product's bar code.

Another of the system's drawback is that only a few products are currently included in the database. (Got milk already? You can also try Poland Springs water with UPC Code 075720008513.)

GreenScanner's author, Bill Tomlinson, assistant professor in the Department of Informatics at UCI, says the quality and quantity of the ratings will improve as more people get involved.

Migration of 1D to 2D Barcode Scanners Market in North America

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Migration of 1D to 2D Barcode Scanners Market in North America, reveals that the market expects to earn revenues of $968.2 million in 2012..

Coming soon: mobile phone hyperlinks for the real world

2D barcodes are helping the mobile web to take a giant leap forward

Matthew Wall
Thursday June 21, 2007
The Guardian

Barcelona-based Codilink (codilink.com) is selling 20,000 2D barcode cinema tickets and discount vouchers a week, having licensed ScanBuy's technology. Codilink managing director Ben Chesser says: "Within one-and-a-half to two years, early adopters will be doing this regularly. It takes time to build awareness, but this technology is finally ready for take-off."

One drawback preventing widespread adoption has been the lack of standards in a fragmented and highly competitive mobile phone market. Few consumers have been bothered enough to download decoder software on to their phones.

The advantage of ScanBuy's proprietary software is that it can read any of the main barcode protocols, such as QR, mainly used in Japan; Data Matrix, mainly used in Europe; and EZcode, ScanBuy's code designed specifically for VGA cameraphones. And once more mobiles are shipped with decoder software built in, the mobile web will take a giant leap forward.

Whose Mobile Code Are You And Where Are Taking Me?

By Scott P. Shaffer

Here's what I envision.

Google offers a 2d code creating site and places their color theme or the word Google inside of every 2d code created. Advertisers and consumers can place these mobile codes anwyhere and be connected to appropriate URL when scanned.

Because Google is so well known (brand recognition), and their applications will be adopted on the majority of mobile phones, their mobile code scanning platform will provide many functions for the Google Mobile Code.

In addition, this Google mobile phone scanning platform will also offer the ability to scan 1d barcodes as well. This opens the door for advertisers and the approx three billion 1d codes out there already.

Turn your mobile into your wallet

SCANBUY enables shoppers to compare retail prices with online prices by clicking a picture of the barcode or tapping the barcode number into a downloadable mobile application.

Subscribe to us by cell phone using funky QR Code!

By Rick Martin 14/06/2007
I really enjoyed Mobile Ojisan's recent post on QR code, and how these little wacky little graphics are multiplying like rabbits all over Japan. They kinda look like a chess board that's been in a car accident. But oddly enough you can take a picture of them on your phone, and it will direct you to a certain webpage.

Useless? Maybe...
Read more »

The Next Generation of Barcodes: QR Codes

It's something of a cliché to say that something or other is "just so 20th century," but in the case of barcodes, it's kinda true. For proof look no further than Japan, which has a history of exporting ideas to us after they've been fully baked into the culture, for good (anime) or ill (I'm still on the fence about karaoke).

QR Codes are essentially two-dimensional bar codes, and they've been in use in Japan for about seven years. As camera-enabled mobile phones became more popular, companies found a nifty application for them: they made QR Code-recognition software available to phone users, who could snap a picture of a QR Code on a product and have more information sent to them instantly. The two great things about QR Code implementation is that companies have found creative uses for placement and the type of information you can get, and that patent holders Denso-Wave have made the spec available to all, which fosters that kind of creativity.

Alan Schulman has written a great article on QR Codes on iMedia Connection, but also points out that Japanese companies aren't the only ones who have been noticing the pixellated squares. Microsoft is planning to launch its High Capacity Color Barcode later this year, which uses the same concept but with, as the name implies, color. And if Microsoft is looking to one-up someone else's idea, you know it's probably a good one

Barcode, Move Aside - QR CODE is Here!

Ugur Akinci, PhD -June 2, 2007

Soon we will be pushing flash movies, coupons, MP3 files, good-old text and god knows what else to our cell phones by pointing their tiny built-in cameras to a QR Code, taking a snapshot, and then pressing the SEND button.

A QR (from "Quick Response") Code can store a dozen to a few hundred times more data than a barcode because it can be programmed along both its horizontal and vertical axes.

Since it can be programmed in both directions, a QR Code can be 90% smaller than a barcode.

QR Codes can also be read from any direction. They do not need to be aligned perfectly like a barcode in order to be read correctly.

Data can be restored even if QR code is damaged or torn partially. Data from a torn barcode cannot be retrieved.

The revolution is already well underway in Japan and it's just a matter of time before it becomes just as common in America as well.

Actually I've seen two different versions of it used by a package delivery service and also by a direct mail company but its use is not widespread yet in the USA (as of June 2007).

Imagine, you are at the supermarket. You see an odd looking bottle of something on the shelf with a QR Code on it.

You point your cell phone camera at it, take a snapshot and push SEND and presto!

Soon you are watching a video about how to use the product, its benefits, complete with a 15% discount coupon that you can use right there at the same store!

McDonald's in Japan has already started tagging their food packages with QR Codes so that the consumers can download all kinds of nutrition information with their cell phones.

Welcome to the 21st century and make all your marketing plans accordingly.

Scanbuy and Syscan Digital Announce a Strategic Partnership to Market 2D Services to Chinese Mobile Carriers

Scanbuy, Inc., (scanbuy.com), a global provider of mobile marketing solutions, and Syscan Digital Systems (syscano.com), a leading provider of 2D barcode solutions in China, today announced a strategic and long term partnership to market a range of 2D barcode services to mobile carriers in China.

The strategic partnership will create a solution combining technologies of both companies around 2D barcode services including: mobile ticketing and couponing, anti-fraud solutions and media codes such as WAP, SMS, or vCard codes that provide consumers with quick and simple access to digital content. The combined platform will be promoted by Chinese mobile operators and will leverage the respective strengths of both companies.

SCANBUY Focusing on 2D

Have you seen what I have seen on SCANBUY's web site?
No more SCANBUY Shopper in front page, a real focus on 2D.
I wonder what happened to the SDK business...