I think that WP7 is one of the first phone operating systems which natively has a QR scanner built in. It's rather hidden - you have to go in to search (not camera) then click the eye icon. However, it is one of the fastest and most accurate scanners I've ever used. It knocks Android favourite ZXing into a cocked hat simply by by speed alone - it's also very fault tolerant and was able to scan …
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When you create a QR code which contains a URL, it is vital that the code is not only as small as possible, but also as user friendly as possible. I'm not a massive fan of short URL services like bit.ly - but for shrinking the text you want to fit in a QR code, they are invaluable. I want to take a look at a particularly interesting example from Nat West Bank. The Poster Despite having the QR …
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Back when I worked for them, I was (partly) responsible for some of Vodafone UK's "Content Control" systems. I didn't like the system then, and I don't like them now. I understand the need that network operators have to protect themselves from bad headlines and give people some control over what they see online. What I dislike is the way it has been implemented. On trying to access Untappd on …
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As I've mentioned before, I hate SMS Spam. Last night, I received this unsolicited message. Now, I can try to unsubscribe using STOP ALL - and I have forwarded the text to VSPAM. But that's not enough for me. I want to stop them sending any more spam SMS to anyone. Let's do a little stalking investigating and find out what we can. Who Supplies Their SMS Gateway? The people who provide the…
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This is a project I developed for OTA11 - but didn't feel confident showing it off. Not least because I was one of the competition judges! Preamble Many people download BitTorrent files. There are no BitTorrent search engines which are mobile friendly. Users have to try to navigate non-mobile-optimised websites. This is slow, inefficient, and may cost the user money in…
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This was going to be a Sponsored Post from ebuzzing - but they rejected it. Can't think why... I think I'm turning into a Luddite. I see all these shiny tablets and... I just don't want one! Don't get me wrong, I drove myself crazy trying to get an HP TouchPad because a) Massive discount and b) under a hundred quid. You see, everyone I know with a tablet has one of two accessories. A …
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Update: A version of this article appears on Sophos's NakedSecurity blog Last year I blogged about how easy it would be to pay for parking via QR code. Now it looks like Islington Council have partnered with Verrus to make this a reality. But is it any good? Well.... nearly. Let's take a look. The Initial Impression The QR code is fairly clear and I was able to scan it without issue…
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It's been a while since I did a screenshot based review of a mobile app. I was gratified when QR Pal asked me to review their new app. First thing's first, this is a great idea for a QR Scanner. It saves all your scans - so you can retrieve them by category, it checks to see if links are safe to click on, it allows you to share scans with friends, and it also has a gameification element. But…
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I love Ribbit Mobile's voicemail service. It's the perfect replacement for the now-defunct SpinVox. My voicemail gets transcribed (by a human or machine) - then the text is emailed and texted to me. I even get an MP3 recording for later blackmail purposes. But today comes the news that Ribbit is shutting down. Or is it? The email specifically says: "this notice only refers to Ribbit…
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As I've mentioned, I'm off to Africa. I was wondering what the rates are going to be for roaming. I could get a local SIM - but as I'm only there for a few days, it seems a bit pointless - no one will have the number & I'll lose any credit at the end of the trip. So, how do the various roaming SIMs stack up against my Vodafone SIM? TruPhone's list of prices is very simple Country Make a…
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I spotted this poster today, encouraging people to search for the Twitter hashtag "#Transformers". Wouldn't it make sense to use a QR code as well? That way people could quickly scan, and be taken straight to the discussion, rather than have to fire up Twitter and do a manual search. As it happens, it's slightly tricky to make a QR code which searches for a Twitter hashtag. There are two…
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Twitter has announced that it will soon open up a native photo sharing service. Rather than using an external service like Embed.ly to retrieve thumbnails, all the data is embedded within Twitter Entities. So, if you request a status using "include_entities=true", you will be able to grab the image and display the thumbnail using the following code. function twitter_get_media($status) { …
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