Updated! 2011-01-11 20:00 - see the response from the Metro. The Metro is a London-based UK newspaper national newspaper which is distributed in 33 cities across the UK. Around a year ago, I reviewed the Metro's mobile website. It wass a perfectly fine mobile site and I'm pleased to see that over the last 12 months it has undergone substantial improvements. You can visit it at…
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(Yes, the title is link bait.) Sony Ericsson have announced that their Xperia X10 range of Android handset won't be updated to the latest version of Android. They'll be stuck on Android 2.1 with no hope for any bug fixes. As I discussed last year in "The Future of Android - And How To Stop It" there is a fundamental tension between users, manufacturers, Mobile Networks, and Google when it…
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I'm a big fan of Groupon - the money saving site - that's why I'm so disappointed with their latest campaign. A nice simple set of banners. Let's gloss over the missing apostrophe in this one though... Which leads to the Groupon mobile friendly site. Well formatted mobile site. Free text field for an email address and a drop down list of cities they support. There's no notion of what…
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The unsurpassed guru of mobile phones, Tomi T Ahonen, has released his latest book for free! The book, "The Insider's Guide to Mobile", is an invaluable guide to anyone in the mobile industry. I've read through a few pages of it and it is smart, funny, useful and a hugely important tome for anyone in the industry. There's just one small niggle I have with it. It is released as a PDF. PDF is…
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After the derisory efforts of Waitrose to properly utilise QR codes, it's disheartening to see Debenhams make a brand new mistake. At the bottom of tonight's Evening Standard is this advert from Debenhams. Debenhams QR Advert The QR code immediately caught my eye and - being the saddo that I am - I immediatley whipped out ZXing and scanned it in. Debenhams QR Code What goodies would it net…
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What a joy for fans of 2D codes. London's freesheet "Metro" has adverts with two different styles of 2D codes on pages 14 and 15. In the left corner - John Lewis sporting a QR Code. In the right corner - the Donkey from Shrek going into battle with an MS Tag. FIGHT! QR Code This use of QR code leaves me a little conflicted. On the one hand, the code is too small and, either in resizing…
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For the last few months, I've been squirrelled away at IPC Media working on their Mobile Products. We've recently launched the Decanter World Wine Awards app on iPhone, Android, and Nokia (with BlackBerry coming soon). Thanks to the amazing team at Grapple for all their help. I'm now incredibly proud to announce the launch of the mobile sites I've been working on for IPC - goodtoknow - Marie…
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What's this I spy from across Woking Station? Why! An advert for the Olympus PEN - complete with a QR code! The QR code is near the bottom, and has some explanatory text letting you know how to use it. There's even a shortcode to get a reader. The URL that's sent back from the SMS is http://www.isitetv.com/mobile/reader.html which redirects to the popular i-nigma reader. A clearer shot of…
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Spotted all over the London Underground in the last few days, these QR enabled adverts from Eastpak for their I Am The Bag campaign. Close Up of the QR Code YouTube Video The code immediately directs the user to YouTube to watch a video. Two Ways To Make The Campaign Better Use a smaller URL to create an easier to scan QR Code. Eastpak currently use…
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Nick Burcher has done a great job detailing Lacoste's new QR code campaign. Being the curmudgeon that I am, I want to point out a couple of rather glaring flaws in its execution. Contrast See if you can scan in the code on this image. The image links to Nick's site if you want the full resolution version. I tried several different phones and scanners and wasn't able to get the code to scan. …
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(eBuzzing have sponsored this post. Please let me know what you think about sponsored articles on this blog.) Android phones are now big business - even Woz seems to think they'll take over the world. Into the crowded arena steps the HTC Wildfire. I'm a huge fan of the HTC hardware - but I often feel that they ignore the customer service side of things. For too long they were silent on when…
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There seems to be a lot of talk at the moment about how marketing can make use of QR codes. I wanted to highlight a few ways in which 2D codes can be used for slightly more practical usage. There's nothing wrong with selling more cheese - but I think that only scratches the surface of these little squares of brilliance. You may have seen these Ringo.co.uk ticket machines. They are meant to be …
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