I bet there are things you do on a daily basis – going over the news in the morning, updating your Facebook status or checking-in at the cafe by Foursquare. The purpose of this article is to elaborate on the two different ways in which the above actions can be performed – through a web app or through a native app. Enjoy it! What is a native application and what is a web application? Native development, in the context of digital industry, is the process of creating applications that are independently functioning and are tightly orientated to a specific Operating System like iOS, Android or QNX. In the recent years the phrase “native apps” became a synonym for programs that can be firstly downloaded and then installed on a computer/ a mobile device. Meanwhile, with the rapid advance of mobile technologies and the introduction of HTML5 a new type of apps were “born” – web apps. They are on the World Wide Web and are accessible through a web browser. Said with fewer words – they are sites that function like applications.   I’ll give you a quick example in order to make it simpler. Let’s take Foursquare. There is a website http://foursquare.com that is practically the web app which can be used only through a web browser like Safari, Mozilla and Chrome. Apart from it there is also a native app, available separately for iOS, Android and QNX. They are autonomous and can be installed or uninstalled at any time. No browsers, no URLs. Just touch the icon and you are there.   When talking about native and web apps, mentioning “The Big Three” is a must! “The Big Three” is just the way I call Apple, Google and Facebook. On the left we have Apple – a company that is only natively orientated, in the center is Google – kind of a hybrid – 50% native, 50% web and on the right is Facebook – a company that has successful native apps, but is still generally web orientated. Native Applications Turning point for Apple was the introduction of the iPhone in 2007 and the launching of the App Store a year after that. Currently there are around 720 000 products available there, which is quite an impressive number. iOS developers rely on the combination of qualitative hardware and elegant design. Some of the iPhone and iPod apps are really a state of the art. They provide the user both with smooth functionality and intuitive interface. All these characteristics can hardly be represented in a web environment, according to some experts. As Joe Hewitt has said: “I want desperately to be a web developer again, but if...

Read More

    When talking about colors, in the context of the contemporary computerized epoch we live in, it is inevitable not to mention RGB and CMYK. Probably those of you who are designers or work in the press industry know what it is all about, but I bet that there are guys who see these abbreviations for the first time.     RGB To begin with RGB which stand for Red, Green and Blue. It is a scheme for representing colors through digital devices like TV screens, monitors and projectors. While reading this article, all that you see are RGB colors. Every one of them is represented by a combination of three numbers (each number is respectively for Red, Green and Blue) that vary from 0 to 255. 0 indicates the absence of the pigment and 255 indicates the absolute presence. For example: 255, 0, 0 is the numeric equivalence of Red; 0, 255, 0 – Green; 0, 0,255 – Blue; 0, 0, 0 – Black; 255,255,255 – White; 0,255,255 – Yellow; As you might have already guessed so much combinations result in an immense gamut of tints – more than 16 millions. The difference between some of them is so slight that it can’t be spotted with bare eyes.   CMYK We continue with CMYK. It is again a color model that is mainly adopted by the conventional offset digital printers and press industry where colors are represented on paper, not on a screen. As long as RGB is more popular than CMYK when first seeing these four letters you are/were probably like: And this is understandable. Relax, it is easier than you suppose. CMYK is a method of printing where colors are printed using four inks – Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. Just like the RGB, different combinations of ink represent different colors. Instead of numbers this model uses percentages. The higher the percentage for a particular ink is, the more of that ink will be printed. There is a kind of unwritten rule that the total ink density should be between 250% and 300%. Something interesting is the fact that at first it wasn’t CMYK but CMY. “Why do we need black, when we can get it by combining 100% of Cyan, Magenta and Yellow?” That was the original idea, but the result of this triple combination was not black but something more like a gloomy brown. Because of this a fourth color – black – was added, which allowed darker black to be produced.   Is there a difference? Yes, there is. Firstly they are used for different purposes and this to some point makes the dispute “RGB vs. CMYK” meaningless. To put it bluntly...

Read More

According to the latest news in 2014 Belgium will consider replacing the regular car numbering plates with medium-sized barcodes, placed of the roof. This tendency shows that barcodes are going out of their industrial and commercial fields of usage and start entering almost every sphere of  life. It seems like our contemporary high-tech society has succeeded really to evaluate the actual capabilities of the black and white, stripped or checked labels. The prospective designators will be 50×50 cm. They will be made of qualitative materials that are resistant to bad conditions like harsh weather and high speeds. The symbology that will be used will probably be 2D because of the substantial data capacity. It is planned that the barcodes will contain not only the number of the vehicle but also the name of the driver, the date when he has obtained his driving license and  details about his previous violations, if any. This source of information is meant to be placed on the roof of the car so as to be readable by a satellite. Nowadays most of the big metropolises have one or few flying machines, located right above them. As a result every registered automobile will be 24/7 traceable. Moreover when a car is being stopped for a routine check, police officers won’t have to read paper documents, they will simply request the car to be scanned and will receive the results from the scan on their screens in seconds. What is more, specialists say that satellites will be able to “read” cars even at cloudy and stormy weather conditions. This fact is quite impressive and makes the adoption of barcodes on cars even more expected. Of course there are people who are against using barcodes in this sector. They believe that being always traceable without their agreement is infringing their civil liberties and disturbs their personal life. I personally agree with them because it is not very nice to know that the ones who observe you while driving always see where you are. Maybe the Belgian government should reconsider this part of the plan and decide to track only the drivers who have broken the law before and are qualified as  unreliable. Something else that might make the Belgians unhappy is the higher cost of the barcode identifiers. If now an ordinary number plate costs €30, after two years, a registration barcode will cost around €70. But if you think about it €40 are not who knows what and can be given once in the name of one modern and better working system. Much bigger problem than the cost might be the installing of barcodes on roofless machines like convertible cars and motorcycles. It is something...

Read More

  SCC14 is a barcode symbology composed of 14 numerical characters. It is more widely known as Shipping Container Code and is used for designating packages with fixed content. SCC has two main representations – the first one adopts ITF14 encoding scheme and the other – GS1-128 encoding scheme. Main subject of this article will be the second one. Although there is one general name – GTIN-14, SCC14 is also popular as ITF14, EAN14 or UCC/EAN-128. The main difference between ITF14 and GS1-128 is that GS1-128 uses the so called AI (Application Identifier). It is a short combination of 2, 3 or 4 digits, circled with brackets, standing at the beginning of the code. This identifier is created by the GS1 organization and its purpose is to “tell” the scanner what it is about to read. The AI for SCC14 is always 01. Of course there many others that are used for codes representing Date details, Serial numbers, Weight or Length. SCC14, as you may suppose, is mainly accepted in the shipping industry. It is used for marking containers, boxes, pallets or any other type of packages that include more than one product with EAN/UPC barcode. One of the distinctive features of the Shipping Container Code is that every SCC14 is strongly related to a certain EAN/UPC barcode. For example if we have a box of chocolates with code: 9 12345 1245 and we put 500 of these boxes into a container, it is credential that we label it with SCC14 barcode. The code will most probably look like: (01) 3 9 12345 1245, where (01) is the AI, 3 is the Packaging Indicator and the rest is the EAN/UPC barcode. With all these variations of one and the same barcode type- ITF14, EAN14, UCC/EAN-128 – the average person would ask himself why there are so many of them and where do they find their field of application. Different standard are used in different parts of the world or in different spheres of life. In addition – ITF14 might be used in the hardware and high-tech business while EAN14, with its AI for production, expiration date and weight, is adopted in the food and soft-drink industry. As long as usage is concerned, SCC14 is one of the most beneficial and irreplaceable barcodes. Instead of counting separately all the items, gathered in a single container, you can just scan the Shipping Code and the computer will tell you the type and the quantity of the products. Thus the process of manipulating arriving and departing stocks has been modernized. Now everything is much more accurate and automated and the workers in the big storage warehouses are much more eased. Another advantage...

Read More

  Mobilio has always been tolerant to its clients and has always valued their opinion, no matter if it is positive or negative. After releasing a piece of software we are constantly trying to to improve the product by fixing any occurred bugs. Our programs – QREncoder, QREncoder Pro, BarcodeEncoder, UPCEncoder and EANEncoder and all the others barcode creators – have currently been uploaded on the AppStore and are now awaiting their 1.5 versions to be unleashed. According to our users’ reports there were some problems with encoding calendar events, MeCards and VCards in the QREncoder. After profound research the bugs have been spotted and removed. Furthermore a new feature is added in the 1.5 edition and it is not only in the QREncoder, but in all the encoders. Some of you might prefer to customize the design of their codes after creation. For this purpose, previously you had to save the code like an image and then import it in a graphical editor. Now you can just click on the new button called “Copy to Pasteboard”. As a result the image will be kept in the Pasteboard memory of the computer until you put it in Photoshop, Fireworks or whatever you use. Everything is easier, faster, smoother and with no unnecessary efforts. Continuing with the innovations, new barcode standards are included in BarcodeEncoder 1.5. Aztec code, PZN (Pharma-Zentral-Nummer), GridMartix code and NVE18 (also known as EAN18) are the new members of Mobilio’s big barcode family. In the near future our developing team considers adding a few more symbologies, one of which will be Maxi code. There is also a bug fix, specifically for the UPCEncoder, EANEncoder and BarcodeEncoder. I will talk about particularly about the EANEncoder. A simple EAN code requires 13 digits plus one additional, which is the Check-sum digit and which is generated automatically. In the 1.4 version if the customer entered, lets say 15 characters, the process of encoding breaks and the final product was an 1×1 pixel image. In the innovated releases this problem is not evident any more. We have programmed the software to operate only with the first 13 symbols and not to take into account what is after them. Errorless and efficient – that is the motto, coming along with the 1.5 versions....

Read More

  Have you ever heard of or seen an Aztec code. It is a 2-dimensional symbology, which is said to be the most easy-to-print and easy-to-scan 2D barcode. It looks pretty much like a QR code, with the black and white modules, but has its slight differences. Aztec has great encoding capabilities and is mainly used in the transportation industry, on electronic traveling tickets or boarding passes. When you hear Aztec, probably the first thing that springs to your mind is connected with the ancient civilization of the Aztecs. Of course the barcode has nothing to do with the history. It was developed in 1995 and was named Aztec because of the resemblance between the central, and only one, positioning pattern and the age-old pyramids in Mexico, looked from the above. There is no “quiet zone”, a blank space, needed while scanning, which is a great advantage. Moreover the only one finding square (compared to the three in QR) makes Aztec codes much more concise and less space-consuming. Their dimensions depend on the number of characters encoded. The smallest symbol can be 15×15 modules, representing 13 numerical digits or 12 alphabetic letters and the biggest – 151×151 modules representing 3832 numeric or 3067 alphabetic letters or 1914 bytes of data. Theoretically all the 256 ASCII characters can be encoded. Aztec code can be found in the commerce or as markers of small items. Some governments, like Poland’s, have adopted Aztec topology in the car registration documents. Thus the registration of an automobile has become much easier and quicker process. Apart from the fields of application, described above, Aztec code is most widely used in the transportation section. It serves perfectly as designator on parcels and packages. Furthermore it is frequently applied as a security safeguard. Printed or sent like a message on a mobile device, Aztec barcodes can prove who the owner is of a certain boarding pass and to authorize that it is genuine and is not counterfeited. To make it clearer I will give you an example – Heathrow Express is currently using Aztec codes for the distribution of the so called self print tickets. When you buy a ticket online, you receive it in digital format, under the form of a picture, on your computer but it has an added unique barcode at the top-right corner. Thanks to it you are able to print the ticket at home and then use it.There is also another practice – instead of printing it, you can upload the picture on a mobile device. After getting on the train, the conductor scans the barcode on the image from the screen with a special reader and you are ready to hit...

Read More