Did you know that 70 % of the world population possess a mobile phone? In 2011, over the world there were 4 billions of these devices and about 1, 08 billion of them were smartphones. Currently this figure is bigger and is growing with every second. More than 100, 000 smartphones are being activated every day. Sounds impressive but what actually is the smartphone and how it will affect our future?     To begin with some facts from the last 30 years. The first smartphone ever was released by IBM in 1992 and was called “Simon”. It was truly an innovation. “Simon” was defined as a “smart” telephone because alongside with the basic calling and SMS functions, it offered an e-mail, a calendar, a calculator, world clock and an organizer. Another distinctive feature was the lack of buttons. They were substituted by a touchscreen. You may say that it is nothing special, even the screen isn’t colorful, but you will be wrong. There no doubt, compared with the current mobile devices it is like an antique, but for the standards of the 90s it was definitely something modern.   So much with the historical part. I wanted only to show you that smartphones are nearly 20 years old and only lately they have become really popular and accessible by the average person. The key factor that led to this change was the technological progress. There was, and still is, a tendency the hardware to become smaller and smaller and at the same time – better working. If in the 80s a regular computer was as big as a whole room, nowadays a gadget that is 10 times more efficient can fit in your pocket. Moreover with the fast temps of development, if something is new and unobtainable “today”, it will be outdated and reachable “tomorrow”. Apart from the technological matter there is one more aspect that stimulates the mass adoption of mobile devices and it is the rivalry between mobile titans. Starting with the biggest – Apple, Android and continuing with Blackberry, Nokia. I am not going to fall into details about all of them, because one article won’t be enough. My point is that when there are opponents who are striving to conquer one and the same target group, everything is much more dynamic. Updates and new versions are released constantly, designs are becoming shinier and more eye-catching and all this is made to attract more clients. What is interesting is that the number of the companies, making their staff mobile, is growing. If they supply their employees with one and the same smartphone model they might benefit from some privileges. As a matter of fact...

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PDF417 is checked, multi-line barcode which is said to be the most widely used 2-D symbology in the world. PDF is equivalent of Portable Data Format. The “4” stands for the number of bars and spaces, which are used to encode every character, and the “17” means that the total width of these eight bars and spaces is 17 units. There are several key factors that make PDF417 so commonly worked with: Very high data capacity; Error correction levels; Macro PDF417; Custom dimensions are available; Check out Mobilio’s PDF417 generator and download it now from the Mac AppStore. To start with the impressive data capacity of PDF417. It can encrypt all the 128 ASCII characters and 8-bit binary data. Practically there are three encoding schemes – byte, text and numeric. The amount of information a single PDF417 can carry is astonishing for a barcode – over 1100 bytes, 1800 text characters or 2710 numerical digits. The set of 929 codewords (900 for data and 29 special symbols) make the Portable Data Format extremely useful and efficient.  Due to the large quantity of symbols that can be encoded, PDF417 serves not only for identification like the normal 1-D codes, but as source of essential content too. Product’s specification or information connected with manipulation or shipment processes can be stored. As a result the user will be much more eased because he won’t have to connect to any additional database, he will get what he need with the scanning. PDF417 is now adopted in many spheres of our everyday life – in industry, by national organizations,  for postal and airline services. The adequate and secure encrypting technique allows fingerprints or electronic signatures to be represented as machinery-readable data. Actually there is such tendency in the USA for providing important characteristics of the driver. Instead of writing down extensive ID numbers they just scan the driving license and everything is collected. As most of the others 2-D barcodes, one of the fundamental traits of PDF417 is error correction. For those who haven’t read my previous articles, error correction basically gives your barcode the ability to lose part of its codewords, but still to be readable and to provide all the encoded characters. It is really handy for users whose barcodes are probable to be damaged or be kept under harsh conditions. PDF417 has 9 levels of error correction: from 0 to 8 where the number of the restored codewords are degrees of 2. At level 0 they are 2 (2^1), at 1 – 4 (2^2), ….. , at 8 – 512 (2^9). In essence if your PDF has 100 damaged codewords and it also has level 6 of error correction all of...

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  ITF14 is a barcode topology also known as Shipping Container Symbol. It is mainly used to designate packages or boxes where many identical products with EAN/UPC barcodes are gathered. ITF stands for Interleaved Two of Five and 14 shows the number of the encoded numeric figures. Actually a simple ITF14 symbol has the structure of an EAN/UPC one but with one extra digit at the beginning.     This extra digit specifies what is the type of the package: 0 – UPC code of contents differs from case code 1 – More than each and below inner packs 2 – Alternative for 1 3 – Inner packs 4 – Alternative for 3 5 – Shipping containers (cartons) 6 – Alternative for 5 7 – Pallet 8 – Reserved by Uniform Code Council for future use 9 – Variable quantity content   As I explained in my previous articles, the main function of the barcodes is to represent machinery readable data. Designating every product with a black and white linear label allows everything to be done faster and more accurate. Manual manipulation might be replaced by computerized scanning but this still isn’t a complete solution as long as most of the companies don’t work with single entities, they use huge quantities of goods, collected in boxes, pallets or even containers. When a shipment of boxes arrives, the receiver has to know the exact number of products in each one. So in the context of modernization and automatization GS1 lead in special packaging barcode – ITF14 (Take into account that the numbers, mentioned below, are absolutely imaginary). Let’s say that we have a company for soft drinks called “Gazy”. “Gazy” uses Shipping Container Symbol (ITF14) for designating its parcels before sending them to the customers. Our company has agreed to keep up to certain principles. For example our package from level 3 contains 6 items, a carton from level 5 contains 20 packages from level 3 and a pallet from level 7 contains 4 cartons. As a result after scanning the ITF14 codes, our clients will know exactly how many stocks they have received. Of course there might be cases in which you will have to break these standards in order to hold your prospective business partners. Instead of 120 they might want there to be 100 units in a single carton (Level 5). Then the “9” index is used and a small additional zebra-stripped symbol is attached to the main one. It is made of six numerical digits – the last one for data security check and the others showing how many units there are in the package. The distinctive characteristics of the ITF14 standard don’t end up with...

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  Code39 and Code128 are alphanumeric barcode standards that are said to be the most widely used in the world. In one of my previous articles (EAN & UPC – Trade Barcodes) I mentioned that the global organization GS1 has accepted to use only two standards – UPC and EAN – at the point of sell of products. This of course doesn’t mean all the other barcode symbologies are useless and can be thrown on the garbage. With the rapid technological advances every sphere of our life has to be modernized, to be made faster and better functioning.   Where can we put code39 and code128 in use and how they actually work?   Code39 and Code128 are representatives of the so called 1-D barcodes. They use linear pattern for encoding data – black bars and white spaces. A simple example of these two types consists of two main sections – machinery-readable information and human-readable text. Their mass adoption could be easily explained with one word – alleviation. Code39 and code128 may not be so popular at the trade but they are commonly preferred for inner or inter-company transactions. Nowadays, with the expanding globalization, the developing process of a smartphone, for example, has become much more complex. The display is manufactured in Thailand, the hardware in China, the design in Europe and all these parts are put together in America. How can the segments be tracked down during the transportation and what is more crucial – how can identification information be provided about every individual unit. Decent solutions are code39 and code128. They are perfectly applicable not only in the industry, but in the health sector, in postal services and in the everyday life. You might be familiar with the cases when an employer gives his employees membership cards with unique barcode on them. On arrival or when leaving they have to scan the card at the gateway and whenever the supervisor wants he can check the working hours of every single laborer or use all the information for his weekly/monthly reports.   Advantages and disadvantages   But if they both can be used for one and the same thing what is the difference between them and which is better? To start with data capacity – code39 is able to encrypt letters from A to Z, digits from 0 to 9 and an additional set of special characters – “. $ % + –  / *”. In contrast code128 supports all the 128 ASCII symbols – much more convenient, don’t you think? (A link to the ASCII table for those who are not familiar with it) We move on to our next criteria – data density.The encoding combinations of...

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    BGLiveRadio е приложение, предоставящо на потребителите си изключителната възможност да слушат български радиа онлайн. Само по себе си то е уникално и се разпростраява напълно безплатно.       BGLiveRadio е подходящо както за персонални така и за мобилни “Apple” устройства. Безпроблемната функционалност и перфектната му оптимизация го правят широко предпочитан продукт. Версията за iPod и iPhone Touch беше създадена преди година, а вече има група от редовни слушатели, надхвърляща 16000 души. Другият вариант – за Mac операционна система – беше направен сравнително по-късно – преди 6 месеца, но въпреки това и неговата аудитория не е малка – над 10000 човека дневно.   Самите цифри го показват – много хора харесват нашето приложение, събиращо над 20 радиа на едно място. На въпроса: “какво го прави толкова желано?” отговора е: улеснението, което предлга. Всеки меломан би разбрал за какво става въпрос. Кое е по лесно – да стартираш музикалния си плейър, да вкараш желаните песни в плейлист и след това да слушаш едно и също нещо до омръзване или просто да отвориш BGLiveRadio и да имаш достъп до не само разнообразен и динамичен музикален източник, но и до редица радионовинарски и развлекателни предавания. Като споменахме новини, в съвременното ни забързано ежедневие малко от нас имат възможността сутрин спокойно да седнат, да си изпият кафето и да чуят или прочетат какво ново има по света. Решението е просто, не изисква да купувате допълнителни радио приемници и Ви помага да оползотворите времето си напълно. Пуснете BGLiveRadio, изберете си подходяща станция, сложете си слушалките и се информирайте, докато вървите или шофирате към офиса си. Лесно, нали? Интересен факт е че приложението ни е изключително популярно и сред български емигранти. Явно въпреки отделеността си от родното, български звуци и песни продължават да звучат в ушите им.   Като цяло ние от Mobilio сме се ориентирали да програмираме за iOS и OSX. Дейността ни може да се разграничи в два основни аспекта Mac програми, обединени под общото название “баркоден софтуер”, и редица мобилни приложения сред които е и BGLiveRadio. За сега този наш продукт работи само на компютри с Mac система или iPod и iPhone Touch. В момента се работи над версии за Android OS и Windows. Отделно версия за “ябълката” ще бъде актуализирана с нови опции и възможности, които ще можете да видите в AppStore,  Mac AppStore или на обновения ни сайт....

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    One of our most successful products is BGLiveRadio. It is an internet application for desktop machines or mobile devices, which provides you with real-time Bulgarian radio broadcasts and musical hits.       At the moment there are two versions, both for iOS and OSX that are really popular among the true fans of the Bulgarian radios. Current statistics draw very bright perspectives for our product. BGLiveRadio for iPod and iPhone Touch was released an year ago and is now enjoyed by more than 16 000 users. The Mac version was developed before six months but is also gaining speed – more than 10 000 listeners have chosen BGLiveRadio to be the music provider on their computers. Practically this is the next step in the recent technological advance – replacing the old-fashioned transmitters, with buttons and antennas, with digital prototypes.   BGLiveRadio is the perfect addition to the set of programs on your Apple desktop machine or mobile device. Just start it, choose a radio and that is it. It provides its audience with constant transmission of shows, music, news and advertisements. You don’t bother to select songs, like in the normal players, and there’s no need to because radio playlists are fresh, dynamic and always consistent with the latest hits. Moreover radio frequencies should no longer be learnt by hearth. BGLiveRadio has a prepared set of radios with their names. Only a single tap on the screen or a click with the mouse and the desired tones reach your ears. The list is prepared with the intention to satisfy everybody’s taste – genres vary from rock and jazz to pop folk and disco. This app is extremely useful especially for users who lead hectic lifestyle. They can listen to the news broadcast while driving to work (you can’t watch or browse the news while driving). Mobilio develops software mainly for iOS and OSX platforms. Its priority is to make mobile applications. Our production can be divided into two main parts: barcode software for Mac devices and a variety of programs for iPhone and iPod (Potrebitel, Traffic Radio Station, Seir, Kaldata). Taking into account the success of BGLiveRadio, our team is considering optimization for Android and Windows. The Apple version is going to be updated soon, with new features added and expanded list of stations. Check it out on the AppStore on the Mac AppStore or at the product page of our website....

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