Near Field Communication and Quick Responsive codes – I have already written some articles for both of them explaining their principles of functioning but the question is: Who would be the winner in a dispute: NFC vs QR codes? Some users and experts might say: “Wait, wait, wait, they are totally different things and trying to compare them is like wondering whether bananas are tastier then potatoes?” Actually there is a grain of truth is such statements but only a grain. NFC is a wireless technology that is mainly used for transferring digital content, virtual and contactless payments or performing any other kind of actions that require high security levels. However recently something new came on the stage which can be perceived as a competitor of the QR – NFC tags. It is practically a label or a picture that is meant to attract the user’s attention and a chip below it that makes all the magic happen. And magic here refers to an encoded URL, Plain text, Contact details, Foursquare Venue even a Password. So in what such a small chip which is graphically masked can be better or worse than a QR code? User interaction and Design issues. The first impression is the uppermost. Impress the user once and then he is much more eager to give you a few minutes of his precious time. Some claim that NFC tags are more user-friendly because you are not so restricted when it comes down to design customization. You can take practically everything – not only a 2D image but even an object – and integrate a chip inside. Nice isn’t it? With the QRs the basic concept is a black-and-white matrix layout. Of course creativity combined with a lot of experiments can end up in some really beautiful and eye-catching results. Take a look at my previous article: How to make my QR nicer in 5 min? If you can do this in 5 min, imagine what is possible if you devote a few hours/days in customizing your QR. Furthermore the ways QRs and NFC tags are exploited by the user are totally different. With the one you “scan” and with the other – “tap“. In order to read a Quick Responsive code all you need is a phone/smartphone with a camera and free (most of the time) QR scanner. With NFC things are a little bit complicated because your device must have a special chip installed that practically establishes the connection with another NFC chip, when near. On the other hand all that is required from you is to turn the NFC service On. No third-part applications, no additional software. Just Tap! Conclusion: Although NFC tags are...

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Don’t know about you but I personally got sick with materials that say: “QR codes are useless!”, “QRs will ruin your marketing campaign” or “Why QRs are doomed?” For all these guys that “hate” them there are two options – they either don’t know anything about QRs’ full marketing potential or they simply don’t know what they are writing about. If used properly, I am putting accent on PROPERLY, QR codes can become a real magnet for customers. Again I am going to refer to the 3D QR in Seoul that becomes readable only between 12 and 1 p.m. thanks to the specific angle of positioning and the sun light. Truly interesting and attractive for the users. Also if you don’t know what is QR code read more here. On the question: “Is there a recipe for a successful QR campaign” there isn’t one sided answer. The factors are many and different but among the most important ones is the design because it is the design that makes the first and most important impression. Many people write that QRs seem strange, even alien, and that is what discourages the user to scan them. As you might know Quick Responsive codes have become a really big thing for Mobilio mainly because of our product – the QREncoder. We even have a few articles in the blog, devoted specially to the QRs and how they affect us – LINKS. In this context I decided to create a small tutorial which demonstrates how easy is it to make a code beautiful and nice-to-the-eyes without even being a graphic designer. I wonder what would say the ones who still claim that Quick Responsive codes don’t have any future because they are “small, ugly, black-and-white squares” after reading this article or watching the video. Behold the combination of beauty and great functionality described below in pictures, text and video. How to make my QR nicer for 5 mins? Something very important that should be taken into account before starting to customize is the error correction level. There are four: L, M, Q and H where in H around 30% of the code can be lost and it still will be readable. To put it bluntly if you are planning to erase part of the code and replace it with the logo of your brand, like in the example, then put the error correction level to H. Furthermore you will need an adequate graphic editor – my choice was Photoshop CS 3 but any other will do a good job too.   Step 1: Make some space for the logo We begin with making some space for our brand logo in advance. If you won’t...

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“Tap” as an inviting action might soon replace “scan” and “click” in the numerous posters and virtual banners that say to the user: “Click me!” or “Scan me!“. By tapping I mean physical contact between your device and the so-called NFC tags and NFC-enabled objects. As some of you might already know NFC stands for Near Field Communication. It is a technology that works on very short distance – from few millimeters to 4 centimeters – and can provide whole new security levels in data transfers, whole new marketing approaches and a whole new user experience. NFC in a nutshell. NFC has more than 20 years of history but it actually started gaining popularity in 2004 when Nokia, Philips and Sony established the Near Field Communication Forum and especially since it was integrated in the smartphone market (2010 when Samsung announced the first Android phone with NFC – Nexus S). But what is it actually and why there is so much buzz around it? The most important thing about NFC is that your device has to have a specific chip installed. Thanks to this chip your phone/tablet will be able to establish instant connection to another object/tag/device that is also NFC enabled. And by instant I am not exaggerating because it is a matter of second or two for the two chips to engage and exchange information. Of course this will happen only if you have turned on the NFC-build-in function and the distance is appropriate. Probably a brief example would clarify the concept. You might be one of those Foursquare fans that are striving to keep their mayorships and are constantly checking-in. A normal check-in takes between 20-30 seconds and it is kind of impolite instead with a greeting to meet your friends with the words: “Hold on a second till a check-in“. In the context of Near Field Communication if there was a NFC tag at the door or on every table in the cafe just tap it with your device and it is all done in a second. It is not only Foursquare venues, but URLs, contact details, plain text, coordinates and even discount coupons. Putting NFC tags on business card or using it as a marketing tool is original and can really impress the customers who sees it for the first time. The only problem is that for the tags, described above, special NFC chips are required and the last ones are still not very accessible. Hopefully this will be overcome with the time. Furthermore Near Field Communication can be used not only for device-tag but for device-device engagement as well. Android Beam service is a good example of how phones with NFC can share...

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After Google Nexus 7 tablet and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean it is now time to say something about the biggest sensation of Google I/O 2012 – Project Glass. If you still haven’t heard of it, which I strongly doubt, Google Glass is a device, looking like a glasses’ frame, which brings all the functionality of an average smartphone right in front of your eyes. Contacts, mails, social networks, geolocation, digital content, or said with fewer words – augmented voice-controlled reality that provides the user with real-time information. And all the operations are done without even moving a finger!   If you had watched the teaser of Google Project Glass on YouTube and your mouth watered, chill out! Google Glass still has to go through a lot of testing and developing before being ready for mass production. At the I/O conference only the “most passionate and excited” about it had the chance to pay $1500 for the Explorer edition which will be shipped after almost a year. The gadgets, represented on the 27th of June, were only prototypes, tested by Google’s employees. It is not even firmly decided whether it will be autonomous pair of glasses or just an addition that can be installed on a regular pair. At the demo of the Project Glasses the camera and the microphone, attached to a metal band, were put into use. Through Google Hangout the audience in Moscone Center, San Francisco had the chance to experience skydiving, biking and climbing from first person point of view. It was pretty spectacular and amazing. Obviously Google have understood that the secret is in that to be original.     Although the Project Glass is far away from mass usage, Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google Inc., put the emphasis on the fact that this utility is a whole new piece of technology that will be naturally used by people and will give them rapid access to all kind of information. But let’s leave aside all the flashy videos, showing services that are still only concepts, and talk about something much more likeable and easier for realization: barcode integration from QRs to UPCs and EANs.   Many people nowadays distrust Quick Responsive codes because of two main reasons: They don’t know what it is; It seems like a long procedure to put out their smartphones and scan while passing-by a QR;   While the first problem is harder and more time-consuming to be dealt with, for the second one there might be a very handy solution in the following years. In the Google Glass unit we saw a few days ago there was a camera which means that a barcode scanner can be integrated. Thus instead...

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As I promised, after Google Nexus 7 tablet, next in the list is the new version of Google’s OS – Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. Yes, that’s right – Jelly Bean. Some of the users wonder who the hell comes up with the names – Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich and now Jelly Bean. It is as if their marketing director is a 10-year-old child but after looking at all the cute and nice-looking icons and droid statues you understand that it is really a good branding strategy. Moreover if the OS is good and comes up with the users’ expectations who cares about the name?   What’s new in Android 4.1 Jelly Bean? When Hugo Barra announced the new release 4 days ago at the Google I/O conference the rumors about a major update – Android 5.0 – were totally debunked. Instead an improvement called Jelly Bean came out and it uses the Ice Cream Sandwich as a foundation. There are few innovations, some of them substantial, some not quite but they are all meant to bring alleviation in your hands and to contribute for a better user-android-OS experience. Here is a brief list of what makes the Jelly Bean stand out of the crowd:   Project Butter; Voice Typing; New Camera options; Android Beam; Notifications; And last but maybe most important – Google Now;   The buttery smooth performance called “Project Butter” To begin with the so called “Project Butter”. While getting the audience familiar with it, Dave Burke, Android Engineering Director, described the new interface with three words: fast, fluid and smooth. The system frame rate is increased at 60 fps. Triple Buffering which makes the CPU, GPU and the display to work in parallel without waiting for each other which only would lead to more consistent framework rendering. Touch Responsiveness that practically predicts where you will touch the display and boosts the whole power of the CPU immediately. To put it bluntly the UI of the Jelly Bean is buttery smooth.   Google Voice Typing Becomes Offline. Next in the list with updates are the predictive keyboard and the offline voice typing and searching. It is handy to have a smart keyboard that will predict what you are trying to write and give you suggestions of how to continue your sentence. Thus writing an e-mail becomes much faster but do you know what can be faster and cooler that a predictive keyboard – offline voice typing. From Google have actually succeeded in shrinking the Google Speech Recognizer so much that it can be fitted into the device. So far voice typing and searching was based on an internet connection and if the signal was low and bad...

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First were Apple, Microsoft followed, and this week it was Google’s turn to gather our looks and to announce “What’s new”. And they really succeeded in attracting people’s attention. New tablet, new version of Android OS and something that seems to have came out of a sci-fi movie – Google Glass. In order to be more specific I will elaborate on each of these three innovations in three separate articles. Number one in the list is the Google Nexus 7 tablet. Technical Specifications During the announcement at Google I/O, Hugo Barra, director of Product Management, Android, said the following about Nexus 7: “Super-thin, light, portable and yet we have managed to pack a lot into this device.” But let’s check out what hides under the nice-looking back cover. Google Nexus 7 is kind of pioneer because it is the first 7” tablet equipped with a quad-core processor – Nvidia Tegra 3 CPU. Yes, you read it right – a 7-inch IPS display with 1280×800 resolution and 216 ppi. Add to this the 12-core GeForce graphic card and the result is a stunning clarity, crystal-clear sharp images, smooth HD videos and unique gaming experience. Nexus 7 will be available in two editions – 8GB and 16GB. Some might refer the low storage capacity and the absence of an SD slot card and a substantial drawback but chill out! The tablet is cloud-oriented and is described as “specially made for Google Play”. You can start watching an episode of your favorite series on the PC and stop it because you feel sleepy. On the other day you can continue watching the episode right from where you left it but this time on the tablet while commuting with the subway. Of course this is not something UNSEEN, (I am talking about the iCloud) but Google users will definitely benefit their personal cloud media library and the deeper integration with the Google Play services. Continuing the specification list, Nexus 7 has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and NFC but no 3G or 4G connectivity. Moreover the camera is only one – front-facing 1.2 MP which is perfect for Google+ hangouts or any other video chats. A good question here is what the battery’s life is and how big the tablet is? Hugo Barra said that the battery will able to stand for up to 9 hours in active-usage mode and up to 300 hours in stand-by mode. About the dimensions, they are 198.5 x 120 x 10.45mm and only 340 grams, or said with other words: Google Nexus 7 is like a mid-sized book that fits perfectly to the hand.   Prices and releasing dates? It all sounds pretty cool but when is it going be...

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