A little bit more on Microsoft’s TagReader

I’m wondering what the advantage is to this vs. standard 2D barcodes that most existing barcode readers will handle, say if I wanted to use a barcode on my business card?

I want to hear Matt talk us through step-by-step

i logged into the beta site where you are able to create your tags. One advantage is that it tracks how many “reads” you get, so you can see if people are actually viewing them. Not sure if this is something i’ll pay for in the future, tho.

@ Dante, I’m not sure of what the advantage would be compared to other methods. But you can set up a tag for your vCard and print it on your business card. Also the tracking feature is great but I as well don’t think I would pay for it. I did read somewhere on there site that the tags made during the beta will be good for 2 years so that a plus…

@ Adam, I’m not the expert as I just started toying with this when I made the first post. I can say that I like it and will be adding more tags on my personal site.

There’s another software called Quickmark @ http://www.quickmark.cn/En/basic/index.asp

2D barcode is actually really popular in Japan, they use it for anything like buying stuff or downloading ringtones and whatnot. I guess it’ll be awhile till we get into that stage of mobile commerce here in US.

oh and I forgot to say, I personally use QR code a lot for downloading stuff over to my phone. There’s a 2D barcode plugin for firefox that’s capable of generating a 2D barcode from any URL or webpage of your choice @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2780 . It works really well especially for downloading those files from XDA.

@ Matt: I just wanted to hear your voice.

@ Adam, That funny Hey, you get a nice look at my motorcycle from the YouTube vid…

The only reader that reads Microsoft’s Tag codes is Microsoft’s reader and Microsoft’s reader only reads MS codes. That’s why I called it ‘proprietary’ in my previous post on this topic.

There are a great many readers available for cellphones but relatively few for WM. I mentioned NeoReader (see the previous article for a direct download of the .cab for WM) and Quickmark also works, but the freely available Quickmark reader is lacking a few features they reserve for a $ app.

Microsoft’s Tags offer an ability to store more data within the code than a std 2D bar code due to adding the 3rd ‘dimension’ of color. They do work but there’s already a standard in the works with the 4 major US cell carriers and associated governing bodies to define the best practices and get everyone on the same page. The purpose of this is to insure that when the barcode ad phenom hits the US that the chosen codes can be read by all the readers, yadda yadda yadda. It’s meant to keep confusing and competing technologies from holding back the move towards Mobile Marketing.

Interestingly, there are two very different methods behind the scenes of the barcode to cellphone process. One is the direct method which allows that all the data be encoded directly into the barcode itself (a URL for example) and the other is an indirect method where there is a simple index of some sort encoded into the barcode which is then sent off to a remote server to be translated to a URL which then sends your phone off to retrieve a web site, download a coupon, initiate a SMS message or phone call or even send a bar code to your phone to be read at a ticketing counter at a movie or an airport, etc. There are good reasons for the use of both methods, but the indirect method offers a bit more control and useful data for the advertiser plus an element of security which is expected to be very important to the standards bodies.

Not to dis MS’s reader or system, but it is outside and non-compatible with all of what everyone else in this space is working towards doing. If you want to expose yourself to a website chock full of info about this whole phenomenon, here’s one: http://www.gomonews.com/

Me? I’m just waiting for ladies to start putting little 2D codes on earrings directing me to their Facebook page or automatically sending a personal photo and Vcard to my Fuze. They can already do this with numerous freebie ‘create your own’ 2D barcode sites online like this one:

http://www.neoreader.com/code.html

I could ramble about this forever. I’ll stop now. Whew.

Motocycle!=voice

Hey,
how do you get a transparent titlebar like the one on the video ?
and what is this cool Start Menu with big icons instead of a drop down list ?

Is it all thanks to WM6.5 ?

@ Kane, It’s all WM6.5… I’m using NRGZ28’s latest Titanium ROM.

too bad the neoreader does not work on the fuze or be able to download it from the site.