links for 2011-01-28: AT&T unlimited data plan for iPhone back; LibreOffice release; iPhone and Google Voice; Startup business models

• AT&T quietly matching VZW's unlimited data plan for iPhone - I never gave up my unlimited plan, but good to know others can get it back.
• First LibreOffice Release arrives - Sounds like a good release, will have to check it out.
• Why the iPhone and Google Voice don't mix - I have not had the issues this story lists, it works great for me.
• Why DropBox won - Good read for folks introducing new technologies that require adoption.
• Kill your business model - Another good read on the same subject.

links for 2011-01-26: AWS Simple Email Service; Marc Fleury on Oracle and Open Source; No screenshots on Windows Phone 7

• Introducing the Amazon Simple Email Service - Another in the line of "simple" services.
• Oracle and Open Source. NOT GOOD - Marc's view on how Oracle is handling open source, based largely on what has happened with OpenOffice and Hudson.
• Capturing screenshots in Windows Phone 7's future? - Hiding behind DRM seems like a poor excuse.  And no one has ever asked for it?

Fun with QR Codes - Encoding URLs and contact information in images

I've been playing with QR Codes recently.  What is a QR code you ask?  It is one of those square bar-code looking images that you may have started to see lately, and are used to encode text which can be URLs, vCards (contact info), phone numbers, or other data.  By encoding this information in the QR Code, the data can be easily decoded by say a camera phone, and the information acted upon.  Common uses are sharing URLs, avoiding having to type in a long sequence of characters on a small keyboard, or sharing electronic business cards (vCards).

Here is an example that encodes the URL to the Wikipedia page on QR Codes.

Use a QR Code reader on your mobile phone and it should launch your browser on that site.  Most readers I've come across have this built-in behavior for URLs, but what about other forms of text encoded in the image?

I've done a fair amount of experimentation with several readers on the iPhone and have discovered some that simply show the text for non-URLs, while others have nicer behavior, especially with vCards.  For example, the following QR Code has a name, work phone, e-mail, company, and title.

On an iPhone, scanning this with QRReader just displays the vCard text.  i-nigma 4 recognizes it as a vCard, parses it, and lets me add it to my contacts, but ignores the company (ORG) and title (TITLE) fields as well as the work attribute on the phone number.  ScanLife does the best, recognizing the vCard and all the fields.

So, your success with using a QR Code as your business card will depend on the reader your audience is using.  Feel free to comment on how your reader works.

As you can see, when more information is added the QR code larger/denser which is natural and to be expected.  The specification calls for a maximum number of characters of 4,296 but that would have an image that was 177x177 pixels and the dense one above is 1/9 as large.  So when using it as a business card, particularly if you are printing it on the back of your business card, at some point it is too dense to print on such a small card and have readers still be able to process it, so you are somewhat limited in what you can include.  You'll notice that I didn't include an address or secondary phone numbers in either case above and those would add significant characters.

The other thing I learned in trying things out is that while there are numerous services on the Web that will create the image from text you enter, they don't all properly format the vCard with the proper syntax and punctuation when you fill in their vCard form.  But part of my project was to find a way to encode without internet access so I had to write my own anyway and did so using the Google's zxing project.  That project seems focused on readers, but has encoding classes in it too.

What is your experience with QR Codes?  What readers do you use and which work well?

links for 2011-01-24: Forrester on the Future of Java; Honda 1-ups Segway; Linux distros switching from OpenOffice to LibreOffice

• The Future of Java - "Over time, developers will begin to view Java as a server-side language for enterprises — like COBOL."
• Honda Personal Mobility Concept U3-X - Honda 1-ups (or 2 or 3?) Segway.
• Ubuntu opts for LibreOffice over Oracle's OpenOffice - Justified or not, Oracle just can't win with open-source advocates, developers, and Linux distributions

links for 2011-01-21: AWS Elastic Beanstalk; Googled copied Sun's Java code

• AWS Elastic Beanstalk: A Quick and Simple Way into the Cloud - AWS continues to avoid going up stack to compete with partners, but still offer new services and value.
  
• Oops: Android contains directly copied Java code, strengthening Oracle's case - That would be a big ooops!
  
• Oops: No copied Java code or weapons of mass destruction found in Android - Or maybe not.
  

links for 2011-01-17: New data roaming option for international travelers; Battle over video on the Web; Android passes iPhone; Unplugging from LBS

• DROAM - Dreaming about Cheap Data Roaming - Great to see more options out there.
• Can Google and Mozilla dethrone H.264 on the Web? - Probably good in the long run, a bit bumpy right now though.
  
• Android passes iPhone in market share - Sounds like Gartner was awfully conservative in their Q4 2012 prediction.
• Why I’m Unplugging From Location Based Services Until The Privacy Issue Is Resolved - Great list of things to remember when using location based services.
  

links for 2011-01-03: Android dominates top phone list; Surprises of 2010; Outlook for 2011; Facebook IPO; Amusement Park Technology

• The 10 elite smart phones of 2010 - Seven Android, one BlackBerry, one Windows, and one iPhone.
• The year in review: 10 technology surprises of 2010 - It was an interesting year.
• 2011 Tech Preview - SaaS to grow, interesting thoughts on HP acquisitions, "cloud" to become meaningless as everyone overuses it.
• Facebook IPO Likely - Been rumored for a long time, will it finally happen in 2011?
• Technology at work at Disney - Some good insight into what an amusement park has to think about.