QR codes: the good, the bad and the useless

Posted on October 24, 2011 by admin

A lot has been written about QR codes in the last two years. Quick Response codes are 2d barcodes containing text with information or links to web pages which can be scanned by phones with the appropriate software (and a camera).
Described as the missing link between print and online by some, dismissed as a passing fad that is too difficult to use by others.

Like with most things, the truth lies somewhere in between: done right they can add functionality and value, but if they are done badly, people will be disappointed and not make the effort to use them again. Tech friendly marketers need to remember that not everybody will jump at the opportunity to test a new gadget. If they do and it doesn’t work, or if it gets too hard or is just not quick enough, they will move on.

Some examples of codes I have seen used (please click on the pictures to enlarge):

Good:

A very large billboard at Madison Square Garden, linking to a movie trailer. A massive display that invoked curiosity when QR codes were very new in the US.

The campaign for Hennessy produced more than 600.000 scans, most of them from IPhones.
Details on the usage numbers can be found here.

The code itself shows that 2D codes don’t all have to look the same.

A QR in Berlin, linking to a historic video that showed the area in the mid twentieth century. The video loaded quickly and the QR immediately added another dimension to the displays.

Another QR in Berlin, here the green party shows their affinity to modern technology by linking to a video of their candidate in the local elections.

Bad:

A QR on the back of a book, linking to … absolutely nothing. That’s because the book is a few years old, and has been re-printed digitally as a short run. With publishers maintaining the long tail and books not going out of print anymore, references to time limited events like this code need to be taken off the artwork – or the URL has to be kept alive.

Completely Useless:

A QR in a vodka promotion, but Usher’s advice links to … a page secured by a facebook login. Much too hard to follow, most people will just not type in their login and password for a promotion, especially without clear incentive. “Scan to read more” is just not enough.

The top seven reasons why life in Berlin is so much more affordable than in Sydney

Posted on September 14, 2011 by admin

1. The bicycle is a means of transport.
Berliners have been used to using the bicycle to get around for a long time, and it shows: there are miles of bicycle lanes and even more importantly, car drivers actually respect and look out for cyclists. In Sydney, riding a bike through town is very dangerous, drivers are not used to bicycles on the road, and they turn and open their doors without considering that they might wipe a bike rider off their wheels.
It helps that Berlin, while not totally flat, is nowhere as hilly as Sydney.

2. Public Transport. It actually works. Reliably. Reasonably priced. Buses, light rail, subway and train all under one ticket system. Plus, you can take your bicycle on trains and trams when it rains, after buying a bike ticket.

3. Beer is for sale in supermarkets, delis, even in petrol stations. A bottle of 0,5 liters of quality German beer is 0,72 euro on the small supermarket at the corner. In Sydney It’s 2.50 for a small bottle (0.33) in a pack of six, even at a discounter.

4. Parking tickets. I found a ticket for parking without valid “parkschein” stuck to my windscreen wipers. In Sydney I have paid between $68 and $289 for parking tickets during the last four years. This ticket in Berlin was for 5 Euro. It still made me watch out for signs from then on.

5. Real estate
Sydney prices are just outrageous, and while Berlin prices are going up, they nowhere near the level of other capital cities in Europe and far lower than Sydney. Flats in good areas close to the city centre can be bought for a reasonable amount, under 100.000 Euro. A newly renovated, high quality 2-3 bedroom flat in Prenzlauer Berg, which would have to be one of the trendiest and most sought after areas in Berlin, sells for between 250.000 and 500.000 Euro. A similar quality flat in Bondi would start at 650.000 (no view, no garage) and go up beyond a million.

6. H&M! Their shops are all over Europe and there are lots in Berlin. A t-shirt is 4.95, same shirt is 29.95 at Country Road in OZ.

7. Education
Going to university does not cost thousands of dollars per term and does not leave you with a huge debt once you’re finished. There even is BaFog, assistance similar to Hecs, to help with the cost of living.

Online community

Posted on May 7, 2011 by admin

Last Saturday evening I stayed in a great hotel on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. I was quite happy staying in, I had my iPad, law and order on tv and some room service.

I channel surfed and saw president Obama’s announcement that after almost ten years, finally Osama bin laden had been caught and executed in Pakistan.

It was a big announcement and news event, one of those that you would look back on after years and think where you were when that happened.

It created a whole big brown bag of feelings in myself, first one of just WOW, then relief, then sadness looking back on why this was such a significant event. Back to 9/11 and all the events and consequences, from conversations with people in the New York area to that damn security, that can make boarding a plane such a pain. Then fear. Fear that has been there since 9/11, that a strike like that was and is possible and fear that there might be retributions soon.

I felt the need to communicate, I sent a text to home in Australia, but there it is night, and there is no reply. A look a the online news sites shows that in Australia and Germany the news has not hit yet.

Tweets started coming through. “Ding dong”, said Jeff Jarvis and the song is immediately in my head. The TV news shows people in New York and in Washington assembling at times square and at the white house. Jubilant shouts of “USA, USA” don’t feel right and do not go with my sad and sombre mood.

More tweets came in, initially just blasting the news, Bin Laden Dead. Then first reflections.
TV news replayed Obama’s announcement and scenes from the countries assembly points, times square, white house and then also ground zero.
Commentators trying to explain what happened, but they had no further material and kept repeating what the President had already said.

Jokes started to appear on twitter. Then some criticism of the jubilations.

I contemplated going down to the hotel bar, but I didn’t. I thought about going down to the street. Traffic and general noise from there increased, as if others had felt the same urge to get out and talk. I didn’t leave my room.

Twitter was my soundboard, mirroring my emotions, keeping me company. Twitter was entertaining, thought provoking, immediate and fully satisfied my need to exchange thoughts and emotions.

iPad 2

Posted on May 2, 2011 by admin

I have finally got an iPad 2, here’s a quick review.
It took me a while to decide whether I wanted to upgrade, I quite liked the original iPad and was not really sure that I could justify the expense. But then klaus came with his new toy and showed me, that with the new version, everything on screen can also be shown on an external screen or projector, using a via or hdmi connection. That means that for a presentation you can show anything that goes on your screen, no matter which app you are using.
Apart from this feature, there are not too many new features.
There is the camera, front and back, but the quality is so bad that I doubt it will get much use, especially when the iPhone4 is near.
The processor is quicker, and you do notice it. You notice it in complex apps. IMovie for example only runs on the new pad, and it runs really well. Video editing with a touch interface, very easy and a lot of fun, GarageBand was already available for the iPad 1, and it is just as great on the new model.
The iPad is slightly lighter, but still too heavy when reading without a rest or in bed, which is not really a problem.
The shape of the iPad is rounded to the back, similar to the iPhone 3, that is not a problem in itself, but the controls on the side and at the top do now stick out of the curved shape more, and I can see that something might get caught.
I did get a magnetic cover with the iPad. It seemed like such a magic accessory. But after the novelty wears off, it is not really that useful. It does not cover the back, no surprise there, so if you want a scratch free gadget, you need another cover. It rolls up, to turn into a stand for typing and for viewing. However, when you compare it to the original apple cover for the iPad 1 it is just not as functional. It can hardly be used on your lap and – because it is magnetic – it does not feel as safely attached when carrying it around. I am sure there will be cool and useful looking covers making use of the magnets soon, and I’ll be replacing this one as soon as I have found one.

Good:
Mirroring, anything on the screen is projected.
Faster processor.
Slightly lighter.

Not so good:
Controls on side (volume, screen lock) stick out.
Camera disappointing.
The magnetic cover.

The IPhone as a wireless access point

Posted on April 10, 2011 by admin

With IOS version 4.3 Apple added the Personal Hotspot feature to the IPhone. This functionality is not new, it had been available before to jailbroken IPhones and it has been a function on Android phones for a while. A similar function was tethering, which you could use to connect your IPhone to your PC or other device to the internet via the Phone’s 3G data connection.

The Personal Hotspot function is very easy: go into Settings -> Personal Hotspot, set up a password and turn the function ON. The IPhone becomes a WiFi hotspot, with the name of the phone as the identifier (displayed in the settings). You can now connect three devices via WiFi to use the IPhone’s internet connection or to each other. I have tried this sucessfully with my laptop and IPad. I was also able to provide the participants in a meeting online access.

The Personal Hotspot feature is a life saver when no other connection is available. It is also an option to save on access fees for your gadgets and reduce the number of online plans you may have. It is obviously no replacement for WiFi at home or in the office and it does drain the battery of the phone very quickly, but it does the job. Luckily the telephone companies in Australia don’t charge any additional fees for tethering or the hotspot feature, AT&T in the US does and several companies in Europe also increase fees to make this feature available.

Filmink – an IPad Magazine done right

Posted on March 6, 2011 by admin

Filmink has launched its new IPad magazine and it shows the possibilities of publishing to tablets.

Horizontal Navigation

Filmink have realised the magazine using the Adobe Digital Publishing Suite for Creative Suite, familiar from other tablet magazines such as Wired and already used for over 100 tablet publications. Articles and ads are arranged in a horizontal sequence, multipage articles are read by scrolling vertically. The Adobe solution allows for the embedding of media elements, so that the magazine experience can be had offline, without a high speed internet connection. It offers interactive elements such as sound, video and interactive multi state areas, that change and show different contents in an area on a page, depending on a reader’s choice.

The first edition of the magazine weighs in at about 700 MB, download times depend on your bandwidth, I had it on my IPad in ten minutes.

In ad movies

The Filmink IPad edition has over a hundred pages of text, equivalent to the print edition. It uses trailers and interactivity in ways that make sense and complement the text content of the magazine, unlike in other magazines there is no media for media’s sake.

Multistate object: many reviews on one page

Navigation is well thought through, it is easy to jump to articles from the contents. The different sections are clearly marked and separated.

A lot of the content goes beyond the possibilities of print: Ads contain videos with trailers or supplementary materials. Links lead to websites and online content.

Multistate objects:
A multistate object changes depending on user selection. On this page the navigation bar on the left lets the user chose which movie review to display.

Filmink is a smart and entertaining IPad application and sure to be a successful publication. It shows what can be done now with standard software and good media and content. It also makes you want more and hints at future possibilities in e-mags:

Closer links in to news updates in shorter intervals: As a magazine Filmink only gets updated once a month, current news is on the website. If the IPad mag combined access to both in app, content could be updated as news happens. This would mean a cross between a magazine and a newspaper and might require a subscription, but why read outdated contents on an e-reader?

Database connectivity to older or more extensive content: Current reviews are in the mag, could older reviews be made available by accessing a database? Could the app tell me when this feature is showing near me?

User generated content, voting and other participation are currently all are channelled through the website. Contents, articele snippets or links to trailers cannot be sent through the app to others. Social networking applications could let me invite friends to the movies, post opinions to my peers etc.

Shelving and archiving: As far as I know the shelving and rchiving of older issues has not been solved for any of the IPad mags. A stack of print magazines gives very quick access to older volumes, e-mags need to find an equivalent. At 700 MB an issue they can’t be kept on the IPad.

Closing bookshops

Posted on March 3, 2011 by admin

Our local independent bookshop had its closing down sale last weekend.

Disintermediation, changing consumer behaviors, the decreasing relevance of books in everybody’s array of media options mean that many big and small stores are not sustainable anymore. There had been a bookstore in this location for decades, recently it had changed hands after the owner of 17 years retired. It was a small book shop that could not compete anymore.
In the nineties came the big book seller chains, like Borders, with huge stores and kilometres of shelves, built in coffee shops and a massive marketing budget. The internet opened global sales channels, everybody could order from sellers anywhere in the world at low prices and free shipping. Then came tablets and e-readers with free, immediate distribution, offering books for a third of the price of paper books in a store.

Will there be a resurgence of local independent stores?

Readers will need suggestions and an inspiring shopping environment. Amazon’s “other people also bought …” is not quite the same as a book shop employee, who you know, who is enthousiastic and who recommends books to you.

But bookshops need to be able to offer a massive and growing number of titles. They need to find a tie in with Print on Demand, which enables publishers to keep their backlists in print. POD, the printing of one title after it is ordered, has experienced enormous growth rates. This tie in could be made by installing Espresso Book machines or by speeding up the flow of books from manufacturing at the printer to the point of the sale or the home of the customer (“I’ll have that title sent to you tomorrow”).

Bookshops need to be where their readers are, and a lot of the time they are browsing online (this shop was not even registered in Google places).

Bookshops need to market and maintain a close connection to their readers. Email newsletters, joint promotions and most of all social media can establish an emotional connection and motivate people to come in.

Bookshops can create connections between readers and authors and need to take advantage of this. Online this connection is made through authors’ blogs, in bookshops you can listen and talk to the author.

Bookshops can satisfy our need for a tactile experience, coffe table books and other high quality productions can only be experienced in a physical store, no website can demonstrate an outstanding print job or fabulous embellishments.

IPhone app – Dragon Dictate

Posted on February 25, 2011 by admin

The free app Dragon Dictate can be really handy for transcribing spoken word to text.

It basically records what you say, recognises it as well as possible and gives you text, which you can then email to yourself.

If you have an idea while driving, if you want to write a letter, if you always remember something you want to write when you’re away from a keyboard you can use Dragon Dictate.

Speak into your phone and it will transcribe your words and type what you say. Voice recognition software has come a long way, this one is pretty good, even with a strange German accent the recognition rate is acceptable.

Tweet Mag

Posted on January 10, 2011 by admin

Tweetmag is an Ipad app that displays tweets in a visually appealing magazine style. This is another app that makes use of the enourmous popularity of twitter and its use as news aggregator and pointer to other materials on the web.

It is similar to the very popular Flipboard, which pioneered the assembly of tweets to a beautiful, personalized magazine. Unlike Flipboard, which uses Facebook, Twitter and RSS feeds as sources, Tweetmag only draws from Twitter. It then goes beyond the 140 characters of a tweet and fetches full text of articles, pictures, youtube links and other media. You can choose between different feeds: your twitter feed from the people you follow, obviously, which makes for a very personalized magazine.

You can also choose between different categories like fashion, tech, news etc, which are lists and individuals, chosen and curated by the makers of TweetMag.

You can enter searches and compile tweets with certain keywords or hash tags. Due to the wide range of content on Twitter there is an almost infinite number of magazines that Tweetmag builds for you on the fly. When you tap on an article you get the full text, or image and you can share the item via Twitter, send a link via email or save it for later reading in Instapaper.

Tweetmag is a great way of reading the news in a beautiful layout. At 4.99 it might seem a bit pricy, especially compared to the free Flipboard. However, its flexibility and visual appeal make it a pretty and useful newsreader that shows the direction, in which IPad magazines can go.

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