QR Codes in Harrods

From mobile stairs to mobile phones, Harrods uses QR codes (via All About Mobile Life). The Times describe them as 'pioneering' the technology...really? Pioneering? Personally I have had a QR T-shirt for over six months, and whilst mine only advertises my blog, it is not really that much of a leap to advertise your rather large shop.

Whilst I think QR codes have been around far too many years to describe any part of the UK's slow embrace as 'pioneering', it is nice that it is starting to make a few stories. I love the potential of QR codes to connect the real world to the online world, and any news is good news.

QR Clothes: I am a leader of fashion

I have received a press release from emma cott to highlight that they are making it simple for people to have their social network site profiles embedded on t-shirts etc. in the form of QR codes:

It's worth noting as:
1) The majority of my site's taffic is driven by the QR code posts.
2) It's the first time that I have been singled out for a press release, thus joining the ranks of a million other bloggers.

QR codes have been appearing on clothes for a while, there is even a Facebook app, although emma cott seems to be trying to gain competitive edge by providing a range of networks and a variety of 'motives'. Personally I would like to be able to add my own motive and any URL.

I think there will be more and more QR clothes in the future, and my own QR t-shirt will look increasingly amateur:

Which is a shame as I got it made in October, and have barely had a chance to show it off over the winter months.

Google to use QR Codes

ReadWriteWeb have written a piece on 'Google barcodes' which, unless I am much mistaken, the rest of the world knows as QR codes. Google is to use them in print advertising.

Whilst the ReadWriteWeb blogger is not holding his breath for its success, he seems to have missed one important point: The software is already on the phones of a large audience! What Google need to do is educated the mobile users (including the so-called technologically minded at ReadWriteWeb).

QR-Kill: I want to play

All about mobile life have just drawn attention to what sounds like a fun new QR-code pastime: QR-Kill. Basically you wear a printed QR code on your back with you name and phone number, and when someone locks onto it and sends you an SMS you're dead.

Unfortunately the only people I know with any idea of what a QR code is, are my extremely un-urban-soldier research group and a Finnish webometrician who would be quickly tracked to the closest pub drinking a pint of strongbow.

QR Codes at the BBC...but I am not sure why

All about mobile life have pointed out that one part of the BBC have now started incorporating QR Codes (not the upstart Upcodes), although I'm not sure how much use the QR codes are.

BBC Programmes beta, which provides information on all current TV and radio programmes across the BBC, has provided a QR code for each of the programmes listed, simply by adding /qrcode to the URL. So, the QR code for Torchwood (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006m8ln) is available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006m8ln/qrcode.

Whilst I love the BBC and can see a lot of potential in QR codes, I am waiting for them to roll out to more useful areas of the site before I get over excited. I can see how QR codes embedded on news and sports pages, linking to mobile optimised versions would be useful. However, I can't imagine that it is very often that people think "I really want to be able to access these programme details on the move...if only I could easily transfer the URL easily across". Whilst I suppose an avid fan may wish to embed a QR code on a T-shirt, to show affiliation with a programme, the BBC codes don't even help with that as they are not in a useful format.

Although hopefully this is a sign of good things to come.

At last my own QR code t-shirt

When I first blogged about QR codes on the 5th of October I mentioned that I wanted to get my own qr code on a t-Shirt. Now, thanks to the University of Wolverhampton School of Art and Design, I have my own qr code t-shirt.

Does it work? Yes. In fact it even works from the above photo!

Suddenly QR codes are everywhere!

If it was 1987 then QR codes could claim to have really gone main stream, unfortunately it's not, and therefore it is unclear whether their inclusion into the video for the Pet Shop Boys' latest (download only) single will have any impact.

The embedded QR codes provide links to issues about civil liberties. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell the only may to access the QR codes without taking stills from the video is to download a rather hefty 49mb pdf file of 2408 pages!

So if you can't be bothered with all that, here are the first and last QR codes:

I don't think webometrics quite has the tools to count these links just yet.

QR Codes, podcasting and the N95

One of the problems with N95 is that it can do so much it takes ages to try all the different bits out. The last couple of days I have been utilising a couple of the features on the N95 that I hadn't quite got around to. I started with the podcasts, and that led me on to the QR Codes.

I have always found podcasts to be one of those things that have great potential, but I have never managed to quite get to work for me. Previously this has been due to my need to download the relevant files to my computer before transfering them to my MP3 player, which I never managed to successfully fit into my schedule. The N95 however, allows me to subscribe and download directly to the phone...podcasting is alive and well once again (although seemingly too late for Yahoo's Podcasts site).

A topic that occured on a couple of the podcasts I subscribed to this week (one of which was Digital Planet) was QR Codes. Whilst they have been around for a number of years, and are supposedly big in Japan, they have hit the news now as they are being incorporated in an advertising campaign for the 28 days later DVD in London. Basically the 2D barcodes allows for the inclusion of over 4,000 alphanumeric characters, which can be read through a mobile phone with a camera and the required software. Some phones, such as the N95, come with the software installed, whereas others need to have it downloaded.

Personally I think that the 28 weeks later advert gets it wrong by including a URL in normal text on the bottom. QR Codes are engaging when you don't know what they say. If I saw a QR code on its own I would scan it; seeing it with the URL for a film I don't care about, I don't bother because I know I am not interested. Obviously, if QR codes take off in the UK, we will become immune to most of them, and will need the extra information to persuade us that they are worth looking at. At this stage however, I believe a bigger buzz would have been created without it...but there again some of the other views of the people behind the campaign are quite questionable.

Personally I like the potential of the QR codes, and I am currently trying to get a T-shirt printed with my own personalised QR code message on it.