The Sun newspaper legitimises mobile bar codes
Rating: And not all the content is
naked ladies. Phew!
by Tony Dennis
In today’s super, soaraway Sun
newspaper there’s not only ladies with big bosoms but QR codes
readable via most mobile handsets. And it’s all contained in a special
eight-page supplement.
You spend months, ney almost years, trying
to evangelise the use of 3D barcodes with mobile phones and suddenly
the technology is thrust in front of millions of Brits by the UK’s
best selling tabloid newspaper.
The really good news is that the
technology in question actually works, so months of hard work haven’t
been lost.
I thought I was watching this
particular sector very closely, but obviously I wasn’t. Because I’ve
never heard of the company involved – I-nigma – which has
supplied Sun readers with the appropriate 3D code reader software for
their handsets.
The software download process proved to
be very simple and it was very impressive to see that I-nigma’s
servers immediately recognised which make and model of handset I was
using.
Now we get to the issue of what kind of content was
downloadable. Actually, it wasn’t just naked ladies. The bar code on
the supplement’s front cover takes you straight to the front page of
the Sun’s mobile web site, for example.
There are also codes for the Sun’s sports
pages, horoscopes and even a bar code for an advertiser –
Ladbrooks, the gambling concern.
I can even report that Vodafone’s
adult content filter nearly worked efficiently because I couldn’t actually
download the cheekiest of the adult offerings.
I find the whole
situation completely bizarre, however. Thanks to the Sun, millions of
Brits will now have a bar code app not only loaded on their mobile
phone, but they will also know how to use it.
That’s brilliant
news for the mobile content industry. Particularly since I-nimga’s
reader is built around industry standard QR codes. It could even read
a code generated by Abaxia’s rival technology.
I absolutely
applaud the Sun for its initiative in this direction. But I’m still
stunned that I didn’t see it coming.
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