vCard vs Mecard. Dynamic vs Static

Deciding to use QR codes to exchange contact information on business cards brings with it a few options and choices.

Best to determine what is needed and find the best match. Besides the size of the QR code on the card, which hopefully will become clear as you read this article, two primary options can make the world of difference.

vCard vs Mecard

vCard is a rich contact information provider. Designed to be used as attachment to email traffic in the late 1990's it's ability to contain lots of information is for many intents too much for the capacity of QR codes to contain the data and secondly the ability to print these codes on a business card and still have the QR code scannable by the majority of smartphone applications.

Mecard supports primary information like name and telephone number. Plus point is that most all mobile QR code readers know it and implement it correctly. vCard, the vintage information exchange protocol is diverse and extensive, not well understood (if at all) by many QR code reader developer, and to top it all there is no mobile phone system that uses it's structure nor functionality natively, they all appear to have their own contact list schemas, and these even differe between same manufacturer model and even OS updates!

vCard remains the companies favourite. Why? Because you can put in the company name, department, fax numbers, function titles and lot more that is important for business use. But most (free) QR code readers do not have a clue how to deal with it in a correct and responsible way, so how can companies get this rich contact information across to people....

Static vs Dynamic QR codes

So far we have looked at putting the information directly into the QR codes. This is known as a static or direct qr code. This makes the Mecard look good and small and easy to print on business cards. The vCard QR code can start to be a problem depending on how much information is put into it, and can vary greatly in size from business card to business card depending on peoples wants and needs regarding what is in the contact information. In short making this type of QR code a hell for printers.

Along come dynamic codes, unless you have a IT department and your Internet connection under full control, this is a service and comes at a price. As a business, the costs are minimal and the rewards, not only for printing on business cards, but also the ability to change information after the cards are printed and to be able to track and measure usage, are enormous. One downside of dynamic or indirect QR codes is that if there is not a network connection, they are totally useless.

Lead by example!

All the above is available as working online QR code business card generator it creates jpg and pdf previews and all aspects including dynamic QR codes can be tested. PDF's are provided to test scanability of printed matter, which does differ from scanning it from a computer screen

If you still have trouble deciding which type of QR code is best suited for your business cards, please contact us for professional advice.

QR codes in the catering industry are not new, however some still need attention.

It's not often that I have the opportunity to go and eat out in a restaurant and recently I was mildly surprised to find a coaster on the table with a QR code. Having to wait to be served it's always nice to have something to keep you busy in moments when conversation at the table is in a dull.

Great a game! 'Who will be the sucker to get the next round of drinks!'

Scan.......

Hang on...what's wrong here? Tap...double tap (to try and scale the site into the view window), no response. Okay so no good view of what is going on and the loss of the WOW factor, which turns into confusion and dissapointment. Decided to rejoin the conversation at the table and left it at that. But did take the coaster along for some research.

The site looks great on my Windows computer at home:

But it was not at the restaurant and it does not scan QR codes, nor can it run iPone or Android apps.

This was done by a well known international 'branding' consortuim and I cannot figure out how and why they missed the mark, unless they all use the latest iPhone and expect the rest of the world to be the same. Truth be told HTML5 is used and that is worth at least ten plus points, however using HTML5 settings to block user interaction with presentation beats me.

Why did this QR code promotion for a bar game not work (for me).

1. That code is small and little 'quite space' took a heafty 30 seconds of zooming and focusing before it kicked in,

2. What I got to see on the screen was not what I expected and not the complete picture,

3. could not remedy it by user action (zooming and scalling had been explicitly forbidden!).

4. mixture of languages on the site (I know my language skills suck but it should be only one).

5. Do I really need to download another app!? Why immediately start the game  (via HTML5, It got to your site = I have Internet) and offer to have it anywhere anytime via an app download.

As far as I am concerned this mobile marketing campaign is a step in the good direction to engage, entertain, bind and brand to and with customers. The actual experience on the client side (IMHO) still leaves a lot to be desired. There's a lot of 'Droid' out there and I'm sure the install base for this will not be optimal.

If there are other catering companies thinking about using QR codes on coaters in the Netherlands to entertain, bind to, or just for  branding or promotion, contact Frans Hendricx - Infovijltje of Omnisense. He can get you on the right track and keep you there.

Decoding QR Codes in the cloud

QR4 has launched a public cloud based service to read and decode the contents of QR codes.

This decoder operates and functions like your average smartphone would. It accepts uploaded image files of QR barcodes, and you can also point it to images online via URL's.

If the decoder does not read your QR code image, then chances are other smartphone readers may also have problems reading and decoding it.

TIP: Make sure the QR code fills more than 50% of the image area else the decoder will ignore it. Also make sure the image has good focus.

Try the cloud based QR code reader service yourself and find out what is inside those QR codes and how they work.

Cloud computing seems all the rage and since Microsoft has a great offer for developers to get started in Azure, it was something that had to be tried. The goal is offering QR Code services, free and paid (very similar to this blog) but as a cloud service.

The web environment

Offers basic QR code generators where all services and storage are cloud based. Automatic maintence of deleting outdated temporary QR codes and basic security measures above those alreadt in place are all operational.

Next Steps

Create a Sharepoint QR Code Generator App for anyone wanting to use QR codes with Sharepoint. If anyone has other great ideas for QR codes in the cloud, drop me a line.

Can music be put into a QR code?

I was asked this recently. The practicle answer is no, the amount of data in a digital sound file is too large for QR codes.

The solution is to put the sound resource on a public network like Internet and then have the the QR code contain a pointer to the resource.

The above example is a QR code that links directly to a MP3 audio file. Most smart phones with audio players will start before the file has been completely downloaded. If you do not want the audio files downloadable, the QR code should contain a pointer to an audio streaming service.