Webware

QR Code, a two-dimensional bar code storing addresses and URLs, is a widely used technology in Japan and elsewhere that can be scanned with camera phones equipped with the appropriate reader.

It's likely to gain ground quickly in the U.S. now that Google has sent out a QR code to 100,000 of the most popular companies in its Local Business Center. When those companies display the QR code, customers can use code-scanning applications on their iPhones and other devices to retrieve the firm's individual Google listing.

The only problem is, many of those QR code-reading apps for the iPhone just don't do a good job. That prompted me to sift through more than a dozen QR code readers to find some of the best. I came up with four.

QR Code it up

NeoReader NeoReader is one of the most useful apps in this roundup. The program is simple, it's intuitive, and it does a relatively good job of reading QR codes.

NeoReader is an extremely simple app. When it's open, you need only to point your iPhone's camera at the QR Code, click the scan option, and you're all set. Within a few seconds, the app delivers the unique content directly to your iPhone. It works with QR (obviously), as well as Data Matrix, and Aztec bar codes. To ensure the app is working properly, you can even go to NeoReader's home page and scan the QR Code examples to see if it's returning the right results. But beware that the application works best on iPhones running OS 3.0 or higher. NeoReader is free, so it's worth trying out.

NeoReader lets you view QR Codes for good information.

(Credit: NeoReader)

Optiscan Optiscan's developers say the application is the fastest QR Code scanner in the App Store. That's not necessarily true. But it's certainly quick.

Overall, Optiscan is a really nice QR Code reader. The application is able to capture QR codes on monitors, paper, and other places where you might find the code. Upon scanning a QR code within the app, you can view the company's QR code information. You can also save that data for later, so you don't have to come back to the QR code every time you want to view it. Even better, Optiscan allows you to share QR codes with others. It's a full-featured app that should satisfy most users. It costs $1.99.

Optiscan lets you save QR Codes.

(Credit: Optiscan)

Google Mobile App receiving search from voice.

(Credit: Google)

A new version of Google Mobile for the iPhone is now available in Apple's App Store, the search giant announced in a blog post Wednesday.

According to the company, the improved application features a redesigned search results page, with more results than in the previous version. The app also opens Web pages from those results within the program, which Google says should help users get where they want to go sooner.

To make the app more customized to the user, Google has also made its Bells and Whistles feature more prominent in the new Google Mobile version. Users can change the color of Google Mobile and turn on a moving waveform when users search by voice.

Google is offering Groups to its enterprise Google Apps Premier and Education Edition customers, the company announced late Tuesday.

As one of the search giant's "most widely used applications," the addition of Google Groups allows users to more effectively collaborate with others within the workplace.

According to Google, companies will be able to use Groups "as mailing lists, but they can also share documents, spreadsheets, presentations, calendars, videos and sites with groups, instead of many individual recipients." The app will allow those users to receive messages in their in-box or in the Groups forum view. Group managers will be able to send messages on behalf of the entire group. All discussions, files, and other content is archived and searchable, Google said.

IT administrators will need to activate Google Groups from Google Apps' administrative control panel. Once complete, users will be able to manage their own groups without requiring IT-administrator approval. That said, administrators can still set group policies and manage group settings.

Google Apps Premier and Education Edition customers can try out Google Groups now.

Parents' jobs are extremely difficult. From time to time, it's nice to get a little help from technology to make the job just a little easier. That's why I decided to sift through Apple's App Store to find applications that help parents monitor and ensure the safety and well-being of their kids. Some of the apps listed below are for young children, while others are designed for teenagers. But in the end, this roundup is for any parent with an iPhone.

Get parenting help from the iPhone

Baby Monitor Since some baby monitors don't have the kind of range parents hope for, the Baby Monitor iPhone app will deliver.

Baby Monitor provides a relatively simple experience. You can place the iPhone next to the baby while the application is open. You'll also need to input a phone number. When the baby starts making noise, the Baby Monitor places a call to the number you input into the application, so you can listen from another phone. It's a great way to monitor what your baby is doing, but beware that it costs $4.99.

The Baby Monitor lets you listen in while your kids are sleeping.

(Credit: Baby Monitor)

Baby Soothe Sometimes getting your child to go to sleep can be a difficult task. That's where Baby Soothe comes in.

Like Baby Monitor, you'll need to put the iPhone next to the baby for it to work properly. When you do so, you can pick from several different sounds that, according to the app's developer, will help your baby go to sleep. You can choose from relaxing water sounds, like a waterfall or rain. You can also choose a heartbeat option, which mimics the sound babies will hear in the womb. The app also features white noise, like fans and static. All the app's audio features high-quality sound that should appeal to most babies. Even better, it's affordable at just $0.99.

Baby Soothe helps your kids get some sleep.

(Credit: Baby Soothe)

After more than five years as a publicly available test version, Gmail shed its beta label in July. Now one feature key to the Net giant's cloud-computing aspirations, offline access to Gmail, also has grown up less than a year after its debut.

"Offline Gmail is graduating from Labs and becoming a regular part of Gmail," Google programmer Aaron Whyte announced the change Monday in a blog post.

Offline Gmail support, which relies on a Google browser plug-in called Gears, lets people read, search, organize, and compose e-mail even when there's no Net connection; sent messages are queued up in an outbox for delivery when the network access is restored and the account on the computer can resynchronize with the server.

"Offline Gmail has proven particularly useful for business and schools making the switch to Google Apps from traditional desktop mail clients--they're used to being able to access their mail whether or not they're online, and Offline Gmail brings this functionality right to the browser," Whyte said.

Google Apps, a bundle that includes Gmail, Google Calendar, and the Google Docs suite of online applications, is available for free for educational users or smaller organizations. Premiere accounts cost $50 per person per year, and Chief Executive Eric Schmidt called such enterprise-oriented services Google's "next big billion-dollar opportunity."

Gears is built into Google's Chrome browser, but other browsers rely on a plug-in. However, Google has stopped developing Gears in favor HTML5's equivalent features. That overhaul of the standard for displaying Web page includes local data storage on a computer as one feature, and it's now enabled by default in Chrome even though HTML5 isn't a final standard yet.

Updated 1:45 p.m. PST and 5:46 p.m. PST: For some Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard users, Gears doesn't work, hampering use of Offline Gmail.

Google initially said Tuesday that Gears doesn't work on Snow Leopard but later amended its statement, narrowing the problem to Apple's Safari browser.

"It turns out that Gears does work on Firefox for Snow Leopard and Leopard, though it still doesn't work on Safari," Google spokesperson Victoria Katsarou said. "There was a bug that was preventing Gears from downloading on Snow Leopard, but we're fixing it and at we'll be updating our Help Center article and Download page to reflect the change."

Offline Gmail didn't even work Tuesday in the new Chrome for Mac beta version. Gears is built into Chrome, but trying to enable offline Gmail with the browser yields a "browser not supported" error message.

For the rest of you, here are Google's instructions for getting set up with offline Gmail:

1. Click the "Settings" link in the top-right corner of Gmail.

2. Click the "Offline" tab.

3. Select "Enable Offline Mail for this computer."

4. Click "Save Changes" and follow the directions from there.

Would you like to let AT&T know when your iPhone has dropped a call? Well, now there is an app for that.

AT&T on Monday released a new application called "Mark the Spot," which lets iPhone users submit complaints about dropped calls, poor service coverage, and less-than-perfect voice quality.

The application is free and available in the iTunes App Store. It uses GPS technology in the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 3GS to pin point where the user is when experiencing the problems. For first generation iPhones, it uses cell tower-triangulation to get a fix on problem areas.

Once the application is launched, users have several complaint options. They will see a screen that has buttons that let them report a dropped call, poor voice quality, or poor service coverage.

AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel said AT&T plans to use the data collected to identify trends and prioritize the company's network investments.

"We think this is a great way to get customer feedback to improve our network," Siegel said. "We are always looking for ways to make it easy for customers to share their experiences. And this app lets customers report issues. It logs the time and location and automatically forwards the information to our network planning team."

iPhone owners have been complaining about AT&T's network since the Apple iPhone went on sale in the summer of 2007. Complaints mounted after the 3G version of the phone was released a year later in 2008. And as more iPhone users come onto the network, more people, particularly in densely populated urban areas, such as New York City and San Francisco, have experienced problems with dropped calls and congested data networks.

AT&T executives have not admitted that AT&T has a problem with its network. But executives, such as AT&T Chief Technology Officer John Donovan, have said that the company has seen a surge in data traffic attributed to iPhone users, who typically consume more wireless bandwidth than other AT&T wireless customers.

AT&T has been upgrading its network to keep up with demand. But problems persist. And AT&T's network recently got a poor ranking in terms of customer satisfaction in a Consumer Reports survey.

Verizon Wireless, AT&T's chief rival, has taken advantage of AT&T's struggles with a series of advertisements that point out AT&T's lack of 3G network coverage in certain parts of the country. Verizon is running advertisements that mock the Apple "There's an app for that," catch phrase with one that says, "There's a map for that."

AT&T fired back with a lawsuit and an advertisements of its own featuring actor Luke Wilson, who points out AT&T's strengths while taking a few shots at Verizon Wireless.

AT&T recently dropped its lawsuit against Verizon. And Verizon, which had been suing AT&T over claims that it has the fastest 3G wireless network, also dropped its lawsuit against AT&T.

Siegel said that the new "Mark the Spot" application was not prompted by the bad publicity around its network issues nor was it prompted by the current ad wars going on between AT&T and Verizon. Instead, he said that the application was simply a part of AT&T's ongoing commitment to listening to customers.

"We are always looking at ways to get customer feedback in as timely a manner as possible," he said. "That's why we pay attention to Twitter, Facebook and blog. One of the great values of these social networking tools is that it's a great way to get instant feedback. And it helps us identify problems."

The "Mark the Spot" application can be downloaded onto all iPhones running version 3.0 or later of Apple's operating system or it can be access using iTunes and synchronized to the iPhone via a PC or Mac.

Siegel said that AT&T is testing the "Mark the Spot" app for other devices. And he said AT&T hopes to offer applications on other smartphones in the future. No date has been announced yet. And Siegel didn't specify which devices might get the new application, but considering that AT&T sells a lot of Research in Motion's BlackBerry devices, it's likely it will create an application for that device. The app could be offered through AT&T's own application storefront or through RIM's BlackBerry App World.

AppJet, the company behind the EtherPad collaborative online editor that was acquired by Google on Friday, said the service won't be closed down as originally announced.

Instead, it will be maintain until it is open-sourced.

The original plan was to delete existing documents or "pads" in March, with no new creations or user registrations allowed. Existing users would be given a chance to export their data and given invitations for the Google Wave preview.

However, many EtherPad users were unhappy at these plans. On Saturday, now-former CEO of AppJet Aaron Iba posted an update to the AppJet blog.

Read more of "Google backtracks on EtherPad closure" at ZDNet UK.

Google, probably the most prominent advocate of moving traditional productivity software such as word processors online, acquired a small company called AppJet whose EtherPad service fits into that agenda.

AppJet announced the Google acquisition Friday. "The EtherPad team will continue its work on real-time collaboration by joining the Google Wave team," the site said.

AppJet offered free and premium versions of its service, which could import Microsoft Word documents, Web pages, PDFs, and plain text files, and let groups of people edit them collectively on what it called pad. A "time-slider" feature let people look back at earlier incarnations of a pad.

Google Wave has similarities. It's a sort of hybrid between instant messaging, wikis, and e-mail. Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt sees Google Wave as the future of collaboration, in particular given its intrinsically networked nature and its real-time view of what collaborating people are up to.

That real-time collaboration is a thorny problem. It can be difficult to permit multiple people permission to edit the same document at the same time while ensuring one person's changes don't interfere with another's work. And showing simultaneous work complicates a service's user interface, too.

Google Docs--the online word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation services--also offers some simultaneous editing abilities. AppJet dings it in its EtherPad FAQ.

"With Google Docs it takes about 5 to 15 seconds for a change to make its way from your keyboard to other people's screens," the site said. "Imagine if whiteboards or telephones had this kind of delay!"

Google Wave and Google Docs are perhaps the closest rivals to AppJet, but in the big picture, the rivalry is between cloud computing and the way most people use productivity software today, on their PCs. Notably, though, Microsoft is working on an online version of its dominant Office suite.

Current EtherPad users should brace themselves for the end of the service: "If you are a user of the Free Edition or Professional Edition, you can continue to use and edit your existing pads until March 31, 2010. No new free public pads may be created. Your pads will no longer be accessible after March 31, 2010, at which time your pads and any associated personally identifiable information will be deleted," AppJet said.

That left one user, JavaScript programmer and jQuery project creator, John Resig, unhappy.

"Super-lame that Etherpad is shutting down. We used it all the time for jQuery planning," Resig said in a tweet on Friday.

Zynga, the social-gaming developer behind the wildly popular Facebook game FarmVille, announced on Thursday that it has launched a new game for the social network, this one called PetVille. The news was originally reported on the Games.com blog.

According to the company, PetVille allows Facebook users to "raise, dress, and care for a pet" that they've created. Gamers can also visit friends' in-game houses and "play with their pets to earn coins you can use to make your own house the coolest on the block!"

Although PetVille's userbase pales in comparison to Zynga's FarmVille, which currently has almost 70 million active users, the game has already added 125 gamers as of this writing and more than 400 people have become fans of the title. Considering the popularity of Zynga's other games, it's likely that PetVille will enjoy the same kind of success.

If you're a FarmVille fan or you just like playing games on social networks, you can check out PetVille by clicking here.

See also: Facebook games to hold you over until Civilization Network