barcode

Scanbuy's 2D bar codes go south of the border

Scanbuy, a company that's been making a fuss about its EZCode technology in the United States, on Wednesday demonstrated that it's been busy making a fuss about this in Mexico, too.

The company announced the launch of a new service called "Codigo Ideas" by Telcel, which allows camera phones to read 2D bar codes.

Codigo Ideas is a smartphone application that can be downloaded from mx.getscanlife.com. The app is very much like the ScanLife for the iPhone, which allows phones to take a picture of an 2D EZCode and then launches a specific action … Read more

EZcode reader to be preloaded in Samsung phones

Scanbuy, the developer of the 2D EZcode bar codes, announced on Wednesday that it has secured a global agreement with Samsung to preload the ScanLife mobile 2D bar code reader application on Samsung's camera phones.

The deal comes into effect as early as next month when Samsung starts selling these phones in Spain, Italy, and Denmark. With this move, Scanbuy hopes to quickly expand the use of EZcodes in other major markets, including Mexico and the United States.

EZcodes allows for instantaneously executing an action that the code is associated with, such as launching a Web site without you … Read more

A strip of paper that speaks

Now, your pictures can speak for themselves.

Labels That Talk, from Kailua Hawaii, has come up with software that lets consumers print high-density bar codes on strips of paper that store recorded voice messages. Scan the paper with a cheap handheld scanner--or a cell phone with a built-in scanner--and it plays back a message. The strip of paper you see in the picture can hold about eight kilobits, enough for a ten-second voice message, said Ken Berkun, president and founder.

"We're trying to get it to twenty seconds," he said.

The idea is to let consumer enhance … Read more