The team here at Big in Japan has been busy working with retailers (and other groups) on various programs, but the most surprising activity is around QR Codes. Just pick up a newspaper and you will read about how QR codes are starting to take hold here in the US. Earlier this year we began supporting QR Code scanning on both the Android and iPhone versions of ShopSavvy. Of course, there were very few QR Codes to scan. I am here to tell you that is about to change.

Lots of retailers like Best Buy plan to include QR Codes in their stores to help consumers learn more about the products they are selling. Look for the strange little two dimensional barcodes near product displays. You can scan these codes with ShopSavvy and you will receive the information that the retailer is interested in providing to you. Of course, you can still scan the one dimensional barcodes (i.e. the UPC or EAN code) on products and get the standard price comparison you have come to expect from ShopSavvy.

Just as ShopSavvy can scan these QR Codes from Best Buy we can also help retailers power their own apps with 2D reading technology. Both our iPhone and Android developer SDKs offer QR Code scanning support – just drop our libraries into a retailer’s mobile app and consumers can begin scanning right away.

Of course 2D codes are popping up on websites like Facebook and in stores thanks to Google’s Favorite places program. We support both of these programs today. Perhaps the most interesting use of 2D codes is by cities. In Washington DC we now support scanning of QR codes in DC Circulator Buses. This month the city added QR Codes on all bus stops and bus shelters. Riders who have ShopSavvy can scan these codes to see a map of their route, their current location and the next bus stop.

Did you know that ShopSavvy (for both iPhone and Android) scans all of those strange 2D barcodes (QR Codes)? It sure does. Very few users even know ShopSavvy can decode those strange boxy codes, but it is true nonetheless. We bought a company called Snappr who pioneered the 2D scanning space earlier this year and have slowly been rolling out 2D scanning support. With this technology ShopSavvy can scan:

• tattoos
• pumpkins
• cupcakes
• rings
• hashbrowns
• earrings
• business cards
• t-shirts
• wine
• keyrings
• puzzles
• scarves
• Japanese signs
• museums
• babies
• cows
• belt buckles

If you previously downloaded our Barcode Scanner SDK for iPhone you need to download it again. In the SDK folder there are two different versions of the scanner – one for 3.0+ and another for 4.0+. Our latest SDK takes advantage of many cool features available in 4.0, but not reverse compatible with 3.0+. When 4.0 is released developers will have a tough decision to make – continue to support 3.0+ users or abandon them for 4.0 requiring an OS update (or new phone purchase for 2G iPhone users). Download HERE.

The Barcode Scanner SDK supports both 1D (UPC and EAN) and 2D (QR and Datamatrix) barcodes. Specifically designed to work on both fixed and variable focal length cameras, our Barcode Scanning library is one of the best in the business and best of all it is FREE!

How will this impact ShopSavvy? ShopSavvy is running an older version of our new SDK now so it is a fairly good example of the SDK in action (note the latest version has a few improvements). When 4.0 is released later this year we will be updating our primary app – ShopSavvy with all of the 4.0 goodness meaning anyone who can’t update to 4.0 (i.e. you 2G iPhone users) will be left out in the cold. We have a solution – ‘ShopSavvy Classic’ – will be released for anyone unable or unwilling to update to 4.0. The classic version of ShopSavvy will sport our old icon/logo and our ‘classic’ UI. We decided to completely overhaul our UI for 4.0 and we know it will irk longtime ShopSavvy users – good news, you can download ShopSavvy Classic and enjoy the old look and feel.

It took longer than we had hoped, but ShopSavvy now supports ‘wicked fast‘ barcode scanning on both 2G and 3G iPhones. Sadly, there is a little issue with scanning on the 3GS making it slightly slower than before – so if you haven’t updated ShopSavvy on your 3GS (wait until the NEXT update in the next few days). For those of you with older 2G or 3G iPhones it is time to update ShopSavvy. This update also includes QR code support so feel free to scan those funky two dimensional barcodes you may have seen.

I am pleased to announce that we now have released both our iPhone and Android barcode scanner SDKs. They are free for developers and brands to use with our license agreement. We are nearing release of Windows Mobile and Blackberry SDKs so stay tuned. The Android version was released in Beta last week and is now live for developers: Android Barcode Scanner SDK. More than 24 developers have downloaded the Android SDK since it went live this morning compared with more than 450 downloads of the iPhone Barcode Scanner SDK.

More and more Android phones are being released without auto-focus cameras. When Verizon released the Motorola Devour, AT&T released the HTC Lancaster and T-Mobile released the HTC Tattoo – thousands of consumers emailed us complaining barcode-scanning apps like ShopSavvy didn’t work. All three had cameras without auto-focus. In our conversations with phone manufacturers we learned that as many as 30% of Android phones in the future would ship with a fixed focal length camera. We decided we had to create an entirely new scanning library to support ‘blurry barcode scanning’.

Our primary hope is that by licensing our technology at no cost to developers and brands we can bring 1D and 2D barcode scanning into the mainstream. We believe barcode scanning is a great feature that augments the user experience of any number of applications. By including a very simple, but powerful ad framework within our SDK we create an entirely new revenue stream for your application.

First released in late 2008, our 1D barcode scanning technology debuted on the first Google Android smartphone and our 2D barcode (QR Codes) scanning technology was one of the first iPhone applications accepted in the iTunes market. For almost two years millions of Android and iPhone users have scanned hundreds of millions of barcodes using our technology. Our latest technology brings together all of our experience scanning 1D and 2D barcodes on several different platforms (iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile, Blackberry and Symbian).

Hundreds of man-hours were spent creating our latest library, but instead of attempting to license our technology for a fee, we have decided to offer it to developers for free. The catch? Simply agree to include our ad framework to display a relevant ad (based on user’s location and product scanned) immediately following the barcode scan. The ad won’t interfere with your UI and is very easy to dismiss. We only ask for 30% of the ad inventory – the developer can sell the remaining 70%, leave it blank or work with our team to sell it for him. We hope this is model creates a win-win for most developers. For more information visit the following links or email sales@biggu.com.

Relevant Links:

Barcode Scanner Homepage:
http://www.freebarcodescanner.com

Android Barcode Scanner SDK with Demo App:

http://bit.ly/scanner-android

iPhone Barcode Scanner SDK with Demo App:

http://bit.ly/scannersdk

Barcode Scanner License:

http://bit.ly/scannerlicense

Jake just checked in the updated (and tested) version of our free barcode scanner SDK for iPhone: http://bit.ly/scannersdk, please replace your existing files with these. There are a few bug fixes as well as a few treats (performance on 2G and 3G phones is now faster than 3GS). Enjoy! The Android SDK should be available tomorrow tonight (knock on wood) and our Blackberry and Windows Mobile version should be available any day.

Here is a video for your viewing pleasure for those of you that don’t prefer the hands-on approach.

We thought it might make sense to create a distinct home for our free barcode scanning libraries and thought http://www.freebarcodescanner.com would work. If you need a scanning library for your mobile app and you don’t have a lot of money, consider using our free library. We use it for ShopSavvy – the world’s leading price comparison application – I bet it would work for your project too.

Free Barcode Scanner SDK and Library

There never seem to be enough hours in the day to do all the cool stuff we want to do. We have planned on releasing our barcode scanning libraries for quite some time. Many of you have been patiently awaiting their release. I am happy to announce that we are releasing our iPhone Barcode Scanner SDK today.

Our scanner library works really well on all flavors of iPhones (2G, 3G and 3GS). You guys are getting EARLY access to this new library (it isn’t even released on ShopSavvy yet). The SDK support 1D (UPC and EAN) as well as 2D (QR and Datamatrix) scanning.

If you previously requested it I emailed the link earlier today, for the rest of you feel free to download it right now. There is no cost, but you will need to execute our license agreement within 30 days.

• Barcode Scanner SDK (Free): http://bit.ly/scannersdk
• Barcode Scanner License: http://bit.ly/scannerlicense

If you have any questions please email support@biggu.com and include the following information: name of app, description of app, your name, email, phone and your issue. Support will be provided to all licensees (i.e. if you haven’t executed our license agreement please do so before requesting support).

We are really excited to see what you all come up with using our library – definitely keep us posted and let us know if we can help you be successful. There will be a second release of the library next week that includes some additional features (FYI – our license requires that you update within 30 days of a new release).

Snappr is now part of ShopSavvy

Techcrunch got the scoop before I had a chance to post.  Founded in August 2007, Snappr was a pioneer in the 2D barcode business. The goal was to provide a platform to easily create, manage and access mobile content and to promote this content in exciting, new ways. If you are like me, one of the first barcode scanning applications you downloaded was Snappr (it is still on my phone to this day). Snappr was the first iPhone application capable of scanning a 2D barcode. The ShopSavvy team has been busy incorporating Snappr’s technology into ShopSavvy.

Philip Stehlik, founder and CEO of Snappr, will join ShopSavvy’s board of advisors. Philip, founder and CEO of Snappr, is a pioneer in the mobile barcode business. Snappr took the concept and the technology of QR Codes and packaged it into an easy to use webservice and mobile application where both, the content owner and the accessing end-user have real benefits from using the Codes and the mobile content behind them. Snappr was one of the first services in the US and Europe to provide a well rounded solution leveraging QR Codes to access mobile content. Prior to founding Snappr he acted as senior developer and project lead at ReadSoft US where he implemented ReadSoft’s SAP solutions at major US corporations like Apple or Boehringer Ingelheim. Philip began his career at Ebydos AG in Frankfurt Germany, where he was responsible for major product implementations at companies like John Deere, REHAU and Schneider Electric.

The Snappr acquisition has been instrumental in our QR Code program.

The adoption of two-dimensional barcodes in marketing and advertising has been hampered by proprietary standards. Too many companies have spent too much time attempting to monetize a very simple, but powerful feature. Ironically, there has always been an alternative, open standard called a Quick Response or QR Code. Anyone can generate a two-dimensional QR Code pointing to any website for free. Additionally, millions of mobile phone users already have QR Code capable readers like ShopSavvy®.

The biggest problem with QR Codes is that American consumers don’t know what a 2D barcode is. They need some help understanding how to react to a QR Code printed on a billboard or in a magazine advertisement. Our ‘Scan with ShopSavvy’ program was designed to solve this problem. Millions of ShopSavvy users already use the application to scan 1D barcodes, but many of them have no idea that ShopSavvy will scan open standard 2D barcodes (i.e. QR Code), but they do understand the concept of scanning.

Our ‘Scan with ShopSavvy’ program allows brands to leverage our ‘trained’ user base by including our ‘Scan with ShopSavvy’ badge anywhere they print a 2D barcode. Consumers can use ANY QR-capable scanner (50+ today), but the program attempts to short circuit the call to action by showing the user he can use an application he already has on his smartphone.

The program is free for almost all brands. Our goal is to promote QR Codes, ShopSavvy and build great relationships with brands. Interested? Brands simply need to email sales@biggu.com and explain the planned usage of our badge prior to use. Permission will be granted to almost all brands. Camera-ready art of the badge is available for download:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/109866/scanwithshopsavvy.zip

Basic tracking is included for FREE as part of the QR code generator and includes:

• Total click tracking
• Click tracking (today, past week, past month, total)
• Referrer tracking (today, past week, past month, total)
• Location tracking (today, past week, past month, total)
• Conversation tracking (number of tweets, shares, comments)

Enhanced programs area available including geo-targeted content. Use the consumers location as a trigger for alternative content. Show a user in a specific store or city a different experience. Please contact our sales department for more information.