Have you ever tried to send or share a link from Google Images? You probably have and I am pretty sure that you have noticed the extraordinary looooooooooooong URL. This endless consequence of symbols and numbers can be a real eye-sore, especially in the social nets. Often, when posting an image as a comment on Facebook, its URL is bigger than the preview thumbnail of the image. This little inconvenience and a few more, described below, can be easily overcome by using a URL shortener.

Most of you who are Twittering perhaps know what it is all about. Before the birth of Skype, Twitter or Facebook, E-mailing was the most common way of communicating virtually. OK, but some of the mails weren’t very clever. If you had a link in your letter that can’t fit in a single row it just broke and became useless. Almost the same problem could have been experienced with Twitter 2 years ago. There was (and still is) a character limit and when you try to tweet an URL with, let’s say, 300 symbols, everything after the 140th is neglected and what you sent is half link. Of course not all the URLs are so ENORMOUS. Some of them might be 100-150 characters, but still such a string doesn’t leave much room for any additional text or comment.

In September 2010 Twitter bought the domain t.co and represented their innate URL shortening service. Now every link, that is published, no matter of its size, goes through that service and is wrapper by http://t.co. Two things are achieved in this way – higher security levels, as long as Twitter checks every URL that is shortened for malware, and statistics about how popular different links are. In order to satisfy their users, Twitter are not showing the shortened version of the ULR but a small part of the actual link. Thus when someone opens his profile he doesn’t read tweets only with mundane and incomprehensible t.co domains like http://t.co./tpF0ObbP. By seeing some meaningful word he is also able to understand what the link is all about.

But let’s leave Twitter and its t.co aside because it and its analytical data can’t be accessed by the average user. If you need a URL shortener to compress a link for a SMS or anything at all there are many options but the most popular and most used ones are goo.gl and bit.ly. What these two “guys” basically do is providing the user with the same result, the same landing page and at the same time saving space, which sometimes can be severely limited. URL shorteners are able to take a string with up to 400 characters and to reduce them to 20. It is like having 100 folders with documents and putting them altogether in a single standard suitcase.

Furthermore, less space consumption is not all you get. Goo.gl and bit.ly provide its users with profound statistics about the shortened link. How many clicks, how many referrals, how many times shared, posted of tweeted – all that can be shown. It is a great way to gather some data for a research or a project.

Some would say that they are unwilling to click on a URL that has unknown final destination. Well that is one of the main disadvantages of the shorteners – they give you more space and statistics but they also mask the real link. This makes it obscure and many people abuse with that fact. Luckily bit.ly has an answer for that. When you see a bit.ly URL and want to check it before clicking, simply copy the link, put it in the address bar and add a “+” in the end. What you are about to see is the statistical page of the shortened link where the long version and many other things are present. If you want to ease your target group even more you can because every string that is compressed can be customized. The randomly generated letters and numbers can be replaced with a few small keywords. Hence the URL becomes more inviting, aesthetic and used-friendly.
URL shorteners are not used only while sending or sharing stuff. They can be perfect tool if you are dealing with QR codes. For those of you who don’t know, QRs are type of matrix barcode that can encode links and that can be scanned with mobile phone. The point is that the long the URL is, the denser and more detailed the code is. This respectively makes it is harder to be read. Check out the two QRs below. The second one looks much better, doesn’t it? If you are interested about the QR codes, more can be found in my first articles.

So far so good. Short, reviewable and safe links, small and readable QRs, everything sounds great! But what happens if we add SEO in the picture. A few years ago there was a huge uproar that URL shorteners would diminish link quality and would be a real disaster for the link building, which is crucial for the Search Engine Optimization.Fortunately 301 permanent redirect was (and still is) there to save our day. It tells the bot or the crawler that goes through a shortened link, to attribute the SEO metrics like DA (Domain Authority), PA (Page Authority) and Anchor text not to it but to the final URL. Nothing waslost from SEO point of view and bit.ly and goo.gl continued to be on the top. I am not mentioning Twitter and its t.co in this paragraph as long as all the tweeted links have “nofollow” attribute and therefore are worthless for the so called “link juice”.

]]> http://www.mobiliodevelopment.com/url-shorteners-what-used-for/feed/ 0 http://www.mobiliodevelopment.com/web-vs-native-apps/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=web-vs-native-apps http://www.mobiliodevelopment.com/web-vs-native-apps/#comments Fri, 04 May 2012 18:56:30 +0000 peternikolow http://www.mobiliodevelopment.com/?p=2977 Which are better – Native or Web applications? Two years ago the answer to this question was more than clear – natives were the veterans that had proved themselves and webs were still toddling in the fields of app development. January 2011 was the turning point where things changed with the introduction of the new web standard – HTML5. Since then web apps are gaining more and more popularity and their struggle with the native ones is becoming more and more fierce. What are their advantages and disadvantages and is there a winner in this mobile technological dispute? We are only about to see.

In What Native Apps are Better?

First and maybe the most important factor is the user experience and interaction. There is no second thought that native apps are more complex than the web ones. For the most part they are internet independent. This means that the app is not accessed by the user through a web browser and the device’s capabilities (processor, RAM and video card) can be exploited more profoundly. Lags, due to low internet speed are not present. The result is smoother functionality, crystal clear videos and audios and HD images.

The web answer was the so called WebGL thanks to which realistic 3D graphics, which are a must for a contemporary successful game, can be represented in an environment such as the web browser. Sounds great but it is not! With native apps the smartphones loads the core files of the program/game and then runs it while with the web equivalents these core files have first to be downloaded and then loaded. This is bad for your internet connection and the whole procedure can be a real battery drainer. WebGl is truly an amazing web implement but it needs some more time to be optimized. For the moment you can see it in the latest versions of Google Maps, where mountains and other objects are 3D.
Moreover some specific gadgets like the camera, the accelometer, the gyroscope and the microphone are used better in native apps. For example you can’t upload photos with the web products of Facebook or Foursquare but with the native variants you can access the camera or the gallery and upload an image. After purchasing Instagram, Facebook has successfully introduced an instant image uploader with the latest update. From native point of view things are pretty good but in web aspect not so much – currently the web app of the social giant takes advantage only of the GPS chip with the option “Check-in”. All in all low functionality is one of the main reasons why when you enter facebook.com or foursquare.com by your smartphone’s web browser you are immediately offered to download their richer native apps. It is paradoxical how these web titans prefer the native environment. Obviously they support the stance of the guys from techcrunch.com that:

“HTML5 might be an oncoming train but native app development is an oncoming rocket ship!”

Third but not last is the generalization. With native apps you have everything gathered in the so called markets – the Apple App Store and the Android Market which has recently been renamed to GooglePlay. All the applications are sorted in categories and are easy-to-find for the average user. Moreover if you are a developer you can sell your apps online, after acquiring a few licenses. With web apps there are also ways to bring yourself some revenue by ads or subscriptions but programers say it is much harder. After all your content is on the World Wide Web and if your security is not very good, problems might occur.

Privileges to Go Web These Days.

Angry Birds – the most used mobile application for 2011, according to businessinsider.com, has two variants – native and web. If you have tried them both I am sure you will agree that the “on-device” game is definitely better working, not so clumsy, and kind of cosier for the user. Of course native apps are not perfect – they have their weak spots and that is where web apps stick out. We should not underestimate the latest weapon of the internet sector – HTML5.
Web apps are internet dependent but they are not limited by operating systems or device parameters. If you want to develop a simple game or product and make it web-based, you will program it only once and will use some CSS or JavaScript to resize its dimensions dynamically according to the device’s screen. On the other hand if you decide to make your product native things get very “interesting”. You will have to develop an Android version in Java, Apple version in Objective C and in order to reach even wider audience – different editions for iPhone and iPad. The second way requires bigger development team, much more money and efforts. Furthermore with web apps you don’t have to wait for weeks so that from the AppStore to approve your program – just buy a server and upload what you want. Web apps don’t have to be downloaded and installed – they can be accessed through your browser by simply typing an URL. It is true that web products can’t provide the customers with the same app “adventure” as the native but the situation is not hopeless. Much noise was made about HTML5. Surely there were many innovations – canvas element, access to the microphone and the camera (things that can be seen in GooglePlus). I already mentioned WebGL.

jQuery is a JavaScript library that has proved itself in the last years. Thanks to it the interface becomes more lively and beautiful but it is burdening the processor. Lighter alternative is CSS3, brought to the world only a year ago, which supports animations and other visual effects.
Another benefit of the web apps is that the content is searchable and shareable in the social medias by default because URL are recognised by Facebook, Google and Twitter, while in the native apps you can’t share your high score for example if the developers haven’t included social buttons.

What are Hybrids and is There a Winner Anyway?

Every contemporary developer is aware of the fact that if you want to be successful you have to choose the ultimate option – to create both web and native app. Interesting is the tendency of web apps getting closer to the native standards and the opposite. This leads to the conclusion that there won’t be a winner in the dispute Web vs Native – they will simply merge into a hybrid or the so called cross-platform app standard. Nowadays there are more and more cross-platform SDKs like Marmalade that allow the two “rivaling” camps to combine. In the last 6.0 version developers can write their code in HTML5, JavaScript and CSS and them transform their products into native ones.
In case they don’t unite, the future prospectives for the app world are quite blurred. Some say that HTML5 is still something new and is only about to show its full potential. “In the future smartphones will probably have a dialer, a web browser and nothing more”. Of course such predictions are really exaggerated because it is not only how powerful HTML5 is but how good browsers are as well. If they do no improve their performance there won’t be a web domination.

Furthermore companies like Apple Inc. are so strongly concentrated on native development that they are not likeable to change it for nothing. It is difficult to make all these users leave everything they are so used to for something new and modern. Steve Jobs has once defined hybrid apps as poor quality products. For Apple this basically means that abandoning the native development approach is unthinkable.

I bet there are things you do on a daily basis – going over the news in the morning, updating your Facebook status or checking-in at the cafe by Foursquare. The purpose of this article is to elaborate on the two different ways in which the above actions can be performed – through a web app or through a native app. Enjoy it!

What is a native application and what is a web application?

Native development, in the context of digital industry, is the process of creating applications that are independently functioning and are tightly orientated to a specific Operating System like iOS, Android or QNX. In the recent years the phrase “native apps” became a synonym for programs that can be firstly downloaded and then installed on a computer/ a mobile device. Meanwhile, with the rapid advance of mobile technologies and the introduction of HTML5 a new type of apps were “born” – web apps. They are on the World Wide Web and are accessible through a web browser. Said with fewer words – they are sites that function like applications.

I’ll give you a quick example in order to make it simpler. Let’s take Foursquare. There is a website http://foursquare.com that is practically the web app which can be used only through a web browser like Safari, Mozilla and Chrome. Apart from it there is also a native app, available separately for iOS, Android and QNX. They are autonomous and can be installed or uninstalled at any time. No browsers, no URLs. Just touch the icon and you are there.

When talking about native and web apps, mentioning “The Big Three” is a must! “The Big Three” is just the way I call Apple, Google and Facebook. On the left we have Apple – a company that is only natively orientated, in the center is Google – kind of a hybrid – 50% native, 50% web and on the right is Facebook – a company that has successful native apps, but is still generally web orientated.

Native Applications

Turning point for Apple was the introduction of the iPhone in 2007 and the launching of the App Store a year after that. Currently there are around 720 000 products available there, which is quite an impressive number. iOS developers rely on the combination of qualitative hardware and elegant design. Some of the iPhone and iPod apps are really a state of the art. They provide the user both with smooth functionality and intuitive interface. All these characteristics can hardly be represented in a web environment, according to some experts. As Joe Hewitt has said:

“I want desperately to be a web developer again, but if I have to wait until 2020 for browsers to do what Cocoa can do in 2010, I won’t wait”

There is actually a grain of truth in these brave words, said from the person who created the Facebook app and website for iOS. If I have to continue this cite, I would add: “HTML5 might be powerful, but there are still things to be done and improved”.

Commenting on native development we should not left aside the amazing success of Android OS during the last 2-3 years. It is Google’s OS that is entirely concentrated around native apps. Just like Apple, it has its own virtual app store – Android Market, which has recently been renamed to GooglePlay. When referring to mobile devices, Androiders also support the stance that for the majority of app it is still better to have them on your device rather than on the Internet.

Web Applications

In order to be impartial I will take a look in the web camp too. Here main representatives are Facebook and Chrome OS. Maybe the most determinant fact for the web orientation of Facebook is that it was initially founded as a website. After the boom of smartphones and tablets they tried to jump into the mobile field by creating a few native apps which were good, really good.

Sadly enough, with the introduction of HTML5 everything changed. Facebook remade its site in the light of this new standard and “transformed” it into more functional and dynamic one. Most of the Flash games were rewritten and became lighter and easier-to-handle for mobile devices. The “Check-in” option for example is pure HTML5. Furthermore, the web app can provide some extras, like “following the latest activity of someone”, which are unavailable in the native applications. According to statistics http://m.facebook.com has twice more mobile visitors than the native Fb alternatives.

That is why Facebook bought Instagram. Maybe the smart guys working there will find a way to make the native apps faster-loading and better organized and to boost them again high in the statistics. Of course the web HTML5 app is not perfect and has its disadvantages. You can’t upload pictures with it, for example.

Chrome OS is another field where web apps are flourishing. It is Google’s HTML5 oriented OS which is still gaining popularity. Its interface really resembles the interface of the Chrome browser but instead of tabs there are icons for GooglePlay, Facebook, Wikipedia or other web apps. The operating system is low-power consuming because it was originally designed for netbooks. Experts like Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer think that it is kind of foolish to build two systems like Android and Chrome OS. In reply Google answered its critics that for the moment they are different and totally separate from each other because the one is targeting the web and the other – the mobile native market. In future Android and Chrome OS might combine, but these are still just rumors.

But if you are not familiar with the idea of Chrome OS, another more popular place where you can see HTML5 in action is the home screen of Google. As you know every day there are different variations of the logo that honor someone famous. Sometimes the logo is an animation that looks very much like a Flash one, but it isn’t – it is HTML5.

When talking about colors, in the context of the contemporary computerized epoch we live in, it is inevitable not to mention RGB and CMYK. Probably those of you who are designers or work in the press industry know what it is all about, but I bet that there are guys who see these abbreviations for the first time.

RGB

To begin with RGB which stand for Red, Green and Blue. It is a scheme for representing colors through digital devices like TV screens, monitors and projectors. While reading this article, all that you see are RGB colors. Every one of them is represented by a combination of three numbers (each number is respectively for Red, Green and Blue) that vary from 0 to 255. 0 indicates the absence of the pigment and 255 indicates the absolute presence. For example:

• 255, 0, 0 is the numeric equivalence of Red;
• 0, 255, 0 – Green;
• 0, 0,255 – Blue;
• 0, 0, 0 – Black;
• 255,255,255 – White;
• 0,255,255 – Yellow;

As you might have already guessed so much combinations result in an immense gamut of tints – more than 16 millions. The difference between some of them is so slight that it can’t be spotted with bare eyes.

CMYK

We continue with CMYK. It is again a color model that is mainly adopted by the conventional offset digital printers and press industry where colors are represented on paper, not on a screen. As long as RGB is more popular than CMYK when first seeing these four letters you are/were probably like:

And this is understandable. Relax, it is easier than you suppose. CMYK is a method of printing where colors are printed using four inks – Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. Just like the RGB, different combinations of ink represent different colors. Instead of numbers this model uses percentages. The higher the percentage for a particular ink is, the more of that ink will be printed. There is a kind of unwritten rule that the total ink density should be between 250% and 300%.

Something interesting is the fact that at first it wasn’t CMYK but CMY. “Why do we need black, when we can get it by combining 100% of Cyan, Magenta and Yellow?” That was the original idea, but the result of this triple combination was not black but something more like a gloomy brown. Because of this a fourth color – black – was added, which allowed darker black to be produced.

Is there a difference?

Yes, there is. Firstly they are used for different purposes and this to some point makes the dispute “RGB vs. CMYK” meaningless. To put it bluntly – RGB is better for digital devices and CMYK is better for printing. Moreover the next thing that makes them differ from each other is the principle of color representing. RGB tints are called additive and CMYK – subtractive. This is because monitors emit light and paper absorbs it. On a screen you begin with a dark foundation and by adding light you get colors. This practically is the function of the three numbers – to define the amount of light beamed from the pixels for each of the Red, Green and Blue pigments. That is why 0, 0, 0 – no light emitted – is black and 255,255,255 is white. On paper everything is the opposite. You begin with a white foundation – a sheet. Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black ink serve as filter that subtracts different specters of the white light that is reflected by the paper. As you were taught in your physics classes the blue, red,purple, green, yellow specters altogether form white light. When some of them are absent the light changes its color. Percentages in the CMYK model define what and how much of these specters will be absorbed and what color will reach the human eye. That is why 0%, 0%, 0%, 0% means no ink and no light absorbed and 100%, 100%, 100%, 100% means maximum ink and all the light absorbed, resulting in pure black.

Conversion from RGB to CMYK.

Different color capacities of the two models arouse kind of an inconvenience for the modern designers and photographers. As I already mentioned, RGB supports more than 16 000 000 variations and CMYK can’t represent all of them. While browsing photos on your computer or drawing something in Photoshop you see it in RGB by default and everything is fine, but when deciding to print it on paper things might not be quite the same. Because of the reduced range of tints, some of the vibrant and vivacious color, present in RGB are not present in CMYK. That is why the RGB blue is more like purple in CMYK space, and dark red is more like brown. (Bear in mind all the CMYK colors shown in this article are not exactly CMYK colors but an approximations because you are seeing them on a LCD display).

If you print picture at home there are no problems if the result is unsatisfactory but if you need to print something for work, then things get serious and you have to call professional printers on the stage. That is where problems might start. When receiving a RGB, most of the printing houses change it to CMYK on their own because professional printers don’t work with Red/Green/Blue images. If any major differences occur in the colors, which sometimes is inevitable, they say it is not their responsibility. The question is what can you do in order to preserve the quality of your graphics? Luckily the contemporary graphic editors support CMYK preview mode which is an example of the way the printed product will look. Thus you are able to see the difference and to make any alterations if necessary before actually converting from RGB to CMYK.

“So why don’t we use CMYK mode right from the beginning? Wouldn’t it be easier?” That’s a good question but the answer in No. Firstly CMYK file are bigger and harder to be processed by the computer than the RGB ones. You can always turn RGB to CMYK before printing, but if you have to do the opposite, the method is much more difficult. Furthermore constant conversion from the one mode to the other in not very “healthy” for the picture itself and can result in diminished color quality.

How can we overcome the problem with the reduced CMYK gamut?

Technologies save the day again. Due to special techniques color vivacity can be maintained and the printed version of your picture can get closer to the screen version. One of them is the ICC profile which is attached to your RGB image. When the guys from the printing house convert the picture to CMYK, the ICC profile plays a crucial role for pigments preservation. Another one is the so called Pantone Color Matching System which greatly expands the CMYK gamut.

There are even predictions about the future according to which from RGB and CMYK only RGB will survive. Thus everything will be more generalized and users won’t be bothered with color conversions. Furthermore there won’t be a difference between the picture on your desktop and the picture in your hand. Of course RGB ink printers aren’t still present or are extremely rare so if you need to use any professional printing services trust CMYK – it is the color space for you.

According to the latest news in 2014 Belgium will consider replacing the regular car numbering plates with medium-sized barcodes, placed of the roof. This tendency shows that barcodes are going out of their industrial and commercial fields of usage and start entering almost every sphere of  life. It seems like our contemporary high-tech society has succeeded really to evaluate the actual capabilities of the black and white, stripped or checked labels.

The prospective designators will be 50×50 cm. They will be made of qualitative materials that are resistant to bad conditions like harsh weather and high speeds. The symbology that will be used will probably be 2D because of the substantial data capacity. It is planned that the barcodes will contain not only the number of the vehicle but also the name of the driver, the date when he has obtained his driving license and  details about his previous violations, if any. This source of information is meant to be placed on the roof of the car so as to be readable by a satellite. Nowadays most of the big metropolises have one or few flying machines, located right above them. As a result every registered automobile will be 24/7 traceable. Moreover when a car is being stopped for a routine check, police officers won’t have to read paper documents, they will simply request the car to be scanned and will receive the results from the scan on their screens in seconds. What is more, specialists say that satellites will be able to “read” cars even at cloudy and stormy weather conditions. This fact is quite impressive and makes the adoption of barcodes on cars even more expected.

Of course there are people who are against using barcodes in this sector. They believe that being always traceable without their agreement is infringing their civil liberties and disturbs their personal life. I personally agree with them because it is not very nice to know that the ones who observe you while driving always see where you are. Maybe the Belgian government should reconsider this part of the plan and decide to track only the drivers who have broken the law before and are qualified as  unreliable. Something else that might make the Belgians unhappy is the higher cost of the barcode identifiers. If now an ordinary number plate costs €30, after two years, a registration barcode will cost around €70. But if you think about it €40 are not who knows what and can be given once in the name of one modern and better working system. Much bigger problem than the cost might be the installing of barcodes on roofless machines like convertible cars and motorcycles. It is something that definitely should be thought about in the near feature in order the project to be successful. After all, the process of changing the old number plate with new roof barcode will be mandatory.

SCC14 is a barcode symbology composed of 14 numerical characters. It is more widely known as Shipping Container Code and is used for designating packages with fixed content. SCC has two main representations – the first one adopts ITF14 encoding scheme and the other – GS1-128 encoding scheme. Main subject of this article will be the second one.

Although there is one general name – GTIN-14, SCC14 is also popular as ITF14, EAN14 or UCC/EAN-128. The main difference between ITF14 and GS1-128 is that GS1-128 uses the so called AI (Application Identifier). It is a short combination of 2, 3 or 4 digits, circled with brackets, standing at the beginning of the code. This identifier is created by the GS1 organization and its purpose is to “tell” the scanner what it is about to read. The AI for SCC14 is always 01. Of course there many others that are used for codes representing Date details, Serial numbers, Weight or Length.

SCC14, as you may suppose, is mainly accepted in the shipping industry. It is used for marking containers, boxes, pallets or any other type of packages that include more than one product with EAN/UPC barcode. One of the distinctive features of the Shipping Container Code is that every SCC14 is strongly related to a certain EAN/UPC barcode. For example if we have a box of chocolates with code: 9 12345 1245 and we put 500 of these boxes into a container, it is credential that we label it with SCC14 barcode. The code will most probably look like: (01) 3 9 12345 1245, where (01) is the AI, 3 is the Packaging Indicator and the rest is the EAN/UPC barcode.

With all these variations of one and the same barcode type- ITF14, EAN14, UCC/EAN-128 – the average person would ask himself why there are so many of them and where do they find their field of application. Different standard are used in different parts of the world or in different spheres of life. In addition – ITF14 might be used in the hardware and high-tech business while EAN14, with its AI for production, expiration date and weight, is adopted in the food and soft-drink industry. As long as usage is concerned, SCC14 is one of the most beneficial and irreplaceable barcodes. Instead of counting separately all the items, gathered in a single container, you can just scan the Shipping Code and the computer will tell you the type and the quantity of the products. Thus the process of manipulating arriving and departing stocks has been modernized. Now everything is much more accurate and automated and the workers in the big storage warehouses are much more eased.

Another advantage of the SCC14 symbology is that a barcode of this type doesn’t have to be registered in the GS1 system, before put into use. That is because every SCC code is connected with an UPC/EAN barcode which is already registered. As I explained in the previous paragraph, when you generate your SCC14 barcode, you don’t create new and unique symbol, you just modify particular EAN/UPC code by adding a few numerical identifiers before the code itself.

Taking into account the functionality and the places of application from the above, we from Mobilio have considered adding SCC14 as an available and encodable barcode standard in the next 1.6 version of the BarcodeEncoder.

Mobilio has always been tolerant to its clients and has always valued their opinion, no matter if it is positive or negative. After releasing a piece of software we are constantly trying to to improve the product by fixing any occurred bugs. Our programs – QREncoder, QREncoder Pro, BarcodeEncoder, UPCEncoder and EANEncoder and all the others barcode creators – have currently been uploaded on the AppStore and are now awaiting their 1.5 versions to be unleashed.

According to our users’ reports there were some problems with encoding calendar events, MeCards and VCards in the QREncoder. After profound research the bugs have been spotted and removed. Furthermore a new feature is added in the 1.5 edition and it is not only in the QREncoder, but in all the encoders. Some of you might prefer to customize the design of their codes after creation. For this purpose, previously you had to save the code like an image and then import it in a graphical editor. Now you can just click on the new button called “Copy to Pasteboard”. As a result the image will be kept in the Pasteboard memory of the computer until you put it in Photoshop, Fireworks or whatever you use. Everything is easier, faster, smoother and with no unnecessary efforts.

Continuing with the innovations, new barcode standards are included in BarcodeEncoder 1.5. Aztec code, PZN (Pharma-Zentral-Nummer), GridMartix code and NVE18 (also known as EAN18) are the new members of Mobilio‘s big barcode family. In the near future our developing team considers adding a few more symbologies, one of which will be Maxi code.

There is also a bug fix, specifically for the UPCEncoder, EANEncoder and BarcodeEncoder. I will talk about particularly about the EANEncoder. A simple EAN code requires 13 digits plus one additional, which is the Check-sum digit and which is generated automatically. In the 1.4 version if the customer entered, lets say 15 characters, the process of encoding breaks and the final product was an 1×1 pixel image. In the innovated releases this problem is not evident any more. We have programmed the software to operate only with the first 13 symbols and not to take into account what is after them. Errorless and efficient – that is the motto, coming along with the 1.5 versions.

Have you ever heard of or seen an Aztec code. It is a 2-dimensional symbology, which is said to be the most easy-to-print and easy-to-scan 2D barcode. It looks pretty much like a QR code, with the black and white modules, but has its slight differences. Aztec has great encoding capabilities and is mainly used in the transportation industry, on electronic traveling tickets or boarding passes.

When you hear Aztec, probably the first thing that springs to your mind is connected with the ancient civilization of the Aztecs. Of course the barcode has nothing to do with the history. It was developed in 1995 and was named Aztec because of the resemblance between the central, and only one, positioning pattern and the age-old pyramids in Mexico, looked from the above. There is no “quiet zone”, a blank space, needed while scanning, which is a great advantage. Moreover the only one finding square (compared to the three in QR) makes Aztec codes much more concise and less space-consuming. Their dimensions depend on the number of characters encoded. The smallest symbol can be 15×15 modules, representing 13 numerical digits or 12 alphabetic letters and the biggest – 151×151 modules representing 3832 numeric or 3067 alphabetic letters or 1914 bytes of data. Theoretically all the 256 ASCII characters can be encoded.

Aztec code can be found in the commerce or as markers of small items. Some governments, like Poland’s, have adopted Aztec topology in the car registration documents. Thus the registration of an automobile has become much easier and quicker process. Apart from the fields of application, described above, Aztec code is most widely used in the transportation section. It serves perfectly as designator on parcels and packages. Furthermore it is frequently applied as a security safeguard. Printed or sent like a message on a mobile device, Aztec barcodes can prove who the owner is of a certain boarding pass and to authorize that it is genuine and is not counterfeited. To make it clearer I will give you an example – Heathrow Express is currently using Aztec codes for the distribution of the so called self print tickets. When you buy a ticket online, you receive it in digital format, under the form of a picture, on your computer but it has an added unique barcode at the top-right corner. Thanks to it you are able to print the ticket at home and then use it.There is also another practice – instead of printing it, you can upload the picture on a mobile device. After getting on the train, the conductor scans the barcode on the image from the screen with a special reader and you are ready to hit the road. This could be the future of a paperless ticketing system.

It is common knowledge that the majority of 2D barcodes offer “error correction levels” based on the Reed-Solomon check algorithms. It is the same with Aztec code. Error correction levels can be customized by the user and the range is quite impressive – from 5% to 95%. Of course the higher the level is, the denser your code will become. This would result in difficulties while scanning. The most appropriate error correction degree is said to be between 20% – 25%.

Talking about scanning I should mention that Aztec can’t be read with mobile phones and that is one of the main features that differentiates it from the QR. A special two-dimensional imaging device like a CCD camera is required. Undoubtedly, with the fast-growing high-tech world, mobile scanner for Aztec will be created too. Currently there is one, but it is particularly for iPhone/iPod devices and is still gaining speed. If you have an iPhone/iPod gadget and also have such a reader installed try to scan the avatar of the article and see what will happen.

As you can see from the long sequence of articles about barcodes, they are numerous and each one of them is one-of-a-kind. Aztec code just one of the many 2D symbologies that is used and accepted over the world and that makes our lives better.

As I said in one of my previous articles, barcodes are all around us. It is beyond shadow of doubt that these encoding labels ease our existence greatly. Actually I made a little mistake – they are not only labels – there can also be forms and shapes, engraved or applied to certain surface. To put it bluntly – barcodes are not only 1D and 2D – they can be 3D as well.

To begin with the world-wide known zebra-stripped barcodes. These linear markers, some of them numerical, some – alpha-numerical, are the oldest ones. Firstly used for designating a pack of chewing gums, they now are exploited everywhere. GS1 has accepted two main standards – UPC and EAN13 – to be used in the purchasing and retail industry. What is special about 1D codes is that they represent data horizontally, under the form of black bars and white spaces. ID numbers or short tags are perfectly encrypted in them, but that is all. Strings, that have more than 25-30 characters, result in unbearably long symbols that are inefficient. Texts and URLs cannot be encoded. Despite their low data capacity, one-dimensional barcodes are simple-to-create and respectively easy-to-read and that is why they are the most widely used. From them, them more famous are UPC, EAN, Code39, Code128, ITF14, Code93.

We continue with 2D codes. They include DataMatrix, Maxicode, PDF417 and probably the most popular among the general public for the last 2-3 years – QR code. Data capability is the first major difference. As long as information is encoded both horizontally and vertically, under the form of rectangles, thousands of characters can be carried. URLs and contact details can now be easily represented in a 2×2 cm black and white square grid. All the two dimensional barcodes offer error-correction levels which is quite handy – your code can undergo some substantial damages and still provide the information it bears. Places where 2D find their application are numerous. PDF417, for example, is widely used in the industry and air-transportation as a static database (it can contain up to 1800 letters). Most commonly the Portable Data Format provides specific parameters about tiny electronic parts or if it is on your boarding pass – details about your flight.
Other unique feature for some of the square barcodes, particularly for the QR, is that it can be scanned with a modest mobile phone, equipped with a camera and simple decoding software. This advantageous characteristic makes the Quick Responsive topology a perfect way to engage practically everybody as a target group. As a result QR has become one of the most powerful contemporary marketing tools.

So far I have briefly explained you about 1D and 2D barcodes. But if we have to proceed to the next level of the barcode evolution, what would it be? That is right – a three dimensional barcode symbology. Its looks like an ordinary code with the only difference, that the bars/squares are protrusive and can be felt when touched. Their height is calculated by the scanner as a function of the time it takes the laser to travel to the code and back. Understandably special readers are required for such operations and that is why 3D designators are mainly used in the industry. They are not labeled on the product, they are usually engraved directly on its surface or on some kind of alloy and then attached to is. Using strong materials for the foundation of the barcode is what makes it extremely resistant to bad conditions like high pressure or heat. In manufacturing processes this could be crucial.
Furthermore, there is no need of error correction levels because it is really hard to alter the encoded data. Because of the unadulterated authenticity, 3D codes are used as a security precaution in the jewelry business and in the pharmacy. They are integrated in diamonds as microscopic cubes, that cann’t be seen with bare eyes. These cubes, that are exceptionally firm and inflexible, can prove who the owner is in case of theft.

In the middle of 2006 a Japanese company called “Content Idea of Asia” introduced the so called PM code. It is basically a colorful QR code. It is defined as a 3D but is not protrusive – the third dimension is the color. As I said in the previous paragraph, 2D barcodes have larger data capacity than 1D because of the two encoding directions – vertical and horizontal. Respectfully 3D surpasses 2D. If with a simple QR you can encode the URL to a picture in the internet, with the PM topology you can encode the picture itself. Talking in numbers, the capabilities of a Paper Memory symbol ranges from 0.6Mb to the impressive 1.8Mb. Not only pictures, but short advertising videos are encodable as well. With the advent of the mobile compatible PM, barcodes set the beginning of a while new marketing era in the advertising industry. The best of innovation is the internet independency. Small videos, song fragments, pictures – all these can be deciphered on paper. This can be really useful in the commercial enterprise, art exhibitions or as a source of how-to manuals on the back of electrical appliances.

I bet that at least half of you, who have read the whole article, in the beginning thought that barcodes are only used in the retail fields, and now are like “WTF?!? Cubes in diamonds and videos can be compressed in 5×5 cm paper squares?!?” These one, two and three-dimensional encrypting symbologies are truly amazing creations. They are constantly improving and changing our lives. Who knows – after 5 or 10 years films might not be downloaded from servers – they might be accessible with a single code scanning.

Has the way you read/watch the news changed in the last years? I’ll be surprised if you say “no” because it was just a decade ago when the first digitalized versions of press editions were brought to the world. The process of digitalizing, also known as digitizing, is the transformation from analog to digital signal, or turning everything into 0s and 1s. The binary representation of a data makes it manipulable from computers and makes it shareable in the global web.

The digitalization process nowadays mainly concerns newspapers, magazines, radios and TV programmes. People who adopt it are undoubtedly favoring at least one of the benefits, listed below:

• Their media engages wider audience;
• The publishing method does not require much efforts and funds;
• News reach people faster;
• Digitalizing helps preserving not only old and invaluable historical archives but sentimental family video records as well;

Thanks to the extremely high internet and mobile connectivity more often we prefer to search information in the virtual space, not in books or from other paper sources. This habit appeals mostly to people who lead a hectic lifestyle and barely have time to buy the daily newspaper. A less lingering practice for them is to read it online through their smartphone or tablet. There they would find what they are looking for much more easily and quickly.

Digitalizing turns out to be advantageous for the local medias more than for the national ones. If we have a newspaper, let’s name it “NY” and it is being issued only in the state of New York, it will be available only for the residents of this particular state. What is more, if I am a New York citizen and I go on a vacation in California for 2-3 weeks, the chances to receive the newspaper are quite minor and I will be kept in an informational eclipse for those 2-3 weeks. Rather inconvenient, isn’t it? But if this particular “NY” newspaper creates its own site or application, accessible through the internet, it will not only keep its local regular readers but will attract others from different states, or even from the whole world.

You might have seen one of those big printing houses, with “fresh” newspapers and magazines dashing on their fast-going assembly lines, huge ink containers and complex machinery and software. Does everything have to be so complicated and money-demanding? What if all the periodic publications jump into the digital world of zeros and ones? Advertising – the most profitable sector in the publishing industry won’t be diminished – there are virtual banners and commercials which are even said to be watched by more readers. To continue with the inevitable alleviation. Expenditures will drop significantly. The immense printing factories will remain in the past. Computerized publishing systems are so simplified that journalists are able to release their articles alone, from the office or from home. Digitalizing is beneficial even for the nature. With less people buying press journals and magazines more paper, and respectively trees, are saved.

Moreover digitalization makes the spreading of news much faster. Regular editions of a newspaper are usually brought out every morning. So what if something important and unexpected happens at 2 p.m.? You will have to wait until the next-morning issue is published or watch the evening news broadcast. Ok but can’t news be announced and reached by the readers at any moment? As a result everybody will be much more pleased with the prospective to learn details about an incident or an event literally half an hour after it happened, not on the next day.

Apart from the process of modernizing and reaching wider audience, digitalizing serves as one more thing. 30 years ago there were no CDs, hard or flash drives. Everything from music to pictures and videos was recorded on magnetic cassettes and tapes. The main disadvantage of these storage “devices” was that with the time they lose their magnetic features and the kept information is becoming partly damaged or completely lost. If it is you on your holiday 15 years ago you will digest it, but when talking about historical archives, their loss can be really serious. Thanks to special devices that transform analog into digital signal we can now see recordings from the WW2 and even before. It is amazing to see such historic moments the way they were. It is also useful in a personal plan. It will be great one day to be able to show your grandchildren your wedding, or your first steps.

With the above-mentioned facts and examples I believe I convinced you in the importance of digitalization. With the recent boom in the mobile technologies and the higher mass-usage of smartphones and tablets there is a principle in the media field – “be digital or die”. Of course this was a joke but what is true is that if you want your newspaper, magazine or radio to survive and even become more successful you have to abandon or at least partly substitute the old paper-based variant.