[App of the Week] QR Reader

Our app recommendation for week 23 is based on our article about how small companies can use QR codes to bridge the digital gap. After showing you some use cases and explaining you how to integrate them in your marketing campaigns we thought we should show you how to read them on your mobile phone. Here we go.

If you browse the App Store for “QR” you will likely be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of results. A few are free but most will cost you well above 2 bucks. Not all those apps work as well as they claim, which is mostly due to poor camera integration and insufficient interpretation of the QR code destination.

Our candidate “QR-Reader” passes both of those pitfalls with flying colours and handling of the app is a snap. Simply start the app, point your camera at a QR code and get it within the marked boundary. Scanning works reasonably fast and it happens only rarely that a code can’t be read.

Scan this QR code with your mobile phone

Once the QR code has been scanned, the app will analyze the destination type of the code and proceed accordingly. Often used types are URLs, mail addresses, map locations, plain texts, App Store links or contact details. If someone gives you a business card with a QR code on it you’ll most likely find the digital version of it. This is really convenient for digitalizing all those contacts you made. Read more about that in Tuesday’s article.

One rather annoying issue with contact details is the existence of two formats at the same time. QR-Reader for example only understands the MeCARD format while others work with the Vcard format. For this reason I have another QR reader app which understands Vcards.

A bonus feature of the app is the ability to generate QR codes on your phone. You choose the type of QR code you wish to create and enter the details. When choosing “Mecard contact” you can turn one of your contacts into a QR code.

With an in-app purchase you can opt out of the advertisements but while testing they didn’t interfere with the functionality, so it really is up to you.

Altogether this is a really nice app which brings along all the functionality you need. For a free app that’s quite a good deal.

Datasheet

Price: – free

System: – iOS min. 3.2

Size: – 2.0MB

Language: – Englisch, Chinese, French, German, Japanese Rumanian, Spanish

Advertisements: – yes

optimized for Retina Display (iPhone4): – yes

Multitasking: – yes

Universal-App: – no

Push-Notification: – no

Download:

[app 368494609]

Screenshots

SdP