QR codes on billboards and in marketing are kind of rubbish, but in terms of moving a URL or a phone number from your PC to your phone quickly, they're actually pretty useful.
What determined the outcome of your service was the convenience factor. To use it, the user needs to select the information, go to your webpage, and then submit it. It's too much work for the user.
OP's program removes 1/3rd of the steps, making it much easier for the user.
QR codes on billboards and in marketing are kind of rubbish
On a big billboard beside the freeway, sure. In a home for sale sign, or in a bus shelter, or anywhere else where people are either a) very interested or b) captive, they are fantastic.
I've found them horribly useful for passing authentication tokens from desktop to mobile devices. It means that you can move tokens without having to type enormous screens or go through a normal login form.
I find it useful, it just needs to be easier on phones to get to the qr code scanner. I use an iphone, and if it was as easy as just opening up the camera app, pointing at the code which it recognized and put a box around (similar to the focus box perhaps) that I could click on, it would go a long way to getting more people to use them.
Can't do that with a password or other sensitive info.
I have a web server that only responds to requests from my LAN. I put sensitive info into an HTML file there, then point my phone's browser to it to copy/paste it; then I delete the info from the file. This way the data never leaves my LAN, which I believe is reasonably well protected.
Whoops I'm sorry, I thought you had some fancy js here but I think it was just a bug with my mouse... the page was scrolling down weirdly to the end of the header.
I've been using a Chrome extension I created for the same purpose. The nice part is that it does it without making an external web request, using javascript and canvas.
Also, iPhone users should check out the Scan app[1] for a QR code reader. It's by far the fastest starting, simplest QR scanner I've been able to find; Most of the other apps seem to be cramming in price-checking features and have butt-ugly icons.
You can do it locally with qrencode[1], which is available via MacPorts and Homebrew. It would probably simplify the script, too (especially if converted to bash).
On an X11 environment, I can select some text and get the same results on the command line with something like:
xsel | qrencode -o - | feh -FZ
None of these commands are standard on any distribution, but you can easily install them or use alternatives. You can also make this an alias, hotkey, etc.
For Android users there is the Chrome to Phone extension which uses Web Intents. No need to scan a QR code. You can directly send selected text, web links, phone numbers or map links to your phone.
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-chrome-to-p...
does mostly the same as mentioned above, does this for i think now 4 years (i coded this on a beach in mexico, lets say my memories are fuzzy)
after looking at the market fo QR codes now for 4 years, i don't think i will get rich with just that side project. QR codes just do not fulfill any use case for users (they fulfill a use case for content publishers and advertisers, but non for users)
p.s.: if you want to (really) see people scanning QR codes, there is a page for that, too http://replycam.com/browse.php
For me, it was more about sticking the whole process in an OS X Service available by right-click than actually generating a QR code. Of course you could also write one that sends a text message (via Twilio perhaps), or beams something over Bluetooth.
Cool, I like it and would use it daily. I sometimes use dropbox like a pastebin for same thing.
QR Code transfer is probably patent encumbered (like well almost everything).
Nokia has app to do this but in reverse. Look at photo gallery on phone in their app. When you find picture you want to see, open browser on desktop and see QR code. Point camera at screen and the QR code in browser is replaced by image from phone.
Indeed; in order for any standard like this (or UPC, EAN, etc) to gain widespread usage as opposed to very narrow, single-organization usage, it has to be EASY to adopt.
This means that while the standard's official documentation might require that it be purchased (this is the case with QR), or while software which interacts with it might not be free/gratis, it must not carry with it patent or licensing encumberances. While ISO allows "reasonable and non-discriminatory" patents/licenses to be enforced against technologies which are ISO standards, something like a barcode format is difficult to justify licensing restrictions in almost all cases.
I use Chrome to Phone with my android phone. One click on a button sends the current url to my browser, or I can select any text, right click it and send it to my phone where it is then available on my clipboard to paste wherever. It also keeps a history of all this on my phone so I can recall what I sent last week. That feature alone is why I'll probably never own an iPhone.
Edit: Still a cool extension you've got there! Not taking anything away from it.
They haven't done anything with text yet but there's iCloud Tabs for URLs. Anything you have open in Safari is available on your iPhone/iPad too and anything on those devices is available by clicking the cloud icon in Safari.
Not just the javascript either, Chrome becomes horrendously slow with week wifi signals where Safari is fine. For some reason only Apple apps can do the 3G/LTE/Wifi request pooling magic that they added in iOS 6.
Did that for a few weeks, and the Chrome performance boost was nice. I had to jail-unbreak though because stability was horrid for me, with applications constantly crashing :/
Do you guy know something like a "Phone to Chrome"? I'm desperate to find a way to open simply with my desktop Chrome web pages that I stumble upon with my Android but which are impractical to read with it.
You can do this if you use Chrome on your phone, and are signed in with sync enabled. The tabs on your phone are accessible from the 'New Tab' page on you desktop and vice versa. On desktop Chrome, there's a little 'Other Devices' drop down at the bottom; on Chrome for Android, there's a button with a pair of arrows at the bottom right.
It doesn't open the tabs automatically. Your tabs open on your desktop are listed essentially like bookmarks on your phone. You choose to open them or not at any given time.
The feature is enabled by default so if you're using Chrome already (on both devices, with your Google account), then it's likely already syncing (and clearly not punishing your phone).
Here's what I did to solve this problem. It works on all platforms/all phones/all browsers.
I created a document using TitanPad (http://titanpad.com/) -- any paste bin service will do. I then bookmarked that document on all my computers and phones. I called the bookmark 'Text Sync'.
Bonus if your favorite paste bin supports versioning. You can use secure Gists if you've got some private text to pass around.
I created a bookmarklet that does the same thing for any website you're browsing. Makes it easy to transfer from PC to phone, assuming the phone can read QR codes.
QR sounds useful for some minor applications, but for anything serious placed in a public place on a physical medium (like a billboard) its a phishers dream: just put a sticker with your phishing url over the original one and noone will ever realise.
I remember temporarily sticking an A4-sized QR code linking to a mild shock image on my desk at my old job and tweeting a photo of said desk to see who I'd get a reaction from.
I read through the comments, expecting to see a JS version of this, but I didn't find one so I made it:
javascript:(function(){ var i = new Image();i.src = 'http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=qr&chs=300x300&chl='+ encodeURIComponent(getSelection());i.onclick=function(){i.parentNode.removeChild(i)};i.setAttribute('style', 'position:fixed;top:50%;left:50%;margin:-150px 0 0 -150px;box-shadow:0 0 20px rgba(0,0,0,0.2)');document.body.appendChild(i)})();
Create a new bookmark, name it "QR Selection" and add the above code as the URL. Only tested in Chrome.
I've been using something roughly the same as this for a few months. Surprisingly handy, especially since you can use it to send URLs to just about any device.
My solution here is usually to just send myself a text message from Google Voice. For me, it's faster to open a new tab and paste my text than to find my QR reader and scan.
116 comments
[ 2.2 ms ] story [ 182 ms ] threadOP's program removes 1/3rd of the steps, making it much easier for the user.
On a big billboard beside the freeway, sure. In a home for sale sign, or in a bus shelter, or anywhere else where people are either a) very interested or b) captive, they are fantastic.
Because hey, I'mma scan this QR code, and then remember about it when I'm topside.
Keep your phone hidden (but check out this QR code!)
Instead of trying to scan that QR code (in a corner of a billboard), here's the URL: http://www.btp.police.uk/pickpockets/
They're even pretty if you embed them with a bitmap using QArt — http://research.swtch.com/qart
I have a web server that only responds to requests from my LAN. I put sensitive info into an HTML file there, then point my phone's browser to it to copy/paste it; then I delete the info from the file. This way the data never leaves my LAN, which I believe is reasonably well protected.
Maybe you can sign up for an SMS broker and send SMSs if you don't have a Mac (it's less expensive than you think)
Can't reproduce it after refreshing.
My bad, I'll delete the original comment.
Also, iPhone users should check out the Scan app[1] for a QR code reader. It's by far the fastest starting, simplest QR scanner I've been able to find; Most of the other apps seem to be cramming in price-checking features and have butt-ugly icons.
[1]: http://scan.me
https://github.com/fabriceleal/chrome-extension-url-qr-encod...
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5016497
On an X11 environment, I can select some text and get the same results on the command line with something like:
None of these commands are standard on any distribution, but you can easily install them or use alternatives. You can also make this an alias, hotkey, etc.[1] http://fukuchi.org/works/qrencode/
Edit: No need for temporary file
after looking at the market fo QR codes now for 4 years, i don't think i will get rich with just that side project. QR codes just do not fulfill any use case for users (they fulfill a use case for content publishers and advertisers, but non for users)
p.s.: if you want to (really) see people scanning QR codes, there is a page for that, too http://replycam.com/browse.php
QR Code transfer is probably patent encumbered (like well almost everything).
Nokia has app to do this but in reverse. Look at photo gallery on phone in their app. When you find picture you want to see, open browser on desktop and see QR code. Point camera at screen and the QR code in browser is replaced by image from phone.
http://conversations.nokia.com/2012/11/30/photobeamer-the-ma...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_code
This means that while the standard's official documentation might require that it be purchased (this is the case with QR), or while software which interacts with it might not be free/gratis, it must not carry with it patent or licensing encumberances. While ISO allows "reasonable and non-discriminatory" patents/licenses to be enforced against technologies which are ISO standards, something like a barcode format is difficult to justify licensing restrictions in almost all cases.
Edit: Still a cool extension you've got there! Not taking anything away from it.
The feature is enabled by default so if you're using Chrome already (on both devices, with your Google account), then it's likely already syncing (and clearly not punishing your phone).
I created a document using TitanPad (http://titanpad.com/) -- any paste bin service will do. I then bookmarked that document on all my computers and phones. I called the bookmark 'Text Sync'.
Bonus if your favorite paste bin supports versioning. You can use secure Gists if you've got some private text to pass around.
http://keyboardp.tumblr.com/post/38976790879/send-webpage-fr...
https://gist.github.com/findel/5099737
Credit for the selection code: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4652734/return-html-from-...
[Edit: created gist]
Edit: Added missing apostrophe.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Services_menu
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5016497 http://youtu.be/HQNB9XZdPCk
http://fukuchi.org/works/qrencode/index.html.en