Filed under: Software, Freeware, iPhone, iPod touch
Microsoft offers second app for iPhone
After the impressive release of Seadragon for the iPhone/ iPod touch, Microsoft has followed up by releasing an iPhone version of Tag Reader. [App Store link] Tag Reader allows you to use your iPhone to grab a quick photograph of a colorful icon that contains lots of digital tagging. It could be a web site, product information, even your contact details from a vCard or even free text.First, download Tag Reader from the App Store and install it on your iPhone. Then, test it against some samples on the Microsoft Tag web page. Next, if you like, you can create your own tags. You'll need a Microsoft Live ID, but those are free. I tried creating one for our TUAW website and it came back as blacklisted (#$&!!). Is it something we said?
I tried again, this time creating a tag for the Apple web page. That seemed to work. You can try it on the icon at the bottom of this post.
Just make sure the tag fills about half the frame of the camera image. Snap your photo, then follow the instructions in the app.
I'm not sure if this will ever catch on. You can put one of these tags on your business card, or on a product box, or even on your own web site. As you've seen if you tried my example, you can capture the tag from a monitor.
At some point, Microsoft expects to charge for the creation of these tags, but for now, it's all free.
For this to work, a lot of people will have to participate, and it could be the cure for which there was no disease. Still, it is nice to see Microsoft recognize that the iPhone is a force in the world and if they want to deploy mobile technology they have to take the millions of iPhone/ iPod touch users into account.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Yoshi360 said 2:48PM on 1-10-2009
Those tags work much better for me than QR codes on the iPhone! Every tag I tried was recognized correctly, no matter how bad the image was. QR codes on the other hand are recognized almost never, dont know why. They seem to be more sensitive to the blurry iPhone came.
Reply
SlaunchaMan said 2:37PM on 1-10-2009
Microsoft: inventing solutions for which there are no problems.
Reply
heytpn said 2:41PM on 1-10-2009
That's what Apple did- it's a good thing people do this! There were no problems with Smartphones until Apple showed what the iPhone can do, and now all of the smartphones of 2006 and before look ancient.
Level 5 said 11:28AM on 1-11-2009
@heytpn
Well.. I wouldn't say there were no problems with smartphones before 06. In my Windows Mobile world since 2005, there have been plenty of problems. Truth be told, the iPhone has done little to sway the community of hardware and software developers to do anything to salvage Winmo. We get a new hardware design that MIGHT be thinner, have a spec bump with more memory and a faster qualcomm cpu (note: faster crap, is still crap), on the same tired OS. Even Android did little to shake up my world. The Palm Pre however, did grab my attention, whereas even the iPhone didn't. Time will tell. SHOULD have Apple's design influenced the smartphone world? I thought they would had, but surprisingly not.
cristian said 4:04PM on 1-10-2009
how would this work on an ipod touch?
Reply
Turd said 4:09PM on 1-10-2009
The same way a phone call would.
Murphy Mac said 1:04AM on 1-11-2009
good one Turd!
I wish I had a need for these things. But I think in a few years they'll be all over the place in some form or another. Maybe not the MS flavor, but someone's.
Jash Sayani said 4:12PM on 1-10-2009
Nice app for using at checkout in super stores.... But would be too expensive. Bar Codes are the best!
BTW, SeaDragon was not impressive, the most stupid app I have downloaded!
Reply
Eugene Southward said 11:26PM on 1-10-2009
You sound a bit sore. Seadragon was merely a tech demo, it wasn't supposed to awe you with its applied uses... because it has none.
Olicf said 4:53PM on 1-10-2009
A very intelligent piece of technology! Its just a shame that Microsoft have to beat everything they publish with the ugly stick. I mean... Just look at the icon?
Reply
Quine said 5:18PM on 1-10-2009
Why is everything Microsoft creates ugly? It just makes it harder to like.
Reply
Fritz Laurel said 6:00PM on 1-10-2009
I don't get it. I can't tell from the article what the point is of this app. I can already grab photos of things with my iPhone.
Reply
Zimzim said 10:56PM on 1-10-2009
You go to a bike shop and all the bikes have these muticoloured "tags" hanging off the handlebars. You snap it with your cam and it takes you to a web page or some other such info that the store or manufacturer has setup. No need to type the URL into your phone, and the info could include audio/slideshows etc that a manual hanging from the product couldn't show you.
I rate the likelihood of this actually catching on as very, very low.
Fritz Laurel said 3:12PM on 1-11-2009
Got it, thanks!
Don said 6:41PM on 1-10-2009
I am I behind the curve or what ...why can't Microsoft work on a wav file app so we can open them on the phone and touch.
Reply
THJ said 9:28PM on 1-10-2009
My voicemails from work are emailed to us as WAV files, which I can listen to on my iPhone, are you talking about iTunes WAV support?
nbidgood said 1:56AM on 1-11-2009
i'm guessing he meant wmv, rather than wav
Mark said 6:50PM on 1-10-2009
Have they never heard of CueCat?
Reply
todd Sieling said 7:15PM on 1-10-2009
Another dead on arrival idea from Microsoft.
Reply
Nuno Sousa said 7:51PM on 1-10-2009
Here's a neat one: http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/7870/rickbk9.png
Reply