The new version of QR Card Us separates the QR link itself from the 'hard card,' or physical business card, so that customers can buy standalone QR Cards - mobile-friendly Web pages from which contact info can be saved - without worrying about their physical cards becoming outdated. It also adds Organizations, which allow a moderator to manage QR Cards for a company, club or any kind of group. Finally, the update adds Notes, which lets users attach any kind of text note about a new contact to their saved info.

While QR Card Us provides color, layout and typography choices for both the physical and Web cards, many prospective customers requested more control over their own brand. Thanks to the power of Web-based communication, the flexibility of the small team and the online core of QR Card Us, Spearhead Dev was able to iterate quickly to respond to these concerns within a week.

To learn more about QR Card Us, check out our initial post, in which 19-year-old co-founder Michael Schade describes his vision of "making technology accessible for everyone." Also make sure to visit their website at qrcard.us.

We've also covered lots of different ways mobile Web technologies have been applied to business and personal networking, which you can explore here.

Have you ever used a mobile business card reader for networking? Tell us about it in the comments.

By moving from a direct vCard scan to a Web link, QR Card can now provide users with detailed analytics to measure the effectiveness of their networking. But if this sounds like some robotic, dystopian vision of the future, with people scanning each other's bar codes instead of shaking hands, you've got the wrong idea. Michael Schade, 19-year-old creator of QR Card Us, has designed this whole experience around getting the contact exchange out of the way, so people can concentrate on getting to know each other. "Existing technologies are great in their initial idea of making things automatic," Schade says, "but unfortunately, the technology tends to get in the way of real-world communication, and we want to get rid of that. It should make things better, not make it harder to connect."

"We want to make sure this technology is accessible," says Schade. Spearhead is used to customers with a range of experience with new technologies, and Schade expects many less savvy users "won't care about analytics." But the flexibility of the Web platform makes advanced uses possible, while the simplicity of the scanning and the interface accommodates users at all levels. "The mission of Spearhead as a whole," he says, "is making technology accessible for everyone."

QR Card Features
QR Card Us began in April as an experiment, Schade says, "to see how people react to the QR Card idea." The first version of the card was large, in order to embed the data from the whole vCard into the QR code, and Schade says the card's size was one of customers' most frequent complaints. The new version addresses that problem, but it's also much more powerful, since the Web link enables one-click connections to Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, as well as analytics. Anyone who scans the card can enter an email address to save the contact. For logged-in Spearhead users (accounts are free for anyone), the contact saves automatically, so all they have to do is scan. They can get right back to talking to the person and download the contact info later.

Another advantage of the Web service, Schade says, is that it allows Spearhead to quickly add new features via the Web form, without requiring customers to order new cards. On the order form, QR Card Us allows for a few customizable font, color, and layout choices that will match between the physical card and the Web form. At launch, there will be four layout choices available. A "Made with http://qrcard.us" tag is available to allow customers to "show their love" as well as direct new customers to the service, Schade says, but it's optional.

An Experiment With QR Codes
We've covered other digital business card solutions that use a variety of technologies, but no one approach has caught on in the real world. We've taken some apps for a test drive, and the results were okay, but the interaction was still awkward. There are so many barriers, from bad interfaces to required third-party applications, that can turn the encounter into more trouble than it's worth. By slimming down to just a Web link to a page of one-click options, QR Card Us can get the exchange over with in a snap.

Many existing solutions scan business cards using optical character recognition, just reading the text on the card, instead of QR codes. The main advantage of OCR is that no one has to get a new business card. But OCR can make mistakes, and it can't convey some data, like profile pictures, that QR codes and Web links can handle easily.

The use of QR codes in mobile computing is on the rise, but the latest studies show that they're still mostly being put to old-school use. Most businesses seem to be using QR codes to pick the low-hanging fruit, reaching wealthy young consumers with traditional marketing efforts, mostly as supplements to products.

But QR Card Us is built around the interaction, not just the newfangled technology. It's designed not to call attention to the futuristic barcode but to get it scanned, saved, and put away. Does this sound like a good way to network to you? Let us know in the comments.

If there's any set of technology users who could kick the use of QR Codes into high gear it would be iPhone owners. Enamored of the some 25,000 applications now available in the iTunes App Store, iPhone users are happily downloading new apps all the time. The problem for developers isn't coercing people into believing that it's okay to install software on the phone - it's generating awareness that the software they created even exists. In other words, raising app awareness is a marketing problem.

When an application becomes popular, it gets featured on one or more of iTunes' "Top" lists which rank the hottest applications in their store overall and by category. But getting on these lists means first getting the message about your app out there. For some application developers, that means emailing every blogger and journalist who covers mobile technology hoping for a review. Others attend all the tech conferences they can, handing out numerous business cards.

But with iCandy's widget, there's now a third option for marketing an iPhone app in the offline world: QR codes. For those who don't know, a QR code is a type of barcode which can be easily scanned using a mobile phone's camera and accompanying third-party software. (iPhone users can check out apps like Optiscan, Neoreader, BeeTag, Xzing, 2D Sense, Barcode, Snapp, etc.)

How to Create a QR Code for an iPhone Application

For developers and marketers wishing to promote an application, they can do so using the iPhone App iCandy Card. The steps involved are simple:

1. Launch iCandy and select "Create Card."
2. With iTunes open, find your iPhone app and drag and drop its icon into the iCandy Print window. iCandy will create a QR code of the URL that connects back to the iTunes store.
3. Click 'Edit Item' to enter a relevant title and artwork.
4. Select your print layout.
5. Print to a local printer, disk, or Flickr.

Real-World Scenarios for Use

If creating and scanning barcodes with your mobile phone sounds too geeky for you, keep in mind this technology is inching its way closer to mainstream acceptance thanks to apps that scan the barcodes of products in order to do price comparisons. Consumers may even adopt the technology before the stores even know what's happening! The reason, obviously, is that in a down economy such as this, anything that could potentially save people money is likely to be given more of a chance than before...even these slightly "geekier" applications that may have been ignored in the past. Add to that the ease-of-use of iPhone applications and it's easy to see the still untapped potential of the QR code.

At iCandy, they suggest a couple of uses for their new app-to-QR-code widget, saying "imagine scanning a QR code on the ski lift tower that gets you a ski conditions app, or scanning a poster on the subway for a subway schedule app." But we're sure you can think of many more examples on your own. And with more businesses developing their own custom applications, we may not be too far off from a day when QR codes print on your receipts at your favorite store, show up on the menus at your favorite restaurants, or display in posters all over the city.

Well, perhaps we're getting a little ahead of ourselves here. Although QR code technology has taken off in certain markets around the world, most notably Japan, they've only recently gained popularity in the Middle East, Europe, and the U.S. The problem in these markets may not be the unwillingness of consumers to adopt the technology, but the lack of QR codes out in the real world which are available for scanning. With iCandy, generating the codes is a breeze, but now someone has to convince marketers that they might be worth trying out.

Creating Codes

Using iCandy is easy. You simply drag and drop a web site link or iTunes track into the iCandy interface to create the QR code. You can also add in photos from either your computer or an online service like Flickr or Snapfish. The iCandy application then creates the barcode which you can then print out or use elsewhere on the web...like in a Zazzle.com store for example, where you could sell your barcode-emblazoned merchandise. The iCandy application supports any URL from the web, but will specifically support media from iTunes, YouTube, flickr, Facebook, MySpace, Scribd, Slideshare, last.fm, Pandora, and imeem.

Scanning Codes

For end users interacting with the barcode, the process is simple, too. All you need is a webcam or a barcode reading application for your smartphone. The company suggests that iCandy could be used to create a digitally enhanced album collection which you could use to play tracks from your iTunes music library. This is demonstrated, quite adorably we might add, by one of the iCandy engineer's 4 1/2 year-old-daughter, who launches music (and dances around) in this YouTube video.

Although this idea of interacting with your music collection appears to be the primary focus of the iCandy application, we think its other uses are just as appealing, if not more so. With the QR codes created by the application, bands and other artists wishing to promote their music could create merchandise - flyers, t-shirts, cards, etc. - which link directly to their homepage on the web or the music itself.

Imagine how this could work: after a long night out at the local bars and clubs, you could simply scan a card or other giveaway item the band had handed out after their last set. That's much easier than entering in a URL or even having to locate the album listing manually. Thanks to iCandy's innovative technology, a code scanned for music you don't already own, would also give you a prompt to purchase it from iTunes, Amazon, or Rhapsody.

iPhone Application in the Works

Even better than having to use your computer would be using your iPhone as the barcode scanner instead. Since the QR codes are just normal barcodes, you can scan them today using any third-party QR code scanning application on your iPhone, or any other smartphone for that matter. However, the company is working on an iPhone application that would auto-play the track if you already owned it and it was in your iPhone's music collection. If it wasn't, you could be shown the track in iTunes so that you preview it or purchase it, if desired.

The auto-play feature is where the company is having problems at the moment because of how Apple has the phone locked down. A company representative told us that they will probably have to meet with Apple in order to get this sorted out properly and play by all the rules.

In the meantime, QR codes that link to other web sites - or even YouTube videos - will work with the iPhone. Other camera-equipped smartphones can also be used to scan the barcodes and direct the users to the appropriate web sites.

Try it Out!

The iCandy application is still in beta, but you can register to try it out now. To get right in, use the code "RWW" when you sign up here. Company feedback can be sent to the company via the feedback form on their homepage (http://icandy.ricohinnovations.com) or via email (feedback@icandy.ricohinnovations.com).