Lisa Brewster

Finally Norton has a new product for families. I was disappointed when they ripped the family features out of NIS version 2008-2009. - Eric @ CS Techcast

hopefully it won't be a pig like the rest of their products have been for years - Steven Hodson

I think Microsoft has had this for awhile now. - Richard Ashwell

lets just hope it works - rama mamuaya

interesting idea from a company that was starting to become irrelevant IMHO. I lost a lot of trust in companies like Norton and McAfee, among others, when they started hooking their software so deep into the OS that nothing short of diving into the windows registry to remove it was needed. - slayerboy

Richard, Microsoft is discontinuing their One Care product and replacing it with a free antivirus product (codename "Morrow") late in 2009. EDIT: though I'm not sure if this covers the "Family Safety" product: http://download.live.com/famil... - Karim

i will defend norton with NIS 2009. Works fine, not a hog, and Norton Removal Tool does the trick if you need to get rid of all things Norton. - Eric @ CS Techcast

Stopped using or recommending Norton years ago. I think they are cruising on pre-installs and legacies. When simple trojans (Antivirus2009) constantly defeat\disable Norton I can't see allowing it to become my family's online protector. - Alyx

Sad though that Norton AV Gamer Edition 2009 wont work fine with Windows 7 - Imran Hussain

I hope this is a bit more secure than MS' Family Safety - if not, anybody (child or otherwise) who knows how to uninstall a program can surf the web uninhibited! - Chris Poirier

Integrate with http://ejamming.com and http://indabamusic.com and now we're talkin'. "Scratchpad" is definitely the right approach. - michael silverton

Adam: it's available now. - Robert Scoble

Adam: I too am getting "Missing Page We are sorry, the page you requested cannot be found." at http://research.microsoft.com/... But *must* call it a night and try tomorrow! - michael silverton

michael: they are working on the problem. The installer should be available shortly. - Robert Scoble

I'll be patient. Still not working. But good things come to those who wait :) - Adam Phillips

Working now. Refresh the page. Excited! - Adam Phillips

Cool, if people will use it. Kind of like web slices, it has to be implemented. We'll see. - Eric @ CS Techcast

is that like those QR codes? - David

I like this idea. It's the same principle as scanning a supermarket barcode. We need more of this; Japan has it, after all! Thx for the post. - Allen S.

Interesting but do we really need another one? I have three of these apps on my phone already. Barcorama seems to be the most versatile but I doubt it will have MS's new stuff. These "Smart pox" systems have been around for years in Asia, do we really need to reinvent the system? - Kalidor

after looking at the site, it is like the QR codes, except colorful and by proxy hip - David

yeah, QR Code is already well established in Japan. - Akhmad Fathonih

Oh, neat! Just wish there was support for crappy old WinMobile devices like mine. (Mine runs 2003SE, and I can't afford to upgrade to something modern at this time.) - Chris Charabaruk for Hire

This was actually one of my startup ideas from a while back. Seemed inevitable. Print Biz card with QR (or QRcode like) and use the cameraphone to scan. Additionally you would never be without a business card if you had your phone since you could use the screen to display the code, the other phone takes a pic of your screen presto. - mikepk

also, you use the geo data in the phone to assign a location to when / where you "met" the person - mikepk

meta data gets attached by the very act of scanning - mikepk

chris, that was one of the things I thought was cool about this startup idea, you don't need a fancy phone (although it helps). Just snap a photo with cameraphone and email it to an online service to process. (or upload after the fact) makes it much more accesible. - mikepk

very cool spin to something that is already in wide use in Japan. Kudos to Microsoft for seeing the applications of this. I'm going to have to try this on my phone. - Bryan

the zune tattoo guy is going to need some more ink :-D - Karim

++ Karim LOL - Mona N.

Would this not be just like 2d bar codes that nokia has been doing for some time? http://mobilecodes.nokia.com/ Cool but not new for the masses just new for Microsoft possibly. - Sloan Bowman

I thought this failed years ago... - Bwana

Hey, I was the second follower of their abandoned-looking @microsofttag account. This program looks cool but appears to be a typical MSFT rush job on all ends. Program launched a blank website, and when I tried to report the bug the form said "Special characters (< and >) are not allowed in full name." (Of course there are none in my name) - Carl Black

Another iPhone app from Microsoft. I grabbed it, but oh yeah - I don't have any of these brand new proprietary tag images around to try it out... - Josh Bancroft

Worked the very first time on a BB 8330 with what I thought would be an inferior photo. Very interesting. I think I'll try making a tag. - Dave Holle II

David: yes, these are like QR codes but that work much more accurately and can be far smaller than QR codes. - Robert Scoble

Here's a video demoing it: http://www.kyte.tv/ch/6118/307... - Robert Scoble

I'd like quantification of accurate and smaller. QR codes can work with over 50% of it damaged, and I have once working that are 3/4'" on each side? I wouldn't mind seeing smaller if it becomes a standard. I notice MS's website doesn't have this info? What do they say? - Kalidor

What is the name of the iphone app? - Amani

Kalidor: the microsoft tags are smaller in size and can be read without special lenses on your cell phone. They seem to work a lot more accurately here. - Robert Scoble

Not sure what you mean by special lenses, the Moto V220 I got from Rogers for free (so you can imagine the quality) had no problem with those squares on salty posters in TO streets? Do some phones need wide angle lenses or something then? - Kalidor

Amani ... it's TagReader (you can also find via search on 'Microsoft') - David HC Soul

Absolutely cool, this thing rocks. Tried it on multiple tags and it is able to recognize most of the tags easily. With even 2 MP camera phone it works great. Now the question, how do I make my own tags?? - Deepak Sharma

Isn't this what ShotCode has been doing for at least the last two years? http://www.shotcode.com/home - Christopher Harley

Oh, please. QR code are exactly the same, they work perfectly well. No news here. And more: it seems that after a period of free beta, creating tag will cost you money. Oh, dear, QR codes are free, instead. Nice try. - Federico Fasce

Federico: they are not the same. Look into it. And not everything Microsoft does is evil. - Robert Scoble

I'm not saying that this is evil. Just I don't get how this is different from QR codes (except for the fancy colours). But, don't get me wrong, Robert, I'm happy for this idea. QR rocks in Japan, but never really made their way in the rest of the world. Maybe Microsoft will be able to get this technology to spread. I think it's great for games. - Federico Fasce

The Adobe TV demo of Flash doing this in a browser with a regular web cam is very cool. http://tv.adobe.com/#vi+f15384... Long video but worth it. Jump to 41:00 min and 49:00min - Andrew Smith

Created my first tag, posted to blog, took unbelievably blurry photo with my iPhone from the blog page on notebook (hand shaking, balanced on lap & low light) it took me successfully in the Safari browser right to the page. Wonderful. I'm looking at incorporating this for a Sports Hall of Fame to link exhibits to a virtual archive with supplemental information.... this will integrate a Second Place of Learning" with a virtual "Third Place of Learning" so that the two can be combined into one experience! - David HC Soul

This is at least 7 or 8 years old technology. I have early versions of such cards laying in the bottom of boxes in my office somewhere. 2009 off to a rockin' start. - michael silverton

michael: old cue cat scans weren't designed to be used by blurry cell phone cameras. - Robert Scoble

I was thinking of printing bar code info on business cards that could be scanned by the G1 code reader. If this works, way cool! - Greg Birch

I'm impressed, I work in the sign industry and this could have some interesting applications if enough people start to use it. The dialer tag worked quickly even when blurry and slightly crooked. - Patrick Looney

mkay. but i'm sure you'd agree there's a fairly bright distinction between 'breakthrough' and 'refinement' right? why are we still awake? tomorrow will be a huge day! goodnight! ;-) - michael silverton

Robert: QRcode worked as a charm with my E61 camera, which is not the best around (2 megapixel, more blurry than the iPhone one). - Federico Fasce

QR Code already works. It is clear Scoble has not ever used QR code in any quantity. Don't believe the MS hype. It's at most evolutionary not revolutionary. BTW Google has a service that generates QR Code with any url that you pass to it. - Leather Donut

I personally am a MS fan but have to say that in my opinion adding some colors doesn't really mean anything related to innovation. I think the size and ability to be read are depending on the resolution of the consumer device more than the underlying technologies and do you really think that changing the items from squares to triangles and adding some color could increase quality? Is there any academic paper about this issue? - Kivanc Toker

And why to market a total new product from scratch rather than working together with Nokia? Theye are already embedding 2d barcode readers to their new products supporting the 2 widespread 2d barcode technologies which are QR and Datamatrix. - Kivanc Toker

QR codes can be scanned, recognized, and stored while working offline. Microsoft tags require Internet connectivity, and they have to go through Microsoft server to be useful. It makes them only marginally better than cool, easy to type domain name. - andrei_c

QR Codes are also in many products in Asia. Here in Hong Kong almost all products from Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Japanese cosmetic brands have QR Codes on them. BTW: @Leather the Google project is called ZXing http://tr.im/36xc - Vinko

Clearly, you missed Alex's Bose post! ;) - Mona N.

Wonder how they handle delay... - Michael J. Cohen (mjc)

Will be waiting to see a real review. - Eric @ CS Techcast

you know what i want? go a head and steal my idea, just gimme a free one when made, i want a waterproof wireless stereo for the shower that streams my music from the computer. - David

Hrm... me being a tight wad sees that $299 and says no. Still see it cheaper to use Apple's Airtunes. - Dean Clark

have you played with Squeezebox (http://slimdevices.com) - great solution for every budget - offbeatmammal

What about electricity? - Vezquex இ

Because of Sonos' design and fantastic user experience, it is my my #1. The Sonos app on my iPhone makes it even easier to control the system (touch). I use it with Rhapsody and last.fm and the radio station update in version 2.7 of the system is just fantastic. Wondering if the Cisco system can ever be this good... - Alex Vermeule

i have a squeezebox (v2 i think), it ended up in the basement drawer. Too many niggles with the software not seeing half my files, not able to index all of them, not supporting ogg and many online audio sources - it wasnt open at all. Perhaps it is better now, or perhaps I was expecting too much - Joelle Nebbe