Now you can create, share and scan bar code on your S60 devices. Today, Nokia announced a new service, called Mobile Codes, that allow us to create 2D bar code online. What is bar code? According to Wikipedia:

A barcode (also bar code) is a machine-readable (uses dark ink on white substrate to create high and low reflectance which is converted to 1’s and 0’s) representation of information in a visual format on a surface.

There are basically three types of bar code, i.e. linear, stacked and 2D (matrix). The left picture below shows an example of linear bar code. It encodes “S60Tips.com”. The right picture shows an example of 2D bar code. It encodes http://www.s60tips.com”.

You can create 2D bar code from Nokia’s new service, Mobile Codes. Note that it is currently in beta version. That’s why the URL still points to an IP address. There are also many other web sites that are able to generate bar codes, either linear or 2D. You can just Google them. :)

How about bar code reader? There are several applications that can scan bar code, i.e.:

My favorite one is Kaywa Reader (see screenshot below).

Kaywa Reader Kaywa Reader

Compatible devices: S60 3rd Edition, Nokia Nseries, Nokia Eseries.