Order your Coffee using a QR code

Starbucks in the USA have been experimenting. Using a "QR code" reader on your iPhone to pay for your Latte !! From the on-line comments results so far are a bit mixed. A plea to Starbucks would be to keep the QR code, come to the UK and get the App onto Android. Cheers !!

The Computer paradigm is changing

At the end of November my company bought me a new Samsung Galaxy Tab as a Christmas present. During December and the Christmas break I have been in serious training - and now have the new technology up and working. It is absolutely brilliant and has now replaced both my smartphone and netbook for any business trip.

Read an article over Christmas from the Financial Times (on the Tab) and it really struck a chord.

Here is the link and a short extract

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/df949bca-1443-11e0-a21b-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz1A5T6drAI

--- companies see their market share coming under attack from competitors offering mobile tablet devices and smartphones, such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab with typically Arm-based processors, flash memory, Android operating systems and with no need for a mouse, keyboard or packaged software as they stream services over high-speed connections.

ID World in Milan 16th - 18th November

This is the link to the Conference Agenda for the ID World International Congress in Milan which has just been released http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5011269/IDW10_ConfAgenda.pdf

The Postal Innovation theme lauched in Abu Dhabi continues to be developed in Milan and their is a strong postal agenda in the "New Frontiers in Secure Delivery" session.

Following on from the recent Yemini bomb attack which challeged the international Express Parcel industry - there are really relevant sessions on "border control", "critical infrastructures" and "inspection and tracking" within the "Citizen ID Forum" and the "Transportation Security Forum"

If you need more information on the event please contact conference@idworldonline.com

An event forum has been created on Linkedin called "ID World" and I would be happy to pre-network with potential and actual attendees.

Interview on BBC Cambridgeshire

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5011269/Richard-Andie-Harper-interview-2010-11-02%20101615.mp3

Today I was interviewed on by Andie Harper of BBC Radio Cambridgeshire about the impact of the Yemini explosive devices on the international Air Express industry. Try the audio link above to listen to the interview

Andie uses all those years of experience as a teacher to sort out all those badly behaved organisations in the county and help you with your consumer problems. Listen every weekday from 9am to 12.30pm.

email: andy.harper@bbc.co.uk

Parcel Tracking issues from Yemeni Bomb Scare

The discovery of two "viable" improvised explosive devices at Dubai and East Midlands airport will have significant implications for the air freight industry. The security screening procedures and technologies in Yemen clearly failed but the "track and trace" systems managed to locate and isolate the packages.

Any national postal operator or express carrier should be re-examining the functionality of their international "track and trace" systems to ensure that:

- "Proof of Posting" not only positively verifies the identity of the sender but also captures details of all the shipments that they send. The identity of the poster should be linked to the identity of the shipment.

- All shipments should be tracked at the exact point where the shipment is security cleared and the identity of the security screener should be linked to the tracking event.

- Shipments should be "Security cleared" on departure before loading onto an aircraft and also on arrival before being cleared for entry into a domestic delivery network.

- "open standard" item identifiers like "ISO License Plates" should be used that work across complicated international supply chains.

Delivery Management is a world expert in tracking technologies and would be happy to independently evaluate existing "track and trace" systems.

If you need any help or support please contact richard.wishart@del-mgt.com

Discovering the new DNA

Attended a really interesting Webinar last week organised by the Dash 7 alliance. The subject was the proposed Dash7 Network Access (DNA) standard.

In the same way that EPC Global managed to galvanise industry activity to produce a low cost tag and software infrastructure for the ISO 18000-6 air interface standard - the Dash 7 alliance is attempting to do the same for the ISO 18000-7 air interface standard.

DNA will focus on equivalent standards like Low Level Reader Protocol (LLRP) and EPC Information Services (EPCIS) but for active RFID tags. This should be a really important move - particularly if similair and complementary standards can be used for both active and passive infrastructures. Combined "active+passive" readers is definitely the future.

The nature of "active tags" is that they have a battery and normally some memory and can therefore be directly addressed. This could really get the Internet of Things moving !!

Post Expo 2010 in Copenhagen

Just back home from four very exhausting days in Copenhagen. I chaired the "Developments in RFID" technology workgroup. We had a room full room of enthusiatic delegates and some really good speakers.

Bo Helmer Larsen from Lyngsoe talked about bringing management visibility into into sorting centres. Mikko Nikkanen from UPM Raflatac explained the commercial opportunities opened up by the latest RFID tag designs. Joaquim Serrahima from AIDA Centre provided a supplier report on the very successful Global Monitoring System and their work with Correos in Spain and Catina Aghayan from the Middle East RFID Association explained her role in the Arab Triangle RFID project and how a strong user coordination is vital in RFID projects.

I took an executive decision to add an extra 15-20 minutes to the session so that we could have a really interactive Question and Answer session.

At an event like Post Expo I always take the opportunity to judge the state of the industry. The big expensive "hospitality" stands were still in evidence but I usually steer clear as you are unlikely to find much of real interest. At the other end of the scale there are the small standholders who probably have good ideas and products but nobody is visiting their stands. ( I feel really sorry for them) In the middle are the interesting technology stands (from my point of view) and they were definitely attracting the middle tier posts who need technology innovation to survive and prosper. You had to queue up to speak to the experts at these stands

It is a very difficult time for the Postal industry. Royal Mail and USPS were very noticable by their absence - maybe one or two individuals but they were keeping a very low profile. The postal delegations were all there but paired down to a small number of key decision makers - hardly any industrial tourists.

I picked up some really significant trends and will be blogging about these over the next few weeks. I will also be setting up a niche webinar programme to take forward some of these themes.