At least with QR codes you don't need a special scanner, it doesn't need to be plugged into anything and you have the scanner (phone) with you all the time.
But I've never used one either.
Re:CueCat
by ChrisArchitect on Monday March 21, 2016 @11:06AM
(#11328548)
But you kind of do, because as far as I know, you need an app. QR codes has some major promise initially, but it hinged on becoming built into the camera apps of phones, which never happened, so forget it
Re:CueCat
by jamiesonbecker on Monday March 21, 2016 @11:44AM
(#11328856)
If you're security conscious, you might use QR codes for MFA, i.e.:
https://userify.com/tour/ (scroll down)
but then Red Hat's FreeOTP has a QR code scanner built in. (Google Authenticator does not and needs a third-party one that wants a ton of permissions..)
IIRC they also had a special microphone (or probably just a regular microphone with some software) that could hear URLs from TV commercials and send them to a browser. I'm not sure if that ever worked, but it sounded a little too Orwellian for me.
Yeah, I got one of these in the mail, but couldn't make it work. Also could never figure out what it was for, really. Saved me some keystrokes in my browser? Apparently, the value was too skewed towards the advertisers and marketers, with too little value for consumers to be adopted.
QR code readers are effectively the same thing, as far as I can tell. I never find myself using those either.