According to Jaunted.com, select airports in Texas are “experimenting with checking in passengers via QR code, or those curious black-and-white nouveau barcodes.” [via Jaunted]

Edit: You can read about I-nigma Reader, a free QR Code reader for Windows Mobile, here.

One of the most popular posts on this blog is the one about I-nigma and it really goes to show that people think that 2D barcodes are the next big thing. Apparently Microsoft thinks the same thing because they just released their own 2D barcodes and reader — Microsoft Tag.

Instead of the usual black blocks to make up the barcodes, Microsoft used multicolored triangles, making the barcode smaller in comparison to other 2D codes.This allows Tags to be used in a wider variety of places, unlike it’s brother the QR code. These Tags can be used to quickly link a user to a web address, send a vCard, send text, or even place a call, all with your phone’s camera. The applications are endless!

Microsoft wasn’t stingy with their product, either, once you download and install Tag (you can only install by visiting http://gettag.mobi on your phone at the moment) by visiting gettag.mobi on your phone or by sending the link in an SMS, you can create your own Tags for your print or online projects.

Microsoft Tag is freeware from Microsoft, creating Tags is also free. Here’s one I made, just open TagReader on your phone and point your camera at it, and then let the Tag do all the work!

For years the eastern world have been using QR (Quick Response) Codes to point users in the right direction, bringing them URLs, contact information, and text at the scan of a 2D barcode. But us in the west have been blissfully unaware of all that QR Codes can do for us, up until now. There are more places adopting QR Codes, especially online where it is easy to make your own code for whatever need you might have, and for those of us with Windows Mobile phones it’s been hard finding an app that will read the codes as most of them are in Java. But, fear not young technophile, I-nigma has brought a reader forward that just might do the job!

The I-nigma Reader is an application for Windows Mobile and does exactly what it was meant to — read and decrypt QR Codes to make them useable. Just download the app to your device, install, and run. The only screen, besides options, is the camera viewer, which you need to scan in your code. You don’t have to perfectly line up the code for the reader to pick it up and decrypt, actually it will probably decrypt and display the code’s message before you even get the whole QR Code in the viewer, just move it towards it and let the app do the rest. It will then switch to a display page where it will let you open the URL, display the message, call the number, or whatever else the QR Code is encrypted to show.

The reader works, that’s it, it just works. The only gripe I have about it is that it flips the camera over so you have to kind of work upside-down and backwards, so it’s a little different at first. Other than that, though, it’s a great little app that does what it does wonderfully. I-nigma Reader is freeware from I-nigma, no strings attached. You can check to see if your device is supported here, although it seems that pretty much all phones are.

Also, if you would like to make your own QR Codes for your site, publication, or whatever else, I-nigma has a free code creator that generates the codes on the fly. There’s also this one by Kaywa.com, it has a few more options.