Today we released the latest update for Optiscan, our QR Code scanner and generator, on the iTunes App Store.

Optiscan 1.9.3 Create screen

You’ve always been able to create a plethora of QR Code content types with Optiscan, but now we’ve made it even easier for you with a new menu of options. These include:

• SMS Create a QR Code containing a message and the phone number to SMS it to – great for marketing!
• Location To our knowledge Optiscan is the only QR Code generator app that lets you pinpoint a map location without having to type the address in!
• Email Similar to the SMS option, setup an email message, subject line and recipients all in one QR Code
• Telephone Keep it simple – your phone number in a QR Code
• Wi-Fi Need to share your wi-fi details easily? Put them in a QR Code and pass it round!

All these options have been added at the request of our users in addition to our standard Contact (with vCard or MeCard options), URL and Text note options. We hope you enjoy using Optiscan even more now to scan and create all those QR Codes!

Coming to an iPhone near you soon: Optiscan 2.0: The Scanner Strikes Back!

Well – this is it! After a fantastic 9 week internship it’s sad to be leaving behind the code, co-workers and, of course, coffee machine I have got to know so well. From the very first day I was plunged straight in the deep end, coding new features and fixing bugs. It’s been fun, frustrating and interesting in equal measures, but I can assure you that an internship here is never dull!

So what is it that I’ve been doing? My first few weeks were a steep learning curve, as I battled to comprehend the delegate design pattern while also trying to work out why there’s a small toy bear which lives in the office. (Though I am now completely au fait with the former, the latter continues to bemuse me)! A couple of code reviews later I had free reign to amend or add code, and moved onto adding social media compatibility to several of our apps. If you’re planning to do this yourself, I would recommend ShareKit as a good starting point.

By mid-August I was working full time on Optiscan. There’s a host of new features which will arrive on the AppStore soon, including much more support for creating QR codes. As a member of the engineering team I played a big role in delivering this functionality, both from a coding perspective and by participating in numerous (friendly if raucous) office arguments! The last couple of weeks have seen development give way to testing, so I’ve been scrambling to fix any bugs before I leave. For any of you who are newbie iPhone developers I’d have 3 words of advice – watch out for memory warnings, be careful when using UITableViews, and always keep an eye on your reference counting!

It hasn’t all been coding though. I’ve spent many a lunchtime dreaming up app ideas on the office kitchen whiteboard, with concepts ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous. The company lunches and barbecues were a particular highlight, as was a (slightly surreal) morning of set theory in order to write a Python script. These and other amusements unique to a small company like Airsource made this summer particularly enjoyable, even on the odd occasions where I did stare at the same bug for hours before seeing the simple solution!

Time to say farewell to everyone here, and thanks for a great summer. Keep an eye out for future releases of Optiscan and Cellar (there’s some quite cool stuff to come, by the sounds of things in the office). Adios!

(Oh and I must ask someone about that bear before I go…)

Just like everyone else, Airsource will be closing down for the winter holiday. Tucking into lots of food, gifts good and bad, a drink or two and an afternoon nap, we’ll be back in 2011 refreshed and ready to go.

We have lots of exciting projects to look forward to – we think you’ll be impressed too! See you then!

Optiscan has been successful with consumers on the Apple App Store, but it has also piqued the interest of businesses. If you are interested in licensing the image processing library of Optiscan for your own application, or in developing a white-label version of Optiscan for use on devices specific to your company, we want to hear from you.

We will only license the library for use on the App Store if the intended use does not directly compete with Optiscan. To request additional details or an evaluation package, send details of your intended use to optiscan-licensing@airsource.co.uk.