QR Codes and Comic Advice Plus: Praise for Dexter From our Japanese reporters, check out two of the latest trends to make headlines in Japan: QR Codes: Appearing as a jumble of black and white squares similar to a barcode, QR codes for Web addresses are now found everywhere in Japan. Users scan the codes with mobile phones’ infrared data transfer beams to connect to the site through the phone’s internal browser. Originally found on street corners where the codes served as an entertainment guide for the respective area linking users to everything from reviews of local restaurants to listings for movies, mosaics can now be found everywhere from magazines and posters to stickers and packaging and link to a variety of topics such as horoscopes, weather, and fashion news. Comic Advice: TRecently, a new wave of Cliff Notes-style informational and self-help books for teenagers and adults have reinvented themselves in manga form. One of the main drives for this was the huge success of a pair of child rearing books: the original, all-text publications by the author sold poorly, but the comic book forms that came out earlier this year became instant bestsellers that reportedly broke records for the speed of reprints required to keep up with demand. And by the way: We’ve been hearing a lot of praise for Showtime series Dexter. The suspense-filled serial killer drama has new fans catching up via on-demand marathons.
From our Japanese reporters, check out two of the latest trends to make headlines in Japan:
QR Codes: Appearing as a jumble of black and white squares similar to a barcode, QR codes for Web addresses are now found everywhere in Japan. Users scan the codes with mobile phones’ infrared data transfer beams to connect to the site through the phone’s internal browser. Originally found on street corners where the codes served as an entertainment guide for the respective area linking users to everything from reviews of local restaurants to listings for movies, mosaics can now be found everywhere from magazines and posters to stickers and packaging and link to a variety of topics such as horoscopes, weather, and fashion news.
Comic Advice: TRecently, a new wave of Cliff Notes-style informational and self-help books for teenagers and adults have reinvented themselves in manga form. One of the main drives for this was the huge success of a pair of child rearing books: the original, all-text publications by the author sold poorly, but the comic book forms that came out earlier this year became instant bestsellers that reportedly broke records for the speed of reprints required to keep up with demand.