It may seem like an eternity ago when we watched Apple lift the covers off the radically redesigned iOS 7 at this year’s WWDC, but let’s be honest with ourselves here – we’re all still talking about it. Whether our opinions are largely positive, negative or remain neutral; the fact remains that Apple is embarking on a journey of rebirth when it comes to iOS. The introduction of iOS 7 saw a number of existing jailbreak tweaks become null and void, but developer Evan Swick can think himself lucky that his new NativeQR package is still relevant and hasn’t been Sherlocked by Apple’s creative teams.
We’re offering no prizes for the first reader who manages to correctly guess what kind of functionality NativeQR brings to the stock camera app. After all, the name really speaks for itself. Some people love QR codes and some people simply can’t abide to them. Whatever your personal opinion is; it’s pretty fair to say that they aren’t going to be disappearing any time soon so it makes perfect sense for the native Camera app on the iPhone and iPod touch to be able to read them and make use of the information that’s contained within.
Swick has done a great job of implementing QR code reading functionality into iOS and his implementation is as "native" as it could have possibly been. The option to enable or disable the QR reading abilities has been added to the Options toggle on the camera visual overlay, making it feel like it actually belongs there from the beginning. Rather than having to download a third-party app from the App Store, NativeQR makes it possible to quickly invoke the camera from the lock screen or the home screen and quickly scan a code when one is present.
In addition to the code scanning aspects of the tweak, it is also possible to quickly and efficiently share contact information. Users with this package installed can head into the Contacts app, select a contact, select the Share Contact option and tap the newly added QR Code option. Love them or hate them, QR codes are definitely here to stay and NativeQR makes working with them a little easier on device.
NativeQR is available as a $1.99 download from the BigBoss repository and requires a jailbroken iPhone or iPod touch running iOS 6.0 or above. This package is not yet compatible with the iPad.
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