Sharing Business Cards: There’s An App For That Too

By: Hillel Fuld

Shape Services is one of my favorite development companies. They consistently release new and innovative apps that push the limits of modern technology. I am a regular user and big fan of a bunch of their apps including IM+, Mobiola Web Camera, and many more.

I, was therefore, happy to hear they had released yet another app for iPhone, this time, an app that solves the problem of business cards and getting the information into your device’s phone book. Basically, Business Card Reader enables you to take a quick picture of a business card using your iPhone 3Gs (older iPhones might not work as well as a result of the picture quality), and the app then scans the card, and updates the contact in your iPhone’s phone book.

How did no one else think of this? If an app makes you ask that question, you know you got a winner on your hands. Business Card Reader also works on an iPod if you have the picture of the card stored locally (no camera on the iPod, YET). In terms of the interface and design, the app looks great. It is a very basic and simple interface that gets the job done without too many bells and whistles, which if you do not know by now, is just the kind of mobile app I love.

Take Photo is Greyed Out on iPod

When first opening the app, you are presented with a cool welcome screen that resembles a leather pouch one would use to hold business cards. The three options on the screen are Take Photo, Select Picture (not sure why the difference in terminology, but that is me, the technical writer speaking), and About. Clicking on the About brings you to another cool looking page with what looks like tabs. There is an FAQ tab, Support, Tell A Friend, Back, and More Apps. Pretty basic  stuff. In the Select Picture screen, the iPhone automatically brings up your photo album to select the card, then begins a scan like action. After the card is scanned, you can add and edit the details the app found for the contact, and save it.

Some of the details that you can add are a LinkedIn profile, name, company, phone number, email, and URL. Once you finish adding all the required details, just click Done, and the contact is updated in your phone book. Pretty slick!

Other cool features of the app include the ability to transform the text on an icon to regular text, the option to perform basic editing of the scanned card, open a browser in the app to find the person’s LinkedIn profile, and a few more fun and interesting features.

What I love about this app is that it fills a real need for people who attend social events, and it does it in style and simplicity. Somehow, once again, Shape Services do not disappoint.

Our Rating: 5/5

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Developer: Shape Services

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Hillel Fuld

Hillel is a tech blogger at TechNmarketing.com as well as an active Twitter personality @hilzfuld. He writes for many other sites including Mashable.com, Bitrebels.com, and works as the Content Manager of Dailyforex.com.