Posted by Ryan Johnson on 11 19, 2009

WorldCard Mobile

Categories: Business, | 1 comment | |

Do you find yourself frequently collecting business cards, telling yourself you’re going to add them to your contacts later, and then scattering them haphazardly on your desktop, in drawers & binders, and lazily in your Rolodex? If so, stop the madness immediately and try out WorldCard Mobile business card reader for iPhone! WorldCard Mobile, created by Penpower Technology, is a handy business card reader that makes adding business card information into your contacts a cinch! This app allows you to snap a quick pic of a business card, automatically parses out all the important details like name, company, business address, email, fax and phone, and elegantly plops it into your contacts. It’s ideal for any business development or client facing business professional.

Using WorldCard Mobile is remarkably simple. All you need is a bright light, a steady hand, and an iPhone! To get started just place a business card on a flat surface in a well lit area and fire up the app. Press the little camera button on the home screen to activate your camera and hover your iPhone over the business card until you get a clear view of the card. Helpful hint: if you can’t easily read the business card from your iPhone display screen then the app probably can’t either so make sure to get a nice clear view before snapping your pic. Once you’ve taken your pic you can preview it, rotate it 90 degrees, use it, or retake it. If the pic looks good just press the recognize button to parse the data. From there you get to preview all info and make any required tweaks/additions before adding it to your contacts. When ready press the export button and BAM you’ve added them as a new contact. The whole process takes about 30 seconds, and is definitely way easier than manually typing it in.

I tell you what. I really love this app. Mainly because I receive a lot of business cards on a weekly basis and very rarely do I actually take the time to enter them in as contacts. Now with WorldCard Mobile I have a quick and easy way to do it. And believe me, the top drawer of my desk that’s crammed full of business cards is going to thank me! So, while testing this app I reached into my embarrassingly large pile of business cards and tested each one. In doing so I was able to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the app, as well as some helpful tips that will make using WorldCard Mobile fun and convenient.

The typical knock against apps like these are that users tend to find fault with the accuracy in which they translate business cards into contact information. While testing I found WorldCard Mobile to be very accurate. The instances that I noticed a consistent number of small errors were typically due to either the style of business card or the quality of the picture that I took. Business cards that contain a lot of imagery and scenery, dark backgrounds, and cursive or fancy fonts tend to generate the most inaccuracies. But, to be honest I didn’t find that to be unreasonable. For the most part all I needed to do was make a couple minor tweaks before I saved it, which to me is still 10 times easier than typing everything in from scratch. Business cards with light or plain backgrounds and traditional style fonts like Times New Roman, Courier, and Arial I found to translate extremely well. I tested WorldCard Mobile on both a 3G and a 3G S iPhone and found the 3G S to be the optimal device because of it’s shutter function. It allows you to take the crispest pics. Another helpful tip is when taking a pic, hold the camera button and then once the business card is optimally focused, release the camera button softly…it takes the best pic.

All in all, I’m definitely happy to have this app and have already recommended it to several other iPhone wielding business professionals. If you’ve got business cards coming out the wazoo and need a convenient way to add them to your contacts, I recommend you check out WorldCard Mobile today!