Appmodo

ScanBizCards Business Card Reader Review for iPhone

Ever lose track of all the business cards you’ve collected over the years? How about using one so many times that you can barely read the information off of it because of the creases? Now, with an iPhone handy and an app called ScanBizCards Business Card Reader, you can take a quick photo of the business card and have all the information automatically added into your address book!

Review
ScanBizCards Business Card Reader is the simplest way scanning a business card using the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) engine and transferring the information to your address book. When you first open the application, you are given three options. One button is a help button which will give you detailed instructions on how to take the best photos for scanning and other general information. The second button is an option to select an existing photo from your photo library and the third is to take a new photo.

When you take that first photo, you will see a pop-up that tells you how to take a good photo for scanning. This can be turned off by selecting the “Don’t Show Again” button and you’ll never see it again. Once you take a snapshot of the business card and you will be presented with a green box which you will need to will need move and drag the corners to fit all the information you want scanned in. Simply hit the OK button and the application will begin its scanning process and breaks down the information into different categories; name, address, phone, etc. You may edit each field before adding the new information into your address book. Also, you may add custom fields should the app fail to recognize some of the information you’d like included.

What sets ScanBizCards apart from the rest of the business card reader apps out on the market is its ability to take an existing photo from your library and scan from it. I was really impressed with the first card I scanned which had black text on white background. Everything was picked up by the OCR and a single change was necessary before adding it to my contacts list. Beginner’s luck, I suppose. Not all of them faired this well, however. Depending on the complexity of the cards themselves will determine how easily the app can analyze the scan. The next few business cards, posters and so forth needed a little bit more editing on my part. Nevertheless, it was a time saver!

Scanning does not take a long time. It all depends on the quality of the photo you’ve taken. The clearer the image, the faster the scans will be. This is an added incentive to make good use of the iPhone 3GS’s autofocus!

The app also highlights phone numbers after scanning it and provides an option to allow dialing from the scanned image. You may scan just about anything. This goes from the simple business card, telephone directories, flyers to store signs. Now how cool is that?!

Recommendation
ScanBizCards Business Card Reader for iPhone is highly recommended to business people everywhere. Its clean interface and accurate scan results makes this app a solid buy. It is now available at the iTunes App Store for $4.99.

Photos