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Daily iPhone App: Cardflick
Over the years since the iPhone first appeared on the scene, there have been several attempts to create business card apps that let you exchange contact details with friends or strangers by bumping their iPhones together (Bump, free) or tapping a button (myCard, US$0.99 or Fliq, free). One issue with these apps is that they usually require both people to have the same app installed. Now a new biz card app, Cardflick (free), has arrived on the scene. Like those other apps, Cardflick works best if both you and the recipient of the card you're sending have the app. But you can also send a card to someone who doesn't have Cardflick installed on their iPhone. Using the Cardflick app, you gain access to a "card file in the cloud" that stores your card design and information. When you send the business card to someone without the app, they see exactly what your card looks like and receive a vCard attachment that can be used to add your contact info to Address Book. %Gallery-134973% Since there are other apps of this type that are already available, what makes Cardflick so compelling? The card themes -- they are very attractive and easy to change, and I have a feeling that more are on the way. Adding your info to a card takes just a few minutes, since the app just takes the basic info such as phone number, email, and website. When you're in a room with other people who have the app, you'll see a count of how many people you're sending the card to (the app uses location services to determine who is in the area). With a flick of the card, it appears on the other iPhones. Cardflick is a snap to set up, good looking, and easy to use. Oh, and did I mention it's free? Be sure to check out the gallery for some screenshots of Cardflick in action.
First Look: Sharecard for iPhone
Since the iPhone introduction, many users have wanted the ability to send an receive vCards. There have been plenty of vCard sending applications on the App Store, but one that recently caught my attention was Sharecard [iTunes link]. The application has a nice user interface, and allows you to easily send a vCard through email. When you first launch the application, you are able to set the default vCard to send. When you navigate back to the vCard tab, and tap the "Send Card" button, you will have the option to send the card via email. In the email section, you can either type in a new email address, or select an email address from your contacts.This application does make sending card very easy, but for the price I would like to see more functionality. For instance, it would be nice to send one card to multiple people. Also, the vCards are delivered through the developer's mail servers (which is a do-not-reply account) -- I would like the email to be sent from the default mail account on my iPhone, as the recipient would be more aware of who the card is from. However, as it is, the application is very useful, and just plain works. You can download Sharecard from the iTunes App Store for $1.99US. %Gallery-38779%
Bonsoir
R. Tyler Ballance wrote Bonsoir during an all night coding marathon before BarCamp, which is a sort of 'unconference' for developers and their ilk. So what the heck does Bonsoir do? Thanks to the magic of Bonjour it allows people to share their vCards with each other, on a local network, with the smallest of effort.Bonsoir has been released under a special BarCamp license.
Finally - a tool for exporting Address Book to Thunderbird (and Gmail)
Answering the prayers of potential Thunderbird switchers everywhere, a wonderful and as-yet unnamed individual has put together a web-based vCard-to-CSV Converter for easily moving your contacts from Address Book into either Thunderbird or Gmail. The interface and process are both conveniently simple: export your desired group in Address Book (File > Export vCard) and feed it into this tool. You have three conversion options: LDIF (which is Thunderbird-friendly), CSV and Gmail CSV.After discovering the joys of Gmail (but not removing Mail.app from my Dock just yet) I'm not that interested in Thunderbird, but I fired it up just to verify that this conversion and import process is the first I've seen to truly work without a single hangup. The new LDIF file imports just fine into Thunderbird, and you won't even have to remap any fields.[via Hawk Wings]
