CardManager is a 99-cent app for the iPhone that enables you to save business-card data, and organize it. You can take a photo of the front and back of the business card, and use that information to load into your iPhone. It takes a lot of patience to use this app, as there is a lot of typing to be done, but once you get through the initial phases of input, it seems like a nice way to keep track of your contacts, both visually and by categories. I like that you can view the business cards by sliding them horizontally, and also by scrolling them.
The screen is broken down into a search field, a scrolling view of the business cards and then any category you desire to input. You can also export the information you input into your contacts, as well as populate a new contact from your contacts on the iPhone.
There are a few things, though, that stop this app from being a five-bar app. For one, if you don’t have a business card to take a picture of, the space reserved for it is black. The problem with this is when you click on the contact, only a black screen appears until you press it again, and a list of icons appears under this huge black square. Typing can be arduous over time, and it would have been nice to have some drop-down menus under “Job Title” and “Job Department” to save a little time. When you have more than 1,000 business cards, as I do, the typing is a pain after the first few. The other thing I don’t like is that there are only two icons and fields for phones. I’d like to see two additional fields, or at least give us the opportunity to say which of the phones they are.
In the “Settings” section, there are two selections for help: a “How To,” which is a series of photos with explanations of the screen, and a YouTube video that shows you how to use it. This video is pretty much useless. There is no sound, so you have to guess what is being done. It would have been nice to have some audio with this video, otherwise what’s the point? Also, the video is somewhat overexposed and moves too fast.
The app itself is pretty straightforward, and shouldn’t be difficult to figure out, but to use some of the cool features, it’d be helpful to have some assistance. I just wish the help was better, because some of the features are confusing.
