Month: October 2012

‘WorldCard HD’ – Manage your Contacts the Smart Way

2 Replies RonF

Are you a business-oriented person? Then you would probably be meeting many people every day. It really gets difficult for you to manage all the business cards that pile up on your table and in your wallet. Here comes an app that helps you manage your cards. Yes, ‘WorldCard HD’ is an iPad app which is an intelligent business card manager.

This iPad application is the handiest tool for your business. With ‘WorldCard HD’, you can save contact information of multilingual business cards. This is an app that transfers your business card details to your iPad without manual typing, but by scanning them using the iPad’s camera. One of the notable features of ‘WorldCard HD’ is that it uses OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology to recognize the details. Once you capture the image, you just have to click on the recognize button.

Once you open the app, you see 3 icons, namely Contacts, Favorites and Maps. The home screen displays names in alphabetical order. Under the contacts option, you have several choices. Using them you can add a new contact by capturing the business card details through your iPad’s camera. The app automatically recognizes the name, company information, address, phone number etc. You can also add contacts from your album by enabling the ‘WorldCard HD’ local services in the system settings and can also import contacts from the iPad. You can check the contact details and edit them if required with the edit icon. You can export your contacts to cloud, email etc., with the contact management icon. The Favorites icon allows you to select contacts and add them to your favorites. With the Maps option you can select a contact and find out where he is located. It also gives you the GPS information of the contact.

WorldCard HD appThe Settings option helps you customize your preferences. It has 3 main options namely, Display, General and Cloud and About. With the display option, ‘WorldCard HD’ allows you to set the display sequence of the first name and last name and the indexing criteria can be set as contact name or company name. With the general option, you can set the index to follow any of the orders like English alphabet, Chinese Stroke, Japanese Phonetics etc. The cloud allows you to share or backup your contacts via cloud services (iCloud/Dropbox) option. The help option of the app gives a clear overview of the various functionalities of the app.

‘WorldCard HD’ is available in languages like English, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish. It is a business app costing $14.99 that requires iOS 4.2 or later versions. The best part of the app is that you can scan multiple cards at the same time. You can also contact your friends through email, Facebook, Twitter etc. Except for the price, the app seems to be the ultimate choice for any business person. With ‘WorldCard HD‘ in your iPad, dealing with business contacts will definitely become easier.

Will the updates ever stop?

14 Replies Christopher Roberts

I love the technology industry. It is a really great area to write about, as it is constantly changing. Every day, new technologies and methods are developed and released and there is always something interesting to research.

One thing that I do wonder about though, is the consumers constant need for updates.

The iPhone 5

The iPhone 5

Take the iPhone for example. You can now walk around with a smartphone sat-nav and a global dictionary in your pocket thanks to Apple’s incredible device. There is no doubt that the iPhone is an example of how technology is constantly evolving and changing.

Since mid 2007 when the iPhone was released, there have been five different variations/upgrades of the device released. Six versions of ultimately the same device in the same number of years.

Fair enough, each time their has been a technological upgrade, however can that really be justified?

Technology is a constantly moving and evolving however I am sceptical that consumers always get the best update.

Apple want to sell phones right, so every year (there or thereabouts) they release a new iPhone. Samsung do the same, as do RIM (owner of Blackberry) and most other smartphone manufacturers.

What I am not sure about is that every year there is a significant enough technological upgrade to warrant the release a new device. So how do Apple do it then? How do they roll out a new phone with ‘cutting edge’ new features every year?

It is my belief that some of the technology in the iPhone 5 has been around for a good few number of years now, however Apple have just been holding back on releasing it, so that they can produce more future editions of the phone.

Also, many of the changes are superficial. For example, the screen gets a little bigger, the camera gets an extra few mega-pixels, the storage options increase. All of these updates could have existed in the original iPhone, however it would have meant that there were fewer tweaks Apple could make to the phone in the future. Why not design a good phone now and not release another until there is enough new technology to justify it?

Within three days of the release of the iPhone 5, people around the world had bought over 5 million. Apple shares rose sharply, and the brand received a big boost. It was a great move by Apple, however are they not cheating the consumer?

In around a year I expect Apple will release another iPhone, and most of the technology and developments that it will contain are probably already in existence and ready to use, however Apple will have decided not to put them in the latest iPhone, so that they have something to put in the next release.

Would it not be better if Apple released an iPhone every three years? That way each phone could be a massive technological leap from the last, rather than just a slight upgrade.

I think it would be better, the consumer would get the best technology available at the time, and wouldn’t have to worry about the device being outdated in a few months. But Apple would probably not see as many sales, over the three years, by releasing just one rather than three phones.

What are your thoughts, are the big firms cheating us? Do we really need as many updates as often as we get them, or would bigger less frequent upgrades be better?

Wi-Fi Sharing on the Go With WiShare

Leave a reply RonF

Is your Wi-Fi not getting connected properly while roaming? What do you think about using your friend’s Wi-Fi while traveling long distances? Yes, here is an Android app developed to help you overcome this issue. This app named ‘WiShare‘, lets you and your friends share a Wi-Fi connection through smart devices. Let’s see how the app works.

What’s the app about?

WiShare app assists you in building up a Wi-Fi network with your friends and family. You can invite your friends, share the network and perform various activities like chatting and tagging photos. You can do this and much more, even when you are on the go, with a controlled usage of Wi-Fi.

WiShare app screenshot

How does the app work?

You have to create a home Wi-Fi account as soon as you install the app, to share the connection with your friends. Just click on the Share option and allow friends in your phone’s contact list to use your Wi-Fi. You need not disclose your password to anyone. You can also block people from using your Wi-Fi connection, if required. Using the Change Wi-Fi option you are allowed to create a new home Wi-Fi account. As WiShare secures your password and personal details, you need not worry about security issues.

Special features of the app:

WiShare has a clear map that shows your current position and the number of Wi-Fi connections available around you. At times when your Wi-Fi is not enabled due to some network issues (especially when you are traveling), the map shows you the locations in which Wi-Fi connections are available. This is of great use in helping you get connected again, as you can invite new people to share their connection with you. To assist you in carrying out this process, WiShare provides an option called ‘Take a Snapshot’, using which you can take a snapshot of the map. You can view the snapshots and reach a suitable destination to get the Wi-Fi connection.

WiShare has a descriptive tutorial that explains all the options in the app. The highlight of this Android app is that you can use it to create a network of around 500 people! I felt that the user interface of the app could have been improved. Apart from this, the app is a useful tool to share and create Wi-Fi networks, whenever required.

The app is free for 90 days and later you have to select a suitable subscription to continue using it. WiShare requires an Android version of 2.2 and above.