Always Have Your Professional Profile On You With The Card
The Card ($0.99) by The App Lab, Inc. is a slick way to get your information out to new contacts that you may come across.
It seems that the dead tree business card is going the way of the dinosaur these days, and it’s hard to not see why. You have to carry a bunch of them around with you at all times, and they cost money for a big batch. Digital exchanging of information is the way to do it nowadays, and The Card is another fine app to get the job done.
When you launch The Card, the first thing you will want to do is fill in your profile. Your profile will have information such as your name, email, position, phone number, street address, Twitter, LinkedIn, and even Facebook profile. Of course, you are only obligated to fill in whatever information you are comfortable with sharing. The last step to completing your profile is to agree to the terms and conditions (if you actually read what you need to agree to, you can find the full terms under Settings). Any information on your card can be edited whenever you want.
Once you have your profile set up the way you want, it is time to share your card. Unlike CardFlick, which I reviewed, The Card does not involve flicking cards to other users. Instead, the method of exchanging information is simply done through email, so it is definitely not as gimmicky (you can take this as a good or bad thing, depending on your preference).
Sharing your card is done by tapping on the big button in-between “My Profile” and “Contacts.” Just enter in the recipient’s email address and some tags in regard to the exchange. The tags are used to serve as a reference to the recipient, since they will be saved in the “Contacts” section as a record of who you sent your information to.
When someone receives your card, they get a graphic of “the card” with all the information (including relevant links), and even a convenient .vcf file to instantly save it to their device.
There aren’t many options to find in the Settings of the app. The only thing you’ll see is the option to sync with Google Contacts, but the rest is information about the app, terms and conditions of The Card, and a quick way to send feedback to the developers.
One thing that would be nice to see in the future is the option to add more professional social networks, such as Dribbble and Zerply.
The Card is fairly simple and fast, but does not offer as much choice when it comes to personalizing your business card like CardFlick. This app just gets the information you need out there in a snap. For those who do not care about gimmicky digital business cards, then The Card would surely work well for them.
So get out there and have your profile on you all the time, without the dead tree variety.
