STAFF REPORTER
Entrepreneurs and networking professionals will appreciate Penpower’s WorldCard, a mini-scanner and software built especially for digitizing business cards.
WorldCard, which has won a string of accolades including the prestigious iF and Red Dot product design awards, takes away some of the monotony of typing contact information into your computer or mobile phone.
The WorldCard system uses optical character recognition technology, or OCR technology, to scan business cards and extract the information to create a personal contact database that can be searched or converted into different formats.
The device is easy to use — just plug it into a USB port and start inserting business cards, which scan in under five seconds. All of the information, such as person’s name, company, address, mobile phone and e-mail, gets stored in the accompanying WorldCard software, which organizes and exports data to a wide range of formats, including Microsoft Outlook and Entourage.
The stylish, palm-sized WorldCard scanner easily fits into a laptop case. The design is also operator-friendly. There’s no need to lift lids and align a business card as you would with a regular sized scanner or copy machine — simply slide it into the automatic feeder slot.
The WorldCard software does an impressive job in accurately capturing contact data. But OCR technology is far from perfect, so expect occasional mistakes, such as spelling errors resulting from unsuccessful scans. The software handles multiple languages with little fuss — I scanned a double-sided card, with one side in Chinese and the other in English, with no problems. The contact information showed up 100 percent accurate in both languages.
WorldCard has a straightforward and intuitive interface, and makes for a very usable contact organizer on its own. It’s easy to divide and categorize your contact into separate lists, and the search function is snappy and works well.
The software also sports a few simple but nifty features. You can view a scanned image of each business card, which is stored as part of the contact information; there’s a one-click button to sync WorldCard contacts with Microsoft Outlook; a right-click option takes you directly to a contact’s address in Google Maps.
Overall, WorldCard offers a quick way to store contact information, and is worth considering if you collect a lot of business cards and spend a lot of time managing an address book. There are two versions of the device: Ultra for Microsoft Windows, which comes in black, and a slightly pricier model in white for Mac.
For those who want the convenience without any bulk, Penpower has also just released WorldCard Mobile for iPhone 3GS, which uses the built-in camera as a scanner for business cards. The English version hasn’t been released yet, but the Chinese version is now available on iTunes for US$19.99.
On the Net: worldcard.penpowerinc.com
—BY DAVID CHEN
STAFF REPORTER
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