The Daily App: Business Card Reader For Android

Last year we told you about Business Card Reader Lite, a free utility from OCR tools-maker ABBYY Software House that competently scanned cards, populated Android contact databases and performed Facebook look ups at a price that was hard to beat. Since then, the developer has halted the free version and instead offers just the $9.99 Business Card Reader, which adds the ability to link with LinkedIn and Twitter, perform a Google Map address search and translate captured data into one of 20 languages.

As in the free version, scanned text is converted with utmost speed and accuracy, and it's presented for easy editing in a dialog box similar to the Android Contacts database. From here, data can be saved to any or all available databases. The tool also simplifies contact sharing, which can be clunky on some Android devices. Captured contacts can be sent as text, images or .vcf files to PCs or other smartphones via email or SMS, or synched in the usual Google way. Also included is CardHolder, a built-in database with search, sort and grouping, as well as backup and restore capabilities. Business Card Reader works with Android 2.2 and higher and requires an auto-focus camera.

PUBLISHED JAN. 14, 2013