Wednesday – App Review – CardSnap

It took me a while to find an app that could successfully translate any business card into a contact. I tried out apps that limited the number of contact fields and the types of fields (e.g., no e-mail addresses or job titles), but eventually decided to bite the bullet and pay the rather hefty price of $18.99 for Beach House Software’s CardSnap. This application will translate any business card regardless of orientation or text arrangement into an iphone contact. The only drawback is that it can take up to 24 hours, this is because the application sends the photo of the business card that you’ve taken with the iphone to a server where a “proprietary process for processing and mapping the cards” creates a contact without using OCR. Now as far as I’m concerned that proprietary process is probably an offshore customer service center in Bangalore, but it works and thats what’s important. I have had to correct one or two letters in a company name on occasion. But for the most part this is a great app. It is definitely a time saver, if you are willing and able to wait a day to have a full contact automatically created from a business card.

Wednesday – App Review – XpenseTracker

Even before I was laid off I had to keep track of my expenses for work. At that time it meant extra bonus “expense” checks for mileage driven or reimbursement for my food. Now that I am working for myself and not taking a salary, it is of the utmost importance that I do this, because its one of the only ways i can get cash inflow.

Since getting my iPhone I was convinced that there had to be a good tracking program. The problem was that many of the apps on the market were unitaskers, they EITHER calculated vehicular expenses (and some only mileage) or they were submittable receipts. Eventually I found XpenseTracker. This app lets me log all of this information in one place, plus i can divide things up in job specific logs. There are custom notes fields as well as fields for merchants and clients. It also allows me to keep track of my non-profit miles for the work I do with Dominion Stage. In addition to tracking and keeping my records it also allows me to use the camera to take photos of my receipts at the time of purchase. I no longer need to lug them with me and store them in envelopes at home. The really great aspect of this program is that it can wireless sync with your computer to export all of this information in CSV, QIF or Plain Text formats.

As far as tracking apps go, this software is not cheap, but it is also not too expensive. The $4.99 price tag is easily justifiable, considering it can do so much more than any of the free or $.99 apps on the market.

Wednesday – App Review – myPantone

I know as someone affiliated with architecture and not Interior Design I should be somewhat ashamed to say this, but I am a color nut. I think it stems from my days as working as a graphic designer, but I love color standards, whether thats ICC profiles or standardized colors like the ones in the Pantone Fandecks. This is why I love the myPantone app for the iPhone.

This app was released on September 10, 2009 and has been covered by many of the big tech blogs recently (here, here and here). This app allows you to make color palettes on the go. They can be pulled by hand from the Fandecks within the app (only one can be in play at a time), or they can be extracted from an image. The program allows you to choose an image already on your phone or take one with a camera. Once you have an image selected you can have the app automatically choose colors from the image and map them to the current active Fandeck or you can choose them yourself. This is where this app is really useful for architects. Do you have a client with a work of art that you want to set the mood for the rest of the project? Or maybe you’ve passed another house with the perfect exterior trim and siding palette, just take a photo in this app and send yourself the color palette from the photo. This color palette can be imported into any Adobe CS4 product or uploaded to the myPantone website as well as shared on twitter and facebook. Now you have the colors saved and you can go about finding a suitable match from a stock paint color or have a custom one mixed to match. Be warned, this app will give you a good estimate, but it is not a professional print matching tool. And while there still may be no color calibration available for the iphone, at least by using industry standard colors like Pantone’s Fandecks you know that if you use a calibrated monitor or printer or a professional print house, you will be working with consistent colors.

The only downside to this app is that it is a bit pricey at $9.99, but as a business expense it is well worth it. I tried out some other free color apps and none were nearly as helpful. I even tried the Benjamin Moore color matching app (which is free), and while it allows you to select favorite colors and match from a photo as well, it has no way of offloading your favorites. If Adobe ever releases an app version of their Kuler software and web site I would imagine that it could give myPantone a run for its money, but knowing Adobe they would probably price themselves out of the market.

Wednesday – App Review – StonePedia

Keeping with the pattern I started last week, today is the day I am going to spotlight an app for the iphone that specifically is helpful for the architecture and design community. This week I am shining a spotlight on StonePedia brought to you by Marble & Granite, Inc.

This app, which showcases over 500 different types of stone, seems like it should be more helpful than it is. While there are over 1,400 photos of stone in the app, they are no where near as nicely presented as the wood images in I.D. Wood.; these images are not full screen close ups of the stone, instead they are images of large slabs of stone in a warehouse. In addition, the program is set up as a resource directory by stone name and as such it is difficult to browse for a stone sample based on color or grain; this makes it hard to stumble across material options for projects. Instead, this program seems as if it has been designed for someone looking to provide an image to a client or distributer of an already selected stone type.

I do want to stress that there are some beneficial applications to this program. While browsing stone choices there is a price rating that shows the relative expensiveness of each stone; while helpful, this would be more useful if there was some sort of baseline price comparison to better understand just how expensive “expensive” grade stone really is. This program also includes some helpful installation and maintenance information, which can come in handy for the novice installer or the DIY home designer who may be working with stone for the very first time.

While this app is definitely worth its $0.99 price tag, I am not convinced that it is essential to any designer, as compared to I.D. Wood. which should be on every Architect/Interior Designer’s iPhone or IPod Touch. Overall I would rate this app 3 stars. It is definitely useful and a good value, but it could be greatly improved.