News

Blackberry linked to Cardscan business card reader? Well, sort of...

It sounds really exciting: "New! Synchronize your CardScan data directly with your BlackBerry!" - it conjures up a vision of having a teeny-tiny business card scanner which links, magically, to your pocket email device.

Well, sort of. What it really is, is software, which links your data to the Blackberry. Oh, and it's not available outside North America.

The new product is called "CardScan Connector for Blackberry." You might imagine that a connector was, at least, a cable to link handset to scanner. It isn't.

The CardScan device itself is truly remarkable. For all those people who can't, or won't, beam their Vcard data from their PDA to yours, and who insist on carrying paper business cards, it saves you typing all their details laboriously into your personal information manager. And truly, it works; it is uncanny in its ability to work out which field on the card is company name, what phone numbers are, and so on.

The problem- and it's a real one - is getting the data out of the CardScan database into your phone. That's the problem this new product solves.

What it doesn't do, is bypass the PC. You still have to connect the scanner to the PC, and the Blackberry to the PC, and then press the "sync" button. Which is great! but not quite what it sounds like when you read the blurb

The CardScan Connector for BlackBerry "is an add-on for the BlackBerry Desktop Manager that lets you sync CardScan contact data directly between CardScan and your BlackBerry device," it says.

Exactly why you can't download the $29.99 software package if you live in Europe and already own a scanner, isn't at all clear. I might even suggest that you give it a go...