Mon 30 Apr 2007
How do you normally enter new contact information from a business card to your Contacts application? For me, sometimes I enter it manually on the phone. In some other occasions, I enter it to my PC on Microsoft Outlook and then synchronize it to the phone.
Is there an automatic way? The answer is yes. InziSoft has developed an application, called BizReader. It allows us to capture business card from the phone’s camera and then save it to the Contacts application.
How does BizReader perform? Does it really deliver its promise? Since there is no “standard” of business card, BizReader doesn’t always parse the business card information properly. It works pretty well when parsing numbers, such as phone number. It doesn’t always give good result when parsing characters, such as address or email address. No worry though… because you can still edit the result before saving it to the Contacts application.
One thing to note is that the price of BizReader is a little bit high. If you don’t exchange business card very often, this application may not be for you.
Click here to download the trial version BizReader for S60 3rd Edition
Compatible devices: S60 3rd Edition, Nokia Nseries, Nokia Eseries.
Update (30-April-2007): Apparently Nokia has also silently released a business card reader. Somehow, I missed Darla Mack’s post, Nokia releases N73 Business Card app. Interestingly, this application is not widely available to all users. That’s why I missed it. According to Darla, it is available to China market only, but it should work on ordinary S60 3rd devices too.

May 2nd, 2007 at 3:36 am
Scanr.com offers a pretty good quality business card scanning including character recognition. This server side service is free and it works with not only mobile phones but any digital camera. Photos need to be min. 2Mpix and preferably taken w/ macro or autofocus, though.
In my experience this service is at least as good as the long time commercial business card scanners’ software such as CardScan.
May 2nd, 2007 at 9:17 am
In fact, I have reviewed ScanR.com a couple of months ago. Please check it out, http://www.s60tips.com/2006/11/25/using-s60-phones-as-document-scanner/.
January 13th, 2008 at 9:59 am
I downloaded the trial version of bizreader yesterday.Upon trying it I noticed that it remembers the phone number of each business card but not the name. The end result, a lot of phone numbers in my phone book without names. Am I doing something wrong?
John Mussi
January 16th, 2008 at 3:59 am
It is a great card reading tool. Quite handly while doing it on my n73 mobile phone.
January 16th, 2008 at 4:00 am
I used it for my http://www.indiamobilephones.com/nokia-n73-mobile.html N73 and it worked quite efficiently