When Apple introduced an app called Cards (free to download; cards $2.99 each U.S., $6.99 international), it created a very good tool in a particularly nichey space, one that's easy to overlook but actually provides a lot of value to the average consumer. Cards for iPhone is a surprisingly cost-effective way to buy and mail greeting cards?end of story?so when you factor in customization, like adding your photos and typed text to a card, too, you begin to see what makes it a bargain.
In a nutshell, the app helps you make your own greeting cards, and it comes with a wide variety of designs and templates to guide you toward a handsome finished product. Some of the designs are fixed. You typically can't change color schemes or fonts, for example. But you can add a photo or image right from your camera, take a photo on the spot to include, automatically pull information from your iPhone's Contacts list, and write your own personalized greeting in type rather than sloppy handwriting. What sets it apart most of all, though, it the supremely high quality finished product, which are mailed?directly to the recipient for $2.99 in the U.S. and $6.99 internationally.
App Features and Limitations
After downloading the free Cards app, you can start designing cards immediately by browsing the catalog of templates. Most cards make use of a custom photograph or image (though there are a few that don't need one), and in the gallery, a model shot stands in as a placeholder. You can flick through the carousel of options, or browse by theme from a list of icons at the bottom of the screen: a cake for birthday cards, an airplane for travel cards, and so on. One category that's missing and that I'd like to see added is humor. The webiste and service Hallmark.com offers more variety in card themes, including "Fun & Laughs," if personalized humor cards are what you need.
When you select a card, you then have the ability to customize the inside, outside, and envelope with images and text as indicated by the template. The Cards app couldn't be simpler to use. Touch the area you want to change, and the app takes you through the process.
Zooming in on text became troublesome for me at times. The app is forever locked in landscape position, which leaves very little screen real estate (less than 0.75 inch) any time the keyboard appears. You can zoom in on text while you're writing or revising, but you can't see more than a few words at a time.
Drafts of cards are saved in the app, letting you take your time finding just the right photo and words. When you're finished and ready to mail a card, you can type the address or pull it from your Contacts. Shipping typically occurs within a day or so. Cards sends you an email confirmation when the card is processed, and another one when it goes out for delivery.
You can't print cards locally on a home printer, or export them to a file to manipulate elsewhere. And Cards doesn't have an e-card feature for those who would rather save the Earth the paper (e-card apps are a dime a dozen, but, surprisingly I couldn't find any other free iPhone apps for making and snail-mailing physical cards).
Apple's Cards has very good shipping policies, and I especially like that the sender receives notification when the card is due to be delivered. But one feature I'd like to see included is the ability to schedule a ship date. I'd love to be able to make custom cards for family members and schedule them to ship a few days before their birthdays.
Value and Quality
Visit any greeting cards store, and you'll be hard-pressed to find anything of real quality for less than about $3.50. Add another $0.44 or more for postage, plus the lost cost in time of repeatedly forgetting to buy a stamp and put the card in the mailbox, and suddenly the $2.99 per card price from the iPhone app, which includes shipping, seems like a steal.
I tested the app by making a few cards and having them delivered. I also contacted Apple for additional card samples. Each card is created on heavy, matte cardstock. When photos are used, they too are matte rather than glossy. Letterpress printing (relief print) for details and some text adds to the high quality look.
The envelopes used for shipping are of equal paper weight. Apple even has a custom U.S. Postal Service stamp on each card that looks something like a computer mouse combined with a paper airplane, tweaked into a heart shape. The elegant typeface used for addressing the envelopes hits the same quality bar.
A card that I ordered was expected to be delivered with seven days (five business days) but took one additional day longer to arrive. It seemed a few days longer than it should have been, until I compared it with the shipping results for other card-making services, like Hallmark.com and Snapfish, which both took only one day less.
Cards App: Less Nichey Than it Seems
Apple's iPhone app Cards solves the problem of forgetting to buy a card, and add postage to it, and mail it, at a bargain of a price. The quality of the finished product ranks high, with great customization, although some elements, like card stock (matte versus glossy), typeface, and shipping date, are out of the user's hands. I would imagine a lot of people would prefer glossy cards when photos are used, even though the matte paper is quite lovely.
Despite some of the rigidity in what you can and can't customize, I still can't believe what you get for the price with Cards. The app may be my solid alternative to ever visiting a greeting cards store ever again.
More iPhone App Reviews:
??? Ask.com (for iPhone)
??? Cards (for iPhone)
??? Gmail (for iPhone)
??? Skype 3.5 (for iPhone)
??? Dragon Go! (for iPhone)
?? more
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/Tj3i-wXNt70/0,2817,2396048,00.asp
cc sabathia ruth madoff ruth madoff in living color enews enews mona simpson
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.