Snap Razor-Sharp Business Cards with Evernote and Clarifi
November 18th, 2008
I love using Evernote to remember business cards.
Before starting with Evernote, I don’t think I’d successfully used a business card. I mean, I’d never actually found someone’s contact information by digging a business card from the alpine masses of indiscriminate paper which accumulate in and around my various desks, backpacks and pockets. Not any more; with Evernote, I immediately snap any business card that I want to remember with the closest camera at hand (usually my phone or laptop webcam), and rest easy knowing that I’ll always be able to find it instantly from any phone or computer.
One big nuisance: the camera on the iPhone, my current cellphone of choice, is not very good at taking pictures of close-up objects. To use the iPhone for business cards, you have to get pretty proficient at holding the card very steady and at arm’s length, and even then the results are sometimes disappointing.
Griffin has completely solved this problem with their new Clarifi case for the iPhone 3G. In a three word review: it’s amazingly great.
The Clarifi fits snugly over your iPhone and comes with a little sliding macro lens letting you take clear close-up shot of business cards, receipts and anything else you can think of (I can only think of business cards and receipts). Here’s an example before and after photo of a hand-held business card:
I’ve been using the Clarifi case for a couple of weeks now and the only time I temporarily took my iPhone out of it was to film the demo movie at the top of this post.
The case is $35 direct from Griffin. If you buy it from the links on this page, Evernote gets a small affiliate commission, so please consider buying one for everyone in your family or town.
Posted by Phil Libin at 1:01 am in Tips and uses
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I would love to have one of these cases for my HTC TOUCH! At the moment, I’ve taken apart a pair of dollar store toy binoculars and keep the large lens in my pocket (in an SD card case) for these macro shots.
Sure it’s inconvenient, but it works.
November 18th, 2008 at 8:34 am
Wow Phil. Thanks for the mention and a great way to use Clarifi. I’ve been using Evernote for about a week now and amazed at the breadth of stuff I can do with it. Keep up the good work Cheers. Web Webster, creative director
November 18th, 2008 at 11:08 am
very cool, phil!
shawn
November 18th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Sounds great. Can anybody confirm if it works for the original iPhone? It just says 3G on the website.
November 18th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
I just purchased this late last week. Hopefully I will get it soon! I remember seeing the case at your offices and I knew I had to get it.
Goodbye bulky business cards!!
Thanks Phil.
Troy Malone
Pelotonics.com
November 18th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
John,
The case DOES NOT fit on the original iPhone. I tried. It’s a nicely snug fit on the 3G, which has slightly different physical dimensions.
November 18th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Loving Evernote and the Clarifi, In case you were wondering you can still using the Docking Station with the case.
November 18th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
I need this.
Since I know you guys love user tips, Phil, and you said you could only think of biz cards and receipts, I’ll mention that I make snapshot notes of photo transparencies and of magazine pages on a routine basis, in cases where I’m shipping images off to be scanned or otherwise acquired but need to make notes about them for myself in the meantime (intent, contact info, related requests, whatever). Quality isn’t important enough for me to scan the pages — and I don’t have a film scanner — but a higher-quality snapshot would be most welcome. So I’m glad to know about the little sliding lens business. Thanks—
November 18th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
I know you guys get a commission from Griffin, but I posted a quick and free alternative for those of us who don’t like iPhone cases:
http://macapper.com/2008/11/18/rdy-macapper-exclusive-instant-macro-lens-for-iphone/
November 21st, 2008 at 4:43 pm
Phil, you convinced me to buy one, and I like it a lot. I’ve posted a review of it, and discussed using Evernote with it:
http://www.mobilegenealogy.com/2008/12/02/griffin-clarifi-for-iphone-review-photos-ocr/
These two make a great combination, and I was impressed with how fast the images were imported and the text recognized.
Thanks again,
December 2nd, 2008 at 5:34 pm
Does anybody know if it’s available in Europe (Belgium) ?
I checked the shipping costs on the Griffin website, and they are about as much as the case itself. That’s a bit over the top for me…
December 5th, 2008 at 3:55 am
You can buy it frpm apple store, mine came today, ordered two days ago
December 16th, 2008 at 10:57 am
My Samsung Omnia has this capability built in. Standard. Works great too.
January 9th, 2009 at 7:21 am
That’s a good Pho place. ;O)
March 2nd, 2009 at 2:15 pm
Unfortunately, the Clarifi doesn’t work for folks with the original iPhone. BUT, there is an awesome (free) solution!
If you have a Target store around you, ask the pharmacist for one of their free ClearRx magnifiers. It’s a little 2inch thin strip magnifier used to read prescription bottle labels.
Hold it over your iPhone’s camera lens and snap away. It’s not as easy as the Clarifi, but the quality is amazing, thanks to a 9X magnification (don’t know what the Clarifi is).
I’ve been using one of those for my original iPhone with Evernote and I use it dozens of times weekly. Hope this helps some of you guys
April 29th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
A nifty idea – but I think it would make a lot more sense for Apple to have just put a decent camera with a decent lens and a halfway decent zoom in the first place – it’s one of the things that really lets the iPhone down in my opinion.
May 12th, 2009 at 1:48 am
Does it work with the 3Gs?
June 23rd, 2009 at 2:30 am