DUB, your mobile business card (for BlackBerry)

It may be an exaggeration, but sometimes it feels like my wallet won’t stay folded. It’s not only because of membership, credit and debit cards; it’s all of the business cards I seem to accumulate. I’m not sure how they all get there. Maybe it’s a case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing. In this case, the hand is nabbing every card in sight. I also know that I’ve lost access to some extremely important contacts, all because of a misplaced card. Besides your wallet, your corkboard or cubicle wall could contain enough business cards to make it look like a shingled roof. A cleaner, greener approach is to use your address book (duh!), but this can be time consuming. For some, vCards could also be an issue. “Here’s your card?” Here’s MY card, compliments of DUB.

By using DUB, you can easily send and receive detailed contact information right from your BlackBerry smartphone. Your risk of outdated contact information is greatly reduced thanks to DUB’s ability to automatically maintain an up to date contact list. So, leave your George Constanza sized wallet at the door and check out DUB.

About DUB

DUB is brought to you by DubMeNow Inc; who’s “Chief Cliff Jumper” Manoj Ramnani, mapped out his business plan on a simple airline napkin. The application is currently in version 2.5 and will take up 477KB of space.

a sent DUB card viewed on a computer

The first thing you have to do is create your own card. This can be done on your computer, or directly from your BlackBerry. Account and contact management can be performed on either as well. Each card is designed to capture important contact information. On top of your standard info such as; phone information, company and title, you can capture IM account information, company websites and links to your Twitter and LinkedIn accounts (among others). You can even upload a photo, so contacts can put a face to your name. So the next time you receive a business card and you find yourself in a situation that requires one from you as well, whip out your BlackBerry. Email, or send a text to your new contact including your DUB card. When they ask what you just did, tell them “…my card…”. Oh, and you have permission to sound as suave as humanly possible. A DUB card will display your information in a compact “business card” style. This card will include links to your website, social media info, email or whatever you have shared. I did have issues viewing the contact picture on my BlackBerry, but it did work well on my computer.

a sent DUB card viewed on a BlackBerry - where's my ugly mug?

If you happen to run into a fellow DUB user, you can very easily give them your DUB ID. This is a quick name you create in order to exchange contact information. It may be a lot easier to input than to remember an email address. Yet another option for DUB users is to utilize the included Locate feature. If you both select this feature, you will be found and prompted to exchange information. How’s that for a quick meet and greet?

viewing a contact

send out your DUB card

From your BlackBerry, you can also manage your DUB contacts, create/edit DUB groups and view received DUB business cards. I was impressed by the depth of additional features that were available. You can send LinkedIn invites, tweet about the new cards that are sent/ received and sync DUB contacts with CRM tools. For those *sigh* special moments, DUB will remember where and when you met someone and display the location on Google Maps. While the UI was fairly simple to understand, I did find navigating with only the trackball a bit of a hassle. I’m hoping to see keyboard shortcuts in future builds. There’s a lot of potential to be found in DUB, but the features will truly shine when more users join the ranks.

Conclusion

I’m hoping to see more and more users jump on the DUB bandwagon, because its benefits can be easily seen. Instead of worrying about entering and managing contacts, you can actually get to know them. Contacts are updated and seen, just as your own updates will be seen by others. I think that with a little more tweaking with the UI, DUB will be a fantastic addition to your list of applications. DUB can be found, for free, in BlackBerry App World.

Pros

• see visually appealing, easy to read DUB business cards
• contact information is automatically updated
• links and invites to various sites

Cons

• navigation is a tad slow
• Doesn't provide full account management as the desktop version does

More Info

• Download DUB Contact Card >>

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