Handshake And Fliq Offer Wifi Contact Sharing
12:49 am, October 23rd, 2008, Giles Turnbull
Proving yet again that it pays to shop around, at least two recently-released apps are offering broadly the same functionality. One is free; the other is free (with adverts) or costs three bucks. But which is the better option?
First, we have Handshake. The idea is simple: two people meet, they both have Handshake installed. They can use it to fling their contact details across to one another. Pretty simple, pretty sweet. They can send pictures from one iPhone to the other too.
But, Handshake as-is comes with adverts; quite a lot of adverts. There’s a big one at the top of the screen that looks like a button, and another at the bottom of the screen that looks a banner ad from the early days of the web. Oh, and they are animated. Frankly, it’s very off-putting.
Handshake Premium offers exactly the same features, but kills the ads. All you have to ask yourself is: do I care enough about intrusive advertising to want to spend three bucks to get rid of it? Your call.
But wait, here’s an alternative – Fliq lets you “fliq” (uh-huh) contact cards or photos from one iPhone to another, via the wifi network they are both connected to. Exactly the same as Handshake, in fact. But without the ads.
(Apologies for the mostly-empty screenshot. There’s no-one else on my home network for my copy of Fliq to find… because there’s no-one else here during the day. Such is the lonely life of a home-based freelancer. No, really, I’m fine, I’ve just got something in my eye.)
The very fact that these apps are popping up is nice, but it would be nicer still if Apple opened up the Bluetooth that’s built into every iPhone and allowed it to do some of the things it does very well in almost every other handset on the planet – like transferring contact cards and photos and stuff. Then at least our phones could swap data without a wifi connection. That wouldn’t get rid of the ads, though.
Posted by Giles Turnbull in News, Reviews, Software, iPhone | Comment on this article
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Also check out Nameo. It is cheap and extremely easy to use. Just click ‘Connect’ and, after you both confirm, you will be able to exchange vCards with people who are in your vicinity.
http://thenextweb.org/2008/10/14/nameo-the-end-of-businesscards/
Boris, on October 23rd, 2008 at 4:16 am
I might point out that Handshake works over edge and 3G not just WiFi.
AnnieS, on October 23rd, 2008 at 7:42 am
All those iPhone apps for exchanging contact information pretty much suck…!
- they ONLY work with other iPhones and
- ONLY if the other person has the exact same app on their iPhone
The developers (who are trying their best) are no to blame though, it’s Apple’s fault…! Instead of implementing standard protocols for exchaning vCards via Bluetooth, they just ignore this (and many, many other) customer demand…!
Even my old T68i could do it, my Treo 650 could to it, all Palms can do it, every cheapo cell phone can do it — they all can “beam” each other vCards and sometimes even other stuff…! Only the iPhone is a deserted island in this ocean of mobile devices…!
(P.S. It may not seem that way, but I really love my iPhone nevertheless…!
I’m just so sick and tired of the many little, but annoiyng flaws it has and which Apple keeps ignoring from the very first day…)
MILE, on October 23rd, 2008 at 11:41 am
Fliq is on the desktop now pretty cool. It is on markspace.com.
Charles Brown, on November 24th, 2008 at 11:05 am