Audio Postcard for OSX

...pictures and voice messages over the internet

"Wish you were here". A better Pink Floyd song than greeting. Come to think of it, what would postcards resemble in our iLives?

With Audio Postcard you can now create and send digital postcards over the Internet complete with embedded audio messages and customized titling and borders. Works in conjunction with your iPhoto library or any other digital graphics source. I t is a great way to correspond with family and friends. Great for business use as well. It's the way Internet communications should be."

Well, my fancy has been tickled. Let's kick the tires. (I know, a hopelessly mixed metaphor!)

THE GOOD

"Drag this file into your Applications folder."
The interface is brushed aluminum and very intuitive. You can set your preferences to automatically open your iPhoto library in a separate window upon launch and bring up a default iPhoto album. You then have a drop down menu that gives you a choice of your iPhoto Library or just your last import into iPhoto. Good thinking cause that's exactly the way most people will use this app. You can also use up to four photos in your Audio Postcard.

You have your Preview pane along with four buttons - Photos, Audio, Title and Send. Photos lets you pick from your collection. Audio enables you to record your accompanying message (you set the prefs for your audio before-hand) and can set it for no less than 20 seconds.. Title is self-explanitory; You write in the text field the words you want, pick your font and its size, its format and its color. You can place your caption either at the top or the bottom of your postcard. You can also pick your shadow color and whether or not you want a border and its color.

I tested APfX by sending it out to several friends with different connection rates and mail programs. In each instance, APfX performed very well.

THE BAD

Your choices for customizing your visuals is somewhat limited as shadow point size is preset, as is border thickness. Not really something that should be labeled 'bad' but a choice I'd like to have all the same. And it would be nice to have the choice of positioning the text in other places than top or bottom because they may not be the best choices depending on the photo composition (even though you can reset your photo).

THE UGLY

The sound preferences has a bit of a learning curve for this apps intended audience. Maybe in the next version they'll consider some additional text hints and simplicity with advanced options as a secondary option. I'm a big fan and user of nFinity's flagship product, QuickVoice. I can understand and appreciate the plethora of choices in QV but I think that APfX would have been better off presetting sound choices by category (i.e., dial-up, DSL, cable, Good, Better, Best, etc.).The instructions in the FAQ are very clear but I'm sure that many people will inevitably start experimenting resulting in last minute phone calls to their computer-buddy. Sometimes too much choice can be a negative thing.

NUTSHELL

Basically, the concept is very good and the execution is very good in many ways but lacking in a couple. If you can get a friend with audio knowledge to come over and help you set-up the sound prefs before you leave for vacation, however, you're in great shape (although nFinity's recommendations are solid). At this point this becomes another valuable communications tool in your iCorrespondence tool box.

Frank Petrie