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Postcards from the EDGE network


Two new apps both provide the same service to iPhone users -- sending postcards to U.S. addresses from your iPhone. I'm not talking about virtual electronic postcards; instead, these are real postcards that are printed at a location near your recipient's address, then delivered by the U.S. Postal Service. All you need to provide is a photo taken by your iPhone, the address(es) of the recipient(s), a personalized message, and a credit card number.

The two programs are both free, although there is a cost to send those postcards. Continue reading this post to learn more about Go Postal and TapTap Cards.
Go Postal
The term "go postal" was coined to describe the actions of employees, not all of whom work for the U.S. Postal Service, who inflict deadly violence on their coworkers. So Go Postal isn't necessarily the best name for an iPhone app, especially one that is used to do something fun.

Go Postal (click opens iTunes) is the brainchild of PrintYourLife.com. While it sounds like it could be the name of a first-person shooter, Go Postal is actually a free app for sending picture postcards via the U.S. Postal Service to friends and family. As such, this app can only be used at the present time to send postcards to U.S. addresses.

I had a chance to try out Go Postal recently, and I wish that the app had been available while I was in Africa a few months ago. I could have used it to send postcards to my friends back in the States! All you need to do is load the free app from the App Store, take a photo with your iPhone camera or pull one from your camera roll, tap in a short personalized message and the address of the recipient(s), and then send the order off to PrintYourLife.com. A picture postcard is then sent to your friends within one day.

I enjoyed using Go Postal, and I felt that the quality of the postcards is top notch. The app seems to be getting lousy reviews in the App Store, mainly because it works only in the U.S., people feel that the US$1.29 cost per postcard is prohibitively high, and others find the uploads to take too long. In my opinion, that US$1.29 charge isn't bad. You won't have to hope that the postcard won't arrive weeks after you get back to the states (that's happened to me, even from European countries), and you don't have to worry about buying "just enough" foreign stamps. Best of all, it's a picture you've taken, not some generic cheesy view of the Eiffel Tower.

Just remember, too -- except for those free and incredibly tacky hotel / motel postcards, you're usually going to spend a buck or two for a postcard at some souvenir stand.

For the people complaining about the app not delivering cards to anyone outside of the U.S., just wait, folks. This is the first version of this app, and I would be willing to bet that the developers are hard at work trying to provide the same service for other countries. Finally, I only had to wait about two minutes on a crowded EDGE network at an NBA playoff game to have my picture uploaded. That's not "too long" to wait, unless you're incredibly impatient. Many Go Postal users will probably zap the postcards to their friends on 3G networks overseas or while connected to Wi-Fi networks at their hotels or an internet café.

TapTap Cards
So here I was, about to push the button to submit this post to our eagle-eyed editors at TUAW, when what do I find in my inbox but notification of another "free" postcard app!

This one, TapTap Cards, is more polished than Go Postal, but is also a wee bit more expensive at US$1.99 per card. The user interface is simple, with large red buttons pointing the way through the process of taking a photo, adding your text and addresses, then sending off the cards.

One feature that TapTap Cards has that Go Postal does not is being able to add a caption to the front (picture) side of the postcard. TapTap Cards also lets you pay through their website "after the fact" rather than sending your payment information through your iPhone. This last feature does delay the mailing of your postcard until you log onto the website and add billing information.

I was perplexed at why TapTap Cards was getting higher review scores in the App Store, since it took me three unsuccessful tries with EDGE and a fourth successful 3G attempt to send one postcard with the app. TapTap Cards also crashed twice while attempting to take a screenshot, something that doesn't make reviewers happy.

TapTap Cards also has the other main limitation that Go Postal does; it can only be used to send postcards to U.S. addresses.

What do you think, TUAW readers? Is US$1.29 or US$1.99 too much to purchase and send a personalized postcard of your own picture from any country in the world to the U.S? Let us know in the comments section below. Be sure to check out the gallery below for screenshots of Go Postal and TapTap Cards in action.



Two new apps both provide the same service to iPhone users -- sending postcards to U.S. addresses from your iPhone. I'm not talking about...
 

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Hamish Rickerby

Another app that sends postcards from your iPhone is SendIt4.me. Free to download.

itunes: http://is.gd/yVcY

With SendIt4.me you can send real postcards anywhere in the world for only $1.99 USD. There is also a website for high quality image uploads and facebook app http://sendit4.me

July 23 2009 at 12:45 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Kevin Barbee

I love this idea--now can they make one that will print docs/letter size and mail locally? I can't depend on the goons at Kinko's. Could save a lot of money on FedEx!

May 07 2009 at 10:58 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
davidrodriguez

Snap!t charges .99 per pic and .42 postage on top of that.

May 03 2009 at 11:24 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to davidrodriguez's comment
Andy Fuchs

Snap!t is only available in the US.
http://www.pokamax.de/ does the same thing - but worldwide. It's a little more expensive, but I like it ;-)

May 04 2009 at 5:30 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
J

Seems like a pretty fair price to me

May 05 2009 at 6:00 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
holdtheonionplease

I think it is a great idea I think it is a great thing to keep the postal service in business, especially since they keep raising the price of the stamp. Plus it is nice to get "good" mail instead of bills, people just don't send letters anymore.

thanks for sharing
http://holdtheonionplease.blogspot.com
http://twitter.com/holdtheonionplz

May 03 2009 at 7:45 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Piotr Malecki

Does anyone know of a service like this (that works on Win or Mac or Linux for now) that is available in other countries (Canada, Europe, etc.). I'm looking to create custom postcards from images I've taken and have them mailed for me with proper postage and a custom message. I don't want 10's, 100's or 1000's of them.

May 03 2009 at 4:51 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Piotr Malecki's comment
Andy Fuchs

http://www.pokamax.de/

May 04 2009 at 5:28 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jose A

Is a nice idea, but need a little bit more clarification. For example: Is this transaction completed by mail? How many steps ahead? Why not in the same App?

May 03 2009 at 1:50 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Jose A's comment
kevin

The article is pretty clear as written. Your post, on the other hand...

May 03 2009 at 2:57 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
tetsunoguchi

Alex is not the only one. And he was talking about "receiving" postcards, not sending them.

Most of the people I know who I've sent postcards to during my trips were also happy to receive them with foreign postage on them.

I'm sure they would also be very happy to receive a postcard with a personalized photo.

Too bad there's no easy way to have both the sent-from-a-foreign-place-and-here's-the-cool-stamp-to-prove-it factor and the personalized-photo factor together.

May 03 2009 at 11:27 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Geoff

There is a very similar app called Snap!t Photo Mail. They charge $.99 and the photos arrive in an envelope with an attached note. I found it much easier to use and it doesn't seem to have the uploading problems.

May 03 2009 at 11:17 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Geoff's comment
Geoff

Oh yeah. and Snap!t is free to download as well

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=312435854&mt=8

May 03 2009 at 11:32 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
John

Is there a similar program for my MacBook? I've been printing them one at a time and mailing them -- pretty time-consuming (but my Dad really likes them).

May 03 2009 at 9:57 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to John's comment
anon

Yes, you can send from your Mac (or PC or Linux). TapTap Cards allows you to send postcards from their website at http://www.taptapcards.com.

May 03 2009 at 12:28 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
schenkus

Unless you are careful not to use these apps when you are not on a WiFi network, the really expensive part of using these apps will be when you receive your phonebill with the overseas data charges.

May 03 2009 at 1:29 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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