Review: FlashCards

It’s been some time since I’ve been a student, but I remember making and using flash cards all too well. I also remember the hassle that came along with carrying multiple sets of those flash cards: the bulk, the inconvenience, and if you’re like me, the difficulty of keeping the damn things organized.  Thankfully for those among you who are students, FlashCards ($4.99 in the App Catalog) aims to shrink all of those unwieldy sets of cards down into a single application , allowing you to study wherever, whenever, so long as you have your webOS powered phone with you.

Features:

First, a quick note.  This review covers the upcoming version 2.0 of the application, which is currently in beta (available from Palm's Beta feed), not the current release.  Per the developers website, anyone purchasing the version currently in the App Catalog is entitled to a free upgrade to the new version once it's released.

The ease of creating and managing sets of cards can make or break a program like this, and FlashCards nails it.  New sets of flash cards can be created right on the device itself, or through the online portal when linked to a free FlashCards Online account.  After creating an account and logging into the online tools section, you’re able to easily add sets of cards, add cards to sets, and manage and delete existing sets from the desktop browser.

Creating sets on the phone itself is also easy: clicking on the “+” button in study view brings up a 2 field prompt where you enter the question and the answer, at which point a new card is created. Further editing can be done while studying the set by accessing the drop down menu located to the upper right.

FlashCards also gives access to a myriad of premade sets, which can be downloaded from a number of sources including user submitted sets from the  FlashCard online portal, and from sites that specialize in this sort of thing such Quizlet.com and ProProfs. Card sets stored in the .csv format can also be easily imported, and existing sets already on the device can be exported in the same format.

Managing sets is done by tapping and holding to re-order in list view and swiping to the side to delete. A welcome addition would be the ability to search through the installed cards, as I’d imagine that having more than 20 would quickly become somewhat unwieldy.

Other notable features include the highly useful ability to create lesson plans, soon to be implemented Lietner boxes, and the ability to shuffle cards. The program also keeps track of how long you’ve studied each set, the number of cards answered correctly, cards bookmarked, and more.

Use:

I found that studying with FlashCards was at least on par with its pen and paper counterpart. Moving between cards in a set is done by using the familiar side swipe gesture, and cards are always kept in order unless you specify otherwise. Each card allows for the creation of a hint that can be accessed via a small button that appears on the side of the screen, or by hitting the corresponding keyboard shortcut.

The keyboard shortcuts are a great touch here, as you can quickly bookmark cards and  mark them as learned, enable random mode, quickly access study sessions statistics and more.

Cards can be either two or three sided.  Tapping a card flips it to reveal the answer (or if you're in reverse mode, the question), where you can tell the program if you've answered correctly by hitting the check, or incorrectly by hitting the X.

Summary

The question to be asked about FlashCards as a prospective buyer (one who’s probably a student) is this: is the app a viable replacement for those stacks of paper you’re so used to carrying around with you? Absolutely.   The core functionality is great, and the whole bag of features that come with the program are icing on the cake.  I think that one of the best parts is that you can study just about anywhere at anytime since your notes are all on the device itself.  Future updates promise to sweeten the deal, with the inclusion of features like FlashMe!, which will send random cards to you via the notification system, and the ability to add audio to cards.