If you're an iPhone user who regularly attends conferences and social networks in which you collect business cards, or the names and email addresses of people you meet, you definitely should check out the newly revised and updated free Evernote Hello 2.0.

Evernote Hello made it to the list of my top 10 favorite apps of last year. But its 2.0 update deserves a full review for the useful features it now includes. I prefer using Evernote Hello because it's a great way to store the contact information of people I first meet, rather than inputting such data alongside the permanent contacts in my iPhone's address book.

While the previous version of Evernote Hello was useful for my needs, the added features in 2.0 make the app three times more useful.

Adding Contact Information

In order to use Evernote Hello you need to create an account with Evernote, where all your contact data will be synchronized. Next, you need to set up a profile including information and a photo that you will share with other people.

Evernote Hello lists your contacts by the date, time, and month you input them into the app. So this is how you add contacts. After launching the app, tap the green and white + button, and then select to add contact information in one of three ways :

• typing the details yourself, or passing your phone to the contact and allowing him or her to input the information.
• by scanning and snapping a photo of the contact's business card.
• by using Hello Connect, in which you wirelessly exchange your Hello profile with other Evernote Hello users.

In the 2.0 update you can now add contacts from your existing address book, or start off by entering the contact's email address. Next, the app invites you to take a photo of the contact. In the first version of Hello, this photo taking feature actually took four consecutive photos of a contact. It's great that Evernote has changed that feature because it kept me from using it. It was very odd to snap four photos of the same person.

In the next screen, you add additional contact information including the person's name, phone number, and their Twitter username. All of these pieces of information are not required in order to complete each step. If Evernote Hello finds the email address you entered connected to a LinkedIn or Facebook account, it will pull profile information from that account and add it to your Evernote contact.

In my tests, the business card scanning feature for Evernote Hello was not able to capture contact data from any of the five cards I tried to scan. It seems as though the automatic flashlight gets in the way of the scanning and it prohibits the app from recognizing the contact information.

If the app cannot scan the card, you can still snap a photo of it and make it a part of your contact's profile in Hello. It's a simple process also to manually add the information yourself. Typically when you're collecting someone's contact information, you will probably not want to stop and scan a business card in the middle of a conversation. You can always snap a photo of the card later at a more more convenient time.

The latest update of Hello also enables you to edit and add the location information of where you meet contacts. The app will try to use GPS information, but if it is not accurate, you can change it. You can also change the date and time of meeting details, as well as add additional notes and snapshots that will help you remember the contact.

If you happen to meet a contact again, you could even go back and add additional information. You will find that Evernote Hello is a powerful alternative to collecting business cards and information written on scraps of paper that you normally can't find after you attend an event, party or social function.

If and when you need to delete a contact from Hello, simply tap on the person's name, then tap on the last meeting entry you made for that person, and then scroll down the resulting page and tap the red "Delete the Meeting" button.

You can also of course add Hello contacts to your permanent address book on your iPhone by tapping on the address book icon.

Sending Your Contact Information

What's also unique about Evernote Hello is that after collecting a contact's profile information, you get the option to send your profile information stored in Hello to the address you just inputted for the contact. This is saves the contact the trouble of collecting information from you.

Also in version 2.0, you can wirelessly exchange your profile with other Hello users. I haven't had the opportunity to use this feature yet, but while I was writing this article I did get a request from someone to share my profile information while I was typing in my home office. I'm not sure if this is a bug or if requests can be made over Wi-Fi. Evernote makes it seem as though this request can only be done when you're in close proximity with other Hello users. I did not accept the request because the feature does not indicate whom I'm exchanging information with.

The redesign and update of Evernote Hello makes it probably the best app in this genre. There are very few other apps like it, and it is one that I highly recommend for any iPhone user. If you download the 2.0 version of the app, please let us know what you think of it.

Are there any additional features you would like to see added?