We’re trying out a new feature on GeekWire today: App of the Week. And we’re looking for your help. If you have a favorite app on your iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows Phone or anything else, send a message to tips@geekwire.com along with an explanation of your favorite aspects of the app. Maybe it’s making a huge difference in your work, or life. Or maybe it’s just plain cool or fun.

Whatever the case, send us a message with a couple paragraphs explaining you recommendation. We’ll share the best of them here as the App of the Week and talk about them on our weekly GeekWire podcast and radio show on 97.3 KIRO-FM. (Just to be clear, this is about the GeekWire community sharing tips and advice. We’re looking for recommendations from readers about their favorite apps, not pitches from app makers.)

Our first App of the Week is a simple one that we always get a kick out of when we see it at tech meetups in the Seattle region. It’s a free app called CAMbadge that turns your iPhone into a striking, illuminated name badge, and snaps photos of the people you meet (and their regular name badges) when they touch or you the screen.

We asked the man behind the app, Seattle lawyer Adam Philipp, to tell us the story …

I have always had trouble with people getting my name spelled correctly, so I would frequently end up with hand-written name tags at events.  At first I printed up my own badges, but that became too much of a hassle.

So, last December at the Redmond Mobile & Gaming Startup Weekend where yet again hand-written name badges were being handed out I decided to create a better name badge.  One that would always be ready to use on my iPhone.  When I was not able to get an iOS dev on my team I turned to Jim Heising and Ron Franczyk of Red Foundry to see if they could help me.  While I did all the software architecting and design, the official team included myself, Mike Folden who did the logo and splash page, and Lisa Song who did the web page.

As I started to design the app, I brainstormed over what this badge could do for me now that I had a computer and camera hanging from my neck.  The one other pain point for me at event is remember who I meet.  That is when the “CAM” was added to the app.  The front-facing camera does a wonderful job of capturing the face and badge that other event attendees are wearing (I just wish it was higher resolution).

Future improvements would include some form of contact sharing (bump, QR codes or the like) and optimizing the iPhone to be more aggressive on battery management.

CAMbadge is available for download here.

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