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Reminder: Apple keeps an official list of iSync-supported devices
No matter how you identify with the computing aspect of your life being able to take your contacts and calendar on the go can be pretty invaluable, especially if you have more than three friends and your iCal has more colored blocks than a Rubix Cube. But how can you figure out which device(s) on your wishlist will actually work with Mac OS X's built-in syncing app, iSync? Should you dig through the annals of individual manufacturer's support pages? Or perhaps post across multiple forums for someone - anyone - to answer the call of your syncing questions? No I say! Do not go gently into that convoluted mess of neglected support docs and clunky forum systems!Bad literature jokes and drama aside, Apple maintains a pretty up-to-date list of iSync-friendly devices on their own. If you're definitely looking for a phone that syncs, this list should help make the decision pretty black and white. However, I say this with a word of caution: while this list is thorough and updated fairly often (typically listing new phone models before they hit the street), it isn't 100% complete in that Apple doesn't always list related model numbers. For example: Cingular had a Sony Ericsson w600 available for quite some time, and it was listed at Apple's iSync devices page. I picked up an unlocked w800i a while back (killer non-Smartphone with a great camera, by the way) - a similar phone with a near-identical version of the OS that synced perfectly fine with my Mac, but Apple didn't list the w800 line until that phone officially came to US Cingular stores. Why is anybody's guess, but the point is: if you have your eyes on a phone that is related by model number to a phone on Apple's list, chances are that it should work with iSync just fine. That said, if you aren't too familiar with a phone that isn't on this list, you should probably still hit up a couple forums to make sure before you thrown down hundreds of dollars on a device that might not actually shake hands with iSync (in other words: that's a disclaimer so you don't sue me).Lastly, for most Smartphone devices which aren't on this list (outside of Symbian, of course), there are always products like PocketMac and the Missing Sync which can handle syncing BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Palm OS devices.
FacebookSync
As its name suggests, FacebookSync is a tiny freeware app from FSB Software that - wait for it - syncs your friends' info from Facebook to Mac OS X's Address Book. Upon running it, a window much like the one you see above will appear for every contact that either doesn't have an Address Book entry at all, or is missing information that could be pulled down from Facebook. It can even pull down images in case your Address Book contacts don't have those either, which is handy since apps like Mail, iChat, Growl + Gmail and Adium can use these pics to help identify these contacts.Whilst trying this out, FacebookSync seems to work pretty well, though I admittedly don't spend much time on it and I only have a dozen or so friends. Still, it added the information I told it to (and for the record, I'm on 10.4.9 and have over 450 contacts in Address Book already), so I'll give it two thumbs up. Before running FacebookSync, however, I highly recommend you chose File > Backup Address Book in Address Book to create a clean, recent copy in case things go south. FacebookSync isn't likely to eat your cat or cause your Apple TV to implode, but having a Plan B is an absolute must when playing with software like this.[via digg]
iGTD - yet another powerful, integrated GTD app
I know, I know - we've been blogging so many GTD apps lately that you probably needed to create a new task list just to look through them and make a decision. iGTD, however, packs one heckuva punch, so I thought it would be worth mentioning. While it includes all the typical features one probably expects from a GTD implementation these days, iGTD brings a lot of power to the table with features like Address Book integration, drag and drop task creation from files, URLs and Mail.app messages, task tagging, 'maybe' tasks, flagging, a unique 'wait for' task class, keyboard shortcuts, Quicksilver integration, phone/PDA syncing, a menubar helper, searching... and even more.With all these features, iGTD is amazingly donationware, and I highly recommend showing the developer some love after all this work.
Do It
Do It is quite possibly the most feature-packed mini-todo widget app ever written. For a birds-eye view, it features integration with Quicksilver, Address Book and iCal, as well as .Mac syncing and AppleScript-ability. As Tim Gaden puts it: the only thing missing is a kitchen sink. Fundamentally, Do It is (surprise) a todo manager. But thanks to shaking hands with all these other apps, you can import/export todos from iCal, install an Address Book contextual menu item for easy contact reminder creation, add items from the most excellent Quicksilver or simply make it do nearly anything you want with the power of AppleScript. Despite all this impressive functionality, Do It remains freeware and available from Jim McGowan's site.[Update: my bad - Do It is an app, not a widget. I tried this app out a little while ago, and in finally getting around to writing it up, I mixed this up with another todo widget I just found. Sorry guys.]
T-Mobile launches T-Mobile Address Book
One of the many, many perils of cellphone ownership lies locked in the handset's memory: data loss. Nothing ruins an otherwise pleasant day worse than sending that Samsung t629 for a dunk in the pool (at least, that's your story on the insurance report, though we all really know you dropped it in the loo) -- or, even more catastrophically, running it over with a 5,000-pound SUV. Of course, the loss of the phone itself sucks enough, but the real challenge is resurrecting those contacts. T-Mobile's bringing a solid solution to the table with wireless synchronization of contact lists to its server, a la Sidekick. The service is initially launching with the aforementioned t629, along with Nokia's 6600 (how's that for an S60 throwback?) and 3220. Finally we're able to flush our phones down the toilet with wild abandon. [Thanks, The Fish]
Nova Media Address Book plugin for Nokia, Sony Ericsson phones
German-based Nova Media landed on our radar last year with their iSync plugin that supports more phones than Mac OS X's default set. Not content with mere syncing, however, the company also makes an Address Book plugin, recently updated with more supported models, that allows phones from Nokia and Sony Ericsson to shake hands with Apple's contact manager for all sorts of phone call integration. Sending calls to voicemail, replying via an SMS, logging the call and even starting one are all possible from within Address Book. And while AB supports these operations with the default batch of iSync-supported phones, Nova Media's Address Book plugin enables these operations with a large set of Nokia and Sony Ericsson phones that Apple likely never will support. Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be a demo available for download, but at roughly $8.50 USD (Euro 6,50), I bet it would be hard to go wrong. After all, I can say from personal experience that $8.50 would be a small price to pay for the satisfying ability of clicking a button in a Mac OS X dialog to send someone directly to voicemail.
Use Quicksilver to send SMS messages
If you're familiar with Quicksilver's ability to send email without ever having to touch an actual message, this hint might not be too groundbreaking for you. However, if you're looking for a way to easily send SMS messages and/or still looking for good examples of Quicksilver's far-reaching power, this might be right up your alley: Mac OS X Hints has a short tip on how you can use Quicksilver to send SMS via the Apple Mail plugin (note: Mail.app isn't actually needed when using this method; the plugin simply calls a Mail.app-related service to do the sending). All you need is the recipient's phone number and their network's email gateway, such as XXXXXXXXXX@cingularme.com (at least in the US; I'm unfamiliar with how texting like this works in other countries), and you're all set. The hint goes even further by recommending you simply enter these addresses into your contact's Address Book cards as actual email addresses. Then you can simply call up their entries from Quicksilver (via its Address Book plugin) instead of having to remember and manually enter them each time you get your SMS on.
SMS Mac - send SMS from Address Book - for a price
Since we found it, SMS Mac has stirred conflict between price and convenience for us here at TUAW, but I nevertheless felt it pertinent to blog the latest v2.1. Besides the $10/yearly price and $5/50 SMS messages, quit a bit has changed from that original version. It now includes both a Dashboard and Yahoo! Widget, the ability to send SMSes to Address Book Groups, better features for delivery report handling and more.If money were no object, I would call SMS Mac one of the most functional and convenient desktop SMS utilities I've ever seen. Unfortunately, its high price and yearly subscription model have scared this blogger off to find a more reasonable alternative.
Unofficial builds of Thunderbird with Address Book integration
A deal-breaker for many potential Thunderbird users is its lack of integration with Mac OS X's Address Book. While we found a web-based exporting tool back in January that worked for some users, plenty of others have their reasons for sticking with Apple's digital rolodex.We've heard about unofficial Thunderbird builds and plugins that can allow it to use contacts from Address Book, but it seems their developmental progress has been stop and go over the past year. Enter Robert Coleman, a quintessential knight in coding armor who has released an updated build of Thunderbird that traverses the void between Mozilla's and Apple's address books - though it isn't without a little bit of fiddling and a catch. Robert had to post some vital instructions with the build which you must follow before you can get your hands on the goods, so read carefully. The catch? Address Book integration is read-only; you can't add new contacts from Thunderbird, but hey - it's a start.[via Hawk Wings]
Set preferred addresses for Address Book groups
Dan Moren at MacUser just removed a long-standing headache of mine and I'm sure many others by posting on the ability to specify default addresses for Address Book groups. Here's a little background if you're scratching your head: in Mail.app, you can type the name of a group to address a message to every member of that group. The catch is that if any of those members have more than one email addresses in their card, Mail.app arbitrarily chooses which address gets used when that member added as part of a group. This can cause all sorts of problems, ranging from minor annoyances all the way up to sending a NSFW (Not Safe For Work) forward to exactly the wrong address.Enter the wonders of being able to set a default address for these members in groups. This removes the worry from using the power of groups to address your messages. All you need to do is select Edit > Edit Distribution List... (not the greatest name for this feature, IMHO) to access a panel which allows you to chose default addresses for all the members of your groups. What's even better is that this panel allows you to simply specify one label or another (Work, Home, etc.) for all the members in that group, instead of forcing you to manually chose labels for each member, one by one. Nice.
YABI: iCal birthday and anniversary alarms done right
Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger's iCal introduced a 'Show Birthdays calendar' option which automatically adds an all-day event for any contacts who have birthdays listed in Address Book. It's smart, but it isn't very flexible - there is no option for alarms and no way to add extra information like age or details of an impending party. Enter YABI: yet Another Birthday Importer, which aims to bring power and flexibility to the way iCal imports birthday events, as well as anniversaries (scroll down a little on the page). Tim Gaden at Hawk Wings has a nice writeup of key features, but to summarize, YABI can: display a person's age in the event title add events to the calendar of your choice set a configurable alarm chose exactly which contacts to import events for decide how many years to repeat the events and more YABI strikes me as another one of those 'shoulda been in Tiger' apps, as it fills so many holes left by iCal's paltry implementation of this feature. Fortunately, it's a Universal Binary and free at least while in beta.
Keep Gmail and Address Book in sync with ABGMerge
It's so beautiful, I think I'm gettin' all misty eyed: the venerable Mr. Tim Gaden at Hawk Wings found an AppleScript by Benjamin Harley that can pseudo-sync - as in: not just export - your contacts between Address Book and Gmail. I use 'pseudo' because there is still a little manual work involved, and it isn't a true sync process through and through, but it's the best solution I've personally seen yet.A few words of wisdom, however, before you go all download and sync happy: the script has some catches and boundaries, so I highly urge you to read through the very thorough ReadMe file (link) Benjamin provides on how the script works, and how to prepare everything needed. Also, I can't stress this enough: back up your Address Book and, oh yea - back up your Address Book before tinkering with this script. There are definitely quirks involved when dealing with some of Google's services like this, so you *need* to be aware of how this works and the best way to proceed.With the PSA out of the way, check out ABGMerge if you've been looking for a way to sync your contacts with Gmail's, and be sure to drop Ben a donation for his hard work.
Reasons to use Address Book
I'll admit it, I don't use Address Book. I don't use Mail.app or iCal either, I'm a horrible Mac user. However, Jason over at The Apple Blog is a certified Address Book lover, and he wants to make you one as well.This post outlines a number of plugins, and tricks, that might tempt you to give Address Book a little more lovin' and maybe, just maybe, make your life a little easier.
Add SMS support to Address Book for some Sony Ericsson phones
Apple's iSync supports a lot of phones (and we don't have time now to get into why it doesn't support all phones), but that support for some phones can be a little wonky - namely Sony Ericssons (and I just happen to own a W800i, one of the victims). For these phones, iSync supports syncing just fine, but Address Book might not be able to talk to the phone for SMS sending or phone number dialing. Enter this article at mobile.feisar.com which offers a simple workaround for fixing this broken support and enabling Address Book with the true Sony Ericsson super powers it deserves.As an added bonus, the article even offers a download link for Apple's Property List Editor, which I believe is a tool that can only be had by installing the Developer tools from a Mac OS X installation DVD. This simple little app can come in handy, however, for all sorts of file tinkering hints like this one, as well as many from the likes of macosxhints.com.Check out the mobile.feisar hint to get Address Book working with your somewhat-supported Sony Ericsson phone, and just in case you're getting any ideas: I have no idea if this simple tip can work for other brands/phones, so proceed at your own risk.
Mark/Space announces Missing Sync for PSP
Mark/Space, purveyors of popular Missing Sync middle-man software that lets more than just iSync-friendly devices shake hands with your Mac, has just announced yet another version in their lineup: Missing Sync 1.0 for the PSP. In addition to all those games, movies and music files you're lugging around with Sony's hot little gaming machine, you can now synchronize Address Book, iCal events and tasks, notes (with their included Notebook app), WebSnacks™ (a website downloader that can include RSS feeds for offline viewing), iPhoto albums, iTunes playlists, game backups, and even track content across multiple memory sticks. To top it all off: Mark/Space even included a Universal Binary video encoder if all those other goodies are already boring you.If all of this has your PSP thumbs 'a tappin' and you're ready to download a demo, you might be disappointed by a Mark/Space tradition that's always irked me: as far as I can tell, no demo is available; you either have to take the plunge and drop the $29.95 for a license, or gaze at the product page from afar, never to open a Missing Sync for PSP .DMG file of your very own.
How to print a mini address book from Address Book
Ivan over at creativebits has another clever trick: print a little address book for your pocket or purse using Address Book. Who knew? Oh, there it is in the Help. Apparently you don't have to print the whole thing, as you can limit the address book to a group. The fact that this is quite handy but sorta hidden inside is the fundamental problem with all powerful tools: to make them easy to use, we have to hide functionality. In other words, Address Book would be pretty scary if it looked like the inside of an F-15, where all the functionality is there on the surface. Anyway, finding this tip made me nostalgic for the old "point-and-click" training video that used to come with some Performas. I hope they bring an option like that back for all these switchers we'll be seeing this year. Maybe for iLife '07?
Google Maps Plug-in 2.4b for Address Book
The Google Maps Plug-in for Address Book is now in a 2.4 beta edition, bringing with it a package installer (PPC only, Intel installer on its way), support for Europe and new localized Google Maps domains, as well as choosing a default country in Google Maps for the plug-in to use.There is a beta edition for Intel Macs, though the author states it hasn't been thoroughly tested yet. The Google Maps Plug-in is donationware and available from Brian Toth's site.
Address book back up solution roundup
Just like our mother used to say: "backing up your data isn't just a good idea, it's the law!" (Or something like that.) Anyways, PC World has a nice little roundup of address book backup solutions for your phone. They run the gamut of convenient, but expensive, carrier-based solutions, interesting SIM card readers and hardware dongles, and tried and true PC software for those with USB sync cables, so hopefully you can find something that fits your style. We prefer to have our people call their people when it comes to using teh phonez, and don't know these "address books" of which we speak, but your mileage may vary with this method.
Pocketlight brings (some) Spotlight to Panther
If you're still using Panther for one reason or another but drool when you hear the word 'Spotlight,' an app by the name of Pocketlight can bring a little bit of Tiger to your Panther. Pocketlight isn't nearly as all-encompassing as Spotlight, but it can search Mail.app mailboxes, iCal events, Address Book contacts and files in a specified folder. In an odd turn of events, Pocketlight is only available for Mac OS X 10.3; not 10.4.Pocketlight is free, but the author states that it isn't going to be updated or enhanced from here on out, so grab it while you can.[via Hawk Wings]
The Office upgrade ate two Address Books, or: why I don't touch Microsoft products
So y'know that Office update that came out a few days ago? The one that Spotlight-ified Entourage and added syncing abilities with iCal and Address Book? Yea um, it ate not only my Address Book but my fiancé's which I was subscribed to through .Mac.Syncing setup is brainless and painless - there's a new preference section in Entourage in which you can individually enable syncing with iCal, Address Book and/or Notes through .Mac. Simple enough. A little while after I checked those options, the .Mac syncing engine offered a dialog asking if I would like to merge items between Entourage and Apple's apps, or if I would like to overwrite Entourage. I chose to overwrite, since I didn't have info in Entourage's database and I was simply curious about the app.Somehow, some way, even though I told the engine to overwrite Entourage, my Address Book magically increased to 499 contacts after the first sync operation. Maybe it picked up all those extra friends from MySpace or something during the sync, because last I checked I only had 326 contacts in Address Book. Upon investigation, some of my contacts had split into separate cards, with information either duplicated or obliterated. Even better: I am subscribed to my fiancé's Address Book (with editing rights) through .Mac, as we're helping to keep each other's contacts up to date in preparation for sending out invitations. The Entourage sync not only mangled a seemingly random collection of her contacts, but it blew away all of her groups.Now before you fire off a snarling comment: yes, we have backups. I've turned into quite the backup nazi - but this post is more of a complaint and a warning about this new Entourage feature. Who knows if the mishap was the result of a .Mac syncing error or bug, but - call me biased if you gotta - I have a sneaking suspicion this had to do with an Office update that wasn't quite finished. I've never had an issue syncing anything else through .Mac, and that includes a lot of 3rd party stuff like Yojimbo, SOHO Notes and Transmit favorites.So, boys and girls, the moral of the story is a classic: back your stuff up - and often (sub-moral: don't trust Microsoft, even if it is software from their Mac Business Unit).
