contacts

The contacts app on your phone is the most boring, neglected app ever created. I don't care how much you love your phone -- the only reason you're reading a blog post about contacts right now is because things have gotten out of hand.

Are there people listed in your phone three or four times? Do you have 500 contacts, but only 10 of them have phone numbers? Well, then, it's time to take out the garbage.

The video above has all of my best advice, but I'm going to use this blog post to distill … Read more

Social media services and applications are always trying to make everything link together for our "convenience." Unfortunately, what's convenient for some is a nightmare for others, especially in the case of linking two large social media accounts together.

Linking Skype and Facebook allows you to see wall posts in the Skype Home window, which can be responded to and liked. But if this is a bit of information overload after a recent link of the two, unlinking them can be done in just a few steps on both services. Here's how to get started:

Still sorting out the Facebook e-mail sync kerfuffle that happened upon your defenseless contacts list? Luckily, Gmail will allow you to restore your contacts within 30 days of changes made to them. Google is known for having handy tools like this, but sometimes they're not in the most obvious place.

Here's how to get your contact e-mail addresses back from the cyber abyss:

Nothing beats having access to all your files, e-mail, and contacts almost anywhere you go. Just reach into your pocket for your iPhone or your bag for your iPad and connect to an available network.

The easier the data is to access, the harder it is to protect. This week AT&T unveiled its service that prevents data, voice, and text-message access to iPhones and iPads that owners report to the company as lost or stolen, as CNET's Roger Chen reported last week.

Reactivating the device requires a call to AT&T customer support. The company asks … Read more

You could keep your call logs for months at a time, but chances are your phone wouldn't appreciate that too much. Instead, take a look at Nextcall.

This app will help you see how long it has been since you were in touch with someone. Additionally, it will let you schedule calls with someone every X days or weeks. This can come in handy if you need to remember to follow up with someone for business. Sure, you could add them to your calendar and get a reminder, but it might get lost among all the other things you … Read more

Apple will offer users a way to manage which applications have permission to access their contact information as part of a new privacy control panel that's coming in iOS 6.

The feature comes in tandem with a new privacy pop-up that asks whether users want to give a particular application access to contacts, as pointed out by MacRumors today.

Apple said it would add such a feature as part of a "future software release," back in February, though the company did not specify when exactly that would be.

At the company's annual developer conference earlier this … Read more

Google announced today that it's aiming to help users control their settings to more easily avoid answering those pesky anonymous callers on Google Voice. Be it an unknown, restricted, or blocked number, the Web giant says users can now fit those callers into one specified group.

"Many users have asked us for controls aimed at people who are NOT in their address book," Google software engineer Tom Ford wrote in a blog post. "So today, we're adding two groups of callers for Google Voice users."

Besides grouping anonymous callers into one group so users … Read more

Remembering all the details about a contact can be difficult if you're speaking with many people across many companies. To combat this issue, CallApp for Android will provide a wall of information about each person you're contacting.

You might be wondering: why do I need another app when I can add notes to contact profiles on my phone? Well, that little text box is definitely handy, but it simply doesn't compete with CallApp's features.

CallApp will let you see publicly available social media and other related information for individuals and businesses. For individuals this is helpful … Read more

For anyone who's seen the film "Contact," the search for extraterrestrial intelligence is a very noble cause. And over the last 35 years, Jill Tarter, who was the inspiration for Jodie Foster's character, has become known as the world's most famous alien hunter.

For years, Tarter has been the director of the Center for SETI Research, and in that position, she has worked harder than almost anyone on the planet to try to find new friends in the skies. So far, her work, and that of her many colleagues around the world, has been unrewarded. Yet, in spite of constant battles for funding and the skepticism of those who believe we're alone in the universe, Tarter has persevered, and SETI has continued. … Read more