contacts

Presenting...a truly mobile startup. Literally!

SAN FRANCISCO--There's a whole lot of mobile startups these days, but how many of them are actually, you know, mobile?

A company called Needle is, and if you'd wandered near South Park here today, you would have seen its so-called Mobile Contact Center -- essentially a huge RV -- parked on the street with several employees working away inside.

Ostensibly based in Salt Lake City, Needle contracts with retail partners to provide them experts to chat with end users. The idea is that there's likely no one better suited to explaining a product, or answering questions about … Read more

Easily share your contact info using ContactMonkey

If you're looking for an easy way to share your contact card, give ContactMonkey a try. By listing your information on ContactMonkey, you'll be provided with a Web page where your contact info will be listed.

Visitors of your page are then able to view your info, as well as given the option to download your contact card by clicking on one of the 19 different devices or programs supported by ContactMonkey. By supporting so many different contact card formats, ContactMonkey ensures your information is available to anyone, even if they're viewing your info on … Read more

Google Contacts info now showing up in Google+

Those of you who use Google Contacts as an address book will now be able to see your contacts' address and phone numbers directly in Google+.

Many people, myself included, use Google Contacts as an online repository to store a personal address book for my family, friends, and colleagues. As of Monday, that address book information will be accessible on your Google+ page, according to Google.

So instead of having to bounce over to Google Contacts to find someone's address or phone number, you can simply grab it within Google+ by clicking on the About tab in the person'… Read more

How to gather contact information with Postable

Pin It

Managing a large address book can be tedious, but it doesn't have to be. Usually when you send out requests for contact information you'll have to scour the e-mail you get back for all the pieces of info you're currently missing. With Postable, you can have contacts edit their own information by sharing a link with them, and then export all of the collected information right to your own address book. Here's how to get started:

First you'll need to head to Postable.com and sign up for an account. Hopefully OAuth support … Read more

The semi-automatic way to manage multiple contact lists

Few business resources are as valuable as your list of contacts. It's no wonder companies such as Twitter and iPad app vendor Path are trying to get their hands on their customers' contacts--with or without their express permission.

Contacts are like rabbits: they tend to multiply whenever they get together.

In the past year my Gmail contact list has grown by 50 percent, not to mention the many updates and changes to existing entries. Contact-sync programs promise to keep the information in multiple address books up-to-date, but the programs I've tried create so many duplicate records they'… Read more

Facebook embraces stage names

Links from Thursday's episode of Loaded:

Facebook embraces celeb pseudonyms VoIP must report service outages FLA: Foxconn facilities are 'first class' Update to stop address data snatchers Google+ is a man's world Subscribe: iTunes (MP3) | iTunes (320x180) | iTunes (HD) | RSS (MP3) | RSS (320x180) | RSS HD

BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 could arrive next week

BlackBerry PlayBook users eager for the long-awaited 2.0 upgrade could get their wishes answered next week.

The new OS is expected to launch February 21, according to blogging site N4BB, relying on intel from its own sources. The confirmation followed previous "rumblings" pointing to that date for the launch.

Canadian blog site Mobile Syrup also added its take by revealing an upcoming Best Buy flyer listing the BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 upgrade as arriving in February. The flyer is due to hit the public on Friday and stretch out for one week, hinting that the new … Read more

Apple: Apps using address data are in violation, fix to come

Apple says that iOS applications that collect user contact data are in violation of the company's guidelines, and that a future software fix will prohibit this behavior.

"Apps that collect or transmit a user's contact data without their prior permission are in violation of our guidelines," Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr said. "We're working to make this even better for our customers, and as we have done with location services, any app wishing to access contact data will require explicit user approval in a future software release."

Controversy erupted earlier this month, when Path… Read more

The 404 991: Where we're trapped in a cube (podcast)

Steve "The Spherical Audiophiliac" Guttenberg makes his first 2012 appearance on the show this morning and adds some more descriptors to his middle name.

He brings in a few noise-canceling earbuds and headphones into the studio for a head-to-head, and we'll confer about which modern artists have the talent to stick around another 30 years.

Finally, we'll end the show with a talk about Paul McCartney pulling his tracks from Spotify! These stories and more on today's 404 Podcast.… Read more

Sync contact photos and usernames from Twitter to your iOS device

One of the most powerful data sets on your iOS device is your list of contacts. Many of the amazing features the iPhone and iPad have are predicated on the information available from your address book. To help get the most out of your iDevice experience, you can use Twitter to beef up your contacts.

iOS 5 added quite a bit of Twitter integration, including the ability to automatically retrieve usernames and profile photos for any of your contacts who have Twitter accounts.

Essentially, if your contact has an e-mail address associated with a Twitter account, you can choose to … Read more