TIP: Synched Address Books
April 24, 2007 · Print This Article
My wife and I both have cell phones and both have computers. This means there are four places where we could potentially have a phone number or address and invariably the phone number I need is on my wife’s cell phone or computer.
We setup each of our cell phones to sync with our laptop, but we still had two separate address books. However after playing around a bit with the .mac synchronization, I was able to set up our address books on the computer to sync with each other. This has bee a much bigger benefit than I had imagined because now we are both looking at the same version of the address book.
As our mutual friends change numbers or addresses, the first one of us to find out updates it everyone with a simple change on the computer or phone.
This is a very simple thing, but it makes a big difference–at least for us. Not everyone is going to want to use a .mac account, but the idea of having a shared synchronized address book for you and your spouse is worth looking into. If you have other suggestions about how to technically do this (especially for windows users) please leave a comment below.
Great idea. We have the same problem but have PCs. I would love to find a way to sync everything.
I use Plaxo to sync addresses. I’m not particularly fond of it, but it works. I sync outlook (work), t-bird (personal em) + yahoo (personal em#2) + cell (soon-upgrading phone next month).
If you have a suggestion for an alternate, preferably one that I could host, that would be very cool.
An alternative to .Mac for Mac users is the one off $49 fee for SyncTogether 1.0 from Mark/Space … http://www.markspace.com/synctogether.php
We use airset (http://www.airset.com) but we don’t synch with our cell phones. Would be cool to do so though!
Airset gives you a personal account, then you can create a shared family contacts and calendar. They also have to do lists and links and stuff you can share and collaborate on.
Here’s another option, for cross-platform sharing and synchronization … but at a monthly or annual cost … http://blog.xcnetwork.com/index.php/about/
We also use Airset and I use it to sync with my Palm. I like the fact that everyone in the family can access the contact list, as well as the calendar. I can schedule things and specify whose calendars they appear on. I can get calendar reminders sent to my cellphone and/or email. I have groups set up for our car club and Euchre group as well.
Since it’s web-based (and FREE) I can access it anywhere.
I love it!