Mac OS X only: Free preference pane application Fruux syncs Address Book, iCal, and tasks between different Macs. To use it, just install the preference pane and create a new account with Fruux. Once you've verified your account, go ahead and run your first synchronisation. Fruux uploads your contact and calendar information to the cloud so it's ready to sync to any of your other Macs. Just wash, rinse, and repeat with as many computers as you want to sync with. Fruux is smart, too, supporting sync conflict resolution when a record has been changed on both computers. You can already roll your own contact syncing with Address Book and Google Contacts or push contacts, and Google Calendar syncs with iCal without too much effort, but if you'd prefer a more streamlined alternative, Fruux provides a dead simple install-it-and-forget-it syncing setup.

Even better, the Fruux roadmap reveals more ambitious goals, including Safari bookmark syncing and—more importantly—preferences syncing. Essentially, then, Fruux is aiming toward building a homegrown MobileMe. If this app remains free, it's got crazy potential written all over it. Fruux is a free download, Mac OS X only.

Windows only: Evolution, the default office suite installed on most GNOME-based Linux systems, has a working port available for Windows systems. As its Linux fans know, Evolution has a serious focus on supporting and adapting to open standards: Full iCal support, IMAP access (I got a Gmail account working in minutes), integration with Pidgin's IM client, and support for GPG encryption. The big news for non-Outlook acolytes, however, is that Evolution can hook up to Exchange servers, though I haven't been able to test that personally. You also get contacts, memos, and tasks in the Evolution suite, and they're pretty robust in their own right. Evolution's Windows port is a free download for Windows systems; note that, while it installs, some have reported buggy operation in Vista.

Whether you prefer managing your contacts outside Gmail or you don't use Gmail but still want to use Google Contacts to manage your Reader or Docs contacts, try the standalone Google Contacts page. The URL isn't type-in friendly, but it deserves a bookmark if you need to do contact management outside of Gmail. [Google Operating System]

Editor: Being digital vagabonds without an Exchange server, we Lifehacker writers use online apps like Gmail and Google Calendar to get things done. But can an Outlook user make the switch without losing out? Guest contributor Jared Goralnick's here today to take a look.
Gmail launched in 2004 and has matured each year, but Microsoft Outlook (with Exchange) is still the most popular tool for accessing email. Comparing the two side by side, is it time to jump ship from either platform? Let's find out.

Read More »

Most everyone seems to love the iPhone, but the same can't be said for Apple's MobileMe service, which has performed so badly at launch that the company even issued an uncharacteristic apology. If MobileMe is driving you nuts, or you just don't fancy the annual service fee, blogger Beau Giles outlines how you can get similar results using NuevaSync and Google's mail service. The setup process looks a trifle fiddly, but there's step-by-step instructions, and it could be the solution to your mail, calendar and contact syncing woes -- and hey, it's free.
Using Google as a *free* MobileMe alternative (with push contacts & calendar) [Good News for People That Love Bad News]

Gmail appears to be slowly rolling out a new feature in their Contacts application that allows the user to selectively determine whether or not you want to automatically add everyone you email to your contact list. You're likely to send and receive a lot of email in the course of a day, but if you would prefer to keep the people in your contacts list limited only to the people you add—which means a much cleaner, more streamlined list of real contacts as opposed to all 5000 you've accumulated with the old system—looks like you can now do that through the My Contacts pane. Like most things Gmail-related, Google appears to be rolling this out slowly. If you're seeing this new functionality in your account (we aren't yet), let's hear more about it in the comments. Thanks Matthew!

Read More »

While Outlook tries to make intelligent guesses when formatting phone numbers in its contact lists, often it ends up making the problem worse. Type in an Australian mobile phone number into the mobile field on a contact and Outlook will almost invariably try to separate out the initial (04) as an area code. Fortunately, there's a pretty simple fix: enter the number with spaces -- 0400 000 000 -- and Outlook will leave it alone. If you keep having problems, check under the Phone and Modem options section in Control Panel to make sure it isn't set to the US or some other unhelpful location with different formatting requirements. (The alternative is to enter numbers in international format with an initial +61 and no leading zero, useful if you also synch your contacts to your phone but a bit of a pain if nearly all your contacts are using Aussie numbers.)

Firefox with Greasemonkey only: The Google Contacts Autocomplete user script adds a drop-down of your Gmail contacts on any web-based email form where you'd enter an address. You must be signed into your Gmail account for the script to work; once it's installed, just start typing into an email text field to get search-as-you-type results from your Gmail address book. The first day or so it was installed, the script did nothing for me—then it magically started working (see screenshot)—so your mileage may vary. When it is working, this is a nifty way to access your contacts quickly and easily. The Google Contacts Autocomplete user script is a free download and requires Firefox with Greasemonkey. Thanks, Matt!

Read More »

One of the new apps slated for release during this Friday's iPhone 2.0 launch is Friend Book, a "super Address Book" that promises to make dealing with your iPhone contacts much easier and fun. Made by Tapulous, a new company dedicated to iPhone/iPod touch apps, Joel Johnson at Boing Boing describes Friend Book's "holy crap" feature:

The coolest feature without a doubt is the new "Handshake": put two iPhones running Friend Book together, shake them up and down, and the personal contact information of the phones' owners will be beamed through the net to the paired phones. Handshake doesn't work through a device-to-device connection, but instead passes location data back to Tapulous' servers — two shaking phones in the same location means it's time to swap information.

Read More »

I'll be honest -- when I hear the phrase 'business networking', I visualise being cornered by an insurance salesperson in a US airport. But cynicism aside, Brisbane business consultant Geoff Kirkwood offers a suggestion in a recent interview for networking more effectively: concentrate on a handful of people who can actually help you find new clients, which he refers to as "referral partners". Kirkwood gives the example of a marriage celebrant partnering with limo drivers and florists; each has customers the others could use. I'm not sure I'd want to cough up money for those kinds of introductions (which is the basis of Kirkwood's business), but the concept seems sound. Would it work for you?