Universal Contact Manager

April 7, 2007 12:59 PM

Is there an ultimate universal contact manager? I am looking for something very easy to use that will help keep track of all of my instant messenger, email, phone, and snail mail contacts. I am using WinXP but I also use linux at times. One last thing is I use a Blackberry 7250 and would like to integrate it, but I think this is unlikely. I use outlook because of my Blackberry, but want to get away from the outlook system. Thanks for the help.
posted by Knigel to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

Try looking on RIM's website. The 7250 will work with other email platforms (Lotus and the other big one I can't think of) than just Outlook and there tons of software plug-ins (most free) that would probably suit your needs.
posted by Octoparrot at 2:31 PM on April 7, 2007

Ugh. I am struggling with a smartphone (Nokia E62), trying to sync crap between two computers plus mail and calendars. It is a big pain, especially if you don't like Outlook. On Windows it seems to be a necessity as most other phone/PDA type sync programs assume you use it. I found that ScheduleWorld.com had some usefulness (free plug-ins for different software packages,etc.). Thanks to that website I have a system that sort of works - sync GooCal to ScheduleWorld to Outlook to phone, contacts can be synced as well, don't know about email - but I still have some problems, again primarily from not wanting to continue using Outlook.

Why can't someone come up with a simple open standard for contacts?
posted by caution live frogs at 3:11 PM on April 7, 2007 [1 favorite]

Palm devices, and Palm Desktop, do it for me. Sadly, the mobile Windows juggernaut is steamrolling them out of the market. And along with it goes clean consistent UI, portability, fast syncs, etc.
posted by intermod at 4:55 PM on April 7, 2007

Depending on your level of "MadHaxorSkillz" (and more importantly, tolerance to teeth-grinding frustrations) you might want to take a look at Funambol Sync Server, which is used in the back end of a number of online sync services (I don't know if ScheduleWorld.com is one of them).

The package is capable of syncing a massive range of data (contacts, calendars, files, emails, among others) but can be configured to provide partial service, e.g. contacts only, if that's what you prefer. It allows full sync over-the-air via the 'net, if you have a server that's appropriately configured and connected.

It's open-source, available as server packages for Windows and Linux, and has a range of client plugins: PocketPC, Windows Mobile, Thunderbird/Lightning, Outlook, Palm, Blackberry and even iPod. Due to the open-source nature, there are other plugins in active development.

Disclaimer: I am in no way involved with Funambol, but I have spent the last three weeks trying to get it up and running on my Linux/Kubuntu server at home - syncing between Thunderbird/Lightning and PocketPC is flawless, but my Motorola V3im will not accept calendar updates, for some reason...

Disclaimer Part 2: Seriously, this is not for the faint-hearted - documentation is sparse and the user/support community is small. If you do decide to try it, good luck!
posted by Nice Guy Mike at 3:31 AM on April 8, 2007