A few weeks back we told you about a new app for BlackBerry that allowed you to simply take photos of business cards and then with the magic of real people that business card would be transcribed into a real contact and sent back to your BlackBerry smartphone to be placed into your contact list. While many of CrackBerry Nation thought this was a good idea, many also thought there were places that needed improvement. The team from Card2Contact listened and came back with version 3.0 of their application.

What’s new in 3.0

• Enhanced Contacts page.
• You can view the business cards that you have uploaded and find its processing status.
• Easy navigation (Touch or button click) for scrolling the business cards.
• In App Email feature to the users.
• Enhanced Home page design.
• Support page to provide your comments and request for a credit back.

Not only did they make some changes to the application itself, they also added a more friendly pricing structure. In the new pricing structure you get 15 credits for $4.99, 35 credits for $9.99, and 75 credits for $19.99. If you are frequently adding contacts to your BlackBerry via business cards you’ll for sure want to check out Card2Contact in BlackBerry App World.

Get information/download Card2Contact for BlackBerry

I’ll have to come out and say it, adding contacts to my address book is just a pain. First you open the app, edit contact field upon contact field, then save the contact. Only then do you realize that you didn’t enter the email address correctly. You’d think that with the technology we have this could be easier. This is where an application like Card2Contact comes in handy. Card2Contact allows you to easily take photos of business cards while you’re at an event or when you’ve just met that important business executive. Later, upload those photos into the application and have them converted into address book entries without you doing any of the legwork.

The best part yet is that humans, real living people, verify the image and because of that, Card2Contact claims their service is 100% accurate. Card2Contact is supported on all devices running OS 5-7 and while the app itself is free you’ll get 4 credits to start and then the cost is $10 for 30 credits. Let us know in the comments how you enter people into your BlackBerry, the old fashioned way, or by using technology.

Get information/download Card2Contact for BlackBerry

Last week we introduced you to ContactMonkey which is a very cool online vCard service that makes it easy for people to download your contact details to their address book - so easy even your Grandma can do it.

The folks over at ContactMonkey were over-the-moon excited with the volume of traffic their website received from our coverage. The interest from the CrackBerry Nation was so overwhelming that we actually crashed their site within an hour of the post going live.

To show their appreciation for the support from CrackBerry readers they have prepared a special offer for our community. The first 200 companies who sign-up for a business account will receive their first 100 user licenses at no charge. This will give you your own White-Labeled ContactMonkey page! There is no catch or cost. They are really offering the first 200 businesses who sign up with the link below an account with the first 100-users free for life. Head over using the link below to make sure you are one of the first 200 to take advantage of this offer.

Sign-up for ContactMonkey today
Check out our review of ContactMonkey

Having a native contacts app on the BlackBerry PlayBook is awesome. Thanks to the new PlayBook 2.0 software, it's easier than ever to get your contact list on your PlayBook - all it takes is a few steps. If you have your contacts stored with your email service, just enter your account info, choose to sync contacts and you're done. If you want to import contacts from Outlook or the like, you'll have to tweak a bit more but it can be done (you'll need web access to your account - we'll get into that more later). Everything is there when you start up the app - contact info, recent social interactions, calendar info and much more. Check out the video above as we take a look at the native Contacts application on the BlackBerry PlayBook.

We all know that we can start typing a person's name in our BlackBerry address book to locate a contact. What about when you have several people with the same first name, or at the very least the same first letter? You could type in their first name and then scroll to the correct contact. While that doesn't usually take too much time, there is an even quicker way. Simply type in the contacts initals separated by a space. Now you have an even smaller list to select from or perhaps the exact contact you're looking for (very few people I know have the initials AZ). That's it!

Tired of having to copy and paste whenever you want to add new information to your existing contacts? It gets to be tiresome, selecting the information, copying, switching applications, finding the right contact, pasting into the right field… but it doesn't have to be that way. Add To Contact 2 by MobiChampion Software makes adding a new phone number, email address, or PIN easy and painless. Simply select the call log entry, SMS, email or PIN message that contains the information, press menu and select "Add to existing contact", then select the contact from the list.

• Add phone numbers from call log entries and SMS messages
• Add email addresses from emails
• Add PINs from PIN messages
• Ability to select a phone number type on adding or just use the first one
• Replace already existing phone numbers
• Phone number formatting
• Add phone numbers or email addresses from any web page opened in browser
• Add phone numbers or email addresses from body of any SMS, email or PIN message
• Add email addresses from email's CC and BCC fields
• Add phone numbers to existing or new contact just after incoming or outgoing call finished

This is a great utility to have on your BlackBerry, and will prove itself useful time and again. Available for all BlackBerry smartphones, Add To Contact 2 is normally $2.99, but it's todays Deal of the Day so you can get it for half off! That's right, $1.49, today only. There's even a free trial, so you can try it out, but if you like it don't wait too long to buy.

For more information and to download Add to Contact 2

CrackBerry Tip of the Day!

BlackBerry OS6 makes it easy to add any contact to the home screen. This means you can turn any of your contacts into a shortcut that goes on the home screen (with their picture on it and everything). The shortcut will allow you to message your contact in a variety of ways, all from the home screen. But, let's take that one step further. Instead of just storing your contact shortcuts on the All pane or in Favorites, you can make a visual address book by creating a folder and saving your most-used contacts there. No reason to go to the trouble of putting everyone in there, just the people you message the most.

Start by creating a new folder; you can only create new ones from the All pane (tray). You can't make folders anywhere else. Make sure one of the visible icons is highlighted. It doesn't matter which one, but the Add folder option won't appear in the menu if nothing is highlighted. Press the menu key and select Add folder. Give your folder a name, and we're ready to add some contacts to it.

Go to your contacts on your BlackBerry and highlight (don't select) one you'd like to add to your visual address book. Press the menu key and choose Add to Home Screen. In the dialog box that opens, you'll get options to rename your shortcut, mark it as a favorite, and choose what in folder to save the shortcut. Unless you want your shortcut in two different places, uncheck the box next to Mark as Favorite. Next to location, you'll see the default setting is "Home." We want to change that to the name of your new folder. Click Add, and your shortcut will be in your new folder.

Repeat as necessary to add more contacts. Once you're done, you'll have a quick list of all your most used contacts. At a glance, you'll be able to find who you're looking for. Unlike the actual Contacts, you can order your shortcuts any way you'd like. Clicking or touching the link will open their contact information. In addition, you'll also get the person's recent activity. Emails, Facebook posts, and tweets can all be found here. Select a shortcut and click & hold or open the menu to get a whole hosts of ways to contact your...er, contact.

Though this visual address book does the exact same thing as contacts, it makes things easier. Instead of cluttered with dozens of names, our project only contains those contacted most. We get a friendly face (or icon) to represent our contact; and because the shortcut is in a folder, you can put them in any order you desire. Most importantly, with a little practice, it becomes a super-fast way of connecting with someone...in a variety of ways.

It's been some time since we initially looked at Gwabbit, although -- in that time they've made some pretty decent improvements to their app and services overall. There latest update is more of a server side update rather then an actual application update. If you're not familiar with Gwabbit, then let me explain. Gwabbit, scans all of your incoming emails for contact info -- if info is found, it can then be automatically added to your address book so that you always have that info available.

Every now an then though the recognition engine, the system that determines what is contact info and what is not -- needs to be updated. In this case, Gwabbit has updated their server side services to version 2.0 which in turn will produce more accurate readings of info and ensuring the Gwabbit app works correctly when adding contacts to your address book.

If you're already a Gwabbit user, such as myself -- then you need not do anything. If you're new to Gwabbit though, this would be a good time to check it out as the services are much improved over previous versions. Gwabbit is available as a free and premium application with the premium version costing $9.99/year.

Click here to learn more about Gwabbit for BlackBerry

Award winning contact management app Xobni for BlackBerry just got a HUGE update! The team has been hard at work over the last couple of months, compiling feedback and suggestions and evolving their app to the next level. Not only are there some expected bug fixes, but they also added in new features, functionality, and UI updates for both the free and paid versions. Check out the full change log after the break (it's long!) and to download hit one of the links below.

For more information and to download Xobni from the CrackBerry store
For more information and to download Xobni from BlackBerry App World

Continue reading article

Let's be honest, who remembers phone numbers anymore. When was the last time you dialed an actual number for a friend or family member? In this day and age it's all about speed dials, address books, and contact lists. So whether you've just picked up a new BlackBerry or upgraded your device's operating system here's how to add and personalize contacts on OS 6.

Read Full Lecture

The long-awaited Xobni Mobile for BlackBerry is now available. We've seen the service in action more times than we can count, and are happy to say it is finally available to the public. Xobni replaces your default address book and "automatically builds and maintains the fastest, most complete and smartest address book you've ever used". The app creates profiles based on your contacts that include email addresses and phone numbers as well as information for LinkedIn, Facebook and more. The contacts are automatically kept up to date and ranked in order of relevance. Features include:

• Email addresses for everyone with whom you communicate
• Automatic phone number extraction
• Access to contacts using Xobni within the email compose screen or in standalone application
• Prioritized contacts using Xobni Rank, which lists contacts by how often you communicate with them versus alphabetically
• Saving of Xobni profiles in the event of hard drive crash or lost phone
• Quick access to valuable information, including:
  • One-click access to Facebook and LinkedIn profiles, including photos
  • Recent SMS, phone calls and emails exchanged, and shared appointments
  • Shared network of people
  • Ability to send your calendar availability to all contacts

In my opinion Xobni is one of the few "absolutely must have" apps for BlackBerry. Xobni is available as a stand-alone BlackBerry app, and can also link to Microsoft Outlook via the Xobni One service. Xobni Mobile for BlackBerry can be purchased for a one-time fee of $9.99. Xobni Mobile with the Xobni One service is a $6.99 one-time fee, plus a $3.99 recurring monthly fee. You can also purchase one-year of Xobni Mobile on BlackBerry with Xobni One for $39.90/year. For more information and downloads head on over to xobni.com/mobile.

• More information and download of Xobni Mobile for BlackBerry >>

A little while back we had the pleasure of announcing the beta of Iconify from Emacberry. After all the great feedback from you all, the CrackBerry community Matthias has updated Iconify with many features that were requested and plenty of bugs have certainly been worked out. You can get a look at the full list of fixes via the emacberry website but here is a rundown:

What's Fixed:

• Scroll behavior in the 'Edit IconifyLinks' improved.
• Fix for installation failures of the Link-Launchers
• Small performance improvements when a IconifyLauncher will be initialized 
• Mail-Links support now any Contact PhoneNumber (to be used for SMS-Messages)
• Instructions can be turned ON/OFF in the 'General Iconify Options'
• Added a default Iconify-Application on the Homescreen (will open the Options)
• Scroll behavior in the 'Edit IconifyLinks' improved.
• Fix for installation failures of the Link-Launchers 

Right now you can grab Iconify in two versions. The 15 link version ($1.99) means you'll be limited to 15 customized links or you could go for the 50 link version which, of course allows 50 to be created($3.99). But, Matthias was also kind enough to hook us up with 25 free copies to give to you all. Drop a comment on this post for your chance to win and good luck!

[Enter once folks, duplicate entries will be ignored. We'll draw up the winners in a few days]

With a title like that I'm sure some of you out there are asking why would I want to clear my address book? Well, let's face it even though BlackBerry does a good job of contacts synchronization through Outlook and various other methods, unless you are on a BES it has a tendency to wreak havoc on occassion.

Duplicate entries, missing email addresses or just general chaos can happen. This is a quick and easy guide to show you how to remove your whole contact database without removing wanted items such as calendar entries or needing to wipe your whole OS. 

Continue reading article

SHAPE Services has released a new application for those of you who hate inputting information from business cards manually. Business Card Reader is a scanning utility that simply lets you scan a business card and by making use of ABBYY's text recognition technology allows for the extracted information to be added directly to your address book filling in all the appropriate fields. Having tested it on some business cards I have, I found it to be quite accurate in its rendering and identifying of information. Could be quite useful if you deal with business cards quite frequently.

Business Card Reader is available now for $9.95 but SHAPE Services does offer up a 7 day trial for everyone to check out before making a final purchasing choice. Supported devices include BlackBerry Tour, Curve 8900, Storm, Storm 2, Bold 9700 as they all have a higher resolution camera with auto focus to capture the data. Business Card Reader also supports different languages such as English, French, Italian, German and finally, Spanish.

• Click Here To Learn More And Download The Free Trial Or Purchase Today >>

Google has just released Google Sync, an application that let’s you synchronize your BlackBerry calendar with your Google calendar.

Using your BlackBerry’s native calendar, you can now access your Google calendar even when you don’t have network coverage and be alerted for upcoming appointments with sound or vibration.

Your Google Calendar stays synchronized whether you access it from your computer or your phone. You can add or edit entries on your BlackBerry or on your Google Calendar on the web.

For more information, check out the google sync page here.

To install it, just visit mobile.google.com on your BlackBerry browser.

## This Article Was Originally Published by AllBlackBerry.com