Update on using imac as bluetooth for cell phone

I posted a few days ago about my attempts to use my imac as a handsfree bluetooth devices for my cellphone.  I decided to go with Skype instead.  It's costing me $5/month to make unlimited USA calls.  But it also syncs with my imac address book which i have set up to sync with plaxo.  And of course, plaxo syncs with my outlook and outlook syncs with my blackberry. 

Im starting to arrive at a generic strategy to keep everything sync'ed. Will post more thoughts later. 

Syncing Plaxo with Skype

I dropped Vonage recently due to some inflexibility on their part and instead picked up Skype.  Since I just bought a new imac, I'm going through alot of syncing issues. Notably, I installed plaxo for mac. It synced plaxo with my mac address book but now I cant figure out how to get these contacts into skype so i dont have to do alot of copy/paste when i want to call someone up.

by the way, ive got a bluetooth headset that syncs directly with my mac.  so when i make a call using skype, i can hear it in my headset. it's nifty.  there's even some programs out there that let you record your conversations...for training purposes of course. 

in any case, looking for some insights on how to get this syncing taken care of.  i checked plaxo's forums and found this thread.

UPDATE TO THIS POST:  See Skype 2.7 beta for better address integration on mac.

BluePhoneElite 2

Here's the list of capabilities for the BluePhoneElite 2, your mobile phone on your mac. 

Word: Use Imac as hands free bluetooth / blackberry

I just got a new imac 24 inch aluminum job.  Check it.  It's absolutely beautiful on my desk.  Brings back alot of good memories of being a senior macintosh engineer at a 4000 person company--planning rollouts and handling escalated tech support issues.  

In any case, I also have a blackberry 8830 and a vonage phone sitting on my desk.  Vonage has been bugging me lately because for the most part I never look at my bill but the other day I did and it was over $90/month. I was thinking...is this really worth over $1000/yr? Hell no.  

What I'd really like to do, is consolidate everything down to my cell phone.  I dont know if the economics make sense to do that.  But I started researching cell phone docking stations like this one.    When I get into my car, my cell phone automagically mates with the fx35 I drive and i receive/make calls over the interior sound system.  I want the same thing to happen when I walk into my office.   So, a cellphone docking station essentially would make that happen.  All my cell phone calls would ring on my house phones. Very cool.

But when I got this imac home, I started thinking it would be cool if it would mate with my blackberry when I walked into the room.   You know....instead of the phone ringing, the imac would show me the incoming call, keep call logs, mate with my address book, allow me to dial with the keypad on the keyboard, or basically what this guy is describing too (but in his case in reference to his iphone)  That's what I'd love to have but is it possible?  I dont know!!!

So far, all i could find is this forum entry with the same question I have. 

I got a little aggressive on google and found this though:  a software widget that makes this possible.   BluePhoneElite 2  is what it's called. It's supposed to make your mac your hands free device for your mobile phone: dial/receive calls, manage text msgs, address lookups, etc.   Sounds promising so far.  It's late but I went ahead and downloaded it and yes, I was able to have calls sent to my blackberry 8830 display on my imac.  I could even dial using the keypad.  I wont say it was buggy but a few things I wasn't able to do easily.  Mirasoftware has a list of compatible capabilities on a per phone basis.  Overall, I would give an enormous thumbs up to what these guys are doing.  It has the potential to be very, very, very cool. Now, if they would be so kind as to increase massively the set of capabilities available for the blackberry 8830, I would be happy to give them enormous, unyielding props.  In fact if you work for Mira Software, and you're reading this, please contact me. I'll post an in depth follow up. 

I'm still having trouble syncing my address book with the imac...a topic for another post.  It's late. 

Outlook Sync

At least with the contacts you have stored at online locations like salesforce.com or jigsaw.com, you dont have to worry about syncing those databases on two different computers. But what if you want to sync outlook on two different machines?  Enter Sync2 for Microsoft Outlook.  It allows you to synchronize Outlook on multiple PC's without a server. Essentially, you can clone your .PST.  There's actually lots of widgets on that website. 

Here's a competitor at Syncing.net.   And another one called OutlookSync with an decent website too.  If what you want is Outlook Sync, one of these 3 will do. 

Delete Duplicate Contacts in Outlook 2003

Let's see if we understand your problem.  You've got tons of contact databases spread all over various email, mobile, crm and social networking sites.  Each entity brings with it new contacts you don't have in any of your other databases. Inevitably, you end up with duplicate contacts.  So, you think to yourself, why not try one of those "duplicate remover" tools.   So you either opt for Outlook's built in functionality or you buy a tool or subscribe to Plaxo's premium. 

but you run these widgets and invariably, you worry you're going to delete something important. Maybe you put a note in both copies of a contact. how do you merge these things anyway?   Then reality hits because your quota is hanging over your head. 

Well, if you opt to go low tech and you want to focus just on Outlook, here's how they prescribe the solution.  

I want you to focus on the concept of Available fields and adding not only the Modified field, which shows you when you last modified that contact but also...if you're like me and you worry about notes....add the Notes field too.   Now you can fairly rapidly scan through contacts and delete as you go. 

Wait a second, it would be better if you could hire someone to do this for you. yes, they are out there too. Reducing the value of this blog.  But isnt that the world we want to live in?

Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager

Speaking of CRM integration into Outlook. Ahem. Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager.

In pure Microsoft style, there's way too much feature information to digest.  

I guess the good news is they have apparently improved synchronization of BCM with Windows Mobile based Pocket PC. 

What if your CRM was on with your Outlook?

Got your contacts spread all over the place? What if your CRM was built into Outlook? Outlook CRM? One less thing to sync, no?

Avidian is the maker of Prophet Opportunity Manager. Check out the demo.  Most of us are stuck using Outlook so it would be nice to have those quick clicks into CRM world.  But on the other, there are so many annoyances with Outlook to begin with...seems like a negative multiplier.  

Then again, when I think of how salesforce.com manages emails.....it leaves me longing for Outlook's .pst file when I hop from company to company.  So maybe Outlook CRM is work a closer look especially if you're a smaller business. 

For the curious, here's another stab at Outlook-based CRM. 

Thinking of iPhone instead of Blackberry or Palm?

Interesting article touting the rise of iPhone among some business users.  For me, it's hard to imagine anyone beating blackberry's useability/interface, etc. 

Want to sync blackberry with google calendar?

Your blackberry is probably already in sync with your Outlook calendar but what if you want to sync it too with Google Calendar?  First, why would you want to do this anyway?  Maybe your business partner isnt set up to see your outlook calendar...but they still need to see where you are and what you are up to. This would be a good fix for that. It would also enable you to bridge the business vs personal life gap, for example, keeping your spouse apprised of your goings ons. 

So, here's a link to explore if any of the above resonates with you. 

How to track down anyone online

OK scarey salesperson. Use your powers for good. A fairly thorough overview of what's available out there to track people down...

Here's why I started this blog

The impetus to start this blog stemmed from my desire to sync plaxo, jigsaw, salesforce.com, linkedin, outlook and blackberry. I always find myself deleting duplicate contacts, etc. and none of the contacts I have in each of these is ever really synced up well. I sent a note into my IT dept to see if they had any insights and someone suggested making Outlook the hub of the process. As I'll discuss later, that makes sense. But when I look at each of these contact databases, something like the diagram below comes to mind.

That's partially the point of this Contact and Calender Syncronization writeup created a year ago. As you can see from the image below, it goes to the complexity that every day people are facing as new gadgets come along and we try to keep a unified view of our work and personal life.

Accessing Salesforce.com with your blackberry

Currently, the company I work for doesnt allow us to connect to salesforce.com via our blackberry. This means I have to occasionally send an email to an inside sales rep to get him to shoot me a phone number or address that's in sfdc.

Salesforce Mobile is designed to address this shortfall by giving you live-over-the-air access to salesforce.com. It also allows you to download your sfdc info to your local device. Currently, this supports blackberry, palm and windows mobile.

Here's a demo for blackberry users. And one for Windows Mobile too.

It looks like Sybase is behind this effort.

I guess it costs $8/month according to this page.

Jigsaw for Appexchange

So, you find some prospects in Jigsaw. Then, you want to import them into Salesforce.com as leads. Or maybe you build a custom prospeting list and want to bulk import that into Salesforce.com. Should you first upload that into Outlook and then sync with Salesforce.com?

Well, if you have Salesforce Professional or Enterprise edition, you can link jigsaw directly into salesforce. Instead of save to vcard, your contact or list will go directly into salesforce.com as a lead. Pretty nifty.

Here's a link to the info.

Copy Paste Contacts to Jigsaw

Here's a link to a couple tools that can help you import contact information you find on the web or in documents on your workstation. Anagram is the first one and eGrabber is the second. We'll post further information about these tools later.

Syncing Jigsaw with....

Here are some Jigsaw instructions for syncing Jigsaw with your Outlook, Outlook Express, Palm, Act!, and Salesforce.com.

Exporting Jigsaw Contacts

This Jigsaw article describes steps to export Jigsaw contacts to csv, vCard, Salesforce.com or Oracle OnDemand.

Syncing Plaxo with Linkedin

Straight from Plaxo's online help pages, here's a paragraph on how to sync Plaxo with Linkedin.

Syncing Blackberry with Google Calendar

A PC World article announcing the ability of Google Calendar to sync with Blackberry.

Syncing Blackberry with Linux

Here's a nice How To on syncing blackberry with linux.

Syncing iPhone

This article from Apple describes how to sync iphone with your computer.

If you are using Windows and need troubleshooting help syncing contacts and calendars on Windows, look here.