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.