Contacts

Following the iOS debacle, Mountain Lion now asks permission to access contacts too

Oliver Haslam ∙ March 17, 2012

It seems that Apple's learnings from the Path Contacts debacle have extended to the Mac, too, with the latest Developer Preview of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion also seeing a Contacts-based new security addition.

Those with reasonable memories will remember that Path, the social networking app that was all the rage not long ago, got itself into some hot water for taking all the details from the iOS Contacts app – names, numbers, email addresses and more – and uploading them to its own servers. This led to all kinds of scaremongering and ultimately, Apple decided to add a warning message to iOS that tells users when an app is requesting access to contact details. Users then have to option of allowing or blocking that access.

Now it appears that Apple has pulled this security feature across from iOS to the Mac, or at least it will in the next version of OS X when it arrives later this year...

Smartr Contacts for iPhone: the iOS address book on steroids

Guest Author ∙ Updated February 28, 2018

When iOS 5 was released, the folks at Apple HQ brought with it the ability to add social network support within the stock iOS address book application. Smartr Contacts from Xobni manages to push the bar a whole lot further.

The team behind popular Outlook plugin, Smartr Inbox, have released what is essentially an address book on steroids for your iOS device. This nifty free application promises to create rich profiles for all your contacts, including communication history and updates from Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Smartr works by creating in-depth profiles by aggregating all of your data from the leading social networking sites and your email accounts, storing the information in the 'Xobni Cloud'. Once a contact's information has been matched you are presented with a slick profile view of every contact you have ever interacted with from the various portals mentioned above...

Apple says apps will now need explicit user permission to access contacts

Cody Lee ∙ February 15, 2012

Ever since the news broke that Path, a popular social network and iOS app, was uploading users' contact lists without asking for their permission, everyone has been waiting to see how Apple would respond.

After all, it is Apple's App Store team that is approving these apps that cull private user data without authorization. And today, the Cupertino company finally broke its week-long silence on the subject...

ContactPrivacy: a New Jailbreak Tweak That Warns You When Apps Try to Access Your Contacts Data

Sébastien Page ∙ February 8, 2012

Following yesterday's Path debacle about how the app uploads your entire address book to its servers without your knowledge, jailbreak developer Ryan Petrich decided to do what Apple should have done in the first place: having a notification for when apps try to access your contacts data.

The jailbreak tweak is conveniently called ContactPrivacy and is a free download from Cydia. After installing ContactPrivacy on your iPhone, you won't find any new icon or settings to tweak...

RingerX VIP: Control Ringer and Vibrate Behavior for Calls and Messages

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated January 25, 2016

Don't you just hate it when you miss an important call because you forgot to turn your iPhone's mute switch off? Or what about that one annoying person that always calls at 3 in the morning? Wouldn't it be nice if you could forever silence their calls?

With RingerX VIP, all of these scenarios feature easy solutions.

This is a jailbreak tweak for those who require fine grained control over how various contacts are treated whenever they call you or message you...

Add Calling and Messaging Shortcuts to Your Home Screen with QuickContact

Oliver Haslam ∙ January 17, 2012

The current trend of finding ways to get icons on an iOS device's Home screen with the intent of creating shortcuts for actions is nothing new. It was originally one of the big jailbreak advantages, and now it's back. This time, you don't need to jailbreak anything.

QuickContact is the latest in a long line of apps that offer the user a way to create shortcuts on the Home screen, and now sending SMS messages and making phone calls are the order of the day.

The best part about this is the fact it's not actually an app at all, but rather a web app.

Easily Sync Your iPhone Contacts With Gmail Using “Contacts Sync for Google Gmail”

Guest Author ∙ Updated January 24, 2016

Are you one of the thousands of users who have transitioned their entire online ecosystem into Apple's iCloud? Did you stop syncing your contacts with Gmail in order to sync with iCloud? Do you want to maintain your address book with iCloud and have the same address book in Google Contacts?

Now you can with a paid application called Contacts Sync For Google Gmail...

Ask Jeff: Episode 09 – Back in Action

Jeff Benjamin ∙ November 1, 2011

After a brief hiatus, I'm back with Ask Jeff: Episode 09. In this episode I answer tons of questions ranging from data usage monitoring, to Twitter clients, to possible Siri ports.

A lot has changed since Episode 08. iOS 5 was released, iCloud launched, the iPhone 4S launched, and much, much, more.

Was your question answered? There's only one way to find out: head inside and tune in to the latest episode...

‘FavoriteContacts’ Adds Your Favorites to Notification Center

Jeff Benjamin ∙ October 18, 2011

The Notification Center jailbreak widgets are really starting to pick up steam as of late, and that means that there's a ton of new and innovative tweaks for us to cover.

The latest tweak, is called FavoriteContacts, and as one might imagine, it pulls in all of your favorites from your Phone app. Doing so, allows you to initiate a call, text, or email right from the convenience of iOS 5's Notification Center.

We've gone hands-on with FavoriteContacts, and we're happy to report that it rocks. Check inside for the video walkthrough, and for a chance to win one of five (5) free copies...

Copic: Add Contact Photos to your Call Lists, Contact Lists, and Text Messages

Cody Lee ∙ August 14, 2011

I love jailbreak utilities that add contact photos to stock iOS apps. It makes your contacts seem more like real people, rather than pieces of data.

Cydia provides a couple of options to pull this off. SMSEnhancer adds contact photos to the Messages app, and IPicMyContacts does the same for your contact list. And then there's Copic, which actually does what the other two tweaks do, and more....

GroupTones: Assign Ringtones to Your Contact Groups

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 24, 2016

If you've gone through the process of dividing your contacts into groups on your iPhone, you'll love this next jailbreak utility. Though there's not a direct way to create groups on your device, you can create them on your Mac or PC and sync them using iTunes.

GroupTones allows you to assign specific ringtones for each of those groups, so you can tell callers apart without looking at your phone. This would help you to instantly identify if the person calling you is a friend, a co-worker, or one of your kid's playmates...

‘NewContact’ Allows You to Add Contacts Using Activator Gestures

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated August 4, 2011

Do you always find yourself moseying into the Contacts app to add new friends, family, and acquaintances?

Doing so can be somewhat of a clunky affair, especially if you need to do so while in a hurry.

NewContact is a jailbreak tweak available on Cydia that takes some of the thought process out of adding new contacts to your iPhone's address book...