ABContacts on sale at 0.99$ (from 4.99$) for a limited time

[vettori]

Edit: extended for a limited time !

Our ABContacts app, a powerful contact manager is on sale at 0.99$ (from 4.99$) for the weekend. Link in signature.

Warning Exchange users: Apple has broken native groups and Exchange with iOS4.2.
Smart group will work instead since they are not affected by firmware changes.
A workaround for the native group issue is in development and will be available as free upgrade.

 

[Gokunama]

Really, a superb app! Depending on one's needs, this might be the app for someone managing a lot of contacts, definitely outdoes any other app in terms of quickly assigning contacts to a group. My needs are different, so I'm sticking with my current contacts app, but at 99 cents, anyone thinking about a very effective contacts app would miss out on a great deal here if they didn't grab this!

 

[vettori]

^^^
Thank you for your comments This kind of comments are what make me so proud to develop software

A feature that other apps don't have is to be able to use multiple apps to make calls or send sms. For example, you can configure it to call all mobile numbers with Google Voice and/or all numbers labelled "skype" with skype or let the app ask what app to use for each call. More info on www.redbits.com.

Just want to point out again that users using Exchange and iOS4.2 will have issues when managing groups because Apple has changed how groups work with Exchange in iOS4.2 (at the moment no app can assign contacts to native groups when syncing with exchange with iOS4.2).
We're working on a workaround to let user still create and manually manage groups but they'll be private of the app.
Smart groups will work with any configuration.

Version 2 is coming (free upgrade for existing users). It's a complete rewrite, a lot of new features and it's universal so it runs in native mode on the iPad.

 

[Gokunama]

Just one thing I really think could be improved, figuring out how to access the different menus is unintuitive. I stumbled on it fortunately, but just a quick notification on opening the app for the first time to let people know how to get to the other menus would go a long ways.

 

[vettori]

Just one thing I really think could be improved, figuring out how to access the different menus is unintuitive. I stumbled on it fortunately, but just a quick notification on opening the app for the first time to let people know how to get to the other menus would go a long ways.

It's true and in fact it has been changed in version 2. In current version there's the (i) button that also gives some help and a complete user's guide on www.redbits.com.
The first version of the app is from July or August 2008: a lot of things changed and a lot of lessons learned

 

[vettori]

Extended sale price for a limited time !!

 

[ctt1wbw]

Ah, Venice. Closest I came was Trieste. Been there a few times. Oh man, the food!

How does this differ from Groups? I have that now and this doesn't look too bad either.

 

[vettori]

Ah, Venice. Closest I came was Trieste. Been there a few times. Oh man, the food!

Oh yes But for me best Italian food can be eat in Tuscany (Siena to be precise).

How does this differ from Groups? I have that now and this doesn't look too bad either.

I usually don't comment on competitor's apps but since you've asked: my opinion is that Groups from Guided Ways is a good app but they're more focused on 2Do (it's giving them A LOT more money) so it lacks bug fixes and it's very "graphics" oriented. ABContacts on the other hand is more focused on features and rapid development.
I love this app and I'm trying to let it become THE contacts manager for the iPhone (it's difficult since at Apple they're doing whatever they can to make it a hard work to create and maintain contacts manager apps). For this reason I'm a bit late for version 2 (but upgrades to 1.x are regularly released); I'm really doing the best I can to make it an outstanding contact manager. When it's ready it will be a free upgrade to existing 1.x users.

I also try to give users a good support service. I'm happy to see that many users write reviews where they say my support is very good.

If you try both your comments and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

[ctt1wbw]

Okay, for a fellow food lover, I'll do it. Just downloaded it, so give me a bit and I'll try it. It looks nice, though. And yes, Groups is good, and 2Do is even better, I can see what you're saying. Groups hasn't been updated in a while.

Oh, and you must post pics of your surroundings. I miss Italy! I was there back during the Lira days, and holy cow, I could live like a king on the Lira. The Euro, now... don't get me started!

 

[ctt1wbw]

Pretty nice so far. I'd like to see some sort of colorful graphic next to each smart group, you know if you make a smart group of your family, you should be able to assign a colorful little symbol reprsenting a family or something. Other than that, seems pretty good so far. I like the smart groups category, for sure.

 

[ctt1wbw]

Ah, another suggestion. How about being able to move your groups up and down and sort them in the order which you want? If I create a Family group, and then 10 groups later I want the Family group at the top, or the last group at the top, I'd like to be able to arrange them.

 

[vettori]

Pretty nice so far. I'd like to see some sort of colorful graphic next to each smart group, you know if you make a smart group of your family

Colorful graphics is something where the other app you cited is better than ours . ABContacts is more similar to the Apple standard. I'll try to get best of both in version 2.

Ah, another suggestion. How about being able to move your groups up and down and sort them in the order which you want?

This is already implemented in version 2 (in fact it's one of the most requested features).

Oh, and you must post pics of your surroundings. I miss Italy! I was there back during the Lira days, and holy cow, I could live like a king on the Lira. The Euro, now... don't get me started!

Was a big leap for us too, many thinks that prices have doubled after switching to the euro. Italy is a great country, greater than its own current citizen, if you ask me.
I don't have nice photos here but I'll try to get a couple for you

 

[ctt1wbw]

Well, it's taken the place of Groups now. It's in my dock. Very nice app so far, I love it.

I've also been to Napoli quite a few times, beautiful city! Took a trip down to Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast and took a tour of the Pompeii ruins. And then spent the rest of the time eating and drinking. And then more eating and drinking!

 

[vettori]

Well, it's taken the place of Groups now. It's in my dock. Very nice app so far, I love it.

Thank you I'm very happy to know that

I've also been to Napoli quite a few times, beautiful city! Took a trip down to Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast and took a tour of the Pompeii ruins. And then spent the rest of the time eating and drinking. And then more eating and drinking!

No Tuscany yet ? I know it's a common place for US visitors. If you ever come to Tuscany or Venice, drop me an email and I'll send you a couple of addresses of good (and cheap) restaurants !

 

[ctt1wbw]

Most definitely! Although, I doubt it'll be any time soon. I hit all these places in Europe courtesy of the Navy and I'm no longer there. Retired now. But Italy and France are the two countries I want to go back to, for sure.

 

[Gokunama]

I got to thinking on why I chose my other app over ABContacts, and it comes down to being able to get a count of how many groups one person belongs to, being able to quickly remove someone from a group (for example, if I have someone in 'Business' and 'Friends', and I no longer need him in 'Business', I can see quickly select the list of groups he's in under 'Business', get a list of which groups he belongs to, and delete him from 'Business'), being able to turn off pics in the list of contacts, and somehow being able to quickly find and assign a single unfiled contact to a group quickly. Were those three functionalities added to ABContacts, I think I'd forgo my other app cause I prefer simplicity, speed, and functionality over great graphics.

 

[vettori]

I got to thinking on why I chose my other app over ABContacts, and it comes down to being able to get a count of how many groups one person belongs to, being able to quickly remove someone from a group (for example, if I have someone in 'Business' and 'Friends', and I no longer need him in 'Business', I can see quickly select the list of groups he's in under 'Business', get a list of which groups he belongs to, and delete him from 'Business'), being able to turn off pics in the list of contacts, and somehow being able to quickly find and assign a single unfiled contact to a group quickly. Were those three functionalities added to ABContacts, I think I'd forgo my other app cause I prefer simplicity, speed, and functionality over great graphics.

Dear Gokunama,
you can turn off pictures in iPhone Settings app, on the ABContacts section.
To quickly manage a contact group membership try this: when in the contacts list tap lightning then edit. Use the group icon to the right of the contact name and all groups appear with a tick to the right of the group the contact is a member. Just edit the tick accordingly and save.
Do you have something different in mind ?

 

[Gokunama]

Nope, that's great! Now only if I could see the number of groups a contact belonged to without clicking on every contact.

I guess a pointer to a good tutorial is mostly what's missing in this app. It's a little less intuitive than my other app, but otherwise just superb. Point me to how I can easily see at a glance how many groups a contact belongs to or add that in an update and I'm all with ABContacts!

 

[vettori]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

I'll add that info in the version 2 of the app the app will also (hopefully) be easier to use.
The guide is on our website www.redbits.com.

Next 1.9 upgrade is coming with a workaround to the exchange issue of iOS4.2 firmware.