News

No Smartphone? Never mind; you can still have your diary mobile!

Xpherix Corporation, has added calendar functionality to its iPhonebook product - so as well as having address book data on your mobile, you can now have your diary data in it as well.

The company says iPhonebook is a mobile data service that wirelessly links mobile phones to address book content in existing Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express or Palm applications.

"With the addition of iCalendar, iPhonebook users will now be able to access and manage their existing PIM calendars - in addition to their address book content - from their mobile phone."

The mobile phone display can be used to view all personal address book content, including home and email addresses, phone numbers and Notes fields, with the capability to store an unlimited number of entries. "This effectively eliminates the need to store contact information in electronic organisers, laptops and bulky address books," says Xpherix.

The Xpherix iCalendar has been incorporated into the existing iPhonebook product, giving iPhonebook equipped phones "true PDA functionality" the company claims, "and allowing users to remain as productive as ever, while simply carrying one device." The product has yet to be evaluated here, and we're having some trouble imagining "true PDA functionality" on something like a Nokia 6310i ...

The iCalendar feature is described as a full-function calendar giving subscribers the ability to add, edit and delete appointments directly on the mobile phone, as well as the ability to view calendars according to day, week, and month.

Users can synch from their existing PIM calendar to their phone, or vice versa. Additionally, iPhonebook provides a Web interface, where users can access and manage all iPhonebook features, including iCalendar, via any Internet browser.

iPhonebook is currently available to subscribers through wireless service providers O2 Germany (DE:794793), ALLTEL (AT) and Verizon Wireless (VZ) with additional UK carriers to be announced in the near future. The monthly subscription fee is approximately 4.99 Euros per month and is billed to the subscriber directly by their wireless service provider.

More information about iPhonebook can be found at www.iphonebook.net.