Filed under: Rumors, Software Update, Apple, Snow Leopard
Apple's Address Book app getting social in 10.6?
We're all still waiting to see if the rumors of an earlier-than-expected release of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard are going to come true. There's been no shortage of news regarding Snow Leopard going to golden master, but 9to5Mac has received a tip that the build everyone has expected to be final (10A432) might actually not be. Some shots of built 10A435 have surfaced and while there's not much information to go by, the new build features an updated Address Book app.
A screenshot from the new build has been floating around featuring an updated version of the Address Book application with one big addition. A "social networking" menu is added showing both Twitter and Facebook icons. This could mean that Apple will allow you to keep (and possibly edit) your contacts pulled from social networks.
There's no word yet if the screenshot is credible or not, but it does look pretty convincing and would make sense given recent news that Apple is likely to incorporate social media into other applications such as iTunes.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
shakerben said 11:34AM on 8-22-2009
this would be really cool.
especially coupled with mobileme it would be a bit of a "two-fingers up" to palm.
fingers crossed.
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MySNsucks47 said 11:56AM on 8-22-2009
Not possible, this is a pretty big feature to just introduce. They would have to go through rounds of beta testing to get it right and they've run out of time. They can't go through 3 more betas and then press the DVDs in time, that'd be ridiculous. Plus, the only 3 screenshots were this one and two showing a different build number, which is just a changed plist, big whoop.
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Matt L said 12:09PM on 8-22-2009
Apple has until the end of September to release Snow Leopard, so it's possible. If not, it could be a screenshot of 10.6.1
krisasman said 12:08PM on 8-22-2009
I hope they can get something to help manage families. There is currently no way to put my siblings and their kids on one card and keep track of all their birthdays, email addresses etc. I don't see the need to keep a separate card for each niece and nephew.
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Hobbes said 12:34PM on 8-22-2009
That would be a very welcome addition for sure. It drives me crazy having to create separate cards for couples and certain family members that should be grouped together. Specially, like you said, when it comes to entering their birthdays. Count me in.
David Frantz said 10:52PM on 8-22-2009
Really Kris even though they are family members they are still people and deserve the same respect non family members get. Besides can't you just create a group for those family members. That would condense everybody into one nice short list.
Dave
bayxsonic said 12:14PM on 8-22-2009
Apparently Facebook's API don't let phone numbers to flow through, so there's a little chance this is fake. Although it would be very nice to have an AddressBook Sync with FB built-in, whether only for addresses and pictures or for everything.
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caskey said 12:18PM on 8-22-2009
I don't know that that's entirely true. There's an app out there called FacebookSync that's been around for quite a while. It syncs info between address book and your Facebook contacts. It includes phone number info, so the API must allow it.
SinisterJoe said 4:08PM on 8-23-2009
The public API may not support it but they have allowed Palm to pull phone numbers on the Pre. I'm guessing they'd be happy to let Apple do it too.
peejavery said 12:19PM on 8-22-2009
That's a fake!!!
Look at the words "Group" and "Social Networks." Different fonts and "Social Networks" doesn't have a white bevel to it.
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Steven Fisher said 2:11PM on 8-22-2009
Yeah, you're quite right. The font shows it's a fake.
Thomas said 12:48PM on 8-22-2009
Saying that it looks convincing isn't saying much, it's hardly the hardest thing in the world to fake.
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hindlist said 3:32AM on 8-23-2009
I don't think that this is possible.
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Steven said 12:23PM on 8-22-2009
If you look it is obviously two different fonts used for 'Groups' and 'Social Networks', plus the two are not lined up.
Come on people, why are we making this junk up and more importantly why are we reporting it?
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John Burke said 12:51PM on 8-22-2009
I have to say I wasn't all that convinced when I posted this. It was merely for discussion and curiosity purposes. The idea is kind of cool and seems like it's something Apple would cook up, even at the last minute. But as far as the shot is concerned, who knows, but I'm leaning on the side of fake as well.
david said 12:29PM on 8-22-2009
It's clearly fake. If you look at the fonts more closely here:
http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/860/38681369.png
I'm not going to state all the reasons why these screenshots look fake. They should be extremely obvious if you look at the font smoothing closer.
However I wouldn't be surprised if there was a 10A435, given the inconsistencies people have been noting in 10A432.
I also wouldn't be surprised if Apple were purposely leaking and playing with release dates etc. They love all the attention and rumours, distracting Windows 7 news. I'm really tired of it all now, I'm just going to wait for solid facts from Apple's homepage. No more reading people's twitter feeds about rumours they heard from 'others' etc!
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Chris Anderson said 12:53PM on 8-22-2009
While I'm very doubtful that 10A432 is the Golden Master due to a lack of Quicktime Preferences and other bugs, this screenshot is clearly fake. Would still be a great feature to add!
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Gjunkie said 12:59PM on 8-22-2009
Just a question. How are we able to see a whole list of contacts in this screen shot if there's no group selected on the sidebar?
I would love this feature, but I think I'm leaning towards fake.
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Mattthew said 1:53PM on 8-22-2009
As Mac OS X Snow Leopard has easy screen recording in there is really no excuse - show me the video and I'll believe it!
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John Burke said 1:01PM on 8-22-2009
Ha! I'd love to see a video too but given the track record of "rumor videos", it would probably be blurry, shaky and taken outside during a hurricane.