Although we’re all really busy working on the new Plaxo 3.0 we still make sure to schedule time for our beloved Haxos. During this past Haxo, Garret fixed up a new mobile version of Plaxo he’d been working on and it’s now ready for users to try. It’s built as a WAP 2.0 app and was very quick to develop using our new Plaxo 3.0 APIs and PHP. In the current version you can access all your data (calendar, contacts, tasks, and notes), see the current weather, and search for contacts. You can even add tasks and notes (events & contacts coming soon!) so you can jot things down when away from your computer.

Since this isn’t an official product, you may find bugs or areas that need improvement. It’s even possible that it won’t work at all on your phone (especially if it’s an older model). Good or bad, please let us know how it works for you by posting in the new Plaxo Mobile Google Group or sending us an e-mail at labs-mobile@plaxo.com.

Happy WAPping!

-- Mark Jen
Product Line Manager

A few of us from Plaxo made the trip to CTIA Wireless 2006 ® in Las Vegas last week. We joined 40,000 other attendees from over 90 countries in oohing and aahing over the latest wireless phones, services, and applications that will be available in America over the next 3-4 months. (Some of our team also got to go to the granddaddy wireless show in Europe, 3GSM, a couple of months ago.) At CTIA, there were over 900 exhibitors and we didn’t even come close to seeing them all.

The phone manufacturers’ booths (Motorola, Nokia, LG, Samsung to name a few) were packed with new phones and people wanting to see them. There were phones that reminded me of kids’ transformers – depending on which way you opened them up, it could be a phone, camera or video camera. Phones showing live tv whose screens turned vertically or horizontally depending on how you preferred to watch the show – with no interruption as you turned the screen! Phones with Zeiss optics for the cameras, the first 10Mpixel camera in a phone, a phone with a Flash-based UI, high quality music players and streaming video on others, a phone with a built-in 4GB harddrive or of removable memory (you can store a lot of music and images in 4GB!), phones with wifi, phones running linux, more phones with push-to-talk and bluetooth…phones for kids, phones for seniors, … Now all I need is a phone to do my laundry. If you need more details on the new phones at CTIA, visit the experts at www.PhoneScoop.com.

Now that phones can deliver and display rich media, the phone is a platform for entertainment and personalization - attracting companies such as MTV, Disney, ESPN, HBO, AOL, as well as game developers to the show. We talked to application vendors about surround sound (yes, on the phone!), location-based technology (maps and directions), haptic technology (the phone rumbles as you play a game), cartoons and games, ringtones and mp3 players, streaming video and live tv, controlling your tivo from your phone, and speech recognition.

Also fun was the wireless fashion show which had young designers competing for the top prize in innovation with wireless technology – everything from a baseball jacket with an led billboard which scrolled “CTIA Wireless” (image the lights of Vegas on legs), a purse used as a signaling device (to catch a cab, let the waiter know you’re ready to order or catch the attention of your SO) to clothing which emitted aromatherapy if it sensed the wearer was stressed.

CTIA announced that 25.7 million new wireless subscribers were added in America in calendar 2005 bringing the total number of estimated wireless customers in the US to 207.9 million. Wow. That’s a lot of you trying to make calls, send SMS, share photos and ringtones, and send emails from the phone. So we’re thinking, what can Plaxo do to help you out? If you’ve got a mobile phone and you’re a Plaxo member, we’d love to hear what you want from Plaxo while you’re on the go. Let us know on the Plaxo Community Forums or by commenting on this post!

Today was a big day for us at Plaxo -- we released a few new premium services: 1) Plaxo Address Book Optimizer, 2) Plaxo Mobile Access, and 3) Plaxo Premium Suite. These services will complement our existing free service. See our press release for details.

Plaxo Address Book Optimizer eliminates duplicate contacts from your address book. It's very easy to use and will quickly clean up your address book.

Plaxo Mobile Access lets you access your address book and calendar from most mobile phones. There's no limit to the size of your address book and calendar and you don't need to sync.

Plaxo Premium Suite offers BOTH new services, PLUS our existing VIP Support for a discounted price.

Go to the Plaxo home page to get details on each service.

btw: If you are an existing Plaxo user, you will see some new icons in Plaxo Online that enable you to access these new features from the toolbox:

Expect to see lots of great, new things from Plaxo this year!

Rikk Carey
EVP Engineering & Operations