iPhone for ZYB
We finally got an iPhone to Denmark, and while waiting for it to be unlocked, it struck me that I wouldn’t even be able to call anyone on it, because it had no contacts. I tried syncing it through iTunes, but that way it’s only showing half of my numbers, for some reason.
We sat down and started looking at the work of the brilliant Joe Hewitt and his iUi framework. Within hours we had our first working prototype that was able to display all your ZYB-contacts on your iPhone, in a native-like interface.
Over the last couple of days we’ve been tweaking it a bit, and you are now able to see all the details of your contacts, call them directly from the interface, look them up on the integrated Google Maps and so on. Basically all that the native client supports - only this time, with all of your contact details. I basically had an old Nokia, and now I seamlessly transferred all my contacts to my iPhone, with no effort except from one sync with ZYB.
We were also missing an option to search for contacts in the native address book on the iPhone, so we threw that in there as well..
The strategy of Apple making the plugin-work happening inside the Safari-browser makes perfect sense. They educate the users to actually start using the Internet from a mobile device. A thing that will surely revolutionize the so called ‘mobile web’. Just imagine 100 million internet capable devices in the pocket of every teenager.. On top of that, they allow for rapid deployments of plugins and a very short learning period, since everyone with some web-experience will be able to work with it.
The flat-rate dataplans on the iPhone and the increasing number of wireless hotspots everywhere, take away the ‘have to be online’ barrier of using web for plugins.
When someone like Joe Hewitt then launches the iUi framework, it makes it a real breeze to make stuff look nice on the iPhone quickly. We’ll probably be spending some time tweaking the design of it, and iron out some of the kinks still in there, but it’s a great start, and I’ll be sure to submit our various changes to the project so others can benefit.
If you’re one of the lucky iPhone users, be sure to check out the new ZYB for iPhone interface at iphone.zyb.com
-Ole
September 14th, 2007 at 1:17 pm
ZYB finally got an iPhone
We finally managed to get an iPhone to Denmark, and although we are still waiting for the unlock, it’s still a little work of art. Hi-tech, brilliant, usefull art, that is.
I’ve already made a version of ZYB specifically for the iPhone, whi…
September 14th, 2007 at 1:17 pm
[...] I’ve already made a version of ZYB specifically for the iPhone, which I have written more about over on the official ZYB blog. [...]
September 23rd, 2007 at 9:00 pm
Hi, I just wanted to let you know that iphone.zyb.com works equally well on S60 browser on my Nokia N95.
Perhaps you should consider naming it m.zyb.com?
October 5th, 2007 at 8:31 am
Hi there guys,
Wow. nice interface. The contact part works fantastically. But the search doesn’t want to work for me (in Australia on Vodafone if that helps)
I know you’ll figure it out - keep up the great work
Mike
October 26th, 2007 at 2:18 pm
Dear guys from ZYB,
THANK YOU for having made this iphone version - I tried it on my brand new HTC TyTN II and it works FANTASTIC!! It even enables me to call directly from the menu, without having to download and install all the clients (which are not even available for HTC TyTN yet).
You should know that I had already been wondering how to make synchronisation between my Mac, my Windows Mobile device and my online address book on Zyb work.
Thank heavens for web-only functionalities. I sincerely don’t believe in locally stored information anymore - with all the synchronisation problems
I do really agree with Christopher that you should make the address m.zyb.com!
Best regards and keep up the good work!
Claire
November 13th, 2007 at 4:56 pm
I Like ZYB, good service for free.
The one thing I miss that you can’t upload your contacts from your Mac so you could have a backup from the iPhone. I should be easy to upload your contacts true webbrowser and replace if you wishes.
Thomas
August 26th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Hi guys.
While I appreciate the effort for an ‘online’ page that is always updated, I really need to get the contacts into the native system of the iphone 3G. When can we expect this to happen?
Best Regards
August 28th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Hi Flemming
Our client-guys are working hard on a native iPhone client, that will be able to sync and do many more cool stuff.
Expect it within a few months!
-Ole
September 14th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
Sounds great! Now that i know it’ll eventually be available i am again the convinced ZYB-user. Looking forward for your sync alp. Keep us posted.
Flemming