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BuddyPop: Quick, pop-up access to Address Book

buddypopBuddyPop is a small and unobtrusive app that provides quick access to your Address Book contacts in a pop-up which is activated by a user-defined keyboard shortcut.

Hitting the shortcut brings up a simple search dialog.

Type until you get the matches you are looking for, then BuddyPop extracts the information from your Address Book and displays it in an attractive pop-up like this:

dicko_buddypop

Clicking on the email address starts a new message in Mail.app, clicking on the phone number can dial the number or start a call through Skype or Vonage.

If “Dicko” gives you more than match, you can cycle through the contacts using the left and right arrow keys.

BuddyPop is highly configurable. You can change the default actions for clicking on each field, which fields to display or use as search criteria, the pop-up’s appearance and position on the screen, and the keyboard shortcut that activates it.

All of these settings are available through the app’s preferences pane:

buddypop_prefs

A new version of BuddyPop (2.5.0) was released on Christmas Day, boasting a large number of improvements, including Skype, X-Lite SIP SoftPhone and Vonage support, support for sending and receiving SMS messages via a Bluetooth-enabled phone, partial support for Address Book plug-ins and better iChat and IM support.

Quicksilver handles this well enough for my (unsophisticated) needs. But if I Skyped or iChatted or BlueToothed more, I’d be using this.

BuddyPop is made by Tynsoe, who also make GeekTool and SSH Tunnel Manager. It is shareware (10 Euros) and available from Tynsoe’s web site.

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This entry was posted on Monday, 26th December, 2005 at 12:41 am and is filed under Address Book, Apple Mail. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to “BuddyPop: Quick, pop-up access to Address Book”

  1. Hawk Wings » Blog Archive » Tapdex: one tap access to Address Book contacts says:
    December 31st, 2005 at 12:13 am

    [...] Does this screen remind you of anything? That was my first thought too — BuddyPop. [...]

  2. Hawk Wings » Blog Archive » Weekly Update says:
    December 31st, 2005 at 12:53 am

    [...] I’ve added BuddyPop and Tapdex (two quick access utilities) to the Address Book section. [...]

  3. Hawk Wings » Blog Archive » Getting Address Book info quickly in Mail.app says:
    February 2nd, 2006 at 11:11 am

    [...] Here’s one way. BuddyPop, an Address Book search utility, can do this for you. [...]

  4. Hawk Wings » Blog Archive » BuddyPOP: 21% discount for today only says:
    September 19th, 2006 at 6:01 pm

    [...] Of course you can do the same thing with Quicksilver, but BuddyPOP has an extra trick up its sleeve. It offers a very quick way to get info out of your Address Book into a Mail.app message (or any other kind of document). [...]

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