Livecards are the digital version of business cards that keep your contacts up-to-date automatically and help sharing contact info with ease. Available on the iPhone and the web.

Today we are launching the first major update to Livecards which makes them even more useful.

Sign-up with email. You can now sign-up for Livecards with or without a Facebook account.

Shareable Livecard links. Every Livecard now has a sharable public URL that can be added to your email footer or otherwise shared with people you interact with. Your personal link can be configured by changing your username via the Settings dialog on the web. You can also adjust which information is visible to the public by editing your Livecard (only your name, picture, company and social profiles are visible by default).

Add Livecards by email. Cobook now supports connecting to anyone by email address.

Grab Cobook 2.2 from the AppStore or sign-up via web.

We are really excited to launch our first web version of Cobook Livecards, the digital business cards that automatically keeps your contacts complete and up-to-date. You can sign up today via cobook.co.

The web app is complementary to Cobook for iPhone and lets you update your contact info as well as view and download info of your connections.

Currently Livecards requires a Facebook account but alternative email sign up is coming soon.

Today we are proud to announce Cobook 2.0 with Livecards, the simplest way to keep your iPhone address book complete and up-to-date.

Livecards allows you to share your contact info with friends and colleagues and get their info in exchange.

How it works

1. Tell us who you are. Currently Cobook allows signing in with your Facebook account, but email registration is also coming soon.

2. Create your Livecard - this is like your business card, except you can update it and the info will be shared with people you are connected to on Cobook.

3. Connect to your friends and other contacts to share your Livecard with them and get their current email, phone number and other info in exchange. The info will be added automatically to your iPhone Contacts (this can also be switched off in Cobook’s Settings).

Last but not least, your privacy is critically important to us. Your address book data is not captured in any way and never leaves your phone. Only the info you choose to share via Livecard is securely stored on our servers.

Now Cobook can open addresses directly in the new Google Maps native iPhone app. The update includes a few more useful improvements:

• Phone number formatting can now be switched on/off via settings
• Cobook can now properly dial phone extensions
• Improved handling of blank lines in notes
• Timezone improvements for Canada, Australia and China

Also stay tuned for some really awesome new things coming to Cobook very soon!

Cobook for iPhone 1.1.1 is available in the App Store today.

Today we are starting a new series of blog posts discussing the most frequently asked questions and feature suggestions.

LinkedIn is a superb resource for professional info and supporting it has always been one of our top priorities. LinkedIn provides an open API so it was easy to build the integration. Cobook for Mac had LinkedIn support since the first beta and the first iPhone version included it too.

However we soon realized there was a problem - the API has low quotas and as the Cobook user base grew, the integration became less and less reliable. With the launch of the iPhone version it quickly became completely useless.

The bad news is that we had to remove LinkedIn from Cobook’s core functionality and we don’t have a good estimate at the moment for when and if it’s coming back. The good news is that we are in touch with LinkedIn and perhaps will soon convince them that having LinkedIn contacts in Cobook would be awesome for everyone.

You can help us as well, by telling LinkedIn how much you miss having their service integrated in Cobook.

A Little Secret

Although LinkedIn is currently not enabled in Cobook by default, it’s still available as an experimental feature. Of course we can’t guarantee that it will work all the time but feel free to try it.

On Mac, hold the Alt key and click on Cobook’s action icon (the little gear icon on top), then select “Enable Experimental Features”.

On iPhone, open Cobook’s Settings and simply shake your phone.

Today Cobook for iPhone gets several great improvements including the much requested support for multiple address book accounts, quick contact actions and phone number formatting.

Multiple Address Book Accounts

You can now use Cobook to manage all your iPhone contacts from iCloud, Exchange, Google Contacts and other sources. There’s no need to configure anything in Cobook, the additional accounts are picked up automatically.

Cobook attempts to automatically link contacts from different sources and puts them in separate contact tabs, similarly to Facebook and Twitter profiles.

Quick Contact Actions

You can already use the Dialer tab to quickly call someone. Now we’re making it even easier. Tapping a contact picture will now call the contact right away. Alternatively you can hold the tap for a moment to see additional details.

On top of that, contacts in the main list can now be swiped left to reveal quick actions.

Phone Number Formatting

Phone numbers are now automatically formatted for better readability. Cobook figures out the phone region and formats the number accordingly.

Cobook for iPhone 1.1 is available in the App Store today.

It’s a good time to throw out your iPhone and Mac default Contacts app. Cobook replaces it and makes your address book better in every way. Automatic contact pictures, tweets and other information from social networks, contact tagging, beautiful design and much more. And it’s FREE.

Get it today for iPhone and Mac.