Akonadi was introduced in KDE 4 as the data storage service that will ultimately integrate the PIM programs KMail, KOrganizer and others. So far not much has been in evidence. However, the KAddressBook PIM application should make a start at it in KDE 4.4, as KDE developer Tobias König announced in his blog. The other PIM apps should follow in KDE 4.5. The reason for the partitioning is the short timeframe for the KDE 4.4 release and the "different complexity of code base" for the individual PIM apps.

König's blog entry includes the first screenshots of the new KAddressBook. The toolbar was cleaned up and the entire interface was made "as simple as possible." The result is a three-pane window similar to that of the MAC OS X address book. The left pane has the list of address books, with the contacts contained therein listed in the middle pane. The right pane has the details for the selected address. Thanks to Akonadi, the middle pane also includes contact groups (formerly known as distribution lists). Address books can be further split into subfolders. The virtual folders supported by Akonadi whereby you can group folders by arbitrary search criteria will appear in a later KAddressBook version.

The default main window for the planned KDE 4.4 KAdressBook.

Users displeased with the three-pane window can switch to Simple UI Mode consisting of a single search list and the details for the contact returned. Two subsequent panels are for searching or paging through contacts.

The likewise reworked entry window for contacts will also be available to all Akonadi supported applications. Apart from registering business addresses and personal data (birth dates, etc.), the address coordinates appear on a world map, especially useful in locating international contacts. In future versions the entry window should be extendable through plugins so that other apps can store their data in the address book.

Beside changes to the interface, the storage format was enhanced. KAddressBuch now stores each contact and contact group in a separate file.

König praised the Akonadi architecture in his blog. He thus "had the chance to throw away all the ugly, historically grown code and restart from scratch." The source code became smaller, clearer and better structured. One caveat from König, however: "Don't expect the current KAddressBook to be as feature rich as its previous version. This has been a complete rewrite and I integrated only the features that made really sense IMHO."