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View Full Version : WebIS Toolbox 3.0 Released


Darius Wey
09-13-2005, 05:00 PM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.webis.net/products_info.php?p_id=time&dir=wm' target='_blank'>http://www.webis.net/products_info...._id=time&dir=wm</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Toolbox is a handy collection of utilities designed to improve your Pocket PC 2003/2003SE experience. With Toolbox, you can present your Personal Information Manager content in a more friendly, customized way, and manage the debris that ActiveSync and other sync tools accidentally create! Toolbox 3.0 provides an interface anyone can use with colorful descriptive icons and easy to use wizard like screens."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/wey-20050914-WebISToolbox.gif" /><br /><br />WebIS Toolbox does everything from removing duplicate contacts and backing up your PIM data to automatically correcting time zone information. It is compatible with all Windows Mobile 2003 / 2003 Second Edition devices and can be purchased from <a href="http://www.handango.com/ampp/store/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=311&productId=125974&productType=2">Handango</a> for $24.95. A trial version is available from <a href="http://www.webis.net/products_info.php?p_id=time&dir=wm&tab_id=download">WebIS</a>. [Affiliate]

Jacob
09-13-2005, 05:06 PM
On WebIS (http://www.webis.net/products_info.php?p_id=time&amp;dir=wm&amp;tab_id=purchase)and Handango (http://www.handango.com/ampp/store/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=311&amp;productId=125974&amp;productType=2) the price appears to be listed as $19.95 not $24.95.

Jason Lee
09-13-2005, 05:43 PM
I've not had good experience with webis products. I use SK Tools (http://www.s-k-tools.com). It does so much more. Though i'll admit probably not as user friendly.

alex_kac
09-13-2005, 05:56 PM
Jason Lee, I'm sorry to hear you haven't had good experience with our stuff. I admit that its impossible to have a perfect reputation with every single possible configuration that a customer may have, but we try to make sure that any issues our customers report to us are taken care of.

I'd like to take a discussion with you offline to see what exactly you had a problem with us on. Its just not a comment I hear very often, our survey of a thousand customers show only about 3% had a bad experience and frankly when you get to a certain size of a company there are so many voices that one just can't hear them all. So it is possible if you had said something to us before we missed it and I'd certainly like to know what went wrong so we can see how to improve that. Feel free to PM me or such - I'd really like to hear it.

Marcel_Proust
09-13-2005, 05:59 PM
I've not had good experience with webis products. I use SK Tools (http://www.s-k-tools.com). It does so much more. Though i'll admit probably not as user friendly.

I think this has some things s-k doesn't. s-k of course has much more generally, but this is just pim oriented. however, to my mind, it's vastly overpriced for what it is. they're probably trading in on their good name with pocketinformant and others.

alex_kac
09-13-2005, 06:00 PM
Also, from what I can tell, SKTools is more of a Pocket PC utility app with very basic PIM utilities while WebIS Toolbox focuses on PIM utilities. Our contact duplicate remover doesn't just keep/delete like SKTools. It also merges. We've also got utilities that no other app has.

The two just aren't competitors except in very narrow cases.

alex_kac
09-13-2005, 06:10 PM
I've not had good experience with webis products. I use SK Tools (http://www.s-k-tools.com). It does so much more. Though i'll admit probably not as user friendly.

I think this has some things s-k doesn't. s-k of course has much more generally, but this is just pim oriented. however, to my mind, it's vastly overpriced for what it is. they're probably trading in on their good name with pocketinformant and others.

What do you consider fair pricing for a bunch of utilities? Fair pricing is what pays for its development and then some.

I pay $30 for a desktop duplicates remover app. That's all it does. $10 less for a Pocket PC app that does that and a whole lot more. I pay $30 for an app that just does backups and so on. Yes, each of our functions are simple - but that's the point. We don't want them to be so complex that nobody can use it. They are all very useful and powerful features that people have been asking about for years, but to put them in Pocket Informant would just be bloat.

So frankly, I think its underpriced when I look at all the utilities out there on the market, but then most Pocket PC apps are just because the mindset is that its on a mobile device so its got to be cheaper than desktop apps, yet the development cost is the same as on the desktop and the market is smaller. I don't begrudge that at all, but its not like we're making a large or even small profit on most mobile apps yet and it does slightly bother me when people shortchange the effort put into these things.

zohaer21
09-13-2005, 06:22 PM
hi
what about wm5.o and vga compatability...i think all apps released from now on should be wm5.0 compatible

Marcel_Proust
09-13-2005, 06:27 PM
I've not had good experience with webis products. I use SK Tools (http://www.s-k-tools.com). It does so much more. Though i'll admit probably not as user friendly.

I think this has some things s-k doesn't. s-k of course has much more generally, but this is just pim oriented. however, to my mind, it's vastly overpriced for what it is. they're probably trading in on their good name with pocketinformant and others.

What do you consider fair pricing for a bunch of utilities? Fair pricing is what pays for its development and then some.

I pay $30 for a desktop duplicates remover app. That's all it does. $10 less for a Pocket PC app that does that and a whole lot more. I pay $30 for an app that just does backups and so on. Yes, each of our functions are simple - but that's the point. We don't want them to be so complex that nobody can use it. They are all very useful and powerful features that people have been asking about for years, but to put them in Pocket Informant would just be bloat.

So frankly, I think its underpriced when I look at all the utilities out there on the market, but then most Pocket PC apps are just because the mindset is that its on a mobile device so its got to be cheaper than desktop apps, yet the development cost is the same as on the desktop and the market is smaller. I don't begrudge that at all, but its not like we're making a large or even small profit on most mobile apps yet and it does slightly bother me when people shortchange the effort put into these things.

Look, I don't begrudge you the freedom to charge what you want for the programs you develop. Let the market decide.
And I could be completely wrong in my estimation of what the market will decide this program is worth.
I don't think PI or your mail program for instance are at all overpriced. They are very good value. Others may disagree.
This is a much simpler utility program, and I'm comparing it's price to pocket pc programs of similar complexity. I guess it'll depend on what the competition and freeware programers can come up with and what improvements you will code.
For the moment, for me, the price of this program is inflated.
All the best.

alex_kac
09-13-2005, 06:37 PM
And I don't begrudge that opinion at all! I do apologize for going on a bit of a ramble, but I do feel its important to explain our position as well.

Jonathan1
09-13-2005, 06:46 PM
For what its worth I've found WebIS's wares to be fantastic with only a few small install issues with PI in the past. The latest version installed flawlessly on my 4700..before the screen cracked yesterday... :cry:

Anyways. Keep up the good work alex. Your stuff rocks.

alex_kac
09-13-2005, 06:53 PM
I appreciate it. However as important as I find making our software to be the best in the industry (although I admit we don't always achieve that), I also believe that being available to customers is almost as important. And that's what I try to do. I am only one of the people within WebIS, but I am the owner and therefore I believe that any praise or complaints that are out there for our products - I should be available to receive them. And that's why you see me on this forum for better or worse. Most other developers prefer not to bother, but this is how we got to where we are: by listening to both the good and bad from our users. I do not want this thread to degenerate into a praise/complaint session, but I did want to go to bat for our products and their worth.

WebIS Toolbox is just the first release of Toolbox and we've got one developer dedicated to it and another unreleased product for at least the next 6 months. We have a ton of stuff we want to add to it but keep it easy to use. And of course that other unreleased product is pretty darn neat too :D

carphead
09-13-2005, 06:56 PM
WebIS Toolbox is just the first release of Toolbox and we've got one developer dedicated to it and another unreleased product for at least the next 6 months. We have a ton of stuff we want to add to it but keep it easy to use. And of course that other unreleased product is pretty darn neat too :D

So what happened to v1 and v2?

alex_kac
09-13-2005, 07:02 PM
Toolbox has its original roots in "Correct Time" by IAA. For different reasons at the time, we licensed "Correct Time" from IAA and added a few other features and called it "PI Correct Time 2.0" as it was an updated product from the 1.0 app that IAA gave us. Then recently, we literally rewrote the code from scratch and added quite a few different utilities. Since the correct time portion was really a minor part now, we renamed it to WebIS Toolbox and its at version 3.0. We expect to have a 3.01/3.1/3.2 and so on release over the next 12 months.

stevelam
09-13-2005, 07:19 PM
I appreciate it. However as important as I find making our software to be the best in the industry (although I admit we don't always achieve that), I also believe that being available to customers is almost as important. And that's what I try to do. I am only one of the people within WebIS, but I am the owner and therefore I believe that any praise or complaints that are out there for our products - I should be available to receive them. And that's why you see me on this forum for better or worse. Most other developers prefer not to bother, but this is how we got to where we are: by listening to both the good and bad from our users. I do not want this thread to degenerate into a praise/complaint session, but I did want to go to bat for our products and their worth.


Personally I think it is really good of you just to come and explain you views. Developers hardly ever talk to their audience (I should know) and its good to see them around. 8)

donc36
09-14-2005, 12:17 AM
Don't confuse the simplicity of this application with the power behind it. This is an awesome utility - I can't speak for anyone else, but the ability to assign categories based on properties is very helpful for me (I keep forgetting when I create them, or when I get a card beamed).

Frankly, when I first saw it, I thought I'd use it sparingly - but I find myself using it fairly regularly. Not as much as my mail program or PIM, but certainly more than some of the other utility type products I've accumulated over the years. Naturally, your milage may vary.

The de-duper, given activesync's desire to insist on merging my pim records on a regular basis, is also helpful to avoid confusion, and save time and memory.

Search and replace, I just went through a merger recently at work - I wish I had it then to change my e-mail addresses and company name for my work contacts. My only regret is WebIS didn't release this about 8 months ago.....

As far as the price, I personally feel its worth it - WebIS is a professional company, with well supported products (just check out Alex's involvement in the forums at www.pocketinformant.com, and I do have personal experience with their support staff too ) and will be there for the long haul, with regular updates and releases. I've already invested in "low price" (sub- &amp;15.00 ) software only to find literally years between upgrades, and we've all seen how SOME (please don't flame me with the exceptions, I know there are some) of the "buy now, free upgrades for life" plans work (or don't in some cases). I'd personally invest a few dollars more in a company I feel confident will support the product next year too. In my mind, not to do so is a false economy.

Don

jlp
09-14-2005, 10:16 PM
Well I think WebIS Toolbox 3.0 should be free because it only corrects things made by using PocketInformant. AFAIK these errors are NOT the user's faults but the programs', aren't they?!

Just yesterday I missed a very important appointment and lost money because my PPC didn't wake me up. I had 3 alarms setup for various tasks to perform before the appointment and none went off (in fact they did ONLY when I turned on the device manually, too late for the appointment).

Yet I did setup 2 test alarms in the previous evening and they did turn the device on and went off. I even soft reset and setup a 3rd test alarm that worked fine too.

Today I had an appointment that sounded 200 times (yes I had a list of about 200!! of the same item to dismiss or snooze); it took a good 7 minutes before I could get control of my PPC to dismiss all. AND that appointment had been previously moved to the next day at a different time!!!

So NOT ONLY did it go off at the wrong date and time, but it sounded 200 times!! AND I have a special loud alarm (to be sure I hear it when the PPC is in its case, tucked in my pocket and I have a winter coat on me while walking in a loud, busy street; I couln't hear any standard alarm then).

Anyway the appointment database surely needs some good dusting and it's certainly not due to a mistake from my part.

That's why I think it should be free as it corrects what PI does wrong in the first place.

donc36
09-15-2005, 01:24 AM
[quote="jlp"]Well I think WebIS Toolbox 3.0 should be free because it only corrects things made by using PocketInformant. AFAIK these errors are NOT the user's faults but the programs', aren't they?!
.....

I'm not trying to be confrontational, but I highly doubt PocketInformant (which I've used on a daily basis for over 3 years), or AF (which I've trialed on and off) can cause these issues. There is a well known bug in the WM2003 operating system that can cause issues with alarms. I'm pretty sure both PIM's simply use the OS's alarm subsystem.

Nothing personal, I'm not saying you caused the problems you've experienced with the alarms, its just I doubt is was Pocket Informant.

jlp
09-15-2005, 03:06 AM
Well I think WebIS Toolbox 3.0 should be free because it only corrects things made by using PocketInformant. AFAIK these errors are NOT the user's faults but the programs', aren't they?!
.....

I'm not trying to be confrontational, but I highly doubt PocketInformant (which I've used on a daily basis for over 3 years), or AF (which I've trialed on and off) can cause these issues. There is a well known bug in the WM2003 operating system that can cause issues with alarms. I'm pretty sure both PIM's simply use the OS's alarm subsystem.

Nothing personal, I'm not saying you caused the problems you've experienced with the alarms, its just I doubt is was Pocket Informant.

Well, since this is a well known bug in WM03, what has MS been doing for TWO YEARS without issuing a MUCH NEEDED BUG CORRECTION :evil:?!!

I don't doubt you're right, I just wonder what has caused MS to NOT issue a MUCH NEEDED BUG CORRECTION 0X !!

Jason Lee
09-15-2005, 04:17 AM
the sad part is now that i've figured it out it is a very easy bug to fix. usually i only have to change the wakeup power of timers in the registry from 15 seconds to 30. that's it. on some devices i might also need an app like check notifications to clear out the stray entries in the notifications queue. this has worked for me and my family on 5 different pocket pcs over the last 2 or more years. never a missed alarm in the morning.
now why can't ms fix that? ;)

jlp
09-16-2005, 09:32 PM
[quote=jlp]...I highly doubt PocketInformant (which I've used on a daily basis for over 3 years), or AF (which I've trialed on and off) can cause these issues. There is a well known bug in the WM2003 operating system that can cause issues with alarms. I'm pretty sure both PIM's simply use the OS's alarm subsystem.

....

How can you be so sure... you must not ignore that every program has bugs...

Even tho WM03's alarm system has some bug/s, does NOT mean PI's alarm's has none, don't you think?!

Yesterday while syncing thru AS, I got a file syncing problem with PI data files, those that are in the RAM My documents/WEBis/ folder...

And now when I open this folder I can see a bunch of *.bin files, some of which are called "Changed Copy of *.bin or txt"

I use PI version 5.6.2.0195

If the Toolbox app fixes PI files like these or others or files that PI uses then I think it should be free to fix PI related problems...

Jacob
09-16-2005, 10:15 PM
How can you be so sure... you must not ignore that every program has bugs...

Even tho WM03's alarm system has some bug/s, does NOT mean PI's alarm's has none, don't you think?!


I'm pretty sure PI simply uses the existing alarm system and tables. If it's MS that handles the tables wrong then it's their issue.

If it's a problem with PI then the problem in PI needs to be fixed - not with a free application to fix the problem in PI.

This application, in part alone, helps work around the problems that already exist in Microsoft's OS.

jlp
09-17-2005, 01:40 AM
I don't know what those PI *.bin files I mentionned do, but they are binaries (code?), and some contain Registry codes; and the syncing problem just appears the next day I had those alarms problems.

Phillip Dyson
09-20-2005, 09:14 PM
The whole timezone thing has me both confused and frustrated. I don't want my whole database necessarily converted when I change my Time Zone.

The ideal solution would be to allow me to select the time zone when I set the time of my appointment.

When I set up an appointment at 3pm, then I can say "Your time or mine?"
Then I don't have to go through any conversions in my head. But I also don't have to go through some massive database conversion.

My thinking is that if I setup an appointment for 8am EST, the change the timezone to Pacific time, then my calendar should tell me that I have an appointment at 5am PST.

Jason Lee
09-20-2005, 10:17 PM
The whole timezone thing has me both confused and frustrated. I don't want my whole database necessarily converted when I change my Time Zone.

The ideal solution would be to allow me to select the time zone when I set the time of my appointment.

When I set up an appointment at 3pm, then I can say "Your time or mine?"
Then I don't have to go through any conversions in my head. But I also don't have to go through some massive database conversion.

My thinking is that if I setup an appointment for 8am EST, the change the timezone to Pacific time, then my calendar should tell me that I have an appointment at 5am PST.

That's the way windows mobile works by default. This app is for people who want to change their time zone but not have their appointments stay at the correct time. They want the appointments to shift as if they were in the new timezone. So a 2PM PST appt is still a 2PM EST appt. I really don't understand. When i make an appt that for another time zone (and don't want to add or subtract 1 or 2 i go to the time control pannel and set the visiting time to what ever time zone my appts is in and change to visiting. Hit ok and create the appt. then go change back to home time zone. That's it.

Now what's really fun is to setup a flight scheduel that takes off in one timezone and lands in another. :lol:

Darius Wey
11-30-2005, 03:52 PM
Heads-up that v3.02 has been released. It offers full Windows Mobile 5.0 support, square-screen support, and much more.

http://www.webis.net/products_info.php?p_id=time&amp;dir=wm&amp;tab_id=introduction

jlp
12-01-2005, 12:51 AM
As far as timezones are concerned, I just change my Home portion of the clock to reflect the time where I AM. Regardless of that time zone cr@p nobody gets right unless they think a good deal about it just to make sure they don't have it the wrong way around 8O and get so late to their meeting it's utterly embarrassing :oops: :evil:.

Home is where the (physical) heart is 8).

ctmagnus
12-01-2005, 05:17 AM
Heads-up that v3.02 has been released. It offers full Windows Mobile 5.0 support, square-screen support, and much more.

http://www.webis.net/products_info.php?p_id=time&amp;dir=wm&amp;tab_id=introduction

And for the actual list of new features, click here (http://www.webis.net/whatsnew.php?type=toolbox&amp;version=302&amp;Product_Version=WebIS%20Toolbox%203.02). ;)