04-01-2002, 01:39 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Pocket Informant 3.01 released
http://www.pocketinformant.com
Less than a month ago, Pocket Informant 3.0 was released, a complete rewrite of one of the most popular Pocket PC applications ever released. Over the weekend, 3.01 was finalized and released. There were a number of bug fixes and quite a few new features too.
Just a few of the new features:
�Drag and Drop in Week View - just drag an appointment or task to a new day and change its date and time
�Birthday and Anniversary Dates gathered from the Contacts database
�ABC Tab in the Contacts view for quick access to contacts. Unique user interface improves the use of this tab
�Summary Dialogs are available for appointments, tasks, and contacts and are on by default
�Double tap on the Calendar View (CAV) tab and the view will maximize to use up all horizontal space.
�Use the Calendar button to cycle through calendar views (very useful with the above mentioned CAV Maximize feature)
�Task Sorting in Calendar
�More Task options in Calendar
�Category Filtering in Task Priority Manager
�Optional System Tray icon
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04-01-2002, 03:13 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 86
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PI 3.01 is clearly the finest PIM available for the Pocket PC. Agenda Fusion copied the bulk of PI's 2.x release, added a couple of other features, and has marketed it quite well as a viable alternative.
With the release of PI 3.01, however, the bar has been raised so high, it will take the competition some time to recover and begin the process of copying/catching up.
PI 3.01 is fast, and really adds to one's productivity if used to its fullest capability. It appears to be "bug-less" for the most part and I dare say claiming its right as the best PIM for a PDA of all-time (Datebk4 users might debate this point).
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04-01-2002, 04:52 PM
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Theorist
Join Date: Apr 2002
Posts: 284
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Quote:
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PI 3.01 is clearly the finest PIM available for the Pocket PC. Agenda Fusion copied the bulk of PI's 2.x release, added a couple of other features, and has marketed it quite well as a viable alternative
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More PIM bashing.  If we want to start pointing fingers, both AF and PI ripped off many of their ideas from Datebook and ActionNames for the Palm PDAs (which in my opinion are still the best of their class). I think we need to let both PI and AF evolve and agree that they are both great PIMS and neither will appeal to everyone. Competition is a good thing. It helps keeps prices competitive or would you rather pay the $80-90 for Pocket On-Schedule which is the closest thing in the PocketPC world to a full-fledged Outlook 2000/2K2 equivalent. 
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04-01-2002, 05:24 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by CESkins
More PIM bashing. If we want to start pointing fingers, {snip} |
No... no pointing fingers. To each his own. I recommeneded a co-worker try PI3 and AF4 and he chose AF4 after a few days. Recommended both to a friend, tried both and went back to the default PIM apps. 
Just trying to keep people up to date. Normally wouldn't bother for a .01 update but there were quite a few new features.
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04-01-2002, 05:36 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 81
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Safety tip
I experienced a minor glitch after installing the updated PI; hopefully this note will help a few others avoid my headache.
After installation my hard buttons no longer functioned. After clicking, I got a message like "Can't find "Start" program". Upon seeing this I realized that the installer hadn't asked me (as I think it did in the past) if I wanted to assign PI to the hard buttons.
The solution is easy enough. Go to Settings | Buttons and re-select the corresponding PI functions. They'll appear to be identical, but something must have changed.
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04-01-2002, 05:45 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Safety tip
Quote:
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Originally Posted by ChrisW
After installation my hard buttons no longer functioned. After clicking, I got a message like "Can't find "Start" program". Upon seeing this I realized that the installer hadn't asked me (as I think it did in the past) if I wanted to assign PI to the hard buttons.
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The new installer on the device doesn't ask per se, it just has two check boxes at the top of the opening dialog. It is possible your's weren't checked, though mine were. I always uncheck them since I only like my Calendar button reassigned. I don't want Recorder or Contacts switched.
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04-01-2002, 07:06 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 86
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by CESkins
Quote:
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PI 3.01 is clearly the finest PIM available for the Pocket PC. Agenda Fusion copied the bulk of PI's 2.x release, added a couple of other features, and has marketed it quite well as a viable alternative
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More PIM bashing. |
Sorry you feel this way, but are you questioning the veracity of my earlier statement-- especially as it relates to the UI and overall feel?
I noted that Datebk4 users might argue, and as a former Datebk4 user, I must confess that I long for the day to see PI integrate a few of the remaining missing Datebk4 features into its own feature-set.
Respectfully,
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04-01-2002, 07:47 PM
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Theorist
Join Date: Apr 2002
Posts: 284
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Quote:
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Sorry you feel this way, but are you questioning the veracity of my earlier statement-- especially as it relates to the UI and overall feel?
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Short of D1 actually admitting to reverse engineering PI to create AF, how would I or anyone know with 100% accuracy that AF is a rip off of PI. There are only so many ways to display calendar info without it becoming difficult to decipher and unusable. Besides, just to prove that a piece of software is "novel" are we now expecting developers to create UI's and functionality radically different from anything that preceded. Software developers (MS, Adobe, Macromedia, etc.) utilize ideas that the competition developed and expand on them. MS made billions doing just that and we as PocPC users benefit from the integration of the best features the competition has to offer w/the best features native to the PocPC platform (whether it comes through MS or 3rd party developers). The UI for AF and PI is not the most important thing if you ask me but rather the underlying code. If D1 ripped off PI's code and then just added to it to create AF, I could rationalize the finger pointing. However, there is no evidence that I know of that this is the case. The development of PI's new user interface and functinality was driven by beta user input and Alex's creativity/programming skills....a lot of D1's AF feature set is also being driven by user input. I would like to add that some of the users of PI also have AF on their machine and are actually looking to get a product that gives the best of both worlds. Doesn't suprise me that two products would look similar and share similar feature sets initially when the same set of hard core users are the ones driving the UI development and integration of features. Like I said before...let's stop pointing fingers and give these two developers the input they need to make these the 2 best PIMs on the market (so I can retire the built-in PIM once and for all). 
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04-01-2002, 08:06 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 86
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Even if your first sentence were true, admission would never occur. I was certainly not alleging that code was copied, but rather the fact that after I downloaded AF and utilized for a couple of days, I found little that differentiated it between its predecessor--from a content and UI standpoint. Most of the program was eerily similar to PI. That said, the Icon Manager, however, was a nice feature for the PC.
From a performance standpoint though, it was terrible compared to PI on my iPAQ and then my HP568, and I just could not withstand the delays I was experiencing--it was impacting my productivity.
As I said, however, the marketing of the product is well done and there seems to be a group of individuals who will rabidly defend the product against all comers to the death.
Those of us without a financial incentive in either product (or any PIM, for that matter), simply want the best program available. As Ed pointed out earlier, a simple trial between the two latest releases should provide ample evidence concerning which one is the better PIM-- assuming one wants to improve productivity and organization.
BTW, if you haven't retired the built-in PIM yet, something is very, very wrong!
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04-01-2002, 08:10 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by mhowie
Even if your first sentence were true, admission would never occur.
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I already asked nicely once. Drop it or take it to private messaging.
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Linear Mode
