Windows Mobile 5 Reminders: Minor Improvements, Frustrations Still Remain

[Jason Dunn]

I really wish I could say that using a WM5 Smartphone was a radically improved experience over using my previous phone, but so far my experience (admittedly, only a week long so far) is that <i>almost</i> every single one of my frustrations about the operating system and built-in applications are still there. :?<br /><br />For instance, let's take reminders. One thing they <b>did</b> fix is that you can now snooze alarms for five or 15 minutes, one hour or one day. You can also select "Remind me 5 minutes before", which is a great option. This is a big improvement over the previous implementation - they've also added a View Item option, which opens the item - another good decision.<br /><br />While those changes are appreciated, two of the worst limitations are still limiting the usefulness of reminders from my point of view: first, if there's a phone number in the reminder, you can't dial it! This would seem to be something so painfully obvious and natural to do with a Smartphone, but it's still not possible. What you can do is click Menu > View Item, which opens up the reminder, and from there you can select and dial the phone number. But why not integrate this functionality right on the reminder? Why force the user to jump through hoops to access a phone number that's right on the screen?<br /><br />Almost as frustrating is the fact that notes still aren't displayed on the reminder. I routinely put driving directions in the notes field so I can figure out where I'm going, and I would love to see those notes pop up with a reminder. No dice. What's worse is that there's no icon indicating that the reminder has notes associated with it. A workaround is that by selecting View Item you can get at the notes, but then then you're working with the smaller font size and it's not as easy to read (especially while driving). GPS maps still suck for my home town, so I'm not going to use my Smartphone to GPS navigate.

[Jerry Raia]

It is almost as if the folks who design these things don't actually ever use them day to day like we do. It's all just "theory" to them.

[Mike Temporale]

Unfortunately, most of the changes in this release are "under the hood" type things. While they were needed, it would have been nice to see some more of the cosmetic/functional changes made. One of Kris's favourite complaints is the in Call History, the time the call came in is way down at the bottom of the page - where it can't be seen unless you scroll. :? I really wish they would make these usability issues a little higher priority.

[ragintajin]

Question: when you have the phone mode set to Automatic, does it still set itself to silent if an appointment set as Free becomes active?

[nedge2k]

I think anyone that has used this update will agree its a big let down for the end user but supposedly great news for developers.

[ARW]

I'm glad to hear that there are some viable snooze options now. That was one of my major complaints about 02 and 03. Another complaint was the whole time of call in Call History. That strikes me as a rather simple fix so why haven't they made the change?

Not that this really matter right now, as it's hard to imagine VZW rolling anything out with WM05 on it until late 2006 anyway.

[Jason Dunn]

Question: when you have the phone mode set to Automatic, does it still set itself to silent if an appointment set as Free becomes active?

Wow. Ok, I never use Automatic mode, but I have it in that mode now. I don't understand your question about the appointment though - how can you have an appointment set as free? Tell me what type of appointment to create and I'll try to answer your question.

[sweetpete]

you can mark an appointment as busy, out of office, tentative or free. i believe that is what he's referring to.

also, another question jason ... i don't believe you can create meeting request with other attendees added yet in WM5 Smartphones, correct?

[Jason Dunn]

i don't believe you can create meeting request with other attendees added yet in WM5 Smartphones, correct?

Yes, that's correct, which completely sucks. :evil:

[Jason Dunn]

you can mark an appointment as busy, out of office, tentative or free. i believe that is what he's referring to.

Ok, I created an appointment, set it to free, the phone was in automatic, and no chime sounded on the phone when the alarm triggered (although it did chime on my desktop). Is that what he was asking?

[cmorris]

you can mark an appointment as busy, out of office, tentative or free. i believe that is what he's referring to.

Ok, I created an appointment, set it to free, the phone was in automatic, and no chime sounded on the phone when the alarm triggered (although it did chime on my desktop). Is that what he was asking?

Not exactly - the question is what happens when a call comes in when the "Free" appointment is happening? Does it use your Normal settings or your Silent settings?

[Jason Dunn]

Not exactly - the question is what happens when a call comes in when the "Free" appointment is happening? Does it use your Normal settings or your Silent settings?

Normal settings - the phone rings.

[Mr. PPC]

i don't believe you can create meeting request with other attendees added yet in WM5 Smartphones, correct?

Yes, that's correct, which completely sucks. :evil:

Might want to look at Papyrus by SBSH for this, just added this feature.

[pugwonk]

Hello all... first post here. :)

I've spent the better part of this morning trying to find out what was improved about the reminders interface in WM5, and yours is the best article I've come across. Apart from yours, my major gripes have always been:

1. Snoozing a reminder on the Smartphone doesn't snooze it in Outlook on the PC when you sync (and, half the time, dismissing it doesn't dismiss it either)
2. This is a cracking one - if you lock the keyboard on the smartphone (by holding down the red "end call" key), it turns the top left function key into an "unlock" key. This key is the only one that's enabled in any way whilst the phone is locked. However... if a reminder comes up while you're locked, the "unlock" key dismisses the bloomin' thing, instead of unlocking the phone. So the only way to unlock the phone is actually to dismiss all your reminders first.

I've no idea whether these are fixed in WM5 or not but hey, I might as well get my moan in. One interesting point - if you snooze a reminder for a given amount of time in WM5 (yay!), does the next snooze default to the same time? Quite often I want to snooze _all_ my reminders for an hour or two.

Any info appreciated - I very much enjoyed your article.

Chris

[Jason Dunn]

Welcome to Smartphone Thoughts - I hope you'll stick around. :-)

1. Snoozing a reminder on the Smartphone doesn't snooze it in Outlook on the PC when you sync (and, half the time, dismissing it doesn't dismiss it either)

Yeah, there's no reminder status sync anywhere. It gets even more irritating when you have a PC, Smartphone, and Pocket PC, and all three go off. But there's no solution to that other than having all three connected wirelessly, and one saying "ok, I'm the master device" and only it would trigger. It's all a bit messy and complex.

2. This is a cracking one - if you lock the keyboard on the smartphone (by holding down the red "end call" key), it turns the top left function key into an "unlock" key.

Yeah, this is a big pain point for me as well. I'm no longer using the Windows Mobile 5 phone, so I can't remember if this was fixed. Sorry. :-(

One interesting point - if you snooze a reminder for a given amount of time in WM5 (yay!), does the next snooze default to the same time? Quite often I want to snooze _all_ my reminders for an hour or two.

I don't think so, but I can't remember to be honest. That would be a good feature though!