Pocket Informant Pseudo-Review. Opinions wanted

[sublime]

I have downloaded the trial version. The first time I used it, it froze within 10 minutes of using. I deleted it then. I read reviews about how great it was, so reinstalled it and gave it another shot. This time was better. It stalled within 11 minutes of using. I deleted it again. After reading more reviews about how amazing it is, I installed it one last time. It froze again (this time, I'm sure it was around 12 minutes), but I did not delete it! I soft resetted and tried to continue to use it. It froze again, and I said "Screw this !@#$#" and deleted it once and for all.

The question is, does the program suck, or does my iPAQ suck? One of these two sucks, but I don't know who to point the finger to.

[Janak Parekh]

FWIW, I've never had PI freeze on me. It sounds like you're having application interaction issues. There may not be a trivial way to debug this though. :( Usually, I'll backup, do a hard reset, install JUST that app, and try it and see if it's OK or not. An alternative would be to take the programs out of Startup, and see if something running in the background is causing the problem..

As an alternative, you might want to comb through the forums on www.webis.net and see if there's any mention of the problem you're having. I've also heard Alex, the developer, is pretty responsive.

--janak

[stitics]

I can't speak to the technical issues involved here, and I know there is an ongoing (friendly?) debate regarding which is better, but you might want to check out the trial version of DeveloperOne's Agenda Fusion (http://www.developerone.com/agendafusion/index.htm). A LOT of similarities, some differences.

For the record, I use Agenda Fusion and have never tried Pocket Informant. I wouldn't call myself biased, but I don't really know about the other.

[sublime]

The fact is, I never considered either Agenda Fusion or Pocket Informant necessities, or even useful. They don't seem to provide anything that the built in PIM doesn't offer. The only reason I considered Pocket Informant for purchasing is because Mastersoft Money comes free with it, and I figure that paying a few bucks more for a copy of PI would not be that bad. I would never consider purchasing it on its own.

But please tell me if I'm wrong. I really want to know what is it about these PIMs that appeals to everyone. Aesthetic appeal aside, what do these PIMs offer?

[Janak Parekh]

But please tell me if I'm wrong. I really want to know what is it about these PIMs that appeals to everyone. Aesthetic appeal aside, what do these PIMs offer?
They do offer features above and beyond the built-in Pocket Outlook: finer-grained prioritization, hierarchical tasks, alarm notes, and links are among the ones I can name off the top of my head.

However, I don't use any of those. What I do use is the additional views afforded to me by PI. The agenda view, zoomable month display, the category-based task view, and the split contacts view make it that much more useful for me. That said, not everyone needs it; I have hundreds of contacts and can have many appointments in a single week. I also have about 130 active tasks. :cry:

--janak

[tanalasta]

Hmm... seem to see a lot of your posts lately sublime ;) Not sure what problem you had with pocketinformant but i finally decided to install it yesterday and it works just fine. Question though, are you installing it to a storage card or main memory? I had a few problems with the storage card and had to delete/reinstall everything to main memory.

As to whether it's useful: If you use the PIM's on your pocketpc a lot then yes. If you never do then no. Pocketinformant is basically the basic outlook app plus most of the useful (and pretty!) enhancements that most people want to get the most out of this aspect of a pocketpc. As Janak posted, it allows you to organise, categorise and view/sort/search calender & tasks which many people consider essential in organising their daily lives. It does take a bit of getting used to though, especially if you can't be bothered reading the hefty manual. I've never used agenda fusion so i can't comment on that.

[tennispro]

I'm using the trial version of PI and I like it. No problems running it on my iPAQ 2215. I never figured out if it is possible to sort by last name in the PIM that comes with WinMobile 2003, but PI makes that very easy, which I like.
I also tried Agenda Fusion, but thought it was not as intuitive to use as PI.

[sublime]

I caved in, and installed the program again, this time after hard resetting. I didn't install just that program as suggested above, but along with my other applications. All of them are necessary, and if PI can't work with them, then PI will be the one that has to go.

So I installed it again. This time a record was set. Three seconds into using it I had another freeze. I soft reset, tried the program again, and had it freeze once more.

I'm going to ask the company what the problem may be. This is ridiculous

[Ripper014]

Sublime.. which PPC are you using...? And maybe its time to give Agenda Fusion a try. I have used both and originally I like PI better but now I am using Agenda Fusion... only because there are a few things about it I like better. To be honest I have not delved deep into PI to see if there was a way to find a work around with PI... I just figured if I have Agenda Fusion working the way I want why mess around.

[sublime]

iPAQ 2210. I don't really want the program, and would never consider AF, but only consider PI because Mastersoft Money comes free with it.

[mrkablooey]

sublime:

give this site a try:

http://beta.webis.net/FTF/

specifically this file:

http://beta.webis.net/FTF/PocketInformant.ARM.cab

got that link from alex_kac on brighthand who works for PI. i'm using that version on my 2215 with no problem. don't know what the diff is with that and the trial version but it does work :)

[IowaArchitect]

I have been using PI on an Ipaq w/NO problems.
Actually, I'm on my second Ipaq (upgrade) and installed PI on both with no problems at all. wouldn't use my ppc without it.

[Jeff Rutledge]

got that link from alex_kac on brighthand who works for PI.

Actually, Alex is the President and CEO of WebIS and the developer of PocketInformant.

[mrkablooey]

got that link from alex_kac on brighthand who works for PI.

Actually, Alex is the President and CEO of WebIS and the developer of PocketInformant.

Even better, thanks for the clarification. :)

[terrypin]

Sublime.. which PPC are you using...? And maybe its time to give Agenda Fusion a try. I have used both and originally I like PI better but now I am using Agenda Fusion... only because there are a few things about it I like better. To be honest I have not delved deep into PI to see if there was a way to find a work around with PI... I just figured if I have Agenda Fusion working the way I want why mess around.

Interesting - that was my experience too. I'm getting on much better with AF now, even though PI was the first one I registered and used for maybe 6 weeks, after trialing both for a couple of weeks in the first place.

I found what I regarded as glaring logical inconsistencies in the way PI presented its task views (although few of its fans agreed with me!) And as well as having none of those, AF has a less cluttered and more intuitive user interface IMO.

But, of course, as others have outlined, there are many other features that may add value for individual users.

--
Terry, West Sussex, UK
Using iPAQ 2210 with WM2003.



But for every 10 favouring AF, it seems you'll find 10 (or 9 or 11, depending on where you look) who are every bit as enthusiastic about PI.

On sublime's earlier point, about overall genuine usefulness, my main motive was to be able to assign flexible reminder times to tasks. That silly fixed 08:00 time in PO spoils an otherwise rather good prog IMO.

--
Terry, West Sussex, UK
Using iPAQ 2210 with WM2003.

[terrypin]

Sublime.. which PPC are you using...? And maybe its time to give Agenda Fusion a try. I have used both and originally I like PI better but now I am using Agenda Fusion... only because there are a few things about it I like better. To be honest I have not delved deep into PI to see if there was a way to find a work around with PI... I just figured if I have Agenda Fusion working the way I want why mess around.

[Oops, sorry - resending]

Interesting - that was my experience too. I'm getting on much better with AF now, even though PI was the first one I registered and used for maybe 6 weeks, after trialing both for a couple of weeks in the first place.

I found what I regarded as glaring logical inconsistencies in the way PI presented its task views (although few of its fans agreed with me!) And as well as having none of those, AF has a less cluttered and more intuitive user interface IMO.

But, of course, as others have outlined, there are many other features that may add value for individual users.

But for every 10 favouring AF, it seems you'll find 10 (or 9 or 11, depending on where you look) who are every bit as enthusiastic about PI.

On sublime's earlier point, about overall genuine usefulness, my main motive was to be able to assign flexible reminder times to tasks. That silly fixed 08:00 time in PO spoils an otherwise rather good prog IMO.

--
Terry, West Sussex, UK
Using iPAQ 2210 with WM2003.