Agendus For Windows Mobile Released

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://www.iambic.com/agendus/wmppc/details.asp">http://www.iambic.com/agendus/wmppc/details.asp</a><br /><br /><i>"We understand a busy professional like you need a Personal Information Management solution that is powerful and customizable yet still mobile, convenient, and easy to use. We give you Agendus, which holds the essence of all your needs and more. Agendus offers unmatched contact, calendar, tasks and calls management that you won't find in the native programs or any other PIM software."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/hansberry/2007/20070221-agendus.jpg" /><br /><br />Agendus has long been one of the most popular PIM managers on PalmOS and now it is available for Windows Mobile. It uses the Pocket Outlook databases on your Pocket PC so all of your data is synchronized with Outlook or Exchange. It supports appointments, contacts, tasks, and has the ability to update itself wirelessly. There is a trial available or you can buy it for $19.99. The site has dozens of screenshots so you can get a feel for what the product is capable of.

[Rex]

Well, I installed the PC version of the software. It will put all extra icon &amp; color data as an extra text in your outlook "notes" field. When I started to categorize my 6000 appointment entries from the last years I wondered about the huge size increase of "pim.vol" on my WM5 device. Then I realized the extra text in the notes field. I de-installed the application - but the de-installer did NOT delete all the Icon and color data. So I got a 3MB increase in my ppc device data file - and no way to delete the useless extra information.

Well, how do you think Agendus will work on your device? it will basically do the same, leaving you with a big RAM loss on your device.

[mgartner]

As Iambic announced the beta version I allready told them that in my oppinion this application is far too "Palmish" for my taste (and I think also for most other WM users).

They simply don't follow the Windows Mobile development style guides! Why use custom scroll bars, why custom buttons, ...?

I also discovered the behaviour where configuration is written to the notes field of each entry - this behaviour is same as in Agendus for PalmOS (which I used a long time as a Palm user).

I really don't think this application will make it's way (if they don't change fundamental things!) ...

[dorelse]

When I was a Palm user, I LOVED Agendus. Check that...I loved ActionNames...back in the day...I liked Agendus. Good tool on the Palm side.

I could no longer keep paying for bug fixes and just ran with version 8 for years until I got my Axim.

If you buy the product be aware, that Agendus, like all software will have bugs. Fine, that's to be expected. However, unlike other software applications, they very infrequently release free patches.

What Iambic likes to do is fix bugs in the next release. So...for example. If the strikethrough feature broke in their v8 release. You didn't get a fix to the bug unless you purchased v8.5. Worked in v7, broke in v8, fixed in v8.5 = $ for a feature that should have been patched for free in v8. Lots of users screamed for it.

To be fair, major issues are resolved in releases for free, b/c they had to, but there were lots of times that you had to continually pay for an upgrade to get a fix for the previous version.

I finally just got tired of it and went PPC &amp; DeveloperOne.

Honestly, they always focused on the next version, and didn't focus enough on supporting GA'd products. I hope they've resolved that.

Now that I'm on a t-Mobile SDA...AgendaOne would be hard to equal. Developer One has really stepped up! On the fly product updates directly to my phone? How sweet is that!

[mv]

Since PI and AF are so good, agendus has a strong competition... and i don´t think they can handle it. I tried the windows version also, but it was not that great. Saddly.

[dorelse]

I just checked Developer One's updates...since GA, AgendaOne has been patched &amp; had some nice functionality added for free 18 times since GA in Nov. 2006. 18 patches &amp; upgrades in 4 months time. Way to go DeveloperOne! :way to go:

Iambic has some tough competition in the PPC space. Its unlikely PI &amp; DO are going to go quietly.

[adriano]

When I see comments around the fact we always charge for upgrades I just can't resist to drop in a little clarification :) -- all our minor updates are free of charge and, I could be wrong, but I believe we do update most of our titles pretty often -- as an example:

http://www.iambic.com/agenduspro/palmos/whatsnew.asp

all the 11.x have been free of charge and brough in significant additions to the initial 11.0

Looking for even more frequent updates? Then glance over our forums where we recently started ongoing beta releases -- Agendus for Windows Mobile Pocket PC being the first experiment around this (we curretly have build 115 in the beta releases forums, likely to get replaced with build 116 later today).

- Adriano

[alex_kac]

It should be noted that WebIS also provides "minor" updates for free and we do about 4-6 a year and usually incorporate some major new functionality in each release. We used to do a very large number of updates, but we found that users really don't like having to reinstall their software every 2-4 weeks and that testing suffered greatly which means that the quality suffered. So now we usually provide final releases of our "Revisions" every 2-3 months which incorporate big improvements between each release. We also do OTA updates.

We are a few days away from releasing the first major beta of Pocket Informant Rev 3 where we are providing some very big improvements not available on any other PIM including the topic thread here.

I normally don't like to "hijack" a thread like this, but since it seems to have already moved to a discussion on all the major PIMs I thought I should mention us. BTW - there is a good reason why PI was the fourth best selling application of any kind on Handango for 2006 and #1 in the PIMs.

[xdalaw]

adriano-

I'd like to hear a response/explanation to Rex's comment in post 2, above. If he's correct, that's a pretty nasty side-effect of an installation of Agendus.

-- Andrew

[Birdiestyle]

And Ulti-Planner(the longtime #3 PIM) is still out there and has NEVER charged for major or minor updates, and is currently on sale for $11.95. We are also getting a new release ready AND are also readying a version of our very popular eXtreme Agenda(XA). We are porting XA over from the WM Smartphone side to come compete as well. OTA updates are coming soon along with a lot of other big big things... You can check out XA to see just how we are pushing the envelope in only 6 months, and will keep on pushing...

Welcome to the market Agendus... :)

[Lex]

Too expensive.

[seaflipper]

I downloaded this the first day it came out. It didn't seem to work very well with my Treo 750. The d-pad didn't seem to work in many cases.

I certainly is a 1.0 rev. Has potential though.

Back to PI though :-)

[dorelse]

I will say this though. For the Palm side of life, I liked Agendus. I'm probably coming off too much as an angry customer. I'm not.

It worked well 99% of the time and was always my number 1 app to install on my device. I used it on my 2mb Visor all the way through to my Lifedrive.

When its time to upgrade, I'll certainly evaluate all offerings.

[Ian Breakspear]

I'm with dorelse in that I was a great fan of ActionNames on the Palm, but eventually got sick of the app growing in size, acquiring all sorts of "features", and becoming more and more unstable.

It was necessary to pay for these features to get the fixes for bugs in the previous version, only to find the new version introduced a new set of bugs.

And if you tried installing an older version which you were happy with, on a newer device, it wouldn't work. I had other apps which I'd been using since the days of my Palm Vx still installed and working on my Treo650, but Agendus/ActionNames couldn't cope.

Added to this was appalling customer service when I had to contact them about various issues.

Overall the most unsatisfactory experience with PDA/smartphone software I've ever had (and I hope I don't have a situation which tops it in the future!).

The screenshots and comments from people on this thread seem to indicate that it is trying to be a direct port to WM. I think this is very misguided. I jumped from Palm to WM recently, and it would seem sort of silly to make apps for WM work like they work on Palm. Sure it would minimise transition time for new converts, but it strikes me as equivalent to purchasing a Commodore 64 emulator for your CoreDuo MacBook just so you can run the GeOS wordprocessing software. Rather misses the point.

And again like dorelse, I'm very pleased with AgendaOne from DeveloperOne. Fast, customisable, great one handed functionality, stable, regular useful updates, easy to use and great user interface. Additionally great customer service.

[cnyprecast]

I am a huge PIM user. I use Outlook 2007 on my Tablet PC and Pocket Informant on my iPAQ 4705. I really wish that Outlook had some of the great features that PI provides.

I have looked at other PPC PIMS (Agenda Fusion the most), but none seem to come close to the feature set (overall) and ease of use that PI provides. It can be as simple or as sophisticated as you want, and it is fun to use. The UI is very polished and is a pleasure to work with.

I am a really busy guy with a really busy family, just like a lot of other people. PI keeps all of my business and personal Appointments, Tasks, Notes, Contacts and Projects increadibly organized without a huge amount to time and effort.

On top of that the developer is extreemly responsive and involved in the product (More than any other I have seen).

If you haven't tried it yet, don't wait. Go to: http://webis.net/

[donc36]

I am a huge PIM user. I use Outlook 2007 on my Tablet PC and Pocket Informant on my iPAQ 4705. I really wish that Outlook had some of the great features that PI provides.

I have looked at other PPC PIMS (Agenda Fusion the most), but none seem to come close to the feature set (overall) and ease of use that PI provides. It can be as simple or as sophisticated as you want, and it is fun to use. The UI is very polished and is a pleasure to work with.

I am a really busy guy with a really busy family, just like a lot of other people. PI keeps all of my business and personal Appointments, Tasks, Notes, Contacts and Projects increadibly organized without a huge amount to time and effort.

On top of that the developer is extreemly responsive and involved in the product (More than any other I have seen).

If you haven't tried it yet, don't wait. Go to: http://webis.net/

I have to agree - I don't want to hijack this thread into a "which PIM is better" but the quality of PI and the response of the developer sealed the deal for me. I've been a PI user since version 4.0, and the latest versions are just as responsive as the first version I installed.

I can tell you PI does not add to the notes fields to capture icons and such.
Don

[freddiemac]

Just wanted to add one user's thoughts:

I have tried Agenda Fusion in the past and just tried Agendus. In my opinion, WebIs' Pocket Informant blows both of these out of the water. For my purposes, Pocket Informant feels far more flexible and really does allow the user to customize the interface in ways that neither of the others can.

They all do the same basic thing. How they do it is what is different.

As an extremely busy professional, Pocket Infomant does a wonderful job of letting me interface my contacts, tasks, and calendar in a very tight integration. The other programs may do this, as well. However, I find PI to be the easiest and most intuitive.

As a LONG TIME Pocket PC user, I think Pocket Informant is best, hands down. (I don't have any investment in Pocket Informant, just a very happy user.) And for me, I have rarely seen a developer be as responsive to their clients as Alex Kac.

[Gregg]

I must admitt that I am a long time user of Pocket Informant and it is a phenomenal PIM and WebIS always is receptive to suggestions for new features. This is why I made the transition to PI years ago from another major PIM developer. The feature set is rich and the user interface is polished and very user friendly. I would consider myself a power user; but the developer of this program made it so that it can be easily used by either a power user or a non-power user. I have recommended this developer to many friends and co-workers and they have been very pleased with the beauty of Pocket Informant.

The interface which has a daily, weekly, agenda, monthly view gives me the choices that make handling my daily personal and work life a breeze. Take it from a Project Manager, it can't get any better than this. But wait... I didn't mention how easy it is to look up those phone numbers... Also, the developer really out did himself when he realized that some people abide by the "Franklin Covey" methodology. Opps... that is me...

I just give total praise to this package and how easy it lets me develop projects within the task view. This is so easy and neat; but wait...he also integrated a daily note and journal capabilities into this PIM. I am still simply amazed how feature rich this program is. There is just so much that this program offers. It is just a blessing for me.

I also like the way that this PIM handles categories and groupings. It makes setting up groups and using categories for my tasks, appointments and contacts a total breeze.

I recommend that anybody who wants a phenomenal PIM... go over and take a look at pocket informant (http://www.pocketinformant.com). You will be happy that you did.

[Jerome Carney]

I'm a long time user/fan of PI. In fact, seeing how successfully PI leveraged Outlook data led me to search for a similar desktop solution, which led me to Agendus for Outlook. It's by no means a perfect solution, it's still too palm-centiric, and the lack of a Mr./Ms. field coupled with the note field gibberish really bug.

But it's still loaded on my desktop, and I still use it, because it has a handful of features that I find absolutley brilliant. I really like some of the Agendus task management features, but most of all, I love the intuitive linking between contacts and appointments, tasks and notes. Outlook '07 with BCM still isn't able to do what Maximizer, Act! and Goldmine were doing a decade ago, but thanks to Desktop Agendus I get a nifty approximate.

And that was reason enough for me to beta-test, purchase and use Agendus on my PPC. It's got all the adolescent awkwardness you'd expect from a version 1.0 release, but it's off to a pretty good start, and neither PI nor AF can match its contact history feature.

Of course, PI is my my PPC to stay, and I still will call it up 85% of the time. But I'm also definitely glad that Agendus has moved into the neighborhood.

[eagle63]

Agendus does have a certain "fresh" look to it...

I've used PI for a couple of years and finally uninstalled it from my Treo 700wx. In addition to suffering from feature overload, I found the one-handed usability to be just abysmal. If it had half the features (and therefore half the sluggishness) plus a revised "treo-friendly" UI I'd probably go back.

[Gregg]

Agendus does have a certain "fresh" look to it...

I've used PI for a couple of years and finally uninstalled it from my Treo 700wx. In addition to suffering from feature overload, I found the one-handed usability to be just abysmal. If it had half the features (and therefore half the sluggishness) plus a revised "treo-friendly" UI I'd probably go back.


I use PI on my Palm 700wx and I am quite happy. If you are suffering from feature overload, have you tried Pocket Informant Calendar? It is a scaled down version (turn key solution) of Pocket Informant. You mentioned sluggishness, I have not suffered any sluggishness. I have also ran this software on a HP1940 w/o any sluggishness. You may want to contact webis for some assistance. I am very pleased with the responsiveness of this package.

[adriano]

adriano-

I'd like to hear a response/explanation to Rex's comment in post 2, above. If he's correct, that's a pretty nasty side-effect of an installation of Agendus.

-- Andrew

actually as soon as I read what Rex posted I checked on my end and involved our QA on this as well. So far we haven't quite figured out how the tags Agendus adds to items' notes if you add an icon, or select a text color, etc. could cause such a massive increase in size of his pim.vol file.

Agendus doesn't do massive record updates, only updates upon user action -- if Rex has his AgendusM.log file handy he's welcome to email it at qa at iambic dot com or post a blurb on our forums about the problem and we'll definitely further investigate it.

- Adriano

[redlynr]

I purchased the desktop version Agendus for Outlook but trashed it after I found that it couldn't handle recurring events. For example, if I entered "Thanksgiving" on the 4th thursday of November, I found that it was correct for the first year, but then the next year it was on friday, then saturday, then sunday, etc.

When I reported this as a bug I was told that this behaviour was due to Palm's operating system not being able to handle recurring appointments, and it would be a "feature request" to get it fixed. So in that regard, if this "feature request" would ever have been fixed, I'm sure I would have had to pay for the upgrade!

I don't plan on dowloading Agendus for PPC, but since every PPC I know about can handle these recurring appointments (that includes PI, AF, and Pocket Breeze), it's not worth the trouble to even try this new app.

[xdalaw]

adriano-

I'd like to hear a response/explanation to Rex's comment in post 2, above. If he's correct, that's a pretty nasty side-effect of an installation of Agendus.

-- Andrew

actually as soon as I read what Rex posted I checked on my end and involved our QA on this as well. So far we haven't quite figured out how the tags Agendus adds to items' notes if you add an icon, or select a text color, etc. could cause such a massive increase in size of his pim.vol file.

Agendus doesn't do massive record updates, only updates upon user action -- if Rex has his AgendusM.log file handy he's welcome to email it at qa at iambic dot com or post a blurb on our forums about the problem and we'll definitely further investigate it.

- Adriano

Thanks for the response, Adriano. I hope Rex sends you this file to clear up this issue and to see if it is even related to Agendus.

[grayo]

Why would anyone buy PI or any of these other programs? I've tried PI and just don't see why I should pay for something that is already free on the device.

PI is just really trying to be a band-aid for people who can't manage their lives. The same with the other PIMs.

[Ed Hansberry]

Why would anyone buy PI or any of these other programs? I've tried PI and just don't see why I should pay for something that is already free on the device.

PI is just really trying to be a band-aid for people who can't manage their lives. The same with the other PIMs.

I guess the same could be said for anyne that purchased a smartphone or pda over paper. it is rally just a band-aid for people that cannot manage their lives. :roll:

or, perhaps many find the built in software inadequate, but that really makes too much sense, so I apologize for injecting common sense into my answer. :|

[athelstan]

I didn't realise so many PIM purchasers were so misguided ;-)

When I got my first PDA a few years ago it was this area that was most important to me. Still is. Pocket Outlook is too basic and that's the case for most people. Trouble is, there are as many ways to run your life as there are, well, people (nearly) so any PIM that's going to work for you as an individual is going to be loaded with features you may not use because it has to be adptable to so many variants.

Once you've settled on a configuration that suits you and the way you like to work, it's great.

I use PI because a) it works well, b) it is always developing c) it's cheap (especially if you compare it with PC software) and d) the user forum is helpful as is the developer (very much so). In fact the latter was what swung me behind PI when I first bought it.

Agendus joins a very crowded and competitive market but it's well developed (the market, not Agendus!) - I think they have their work cut out just matching what's already there.

Cheers
Andy Stansfield

[alex_kac]

Agendus does have a certain "fresh" look to it...

I've used PI for a couple of years and finally uninstalled it from my Treo 700wx. In addition to suffering from feature overload, I found the one-handed usability to be just abysmal. If it had half the features (and therefore half the sluggishness) plus a revised "treo-friendly" UI I'd probably go back.

Features does not equal sluggishness :) When we read the data from the databases and display it to the device it is done as fast as it can be done. We could remove 90% of the features and you'd see 0% speed increase because none of those features have anything to do with the speed of the app.

As for one handed use - this is one area where we've made huge improvements over the last few years. For one I use a Treo myself. Nearly every part of PI is one handed optimized in the views now and far more so with Rev 3 coming out. The dialogs are not really optimized for one handed use, but they do work. We've made some improvements in that area for Rev 3 as well.

But I do take suggestions - if there are area of PI in Rev 3 (when its released) that you find suck for one handed use, please send us a support request with those suggestions. Without suggestions, we won't know what aspect doesn't meet your needs.

[T-Will]

Why would anyone buy PI or any of these other programs? I've tried PI and just don't see why I should pay for something that is already free on the device.

PI is just really trying to be a band-aid for people who can't manage their lives. The same with the other PIMs.

RUSRS???!!

Pocket Outlook for Smartphone doesn't even support Begin/Due dates for Tasks. It's weak (to say the least). Pocket Outlook for Pocket PC isn't much better.

I found Pocket Informant for Pocket PC to fill many gaps that Microsoft left in Pocket Outlook. And Agenda One does a great job of filling the gaps on Smartphone.

[eagle63]

As for one handed use - this is one area where we've made huge improvements over the last few years. For one I use a Treo myself. Nearly every part of PI is one handed optimized in the views now and far more so with Rev 3 coming out. The dialogs are not really optimized for one handed use, but they do work. We've made some improvements in that area for Rev 3 as well.


Ok, so I just downloaded PI Calendar 2007 on my Treo. If I'm on the "agenda" view, the up/down directional pad doesn't seem to do anything. Shouldn't I be able to scroll down in the agenda view to see upcoming days without pulling out the stylus? I hunted for a setting that would control this but I wasn't able to find one that made any difference. I really hope I'm overlooking something here, otherwise you have your first suggestion. :)

[xdalaw]

Ok, so I just downloaded PI Calendar 2007 on my Treo. If I'm on the "agenda" view, the up/down directional pad doesn't seem to do anything. Shouldn't I be able to scroll down in the agenda view to see upcoming days without pulling out the stylus? I hunted for a setting that would control this but I wasn't able to find one that made any difference. I really hope I'm overlooking something here, otherwise you have your first suggestion. :)
I'm using PI on my Treo 700Wx, and when in Agenda view my dpad scrolls fine from appointment to appointment.
I believe the calendar module in PI is the same as the full PICalendar that you're using.

[xdalaw]

As for one handed use - this is one area where we've made huge improvements over the last few years. . . . The dialogs are not really optimized for one handed use, but they do work. We've made some improvements in that area for Rev 3 as well.

This is what I'd like to see when using PI on my 700Wx.
PI is pretty handy one-handed in many ways, but entering new appointments, etc., still can be a little cumbersome.

I tried A1 and liked it's one-handed ease, but returned to PI for better use of the square screen on the Treo--among other of it's many added features.

[alex_kac]

As for one handed use - this is one area where we've made huge improvements over the last few years. For one I use a Treo myself. Nearly every part of PI is one handed optimized in the views now and far more so with Rev 3 coming out. The dialogs are not really optimized for one handed use, but they do work. We've made some improvements in that area for Rev 3 as well.


Ok, so I just downloaded PI Calendar 2007 on my Treo. If I'm on the "agenda" view, the up/down directional pad doesn't seem to do anything. Shouldn't I be able to scroll down in the agenda view to see upcoming days without pulling out the stylus? I hunted for a setting that would control this but I wasn't able to find one that made any difference. I really hope I'm overlooking something here, otherwise you have your first suggestion. :)
For sure :) However PI does have 3 different joypad behaviors that are user configurable. I THINK that prior to Rev 3 the default for Agenda View might have been by page or by line or you may have hit one bug we had in Rev 2 where joypad control at times was lost (this was due to a bug fix we had to make for the TyTN whose scroll wheel generates up/down events, but does not mark them as being actually pressed).

Honestly I can't tell you because on Rev 3 at least that issue simply does not exist. We should be doing a public beta of a release candidate of Rev 3 next week.

[Doug Raeburn]

Guys, I think we've strayed significantly off topic here. This exchange belongs on the WebIS forums, not in the replies for a news release for a competitive product.

[mrv]

I used to be a big Palm fan (until the awful T5) and loved Agendus.

I am now a very satisfied ppc user and love PI.

I do believe that the interface and userbility of Agendus is superior. The Microsoft way of entering data is very verbose user unfriendly and slow. That's the appeal of the palm interface.

Unfortunately Agendus is entering the ppc market late and I will not swap from PI although I did download it just to see how it worked on the ppc. :?:

[applestar]

adriano-

I'd like to hear a response/explanation to Rex's comment in post 2, above. If he's correct, that's a pretty nasty side-effect of an installation of Agendus.

-- Andrew

actually as soon as I read what Rex posted I checked on my end and involved our QA on this as well. So far we haven't quite figured out how the tags Agendus adds to items' notes if you add an icon, or select a text color, etc. could cause such a massive increase in size of his pim.vol file.

Agendus doesn't do massive record updates, only updates upon user action -- if Rex has his AgendusM.log file handy he's welcome to email it at qa at iambic dot com or post a blurb on our forums about the problem and we'll definitely further investigate it.

- Adriano

Adriano,

I did sent your support department all the details about what happened. Furthermore I asked for a decent de-installation since I still got hundreds of orphaned "ICON #..." notes in my Outlook PST file. I never got any answer.

Then I tried to ask to be removed from your mailing list - well, it took me quite a few mails to be heard.

It is very nice I finally see some Iambic customer support on this forum. But again: Please make sure you delete all notes at an AO de-installation. I still could not find any Outlook Add-In to remove part of my notes (e.g. "ICON#(wildcard)#"

Well, could you explain to us how the AO PPC informations are saved on the handheld? Will it be in the notes field again? Are these entries deleted at a de-installation? This information would really help.

And for the extra MBs: Yes, I asked for an explanation as well. Even with an appointment database of 6500 appointments I considered the use of file space quite substantial.


Regards,
Applestar
(formerly logged in as "rex")