Have Application Purchase Regret?

[Jon Westfall]

<p>Many of us here do not run perfectly vanilla devices. We like to install one or two (on the low side) or even 10 or more third-party applications. However even though trial versions exist, sometimes it can be very tempting to buy something only to find a few weeks later that it wasn't the best purchase. I personally have dozens of registration codes in my eWallet for programs I though were uber-cool, and later found weren't as uber-useful as I had hoped. Want an example? OK - here's one: <a href="http://www.phatware.com/index.php?q=product/details/calligrapher" target="_blank">Calligrapher</a></p><p>Now don't get me wrong. Calligrapher is a great product. It works well, it's widely used, and has many featureas that power users can leverage quite well. However when I found the product, I forgot one critical thing about myself: my handwriting is aweful. Really bad. So bad that I worked hard to make my own font so I can type notes out in actual legible handwriting. And that means I don't really like to write. Not liking to write = not wanting to use Calligrapher that often. It's a shame too, but I suppose something to learn from.</p><p>Now it's your turn to share. Do you have Application Buyers Remorse or Regret? Feel free to name the application and why it wasn't a great fit for you!</p>

[txa1265]

Calligrapher was also one for me ... I so loved my Newton MP2100 and wanted to replicate that experience. But it has never really happened ... Calligrapher eventually came close on faster PPC's, but due to the size it was never the same experience.

I would also add about half the crap I have bought for my iPod Touch on the App stor - sure it is probably ~40-50 total I would call 'regret', but still ...

[doogald]

However when I found the product, I forgot one critical thing about myself: my handwriting is aweful.

I say this just to be funny, but if Calligrapher spelled awful that way, you proved your point. ;)

I also used Calligrapher a long, long time ago, when I first had a Pocket PC (perhaps even with a PsPC, if Calligrapher goes back that far.) I have very nice handwriting, and Calligrapher worked well for me, but I also stopped using it because

I do not express myself efficiently

when I am forced to write in

spurts of words like

this.

Application buyer's remorse? All of the time. I have licenses for both Agenda One and Pocket Informant and I do not use either one anymore. Netfront back in the PPC days; I used it for a bit and grew to hate it.

There are loads more. I do this all of the time . . .

[Jason Lee]

Most definitely Flexmail... Yeuuck!

It was one of those I should have trialed longer. It seemed to fit the bill for what I needed after a few days so I bought it.. Only to spend the next few weeks fighting with it and realizing how bad of an app it really was.
I mean come on... When you delete mail it disappears from the list but never actually gets removed from the database???! So the database size will grow infinitely.. Horribly slow, and grew slower every day. There were many other "why on earth would you code something this way" issues that I just couldn't deal with and the developer said weren't really a priority to get fixed. Or that they didn't even see as a problem..

Gaah.. getting irritated just thinking about it. :mad:

Oh and Agendus. I actually won a copy in a contest here and went through their horrid registration/activation process only to find that the program was horrible. That was 2 years ago and to this day i still cannot stop them from spamming me with email. The unsubscribe link never works. I've even tried to manually contact them to get them to stop sending me crap... So I didn't buy it but I actually regret winning that one. :p

[yawanag]

I have so many apps that I thought was a "Must Have." A few months down the road I wondered what possessed me to buy it. When I first got my Jornada 540, I was into utilities 'cause I wanted to keep it in tip top shape. I am a lover of word gams and I bought one right after the other. It took a while that all were either sliding letters around, clicking on them or sending them sailing off the screen. Now I just stick to "Scrabble." One game I installed and stopped playing because it got to difficult was "Brain School." I swearI'll go back some day.

My problem with some is that I still want them but have no room to house them. I am experiencing a problem now with the storage space reading 2.42MB and I have gone through almost everything and deleted it. I have performed a hard reset, deleted the old backup and performed a new one. Just can't figure out why it is still so low. I want to install PontCalc with 6MB 'cause I just started Weight Watchers and I just can't do it.

[Reid Kistler]

Calligrapher: appears to be one of those "love it or hate it apps" - although place more blame on myself for failing to find the time to LEARN how to use it, than on any inherent problem with the app itself.
Although, in fairness, the whole Gesture-centric interface seemed more important on the Handspring (Palm) than it proved to be on the Axim (WinMobile).

WebIS Mail / Flexmail: The initial app did not seem to work very well - or, at least, not as EXPECTED. Soon gave up trying to download e-mails to PDA, finding that wireless access became universal enough to suffice.

WebIS Money & MasterSoft Money: Never reached a point of comfort with trying to keep full "accounting" data ONLY on PDA. Pocket Excel has worked fine for recording the odd Must-Be-Recorded-Now expenditure and/or inflow. Still, a reasonably priced app that featured both Desktop & PDA versions (with decent syncing!) would still be of some interest, but would have to better Desktop Quicken (even as UNhappy as we are with Quicken!).

All APPs Purchased for Handspring Visor Platinum (Exluding FITALY): Simply because they had to be replaced when I broke the unit :( and it was clear that the Dell was the most attractive option on the market at that time.

Marginal: PhatPad. Like Calligrapher, PhatPad is an app that seems to hold much greater PROMISE than seemed to ever actually get out of it. However, it DOES get used once in a while - but belongs more in the "Luxury" rather than "Necessity" category....

[psyjohn]

I've done this more times than I want to admit. There are several SIP applications that I liked enough to purchase, but after a short time they just weren't working for me, although, I do own and frequently use Calligrapher. PI was another one I loved at first, and really tried to stick with it, but it was just too big for the small part of it that I really wanted.

Recently I enforced a firm rule for myself that I do not purchase any software until the very end of the trial period. I've avoided a few mistakes with that. :)

[azhiker]

Some purchases seemed right or novel at the time but never really fit my needs or took too much time to set up or maintain or took time to mess with. I ahve no time to fiddle. I have since removed them...

Any Instant messenger software, I used three, but gave up most IM
EZ Expense (just add expenses to Pocket Informant for each day)
Most games (Do keep Suduku)
SplashPhoto (never worked right on my desktop to transfer files)
MS Reader (I read books off my tablet PC but PPC is jsut too small)
Checklist Pro
Pocket Weather

[ctmagnus]

I have just two regrets:

Any email application.

Any sip method other than Fitaly.

[Rahza]

Just like others, Pocket Informant.

I just loved the trail. It looked really great with the colors and gave great overview of my schedule. And all those options to tweak the program. Awesome! I used it the whole trail period, loved it and then bought it.

That's when the problems started. It slowed down my device and somehow the app kept showing up after a soft reset, blocking out the phone's PIN input screen. PI is so bloated, that it is just to slow to use. I found myself using WM standard agenda more often than PI. Too bad.

More or less a regret but not really, SPB Pocket Plus. Since I don't use it anymore on my Touch Pro due to TF3D. :( Now SPB Pocket Plus is only used as a battery indicator on the top edge of the screen. Great app though!

Rahza

[Brad Adrian]

Those of you who know me realize I will NEVER bad-mouth Calligrapher; it's been my #1, must-have application since about 2001. But, I used to be a cartoonist, so my handwriting may already be a bit neater than some people's. I've also fallen in love with Calligrapher's big brother for the Tablet PC, PenOffice. It's almost identical.

What gripes me about WM software is those that do not offer a trial period or only a severly crippled trial. In in fact, the other day I installed a "trial" of an SD Card syncing program, only to find that the trial didn't even run without a purchase code. All the trial version did was show you screen shots of how to set the program up.

To me, that's just inexcusable. Anybody who can't incorporate SOME form of workable trial version shouldn't be writing code.

[alex_kac]

Just like others, Pocket Informant.

I just loved the trail. It looked really great with the colors and gave great overview of my schedule. And all those options to tweak the program. Awesome! I used it the whole trail period, loved it and then bought it.

That's when the problems started. It slowed down my device and somehow the app kept showing up after a soft reset, blocking out the phone's PIN input screen. PI is so bloated, that it is just to slow to use. I found myself using WM standard agenda more often than PI. Too bad.

Actually PI is not bloated at all. Bloat is where an app is so large that its slow to run. PI is not. Everything about it is very optimized - for both memory and CPU usage. However, if you have a lot of data we cached a lot of it for the very purpose of performance. But with every CPU monitor I've used PI, in IDLE, uses less than 0.01% of the CPU. That's definitely not bloated. In memory, again, depending on your data, we did cache things because we had to. Think about this - the built-in database cannot sort data by any field. We can. How? Because we cache the key fields (not everything - just key fields) of the databases so we can sort on all those fields. That's not bloat - that's how those things are done.

The first issue you report is not even a Pocket Informant issue. All Windows Mobile devices have a link in \WINDOWS\Startup to start Pocket Outlook at startup in the background so that when you start your PIM it seems to start immediately. When you make PI the default app, we remove this link for the very reason that most people don't want PI to start on startup. However some devices have blocks that don't allow applications to delete that link and some even replace that link if its gone (like an "auto-heal").

We've done surveys and while - just like any software - there are people who buy and end up never using (which applies to me as well on software I've bought), most of our customers do use the product for years and years. Its not going to be a perfect fit for everyone and that's OK.

[Reid Kistler]

I have just two regrets:

Any email application.

Any sip method other than Fitaly.



Hear, Hear!


;)

[BevHoward]

Been lucky... scanned through my "cabs" directory and only found two... a tone dialer program and Delorme's pocketpc map program.

The stroll through memory lane reminded me of some excellent utils. That, plus I am loving PocketStars even more as I use it's PC spinoff version on my tablet.

Beverly Howard

[Jon Westfall]

Reading through this it makes me smile to think that many of the apps mentioned also appear in the "Must have it" applications threads. Thank God for choice - this thread and the must have it threads side by side confirm that we all use our devices differently!

[baker]

Delorme's Pocket PC GPS Mapping...it is horribly slow even after cutting the maps down...

[Rahza]

Actually PI is not bloated at all. Bloat is where an app is so large that its slow to run. PI is not. Everything about it is very optimized - for both memory and CPU usage.

***long quote trimmed by mod JD***

And I'm very disappointed that I'm not one of those persons that uses the product for years and years. Don't get me wrong. I still recommend PI to people who need a replacement for the rather poor WM agenda app. But for me personally the issues I had using PI, either my own fault for adding to much appointment/tasks or WM's start up policy, were enough to uninstall PI. Caching eats up RAM which slows down overall performance. And that's exactly what I experienced.

Rahza

[Jason Dunn]

In in fact, the other day I installed a "trial" of an SD Card syncing program, only to find that the trial didn't even run without a purchase code. All the trial version did was show you screen shots of how to set the program up.

Wow, that's pathetic - that developer definitely shouldn't be writing code if he can't figure out how to create a trial version. :rolleyes:

[Ed Hansberry]

Any app that adds a close button. as much as i want that functionality, every app i try eventually leads to a conflict somewhere, and an uninstall shortly after that.

[Carty]

Any app that adds a close button. as much as i want that functionality, every app i try eventually leads to a conflict somewhere, and an uninstall shortly after that.

Have you tried Wk Task Manager (http://pocketpc-live.com/downloads/view-details/utilities/127-wk-task-manager.html)?

The best and free one to do that I believe.

Regards,
Carty..

[Brad Adrian]

Any app that adds a close button...
Wow. Even Pocket Plus? I've been using it since its launch and I don't think I've had a single conflict.

Ed, you must just have some kind of weird stuff on your PPC that's causing the conflicts, like that geosynchronous satellite software that you use to monitor all of our daily activities. ;)

[PPCRules]

Actually, I don't think I am currently using any of the apps I've paid for over the years (probably about 20?), so I could say I regret all of them.

Some were used for a while, but as I've changed or reloaded devices, I've ended up using the paid ones less and less and have been loading free alternatives that, if not superior, are plenty adequate. I live with a few "conflicts" but I don't believe that a paid-for app would not have similar or other problems; these (WM) apps are just too low volume for developers to get the bugs out. I can live with an "almost done" if I didn't pay for it.

I have the most money in Laridian apps and books, but there are free Bible applications that work just as good or better and have deeper sets of free books, so those are the ones that get used.

[njl2016]

I kind of regret purchasing Spb Weather. It's way too buggy, even the 2.1.1 update. Weather Watcher Mobile does the same thing and it's free.