How is the calendar?

[braj]

Forgive me for questioning this last statement, but how can you say that? Two weeks ago you were all over my case about trusting Apple and the company's dedication to its product.

I was all over you for being a fool crying that no one respected you. It had nothing at all to do with Apple or the iPhone.

 

[oalvarez]

If you prefer iCal you probably don't have much to keep track of and wouldn't need Agendus anyway. Todos at the very least are a necessity for me.

in fairness, not having too much to keep track of could also be a very good thing. in other words, one could actually fuction quite successfully without such utility tools. not everyone needs to be forcefully reminded of what they have to do. it just doesn't seem fair to suggest that he/she may not have much to keep track of. afterall, maybe they keep track of their doings with an old pad of paper and pencil.

 

[braj]

in fairness, not having too much to keep track of could also be a very good thing. in other words, one could actually function quite successfully without such utility tools. not everyone needs to be forcefully reminded of what they have to do. it just doesn't seem fair to suggest that he/she may not have much to keep track of. after all, maybe they keep track of their doings with an old pad of paper and pencil.

Sure, having too many things to do that requires something beyond your own memory isn't ideal. Just I have a 20 year span of time that is a bit fuzzy for me, let alone what I have to do tomorrow. Thanks Lucy, Mary, and Jerry . Good times

 

[cmaier]

Now of course this doesn't help if its set to vibrate, but the screen does come on and let you see the SMS message, or see who is calling (and you can choose to ignore and shut ringer/buzzer off or send directly to voicemail), or whatever.

Hey, big guy. Twice while i had someone in my office the phone buzzed, and the screen did NOT come on. I had to press home, then slide my finger to unlock in order to see what had happened (10 new email messages - i have it set to poll every 15 minutes, and i guess there were new messages each time). So does this only work for sms and phone? Why the inconsistency?


As long as I'm pining for new features, I would love a view like chatter's summary view where all messages from different accounts can appear, color coded, in one list. Adding to the chatter fun, in chatter I can set a separator to show up between mail from different days, making it a lot easier to see when mail arrived (that is, instead of:

<summary> <time/date>
<summary> <time/date>

it shows up:

#########Today#########
<summary>
...
#########<date>########
<summary>
<summary>
#########<date>########
<summary>
<summary>


And, of course, instead of having to go back and forth to go from account to account, the messages are all in one place (and responding to a message automatically uses the proper SMTP account).

 

[oalvarez]

CMaier, are your needs currently met by current WM or Palm OS systems and devices or do you dislike the current product lineup?

cheers!

 

[cmaier]

Hmm. I think lots of devices meet my needs, but not all meet my desires

I'm also a bit of a UI geek from my developer days, so I love to nitpick.

I hate WM. I find it kludgey and unintuitive in lots of ways. I prefer palm, but palm froze several years ago and hasn't done anything new since, and hasn't kept up. I code for both WM and palm, and simulating multitasking on palm is a nightmare. So is multimedia.

The palm form factor is also dated - for what it does, the treo should be half as thick.

I'm enjoying my iphone quite a bit. I think with a few fixes it would be nearly perfect for me. So I nitpick

 

[MacUser]

Hey, big guy. Twice while i had someone in my office the phone buzzed, and the screen did NOT come on. I had to press home, then slide my finger to unlock in order to see what had happened (10 new email messages - i have it set to poll every 15 minutes, and i guess there were new messages each time). So does this only work for sms and phone? Why the inconsistency?


As long as I'm pining for new features, I would love a view like chatter's summary view where all messages from different accounts can appear, color coded, in one list. Adding to the chatter fun, in chatter I can set a separator to show up between mail from different days, making it a lot easier to see when mail arrived (that is, instead of:

<summary> <time/date>
<summary> <time/date>

it shows up:

#########Today#########
<summary>
...
#########<date>########
<summary>
<summary>
#########<date>########
<summary>
<summary>


And, of course, instead of having to go back and forth to go from account to account, the messages are all in one place (and responding to a message automatically uses the proper SMTP account).

I used Chatter and you become VERY accustomed to having the list view of all emails from various accounts color-coded. It is something I, too, miss. However, I do believe Apple will have updates coming out for the iPhone and hopefully this is one that can be addressed. I have 4-7 email accounts, so I know where you're coming from with the 4 taps to go into and out of Inboxes. Still, this isn't a deal breaker for me. Just an inconvenience I'm willing to deal with for stability and style.

 

[oalvarez]

Hmm. I think lots of devices meet my needs, but not all meet my desires

I'm also a bit of a UI geek from my developer days, so I love to nitpick.

I hate WM. I find it kludgey and unintuitive in lots of ways. I prefer palm, but palm froze several years ago and hasn't done anything new since, and hasn't kept up. I code for both WM and palm, and simulating multitasking on palm is a nightmare. So is multimedia.

The palm form factor is also dated - for what it does, the treo should be half as thick.

I'm enjoying my iphone quite a bit. I think with a few fixes it would be nearly perfect for me. So I nitpick

i think that's right. you nailed it on the palm form factor, and i think many consumers are starting to think the same.

as for the iPhone, and having owned it for almost two weeks, i'm still amazed each time i power it up. the internet and media experience are really that great, phone, email, and calendar work just fine for me. given that it doesn't act as my work device, i don't require much out of it, so flashing LED lights and a multitude of alarms and reminders aren't a necessity for me. i think all of what is on the device will improve over time and whatever is obviously missing (like being able to delete more than one message at a time) will be added in soon time. :thumbsup:

 

[cmaier]

I've been using iphone as my only device now for two days (my treo is plugged in, in a drawer - will cancel sprint next month).

My wife plays with her iphone when she gets home from work, but still hasn't switched over from her samsung sph-i500 palm phone.

For me, I use the iphone for both home and work (I'm currently a lawyer after a lifetime as an engineer). The great thing is for viewing word docs and pdfs in emails it blows blackberries away. It is also snappier and easier to view those docs than on my treo (which required 3p software like chatter and documents-to-go to accomplish that). Exchange activesync support would round out this functionality - right now I have to forward mail to my personal server because IT only supports blackberry - exchange 2003 support is coming shortly. To get calendar stuff in sync I use plaxo. Over-the-air PIM sync would be extra-nice.

From a useability standpoint, the only thing that does bug me about iphone is that I have to poll it. I have to turn it on and press buttons/the screen to figure out if I have received any emails. I'm getting used to that, but, as I've said, I hope they improve that.

As for my wife, she's loves finally being able to sms; she had no idea how that worked, because on her phone she can receive, but not easily send, text message (it's really old, and sprint sucked extra hard back then). She loves finally being able to read and send email (gmail via pop for her). Her main hold-up is that the phone is too gaudy, and she doesn't want to appear too snooty when she's seen with it at work, so she's waiting until our anniversary (next week) so she can at least say it was a gift and she didn't buy it herself

 

[oalvarez]

^again, i agree with you 100%. the email functionality (or lack thereof) is what keeps me from using it full time. i must have real time information available to me, a few minutes is sometimes too long, hence the blackberry and BES at my place of work. not only that, many of use use a myriad of inbox subfolders and the like and right now that isn't available yet on the iPhone.

funny about the anniversary gift idea. congrats in advance!

 

[dstrauss#IM]

I've been using iphone as my only device now for two days (my treo is plugged in, in a drawer - will cancel sprint next month).

My wife plays with her iphone when she gets home from work, but still hasn't switched over from her samsung sph-i500 palm phone.

For me, I use the iphone for both home and work (I'm currently a lawyer after a lifetime as an engineer). The great thing is for viewing word docs and pdfs in emails it blows blackberries away. It is also snappier and easier to view those docs than on my treo (which required 3p software like chatter and documents-to-go to accomplish that). Exchange activesync support would round out this functionality - right now I have to forward mail to my personal server because IT only supports blackberry - exchange 2003 support is coming shortly. To get calendar stuff in sync I use plaxo. Over-the-air PIM sync would be extra-nice.

From a useability standpoint, the only thing that does bug me about iphone is that I have to poll it. I have to turn it on and press buttons/the screen to figure out if I have received any emails. I'm getting used to that, but, as I've said, I hope they improve that.

As for my wife, she's loves finally being able to sms; she had no idea how that worked, because on her phone she can receive, but not easily send, text message (it's really old, and sprint sucked extra hard back then). She loves finally being able to read and send email (gmail via pop for her). Her main hold-up is that the phone is too gaudy, and she doesn't want to appear too snooty when she's seen with it at work, so she's waiting until our anniversary (next week) so she can at least say it was a gift and she didn't buy it herself

Sweet - a techno geek spouse. As for that Samsung, that is still one of the best phone designs ever (small flip phone with graffiti or onscreen drawing) despite the 160x160. I was in an airport a few weeks ago, and a guy was playing with that relic, and the crowd around him was like an iPhone gallery "Where did you get that? What carrier? Where can I get one?" He was almost embarrassed to admit it was so old. I sure miss mine (but don't miss Sprint) but am happy with my Blackjack. Still, the iPhone has the look of a winner just like the Sammy 500 did in its day.

 

[cmaier]

Yeah, I used to have that samsung too. It really was pretty amazing given how small it is. If it had a 320x320 screen my wife probably still wouldn't give it up. Makes me wonder where samsung could have evolved palm phones had palm not scared all the third party hardware developers away with their general incompetence.

 

[AnteL0pe]

Sweet - a techno geek spouse.

Haha, ya i had my iPhone for nearly an entire week before my wife decided she wasn't going to get the Perl she had been eying and was instead going for the iPhone.

 

[SAKozicki]

I've been using iphone as my only device now for two days (my treo is plugged in, in a drawer - will cancel sprint next month).

My wife plays with her iphone when she gets home from work, but still hasn't switched over from her samsung sph-i500 palm phone.

For me, I use the iphone for both home and work (I'm currently a lawyer after a lifetime as an engineer). The great thing is for viewing word docs and pdfs in emails it blows blackberries away. It is also snappier and easier to view those docs than on my treo (which required 3p software like chatter and documents-to-go to accomplish that). Exchange activesync support would round out this functionality - right now I have to forward mail to my personal server because IT only supports blackberry - exchange 2003 support is coming shortly. To get calendar stuff in sync I use plaxo. Over-the-air PIM sync would be extra-nice.

From a useability standpoint, the only thing that does bug me about iphone is that I have to poll it. I have to turn it on and press buttons/the screen to figure out if I have received any emails. I'm getting used to that, but, as I've said, I hope they improve that.

As for my wife, she's loves finally being able to sms; she had no idea how that worked, because on her phone she can receive, but not easily send, text message (it's really old, and sprint sucked extra hard back then). She loves finally being able to read and send email (gmail via pop for her). Her main hold-up is that the phone is too gaudy, and she doesn't want to appear too snooty when she's seen with it at work, so she's waiting until our anniversary (next week) so she can at least say it was a gift and she didn't buy it herself

I, too, am a lawyer who uses Amicus Attorney practice software, which syncs to Outlook. I currently use a Treo 680 and the Palm calendar program. How does the IPhone calendar work for your business needs and could you compare it to anything else, like the Palm calendar? Thanks

 

[cmaier]

I had been using keysuite on palm since it did a much better job of mirroring outlook's capabilities (in terms of features, views, fields, etc.)

The iphone is a fine basic calendar. Whether it works for you will depend on your work-flow. If, for example, you categorize your appointments by matter or client, I don't see a way to do that with the iphone (you could add it as notes, i suppose, but that's not the same thing).

Another caveat is that while you can set two alert times, the alerts do not repeat. I actually prefer this to being constantly reminded, but whether it works for you will depend on your own preference.

The views are fine. There is a list view which shows upcoming appointments (however many, over the course of however many days, that it can fit on the screen - and, of course, you can scroll to see more).

The day view is a standard day view (again, no color-coded categories, etc.)

The month view shows a dot if you have an appointment, and if you click that day, the list of matching appointments show up down below.

For me this works fine, since I don't keep track of billable hours on my calendar, etc. If you rely on that sort of thing, it won't work for you.