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Pocket Informant -- An Exclusive Sneak Preview Part 2
To recap from yesterday- Pocket Informant for iPhone was announced as early as the opening of the App Store. Six months later we're still waiting but...
It will not be much longer before we actually do see the release of the application. Alex will be at MacWorld this week and will be giving some demonstrations of Pocket Informant which is moving closer and closer to release..
Having seen a Beta version I'm pleased to tell you that the wait will have been worth it. The version currently on my iPhone looks great and is incredibly usable.
In my opinion, Alex has made some excellent choices with regard to the application. He understands that, due to Apple's limitations, it cannot integrate directly with the iPhone's data but needs to sync with online applications and services. Alex has chosen two of the best. For calendar syncing the choise is Google calendar. For tasks synching the choice is chosen Toodledo. That means that once the application is released you'll need only one application forcalendaring and tasks. Better yet, they will be fully integrated with one another. Details and some a number of high-quality screenshots right from my iPhone after the jump.
A few random items--
Calendar: PI is a full-featured calendar and tasks program that allows a high degree of customization. The calendar allows you to look at the list, day, week, and month views in both portrait and landscape.
Tasks: The task management is bright, clear, highly customizable, and easily works with a getting things done approach. It includes an inbox, projects, context, and next actions. A global search functionality is a welcome feature, especially since the goal of Pocket Informant is to have it become your only application for both calendaring and tasks, it will quickly become full of data.
The available customization is particularly welcome. It gives you control over calendars, alarms, the choice of using the methodology of either getting things done or Franklin Covey, and control over the various views.
The application is quickly approaching a release candidate version. There are however to significant elements that Alex and his team continue to work on -- templates and syncing with Google calendar. While these are obviously key functions it's great to know that everything else is ready for release and there's no doubt in my mind that while Pocket Informant is indeed late to the party it may well be the iPhone calendar app to beat.
Oh, and one other thing, when PI is released Alex has been kind enough to agree to allow 20 of our readers to immediately receive free copies. There will be a process by which will be giving the codes away and we will, of course, ask recipients to immediately comment on the application in both iTunes and on the site, but among the first people to be using and evaluating the application that may well become the preeminent iPhone application for calendaring and tasks will be some of you, our loyal readers.
Enjoy the screenshots
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This looks like potentially a great solution to the Google Calendar Sync issue. It really is a shame however, that Apple doesn't allow > 1 calendar in their app, or for a real 3rd party calendar app that can have notifcations while not running.
You can have multiple calendars in the builtin app, although I haven't found a way to create multiple calendars there.
In my case (PC based with itunes syncing with outlook), I was using multiple calendars in outlook to separate work and home stuff. Not categories, but actual separate calendars. This synced nicely with equally separate Google calendars.
Later when I set up my iPhone in iTunes, it asked me which Outlook calendars I wanted, and I picked both the work and home calendars. Poof, now I have two separate calendars in the iPhone app . . . each in a different background color, the whole bit. If I make a new entry on the iPhone, it even lets me specify which calendar it should go on.
I like the weekly view. I'd still prefer syncing Google Calendar with the default Calendar app though because Apple's app can alert you even when it's not open. I'm currently checking out nuevasync as a possible solution.
After trying SmartTime Lite, this app seems to have all of the features I was needing. I cannot wait for this one! I have a lot of scheduling to keep up with while coaching and this looks like the way to do it!
The screenshots are too small..
Not anymore.
thanks!
This is looking really good !! The calendar views look very well laid out and more like a fully fledged, powerful, calendar application that you expect to find on a desktop platform.
I currently used an app on my Jailbroken iPhone called NemusSync to sync my calendar to Google Calendar as this was my only way until now (I think) - which I would like to get rid of and then go to a more powerful all in one solution - and PI fits that mould perfectly. I do understand it can't talk to the default iPhone calendar (why Apple why). but in the future I can see myself using PI and hiding the normal/default calendar app totally and just using PI in conjunction with Google Calendar for everything. I don't really need calendar sync to my desktop (well with the email collaboration suite we use [GroupWise] I can't get it that easily anyway)
That looks really great, considerably more powerful than the current crop of calendar enhancement apps. Real direct-to-cloud sync with multiple google calendars is going to be a competition killer.
Lots of configuration options is great for customers; terrible for testers. I'm happy to hear they are waiting until they get in right.
I can't imagine why Apple won't let other apps generate alerts. Maybe not until people start choosing an android instead just for reasons like this.
I found Pocket Informant to be a big improvement over the built-in apps in Windows Mobile, and expect it to be much the same on my iPhone.
Waiting patiently....
I'm waiting impatiently. :)
This beta is great but when sync with Google Cal is added in the VERY near ...
Looks great, I had this on my blackberry last year and loved it and have been hopeing for an iPhone release.
Dan do you know if the calendar will allow for multiple calendars like the ones you setup in Google Calendar. I've got multiple calendars to keep different parts of my life organized and this would be a huge help.
yeah!!! super happy face! :)
Man I am so looking forward to this App.
I've been an avid user of it from my WinMo phones for a number of years now. Can't wait to try a real calendar on my iPhone..
My main concern is the alerts, which I know will likely be via SMS (which will probably not work with folks on non US carriers)..
Why oh why won't Apple open up the Calendar/Alert API.
I have been using PI for several years on my Windows Mobile Phone. Its probably the most used app on my PDA. I recently made the jump to iPhone only to find out that there are a few key things that need to be worked out like: Cut and Paste and now Alerts. I work in an area where signals get blocked out. So, SMS is not a good solution for me. I hope WEBIS has a solution or Apple gets moving on the API. One thought I had was having Goosync to keep PI and the iPhone calendar in sync. So, when Im in an area with no/poor signals I would still get an alert.
Why did Apple say they were going to allow Applications to have push alerts back at WWDC and still have not release details on it.