Pocket Informant — An Exclusive Sneak Preview Part 2
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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
