My Digital Life

WebIS releases Pocket Informant for the iPhone

The venerable developer of Pocket Informant for the Windows Mobile platform has finally release version 1.0 of the iPhone. Pocket Informant is the quintessential Personal Information Manager (PIM) for smartphones; it allows you to manage your calendar, contacts, tasks, and notes all in one place. The major advantage of having access to all of this content in one application is that you can easily relate information between data types, like contacts to calendar items or tasks to contacts.

I have reviewed and used the Windows Mobile version for years, and was dismayed to not having access to this application on the iPhone. Unfortunately, I store all my information in Exchange and because of current technical limitations with the iPhone PIM database, WebIS has chosen to sync the calendar with Google's calendar and tasks with Toodledo. Although you can import from Outlook (my desktop client), I can't live without Over The Air (OTA) synching with Exchange. The Exchange synchronization will come, but is dependent on Apple implementing an complete API to their PIM database (maybe 3.0 has that). If you don't use Exchange I would highly recommend trying the application out.

It is a high end application at $12.99, but I believe it is well worth it (App Store link).

Disclosure: I am a Pocket Informant beta tester.

WebIS Pocket Informant v8 and Birdsoft eXtreme Agenda v3.1, a comparison

The battle between Personal Information Managers (PIM) in the Windows Mobile Professional (touch screen) environment is quite competitive. Earlier this year we reviewed WebIS' latest version of Pocket Informant and Birdsoft's new Windows Mobile Pro version of eXtreme Agenda. Now it is time to compare these two PIMs, not necessarily to pick a winner but to provide as unbiased a view as possible of the major features. The definition of Personal Information Managers on Wikipedia describes a PIM as "a type of application software that functions as a personal organizer. As an information management tool, a PIM's purpose is to facilitate the recording, tracking, and management of certain types of 'personal information'". This comparison is based on my view of "personal information" which I categorized as:

• Home screen
• Calendar events
• Address book/Contacts
• Personal notes/journal
• Task lists
• Project management
• Templates/Macros

Read my comparison on pocketnow.com here.

Get Pocket Informant 2007 free today and tomorrow

I am a big fan of WebIS' Pocket Informant. Along with SBSH's Pocket Breeze, it is the main applications, other than email,  I use on my Windows Mobile device. My last review of Pocket Informant was for PI 2007 Revision 1 (pocketnow.com review link),

pocketpcthoughts.com is offering a great opportunity to get Pocket Informant 2007 Revision 4 for free today and tomorrow. Follow this link and use coupon code PIFREE. If you have not used it, try it you will never go back to the Microsoft PIM.

WebIS' FlexWallet merges into Ilium Software's eWallet

From yesterday's WebIS email press release:

“Today WebIS is proud to announce a new partnership with Ilium Software to bring a renewed focus to the Wallet Market. this year we spent some time with Ilium and found a very strong renewed focus on eWallet going forward and with our focus on FlexMail and Pocket Informant and our work on the Blackberry we have decided to team up with Ilium and turn FlexWallet 4 into eWallet 6.0! This provides many great improvements that I'm sure you are going to love and we've made it easy for you to upgrade from FlexWallet to eWallet 6.0. eWallet 6.0 combines the best of FlexWallet and eWallet with a renewed focus that brings greater security and features to all of our users!”

More information can found on WebIS’ web site here and Ilium Software's web site here.

I have been using eWallet ever since I got it bundled on my Compaq 3650 and I will be writing up a review for pocketnow.com in the upcoming weeks.

Windows Mobile - Pocket Sharp MT 3.2.1

I am trying out a new version of Pocket Sharp MT from www.randyrants.com which runs on the Compact Framework 2.0. I was a little leery of loosing precious storage space with the installation of CF at 2170.8KB, but from an execution standpoint the frameworks memory use seems to be minimal and this version of Pocket Sharp MT is considerably smaller.

Pocket Sharp MT also seems to be more stable than the previous version version I used. There is also a version of Sharp MT for Windows XP that uses the .NET Framework 2.0. I use ECTO on my laptop to blog but I may try Sharp MT and see how it compares.

I am blogging from my T-Mobile MDA using my ThinkOutside BT keyboard via my EDGE connection. For any serious typing on the MDA or any other PPC I can't recommend this keyboard enough.

T-Mobile MDA - Upgrading to Xelencin's QTEK 2.17 ROM with T-Mobile Customization

I finally decided to take the plunge and upgrade to the Xelencin customized QTEK 2.17 ROM found here. My T-Mobile MDA was quite stable and I had good cell reception, however there were two key reasons for upgrading:

* Decrease program memory utilization
* Exchange direct push email

I wish QTEK had implemented the Bluetooth A2DP/AVRCP profiles that Microsoft included but hopefully it will be in the next upgrade.

Xelencin included key programs from the T-Mobile extended ROM, the T-Mobile splash screen, the Java Midlet, Pocket Commander and some registry tweaks. All in all a reasonably lean set up. Following the directions carefully my upgrade went perfectly. I used my standard rebuild approach I detailed here and backed up my base environment with Sprite Backup 5.0 I reviewed here.

Using the Pocket Commander registry editor function I added the following tweaks (further information about these tweaks can be found here):

Glyph Cache (Display Performance)
Registry: HKLM\SYSTEM\GDI\GLYPHCACHE
Key: limit (string)
My Value:       8192

Enhanced File System Performance
Registry: HKLM\System\StorageManager\FATFS
Key: CacheSize (dWord)
My Value: 8192

Key: EnableCache (dWord)
My Value: 1 = on

Registry: HKLM\System\StorageManager\Filters\fsreplxfilt
Key: ReplStoreCacheSize (dWord)
My Value: 8192

Store IE cache on Storage Card
Registry: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Explorer\shell Folders
Key: Cache (string)
My Value: \Storage Card\Temporary Internet Files

Pocket Informant Calendar Soft Key Fix.
Registry: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Today\Keys\112\
Key: Open (string)
My Value: calendar.lnk

I also added the continually improving Smartskey utility found here, which I find essential for one handed operation.

I am very impressed by the memory usage, after 24 hours of medium usage my program memory utilization is around 68% compared to around 85% with the original T-Mobile ROM. On the email front I had no problem with polling Exchange every 10 minutes but I have to say the direct push technology works very well with www.4smartphone.net and I will keep it configured that way. I have not noticed any major improvement with the GSM signal strength but I did not have a problem before. I will need additional time to see if I notice a difference.

All in all this is a worthwhile upgrade if you can take the chance that this is not a T-Mobile approved ROM. Thank you Xelencin for putting this ROM package together...

Updated 6/7/06: I made some minor additions to my tweaks here when I upgrade to T-Mobile test 2.24 ROM.