maemo.org - Talk - PIM Contest

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- - PIM Contest (https://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=25180)

I don't own a tablet. I am poor.

That out of the way, I still love following tablet news, and discussing the netpad. In fact, I plan to buy the next IT, or die trying. I would buy an N810, but the price and the looming suspicion that the N900 is around the corner, prevents me from acting hastily. Anyway, I digress.....

It seems to me that may users want a full featured PIM, but as of yet, they remain unsatisfied with the selection. Feeling lost? Fret not! The great PIM contest begins!

The idea is to let our collective dollars act as incentive to fork, add to, create a project that meets our expectations, and gets us the PIM of our [realistic] dreams.

The first step would be collectively determining the spec for such a project and in doing so, the criteria for winning the contest.

What would you need to see in a PIM? Why?

Lets stop complaining about it and start doing something! After we have determined a spec, we can find a trusted, neutral intermediary that will handle the contest specifics/finances, etc.

YARR!
}:^)~

Capt'n Corrupt: The return

I understand the nature of your contest, but I'll also point out a Nokia sponsored community forum on this same subject:

http://www.internettablettalk.com/fo...t.php?p=237847
http://wiki.maemo.org/Task:PIM

The gold standard of PIMs is simple - Palm perfected PIMs years ago, and still has the best, by a wide margin. Nobody else has come close.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sgosnell (Post 244659)

The gold standard of PIMs is simple - Palm perfected PIMs years ago, and still has the best, by a wide margin. Nobody else has come close.

DateBk6 -- or, it's re-incarnated self as rumored on other mailing lists ....
Contacts -- if gpe-contacts was finger-friendly and integrated ...

Palm "Memos" is weak. There was some for-pay "MemoTree" (or similar, can't remember now....) that rocked.

[Still, sadly, carrying my T5 .....]

Datebk is the best I've seen, but it's Palm. CESD has sent emails saying he is porting it to Windows as a desktop app, and i suppose we can dream it will also come to Linux, and then a Maemo port.

GPE contacts is ok, not perfect but I can live with it. I have no problems with memos, but there are some Palm memo replacement apps around. I haven't bothered.

Integration is a fairly large deal. The ability to get to PIMs instantly is part of the zen of Palm. I'm still carrying my Lifedrive, and still prefer the T3, but the wifi hotsync and a few other things put that in a drawer. I see nothing at all for Maemo that rivals any Palm PIM app, but since I found pyring I'm close to giving up my Palm. PIMs aren't at the absolute top of my list. An acceptable password safe that can import Keyring files was holding me back, but pyring does that. It's not perfect, but it works well enough.

PocketInformant blew away anything Palm had... Though I always preferred Palm. I bought both Agendus and Datebk5, and used them heavily. But PocketInformant made WinMo more than bearable...!

I also used ShadowPlan a lot, and loved its integration with the system-wide calendar and todo databases (one key thing we don't have on Maemo).

I've put some cash into great PIM apps... and still very willing to do it again.

What are the features that make the Palm PIMs so great?

YARR!
}:^)~

Cappy-babby-bo-babby

Fast. Fast fast fast. When I clicked on Datebook, it opened, and I could quickly jump to any month without any noticable delay. Even searching through 4 years of data was quick on my old Vx. iCal on my Mac makes me want to cry it's so slow.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Capt'n Corrupt (Post 244536)

I don't own a tablet. I am poor.

SNIP!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Capt'n Corrupt (Post 244536)

The idea is to let our collective dollars act as incentive to fork, add to, create a project that meets our expectations, and gets us the PIM of our [realistic] dreams.

The first step would be collectively determining the spec for such a project and in doing so, the criteria for winning the contest.

What would you need to see in a PIM? Why?

Here are some of the things I want in a PIM:

cross platform (Linux desktop, Linux tablet, Windows desktop, possibly even web accessible) with the ability to intelligently synchronize between platforms
Calendar with alarms, strong support for scheduling (ie., recurring dates, 3rd-wednesday-in-July, scheduling conflict detection), support for importing icalendar data.
To-do list (linked to the calendar, but items don't require dates/times), with item priorities
Contact list (names/addresses/email), ideally integrated with mobile phones (ie., synchronize entries with your phone, initiate dialling from the PIM program, maintain a log of call dates in your PIM autmatically from the log in the phone, etc.). Support for vcard data.
strong support for categorization in each data source (ie., is an entry in the category "Friends" or "Business", etc.), with filtering of each display by category

Thankfully, the kdepimpi PIM meets all those requirements already, but the interface under the Maemo/Hildon environment is poor. I've done a little work "porting" kdepimpi to the Nokia environment, but the kdepimpi Garage project really needs some help from a more experienced programmer.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sgosnell (Post 244685)

Datebk is the best I've seen, but it's Palm. CESD has sent emails saying he is porting it to Windows as a desktop app, and i suppose we can dream it will also come to Linux, and then a Maemo port.

I'm pretty sure I hadn't seen much (other than pleading) about Win desktop -- but thought there was some discussion about WinMo. There was a reference to a Linux port -- and I ponied up to be a Maemo beta.

Quote:

GPE contacts is ok, not perfect but I can live with it. I have no problems with memos, but there are some Palm memo replacement apps around. I haven't bothered.

Integration is a fairly large deal. The ability to get to PIMs instantly is part of the zen of Palm. I'm still carrying my Lifedrive, and still prefer the T3, but the wifi hotsync and a few other things put that in a drawer. I see nothing at all for Maemo that rivals any Palm PIM app, but since I found pyring I'm close to giving up my Palm. PIMs aren't at the absolute top of my list. An acceptable password safe that can import Keyring files was holding me back, but pyring does that. It's not perfect, but it works well enough.

I think I have to agree with you here -- the Zen was in the integration (probably allowed, for all it's faults, by the data driven model). Key elements I love about DB6 is the integration with the contact list (in additional to easily a dozen other things). You've not lived until you use a template for a doctor's appointment with the link that brings up the contact, and that has an updated notes field so when you look up your doctor, you see this history of appointments. Pure calendaring epiphany.

Klumping through gpe-contacts was ... ugly? No clicking on the name to call, on links back into the calendar (was is the last/next hangout with this person?) I kind of like the calendar -- but not very finger-friendly. The N800 struggles still with the finger/stylus schizophrenia. (If the Canola people took a whack at the UI for GPE -- we might find ultimate bliss...)