Stupid question time...
I really want to replace my Palm (TH55) device, but I've got to have a calendar that notifies me of upcoming appointments with an audible alert. I can find numerous threads bashing or lamenting about PIM apps, but I have yet to read about a calendar app that can make alarm sounds on a N810.

Suggestions?

Not sure what to tell you... I'm using GPE on an n810 and am having lots of problems with its alarm support. Alarms that were acknowledged 2 days ago will go off again at a random time. Other alarms just don't seem to go off. I don't trust it. I'm hopeful that KDEPIMPI will be what I've been waiting for, but it sounds like it still has GUI display issues on the n810.

Out of frustration I'm getting very close to diving into Gene Cash's apps to try and get them running on OS 2008:
http://home.cfl.rr.com/genecash/nokia/

Anyone else want to help?

you might look here and see most of the apps on the Gene Cash page have maybe been updated pretty regular and might work as found?

http://home.cfl.rr.com/genecash/updates.html

I'm using the Gene Cash calendar, for testing. I've got it running for a few months. But it seems to work very differently from my Palm, so I don't trust it for anything. I tried to set an alarm for a couple of weeks later, but there's no pop-up or notification anything like on my Palm. Besides, it seems to keep track of (or trying to keep track of) events by automatically starting itself every night at midnight, instead of scheduling the N800 alarm system. I'm very reluctant to use this instead of my trusted Palm. (I don't think the GPE stuff works any better btw.)

Has anyone tried Pimlico? - http://pimlico-project.org/
"Pimlico is a suite of lightweight Personal Information Management (PIM) applications designed primarily for handheld and mobile devices."
Their calendar app is called Dates. From the screenshot, I can't tell if it has an alarm. (I don't have a NIT)
There is a Maemo port off the main page.

Can't resolve the Pimlico Repo in my App Manager. Looks good though. Anyone know a working link please?

I tried the pimlico app, really nice interface. But no alarms. Also no way of putting info on home screen that I could see.

try www.gronmayer.com/it/ for repository

I've had similar frustrations with GPE Calendar: mostly re-reminding me after the fact about previous alarms. Sometimes as many as five at once covering alarms over the past day or two. So I just shut down GPE Calendar entirely when I want to be sure this doesn't happen (movie, etc.).

I don't think I've missed an alarm.

There are also a number of minor nits (e.g. advancing the time for setting an alarm doesn't automatically set the alarm 'on') and some too-small graphic elements.

But while I have been managing to get along okay with it for a couple of months now, I sure would like an update or something better. I thought I was over my separation grief from my long series of Palm devices (and they also had their frustrations), but I feel the lack of a really solid and easy-to-use calendar app.

Thanks for the advice everyone. I wish someone had been able to report better news of an app that worked better.

Why is the alarm handling so poor on o/s 2008? Is this a limitation of maemo or part of the unreleased code? Or is it just the calendar applications themselves? Surely other Linux based portable devices didn't have this issue (zaurus?), did they? I'm just trying to figure out where a fix is needed and how I can help.

GPE calendar doesn't use the maemo alarmd framework, which is supposed to "do the right thing". There is an open bug against alarmd, but at least standardizing on alarmd seems like a way forward. Gene Cash's python calendar app does use alarmd, but apparently has not been fully ported to OS 2008.

Maybe we should lay out some possibilities for improving things:

1. Fix GPE's built-in alarm code.
+ probably easiest way to get GPE working a bit better
- not integrated with rest of unit
- GPE not automatically started at boot (can probably be done via user configuration though)

2. Modify GPE to use alarmd
+ integrated functionality
+ alarmd maintainer can worry about that functionality
? uncertain if this would be easier or harder than fixing GPE's alarming

3. Modify Gene Cash's python calendar program for OS 2008
+ probably not too difficult
+ already uses alarmd
+ reports of it working pretty well on OS 2007
- may not support syncing

4. Get KDEPIMPI working
+ already in progress
? not sure how much more effort required

5. Fix up pimlico calendar
? I hardly used this because it seemed to have very limited features.

6. Start a new calendar project, preferably in python
+ iCalendar libs already exist in python
+ good python support in maemo
+ may be able to borrow code/ideas from Gene Cash's calendar and/or winzig
- large initial investment

Comments and additions welcome.