What is your "personal system"?

[Dabrador]

I'm looking for some suggestions on what I call a personal system. Here's what I mean...

The Droid is capable of so much and I'm trying to figure out the most efficient way of using it. Here are the components of my system and the apps that I think meet that need:

Calendar - native exchange calendar application
E-mail - native exchange and gmail application
Texts - native text application
Notes - 3banana
Tasks - Astrid
Journal - My Day
Pictures - ???
Video - ???
Secure information (passwords, etc) - B-Folders
Lists (shopping, etc) - AK Notepad
Voice notes - ???

What I'm really looking for is 'something' that will integrate all of my 'inputs' in my life. These 'inputs' include video, pics, audio, notes, tasks, lists, etc. The holy grail would be one application that integrates everything on the Droid, has a corresponding website for PC input, review, etc and syncs seamlessly between the two.

I used to use a product called Reqall that did some of the above but they don't have an Android application. Before that, I used a product called Backpack from 37signals, but they went from being a personal product to a business product.

Anyone have any suggestions? Does Google provide any sort of integrated 'system' that would accomplish the above? Is there anything else out there that might do this?

Thanks everyone...

 

[messenger13]

I would tell you ... but then I'd have to kill you.

 

[jamo]

I've been wanting the same thing for awhile, and I've been really happy with the Droid because I think it comes really close to doing it all, but not yet. I use gmail for my non-work related e-mail, I wish I could get Groupwise to it, but I'll wait; for now I just check it on the webmail site for it. I now type most of my notes that I need on Google Docs so they're viewable on my Droid, I think they'll be editable eventually, which will be great. I integrate all my to-do's through Google Calendars by making different calendar groups. I like the color differentiation for the different tasks. I had Astrid, but found that just using Google calendars is easier.
The one thing Android doesn't have, and HAS to get within a year, I believe, is a music/video/podcast delivery ecosystem. I love Android, and my Droid, but by the end of the year, the new Windows7 phones will be out with the Zune/XBox Live ecosystem for media, and Apple obviously has iTunes; so I really think that Android will start to disappear if they can't come up with an ecosystem to compete. Geeks like me are fine with drag and drop music and video, but the average person isn't. And don't bring up DoubleTwist; it's a clear rip-off of iTunes and is even more of a memory hog. I have started using Picasa Web folders for pics, but video and audio needs to make progress, or Win7 and Apple will dominate.

 

[Needsdecaf]

Calendar - native gmail calendar w/ pure grid calendar widget
E-mail - K9 Email
Texts - Chomps SMS
Notes - Evernote
Tasks - Astrid
Journal - None
Pictures - 2.1 Gallery w/ Picassa upload
Video - N/A
Secure information (passwords, etc) - Don't keep it on my phone
Lists (shopping, etc) - Evernote or Astrid, depending on format.
Voice notes - Evernote

 

[jamo]

FWIW:

Calendar - Google
E-mail - gmail and Groupwise webmail
Texts - Handcent
Notes - Notes
Tasks - Google Calendar
Journal - na
Pictures - Picasa
Video - ???
Secure information (passwords, etc) - na
Lists (shopping, etc) - Notes
Voice notes - na

 

[mtibbett67]

E-mail - Gmail
Texts - Hancent
Notes - GDocs Notes syncs with Google Docs as a notepad
Tasks - gTasks syncs with Google tasks

 

[Dabrador]

Thanks for the response. After reading the different apps that everyone is using for the different components, it just confirms that there's a real need for an integrated product. We have to jump from one thing to another to do different tasks.

It appears that Google has some integrated functions but it's still somewhat fragmented.

Anyone else recommend something more integrated and fluid?

 

[Dabrador]

It seems the way to become a "Senior Member" (except for Needsdecaf - kudos to your helpful response) is to post gibberish to serious inquiries.

I'd love to hear from others about the system you use...

 

[Fabolous]

Removed.

ROFL. Looks like you get a lot of work done.

Anyways, I use all the integrated Google services. Gmail and calendar are especially helpful, since they sync with the cloud.

Music - Rockon '3'
Videos - Cinema
Podcasts - Listen
Pictures - Gallery 3D w/ Multitouch

The nice thing about this device is that it's not inconvenient to switch between apps, it's rather quick. So I don't see a need for a consolidated app.

 

[Dabrador]

Fabolous - that's a great point about switching between apps. The Droid does a nice job of multi-tasking among different applications.

The problem lies in sharing information/data between types of applications. For example, if I snap a pic and want to make it a task, I don't think there's a way to do that.

Or maybe someone sends me a text and I want to turn that into an appointment.

That's the fluid integration I'm looking for.

Thoughts/suggestions/ideas?

 

[Fabolous]

Heh, Dabrador, you may be predicting the future of mobile OS's!

I think the fact that there are so many apps makes sharing data between them difficult. In order to accomplish what you're talking about, you'd need a unified suite of software (like the core OS apps).

Still, I don't know of any Android apps that do this, or even for any other smartphone OS's.

It's tough because what you're suggesting means that each data field (such as a task or appointment) needs to be able to accept any other type of data (like a picture or a text).

We might need to wait for the tech to catch up.

 

[Dabrador]

Perfect summary! It's tough being ahead of the curve. Maybe some enterprising developer will help us out here...

 

[alostpacket]

It seems the way to become a "Senior Member" (except for Needsdecaf - kudos to your helpful response) is to post gibberish to serious inquiries.

I'd love to hear from others about the system you use...

Wow nice attitude. I guess you cant take a lighthearted joke. How many serious replies do you need before it meets your satisfaction? Or should no jokes be posted and we'll all talk with stern seriousness about the Droid all the time. Anyways, thanks for your judgment.


Oh and to the mod who removed my post: Way to kill brevity. You wanna know why the vets are sick of the mods around here?

 

[Dabrador]

Wow nice attitude. I guess you cant take a lighthearted joke. How many serious replies do you need before it meets your satisfaction? Or should no jokes be posted and we'll all talk with stern seriousness about the Droid all the time. Anyways, thanks for your judgment.


Oh and to the mod who removed my post: Way to kill brevity. You wanna know why the vets are sick of the mods around here?

Maybe an illustration will help you understand...

Let's say you're sitting in a business meeting listening to individuals discuss a certain topic. As they begin their productive discussion, you contribute by sharing an off-color joke or a pornographic reference. What will other's opinions be of you? Negative at best, disgusted at worst.

If I wanted to participate in what you call lighthearted humor, I'd contribute to the myriad of "polls" that are going on in this forum.

The Mods did exactly what they should have done. This forum, as part of Phandroid.com, is a business. Revenue is generated by selling ad space. Do you think any business would want to associate themselves with a site that has degenerated into sophmoric and sometimes inappropriate behavior/conduct?

Kudos to the Mods for their attempts at keeping this site productive and efficient.

I welcome your contributions Alostpacket as long as they are productive and inoffensive. Please don't confuse this as being judgmental. This is about being courteous.

 

[Gunner]

*Picks up thread. Places it back on rails*

I think the closest thing that sort of accomplishes what you want is the new Sense UI by HTC (the new 2.1 version). Which isn't available for the Droid. Or perhaps Motoblur (also not available for the Droid).

 

[alostpacket]

Paint it however you want -- whatever lens you need to see it through to help yourself sleep. Have at it.

Lol at denegrated into "sophomoric" humor too. Yeah no business ever advertises with the likes of Comedy Central. Or, gasp, sites with a sense of humor. You're obviously an adult, and if you cant even handle the mention of a the name of an adult app, you seriously have some growing up to do.

I don't have anything further to say to you that would be nice, so I will just bow out of this thread now and leave you with this thought: I hope you learn to loosen up someday, you would do yourself, and the world, a favor.

 

[crankerchick]

It's true, this is where the future OS needs to go, both on the desktop and on the phone. I mean, there is Microsoft office with email, documents, spreadsheets, notes, tasks, and presentations, but they all work separately. I was just laughing the other day about how I flag a message in my inbox for follow-up, set a date and time for a reminder, but that follow up doesn't show up in my tasks or anywhere for me to visually see it (at least I haven't found it yet anyway).

It would be really helpful to see Android go in that direction, but I think before they can get there, it needs to just offer all of the products for such cohesion. I guess the average joe doesn't want a notes or tasks application, but judging by the abundance of such apps in the market place, this suggests that maybe they do. Google has such products in the online version of their apps, yet they are missing from the phone. Same goes for Google docs.

I would be satisfied for now if the full suite of productivity tools as I call them (documents, spreadsheets, presentation, email, calendar, contacts, tasks, and notes) were at least available on an Android device when it ships. An extension would be full sync to the cloud for the mobile version and the online version. Even though Windows Mobile didn't sync to the cloud for all of this, there was still much better synergy between the mobile versions and the desktop versions of their applications. It's something I really miss in my switch to Android.

I still don't understand why there are fields for various things in the online version of some applications, and ways to view said data on the mobile device, and some things even use said data on the device, yet I can't change said data on the device.

I would love to see things go in the direction of vision stated in this thread, but I guess it would be nice if they start with getting all of the parts together for said vision to even be a possibility.

 

[johnlgalt]

While I like the theory behind integration, the biggest problem with integration is that, if every thing is in one app, then that app is running all the time - eating away at your power, CPU cycles, RAM, etc.

With the multi-tasking used in the DROID, it is a lot easier to switch over from email to Calendar to Tasks to Maps to music, and while one or more of those apps may be running concurrently, only one has true focus, thus only that one is actually eating a large slice of your CPU cycles and RAM.

It's the same reason why I don't use Outlook for email, even though I could - I prefer Thunderbird, as it is a mail client primarily, and Sunbird, as it is a Calendar app primarily, and Firefox, as it is a browser primarily....

I like having separate programs for this reason over all others: Suppose, for example, that someone sends your a malformed packet of information via email - or a calendar .ICS file - or whatever. Suppose this is a minor malicious file that causes some sort of stack overflow in the program that reads / opens it.

Now, in the above scenario, an all in one integrated app gets FC'd - and you lose contact with everything until you are able to restart the app - and if you weren't a good little user and saved everything that you may have had open, then poof! - you're SOL.

With the current setup, if the file is opened in GMail, and GMail FCs, it doesn't take Calendar, gTasks, Browser, Slacker Radio / Pandora Radio / Last.fm / Rocker "3" / {insert your music app here}, Notepad, Gallery, Camera, ...

Get the picture?

The only way I would even consider an AIO integrated app is if it were running partitioned / separate processes, and has built in debugging / error-catching to allow for one process to FC and leave all remaining processes unaffected. (This is one of the reasons I like Windows 7 BTW - for most of the system processes that it runs, it has support for this very feature).

until then, I'll keep my 161 apps for all the different things I get done and play with.

 

[crankerchick]

But is it possible for each separate app to still communicate with other apps. I'm not necessarily in favor of a single app providing multiple functions, but more like individual apps being cognizant of other apps and making data available across apps.

An example would be, when I add a task with a due date to the task app that doesn't exist on Android, it sure would be nice if it would also send that task to the calendar.

Or how about, I add a birthday to the non-existent birthday field on the contacts app in Android, and the contact app sends the event to my calendar as a recurring event. And imagine if it would also fill in the person's age (if I've provided a year of birth). Sounds like something I've heard of before. Oh that's right, outlook does that for me...

Do I depend on this? No. Would it be nice? Sure.

Imagine further, a flag that I can set that adds a task to the non-existent task program to purchase a gift for said contact by said birthdate.

There is a calendar widget available right now that attemps to work with other applications (astrid and gtasks) to bring task and calendar information together for viewing, from 2 separate apps. Astrid will allow you to make a calendar event for a task if you choose.

The possibility is there, but I suppose it is something that isn't a high priority. Evidently, live wallpapers is more important.

 

[johnlgalt]

Understandable. Tasks is one of those issues that is not playing nicely to begin with - I created a task in Sunbird and it shows on gTasks, but all others that I created in either Calendar online or Mail online show in gTasks but not in Sunbird....

The ultimate would be data sharing between apps, but still maintaining separate processes (at the very least), or else sticking with the current separation of apps power structure.

Again, though, let's say you're in the middle of drafting an important email reply to a client, and also have a a discussion that you're participating in, and a reminder pops up asking you to do something that you were suppose dot do - and then a new email comes in with a malformed packet and kills outlook.

Are you gonna be pissed off? I would be.

Plus, let's see you get Outlook in all its glory (and its size) running on Android.

baby steps - Android is hardly 2, and it'll take time for some of the better ideas to work their way into the OS an pre-installed apps. Still, if there is ever an integration into a single app for all this, I am against it. If the integration merely involves data and information exchange and interoperability, then I can easily support that. As long as the processes are separate so that one FC doesn't bring down the entire house of cards.

 

[Psychokitty]

Sweeter Home. Hate to say it, but it's true. You can customize anything & intergrate everything to make the Droid itself a completely functional system (or more than one) that suits your needs.

 

[JDW]

Integration sounds nice, especially EMail/SMS/IM, but the reality is the separate programs will always be more flexible.

As sorta mentioned, integration will usually be less flexible and basically, "jack of all trades, master of none"...

I could be wrong, and I hope I am actually, but....

 

[johnlgalt]

Sweeter Home. Hate to say it, but it's true. You can customize anything & intergrate everything to make the Droid itself a completely functional system (or more than one) that suits your needs.

Can Sweeter home take calendar data and make tasks out of them to show in gTasks, or make tasks show in calendar, and can it sync your contacts icons to the calendar if you invite people to a particular event that you set up in the calendar....

I think you might have missed the point of this discussion, or else I have missed the point that Sweeter home is one helluva app that is far more than just a home replacement app....

Integration sounds nice, especially EMail/SMS/IM, but the reality is the separate programs will always be more flexible.

As sorta mentioned, integration will usually be less flexible and basically, "jack of all trades, master of none"...

I could be wrong, and I hope I am actually, but....

Even if the integrated app was a master of all trades - I don't want one single app going bonkers and killing 90% of what I am doing with one single FC. Period.

 

[JDW]

Yeah... That's a great point. One wonky update and your whole world is fail until they get on track.

 

[johnlgalt]

Actually, I never even considered that aspect of it - that makes it doubly worse.

I was talking about a FC caused by something akin to a malicious file or something else internal that causes the app to crash. I never even though about how a bad / partial update disabling that one app makes your life go to zilch until the app is fixed....

Good point!