DejaOffice -- super-charged contacts, calendar, tasks and notes apps for mobile professionals

[Sponsor]

.
DejaOffice is a mobile office suite for professionals on the go. It makes your Android device work more like PC software (like Microsoft Outlook).

www.dejaoffice.com

Some of the features:

• Categories with colors
• 9 custom fields
• Sort by first, last or company name
• Day, week, month and year view on calendar
• Assign priorities and due-dates with alerts to tasks
• Sort tasks and notes by subject, date, priority or category
• Global search feature across all data types
• Supports English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, and Czech (more coming!)

Contacts:

Calendar:

Tasks:

Note from AF: CompanionLink Software is an approved Sponsor for AndroidForums. Give their free ad-supported version of DejaOffice a try!

 

[nicracine]

It looks promising, but according to your Web site, it does not integrates with Google apps, like calendar and tasks.

I would use it if it allowed me to integrates all those Googles apps.

Nicolas Racine

 

[mudrock1000]

Looks nice if your not into fun looks and 100 percent professional,

Suggestion though, make it look visually appealing, for the fun young crowd AND older crowd, mainly because of the focus on white. Color schemes would make this pretty cool, seeing as not all of us use the stock Android theme, or have an HTC hero or other Sense device.

 

[ub3r-l33ch]

Why is this a sticky?

 

[nicracine]

I was wondering the same thing, then I saw the magic word : Sponsor.

 

[lolwiki]

This is actually a pretty nice app. Combining all practical apps together (calendar, contacts, notes etc) is definitely a good idea. I copied the review (and added some of my own) onto the blog
wiki4android | DejaOffice
Hope you don't mind.

 

[EinZtein]

No google integration, no way.

 

[(G)]

I don't give a rip if it has Google integration, I just want to know that it's backed up and accessible somewhere else in case the Droid goes down. So if it syncs with a desktop (a la Palm), I'm sold.

 

[pequeajim]

This is actually a pretty nice app. Combining all practical apps together (calendar, contacts, notes etc) is definitely a good idea. I copied the review (and added some of my own) onto the blog
wiki4android | DejaOffice
Hope you don't mind.

Thanks for the information. It looks like a nice application, but it also appears that in order to sync to your PC and oOutlook, you will need to pay the $39.95 fee?

 

[Tre Lawrence]

At first glance, I like it. Very intriguing. And Google sync is said to be coming...

 

[companionlink]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the great comments! Let me try to address a few questions.

It looks promising, but according to your Web site, it does not integrates with Google apps, like calendar and tasks.

Integration with Google is partial. Google offers open APIs for contacts and calendar, but not tasks or notes. Contacts and calendar are fully supported, and we can sync tasks to the Google calendar. Android doesn't offer a native tasks app either, so that compounds the problem. For full support of contacts, calendar, tasks and notes, the USB sync is a more complete solution.

Color schemes would make this pretty cool

Currently, we offer two color schemes - Light and Dark. We are looking at adding more options later down the road, but right now we are really focused on adding new features and usability.

I copied the review (and added some of my own) onto the blog
wiki4android | DejaOffice
Hope you don't mind.

Thanks for the review, looks great!

It looks like a nice application, but it also appears that in order to sync to your PC and oOutlook, you will need to pay the $39.95 fee?

DejaOffice fully integrates with the native Android contact and calendar databases. This means that if you use another sync solution such as the free Google Calendar Sync, DejaOffice is able to pull in that calendar data. You can use DejaOffice to manage your calendar, and it will sync back with the native calendar database and then to Google.

We designed DejaOffice to be used standalone with the native Android apps, or with CompanionLink's full sync of contacts, calendar tasks and notes.

 

[nicracine]

Integration with Google is partial. Google offers open APIs for contacts and calendar, but not tasks or notes. Contacts and calendar are fully supported, and we can sync tasks to the Google calendar. Android doesn't offer a native tasks app either, so that compounds the problem. For full support of contacts, calendar, tasks and notes, the USB sync is a more complete solution.

I don't know the Google API, but I have a program (gTasks) that synchronize with Google tasks. I assumed it could be done.

As for Notes, I think it will no longer be supported by Google. It has been announced a while ago.

 

[sanjsrik]

I posted this on their user forums, thought it might bear repeating here:

Synced for the first time with my Sprint Evo, all calendar events are missing...

I just downloaded the application from your website to my Sprint Evo. It's running 2.1, I started the application, asked me if I wanted to sync all my contacts and calendar events and I said yes, and away it went.

Only problme is in the stock calendar all my appointments are correct in Deja Calendar, every single appointment is gone. Not a single one. If i choose to show events from the last right-most sort (not sure what it's called) there is only ONE single repeating event, my father's birthday shows up but it shows up starting from the day he was born in 1941 all the way up to today, EVERY DAY. Basically I now know that my dad's birthday is every single day for the entire length of his life until the present day.

Also, how come I can't make an appointment that repeats? I went into the calendar "New" function and there's nothing in there for a "repeat" appointment. Don't relish having to enter all my repeating stuff 4-5/month. Kind of makes it useles as a reminder.

Contacts "seem" to be okay​

 

[lolbug]

I lost my appointment as well. Very very bad app!!!!
be careful!!

 

[wrigglesworth]

Currently, we offer two color schemes - Light and Dark. We are looking at adding more options later down the road, but right now we are really focused on adding new features and usability.

Alleluia! I have not tried out DejaOffice, but I very much appreciate the philosophy of software where the focus is actually on being useful rather than looking pretty. Please leave animations and skins to Disney. I'm also attracted to the idea of a desktop sync which leaves me in control of my own data rather than giving it all to Google.

 

[wrigglesworth]

Alleluia! I have not tried out DejaOffice, but I very much appreciate the philosophy of software where the focus is actually on being useful rather than looking pretty. Please leave animations and skins to Disney. I'm also attracted to the idea of a desktop sync which leaves me in control of my own data rather than giving it all to Google.

OK, I just did try it out, and I'm afraid I was not impressed. As others have said, the import of the Android diary was not reliable, nearly all appointments were missing. I couldn't quite understand the logic of the fault - the appointments that were in Deja seemed arbitrary. Also a few contacts were missing, but that wasn't obvious until I carefully went through the list. I didn't get beyond looking at any other functionality, because at that point my faith in the program's ability to preserve my data evaporated and I uninstalled it. It isn't ready for release yet, it needs proper beta testing.

 

[companionlink]

OK, I just did try it out, and I'm afraid I was not impressed. As others have said, the import of the Android diary was not reliable, nearly all appointments were missing. I couldn't quite understand the logic of the fault - the appointments that were in Deja seemed arbitrary. Also a few contacts were missing, but that wasn't obvious until I carefully went through the list. I didn't get beyond looking at any other functionality, because at that point my faith in the program's ability to preserve my data evaporated and I uninstalled it. It isn't ready for release yet, it needs proper beta testing.

Hi wrigglesworth,

We just released an update - DejaOffice 1.5.3 is now available from the Android Market.

We've implemented quite a few fixes based on community feedback - many calendar bugs have been squashed. I encourage you to give it another shot!

 

[popolon]

Hi wrigglesworth,

We just released an update - DejaOffice 1.5.3 is now available from the Android Market.

We've implemented quite a few fixes based on community feedback - many calendar bugs have been squashed. I encourage you to give it another shot!

I tried 1.5.3, but this has same bug that recurring Calendar events are not having Alarms in my phone (Samsung Galaxy ).
Also why is Alarm functionality in Calendar only giving one beep sound, and why is not Alarm sound lasting for some time, e.g. for 30 seconds ? This one beep is totally useless.

 

[EinZtein]

Let's face it, most apps are junk and I will not be qa for someone who doesn't even test there own apps.

 

[companionlink]

I tried 1.5.3, but this has same bug that recurring Calendar events are not having Alarms in my phone (Samsung Galaxy ).
Also why is Alarm functionality in Calendar only giving one beep sound, and why is not Alarm sound lasting for some time, e.g. for 30 seconds ? This one beep is totally useless.

DejaOffice uses the native Android notification system. To change the notification sounds (from any third party app that uses the notification API), look in your Android settings.

 

[sanjsrik]

It's still buggy. I installed the latest version and on a daily view, it doesn't show A SINGLE appointment. Yet, on month and week view, my appointments show up.

How is that consistent?

At least it imported my contacts, haven't necessarily seen if it impoted all the fields.

And, it would be a handy thing to NOT categorize this application as FREE when it's a 14-day trial "FREE" application. That is disingenuous and misleading.

Plus, you can't synchorinize unless you spend upwards of $39.99 to get the sync software.

Come on guys, truth in advertising, not leave it in the small print like you're a bank or a credit card company. This is a paid application, say so up front.

I mean seriously, it says in your description:

Free for 14 days. Free phone support. Features added weekly.

Yet, how come this application is categorized as "free", it's not. Neither is the NECESSARY syncing software.

Be honest with the users.

 

[companionlink]

Hi sanjsrik,

DejaOffice was designed from the start to be used as a free standalone app, or with CompanionLink for advanced sync functionality. DejaOffice can read the native Android contacts and calendar databases, and thus is compatible with any sync solution that uses the native databases (such as Google). Many users out there are just looking for a free app that gives Android a better address book (variable font size, color-coded categories, company name display), and that's what DejaOffice provides.

Also, many users want advanced business functionality on their phones, but don't necessarily need to sync with their PCs. DejaOffice fills that gap as well. We offer CompanionLink free for 14 days so everyone can use it to at least migrate their PC data (or data from an old phone) into DejaOffice. We want DejaOffice to be useful for basic users, as well as for those looking to keep everything in sync on a daily basis.

All that being said, we know that DejaOffice is still young and rapidly being developed. Our goal for DejaOffice is to give old Palm users a viable alternative to their old Treos and Centros. Palm has had 14 years to polish their mobile PIM apps, while DejaOffice has only been out a few months and we're already well on our way.

Ultimately, we look to the community to let us know how DejaOffice should evolve. We depend on user feedback and suggestions, and are always readily available over at the DejaOffice Forums. It doesn't get much more transparent than that.

Sorry for any confusion!

 

[evperry]

Please get this together so I can dump my Treo Pro.

Hi sanjsrik,

DejaOffice was designed from the start to be used as a free standalone app, or with CompanionLink for advanced sync functionality. DejaOffice can read the native Android contacts and calendar databases, and thus is compatible with any sync solution that uses the native databases (such as Google). Many users out there are just looking for a free app that gives Android a better address book (variable font size, color-coded categories, company name display), and that's what DejaOffice provides.

Also, many users want advanced business functionality on their phones, but don't necessarily need to sync with their PCs. DejaOffice fills that gap as well. We offer CompanionLink free for 14 days so everyone can use it to at least migrate their PC data (or data from an old phone) into DejaOffice. We want DejaOffice to be useful for basic users, as well as for those looking to keep everything in sync on a daily basis.

All that being said, we know that DejaOffice is still young and rapidly being developed. Our goal for DejaOffice is to give old Palm users a viable alternative to their old Treos and Centros. Palm has had 14 years to polish their mobile PIM apps, while DejaOffice has only been out a few months and we're already well on our way.

Ultimately, we look to the community to let us know how DejaOffice should evolve. We depend on user feedback and suggestions, and are always readily available over at the DejaOffice Forums. It doesn't get much more transparent than that.

Sorry for any confusion!

 

[sanjsrik]

Hi sanjsrik,

DejaOffice was designed from the start to be used as a free standalone app, or with CompanionLink for advanced sync functionality. DejaOffice can read the native Android contacts and calendar databases, and thus is compatible with any sync solution that uses the native databases (such as Google). Many users out there are just looking for a free app that gives Android a better address book (variable font size, color-coded categories, company name display), and that's what DejaOffice provides.

Also, many users want advanced business functionality on their phones, but don't necessarily need to sync with their PCs. DejaOffice fills that gap as well. We offer CompanionLink free for 14 days so everyone can use it to at least migrate their PC data (or data from an old phone) into DejaOffice. We want DejaOffice to be useful for basic users, as well as for those looking to keep everything in sync on a daily basis.

All that being said, we know that DejaOffice is still young and rapidly being developed. Our goal for DejaOffice is to give old Palm users a viable alternative to their old Treos and Centros. Palm has had 14 years to polish their mobile PIM apps, while DejaOffice has only been out a few months and we're already well on our way.

Ultimately, we look to the community to let us know how DejaOffice should evolve. We depend on user feedback and suggestions, and are always readily available over at the DejaOffice Forums. It doesn't get much more transparent than that.

Sorry for any confusion!

I think perhaps we should get beyond the corporate doublespeak:

"DejaOffice was designed from the start to be used as a free standalone app, or with CompanionLink for advanced sync functionality."

Hmm, notice no mention of an extra cost here, did you mean to leave that pertinent fact out?

"DejaOffice can read the native Android contacts and calendar databases, and thus is compatible with any sync solution that uses the native databases (such as Google)."

For this, I call BS. You don't read it at all, your application is buggy and many users have pointed this out, is this in an effort to make them "upgrade" to the paid version?

"Also, many users want advanced business functionality on their phones, but don't necessarily need to sync with their PCs. DejaOffice fills that gap as well. We offer CompanionLink free for 14 days so everyone can use it to at least migrate their PC data (or data from an old phone) into DejaOffice."

Let's just work this two-pronged line of BS into perspective, shall we? Users want advanced "business" functionality (yet, you fail to mention that they can only have it unless they pay for it). "but don't necessarily need to sync with their PCs." What are they syncing with, their yak trader? This is a disingenuous statement, of COURSE they're syncing with their PCs most of the time, their PCs are the ones that sync with their servers in the first place.

"We offer CompanionLink free for 14 days so everyone can use it to at least migrate their PC data (or data from an old phone) into DejaOffice."

How mighty nice of you. You offer a solution where users can migrate from ONE proprietary solution to another one. EXCELLENT, thanks. BTW, is your company about to be bought by Adobe since you seem to have that same one-way attitude.

"All that being said, we know that DejaOffice is still young and rapidly being developed. Our goal for DejaOffice is to give old Palm users a viable alternative to their old Treos and Centros. Palm has had 14 years to polish their mobile PIM apps, while DejaOffice has only been out a few months and we're already well on our way."

Sorry, huh? Palm users? Hey, guess what, Palm is dead, dead, dead, dead, dead. Despite what HP may tell you, Palm is dead. Not exactly sure why you think migrating Palm users to Android (half-a$$edly to your proprietary system) helps a Palm user, but wow, nice duck and weave there. In the end, you have categorized your pay-for-play software as "freeware" please, recategorize it as paid software at upwards of $39.99. It's not free, spin it any way you want, I suggest you fire your marketing guy, he's doing you a disservice.

 

[sanjsrik]

PS, I decided to use your own technique of quoting and responding, hope you appreciate it.