Gemini Calendar - my vision of calendar software

(G) · Sep 4, 2010

28064212 said:
Making it an option would be great

Wouldn't it just make sense to add a "Do you want to save this event?" dialog if someone hits the BACK key?

braj · Sep 4, 2010

(G) said:
Wouldn't it just make sense to add a "Do you want to save this event?" dialog if someone hits the BACK key?

Even making it an optional item for those of us that could really use it would be nice. Honestly it is a pain in the arse and makes me just want to avoid using Gemini for anything but recurring events. No offense but this is a huge deal.

I'd like a way to disable it creating its own alerts. I am not finding that helpful at all, I have another app Nudnik Alarms that handles improving the alarm repeats and tone.

powell · Sep 4, 2010

(G) said:
Wouldn't it just make sense to add a "Do you want to save this event?" dialog if someone hits the BACK key?

No, it would not help at all. I think there are two main solutions: treating the back button as a "save it all" or as an "escape" key. Adding additional popups or dialogs would only slow the process of adding event, I think it would be irritating after a while. If user chooses one of the approach, I think he/she wants the back button behave the proper way, without any additional dialogs and questions.

braj said:
Even making it an optional item for those of us that could really use it would be nice. Honestly it is a pain in the arse and makes me just want to avoid using Gemini for anything but recurring events. No offense but this is a huge deal.

Option is possible, maybe I will add it in the future version. We will see.

braj said:
I'd like a way to disable it creating its own alerts. I am not finding that helpful at all, I have another app Nudnik Alarms that handles improving the alarm repeats and tone.

You can disable alarm notifications in Gemini preferences.

bob_54 · Sep 4, 2010

Powell,
Updated late yesterday and Gemini keeps getting better!

Haven't had a chance to check out all of the new features but may have found an old glitch that has re-appeared.

I was traveling the last couple of days and like to put in all day appts for the area I was traveling in and will be in the future.
This morning I went back to make all day appts for 9/2 through 9/3. After I save it the bars were shown across 9/1 and 9/2 instead. Went in and edited back to 9/2 to 9/3 and it still saved as 9/1 to 9/2.
Old all day appts entered in the previous Gemini version were still showing correctly.

By the way, I really like the addition of the all day bars on the month view.

One other thing. Noticed the year is not showing properly in the box in the day view.
It is showing as
20
10

Keep up the great work!
Thanks

bob_54 · Sep 4, 2010

Powell,

Something else I forgot to ask. Has there been any type of change touch sensitivity (if that is the term) or size of the area to touch to add or delete reminders?
Previously I could more easily use my finger to add/delete a reminder. Now it seems a little more difficult to find the "sweet spot." If I use a Pogo stylus and touch right in the middle of the circle it pops up quickly.

braj · Sep 4, 2010

powell said:
No, it would not help at all.

How can you say that?? Data loss is MORE annoying and will cause people not to use your product. An option to NOT save should be optional if anything, the default should be similar to the way other apps behave (Default Calendar automatically saves when backing out of an appointment once data has been inserted), no matter your preferences. This is part of why Apple has so much success, they are nazis about stuff like this.

UI conventions are important to maintain. This is a default Android behavior and when you deviate you make it hard on your users.

scubarogue · Sep 4, 2010

powell said:
No, it would not help at all. I think there are two main solutions: treating the back button as a "save it all" or as an "escape" key. Adding additional popups or dialogs would only slow the process of adding event, I think it would be irritating after a while. If user chooses one of the approach, I think he/she wants the back button behave the proper way, without any additional dialogs and questions.

Option is possible, maybe I will add it in the future version. We will see.

You can disable alarm notifications in Gemini preferences.

I absolutely do not want the back button to save an event. I frequently want to back out of an event, or have made a mistake that I want to back out of and NOT save. One of the conventions I enjoy is Android is that it does not save until I choose "save".

If you want to work on something, I'd like to see the ability to copy an event to a new or additional date. Also the ability to move or copy an even from one calendar to another would be great.

scubarogue · Sep 4, 2010

I use the add event shortcut on my homepage. I was introducing Gemini to my sis-in-law for her Evo and it would not add the shortcut to hers.

I tried adding it to another page of my homepage (also an Evo) and it did not work. It appears that in the new update the function that creates the event shortcuts is not working on the Evo.

braj · Sep 4, 2010

scubarogue said:
One of the conventions I enjoy is Android is that it does not save until I choose "save".

I'm looking through all my apps and that is just not the case. The convention IS to save, I can understand wanting something else but if you are making an app with a consistent user experience it should definitely save or prompt to save by default.

powell · Sep 5, 2010

bob_54 said:
may have found an old glitch that has re-appeared.

I will send you a PM about that soon.

bob_54 said:
One other thing. Noticed the year is not showing properly in the box in the day view.
It is showing as
20
10

I know that :mad:

bob_54 said:
Powell,
Something else I forgot to ask. Has there been any type of change touch sensitivity (if that is the term) or size of the area to touch to add or delete reminders?
Previously I could more easily use my finger to add/delete a reminder. Now it seems a little more difficult to find the "sweet spot." If I use a Pogo stylus and touch right in the middle of the circle it pops up quickly.

Do you mean this green "+" and red "-" signs in the Add New Event window ? No, I have not touch it for years ...

braj said:
How can you say that?? Data loss is MORE annoying and will cause people not to use your product. An option to NOT save should be optional if anything, the default should be similar to the way other apps behave (Default Calendar automatically saves when backing out of an appointment once data has been inserted), no matter your preferences. This is part of why Apple has so much success, they are nazis about stuff like this.
UI conventions are important to maintain. This is a default Android behavior and when you deviate you make it hard on your users.

I think you misunderstood me here. I am not saying that data loss is better, I am not saying that saving data after you press back button is wrong (however, I totally dislike such convention). I am saying, that the only way to do that right, is to pick one convention, or another, or let the users choose in preferences. Once the user knows how the back button behaves, there will be no problems with this. Popups and dialogs, asking whether user really wants do abandon changes are popular in much more complicated activities, where user enters a huge amount of data. We are talking about simple appointment here. The only exception in Gemini is the dialog asking, whether user really wants to delete the event, because it can be done by mistake AND it can be done to the already existing, old data (so it would be difficult to recreate such event).
As I said, I will consider letting users to pick how back button behaves. It will be done in preferences, for the whole application.

scubarogue said:
I use the add event shortcut on my homepage. I was introducing Gemini to my sis-in-law for her Evo and it would not add the shortcut to hers.

I tried adding it to another page of my homepage (also an Evo) and it did not work. It appears that in the new update the function that creates the event shortcuts is not working on the Evo.

I will examine that, thanks.

scubarogue said:
If you want to work on something, I'd like to see the ability to copy an event to a new or additional date.

It is already there

Long press the event on Month View, you will see "Add to clipboard" menu option. Then, long press on the desired day of month - you will be able to pick one of the options: "Paste from clipboard" or "Paste from clipboard and edit"

bob_54 · Sep 5, 2010

Powell,
I just noticed the 2010 wrap only happens on the longer word months. ie September. June shows fine. No problem. I know it will be fixed.

bob_54 · Sep 5, 2010

Powell,
I just noticed the 2010 wrap only happens on the longer word months. ie September. June shows fine. No problem. I know it will be fixed.

Yes I asking about the + and - buttons. Must be something with my phone screen then. I'll just have to make sure I have my stylus with me.

Edit: sorry for the double post. Didn't look like the 1st one posted from the forum message I received.

fyoosh · Sep 5, 2010

I just downloaded this last night (because of this thread, and another thread on here that I scoped out). I signed up for the forum today because of it!

This little app is wonderful, and I love it! The one thing I REALLY NEEDED for my business was the ability to do repeating events in different intervals than offered on the other calendar apps. It worked on Google Calendar itself, but not on any of the other on-device calendars I tried... so THANK YOU!!!

One thing that would make this calendar even BETTER than Google Calendar would be the ability to auto-fill info from your contact list. I searched on Google Calendar itself for this feature last night, and in their "feature request" forum, SEVERAL people were clamoring for it. I don't know why they don't add it

An example would be to add an event at a certain time on a certain day with a title (like "Lunch" or whatnot) and have a field where I could select "Susie Smith", or "Joe's Diner". Then, certain fields would populate with the info from what I selected (phone number, address, etc...) This way, if I have an appt with someone, or somewhere, and I am running late, I have quick access to contact that person, or venue, right from the calendar entry.

Impossible?? I hope not...

Thanks again for a wonderful product, and I will definitely contribute in the next couple of weeks!

fyoosh · Sep 5, 2010

I did some more playing around and noticed the feature I just asked for is implemented, just not in a way I thought it would be (which is why I didn't initially find it)

I don't always want it to be listed as a "Call to: Sally Smith" or whatever. I did notice you can change the title to whatever you want, but I just wish (nitpicky) that I didn't have to erase the "Call to:" part

Maybe make more options you're able to click on, or custom options you can choose from (like quick-text on text messages)? I know I already gushed, but this program is so amazing

jae_63 · Sep 5, 2010

braj said:
I'm looking through all my apps and that is just not the case. The convention IS to save, I can understand wanting something else but if you are making an app with a consistent user experience it should definitely save or prompt to save by default.

+1

braj · Sep 5, 2010

Popups and dialogs, asking whether user really wants do abandon changes are popular in much more complicated activities, where user enters a huge amount of data. We are talking about simple appointment here.

Actually it isn't just a simple appointment to the user, it may be a very important appointment and right now data loss IS the behavior, if someone doesn't see the currently very small little pop-up text saying not saved they have no other indication they didn't actually make that appointment. It is inconsistent and it does lead to loss of data. It has happened to me personally with your application.

I used to give training to developers and QA engineers in usability, and so I will share a story:

There is a king (the user) and he has a servant (the developer). The King has needs and makes those needs known to his servant. He asks for a glass of water. The servant, being way to clever for his own good, decides the King really should have some juice instead of water so he brings him juice instead. Because of this the King chops off the head of his servant, (stops employing him, buying his product etc) as the King had a use for the water only and the servant didn't do his service properly. The servant thought the King wanted to drink the water but he maybe wanted to water a plant instead. The point is the developer should always try to serve the user, and part of that is doing what is directly expected above what the servant thinks is best.

You may not like the convention, but on Android that IS the convention, it has already been chosen, and so you SHOULD code to that convention, and IF you like then you MAY include an option to override the convention. But I don't like as a user to hear that you will consider complying with the convention if you choose. I as a user want consistent behavior between my applications, and this is inconsistent and loses data. I don't mean to be overbearing but since you are accepting feedback

just this is good advice for a developer to understand.

circus · Sep 6, 2010

powell said:
As I said, I will consider letting users to pick how back button behaves. It will be done in preferences, for the whole application.

This sounds ideal! As a Mac-based person and former PocketPC user (Samsung i700) who loved the calendar functionality, I felt instantly hobbled when I changed to the iPhone and lost the intuitive 'instant add' of event information if I forgot to press "Save" in the rush of pecking in the data of an important appointment. *

Every user is likely to have their personal preference regarding the behavior of the 'back' button. So, offering the ability to select (in Preferences) which of these two options ('auto-save' or 'cancel') best works for each individual user really seems like the best way to serve the needs of the widest possible market -- and, thereby, build product versatility and client satisfaction for the day when Gemini becomes a paid app and the rest of the world discovers what we fortunate few have already been enjoying.

Am I schmoozing you for implementation of the option in preferences? Nope, just adding my +1 for a proposed feature and praising an already great app that keeps getting better.

Oh! The month-view swipe gesture across the month name (to go forward or back by a month) doesn't seem to function on Sprint Hero CDMA. It only works by pressing one or the other of the arrows.

*BTW, the Gemini feature that makes it top all other calendars I've tried since leaving PocketPC is the copy/paste of events on the fly. Please, please, please never lose that.

judebert · Sep 6, 2010

Just noticed that my all-day events are being displayed on the previous day. Samsung captivate.

powell · Sep 6, 2010

judebert said:
Just noticed that my all-day events are being displayed on the previous day. Samsung captivate.

Today I have released a new version (0.9.36), that should fix this problem. Do you have this version installed ?

braj · Sep 6, 2010

I had the same issue on the previous version, also a Captivate, and it looks fixed! I checked the shortcuts and they look to be fixed too

oscarL · Sep 6, 2010

Hi,
Love this app! I have a question, is it possible to send the text entered in location field to google maps. The same way it does in the stock calendar. From the previous posts I thought it would be possible but I can not figure out how.

Trollatoppan · Sep 6, 2010

braj said:
I'm looking through all my apps and that is just not the case. The convention IS to save, I can understand wanting something else but if you are making an app with a consistent user experience it should definitely save or prompt to save by default.

+1

braj · Sep 6, 2010

I'm having some issues with turning off notifications, even set to off it still gives its own dismissal dialog and also is intermittently interrupting my 3rd party alarm solution Nudnik which gives repeating alarms until I dismiss them, nagging me to address them. This is necessary functionality for me, which brings me to a feature request: if you could add repeating reminders to Gemini that would make Nudnik and things like them irrelevant, and add considerable value to Gemini.

Also another feature request: option to set default calendar. Right now I am working around this by unchecking the default 'My calendar' and Gemini nicely skips posting to this calendar (so an improvement over the built-in calendar), but I would still like to use that default calendar for some things I don't want to sync on the server.

Vim Tailor · Sep 6, 2010

Powell

Have loaded and installed.

Finally got to use it and Brilliant.

Thanks Again.

Vim

PS do not forget to post the link for us Wildfire users on your site.

28064212 · Sep 6, 2010

braj said:
I'm having some issues with turning off notifications, even set to off it still gives its own dismissal dialog

+1. I prefer the stock calendar reminders to Gemini's, but I get two notifications, even when I've set "Notification Mode" to Off in Preferences

Gemini Calendar - my vision of calendar software

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