PIM comparison: Android vs other systems

[KlaymenDK]

Grainy,
I think you missed my intention a little bit, so let me clarify. Birthday events are more than simply repeating events -- the birthdays are already in my Contacts, but my Calendar make no use of them. It could and should automatically show them as for example "Jim (47)" one year and "Jim (48)" the following year, and link to the relevant contact. That's what my complaint is.

What you showed works to make an appointment right now, but if I want to make an appointment far in the future (say, the next doctor's appointment, 10 months minus one-and-a-half hours from today)? Or, looking at your example, what if I need the minutes to be "45" instead of "23"? I'd still have to do rather a lot of tapping. What's with those ridiculous "+" and "-" buttons, anyway? The Gemini calendar does a lot to try to remedy that. But all this is only for creating new events -- what do you do if you simply want to browse to some far-off date?

I guess it's just hard to explain if you haven't ever tried the PalmOS functionality.

 

[grainysand]

Or, looking at your example, what if I need the minutes to be "45" instead of "23"? I'd still have to do rather a lot of tapping. What's with those ridiculous "+" and "-" buttons, anyway?

Tap the input field and enter the numbers with the keyboard? You don't actually use the +/- buttons, do you?

The Gemini calendar does a lot to try to remedy that. But all this is only for creating new events -- what do you do if you simply want to browse to some far-off date?

Install Aurora. Hit your search button. Type in a date, say "19 may." It'll then list all events in your calendar taking place on said date. Type in "may 2010" and it does ditto. Not a perfect solution, but it does the job. I like incorporating everything into the global search, anyway.

 

[KlaymenDK]

See, that's the thing: typing still requires a ludicrous amount of work:
- tap to bring up time selector.
- tap input field
- long-press menu button to bring up keyboard
- hit backspace. Twice.
- tap "123" to switch to digits mode
- enter two new digits. Correct one of them because the keys are too small for my fingers.
- tap the other field
- hit backspace. Twice.
- tap "123" to switch to digits mode. Again.
- enter two new digits
- long-press menu button to make the keyboard go away again
- tap OK.
By this time my conversation partner has given up and walked away.

On my Palm this all required a total of 4 taps:
- tap to bring up time selector.
- tap hours
- tap minutes
- tap OK.
Done.

About Aurora, I've searched and I guess you mean the search app. I haven't looked into search apps very much because the Galaxy doesn't have a search button. Yeah, my mistake, buying that piece of kit, won't happen again.

... Anyway, I fear this is leading to more, rather than less, disagreement between us. Can we agree that Android just works better for you than it does for me, and that I should just quit complaining now?

 

[sanjsrik]

I'm throwing in my .02 (American) after what seems about a week of using a Sprint Evo with the stock Calendar application. It's a very odd thing, the application installed on the device lacks certain key features that exist on the Google Calendar from which it syncs:

* The ability to make custom intervals for repeating appointments. I can set up on Google Calendar to have an appointment invoke every other week but when I look on the synced appointment on my Evo, it shows up as "Custom" but has no way of editing it, doesn't even respond if I tap the drop-down.

* (From the device) Add an reminder for an appointment and you can't delete it. You can add numerous reminders and if you accidentally add more than one, you can't delete any of them, they just show up in the details of the appointment.

* (From the device) You can't choose contacts to add to calendar appointments, you can do this with Google Calendar, but not from the device.

* (From the device) Shading of appointments can't be done. Not sure why.

* (From the device) Linking appointments together or for that matter adding something more useful like a link to a Google Maps directions into the calendar event. Again, this can be done from the device.

I'm not sure why the device application is so hamstrung with what I've come to be used to from my background using Windows Mobile. There is a complete lack of any viable enterprise-based applications for PIM management (and I've searched) that work with the Android world. I haven't found a developer or a company working on an announced enterprise-level PIM that can be used by professionals.

Not sure why that is.

 

[sanjsrik]

False. You can set repeating events either from your gmail account on the PC, or on the phone:

?

I swipe left to my calendar widget. Click widget. Press menu button, click "new event" and--behold!

I don't know why you have to "find the right date" (lol?) or persuade it to do anything.

Repeating alarms are limited and are not available for custom input from the device, only from Google Calendar. If you set a custom repeat such as every other week on Google Calendar, it shows up in the sync calendar even on the device as "Custom" and is uneditable. Why?