Appigo Todo Review

A friend of mine and I have been discussing To Do applications in light of Jott moving to a subscription model. After reviewing documentation available on different applications, Ralph Jarvis selected Appigo TODO. Herewith is his review.

Appigo TODO
Reviewed by: Ralph Jarvis

This application promises that it will provide the following:

• Free desktop synchronization software to interface with the iPhone application and the iCal calendar on a Mac.
• No other application purchases required.
• Customizable Focus List to identify and complete important issues first
• Context and Tag options for each task
• Repeating tasks capability
  
• Task sharing through email
• Third party integration [e.g., Toodledo, Remember the Milk]
• Language support for English, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish

Based on these features, the application yielded a number of experiences, some documented, some not.

PROS:

The value of this application is the integration to current Apple applications, not third-party applications such as Toodledo or Remember the Milk. Being able to access the iCal and Address Book enhances the tasks at hand. Appigo has a feature called “multiple task types” and provides the user the ability to link a task to a call, email, web address, or physical location. How useful these features are will depend on use and the application has not been used long enough.

Another valuable feature is the flexibility to create tags and assign the to a task. For example, previously New Year's Resolutions were always on a typed list, paper or on a back of an index card. With TODO, a tag called “Resolutions” was created and assigned to the todos representing News Years Resolutions. To access, simply sort on the "Resolutions" tag and it will display resolutions that have yet to be completed.

Most todo lists have the ability to create “lists” or categories and this application makes it easy to set up. Since the application can be integrated with iCal, it is easy to standardize categories in both applications.

I [Ralph Jarvis] purchased Bento last year to develop a CRM. The application is linked to the Mac's Address Book and therefore information from the CRM can be incorporated in corresponding todo items. This capability was not documented, so it remains to be seen how well it works.

CONS:

Appigo advertises excellent customer support. Experience attempting to get support demonstrated that there is little tangible support [but most small companies do not have that luxury, do they?]. I would never give “excellent” to any support group that takes more than 2 hours. In my two instances, both emails were replied over 12 hours later. Regarding the “excellent” customer service, it was polite, but their support only copied web pages as solutions [they really do not understand the support role at all] and there was no phone walk-thrus either. I would recommend that Appigo either hire more support personnel or rephrase their quality to properly set expectations. Don’t expect a lot of support.

If you have always updated from your cradle, then you will have to change your routine. Since I always updated my iPhone with the cradle that came with the phone, I was surprised to find that I had to change my convenient update process to fit Appigo’s new process [albeit, this is supposedly an Apple problem, since the process and code were not in the SDK?]. Currently, there is no support from Appigo for serial synchronization from the iPhone to the MacBook. For those techies out there, maybe you can offer some additional insight.

After hours of tenacious manipulation, I was able to make the iPhone work with my MacBook. The synchronization program always has to be on and consequently, is always on my desktop [I wish they would learn how to minimize this annoyance, perhaps that is not documented in the SDK either?].

SUMMARY

As a relatively new application, I would give them a B- and expect technical enhancements without additional costs. Appigo has set a $10 fee for the application [which I find a little high, perhaps $5 would be better]; however, the synchronization tool is free. The recommendations on the iTunes Apps Store are encouraging to potential users and the integration with Apple applications is the best value of this product. The downside is the “average” support for the product.

Thanks Ralph for the review. What say the wisdom of the crowds? If you have additional input on this application, please feel free to comment on this post.

Bug: Dead Earphone & Microphone

I don't intend this blog to be a list of iPhone bugs, but since the 1.1.1. update, there are a number to report. This one involves the iPhone's built-in earphone and microphone. I noticed it for the first time yesterday, but had continuing problems with it all day. Evidently, it was caused when the external earphones (or in my case, the cable to my car's speaker system) was removed when the phone was playing a podcast.

The result was that when I attempted to place a phone call the built-in earphone and microphone were dead. The called person got the call, but they did not hear anyone on the other end and I could not hear anyone on the iPhone. In addition, the built-in speakers were dead when in the iPod an YouTube applications. Turning the phone off and back on did not help. Indeed, the only way I could get any sound out of the phone was when placing a call, I put the phone in speakerphone mode--the external speakers and the microphone both worked. When the speakerphone button was pressed again, the built-in earphone and microphone were both dead.

I think I have resolved the problem. What I did was to insert the Apple earbuds. When I made a call, both the earbuds and the microphone were live. I then removed the earbuds from the phone while the call was live. Both the built-in earphone and microphone were live. Subsequent calls indicate that the phone is now working correctly.

Has anyone else seen this issue?

iPhone: Two Month Check-up--Part VI

In the last post, I finished off the row three applications (with the exception of Settings to be covered at a later date). This post will look at the Phone application--theoretically the main reason for getting an iPhone in the first place.

Phone: First, let me state that historically, I have been a heavy cell phone user. However, as I have progressed through the Treo 600, Treo 650, Treo 700p, and now the iPhone, I find myself actually using the phone less and the email and browser functions more.

With that said, let me state that I have not seen the issues mentioned in the blogosphere and the press regarding shortcomings in the iPhone's phone application. Therefore, let me address the most frequent complaints. First, the earpiece in the iPhone provides clarity and volume comparable to most cell phones I've owned (the iPhone is my 11th across two carriers) and superior to some. At my age, I'm becoming a little hard of hearing and I still have no complaints.

Second, the speakerphone works adequately for most discussions as long as the ambient noise is not too great. Volume can be adjusted as needed with no complaints. In a car, with the phone on the seat and in speakerphone mode the speaker is adequate, if a little low. Based on people I've called, the microphone sound and volume allow the caller to be easily heard. However, my car has an auxiliary input for an iPod- type device and when this is connected, my caller's voice is routed through the car's speakers! With my volume controls on the steering wheel, I can adjust as needed, making this set-up superior to a headset for hands-free use. Kudos Apple. However, speaker volume cannot be too loud or it creates an echo for the called party.

Another nice touch can be found with an incoming call while using the iPod function: The iPod's volume fades while the phone's ring tone increases in volume. When answered, the caller's voice is routed through the speakerphone, earphones, or the car's auxiliary input. When the call is released, the iPod's volume fades back in, continuing at the point where it faded out. Very well done.

Now a quick evaluation of the other phone features. The dial pad is great and I have yet to screw up a dialed number. Perhaps heavy use of the virtual QWERTY keyboard's smaller keys makes it easier to hit the big keys on the dial pad. The Favorites are loaded with my most used numbers, making look-ups in the Contacts list rare. (Indeed, I use the Contacts for email addresses more often than phone numbers.) Once again, Favorites has an edit function that allows the user to reorder the list by tapping and dragging an entry. As stated in previous posts, the ability to order entries is great and is a feature that should be provided in all applications that have list information.

The Recent function is comparable to other phones. However, I like the function's ability to provide a location when you have been called from an unknown number. Again, nice touch Apple. My suggestions for improvement in this feature would be to 1) place some kind of notation on calls to indicate incoming or outgoing; and 2) indicate the length of the individual calls. As currently configured, call information is grouped by phone number giving date(s) and time(s) of call(s), but no call length information.

The Contacts feature is very well done with the ability to "flick," tap a specific starting letter, or scroll through the alphabet using the letters on the right of the screen. All are very easy to use. If I had one complaint on this feature, it would be the tendency to accidentally hit the alpha list because I drag or fail to lift my finger completely, causing the feature to jump to a letter I did not want.

Although I do not use Visual Voicemail that much, its design and ease of use is far superior to any other wireless phone I have seen. I am always getting the first numbers of a phone number and then having to rewind--most often to the beginning--on competitive phones. Not so with the iPhone. I can stop the message, make notes, continue the message, or rewind a little or a lot. It is without a doubt the easiest to use voice messaging system I have seen. However, I did notice that messages kept for long periods of time are automatically deleted. I suspect this is an AT&T feature as most phone companies delete messages that are two weeks old (or some pre-set length of time). It would be preferable that the user have complete control of deleting. Another nice touch would be the ability to sync Visual Voicemail in iTunes which would allow a message to be converted to an audio file. Doing so would allow the message to be deleted from the phone, but allow it to be saved and played on the computer (or even loaded back to the iPhone as a podcast).

I will summarize by stating that other features such as conferencing, moving to another application and back during a phone call, call hold, and phone muting all worked as advertised and I think they have all been well implemented. Apple's first foray into the cell phone business has been an outstanding job.

In my next post, I will review my experience with the iPhone Mail application. In the meantime, if you have comments or suggestions for Apple, please let me know.

Walter W. Casey, Ph.D.
Sent from my iPhone