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.

iPhone Twitter Clients

I have been using Twitter on the iPhone since the first Twitter clients were released to the AppStore. In the one-and-a-half years since the iPhone's appearance, I have used most of the major clients available. Until recently, the Twitter clients on my iPhone simultaneously were:

• Twitterific
• Twittelator
• Twitterfon
• TwitterLink
• Tweetie

There have been others that have come and gone almost as fast. These tended to be the "all-in-one" IM solutions allowing tweets and messaging through a number of different services. In all the cases that I tested, the all-in-one solutions were basic Twitter entry engines and nothing more. As a result, they were dispatched to the deleted file rather quickly since my messaging tends to SMS and Skype.

Twitterific: Of the remainder mentioned above, up to recently my favorite has been Twitterific. I have used the free version since it first appeared in the AppStore. It provides a simple interface to view tweets in list view:



The view gives the message, the tweeter's badge, and how long ago it was sent--basically everything you need.

Twitterific also provides a detailed view providing the same information at a larger font, as well as buttons to reply, mark as favorite, switch to list view, check the tweeter's detailed identification information, refresh the tweets on the iPhone, and initiate a tweet.



Twitterific's detailed information gives the name, userID, number of followers, location, bio of the tweeter.



It does not allow further drill-down.

Finally, the user can initiate a tweet with a window that allows typing with real-time character count (important with 140 characters of real estate), the ability to post a picture, and the ability to mark current location.



All-in-all, Twitterific has is good. However, since I link to a lot of Web pages in my tweets as well as re-tweeting a lot of information, I found these capabilities lacking--particularly the inability to have links automatically shrunk. Twitterific is free in the AppStore and the Premium version provides multiple account support for $9.99.

Twittelator: The second client that I have used heavily is Twittelator. I tried it out during the fall when I had a second Twitter account that I used frequently. I figured instead of upgrading to a client that could handle multiple accounts, it would be an opportunity to directly compare Twitter clients. Again, Twittelator provides a basic view screen. One difference is the screen will group senders together when their messages are sequential.



A key advantage of Twittelator over Twitterific is that the user can mark a tweet as a favorite (star) or reply (return arrow) directly from the list view screen. Also, touching the sender's badge will bring up the sender's detailed information.



The detailed information available on the initial screen is comprehensive compared to Twitterific, including a list of followers as well as buttons to access the sender's favorites, initiate a reply, initiate a reply, and send a direct message.

Twittelator is a great product. My main complaint was the list screen with the grouping of tweets. For some reason, I found it more confusing than helpful. It is a good client. Twittelator is available free in the AppStore and a Pro version that provides multiple accounts is $4.99. For the differences in features of the upgraded versions, you get more for your money with Twittelator than Twitterific.

Twitterfon: The third client I used was Twitterfon. Of the three discussed to this point, I found Twitterfon to have the cleanest list view. First, it opens where you last viewed. While the others do the same, it can sometimes confusing which was the last tweet viewed. Not so with Twitterfon.



As the above image indicates, new messages that have not been viewed since last access are color-highlighted.

Tapping a tweet will bring up an abbreviated profile screen that provides the number of followers, the ability to reply, send a direct message, and re-tweet a message.



Since I often re-tweet messages that would be of interest to my followers, the re-tweet button is very handy. The detail screen also provides a button to bring up the tweeter's complete profile and a button to access the person's tweet timeline. Of the three mentioned so far, Twitterfon is the best of the lot. Twitterfon is free in the AppStore and there is no premium version. Therefore, if you are looking to support multiple accounts, you will need to look at other clients.

TwitterLink: The third client has very basic Twitter functionality. It's one claim to fame is that it installs a bookmarklet that will allow the user to view a Web page, shrink the URL, and automatically insert that URL into a TwitterLink message window.



It was a major shortcoming of the previous three clients and I used TwitterLink just for that purpose. By using the easily installed bookmarklet, it was easy to send a shortened URL.



The big drawback is that TwitterLink is good at basic messaging only, it does not let you browse tweeters you are following. TwitterLink is free in the AppStore.

Tweetie: The final client is Tweetie. After much review and looking at recommendations on Twitter, it seemed that Tweetie was the most popular of the clients available for the iPhone. The list view screen is similar to others mentioned in this review--it is clean, carries the tweeter's badge and message. A major advantage of Tweetie over the others is the posting time is a date and time, not a relative time. I find this easier to determine whether a tweet is still relevant. My one complaint is that Tweetie does not highlight unread messages loaded since the last time the application was accessed.



Tweetie provides two views: Basic, and bubbles (similar to the iPhone's SMS application). Views are selectable through Tweetie's settings in the iPhone Settings application.




A second clean feature is swiping an entry brings up a menu that allows the user to rely, set the tweet as a favorite, or view the sender's profile.



The profile information is the most comprehensive of the clients reviewed.



As the image above illustrates, the user can get about all the information they need on the tweeter, view their timeline, followers, who they are following, as well as send replies, direct messages, or block/unblock that individual (selections are off-screen at the bottom of the preceding image).

The message screen allows the user to insert a picture (much as the others, it uses twitpic.com), insert current location, and provides real-time characters remaining in the message. However, a great feature is the "More" button that provides access to some features not available in other clients.



A major negative of Tweetie is that documentation is difficult to find. It is on the atebits.com Web, but you have to search for it. If the application had basic instructions on setting up multiple accounts, where you can find settings, and similar information, it would be very helpful.

Tweetie has a feature I have not seen in others except TwitterLink--using a bookmarklet, you can add a link to a message and the link is shrunk to save characters. However, finding out how to set up the bookmarklet can also be an adventure. It would be a great improvement if they provide a link to a Web site as done by TwitterLink that walks you through the set-up process, including the basic entry of the bookmarklet.

With that said, Tweetie seems to the be the best of the bunch and within striking distance of having features found favorable in other clients. Hopefully, these features will be made available in future releases. Tweetie does not have a basic free version, but is available for $2.99. For feature versus cost, it is the best of the clients reviewed here.

If you have information to add or insight into Twitter clients not covered in this post, please feel free to comment.

All I want for MacWorld

This is getting to be old. It's the same old story. The iPhone is a great phone, and could be a great handheld computing device...but. So, all I want from MacWorld is not an iPhone Nano. It's not a new larger iPhone/iTouch Netbook. I want the things that should have been available on the iPhone when it first appeared.

Understand, I practically live on my iPhone. I can go for days without using my computer. I can track my personal and business email. I can research information on the Web, and I can take notes for later use. More often than not, I even write my blog posts on the iPhone (this is one of those exceptions). The point is that I use my iPhone a lot and I use it many times as a substitute for my laptop. With that background, here are my gripes.

After a year-and-a-half of clicking back-and-forth between applications trying to remember that 45-digit long URL, Apple give me Cut/Copy/Paste. It can't be that hard. People have applications in the AppStore with the feature enabled. It doesn't matter if you screw it up and have to redo it at a later date, just give me the damn function. My memory isn't what it used to be. Therefore, memorizing a piece of information and switching between applications and then typing is getting less productive the older I get. When I forward a message in email, I don't like to make the reader suffer through all the various forwards. As a result, doing so on the iPhone can literally take hours. It's a dumb feature to be missing and enough is enough.

Add Flash. I don't care if it's doggy, just give me the capability to view Flash content on the iPhone. Whether Steve Jobs likes it or not, Flash is a Web standard. I am finding that there are numerous Web sites that I do not have access to simply because the iPhone does not support Flash. As Adobe expands their Web application suite, this is only going to get worse. Add to this problem the fact that many sites are also now using Microsoft Silverlight and the problem gets worse. Quicktime is a Web standard; good for you Apple. However, Flash and Silverlight are also standards and the iPhone should also support them.

Bring Mobile Safari up to standard so it can be used with sites such as Google Apps. If this means an improved Java engine, so be it. While Apple may be protecting their installed base of iWork users and continuing to show appreciation for the Microsoft Office for Mac crowd, the fact is sites such as Google Apps are catching on and users want access to the presentation, word processing, and spreadsheet functions offered. Locking this capability out of the iPhone will only drive users to alternative platforms (such as the Google OS-based phones). Embrace the evolving Web and ride the wave. Otherwise, Apple may be left in the backwash of a missed wave, much as happened in the '80s.

While I would love to have the ability to rename photos on the iPhone (as has been on my gripe list for more than a year), at a minimum, let me at least pull up the image information. The information on date and time taken are available in the phone as that information is passed to iPhoto. Make it available directly on the phone for crying out loud. While you are at it, allow the photo application to capture GPS coordinates since that field is available.

Finally, Documents-To-Go, get your act together and release the package for the iPhone. I have heard rumors of this being done since the iPhone was released and I am still waiting. Is it copy/paste that's holding you up? If so, implement your own version.

What say you? While I don't mean this to be a infinite wish list, what are the absolute functions that you feel are needed to make the iPhone a true portable computing substitute?

What's on My iPhone

It's been awhile since I've written about applications on the iPhone. The last time I discussed a number of jailbreak apps that I had tried out or used heavily. However, since upgrading to the iPhone 3G, I have been running strictly legit apps. (I still have jailbroken apps on my original iPhone, but nothing really impressive.)

So what do I have on my iPhone? Here goes:

Page One/Line One:
- SMS
- Calendar
- Photos
- Camera
All standard Apple apps and in their original locations.

Page One/Line Two:
- YouTube
- Bloomberg
- Maps
- Weather
YouTube and Maps are the standard Apple apps. I have substituted the Bloomberg app for the standard Apple Stocks app because it is so much better; stores and provides more information; and is free. I don't use Apple's Stocks application. Weather is a Safari shortcut for the Weather Underground site (http://i.wund.com) and I have it set to my local weather. Weather Underground provides in-depth seven-day forecasts as well as local weather radar on the same page. I don't use Apple's Weather app.

Page One/Line Three:
- Mobile News
- Calculator
- Evernote
- Reader
Only the Calculator is an original Apple app. I have an HP-21-like financial calculator on the phone also, but find the Apple Calculator simple and reliable for most day-to-day uses. Mobile News is the Associated Press' free news application and I find it simple, and provides a great overview of world, US, political, and business news. While I still use Apple's notes app, it has been relegated to page two. Evernote is a free application that provides easy notetaking, allows voice recording, allows snapshot notes, and syncs all these in the cloud. Evernote also has Web access as well as an app that runs on the Mac. The result is information can be accessed virtually anywhere (unlike Apple's Notes app). Finally, Reader is a Safari shortcut to Google's iPhone-optimized reader page. This fills the bill for information not provided by Mobile News.

Page One/Line Four:
- Contacts
- Settings
- Twitterific
- Jott
Contacts and Setting are the standard Apple apps. Twitterific is my primary Twitter client and is used quite often. Jott is my preferred ToDo list application because it allows voice transcription of notes and ToDos. This makes it great when driving and something comes to mind that I wamt to remember.

The Dock:
- Phone
- Mail
- Safari
- iPod
These are all standard iPhone apps and in their original position.

With a few exceptions, these are the workhorse applications I use. I have a total of nine pages of apps and shortcuts, some used quite often and others that are there if I need them. Others of note include:

- 1Password for keeping track of various user IDs, passwords, and related Web site addresses.

- AppStore for keeping applications updated and installing new ones.

-AirSharing for keeping various Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF files that
I need to reference on the iPhone.

- Wikipanion for looking up those quick items that don't require an in-depth Google search. It's a free app.

- Google Search with the voice recognition capability. I find that I use this app a lot more since they added the voice recognition.

- New York Times application. This fills the holes left by Mobile News and Google Reader, but the application is prone to frequent crashes.

- SportsTap, a comprehensive sports tracking application.

- iBlogger which I use to write most of my blog entries. I paid for this application and it has been worth every penny.

- i.TV for tracking what's on TV as well as finding what's playing at local theatres.

There are other applications that I use from time to time, but not nearly as frequently as the ones mentioned. I will cover some of them at a later time.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Update 2.2 Impressions

I've now have several days under the belt with iPhone OS X Update 2.2. The good is the Google Maps application with Streetview. In my opinion, Streetview works better on the iPhone than it does on a Mac or PC. It's clear, fast, smooth, and easy to use.

I also like the single-click home key push that takes you back to the first page on the Springboard. I didn't think I would use it that much, but I find I use it a lot.

The improved HTML handling in the email application is a nice touch. Whereas I used to pinch to expand a page, it seems to render that way naturally now.

The bad is that I am convinced the battery life is not as good as before the update. Apple has over their various updates made significant improvements to the power management on the iPhone. They seem to have taken a step backwards with this update. I had finally gotten to the point of getting a full day on the battery with moderate use. Now it seems that battery life has been reduced by 20% or so.

What say you?

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

iPhone November 2008

It has been awhile since I posted to this blog for the primary reason that I did not have anything significant to add to the conversation about what a good or terrible phone the iPhone represents. However, there are a couple of items that I have not seen mentioned that I think warrant discussion: 3G coverage improvements; iPhone battery improvements; AT&T's Wi-Fi hotspots; and blogging applications.

I live in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and when I first got my iPhone 3G, the 3G coverage was marginal at best. That is, in many places, a 3G signal was not available; where there was a signal, it was so weak that the phone would switch back and forth between 3G and EDGE; and when you did get a signal, it would suck the energy out of the battery in no time. Over the last month or so, that seems to have changed. With the release of the 2.1 update, the 3G radio seems more stable. In addition, it does not seem to drain the battery as fast. However, the biggest improvement appears to be the 3G network itself--finding a strong 3G signal now appears to be the rule instead of the exception. Quality has improved as has stability. Speed is exceptional.

Along with these 3G improvements has come a related improvement in battery life. I can now typically get a full day out of a charge, something I could not do just a few months ago.

Now for the bad news--AT&T's Wi-Fi hotspots work terribly on the iPhone. First, the hoops you have to jump through just sign on to the hotspot is a genuine pain. You connect by Safari, fill out your phone number and agree to the terms and conditions. Then AT&T sends you an SMS message with a link to use for access. However, half the time, the link is not live (requiring you to enter a really long URL manually into a browser. Another quarter of the time, the link is bad and will tell you that you cannot connect and to try again later. If you should be so lucky to connect, the connection is flaky. That is, when I go to open another Safari window, AT&T will ask me to go through the sign-in procedure again. By this time, it is just simpler to turn on 3G.

Other than that, not much has changed. The iPhone still crashes periodically, although less than when first released. Some apps are good and some are bad. I have been trying out the free blogging applications. I tried to post this using LifeCast, but once the entry was completed it would not upload and I ended up having to manually enter the post online. Therefore I wouldn't recommend LifeCast.

WordPress is an outstanding free blog, but is limited to posting to the WordPress site only. However, it is easy to use, full featured and works well.

Finally, BlogWriter Lite works well, no labels or tags, but will allow you to compose on the iPhone and then post to a blog. I use it for a BlogSpot blog and it works great. The only problem is that it will allow the use of only one blog (I have four). I am willing to buy a blog app, but the choices at present seem to have significant bugs judging from the comments, so I will wait awhile longer.

What are you thoughts on 3G, battery life and blog applications? I would like to hear.

iPhone 3G Bug Research

Since getting my iPhone 3G two weeks ago, I have found that there are a variety of problems with it. Many of these problems have been documented as individual issues with the new phone. They have included battery drain problems, especially with the 3G radio turned on; crashes of a variety of applications, but mainly with applications added from the Apple AppStore; and a variety of memory leak problems that lead to the operating system running slower and slower until the only way to fix it is to perform a hard reboot by pressing and holding the on/off and home buttons simultaneously.

I experienced all of these problems at one time or another. In many cases, I was having to perform the hard reboot multiple times a day (not to mention frequent battery recharging). Therefore, several days ago, I undertook a series of experiments with the iPhone by turning the various radios on and off under different circumstances to see if they had any impact on the identified problems. Since I don't use bluetooth, it has always been off. However, I have worked with the combination of 3G, EDGE, and Wi-Fi in various configurations.

The results indicate that the problems occur when the 3G is on. First, with 3G off, whether or not the Wi-Fi was on, I did not experience the frequency of crashes and memory leaks that were experienced when 3G was on. Indeed, I have had 3G off for a couple of days now and have now and have not had to perform a hard reboot once. While numerous application launches are slow, they are consistently slow--there is no degradation in performance. From this I conclude that the slow application response (lasting to five seconds or more in some cases) is a separate problem with the configuration of the OS.

Battery drain with 3G off seemed to be on a par with the 1.1.4 version on the generation 1 iPhone. While this is not surprising on the one hand, it is when I have had discussions with numerous people complaining that the 2.0 version on the generation 1 iPhone seemed to have faster battery drain. My suggestion is that unless 1) you are accessing complicated, non-iPhone optimized Web pages; or 2) you have a need to access the Internet and talk on the phone simultaneously, leave 3G off. Leave it off at least until Apple releases an update to 2.0.

To be sure, I still experience crashes--especially related to Safari--but they are much less frequent. This leads me to believe that the Safari crashes are due to a cause separate from the other application crashes. (Speculation is that the other application crashes may be due to the DRM used in the SDK.)

Another issue isolated by these experiments is the communications instability. With 3G on, the iPhone appears to have significant problems locking onto a "preferred" radio--EDGE, 3G, or Wi-Fi. As a result, the phone experiences numerous drop-outs, causing the phone to pick a back-up communication radio and re-establish communications. My research indicates that this happens when the phone has the screen turned-off for any extended period of time. It also occurs when the signal is marginal (not sure what marginal is as yet). When the situation occurs, the iPhone "thrashes" among the various available radios. However, it seems most pronounced when the 3G radio is on. When the 3G radio is off, it will still take a few seconds to lock onto either EDGE or Wi-Fi, but does not take that long. When 3G is on, it seems to take forever to lock on. Whether this is the radio, or the handshaking that goes on after lock to establish an Internet connection is unknown.

The result of all this is leave the 3G off if possible until Apple has had time to work through the various bugs in the OS. Your thoughts?