Introduction
WM 2003/SE comes with what, in my opinion, can only laughably be referred to as a PIM (Personal Information Manager). Having come from a Psion (Symbian) background I consider the in-built Pocket Outlook application provides only the most basic of PIM functionality (Calendar, Contacts, Tasks and Notes) in typically crude MS style. I think this is a ludicrous state of affairs for a PDA (i.e. Personal Digital Assistant) - in this case I think the personal assistant has been lobotomised!
While it is technically possible to use Pocket Outlook for this purpose, I believe that the interface and basic design of the product falls well short of the level necessary to fully support all but the casual user - hence this review. For any user to realistically use their PDA for managing contacts, appointments and the like, I believe it is necessary to replace the in-built software with a proper, high quality, dedicated PIM product - this review takes a close look at the two leaders in the field.
Overview
Briefly, I believe the purpose of a Pocket PC PIM is:
-
to permit the user to schedule multiple appointments, including meetings and events, and be able to view and manipulate them;
-
to record personal and/or business information about friends and/or colleagues and to be able to search, view and maintain this data;
-
to be able to create and maintain lists of tasks to be completed (todo lists);
-
to have the ability to be able to quickly record information - hand written, typed, drawn (pictures) or audio - and access it later is also included;
-
for it to be possible to use some data from one area within another area to link related information e.g. attendees at a meeting;
|
The first contender is Agenda Fusion (Version 7.25) from the DeveloperOne stables.
In the opposite corner we find Pocket Informant 2005 (R2.1) from WebIS, Inc. [note: as a late alteration, a small additional review of some of the R3 changes have been added]
Lurking somewhere in the background is the version of Pocket Outlook provided with WM2003 (V4.20.0).
The purpose this of review is not intended to actually pit the two main rivals against each other to decide a winner, but rather to permit the reader to better compare the relative strengths and weaknesses of each product and identify the more suitable package for their own needs. In addition I shall also provide an review of Pocket Outlook in the same style as the two main review subjects in order to better reflect their advantages over this, ahem, product.
Due to the size of this review (and some technical issues with the Acuity software used to publish the site articles) I have found it necessary to split the article into multiple pages. In addition, due to issues with the site style sheets and 3rd or 4th level bullet points, I have had to use large numbers of tables for the layout control - one minor side effect of this is that some additional blank lines seem to have appeared after bullet point sections for which I apologise.
Please use the links provided to navigate betweeen and within the pages.
Entire article written and prepared (including screenshots) on the O2 Xda II using PhatWare's Calligrapher 7/8 and SoftMaker's TextMaker
Pocket Outlook
Agenda Fusion
Pocket Informant
Conclusion
|