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Pocket Informant Pub Beta - An alternative to the default calendar
Tested version: 1.00.3809
Latest version: 1.00.3837
Requires Android: from 2.0
Summary
Are you fed up with the default calendar? Maybe because it doesn’t live up to your expectations, or simply because it isn’t adaptable enough? Do you find that functions which you deem important are missing? Even if your answer to only one of these question is a big fat “yes”: read on, because Pocket Informant Pub Beta might just work better than the standard calendar for you.
Features & Use
Test device: HTC Wildfire
Android Version: 2.1
Pocket Informant Pub Beta (or PI for short) combines a calendar/diary with a classic "To-do List". And just to clarify: it should be calendars (plural), as there are several, and you decide which one should be your default calendar. You can switch things up for each new appointment, thus finding the perfect match for each occasion. “Everything is automatically transmitted to Google” is a no-go in this case. Even if you have to move an appointment from one calendar to another in retrospect—it’s all doable. You’re probably already familiar with My Calendar, PC Sync, and Google Calendar from the standard app. Pocket Informant Pub Beta also comes with a so-called Exchange Calendar as well as the app’s own PI Calendar.
I’m seeing a lot of blank entries at this point. Oops, I wonder if something’s gone awry with the app? Hello, everything okay in there? Ah, it must be the infamous To Do List. And I have nothing to do—boohoo. Well surely you came to that conclusion long ago, otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this review, right ;)?
Icons at the bottom of the display allow you to switch between various modes: day view, week view month view. At first I thought the latter came up pretty small in the display, until I caught on that you can tap on the “grains of sand” and see the thing in full screen! Not bad, not bad at all. The only way that I can tell that I have an appointment on 11/5 is thanks to the green lines… but I don’t know what appointment… After rummaging through the Settings I’m a bit wiser.
But, hold on—11/5? Now, this may be the way that dates are displayed in North America, but many other parts of the world it’s the other way round (5/11). That being said, the app is still in its Beta stage, so we’re willing to forgive this small shortfall… for now.
Being the thorough reviewer that I am, you can rest assured that I did set up a few appointments in order to present you with the most accurate test results possible (for me). As per my settings I am notified 15 minutes in advance of every new appointment. There’s even a small snooze button on the lockscreen. Be warned, however: even though I set snooze notifications to come into effect every 5 minutes I was only notified every half an hour, which means that I was already 15 minutes into my meeting.
Synchronizing with Toodledo, Categories, Folders, all-day meetings, regular appointments, several notifications for one meeting-- Pocket Informant Pub Beta has quite a lot to offer. The only thing that’s missing (at the moment) are widgets. My Calendar, PC Sync, and Google Calendar appointments do show up in the default calendars widget, however. Too bad there aren’t different types of alarms (bound to different categories, perhaps) available yet. But, as already mentioned, this is only the Beta version, so who knows what’s still to come!
(We’re awarding 3 stars due to missing widgets and snooze hiccups—3,5 stars aren’t possible, but that would’ve been my preferred rating.)
Screen & Controls
Pocket Informant Pub Beta’s controls are relatively intuitive. What would you do if you had a hardcopy (paper) calendar and wanted to turn back a few pages? Well, yes, that’s right: just turn back. You can do the same thing (more or less) on a touchscreen: just pull your finger from left to right and in the opposite direction if you want to see what you’ve got planned for the next few weeks.
Making a new entry is pretty simple, too: there are buttons for Subject, Location, as well as date (Date Picker) which has supplementary buttons for today, tomorrow, and next Monday. I was particularly impressed with settings the time (see screenshot), which I’ve never been able to do quite so quickly.
IF you’ve got a fairly packed diary: there’s a category filter which you can access via the menu and which will provide you with an overview. Very helpful.
Pocket Informant Pub Beta is quite user friendly. The only thing is that you might get a little lost in the configurations section, which is a bit intense. But that’s a small price to pay for such adaptability.
Speed & Stability
Pocket Informant Pub Beta ran very smoothly and reacted very quickly throughout the testing phase. There weren’t any crashed.
Price/Performance Ratio
Pocket Informant Pub Beta can be downloaded for free from the Market.
Reviews of this app in other languages
Review "Pocket Informant Pub Beta 2" from Nov 10, 2010 (German)
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Lucas
i really liked the jorte app for the calender. nice home screen widget.