Agendus for iPhone dedicated forum

[lolongan]

Originally Posted by luvgeek

I looked at PI and it is not even close to Agendus. It is just an integrated todo and calendar where agendus is more like a PIM crossed with a CRM. The key point of Agendus is the integration of contacts, appointments, calls, meetings, notes and more. Maybe it won't be able to truly be Agendus until 3.0 but that's only a couple of months away in any case.

I was user of Agendus on Palm, PI on WM and now use PI on iPhone.
Before comparing PI on iPhone to Agendus on iPhone, I think you should wait first for Agendus to be released on iPhone, then we will see if it will be really "a PIM crossed with a CRM" ! We should compare what is comparable.
At the end of the day, I strongly believe that the only differences between the 2 products will be:
1. The look and feel of the user interface
2. The fact that Iambic simply ignores their customers while WebIs communicates and listens to thier customers.

[jemenake]

Originally Posted by luvgeek

I looked at PI and it is not even close to Agendus.

Part of why it's not even close it because it exists!!!

I realize that Agendus is available for other platforms. However, what I think we should keep in mind is that, if it's not available for my platform, it might as well not exist.

Furthermore, I think it's a little naive to look at Agendus for some other platform (the Palm, say) and assume that it's going to be just the same on the iPhone. It can't be. The screen resolutions are different, the user interface is different, there's no 4-way hat switch, etc.

Nor should you want Agendus for iPhone to be just like it is on other platforms. If you look at some of the really captivating apps for the iPhone that make you say "Oh, wow..."... like Rolando, X-Plane, Labyrinth, or apps that offer pinch-zooming... they capitalize on the unique UI opportunities of the iPhone. To come out with an Agendus for the iPhone that used the lower half of the screen to emulate the hard-keys on a Palm Treo... would be to miss what the iPhone is about. What I'm hoping for is an Agendus that lets us do stuff like multi-touch (maybe for making a new appointment), pinch-zooming (maybe for switching between day, week, month views), and maybe even some utilization of shake or tilt gestures that I haven't imagined.

So, given that, I say again that, regardless of what other platforms Agendus works on, it doesn't exist on the iPhone... so, in my universe, it doesn't exist, period. Furthermore, there's little hint that it ever will exist. I mean, this kinda gives vaporware a good name. We haven't seen any screenshots... we haven't heard any comments on what it's expected to do or not do. Aside from causally mentioning a couple of expected ship dates, this has been a pretty well-kept secret.

HOWEVER... I would like to close that this doesn't give us license to bash Iambic. They're not the ones who made the iPhone calendar suck. They're not the ones who made all of the other calendar/to-do apps for the iPhone marginally useful. They haven't been telling us to hold off from using/buying other apps and to, instead, wait for Agendus to ship, and they're not already taking our money by letting us pre-order.

We all bought iPhones knowing that the calendar app was what it was and knowing that it was a crapshoot regarding if something better would be available later. It's not Iambic's fault that we bought iPhones and are now unhappy with the calendaring and would really, really like to have something on the iPhone that works like Agendus does on other platforms. They never promised any particular features or that there'd be an Agendus for iPhone at all. All I've heard them say is: 1) Yes, we're working on it. 2) We're aiming for April 15th. and 3) We're not going to make April 15th and we're now aiming for May 1st.

Like the rest of you, I'm counting the hours until May 1st to see what new news the day brings. But, can we stop bashing Iambic for not fulfilling promises that they never really made? If you can't wait any longer, go buy PI (or download PI lite) and move on with your life. If you still can (and want to) wait longer... then wait longer.

[luvgeek]

Originally Posted by jemenake

Part of why it's not even close it because it exists!!!

Oops. Sorry I was unclear. PI looks like a fantastic program if you are task oriented.

What I meant by not close is that IMO the primary function of Agendus is to organize your interaction with people (clients, customer, management, friends, lovers, etc.) such as meetings, calls, callbacks, history, etc. whereas Pocket Intelligence seems to be about managing tasks, goals and targets.

It sounds and looks like a great program but is not what I need.

[pdradley]

Yes, agreed, PI is task oriented, whereas since its beginnings on the Palm platform, Agendus has been contact oriented. At this point we don't know (and that is a matter of Iambic's silence on the matter) what Agendus on the iphone will do, but I don't see how it can be like its predecessors as the calendar database, as noted earlier, is closed to developers so that integration of calendar and contacts will be, at best, a compromise (perhaps Iambic will create its own database). Of course, this is not Iambic's doing, they did not prevent access to the calendar database. I hope for the best from them, but I tend to agree with Lolongan that there won't be a great difference between Agendus and PI, at least not at the beginning.

[TechWriter]

Thanks for the information about the calendar database being closed--that's the first time I've understood why someone hadn't already long ago come up with their own version of an Agendus-type app. Please forgive--I'm new to Apple products (just acquired iPod Touch 2G), so could you kindly tell me what "PI" is? It's mentioned in many discussions, but I haven't been able to find it.

[pdradley]

PI = Pocket Informant, you can find it in the AppStore, check it out, it's much better than the built-in datebook.

[Ronald NL]

It's the First of MAY !!!!

• Nothing on the forum:
• No message from IAMBIC
• Nothing in the Appstore.

Why am I not surprised????

[Allibama]

Patience, grasshopper. We are all waiting anxiously. Yes, I finally got an iPhone too.

We will have it eventually.

[Silfveroxel]

First! We will have it April 16
April 14 moved to May 1
On May first. We will have it eventually

For many people is commitment a commitment and not only a wish list!

If you no able to fix, let us know and we will all leave you alone to develop a palm app. And we will go somewhere else. You have 6000 of your customer who has checked this thread, so you have a very big interest!

Originally Posted by Allibama

Patience, grasshopper. We are all waiting anxiously. Yes, I finally got an iPhone too.

We will have it eventually.

[TechWriter]

Originally Posted by Ronald NL

It's the First of MAY !!!!

• Nothing on the forum:
• No message from IAMBIC
• Nothing in the Appstore.

Why am I not surprised????

Please, Ronald, tell me you weren't holding your breath on that one. OK, well, yeah, I was secretly hoping that magic would happen, but I knew it had really low odds. Just keep humming that song, "Someday . . . "

[Allibama]

I realize how much you all want it. I do too. But no amount of whining, pleading, cajoling, or complaining will change that. The development team at Iambic does not normally say when products will be released. This is a perfect example of why. They had to roll back from the original guesstimate of April 15 to May first, and now you are all screaming that it is a broken promise. It was a projected release date, not a promise.

I've looked at what's available, and there is nothing else out there comparable even to the Agendus for WM version. So rest assure that I feel your pain. But...nobody promised anything. You knew when you bought the iPhone that its PIM manager wasn't the greatest, and you knew that at the time there was no Agendus (or any other program) for the iPhone.

So...I can either not respond to you at all, which you will take as being ignored, or continue to tell you to be patient. Your choice. We'll get what we get when we get it. Got it?

[TechWriter]

By suggesting that someone hum a song, I was suggesting that we all try to keep a sense of humor about this issue (along with many other of life's issues). I remember people just about laying an egg waiting for Windows 95, the first iPod, as well as many, many items of both software AND hardware. Life is just too short to get very cranked up over things that complaining won't change.
P.S. LOVE the Anita Blake quote!

[jemenake]

Originally Posted by Allibama

They had to roll back from the original guesstimate of April 15 to May first, and now you are all screaming that it is a broken promise. It was a projected release date, not a promise.

I agree. Personally, I've been using the target dates not as an "expect to see it then" date, but as a "don't expect to see it before then" date. Saves me from checking the iambic website every day and it helps me hunker down and prepare for a long haul of toil and torment with the existing crop of PIM apps for the iPhone.

At least the pushbacks have been getting shorter. When I first got my iPhone in Feb, the projected release was two months off. Then, it got pushed back a mere two weeks. Hopefully, they're getting "real close now (tm)".

Originally Posted by Allibama

So...I can either not respond to you at all, which you will take as being ignored, or continue to tell you to be patient. Your choice. We'll get what we get when we get it. Got it?

Well, I guess what I'd consider as helpful (without forcing you to commit to any hard dates), are:

1. More frequent updates about the scale of the wait that we're looking at. By that, I mean: does it look like you'll be done in a matter of: months, weeks, days, or hours?
2. Some idea of how long it is expected to take for Agendus to wind its way through the AppStore vetting process. In other words, some day in the future, I figure you're going to post "That's it! We're done! We've submitted it to Apple!". At that point, how much longer is it expected to take before it shows up in the AppStore?
3. Maybe a screen-shot or two. I'm dying here! I can't even imagine using Agendus because I don't know what it's going to look like. Now, I realize that Apple might not allow you to do that or, if they do, that you might not want to get the people here even more impatient than they already are. But, I'm just sayin'... if I got to see some screenshots of what it's supposed to look like, I... I think I would need to go have a cigarette afterward. And I don't even smoke!

Pining without whining,
- Joe

[Allibama]

LOL! I know exactly what you mean. If it's any consolation, the forum staff don't know any more than the visitors. Only the code monkeys know for sure.

Originally Posted by jemenake

Well, I guess what I'd consider as helpful (without forcing you to commit to any hard dates), are:

1. More frequent updates about the scale of the wait that we're looking at. By that, I mean: does it look like you'll be done in a matter of: months, weeks, days, or hours?
2. Some idea of how long it is expected to take for Agendus to wind its way through the AppStore vetting process. In other words, some day in the future, I figure you're going to post "That's it! We're done! We've submitted it to Apple!". At that point, how much longer is it expected to take before it shows up in the AppStore?
3. Maybe a screen-shot or two. I'm dying here! I can't even imagine using Agendus because I don't know what it's going to look like. Now, I realize that Apple might not allow you to do that or, if they do, that you might not want to get the people here even more impatient than they already are. But, I'm just sayin'... if I got to see some screenshots of what it's supposed to look like, I... I think I would need to go have a cigarette afterward. And I don't even smoke!

Pining without whining,
- Joe

[witlin]

@Alli, thanks for sticking with us, this is greatly appreciated.
Also I know that the ever popular iambic-bashing doesn't help anybody here, least of all you guys, and I'll try to choose my words carefully to not be joining the chorus...

I wasn't even hoping for any of the deadlines/guesstimates etc. actually showing a finished agendus, but I feel the communication is what frustrates most people here.I know answering to every ridiculous thread actually takes time from finishing the product, I get it,
BUT a little more consistent exchange with your potential customers and other customers might actually be in order, and might justify a little of your time (and I don't mean you personally, but rather somebody in charge, be that Adriano or anybody else). Please don't get me wrong, this is not meant to criticize you or any other of the forum-team, but rather iambic themselves.


Example?

I think a big part of your customerbase will be using your software professionally, therefore business compatibility and syncing in general being one of the major issues.
Which was exactly what a question, quoting one of Adriano's posting, was aiming at, in the following thread on page 4:
http://support.iambic.com/forum/show...t=26825&page=4

...Communication so far could probably have been a little better but that has been discussed to death already, also I'm glad iambic is still trying to get Agendus on the road, despite the few rocks in their way.
What I was wondering, already back while still using a Palm, even more today is, don't you guys get fed up by the limitations other people enforce on you?
The Palm desktop underneath, Outlook underneath, now Apple and it's ridiculous SDK restrictions, and last but not least the limits of Apple's own PIM solution so far (iCal, Address, Book, still no Tasks or Memos on the horizon).
I mean I understand that it's probably easier to rely on underlying technology and especially on sync functionality. But don't you think that as it matured to an unparalelled product, Agendus would deserve it's own independent Desktop app and sync? It works quite well for cultered code and their "Things" for iPhone (USD10) and Mac (USD50), and this is just a todo manager.
Maybe Agendus could sync over WiFi, like some other apps (not PIMs) do. Or piggyback on the Exchange protocoll, maybe one of the Open Source Exchange protocolls like openXchange (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-Xchange).

This was on the 1st of March.
On the 23rd of March Adriano (no answer until then), posted an update.
I answered the following, quoting my initial question:

Thanks for keeping us up to date, Adriano!
I also appreciate you guys and gals(?) focusing on the final touches of Agendus in these last weeks.
But I would still very much like an answer to a question I posted on the previous page:

Then you, Alli, where kind enough to attempt an answer, although I felt, we weren't really talking about the same thing here.
March 27th:

I believe, that freeing your product from the limiting factors (Outlook, Palm Desktop, iCal/Address book etc.etc.) would greatly enhance the enduser experience, as you won't have to take into consideration what limitations others impose on you (no true platform independence for example, sync issues being another one).
Agendus could finally be what it deserved to be long ago:
I know this might be a radically different approach, but this way only iambic's imagination and the sky would be the limit here

That merely being my personal conclusion, after checking back with iambic's different Agendus variants over the years.
No more "we can't do this and that, because Outlook doesn't allow for this"
No more "sync problems are caused by (take your pick) Windows, Mac, Outlook, Palm Desktop, etc.etc"
No more "we have to work around Palm Desktops tight limits with implementing e.g. Icons via a code in the comments/notes field".
No more (I'm sure working forum support you could imagine many many more).
I'm quite suprised that you guys (namely the developers behind Agendus) aren't even more fed up by this then we are.

A clean cut, a truly independent standalone multiplatform desktop app, with it's own independent sync, maybe even to web services, would be immensely high on my wish list. But I suppose it's needless to say that if Agendus for iPhone is merely half of what the Palm one did, I will be on board, no question about it. Although it would have to cut even a few more corners (Apple, iTunes Store, still only being a front-end to existing apps) than before to achieve the same.

I repeat, why aren't you guys fed up with this situation?

and March 28th:

...But still this is just a workaround for the question lying at my posting's core, a question, that I feel is essentially aimed a little more towards Adriano.

That's it so far. Today we have the 1st of May, and I haven't heard from anybody in charge at iambic since. 2 Months!!!
Is this the kind of customer support we can expect when things get a little stressy with some potential other iambic-product?

Yes, a few screenshots would be nice, but I could even live with
"No, an independent desktop app, is not going to come in the foreseeable future, but nice idea". At least this would show the will to some kind of interaction.
As of today we have 4 threads in the iambic for iPhone forum, no structure, everybody posts in whatever thread he/she wishes (is there no moderation here in these forums?), and the iambic members pop in at random times to throw a bone to the most desperate here and there.
This is not enough. Don't you get it? People don't talk about PI because it is their dream app (those people that actually think that, won't bother posting here, but rather get other things done), they talk about it because it appears that PIs developers care about their customers. Don't know if they really do, but they do a great job at appearing to be.

One last thought, history is full of examples where a superior product didn't succeed, because its marketing was to weak or otherwise unsuccessfull.

PLEASE, don't let Agendus for iPhone become one of those products.
Talking to people on your own forum shouldn't be too high a price to pay for a little free marketing. Right?

All the best