Well, right now the plans are:

1. Finish our 2nd iPhone game port, hopefully by the end of the week.

and then 2 or all 3 of by the Holidays…

2. Extreme Agenda 3.5

3. All-In 3.0

4. a secret original iPhone game…

Oh, and I have Listwatch almost ported to WM5+ and plan on offering it for a reduced price of only $4.95. Its a great little application that needs very little tweaking but rarely gets any love anymore.. So why not make it a bargain alternative in these times!!

 Back to work….

I have to say, it does say something for the platform that I was able to take some existing C++ code, do pretty much all new graphics, and turn out a game in less than a month. It isnt quite as easy as was let on in the hype, but I was able to do it, So……

Now, I want to do at least one more port and then I have a pretty cool idea for an original title with accelerometer and multi-touch support. Hopefully the market allows me to go for it… Fun!

 A lot of what Ive done so far is to study examples and read up on the Cocoa and Objective-C stuff. Its great to see that I may be able to re-use some of my C++ classes.  And then Ive done a lot of graphics work. I have about 90% of the graphics done(and created them all pretty much from scratch). And I have to say that while I’m not great, I sure am about 10 times better than I was the last time I released one of my games… Ill show you a taste once I get a little closer… 

And Im waiting for my Enrollment to get processed for Apple. I would expect they will contact me and charge me the $99 and I’ll be able to post to the store, and more importanly test on my iPod Touch, but… Im not even sure how that process goes or how long it takes… That might be my biggest hold up to market.

But its great, a lot of people have taken up iPhone Development including some VERY talented people that I worked with in the past, so I’m getting pointers from them and then on forums and the documentation and its got me excited to see how my first game turns out and even what they are doing…  

  The whole thing is obviously still kind of a buzz because of the early market thing, much like I used to feel in about 2000 messing with Pocket PC. Its rather fun, and though I stand by everything Ive wondered about the ecosystem, it is interesting that this many big game houses are putting development towards it… Though it sort of looks like some of them are already adopting the “this is a paid demo for our actual desktop/console application” type deal. Oh, and the ad based programs are a new interesting twist…

So it appears that the smaller guys will still be the ones responsible for the best stuff on this platform… Fun!

(Don’t worry, part of the reason I also chose this ’short’ project, is because Im committed to doing the big updates on our existing WM products.)

But a Post over at JustAnotheriPhoneBlog and other posts Ive seen by a lot of bloggers and forum members got me wondering even more so than I already am… And with so many 1 star ratings in the iPhone store expecting lower prices on Applications it just makes me question what is going on. And yes a lot of those are people that don’t know any better as that is all they’ve known for a mobile market and a lot are younger kids, so a little different demographic than we’re used too, but…

http://justanotheriphoneblog.com/wordpress/2008/09/04/dinner-dash-comes-to-iphone-makes-bad-price-choice-imho/

Basically I’ll repeat my thoughts and add a few more. It appears that these people very quickly have decided that just because of the current prices on the iPhone App Store, people expect it. I would expect some of the bloggers to know better(the ones that have been around the other mobile markets for sure), or at least think it through a little more instead of jumping on the ‘I need everything for 99 cents parade’, but…

Some questions and thoughts I have, that I will only be able to answer if the AppStore actually discloses more information or I get in the market or have connections that are in it… and as time passes…

1. This idea that if you lower the price from $10 to $1 you will sell way more than 10x the sales has not worked in the Windows Mobile World(a lot including me have tried it). Maybe with the way the current AppStore is setup right now it does, but I would have to see it to believe it. And will it last…

2. All these big companies are riding the early waves on the App Store. I hope it can continue but will we continue to see this kind of traffic once the App Store is older to justify the pricing for this high volume. And now once the game/app ages, they have no where to go with price to keep seeing any return…

Most of the bigger companies are dipping their toe in the water. We saw them all come and go on WM as well. Hopefully its a working lasting ecosystem and they stay, and hopefully Microsoft does some things to create a better market too… I know Im on record as saying that about 2008-2009 is when mass adoption and the mobile software market and ’smartphone’ type market in general will explode… We can only hope it is!

3. I still expect to see a leveling back up on prices at some point. Its nice of you to think a ‘Single Song’ file is worth the same as 200-500++ hours of Development(which is billable at anywhere from $40-$150+ an hour in the real world), but Im sure at these low prices we are going to have a LOT of people dropping back out of the market because of no ROI. Right now you have a lot of the excited Hobbyist types(and obviously some with a lot of talent) that have flooded this, but … (They have come in and back out on ALL of the other Mobile markets too).

If all these companies making the big games dont get sales numbers at prices like they get on Desktop and console games, do you think that investment on new games will stay around…

4. Are applications that are the same Exact code as on the Desktop even worth $10 less on iPhone? Why? Because they have to compete with the Music Files? Diner Dash, which is the program that was being talked about in the post, isn’t a FREE desktop program, the real version still costs I believe $19.99…

And just to get a foot hold in this new market is it worth cannabalizing sales on your Bread-and-Butter platforms. Desktops and Consoles still represent much bigger markets. But when people see the game on iPhone for $5 they arent going to be willing to pay the $20 price on the desktop for it… 

Which is made even more confusing because a lot of the these games on the iPhone so far are cut down versions of the real games. So yes, then they are worth less..

5. Another flaw in the idea, is that if you look at the current iPhone Store the good shelf life of the current applications has been like 2-3 months or less… Look, some of the best games have already been dropped to low low prices as others have came in. So you may sell a ton in those 2 months but even if you are a top designed game, even at $10 it may be hard to get your ROI in that short of time…

6. You have to sell a TON of 99 cent Programs with your 70 cent cut a month to make a pay check that you can pay a mortgage with… Im sure the adoption rate is loads higher but expecting to sell 3-4000 copies of a percieved cheap app, with all the uninformed users ‘1 staring’ your application for any reason makes it harder. Compound that with the shelf life problem and the lack of better sorting in the store to find applications and it makes it difficult to get word out to sell that many every month.

7. And people are seeing this 13 Million device sold number. Well a large percentage of those still never enter or use the AppStore. Im sure the percentage is way higher right now than on WM, but the number of existing WM devices out there is way higher too.. So dont kid yourself that anything but the best applications will ever hit anywhere near the 1 million sold number….Man I hope Im wrong, but…

So I expect the ecosystem will change, the AppStore is in its infancy and I will be surprised if it can maintain in it current state. So please Apple do Sub-Categories so you can find say a “Puzzle Game”, and please only allow purchases to review an applicaton(the price complainers arent helping anyone in the long run), but yeah keeping the prices low are bringing adoption rates up in this early start. Right now some of the best games and programs Ive found have been by accident when searching for completely unrelated topics in the search. Getting Lucky is a bad way to have to find what you really want…

And the no trial thing is forcing the prices down too, but is that good…? I think that will burn thousands of people to not even waste the $2-10 bucks after they get burned a few times, because the review system is so inconsistant so you never know what to believe or how good an application you are getting until you have already dropped money on it..

But I will say  I dont see any application with any quality really being worth just 99 cents. You should and Im guessing will be comparing them to the prices of Albums on the Store, not just a single Music File…

Right now the way the iPhone ecosystem kind of works it reminds me of a gumball type machine with the prizes inside. I’ll go in and mill around hoping to find something and plug in my change and crank the wheel. What will I get? 

Guess I need to do my shopping on the Desktop.. But then isn’t the point to not have to.

Can’t wait to find out how right or wrong I am…

Options

Most of the programs settings are quickly available by choosing Options in the right soft key menu. They are sorted based on what they are used for including View Types. So if for example you are in the Contacts View then the program will bring up Options screen opened to the contact related options.  If you would like to set options for other views or for General Settings, Adjusting the Display, making view selections, or category information simply push left/right on the top selection bar to re-populate the list below with the related settings.

General Settings contains settings that are more global across the whole application. Things like System Shortcuts, Filter setup, and how lists behave are some of the options you can change here.

Display Settings allows you to customize every aspect of the program’s look including Colors, Font Size, Background Images, Title Bar Display and more. Additionally the program allows you to save the look of the program out as Theme Files so you can keep a particular look and color scheme and share it with others. The functionality for this is available in the option’s right soft key menu under Display.

View Selection allows you to turn on/off any of the various screens in Extreme Agenda. Don’t want to use our Year View? Well turn it off and it will not show up as a choice in any of the menus. Additionally if there are views you arent able to find available, check here and see if they were defaulted to off.

Category Setup shows you a list of all available category names that are in use in your Outlook data and allows you to set a color and an Icon that will be used to represent each one. The settings to use these are in General Settings or in specific view options. You can get to this same icon and color functionality when choosing Categories in our Tasks and Appointment Editing Screens.

Individual View Settings will be covered more in later sections…

System Shortcuts

The first thing people ask about or assume we don’t have is System Shortcuts. This basically means the Organizer takes over the basic functions of the 3 built-In Pocket Outlook applications; Tasks, Contacts, and Calendar.  So if you choose Contacts from the Home Screen or even the icons under programs it would now go right to Extreme Agenda and use our more advanced program instead.

We do have this and it can be found under General Settings in Options. We have decided not to force you into this right away in the install as others do. Why? Well if you are trialing software and you have multiple programs trying to do this you can mess up your existing link with this. And, we offer more flexibility in allowing you to only take over the sections you want to. So say if for some reason you don’t want to use our tasks, well you don’t have to. 

In our uninstall process we will clean up the shortcuts if you have turned them on for Extreme Agenda, so feel free to try them when demo-ing as well. It makes for a much more integrated experience.

Contact Shortcut to Spin is an exclusive feature added because the right button on Standard Home Screens( and sometimes on Pro Screens) links to the Contacts. Instead of going directly to Contacts, this gives you the option to have it take you to our Extreme Spinner Selection View with Contacts already pre-selected. That way if you have individual Contacts setup in your Spinner or just want an easy way to get at all of the Extreme Agenda functionality it is usually just a button press away… A real timesaver.

Filters

Category Filters are a powerful tool to filter the data that is shown in the program. In the right soft key menu on the top level view screens Filter is available to allow you to adjust the filter and turn it on and off. When turning it on only the Data Items that contain the Category or Categories you have checked will be shown in the views. When a filter is active a [F] should appear in the top Screen Title Bar.

Filters have two other settings under General Settings. Start Saved Filters allows your filter to stay persistant. So if you shut off the program with the filter active and then come back to the program the filter will still be active. Global Filter means that the one filter is used throughout the program. If this is off, then the filter is per view, so Agenda Views, Contacts View, and Tasks View each use their own Filter setup. The filter you are editing is based on from what view you entered the filter screen from and should display at the top of the screen.

Over the Air Updates

If you have a data plan or other internet connection on your mobile device and want to know if you have the latest update to the program it just takes one quick visit to the options screen. In the Main program just choose Options. Now in th right soft key menu Check for Update is waiting. It will check and if an update is available it will display a list of what the new program adds and also allows you to download and install the new update immediately. Most updates are FREE, but if it is a Major Revision it will let you know this and allow you to install a trial of the new software(you wont lose any data), and then you will be able to revert back if you dont want to upgrade yet.

Preview Windows

There are 2 preview windows in Extreme Agenda that are commonly used. The Tasks List can show the currently selected Task in a window at the bottom of the screen and a preview window can be placed on the Calendar.

The Month’s preview will be located at the bottom of the calendar screen. Additionally for Landscape screens and the new bigger 320×320 square screens the calendar preview window can be placed to the right of the screen. We are also the only organizer that offers an additional bonus of showing the next month’s calendar preview along side this preview window. These Settings can be setup in the Schedule Settings screen in the Options.

A couple of quick tips that make these views even more handy:

On either the Task List or Calendar you can push ‘#’ or ’space’ to toggle the preview from showing to not showing. So say on the calendar if you have ‘Text on Full Month’ enabled on your device you can quickly jump from a previewed mode that shows the preview and bars and/or icons to the full month which will show you text on each day.

And if the Day Preview window shows scroll arrows you can scroll the view using the ‘1′ and ‘3′ buttons on your phone. The week and timeline week view’s are based on the same technology so you can use this in these view as well.

The size of the font used in these views can be changed in the Display Settings by checking ‘Big Preview Text’.

Setting Date and Time

When setting up or selecting a date or time in the program we use our extremely simple date/time selection system. To operate it you can highlight the field you want to change and then push up/down to decrement or increment the field. If you click(and sometimes action) on the selected field box it will increment by a set amount as well. Push Left/right or click on the next field to switch to it. In addition on a Touch screen you can also swipe up or down on the screen to change the selected field. Example: On the Month Field just click in the month box and drag your finger down towards the bottom of the screen and it will move the hour back one. On the Date Selection screen if you push the Action button it will jump to a Calendar date selection screen. Jumping to “Today” is also available in the right menu.

Linking

Extreme Agenda uses multiple ways to link your data together. The main linking mechanism allows you to quickly link an item such as a contact, task, or appointment to any other item including other Outlook Items as well as files and even websites. To access these links with an Outlook item selected you can use the “Links” menu option or the key shortcuts by pushing ‘.’ or ‘*’.  You will then see a list of linked items for your selected item and the right menu will allow you to add or remove links quickly. Clicking on the item on the list will allow you to view that linked item quickly.  Additionally if you click action while viewing a single appointment or task it will bring up the main links screen showing not only text links, discussed below, but your linked items.

Text Links is another way you can link appointments and tasks to phone numbers, emails, websites and even contacts. Turn on the option under General Settings with “Parse Text for Links”. It then will parse your subject, location and notes for text it identifies as a link. Contacts will be recognized if the name is contained inside brackets [], a standard across several PIMs, and is available as a Contact Text option when creating New Tasks and Appointment.  To view these you can click action when viewing the item, and if Text or Regular links are available they will appear in a list for you to select and interact with.

Templates

Extreme Agenda contains a powerful Template feature for you to use when creating both Appointments and Tasks. So say for example you have an appointment that you have to enter quite frequently, like picking your daughter up from soccer. You know this will usually happen at 4pm at the park, is private, and falls under the family category. Simply create an appointment template by going to New Appt. and entering the Subject, Location, Times, Sensitivity and Category. Now instead of creating that appointment you can choose Save as Template in the menu. Now next time you need to create this appointment you can either choose New Appt. and then in the menu choose Apply Template or from a main menu just choose Appt. From Template and a list will be shown of all of your created templates. Choose “Pick Up at Soccer” and the appointment editing is opened with all of the information filled in. Its just that easy…

User and Contact Text

We have designed the program to be as easy as possible to re-enter information that you use a lot. So in entering Subjects and Locations you are brought right to a screen that allows you to select ’User Text’ or text that you have defined that you use a lot. A few examples are pre-loaded, but if there is a phrase like “Workout with” or “Taylor School” that you know you enter a lot you can easily add this to the list from the right menu with New User Text. Then when entering the new field you can simply drop into the list and select it and it will be automatically inserted into the field. Location and Subject ‘User Text’ are stored separately, so you won’t see you Location based text in the subject and vice versa, so be sure to add new text to the right list. This feature is also available when editing notes and note fields.

Additionally you can easily enter the name and information for a Contact into these fields. When in the editing screen in the right menu is Insert Contact which allows you to pick from a list of formatted text containing the name and information on the contact you selected. You can choose the [] choice as well to create a link to that Contact as well.

So for example if you have an appointment to call Bob Jones simply choose “Call” in your User Text list, and it will get filled in on top. Then choose Insert Contact and select Bob Jones from your Contact List and then a Text format that contains his number. Its just that easy…

Search

The Search window is available from the right menu on most of the main views. It allows you to quickly search all of your Outlook data, including Tasks, Appointments, and contacts for a specific string. It quickly searches certain common fields of each of these items and returns a list of those that contain it for you to interact with. You also have the ability to turn on/off searching of the different types under Setup Search so for example if you never want to include Tasks in your search, just turn them off.

Spin Selection 

Our spin selection screen is the most advanced View selection screen available. It allows you to quickly select the view you want to access in the program. Up to 8 choices can be positioned around the spinner, and to select one you simply spin the wheel with the action pad or by dragging with your finger to the top selection box. Then click action and it will go to that view. On Touch Screen Device double tapping an item will also select and view the item.

The power comes from the fact that you can choose any view that you want along with including Saved Views, Website URLs, Program and File Shortcuts, or even Contacts. And you can order them in any order you find the most convenient. We also offer the ability for a system shortcut to go directly to this view for easy access from the main home screen. So it can be used as a power launcher to your most used programs or contacts, as well as quick access to your Contact and Calendar in Extreme Agenda.  

So for example I have mine setup so that my wife’s contact photo shows up to the left of Contacts on the spinner. So when I need to get a hold of her I simply hit the contacts right button on the Home Screen, and then hit the action right once to spin her into position, and action to have access to her. Three key presses and Im ready to dial or text her. Convenient!

We also offer a menu based system for accessing Extreme Agenda’s views using the right menu key that replaces the “Extreme” button or a “Next View” based right button system. So you can use what works best for you.

Saved Views

This allows you to save a view the way you want it configured. So say if you want to view your calendar with preview off and a filter to only show “work” category items with icons and bars. Well you can setup the view in that way and then choose Save View in the right menu and it will allow you to name and save the current setup. I can then add this into the spinner or access a list of saved views quickly from the Views or Spinner’s right button menu.

Project View

This is a very poweful view in which you can organize all of your Outlook Items in Projects and Sub-Projects along with Files, Website Hyperlinks, and Notes. It uses specialized categories and shortcut files to keep track of these projects. It can even show progress bars to show at a glance how complete the tasks are in the project.

In the Options you are also able to allow the Project’s Tree View to show Outlook Folders containing all of you Pocket Outlook Data. You can then easily select the item and add it to a project from here or even on touch screen devices drag it to its correct location.

Tools are also available that allow you to add all items of a particular category into a project or create a normal category out of the items in a project.

Display Options and Theme Files

Extreme Agenda is the most highly customizable Organizer as far as looks are concerned. If you have an idea of what you think it should look like or have seen another Organizer and thought, boy I wish it looked like that, well for the most part it probably can.

We will try to get into more of exactly what is available right here later. But if you are looking to change the look of Extreme Agenda try changing the ‘Display Options’. If you want to show more data or data in a different way then it is more than likely found in the individual views settings. Things like changing a list from one line to two or showing icons instead of text on the calendar.

Quick Tip: To quickly adapt to a color theme usually all it takes is to change the Title Primary and Title Secondary colors. Try choosing the Primary to match the Darkest color in the bar at the top of the screen, with the Secondary being a lighter version of the Primary or the light color in the top bar. Then usually if you just change the Selection color to something that fits with this color then you have pretty much matched a theme with little effort.  

Now if you want to get a little more advanced try experimenting with changing the default spin center to whatever you may prefer or the Titlebars or Selection Style Settings. Obviously you can get into way more advanced adjustments including using your own images but this is an easy way to adjust just the basics. These changes occur after you hit done so you will have to leave and come back in before they take hold(or leave with Cancel to not save them). And you can always go in and choose Set Display to Defaults under Display in the Options right menu, so feel free to experiment. And even consider showing us your themes in our Birdsoft Forums.

A great feature of  Extreme Agenda is that you can save your Display Settings in a Theme file which will have an .xath extension. These files save all the colors and settings so you can quickly go back to a theme at any time. So if you really like your current setup simply save it as a theme file by choosing Save as Theme File under Display in the Options Menu. Now you can start adjusting the display options knowing that you can quickly go back to a previous setup if need be, by choosing Load Theme File under Display and selecting the theme file that was created.

[ Watch for this article to be updated more over the next few weeks ]

Version 2.8 will fix a few small nagging things that have been around in the Smartphone and Pocket PC/WM Pro/WM Classic versions. But where it really gets the goods is VGA and 320×320 screen support. We hope you agree that on the newer devices coming out like the Diamond, Touch Pro, Treo 800, and Treo Pro the game looks great.

 We were finally able to get an update for our Graphics Library and so are now building on something that we are quite confident in. And we did quite a bit of work under the hood! Why…??? Because we have an AWESOME Version 3.0 Planned… and we won’t be waiting long on getting to this.. We actually wanted to get to this 2.8 mark and then forge ahead with some really cool things… Basically we want to lock up the title for best Poker game on the Platform(s).

 So watch for Version 2.8 of All-In coming very soon… It still has the Best Artificial Intelligence on a Mobile Device, the Best GamePlay, The Best Career Mode, and tons of Customizations… And now it has VGA graphics to go along with it!!!

Note: Late addition.. We have decided to throw in WQVGA 240×400 support as well!   With some of the new code now underneath, it is much easier(actually started it about an hour ago an am about done). So we’ll bring the Samsung Omnia some Love too…

Update: It is out now!

All-In

All-In is being worked on right now. We are finishing up our long overdue VGA support and already have done 320×320 support, and might even get in Widescreen handling in version 2.8. It also fixes a few things(our Graphics API finally came out with a version that fixes a couple small problems) and does some nice things with the buttons like Treo “Hard” Softkey and OK support and better Standard Device Back Support. Im hoping to have this released August 11-12th. So watch for Version 2.8 then… 

And then getting to that point will make it much much quicker to get to VERSION 3.0. Which we want out by the Holidays! And it will be cool!!!!

The VGA graphics in 2.8 Look Great! Hi-Res is cool… And will be even cooler in 3.0! 

Extreme Agenda

We really like Version 3.3 as it got us to where we want to be on the Pro Devices so now its time to tackle Version 4.0… Yeah, we cant tell you about that either but some of the stuff planned to go in are going to take it to a whole new level. You’ll be happy you are in the XA camp!! The plan is by the Holidays as well. We’ll see…

Other Applications

In the next couple weeks, after a 1 week vacation next week,  not only will All-In 2.8 be out but we plan on updates to make PokerTimer, The Dog Ate It, and ListWatch more WM5-WM6 friendly. It should be very short projects although The Dog Ate It will likely get a VGA update and a few other things as well, so that might take just a little longer.. And Extreme Text and FairwayWatch Desktop will also get updates hopefully in that timeframe. Some of this work has already been done, so…

So that is where we are at… Unfortunately we aren’t at the point where we can really start dropping feature hints and such for the 2 BIG releases, but with the new office we have new focus and some big plans. It should be a fun end of the year…

Thanks

The biggest problem was it appears that if you plug the KVM(a switch that lets you switch between 2 or more computer all using the same monitor, keyboard, and Mouse) back in in the opposite way, the monitors arent recognized the same so I had some driver/screen problems. Spent about  45 minutes of that ‘move in’ time on that last night… Well I tried switching the cords this morning, and Im back…

When doing the move I initially also spent some time moving my 8 years of emails over from Outlook Express on my home XP box to the Vista machine and Windows Mail. The ‘rules’ in Windows Mail should allow the program to do a lot of the sorting I do of orders and tech support and possibly some automated filling of orders without my help. Cool!

Should be interesting, Im sure Ill be much more productive, and a small drive home allows you to cool down at the end of the work day, and leave work at the office a little more… It should be nice…

 Ok, back to work…

http://www.mytodayscreen.com/shootout-smartphone-information-management/

So as a little rebuttal to the review, I will go through and tell you where we’re coming from on each of the points… You will probably want to read the review first for this to make sense…

Installation

Obviously we won because of size. Makes sense. We like to point this out any chance we can get. It actually probably should have been a bigger point gap, as PIMs are suggested to be installed into the main memory. And with PI we found ourselves having to clear off applications to get the almost 4MB necessary.

Configuration and settings

Unfortunately the review put too much basis on the Out-of-the-Box settings. I agree it makes sense to judge it here, but it just carries through most of the review.

Our design philosophy is a little different. We go for speed, usability and simplicity out of the box and in the program in general. But then you can tweak the heck out of it once you feel comfortable with the program.

We have designed the settings screen and placements almost too well it appears, as people including reviewers seem to think we have less options and customizations than we do. I think it can be argued we have MANY more options than Agenda One, but yet the reviewer actually put us in 3rd in this spot. I would guess its how its presented as being in the settings screens of the other programs almost gets overwhelming, where as we have hopefully organized it down very well, and put feature specific setups(like Search and the Spinner) in the menu only in that view.  We just don’t think the user did a good job reviewing the settings, as proof he didn’t find the ‘System Shortcuts’ so didnt really spend much time in our settings screens.

And just to Note, we have a “My View” type implementation as well like was listed for PI…

Interface Usability and Presentation

Navigation Menus - As noted in my comment, you can add Timeline View to the spinner, as well as single contacts, project view, saved views, applications and files. You can also turn on a straight menu based system or a ‘Next’ view right button system.

Presentation -  On the Day view shown in the example here is one example of leaving the program to “out-of-the-box” for this reviewers taste. How about if you configured the program to look like this instead. Yes, we end up showing more information and it can be presented much cleaner then theirs.(Note: Im not sure why he used Pocket Informants ‘Dates’ view against the other two applications ‘Day’ Views.)

And the reviewer didnt notice the display interaction and drawing being slow in PI with its default settings on? Are you sure you tested on a Standard Device? Honestly, PI was called a standout here, when in fact it is actually a struggle to even know what is selected a lot of times or what will happen if you select something. Im not sure where he got a menu, but context menus dont necessarily fit well into Non Touch Screen programs. So again, really, on a Standard Device?

And just a note as Im being totally fair here, I believe PI and AO both have Templates, just like XA…

Information Accessibility

Yes, we do integrate right into the OS as well. We went with not being as obtrusive so did not include it in the install process. This  can wreck other PIM installations you may have already done if you are trialing the programs. We do clean it up during an uninstall if you turn it on in our program. It can be found under ‘General Settings’ in Options under the System Section and gives more control on which sections you want to integrate.

For Coloring did he have status coloring or Category coloring turned on… Or…? They are in the settings as well…

Another one of those little examples that the reviewer overlooked about “Out-of-the-Box” is you can turn on Company Names in our Photo List as well(it was mentioned for PI). We just dont believe that that should be defaulted to On. We could be wrong. And what about presenting our Contacts in an Icon type Photo List. And…

Quality and Completeness of Included Views 

This section was a little confusing, but it appears that the reviewer doesnt quite grasp that you can accomplish a lot of the fancy features in PI with Category type filtering. Yes it does take it a step further, but then if you don’t use this feature, well its still in the way all over the Place. And I think he wasn’t up on our Link system, which is separate from our Projects view(try pushing action on an appt or task view; text links and linked items appear).

One thing we do consciously do, is try not to make a menu long enough it scrolls and hides options. So say for sorting(grouping), we moved it into the Sort Dialog easily accessible in the top level menu, and kept it clean. So only mentioning the Secure Wallet here just felt like PI was already the pre-determined winner. He likes the bloated menus… Personal preference.

Application Integration

We agree there are a couple things we need to work on here, but as explained in the last section, I dont think he quite followed everything available in both AO and XA…And he is obviously one who likes to have features there and visible(’in the way’), even if they will never be used… It makes it hard to be judged when a lot of your design philosophy is so that this isnt as big of a problem… 

Conclusion 

Overall a good review and Im not saying the outcome wouldnt be the same for this particular reviewer, XA is up against some good programs. But Im still waiting for a shootout in which all the homework is done, and I can look at what is said and say, “yep he did understand…”

I guess both AO and XA are designed under a different methodology as well. They are both more streamlined and ‘reigned in’ where as PI just kind of kept going, and yes no one will argue it has more ‘features’, but with that comes a lot of bloating and learning curve problems and outgrowing of the interface. And a lot of those features the majority of users will never use… Some reviewers feel that more than others…

I guess I just cant see a spot in any of these “events” where PI should be 2 and definitely not 3 points ahead of either of the other applications. Its just not really there…

I hope you do your homework… give all the Trials a Try…