Software : Pocket Informant

Rating: - This is why you brought a Pocket PC.
I rely on my pocket pc every day. Without it I would probably be lost. It stores my schedule, appointments, to do list, and contact information for everyone I know. Until a few weeks ago, I thought the system was near perfect. Then I tried Pocket Informant, and realized just how much even simple tasks can be improved. Pocket Informant is wonderfully simple and compact. The program's main features are split across four screens, Calendar, Notes, Tasks, and Contacts, each replacing and improving upon their built in equivalents.

Calendar in agenda view is probably my favorite. The screen displays upcoming appointments and tasks for the next 21 or more days. The default, which I use, is 15. It can even be set to today only. These appointments are separated by blue date headers, green for weekends. Also available is a day view, with detailed yet easy to read hour by hour information, a week view, where the days are stacked boxes, and a month view, complete with icons and popup day details. Each of these improves greatly upon the built in version's equivalents.

Next up is the Alarm Notes. While I still find myself using the default notes for quick writings, alarm notes have a few handy features. The best of them being the ability to write a reminder then set it as an alarm in 5-45 minutes, 1-3 hours, or etc. from the current time.

Tasks view has changed the way I use tasks. With the default system, I only made tasks out of important items, to avoid a horribly long and diluted list. However, using both the category and A-Z 1-9 organizational features of Pocket Informant, I find I can make checklists of just about everything and effortlessly keep them straight. Pocket Informant has a powerful filter system built in, allowing me to easily view only the list of things to do, games to play, or Rant ideas for example. Using the A-Z 1-9 system, I can then further prioritize the resulting list. Tasks are also perfectly integrated with the calendar and agenda views. It lets me keep things separate by allowing me to view only dated tasks, typically the important ones, and hiding the undated, typically checklists.

Finally is the Contacts screen, which makes short work of storing and sorting hundreds if not thousands of lines of data. Each contact has all the information you would expect stored, as well as an optional icon. The filters and search abilities really pull through here making large databases effortless to use. Data can be set to display around 17 lines at a time, meaning no matter how many contacts you have, you won't have to face a loading screen. It even includes a phone dialer which when held up to a phone receiver, plays the touch tone sounds through the speaker and automatically dials the number! Sure, it's not necessary, but if you already clicked 3 times to have the Pocket PC look up the number for you, why not click twice more and have it dial?

Some might have trouble justifying a purchase that basically does the same thing as the built in functions. Well, while this is true, the important thing to remember is it does it much better and saves you a great deal of time and effort. This is probably the entire reason for having that information in the Pocket PC to begin with. With all these features for just under $$, it's a hard deal to beat.

- Rirath_com

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Rating: - IPAQ USER
Great program! Everything at a glance. Solid value for the price.

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Rating: - Pocket PC MUST
I am Power User of my IPAQ. This is the most useful tool I own. I must access this program 50 times a day. It easily beats out the Contact Management program that comes standar in Pocket PC 2002!

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Rating: - A "must have" app for your Pocket PC !
Have used ver 2.6 for a couple months and liked it a lot. Tried AF since everyone was raving about it. I guess I was too accustomed to PI and found AF too "cartoony" looking? PI seemed more business-like, which was what I wanted.
Just upgraded to ver. 3 and all I can say is ...WOW... A BIG improvement, not just another upgrade! VERY well done. I'm sure there will be some glitches along the way, but then again its software right? I'm sure patches will follow just like any other App. I love the new calendar views and the side tabs! Love the new contact view also. Have a few suggestions which I will probably submit to them, but all in all this has got to be the best, most "user convenient" PIM out there.

Terry R. Moon
Senior Network Engineer / Consultant
PC Express

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Rating: - Super useful
Allows you to personalize your pocket pc with color comments on your schedule. Very handy