Review: Don’t Bug Me About BugMe!

Posted by: dgoldring on Nov 10 2006 - 593 views

We have all been there.  You are on an important call.  You need to set up a meeting.  The scheduling is done.  Now, you just need to find a way to keep all of the information about the meeting in one place…and maybe be able to jot a few notes…oh and a reminder a few minutes in advance would be great too.  Enter BugMe!  from Electric Pocket.  BugMe! allows you to jot or type important (or unimportant) notes on its customizable doodle pad, and then set a reminder alarm so you will never have to worry about forgetting important meetings again.

 

Installation and Registration: Like most Pocket PC programs, BugMe! installed easily from a desktop installer to my Pocket PC via ActiveSync.  When it is first installed, you are offered a 7-day fully featured trial.  Register, and you will have unlimited access to all of BugMe!’s features.

Notes: The main purpose of BugMe! is to allow you to create notes.  One of the things I really enjoyed about this program is the versatility of input methods.  There is a drawing tool, which allows you to write in your own handwriting, draw a quick sketch, or just doodle on the screen.  BugMe!  offers three different drawing tips (plus an eraser) and a six different colors.  There is also a typing tool, which allows you to add text to any note.  Need more?  You can input any picture on your device, and even record your voice to a note.  This versatility really sets BugMe! apart from the competition.

Alarms: Not only does BugMe! allow you to write yourself notes on any subject in any style, it also allows you to link those notes to a reminder.  Set an alarm for a matter of minutes or any predetermined time.  Let the alarm ring once or a dozen times.  You can set the alarm to make any prerecorded sound on your device.  Additionally, if you recorded a voice memo with your note, the alarm can read that memo.  Along with sounding an alarm, this feature will also open the note on your screen, allowing you to review whatever information you need.  The alarm is probably the most useful feature on BugMe!  It allows you to write a note and forget it.  No more scrolling through dozens of notes to find the appropriate one

Photos: In addition to the other features, BugMe also allows you to input any photos stored on your device to a note.  This can be very useful if , for example, you need to include a map along with an address in a note.  Or, instead of just reminding yourself of a meeting, you can include a picture of the person with whom you are meeting.  Or, maybe you just want to draw devil ears and a moustache on that old picture of your ex-girlfriend. This is a great addition, which many similar programs ignore.

Today Screen Plug-In: I’ve said in this space before that today screen plug-ins are one of the most overused features on Pocket PC software today.  Every developer seems to want a share of the valuable real estate on your today screen, whether it is necessary or not.  BugMe! is a prime example of this phenomenon.  The today screen plug-in gives you virtually no useful information.  It merely tells you when an alarm is due to ring.  I would much rather the developers worked to incorporate this information into one of the already existing today screen plug-ins such as SPB Diary or SBSH PocketBreeze, so that it would appear on my main calendar, in their notes tabs, or even incorporate a BugMe! tab into those plug-ins.  A stand alone today screen plug-in for BugMe! serves virtually no useful purpose.  One of the first things I did after installing this program was deactivate this feature.

Additional Features: The Windows Mobile 5 version offers additional features beyond what is available in the Windows Mobile 2003 SE version.  For example, the WM5 edition offers an extremely useful screen capture tool, which allows you to capture an image of any screen, including e-book pages, and Internet websites.  These images can then be imported to a note, where you can mark them up with the drawing tool (see the screen shot, above).  The WM5 version also includes an option to send notes via email or SMS text messaging to anyone in your contacts list.  It is perplexing to me why these exciting features were included in the WM5 version, but not the WM2003SE version.  I asked Electric Pocket about this, and they told me there were no plans to update the WM2003SE version.  This is unfortunate, because without them, there is really very little to set BugMe! apart from the crowd of other note-taking programs.

Conclusion:  BugMe! is a fantastic start to what should be a great program.  It does, however, have some distance to go.  While it is nice to have alarms linked to my various notes, I did not find it useful to have a list of my upcoming alarms on my today screen.  I would rather have BugMe! link to SPB Diary or SBSH PocketBreeze to include my notes in one of their tabs.  Additionally, many of the more interesting features were not available in the WM2003SE version which I reviewed.  This was incredibly frustrating and perplexing.  The ability to send a note via Flexmail would be extremely useful.  Likewise, I am eager to try out the screen capture utility.  After trying BugMe!, I can say my interest has been piqued.  However, its usefulness on my device was limited due to the lack of these features.

BugMe! is available from Electric Pocket.  The registered version costs $19.95.

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