In the four years I have been associated with this site, there are a few programs and apps which have really stood out above the rest of the pack.  There is only one, however, which has consistently stood above the pack on virtually every platform.   Pocket Informant has from WebIS has been among the premiere personal information managers on virtually every platform, including Windows Mobile, Blackberry, iPhone/iPod Touch, and Google Android (it has sadly not been available on WebOS).  Most recently, our friends at WebIS released Pocket Informant for the iPad, which is where we pick up our action in this review.

If you are not already familiar with Pocket Informant…then you must be new to the site…we have been covering the app since its early Windows Mobile days.  Since then, while there have been many changes to the app and its interface, WebIS has done a fantastic job of staying true its core which, of course, means a fantastic calendar and information manager for the iPad.  Let’s go ahead and take a look.

One of the things I have really enjoyed about the iPad is the screen size and resolution, which allows for a level of graphics detail and sophistication which has never been seen in mobile devices.  In Pocket Informant, for example, this means the main interface can involve more than just a list of your activities.  Pocket Informant’s interface simulates the very paper and ink day planners which the app seeks to replace.   

Just like a real day planner, there are several tabbed sections, which you can jump between.  These sections include: Today, Calendar, Tasks, and Settings.  I did think it would have been nice to include a few additional tabs here, like Notes, Contacts, Birthdays, or even the ability to create custom made tabs.  Doing so would ensure that, like a real day planner, Pocket Informant could give you instant access to the tools and information you need, regardless of what that might include.  Nonetheless, we are not here to discuss the things this app cannot do, we are here to talk about how it works.  So, let’s go ahead and check out each of the tabs offered in the app.

As you would probably expect, the central component of Pocket Informant, like any day planner, is the calendar.  Just as with other versions, Pocket Informant offers all of the usual views.  You can check out your calendar by week or month.  You can also switch to an hour-by-hour breakdown of your day, or even just a list of upcoming events.  One thing that was great in the calendar was that if you use multiple calendar sources or tags, then your events will be color coded in order to give you a more complete “at-a-glance” view. 

Tap any event to open a popup with all of the events’ details.  Tapping a date in month view will open a popup showing more detail about all of the events for the selected date.

Meanwhile, on the right hand side of the screen is a scrollable month-by-month view, allowing you to gaze far into the future, or back into the past.  A helpful tool to say the least (in portrait view, this month-by-month view will be hidden under the expandable arrow).

In addition to your calendar, Pocket Informant also serves as an effective task manager.  This really works well, allowing you to view your tasks organized by due date, actions,  individual folders or contexts, and plenty of other methods.  Tap on any task to expand it for additional information.   I was impressed by how easy the screen is to navigate and read.  The app did a fantastic job of allowing you to access your important tasks, and ensure that nothing fell through the crack.

Adding new appointments, events, or tasks is simple using the the plus signs on top of the screen.  These open a pair of simple, easy to use dialogues.  simply complete all of the blanks with the correct information, and your work here is done.  I was impressed by how closely this actually resembled the new item dialogue in the iPad’s native calendar.  Whether this was intentional or not, I thought it was fantastic because most users will already be familiar with the layout and functionality of that dialogue.

The other great feature here is that you can tie any appointment to a location or contact from your address book.  Doing do allows you to instantly find the location or address in Google Maps.  This is fantastic for those times when you have a meeting on the other side of town, and no idea how to get there.

The best feature in Pocket Informant, however, is its ability to sync with your online accounts.  The calendar will sync with your Google account, while tasks can sync with Toodledo from virtually anywhere (though surprisingly, not Google Tasks or Remember The Milk).  Since my ultimate goal is to never connect my iPad to a computer, this cloud access is absolutely essential for me, and I am thrilled to say that it worked absolutely perfectly.

Now that we have discussed the two primary features of the app: calendar and tasks, we can put them together and create the Today tab.  This is the tab which really helps answer the questions, “What’s Next…”  On one screen, it shows your appointments, events, and tasks for the day (it will show any tasks due today or overdue).  This is a fantastic way to keep track of and organize your day’s activities. 

Of course, not everything in the app needs to be the way I have shown it.  There are plenty of customization settings under the Settings tab.  I am not going to get into an in-depth discussion of all the different settings you can adjust here…there are plenty of customization options, don’t worry.  That being said, I would be remiss if I did not briefly mention the settings.  With past versions of Pocket Informant, which we reviewed here on JAMM, we have been pretty critical of the organization of the settings screen.  In essence, there were so many settings in such confusing dialogues that it always felt like a cluttered mess.  I was pretty excited, therefore, to see just how far webIS has come with this.  The settings tab in Pocket Informant for iPhone is well organized and easy to navigate.  That is really about all you can request.

I have been a fan of WebIS and Pocket Informant since I discovered it on Windows Mobile.  Since then, I have used Pocket Informant on almost every device I have owned(I say almost because the WebOS version never quite materialized).  Based upon that history, I feel pretty comfortable with the statement I am about to make.  Not only is this the best version of Pocket Informant available on any platform, it is one of the best apps WebIS has ever produced …EVER…on any platform.  Sure, there are a few omissions, such as the lack of a contacts tab, and other useful tab, but I am hopeful those features will be coming soon in future versions (particularly since many of them already exist in the Windows Mobile and iPhone versions for the most part).  What WebIS has given us is a simple, easy to use app, without sacrificing any of the power displayed in previous versions of the app.  Most importantly for me, though, is the clear evidence that the developers at WebIS listen to the input and feedback of their users.  Many of the features which we have requested (such as the cluttered settings menus), or which have been discussed in WebIS forums have already made their way into the initial release of the app.  In the end, it should be clear why Pocket Informant routinely appears on so many lists of the top apps on each of the various mobile platforms.  This is truly one of the first absolutely essential apps I have used on the iPad.

Pocket Informant for iPad was developed by WebIS, and is available in the iTunes App Store for $6.99. 

As our Developer Interview Series continues this week, we find ourselves chatting with Alex Kac.  Alex is the man behind WebIS, the company responsible for the PIM management app Pocket Informant.  Alex was kind enough to answer several questions for us, sharing his thoughts on Windows Phone 7, the current generation of App Stores and WebIS’ plans for the future.

As you read through the interview, please note that JAMM’s questions are in bold, while Alex’s responses are regular font.  When finished, please feel free to submit any questions you have for Alex.  We’ll be sure he has a chance to respond.  Finally, be sure to check out the JAMM front page for our Pocket Informant contest, where you can win one of two copies of Pocket Informant for Windows Mobile, iPhone / iPod Touch or Blackberry.

Enjoy!

Hello Alex.  Thanks for agreeing to this interview.  To start with, can you tell the readers of JAMM a little bit about yourself and WebIS?

Sure. I’m 33 years old, married with three kids, and am usually pigeon-holed as a typical geek until people get to know me. My interests and viewpoints tend towards the more Texas Hill Country average. I like to play paintball (I’m not the best player out there but recently was part of a 4-man team that was going to play at Oklahoma’s DDay until I found out Apple’s WWDC was the same week), fly R/C airplanes, train in martial arts, and play XBox video games. I’ll always pick family over anything else when it comes to that and I’m also well known around here for my ribs and brisket. I love to entertain, though my poor wife who has Fibromyalgia can’t take too much of it.

How did you come up with the company name “WebIS”?

WebIS started as a web-application development company back in the late nineties. We started with Pocket PC development as a hobby but in less than a year it overwhelmed all of our other business activities that we focused exclusively on mobile development.

Pocket Informant is a powerhouse in terms of PIM management.  How did the program get it’s start?

With Pocket PC 2000 the platform had a really good start and at the time I was reading the forums and seeing that many people wanted a 7 day week view. So I whipped one up and called it WISAgenda. We asked for donations and it became so popular that within a few months I decided to build a full-featured PIM. And that’s how PI was born

What other programs do you offer, and what makes them unique?

Note2Self is a fun one that we wrote because of Jason Dunn’s suggestion. FlexMail for Windows Mobile is one I enjoyed using. What makes them unique is they fulfill niche areas of Windows Mobile missing features. Unfortunately FlexMail also falls into an area that MS does not provide a lot of integration points for so that makes it also uniquely challenged.

Over the years, there has been a steady evolution of functionality introduced and refined in Pocket Informant.  How do you continue to integrate new features, deciding which ones are worth the effort and which ones will take the program a direction you don’t intend?

That’s a really hard one. I have a vision for what feels right in the product and I usually go with my gut. Sometimes I’m wrong, but a lot of times I think it ends up well. I also keep a very strong user-based community where I take feedback – and I think almost more importantly – discuss that feedback. Sometimes I don’t agree with a feature request because I can’t see how it will be used or its purpose in the overall design but then someone convinces me. Usually its not just one person but a flock of people.

The hardest part is realizing you made a mistake and then removing that feature. I try hard to never do that, but occasionally I have had to.

We’ve all heard the initial news about Windows Phone 7; what it will and won’t offer to users and developers.  What are your impressions of the operating system?

The OS itself I think is very good. I’m not fond of the Metro UI specifically as implemented, but I do think its got some extremely good ideas. The problem I see with the OS is the extremely limited APIs for doing anything useful. Its a near opposite situation with Windows Mobile where you had an expansive API set for doing work, but hardly anything for UI. However I believe this will get better over time and is simply a matter of MS wanting to get WP7 out now and sacrificing specific functionality to meet that goal. Android and Apple did the same things and so have I so I don’t have a problem with that. Its just a little bit frustrating.

How well do you believe Microsoft communicated their plans regarding Windows Phone 7 to existing Windows Mobile developers?

This one is hard to answer because so much of our communication is under NDA. I do not feel like MS has done a great job of communication at all frankly. They are tweeting and doing some communications here and there on their blogs, but that’s a far cry from the type of discussions, beta access, documentation, and more that we get from Google, Palm, and Apple.

Honestly I don’t feel like they as a company care all that much. Or that its a skunkworks project that the brass don’t feel like it will succeed. But that may also be just my own experience only.

You’ve recently introduced a version of Pocket Informant for the iPhone / iPod Touch operating system.  How does this version compare to Pocket Informant for Windows Mobile?

It’s a complete redesign of the app from a UI and fundamental feature-set perspective that we started with our original BlackBerry version. Many major features of PI for WM are missing, but then again many new features exist. I like to think of it as a reboot of the app with today’s usage models in mind. There are a lot of features in PI for WM that are extremely interesting to a small subset of users and just clutter to the rest. Some of that is not due to the core purpose of the feature but because of how it was implemented. Linking is an example. In PI for WM linking is extremely powerful and open-ended. It also doesn’t sync to anything and most people don’t bother.

In PI for iPhone and the other platforms we plan to include linking, but with purpose so that its immediately obvious what its for and why you’d use it. That’s a small change in our direction which is to give purpose to features – not just include them.

On the topic of marketplace’s, or online software stores, you’ve had the opportunity to have software in the Windows Mobile Marketplace, the iTunes App Store and Blackberry’s App World.  Which of the three is more developer friendly and why?

Apple’s App Store is by far the most friendly – which goes against popular wisdom right now I know. Let me add – Palm and Android stores too. Both of those are near equal if not equal to Apple’s app store. BB App World is better than Marketplace in a lot of ways and my beefs are more specific to some policies they have.

WM Marketplace (Most of this is fixed in WP7 Marketplace):

• Lots of limitations with version numbers. We can’t have a 9.11. Or a 9.21. It has to be 9.1. 9.2. Etc.
• Annoying requirements with icons and bitmaps.
• Resubmit for each localization. This is one of the killers for me. Its a huge pain in the butt.
• Sales are a pittance compared to MobiHand, PocketGear, PocketLand.
• You can only submit x number of apps per $99 registration. And if you mess up on a submission failing a cert or something, you lose a slot.

BB App World:

• Not very customer oriented with upgrades and reg codes.
• Doesn’t allow apps like eWallet.

How does dealing with these type of distribution methods compare with the old giants of Handango and PocketGear?

Sometimes I miss all the fun I had working with my friends at those two places creating marketing plans, specials, and all that. On the other hand the App Stores make management of distribution dramatically easier.

On the whole I’m really happy with the App Stores.

What is your handheld of choice right now, Blackberry, iPhone, Windows Phone or something different?

iPhone for now. I just prefer its discoverability and smoothness. Its got its issues (notification system is horrid), but overall that’s my favorite. Second favorite would be the HTC Sense enabled Android phones, though I’m kind of interested in Dell’s new Android phone. We’ll see. Unfortunately for me, WP7 would be like going back to 3 years ago on the first gen iPhone that it holds no interest to me at all. In its current incarnation at RC1 its more of a feature phone than a smartphone. I know there will be some cool apps that break that opinion in some ways, but overall I think the first release of WP7 will feel like that. That’s not a knock on Microsoft because they have to start somewhere and they had to release something now. I think by the time of BB 7.0 and iPhone OS 5.0 – WP7 should have a major revision or two done and be making major strides.

Are there any sneak peaks into upcoming projects that you can share with us?

Well…we are working on Android PI and I think that’s going to be very successful. And my son is writing a space adventure game that he hopes to release under the WebIS label when he’s done. Its funny because I actively discouraged him from programming because I just wanted him to focus on the outdoors and not keeping his head in a computer all day. But even with a fairly strict 1 hour time limit on the computer a day he’s learned to program in Ruby, Java, and Python (to varying degrees), designed and written a big part of this game. I’m fairly impressed

Final question.. Is there anything else that we haven’t covered that you want to share with the readers of JAMM?

Well I’m pretty open about almost anything, but I would like to share a few tidbits. First, I got my Black Belt in Taekwondo at the end of March recently and I’m very excited about that. Secondly I am not a guru and don’t know everything there is so just like any person my opinions are just that – my opinions based on the fact I have 24 hours each and every day and a limited amount of time to research everything that comes up. And finally, feel free to ask more questions at @webis_mobile on Twitter. I’ll answer what I can and tell you I can’t answer the rest

Question of the Day:  How do you manage your PIM data?

With today’s installment of the Developer Interview Series focusing on Pocket Informant developer Alex Kac, it seems only appropriate to go all in with Question of the Day.  So… how do you manage your PIM data?  You know, the contacts, tasks, memos and appoinments that make up your life?

For me, Pocket Informant 9 plays a huge role in managing these on my Touch Pro.  Additionally, I use Phatware’s Phatpad / Phatnotes for memos and Ilium’s eWallet for secure information.  On my Today screen, SBSH’s PocketBreeze provides a dynamic and well done hub for managing and tying it all together.

This week’s developer interview finds us sitting down across the digital divide with WebIS‘ Alex Kac.  Alex is the mastermind behind the PIM application Pocket Informant.  In the interview, Alex shares some interesting thoughts on Windows Phone 7, his experiences with the various app stores of past and present, and WebIS’ plans for the future.

Be sure to join us Wednesday for this exciting interview!  In the meantime, check out the following preview:

Over the years, there has been a steady evolution of functionality introduced and refined in Pocket Informant.  How do you continue to integrate new features, deciding which ones are worth the effort and which ones will take the program a direction you don’t intend?

That’s a really hard one. I have a vision for what feels right in the product and I usually go with my gut. Sometimes I’m wrong, but a lot of times I think it ends up well. I also keep a very strong user-based community where I take feedback – and I think almost more importantly – discuss that feedback. Sometimes I don’t agree with a feature request because I can’t see how it will be used or its purpose in the overall design but then someone convinces me. Usually its not just one person but a flock of people.

The hardest part is realizing you made a mistake and then removing that feature. I try hard to never do that, but occasionally I have had to.

Today’s JAMM Store Deal of the Day is the WebIS application Note2Self for Windows Mobile (see here).  Note2Self is available today for half off the regular price, so hurry over to the JAMM Store to check it out!

What is Note2Self? (previously named VoiceMinder) Note2Self is a simple solution for those of us who keep track of their task items via email. Note2Self allows you to quickly record a voice note and have it sent as an email to your email address of choice with just two button presses: start/stop! No user interface to mess with. No complexities. Just drive/walk/whatever and press the user-configured hotkey to start recording and the hotkey again to stop – instant voice mail! How easy is it to setup Note2Self offers three ways to send your voice notes: Using your existing ActiveSync connection Using your own SMTP Server which you can import from FlexMail or enter manually Using the WebIS Note2Self Sending Service – just type in your subscription code and you’re done! Why do I need it? As wonderful as our Windows Mobile devices are, they still lack an easy way to create actionable items with the most natural method of output we have: our voice. Sure, you can record a voice memo, but what then? You have to remember to listen to it later – it requires an additional action from you, and like a lot of us, you just forget you made the recording and find it weeks later. You could open up Inbox Mobile, create an email to yourself, start the voice recorder, make your recording, then send the email…but try that while driving (actually, don’t). You could create a calendar appointment, but what if you aren’t able to view the screen on your device? The execution is simple: Note2Self is a single-button push to start, single-button push to finish, fully automated solution that allows you to record a voice memo and email it to a specific email address. Why email? For many of us, it is our to-do list. If I have an email sitting in my Inbox, I can take action on it. The key to having Note2Self unlock your productivity is to have it be incredibly streamlined and focused. It’s a one-trick pony, yes, but it’s a really useful trick. What about disconnected PDAs? Note2Self lets you save your voice notes to a local database for sending later on when you are connected via ActiveSync or Wifi. The scenario there is that when you sync with your desktop PC, Note2Self will use the ActiveSync pass-through connection to deliver the voice memos to your Inbox. The default voice memo recording level is quite space-efficient: a 23 second recording is only 183 KB and with Not2Self you can now record messages with the really tiny Ogg Vorbis encoder. What about file sizes? Note2Self gives you several encoding options to help you decide the quality of the voice message. Who won the VoiceMinder naming contest? We got over 500 submissions with about 1200 actual names submitted. About 300 of those were some variation of Note2Self but we had to pick the first submitter who is Andy Mason. Congrats! Features: SSL SMTP support SMTP Authentication SOCKS proxy support Custom Subject with timestamp Custom To/From Options ActiveSync support Import Account data from FlexMail 2007 Test your account simply WAV files recorded efficiently Ogg Vorbis support Disconnected mode saves recordings until later Smartphone and Pocket PC support Windows Mobile 5 and 2003/SE support

Minimum Requirements: Pocket PC 2003 and up Display Dimensions 240×240, 240×320, 320×240, 320×320, 480×480, 480×640, 480×800, 640×480, 800×480 Operating System Pocket PC 2003, Pocket PC 2003 SE, WM5, WM6, WM6.1, WM6.5