Comments on: iambic Releases Agendus 7.0

iambic today unveiled version 7.0 of their popular contact, schedule and communication management software, Agendus for Palm OS. New features include a expanded month view, quick sort and multiple icon sets.
Return to Story - Permalink

Article Comments

 (29 comments)

The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. PalmInfocenter is not responsible for them in any way.
Please Login or register here to add your comments.

Comments Closed Comments Closed
This article is no longer accepting new comments.

Down

Pretty slick

s_teve @ 12/9/2003 12:40:38 PM #
What a way to brighten up your palm handheld.
Well done! Iambic, colour programs are just what we need for our palms

Wait a few months for the bugs to be worked out...

jake95825 @ 12/9/2003 12:43:53 PM #
Hmmm, I guess that means it will be in beta mode for seven or eight months before this version will be bug free. Didnt 6.0 just finally have a stable version? I'm tired of paying to be a beta tester :(

I do like action names/agendus, just not the hoops and upgrades we must pay to have a stable version. The product is very good, but not until the bugs have been worked out.

RE: Wait a few months for the bugs to be worked out...
karlhw @ 12/9/2003 4:45:25 PM #
You are absolutely right! I w a s a user of Agendus since ActionNames 1.0 on the Newton. After all the trouble with 6.0, being Beta Tester for 6 month a f t e r the final release, I decided to delete the program and move over to Datebk 5.0.

I think it is rediculous, that they come out with a 7.0 and charge again for an update! They should have provided this update for free, as 6.xx never worked like it should work.

Will be interested to see whether Iambic is still on the market in a couple of years. I used TimeReporter too, same story, I deleted that program too

Karl

RE: Wait a few months for the bugs to be worked out...
Zippy @ 12/9/2003 5:30:09 PM #
I'm too scared to try any of their programs. Downright spooky. It takes them years to get rid of all the deadly bugs that reside in some of their programs. My last attempt to use Agendus has scared me away forever.

RE: Wait a few months for the bugs to be worked out...
VisorMiser @ 12/9/2003 10:36:19 PM #
No more Agendus (or Iambic for that matter) for this kid. Version 7 in truth sounds like it should be Version 6.1, I'm past test driving their stuff to see if it's finally ready for prime time. Full version increments should be more substantial, not a shrouded excuse to bilk users for an upgrade fee, though thousands will disagree with me and probably go for it.

In fairness, DateBk is overdue for a major release, but they've been improving thier produce with much less fanfare (translation: less hype).

the VisorMiser
_____________________________________________________________________
The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter. -- Sir Winston Churchill

RE: Wait a few months for the bugs to be worked out...
karlhw @ 12/10/2003 4:52:01 AM #
"Wait a few months"? May be "wair for ever!" would be more precice.
Since the release there are already 48 threads on their discussion forum reporting bugs in 7.0. A lot of them are like "still same bug as in beta!"

NO MORE IAMBIC FOR ME!!!!!

RE: Wait a few months for the bugs to be worked out...
thor @ 12/10/2003 9:17:10 AM #
Thanks for the advice....should have heeded it. I upgraded and have spent a full evening reloading all my apps etc twice! I still can't turn off my 515 and then turn it on without getting a fatal error. It's not like I have any hacks or anything...just a pretty vanilla user. Alas.....
RE: Wait a few months for the bugs to be worked out...
RedBrown @ 12/10/2003 5:06:55 PM #
I'd been using Agendus 5 on my m515 and I really like it but I won't use it anymore ever. Iambic has decided not to offer free upgrade to Agendus 6 owner to support TT3's screen and that is one reason I uninstalled Agendus 5 from m515 (I own TT3).

Another reason is that the email app in Agendus Pro 7 doesn't even support TT3's large screen. Iambic said that they are working on it for the NEXT MAJOR UPGRADE. That means those who purchased Agendus Pro 7 probably have to pay another $20 or so to get the Agendus email's newer version!

I actually tried to post the complain about this email upgrade thing but it never shows up on their discussion forum. It is more likely that they erase my post that is negative toward their company. This is yet another reason why I dumped Agendus. And I remember what they did to the domain thing from the last year too.

I bought Datebk5 for my TT3 and it works great and I love it not only because of the app itself but it's customer support. I won't buy any apps from Iambic.

Still no multi-timezone support

snugglefart @ 12/9/2003 3:12:13 PM #
this company's ethical behavior put aside, they have still to take multi timezones into consideration. Pimlico's DateBK5 has this and for those of us who have meetings in 2-4 timezones during a given week can handle this stuff with Pimlico's software.

Iambic slicks up their app, but adds no real new functionality



No Dough

otter @ 12/9/2003 6:59:56 PM #
I can never make it out of a trial period before I delete Iambic's betaware in disgust. Thankfully, I've never given them a dime of my money.

iambic boycott

sremick @ 12/10/2003 12:22:08 AM #
Sorry, but after the domain-name fiasco/stunt they pulled, I swore to never even consider one of their products again. I will continue to stand by that. If a company lacks morals then I will vote with my dollars and support a better company.

I don't run Microsoft software either...

RE: iambic boycott
SQLDba @ 12/10/2003 1:20:05 PM #
Refresh my memory. What domain name scam? What exactly did they do to warrant your boycott?

thx

RE: iambic boycott
PR @ 12/10/2003 5:41:20 PM #
RE: iambic boycott
24fc @ 12/12/2003 8:03:29 PM #
I read the entire article on the domain name hijacking they pulled. I think that's pretty despicable. There are all sorts of ugly people in the world who think they can do whatever they want and get away with it. They are probably lucky that Pimlico is basically a single guy in a shack in North Georgia without the resources to destroy them in court for abusing his name.

Iambic's problem seems to be that they work on so many different products. When they did nothing but Action Names, they were great. Now they are bigger and do products for all sorts of crap that nobody wants, and have lost their focus.

Frankly, considering the bugs and the problems they have with slow response to bug reports, imo, they just can't code worth a damn. Some little program like that would have been out the door of a professional shop in about two weeks.


On the Other Hand

flevy @ 12/10/2003 9:01:51 AM #
I downloaded V 7.0 yesterday for my T3. I needed a little help to get the files to support landscape view (the technical help came quickly) but other than that, the software works very well. So did V 6.0 (at least for me) and so did Action Names for several years on my M500.

me too
nrosser @ 12/10/2003 9:39:58 AM #
just to add some balance to this thread, my upgrade to 7 has gone without a blink, just like always, and V7 runs just fine on my Treo600. No issues or flames emenating from me (last time I checked).

RE: On the Other Hand
CleverClaire @ 12/10/2003 12:16:04 PM #
I agree completely. It is funny how some people get a bug in their butt about something and never let it go.

ActionNames/Agendus has been the best application I have ever run on a Palm. Stable, reliable, functional and benifical.

If you don't want that set of features, don't use it. But quite whining.

Agendus is excellent.

RE: On the Other Hand
SQLDba @ 12/10/2003 1:20:55 PM #
On hi-res palms - I do find this to be very good software. However, on the Treo600 - I have been most comfortable w/ the built in apps. Not because they have great functionality - but simply because the screens are clean and simple - and when I am driving the car etc. I don't have to fumble around to get the information I need. On a 160x160 - AN just seems cramped and very busy.

Just my .02

RE: On the Other Hand
karlhw @ 12/10/2003 6:12:15 PM #
Well, good for iambic, that there are still some people that don't find the product buggy. However, strange, that all of you don't see the bugs other do report on?!
I think best for everyone is just go to the iambic webpage and look at their own discussion forums.

http://support.iambic.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?s=3d6f3fce3be28c63ff718750f992afa4&forumid=25&PHPSESSID=019c7b8a5a214673fa28ae3e088ee542

There you can read about a lot of bugs. And be asured, it's a moderated forum, meaning they can remove all threads that are to worse for them.

Also this forum reflects only the last couple of weeks. I can tell you after 6.0 there were hundreds of threads. And VisorMisor wrote, 7.0 really should be 6.1, but that wouldn't give them the opportunity to charge an upgrade fee.



RE: On the Other Hand
Palmary @ 12/10/2003 10:38:11 PM #
For what it's worth, I've just installed v7 on my T3 today and it works fine.

I have checked out the bugs link (above), but found most of the 'bugs' were actually gripes about the way features worked rather than actual failures: rather like reading PIC comments actually :-) I thought the administrator's answers to these complaints were for the most part very reasonable.

I'm no expert, and I'm sure there must be some problems, but all I can say is my experience with Agendus is positive and I have yet to find anything that interferes with the way I use Agendus day-to-day.

Vx->m500->m505->m515->TT->T2->T3/TC

RE: On the Other Hand
Ce @ 12/11/2003 12:04:33 PM #
I think that the big alarm bug (not sounding on a T3..confirmed by iambic) and the constant need to resize the splitscreen on a T3 (only 2 examples) are not "gripes about the way features worked". This product had to be released because of the christmas sales....and iambic wasn't realy interested in waiting some more weeks and ironing out most bugs. In their forum they even sound quit arrogant by stating:


"..V7 is finished. The thing is that there are so many different devices and behaviours, along with a myriad of feature ideas and requests, that we could have worked on it for another 6 months without ever releasing it.

So we decided to release it and give all users the opportunity to appreciate its features, improvements and support for latest hardware.."

Asking a full price for a product that doesn't support the Palm T3 in some important areas........

I am so disappointed...

jdh @ 12/11/2003 7:34:25 AM #
Agendus has so much potential to be a [I]fantastic[/I] product. It's really the first PIM replacement that supports many of the T3's new features, ranging from the additional screen space to the built-in PIM apps. It's powerful, it's relatively user-friendly, and it's as buggy as hell.

Leaving aside the ethical issues of the past (we do have to move past that sooner or later), what really distresses me is that I participated in their open beta program and I'm left with the feeling that the product was rushed out the door before there was time to really address many of the testers concerns or bugs...

I've been on many beta teams for products ranging from shareware to full-blown enterprise-scale commercial applications. I have never seen a beta cycle rushed through so quickly in my life. I've seen minor Service Packs in beta for longer than Agendus was!

In almost every case, I expect that a stable beta version is produced and given to testers to confirm that everything works before the final release (which usually ends up being just a version-number change, and perhaps a few really minor cosmetic bugs). There were maybe three beta builds in a two-week period, and the last beta build (360) was still full of bugs, some of which were quite serious. Four days after the last beta build was sent out, I wake up one morning to discover that they've taken the next build and [I]released[/I] it, without even giving it a QA cycle (beyond what the developers may have tested themselves).

There is no doubt in my mind that the "released" 7.0 product is basically still a beta.

I am not angry so much as I am disappointed. I cannot continue to risk using Agendus knowing that there may still be lurking issues there that won't be addressed until some future "maintenance" release. Therefore, I have now gone back to the built-in apps on my T3, which although they may not be as flashy and functional, they are at least stable and usable.



RE: I am so disappointed...
karlberlin @ 12/11/2003 9:10:59 AM #
I fully agree with your point of view. I had the same bad experience with 6.0. I was beta tester back then. Same storry, lot of bugs but suddenly it was released (including the bugs) Then they released some updates, still with lot of bugs and I decided to move away from them. Now I am using Datebk5. You are true Agendus is a very nice program, but I hate the policy of rushing out a buggy update, charge people for it and then after a while rushing out the next (beta) update, charging people again. And all they get is just a release where some of the old problems are solved (what they actually already paid for) and some new more or less useless features with tons of new bugs.

For me it looks like they are in a big need of money. And to get this they "produce" new upgrades and new upgrades and new upgrades. (Agendus 6.0 in January, 6.1. in June (same time splitting up in "Standard" and "pro" version), 7.0 in ) Without being interested in solving problems. Let's wait and see how long they will be in the market.

Karl

T3 owners beware!

plazman30 @ 12/11/2003 10:04:48 PM #
I was rather sceptical that Agendus could support all the new fields in the T3, since PalmOne has not documented the APIs to them yet.

So I sent them this e-mail:

Does Agendus use ALL the extra fields on the Tungsten T3, including the
Location field in the calendar, the repeating todos in the the task
database and the birthday and multiple address fields in the contact
database? The web site only mentions the birthday field.

Here's the reply I got from them...

From: iambic Customer Service <customerservice@iambic.com>
Subject: RE: [Other / unlisted] - [Looking for some more info on Agendus 7]
Date: December 11, 2003 8:38:55 PM EST
To: blocked out to stop spammers

No, only the b day fields

Best regards,
Lee
Technical Support
iambic Software
http://support.iambic.com
*If you respond to this email, please attach all previous messages and
files relating to this issue.

-----Original Message-----
From: blocked to stop spammers
Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2003 9:12 AM
To: iambic Sales
Subject: [Other / unlisted] - [Looking for some more info on Agendus 7]

Does Agendus use ALL the extra fields on the Tungsten T3, including the
Location field in the calendar, the repeating todos in the the task
database and the birthday and multiple address fields in the contact
database? The web site only mentions the birthday field.

RE: T3 owners beware!
jdh @ 12/13/2003 9:20:44 AM #
To be fair to Agendus, they DO support the multiple phone numbers (up to 7), multiple address (up to 3), and multiple Custom (up to 9) fields. It's unfortunate that they are currently the only third-party PIM that does this right now.

Basically, everything in the Contacts side of things is fully supported.

The Location field in the calendar is not supported, and they still use their own proprietary method for supporting repeating Tasks.


I need it

gijsraggers @ 12/12/2003 2:19:21 PM #
After using agendus since the newton version I tried living without it because the T3 wasn't supported yet. I was glad 7 came out. Can't live without it. The 9,95 is no issue if you depend on it. The T3 will last for 18 months and costs €400.

Iambic Agendus

24fc @ 12/12/2003 3:31:11 PM #
I used to own a Palm Vx and used Action Names Datebook on it for a year. I loved that program.

I recently tried Agendus 7 on my T3. Here are my gripes about it (not necessarily bugs, but reasons I will not purchase this product).

1. T3's location field is not supported. When I am in my car, late for a meeting, I need to see the location field so I know where to call. Click on a meeting in agendus and you get an ugly, usless time bar, but you can't see what number to dial into. What good is a PIM if you can't find your meeting locations? I work in a large company, so we have hundreds of lines and conference rooms, and I need that field visible.

I have to laugh that Palm themselves screwed up their own calendar application by making that field disappear when you click on a meeting. What an idiotic problem to have. But Agendus will not display it at all.

2. I used to love the function in Action Names when I completed a todo and it could be logged to the Daily Journal. I use the Franklin-Covey method, and I hate manually writing my journal. In Agendus, the logging is only done to a contact? Why would I need that? When I need to see when I completed some action, I don't need someone's name and address. I need my history file and the date I did it.

3. I just read the story about Iambic's unethical hijacking of Pimlico's name for their URL. That makes them scum, imo.

4. Their forum responses are pretty lame. If you write to Pimlico, you get straight answers. If you write to Iambic, "MonsterCrash" may or may not respond to you, and if they do, it usually is to say "Thanks for the feedback. We will implement this next time." Next time?

I paid for Action Names Datebook - twice. I don't feel I should have to pay for a product that basically looks exactly like it did in 2001.

I'm done with Iambic. They can go to Hell.



What I Would Really Like

Wollombi @ 12/13/2003 4:20:16 AM #
I'm quite happy using DateBk5 on my T3. I was a long time user of Action Names (now Agendus) until they flat refused to support the Handera 330, which was my chosen PDA. I switched to DB5 and hardly looked back.

One thing I HAVE always missed, however, is AN/Agendus' wonderful Contacts interface, which IMO has no equal. I love the tabs, the different sorting abilities, and the call logging capabilities. I took a look at the beta of 7.0 just ot see what it could do. I was pleased to see that it supports the new fields for contacts, something no one else has seemed to do yet. I would love to see this Contacts part of Agendus as a stand-alone app. While I still have much disdain for Iambic, I can see myself coughing up $10.00 or so for this little feature, which seems to be the part of Agendus with few if any bugs.

Give me the stand-alone app over the whole of Agendus anyday, and maybe you could even call it Action Names again.

_________________
Sean

Always remember that you are unique. Just like everyone else.

RE: What I Would Really Like
jdh @ 12/13/2003 9:27:55 AM #
You may want to check out Contacts5 as an address-book/contacts replacement app. It does most of what Agendus can do except for the extra field support, which the developer says he'd be happy to include once PalmOne actually releases the database structures.


Top

Account

Register Register | Login Log in
user:
pass: