I found that you may replace the new slowish graphical view pickup pop-up dialog with text menu in settings, so I tried PI8 one more time. (To me going from a readily-available icon to a 2-step text selection process is a step back but what the heck).
This is when I ran into this new finger-oriented time selection method. This thing absolutely pisses me off. Just as you said it is extremely slow and I personally find it ugly and counter-productive. This was obviously done for the sake of better finger navigation. I couldn't find an option to turn it off.
Basically the PI8 is a paid public beta release. And it's so Smartphone-oriented with its slow finger-centric menus, I think I will use my middle finger with it and switch either to PI2007 or to Agenda Fusion. WTF, WebIS !
The Following User Says Thank You to Amamba For This Useful Post:
I found that you may replace the new slowish graphical view pickup pop-up dialog with text menu in settings, so I tried PI8 one more time. (To me going from a readily-available icon to a 2-step text selection process is a step back but what the heck).
This is when I ran into this new finger-oriented time selection method. This thing absolutely pisses me off. Just as you said it is extremely slow and I personally find it ugly and counter-productive. This was obviously done for the sake of better finger navigation. I couldn't find an option to turn it off.
Basically the PI8 is a paid public beta release. And it's so Smartphone-oriented with its slow finger-centric menus, I think I will use my middle finger with it and switch either to PI2007 or to Agenda Fusion. WTF, WebIS !
Amamba,
Thanks for the mini-review. I've been having problems getting the upgrade (which is free since I just bought PI2007) due to network problems. Good thing I read your impressions before I persisted in trying to get the upgrade. I don't want or need the aggravation. The one I got is fine. Enough of this upgrade nonsense for now. I'm a PPC (not phone) user and would rather keep it that way.
Nobody held a gun to their head demanding they don't use toolbar. They have to provide softkeys, but not as an only option. Also according to the email I received from iLium it seems MS hasn't really been pushing this requirement lately.
Also, this doesn't explain the new time selection dialog. There's a setting to use Dropdown time dialog but it doesn't seem to work. I am sure this would've popped up in a "proper" public beta.
There are some other small bugs and glitches but they are minor.
I think I'll sit this one out. From what I understand they've changed the entire front-end once again which would be fine except that I'm just getting used to the existing one. I don't think I'd be happy with it, particularly if it's slower. I'll just watch for awhile.
I should probably explain why I am so upset with it. I've been using PI since about 2002 and was so impressed with quality of their software and customer service that I upgraded to every new major release and bought two more titles from them. This turned out to be a major disappointment - the two other software titles (Money and JournalSync) were unuseable (had problems that they were unable to fix for months, finally telling me "well that works for the majority of users so sorry if you're having problems but we can't currently fix them"). No refund offered. The 2007 version had few new features (how many people use TLV ?) and was so sloooow on startup that I went from using PI 100% of time to using it maybe 20%, the rest of functionality being relegated to PocketBreeze. Now PI8 comes out and not only it doesn't offer the "great new features" that 2007 failed to deliver (in my opinion) but it slows things down quite a bit more by dumping direct-access icons in favor of multilevel text menus (tap, tap, tap...). Plus it has the new terrible time selector that plain sucks. Plus you can't easily switch from text to icons to bars in the month view anymore - now it's done via Settings. This was a feature I used often, to have a quick glance at the available time slots. And so on.
Basically, in the past couple of years I watched PI turn from a powerhouse PIM app that it was when it won me over from Agenda Fusion - fast, responsve, with great planning features and fast item entry - into a bloated, sluggish iPhone wannabe.
If it works for you then great, but I feel that I should stick with previous version until something better comes along. And I am afraid it won't be PI. Let's see what Dev1 will be able to offer.
Your reviews have been very interesting and informative, 3rd party PIMs tend to provide better value and variety than the standard PIM and it would be a shame if some 3rd party PIM developers decide to be all things to everbody. I had wanted to migrate to PI8 but I am now having second thoughts. So, Guys your continued analytical reviews are welcome. Good job.
I should probably explain why I am so upset with it ... <snip> ... Basically, in the past couple of years I watched PI turn from a powerhouse PIM app that it was when it won me over from Agenda Fusion - fast, responsve, with great planning features and fast item entry - into a bloated, sluggish iPhone wannabe ...
This is a problem that I have seen with software, in general, over the last several years. The platform (I.E. hardware) keeps getting faster and faster so the software vendors feel compelled to continue to weigh it down with more and more features. This feature-bloat is industry wide and it is getting ridiculous, IMHO.
As a software developer of 30 years I certainly have no problem adding features to a product - if said features make sense and don't get in the way. However I would much rather produce a reliable, stable, solid, excellent product with less features than to be a "jack of all trades - master of none". Looks like PI is trying to do the latter. The main problem here is that the PPC platform has not increased in performance in the same way that regular PC's have. Yeah, they have more memory - but not processor speed. PI is hitting a performance wall now. I may not ever upgrade past 2007 myself at this point. The thing already does a lot more than I use as it is anyway.
Well, for now I will stick with PI2007 / PocketBreeze combo. There's no need for me to switch, unless there's a program that offers big improvements in either speed or features or both. At least as long as my hardware doesn't change drastically.
I tried, in the beginning, keeping all info in PI but this was not working out. Now most of my project-related stuff is kept in or linked to ListPro and schedules are in PocketPlan / MS Project. Day to day PIM functions (scheduling a meeting / looking up the next step in my global task list) is very well done in PocketBreeze. So I really only need a "traditional" PIM for high level time and task planning, + to provide templating capabilities for PocketBreeze. If I didn't already own PI, I probably wouldn't buy it or any other PIM. Maintaining a global task list is just as easily done in ListPro and I can quickly export tasks to POL using a Calligrapher pen command. PB now has some useful time planning features in the month view. I would say that with PocketBreeze+POL+ListPro+PocketPlan I would be all set for any project management / time management / GTD stuff. PI2007 is still more convenient for some types of planning, but that was taken away in PI8. PIM is really about convenience and speed of doing things and these, unfortunately, tend to diminish with every new release (of course the owners of smartphones may say differently).
Personally, I am quite pleased with what I see in PI8 so far, and have been happy with the upgrade. I have added appointments, contacts and tasks and have not found any major problems with functionality. I need my Tilt to run fast and smooth, so that my office productivity doesn't suffer, and so far, I don't see a problem with slowness as others have reported. Remember that with the complexity of this program, there will be a need to adjust and fine tune PI8. Which, I am sure, Alex intends on doing within the first couple of weeks.
Let us be constructive and not destructive!
Alex is accumulating feedback, so I suggest that anyone who is unhappy with PI8, feels that the program does not function properly, wants to ad to their wishlist, place a post in the WebIS Forums so that these issues can be resolved!
I think Pocket Informant will remain the premier PIM application in 2008!
I fully agree with drb123. I really don't know about Amamba's experience but mine was the reverse. I use PI for as many years as you. Also, I've just upgraded to PI 8. All I can say is that I am happy with the changes made. It does help me alot.
Also, I don't really feel that there is any delay. As for me, I'm happy.
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