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Pocket Informant - the leading PIM (personal information management) application for Windows Mobile for years - will be coming to the iPhone this year. WebIS, makers of Pocket Informant (PI), have just announced today in their forums that they’ll be bringing out iPhone versions of PI and Note2self, a voice recording program that 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.
If you’ve used a Windows Mobile device over the last few years, you are probably familiar with PI already - as it has been racking up awards for Best PIM application for quite a while (it won Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine’s award in that category again in 2007). It’s a very powerful and hugely feature-rich program, that has always far exceeded the capabilities of the built-in Calendar, Contacts, and Tasks programs on Windows Mobile devices.
I used PI for many years on many small-screened WinMo devices (and one lovely Dell Axim). It will be interesting to see how PI, in particular, translates across to the iPhone platform and the lovely big screen.
WebIS has not yet said whether one or both of these programs may be ready for the iPhone App Store launch in June …
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by rustyhoge, on March 7 2008 @ 9:45 am
I had a PocketPC for several years before the iPhone and an avid PocketInfomant user. The Apple PIM applications on the iPhone, as on the Mac, are rudimentary. The fact that all contacts on the iPhone are listed by last name with no other choice is pathetic.
PocketInformant on the Pocket PC is very feature-rich and busy-looking. I look forward to a beautiful and comprehensive PIM in PocketInformant for the iPhone.
by patrick, on March 7 2008 @ 12:14 pm
rustyhoge - nice to see another former PI user. I hope WebIS will make it a bit less busy (take advantage of lots more screen real estate, and find the right balance between offering some good, powerful features, but not making it too huge …
by fieldeffect, on March 7 2008 @ 4:46 pm
Another former win mobile and big PI user. It will be interesting to see what they do. While I do want all the cool PI functionality, i’m worried that they’ll try to cram too much onto the screen. PI is fine with a stylus, but can you imagine trying to use the full PI interface with a big finger? I also hope that they try to make it look a bit more iPhone like - i.e. I hope that it doesn’t end up looking like a windows mobile app running on an iPhone
by patrick, on March 7 2008 @ 5:24 pm
fieldeffect - I have very similar hopes (and worries) to yours. It needs to be a very different - much less busy and tiny! - UI for the iPhone.
by alex_kac, on April 18 2008 @ 2:10 pm
Official comment on this:
We don’t just port software from one platform to another. We don’t port UI’s. What we do is we look at the most important aspects of the app and what users want. Then we *design* that app for that platform. It may use the same name, same ideas, etc… but its not a port.
Pocket Informant for iPhone is designed 100% for the iPhone. If anything, the Windows Mobile version is going to steal from it rather than the other way around. If you look at Pocket Informant 8 you’ll find that we’ve made things more Finger touch usable, less fussy, etc.. But its still Windows Mobile and we have to fit into its UI so its always going to be that way. The iPhone version currently has a passing resemblance to the WinMobile version, just like our BlackBerry version is designed for the BlackBerry and not ported over.
Here is another example - Note2Self for iPhone. The same idea applies, but the entire UI is different for the iPhone and uses the accelerometer for some of its UI (imagine what we can do with that!).
My final comment/point is simply that we believe in designing for the platform strengths. We don’t “port”.
by spikeymikey, on April 21 2008 @ 12:02 pm
The fact that all contacts on the iPhone are listed by last name with no other choice is pathetic.
Go to settings, contacts, and you have sort order either last, first or first, last and display order either last, first or first, last. I always use first, last!