Newbie.. with questions

[D_K]

Whassup?

My name is Mike and I am a diehard Android person. But in the end I ordered an iPad. Now if UPS could only deliver the thing! I ordered it last Saturday along with some accessories. The accessories came Tuesday but the iPad is literally on the slow boat from China and could take another week to show up at this rate.

Anyways, I have two questions. Question one is about screen protectors. I have never used them on my smart phones but due to the price of an iPad I am considering one. Can anyone recommend one that has a nice smooth surface? I believe it was Zagg that a lot of the Android people complain about being too grippy.

Question two, I need an app suggestion. I currently keep what is best described as a work diary to augment my not so good memory. I have a planner into which I write down the main things that I accomplish on any given day as well as what time I started and what time I finally got to leave. It would be awesome if I could use the iPad for this. I just have never found a good way to do this in any electronic format. Everything out there is geared towards time tracking by project. As a Quality and Test Lead I have huge databases of information that I already keep all that logged in. I just want a simple calendar that I can write my activities down in. Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks much!

 

[SweetPoison]

Hi Mike! Welcome, from Cali!

You might want to look in our Accessories section and our App section or ~ post threads in each!

 

[D_K]

I will have to post a thread in the app section. As for the screen protector I completely forgot that I found Steinheil a year back and that they got a lot of good reviews for what I'm looking for. (did I mention that my memory has issues sometimes?)

Anyways, everyone should enjoy my adventure today. After I realized this morning that UPS suddenly kicked it into high gear, I set up UPS to send me a notification when the status of my iPad shipment changed. Well since I very stupidly sent it to my home address instead of my work address, I was expecting the delivery to fail because no one would be home to sign for it. Then I would have to go fight to get it from UPS. Well around 10 this morning I get an email saying that it had been delivered. Cue the heart attack at this point! It said that it had been received by someone named Biebel. So I call my apartment complex office and not only did they not receive it but they also informed me that there are no tenants in my complex by that name. Cue MASSIVE heart attack!! So I call UPS's automated line and that at least gave me an address. I type that into Google and it comes up with Biebel's True Value, which is a few miles down the road from me. So I call them next and they confirm that for some reason they got my package and would hold it until I got there. Thank god I finally have my iPad now!!!

 

[Tim SPRACKLEN]

I looked at several apps for this and, in the end, chose Pocket Informant HD.

I read that Pocket Informant was buggy but, in my (admittedly) limited experience, I’ve found no problems at all. It has a very nice user interface that's almost infinitely configurable - a complaint that many Forum members make about the iPad’s native ‘Calendar’ app. So you can choose how tasks, events, projects, appointments are colour coded and there is a wide choice of notifications and alarms - so, for example, you can have different alarm sounds for different categories of notifications.

Pocket Informant ‘sits on top’ of the iPad's native ‘Calendar’ app and (optionally) imports all entries that it finds there. They can be colour coded so they can be distinguished from entries made in Pocket Informant itself.

This is important because many other iPad apps use the native ‘Calendar’ app as the default place to put events, invitations etc. So, for example, if you are invited to a meeting by email and you receive that invitation in the iPad’s native ‘Mail’ app, that app can automatically (and quite cleverly) insert that invitation into the default calendar app. Without that integration between the native app and Pocket Informant, you'd have to enter those invitations all over again.

Pocket Informant has lots of ‘hidden’ features too. One of the reviewers remarked that part of the ‘fun’ of using Pocket Informant was discovering them!! The display is infinitely configurable - day, week, month, year at a time. Tasks, events, overdue tasks, projects, projects in progress etc etc all can be optionally displayed on the main calendar. Projects and tasks can have infinitely nested sub-tasks and projects - these can cleverly be integrated with GPS - so, say you needed to purchase some goods from the hardware store. Put that in a To-Do list and link it to the location of the hardware store using the iPad’s native ‘Maps’ app. Next time you’re driving past the hardware store, up pops the notification (‘Remember to purchase some 2”x4” timber’).

Repeating events are very flexible too, with the ‘custom’ mode being infinitely (I keep using that word!) configurable. So, meetings that occur on the last Thursday and first Monday of every other month - no problem.

It can sync with external calendars - Google for example - and back-up is cool, it creates a backup file that you can email to yourself for safe keeping. If you lose your iPad or all your data is corrupted, that backup can be imported back into Pocket Informant with a single click.

You can create multiple diaries within Pocket Informant - say ‘Work’, ‘Family’, ‘Golf Club’ etc and have their entries optionally displayed on the main screen or restricted to the display of the individual diary. So it’s easy to check if there’s a clash between the golf tournament and your wife's birthday - and hide it if there is......

If you surf to the developer’s web-site, you can download for free a very comprehensive User Manual that will show you in detail what Pocket Informant can do.

The developers are constantly updating the program - always a good sign in my view.

As I said at the beginning, perhaps I'm not a particularly demanding user, but I’ve had no stability problems at all. I should add the usual disclaimer that I have no contact or other relationship with the developers of Pocket Informant other than being a very satisfied customer.

Tim
Scotland

 

[Gabriel1]

Pocket Informant is a very good app, a similar app is SmartPad http://www.leftcoastlogic.com/blog/smartapps/smartpad/smartpad-2-1-guide/

I chose SP over PI mainly because I prefer the UI and the notes feature attached to each day which allows me to keep a journal at work.

The Archangel

 

[D_K]

Pocket Informant looks pretty sweet but the hypernotes in Smart Pad is exactly what I am looking for. I guess I don't need to post in the app section after all. Thanks a lot for the suggestions!!