Windows Phone Thoughts: PIMping up your Pocket PC -- Agenda Fusion vs. Pocket Informant

Contacts
Contact functions are similar in both products. I found PI’s default listing of Contacts more difficult to use, in that it didn’t provide the tri-letter tabs found in the Pocket Outlook interface. AF provides these by default, but in PI they must be specifically activated as an option.


Figure 2: Comparison screenshot of default Contacts list display in AF and PI. Click on the thumbnail for more detail.

Editing the Contact info is pretty much the same in each product. PI uses tabs to separate sections of contact info (home, business, etc.) while AF puts it all on one pages and uses horizontal separators. Of the two, I’d have to say that PI’s way is more intuitive and eliminates a lot of scrolling.


Figure 3: Comparison screenshot of Contact edit display in AF and PI. Click on the thumbnail for more detail.

Both have the ability to add an image to the Contact info page, and will pick up the same image in the Contacts database. Unfortunately, ActiveSync 3.8 will not pick the image up and transfer it to desktop Outlook 2003, even though it also has an image field. Nor will images attached to the desktop Contacts be transferred to AF or PI. Most of the other available fields are directly transferable to desktop Outlook and vice-versa.

Calendar
The Calendar or Appointments function is also handled similarly in both products, with the usual assortment of daily, weekly, monthly, annual, and agenda displays of the Calendar. The actual displays of data are pretty similar between the two products, but movement between views is different between each one and from Pocket Outlook. Outlook uses a simple hierarchy where tapping on an element at one level takes you to the display at the next lower level (e.g. going from year to month or day, month to day, week to day, day to appointment, etc.) AF uses a drop-down menu found in the top right corner of the screen to select the desired view, based on the currently selected element. PI users can either use the icons at the bottom of the screen, or context-sensitive menus which appear when you tap and hold on an display element.


Figure 4: Comparison of daily screens in AF and PI. Click on the thumbnail for more detail.


Figure 5: Comparison of weekly screens in AF and PI. Click on the thumbnail for more detail.


Figure 6: Comparison of month view screens in AF and PI. Notice that the PI screen gives you detail on what portion of each day is booked, an option also available in AF. Click on the thumbnail for more detail.


Figure 7: Comparison of annual views in AF and PI. Click on the thumbnail for more detail.

Generally, I found navigation through AF’s Calendar views easier, since they are closer to those of Pocket Outlook. I do like the way AF goes directly to the appropriate time in the daily display, based on the current time, so you can see what’s coming up next. I tried numerous times to do simple cuts and transfers/copies of appointments in PI but got frustrated each time. It just didn’t seem to do what I wanted it to.