iPod touch iPod Touch as a time management tool / scheduler

[YS2003]

Do you use your iPod Touch to keep track of appointments, maintain business contact data, and etc? I use Palm T/X now as a business productivity tool. Palm's screen tends to wear out about a year's use (even with a screen protector film) and I am interested in hearing how practical the iPod Touch would be as a work productivity tool.

 

[Padraic]

I do... I started with an Apple Newton about 15 years ago, but the writing interpretation and text input was too slow for my tastes. I moved to a Sony Clie (Used Palm Software) but couldn't stand it. I used pen and paper for a couple years but got tired of keeping up with all the little stickies and scraps of paper... I guess I wasn't disciplined enough... Anyway, the iPod Touch works perfectly for my needs...

 

[Cinematographer]

The iPod touch works perfectly for that. I use it every day and love it.

 

[Sesshi]

I guess it depends on the level of your needs. I need a full-blown organiser, so run Outlook on a Sony UX as the 'handportable edition'. The Touch doesn't work for me at all, although the iPhone's mobile integration had some potentially interesting uses, until I inevitably came up against the lack of depth of almost anything on the Apple platform - desktop or mobile.

As a result I mix and match some of the handier ad hoc tools on the iPhone, while keeping Outlook as my main PIM.

 

[J the Ninja]

It's great for keeping your iCal with you in your pocket, and since it syncs back to iCal, it means your pocket calendar and computer calendar are one and the same. Plus there's the iCal dashboard widget.

All that is enough for me (juggling college and a part-time job).

 

[statik13]

It really depends what your needs are. What do you currently use your Palm for?

I bought an iPod touch with the idea of replacing my aging Tapwave Zodiac (Palm OS) with. In general I've been ecstatic with the media aspect of it and not so happy with the PDA aspect.

Compared to your Palm, the iPod does an amazing job with web browsing, email, media of all types, games and anything wifi based. Really, it just blows Palm out of the water in all those cases!

Now for the complaints. The datebook is awkward to do any entry in, the audible alarms are too annoying to leave on and there are no silent (vibrate) alarms. The phone book is "just ok". It is quite difficult to put data in, and you can't search. The Notepad is useless for anything other than quick one liner notes to yourself as there is no syncing to the desktop, no cut & paste and no categories. As for to-do? There is no todo app, but lots of 3rd party ones you can use.

Biggest thing I miss though is Palm's system wide search. Nothing like it exists for the iPod touch. I use my Palm to keep work notes on so that I can do a quick search for a keyword while on the road. No such feature on the iPod Touch. You can search for music, but not for events, contacts, notes, to-dos or anything else useful for a PDA

 

[YS2003]

It really depends what your needs are. What do you currently use your Palm for?

I use it to look at my appointments, make appointments (with an alarm sometimes), maintain the contact info (including some vital key info on those contacts).

I have Daylite (have not really used it yet) and think I need to get a MBA as a portable time management tool (along with other uses, of course).

But, I am interested in moving away from Palm (its screen just goes bad after a year; my Palm LifeDrive and T/X were plagued with screen issues even with the screen protector screens; I write in appointments and contact info a lot with a stylus) to the iPod Touch. I think the iPod Touch is more durable than the Palm.

 

[larock]

I've used Palm PDAs since '95 and the iPod Touch has replaced my most recent Palm device (Centro) very well. With a few new options and apps, the Touch it has effectively replaced everthing I needed the Centro for (schedule, contacts, check register, todo and note). It syncs with my gmail, gmail contacts, gmail tasks, google calendar and google notes. Plus it has all my media, some fun games and I'm not paying for the data plan I was before.

There are a few minor down sides, I miss being able to beam between Palms, I liked having the optional keyboard for heavier typing, I can't save programs or music from the web browser and NO COPY AND PASTE FUNCTION.

But over all it has worked great for me and I am happy with it.

I took out my TX a few days ago and couldn't beleave how big it felt after using the Touch for the last couple months.

 

[IronWaffle]

I've never had a PDA, so I can't say how it compares, but I've started using a few apps which make it more useful as such.

For notes I use "MagicPad" which, while not as pretty as Notes, features copy/paste. Like Notes, it has an e-mail feature, so I can e-mail them to myself and save the documents on my computer. It's a couple extra nuisance steps, but works for me... for now. Aside from that, the only annoyance is that since you can't disable Notes (no jailbreaker am I) I have a vestigial icon taking up valuable space. (Two other programs I have but haven't used much are "Documents" [which I downloaded when it was temporarily free] -- it can handle Word & Excel documents; and "Google something-or-other that if I recall can save and open documents at docs.google.com, which I occasionally have used but have not tested with the iPod).

For contacts & calendar I sync using Google's mobile/exchange option (m.google.com, I think). It means I had to dedicate the sole Exchange account to Google, which is kind of a waste, but now I can manage accounts through either Google (or Outlook then export to Google) and have easy access through the iPod Touch. It's nice that it easily syncs to Google and that I don't have to worry about losing data if the device craps out or worse. I've thought of using Outlook, but that's not able to sync via WiFi simply like Google.

I really hope that they add copy/paste eventually or that Google (evil ubercorp it may possibly be) will add that and notes functionality to its Exchange app.

 

[Brewerpaul]

I use the free SaiSuke instead of the built in calenda-- it's easier to see appointments. I liked the Palm calendar a bit better, but in most other respects the iTouch is 'way more fun.
I have ToDo Lite for my tasks. Too bad it doesn't integrate with the calendar. Not too bad though, as long as you get in the habit of checking it every day. First thing when I power on, I look at my calendar and ToDo.

 

[YS2003]

So, it seems the iPod Touch can replace the Palm T/X. If you are using a Palm with a stylus, do you write faster on the Palm than typing on the iPod Touch?

 

[4DThinker]

In general I've been ecstatic with the media aspect of it and not so happy with the PDA aspect. Now for the complaints:

The datebook is awkward to do any entry in, the audible alarms are too annoying to leave on and there are no silent (vibrate) alarms. It is quite difficult to put data in the phone book, and you can't search. The Notepad is useless for anything other than quick one liner notes to yourself as there is no syncing to the desktop, no cut & paste and no categories. As for to-do? There is no todo app, but lots of 3rd party ones you can use.

Biggest thing I miss though is Palm's system wide search. Nothing like it exists for the iPod touch. I use my Palm to keep work notes on so that I can do a quick search for a keyword while on the road. No such feature on the iPod Touch. You can search for music, but not for events, contacts, notes, to-dos or anything else useful for a PDA

You'll be happy to know that the 3.0 update brings both cut & paste and system-wide search to the Touch. Bluetooth is also being upgraded to have the potential for bluetooth transfer of contacts and more. It's actually going to be a better PDA after this summer.

 

[TraceyS/FL]

For me right now, the hardest thing is the reliance "online" to get info moved around. I don't like the thought of having to have a wi-fi connection to do some things that i'm used to doing without it. In fact, i just dropped data on my Treo (and for a better palm - i'd buy a Treo and just not use the phone part).

I am using a Journaling app - it creates entries, those then show up on my Calendar (DateBk), then sync to my iCal. It's easy, didn't involve any hoops - it just did it.

I'm not in a position to buy a iPT right now, so i'm still watching and pondering if it's going to work for me.

And, Splash Shopper for the iPT isn't as robust as i'd like, i'm a die hard Handyshopper user and need it to be full featured.

Since for now, my phone is my Palm i'm not juggling multiple devices. I'm not sure i can go back to doing that either - and AT&T is currently NOT an option so no iPhone.

But i love reading how everyone makes the transition - so if you do it, please come back and post an update on how it is going

 

[YS2003]

I typically organize my contacts based on the company names. Is there a way to use the company names to look up the contacts? So far, Apple only gives me to sort out the contacts based on a person's first name or last name, not a company name.

The lack of this feature is the sole reason I cannot replace my Palm T/X. With the Palm, I can organize and look up the list based on the company names.

 

[saberahul]

Anyone know of a great Free application for organizing and scheduling your daily schedule... the to-do apps are too basic and do not provide much. Recs would be great.

 

[YS2003]

Anyone know of a great Free application for organizing and scheduling your daily schedule... the to-do apps are too basic and do not provide much. Recs would be great.

I am on the prowl to find the easy-to-use contact management / calendar scheduling. The critical things I found lacking in Address Books and iCal are:
1. The iPod Touch does not let me view a weekly calendar (only daily or monthly).
2. Its inability to use the company names as the header of the contacts.

 

[statik13]

The 3.0 update can't come fast enough! I'm on the verge of going back to my old Palm Pilot for all my PDA needs

The latest gripe is that trying to set up a repeat appointment on the iPod Touch. Is there any way to get it to set something for the 1st Sunday of each month?

 

[DHarrisDBS34]

I use the Calendar app. It's pretty nice. It even beeps when it's time for me to go to class

 

[jhsfosho]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/7A259g Safari/525.20)

For me, syncing my iPod with iTunes is a lot easier than syncing contacts and calendar with my palm centro phone. If I was on AT&T the iPhone would be a no brained for me. I'm hoping that the palm pre will be what I'm looking for. Synergy syncing and a real keyboard.

 

[waxprincess]

I have a Palm T/X and I love it. I want to condense all my devices too, but I just can't do it yet. I haven't found an app that is like my appointment book on my Palm. I'm excited about the new Palm Pre but it is only coming out on the Sprint network (I'm Verizon). No one knows when it's coming out, that kind of irks me.

I work in a salon and make and change appointments all day long. I want my Touch to have all the perks that my Palm T/X has...
- 1 tap and you can make an appointment. It's just like writing it on paper, you don't have to go thru this and that just to write someone down.
- I can change the colors of my appointment blocks so I can tell right away if I'm doing nails or waxing or eyelash extensions.
- Reoccuring appoinments are easy to make and change.
- I love the daily and weekly views. All in different colors for what I'm doing.

As soon as my Touch can do all these as good or better than my T/X, I'll switch. But you'd better believe if the Pre is faster that's where I'm headed.