[stxmassive_2000]

The palm pre's calendar sucks and is essentially useless. I don't know if I'm the only one out there but I miss the Treo's Calendar Functionality. I thought Palm would've recognize the blatent mistake and correct it in this 1.2.1 release, but they didn't.

What ever happen to the everso fabulous Palm Treo Calendar features? How or why would Palm take such a big step back to what we have now for a calendar on the Pre. I mean, this calendar is almost completely useless, especially in month view.

It seems as if Pre developers spent all their time on "synergy" and made the darn calendar useless. Synergy is useless when you take out the basic, but ESSENTIAL, ability to color code and categorize your events in the calendar. I am so disappointed that i'm even contemplating going back to the treo where I could in all PRATICALITY creat categories, sort by categories, color code for quick monthly glancing. I mean this is so basic, so simple, SO IMPORTANT, and yet neglected. Come one Palm what were you thinking?

Can someon PLEASE write a tweak for this so I can have a useful and praticle tool of a calendar again.

to Palm: Let's not try to get so I-Phoney that we forget what made Palm's smart phone the choice of smart people--organization & practicallity, usefulness, A professional TOOL (not a cool toy gadget thingy).

-Frustrated in GA

[Reeves]

Countdown to someone slagging OP because "he didn't do his research and realize how weak the Pre calendar was before he bought it" begins in 5...4...3.....

[cnote1287]

coming from a basic "dumb phone" the calendar is a step up for me. true its not IDEAL but i wouldnt go ahead and call it useless.....people are way to picky i think. i personally have no major issue with it. true it lags from page to page, but for over a month and a half ive synced 3 google accounts....added, deleted, edited things and its working fine for me.

[Trodecke]

Hmm, I guess I just wasn't ever a power user when it came to the calendar before. With my Treos, BBs, and now with my Pre the calendar does what I want it to. In fact, the Pre does it better as I can see both my work calendar (for business meetings) and my Google calendar (for personal info, gigs, etc) in one place. I'm not being an apologist and I'm not saying the OP doesn't have a valid concern, I'm just saying that personally I'm happy with the calendar the way it works now.

[hparsons]

Sorry, but the people that post this stuff are seriously misinformed. The original Treo didn't have color coded calendars. As a matter of fact, it didn't have a color screen. The first few iterations of the calendar were seriously lacking, so much so that people paid relative large amounts for third party enhancements (sorry, no $1.99 apps there, DateBK, I believe, was $29). Palm eventually bought a lite version for the Treo 600, but even then, folks paid good money for the upgraded version(s) and add-ons.

The original app was bult for a device that used a stylus. It won't work well on the Pre's format. The current app has a long ways to go, but I think it's a good foundation. I think it's a better foundation than the original PalmOS PIM app. Plus, I don't think it will take near the same time to mature.

[hparsons]

Countdown to someone slagging OP because "he didn't do his research and realize how weak the Pre calendar was before he bought it" begins in 5...4...3.....

Well, three posts in a row, and you missed on all three.

[tamvegas]

I agree with the OP that not being able to create categories is a pain. I have 4 accounts synced and numerous categories on Outlook. Would love to have the same categories imported into the Pre. Agenda is a great program that helps things a lot, but still miss categories. The Treo 650 and 700p imported and created categories easily.

Please don't get me wrong, I love my Pre and am so proud of this community for all the work and help that is given. And am also so happy that this marvelous device is beginning to get the recognition it deserves!
4 months old and already gaining fast on the rest of the Smartphone pack!

[acekilla]

I would slap him in the face in 3, 2 1 (back hand slap)

the calendar works well for me, not wonderful or anything high but works well. Are you surprised by what the calendar features are and how limited it is? Research!!! you do that and you won't make a whinning thread or get back hand slap. Seriously if hparsons is correct on his story of how the treo calendar became good after third party help, the the treo story will eveolve to the pre story. In time it will

[sivan]

Still, it's weird how Exchange bugs get resolved quickly over a weekend, but the calendar is somehow not a problem. I guess the former has potential for generating bad press.

[johnpane]

As a very basic calendar, the Pre is almost adequate for viewing appointments. Its real downfall is creating appointments, particularly because it does not take advantage of the keyboard at all. Palm needs to put some development resources into fixing this. I'll bet a tiny bit of attention would make a huge difference here.

As an example, suppose I am at the dentist office and want to schedule my next appointment 6 months in the future. It takes so long to try to do this with the Pre that I have given up and resorted to taking an appointment card on paper and waiting till I'm back at my computer to enter it. If something isn't proof that the Pre calendar is a failure, this is it. I remember being able to do this on PalmOS with Datebk6 in a few seconds with a few keystrokes.

Palm, please make this a priority!

[DeathsArrow]

There's already a HUGE thread on this topic. Do we really need another calendar complaint thread?


And yes the old PalmOS calendar was better?

[Reeves]

Well, three posts in a row, and you missed on all three.

Actually, the point of my post was to pre-empt such empty defenses, so it did exactly what I wanted it to.

Too often, kneejerk responses - either Pro or against the Pre - dominate repetitive topics such as this one. Kinda like your irrelevant historical context of the original Treo calendar development, when the OP was clearly referring to the current state of out-of-the-box Treo functionality.

WebOS being a new OS doesn't give an across-the-board excuse for barebones, unfinished apps shipping with the device. The calendar is one of those apps, and it may improve. But we're talking here and now.

[treo2die4]

I'd bet Palm developed pretty much the calendar app they decided to. My guess is they are counting on 3rd party developers to jump in so they can spend development time elsewhere.

[ronlongo]

I'm very confused. The Calendar app has it's problems but categorizing and color coding are quite possible on the Pre. I have 7 categories setup each with a different colors.

My facebook calendar is set to blue (since that's facebook's color). This is my category for facebook events (obviously)

My palm profile calendar is set to orange (since that's Palm's color). I don't really use this calendar.

I have two google calendars configured for my business category (both green, as in money). One is for holidays, the other for business events.

A google calendar for personal events (purple).

A google calendar for christian holidays (yellow).

A google calendar for phases of the moon -- just for fun (pink).

[Mikey47]

As an example, suppose I am at the dentist office and want to schedule my next appointment 6 months in the future. It takes so long to try to do this with the Pre that I have given up and resorted to taking an appointment card on paper and waiting till I'm back at my computer to enter it. If something isn't proof that the Pre calendar is a failure, this is it. I remember being able to do this on PalmOS with Datebk6 in a few seconds with a few keystrokes.

I guess maybe I am confused about this, are you just complaining that there is no "new event" button to create a new event?

I see three easy ways to do this:

1. Open Calendar, swipe the main menu, select New -> Event and then enter the information.
2. Just click on an open spot on the calendar, type "Dentist Appt." then click the "i" icon and change the date from today to the date six months from now.
3. Open calendar, go to month view, swipe ahead to March, tap on the date, then the time of the appt and enter the information.

I don't see how this could be done with any fewer keystrokes back on PalmOS. Granted, I have not used Palm OS since WAY back when Palm's first came out, but what is it that I am missing that make entering an appt. six months from now so difficult?

[hparsons]

As a very basic calendar, the Pre is almost adequate for viewing appointments. Its real downfall is creating appointments, particularly because it does not take advantage of the keyboard at all. Palm needs to put some development resources into fixing this. I'll bet a tiny bit of attention would make a huge difference here.

As an example, suppose I am at the dentist office and want to schedule my next appointment 6 months in the future. It takes so long to try to do this with the Pre that I have given up and resorted to taking an appointment card on paper and waiting till I'm back at my computer to enter it. If something isn't proof that the Pre calendar is a failure, this is it. I remember being able to do this on PalmOS with Datebk6 in a few seconds with a few keystrokes.

Palm, please make this a priority!

Check out the HomeBrew app, Quick Event.

In the scenario you just described, the process would be to type:
Dentist appt 1130-1p 7/10 @ 111 Main St

All done from the keyboard with a few strokes. Granted, this isn't the end-all be-all to what we wall hope for someday (for instance, for me I want something that will check for conflicts); but it's a step in the right direction. In your case, it would eliminate the need to use an appointment card.

This is the nature of product evolution, and is what I was talking about in my previous post.

[hparsons]

Actually, the point of my post was to pre-empt such empty defenses, so it did exactly what I wanted it to.
...

I think you're giving yourself too much credit. I don't read all of the posts, then start responding, I respond as I read them. In other words, I responded as I did before reading your "pre-emptive defense".

[Reeves]

I think you're giving yourself too much credit. I don't read all of the posts, then start responding, I respond as I read them. In other words, I responded as I did before reading your "pre-emptive defense".

Because I was targeting you specifically! Sheesh. Get over yourself, buddy.

[hparsons]

...
Kinda like your irrelevant historical context of the original Treo calendar development, when the OP was clearly referring to the current state of out-of-the-box Treo functionality.

WebOS being a new OS doesn't give an across-the-board excuse for barebones, unfinished apps shipping with the device. The calendar is one of those apps, and it may improve. But we're talking here and now.

Guess everything is a matter of opinion. It's clear the OP thought the Treo's calendar program was great, and it's also clear that he somehow thought that it was always that way, and that Palm decided to abandon a working product. None of those things are true.

The OP posting is likely not going to cause Palm to suddenly give him DateBK, or even a lite version; however, explaining the history of the calendar program on the Treo might give him (or others) some insight and hope of things to come, and help him (or others) realize that what we have now is not what we will always have.

You say irrelevant, I say tomato.

[hparsons]

Because I was targeting you specifically! Sheesh. Get over yourself, buddy.

Nah, I figure everyone does the same. I doubt that many folks read every post in a thread before responding.