Why no 3rd party PIM or email apps on WP7 - Windows Phone 7 General

As above. Can't because there is no demand, can it? One of the big let-downs for me coming from PalmOS and Agendus is the really week Calendar app. Let's not get into the bizarre two week limit on past events! I also miss the tweakability of ChatterEmail. But that was then ...
So why no PIM or email apps? Is it a programming issue? Is the WP market entertainment, not enterprise? Will it change with Apollo/WP8?
Just wondering.
PS: other than that I love WP7. Just hoping for more.

truthfully the built in is so good and i use exchange so i never really thought about it. I also have yet to see anyone but you so far ask for it, so i am not thinking the demand is there yet. I have see in the marketplace a few task and calendar apps though.

ROCOAFZ said:
truthfully the built in is so good and i use exchange so i never really thought about it. I also have yet to see anyone but you so far ask for it, so i am not thinking the demand is there yet. I have see in the marketplace a few task and calendar apps though.
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Click to collapse
PIM was very useful on WM, I don't understand why there is no demand for it? I guess it is what it is, Don't want to even ask because I don't what to hear some [email protected]$$ fanboy comment about that feature is so 1999 or something.

The real reason is that everything is sandboxed.
You don't have direct access. You used to just import poutlook.dll Then you could send an email. It would go into the phone's outbox for the account you wanted to send with. It would get sent on the next sync.
Now, you will be asked if you want to send the mail.
Also, I don't think there is any way to programatically get at the content of your emails. This is actually a good security piece. Imagine a dev writing a pretty cool app. You use it. Only months later you find that the content of all email messages on your phone were being sent to the dev while you used the app through a http post.
This is the why. Now, Microsoft could provide controls that would access this information.
Back in Windows Mobile, I wrote an app for users of Sense that also used the Facebook tab that would go through all of your contacts that were linked to Facebook. It would let the user update the contact with the Facebook pic. It used poutlook.dll.

ROCOAFZ said:
truthfully the built in is so good and i use exchange so i never really thought about it.
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Click to collapse
Built-in so good? I don't think so. Good as far as it goes maybe. I too use Exchange, that's the backend. It's the presentation of the PIM data that is so lacking.
Needs more views. Today summary. Ledger view for day. 5/7 day week view. A proper month view, with readable text and icons. Templates, filtering. Ability to duplicate events. Tasks in the tile. Lots of little things. When I think what could be packed into my little 320 X 320 Centro display ...
Have a look at the features in the iOS and Android versions of PocketInformant or Agendus.
While I'm at it, the email app needs customisable notifications per mailbox.
JVH3 said:
The real reason is that everything is sandboxed.
You don't have direct access.
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Click to collapse
The more I look, the more I'm getting that message. Just have to see what the future holds.

conorn said:
Built-in so good? I don't think so. Good as far as it goes maybe. I too use Exchange, that's the backend. It's the presentation of the PIM data that is so lacking.
Needs more views. Today summary. Ledger view for day. 5/7 day week view. A proper month view, with readable text and icons. Templates, filtering. Ability to duplicate events. Tasks in the tile. Lots of little things. When I think what could be packed into my little 320 X 320 Centro display ...
Have a look at the features in the iOS and Android versions of PocketInformant or Agendus.
While I'm at it, the email app needs customisable notifications per mailbox.
The more I look, the more I'm getting that message. Just have to see what the future holds.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
PIM is only needed for sms and history. Exchange or hotmail backs up the rest when you put contacts in unless you don't have a data plan. And if you want it all backed up... here yah go (only for stock roms)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1346276
by xda themselves
Next
Needs more views. Today summary. Ledger view for day. 5/7 day week view. A proper month view, with readable text and icons. Templates, filtering. Ability to duplicate events. Tasks in the tile. Lots of little things. When I think what could be packed into my little 320 X 320 Centro display ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Let me break this down for you...
Duplicate events... go to the event, scroll down, hit more details. press occurs, Choose once, everyday, every weekday, every saturday, every (Day number) of the month, ever month day (as in yearly)
For Tasks in the tile - while on agenda,
Week view? for someone that has a lot of appointments, weekview is never readable, same with month. At least in month you can tell there is an appointment and click on it.
For tasks tile that syncs with exchange try this one - http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/apps/3455bef8-895d-49d6-9c71-131a8fd0106a
They do however show in agenda once you have opened the task

ROCOAFZ. Maybe you don't understand what I was trying to explain (BOTD). Also, please don't be so defensive, I'm not trying to diss WP. I'll be in for the long run. But if I see (IMO) a weakness I will point it out. And to me the functionality in the Calendar app is poor. Especially when other parts of the OS are so good.
Responding to your points ...
Firstly, forget about Exchange, etc. I'm not talking about backing up. I'm talking about the presentation and management of the data. I don't care where it's stored. Could be local, could be cloud - doesn't matter.
Secondly, when I use the term PIM, I mean it in the broadest possible way. I want to manage my personal info. Traditionally, on PDAs, that meant calendar, contacts and tasks. Smartphones have replaced PDAs, so now I want my current smartphone to do this at least as well.
Thirdly, the intent of the original post was to query why there are no 3rd-party PIM-type apps available for WP7. There are for iOS and Android, even BB. There were for WM6 and PalmOS. Why not WP7? A couple of replies confirmed what I suspected. The OS doesn't provide the access programmers need. Everything is very hands-off. Maybe this will change in future releases. there are indications that this may be so.
Finally, some specific comments -
ROCOAFZ said:
Duplicate events... go to the event, scroll down, hit more details. press occurs, Choose once, everyday, every weekday, every saturday, every (Day number) of the month, ever month day (as in yearly)
For Tasks in the tile - while on agenda,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, I'm talking about duplicating existing appointments. Not recurring events, i.e., I had a meeting today at 2pm. We agree to meet again on Friday at 4pm. All other details the same. Previously I would quickly duplicate the event, update the date/time and I'm done. Now I must create from scratch. I right-click drag in Outlook, Google Calendar has Duplicate in More Actions - so it's not just me.
ROCOAFZ said:
Week view? for someone that has a lot of appointments, weekview is never readable, same with month. At least in month you can tell there is an appointment and click on it.
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My choice to decide, but at least give me the choice. In month view I want to see better indicators. Maybe the smallish Lumia 800 display is at fault, or my chosen theme, but I really have difficulty noticing the existing (pretend) indications and they give no indication of what's there (task, appointment, all-day event). There is plenty of room to show boxes and bars for an 'at a glance' overview of my time. Especially in landscape view. BTW, what happened Categories?
ROCOAFZ said:
For tasks tile that syncs with exchange try this one - TaskTask
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Click to collapse
Thanks. That, and some others, look interesting. But comes back to the issue raised by others. The only way to get at the tasks data is to go direct to the server. Shouldn't have to do that. It does work though, but should be in sync with inbuilt, not duplicating functionality.

conorn said:
Responding to your points ...
Firstly, forget about Exchange, etc. I'm not talking about backing up. I'm talking about the presentation and management of the data. I don't care where it's stored. Could be local, could be cloud - doesn't matter.
Secondly, when I use the term PIM, I mean it in the broadest possible way. I want to manage my personal info. Traditionally, on PDAs, that meant calendar, contacts and tasks. Smartphones have replaced PDAs, so now I want my current smartphone to do this at least as well.
Thirdly, the intent of the original post was to query why there are no 3rd-party PIM-type apps available for WP7. There are for iOS and Android, even BB. There were for WM6 and PalmOS. Why not WP7? A couple of replies confirmed what I suspected. The OS doesn't provide the access programmers need. Everything is very hands-off. Maybe this will change in future releases. there are indications that this may be so.
Finally, some specific comments -
No, I'm talking about duplicating existing appointments. Not recurring events, i.e., I had a meeting today at 2pm. We agree to meet again on Friday at 4pm. All other details the same. Previously I would quickly duplicate the event, update the date/time and I'm done. Now I must create from scratch. I right-click drag in Outlook, Google Calendar has Duplicate in More Actions - so it's not just me.
My choice to decide, but at least give me the choice. In month view I want to see better indicators. Maybe the smallish Lumia 800 display is at fault, or my chosen theme, but I really have difficulty noticing the existing (pretend) indications and they give no indication of what's there (task, appointment, all-day event). There is plenty of room to show boxes and bars for an 'at a glance' overview of my time. Especially in landscape view. BTW, what happened Categories?
Thanks. That, and some others, look interesting. But comes back to the issue raised by others. The only way to get at the tasks data is to go direct to the server. Shouldn't have to do that. It does work though, but should be in sync with inbuilt, not duplicating functionality.
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Click to collapse
1st, not being defensive, just pointing out the way others like myself do it. What i say may or may not work for your situation but it's good to see another way to do it.
For contacts, calendar and tasks - without exchange - they are synced to the cloud hotmail. You don't need to back them up in that case. Last time i hard reset my phone, i didn't even restore via Zune. I put in my hotmail account. That brought in my local contacts and birthdays + vet appointments for my dog. i then synced facebook. That brought in all my friends. then exchange which brought my work contacts, email calendar, tasks ect. You have to get a windows live when you 1st bring up the phone. It is an automatic backup. Now what i did lose was my app list and saved games + contact history.
For apps go to https://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/my under get my apps and you will find a list of everything you purchased or got for free. you can send each app to your phone from there. So only thing is lost is contact history and saved games. Zune sync brings back pictures and music. I wanted to change what i had on my phone and didn't care to keep the exisint pics since they were on my pc anyway so i opted not to do this.
But if you want full local backup i highlighted a homebrew way to do it that doesn't require you to be unlocked.
Tasks - for your example, if you created the event, i normally would just edit it and change the date. Granted it's not copy but does the same functionality, unless you need a record of the event that passed.
I have a Titan so my display it pretty big. I probably could show a week view but on some weeks there are so many appointments that it would have to be bars. They should allow month view to zoom into calendar even if pinch to zoom to satisfy everyone.
Categories i didn't miss because i didn't use them but someone else asked me about them before purchasing a phone. That is when i noticed they were not there. Instead of categoris, i add to the subject.
example = Meeting with consumer - Billable
Instead of a billiable category which i can't do much with i add the text because outlook will allow me to search for it. at the end of the week when i bill out, i just enter in outlook's search (i do billing from pc) billable and it will show all my Billiable appointments in a list with time and date. it works way better that way for me. I haven't quite figured out what people use categories for yet though but i do know that they are not on the phone. Probably because each calendar has it's own color.

Thanks again. But, really, I have no issues with backing up, syncing, etc
Yes, I do keep old events. Which is why I can't believe you can only go back two weeks. Thank goodness for web access.
Second half of post is interesting. I may just have to change my habits. Certainly the idea of using different calendars for colour coding sounds good.

conorn said:
Yes, I do keep old events. Which is why I can't believe you can only go back two weeks. Thank goodness for web access.
.
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Hmm i never notice that. In the hotmail calendar it goes back further. I always thought it followed the email since i have it for a month but i never look back that far.
I didn't know if you knew this but if you change IE to Desktop version in settings you can do full outlook web access with all calendars including shared. (i know this works on 2010 exchange at least). One thing the iphone can't do as you are locked to mobile version and Outlook has no link to change out of it.

Related

What if you do not use Facebook or Twitter?

I know it is hard to believe that in this day and age there are people who do not spend half their day refreshing Facebook and Twitter. I personally do not even have an account at Facebook or Twitter or any other social networking site.
This is no problem as long as Facebook access is contained in an app that I can simply not launch. In WP7 however, from what I've seen of it at least, the social networking aspects seem completely unavoidable.
Whenever I go into contacts or people or whatever they are calling it, there will be a whole "What's New" column (Facebook Wall or recent Tweets I guess?) that for me would be blank all the time. Then there is the option to "share" content with others that seems to appear on every other context menu in the OS.
I'll admit my knowledge of WP7 is so far only skin deep. It is just a lot of what I read about it talks about how well integrated it is with social networks.
So does anyone know how far this integration goes? Is it just a few features that can be easily ignored? Or is it so deeply weeded to the OS that it would be constantly in your way and difficult to remove, like IE used to be with Windows.
If it is the later, clearly the best solution would be to not purchase a phone with WP7 on it.
Clearly WP7 has a ton of social integration within the OS but I don't think it's going to be mandatory that you actually use the stuff. They are aiming the device at business as well as entertainment and I know some companies would not want their employees doing facebook on their work phones. I'm sure they've realized this and made it so those features just don't show up when you arent linked to a facebook account.
MooGoo said:
I know it is hard to believe that in this day and age there are people who do not spend half their day refreshing Facebook and Twitter. I personally do not even have an account at Facebook or Twitter or any other social networking site.
This is no problem as long as Facebook access is contained in an app that I can simply not launch. In WP7 however, from what I've seen of it at least, the social networking aspects seem completely unavoidable.
Whenever I go into contacts or people or whatever they are calling it, there will be a whole "What's New" column (Facebook Wall or recent Tweets I guess?) that for me would be blank all the time. Then there is the option to "share" content with others that seems to appear on every other context menu in the OS.
I'll admit my knowledge of WP7 is so far only skin deep. It is just a lot of what I read about it talks about how well integrated it is with social networks.
So does anyone know how far this integration goes? Is it just a few features that can be easily ignored? Or is it so deeply weeded to the OS that it would be constantly in your way and difficult to remove, like IE used to be with Windows.
If it is the later, clearly the best solution would be to not purchase a phone with WP7 on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 with a little difference.
What do people like us do who do have facebook and twitter account but since we are based in china they are completely blocked here. Facebook, twitter, dailymotion, youtube etc are mostly blocked and hence i see the integration in Win 7 not much useful. Though i do think it will offer a lot of uniqueness but for me it would be iphone in the very future when i decide to buy the phone.
+1
I hate face..shi..t and I don't need twitter
but, because I do not have an account on these sites would stop using WM7
sorry for my english.. is english-google.. XD
if you dont have a account then just dont sign in..its not mandatory, just an added feature that you can turn on if you want/need
I don't understand. If you don't use Facebook and Twitter then just... don't use it. What task could you possibly be trying to do that would say"must log in to Facebook to continue"? None
If you don't have Facebook feeds coming in there is nothing to avoid or ignore.. so what's the problem again?
burnblue said:
I don't understand. If you don't use Facebook and Twitter then just... don't use it. What task could you possibly be trying to do that would say"must log in to Facebook to continue"? None
If you don't have Facebook feeds coming in there is nothing to avoid or ignore.. so what's the problem again?
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Are you sure?
In the emulator at least, the column "What's New" is always there. Whether it be right next to the alphabetical list of contacts, or right next to the single contact info screen.
Also, because of the panorama display, you always see part of the next screen to your right. Then there is the fact that it is necessary to pan your way through contiguous screens to get to the one you want (there seems to be no way to skip over intervening screens/tabs).
These are the two main reasons which lead me to believe that this kind of integration is not something that can be simply disabled.
I never setup any Facebook account on the emulator.
Of course I realize that this is beta/alpha software I am dealing with. Hopefully Microsoft will be smart enough to remove social networking related tabs (screens, pages, what are they supposed to be called now?) if the appropriate accounts are not set up.
I don't see why a "share" option in a context menu or a "What's New" tab on a panel can't be shown if a person does not have social networking set up.
Take Sony Ericsson phones for example. MusicNow and stuff like a WAP browser don't simply "disappear" if you don't set it up. It's still there among the options.
Look at Nokia phones. Even if you don't set up an APN for use with internet, the option to click on a link from a SMS to launch a website would still appear. Whether you click on it is up to you.
The option to "share" in WP7 should always be there. Whether you click on it is up to you.
Hemant said:
What do people like us do who do have facebook and twitter account but since we are based in china they are completely blocked here. Facebook, twitter, dailymotion, youtube etc are mostly blocked and hence i see the integration in Win 7 not much useful. Though i do think it will offer a lot of uniqueness but for me it would be iphone in the very future when i decide to buy the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe you can use a proxy or VPN service?
MooGoo said:
Are you sure?
In the emulator at least, the column "What's New" is always there. Whether it be right next to the alphabetical list of contacts, or right next to the single contact info screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With the whats new maybe if you don't have Facebook/twitter linked it would just show recent SMS under peoples names or emails?
I'm going on the assumption that because the OEM developer documentation says that any OEM included applications 'must work without network/internet connectivity' that the OS will also work this way and there will be options to turn on and off the features.
It may turn out that we need to 'unlock' these features though as so far I've only seen it written in OEM info.
Interesting. Wouldn't that requirement exclude the inclusion of something like a weather application? Or does it just mean that the program would have to have the capability to cache data for offline use if necessary.
Even assuming that 'What's New' doesn't show you emails, SMS and other updates from that contact that have nothing to do with social networks...
you don't have to swipe over there.
With developers' ability to plug in, 'What's New' is at some point going to include some functionality you're interested in. Even if it's empty, that's no reason to disable it
I do hope you are correct about What's New being populated with emails/SMS etc, that would at least make some sense. But if this is not the case, I do not see why I should need to put up with an entirely worthless panel just on the off chance that some carrier may someday decide to put something there that interests me.
And why shouldn't I be able to disable it? If it is not disabled and just left empty as you suggest, I would indeed have to swipe it as the OS does not seem to provide a way to simply jump to the panel you want to see. This is another issue entirely, constantly having to swipe through unwanted content just to get the information you do want will get old very quickly.
MooGoo said:
And why shouldn't I be able to disable it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why shouldn't you be able to multi-task?
Why shouldn't you be able to develop in any language for any API that you want?
Why shouldn't you...

Tasks (To-dos) & Notes in WP7

As far as I can work out, WP7 will not support Outlook Notes and Tasks (To-Dos) or the synchronization of Notes & Tasks.
As I understand it, synch of email, calendar & contacts will happen via your Windows Live account (Windows Live will be an Exchange server soon), which can then synch to Outlook using the Windows Live Connector, but Notes and Tasks are absent from this setup.
There will be no native Notes or Tasks apps on WP7. There will be One Note, but that's a different animal and you have to purchase the PC version to be able to see your OneNotes on your PC.
Unfortunately, for me at least, Tasks is the app I use most on my phone. Since WM5.0, Microsoft crippled Tasks by removing the ability to filter out Tasks with a future Start Date, so I moved to using Pocket Informant which provides this essential feature.
Pocket Informant will not be developed for WM7 if news I've read on the Net is correct. This may be partly due to WM7 having no Tasks database, thus forcing any developer to create their own database engine for Tasks, and in any case there would be no synch with Outlook.
If all this is true, it will prevent me from moving over to WM7. My personal and business life revolve around my task list and I'd be lost without it.
Does anyone have any more information on this, especially any that shows me to be wrong?
Don't know about tasks and notes, but you can connect to any Exchange account you want.
http://www.ahead-app.com/
vangrieg said:
http://www.ahead-app.com/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
impressive app!
clear, simple! exactly what i need
i hope other apps will be as good as this one (maybe i should start developing wp7 apps too..)
warenbe said:
impressive app!
clear, simple! exactly what i need
i hope other apps will be as good as this one (maybe i should start developing wp7 apps too..)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes you should
yup but i've no good idea right now
warenbe said:
yup but i've no good idea right now
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if i think of something ill let you know
That Ahead app is more like a Project manager than a simple task manager. It only seems to support priorities called "Urgent", "Later", which doesn't tie in with Outlook's three priority levels. Also it only supports a due date, but no start date. Start date is really important, as a recurring annual task to get my car MOTed should have a start date of a couple of weeks before its due, so it doesn't appear in my task list all year round. It also needs to support lots of different types of recurrance - yearly, monthly, every weekday, every 2nd Friday of the month etc etc.
Also, Ahead App doesn't do Notes or synch them.
Whilst I appreciate the link, I'm afraid it's not what I'm looking for. All I need is an app that replicates all the functionality of Outlook's Tasks and Notes and synchs them.
I can't believe this functionality, which is present by default in every version of Windows Mobile, will be absent from WP7.
I'm going to keep my fingers crossed these two essentials appear in the final release of WP7, otherwise I'll have to stick with WM6.5 and Pocket Informant until they finally do appear, whenever that may be.
Jim Coleman said:
Whilst I appreciate the link, I'm afraid it's not what I'm looking for.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I know. These tasks also won't be synced with Exchange and can't trigger alerts on the phone, so that's not what I need either.
This is very unfortunate, but neither the iPhone nor Android have tasks, so it looks like a trend these days.
tell me if i'm wrong, but with wp7 we will not be able to create an app wich can copy tasks from outlook?
if yes, we have to create a service wich send tasks on internet and then retrieve them on the phone...
Yes, that's right, you will need to install a connector on your desktop to sync tasks with Outlook or have an intermediary server to sync with Exchange for now.
vangrieg said:
This is very unfortunate, but neither the iPhone nor Android have tasks, so it looks like a trend these days.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Google have started to integrate Tasks into Google Calendar, but thus far it is extremely basic and again doesn't incorporate Start Dates. But I think the direction Google is moving in is to incorporate Tasks into Android and use Exchange Synch.
Notes is another issue though.
IPhone is.......well, let's just skip over that one.
Jim Coleman said:
Google have started to integrate Tasks into Google Calendar
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, Microsoft has done that already on Live Calendar, so maybe that's the direction they'll go with WP7, too. When I asked the Office guy directly about Tasks he said "can't comment at this time".
The Answer to Outlook Tasks and Notes
The Answer to Outlook Tasks and Notes
is
1)wait for WP7 Windows Phone 7 to get up to speed
2) WM6.5 Windows Mobile 6.5
run it on as fast a processor as possible (like maybe the HD2)
(no keyboard but you can get used to it)
with as big a display as possible, again the HD2 (same pixels as the tilt2 but more room)
the latest manila / sense, 2.5 ish is now nice and the vendors are supporting the download
co0kies home today v2 is looking very nice, tasks on the home screen.
we who use Outlook for calendar, contacts, notes, tasks
have a single app sync, and we want it not to go away.
maybe we can live with getting exchange accounts, but we're really hoping for a wm7 windows phone 7 activesync.
until this gets in shape . . .
we wait.
looking @ manila/sense with co0kies home today on a fast cpu with a big display,
we're not waiting in that much pain . . .
After almost 17 years on AT&T I moved to T-Mobile
I just got so tired of AT&T lagging on the vendor relationships with HTC and Microsoft.
I upgraded the TILT2 to the latest rom so that I could Finally get tasks on the home page
(I am a long time a complete Outlook user, Requiring Notes, Task, Calendar, Contacts, with a single simple complete sync to the phone).
Co0kies Home Today 2 is marvelous!
The rom started crashing every few hours
CHT put manilla/sense over the memory edge.
it too 45 seconds for manilla to return from sending an sms.
AT&T has no solution.
The HD2 has no keyboard (something i was very worried about)
I dove in.
WHAT A CHAMP this HD2 is.
clock Twice the speed of the Tilt2
tons more memory
a screen of a size fitting the number of pixels available
and after a few days, guess what . . . i am over my keyboard phobia ! ! !
phone number xfer in just a few of hours.
knock on wood, nice transition so far!
only irritating thing is tmomail.net
seems too eager to convert to MMSs, just because they're over 160 bytes.
(small point, that)

A workaround for Tasks / Todo List users

If, like me, you use Outlook's task (to-do) list, and have upgraded from WM6.5 to WP7, you're probably disappointed that there is no solution for syncing tasks onto an app on your shiny new phone.
I use a workaround that seems to be OK, and will tide me over until proper task syncing comes along, as I'm sure it will soon.
I use Windows Live Mesh to sync a folder on my Pc, containing spreadsheets, to Skydrive. You can navigate to that synced folder on your phone by pointing your browser to http://devices.live.com/Sync, and going into the folder in question. You can pin the page for the folder to your start screen for quick access.
I created a new spreadsheet in the synced folder called Tasks. What I now do is, each morning while munching my breakfast, I review my tasks in Outlook. They're filtered such that only today's tasks show on screen. I press CTRL-A to highlight them all, then CTRL-C to copy them. I then open the Tasks spreadsheet, clear it out and paste all the tasks into the sheet, then close it. Windows Live Mesh then syncs the spreadsheet into Skydrive. I then access it on my phone and save it to the Office hub.
I now have all my tasks for the day in the sheet. I can add filters to the sheet and filter by, say, category, and I can modify the status of each one to add in notes or say it has been done.
Then the following morning while reviewing my tasks over breakfast once more, I start off by looking at the Tasks spreadsheet on my phone and marking up the previous day's tasks as complete, or modifying them as my notes dictate. Then I paste the new day's tasks into the spreadsheet on the PC and the cycle continues.
Have a go, it's not perfect but it's the best I can come up with.
Unless you have a better suggestion?
Thanks, not a bad solution.
Another method would be to copy your list of tasks into the Onenote webapp on skydrive. This can be set up to sync to your phone automatically. So you would avoid having to use live mesh, but you would still have to copy your tasks from outlook into Onenote.
Obviously neither solution is perfect.
I would even settle for a RTM or Producteev app so at least tasks could be synced to the web.
There are a few task apps on the market place. I haven't tried any of them yet but there's several available.
greener88 said:
Thanks, not a bad solution.
Another method would be to copy your list of tasks into the Onenote webapp on skydrive. This can be set up to sync to your phone automatically. So you would avoid having to use live mesh, but you would still have to copy your tasks from outlook into Onenote.
Obviously neither solution is perfect.
I would even settle for a RTM or Producteev app so at least tasks could be synced to the web.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem with doing it via OneNote is the tasks have no structure, they're just lines of text. In Excel, the fields go into columns an you can edit them and filter them, which is way more useful. But yeah, you do need Live Mesh.
Ren13B said:
There are a few task apps on the market place. I haven't tried any of them yet but there's several available.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah but they all use local storage, so you can't sync with your Outlook tasks. Plus, none of them support start dates and/or recurring tasks so they're pretty useless really.
I know that this is not an outlook task based solution, but if you need some sort of task function, get a free remember the milk account then download the WinMilk app.
True MS tasks have start time & end time & reminder. MS says tasks are NOT supported in MP7
"I use a workaround that seems to be OK, and will tide me over until proper task syncing comes along, as I'm sure it will soon."
What makes you think Tasks will come to WM7?
Poppapete said:
"I use a workaround that seems to be OK, and will tide me over until proper task syncing comes along, as I'm sure it will soon."
What makes you think Tasks will come to WM7?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tasks are already supported in Windows Live Hotmail, I can sync my WM6.5 device's tasks to it. I would have thought MS would write a tasks app that can sync to that in the same way calendars and contacts do. At the moment they're focussing on consumer stuff, but in the new year I understand they plan to start rolling out business oriented stuff like Skydrive support for Word & Excel, and I'm hoping tasks will feature in there somewhere.
Poppapete said:
True MS tasks have start time & end time & reminder. MS says tasks are NOT supported in MP7
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you give me a reference for that assertion?
Plus I think it's obvious they're not supported *now* but have Microsoft made a definitive statement regarding the near future?
karelj said:
I know that this is not an outlook task based solution, but if you need some sort of task function, get a free remember the milk account then download the WinMilk app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just had a look - it's an interesting solution. It's a shame it doesn't support Start Date and the WP7 client doesn't allow repeating tasks to be created though. I'll look into Milksync too.

Facebook Notifications: Not Getting Any?

So the subject says it all. I'm new to WP7 (not new to tech by any means)... Maybe I missed something obvious but I can't find it.
I had two notifications. But- my phone told me of neither of them by itself. I had to open the app to see them.
We're talking they were a good 45 minutes old, too.
TexUs said:
So the subject says it all. I'm new to WP7 (not new to tech by any means)... Maybe I missed something obvious but I can't find it.
I had two notifications. But- my phone told me of neither of them by itself. I had to open the app to see them.
We're talking they were a good 45 minutes old, too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The FB app does not support live tiles and push notifications and neither does the people hub, so yeah u need to open the FB app to check out updates.
You can turn on email notifications in your FB Account. Than you will get an email for New Messages or something Else.
Sent from my HD7 T9292 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App
Yeah its very lame. BB and Android have notifications.
Sent from my SGH-i917 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App
goldenpipes said:
Yeah its very lame. BB and Android have notifications.
Sent from my SGH-i917 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
iPhone does as well but my experience with them has always been sporadic at best
thank a lot of
No .........................................
hjx .....................................
I note on the Facebook for Windows Phone Facebook page, they've promised a new version with "features that [we've] been asking for".
It seems it has gotten delayed, probably owing to the recent messages bug, but maybe - just maybe - this may support notifications through the OS or a live tile?
The notifications issue, along with support for FB chat, seems to be the biggest request on there, so we might be in luck.
Casey
Casey_boy said:
I note on the Facebook for Windows Phone Facebook page, they've promised a new version with "features that [we've] been asking for".
It seems it has gotten delayed, probably owing to the recent messages bug, but maybe - just maybe - this may support notifications through the OS or a live tile?
The notifications issue, along with support for FB chat, seems to be the biggest request on there, so we might be in luck.
Casey
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah the App is definitely gonna support chat, toast notifications and live tiles for sure. Its just a matter of when.
goldenpipes said:
Yeah its very lame. BB and Android have notifications.
Sent from my SGH-i917 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
BB and Android OS have been around for longer than 5 months.
It should be supported natively with the rest of the Facebook features.
Sent using XDA Windows Phone 7 App
DatDereX1 said:
BB and Android OS have been around for longer than 5 months.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your point being?
Live tiles, or rather "at a glance" was the big selling point for WP7. Sure, you get "at a glance" information galore for the people pinned to start but not being notified about messages on FB is weak - should definitely have been in the app from day one. Not to mention they still need to sort out the scrolling issues.
emigrating said:
Your point being?
Live tiles, or rather "at a glance" was the big selling point for WP7. Sure, you get "at a glance" information galore for the people pinned to start but not being notified about messages on FB is weak - should definitely have been in the app from day one. Not to mention they still need to sort out the scrolling issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
need I remind you that fb push notifications didn't come till last august on android? Let's be real, android's FB before last summer was a piece of crap compared to the apple platform..and even then there were some bugs till fall of last year...and android's been around since 08...and it still doesn't go without bugs...with toasting or push notifications
I mean i admit the facebook xap is paltry and has a lot of issues in coding which should be corrected but I say give it time
I can't believe that the Microsoft-coded stuff (even Facebook app) wouldn't have Live Tiles or push support. That one surprises me more than anything on WP.
However- I never recall my iPhone not supporting Push and doing it well.
Android was certainly sketchy, even after running 2.3.
Right now my best "solution" seems to be as suggested and setting up email notifications.
emigrating said:
Your point being?
Live tiles, or rather "at a glance" was the big selling point for WP7. Sure, you get "at a glance" information galore for the people pinned to start but not being notified about messages on FB is weak - should definitely have been in the app from day one. Not to mention they still need to sort out the scrolling issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My point is that this is not a mature OS and I think (hope lol) MS will add that feature in the future. There's a lot of things that could have been added from day one, but MS wanted to focus on the most important features and making sure they work perfectly before implementing them.
TexUs said:
I can't believe that the Microsoft-coded stuff (even Facebook app) wouldn't have Live Tiles or push support. That one surprises me more than anything on WP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not really suprising. They didn't even launch with Copy and Paste...
However- I never recall my iPhone not supporting Push and doing it well.
Android was certainly sketchy, even after running 2.3.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Android supports PUSH well. All of Google's services are pushed, and let's get real... Google didn't add C2DM (their PUSH service) until Android 2.2.
Facebook Chat is pushed on Android, and it's as fast as ever. I know because my Vibrant is going off everytime I'm having a Facebook Chat conversation in Widnows Live Messenger/Facebook.com . I also get all of my Facebook Notifications (Posts/Replies/Messages) really fast.
Flory on WP7 has fast Push/Toast/Live Tile notifications, but the application takes so long to load and/or resume that it's virtually useless. Since the first day I've installed it, I've never gotten it to load my contact list for GTalk or Facebook again... So I uninstalled...
I have my Facebook Background Sync interval (Both in the App, and in TouchWiz/SocialHub) set to 12 hours so I know it's not polling, BTW...
Right now my best "solution" seems to be as suggested and setting up email notifications.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The biggest issue I have is that it's clunky, waste data and battery life (downloading emails uses way more battery power than getting a Push Notification) and is simply impractical for people with busy Social Networks. Do you REALLY want 30+ Facebook emails a day? 1 Hour or more less battery life (these smartphones are already working overtime trying to provide decent battery life)? People with low data plans won't want to do that, either...
Also, on other platforms you get to set different Notification Ringtones for Different Applications, which let you know whether or not you need to even bother looking at the phone when something comes in.
Microsoft needs to implement this.
For me, personally, the Push Notifications isn't that big of an issue (Toast), but a Live Ticker on People Tile would be good.
The biggest issue is that People Hub is a gimmick. It's nothing but a glorified RSS feed for social networks. It doesn't support Facebook Messaging or any of that, only posting and replying... That's why if you are a Facebook user you still need the Facebook application installed on your phone. People Hub barely passes for an alternative, if it does at all... It is too functionally thin to be truly useful and the fact that it doesn't update its information in the background makes it not really worth using over the Facebook application which does much more and has a better user experience.
WP7 has really good voice recognition (at least for English) and Bing is good now, so there's hardly a need to open the People Hub when you can just "Call PersonX Mobile/Work/etc." and the phone gets it done faster than you could if you went through the contact list (if it is of factorable length/size). Hell, the other day I just said "Call Pizza Hut" and it got the city right and everything. One less number in my contact list
domineus said:
need I remind you that fb push notifications didn't come till last august on android? Let's be real, android's FB before last summer was a piece of crap compared to the apple platform..and even then there were some bugs till fall of last year...and android's been around since 08...and it still doesn't go without bugs...with toasting or push notifications
I mean i admit the facebook xap is paltry and has a lot of issues in coding which should be corrected but I say give it time
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Google didn't implement C2DM on Android until FroYo.
Facebook Getting Push on Android in August means they were very fast in implementing it after Google added C2DM, which destroys your argument/excuse/justification.
When you cut through the spin, Facebook was fast as hell at getting Push Notifications to Android, and Launched Facebook chat in that client as well.
I simply don't think they wanted to implement their own Push Solution, with 500+ million users... It't just too much. Better to use a native solution and and allow Android/iOS/WP7/BB users get their stuff pushed through Google/Apple/MS/RIM instead...
DatDereX1 said:
My point is that this is not a mature OS and I think (hope lol) MS will add that feature in the future. There's a lot of things that could have been added from day one, but MS wanted to focus on the most important features and making sure they work perfectly before implementing them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Facebook integration was, according to MS, a very important feature. Since the FB app is a MS commissioned app you would expect them to have taken full advantage of their, so called, killer features.
My point here isn't so much that it's a missing feature but rather that it's a missing feature which has all the necessary building blocks available for use - and they decided not to utilize them.
Maybe I'm wrong but I swear that WeatherBug Live Tile is updating itself. I'm going to consciously not open it and see if it updates again this morning. If this is true: why can't other apps do this?
As far as the people hub, I don't use it much. Alot of it is as I've already said... None of the apps cache data. That sucks. These apps should be able to poll and cache in the background, but they don't. The People Hub is one such app. I might as well use the Facebook app.
I can see the People Hub having some use but as you said, it seems more like a replacement to Facebook... And unless it has the full functionality of the Facebook app, why use it?
I also agree with your statements on Flory. It never loads my contact list. Maybe I'm not patient enough- but it doesn't even matter... If it takes more than 15 seconds to load it, it's useless.
I must say one thing I miss from Custom ROMs... Headphone amp. I listen to a podcast that, when I'm driving 75mph- you can't freaking hear it with the volume on the radio and phone all the way up. On a Custom ROM I had a headphone amp that I was able to crank it up and hear it with plenty of extra volume. I sorely miss this.
A question... How do I voice dial/search? I realize if I go into the search- I can hit the mic button and do it from there. However from the main screen, holding search does nothing. ????????????
Also... On large contact lists, how do I scroll to say, the M's? I cannot figure this out at all. On Android/iPhone you have a alphabet on the right and you slide your finger down it to the letter you want.

Question Like the device but IMHO it needs a decent email app (like Samsung). Any suggestions?

Hardware is good, love that it's a world phone for radio bands like iphone, bit I think it's software is sometimes too stock. Don't live google calendar but it will do, but it really needs a professional grade email app like Samsung, apple etc. I can't even use outlook on push mail on Gmail, which I think is a fairly lacking email app. Everyone is different but itt prevents me from keeping this device. Any suggestions as to a modern UI email app? BTW 9Mail is clunky and requires a passcode every time I use it.
THANKS
ekerbuddyeker said:
Hardware is good, love that it's a world phone for radio bands like iphone, bit I think it's software is sometimes too stock. Don't live google calendar but it will do, but it really needs a professional grade email app like Samsung, apple etc. I can't even use outlook on push mail on Gmail, which I think is a fairly lacking email app. Everyone is different but itt prevents me from keeping this device. Any suggestions as to a modern UI email app? BTW 9Mail is clunky and requires a passcode every time I use it.
THANKS
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why not just the Outlook app?
Thanks. I think Outlook is also a fairly poor app, certainly the UI is very dated, and it has limited flexibility, plus it doesn't integrate with any third party calendars. Really hoping there's something else out there that I did t already try.
I use Spark and can't go back to Gmail now, mainly for the optional links on notifications. I have 3 links on my notifications - Mark as read, Archive and Reply. That one single feature makes it my favourite email app.
Spark Mail – AI Email Inbox - Apps on Google Play
Smart AI-powered mail app. Connect Gmail, AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail in one mailbox.
play.google.com
In short, Spark is to Gmail what Nova is to the Pixel launcher. If you like it half as much as I do then you'll love it
Nine
Thanks. I just tried spark again. Does it also syncs calendars and contacts ?
I've always liked BlueMail works well on Android and iOS.
I use outlook normally. Although occasionally it seems to have spells where it isn't syncing so I've started to use one simply called "email" in the play store and seems to be fine
ekerbuddyeker said:
Thanks. I think Outlook is also a fairly poor app, certainly the UI is very dated, and it has limited flexibility, plus it doesn't integrate with any third party calendars. Really hoping there's something else out there that I did t already try.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm an Outlook user and never came across Samsungs own email app, so I researched a bit.
Both look quite similar. Both have a clean, modern interface - not sure why you would call Outlook UI as "very dated". In terms of design language, Samsung seems to have already "modernized" it's UI do the very latest common design language (huge white boxes with big emtpy space for every word, aka Googles latest material design), whilst Microsoft has not yet done that. Even though that's not "very dated", it's simply a couple month behind.
In terms of functionality I can't say much, since I don't know what Samsung offers, but at least in terms of design it's no trouble at all.
Concerning calendars: Outlook can be synced with Google Calendar, never had issues with that.
Morgrain said:
I'm an Outlook user and never came across Samsungs own email app, so I researched a bit.
Both look quite similar. Both have a clean, modern interface - not sure why you would call Outlook UI as "very dated". In terms of design language, Samsung seems to have already "modernized" it's UI do the very latest common design language (huge white boxes with big emtpy space for every word, aka Googles latest material design), whilst Microsoft has not yet done that. Even though that's not "very dated", it's simply a couple month behind.
In terms of functionality I can't say much, since I don't know what Samsung offers, but at least in terms of design it's no trouble at all.
Concerning calendars: Outlook can be synced with Google Calendar, never had issues with that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks.
If you also have access to a Samsung device, try the email app out.
Archer said:
I use Spark and can't go back to Gmail now, mainly for the optional links on notifications. I have 3 links on my notifications - Mark as read, Archive and Reply. That one single feature makes it my favourite email app.
Spark Mail – AI Email Inbox - Apps on Google Play
Smart AI-powered mail app. Connect Gmail, AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail in one mailbox.
play.google.com
In short, Spark is to Gmail what Nova is to the Pixel launcher. If you like it half as much as I do then you'll love it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does Spark support Gmail labels?
itchyUnder said:
Does Spark support Gmail labels?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes - you have to add them individually, even if they're nested. It's a bit of a hassle to have to do that, but it's there.
Fair Mail
Bare bones BUT very safety/privacy focused
Open source
Talk about settings/options ? This app is soooooo granular you can control EVERYTHING.
(I do not work for or profit from them)
FairEmail, privacy aware email - Apps on Google Play
Fully featured, privacy oriented email app
play.google.com
Archer said:
Yes - you have to add them individually, even if they're nested. It's a bit of a hassle to have to do that, but it's there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you DM me or provide instructions on how to enable gmail labels in Spark? I have tried out SPARK several times in the past couple years and never saw this feature. Googling this, I only see Apple implementation.
itchyUnder said:
Could you DM me or provide instructions on how to enable gmail labels in Spark? I have tried out SPARK several times in the past couple years and never saw this feature. Googling this, I only see Apple implementation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, but since I use a USB cable to set up my new phones from my previous one, it's a long time since I had to set it up. I can't remember for sure. However, a quick Google search shows that you go into settings, mail accounts and then add account.
Aqua Mail ... has zillions of options ... honestly speaking too many ;-)
foobar66 said:
Aqua Mail ... has zillions of options ... honestly speaking too many ;-)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Been using this one for years now on Android. It's 100% not modern, the interface and UI haven't changed hardly any at all since I started with it. But it serves my purposes and if you have to connect to an Exchange server it can do that natively since IME most corporations don't open imap/pop up to their employees.
Archer said:
I use Spark and can't go back to Gmail now, mainly for the optional links on notifications. I have 3 links on my notifications - Mark as read, Archive and Reply. That one single feature makes it my favourite email app.
Spark Mail – AI Email Inbox - Apps on Google Play
Smart AI-powered mail app. Connect Gmail, AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail in one mailbox.
play.google.com
In short, Spark is to Gmail what Nova is to the Pixel launcher. If you like it half as much as I do then you'll love it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Spark ftw. Excellent, excellent app.
If you use emails for conversations I recommend spike, as well.
Bluemail is a privacy nightmare with a dev that has been, in the past, beyond shady about their privacy policy.
Samsung's email app has to be the most horrific app I've ever used. It's a slow, buggy mess, that even Samsung stopped distributing on their phones, simply because it was THAT awful. The fact that you like this app and think Outlook is junk makes me question a lot about this post.
BTW 9Mail is clunky and requires a passcode every time I use it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can use your fingerprint or a passcode. And that's if your network admin requires it. If your admin requires some sort of authentication to get into the app, not much is going to get around that.
entropism said:
Bluemail is a privacy nightmare with a dev that has been, in the past, beyond shady about their privacy policy.
Samsung's email app has to be the most horrific app I've ever used. It's a slow, buggy mess, that even Samsung stopped distributing on their phones, simply because it was THAT awful. The fact that you like this app and think Outlook is junk makes me question a lot about this post.
You can use your fingerprint or a passcode. And that's if your network admin requires it. If your admin requires some sort of authentication to get into the app, not much is going to get around that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Opinion is what makes this forun interesting. Actually, the Samsung email app gets updated on a regular basis and the same updated app is on every Samsung device so it has not been dropped as you say. I don't know why you find it buggy. But again it's all a matter of opinion. Personally I find the need to have to enter in a password or provide a fingerprint every time I look at mail, which is several hundred times a day because of my work, a bit of a bore. Nothing is perfect out there, right?

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