From: Jon Glass (jonglass_at_usa.net)
Date: Thu Jun 24 2004 - 06:12:38 PDT
On Jun 24, 2004, at 5:45 AM, Tony Kan wrote:
> I was interested enough to go look it up on the archive and thought while I
> had it on screen I may as well provide it as a reprise for listers...
Unfortunately, this isn't the comparison/review I had in mind. Ages ago,
while the Newton project was still alive, Action Names brought out their
upgrade from version 3 to version 4. At the time, I was wondering if I
should spend the money to upgrade or switch to another product. So, for
myself, I loaded each of the big three in turn, and ran them through their
paces. While I went, I made notes, and at the end, posted a rather thorough
review/comparison of the three. The funny part is that, in the end, I
decided to stick with AN3, and not upgrade nor purchase something else. AN 4
was so buggy that I sent it back for a refund. Later, they updated it, and
removed the worst instabilities, but they never conquered the link bug, nor
the "overview in Built-in Dates w/ priorities lower than 4" bug. I stuck
with AN because of one feature that both MI and DM lacked... the Contact
History window in the Names. I used that single feature more than any other.
It was my "home" on my Newton, if you will, and neither of the other
products offered it, so, since AN4.0 was too buggy, and the new features it
offered were the most buggy, I decided to stick with AN 3.
However....
It's been a long time since I played with More Info and DateMan, and both
programs have had small updates since, but I believe that MI has far more
functionality than any other app, and is far more integrated with the Newton
OS, but DateMan has some really cool customization features, and awesome
to-do features that blew away the competition... I think that I concluded
that if your life involved projects with several people, and you needed to
integrate info from several apps, that MI was your best bet, but if you were
a project person needing powerful to do features, then DateMan should be
your choice, but this was years ago, 1997 or 1998...
I searched my Cyberdog email archives, but it starts in 1999, and based upon
my comments that I found in it, my "review" predates that by at least two
years... So, it seems to be like my darling Clementine... lost and gone
forever, oh my darling, Clementine...
Having said that, I did find the following post that I made back in 1999.
It's a quicker summary. There are also several other posts by others in this
archive. If you want, email me off list, and I'll send you all the digests I
have that include this topic. :-) I'm only posting what I wrote, because I
opened my fat mouth about it. ;-)
================= begin forwarded text ================
You basically have about four options for enhancing your Dates and Names:
1. MoreInfo <http://www.silverware.com/>
2. Dateman <http://www.standalone.com/>
3. Action Names <http://www.iambic.com/>
4. TimeTrax (sorry, I don't remember)
5. There used to be a pair of packages, called Isaac's Names and Isaac's
Dates. However, they were very expensive, and I don't think they are still
available.
I've tried to arrange the four products in descending degrees of
functionality. MoreInfo is probably the absolute best product if you have a
2K series device. If you have an older Newt, you would have to use an older
version of MoreInfo, which is less flexible. (At least that was the status
last time I checked)
If you were to arrange them by price, then all but Action Names would be
about the same in the $60-$7? range. Action Names is something like $39.
However, be forewarned that Action Names is no longer being developed, and
I doubt if it's being supported, although you can still buy it. I suggest
calling Iambic and asking them. There are a couple of bugs left in it that
haven't been fixed, but it's possible that you won't encounter them.
If you are primarily concerned about your Datebook, then I highly recommend
TimeTrax. It has the most flexible and adjustable way of viewing your dates
items. Since it is primarily a dates enhancement, it doesn't have the
contact features the other programs have, but it is a beauty to behold. :-)
I personally wish the built-in Dates operated like TimeTrax.
I highly recommend downloading the demos of each, and playing with each. Be
forewarned that they are incompatible with each other, so don't put more
than one on your Newton at a time. Also, since they do muck with your
soups, you will want to back up before installing each one, and you will
probably not want to use them for serious work until you are pretty sure
that you have the one you will want to keep. I found that all of them had a
hard time removing themselves in such a way that the built-in apps could
handle the data once the programs were removed. Of them all, Dateman was
the worst, and Action Names had problems with the todo soup.
Happy hunting!
-Jon Glass
Krakow, Poland
<mailto:jonglass_at_usa.net>
================ end forwarded text ===================
-- -Jon Glass Krakow, Poland <jonglass_at_usa.net> -- This is the NewtonTalk list - http://www.newtontalk.net/ for all inquiries Official Newton FAQ: http://www.chuma.org/newton/faq/ WikiWikiNewt for all kinds of articles: http://tools.unna.org/wikiwikinewt/
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