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Contacts 5 and ToDo Now from PDA Performance
July 1, 2004
Contacts 5 is a superpowered contact manager for Palm OS devices. It features an attractive interface, which is nice, but the important thing here is how it helps you keep track of all the people in your life. In that regard, it does a great job. A line of letters stretches across the top of the screen, providing one tap access to every letter of the alphabet. A category drowdown in the top right corner allows you to narrow things down quickly. As you scroll through your contacts, you can see a variety of details at the bottom of the screen, courtesy of a preview pane (available only on high res devices). The tabs on the preview pane allow you to see name, phone numbers, address, miscellaneous information, and notes for each contact without actually opening the full contact record. The first icon at the bottom of the screen lets you to add a new contact, while the second one allows you to beam or send contacts by category or individually, as well as beam your business card or family card. Other icons provide access to program preferences and the help system. At the top of the screen, two icons provide control over the contact sorting order and the second column information (company, address, etc.
The last icon switches to SmartContacts view, which provides another way to find specific contacts. This view includes a list of names at the top of the screen and a series of large buttons at the bottom. Start tapping buttons one at a time and find all contacts that match that particular letter combination. I have almost 1000 contacts in my Tapwave Zodiac, but it took only two stylus taps to find what I was looking for every time. This feature works for first names, last names, and companies all as the same time, so even if you’re not exactly sure what you’re looking for, you’ll still probably find it rather fast. A preference icon at the bottom of the screen allows you to choose exactly what kind of information is included in the search, such as city and state, zip code, country, and the information in the custom fields. Once you have the right contact, tap on the phone icon and you’ll be taken to the “Dial Phone Number” screen. This allows you to choose which number to dial for the contact, which is important these days with everyone having home, work, cell, and mobile numbers. Choose the dialer you want to use (depending on the particular phone you have, like a Treo or Kyocera), and Contacts 5 will ask if you want each call to be automatically added to the contact history.
The contact history provides a record of every interaction with an individual, and is generally accessed through the edit screen. The time the contact was created and last edited is included by default, and it is possible to add more by tapping on the Add icon at the bottom of the screen. Several different choices are offered, such as meetings and conversations, or you can create your own. You can specify the date and time, as well as the color of the entry and an icon. It is important to note that the icon is not one from a standard icon database, but from a selection included with Contacts 5. Other features of the edit screen include tabs on the right to quickly move from general information to contact notes, to extra details. It is possible to add birthday and anniversary information to Contacts 5, as well as a nickname, spouse’s name, department and office, and IM address. Icons differentiate between MSN Messenger, AOL, Yahoo, and ICQ. This extra information is great, but unfortunately it is very difficult or even impossible to read it on the desktop. Contacts 5 does use the standard Address database, but the extra information is added to the notes for each contact in a format that isn’t very easily understandable at all. You can probably figure out the nickname and IM address, but not the birthday or any of the contact history information. This is a rather serious shortcoming in what is otherwise an excellent contact managerment application. For an example of the “right” way to handle this, check out Agendus. Unless you have Agendus for Windows, you can’t access the actual contact history function, but if you log each event/to do (which can be done automatically via a preference) the information goes into the contact’s notes in a completely readable and open format. Otherwise I can only recommend Contacts 5 for those who can accept the limitation or who are completely handheld-focused, using a desktop computer more for backup than for actual data access and manipulation.
Contacts 5 requires 784K of space on your Palm OS device and is available for $19.95 from the PDA Performance web site.
PocketGoddess Rating for Contacts 5: 
ToDo Now
ToDo Now is the new kid on the block, as it were, but it packs a powerful punch. The interface is remarkably clean, which makes it easy to use but does tend to hide some of the more powerful features. Tabs along the top of the screen allow you to quickly change views from all to dos, undated, due today, overdue, and completed. I can do this in Agendus of course, but not nearly so quickly. Just to the right of the tabs you’ll find a magnifying glass icon that takes you straight to a find function within ToDo Now. That’s a great way to find to dos fast, instead of using the built-in Find function on your Palm OS device, which will search through ALL applications. Just above the tabs, at the very top of the screen, icons allow you to choose how to dos are sorted and which category you want to view. The icon in the middle of the screen deserves a bit more attention, because tapping it will bring up a list of commonly used words. Simply tap again and the word is inserted wherever the cursor is, saving a great deal of time and stylus stress from entering “meeting” five times a day using Graffiti. The list is fully editable and customizable and is a great feature.
There are several more icons at the bottom of the screen. Starting from the left, the first one adds a new to do item, and the second accesses the template feature. The third icon, a large check mark on top of a clipboard, actually performs several different tasks. Tap it once and a menu pops up, offering you the choice to edit either the details or the memo associated with a particular to do item, beam or send it to another device, delete or duplicate the item, or create a new template from the selected to do. The fourth icon allows you to choose from four different font options, set your security level (show/hide/mask) for private records, set your preferences, choose the display colors, or enter your regstration information. The last icon takes you straight to the surprisingly full-featured help system that aids you in getting the most out of ToDo Now.
Choose to edit an individual to do item, and that’s where you start to see some of the more advanced features. A large “Attachments” box is at the top of the screen, and tapping the Add button allows you to create a link from any of the built-in databases as well as any file on an expansion card. This is a powerful way to keep projects and tasks organized, the uses of which are limited only by the imagination. It’s also possible to change the item’s priority, attach an icon from any icon database on your device, change the due date, mark it complete, etc. At the top of the screen you’ll see a small icon that allows you to quickly mark the item private, insert “quick” text from the word list, or change/assign the to do category. A tab on the right allows you to switch to memo view so that you can add notes to the to do item.
I’m very impressed with this application, mainly because it is both simple and powerful. I was concerned at first about the lack of documentation for ToDo Now (it’s on the way), but it really isn’t necessary. The interface is top notch, and it’s obvious that the developers paid a great deal of attention to detail. Subtle visual clues like the color coded priorities (1 is red, 2 is orange, 3 is green, 4 is red, and 5 is black) may not be all that noticeable at first glance, but they do add to the overall appeal of ToDo Now. If you have a lot of to do items but don’t need the “extras” associated with a full PIM like Agendus or DateBk5, I highly recommend ToDo Now from PDA Performance. It requires 747K of space on your handheld and is available now for only $14.95 at the PDA Performance web site.
PocketGoddess Rating for ToDo Now: 
Conclusion
As it stands, the combination of Contacts5 and ToDo Now is a powerful one, but I’m not ready to switch from Agendus—yet. I’d like to see some more integration between the two programs, such as a quick jump icon in their respective menu bars, as well as user “parse-able” information in the notes for Contacts 5 items, so my extra data is available on the desktop as well as the handheld. I hope that PDA Performance is either working on a calendar component or is planning to develop one soon, as well as a memo pad replacement. With at least a calendar program and some tight integration, Contacts 5 and ToDo Now could easily be part of a suite of programs that can complete with DateBk5 and Agendus. I’ve been a diehard Agendus user for several years now, but ToDo Now especially has me hoping that something even better is on the horizon from PDA Performance. I may not have that long to wait, considering that I just received word that Life@Hand is coming soon. They wouldn’t give me very much information yet but there will be periodic teaser updates on the Life@Hand web site. I can’t wait!
