iambic Releases Agendus 7.0

I do like action names/agendus, just not the hoops and upgrades we must pay to have a stable version. The product is very good, but not until the bugs have been worked out.

Iambic slicks up their app, but adds no real new functionality

I don't run Microsoft software either...

Leaving aside the ethical issues of the past (we do have to move past that sooner or later), what really distresses me is that I participated in their open beta program and I'm left with the feeling that the product was rushed out the door before there was time to really address many of the testers concerns or bugs...

I've been on many beta teams for products ranging from shareware to full-blown enterprise-scale commercial applications. I have never seen a beta cycle rushed through so quickly in my life. I've seen minor Service Packs in beta for longer than Agendus was!

In almost every case, I expect that a stable beta version is produced and given to testers to confirm that everything works before the final release (which usually ends up being just a version-number change, and perhaps a few really minor cosmetic bugs). There were maybe three beta builds in a two-week period, and the last beta build (360) was still full of bugs, some of which were quite serious. Four days after the last beta build was sent out, I wake up one morning to discover that they've taken the next build and [I]released[/I] it, without even giving it a QA cycle (beyond what the developers may have tested themselves).

There is no doubt in my mind that the "released" 7.0 product is basically still a beta.

I am not angry so much as I am disappointed. I cannot continue to risk using Agendus knowing that there may still be lurking issues there that won't be addressed until some future "maintenance" release. Therefore, I have now gone back to the built-in apps on my T3, which although they may not be as flashy and functional, they are at least stable and usable.

So I sent them this e-mail:

Does Agendus use ALL the extra fields on the Tungsten T3, including the
Location field in the calendar, the repeating todos in the the task
database and the birthday and multiple address fields in the contact
database? The web site only mentions the birthday field.

Here's the reply I got from them...

From: iambic Customer Service <customerservice@iambic.com>
Subject: RE: [Other / unlisted] - [Looking for some more info on Agendus 7]
Date: December 11, 2003 8:38:55 PM EST
To: blocked out to stop spammers

No, only the b day fields

Best regards,
Lee
Technical Support
iambic Software
http://support.iambic.com
*If you respond to this email, please attach all previous messages and
files relating to this issue.

-----Original Message-----
From: blocked to stop spammers
Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2003 9:12 AM
To: iambic Sales
Subject: [Other / unlisted] - [Looking for some more info on Agendus 7]

Does Agendus use ALL the extra fields on the Tungsten T3, including the
Location field in the calendar, the repeating todos in the the task
database and the birthday and multiple address fields in the contact
database? The web site only mentions the birthday field.

I recently tried Agendus 7 on my T3. Here are my gripes about it (not necessarily bugs, but reasons I will not purchase this product).

1. T3's location field is not supported. When I am in my car, late for a meeting, I need to see the location field so I know where to call. Click on a meeting in agendus and you get an ugly, usless time bar, but you can't see what number to dial into. What good is a PIM if you can't find your meeting locations? I work in a large company, so we have hundreds of lines and conference rooms, and I need that field visible.

I have to laugh that Palm themselves screwed up their own calendar application by making that field disappear when you click on a meeting. What an idiotic problem to have. But Agendus will not display it at all.

2. I used to love the function in Action Names when I completed a todo and it could be logged to the Daily Journal. I use the Franklin-Covey method, and I hate manually writing my journal. In Agendus, the logging is only done to a contact? Why would I need that? When I need to see when I completed some action, I don't need someone's name and address. I need my history file and the date I did it.

3. I just read the story about Iambic's unethical hijacking of Pimlico's name for their URL. That makes them scum, imo.

4. Their forum responses are pretty lame. If you write to Pimlico, you get straight answers. If you write to Iambic, "MonsterCrash" may or may not respond to you, and if they do, it usually is to say "Thanks for the feedback. We will implement this next time." Next time?

I paid for Action Names Datebook - twice. I don't feel I should have to pay for a product that basically looks exactly like it did in 2001.

I'm done with Iambic. They can go to Hell.

One thing I HAVE always missed, however, is AN/Agendus' wonderful Contacts interface, which IMO has no equal. I love the tabs, the different sorting abilities, and the call logging capabilities. I took a look at the beta of 7.0 just ot see what it could do. I was pleased to see that it supports the new fields for contacts, something no one else has seemed to do yet. I would love to see this Contacts part of Agendus as a stand-alone app. While I still have much disdain for Iambic, I can see myself coughing up $10.00 or so for this little feature, which seems to be the part of Agendus with few if any bugs.

Give me the stand-alone app over the whole of Agendus anyday, and maybe you could even call it Action Names again.

_________________
Sean

Always remember that you are unique. Just like everyone else.