[avishay]

Hi all!

We've just released our first version of SBSH Calendar Pro, initially released today as public beta and available for free download to all users!

In a nutshell, the goal of Calendar Pro is to offer a powerful personal information manager (PIM) that replaces the built-in Calendar and Tasks applications on your BlackBerry device with a more robust time management system. Calendar Pro brings integrated display and management that allow you to manage both appointments and tasks in one solution, innovative item editing dialogs with: tab-based interface, full screen note preview, field-icons and much more!

While in initial public beta stages the application is available for free download (and also doesn't include any future limitations, so it will continue to operate). It is important to mention that future versions of the application are planned to be commercial eventually (this is something I believe is important to clear), but at these initial stage we would like to get many users to help us with feedback about the application development and in return we decided to go with this free public beta phase that we hope will help us receive more feedback from our users in return

Users that would like to read more about the new public beta version can find the complete information and download details at the following URL:

forums.sbsh.net/index.php?showtopic=24629

As mentioned above, if you decided to take Calendar Pro for a try we invite you to post back with your experience and please be sure to post back with any new ideas, features requests and so on that you have - with this information we will structure upcoming public beta versions that will be out every week or so from now, and hopefully within a few more updates we will also get closer to the first official release.

The road for the new Calendar Pro is still long (we are aware to this), but we hope that with the help of our users we will be able to bring a new fine product to the market! We really hope that you will enjoy the new PIM application and that indeed there is a need for such new applications in the BlackBerry market as we think there is

Cheers!

[Lecter]

Looks good, might check it out!

Here's the clickable link for you lazy people!

SBSH Calendar Pro for BlackBerry first public beta is herexxx33; - SBSH Mobile Software Forums

[avishay]

Thanks Lecter!

Calendar Pro is indeed a winner and I recommend trying it out.. after all - it's FREE!

Thanks for providing the link to our site!

Let me know if there's anything I can assist you with!

[mdlissner]

Originally Posted by avishay

Thanks Lecter!

Calendar Pro is indeed a winner and I recommend trying it out.. after all - it's FREE!

Thanks for providing the link to our site!

Let me know if there's anything I can assist you with!

avishay,

Welcome - and thanks for adding calender pro to the list of available PIM choices for Blackberry users.

I am installing it as I type this message. I will try to post my feedback to your forum later today.

Does Calendar Pro use the native database of create its own proprietary database and sync to the native database?

Before I start I will give some feedback on what is needed:
- ability to link contacts to calendar and task items so that a user can initiate a dial/email/sms directly from your app.
- Shortcut keys similar to the native apps that allow for easy navigation.
- robust view settings to allow for user customization of how they want their views to look.

[avishay]

Originally Posted by mdlissner

avishay,

Welcome - and thanks for adding calender pro to the list of available PIM choices for Blackberry users.

I am installing it as I type this message. I will try to post my feedback to your forum later today.

Does Calendar Pro use the native database of create its own proprietary database and sync to the native database?

Before I start I will give some feedback on what is needed:
- ability to link contacts to calendar and task items so that a user can initiate a dial/email/sms directly from your app.
- Shortcut keys similar to the native apps that allow for easy navigation.
- robust view settings to allow for user customization of how they want their views to look.

Hi mdlissner!

Thanks for your support!

Calendar Pro is structured on top of the OS databases and therefore if your default Calendar application syncs nicely with BIS/BES you should have no problem using Calendar Pro with it too without any problem.

I'm looking forward for more thoughts and ideas how we can continue and improve things with upcoming update! It will be great if you posted your feedback on our forums so our development team will take them into consideration

Enjoy!

[akosnitzky]

Wirelessly posted (Its All About the U!)

I see we have to first register on another site????

Or is there a simple OTA download that I missed?

[mdlissner]

Initial impression after downloading and briefly playing with the program:

- No settings screens at all. Need to be able to change the font sizes (at a minimum) and potentially text colors.

- very nice layout to your editors for items. Compared to the other PIMs I would give this the highest grade. When you navigate to the different tabs scrolling left/rigth

- very nice implementation of scrolling throught an agenda view with the time bar moving up top. Also left/right scroll moves you to the previous/next day. Really need a "Go to Date" command either in the menu or as a keyboard shortcut to allow quick navigation.

- need for task sorting options. Right now overdue tasks show up at the bottom of the list. If you could give the user the option to sort by:
- Due Date
- Priority
- Subject
And let the user set which is priority 1, 2, and 3 and ascending/descinding for each that would be the best solution.

- You get the save, discard, cancel dialog box after viewing an item even if there are no changes. Can you eliminate this to save a step.

- You have some timezone related issues with tasks. My tasks show up at a different time in your application than in the native app. I am in the US East time zone, connected to a BES server on the US West coast and it seems to be causing an issue.

Overall I would give you very high grades for a first entry. Good luck, and when possible please add an OTA download capability for future builds.

[avishay]

Hi akosnitzky!

You only need to register on our forums, and then you will be able to enter your forums username and download the application for free.

You can register to our forums at the following URL:
forums.sbsh.net/index.php?act=Reg&CODE=00

Once you have your forums username you can download the application at the following URL:
sbsh.net/products/blackberry/calendar_pro/download

If you come across any problem let me know and I'll be glad to assist

Enjoy!

[akosnitzky]

Wirelessly posted (Its All About the U!)

Thank you
Will try today

[mdlissner]

Originally Posted by avishay

Hi mdlissner!

Thanks for your support!

Calendar Pro is structured on top of the OS databases and therefore if your default Calendar application syncs nicely with BIS/BES you should have no problem using Calendar Pro with it too without any problem.

I'm looking forward for more thoughts and ideas how we can continue and improve things with upcoming update! It will be great if you posted your feedback on our forums so our development team will take them into consideration

Enjoy!

avishay,

I tried, but for some reason, even after registering and logging in, I cannot post my comments on your forum. Is there some sort of permission that needs to be set on your end? I can log in successfully, just cannot reply to the post.

<Fixed - I clicked the wrong link in the activation email> Posted my comments on your forum.

[dogth99]

Oh, use on BB8800 is failure

[akosnitzky]

Wirelessly posted (Its All About the U!)

Any other feedback from anyone else?

[avishay]

Originally Posted by dogth99

Oh, use on BB8800 is failure

Hi dogth99,

Can you describe the failure for me?

You can either ask me or post about it on the forums. Either way, we're here to help

[akosnitzky]

Anyway to get the link and avoid registering on your site?? Maybe you are getting traffic there from users on this site. I dont know.

[mdlissner]

Avishay - are you going to post here each time you put out a new version of the beta?

I would like to stay informed of updates and change logs.

Thanks,

Mark

[avishay]

Originally Posted by mdlissner

Avishay - are you going to post here each time you put out a new version of the beta?

I would like to stay informed of updates and change logs.

Thanks,

Mark

Hi Mark,

I guess the best way will be subscribing to the beta forum since this is the most reliable way to get informed.

I will also try keeping you posted here but I'm sure that the automated system will do this better than me

If you need anything else - let me know.

[mdlissner]

Originally Posted by mdlissner

Initial impression after downloading and briefly playing with the program:

- No settings screens at all. Need to be able to change the font sizes (at a minimum) and potentially text colors.

- very nice layout to your editors for items. Compared to the other PIMs I would give this the highest grade. When you navigate to the different tabs scrolling left/rigth

- very nice implementation of scrolling throught an agenda view with the time bar moving up top. Also left/right scroll moves you to the previous/next day. Really need a "Go to Date" command either in the menu or as a keyboard shortcut to allow quick navigation.

- need for task sorting options. Right now overdue tasks show up at the bottom of the list. If you could give the user the option to sort by:
- Due Date
- Priority
- Subject
And let the user set which is priority 1, 2, and 3 and ascending/descinding for each that would be the best solution.

- You get the save, discard, cancel dialog box after viewing an item even if there are no changes. Can you eliminate this to save a step.

- You have some timezone related issues with tasks. My tasks show up at a different time in your application than in the native app. I am in the US East time zone, connected to a BES server on the US West coast and it seems to be causing an issue.

Overall I would give you very high grades for a first entry. Good luck, and when possible please add an OTA download capability for future builds.

Avishay - subscribed to the thread on the sbsh forums. Can you comment on my initial impressions? No one has replied to them here or on your forum either.

I am very impressed with your initial offering. I have tried and used every PIM for the BB. The competition is getting better with your addition and I still do not have something that does everything I truly would like in a PIM (coming from using a PalmOS PIM about two years ago).

[avishay]

Originally Posted by mdlissner

Avishay - subscribed to the thread on the sbsh forums. Can you comment on my initial impressions? No one has replied to them here or on your forum either.

I am very impressed with your initial offering. I have tried and used every PIM for the BB. The competition is getting better with your addition and I still do not have something that does everything I truly would like in a PIM (coming from using a PalmOS PIM about two years ago).

Hi mdlissner

I thank you for posting your comments on Calendar Pro beta group.

I assure you that all your comment were viewed by our moderators team and that with the next version release many of the issues you noted will be fixed.

I apologize for that the moderators team didn't respond to your comments, but I hope you will understand that they are REALLY busy these days working on the next versions..

I hope you will find anything you need in a PIM in the final Calendar Pro version release

If there's anything else - please let me know!

[mas90guru]

I really think you should make this available for download without registration.

[amitregev]

Originally Posted by akosnitzky

Anyway to get the link and avoid registering on your site?? Maybe you are getting traffic there from users on this site. I dont know.

Hi Akosnitzky

Since we are providing users with the ability to download the new Calendar Pro public beta as a free download our main goal at this stage is to try and gather as much feedback as possible from users and therefore we require the registration phase - which hopefully will be a fair incentive to get users to post back with more comments about the new application experience

In terms of traffic, the discussion on our forums is limited only to our applications so I honestly don't think we are offering a similar discussion on both sites in any way that can offer any replacement for users. Since many of the users who download the new Calendar Pro from our web-site are arriving from different articles and not only from discussion forums such as the one here, we want to offer some area that those users will be able to post with their input too and therefore we try to gather the majority of the input about the current first build, along with upcoming builds that are already in the works, within the Calendar Pro for BlackBerry forum.

I hope that this make some sense, or at least gives some indication why the short registration is required before we offer Calendar Pro for download.

Of course that the same registration details will work just fine for the upcoming public beta builds too, so once the upcoming builds will be posted (probably within the next two or three days now), you should have no problem downloading it with the same registration from our web-site easily too.

Cheers