[Evl]

Originally Posted by srotman

I come from the world of Nokias where I was very happy, but decided to make the jump to BlackBerry with the hopes that it would help me stay organized (read: I'm VERY disorganized!). What I have come to find is that a simple feature doesn't exist for BlackBerries that I came to rely on in my Nokias. I have used 8700's, Pearls and Curves, and it seems that no one at RIM cares about this feature. The incredibly complex feature I speak of is as follows:

... CUSTOM REMINDERS!!!
Why don't we have these options? Do business people, the people RIM designed BlackBerries for, not have birthdays or anniversaries? Better yet, when I chose anniversary or birthday it asked me the year the person was born/couple was married, and would tell me how they were or what anniversary it was when it reminded me. Why don't we have this?

I'm getting side tracked. Back to the problem...

So I would setup a reminder to go off on a certain day at a certain time. I could choose if it was recurring (daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, etc.). And the best feature of all was that when the reminder went off on my phone, I was presented with two options: "Dismiss" or "Remind Again"!!! What? Remind again? What's that? Simple. You choose remind again, and then you're given a LIST OF OPTIONS to choose from to indicate when you'd like to be reminded again.

But BlackBerries already have a snooze option you say? That's crap. I don't want a static option set so that I tell it I want that task or calendar appointment to snooze for a precise time frame (e.g. 1 day) every time I tell it to snooze! Perhaps I have a task that I set to remind today. When it goes off I want to tell it to remind again in an hour. I'll do the same thing the next hour if I still can't get to it. And if I decide today's not a good day, I want to say remind again in 1 day, or 2 days, etc.

With my Nokia I could CHOOSE when to remind me again. I need reminders, and it seems as though BlackBerries were not designed to be dynamic and customizable devices. It seems as though you do things one way or no way at all.

I have had Nokia's for the past 10 years, and while reading this i had a wry smile. I think that you need a watch and a diary with a pen to make a list; Failing that a secretary to monitor you during the day.

If you cant remember something that you put off in the morning, perhaps a doctor is what you need best. Nokia's were good, but that was a few years ago and the things you liked about them are now charged with software problems. I liked the things you remember but what i didnt like is the phone crashing when you made a call or sent a text message.

BB's are made to sync with your PC and download your info into so that you have your list of what you have in your day, not keep your schedule up to date because you want to snooze though it or because your behind.

[complexx]

Originally Posted by option94

Wirelessly posted (At&t curve)

There may be others that feel this way, but your definitely the minority.

I completely disagree. I am a "business person" and i would be very happy if when I set a task, or an item in my calander and my BB displays that it needs to be done, if I could choose whether to do it now, in an hour, in 6 hours, in 1 day, in 1 week, in 1 month, etc...

I think that would be very useful. I really dislike having to go and edit appointments and tasks in order to get reminded for the next time around, its a PITA.

[complexx]

Originally Posted by andy_k

I don't see a huge issue here - just move the calendar event to a new time/day. surely that's the same as a custom snooze?

Just because it ultimately performs the same function doesn't mean it does it in a timely, stress-less, manner. It's much easier to select "remind me in X hours/days" when the reminding pops up, than to snooze, go into calander or task, find correct entry, open it (wait for the BB catch up) scroll to date/time, make changes, save, back out to home screen.

[pegb856]

I use the calendar for recurring items I need reminders for. If I want to be reminded again I just open (open this occurrence) and change the reminder field. Probably not many keystrokes more than you had with the nokia.

Just MHO.

[leifandmindy]

I have an issue with reminders but it may be a different deal and I think I may have posted it before. I have my default reminder set to 5 minutes. I like that for meetings. We also use Lotus Notes here at work. If I receive a meeting invite, it will not use the 5 minute reminder. Initially I would accept the invite and the go to the meeting and add a reminder. Now I have found that if I do a view calendar from the invite it will let me add it on the fly. Then I can accept it. I usually don't hit snooze or anything like that. Sorry if this doesn't fit in to the original post, but it has to do with reminders.

[CO_BBTechie]

Originally Posted by srotman

I come from the world of Nokias where I was very happy, but decided to make the jump to BlackBerry with the hopes that it would help me stay organized (read: I'm VERY disorganized!). What I have come to find is that a simple feature doesn't exist for BlackBerries that I came to rely on in my Nokias.

I bought a Ford Escort and was absolutely BS that it didn't have the same tires as the Corvette that I was used to. Stupid Ford doesn't seem to realize that we all love Corvette tires.

All boils down to the OP failing to adequately research the device prior to purchasing it. This should be posted in the R&R section because it has little to do with the technical merit of RIM. It's only a deficiency because you want it. It's not something they told you was awesome and you found to be mediocre.

[BCollins521]

Originally Posted by pegb856

I use the calendar for recurring items I need reminders for. If I want to be reminded again I just open (open this occurrence) and change the reminder field. Probably not many keystrokes more than you had with the nokia.

Just MHO.

Yeup that's exactly what I do..open the occurrence and change the reminder and works just fine...the only other place that I saw that was less keystrokes was WM they had a option in the reminder to set different things instead of changing the occurrence

[jskolm85]

I don't like that when I snooze an appointment or even dismiss it on my BB, that it doesn't sync back to my Outlook. So when I dismiss something, I have to do it again on my PC the next time I open Outlook. That is my only complaint so far. I try not to 'miss' my appointment and reminders.

[srotman]

Originally Posted by CO_BBTechie

I bought a Ford Escort and was absolutely BS that it didn't have the same tires as the Corvette that I was used to. Stupid Ford doesn't seem to realize that we all love Corvette tires.

All boils down to the OP failing to adequately research the device prior to purchasing it. This should be posted in the R&R section because it has little to do with the technical merit of RIM. It's only a deficiency because you want it. It's not something they told you was awesome and you found to be mediocre.

I appreciate that a lot of people have spoken out and share my frustration. I understand this doesn't affect or bother most BB users out there, but I don't think I'm wrong in expecting a company such as RIM to want to do all it can to make its products the most efficient at what they do.

One comment that bothered me is the one I quoted from CO_BBTechie. I think you've missed the point I was trying to make with my initial post. I understand where you are coming from, saying that it's unfair of me to compare apples to oranges in respect to BB vs. Nokia, however I'm not trying to do that. I'm not mad at RIM for not adopting some of the usability features found in Nokia phones, however I think it was something simple that could have gone a long way. Whether or not I have used this feature on a Nokia in the past, I would still seek something similar in the future. Even at work, when Outlook reminds me of an appointment I can choose to snooze for any period of time because sometimes I happen to be busy and a 5 minute reminder will do more harm than good vs. a 1 hour reminder.

I'm living with this, obviously, because there is no way around it. I still find it frustrating having to go into the appointment settings for each calendarized item vs. using the reminder screen that I'm already presented with, but that's life. And in response to JSanders, I already purchased BB Alarms Pro, but my luck, it's not compatible with the BB Bold. So I enjoyed a few months out of it, but now I'm going to have to wait until they get things up and running on OS 4.6.

If anyone else has any suggestions in the future, please let us all know, for the 'minority' of us who would find it helpful.

[bb8310]

Blackberry PIM is rubbish -that's the official verdict.

[CO_BBTechie]

Originally Posted by srotman

One comment that bothered me is the one I quoted from CO_BBTechie.

I don't know why it bothered you so much. It is what it is. This post was more relevant to the rants & raves section. As this is not a bug or otherwise a deficiency in the advertised product. It's not something they do, nor claimed to do, so this is in fact, a rant.

Edit: In retrospect, I should indicate that I didn't mean to make this appear like a personal attack on you. Hey, I don't like it either. But it's just not a feature they advertise. It's just that often times people come up with "why can't/didn't they...."

Well they didn't. It doesn't matter why. If you want it, they don't have it... so you'd be better expending your energy sending an email to . Perhaps if they believe your issue has merit, they may include it in one of the upcoming releases.

[Fibonacci]

Designed to be stream-lined with corporate mail systems... Maybe one day there will be a device that takes your blood type and retinal scans too! .. but until MS Exchange, Lotus Domino or Novell Group Wise utilize these features I wouldn't imagine you'll see a 'Srotman certified reminder function' soon.

Tootles

-Fibonacci

[PaulMdx]

I'm surprised given a number of posters have mentioned improving efficiency that no one has mentioned Getting Things Done - Getting Things Done - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. If you're struggling to find tools to track tasks with your current process, maybe change your process?

GTD has numerous BB software 'implementations', but for me I use a paper-based approach, even as someone who is a very heavy computer user. Why? Because it's easier and faster.

[Golfing]

I agree with Strotman,
I was in shock when my first "Reminder" went off and I only got the two choices of Dismiss or reminder later.
When I pressed "remind later" I expected to be given an option of when to be reminded again.
I'm still not sure when I will be "reminded again" when I select remind me later.
I'm not a programmer but it seems like it would be easy to program that option in to support customer needs.

[bbguy2]

I find that the reminders for anniversaries and appointments work well for me and I don't need much more than that, but others' needs may be different.

I recently started using the principles of Getting Things Done, which actually discourage people from using reminders for tasks as they can just add to the overall stress level. The whole point of GTD is around dealing with busy schedules, which requires a lot of flexibility and task reminders fixed to a particular day and time go against that.

I am using this BlackBerry GTD app called Viira, it's a pretty good organizational tool so you might want to check it out.

And don't give up on your BlackBerry just yet!

[rambo47]

Originally Posted by bb8310

Blackberry PIM is rubbish -that's the official verdict.

Agreed. It's designed to work through BES along with Outlook. BIS users could use MUCH stronger PIM functions. Pocket Informant may fill that niche, but it's a work in progress. There ain't much out there, aside from Rex Wireless' insanely useful stuff. Rex has upped my productivity tremendously.

If RIM were to add features to their basic PIM functions, like customizable reminders, it could only add to the platform's appeal. They've added a ton of multimedia capabilities in recent years, so how about some more flexible productivity solutions?

[StuartV]

Originally Posted by Fibonacci

Designed to be stream-lined with corporate mail systems... Maybe one day there will be a device that takes your blood type and retinal scans too! .. but until MS Exchange, Lotus Domino or Novell Group Wise utilize these features I wouldn't imagine you'll see a 'Srotman certified reminder function' soon.

Tootles

-Fibonacci

Uhhhh, Outlook does exactly what he asked for. That's not "corporate" enough for you?

What is with all you people jumping on srotman?? He wants a perfectly reasonable feature. Outlook does it. Just because some of you are using a less efficient work-around and are satisfied doesn't mean that srotman's desire is not a very reasonable question to be asking.

I'm with him. Ever since I got my Pearl, I have really missed having the Snooze work like Snooze in Outlook.

[markaseos]

Originally Posted by BCollins521

Yeup that's exactly what I do..open the occurrence and change the reminder and works just fine...the only other place that I saw that was less keystrokes was WM they had a option in the reminder to set different things instead of changing the occurrence

The problem that I have with one is that I see the task in the calendar and confuses my schedule. Let's suppose that I have to take a pill at 13.00 every day. How to I do that? If I set that in the calendar then it will show up in my schedule - lately I set up a whole procedure at work - I wanted to be reminded several things during the day. I just couldn't do it. Reminders is an issue (by the way I love my BB)
Spyros

[alb123]

I can not believe how many people have responded to the OP like he made a personal attack on your loved one. BlackBerry devices are not perfect. Just because he (along with many others) think a certain feature of the device could be made better does not mean he's knocking the overall product. Geesh...

I agree with him that the PIM functions could be greatly improved upon. Every device could use improvements. If you think your BlackBerry is 100% perfect right now...then all I can say is "WOW!"..

ALB

[DZD]

I've used BlackBerries for years - absolutely love them - AND I gotta agree with the OP on this one. RIM if you could make the Snooze feature be a dropdown with a list of options (min, hr, days, week, etc. - like Outlook) it would be Awesome!!

Sure there are 3rd party apps out there - but this shouldn't be that difficult. I've seen each new release of the BB OS add improvements (such as the ability to view others availability in Calendar) so I would guess (hope, pray) that this will be added soon.