A brief update on my Palm OS/DateBk to iPod Touch Migration

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Posted by Ken
Jul 6, 2009 at 04:13 AM

It has been quite a few months since I purchased an iPod Touch (iPT) to see if it, and some web-based software could replacemy beloved DateBk on an old Sony Clie. Granted, my work schedule has been quite hectic, and my Clie continues to plug along, so this experiment has been worked on when time permits. While the iPT offers many features, I am just going to focus on calendar and task management as that is what I rely on most from a handheld device.

IMHO, Apple missed the boat on its native calendar. Even with the proposed changes in its new OS 3.0, the calendar is quite basic. I will not go into great detail, but my biggest issue has been around alarms and advance notifications. DateBk is far superior to the native iPT calendar. Syncing with Google’s calendar improves it quite a bit, but there are still some gaping holes, mostly related to any type of integrated task management. Now, google offers a beta program for handling tasks in its calendar, but that information is not picked up by the iPT.

Enter Toodledo (TD), www toodledo.com , an online task manager that has an iPT client that works offline and syncs with the web service. I find few web-based programs to be perfect, but TD is quite well thought out and is well supported by its author. I liked it enough to buy a Pro subscription. Here is how I tied it together. It is still a work in progress, but it made the most sense, and it played to each program’s strengths.

The arrangement, which I am still testing before I fully migrate, involves TD, Google Calendar and Mail, Nuevasync and the iPT native calendar. I have not yet upgraded to OS 3.0 from Apple, but this system should work just as well in either OS on the iPT.

For my new calendar, I am proposing that its items be populated by anything requiring a specific block of time to which I have made a commitment. Appointments, vacation, personal engagements, etc. The idea being that if I need to schedule an event on the calendar, I can see at a glance what time is or is not available for the potential commitment. This calendar would be available on the web at Google, and on my iPT on or off line, synced by Nuevasync.

Tasks, dated or otherwise, will most likely live in TD, although I am still having to adjust to the concept of having all of my birthdays and other dated anniversaries not on my calendar. I may put these on my new calendar, but I will probably not decide until I can figure out which program is better at handling recurring events.

Now, here is how I am proposing to link the two together. TD and Gmail, will act as my visual reminder/notification system. My TD Pro account lets me send e-mail reminders for specific tasks, and Google’s Calendar offers the same feature. So, for the time being, I have all of my TD reminder notifications sent to my Gmail account, and my Google Calendar reminders are also sent to Toodledo. Gmail will be the place to look if I just want to view my reminders. Toodledo will be the place to go if I need to get into the detail of my tasks, as it should be. And, my calendar will be reserved for when I need to find open time for appointments involving time commitments.

It works reasonably well on the iPT or on a PC and it gives me a list of notifications that I can view at my leisure. I can still use Apple’s calendar if I want an audible notification within two days of an event scheduled on a calenar, but I have found over the years that I mostly use the audible calendar as a travel alarm. I am usually tuned into the clock, and a list of reminders serves me better than an audible alarm.

I would like to have everything in one place, and TD does offer an iCal feed, but Google needs to get its act together with respect to iCal feeds and its handling of tasks. Right now, feeding TD into Google with iCal is too static, and it becomes stale quite quickly. In contrast, my arrangement seems to take advantage of each program’s strengths, and it avoids what I find to be weaknesses. Its a start, and it has taken me some time to cobble together, so I am sure it will change over time. In fact, it already did this morning when I added PingMe to the line up. I am evaluating it, but I like its simple free form system for “quick and dirty” notifications. And, it seems to tie in nicely with Google and Toodledo.

I had considered Pocket Informant for the iPT, but it the current version is not able to meet my needs. I expect that as it matures it will be worth consideration. As I do not want to ramble on, I would be more than happy to elaborate on any points if somebody needs more information or opinions. I will also post more as I have time to try out my proposed arrangement.

—Ken

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