[MW Forums]

Chronos has released SOHO Notes and SOHO Organizer 5.5; each new version has myriad improvements. more

[Nobody]

Does SOHO Organizer 5.5 import Palm Desktop 4.2.1? Palm Desktop has not been updated for ages, is buggy and limited and has not been updated for ages. A shame, but we need a much better product that has unlimited characters per memo field, more address fields, more characters per address field, etc.

[justme2]

Wish there was a discount on SOHO Organizer for Sticky Brain users -- I just did the free upgrade to SOHO Notes, and was looking at SOHO Organizer but since it includes Notes it seems a bit redundant. I'm looking for a better calendaring system than Entourage (I'm getting a lot of spinning beachballs under Rosetta with the Intel iMac), and I'm not all that crazy about iCal despite the cost (free). I guess I could see if I can do a free download and try it out for a bit...

[glawrie]

Just a word of warning - SOHO Organizer / Notes are great conceptual apps, but they have had a torrid time getting from drawing board to reality. Unfortunately Chronos (the developer) has done this via commerical releases, and for last six months at least has been selling software that simply doesn't work as advertised. With 5.5 the product has moved on hugely from the downright dangerous 5.0.5, but basic features (such as month type calendar views) are yet to break on the application, and the highly desirable synchronisation features (with iSync / .Mac / Palm etc.) still giving serious headaches.
Before you even try the product I recommend you scan the support forums on the Chronos site (http://discussions.chronosnet.com/) carefully. Also, bear in mind that Chronos policy is to delete messages on that forum that are critical of the product - so what you see there is the best of the issues...

[Nobody]

Oops! The useful "Memo" feature of Palm Desktop seems to be missing from Soho Organizer. A shame because that is essential to us! Also missing is the possibility to write notes inside the address cards.

[tmedia1]

In reply to:

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Does SOHO Organizer 5.5 import Palm Desktop 4.2.1? Palm Desktop has not been updated for ages, is buggy and limited and has not been updated for ages. A shame, but we need a much better product that has unlimited characters per memo field, more address fields, more characters per address field, etc.

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I also use Palm 4.2.1 and I know many others are too and thank goodness it still works with my Samsung i500 Palm phone and Mac. I really wish someone would update Palm Desktop. Its a solid app, but I sure would like to see it improve as you have suggested. I would pay money for this update! Palm are you listening?

[chronosteam]

There are always two sides to a story so let me share the Chronos perspective. Chronos tries to go to great lengths to keep its forums professional, courteous, and on topic (technical issues regarding our software). We've had TWO or THREE of these users repeatedly violate the forum rules to which they agreed to abide by, so it's true that we've had to very reluctantly delete SOME (<10) of their posts.
That said, Chronos technical support is rather unique in that you can literally view all of our "dirty laundry" both good and bad. Very few software companies dare to make their support so public for obvious reasons--it's a lot "safer" to keep all those bugs and problems out of the public spotlight via private email support.
We invite you to visit and use our support problems whether you have a question or want to answer a question for another user. Of course, our support forums are filled with problems and issues since that is what ours are exclusively focused on. Hope this gives you a different and helpful perspective.
The Chronos Team

[chronosteam]

Actually, SOHO Organizer is a suite of integrated applications. One of these applications is SOHO Notes which is a very powerful note or memo manager that exceeds anything built into the Palm Desktop or the old Personal Organizer. An unlimited number of notes can be attached to any contact plus each contact has its own dedicated notes field. Hope this clarifies SOHO Organizer's memo capabilities,
The Chronos Team

[Arne]

I would be very much interested how SOHO Notes 5.5 scores against Yojimbo.
Maybe an article for one of the upcoming issues....?
Cheers,
arne

[bastion]

A shame, but we need a much better product...
I think you may have lost sight of the fact that Palm Desktop is a piece of companion software for Palm OS handheld devices. The improvements you'd like make no sense because the Palm apps PD complements don't have those features.

[kongjie]

I have owned and used StickyBrain for some time. Recent versions, it seems to me, have become more bloated and less reliable. Starting up the app, for example, takes a long time as you wait for the database to open. Granted I'm on an oldish Quicksilver G4, but still a note/password/serial number app is something I use every day and SB was getting on my nerves a bit, to the point that a couple of weeks ago I decided to move to Yojimbo.
Fast, convenient and no-nonsense--pretty much what I've come to expect from Bare Bones.
Dropping StickyBrain for SOHO strikes me as very odd...I don't need all the features from SOHO, just an app where I can look up a password or random note. The folks at Chronosnet have been helpful in the past when I've come across a problem, so I don't hold anything against them, but I don't like this switch.

[bastion]

Starting up the app, for example, takes a long time as you wait for the database to open. Granted I'm on an oldish Quicksilver G4, ...
I'm a 2x1.8GHz G5. It takes a long time. I'm thinking that it's very diskbound. Which of course makes sense for a database, but I'd hope that as much reading as possible could be defered for idle time and/or demand. On the other hand....
to the point that a couple of weeks ago I decided to move to Yojimbo.
I'm taking a wait-and-see on that. I wouldn't want to do without BBEdit, but I really did not enjoy MailSmith as a product or, more problematically, as a support experience.
I don't need all the features from SOHO, just an app where I can look up a password or random note.
Actually, if that's all you need, the keychain functionality included with the OS might be sufficient.