We are happy to announce the release of Vehicle Manager version 3.5.

Vehicle Manager is our automotive solution allowing to proactively track and manage a single car up to a fleet of vehicles. It records a variety of information about car vitals as well as recurring expenses such as scheduled maintenances and gas fill-ups. Information can be stored on mobile devices as well as on desktop pcs. Users owning both the desktop and the mobile portion of the solution will enjoy the included 2 way data synchronization capability.

This update introduces the brand new Vehicle Manager for Palm OS, compatible with all smartphones and handhelds Palm OS 4.0 or above powered -- including Treo and Centro. Feature-wise, it carries all the benefits and functionalities available on its Windows Mobile counterparts, appropriately adapted to seamlessly fit in the Palm OS user interface and usage model.

Best of all, the desktop portion of the solution (available standalone as well as part of the "Vehicle Manager for Palm OS and Windows Bundle") now includes a conduit, allowing to synchronize vehicle data with the Palm OS application.

As part of this same 3.5 release, the Windows Desktop, Windows Mobile Pocket PC (WM6 Pro) and Smartphone (WM6 Standard) clients -- including related ActiveSync Providers -- have been updated as well, and carry various improvements following feedback and suggestions collected through our User Community.

- Vehicle Manager for Palm OS (NEW!):
Entry Area: http://www.iambic.com/vehiclemanager/palmos/
What's new: http://www.iambic.com/vehiclemanager/palmos/
Download: http://www.iambic.com/vehiclemanager/palmos/

- Vehicle Manager for Windows:

Entry Area: http://www.iambic.com/vehiclemanager/windows/
What's new: http://www.iambic.com/vehiclemanager/windows/whatsnew.asp
Download: http://www.iambic.com/vehiclemanager/windows/trial.asp

- Vehicle Manager for Windows Mobile Pocket PC:

Entry Area: http://www.iambic.com/vehiclemanager/wmppc/
What's new: http://www.iambic.com/vehiclemanager/wmppc/whatsnew.asp
Download: http://www.iambic.com/vehiclemanager/wmppc/trial.asp

- Vehicle Manager for Windows Mobile Smartphone:

Entry Area: http://www.iambic.com/vehiclemanager/wmsmartphone/
What's new: http://www.iambic.com/vehiclemanager/wmsmartphone/whatsnew.asp
Download: http://www.iambic.com/vehiclemanager/wmsmartphone/trial.asp

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We are happy to announce the release of Agendus for Windows Mobile version 2.2, available for both Windows Mobile Pocket PC / WM6 Professional and Windows Mobile Smartphone / WM6 Standard.

Agendus for Windows Mobile has been designed from the ground up with one goal in mind: to bring order and piece of mind in the busy life of today's windows mobile phone users. It accomplishes such goal by seamlessly unifying schedule, contact management and task organization in a homogeneous, straightforward and pleasant to use interface. Its out-of-the-box ready to use functionality is complemented by a variety of fine tuning options and preferences aimed at satisfying the novice as well as the power user audiences.

Version 2.2 brings in a number of new features, most noticeable are the ability to synchronize icons and day colors with Agendus for Windows Outlook Edition, Power Search 411 and Power Search Internet, various one handed navigation improvements specially tuned for non-touchscreen phones, and -- as always -- a variety of refinements captured from feedback recently received through our User Community.

- Release Details & Download
 
For the complete list of new features and improvements please see:
http://www.iambic.com/agendus/wmppc/whatsnew.asp

Product Tours and Downloads are available at:

- Pocket PC / WM6 Professional edition:
http://www.iambic.com/agendus/wmppc/details.asp
http://www.iambic.com/agendus/wmppc/trial.asp

- Smartphone / WM6 Standard edition:
http://www.iambic.com/agendus/wmsmartphone/details.asp
http://www.iambic.com/agendus/wmsmartphone/trial.asp

Note on the icons / day color synchronization: in order for this functionality to be active in Active Sync / Windows Mobile Device Center, version 5.2 (or above) of Agendus for Windows Outlook Edition -- which we released yesterday -- is required.

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As some of you might know, Google recently released a new version of the Android SDK. Version which, in addition to a number of new API calls and functionalities, also introduces a completely new user interface, at least according to what we found using the included emulators.

Applications built using previous SDKs don't work correctly anymore using this newest one, and this prompted us to update our first two "goodies" for Android -- GoogHelper and Tipper, which you can find attached to this thread, along with a couple of screenshots.

The new builds are fully compatible with the latest Android SDK.

Wish to give them a spin? Head over to this thread on our User Community Forum to get the .apk along with installation instructions.

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Version 5.2 is a minor update where the Outlook Edition now comes with the desktop portion of the Windows Mobile ActiveSync Provider, allowing synchronization of icons and day colors with Agendus for Windows Mobile 2.2 and above. Agendus for Windows Mobile 2.2 is scheduled for release within the next 24 to 48 hours. 

- Agendus for Windows Outlook Edition:
Features Tour: http://www.iambic.com/agendus/winoued/details.asp 
What's New: http://www.iambic.com/agendus/winoued/whatsnew.asp
Download: http://www.iambic.com/agendus/winoued/trial.asp

 - Agendus for Windows Palm Desktop Edition:
Features Tour: http://www.iambic.com/agendus/winpded/details.asp 
What's New: http://www.iambic.com/agendus/winpded/whatsnew.asp
Download: http://www.iambic.com/agendus/winpded/trial.asp

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We recently shared our thoughts around the new Android mobile operating system with Hatem Yacoub over at openhandsetmagazine.com.

You can read more below or head over at openhandsetmagazine.com for the integral version. 

iambic is one of the already established mobile software companies that started developping for the Android platform. You have probably met with one of their Android applications GoogHelper or Tipper that we announced in previous posts . Adriano Chiaretta - Chief Operating and Information Officer at Iambic - accepted to answer our questions and share their development experience with Google Android.

Q1 : We have introduced iambic in the last weeks to OHM readers with GoogHelper and Tipper, What can we know more about the company ?

iambic was founded at the end of 1993. At the time, the company had two people developing solutions for one of the very first PDAs, the Apple Newton. Making it easy to do time and expense tracking while on the go was the primary focus. Later in 1994 the company expanded its area of focus to include personal information management (PIM). As a result, Action Names was born. Through the years, that application evolved to what is now Agendus, currently available for Palm OS, Windows Mobile, Symbian, as well as Windows desktop PCs.

During the last few years, we expanded our portfolio of Windows Mobile applications — with the development of titles that had a broader reach in areas that include: personal productivity, including vehicle managers, health and diet applications, and call management and action taking. In a nutshell, our mission is to empower users to make the most out of their time wherever they are –on the go or at the desk–, through the creation of easy-to-use, yet powerfully customizable solutions.

Q2 : Why the interest to create applications for the Android platform ?

Since the announcement of the new Android mobile OS and related SDK, we have been intrigued by what it promises to deliver at a variety of levels. From a development standpoint, being able to access any tiny detail of the platform without having to jump through hoops is a great time saver, and also saves from countless “back and forths” with device manufacturers for updated handset specific SDKs.

Having the ability to closely interact with the built-in applications and related data storages (love Sqlite and I’m glad it’s the storage engine of choice of Android) is another definite plus. This without forgetting the new operating system is backed by a rather consistent number of prominent companies, leaders in their industry and market specific area. All this, of course, so far on “paper” or “bits” if you want in the form of a quickly evolving SDK, and slick emulator. Will the promises I mentioned above become reality when the first handsets hit the market? I truly hope so.

Q3 : How many developers are currently working on Android projects ? Did you hire or is it from the current dev team?

We have a developer fully dedicated to Android projects, from the current development team, while another one is playing with the SDK “just for fun” — creating small tools so to speak. I’m getting my hands dirty too. I’ve been checking out examples, documentation, and thinking about what else we can creatively use out of what made available through the SDK.

Q4 : Are you just porting current iambic mobile projects to Android or planning new ones also ?

So far, in order to start getting our “feet wet,” we ported a few titles while exploring the possibility of the platform, along with the expected rough edges of the SDK.

Q5 : Any commercial application for Android in your plans ?

We do plan to release commercial solutions for Android. GoogHelper and Tipper themselves might get revised and “enriched” to become commercially distributable.

Q6 : Will any of your iambic projects will take part of the Challenge ?

Yes, we are currently working on a project we plan to submit to the Developer Challenge.

Q7 : How do you compare development under Android to other mobile platforms ?

So far we are finding the development for Android a much more streamlined experience compared to other platforms. I believe this is because the operating system is young (there are no phones based on it yet), and therefore getting up and running with the development environment is extremely quick and straightforward. Unzipping the latest Eclipse, the Android SDK, getting the Android plug-in setup in Eclipse and being off stepping through a few breakpoints while debugging the app on the emulator took less than 15 minutes. On mature mobile platforms such as Palm OS, Windows Mobile, Symbian, or BlackBerry the process of installing a development environment, main SDK, various licensees’ customizations, etc. can easily take half day.

That said, the SDK itself is clearly a work in progress. Its documentation is sort of “hit and miss” at the moment and definitely not super clear. And a few of the API calls are not working as expected. Then again, this is the type of stuff I’ve seen in SDKs that are much more mature, so no real news there. It often comes down to looking around forums and message boards for solutions, and spicing up the approach with some trial & error.

The latest SDK released just a few days ago is quite a step forward, although it introduces a variety of changes both from an API/development standpoint as well as from a user interaction / usage model standpoint. The latter according to what the UI showcased by the emulator is telling us. We are investing quite some time now getting the projects we are currently developing up to speed with the latest SDK. Hopefully we won’t see a similar rather deep change in the coming updates.

[Source: OpenHandsetMagazine.com]

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If you could be a fly on the wall of our office in Sunnyvale, you’d know that we spend a lot of time talking about what we like about our own software applications and what we’d add to make them even better.  As you can imagine, our discussions are quite lively.

The saying “form follows function” rings true for us. 

   "I need to track a certain value because I'm trying to accomplish this goal of mine.”

   “I want to get this item filed in this certain way because I need..."

   "I like monitoring how changing this certain parameter over time affects this other one..."

   "I want to be reminded in a certain way about something, and I want to automatically have the reminder perform a certain action when it goes off…"

You get the idea.  The answers to many of these "needs" often show up in new software titles or as new features for titles currently in our portfolio.  The way we look at it, we aren’t the only ones with these sorts of needs – so the solutions we devise should be accessible to others, straightforward to implement and simple to use. 

For example, the need to manage appointments, or be reminded of things to get done, or recall when a certain event that occurred in one's schedule are addressed in Agendus. 

The need to keep better records of what kind of work has been done to the family’s cars has resulted in Vehicle Manager.  And the challenge of sticking to certain dieting protocols is something Health & Diet Manager was designed to assist.

It dawned on us that since there is a story for just about everything we do at iambic, that perhaps people would be interested in taking a peek behind the scenes – to learn a bit about why certain features and functions have been developed.  We also figured that some "how to" videos would be beneficial, to help people get the most out of using our titles.  With these things in mind, we’ve created a new section at iampowered called Tips & Suggestions, which will include the types of stories mentioned above as well as a collection of "how to" videos from our YouTube channel.    

The way we see it, by becoming familiar with the needs of others, you may be able to fulfill a need of your own.  And if that ends up making you happier and more productive, then we’ve done our job (especially since our mission is to help individuals and business organizations everywhere save time and manage their activities more effectively).

Stay tuned for new articles in the Tips & Suggestion section, starting off early next week with the first issue of tips dealing with the challenges of dieting and getting into shape. You will get a sense of what went into the creation of Health & Diet Manager, plus walk away with helpful ideas that you can put into action immediately.

And, as always your feedback is very welcome! Comments to any of the posts of our blog are open, and for a more interactive discussion head over to our User Community, where these articles will appear under the "Miscellaneous Topics" category.

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Just wanted to let you know that earlier today we transitioned our shopping cart to the newest version of the Handango Commerce Engine (HCE), which allows for greater customization and improved integration with our own website interface and logic.

Aside from a few expected initial glitches, promptly taken care of, things went rather smoothly and everything is currently up and running.

Should you encounter any trouble during the checkout process or you have questions / feedback about the new shopping cart don't hesitate to contact us through any of the options available at http://support.iambic.com and for urgent matters you are welcome to get in touch directly with our network ops.

We are confident this new version of the iambic.com shopping cart will allow for a more pleasant purchasing and upgrading experience.

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We just installed a nice little tool on our blog called Snap Shots that enhances links with visual previews of the destination site, interactive excerpts of Wikipedia articles, MySpace profiles, IMDb profiles and Amazon products, display inline videos, RSS, MP3s, photos, stock charts and more.

Sometimes Snap Shots bring you the information you need, without your having to leave the site, while other times it lets you "look ahead," before deciding if you want to follow a link or not.

Should you decide this is not for you, just click the Options icon in the upper right corner of the Snap Shot and opt-out.

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We are happy to announce the availability of Agendus for Palm OS version 12.05.

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