N810 As PIM

Just as with Zaurus As PIM, I want to use my Nokia N810 as a PIM.

Summary: using GPE, though not thrilled with the apps.

There's an Address Book (Contacts) built-in.

• hmm, some complaint about performance.

• should I install this other thing? Is it as well integrated into other apps?

• should I do a simple import of my ThunderBird Address Book to get some volume of stuff shoved in, to see? Nah, esp since someone notes that the new app sucks in stuff from the built-in app automatically.

• Need to

  • physically get Q Topia XML file moved to Mac

  • convert to a format (ThunderBird, MsOutlook, etc.) that the N810 will accept (argh, have to convert myself: Qtopia Desktop has an Import function but no Export!)

  • in theory I should merge/de-dupe with ThunderBird address book, but probably won't bother (since using it more as a PIM than as EMail Address Book).

  • import (will it really accept all the different fields?)

Calendar

• Pimlico has a "dates" app to go with its Address Book

• Gene Cash has a Python-based Calend app, but it's written for the previous N810 OS.

Apr16'2008: installed the Pimlico apps on the N810.

Apr18'2008

• copied the various XML files from Sharp Zaurus onto SD card, then copied from there onto MacBook.

  • card is at '/mnt/card/'

  • when done, unmount 'umount /mnt/card'

• argh Blue Tooth is borked on my MacBook, and don't feel like rebooting, so have to wait to move files to N810.

• got Blue Tooth working later, moved files to "Documents" area of N810.

Apr20'2008

• trying to import addressbook.xml, it doesn't seem to show up anywhere

Apr23'2008

• move the file a bit, find right location to put it

• it still doesn't show up in the import dialog - I suspect the ".xml" is getting it filtered out.

• next steps?

  • Maybe I should copy over my ThunderBird file after all, just to give it a try. If that works, then can probably find some hack or even write one myself in Python, though hate the thought of that timesuck, esp since I anticipate lack of documentation to help.

  • ooh found abx2csv app to convert the Address Book to CSV.

    • May03: argh, can't find that app - everything leads to the author's site, which doesn't seem to exist anymore

  • something more drastic?

  • May03: probably going to write little Python app to turn the XML file into CSV.

    • ah, will try "Python-DSV" first.

      • there's a CSV module in the Standard Library

      • is Python-DSV calling it?

May27'2008

• jumped ahead of myself a bit and played with the Pimlico Dates Calendar app. It doesn't even have repeating events!

Jul02: installed [some](http://www.cobb.uk.net/Nokia I T/index.html#gpe) GPE apps.

• the Calendar supports repeating events!

• the Calendar has some sort of import function - VCal and ICal.

• it looks like the Address Book imports only individual VCard records.

  • Gpe Sync D may help

Jul04

• playing with the Calendar

  • has some strangeness in the alarm. I think you have to keep the daemon running.

• installed Tiddly Wiki

  • every time it saves I have to press through ~6 JavaScript security warnings

    • Oct'2008 update: still does this after Diablo update

  • it really wastes lots of screen space

    • there's a a version for the IPhone that might be better

    • but suspect the JavaScript warnings will still drive me crazy there.

    • plus considering trying the GTD app

    • so I Commented about the warnings

    • Jan'2009: just discovered that people have figured out how to fix this!

Jul06

• entering a few more events in Calendar. I could probably live with putting stuff in by hand for that, because I don't have that much in the future in my calendar.

• Address Book: looks like next step is to generate a big multi-VCard file.

  • maybe V Object will get me out of learning the VCard format.

  • or maybe generate something simpler to import into MacOs X Address Book, which will export a multi-VCard file.

    • Mac will import multiple VCards, or LDIF, or text (CSV?).

Jul07

• working backward: export from MacOs X Address Book, try to import into N810

  • manually enter couple records in Address Book

  • export as VCard .vcf

    • hmm, has 'BEGIN:VCARD' lines, no 'ADD' bits

  • copy to N810 via Blue Tooth

  • open file from within GPE-Contacts

  • it seems to have worked

    • note none of these had Comments, esp multi-line comments.

    • hmm, didn't bring over A[[IM]] info for a card!

      • and I can't even find way to enter any IM handle manually, either!

      • maybe that's ok, as my main concern for Address Book is having info for offline stuff (phone numbers, physical addresses) to carry with me

    • next step: try again with some addresses having multi-line comments

Jul10

• alarms from the Calendar seem rather random

• realize that GPE Address Book doesn't talk to EMail or Instant Messaging apps. Then should I just go with Wiki As PIM? (and just render the bulk of the data to a listing page for easy finding?)

Jul18

• side-note: continue to get random repeat alarms. But at least the original alarm comes at the right time.

  • really wish I could feed tasks from To-Do List to GPE alarms.

  • ah, realized that the built-in Clock app lets you define multiple alarms

    • that's good for stuff i want pings on almost every day

• try making a couple MacOs X Address Book cards with multi-line comments. Export selected cards as VCard. Hey, there's no comment!

  • try single card with single-line comment. Still not exported! Are you kidding ?!?!?

  • ah, that's a http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=169576 |preference

  • try again, now get them - double-linebreaks have visible '\n\n'.

• move file to N810. Import into Address Book (never changed the file). All the contacts came across!

  • multi-line comments came through fine!

    • but they don't wrap! Ah, actually they do, just for a wider area than the screen display!

      • if you go into edit mode for a single contact, there's a separate Note tab that wraps nicely. But that's 2 extra clicks plus risk of unintended change.

• spending lots of time trying to render a tab or CSV file that Mac Address Book will import. Failing. Suspect it won't import Notes field with linebreaks, but not sure that's it. Of course it doesn't tell you why it won't accept a file. Even tried to replace all those linebreaks and it's still complaining.

Jul20

• consider trying to import into ThunderBird Address Book, then export to LDIF.

  • notice that field's don't map perfectly. Other formats have work-email, home-email, similar for fax, etc. ThunderBird has work/home phone, but primary/secondary email, and I think just 1 Fax field. Probably no records I have that have real problem with that, but afraid something will get dropped somewhere...

• looking a bit more at known issues in Mac Address Book import....

  • more [confirmation](http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Address Book/4.0/en/ad808.html) that I need to wipe the linebreaks. But I've tried that and still getting rejected.

  • working with just 7 records plus header

  • counted 25 tabs in every record

  • well, somehow it's working now. Have everything in Address Book

  • hmm, do I want to bring in ThunderBird Address Book? Nah, this is really for street/phone which I don't have much in ThunderBird anyway.

• export multi-VCard file

• has 590 records, by the way

• move to N810, import. Fail!

• split it up into chunks

  • most are going through

  • actually all go through except 1 chunk

  • split it down into pieces, keep chipping away at it

• finally type in last few record by hand. All done.

• app is a little slow for everything, really slow if do full-text search

• next step: do more typing by hand of Calendar events - don't really want to move history over, just have the future, of which there isn't that much

  • done.

• if I have to do a freetext query (not the quick name lookup), it takes 20sec!

Let it be known across the land that I'd pay cash money to have the PalmOS PIM apps (with Graffiti) running on the Nokia N810.