which is better: PhoneAlarm or PocketZenPhone? - Page 2

denno · #11 (**permalink**) 08-16-2006, 01:16 PM

just did

SMix · #12 (**permalink**) 08-17-2006, 06:09 PM

Ya I prefer PhoneAlarm, though I haven't seen the other ... anybody got a screenshot of it? And for phonealarm there are actually a lot of skins already on the website if you take a look: http://www.pocketmax.net/phoneAlarm.html ... there are some links on the main page, as well as a link on the right side to some older skins ...

denno · #13 (**permalink**) 08-23-2006, 12:04 PM

I've been really trying to like PhoneAlarm--the feature set & functionality is great, but I've had nothing but problems with it. This morning I activated Mute and nothing would work correctly after that. The other day (before a hard reset) I tried installing the latest version (1.53) (that reportedly fixes the mute issue) and had to do a hard reset becasue of the white screen porblem. Looking at the PocketMax support forum, lots of 6700 users are reporting problems with the 1.53 release.

PocketZenPhone does the profile switching but doesn't show the status of email, VM, etc. Oh well...

**Malatesta** · #14 (**permalink**) 08-23-2006, 05:51 PM

My 1.53 works flawlessly....?

In fact I never had a "major" issue with PA on the 6700.

**Wideawake** · #15 (**permalink**) 08-23-2006, 07:35 PM

2nd person with no problems. but when u put on mute it does turn the phone radio off rendering vision and the phone not working.
~mike

KungFuJoe · #16 (**permalink**) 10-15-2006, 06:36 PM

I tried using PhoneAlarm 1.55. The program itself is pretty amazing, from what I can tell. However, I have a Treo 700wx and I'm not sure PhoneAlarm fully supports that phone. I had a few issues with it...most were minor, one was a deal breaker.

VoiceMail alarm button would not dial voice mail when clicked. This was the minor one...as I could easy go to voicemail several other ways.

Activate WLAN did not seem to work. If I would switch to a profile that had the setting to OFF, then switched back to a profile that had it ON, it would remain OFF.

Push Email seemed to have no effect (as far as I could tell). I use ActiveSynce with DirectPush on Exchange and it didn't seem to have any effect off or on (but I won't write this one in stone as I didn't play around too much with it).

Does not allow you to choose MID files for notifications. This was the deal breaker as I wanted to set separate ring tones for Work and Home. For Home, I wanted to use an MP3, which it does support. But for Work, I wanted to set the standard Treo ring tone (it's a MID file). You can't select the Treo ring tone from PhoneAlarm, but if you select it using the standard Settings -> Personal -> Notifications, then set the Work profile to <System>, it will use the Treo ring tone. HOWEVER, once I would switch to the Home profile (using the mp3 file), it would STAY on that mp3 file even when I switched back to Work. What it seemed to be doing was switching the built in notification settings to the mp3 file...so when I switched back to the Work profile (which was set to <System> in PhoneAlarm) it was still using the mp3 file because that was the "system" setting.

I hope I was clear in that last description. I guess I could have looked for that Treo ring tone in a wav or mp3 format...but I kinda just gave up on it...for now.

If I'm doing something wrong, I'm all ears...cuz otherwise, that was a great program...I especially loved the scheduler.

**storyr** · #17 (**permalink**) 10-16-2006, 09:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KungFuJoe

VoiceMail alarm button would not dial voice mail when clicked. This was the minor one...as I could easy go to voicemail several other ways.

For this one, you need to go into the phoneAlarm settings and enter your phone number - Adv tab -> General Settings section -> Voice mail field...

**Malatesta** · #18 (**permalink**) 10-17-2006, 02:18 AM

Phonealarm at version 1.55.1 is still not completely compatible with the 700wx, I mean in general it works but not all functions are available e.g. backlight control.

The good news is that this week PocketMax will released version 1.56 which adds backlight control for the Treo and makes things a little big more stable.

I personally beta tested this version and vouch for it

Storyr is right about the VM, just add your phone # under settings.

Re: Push email, this will NOT work b/c Palm did not add a on/off for push email to WLAN similar to what is found on the 6700, so PhoneAlarm cannot disable that which has no control to be disabled!

Re: Midi files

Quote:

Bruce,
I was just searching and couldn't find whether you ever figured out how to get mid files to play on a treo? Is it possible to just have a <system> setting so it hands it back to the device to play the notification, and set it in the onboard app? Thanks,
J
----------------------------------------------------------------
(from Bruce)

Hi,

It's possible to have <system> option - but then you wont have repeating alarms!! undecided
Playing MIDI files on the Treo has been kept a secret up till now - on most other devices is straight forward!

Also look forward to a small freeware app to toggle on/off the Treo's keyboard lights via a hard button or link this week

KungFuJoe · #19 (**permalink**) 10-17-2006, 02:38 PM

Thanks for the replies storyr and malatesta.

Good to know about the VM.

Push email was not so important to me...I leave it on all the time anyways because I need to get my work emails 24/7.

I never even knew/used the backlight feature...was using it last night in a dark bedroom and was wishing there was an easy way to dim the screen.

Regarding the mid file...does that mean PhoneAlarm will eventually play mid files? I guess I was a little confused by that email...is there any kind of "solution" to use a mid file in one profile and an mp3 (or other sound) in another yet?

I will keep a look out for the latest version.

**Malatesta** · #20 (**permalink**) 10-17-2006, 07:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KungFuJoe

Thanks for the replies storyr and malatesta.

Good to know about the VM.

Push email was not so important to me...I leave it on all the time anyways because I need to get my work emails 24/7.

I never even knew/used the backlight feature...was using it last night in a dark bedroom and was wishing there was an easy way to dim the screen.

Regarding the mid file...does that mean PhoneAlarm will eventually play mid files? I guess I was a little confused by that email...is there any kind of "solution" to use a mid file in one profile and an mp3 (or other sound) in another yet?

I will keep a look out for the latest version.

For now, quickest way to dim screen: Option + P

as far as midi files, either Bruce has to get rid of repeating alarms to get Midi to work or no midi and repeating alarms.

that's a hell of a trade off, so I dont' think he's going to do that but he's aware of the problem and keeping an eye out for a solution.