Initiate - I don't understand the benefits

[ConfusedVorlon]

If I don't care for it after a week, I may try Zlauncher and he'll pay 20% of the cost (unless I'm misreading his offer) 

I'm learning!

You understood the offer correctly!
The reason that a contact doesn't show in the regular (applications?) view is that only applications are in that view!

I'm assuming you have signed up for the email course - that will work you through the features over a week, and give you the 20% offer at the end if you want it.

Please do post your impressions as you go through - I'd be interested to see how you get on.

[egadgetguy]

email course?

Oh. I think I saw that on the I8 page...

[Tedology]

Yes, I definitely signed up for the email course. I think it's great that you offer one. 

[chckhbrt]

email course?

Oh. I think I saw that on the I8 page...

Ya, email course.....

You have to be somewhat open minded, with less ZLauncher fanboy zeal.....



Chuck 

[egadgetguy]

got it. the first day is really basic stuff. Second day covers more.

And im still a ZL fan, but I'm starting to like I8 now that it's getting better thanks to the active development.

[Alli]

Go go gadget! lol

[brad_h]

I was a dedicated ZLauncher user for a couple years, carrying it over from my Tungsten T3 to my Treo 680.  When I first tried Initiate, I used it for a couple weeks and uninstalled it.  I had already paid for ZL, so I didn't see any huge benefit to paying more money for yet another launcher.

The thing was, that 2-week trial was mostly me trying to make Initiate look and act like ZLauncher.  The Applications view was my default view.  I had spent 2 years tweaking ZL's skin, layout, etc., and that's where I was comfortable.

After Initiate III was released, I gave it another try.  And as soon as I got the nerve to switch to Initiate's PowerUser view, my Treo world changed.  My default Power view has ALL of the contents of my Treo, all on one screen (with one exception:  Music.  I have 7 gigs of mp3 files on my device, and they have their own view).

As long as I know the first letter of the item I'm wanting, whether it's one of the 100 photos of my wife/kid or 700 contacts or 500 Memos or 200 Word/Excel documents...you get the idea...I just type a few characters and the item opens.  I now "live" in Initiate.  It's where I make calls, send text messages, etc.

I still use other views, such as the Music view I mentioned, and a dedicated Contacts view for when I just feel like scrolling through the list to see who I haven't called in a while.  Also an Apps list, categorized, for those times when I feel like playing a game but don't really know which one I'm in the mood for.

But to me, Initiate = Treo now.  I can't imagine one without the other.

There's exactly one feature that's missing from Initiate's PowerUser functionality to make it Perfect, and that's the ability to start a search with a wildcard.  After you input the first letter, wildcards are of course assumed.  But I have so much in my device, sometimes I don't remember the name (much less the first letter) of a document that someone sent me last week, but do remember a single word in the middle of the filename.  When that happens, today I use Resco Explorer, which has full wildcard filtering ability.

ZLauncher stayed on my Treo for a couple months, more for nostalgia than anything, but it's long gone.  I still haven't figured out how to make Initiate be as pretty as ZL (I had custom icons, etc), but functionally there's no better launcher for a Treo than Initiate.

[ConfusedVorlon]

thanks Brad.
The wildcard idea is in my idea list, and I'm slowly catching up on prettyness!

The functionality is the thing I really care about though, so I'm really happy to hear that Initiate = Treo for you.

[Tedology]

Thanks, Brad.

Yes, I'm starting to like Initiate more and more as well.

I'm intrigued how you made a "Contacts" view. Are we able to create our own views? I guess I need to wait for Rob to make a "Initiates for Dummies" book! 

[brad_h]

The Views already exist.  Just go into Preferences->Views.  You can name each one whatever you like, and select the items you want to see in that View.

[egadgetguy]

Well... for now I had to switch back to ZL to get some things done. There are things I can't seem to find in I8. I think it's because I can't do a wild card search. EG: Say I want to look up a contact that 'contains' the letters c an j, but c may not be the first. EX: C is the first letter of the first name, but the contact db has it backwards or is showing company name first. It becomes impossible to find that person in I8.

Really, it was because my apps are organized in ZL in categories, and I don't have categories set up in I8 yet.

One thing that is odd, but not really a problem, let's say I have a movies file on my card in /movies , I8 sees it in power user view and I can play it, and it uses the media player built into the treo, not TCPMP or anything else. but if I launch the media player, I can't get it to browse to that directory. ODD!!! Cool, but odd!

[smith]

Just to let you know initiate can sort first, last or company first. This function is independent of the contacts app. These 3 views can be set in view options.

John Doe, Corporate

I can search JD, DJ or CRP

[Lizzrd]

The thing was, that 2-week trial was mostly me trying to make Initiate look and act like ZLauncher.  The Applications view was my default view.  I had spent 2 years tweaking ZL's skin, layout, etc., and that's where I was comfortable.

That sums me up in a nutshell...glad to read that I'm not alone.  I WANT to become more accustomed to I8...I just find I'm still in the ZL mindset (2 years is a long time in application-world).  I keep trying new I8 views....and I know I'll get there.

I guess it's a testament to just how much humans abhor change, even when it's for the better.      I'm not giving up.  I'll just keep tweaking.  Thanks for a thoughtful review/post, and KFU for your suggestions!!!

[egadgetguy]

2 years is a long time. 4 1/2 years is longer. I've been using ZL since I got my N710C. That was Feb 2003!

In that time I have tried many other launchers, both before and after I found ZL. I have not found one that works better for me. I8 is getting close, now that it can launch from the card like ZL.

I am torn right now because I DO like being able to find ANY ITEM just by tapping a couple of letters, but I have this thing where I am so used to ZL and it's look/feel/function, so I'm hessitent [sp] to switch.

EDIT: Just to let those that may be scanning back know that I couldn't stop I8 from crashing, so  dumped it for now.

[brad_h]

One of the main gripes I had with ZL was the time it took to customize it.  And it seemed like I could never get it to restore from my Profile backup correctly, so anytime I had to do a hard reset, my ZL would go back to looking like its  out-of-the-box ugly self.  I would then spend literally 3 or 4 hours playing with it, tweaking shades and transparencies and backgrounds and fonts and icons, getting it to the way I had it before, only it was never exactly the same, and weeks later I'd still be tweaking.

All of that tweaking was necessary because I didn't like it at all in its default state.

I8 is about functionality, not looks.  Took me several weeks to get over that, but glad I did.