amateurhack

Dieter and others have stated that they believe the forthcoming version of DataViz Documents to go will be a paid upgrade. My feeling is that this should be a free upgrade, and since we know that Palm pays attention to this forum, maybe we can convince them (and maybe Sprint as well) to subsidize the cost of DTG, and make it a free upgrade for the pre. My feeling is that the pre will not gain widespread acceptance in the business community without it as there are too many platforms out there that offer this functionality as a standard part of the OS.

bclinger

DataViz has never, ever, never given anything away for free when it comes to using the term "upgrade." Incidentally, what are they upgrading? You have a viewer. Once you get a full application then I think the word upgrade needs to be harped on - 'cause all you get with their upgrades are bug fixes.

gabbott

The full version was always a paid app for Blackberry, while it would be nice to be free, I don't see a huge issue if they charge for it since they do on other platforms.

amateurhack

I don't expect that dataviz would give it away for free, I expect that Sprint and Palm would subsidize it as a bundled feature like they have on so many other Sprint phones in the last few years.

And I do believe that the correct term for this is upgrade, whereas "bug fixes" would normally be called "updates."

But either way, semantics aside, let's all vote; let everyone know how you feel. It's okay to have different opinions, and that's what the poll is about.

MarkY

As bclinger said, Dataviz gives nothing away for free. What most companies offer for free (incremental upgrades - .01 to .02), Dataviz charges full price for. They are notorious for this, so I wouldn't expect to see any concession from them. Palm and Sprint are probably paying them full price for the read-only version included with the Pre. In any event, I voted, FWIW.

mdmogren

We need another option: thepiratebay.org

rc46

OK, let me start by saying that I am not a fan of DataViz. I think they charge too much for their product and they definitely charge too much for very minor upgrades. They also have a real bad habit of making a couple of minor changes then calling it a full upgrade to a X.0 status of a paid upgrade. In fact I dont think they have ever had a X.1 free upgrade of any version of Documents ToGo in their history.

That being said we were always told that the Pre would ship with a Document Viewer. I think that DataViz has every right to charge a fair price for a full Document Editor suite.

Unfortunately version 2.0 will be out in about 9 months and will probably cost us another 29.99 upgrade fee. Then they will come out with a "Premium edition 2.0 that will cost us another 19.99 upgrade fee. This will probably all happen in the first year. A few months later version 3.0 will be out.... You get the picture.

Did I mention that I hate DataViz.

__________________
Pilot 1000 -> Pilot 5000 ->Palm Pilot Professional -> HP 620LX -> TRG Pro -> Palm V -> Palm Vx -> Palm M505 -> Palm i705 -> Palm Tungsten|T -> Samsung i500 -> Treo 600->Treo 650 -> Treo 600-> Treo 700p ->Centro ->Treo 800w + Redfly C8n -> Palm Pre (Because Palm is Back!!
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
)

bdhu2001

DataViz is like Microsoft. Initially, they offered their product for free (on initial PCs) then when they got big they gave free trials, but charged for everything. I will pay, but I won't pay for the constant incremental upgrades.

I think that it's fair to get my initial money, but anything that comes out within the first year or two of me buying my Pre is something they already had in the works or something with a modest incremental change. I won't pay for those.

bclinger

DataViz has never issued a "bug fix" issue for Documents to Go. When the 800W first came out, I installed their release for the device, V3.0032.703. I brought to their attention a number of problems the release has for the device and was told they would be fixed, but due to the number of platforms they supported that a date could not be given. Goodness, v3.0032 was release September 23, 2008 and NOT a bug fix released since then. Check with any 800W user about the bugs of DTG and then ask me about its bugs with the Touch Pro.

Nowhere in their literature does "update" live - only New Release.

sacherjj

It is a shame too. Had there history been different, I would purchase the editor at release and upgrade as it gets working. Now I'll let others pay for a couple upgrades, then buy it when it is actually worth the price.

amateurhack

Cool! I appreciate everyone's views.

I have had my Q9c and my wife has had her centro for a year and a half each. They both came with a full editable version of DTG, and to us, it is an indespensable part of using our phones. In addition to my day job, we run a few businesses, and our phones have become central to the operation of our lives.

I realize that in the case of these phones, that Sprint or Palm, or Motorola subsidized the cost of DTG in these phones. While there may have been issues with the version of DTG that came with the phones, we never noticed any: the version that we got was sufficient for our needs. I would expect that whatever they come up with for the pre will be okay for us as well, and if DataVis wants to charge for future releases, we could simply decide not to pay for the update.

In this csse, I believe that Sprint or Palm should up for the upgrade from the viewer program to the editor.

mad1100

All I have to say is that on my Palm Treo 700 I could connect my bluetooth keyboard, had a full document view and editor and it did not cost me anything extra, while I am not supprised that the company is charging, I would expect some sort of feature to come on the phone considering how they marketed the pre towards professional use.

Bujin

I'd like to see another option: I don't see a need for DocsToGo.

Personally, I have always liked the ability to edit docs, but haven't used it in the longest time. I think that communication by email has become so common in my occupation that doc editing on my Palm isn't essential anymore.

__________________

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


Treo600 --> Treo650-->PPC6700-->Treo700P-->Treo755P-->Treo800W --> Touch Pro-->Palm Pre

amateurhack

I apologize for not putting that option in. I guess I was focused on those people who really needed it. My wife and I use excel worksheets constantly, so for us, the ability to edit docs is essential.

rlanza1054

I have a question. What should we smartphone users expect to get from a device.

If it's like a PC, you get the operating system and that's all, no goodies, no apps that provide productivity.

So should we expect to get more on a smartphone other than a device and it's OS, that will allow applications built for it to run on the device.

I personally, think utilities should be free, and file manager, backup, communication abilities, and the web browser, contacts, calendar, email. And these should all work correctly and not have a need to purchase products to get around things that were not done correctly or included. (PocketMirror, should have been provided to those that do not want to 'synergize'.)

After that, I'm not sure what they should be providing us for free.

Just thinking out loud about this question!

Rob

PS I do remember, that in my case, the Treo 650 Docs to Go, was included but it was not the premium version, which that you had to pay for.

__________________
Robert L
Astoria, N.Y.
- Palm Pre

Bujin

No biggie - I just thought it might give more info to get a sense of how many folks do actually need it.

__________________

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


Treo600 --> Treo650-->PPC6700-->Treo700P-->Treo755P-->Treo800W --> Touch Pro-->Palm Pre

amateurhack

I think that what we should expect from our phones is the same as what we expect from the rest of the technology we use: it should do more (more features), do it better, more easily and faster, at a lower cost than last year's model. Last year's Sprint phones had DTG, so should the pre, and the version of DTG on the pre should meet those same expectations. Just my opinion of course.

Thanks for thinking out loud!

I believe that the Centro and my Q had the full version. No upgrades neccessary.

ABBlockhead

I'm not so concerned about the $29 or so it might or might not take to get a full version of Documents To Go on my Pre. If it costs money, I'll buy it, and if it doesn't, great. Either way, it's something I need, so I'll get it.

What I AM concerned about is what kind of message a "petition" like this might send to other prospective developers. As much as we all love our Pres, the fact is there aren't that many of us yet. As a market, we're small potatoes right now. I'd much rather focus on how we can entice developers to bring us as many apps as possible, than gripe about whether Company X charges too much for Application Y.

Whether we like it or not, the way to get developers on board is to show them in no uncertain terms that there's money in it for them. Otherwise, why would they bother with us? If that means I pay for Documents To Go on my Pre, even though it was free with my Treo, then so be it. It's an investment in the Pre's future, which will only help all of us in the long run.

Bottom line, I really don't care whether it's DataViz or someone else who makes money off the first hot selling Pre app, as long as someone does, and soon. We need a poster child for Pre app profitability ASAP, no matter who it is. The sooner that happens, the sooner others will jump on the band wagon. I don't know about anyone else here, but I'm getting awfully tired of calling software companies to ask whether they'll be bring their apps to the Pre, only to hear "We haven't decided yet." Let's not be afraid to show them the money.

eddieck

I've owned both an iPhone and an iPhone 3G (and now a Pre) for the past 2 years. In that time I've never needed to actually edit documents, only read them. For me, the included PDF and Doc View apps work great. But if Documents to Go for the Pre is priced right (I'm talking $10-$15, maybe for a lite version), I'll certainly consider purchasing just to have it.

As much as I hate to say this, TPB is dead.

bdhu2001

I agree wholeheartedly. Why should they absorb the cost for writing for a whole new platform w/o remuneration? They have to pay staff or put in the time to provide the app, they should get paid for it. I paid for the premium version on my Palm OS, I expect no different from the webOS. However, once I get a working version I won't buy an upgrade yearly. I tend to buy upgrade every two to three years, but I appreciate every app that I've purchased and thought that the developers put into bringing them to me.