Yeah, I bought the app yesterday from Appworld and tested it out. From playing with it for a while, here is how I see it:
Positives:
- app works well for what it is supposed to do, that is, sync backups to a remote server.
- remembers your user and pw (phone number and pin) after the first use.
- scheduling syncs is great idea
- editing contacts using PC desktop browser is a snap.
- online help is a great idea.
Negatives:
- not all contact fields are mapped; that is you lose categories, your contact photo/thumbnails, only ONE email address is sync'd/backed up, PIN numbers are lost, birthday and anniversary info is lost, user fields are lost, any phone numbers other than home/work/mobile do not seem to be mapped correctly.
- navigation is sometimes unintuitive. When exiting the app, it asks "Do you want to exit the application?" but typing Y or N does nothing, you have to hit the Menu key and select Yes or No.
- certain screens overlap the previous screen and the font is messed up, e.g. the Mobile# screen.
- Autosync Date & Time is unintuitive. Is the time and date displayed the next scheduled backup? No option for daily, weekly, monthly. What if it doesn't run at that date/time (set in the future) because I had the phone off, will it never run? Or is the date ignored and the time honoured and it actually happens daily?
- if the author/developer decides down the road to shut down his server, we lose the functionality.
- Street Address field is duplicated on the Address line.
UI: less use of the menu key and more scroll-to buttons might make this easier to use. However, reference to "soft keys" suggests that this BB app is a port/adaptation of a contact backup app for another platform. For those that never remember to sync via Desktop Manager, it can be a godsend, but keep in mind that in event of a disaster and you have to restore, your contact info isn't 100% exactly the same. The basic info is there but some fields will be lost. There is no substitution for a sync with Outlook, but this is definitely better than not syncing with anything at all. Also keep in mind that using Google to store contact info (or most other addressbook solutions other than Outlook) doesn't sync all contacts fields either. mIQ Live does better (stores more fields) and is free, but is more resource intensive than Zbook is.
That's my take on zbook.
__________________
-Klotar
Supervising Manager of the Department of Redundancy Department.
BlackBerry Certified Support Specialist
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