Monthly Archives: September 2010

The iPhone version of Pocket Informant has been updated to include native iOS calendar integration. This is the first proper calendering app to do this and at last we have an alternative to the very basic core iPhone calendar. I have been testing it over the weekend and so far it is performing quite well. It still needs some tweaks to improve performance, but is likely the best available now.

Proper task management is essential, but it’s only part of the picture.
Pocket Informant is a full featured PIM, so it lets you focus on everything you do in a day – not just your task list. We believe bringing your appointments and tasks together in one place is more efficient than working in isolated calendar and task management systems. Pocket Informant is designed to not force you into any one method of doing things – use our Task View as rigidly or freely as you want, using GTD principles, Franklin Covey, or your own system.

Here’s the story-

I proposed to my girlfriend, Vy, by writing a song and making a music video for her. We went out to see a film at our favorite movie theater and she was completely surprised once she figured out what was playing on the screen wasn’t actually an iPhone commercial.

LONG VERSION: Vy’s been wanting me to write a song for her for a very long time. I decided to write a Top 40 / Club type song because this is the type of music she likes most. Since I’m not a great singer, I found it very convenient that auto-tune is very popular in this genre. Ha! I recorded and mixed everything in Pro Tools. No loops were used. A big thank you to my brother, Casey, for doing a great job filming all the iPhone action.

This entire project took about 4 months to complete since I could only work on it when Vy was not around. It was hard coming up with so many fake excuses why I couldn’t hang out! As the project neared completion, I made phone call after phone call trying to get this played in a movie theater (with hopes of getting it played in the Carmike 20 in Oakdale which is where we had our first movie date many years ago). I lucked out when somebody got me the number to Daniel, the Carmike City Manager, who was awesome, got the OK from corporate and made it happen. I brought the DVD in so they could make sure it was suitable for showing and to do a practice run. The date was now set for Sunday, Sept. 5th at 7:35pm. It would be playing in front of the romantic comedy “Going the Distance” (which I was glad about, I was worried it might be “The Last Exorcism”!)

Wouldn’t you know it, almost immediately Vy started getting invited to BBQs, house parties and other events for Sept. 5th! Now I had to come up with a plan to make Vy want to see this movie instead doing anything else so I asked our friend Justin, who lives in Hollywood and is beginning to make appearances in film and TV, to facebook a bunch of us saying he’s appearing in a trailer for a movie called “Addicted To You” and that this trailer is showing in front of “Going the Distance” nationwide. I then requested our friend, Carlus, to respond on facebook saying “Let’s all go see Justin in the movies on Sunday! I’ll pick up tickets for everyone. Dress up and we’ll go out for my birthday afterwards”.

The plan worked great and Vy was excited to watch for our friend Justin in the trailers. We arrived that night, sat through a bunch of commercials and movie trailers and then my video started. Vy thought it was a real iPhone commercial. When in the video I said “So you want to write a song for your girlfriend”, Vy squeezed my hand and looked at me with a smile. I thought she had figured it out at that moment but she later explained she hadn’t yet firgured it out and had squeezed my hand because she wanted me to write her a song. Ha!

Once the video showed “June 17th, 2004″ she figured it out and started crying immediately, which I especially enjoyed because she has never cried at the movies but I have a number of times! At the end where the video sent the text message, Vy actually received that same text message from my phone. At that moment I got down on one knee, looked at Vy and said “Vy, you’re my best friend, I love you so much and I want to be with you forever. Will you marry me?”

She said “YES!” Our friends Thomas and Kristin then came out of hiding and gave Vy a dozen roses. We all met up with more friends and went out dancing to celebrate.

Here’s the proposal-