Dismissing alarm clock (no longer) requires unlocking Cosmo

[Dr.Colossos]

Hey, I want to share this little finding with the world, hoping it might be helpful for others.

It always bugged me to be forced to unlock my Cosmo every morning when all I wanted to do is dismiss my alarm clock.

For me, it always looked like this when I opened my Cosmo to dismiss the alarm, see image #1.

The reason why it happens on my Cosmo is due to the fact that in Settings > Cosmo Settings > Go to Desktop on open was set to "On", see image #2 (not sure if this is set to "On" by default).

If one disables this, the alarm can be dismissed (or snoozed) as one is used from plain-old Android devices, see image #3.

Of course, now you are not sent to the Desktop on an unlock anymore.

Hope you find that useful and don't blame me if you sleep over your next alarm just because it's so easy now to fall back to bed in an instant.

[gymbo]

If somebody could find out how ALARMS work (I just tried to set an alarm on Agenda on my Cosmo, and it didn't even go off...) in Agenda, I would be grateful... On my Gemini it usually goes off, but then I need to snooze it forever, as that seems to be the only choice (although the text it displays indicates that you shut it off...). Which actually means it goes of in the middle of the night as well      

(Waited a few minutes to post to see if my second attempt of setting an alarm in Agenda would work, but no, didn't go off at the time I set it for second time either...)

[ianisthewalrus]

oops. ive been using it from the start ;-)

for alarms, you use the clock.

calendars will just give you notifications.

[gymbo]

oops. ive been using it from the start ;-)

for alarms, you use the clock.

calendars will just give you notifications.

It is possible to set alarms too in Agenda, but I haven't got them to actually go off in the Cosmo yet. (That they apparently haven't "noticed" that, and the problem in general with snoozing/stopping alarms from Agenda, and thus not corrected it either, is kind of strange. This problem has existed since the beginning in the Gemini!!) I have tried only a few times with a few different entries, and it doesn't always go off in the Gemini either, so I might have been "unlucky" with my entries in the Cosmo. (Copying an entry and changing it is the best way to ensure you get the alarm "correct" in Gemini also, so maybe it carries some settings that are "invisible", and not always get set, as well??)

But it is also a NIGHTMARE to navigate in Agenda. Despite the fact that it is made by Planet you really need to use both the keyboard AND the screen to navigate: There is no way of entering time in 24-hour format, you HAVE to use am/pm, which is both unnatural for me as a Norwegian, and makes it impossible to just type in the time, at least when it is a "pm-time" as it starts with am as default. (Luckily it at least DISPLAYS time with 24-hour format, but it can only display start time and not end time, even in day-view it only displays start time, although it "marks" the hours it spans, but it marks an hour when it spans just one minute of the hour, and will not help with overlapping entries either...) And to make matters worse; it is often extremely difficult to get it to register screen presses!!

I have been kind of surprised that NONE of these problems seems to be registered by Planet; the latest update (in Play store) for Agenda is 5th of October 2018, and NONE of the issues I have listed here were addressed in that update. (And they are present in the Cosmo as well, so even though it might be a newer version none of these issues are corrected there either)

[ianisthewalrus]

oops. ive been using it from the start ;-)

for alarms, you use the clock.

calendars will just give you notifications.

It is possible to set alarms too in Agenda, but I haven't got them to actually go off in the Cosmo yet. (That they apparently haven't "noticed" that, and the problem in general with snoozing/stopping alarms from Agenda, and thus not corrected it either, is kind of strange. This problem has existed since the beginning in the Gemini!!) I have tried only a few times with a few different entries, and it doesn't always go off in the Gemini either, so I might have been "unlucky" with my entries in the Cosmo. (Copying an entry and changing it is the best way to ensure you get the alarm "correct" in Gemini also, so maybe it carries some settings that are "invisible", and not always get set, as well??)

But it is also a NIGHTMARE to navigate in Agenda. Despite the fact that it is made by Planet you really need to use both the keyboard AND the screen to navigate: There is no way of entering time in 24-hour format, you HAVE to use am/pm, which is both unnatural for me as a Norwegian, and makes it impossible to just type in the time, at least when it is a "pm-time" as it starts with am as default. (Luckily it at least DISPLAYS time with 24-hour format, but it can only display start time and not end time, even in day-view it only displays start time, although it "marks" the hours it spans, but it marks an hour when it spans just one minute of the hour, and will not help with overlapping entries either...) And to make matters worse; it is often extremely difficult to get it to register screen presses!!

I have been kind of surprised that NONE of these problems seems to be registered by Planet; the latest update (in Play store) for Agenda is 5th of October 2018, and NONE of the issues I have listed here were addressed in that update. (And they are present in the Cosmo as well, so even though it might be a newer version none of these issues are corrected there either)

i guess thats the risk of using an underdeveloped app. the good news is, there are a bunch of apps that have the same functionality.

it does make me susspicios of planets efforts to make a backup app... like there are already backup apps... what is going to be better about this one, from a team with a track record of underdelivering? i hope it doesnt detract from fleshing out the rest of the product as a whole...

[gymbo]

i guess thats the risk of using an underdeveloped app. the good news is, there are a bunch of apps that have the same functionality.

it does make me susspicios of planets efforts to make a backup app... like there are already backup apps... what is going to be better about this one, from a team with a track record of underdelivering? i hope it doesnt detract from fleshing out the rest of the product as a whole...

I do believe their other apps are OK, but Agenda has been "bad" for me from the start.

Where do you find another calendar app that is optimized for keyboard AND is capable of adding alarms to entries??

And where are apps capable of doing full back-ups without using Google-accounts or rooting your phone??

[ianisthewalrus]

google calendar works fine for me as a calendar app. apparently the agenda app doesnt function setting alarms as you mention... i just have GC provide notifications. you can set many per event causing the phone to "alarm.".... but that is some basic functionality all calendar apps have had that i have used.

as far as backups, yeah root, a cloud account, or a full system image sounds like all of them... what more do you need? and based on myunderstanding of the planet backup app, it would also be account based. frankly, i think i would trust google over PC with that, but thats just my opinion. its not going to be a "killer feature" either way even if it is well made. no one is going to buy the phone for that functionality, and im not even sure it will be one of those things where it is "nice to have"... especially if there are issues with base functionality like the cosmo.... i would 100% rather have that stuff fixed/delivered on. another backup solution would be at best an underutilized feature, and at worst a distraction from core or useful functionality.

[gymbo]

google calendar works fine for me as a calendar app. apparently the agenda app doesnt function setting alarms as you mention... i just have GC provide notifications. you can set many per event causing the phone to "alarm.".... but that is some basic functionality all calendar apps have had that i have used.

as far as backups, yeah root, a cloud account, or a full system image sounds like all of them... what more do you need? and based on myunderstanding of the planet backup app, it would also be account based. frankly, i think i would trust google over PC with that, but thats just my opinion. its not going to be a "killer feature" either way even if it is well made. no one is going to buy the phone for that functionality, and im not even sure it will be one of those things where it is "nice to have"... especially if there are issues with base functionality like the cosmo.... i would 100% rather have that stuff fixed/delivered on. another backup solution would be at best an underutilized feature, and at worst a distraction from core or useful functionality.

Standard calendar functionality in Symbian was that you got an ALARM "notification", and that is not easily available in any calendar app in Android? I have found this very strange since I was "forced" over to Android whit the Gemini, and it is one of the many reasons why I don't understand why Android (and iOS, and even Windows Phone) seems to be considered more advanced than Symbian... I have seen a lot of "features" that were standard on Symbian represented as "news" on Android/iOs/Windows over the years AFTER Symbian were discontinued/dropped, to a point where they NOW several years later actually have come on par with Symbian whit these things.

As for the back-up from Planet, it is supposed to work with both USB-drives or micro-SD cards, so don't see where the "account" comes in to play. So I for one would really appreciate that "feature". (As it is now I don't have any kind of back-up, as I don't want to use a cloud-based solution, where someone else has access to my data. Yes, Google probably has a ton of data on me anyway, but I don't see any reason to give them even more because they already have so much...)

[ArchiMark]

Have you guys seen Calengoo app?

http://android.calengoo.com/index.html

You can see on page that app supports landscape orientation.

Developer also responded to requests back when Gemini was released for keyboard shortcuts to take advantage of having a physical keyboard.

I emailed developer back then and found him very responsive.

App has various reminder options.

http://android.calengoo.com/pagedoc/pagein...d/features.html

HTH,

Mark

[ianisthewalrus]

thanks for the recommendastion.

[gymbo]

Have you guys seen Calengoo app?

http://android.calengoo.com/index.html

You can see on page that app supports landscape orientation.

Developer also responded to requests back when Gemini was released for keyboard shortcuts to take advantage of having a physical keyboard.

I emailed developer back then and found him very responsive.

App has various reminder options.

http://android.calengoo.com/pagedoc/pagein...d/features.html

HTH,

Mark

None of which are alarms... (It actually pops up as an Agenda notification when set as "Pop-up" in Calengoo   ) And to make matters even worse; it crashes on Agenda entries WITH alarm...

But it does LOOK better than Agenda, and has lots of settings for how it displays, including displaying end times!