[Kde-mobile-users] Re: Experiences

[Björn Balazs]

Some notes on some of your notes ;)

On Wednesday 15 December 2010 13:18:59 JP Horst wrote:
> Dear Bernhard,
> > > A little explanation on the website as to what the different symbols
> > > mean would be nice though. It is not quit clear to me what the blue
> > > bar under the user ID  stands for.
> 
> The blue bar seems to be the download indicator (in the left folder list
> under the folder name).

That is correct.

> > Can you make a screenshot or point to one?
> > I am not entirely sure which bar you are refering to, we have several
> > ones. In the full screen email like in
> > http://userbase.kde.org/File:Kontact-mobile-mail-Screenshot-20100811.png
> > it is just for layout purposes. We do have a darkblue bar for encrypted
> > emails and a progress bar in the folder list.
> > 
> > Newer versions also have a "First steps" link on the home screen
> > which will point you to a few features.
> 
> This is a nice feature. I installed the new version yesterday. However when
> clicked, it says that the manual could not be found on the system.

Still having troubles with that one. Known issue.

> > > The email downloading is not intuitive to me. Mails show up
> > > automatically (probably due to the email checking interval), but
> > > not necessarily right away when I select "Synchronize emails in
> > > folder" manually (which I would prefer). This does not seem to be
> > > responsive or delays make this counter-intuitive (the connection is
> > > through openvpn).
> > 
> > There are a few ways that a folder get "synced":
> > a) sync during an interval, you can configure this
> > b) you select a folder when working online which will try to sync it
> > c) you explictely trigger a sync via the menu
> > d) there is still a connection to the server on the folder with IMAP
> > idle in which case the server might notify your client asynchroniously.
> > 
> > When the backend has the emails, the little sync symbol and the detailed
> > view in the "accounts" flap will show a done state. To get it displayed
> > the frontends need to fully get the date from the backend and this is
> > sometimes causing a delay which is too large. So we are still looking
> > into this as well. You could try to configure a sorting without gropus.
> 
> Thanks for adding the sync state in the new version accounts view.
> However, the following scenario I could reproduce a couple times:
> Start Kontact (No connection to Kolab available yet)
> Start Openvpn (Kolab server availability verified)
> Manually syncing on the home page (as Sync all accounts) as well as on every
> available subfolder level, remains unsuccessful. Account status says "No
> connection to server". Activating in the account setting "interval
> checking" solves this problem immediately. After deactivating "interval
> checking" again manual syncing then is possible and remains functional.
> Therefore, there seems to be an initial connection step that is not
> overcome by manual syncing but with interval checking.

Does switching offline / online help?
 
> > > Criticism: The power consumption / CPU load of the software is
> > > really high. With KMail open my N900 hardly last the 8-12h of one
> > > workday. When travelling (and this would be the main scenario of
> > > use) this is really a critical aspect.
> 
> It turns out, the bigger part of the rapid battery drain is caused by the
> active openvpn connection.

Good to hear. We experiences rather reasonable powerconsumption here (it 
drains power though!)

> New points:
> 
> - I also think, that when creating new accounts I was not asked for the smtp
> server. It also took me a while to find the setting in the composer.
> Nevertheless I could not get sending on a second non Kolab account to work.
> To simplify things I deleted that account again in the meantime.

There are no known problems with multiple accounts. The account you send with 
is associated to your identity. You can select the identity you want to send 
with in the bottom of any composer window. Configurations of that can also 
only be done inside the compser window flap.

> - When pull out menus do not fit on the screen and have to be scrolled there
> is a slight shading at the limits to indicate that. It took me a while to
> find this out. Maybe the possibility to scroll to additional menu entries
> should be indicated more clearly.

Do you still have problems with that? On the long run I agree there is some 
room for improvements. On the short run it seems to work for me (once you 
understood the principle).

> Calender view:
> - Pressing + / - to change days does not change days but switches to
> complete years, e.g. 2009. 

This control is sub-optimal. select the day or the month with the cursor and 
tehn press + / - this should do the job for you.

> - Within e.g. day view a +/- to changes days
> would be nice.

Try swiping (move your finger from left to right - or vice versa) - this 
should allow you to move through the days / weeks / months / years / mails / 
contacts etc. of the underlying list.

Most of this you could have read if the first steps were working :)

> Thank your for your efforts!

Thank you for testing and giving feedback. it is much appreciated!

Best,
Björn

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