37signals’ Backpack: Now iPhone-Sized

An iPhone application called FrontPocket, built by Jacksonville, Florida-based design firm Updatable, launched today. It behaves as a mobile extension to 37signals’ Backpack service, a business organization and data sharing utility. As any 37signals fan might intuit, a development of this type must be one thing above all: simple and straightforward. The better to conform to the less-is-more ethos maintained by the team behind Backpack and its siblingware. I think it’s safe to say FrontPocket can feel right at home with family.

A closer look at design

The design is almost entirely plain. Only the basic template of features evident in many other iPhone applications are there. Nothing more. As for color, I would say there’s only a half-rainbow thing happening, whereas on the desktop things are a little more festive. We all know how festive data management can be, eh?

Reasonable limitations

Looks aren’t very important here, however. It’s all about information access and seamless management between desktop and mobile environs, which FrontPocket handles fairly aptly. Of course, you can only do so much with the release. You can’t post files, for instance. (You’re using an iPhone, after all.) Lists, pages, calendars, and journal entries are the extent of what the application is capable of building, maneuvering or adding to or subtracting from. But that’s pretty much all you could sensibly ask of the app for the time being, right?

Whether you’re signed up for a payment plan with the browser-based service or maintain a free account, FrontPocket does its thing. Mostly. It is by no means a replacement, functionally speaking, or an equal to its inspiration. And there’s this thing about access you’ll need to be aware of, which is that you’ll have to fork over cash to 37signals each month - $7 or more - to make use of the calendaring service. Yet that is true whether you’re iPhone-enabled or not, so it’s hard to feel disappointment about such a restriction on FrontPocket’s part.

Is it worth it?

So, is it worthwhile? I think yes. There’s enough to get out of the application’s connection to the full-fledged “home service” to make it handy in many circumstances. If you happen to encounter any technical issues with the initial release (an issue was discovered for 1.0, which was pretty hastily corrected in 1.0.1, and the developers expect to issue version 1.1 two weeks hence), any rough patches will presumably be smoothed out in short order.

Quite frankly, if you’re an ardent fan of Backpack, and simply wish you could have some variation of it to keep with you at all times, this application will make your day. I’m 99.9% sure of it.