NightHawk Customer Questions


General questions
Questions about features
Server and networking questions
Pricing questions


General

I am DEFINITELY interested in NightHawk, but I was wondering if it would be possible to get something to look at now.
Please check out our community forums at forum.nowsoftware.com for the latest interface discussions, and screen shots. You can also view movies of NightHawk in action at www.nowsoftware.com/mwdemos.

What is the current status of NighHawk's development?
The most recent status update from John and the development team can be found here: www.nowsoftware.com/nhstatus.html.

Will Now Up-To-Date & Contact version 4 and 5 clients be able to communicate with a NightHawk server or vice versa?
NightHawk will be able to import Now Up-to-Date & Contact client and server files. However, because we are using a completely new set of networking code to support new features such as SSL and integration of contacts and events on a single server, NightHawk will not communicate over the network with NUDC clients or servers.

The blurb says NightHawk is cross-platform. Does this only apply to clients or can you run the server on a PC as well?
Both the clients and servers run on Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5, as well as Windows XP and Vista.

Features

Will there be a version that works with Apple's new iPhone?
Yes. We are using Apple's sync services technology to share data with cell phones on the Mac platform. So far, all testing with the development and beta versions of the software work with the iPhone.

Which cell phone models and PDAs will NightHawk support?
We'll be supporting any cell phone that works with iSync. For information on the devices we support, see:

www.apple.com/macosx/features/isync/devices.html

We do not know the extent of cell phone support on the Windows platform yet.

Does this mean applications like PocketMac and Missing Sync won't be needed?
We're using iSync and Sync Services as our primary means of syncing. By default, that supports iSync-compatible mobile phones, Palm OS devices, or iPods. (For a list, see the question above.) You'll need PocketMac or Missing Sync to sync with other devices, such as the Blackberry or PocketPC.

Can you please tell me what type of contact management features are planned.... Integration with email? Notes on each contact? Journal daily notes, etc.
NightHawk will import emails that are from/to any of your contacts. It is a good way to keep a complete correspondence history. Currently we are limited to supporting Apple's Mail.app but will likely add other email clients over time. NightHawk allows you to attach notes, documents, emails, pictures, and more to each document. Although NightHawk doesn't contain specific support for journaling, you could easily attach text documents to days as well.

Will Nighthawk be able to open ics files natively and act as the default iCal document handler the way that Preview and Safari act as default handlers?
Yes, NightHawk reads ics files and can act as the default handler.

Will Nighthawk sync with Outlook on the Windows side? This would be a plus in arguing for adoption by those in our firm who still have Windows machines.
NightHawk handles emailed meeting notices from Outlook. The first version of NightHawk will not integrate directly with Outlook or Exchange but that is an important future direction for us.

I am impressed with Now Up-to-Date's Applescript API.
Will Nighthawk be as scriptable as Now Up-to-Date? If not v1, is that feature planned for a later version?
The initial release of NightHawk will offer some AppleScript support, and we expect to increase the level of support significantly in future versions.

Are there any plans to supplement NightHawk with Sales Management functions? (Such as Groups, Email Campaigns, Opportunities, Dashboards and Sales Pipelines etc.)
NightHawk is a modular system. Our first product module is the next generation of our Now Up-to-Date & Contact - a calendar and contact product. In the future we will be releasing additional product modules (sold separately) for sales management, project management, and other functions. All of those modules integrate into one seamless solution, but will be sold separately, allowing users to purchase only the functionality they want.

Your product is the only calendar out there that allows setting a recurring things-to-do reminder that actually shows in the future before the current to-do is done. As a power user, I depend on being able to make changes to an item and applying the changes made to all, one, or just future items.
It's in there! NightHawk supports the same event-management features of Now Up-to-Date & Contact.

It would be nice to be able to assign multiple categories to an item.
Yes, you will be able to assign multiple categories to contacts and events in NightHawk. However, each contact or event must have one, and only one, primary category.

Can I use your software in Japanese, German, French, Spanish, Hebrew, etc?
Our first version of NightHawk will not be localized. We are looking at which languages we will support in the future, however NightHawk uses unicode to store text information, so the English version should run on non-English versions of the OS.

One feature that is sorely lacking in Now Up-to-Date & Contact is the ability to use the Apple color palette and customize your own category colors. Also, customizing font/style/size for categories would be welcome.
NightHawk offers you full control over colors and fonts. We've got you covered!

Servers

Will there be a server app? What are the technical requirements for this application?
There is a server application. It works on Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5 ("Leopard") as well as Windows XP and Vista.

Can the new server run as a demon... can it run without logging in as a user under OS X?
Yes.

I saw the initial release info on NightHawk on your website. I'm hoping it has many useful improvements. There were only a couple of things that I ever had issues with in Now Up-to-Date & Contact. 1) No automatic feedback if someone declines an invite to a meeting I create. I have to continually open all future meetings to double-check who can/is attending. 2) Public information from the calendar is too easily deleted. It would be nice if you could assign different groups of security to every event created. Or at least some notification to the creator that an event has changed or been deleted.
NightHawk will have two different versions of the server. Our free server offers similar functionality you've seen in Now Up-to-Date's servers. Eventually, we will also offer a pro-level server that offers a wide array of notification and security options. You may want to use our pro-level server.

One thing to note is that all versions of NightHawk contain a full audit trail of transactions, so it is possible to track which events or contacts your users modify or delete, as well as the information required to undo those transactions, even if they happened weeks before.

Will nighthawk server have a built in LDAP server and/or use an existing LDAP server?
NightHawk's pro-level server will read from existing LDAP servers, but will not function as an LDAP server.


Could you explain what you mean by, "centralized user administration" as noted on http://www.nowsoftware.com/nighthawkSubsite/index.html?
NightHawk allows you to manage a centralized list of users, and determine which categories of data they can read or write. Our current product, Now Up-to-Date & Contact, also manages categories of data, but it controls access by using passwords. While password access is adequate for small organizations, centralized user administration is much more powerful and flexible. To secure a password-based system, you must change the passwords for everyone subscribed to a category if you wish to change the access for any one user. To secure a user-based system, you just need to change the access level of the user or users you wish to modify.


Pricing

I am very excited about Nighthawk — I haven't quite figured out which option I will take for upgrading, but will definitely do so when it's available!
If you're a Now Up-to-Date & Contact 5 owner, and you have a current maintenance agreement, the update to NightHawk's calendar and contact modules will be free. If you do not have a current maintenance agreement, please contact our sales department at 800-344-9160 to discuss options and costs for adding one for your current licenses. Act now, as the window of opportunity for adding maintenance to an existing license is limited. Upon release, our normal upgrade price will be $69.95.

Will there be not-for-profit licenses available for NightHawk?
Yes. For pricing details, please contact our sales department at 800-344-9160 or sales@nowsoftware.com.

How can I be sure I'm getting the latest news?
If you would like to receive information about what's happening with NightHawk, and be among the first to know when NightHawk becomes available, please sign up for our newsletter. We don't mail newsletters often (we did half a dozen in 2007) and we don't give/rent/sell/etc. that information to other companies.

Have a question that isn't answered here?
Please visit the Now Software Community Forums, where the development team answers questions and requests feedback and opinions. You can also send us an email at nighthawk@nowsoftware.com.