My biggest disappointment with the iPod Touch has been the lack of a usable ToDo application. The main thing that I used my Palm for was always to keep track of tasks, as well as shopping lists, lists of books I wanted to read, and other things that fit the general category of ToDo lists.
It's pretty simple to write a ToDo list application, and it seems very strange to me that Apple has never done a decent job of this. There's a tasks thingy built into iCal, but it is almost worthless, and I've never been able to figure out how to use it as an actual task manager. And it doesn't sync usefully with the iPhone/iPod software.
Over the last week I've been evaluating some of the available ToDo applications for the iPhone. My requirements are simple:
1) Synchronizes with the iPhone
2) Has a desktop component (web application is fine, too)
3) Allows me to share a list of tasks with someone else
#3 is less important - more of a nice-to-have than a requirement. The other two are essential.
Surprisingly, the pool is very shallow. I quickly narrowed it down to just two candidates - Remember The Milk and ReQall.
I tried RTM for about a half day, and found the process of marking a task completed was just too darned hard. It was 3 or 4 steps. I want to check a box. I had to select the item, click edit, scroll down, mark it completed, and save it. Way too much work if I'm just trying to mark off a shopping list while I push the cart.
ReQall looks like it might be the one I end up with, but rather than being hard to mark a task done, it make it hard to create the task in the first place. It's got clever syntax interpretation, so that I can say "buy coke" and it knows from the word "buy" that it's supposed to go on my shopping list. But that means that I have to type "buy" 48 times when I'm making the grocery list, rather than just selecting the grocery list and adding items.
I'm not sure why this has to be so difficult, when Palm did such a good job of this more than ten years ago.
Item 3 - the ability to share a list with someone else - I've had no luck with at all. I thought it would be a simple requirement, but apparently it's hard. I just wanted a way for my wife and me to build a shopping list collaboratively, and then either one of us would have that list whenever we went to the store. Perhaps someone from one of those two companies can implement this before my 90 day trial runs out - or however long it is.
Anyways, for the moment, I'll be sticking with ReQall, just because it's so much easier to check off the shopping list. Marking something complete is the most satisfying part of having a list, and so that action needs to be simple. This is fundamental ToDo list UI dogma. If you don't get that point, I'm not sure I want to use your application.
I've been a user of RTM for a while now, and while I don't love it, it's the best todo application I've found. At least using the web application, it is possible to both share a list and to send tasks to another user. Having said that, I recently installed the iPhone application on the beloved's iPhone, and I completely agree with you, as I found task management in general had way too much clicky clicky overhead.
Yes, agreed. The RTM web app is great. I wish they could translate that elegance to the iPhone app.
ReQall has the ability to *assign* a task, but not the ability to share a task, or share a list. And it requires that you assign each task. So simply sharing a shopping list means that each item on the list I have to individually assign to someone - which is not the same as sharing.
Perhaps I'll give RTM another go, but it's got to have a decent portable app to be useful to me. I have to be able to carry it to the grocery store with me.
I've recently started using Things. This is a Mac only app, but definitely satisfies numbers 1 and 2. You can add teammates and areas of responsibility, but I haven't played with that so I can't throw my $0.02 in.
I have been trying to find a TODO app forever and when I tried Things, I haven't looked back.
http://www.culturedcode.com/things/
It's definitely worth the cost in my opinion. And it's just a 1 time cost so the upgrades are free.
Eric,
I've heard nothing but good about Things. The $50 price tag seems a little excessive. I'll check to see if they've got a trial version, maybe.
Appigo Todo (iphone app) syncs to RTM. That combo is my present solution. I liked Things more than Todo, but it only syncs with the desktop version of Things, so it doesna work for me.
I've tried a dozens of (free) GTD iPhone apps and I stuck with Toodledo (http://www.toodledo.com). You should try it.
I use Appigo Todo Lite. The only thing I really miss is being notified on upcoming stuff, like phone calls I should make, and such. But that's a limitation in the iPhone SDK and not within the application itself. Perhaps this notification will be possible with iPhone v3.0, through the new "push" system.
I agree with you, I also found task management in general had way too much clicky overhead.
Give Nubi Do a try. I've tried Things and Todo as well but prefer Nubi Do over both. It's a great tool that I use every day. The price is a bit high but you pay for the logical and brilliant design.
To mark tasks complete in the RTM iPhone app, you can swipe ∼
You can also mark a bunch done at once by choosing edit, selecting the tasks, then clicking complete at the bottom.
You may find some of the todo apps introduced here either too simple to be useful or too long-winded where it takes years to add tasks and appointments. You don't want your to-do app to actually take away your time that could have been spent actually getting things done.
Why don't you try Todew - a task management app that won't waste your time?
You can see the screencast here: http://somaticcontact.com/todew
iTunes App Store link: http://bit.ly/dn2DBo