On December 21, Jürgen Schweizer of Cultured Code published State of Sync, Part 1, an attempt to explain why CC has taken so long to put their method of over-the-air syncing into operation, a feature first mentioned on August 11, 2009 in the This is not a Roadmap blog post on CC’s site.
But now I’m using NotifyMe by powerybase. They provide unique iPhone and iPad apps as well a site for viewing your tasks in the browser.
I love Things. I’ve used it since the 0.8.x versions. I’ve bought the OS X and iPhone apps, but I’ve held off on the iPad version. I’ve given CC $60 for their programs.
So why am I ditching Things? Failure to deliver. Jürgen and his team have promised OTA syncing for a year and a half now, and we dedicated users have nothing to show for this promise (oh yeah, except for the cheesy free wallpaper below).
Where Things Shined
Things shined in organizing your to-dos. Projects, Areas of Responsibility were great methods of organizing to help you get things done. The UI is slick. Adding tasks is easy. Everything was easy to follow, and Things could be as robust or simple as I could make it. But with my usage of portable devices expanding, the lack of OTA syncing caused frustration.
No OTA makes keeping unified task management difficult
I used to take my MacBook Pro all over the place. Now it stays at home under my monitor dock. Instead, my iPad is my mobile computer. With me everywhere is my iPhone 4. I tried keeping a unified task list between these devices, but I always forgot to sync them at my desk before heading out, so I’d miss and forget about tasks while not at home. It was a headache.
I tried looking at other apps. The Omnifocus suite of apps costs way too much money to test out. Other iPhone/iPad apps felt insufficient in their organization or they were just plain ugly. I skipped over NotifyMe a couple of times before finally purchasing the iPhone app. Man, I was instantly impressed! Setting up OTA syncing was easy and I quickly bought the iPad Control Center app.
I use Todd Ditchendorf’s Fluid app in OS X to create a web-app out of the NotifyMeCloud.com website for easy access to my tasks on my Mac. With these tools, I’m able to quickly create a task from anywhere, set up reminders, and local/cloud notifications that alert my mobile devices.
I think I’ve found the perfect application for my needs.
But if CulturedCode decide to grace their un-satiated audience with this magical OTA syncing method, I will try it and return if it works. And I might even buy the iPad app.
I wantED to believe.
