For all of my three years at Imulus, I have always known the joy that is Stacks. I’ve seen it as a glimmer in George’s eye to the project management powerhouse it is today. Recently (or not so recently) I have taken on the arduous task of… planning a wedding (cue ominous music and lightning). Knowing my typical knee-jerk reaction to procrastinate and then forgetting what I needed to do in the first place, I opted to use Stacks for personal use.

The Good

Like so many brides-to-be before me, I have been using The Knot to stay on track with my wedding to-dos. The Knot does a fantastic job of divvying out to-do’s based on your time-line. Unfortunately because there have been so many brides-to-be who enjoy the usage of this site, it has become bloated with ads, banners, links, animated gifs, you call it, they have it. Furthermore, sometimes the to-do’s don’t apply to me (i.e. no videographer).

So instead of digging around in the links and ads of The Knot, my “wedding planner” populates Stacks with the to-dos. This is helpful when there are tasks specific to the bride or groom or maid of honor etc. Furthermore, if the to-do has any other information, I can add notes in the details and I can adjust the urgency of each task.

The Bad

I mentioned my procrastination, right? It’s a wonder I completed this blog at all. Anyway, one problem I encountered is that unlike my thorough use of Stacks at work, I have a tendency to ignore tasks in my wedding stack list. Because each task is something I need to complete by the end of the month, I usually ignore it till I get nagged about it. Sort of defeats the purpose of Stacks. However, I chalk that up to user error.

Another problem I encountered is my wedding planner is no project manager. Each month a task dump occurs and each task isn’t carefully scoped out giving it the correct due date, actionable date and details within the task. Stacks isn’t utilized to it’s full potential. It becomes a to-do checklist for whenever I get around to it.

The Conclusion

Being the sexy app that it is, Stacks is an extremely powerful project management tool. I’m glad I have the opportunity to use it for my wedding so I don’t have a random freak out that I am forgetting to do something. However, it is becoming a glorified to-do list. There is nothing wrong with this, I just know what Stacks is really capable of. So thanks, Stacks, for helping remind this procrastinator that she is continuing to procrastinate, but will get around to it eventually.

After carrying around my iPhone 4 for a few days I was starting to get pretty paranoid, not about the dropped calls, but about physically dropping or scratching it up. The bumper case, while not the most protective piece of plastic in the world, looked like a good fit and offered enough protection for me to feel better about setting it on a table or desk.

First, the bumper for the most part is a great little case. It’s hard to emphasize, but having external buttons on the side really make the whole thing feel like it’s a part of the phone. Unlike other cases I’ve used where you have to pinch your fingers into a hole to reach the buttons. Notice in the picture below how the volume buttons are actually on top of the bumper case, not wedged into a small carved out spot.

Okay, so the case for the most part is a nice addition to the phone. The “for the most part” is because of a few small issues. First, the headphone jack is a bit tight with the case, if you’re planning on plugging in a large headphone jack plug it’s not going to fit. Take a look at the default iPhone earbuds, if the plug is more than a few millimeters larger it won’t fit. Second, if you use 3rd party charging cord or car plugs you might not be able to plug into the bottom of the phone with the bumper on. I noticed this on older iPod plugs that have the two side pinchers. See image below:

Last, when I first got my bumper it felt a tiny bit loose. To be fair, I’m pretty picky and it’s possible others aren’t bugged by this. The fact is that the bumper, while fairly snug had a little bit of give on the sides (IE :I could slide it up and down slightly, maybe a few millimeters) and same with the top. After some reading I found information suggesting that heat might shrink the rubber and plastic just a bit. I briefly considered boiling my bumper, but decided against that. The second option was leaving it in my hot car for a few hours. So, the next day I took off the bumper and left it on my dashboard for four hours, it was about 90 degrees out. Low and behold when placed back on my phone the bumper was snug. Problem solved.

Now that bumpers are going to be given out for free I think this trick could come in handy for others. Let me know your results if you give it a shot.

A few of us here in the Imulus office have iPhone 4’s and we’ve all been able to reproduce the reception problem at our office location. You can see here the new update provides slightly different bar lengths and does seem to produce different reception expectations. Here is one office phone on 4.0.1 and the other on 4.0. We had them right next to each other laying on a desk. The one with four bars is the 4.0 version.

Further, we called the new 4.0.1 phone from the office landline and took a video. You can see the call is fine for a few seconds, then we apply pressure to the death spots and by 30 seconds in the call is dropped. Even though the phone never shows “no service” it still drops the call. Apple stated this update was just a reception formula fix, still, it shows that even with 1 bar of 3g being reported the call will still drop if those spots are covered.

Over the past ten months I’ve been using a variety of To Do management applications to solve my personal task management woes. This blog post is a recap of the four best contenders that I have found, where they succeed, where they fail, and what needs to be on the table for me to be happy.

Laying the Ground Rules

As the lead UI designer behind our group task solution Stacks I can be a pretty harsh critic on things that don’t feel or work right. Also along this same line, I understand the difficulty of developing a product and trying to meet feature requests. It’s impossible to keep everyone happy, not to mention build features with time and care. For some of these apps the features I want might be coming, for others they aren’t part of the ballgame and never will be. I get that, but let’s still “talk it out”.

Required vs. Nice to Have

Must have:

• Well designed interface
• Quick task entry
• Repeating tasks
• Time based notifications/reminders
• Access to tasks at all times (ideally: mobile, desktop, ipad, and web)
• Cloud syncing

Nice to have:

• Categorization of tasks (long term, work, personal, etc.)
• Notes or sub-tasks
• File attachments
• An API
• Great keyboard shortcuts

Alright, let’s jump into the four selected contenders and see what they’ve brought to the table.

Simplenote

Done Well:

phenomenal cloud syncing, quick task entry, access to tasks at all times, notes/subtasks, an API

Lacking:

repeating tasks, reminders, categorization, great keybaord shortcuts

At first I felt a little bad including Simplenote as a task management app. The truth is that Simplenote was never meant to soley manage tasks. That said, it’s just too good at what it does to not have it on this list. First off, Simplenote is bar none the best cloud syncing application I’ve ever used. It’s never once lost my changes or updates and I’m using it on my computer, iPad, and iPhone. Also, in a pinch it has a web interface (that doesn’t suck) as well. On top of this it has an API (although it’s not fully public yet) which has allowed developers to tackle the interface in unique ways. For instance, Just Notes and Notational Velocity are independent apps that work great with the Simplenote API.

There are a few big hurdles you have to be willing to accept with Simplenote. First, it won’t be able to send you reminders in any way shape or form. This means you have to remember to check it to see what’s due. This became a deal breaker for me after a few months, but if you’re the type of person who’s disciplined, this may not be an issue. Second, Simplenote has no way to repeat tasks, so all those CC bills and monthly reminders need to be created every month.

If all you’re looking for a is a small To Do app that also has great note taking capabilities Simplenote is probably your best bet. Beautiful Helvtica type, a super clean and fast interface, and very proactive developers. If you need more than just a few lines of text, like me, then it’s onward to the next app.

Things

Done Well:

quick task entry, categorization/tagging, nice interface, access on multiple devices

Lacking:

Repeating tasks are terrible, badge only notifications, no cloud syncing

Things is perhaps the most well known Mac and iPhone task management solution. Culture Code, the creator of Things, has been featured on Apple’s developer site and has done well in a number of reviews. From the surface Things looks like a winner. Beautiful icon and interface, multiple device support, plus tagging and categorization. Yes it is expensive, $50 desktop + $10 iPhone + $20 iPad, but that’s sometimes worth it for a great experience. The problem is that Things felt off the whole time I used it. It’s not that it doesn’t have a few great features (ie: quick task entry via hotkey on the desktop version) but rather that the deep features trail off. The features that should be most thought out don’t seem to be at all. For instance, let’s look at creating a scheduled repeating task:

First off, the entire due field is uneditable so why does it even allow typing? Second, the wording is just ridiculous, ‘copies are due’ could just be ‘this task is due’. Further, why at the bottom do I have to say each copy has a due date, didn’t I just specify that up above when I said the day it’s due? Granted, maybe there is someone out there who needs to randomly assign tasks every month, on a given date, and doesn’t actually have a date that task is due. But really?! Even so, Culture Code should spend some time wording this better, as it is now it’s just insanity. Check out some better solutions that other developers created:

Second, Things doesn’t have cloud syncing. For an application that is meant to exist on three different devices it is extremely weird that there is no cloud connection. Instead, you have to have each device’s wifi on and then let them sync over a home/business wifi network. This, in my opinion, is a recipe for disaster. Router and wifi questions aside, what if I add 7 tasks on my laptop but am connected via ethernet, then take just my phone out of town for the weekend? My data is completely inaccessible. For a $50+ dollar set of apps I expect cloud syncing, even for a yearly cost.

Third, Things isn’t very good at reminding you about tasks. It shows you a badge of how many tasks you have but beyond that you have to go in and look at your tasks on a daily basis. Maybe some people do this but I don’t. Let me specify a time to be reminded and then show me an alert on my phone, simple enough?

End game, Things just doesn’t stack up for the price. If Culture Code works on usability and wording, allows cloud syncing, and gives a discount to users that own all the apps I’ll consider it again.

NotifyMe 2

Done Well:

beautiful mobile interface, push reminders, categorization, task notes, price

Lacking:

web interface might as well not exist, no desktop version, no API

NotifyMe 2 is the most recent application that I’ve been using. While it lacks a desktop client (which is a huge downfall) the mobile client is extremely good. The biggest and strongest pitch for NotifyMe is exactly what it’s name says: notifications. NotifyMe syncs your tasks to the cloud and then sends a push reminder to your phone when the task needs to be done. At that point you can either snooze it and be reminded later (at an interval you set) or check it off. Additionally, repeating tasks on NotifyMe are better than any other interface I’ve seen – especially considering it’s a mobile interface. You set the date and time the task is due, then how often it should repeat, you can do alternate weekdays, weeks, months, or years. Or, something like remind me every 45th day. The best part about this is the ease with which it works. You can tell the crew at PoweryBase sat down and really went through the steps.

Among the other nice things in NotifyMe are task notes and task sharing. Task notes are placed nicely within each task, a small icon appears next to tasks that have notes letting you know additional information exists. This seems small but the ability to add a few notes into a task is huge. For instance, I add a task to set up a doctor appointment easily, but remembering to bring my new insurance card and the new office address could be just as important. The ability to have notes fixes this problem. Additionally the app also has a sharing and friends feature. I haven’t tried it enough to know how well it works, but if it works as advertised (and I assume it does based on the rest of the app) then it should be a hit for married couples or families. The ability to assign notifications to others on the fly could be extremely useful.

The biggest knock against NotifyMe has to be their application web interface, webapp.notifymecloud.com. In fact, let’s be honest, it doesn’t even deserve to be called a web interface. It’s more like a pile of trash sitting online that is meant to somehow duplicate functionality of the mobile app. And, while technically it has the functionality, the feel and care of the mobile app is 100% absent. The icons are gross, the corners of the containers are rough and thrown together. The task fields are unstyled and unorganized. It’s literally like someone went into Dreamweaver and inserted a bunch of default text fields, added some terrible icons, and said “that’s good, I’m done”. The fact this application is so bad makes me terrified that PoweryBase doesn’t take their design seriously. If they are willing to put out something this bad on the web who’s to say the app might some day slip into the same void. Terrifying.

In conclusion, NotifyMe 2, from a mobile perspective, is the best task manager I’ve seen. This is big because if there is any place to have a great app it’s on the device that’s always with you. Sadly, the web app is not worthy of discussion. It’s unusable and beyond in a pinch circumstances, worthless. Let’s hope this gets addressed so I can give NotifyMe 2 the clear victory in the To Do application space.

The Hit List

Done Well:

best desktop experience of any app I have ever used, great keyboard shortcuts, tagging/categorization, extremely fast task creation, repeating tasks

Lacking:

vaporware iPhone version, an API

I’ve never been as excited about a program as I was about The Hit List. It’s beautiful, fast, easy to learn, and incredibly well thought out. Sadly two years into the product life cycle the announced iPhone app has never been released and the desktop version has never come out of beta. The developer has dropped off the face of the earth. While the desktop version is truly a marvel to be seen (even in beta), the lack of syncing, API access, or a mobile version render this app a dinosaur. Some people have gotten it to work with the 2Do via calendar syncing, but I’m just not willing to use some hack method for important tasks in my life.

Because I’m such a fan of The Hit List I believe it belongs in this showdown. For someone that only needs a desktop application there is nothing better on the table. Just check out this quick video I whipped up:

If The Hit List gets an iPhone app I will jump on it no matter what the cost. Though I’m a realist and therefore betting this app, sadly, won’t see the light of day.

The Final Conclusion

Considering it’s mid 2010 I’m astonished that someone hasn’t solved the GTD personal task solution in a way that meets the few goals I provided above. There is a lot of potential in the market but no superstar. I’d love to hear other people’s solutions to the GTD problem, maybe something’s out there that I don’t know about. Until then I’ll keep hoping for a better desktop or web version of NotifyMe2. Or, even better, the mystical unicorn Hit List iPhone application from Andy Kim.