This Week's Sponsor:

Collections Database

A Powerful Database with iCloud Sync

Posts tagged with "reminders"

QuickCal 3.1 Released with Improved Recognition Engine, iCloud Reminders, Autocomplete Feature

I love the start of a new year because it is a great time to revamp your productivity workflow. You can re-evaluate what tools you use and even buy new apps completely free of guilt. It is no secret that the cornerstone of any good system is the calendar but it can be difficult to force yourself to create calendar events on a regular basis. Well, the folks behind QuickCal have just released a great update to get you back in the routine of managing your calendar.

One major improvement in QuickCal 3.1 is the re-written recognition engine that the app uses to understand natural language input. QuickCal has no structured syntax for adding events and reminders which actually makes adding items extremely flexible. When typing in the event you no longer have to start with the event title, you actually have the option of starting with a time, duration, location, or title and QuickCal will almost always get it right. I have also noticed a dramatic improvement in QuickCal’s ability to correctly parse out event locations which is something I have had trouble with in previous versions. Regardless of the order in which you type out the information, QuickCal does an excellent job figuring out the details for you. Adding events to your calendar without worrying about correct syntax is incredibly powerful. The only way QuickCal could get any faster at creating calendar events is if it actually finished sentences for you.

oh, wait…

Have I mentioned their new autocomplete feature? Autocomplete does exactly what you expect it to do. As you are typing common words, QuickCal gives you suggestions of words it thinks you might be typing. To accept the autocompletion you can just hit the tab key and continue on typing. It will even pickup on your most frequently used words and auto-suggest them in the future. After only 3 or 4 reminders relating to my wife Leslie, QuickCal was finishing her name for me. It is awesome. In fact, I am finding it so useful that I am not sure how I had ever used QuickCal without this feature.

Perhaps the greatest improvement to QuickCal is its integration with iCloud Reminders. A reminder is now added to your default Reminders list and shows up in the iOS 5 Reminders app. If the reminder has a date or time then an alarm is also created. This alone is a neat feature but it wasn’t enough to pry me away from the Alfred extension I had created to quickly add simple iOS 5 Reminders. Although as I continued to use the new version of QuickCal, I realized that I could also add items to other lists by simply typing the name of the list. For example, my wife and I share a Groceries list. If I just start typing Gro… it suggests switching to my Groceries list so I can add an item to it. In true QuickCal fashion it does so very intuitively and without effort. It is a great feature that truly increases my dependency on QuickCal. The only drawback is still having to open iCal to trigger an iCloud sync. When CalDAV is supported and I no longer need that extra step, QuickCal will be my ideal iCal replacement.

Check out QuickCal 3.1 and all of its new features on the Mac App Store.

OmniFocus for iPhone Adds “iCloud Capture” To Import iOS Reminders

With the latest update to OmniFocus for iPhone, The Omni Group has figured out a way to let the app interact with iOS reminders and iCloud, and automatically fetch reminders created through the iPhone 4S’ Siri or Reminders app. Whilst you still can’t ask Siri to create new tasks directly into OmniFocus, the solution implemented by The Omni Group is very clever, and it gives you the illusion of native integration with the assistant, using iCloud and your Apple ID as a bridge between Siri’s reminder functionality, and OmniFocus.

The Omni Group has implemented a new feature called iCloud Capture that is capable of taking Reminders from your iCloud account, and move them into OmniFocus’ inbox. iCloud Capture, as explained in the Help section, literally takes input that would otherwise stay into Reminders, and moves “as much data as it can” away from Reminders and into OmniFocus. This is done in two ways: first, you have to create reminders that go into a “Reminders” or “OmniFocus” list. Second, you’ll have to log in with your iCloud account in OmniFocus’ settings, and enable iCloud Capture. Once enabled, OmniFocus will check for new reminders every time upon launch and move them into the inbox. The “upon launch” part is important, as OmniFocus can’t process iCloud data in the background – you won’t be able to add reminders via Siri, and expect OmniFocus to import & sync in the background. You’ll have to open OmniFocus for iCloud Capture to work, but it’s a minimal effort compared to the added convenience of being able to let OmniFocus seamlessly process and import reminders.

Please note that reminders will be deleted from Reminders.app as they’re moved to OmniFocus; title and dates will be preserved in the transition, but The Omni Group says that location reminders – which both Siri and Apple’s Reminders can use out of the box – will be “most effective” when they match Reminders’ contact locations and OmniFocus’ own implementation, which is quite different from Apple as it’s got more options. From my understanding of this limitation, it appears getting location reminders into OmniFocus from iCloud might work best if OmniFocus is using the same contact information rather than its “current location” or “exact location”, and I’ll need to investigate this further. For now, I can say that one location-based reminder did go through iCloud Capture, but another did not, and stayed inside Reminders.

The Omni Group didn’t add direct Siri integration, but they came up with one of the most clever ways I’ve seen to use Siri and iCloud to create reminders and have them automatically moved to OmniFocus every time you open the app. The system isn’t perfect, but has worked very well for me with simple reminders. Another good point of iCloud Capture is that Windows users will be able to move Outlook tasks to OmniFocus when they launch the app, as iCloud Capture checks for all reminders in your iCloud account, not just those created via Siri. Overall, I’d recommend giving iCloud Capture a try, and see if reminders might work better for you inside OmniFocus rather than Apple’s Reminders.

Update: The Omni Group has posted a series of videos showing how iCloud Capture works. Check them out after the break.

Read more

iOS 5 Reminders From an OmniFocus User’s Perspective

When I first got my hands on the new Reminders app in iOS 5, I launched it and scoffed under my breath. Sure it was cute but it was not for me. I have spent so much time developing a bond with OmniFocus that I don’t know if it could ever be broken. It probably sounds dramatic but OmniFocus and I have been through some hard times together, probably some of the worst in my life.

My wife hates when she sees OmniFocus projects related to something personal in our marriage but it is my trusted system and I use it for everything. I have never found a suite of applications that can do for me what OmniFocus does. I have tried so many productivity and task management apps that I refuse to count them for fear of realizing the amount of money I have wasted. I have a natural (or unnatural if you ask my wife) attraction to this genre of apps so of course I was excited to take a look at the new Reminders app.

Reminders is a simple, albeit extremely well done, list-making application. Its main appeal is the “geo-fencing” feature that will trigger a reminder based on your proximity to a predefined location. The concept is amazing to me. The only problem is Reminders does not easily integrate in to my existing system, thus I probably won’t be able to truly utilize it.

Enter Siri. Read more

iOS 5: Reminders

 

With iOS 5, Apple has decided to tackle the to-do and reminder app market by offering its own solution that’s tightly integrated with iCloud, calendars, and Address Book. Reminders, a new system app in iOS 5, allows users to easily and quickly jot down their to-dos and organize them in “lists” that are stored and backed up to the cloud in real-time. Reminders are constantly pushed across devices and the web on iCloud.com, and they come with a series of options to give them date-based alarms, a location, or notes.

Reminders is a straightforward app that can’t be compared to more complex to-do and project management solutions like OmniFocus or Things, but it doesn’t need to achieve or aspire to such complexity as it’s a utility aimed at making it extremely simple to quickly create a reminder, and forget about the existence of the app itself. You won’t spend time “tweaking” or “customizing” Reminders; you can’t assign “tags” to to-dos and move them around between folders. The app has got a single theme (as per Apple’s recent skeuomorphic trends, the app resembles an old leather-bound agenda with the heavy use of textures) and two functionalities besides reminder creation: lists and search. Read more

OmniFocus Updated with iOS 5 Location Reminders

The Omni Group released two updates for its OmniFocus app for iPhone and iPad today, adding several bug fixes and improvements, iOS 5 compatibility, and a new Location Reminders feature that leverages iOS 5’s geo-fencing APIs to send you a reminder when you’re in the right area to complete an action. The same technology is used by Apple in Reminders, a new native app in iOS 5.

The new Location Reminders in OmniFocus require an iPhone 4 or iPad 2 3G with iOS 5 installed. iOS 5 isn’t coming out until Wednesday, October 12th, but I’ve been able to test the functionality on my iPhone 4 running the Golden Master release of iOS 5. In the new OmniFocus, location needs to be assigned to a Context from the context editing view. The location settings have more options than Apple’s Reminders app – you can assign a location to a context by fetching the current location via GPS, selecting a contact’s address (like Reminders), or pinpointing your exact location. You can also manually search for an address, select “always available”, or choose to skip location altogether by choosing “none”. Once you’ve set a location for a context, you can select how you should be notified for an available task: when you leave or when you arrive. In this screen, The Omni Group warns that Apple’s geo-fencing technology in the first version of iOS 5 has a series of limitations to keep in mind – opening the app’s Help screen reveals that location-based reminders might not be 100% accurate, especially if you quickly leave/re-enter a location, or quickly pass by one (example: while driving on the highway). This is something The Omni Group can’t really address on its own as it’s a set of APIs provided by Apple, and if anything it shows that the developers are committed to providing an optimal experience by offering even more location options than Apple’s Reminders. In my tests, I can confirm OmniFocus’ (and Reminders, too) location alerts haven’t been accurate all the time – current location would work with a specified area, but not a manually-entered address. Similarly, the distance settings offered by OmniFocus sometimes failed in reminding me to do something when I was leaving a location; the app offers three different dots to determine distance, a small one for about 200 meters (600 feet), a middle-sized circle for 500 meters (1500 feet) and a big circle for 10 kilometers (6 miles). Again, these are options that Apple doesn’t provide in its native Reminders app.

It’s too bad location technology for reminders in iOS 5 still needs some optimizations, because I believe OmniFocus’ support for the feature is just great. The user interface is simple and elegant, the context-based system is meaningful to the concept of context itself, and OmniFocus is still a fantastic piece of software (with several bug fixes that you can check out in iTunes’ changelog). There’s no doubt Apple will improve location reminders over time, and please note, too, that there’s a chance the functionality will work perfectly for you, and addresses in my area simply don’t want to cooperate with Apple and OmniFocus.

You can get the updated OmniFocus in the App Store here (iPhone) and here (iPad).

Notificant Now Delivers Beautiful Reminders Across iPhone, Mac and Web

Released back in January on the Mac a few days after the Mac App Store grand opening, Notificant for Mac was a pretty sweet way to create reminders and timed notifications on the desktop, and have them always available thanks to the web app counterpart developers Caramel Cloud built. As the name of the company suggests, Notificant is a heavily cloud-oriented product: the Mac app is simple and unobtrusive in the way it lives in the menubar, but it leverages the power of the cloud and client sync to fire off notifications across computers and web browsers with incredible reliability and speed. And today, with the release of Notificant for iPhone, Caramel Cloud wants to extend the capabilities of the platform to the iPhone, delivering notifications anywhere, at any time.

Notificant for iPhone follows the path traced by the Mac and web apps, offering users a clean and elegant interface to create and manage upcoming notifications. Once you log in with your Caramel Cloud account, you’ll be able to choose a custom sound effect in the settings, as well as decide to show an icon badge on the homescreen. The main screen is organized in two tabs: Archive lets you access past reminders and re-schedule them if you want to create a new notification off an old one, whilst the Upcoming tab lists all the notifications that you set and are about to fire off across the cloud to your registered computers and mobile devices. To add a new notification, you have to tap on the + button in the upper right corner. In this new screen, two other tabs allow you to set a delivery date and time; the text entry box at the top lets you write down details of your reminder, as well as shorten any link you’ve inserted. Similarly to Twitter, Notificant’s reminders have a limit of 160 characters (Twitter’s limit is 140). In my tests, I’ve found Notificant’s reminders created on the iPhone to be as reliable and precise as those added on the Mac and web app – which is great, as it means the system put in place by the developers is working correctly and doing its job throughout the cloud. A welcome addition to the iPhone app would be a refresh button in the main page to quickly remove notifications and check for new ones – of course, it’d also be great to have a native iPad app in the future. I’m sure Caramel Cloud is considering the option.

Notificant for iPhone makes reminders simple, and available anywhere. It’s simple, well-designed, and focused on one feature: enabling you to be notified of the things you care about. Get the app here. Read more

Due, The Best Reminder App for iPhone, Now Available on the iPad

Due, a popular reminder and timer application for the iPhone we at MacStories reviewed several times in the past, was updated last night to include a native iPad version that, together with OTA sync through Dropbox introduced in version 1.3.1, now allows you to have your reminders, timers and logbook always in sync and available across a variety of devices.

Due for iPad sports a completely new interface for the tablet that reminded me of the official Twitter app at first with a vertical navigation bar on the left and a middle panel to add and customize your reminders and timers. The bar on the left lets you switch between the sections of the app, as well as the Settings which now have their own dedicated tab. As you may know Due syncs with Dropbox upon launch and exit, so if you’re running both the iPhone and iPad versions at the same time don’t expect changes to occur simultaneously. It’s highly recommended that you only use one version of Due at a time to avoid sync conflict issues. That said, sync is pretty reliable and fast enough to enable you to switch from a device to another within seconds.

New design aside, Due for iPad follow the steps of the iPhone app to offer an easy to use solution for your reminders and timers. Many of the interface elements are the same so you’ll feel comfortable when using the new Due for iPad. This update also introduces a number of fixes and various improvements, such as the possibility to relaunch the app in its previous state (reminders / timers tabs), double tap to edit reminders and timers, extended undo support. When adding new reminders, the app will now open the “quick panel” automatically to customize snooze and repeat quickly – this one is a very welcome addition to further streamline Due’s workflow and usability.

Due keeps getting better on each release, and this iPad version plays an important role in making Due a ubiquitous way to have your reminders and timers available all the time. You can get the app for $4.99 in the App Store, and check out the full list of changes and fixes below. Read more

MANsaver: The iPhone App That Will Save Your Relationship

It is no secret that men usually forget about things. Especially if you’re married and you have to think about paying the bills, your job, kids and that car insurance that just won’t go away, it might happen to forget about your 4th anniversay, the perfect gift for Valentine’s Day, or the anniversary of the day your first met with your wife. While girls seem to remember any kind of holiday, anniversary and important milestone with ease, guys…well, usually just forget. And if your relationship is anything like mine, you know this could become a problem. Like, a huge problem.

Now, for as silly as it sounds, we there’s an app for that. MANsaver, a free iPhone app by Oven Bits and Creation Code, is aimed at collecting all these kinds of holidays and anniversaries you should remember into a single list view that – and here comes the real trick – will also send you notifications five days ahead of a scheduled event, and on the same day as well. This app, also nicely designed, is literally a man saver: it allows you to build custom lists of dates based on your relationship, set up reminders and even send text messages based on “romantic templates”. This is an iPhone geek’s relationship-oriented OmniFocus, basically. Read more

Notificant Delivers Notifications To All Your Macs, Through The Cloud

Notificant by Caramel Cloud is a new app available exclusively on the Mac App Store that provides an easy, fast and reliable solution to create and send notifications to all your personal Macs and a selected email address. The app is deeply tied to a cloud infrastructure – as the developers’ name suggests – and it allows you to forward as many notifications you want, at any given time. It’s one of those apps that doesn’t reinvent anything (notification apps have been around for a while, and we recently reviewed Alarms for Mac) but takes a simple approach and throws the advantages and speed of the cloud in the mix.

Basically, Notificant is a simple tool to sync reminders in the cloud. The app takes care of all the sync stuff and forwarding to your personal devices, you just need to write down entries, hit save and forget about it.

Read more