LucidLists iPhone App Review

LucidLists is a neat and simple repeating to do list that is quick to launch and quick to edit. It's signature move is being able to categorize items as overdue (Rotten), due soon (Ripe), due later (Raw). The list I had compiled in that order and behind each text is the corresponding color of a banana: brown for Rotten and overdue tasks, yellow for Ripe and due soon tasks, and green for Raw and due later tasks. It's a nice little touch that the background behind each task gradually changes colors and begins to grow brown spots as the task matures in age. May your tasks be done fresh!








Other features include a field to enter a note, and this field provides plenty of note space so the entire note can be viewed when you tap the task for more details. There is also a repeating option for task, options range from 1 day to 29 days, 1 month to 11 months, and also yearly. Unfortunately, there is no badge notification to remind you that an item is due for the day.







Overall, this app may have a place in your arsenal of task managers, it certainly is refreshing to see an iPhone productivity app with some visually appealing design and thought that steps away from pure text view to do lists. Keep up the good work LucidLists!

iPhone App Tweet Memo: A Short Review

I have had this v1.01 for a week and it's a pretty solid Twitter app. If you need to tweet past tweets and want to search them quickly this is your app. You can store past memos and tweet them quickly as well. No landscape mode.


Have a memo? Write it down. Eventually after enough memos you'll want to tweet some, for friends or some ad hoc to do list managemet. This app is great for that purpose.

Features:
Write separate memos or tweet right away. Favorite a tweet or memo for use later. As a Twitter client, it only loads your tweets so you cannot follow someone else and bookmark their tweet for your use later.





-- Post From My iPhone

Errands iPhone App Review

Errands is a neat little app that allows you to keep a list of your errand tasks and due dates. What sets this app apart is a simple and uncluttered user-interface that is attractive and quick to use. Those from the GTD philosophy may find it's large, customizable views and use of icons refreshing from other todo lists that only offer checkmarks as the visual aid of choice.




Features:
First of all the app is clean, crisp, and under control. It provides user customizations to it's fonts and color scheme, something a fully fledged task list app, such as OmniFocus or Things, lacks.



Next it provides a simple way to prioritize the errands.




It also provides 44 stock icons and included is the option to use your own photos.



The icons themselves are nicely done.



One feature that tends to add a finishing touch to task list apps is the badge notification, which Errands also has to denote a due date for an errand has arrived.




Recurring errands are also supported.



Flaws:
Despite it's ease of use and streamlined features there are a few minor drawbacks that could be addressed. For starters, you have to tap twice to complete a task. Those of you that are use to quickly checking items off rapidly may find the extra step redundant. The next flaw I find is tht in order to delete an item, you have to tap the edit button, instead of the more intuitive swipe across the screen. If these are the major flaws of the application, it must be really good.

Findings:
Overall, Errands is a thoughtful todo app that may be well suited on any iPhone or iPod touch. If you already have an arsenal of productivity apps it may be cool to have as a focused context for when you're out and about and don't want to wait for your larger lists to clutter your iPhone screen and your mind. Errands is clean and attractive. For a device that is always on the go having this app while running errands could make a task list more fun to use and definitely easier to look at.

-- Post From My iPhone

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Dream Planner: A Short Review

I took advantage of the Dream Planner app sale, and well, I'm not very impressed by this app. It is a thoughtful layout, one of the most attractive I've found, but I think it just lacks some core features to make it worth your time. There is no syncing functionality, which would be useful to enter in detailed plans with many tasks. I don't see many people opting to do so using their just two thumbs on the iPhone's tiny keypad. The nice progress tracking charts aren't very useful without an ability to prioritize tasks by importance. Overall, it's worth 5 minutes and 99¢.

One of the two impressive features would be the bar charts that shows how you are using your time  progressing through tasks. What I mean is that the progress bar feature is partitioned by real progress, but how many check marks you've made and how many are left to go. So for example, if you have a dream that requires 10 tasks to complete, if you complete 1 task, the progress bar will advance to 10%, so on and so forth. It's a metric, but some tasks will require more time and energy than others making the measurement somewhat inaccurate.

The second feature is a pie chart that shows you how you spend your time  manage your tasks. Without going into the math, if you complete more tasks in one area, it'll be representative in your pie chart. Again, not indicative of the time or energy you spend, but rather the number of tasks, regardless of their importance to actual progress. In the picture to the left, 33% of tasks were made in the maintenance category and 11% in the finance category. It could have been the tasks in maintenance took 10 minutes on a laptop and the tasks in finance may have required a week of dedicated work flying to Sweden and back to finalize your off-shore accounts. So again, the data is too misleading to be of any use.
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Dream Planner is a fun little app if you have the dexterity (and several hours) to put all your tasks for all your dreams into one app using just the iPhone's keypad. After all that work, tracking the goals would be fun as the visual feedback is one of the best available. However, it's really just another task list with some added bells and whistles. It's one of a kind, but it didn't remain on my iPhone for long.

Just Launched!

I just decided on an organization to the things I want to write about and it includes spreading out all my ideas but link them by my name. I'm pretty sure I didn't invent that, but I'll take credit =).

So, I will soon provide my reviews of iPhone productivity apps. I follow GTD, but I am a past follower of the Franklin Covey/Brian Tracy Eat that Frog methods of prioritizing tasks. I like the latter just because I was more able to throw a lot of to do's and events away, to the detriment of my social circle, then I decided on GTD since it was more suited for today's "Gotta Have it all" culture.

Upcoming Reviews: Pocket Informant, OmniFocus