Tasks
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TUAW's Daily Mac App: Wunderlist
Have you ever found managing and syncing your task list more difficult than it really needs to be? Wunderlist is the answer. An incredibly simple, intuitive and good looking program, Wunderlist makes creating, syncing and clearing a list of tasks quick and easy. Either use the "Add your task here" box or hit Cmd+N or Cmd+T to create a new task. Next, set a date using the calendar or leave it with no date and "Star" those tasks that are the most important. If a task needs more information, attach a note to it to store information or outline some necessary detail. It's possible to create separate lists of tasks as well, so if you've got a party to organize, you just break down everything into tasks in their own list. That list can be shared with any of your friends who are using Wunderlist either on the Mac, a PC, Android, iOS or the Web. If they haven't been introduced to Wunderlist yet, they get an invitation to join. It's also easy to use CloudApp directly from Wunderlist to share your task list publicly via email, Twitter, Facebook or any other messaging service via a Cloudly link. Wunderlist for Mac syncs with the cloud, keeping your Mac, your work PC, your iPhone, iPad or Android phone all on the same page. No matter where you complete or create a task, it'll be in sync across all of your devices. Wunderlist is available for free from the Mac App Store and syncs with a free Wunderlist online account and with the free iPhone, iPad, Android and Windows apps. If you create and manage tasks on your Mac or mobile device, you really must try Wunderlist.
The Road to Mordor: Rise of Isengard is coming!
Tweet [Update: Made a clarification that there is no indication of "open-world" PvMP in the expansion.] Times are tough in Middle-earth, even after the inexplicable appearance of several hundred thousand new adventurers this fall. The Fellowship of the Ring is broken, Sauron is rising in power, and the White Hand of Saruman is marching across the lands. Even the bravest and hardiest soldier of the Free Peoples cannot be blamed for feeling disheartened, especially in the face of the monumental struggle to come. Welcome to the beginning of The Two Towers in Lord of the Rings Online. Welcome to Isengard. The rumors are true: Next year we will be venturing into LotRO's third expansion, titled Rise of Isengard, to confront evil in its own backyard. While this may not be the Rohan or Gondor expansion that we've anticipated, Turbine is fairly confident that it will be well-received by players and will represent an ambitious step forward on (wait for it) the road to Mordor. Turbine's Adam Mersky and Aaron Campbell were on hand to outline for us the company's near- and far-future plans with Massively, starting with the imminent November update and cruising all the way through 2011. Hit the jump as we look at interactive theater, busy bees, Monster Play improvements and, of course, Isengard.
Ask Massively: I have eaten so much birthday cake edition
It gets absolutely crazy around here once November 2nd rolls around. You'd think that another year of operation was something that only came around once every 9,000 hours or so. Of course, this means an opportunity for me to gorge myself on so much cake that I can't walk under my own power any longer without its just being arbitrary gluttony, and who can say no to that? I certainly can't. I'm still unable to walk two days later. This week, in honor of our anniversary, I've pulled a few questions straight from our anniversary edition of The Daily Grind, so that readers who missed the answers before can see the answers again... and questions unanswered can get a response. So click on past the break for our offerings, and as always, you can leave a question right here or send it along to ask@massively.com. Hopefully by next week I will be able to walk again.
GooTasks syncs tasks from Google
We all know that trying to sync up tasks from your Google account to your iPhone / iPad can be a laborious, if not impossible, task! And if you didn't know that, ... now you do. The only way to access Google tasks is through mobile Safari or another Web browser. Even Google Mobile App will direct you to the Web-based version of Google tasks, via Safari. And, as it stands, there is no way to access Google tasks on the iOS Mail.app either, only notes can be synced through that. No one's saying the Web-based version of Google tasks is such a bad thing, but if you're desperate to deal with your Google tasks through an app, with that app feel, shine and shimmer, then check out GooTasks. GooTasks is a straight forward and very simple app. It allows you to manage, create, edit, and delete Google tasks from various Google accounts and lists so that you can have all of your tasks in just one place. And it's free. I must admit, it's not all that different from Google's own mobile, Web-based version. The only difference that I could find is an offline mode, for use when you're off the grid. Naturally, your tasks will only sync once you're back online. GooTasks is made by French developer Runware. You can check out the GooTasks website in English here, but be warned, the iTunes App Store description is in French only. Another word of caution, GooTasks has an in-app purchase to upgrade to GooTasks Pro at £2.99. For the life of me, I can't figure out what added features you get from this, and I can't glean any further details from their website. So, play it safe, kids! If you're in the market for something similar to GooTasks, check out CalenGoo or GeeTasks, but these are paid apps. Or, why not make a little Web shortcut on your home screen? That way, with one touch, your tasks will appear before you -- just remember to save your log in details!
iPad launch first look: Things for iPad
Cultured Code has released the iPad version of their classic iPhone task list app, Things. The new Things for iPad (US$19.99), as you can see in the video above, is absolutely gorgeous on the new Apple platform, and benefits greatly from the larger layout. I've personally downloaded the iPad version, synced my tasks, and the app seems like it's a natural part of the iPad. We'll be publishing a full review of Things for iPad soon. In the meanwhile, feast your eyes on this 34 second video showing everything you'll be doing to keep yourself up to date on your work and personal tasks.
The next level of questing
Elnia at the Pink Pigtail Inn has some excellent and interesting advice for Blizzard's quest designers (or whoever they hire for the current position). As big a component as quests are in the game, they haven't been innovated on much since the game's release. Blizzard has played around a little bit with allowing us to repeat certain quests, and they've streamlined the group questing mechanic, but other than that, quests are pretty much the same: pick up a task, do it, and bring it back for a reward.So how can it be done differently? Elnia has some great ideas: she asks for quests that span a little farther, that push players through a storyline that might even follow them all the way up to 80 (of course, there are quests like that, though they're few and far between -- and not all players have the patience to finish them). Rewards could be mixed up, too -- instead of the old gold and XP, how about some profession skill, or a tradeoff of badges based on certain quests done. Finally, Elnia suggests that every quest in the game become repeatable. Questing is paced to keep us interested in from 1-60, but we all know how the game works now -- why not let us do some of our favorite quests over more than once?I'd suggest we go even farther -- Warhammer Online offers Public Quests that are an interesting twist on the usual "go kill boars" mechanic. I'd like to see branching quests with more than one outcome -- maybe a moral choice to make that affects the storyline of the quest you're doing. And talking real pie-in-the-sky here, I'd like to see questgivers treat you different based on the way you look or maybe what title you've got equipped. If you've got "Jenkins," they might not expect you to do much, but with "Champion of Ulduar" over your head, they should probably be groveling at your feet.
Palm Pre tasks, memos, browser on display, automatic backup confirmed
Just in time for your weekend perusal, Palm Goon (which we half suspect might be a viral site from Palm itself) has uploaded three tours and a FAQ chock-full of new Pre / webOS screens and details, chief among them being confirmation that the Pre does daily automatic backup. We've also got some pretty thorough glimpses of the web browser, Tasks, and Memo applications. Visually, it's quite a beaut -- a very elegant and classy UI that rivals anything we've seen from a certain Cupertino-based company. Of course, functionality remains to be seen, but if Palm and Sprint deliver half as good of a game as they talk, looks like we're in for a real treat. Update: Looks like the site's experiencing intermittent server errors. Hang tight, we'll keep you updated. Read - Meet the Web Browser Read - Meet the "Memos" app Read - Meet the "Tasks" app Read - Things You Might Not Know... [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
First Look: Fliq Tasks
Mark/Space has added another member to their rapidly growing family of iPhone file transfer applications. The new baby in the family is Fliq Tasks, which joins Fliq for Mac and Windows, Fliq Notes, and Fliq for iPhone. As with Fliq for iPhone and Fliq Notes, Fliq Tasks is available in the App Store for free (click opens iTunes). Mark/Space is providing their iPhone applications for free, while charging for the Mac and Windows "host" software. Fliq for Mac and Fliq for Windows are available for US$19.95 (US$49.95 for a 3-pack) each. If you want to transfer files between iPhones over a Wi-Fi network, all you need are the free iPhone apps. When you add the functionality of transferring information to and from your Mac or PC, you'll have to purchase the desktop applications.Fliq Tasks is a full-featured task manager with big, clear, and easy-to-use interface similar to that found in Fliq Notes. Tasks can be listed by name, date due, category, and priority. You can add categories to better match them to your requirements, and there's a simple setting to hide completed tasks. Using the soon-to-be-released Fliq 1.1 for Mac or Windows, you'll be able to send or receive tasks from your iPhone to your big computer.Current Fliq users should be sure to give Fliq Tasks a try, and the price is definitely right. Check out the mini-gallery below for more screenshots. %Gallery-43213%
Today 1.1
Second Gear, the same developers who bring you the PocketTweets Twitter client for the iPhone, have announced that Today 1.1 is now available.Today is an app that works with your iCal database and provides easy browsing of your events and tasks in an attractive and unobtrusive window. Clicking the icons at the bottom of the window opens dialogs for entering new events and tasks in a way that is much easier than entering them into iCal directly. What's new in Today 1.1? Better performance for those of us with big calendaring needs Filtering of the calendars that appear in the Today window Locations can be assigned for new events All day events have a new, more obvious appearance New event and task due dates default to the day that you're viewing Bugs have been squashed Second Gear provides a 7-day test drive for download. The update is free for existing Today users, or you can purchase Today for $15.
Greatascent: Highrise meets Address Book in web and desktop 2.0 harmony
Web 2.0 is great and all, but I bought a Mac to utilize the power of Mac OS X and its software. While working in a browser certainly has its advantages, I believe that the sweet spot of getting work done shouldn't force the user into choosing between two appealing environments. The sweet spot of which I am speaking, of course, is integration and sync - the much sought-after, hard-to-find features that some companies offer with their products, while others at least leave the door open for enterprising 3rd parties to pick up the slack. Fortunately, one of the 'others' I speak of is 37signals with Highrise, their popular web-baesd contact and correspondence app, and the enterprising 3rd party in this case is Simon Menke, developer of Greatascent. This is one of the hands-down coolest plug-ins I've seen in a while that unites web 2.0 with what I like to call desktop 2.0 - the place where desktop apps can interact and sync with online services. Greatascent, currently in a private beta, is a plug-in for Address Book (and soon other parts of Mac OS X) that serves as a middle man between the contacts on your Mac and those in Highrise. In its early beta state, Greatascent can pull down the contacts you're already working with in Highrise, but its real appeal is allowing you to drag and drop contacts from Address Book onto a new group that is added (pictured) to instantly sync them up to Highrise. Once synchronized, however, another gem of working in Highrise is brought to the desktop: from Address Book's File menu, you can select a Highrise contact and create a new Highrise note or task that is then synched up to the service. Read on after the jump for some screenshots and details of just how cool this plug-in can get.
iGTD Pro details, Inbox Widget released
Bartlomiej Bargiel has been hard at work on iGTD, his incredibly powerful task task manager based on David Allen's Getting Things Done philosophy, and has recently unleashed news on what he has in store for iGTD Pro. As a matter of fact, iGTD will be split into three versions: iGTD Basic (the one that will continue to be free), iGTD Home&Office and iGTD Pro, each offering increasing abilities to sync and share tasks between Macs on the network and, with the Pro version, around the world. iGTD Pro will also allow to access your data with a web tool, possible a sooped up version of iPhoneiGTD. Licensing and availability details on these new versions, however, are still under wraps. In other news, Bartlomiej has also released an iGTD Inbox Widget which offers yet another way to quickly enter tasks and even use the Quicksilver syntax assign them to contexts. I personally prefer the f-key Quick Add window, but widget junkies will likely appreciate this streamlined iGTD interface.
iPhoneiGTD: View your iGTD tasks and projects on your iPhone
I first discovered iPhoneiGTD through Leaflets, another iPhone web app launcher we found, but I didn't dig into it until now. After tinkering around, I can say that I totally love this web portal for viewing the tasks and projects I'm tracking with iGTD, in my opinion the best GTD (Getting Things Done) app available for Mac OS X.The catch with iPhoneiGTD is that you need to be synching your iGTD data via .Mac. Like the impressive Webjimbo, which allows you to view, edit and create Yojimbo items over the web via a browser (with an iPhone-optimized option coming soon), iPhoneiGTD accesses your iGTD data by tapping into your .Mac account, though users are assured that neither your .Mac login nor personal info are recorded or stored.As you can see, access is mostly limited to viewing your tasks via contexts and projects, though the plus button acts as a clever workaround for creating new tasks by allowing you to email yourself a task in the form of a subject + any notes you'd like to include. By setting up some kind of an automatic Apple Mail-to-iGTD trick like Brett Terpstra's Jott2iGTD, you could possibly turn this email function into a real automated solution if you leave Mail and iGTD running on a Mac somewhere. Otherwise, using iGTD's rich importing and keyboard shortcut abilities, you could easily process your tasks out of Mail manually once you're back on a Mac.No matter how you slice it, iPhoneiGTD is a great solution both for GTD enthusiasts and those simply wishing the iPhone had some kind of a tasks app (assuming, again, that you have a .Mac account). Like iGTD, iPhoneiGTD is provided as donationware.
PackRat 1.2: Backpack client adds better list management and a new trial period
Going on vacation to see your just-born nephew and family will do funny things to you, like missing a handy update to a dear, dear application. Rod Schmidt's PackRat, the killer desktop client for the online PIM Backpack that we've mentioned once or twice, has been updated to v1.2 with some great new list management features. First up is yet another feature even Backpack itself doesn't have: a new 'Delete all completed items' option that appears below lists with items you've checked off. Second is another PackRat-only feature: condensing of your completed items. Instead of allowing checked items to take up more room than they should below a list, PackRat will automatically hide them and only reveal the top 5, with the option to reveal all just in case you need to double-check or recover a few.In addition, Rod has also switched to a 30 day trial period (instead of limiting to only 4 usable PackRat pages), after which PackRat will restrict access to 5 pages until the user purchases a license. At $24.95, PackRat is an easy purchase for anyone who needs a powerful, feature-packed offline and synching client for 37signal's exception Backpack service.
Jott2iGTD: Use voicemail to add tasks to iGTD
As many of you know, iGTD is a killer task management app that can't stop bringing cool features to the table. As fewer of you might know, Brett Terpstra at the Circle Six Design blog also can't seem to stop bringing awesome tools and features to the table; he's responsible for stuff like the FlickrMate bundle that provides some powerful Flickr integration with your TextMate projects, as well as the TextMate AutoTag bundle for WordPress, offering some great tagging features that integrate well with your WordPress blog. Amazingly, Brett's at it again, and this time he's allowing you to add tasks to iGTD using only the power of your voice - with a little help from Jott and Apple Mail, of course.Jott is a service that allows you to send email and text messages by calling a private phone number. Calling this number allows you to leave a message which then gets dictated and sent to a recipient, including yourself. With the power of Brett's new Jott2iGTD utility and a customized rule you created in Apple Mail, you can leave a message with Jott that is emailed to you, which Mail processes and automatically converts into an iGTD task. Jotting (ha!) down a reminder or idea probably can't get much easier than this, though some setup and file shuffling is involved to get this all running properly.As with his other goodies, Brett amazingly provides Jott2iGTD as donationware, with a PayPal link hidden at the bottom of the page (I really think you should move it above the fold, Brett!). A changelog is provided, along with instructions to get you all set up.
iGTD 1.4.5: Again with the landslide of new features
It's official: I am developing my own version system to keep track of iGTD updates, because this 1.x.x thing is just not right. The way I see it, this new iGTD v1.4.5 should really be called v3.5, what with yet another batch of major new features being introduced. Included in this update is F-key integration with PathFinder, Yojimbo and MacJournal (so you can send items from these apps to iGTD for task tracking), a Quick Tags feature that allows you to bind tags to shortcuts like Alt + 1 - 9 and a killer new feature that integrates with an Apple Mail rule. Once set up, this rule allows you to email yourself with a subject like "todo: @work spike the water cooler" and Mail will send it on over to iGTD automatically. For anyone who works in an office and away from their Mac at home, this is a killer way to make actual use out of all those todo emails you send yourself all day.Of course, I don't even need to tell you that there are more features in this update. By now it's become par for the course that an iGTD update brings tons of other enhancements, new tricks and bug fixes, so head on over to Bartlomiej Bargiel's announcement blog post to get the full details. To get the new version, simply start up iGTD or head up to the application menu and chose Check for Updates, or simply visit the iGTD downloads page and click the Current Release link to make sure you get the most up-to-date version.
iGTD 1.4.4 update brings, uh, way too many new features
Something tells me the crew who writes iGTD (fortunately) never really grasped how application version systems work (for the record: I say this with the warmest of intentions; iGTD is the first GTD-based app that I really 'get' and use). Typically, a company releases a 1.0, follows up with a few 1.x.x updates to fix bugs and quirks, and maybe a few 1.x releases that add a new feature or two. But as anyone who has been following the last few minor updates can tell, the new features brought with each 1.x.x release are really worthy of major 2.x and 3.x releases. This morning I woke to just such an update (v1.4.4) that brings a landslide of new and handy feature updates, including: F-key integration with Journler, endo RSS news reader, VoodooPad Pro, EagleFiler and WebnoteHappy exporting smart folders added ('To complete' tab) Don't forget! feature - use the Tasks menu option to display a sticky reminder about a task... click it to jump to the task Send to stickies feature - use the Tasks menu option to display selected tasks as Apple Sticky note E-mail feature - use the Tasks menu option to e-mail selected tasks via Apple Mail MailTags 2.0. enhancement: flagged e-mails are imported as flagged tasks MailTags 2.0. enhancement: a prefs setting to use the MT e-mail notes as a name for task in iGTD last selected smart folder is saved and restored between launches integration with Services menu (logout/login required): select a text in any app, go to app menu / Services submenu and use the 'iGTD/Put into iGTD inbox option' new mode for search panel: 'Search by project name or note' and much, much more This update also includes a large batch of bug fixes, as well as enhancements to adding new items to lists that are sorted by various methods. Amazingly, iGTD is still donationware, and this new version should be available by choosing Check for Updates from the application menu, or simply by heading over to the iGTD site.
Midnight Inbox v0.9.5
Since we first heard about it a month ago, Midnight Inbox has been improving by leaps and bounds. One only needs to check Midnight Beep Softwork's development blog to get updated on all the changes and improvements (far too many to thoroughly list here), but put simply: a lot of performance and stability improvements have been made and the UI has received a significant update. Midnight Beep has been keeping a very open ear to user feedback, and they have a lot of cool features coming down the pipeline, such as: iCal syncing, printing of hipster PDA cards, archiving, live filters and search, support for Quicksilver, Automator and AppleScript and of course - language localizations.For beating some heavier hitters to market with what is quite possibly the first true GTD app, Midnight Inbox certainly doesn't look too shabby, and neither does its $35 price tag. Check out Midnight Beep Softwork's site for more details and to take a demo for a spin.
More juicy in-depth Leopard screenshots of Spaces, Mail, Safari and more
At this point it seems like these websites are placing bets between each other to see who can get closest to an NDA violation without actually getting nailed with one. HardMac has posted the latest set of (non-blurry, properly grabbed) screenshots of some hitherto unforeseen areas of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, including the Spaces and Time machine system preference setup panes, Mail.app stationary and a photo browser (which might make these iTunes and iPhoto library browsers extinct), RSS feeds and setup, notes in Mail with todos and calendar settings, as well as exclusives of new Finder functionality (note the lack of brushed metal in the Smart Folder) and Preview features.So far I'd have to say this is probably the most exciting set of screenshots as they are some of the most revealing of new features and abilities in Leopard. Er, I mean, a friend told me they look really great... check them out while they're still live boys and girls.
Groupcal 3: manage your Exchange calendar from iCal
Are you a Mac user living in an Exchange world, forced to trudge through Entourage? (Don't get me wrong: Entourage is fine, but 'trudge' is just a good verb for dramatic effect.) Well trudge no longer with Groupcal 3, an addon for iCal that allows you to access, manage, edit and synchronize your Exchange calendars and tasks. Also on the feature list are: subscribing to coworker's free time, sending/receiving meeting invites, sharing/publishing calendars through .Mac or WebDAV and even syncing with an iPod or Palm through iSync.Groupcal 3 is a Universal Binary, a demo is available and a single licenses costs $55. As you might expect, multi-license packs are available starting at 5 seats, moving all the way up to 500 and 1000 pack licenses. [via MacMerc]
Apple introduces Remote Desktop 3
Well I guess we know why the Apple Store was down earlier. Today, Apple introduced Remote Desktop 3, which is now a Universal Binary and includes over 50 new features that deliver better software distribution, asset management and remote assistance. Over 30 Automator actions, remote Spotlight searching of multiple Tiger machines, a Dashboard observation widget and automatically installing software on remote machines when they return online are at the top of the new feature buzz list, which includes: Remote Drag and Drop files and folders between local and remote computers Remote Copy and Paste for simple transfer of text and images between local and remote computers Persistent Task History and Task Templates to make it easy to save and replicate repetitive task Curtain Mode to hide the desktop of a system while it is being controlled remotely Application Usage and User History Reports to track software compliance and monitor the use of unauthorized applications Smart Computer Lists for dynamically managing systems based on specified criteria AES 128-bit encryption for secure communications between Apple Remote Desktop 3 and clients Apple Remote Desktop 3 is available immediately through the Apple Store for either $299 to manage up to 10 machines, or $499 for managing an unlimited number of machines.
