February 2012
27 posts
5 tags
Buzz Contacts
Buzz Contacts is a great app that I have absolutely no use for whatsoever. I do, however, use and love Savvy Apps Agenda calendar.
Interesting how the use and meaning of words can change user interaction so much. I’ve tried a couple of task managers which use the word ‘inbox’ as the default home for, as yet, unassigned tasks. I never felt comfortable with this nomenclature and consequenty ended up not using the apps.
Pocket Lists, however, uses the word ‘stream’ for similar functionality and it...
3 tags
OK, I was wrong...
Yes indeed. I take it back. There is a very good Google Tasks app for iPhone namely Pocket Lists.
It does everything Google Tasks does and then adds more features yet manages to keep the UI simple and easy to use. In addition to the regular task management features it has a useful ‘Stream’ view of all your tasks which you can customise. It also lets you share tasks and lists with...
I can categorically state that all third-party Google Tasks iPhone apps (there is no app from Google) are really, really poor.
Roll on Steps.
4 tags
Clear isn't a To Do app at all, it's an ad
It’s only just occurred to me that the latest app causing all the buzz in the iOS app sphere, Clear, isn’t actually just a nifty To Do app at all. It’s an extraordinarily good ad for Impending, the new studio formed by Phill Ryu and David Lanham.
Formerly of MacHeist, these guys know how to promote and create buzz, and boy have they done it with Clear - and got us to pay for the...
Clear Todo App: Also Great For Poetry! | Cult of... →
Slowly but surely moving off the web. Data - Internet - Apps. No web in sight.
Although device-only apps are common (Path, Flipboard etc) Clear for iPhone is perhaps the only app that could really only exist on a touch screen device. It’s totally gesture-driven UI would make no sense in a point and click context.
Steps seem to be going for the compromise of having a mostly gesture driven UI on the mobile device and a traditional UI into the data via Google Tasks.
4 tags
Clear is here and what fun it is too
Yes, definitely over-hyped but it’s still a neat app. Let’s not get carried away. It’s a very simple, stand-alone (non-syncing) to-do/ task manager with a delightful UI, elements of which may make their way into other apps. Or not.
For my own personal use I prefer to have syncing with a web UI (which is why Steps is potentially more useful to me). Nevertheless I’m having...
3 tags
The Samsung Galaxy Note - so much for discreet technology. What a joke. It really does show how clueless other manufacturers are about consumer electronics. Oh, and the best bit - it comes with a styles/ pen. Beyond parody.
Novelty-Seeking (Neophilia) Can Be a Predictor of... →
underpaidgenius:
I have a deep-seated desire for novelty, and I am happy to learn that it’s not all bad:
John Tierney via NYTimes.com
“Novelty-seeking is one of the traits that keeps you healthy and happy and fosters personality growth as you age,” says C. Robert Cloninger, the psychiatrist who developed personality tests for measuring this trait. The problems with novelty-seeking showed...
3 tags
The rise of Readability
Slowly but surely Readability is increasing the pace of it’s assault on Instapapr and Read It Later.
All great apps in their own way but Readability clearly has it’s sights on taking over the ‘read it later’ market. Little by little they are integrating everywhere: browser extensions, third-party apps like Reeder, Tweetbot, Twitterific, Longform, Pulse (Flipboard is surely...
Google's GDrive
I’ve been cooling on Google lately and really only use three of their products: Search, Gmail and Photos. With the potential advent of GDrive I may switch away from Dropbox if a decent iPhone client appears (knowing Google, it won’t). I’ve got 80GB sitting on Google waiting to be used so if they do GDrive right, I’m all in.
Task managing
It shouldn’t be a task having to manage your tasks but unfortunately that’s what most task/ to-do apps seem to be geared up for. They should, however, be designed to help you manage your life not your tasks. Some of these apps are so complicated I found myself creating a task to learn how to use the bloody thing.
That’s why I’m looking forward to Clear. The tasks are the...
Chrome for iOS? Don’t hold your breath…
TeuxDeux is IT - the dog’s bollocks of To Do apps.
To-Do’s. Social? My arse.
TeuxDeux - the winner
Shame on me for forgetting all about TeuxDeux. Used it yonks ago then got sidetracked by all the new shiny To-Do apps out there. Right now it’s still the simplest and the best for me.
TeuxDeux
Let’s not forget the unsung hero of to-do apps - TeuxDeux Very quick, very simple and has great web/ iPhone app syncing.
The battle of the To-do's
OK, I’ve got Wunderlist, Wunderkit, Orchestra and Do all battling it out as my default To-Do app. I’m still waiting on Clear which might do the job but might not given that it doesn’t have a web interface.
1 tag
re. Wunderkit - pretty sure I should be using the UI not fighting with it.
Re. Wunderkit - there’s organising and there’s lashing something down so it cant move.
Wunderkit walks the fine line between sophistication and complication. There are times in the interface when I don’t know where I am or what is going on. The test will be whether this wears off or if the undoubted power and sophistication out weighs the disorientation.
Wunderkit and Clear - two extremes of basically similar products. Toys or tools?
The Wunderkit beta goes public – Welcome one and... →
It’s finally here plus an iPhone app which I’ll be testing today.
January 2012
70 posts
Get Hopper →
A paste bin for everything. So simple you’ll be convinced you’re missing something.
Clear: A To-Do List App With A UI From The Future →
So often CloudMagic search succeeds where Gmail’s own search fails :)
Surviving on scraps.
Why is Greplin so much slower than CloudMagic?
Google, Look Out Behind You! →
Smart Mobile And The Thin Cloud →
The new Vimeo is a beautiful thing.
Smartr from Xobni
The Smartr Chrome extension is intrusive and confusing. The iPhone app, while beautifully slick, makes too many random decisions about what to display about my contacts that it is unsettling and off putting. A pity because it’s clearly powerful.
Testing Xobi’s new app Smartr app which appears to be taking on both Rapportive and the upcoming Everyme in the ‘reinventing/ social contacts’ space.
It plugs into Gmail, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn and there’s a nifty iPhone app too. So far, so slick. Let’s see if it’s actually useful in practice…
Search me
Had a little peek at DuckDuckGo and it occurred to me that general search is not where the future lies. It seems they have skated to where the puck was, not where it is going.
I sense the puck is heading towards private search of your own data in the cloud. Good examples are the burgeoning Greplin and the super fast CloudMagic. While Google is busy fighting SEO spam and shoving their irrelevant...
Egretlist becoming Evernote To Do?
I had a little play about with Egretlist the To Do app from Minds Momentum which Evernote apparently scooped up last year along with Skitch, Notable Meals (which turned into “Food”) and Readable (which became “Clearly”).
It has quite possibly one of the most confusing UIs I’ve ever seen. Let’s hope Evernote rationalises it into something usable before unleashing it on us. I...
Timehop, A Time Machine For Your Social Media... →
OK so Evernote is releasing a To-Do app. For many, that’s game over.
I think I’m a neophiliac.
Path usage has fallen off dramatically and I’ll probably use Instagram again for photos.
Flipboard continues unabated which says something.
Tumblr has surged now I’m doing more of a link blog.
Instapaper is back in action primarily as a publishing tool for articles saved from Flipboard.
State of the apps
1. Flipboard
2. Orchestra
3. Instapaper
4. Tumblr
5. Evernote
Back using Instapaper instead of Read It Later simply because it has better publishing integration with Tumblr. I still think Read It later has a more interesting future though.
“I think the whole thing is going to be, we’re going to have to redefine what...”
– Innovation In Action: Steven Soderbergh Talks “Haywire” | Co.Create: Creativity \ Culture \ Commerce (via thisistheverge)
Instapaper is as much a publishing app as it is a reading app.
Running business and projects on Gmail, GDocs and Orchestra.