Sparkspring

Clear isn't a To Do app at all, it's an ad

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 07:19:16 -0500

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 privilege. Mission accomplished.

This is not a criticism simply an observation. I for one would rather have ads like this than traditional old-school advertising. Not only is the content the ad but now the app is the ad too.

Clear Todo App: Also Great For Poetry! | Cult of Mac

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 06:31:03 -0500

Clear Todo App: Also Great For Poetry! | Cult of Mac

Slowly but surely moving off the web. Data - Internet - Apps. No web in sight.

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 06:04:26 -0500

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...

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 04:28:22 -0500

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.

Clear is here and what fun it is too

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 08:36:35 -0500

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 fun organising my chores using Clear right now which is more than can be said for the majority of similar apps.

The Samsung Galaxy Note - so much for discreet technology. What a joke. It really does show how...

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 08:24:59 -0500

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 Well-Being - John Tierney via NYTimes.com

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 08:19:56 -0500

Novelty-Seeking (Neophilia) Can Be a Predictor of Well-Being - John Tierney via NYTimes.com:

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 up in his early research in the 1990s; the advantages have become apparent after he and his colleagues tested and tracked thousands of people in the United States, Israel and Finland.

“It can lead to antisocial behavior,” he says, “but if you combine this adventurousness and curiosity with persistence and a sense that it’s not all about you, then you get the kind of creativity that benefits society as a whole.”

Fans of this trait are calling it “neophilia” and pointing to genetic evidence of its importance as humans migrated throughout the world. In her survey of the recent research, “New: Understanding Our Need for Novelty and Change,” the journalist Winifred Gallagher argues that neophilia has always been the quintessential human survival skill, whether adapting to climate change on the ancestral African savanna or coping with the latest digital toy from Silicon Valley.

“Nothing reveals your personality more succinctly than your characteristic emotional reaction to novelty and change over time and across many situations,” Ms. Gallagher says. “It’s also the most important behavioral difference among individuals.” Drawing on the work of Dr. Cloninger and other personality researchers, she classifies people as neophobes, neophiles and, at the most extreme, neophiliacs. (To classify yourself, you can take a quiz on the Well blog.)

“Although we’re a neophilic species,” Ms. Gallagher says, “as individuals we differ in our reactions to novelty, because a population’s survival is enhanced by some adventurers who explore for new resources and worriers who are attuned to the risks involved.”

Good character traits for a world exploding with new, new, new.

While we wait for Clear to launch this Wednesday, it might be...

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 04:42:18 -0500

While we wait for Clear to launch this Wednesday, it might be worth having a look at Steps. From the people who brought you Verbs IM and based on Google Tasks (which takes care of the web UI issue) it looks like a very stylish, simple yet powerful way to manage your life rather than tasks.

I’ve asked for beta invite to test so will report back if I get to try it.

The rise of Readability

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 06:23:04 -0500

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 in the works) and soon their own iOS apps.

Speaking of which, their iOS apps have been in the app store approval system for a long time now and one can’t help wondering what’s so unusual about them that it’s taking this long to get approved. We shall see…

Google's GDrive

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 07:41:00 -0500

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

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 04:05:23 -0500

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 interface so there’s nothing else to get in the way. I have not tested it so cannot judge but it looks like just what I’m looking for. The only downside being that there is no accompanying web interface but along with Path, Flipboard and Instagram the shift towards an app centric world seems inevitable.

Chrome for iOS? Don’t hold your breath…

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:33:25 -0500

Chrome for iOS? Don’t hold your breath…

TeuxDeux is IT - the dog’s bollocks of To Do apps.

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:34:22 -0500

TeuxDeux is IT - the dog’s bollocks of To Do apps.

To-Do’s. Social? My arse.

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:34:33 -0500

To-Do’s. Social? My arse.

jonathan-deamer: Good Tools Have Verb-Based Interfaces

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 09:05:59 -0500

jonathan-deamer:

Good Tools Have Verb-Based Interfaces

TeuxDeux - the winner

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 07:16:17 -0500

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

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 05:13:00 -0500

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

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 03:55:19 -0500

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.

re. Wunderkit - pretty sure I should be using the UI not fighting with it.

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:26:17 -0500

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.

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 08:35:44 -0500

Re. Wunderkit - there’s organising and there’s lashing something down so it cant move.