When Reminders App was announced as a stock app for iOS 5, the world collectively scratched their heads. Isn’t the App Store already littered with To-Do lists? Don’t most people already have a favorite? After all, what could Apple possibly add to the noise that would be worth sticking it dead center on our iPhones and iPads? The answer turned out to be a little bit of everything.
Reminders has location-aware reminders, iCal integration, priority management, and frequency it’ll repeat. What it doesn’t, however, is that typical Apple sheen we’ve come to expect from Apple apps. Because it pulls from your iCal lists, if you’re anything like us you’ll be swamped the first time you open the app—and that might just be the last time you open the app. But don’t fret, we’ve plowed through the dense to-do list forest of the App Store and figured out just how fierce Apple’s competition is.
Things For iPad
As of press time, Things is only missing two features that would make it the undisputed champion of to-do lists. The first is location-aware reminders, which are a big deal to some. If you’re a block away from the grocery store, many apps (Reminders included) will alert you that you need to pick up laundry detergent, or dog food, or whatever it was you wrote down. Things doesn’t have this option, but it’s got such excellent sorting options you may never miss it.
The second feature it’s missing is a bit of a doozy. Things has no cloud-syncing abilities, which means if you’ve got multiple computers, the only way to get your to-do list from one to the other is through some backdoor hackery that can put your lists at risk of corruption—in short, not worth it. Fortunately, cloud-syncing is finally beta and should be coming out shortly.
So why bother? Because Things is simple—whether you’re trying to add an item with no urgency, or a stack of items delegated to a specific project, or even an area of responsibility. On Mac it’s as easy as drag-and-drop, and on iPhone it’s as easy as a few taps. You can schedule repeating items, move things from “Today” to “Someday” or just throw them in your anything-goes lnbox. Its broadness helps organize the unorganized, but it might not be for everyone.
OmniFocus For iPad
OmniFocus was the winner of the 2008 Apple Design Award, and it’s rightfully gorgeous and feature-packed. It has a computer counterpart, but it costs $80, and since the apps are so great, you might decide you don’t even need it. In many ways, it’s very similar to Things (though there’s no question OmniFocus is prettier). But spend a little time with either, and it’s apparent they’re used differently. Their names define the difference—Things is a place to throw everything you might have into a list, OmniFocus will help you focus on the items you have to do in your life. OmniFocus puts your items into organized hierarchies, and if you have a tendency to get messy Omnipresent will help you reel it in.
It has location-aware reminders, gives you a server on a disk so you can always sync your iOS devices, and its iPad version is the best to-do list of them all. Ultimately, the organizational requirements of Omnipresent might be more beneficial to already organized people, and the UI can be a little confusing at first, but there’s really no denying it’s an amazing does-it-all app. Unfortunately, OmniFocus costs a ton of money ($40 for an iPad version, $20 for an iPhone version, and—oh yeah—it’s not universal), so unless you’re to-do list is filled with ways that you can burn money, you might want to carefully consider it.
EpicWin
So what about a to-do list for the person that wants nothing to do with to-do lists? What if you just want to remember a few things, and feel rewarded when you get to cross them off your list? For you, Supermono Limited has an answer. EpicWin is part to-do list, part RPG, and it’s absolutely unlike anything else on this list.
Forget organization and location-aware reminders, because Epic Win is more focused on letting you collect items and level-up for completing tasks. As you begin your “journey” you can pick an avatar, ranging from a Warrior Princess to a skeletal mage and embark on an epic quest for self-actualization and a dozen eggs.
Instead of areas of responsibility, EpicWin puts it into RPG terms. Have to write a paper? That’d be a feat of Wisdom. Do a couple pushups? Feat of Strength. Your avatar will level up in those areas that you complete these tasks.
As your avatar levels up, they’ll change appearance until they look more and more awesome. Your cowl will turn red, your cape will turn white, and you’ll be doing chores all night (rhyme unintentional).
Teux Deux
What if you aren’t looking for huge hierarchies, areas of responsibility, location-aware to-do lists and just want something simple and cheap? Introducing Teux Deux, a simple, design-y to-do app. That’s how it bills itself, and it’s completely accurate. To say it’s “no-frills” is an understatement. If you want a taste, you can head on to Teuxdeux.com, where you’ll be asked to make a username.
Once you’re logged on, you can see five days, one of which is yesterday. Below that is “Someday” where you can put things you want to complete eventually. And that’s it. The iPhone version is exactly the same, except it only gives you a single day view. The simplicity of the app makes it possible (and much more probable, in fact) that you’ll use it on a daily basis. Without having to add locations and dates to everything, you can quickly write down a handful of items in the same amount of time it takes to fill out all the required information on the other to-do lists. And it works! After all, making a to-do list shouldn’t be a chore in and of itself.
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