todo

Things to organize your life

Things is a powerful, easy-to-use task-management app that can help you enter, organize, and act on items in your to-do list. Based on the popular Getting Things Done productivity method, Things gives you an elegant, streamlined interface--a classic, Mac-style multipane setup that doesn't require a lot of additional windows for its work flow.

Its clean interface even dispenses with columns, and you can use the app's flexible tag system for priority, task duration, or any sort of categorization that works for you. You can quickly enter new tasks from anywhere, using a system-wide shortcut, and you can include … Read more

The A list

Veedid Desktop To-Do List Free Edition is a simple program that allows users to create interactive, printable to-do lists. It's not perfect, but it's a viable option for users who need a basic to-do list with a few extra features.

The program's interface is plain, with a handful of intuitive buttons and menus that contain its major features. We found it quite easy to add items to the list, and we especially liked that users can add sub-items to each task; under "Do laundry," for example, we noted that we needed to pretreat a shirt. … Read more

Take Android to task

Astrid may look unassuming when you first encounter it, but the free, open source task and to-do list-maker has customization settings beneath its skin. Type to add a new task. You can leave the note to self where it is, or select the entry to edit elements like importance settings, tags, notes, deadlines, recurring reminders, and alerts. We like being able to add tasks to Android's calendar, and that there's an option to sync with online reminder service Remember the Milk.

Fancy to-do lists and a unique platform game: iPhone apps of the week

The evolution of the app store witnessed another milestone recently, with the release of a game that doubles as a very effective advertisement. One of my favorite iPhone games of the year, Firemint's Real Racing, just got a Lite version that doubles as a promotional tool for both the app and an outside company. Real Racing GTI (Free), sponsored by Volkswagen, lets you race on a few of the tracks of the full game using the 2010 Volkswagen GTI. You only get a small taste of the action in the full game, but it should be enough to help … Read more

You won't forget

The iTunes App Store is glutted with to-do lists and time managers, but many are so simple, they're ineffective. Appigo's Todo is the highest cost of its cohort, but is also more complete than the budget offerings. Unlike other to-do lists, you can have Todo assign a due date and priority ranking; it will winningly associate tasks with mobile numbers and Web sites. You can further synchronize your lists with your pro Remember the Milk account and with Toodledo, both Web-based task organizers. Thanks to Apple's push notification, Todo has taken the extra leap and let loose … Read more

Gmail's task list can now be e-mailed

Google has enhanced the task feature that's integrated into Gmail and other Google products to let users share their lists with others. Gmail users can now choose to share an entire task list in a new e-mail message. Doing so transfers all of your tasks including information like due dates, and any tasks that have been completed which show up as being crossed out.

One thing to note is that this only works in Gmail, and not in other places where tasks can be found, including Google Calendar, the mobile version of Gmail, and on iGoogle. Although knowing Google, … Read more

Record your thoughts

The developers behind MacJournal admit that you can use a traditional word processor or text editor for journaling--but they say that's like Lance Armstrong using a bike from Wal-Mart to race in the Tour de France. Aside from the fact that Armstrong would probably still kick butt on a Wal-Mart bike, they've got a point: MacJournal is one of the best journaling programs available for the Mac, with a huge range of features that are useful whether you're keeping a journal for yourself, taking notes for classes or meetings, organizing random snippets of info, or prepping blog … Read more

Clunky interface

RunningMan Calendar touts itself as a full-featured, easy-to-use calendar, but after getting our hands on it, we found it to be anything but.

RunningMan Calendar's user interface is, well, clunky. The Help menu on the publisher's Web site does offer some helpful information--for example, the main Help menu will give you a list of what is possible with this calendar--but we found it overall limited in its scope. We got started by clicking on a day in the calendar, hitting the File button, and adding an anniversary. A notepad document popped up with instructions on how to type … Read more

Things to organize your life

Things for iPhone is a well-designed, easy-to-use, highly scalable task-management app for the iPhone and iPod Touch, and it's even better when paired with the Mac desktop app of the same name. Like its desktop counterpart (with which it can sync over Wi-Fi), Things for iPhone offers a clean, intuitive interface based around the popular "Getting Things Done" productivity method. Tasks are collected under Projects (sets of smaller subtasks), Areas (areas of responsibility, such as work or family), and an In-box "waiting area" for unsorted tasks.

Things has a handy Today list (which displays the … Read more