ForumsQuestionsTodo App vs. Toodledo App. (iPhone)


Todo App vs. Toodledo App. (iPhone)
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Proximo

Posted: Sep 01, 2009
Score: 0 Reference
OK,

I am 14 days from getting my iPhone.

I was looking at the following apps. to work with Toodledo.

1. Toodledo for iPhone (of course)
2. Todo for iPhone (Syncs. with Toodledo)

Initially it seems that Todo provides many more functions that I find great. Coloring task, GTD workflow, Projects, etc.

I don't own any of the apps. so I am going from what I see on demo videos.

My questions is to those who use Todo with Toodledo or those who have used Todo with Toodledo.

It seems that Todo does much more as an app. on the iphone than the Toodledo app.

Questions

1. What translates correctly into Toodledo and what does not?

2. What are the advantages of Todo over Toodledo?

3. What are the advantages of Toodledo over Todo?

I would love feedback on these questions and anything else I did not think about asking.

I just want to be prepared for my iPhone when I do get it.
Anders

Posted: Sep 01, 2009
Score: 0 Reference
Just wait. I am going to be putting out a review of 7 iPhone apps that work with Toodledo. It will be done before you get your iPhone.


I will give you a brief answer though. First of all,, it's a common misconception that Todo has more features. It doesn't really. It has a few slick features that Toodledo does not have, but the basic stuff like sorting and filtering is better in the Toodledo app (except Tags which Todo does really well). Subtasks are done somewhat better in Todo. Todo does not have Star, Goal, Start Date. Another big difference is reminders. Toodledo reminders can be set for individual tasks, and those reminders sync with the app. With Todo if you activate notifications, you will recieve alerts for every task with a Due Date, and there is no reminder field.
Alan

Posted: Sep 01, 2009
Score: 0 Reference
I personally prefer the Todo interface. What irks me about Toodledo is the fact that it's impossible to display more than one line of the task text, and if you want to see more, you have to open the task itself.

To give you an example of how annoying and "non-user friendly" this is, here is a sample of what is on my Toodledo app for iPhone:

Enter pricing rules in sys...
Send updated historical...
Check and respond to...
Write bulletin for automat...

You get the point, I'm sure. It's frustrating. Flipping to landscape improves it slightly. On the other hand, Todo allows users to configure how many lines of text are displayed and that is a big bonus.

From a function perspective, I have a slight preference for Todo, but as you stated, it is missing some key features. I run both, and tend to do most of my work in Toodledo, but the odd time when I get ticked-off about how I can't see the entire task name, I flip over to Todo.


This message was edited Sep 01, 2009.
Claudio

Posted: Sep 01, 2009
Score: 4 Reference
Proximo, there is no Star in the Appigo Todo app. :(

The Toodledo iPhone supports quite a few Toodledo features that Todo does not. The Todo app has some nice features that are missing in Toodledo.

Features in the Toodledo app that are not in Appigo Todo:
Star, Length, Goal, Start Date.
Choose which fields to display, and the order of the fields
Views based on Due Date, Priorities, Tags, Status, and Recent. (I often use the Recent list to find recently added tasks.)
The same terminology as the Web app for Folders, Hotlist, and No Folder, which are called Lists, Focus, and Inbox in Todo.
Priorities are the same as Web app (Top, High, Medium, Low, Negative), compared to High, Med, Low in Todo.
Due Date has options: Due by, Due On, Due After, Optionally On
Can hide or show Negative Priority, Future Tasks, Deferred Tasks
Automatic sync is faster and less intrusive than Todo.
Application Badge can display number of Starred Tasks.
Easier way to sort tasks.
Automatic sync on edit. (Important feature if you're using Push notifications.)
Can set reminder for individual tasks.

Features in Appigo Todo that are not in the Toodledo app:
Ability to link a task to a Contact and automatically create a task with the Contact's name, and then call, email or SMS from the task, or go to the address in Google Maps, or go to a Website.
Subtasks are shown indented below the Parent task.
Can change the order of tasks in a list.
Filter by any combination of Folder, Context and Tags (with the ability to filter by more than one Tag.)
Can choose from a list of Tags when creating or editing a Task.
Can copy from Todo to Notebook and vice versa.
Can email the task from within Todo. (Toodledo takes you to the Mail application.)
Can display Completed tasks as Strikeout (with many choices for displaying Strikeout).
Choices on how long to display Completed tasks, from one day to one year, or All.
Choice of which Lists (Folders) to display. (Useful if you use different Folders for Tasks and Notebook.)
A Checklist for creating simple lists of non-dated items.

I'm sure I've missed a few points.

FWIW, I use the Toodledo app because of the instant sync and the Recent list, but I'm seriously considering changing to Todo. I'm just waiting to see if Toodledo's next version adds some of Todo's functionality, especially the link to Contacts.


This message was edited Sep 01, 2009.
Anders

Posted: Sep 01, 2009
Score: 0 Reference
I was coming back to make another post because I forgot a few key things, but Claudio pretty well covered them. One other point is that, while the implementation of nested subtasks is better in Todo (1 click on a parent task gets to the subtasks, instead of 2), the Toodledo app allows you to flatten/nest subtasks. So, if you want you can see all your Next Actions, all your tasks from a particular Context, etc. regardless of whether or not they are subtasks. With Todo, there is no point in giving a subtask a different Context or Folder from its parent, because the parent is always what will determine if the tasks are in the view or not.
Warren

Posted: Sep 01, 2009
Score: 0 Reference
I looked at both Toodledo and Appigo Todo when I got my iphone 3gs. The todo forums are full of upset users asking when the 3.0 update would be available. There were some bugs that were not significant to me during testing of the Todo Lite (free version) but some people claimed they were show stoppers. There was also a significant sync issue with RTM but not toodledo. The Appigo team issued a promise of 3.0 upgrade sometime in the future, but would not commit to a date, nor would they respond to repeated questions on the same topic.

I've read through the Toodledo forums in the meantime and the Toodledo support staff handle requests much better. The transparency around the Toodledo server outage was excellent. The team communicated the outage, a recovery plan, a backup plan, and an honest apology. The Appigo team seamed to post a news release, then ignored the users.

With a significantly cheaper price than Todo, I decided to try the Toodledo iphone app while I awaited the new release. I like it very much and have not been back to the Appigo site to bother investigating their app again.

Todo Pros:
Nice way to tie Notes to Tasks, good for Lists.
Better filtering

Todo Cons:
Stores extra metadata in your tasks to support sub-tasks and notes. Junks up the web interface view of Toodledo.

Toodledo Pros:
My cell reception at work is quite poor. Toodledo lets you disable automatic sync so you can just sync when you push the button.

Toodledo Cons:
Limited sorting of tasks in views.

Now, with all that said, I purchased the Appigo Notebook because it was the only iphone app I could find that syncs with Toodledo. It works great and I've had no issues.

I say try the toodledo app for the price, then buy todo if you really need a feature that's not here.


This message was edited Sep 01, 2009.
Anders

Posted: Sep 01, 2009
Score: 0 Reference
Posted by Warren:
Todo Pros:
Nice way to tie Notes to Tasks, good for Lists.
Better filtering


Toodledo Cons:
Limited sorting of tasks in views.


Sorry, but I have to disagree with the points about sorting and filtering (especially sorting).

Todo sorts:
Due Date, Priority
Priority, Due Date
Alphabetical
Manual (this is the only one Toodledo doesn't have that Todo does. I realize this is the most important way of sorting for some people, but still this is a total of 4)

Toodledo sorts:
Alphabetical
Context
Date Added
Date Completed
Date Modified
Due Date & Time
Folder
Goal
Importance
Length
Priority
Start Date & Time
Star
Status
Tag
Priority, Due Date
Due Date, Priority
Folder, Importance
Folder, Due Date
Subtasks

Also, the top field you have in Fields Used in the app settings is used as an additional sort criteria, allowing you to set up three criteria sorting just like on the website.

And Toodledo sorts come up in a submenu right within your task list. In Todo, you have to go to settings to use any sort other than manual.

The filtering is more debatable I think. Todo has universal Context and Tag which are nice. Toodledo lets you view by Context or Tag but has not filters for them. However, that is all the filtering Todo has. I personally prefer the options Toodledo's app has for filtering for Completed Tasks, Negative Priority, Future Tasks, Deferred Tasks, and Subtasks (nested vs. in-line).
johny_orbital

Posted: Sep 02, 2009
Score: 0 Reference
The main reason that I switched over to Toodledo is because ToDo doesn't have a landscape keyboard. Also, Apigo's update schedule is obscenely slow and they rarely add anything of interest...like say, landscape mode.
Cyn

Posted: Sep 02, 2009
Score: 0 Reference
I was deciding between these two as well. The dealbreaker for me turned out to be the way the hotlist/focus list was filtered. Both apps allow you to filter by due date and priority, but not exactly the same way.

Todo's focus list displays tasks that are due soon AND higher priority.

Toodledo's hotlist displays tasks that are due soon OR higher priority.

I wanted things filtered the second way, so I went with Toodledo. Which I think turned out for the best, because I ended up using stars and start dates a lot (though I did like Todo's checklists and ability to attach contact-related actions to tasks).

The funny part is I hadn't even considered Toodledo at first - I posted on Todo's group asking about the focus list filtering issue, and while none of the Todo folks ever replied to me about it, a group member mentioned that Toodledo filtered things the way I wanted. And so I checked it out and ended up choosing it over Todo!
Proximo

Posted: Sep 02, 2009
Score: 0 Reference
Wow,

Great feedback so far. I want to thank all of you. I know this thread will be useful to others.

Anders: Can't wait to read your reviews.
johny_orbital

Posted: Sep 02, 2009
Score: 0 Reference
"The funny part is I hadn't even considered Toodledo at first - I posted on Todo's group asking about the focus list filtering issue, and while none of the Todo folks ever replied to me about it, a group member mentioned that Toodledo filtered things the way I wanted. And so I checked it out and ended up choosing it over Todo!"

Oh yeah...that's the other reason I don't use ToDo anymore. Apigo's support is pretty awful.
gideonkaplan

Posted: Sep 02, 2009
Score: 0 Reference
did todo ever figure out the negative priority thing -1
I've had both and if you set to -1 on the web interface todo looses track of it, making it all but useless (task count differs between web and iphone app, then what's the point of syncing...)

I posted a thread on their forums too
i still have them both installed, but use toodledo iphone app now

does toodledo iphone app allow you to create or move tasks to subtasks yet if it it wasn't already created in the web ui?
I haven't been able to figure that one out yet

todo does
Anders

Posted: Sep 02, 2009
Score: 1 Reference
Posted by gideonkaplan:
did todo ever figure out the negative priority thing -1

Nope, they basically say just don't use negative Priority if you are going to sync with Todo. There could be uses for this though. For instance if you have a bunch of stuff on Toodledo like reference, inbox, and someday stuff, you could give it all -1 Priority so it wouldn't appear in Todo. Since that stuff can't be filtered from your lists in Todo, it might be a way to keep the junk out. Just a thing I have thought about since that is my biggest problem with that app. I just end up looking at too much stuff I don't want to see.

does toodledo iphone app allow you to create or move tasks to subtasks yet if it it wasn't already created in the web ui?

You can create new subtasks with the iPhone app, but you can't move existing one's to another parent, or promote them to regular tasks, or make regular tasks into subtasks. This would be a nice feature to have in the app.
wjlynch

Posted: Sep 06, 2009
Score: 1 Reference
I was a heavy user of Appigo's ToDo until Proximo posted his GTD setup. I applied his strategy which is working very well but one of the things I quickly discovered was the fact that the Appigo app does not do anything with stars which I use for Next Actions. I decided to try out the ToodleDo app and have not turned back since. Too many things to list for why I like it better, but one deal breaker for me was how easy it is on the ToodleDo app to make a task "optionally" due on a date and then repeat it so essentially it is rolling over to the next day if it is not completed.

Proximo - knowing they way you use GTD, I would say go with the ToodleDo app.
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