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Search results for "Posted by Ummagumma"
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Ummagumma |
>Well, if someone is using a third party app to sync with Toodledo, why should they expect to get a completely free service from Toodledo ?
Because Toodledo is not #1, nor it's #2 or 3 or even 4. And because Toodledo can't be bothered to provide a sync engine of their own outside of their mobile app, which not everyone is going to use. I, just like many other people, believe that all timed actionable items - events and tasks - belong in a single calendar view, not in two different apps. And whatever task system I use better have a way of incorporating itself into my calendar apps. Why on earth would a potential new user even try a service, if he has to pay to get his tasks synced to his favorite calendar ? With all of the other available (and better known) services out there ? Yes, I personally think Toodledo offers more than most of them (in a rather, how to put it nicely, homebrewed interface) but that potential new user will never know that if he never tries the program in first place. And I will never try a system that tells me I can't sync my stuff without paying. And I don't care about limited trial periods. I purchased 2 years of Toodledo Silver (which, alas, I will end up abandoning) but only after I used the free version long enough to know that it would work for me. Now that the only calendar that supported the basic Toodledo features went subscription and jacked up their price way up, I am moving my tasks elsewhere. This would not have happened had Toodledo been in charge of their own destiny and provided their own ways of syncing. |
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Ummagumma |
>I am also ok with the price--as long as it works really well.
Well, I am afraid I'm not. The app I switched to (Calengoo) is $7, single payment, no subscription, supports start and end dates for tasks and a "today" feature via Top priority, and is using Apple Reminders directly so I can create tasks from emails and sync them straight from my desktop Outlook. So,the alternative is $25 /yr for Informant, another $15 /yr for Toodledo Silver (just to get subtasks and some additional features) and no direct sync to Outlook. I do get better task filtering. But since I spend more time in front of Outlook anyway, and it has superb filtering, there's really no incentive for me to pay $200 over 5 years for some additional features on mobile, combined with a healthy dose of hoop jumping required to get my emails into tasks. I really wish the Informant new owners to succeed, but I'm afraid they will not be finding too many people lining up to pay for their extra overhead. And this means Toodledo will be that much less interesting, for the lack of proper calendar supporting it. This message was edited Apr 30, 2017. |
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Ummagumma |
>An entirely different approach is to start charging for basic accounts (stop giving away free services!). This could eventually allow them to lower the cost for the upper-level memberships and still come out ahead.
Yes, this would work wonders given Toodledo's huge market lead and name recognition. /s Here's the problem. Only a relatively small % of people use any kind of task manager. Only a fraction on them need an advanced task manager, or employ any kind of GTD-like system. Only a subset of that fraction are going to jump through the hoops required to keep a wholly different / isolated set of tasks outside of their organization's email system (Outlook, Groupwise etc. - Outlook being the most common). I just stopped using my paid Silver subscription in part because I grew tired of not being able to simply copy an email into a task with one click. (Forwarding to Toodledo address is not the same, besides not all emails can or should be forwarded to an outside server). I am now using Outlook tasks synced to iOS Reminders, which unfortunately leaves Toodledo out (gSyncit never worked well for me). And finally, there's really no good calendar applications that Toodledo can be used with. I want to open one single app and see my day at a glance, with all the tasks and all the meetings. The only one that works with Toodledo and is not severely limited or ugly as hell is Informant, and they just introduced an expensive subscription model and a terrible new interface. That's what is holding TD back, in my personal opinion - it is too insular, too isolated, not integrated enough, depending too heavily on 3rd party tools for anything outside their fairly limited interface offerings. Plus, it still lacks in the visual design department, especially on mobile. It's the best task management system by a long shot, but also one of the hardest ones to use with ease. |
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Ummagumma |
>Seriously, start charging for syncing, already
So what do you do with all of the 3rd party apps that sync with Toodledo (2do, Informant, Planbe, Gsyncit etc) And why on earth would I even try Toodledo if I can't sync it without paying ? It's not exactly the easiest system to learn overnight, it takes some getting used to. From my perspective - and I may be wrong - there are two things that Toodledo needs to become more widespread and successful: 1) A complete graphical redesign on all platforms. Even the new look is kind of dated. Look at the (soon to be missed) Wunderlist. 2) A native solution for Outlook sync - this one could be premium, although I'd prefer a one-time license. Outlook makes up almost 70% of corporate email / calendar /tasks app market, and there's precious few choices for it. |
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Ummagumma |
Posted Mar 30, 2017 in: Informant went subscription and was sold.. any alternatives ?
Score: 1
Hi,
I believe there were checklists inside events possible in PI but it wasn't quick or easy to use. The biggest advantage of the way it's done in Calengoo is that it allows me to very quickly set up a checklist in any app using simple and logical plaintext tags, and then copy them to Outlook & I now have a checklist in my mobile client. I have set up several templates that I just keep reusing. Combined with floating appointments, it makes for a very decent system, the only thing missing is having the same ability inside individual tasks (right now the checklists exist inside events only). As to the bullet style checklist - not sure what you mean. The bulleted list, or the checklist with checkmarks that can be marked as done ? The latter is what I was talking about. In Toodledo, it can be replicated to an extent by using sub-tasks, although it's not as clean as having a checklist inside individual records. The other system that has the checklists in Wunderlist, but I don't use it due to the lack of start time support and no mobile calendars (that I know of) syncing with it. |
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Ummagumma |
I find it the easiest to create a special separate folder for each major project. Also there's no reason to keep the name long, it just has to be descriptive enough.
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Ummagumma |
Posted Mar 20, 2017 in: Informant went subscription and was sold.. any alternatives ?
Score: 0
Hi @daniel,
For now at least, I decided to move all of my tasks to Reminders & use Calengoo and Outlook custom views to get the basic functionality I need ("Today" feature, Start time, and basic tagging). The advantage is that I can create (copy from email) and work with my work and home tasks directly from Outlook, without going through a web interface or emailing tasks. The disadvantage is, of course, that I can't use Toodledo even though I paid two years in advance. But I am not paying $25 / year on top of this for a buggy Informant 5, especially now that they sold it to the new owner. He just doesn't strike me as a trustworthy person. The whole rollout of the new Informant, info about sale, and new pricing structure felt rather shady and very poorly handled. And I am not sticking to v4 because I will be just postponing the inevitable. So, for now at least, I moved all of my tasks into Apple Reminders. Calengoo allows me to add tags and start dates to Reminders - the filters are not nearly as advanced as in Informant, but they work and sync to Outlook. There's no "Star" function but there's an option to show any task with Top priority on Today regardless of due date, which works just as well for me. And, of course, all of this can be replicated in Outlook using custom views. It also has some neat features that were not available in Informant. Floating appoinments (same as what the old Palm Calendar used to have), checklists inside calendar events that can be entered in Outlook using very simple natural language plaintext code (e.g. [ ] Buy bread, [ ] Buy milk in an Outlook event note will turn into checkboxes inside an event in Calengoo). Anyway... I'll be checking up on this thread and Toodledo in general in hope there's some new development, but for now, I'm afraid not having a decent choice of calendar apps that work with it makes it unusable for me. |
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Ummagumma |
Posted Feb 28, 2017 in: Informant went subscription and was sold.. any alternatives ?
Score: 0
So, I feel I have to abandon Toodledo yet again. Bummer.
I *must* have my tasks and calendar integrated in one program. It's very easy to lose track of things when you have a busy schedule and must look in two different programs to see your workload for the day. At the present time, the only calendar choices available for Toodledo on iPad are Informant, PlanBe and ActionAgenda. Informant is $25/year on top of $15/year to use Toodledo's expanded functionality (primarily subtasks). I am not paying $40 yearly subscription to get subtasks. There's plenty of other ways to get similar functionality. PlanBe doesn't support any of the expanded functionality, might as well not bother with Toodledo at all. ActionAgenda has an extremely cluttered and confusing interface with tiny font and hard to see the difference between tasks and appointments. It's just not something I can use daily while trying to get through a myriad other tasks. There's plenty of great calendar programs that allow integrating tasks with calendar, at least one (CalenGoo) has a way of setting up a "today" feature - but they all sync with either iOS Reminders or Google Tasks. Toodledo is really held back by the lack of decent calendar integration. The sad thing is, it should be far easier to design a basic calendar with a few useful views, than it is to design a decent task management system. It shouldn't be hard for them to add calendar functionality to their mobile program. But I doubt this would ever happen. |
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Ummagumma |
Posted Feb 13, 2017 in: Any plans on adding CalDav sync ?
Score: 0
Like what is likely the majority of office workers, I have to use Outlook as my email / calendar / task client.
I can sync it to Outlook.com tasks and calendar with no special tools required. I can sync it to Google tasks and calendar with a free Outlook CalDav sync utility. I can sync it to iCloud tasks and calendar with Apple provided utility. All three sync methods allow me to integrate my tasks with my email and create a task by simply copying an email into it straight from my desktop. Toodledo requires that I either purchase an expensive 3rd party sync tool, or forward my email to it and use a web application. This is highly inconvenient. Are there any plans to make CalDav sync possible ? |
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Ummagumma |
Posted Feb 01, 2017 in: Informant went subscription and was sold.. any alternatives ?
Score: 0
PlanBe is actually really nice but has no "today" feature and it's the deal breaker for me - I must be able to create a work list for the day without moving actual task due date. There's a workaround - use Start Date as "Today" but it's clunky. Also, PlanBe hasn't really been updated in a while. I get a feeling it may turn into abandonware.
Action Agenda did not work for me because the interface was beyond cluttered. Luckily I got a chance to try it on a friends' iPhone first. This was simply not something I'd like to look at every day. Calendar 5 - I thought it synced with Toodledo ? Perhaps not. The star feature changing due date was the show stopper anyway. Out of these three, a single change on PlanBe part (support for Star feature, or an option to show the top priority tasks on today) would've made it my app of choice to work with Toodledo. It has a refreshing simplicity of interface. At any rate, there's precious few applications that sync with Toodledo, and for those of us who must have their tasks integrated with their calendar (and not just in the form of calendar feed) it's not a good setup. This message was edited Feb 01, 2017. |
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Ummagumma |
Posted Jan 31, 2017 in: Informant went subscription and was sold.. any alternatives ?
Score: 0
So, it seems I am the only one who has a problem with Informant charging $25 per year to use Toodledo's $15 per year features.
I have no problems paying for the services I use, but given the overall choice of decent calendar apps, and all the money I've already paid to Webis over the years, them suddenly going a full-blown subscription mode on loyal users make me want to look at alternatives. Unfortunately, the closest alternative that I found (CalenGoo) lets me use most of the task managing methods I use today - but via a very different set of tools - i.e. not Toodledo. The only other two calendar apps that sync to Toodledo - at least the ones I found - are PlanBe and Calendar 5. PlanBe hasn't been updated in a long time, and does not support a Star feature or any other "today" method. Calendar 5 has what I consider a fatal flaw - when you add a star to a task, it changes it's due date to today and the original due date is lost. So, it seems the choice is to either drop Informant and Toodledo (even though I paid two years in advance) and change my methods to fully utilize Calengoo / desktop Outlook combination; or pay another $25 for Informant, every year. (I can still use v4 that I paid for, but don't know how long it will stay active or useful). This is not about the money - it would be a wash for me the first year - but more about not being forced into a subscription model by the company I've already paid money to, without being offered any great new features. At this point, I think I'll go Calengoo / Outlook, even if it means not using Toodledo - as much as I like it. |
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Ummagumma |
Posted Jan 13, 2017 in: Informant went subscription and was sold.. any alternatives ?
Score: 0
So, Informant - which I used since 2003 - went to a $25 per year subscription & was sold to a new owner.
That's one subscription too many. I am paying for Toodledo but I've been using it for free enough to feel that I owe them something in return, plus I get to access it from any computer via web interface and get the same features. And I can downgrade without losing most of the essential functionality. Any suggestions as on what other calendar application would support Toodledo the best, both on the iPhone and iPad ? So far, I have / had / tried the following: PlanBe - it's a nice calendar but doesn't support Star feature, or any other way to designate a task to show on today's date in Calendar without changing it's due date ActionAgenda - supports many Toodledo features but has a half-baked feel (can assign start dates but can't seemingly use them; no support for TD subtasks; very cluttered / confusing interface) Calendar 5 from Readdle - assigning a star changes due date to today, irreversibly. That's unacceptable. 2Do - the calendar module on iPad is very basic, and on iPhone non-existent. Any other software I can try ? Basically, what I need is (a) star or other way to show any task on today without changing due date (b) support for subtasks. Everything else is icing on the cake. Thanks ! |
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Ummagumma |
So, the great new version of PI switched to a $25 per year subscription model. Thanks, but no thanks.
2Do is very capable on the iPad (even with it's basic calendaring - basic is all I need) but looks like the iPhone version does not have a calendar view at all ? Can someone confirm that ? My phone is due for a refresh in 2 weeks and I will likely get an iPhone. So far every other app I tried has some quirks: PlanBe - overall a pleasant calendar app, supports task start dates, no support for starred tasks or subtasks ActionAgenda - supports stars, supports entering task start dates but doesn't seem to do anything with them in task views, no support for Toodledo subtasks Any recommendations ? |
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Ummagumma |
Posted Jan 03, 2017 in: "Turn off filters" should be a toggle
Score: 0
Thanks. To add, the filters should be a part of saved searches.
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Ummagumma |
Posted Jan 03, 2017 in: "Turn off filters" should be a toggle
Score: 3
The user should be able to turn off filters temporarily & turn them back on with a single click.
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Ummagumma |
The biggest boost to Notes module would be the ability to sync notes with Dropbox or other services as plaintext files.
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Ummagumma |
Thanks.
I don't think lists would work, to be honest. Sometimes I need a shopping task to show up in calendar (most of the time I don't). I would also like to try using the location-based reminders with PI, for when I am at a particular store. |
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Ummagumma |
How do you maintain your shopping list ?
Until recently I've been using Google Keep for that, just because it's so easy. But I would like to be able to use locations and context. The thing is, I don't want items on my shopping list to show up in my regular task list & create additional clutter. So, I can have a separate folder called "Shopping" or I can assign a "Shopping" category to my items. Seems both methods have their pros and cons. What do you use ? |
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Ummagumma |
Posted Dec 19, 2016 in: Should I use repeating tasks or lists?
Score: 0
Posted by Jake:
That works. You can also use subtasks where the parent task is the students name. Set it up once, and then clone the parent task for each new student. That's what I'd do. |
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Ummagumma |
Posted Dec 16, 2016 in: Feature Request: "In Process" Checkbox type
Score: 0
Posted by Salgud:
I like that. It makes more sense to me than a separate box, and probably less programming time. That's what I was proposing, probably not clear enough. I am not asking to add yet another checkbox, but to change the existing one from 2-state to 3-state. This message was edited Dec 16, 2016. |