OmniFocus Loading Time on iPhone
 

Hey I love OmniFocus on my mac but hate it on my iPhone, why? The loading time at the beginning of the app. This really needs to be fixed. GTD is about speed, and OmniFocus for iPhone is damn slow to startup. There should be NO loading time at all, let it happen while i'm in the app, or in the background, whatever. Find a solution for the headache that i get every time i start up the app. Make it quick, snappy. Please Omni, i love you work on the Mac OS X version, but make it work on the iPhone. The loading screen makes me cry every time.

I couldn't agree more - I bought an iPhone specifically for Omnifocus, upgrading from a Sony Ericsson P910, and though I love it, I must admit that capturing actions on the go was *much* faster on my old phone.

It's slow enough on the iphone that I find myself being put off using it for capturing stuff on the fly, as I know it'll take 15-20s of waiting before I can even start typing, and on the go I just dont have time. On my old phone I could open the flip, add a next action to a list and close the flip in about 10 seconds - before Omnifocus has even finished loading. This may sound fussy but when I'm mid meeting and want to quickly jot something down, it's the difference between that action being fluent and quite transparent to the others in the meeting, and me being distracted for half a minute while I look at my gadget.

IMO where we need speed is the capturing stage more than the reviewing stage - I generally don't mind a wait to review lists for example, if one's necessary to load the main db - so Evert's suggestion of having the main file load in the background is a good one. All we need loaded for capturing stuff is the list of projects and contexts not their contents. If even that's too much, the ability to simply capture stuff 'raw' to the inbox without context/project would be ok

Finally, one additional suggestion - I don't know if this is feasible technically, but it would be great if omnifocus could take over the double-click feature of the home button, so that instead of bringing up ipod controls it brings up a quick-entry capture to inbox feature - the iphone equivalent of the quick capture KC/window on the mac version. As it stands, even if Omnifocus's loading time becomes instant, the act of capturing something will still be slowed down by having to slide the iphone unlock thingy, enter your passcode, wait for the flashy graphics, then hit the omnifocus button - and some of us would rather have quick idea capturing than quick access to our music..for those that want both, perhaps a triple click for OF?

Thanks for listening,

Jon

Jon,

It sounds to me like you need to archive some items from your database on the desktop version of OmniFocus and then sync again. Choose File, then "Move Old Data To Archive".

I have a very extensive database of projects and actions, and my iPhone version of OmniFocus loads in under 5 seconds (I timed it just now).

In fact, I also timed how long it took me to launch OmniFocus, hit the inbox button at the bottom of the screen, type "This Is A Test Action", then hit save and exit OmniFocus. I even made a mistake in the spelling and had to backspace and correct it (I spelled "Text" instead of "Test"). Still, I did all of that in under 20 seconds. That's all I ever do when capturing stuff anyway - contexts, projects and due dates can wait until later when I have time to comb through my inbox.

Now, don't get me wrong, I would love it if OmniFocus was much snappier, so in a sense, I agree with you. I just thought I would point out that you seem to be having unnecessary delays and it's probably because you have a ton of old OmniFocus data that needs to be archived.

Thanks for the reply, but the phone hasn't slowed down since I started using OF so I don't think I have too much junk in there - it's always been slow.

Anyway I'm not just talking about Omnifocus's loading time, but how long it takes from start to finish using OF on the iphone to take a note - your test was a rather good reflection btw.

I just did another test - with the iphone asleep in my hand from the moment I decided to jot something down to actually being able to start typing this time took about 16 seconds, and that was going as fast as I could - this (and the 20s of your test) is just too long IMHO, and numerous others on this forum seem to think that too. Its certainly far longer than the 5s or whatever my old sony ericsson used to take from start to finish.

Admittedly in my case the phone wasn't on the home screen (safari was the last thing I was using on it before I put it to sleep) so an extra push of the home button was required once it was unlocked, but I think that's how it would be in the real world - who presses home every time they finish doing something on their phone?

Anyway this is exactly why I think if possible OFi capturing should be available even while the phone's locked, by double or triple-clicking the home button - that way we don't have to wait for any annoyingly slow GUI animations at all..

I'm no expert, but I'm sure the "double home button press" is something that Apple doesn't make available to 3rd party applications.

Too bad.

Well we can but hope :)

Btw I just dug out my old phone, a Sony Ericsson P910 to see whether I was imagining how fast it was at capturing tasks. From opening the flip to being able to start typing a new to-do took 5 seconds.

OmniFocus is slow for new user
 

Just to add my two bits worth, I bought OmniFocus for the iPhone just yesterday. I have not used OmniFocus on the Mac yet, so the database is empty (except for the "learn about GTD" and "learn about OmniFocus" projects that come with it - thanks for the pointers!).

It takes OmniFocus on my 16GB iPhone 3G v2.1 about 5 seconds to become usable from the time I tap the OmniFocus icon in the Dock - all of this time is spent with a white bar across the screen (see attached screenshot, "this is OmniFocus for iPhone").

I'm trying to convince my girlfriend that she should get an iPhone too, but she looks at the 5 seconds it takes to just open OmniFocus, and proceeds to open her paper diary, write the stuff I was looking to enter into OmniFocus, close the diary and put it back in her pocket, smiling smugly all the time.

Sure, paper isn't as flexible as electronic - but when she can erase an entry from her "Inbox" (you know, with an eraser - that's the little white bit on the end of a pencil, for those who can't remember) and rewrite it in the appropriate context faster than I can with the iPhone, where's the advantage to spending $AU1000 on the iPhone and an extra $AU23.90 on OmniFocus? ;)

I'm the one with the Apple product. The smug smile should be on [I]my[/I] face!

PS: For my purposes, OmniFocus on the iPhone Dock is just about right. "Home" -> "tap" --(wait 5 seconds)--> start working with OmniFocus. Instant responsiveness would be perfect, less than 2 seconds would be usable.

PPS: Thank you, everyone involved with the OmniFocus project! The current implementation is exactly what I need, no more no less. It's always a pleasure to use OmniGroup software, thank you for releasing software when it's ready, rather than when the marketroids tell you to.

I have OF open on my iPod touch all the time, so all I have to do is unlock the screen, so by the time I am able to start typing is about 3 seconds. If you are going into a meeting where you think you will need to put in some actions, why isn't OF already open? After all, if you were using a piece of paper you would have surely checked that you had a blank piece of paper and a pen that works before going to the meeting wouldn't you.

For my purposes, I can't have OmniFocus open all the time. I open Google Maps to check what the suggested route is from A to B. Along the way I get a phone call and have to make notes in OmniFocus. That extra 5 seconds of "um.. er... just waiting for my computer to catch up with me..." is annoying. I'm not normally a penny-pincher, but when I'm talking on a mobile phone, I can virtually hear the pennies clinking into the service provider's piggy bank (not to mention, the caller's frustration level rising exponentially).

Perhaps I should just get into the habit of switching to OmniFocus just before I press the wake/sleep button :)

I said it in the slow syncing thread and I will say it here. The slow load time makes OF practically unusable for me. I don't know what to do about it.

I hope one of the developers make a response here.

Let me add my vote here. I see two possible solutions, both of which have been proposed by others, earlier: either OFi launches in under 2 seconds, or it displays a functional inbox entry screen while the rest of the app is loading. Then the user can enter an item for the inbox, and press proceed to use the app, or close to close it, saving the inbox item of course.

I was more or less expecting to see this kind of improvement in a new version of the app... and to tell the truth, I have been expecting an update with this and other improvements (notably: colored text for next actions and flagged actions) for a while now...

Dear OmniPeople, when are these things due? Is the version we are waiting for under review at Apple already? I hope it is!

OF is in my dock on an iPod touch, but the load time is too long for quick access. The progress bar stalls at about 3/4 and often I just give up and move on.

[QUOTE=Mauronic;47420]I said it in the slow syncing thread and I will say it here. The slow load time makes OF practically unusable for me. I don't know what to do about it.

I hope one of the developers make a response here.[/QUOTE]
I completely agree and posted that here also:
[url]http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=9951[/url]

[QUOTE=Grail;47152]Sure, paper isn't as flexible as electronic - but when she can erase an entry from her "Inbox" (you know, with an eraser - that's the little white bit on the end of a pencil, for those who can't remember) and rewrite it in the appropriate context faster than I can with the iPhone, where's the advantage to spending $AU1000 on the iPhone and an extra $AU23.90 on OmniFocus? ;)[/QUOTE]

Burn her diary, then say "But you've got the data backed up, haven't you? Haven't you?". That'll sort her. :)

interesting that no-one from Omni has responded to this post. It seems like the most obvious flaw in OF - the rest is pretty great

Sorry, we're not ignoring this thread; we've just been very busy!

I just launched OmniFocus on my iPhone (from the home screen), and according to my stopwatch it took 4.9 seconds before it was ready to accept input. (I currently have 1,124 tasks in my database.) I launched the built-in Notes app (which is much simpler than OmniFocus), and it took about 4 seconds.

Now, I know that OmniFocus doesn't always launch in less than 5 seconds—and we're busy working to make OmniFocus load faster, sync faster, and to let you immediately switch over to adding a new inbox item without waiting for OmniFocus to finish loading your data in the background. But it's important to be realistic about how much faster it's possible for OmniFocus to be.

P.S. — I also realize that if the phone is asleep in your hand it will take even longer to unlock it before launching OmniFocus, and that if you left the phone running another app it could take even longer as you switch to the home screen—but those delays are common to launching all iPhone apps and I'm afraid that it's not something we have any control over. If you'd like to see the ability to launch third-party apps by double-clicking on the home button, please [URL="http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html"]submit your iPhone feedback[/URL] to Apple! (Hopefully Apple counts votes for requests like that, as we do for our apps.)

Well there must be some amount of memory management that the phone is doing RE paging or cacheing etc, as sometimes OF loads relatively quickly and sometimes quite slowly. I feel the times it loads fastest are after it has been recently quit, and the times it loads slowest is when several intervening apps have been run.

-P

I haven't noticed much variation here. It seems to consistently require 4-5 seconds to load my database of some 2,000 items. I'd love for it be faster, but I actually find the current speed to be acceptable.

-Dennis

I have never once gotten mine to even load all the way without crashing or given me an error message about incompatible databases or some such. :(

So consider yourselves lucky! ;)

Jennifer

[QUOTE=jenniferp;47660]I have never once gotten mine to even load all the way without crashing or given me an error message about incompatible databases or some such.[/QUOTE]

By any chance, do you have any pasted graphics from OmniGraffle in your OmniFocus database? Back on version 1.0 of the OmniFocus for iPhone app, it would crash while transferring my database from my Mac. It always seemed to happen at the same point.

So I systematically removed records from my database and re-synced over and over until I had narrowed it down to a single record in which I had copied and pasted a graphic from OmniGraffle. After I deleted that record, everything has transferred virtually error-free since! I'm not sure if the problem still exists under 1.0.3 (never had the time or courage to try :).

Just a thought...

-Dennis

I don't think so as I've never used OmniGraffle...

Jennifer

[QUOTE=Ken Case;47599]I just launched OmniFocus on my iPhone (from the home screen), and according to my stopwatch it took 4.9 seconds before it was ready to accept input. (I currently have 1,124 tasks in my database.) I launched the built-in Notes app (which is much simpler than OmniFocus), and it took about 4 seconds.[/QUOTE]

Hmm... interesting. After I read this, I went and checked all my other applications - I guess what makes them feel like they load faster is that I get to see "stuff" earlier. A couple of the applications apparently take screenshots to display back to you while actually loading up - which leads to people talking about Calendar and Contacts being "unresponsive" for a few seconds.

Can OmniFocus do the "screenshot just before quitting" Jedi mind trick? More often than not, the thing I'm looking for will be in the same page of stuff that was open the last time I quit OmniFocus.

I will certainly send my feedback to Apple about loading times for applications.

[QUOTE=Mauronic;47420]I said it in the slow syncing thread and I will say it here. The slow load time makes OF practically unusable for me. I don't know what to do about it.

I hope one of the developers make a response here.[/QUOTE]

I wholly agree with this. It seems to get slower and slower. And, in case anyone suggests my database is too big, I have 516 actions and regularly archive my completed actions. It seems that all users are experiencing this problem to a greater or lesser degree.

[QUOTE=Mixalis;48155]It seems that all users are experiencing this problem to a greater or lesser degree.[/QUOTE]

I don't really have an issue with the load times, and my database has over 2000 items. That's not to say I'd turn down any performance improvements Omni Group might come up with, but the current situation is not a problem for me. And I think it's a mistake to assume it's a problem for *all* users based on the handful posts in this thread. There may be thousands of users who find load times acceptable and just haven't written about it.

-Dennis

[QUOTE=Mixalis;48155]I wholly agree with this. It seems to get slower and slower. And, in case anyone suggests my database is too big, I have 516 actions and regularly archive my completed actions. It seems that all users are experiencing this problem to a greater or lesser degree.[/QUOTE]

Without a little more detail, it is hard to know whether what you are seeing is unexpected or not. For example, you say you have 516 actions (a perfectly reasonable number), and it gets slower and slower. How many actions did it have before it got slower? The speed of some operations will have a sensitivity to the number of actions in your database. If you double that action count, I would expect it to be slower even if everything is working as designed. By the same token, if you've been holding steady at 500 actions, but some action now takes 20% longer than it did two weeks ago, that would be something to investigate, for sure.

Some factors that could conceivably cause a slow-down which are outside of Omni's control:

1) network throughput between iPhone and WebDAV server
2) load on the WebDAV server
3) changes in your sync behavior (it goes fastest when any given sync only pulls in changes from 1 client)

If you do a Show Package Contents from the ctrl/right-click menu in the Finder on your OmniFocus.ofocus file, how many files are there? A database with 500 actions that has been compacted should be faster to load and process than one that hasn't been. I took a look at your more recent posts, and didn't see any indication that you've run the Coalesce script, and you do have 3 clients, which until recent changes has kept the auto-coalesce mechanism from working for many people with 3 or more clients, though desktop OmniFocus is relatively unaffected by the uncompacted databases in my experience. With the latest versions on desktop and iPhone, if you simply make sure that all your clients are synced up at one point in the day, and that more than an hour later they are all synced up again, the auto-coalesce operation should run.

Thanks for the detailed reply. I hadn't realised the significance of the 3 clients and, indeed, this could be something to do with the problem. I will run the coalesce script and see if it makes any improvement.

The delays are subjective and I haven't put a stopwatch on them; I will consider this.

My database started off at around 300 actions but I've now got up to just over 500. The ofocus file contains 172 files, but I don't know how this relates to the number of actions. Anyway, as you say, a perfectly reasonable number.

Further to my last posting and running the coalesce script (and syncing with MobileMe), I notice a very strange thing. The ofocus database on my desktop contains 172 files while that on my notebook contains 1,029 files. I'm not sure how this can be and haven't fiddled with it for the moment.

For the record, I ran coalesce on the desktop. The laptop then reported that the database appeared to be unrelated to the MobileMe version, so I replaced it with the MobileMe. I haven't yet looked at the iPhone.

Without duplicating stuff mentioned in previous posts in the thread, one simple thing folks can do for faster access to their data is to open up Settings, open their sync settings, and set Auto-Sync to "Off".

OmniFocus will now just load your existing data on startup, instead of doing a full sync with your server.

You'll need to manually tap the sync button on the toolbar from time to time to send your data to the server, but if you enter a lot of tasks, the tradeoff may be worth it.

[QUOTE=Grail;48081]Hmm... interesting. After I read this, I went and checked all my other applications - I guess what makes them feel like they load faster is that I get to see "stuff" earlier. A couple of the applications apparently take screenshots to display back to you while actually loading up - which leads to people talking about Calendar and Contacts being "unresponsive" for a few seconds.

Can OmniFocus do the "screenshot just before quitting" Jedi mind trick? More often than not, the thing I'm looking for will be in the same page of stuff that was open the last time I quit OmniFocus.

I will certainly send my feedback to Apple about loading times for applications.[/QUOTE]

You know, you're totally right. Most other apps load slowly, too - they only seem to load faster because of the display. I would really like OF to load (and sync) faster - but it's so much more awesome than anything I've ever had, how can I complain?

[QUOTE=Brian;48276]Without duplicating stuff mentioned in previous posts in the thread, one simple thing folks can do for faster access to their data is to open up Settings, open their sync settings, and set Auto-Sync to "Off".

OmniFocus will now just load your existing data on startup, instead of doing a full sync with your server.

You'll need to manually tap the sync button on the toolbar from time to time to send your data to the server, but if you enter a lot of tasks, the tradeoff may be worth it.[/QUOTE]

Brian,

I took your advice on this and usability is now so much better. It's a small point, the idea of switching off auto sync, but it is something I would recommend to everyone. With auto sync off, my iPhone database (575 actions) is ready for input after typically 11 seconds. When I press the sync button, the fastest sync (from start to being able to use the application again) is 1m 48s. This is on a wifi connection and I suspect it will be longer on 3G, but it is now no longer a major hurdle.

Anyway, a big improvement and thanks for the tip.

What Did it for me...
 

When I first started using OF for Iphone, it was great, load time was 5 secs, which in my opinion is really good, but then i bought the Mac version, used the Sync feature and started organizing my life on the Mac Synced with the Iphone etc, the problem started when the file got too big, I did voice recording and this actions or items were being synced back and forth, and the file got a little big...
Loading time increased...

The OF iPhone was crashing when syncing etc. frustration... so what i did was a simple "Move Old data to archive" on the mac, this took a major load off (Audio Files etc), synced... OF iphone back to being smooth and dandy...

My advice - set up 'Archive OmniFocus database' as a monthly action in OmniFocus to remind yourself to do it at the start of each month. Hopefully, some options for doing this by default will appear in later versions of the app.

OF on Iphone is slow
 

Well, once I actually get sync working on Bonjour (The current WebDAV isn't working out too well... referring to my active thread on WedDav and Bonjour a thread or two up), I agree this is going to be a problem. I use 3x5 cards always in my pocket. So the time I am measuring against is the time to pull my 3/5 cards out of my shirt pocket, turn over to the back, grab my pen from my pocket. (Enter it all later on my Macbook), which is what i want to replace.

The suggestion made to always keep OF open is a good one, but as another noted, what about calls, other contact lookup's, etc.

I don't know if this is possible, but what about a stand alone ap for Iphone that is extracted by the developers for inbox input? The application would be a small simple entry ap just for dropping things in the inbox? I figure it would be smaller and not have to load all the data in OF providing a quick way to just enter Inbox items? (Just a thought... This is IMHO the base GTD application out there and I am grateful for the work done by the developers.
(AT&T should be also, as I only bought my Iphone 3G for OF! I already have a Blackerry and my personal verizon phone, soon I will need a "BAT Belt!:D)

Per the " omnifocus for iPhone " twitter feed . the next update will let you open a new inbox item before the application finishes loading ..

in addition to bonjour sync over Wi-fi .. This is probably the feature I'm looking forward to the most .. and I'm still checking the app store a few times a day to see if it's posted yet ..

I'm hoping if it's not posted by Tuesday,Omni will check in with apple [if they haven't already ] since that would be two weeks per the omnifocus iPhone twitter feed .

[QUOTE=Ken Case;47599]Sorry, we're not ignoring this thread; we've just been very busy!

I just launched OmniFocus on my iPhone (from the home screen), and according to my stopwatch it took 4.9 seconds before it was ready to accept input. (I currently have 1,124 tasks in my database.) I launched the built-in Notes app (which is much simpler than OmniFocus), and it took about 4 seconds.

Now, I know that OmniFocus doesn't always launch in less than 5 seconds—and we're busy working to make OmniFocus load faster, sync faster, and to let you immediately switch over to adding a new inbox item without waiting for OmniFocus to finish loading your data in the background. But it's important to be realistic about how much faster it's possible for OmniFocus to be.

P.S. — I also realize that if the phone is asleep in your hand it will take even longer to unlock it before launching OmniFocus, and that if you left the phone running another app it could take even longer as you switch to the home screen—but those delays are common to launching all iPhone apps and I'm afraid that it's not something we have any control over. If you'd like to see the ability to launch third-party apps by double-clicking on the home button, please [URL="http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html"]submit your iPhone feedback[/URL] to Apple! (Hopefully Apple counts votes for requests like that, as we do for our apps.)[/QUOTE]

Wow! Over 1000 tasks... under 5 seconds. Ken, do you have "Autosync disabled" on start-up if you don't mind me asking? I am awaiting Bounjour as my first priority over Webdav. But right after I will run in to this issue.
I have seen many good suggestions. I don't mind having to manually sync
when I get back to my desk. In fact, I would be likely to disable autosync on
start anyway as I won't be near my MBP when I am whipping the Iphone out to add to the inbox. I suspect starting OF and the timeout itself will add full seconds to the delay. Is this the solution? Because I won't have the luxury of archiving. I have projects with hundreds of tasks that will remain active well over a year. So this is really an important issue to many obviously.

Many thanks for a great GTD product. I am the "test subject" before many other GTD followers at work jump on the bandwagon. (Oh yes, and perhaps off topic, but THANKS! for adding the ability to read a .vsd to Omnigrapple!!!

Mark

Comparing to Things
 

Now that Things syncs with Mac for a while via Bonjour, I've got used to it starting up in an instant and doing a sync with the Mac if both iPhone and Mac are on the same network. Remembering how long it took OF to load, this keeps me in Things for now on the iPhone. I use Things as a kind of "most fun" list, while use OF for a comprehensive hierarchical system on the Mac. Now that there's a competition, one will always compare startup and sync times of Things and OF -- and currently, Things sets the bar, IMHO.

Bonjour sync via wi-fi is supposed to be on the way .
No idea why the update is taking this long to be approved by apple .
According to omni's post on twitter , tomorrow makes two weeks since it was submitted . I bet their bonjour wi-fi sync is just as good if not better.

[QUOTE=ext555;49585]Bonjour sync via wi-fi is supposed to be on the way .
No idea why the update is taking this long to be approved by apple .
According to omni's post on twitter , tomorrow makes two weeks since it was submitted . I bet their bonjour wi-fi sync is just as good if not better.[/QUOTE]

Besides, comparing Bonjour Wi-Fi sync to WebDAV sync is like comparing apples to oranges. They're really two very different mechanisms, each with their own strengths and weaknesses.

Bonjour sync doesn't do me any good if my Mac is at home while I'm on the road. Worse yet, if my iPhone gets lost, stolen, smashed, or suffers from a catastrophic data loss, everything since my last sync is gone. I don't know about you, but I don't trust my iPhone [I]that[/I] much.

Or, if I'm in a hurry to rush out the door to catch the train, I grab my iPhone and my hat and I'm gone. With WebDAV sync, I can update my iPhone on the way. With Bonjour sync, I'm stuck using old data.

-Dennis

I think there is use for both. I have WebDav working. But ironically when at work I can't access my server unless I run outside the NYSE, sync via 3G and run back in :D Here Bonjour will serve me well. I can sync with my Webdav server at the end of the day.

Hum.. I don't know enough about Bonjour... Am I running a risk of corruption since I would be syncing with both Bonjour on the local Mac, and my Webdav server when on the road?

It will be a one or the other situation, not both. That is, if you continue with WebDAV you won't be able to use Wi-Fi synching and [I]vice versa[/I].

[QUOTE=Toadling;49588]Bonjour sync doesn't do me any good if my Mac is at home while I'm on the road. Worse yet, if my iPhone gets lost, stolen, smashed, or suffers from a catastrophic data loss, everything since my last sync is gone. I don't know about you, but I don't trust my iPhone [I]that[/I] much.

Or, if I'm in a hurry to rush out the door to catch the train, I grab my iPhone and my hat and I'm gone. With WebDAV sync, I can update my iPhone on the way. With Bonjour sync, I'm stuck using old data.[/QUOTE]
Exactly... Wi-Fi syncing was one of the things that initially turned me right off about Things (there were many other issues as well, and I was already firmly entrenched in OF anyway, but I did note the use of Wi-Fi syncing would pretty much have been the show-stopper issue for me).

Most of the other apps that sync to the iPhone can work fine over Wi-Fi, since they don't deal with time-sensitive and mission-critical data. For example, I sync 1Password over Wi-Fi, but I generally don't update my password/wallet information so frequently that this would be an issue.

The fact that you would have to start up OF on both sides to run the Wi-Fi sync is the biggest limiting factor. If Apple ever permitted background apps, a transparent and regular Wi-Fi sync schedule between the Mac and the iPhone would probably make for a brilliant solution, but alas that's not possible right now.

OmniFocus is the one tool, however, where the WebDAV style of syncing is really necessary and really makes it stand out. Obviously, WebDAV won't be for everybody, particularly since it requires access to a WebDAV server somewhere, but it's absolutely great not to have to remember to sync my iPhone before I run out the door to a meeting.

Yeah mobile me syncing is starting to smooth out for me .. I just want the update for the interface improvements they listed .. especially not having to wait for the app to load before I can add a new item.

The main reason I got an iPhone was OmniFocus and it would mean the end to capturing things on index cards to enter later . I have a bad habit of losing the cards or forgetting to enter them later .

This has been working great and will be even better once 1.1 is available .

[QUOTE=JKT;49604]It will be a one or the other situation, not both. That is, if you continue with WebDAV you won't be able to use Wi-Fi synching and [I]vice versa[/I].[/QUOTE]

Thanks for this. Yea, now that I think about it I will have to choose.
I have WebDev running, but it is driving me nuts with the DHCP range change twice a day. Hence Bonjour should be perfect. I expect to always have
my MBP even when I travel.

Having to open both applications to sync... I can live with that. As noted
I too use 3/5 cards and I can't want to get rid of them. Lack of avilability of 1.1 however is really starting to get me angry. I had never heard of "Things", and it is not about money for me. I am going to check it out since it seems to have Bonjour already and be more established. (I have not compared any support features, look and feel, GTD , etc. yet, but I will take
a look. If it works for me I would love to stay loyal to OF, but it is about functionality ASAP.

My main concern is 1.1 comes out finally before 2009 I hope. If there is a bug Omni needs to fix, I don't want to wait a month for it. I realize this is a Apple thing, but Omni seems to be having issues with approvals and as I mentioned in another post, others don't. Something is not right....
Either way, I need a solution. I am now doing too much manual entry. 3x5 to Macbook later... Need to review and make changes, can't do so on Iphone, have to write them down and update MBP. If Apple provides no method for approval feedback to developers when Omni checked in for a status update, that is even a worse statement Apple is making to us as customers. They don't give a damn. Apple knows they have a loyal following. Well news is it is quickly eroding..

Things for the iPhone is just as 'established' as OmniFocus is for the iPhone - they both came out at the same time (1st day of App Store launch). Things on the desktop, however, is nowhere near as established as OmniFocus is... they haven't even reached the first official release. Edit: It could still be a very usable app, but if they haven't seen fit to call it version 1.0 yet it implies that there is still a lot of work to do on it before they can.

Rampant speculation: I wonder if the long delay in approval for OmniFocus for the iPhone version 1.1 is because anything that uses Wi-Fi requires a longer appraisal by Apple to make sure it isn't permitting tethering (by the front or the back door).

good point! I'm not sure how long it took things to get approvAl on their wi-fi sync. Twitter feed might have history. And things is Definitely Not as established as OF, lots of features missing

[QUOTE=JKT;49664]Things for the iPhone is just as 'established' as OmniFocus is for the iPhone - they both came out at the same time (1st day of App Store launch). Things on the desktop, however, is nowhere near as established as OmniFocus is... they haven't even reached the first official release. Edit: It could still be a very usable app, but if they haven't seen fit to call it version 1.0 yet it implies that there is still a lot of work to do on it before they can.

Rampant speculation: I wonder if the long delay in approval for OmniFocus for the iPhone version 1.1 is because anything that uses Wi-Fi requires a longer appraisal by Apple to make sure it isn't permitting tethering (by the front or the back door).[/QUOTE]

Well I checked out Things and I found a major flaw immediately. They dont
support contexts. They support Tags, which initially look like the "same thing" only more flexible as I think was the intent. However I already have contexts nested 3 deep, and the tags work, but displaying the information gets real complex. (So too can on OF, but not in the same way. And besides for complex views you can build a perspective, which is a great time saver. OF sticks true to GTD method and didn't try to reinvent something better at the fundamental level, they enhanced it's scalability in a keen way, but built an accurate electronic version of GTD that does not have you feel like you are learning something new and foreign. If you know how to use a computer, and Iphone and read GTD, had a manual system, the flow right in to an electronic system is a welcomed relief, not more work to keep track of my work. So I don't think there is any competition at this time IMHO.

As for how long Apple is taking, and the delay, it has me angry enough that I looked carefully. Year end technology projects get pushed before :year end freezes" and the 1.1 mobility would really help me out right now.
I tried sending Apple a 'love letter' via customer support contact, but CS
advised "We have nothing to do with applications on the Iphone". Silly me
for expecting more :rolleyes:

I went looking for a way to complain to Apple about this delay too, but couldn't find anything. The support forums at apple.com don't have a section dedicated to the App Store which is pretty crazy. It seems very bad form that trivialities like games get to post updates with a (relatively) short turnaround, but an important update to a productivity app that people depend on for their work is held up for nearly two weeks or longer... sigh.

and there's been no response from Omni about this either[tried emailing also ] , Not even a " yes, we've checked into it , it's being delayed " " no , we can't check on submissions once they're sent " . Obviously the criticism that Apple is using music store methods to run a software house is valid .
Watch, this update will probably appear when 1.5 goes final .

Yeah I've been surprised by the lack of comment from Omni, since they're usually so communicative. I'd really appreciate a status update, even if it's "we have no idea what's taking so long". Could they be limited in what they can say due to Apple requirements?

[QUOTE=JKT;49664]Things for the iPhone is just as 'established' as OmniFocus is for the iPhone - they both came out at the same time (1st day of App Store launch). Things on the desktop, however, is nowhere near as established as OmniFocus is... they haven't even reached the first official release. Edit: It could still be a very usable app, but if they haven't seen fit to call it version 1.0 yet it implies that there is still a lot of work to do on it before they can.[/quote]
Things has been behind the curve compared to OmniFocus for a while now even on the desktop, and although Things was present on the App Store on day one, it was a joke in that it didn't even support [i]any[/i] form of syncing... It was an entirely standalone app which they were selling for $10 based on the promise that they would add syncing later (which they did do, to be fair).

Most importantly, however, Things on the iPhone doesn't provide nearly the equivalent-to-desktop functionality that OmniFocus does. Many of the desktop features are missing even for [i]viewing[/i] -- for example there is no support to even search by [i]tags[/i] (which is their "kind-of-sort-of" answer to contexts). While the desktop app might appeal to some users, the iPhone variant of Things ends up being far too basic by comparison. I'd end up abandoning a GTD approach entirely and go to something like ToodleDo with Appigo's To-Do before I'd bother with Things.

As for the OmniFocus v1.1 release, I've been awaiting it with bated breath as well since I needed to publish it in a review this week. Unfortunately, the due date was today, so I had to go with my v1.03 review instead of being able to get the more updated version in there. Murphy's law being what it is, v1.1 will probably show up now that I've [i]finished[/i] the piece :) Regardless, however, it's still made our Top 100 iPhone Apps list for this year's iLounge Buyer's Guide which is coming out tomorrow.

JMR, much of the process is pretty opaque to us. We've confirmed that our submission is still in review.

Thanks for the response Andrew. The iPhone might be an amazing platform to develop for, but Apple can really make it a pain sometimes!

Rebooting iPhone after Install makes big diff in loading time
 

I just installed v 1.1 and rebooted my iPhone it is honkin' fast 456 action items and counting.

Turn iPhone off, then turn it back on.

I just loaded the iPhone version for the first time and it seems blazing fast to me... seemed to be about 3 seconds to load.

New version definitely much faster .. congrats to Omni Group .

Great job on the "instant Inbox"!
 

I second (or third, whatever) the notes that OF for iPhone 1.1 is BLAZING fast for what really matters: entering that to-do item you just remembered. The ability to clicking into your "Inbox" WHILE A SYNC IS HAPPENING (!!!) is simply BEAUTIFUL. More congrats to Omni.

Only one thing had really been holding me back from using OF on my iPhone to its full potential: if I had to wait a minute and a half to be able to ENTER the thing that just came into my head, a simple pad was a much safer method to rely upon, as the whole point is to capture your new ideas QUICKLY, even if you are doing something else, and even if that thing occurs to you (gasp!) while you're using a different iPhone program ;). However, the ability to jot down the details that are fresh in your mind WHILE the program is taking care of its load/sync, combined with an overall much zippier completion of those tasks by the new version, can get you back to what you were doing previously in less than 30 sec (I just timed it).

BRILLIANT!!!

Excellent!! This is just in time for the "ENd of year rush", when all business units need to spend their budget money or lose it, so they all want their projects you pushed in to 2009 done in Nov or Dec!!

It is embarassing going in to a status meeting with lots of 3x5 cards, verses a perspective list printed out. And just in case I need a different view, I can get it right on my zippy 1.1 synced version of OF on my iphone! Thank you Omni!!

One thing I wish I did have is the ability to pull up an Inbox while in another application. I know this was mentioned and I believe it was an Apple API limitation, but if there is a way to do this by using a "double click" as someone noted, that would be Nirvana for OF on Iphone...

Nice Job!

Wow! I just installed it too. I didn't mind the load times before, but 1.1 is at least 2x faster. Great job, Omni.

-- KK

Just adding my voice to the chorus - this version [I]feels[/I] faster, and the Inbox being available before the database has finished loading addresses my major concerns with on-the-spot usability.

Thank you, OmniFocus team :D

I agree 1.1 is a night and day improvement. Great job!

i also feel an improvement. I'd also strongly recommend following the advice in this post that helps reduce the size of you OF file on the mac. For me, this reduced my OF file from 5Mb to 225Kb (although it's now creeped back up to 1mb (bizarre!), which seems to have helped load times (a bit), but has vastly improved sync times.

[url]http://forums.omnigroup.com/showpost.php?p=41378&postcount=17[/url]