OmniFocus news update
 

Hi, all! We've had a very, very busy 2008, and I just wanted to share a little bit of our OmniFocus news with you.

As you know, we shipped OmniFocus 1.0 in January—to critical acclaim, including a [URL="http://blog.omnigroup.com/2008/01/17/omnifocus-wins-best-of-show-tmo-editors-choice-awards/"]Best of Show award at Macworld Expo[/URL]. We immediately started working on adding synchronization support for OmniFocus 1.1 (while simultaneously adding support for additional languages to the OmniFocus 1.0.x releases). Ethan talked a little bit about this on our blog in his post "[URL="http://blog.omnigroup.com/2008/05/09/omnifocus-sync-its-alive/"]OmniFocus Sync: It's ALIVE[/URL]".

But the bigger news happened in March, when Apple announced that they were going to open up the iPhone to third-party developers. We knew immediately that OmniFocus had huge potential on the iPhone, because it solved a big problem I have with managing my tasks on a Mac: I don't always have my Mac with me. In particular, I might not have it when I think of something I need to remember to do (such as noticing it's time to change the oil), and I might not have it when I'm trying to remember things that need doing (such as which groceries are on my shopping list). But my iPhone, on the other hand, is with me wherever I go.

In addition to being with me at all times, my iPhone has another really great feature: it can locate itself on a map. That meant that we could make OmniFocus automatically know where it is at all times, so it could show me a list of the things I want to get done near where I am right now.

That was it, we were sold: we had to bring OmniFocus to the iPhone. As soon as Apple gave us the tools to start developing iPhone apps, we quickly set out to bring OmniFocus to the iPhone and to make it synchronize with the desktop app. With the help of many long nights and weekends (and the patience of our families), we had the basic app working six weeks later—just in time to enter it into the Apple Design Awards contest, where it [URL="http://blog.omnigroup.com/2008/06/12/omnifocus-for-the-iphone-snags-an-apple-design-award/"]won the award[/URL] for Best iPhone Productivity Application!

Of course, winning an award didn't mean that our work was done: one of the biggest challenges we faced was that we couldn't ask any of you to help us test the software, because it required a version of the iPhone operating system which wasn't yet available to the public. We pulled our QA team off all our other projects so they could focus on testing just the iPhone app, and identified and fixed dozens of different places the app could crash. We continued working around the clock through the July 4 holiday, trying to make sure that we had everything ready to go on the day the App Store launched: Friday, July 11. Six weeks ago today.

That day finally came, and we watched with amazement as OmniFocus went as high as #3 on the the App Store's Top 10 list of most popular applications: 11,000 people bought OmniFocus that first weekend alone. (Thank you!) OmniFocus is still one of the most popular productivity apps on the App Store and has continued to sell at a steady clip ever since.

Which is, of course, why you're only hearing about this six weeks after the fact. With tens of thousands of new customers using a new app on a new platform comes a lot of work. Here are a few numbers which might give you a bit of a picture of the last six weeks here at Omni: we've built over 250 "sneaky peek" releases of OmniFocus 1.1 for the Mac (which syncs with the new iPhone app), and 141 internal test builds of OmniFocus for the iPhone (leading to three more public releases). Our OmniFocus support ninjas have received over 9,000 email messages (of which we've answered over 7,800), and over 4,000 messages have been posted to our user forums. (And meanwhile, of course, we've continued to release new versions of OmniGraffle, OmniPlan, OmniOutliner, and OmniWeb.)

We're still not caught up, unfortunately, even with volunteers helping from every department within Omni. We're hiring more people to help out (and if you know someone who might be interested please send them our way!)—and hopefully that will help us get back to our usual standards.

In the end, we feel very fortunate: the last six months have been very busy, and while the results aren't yet perfect we're very proud of what we've accomplished so far. We couldn't have done this without you—so, from all of us here: Thank You!

Congrats on the success.

Given this product has gone so well, why aren't you moving faster to make omni outliner on the iphone?

Congratulations from me too. You guys deserve it!

new iPhone version coming soon?
 

Great app.

Is an updated version coming soon?

Thanks

OK, it's been a month since OF for iPhone was released and still no WiFi synching. I have yet to use my bought s/w until I know I can synch between my iPod Touch and computer (no I don't want to buy MobileMe or start a WebDav server). So what's the latest?

Yes, when is the new iPhone release coming?
 

This is a great app, and I enjoy it when it behaves correctly. It's been too long since the last update. Is there a way to find out when the new release is coming? The desktop version's getting a lot of attention with regular updates, but the iPhone version's where I'm having the most trouble.

Thanks!

Well said!

I've been asking this same question over email too and these guys are keeping their heads down! i hate it when software companies behave like 'coders' - all geeky and non-communicative. i really wonder if these guys are lacking staff in their customer service team as they are really failing to manage our expectations or even reply to these posts or emails.

Here's hoping they get back to us soon and that they release some updates soon... In the land of iPhone, and for one of the most expensive iPhone apps available, the current OmniFocus update release cycle is toooo sloooow...

Wifi syncing is still coming, but it's got a lot of testing ahead of it, whatever development effort comes out of that, more testing, and then we have to shepherd out an iPhone build with the support, including finishing up other work that is going in the same build.

Ken posted earlier this summer (after the iPhone app had come out, and had a new release) that Apple was asking developers not to put out frequent small updates. Also, Apple insists on vetting each new version, which adds some latency to the process. Add in Omni's policy of not discussing release dates until they are confident they won't miss, and you've got a pretty good explanation for the current state of affairs. In any case, if you're asking for anything other than sync bug fixes, iPhone bug fixes, or fixes for any sort of crash, my bet is that you're probably looking at a release after 1.1.

The forums are primarily intended as a communication channel between users, not an official support mechanism. Omni staff read them on an "as available" basis; it isn't anyone's job to respond to everything. With a couple of new hires in the customer support group recently added, I think we'll see a bigger Omni presence here again soon as they get the email backlog worked off.

Thanks
 

I bought the iPhone focus app based mostly on my high satisfaction with Graffle. Then I downloaded the the Mac app and was frustrated because I couldn't figure out how to sync with the iPhone. It wasn't obvious to me in skimming the FAQ that I needed the alpha version. I'm glad that I found your post, because I was about to scrap the whole idea of using OmniFocus. I suggest including information about the relationship between the iPhone and the Mac versions for buyers of the iPhone app. Not talking about it doesn't do the trick. I, of course, assumed that if both a iPhone and a Mac version existed, then they would sync. Otherwise, what's the point?

Now that I'm on board, it looks like a great app. I look forward to doing my part by sending you user feedback on the alpha.

It does say in the last paragraph of the OmniFocus description in the iTunes App Store:[indent]
OmniFocus can synchronize with OmniFocus 1.1 for Mac via MobileMe or a WebDAV-enabled web server.
[/indent]
However, I can see that it might be possible to skim over that without it sinking in... So, if you were the one responsible for creating that page, what would [b]you[/b] write?

[QUOTE=whpalmer4;47934]It does say in the last paragraph of the OmniFocus description in the iTunes App Store:[indent]
OmniFocus can synchronize with OmniFocus 1.1 for Mac via MobileMe or a WebDAV-enabled web server.
[/indent]
However, I can see that it might be possible to skim over that without it sinking in... So, if you were the one responsible for creating that page, what would [b]you[/b] write?[/QUOTE]
My vote would be "synchronization of the iPhone version with your Mac currently requires a developmental version of the Mac software which can be acquired at:" and list the SP page URL.

Just my $0.02...

J

We have tweaked the text a little to reflect that OmniFocus 1.1 for the desktop is still in beta. Not sure just when that change will go live, but probably pretty quickly.

For what it's worth, the reason our description was so terse before was because of limits on the allowed length of app descriptions. We've just discovered that those limits were raised at some point since then.

Sort by Date Created / Alarms / iPhone Outliner version
 

Dear Ken:

Great product with my recent (6 mos.) to Apple/Mac. and RexWireless ToDo Matrix / IdeaMatrix:

Desperately needed items:

1. to have the ability to sort by date created and/or date modified. This would be a huge time saver.

2. create alarms / ticklers

3. iPhone version of OmniOutliner similar in scope to RexWireless IdeaMatrix

Thanks once these are up I will be recommending to everyone.

Peter

any date yet as to when an update for iPhone OmniFocus will be released? i wish there could be as much focus on the iPhone version as there is on the desktop version. Would i be wrong to assume the iPhone team is rather small and as a product, it's not getting a huge amount of attention? feels that way

I think you would in fact be wrong. Remember, Omni can't ship a new version of the iPhone application whenever it feels like it. Unlike with the desktop version, the iPhone software has to be released through Apple, and Apple strongly discourages frequent releases (and their release process apparently takes an arbitrary amount of time, making it hard to know when a new release will pop out the other end). The iPhone app and the desktop app share a bunch of common code, so just because you don't see a daily release of new iPhone software doesn't mean that it isn't being continually improved; you just don't get to play with every new build. The major reason for this release to exist is the iPhone software...

While it's not as apparent, the iPhone product is indeed also getting attention. The OmniFocus for iPhone and OmniFocus for Mac teams are in fact the same team. As whpalmer4 notes, the two products share a lot of code; many non-UI changes that you see happening on the desktop are also affecting the iPhone product. However, we don't have a good mechanism by which we can distribute the interim public builds for the iPhone, as we do for the desktop product. There is also the issue that frequent releases through the iPhone app store are discouraged, not to mention unwieldy.

I appreciate what you are saying, but i've never bought into the argument that it's apple slowing things down here - i get loads of updates on many of my other apps and many are just small bug fixes. Apple don't seem anywhere near as unwilling as you propose.

All this said, thanks for a great product. I do appreciate the efforts :)

I'm not so sure about apple not slowing things down , Cultured Code [the maker of " things " ] anounced on their twitter feed last weekend that an update to things touch had been submitted to apple .... it's nearly a week later and it's yet to appear on the apps store.

To clarify what Andrew said earlier - we can push out intermediate builds of the desktop application whenever we want. We can push out a new build after fixing just one bug, if we need to.

We don't have as much freedom with respect to the iPhone app because Apple needs to verify each release. It's not so much that the review process introduces delay; it's that each release creates work for a third party that controls the only way of selling the product. We need to balance the wants and needs of the customer (fixes as quickly as possible) with the needs of that third party - not having a number of submissions to review that they find excessive.

I am not making the claim that the current release schedule strikes the optimal balance. Additionally, please don't read any of our responses as blame-shifting; we just want to describe the thinking behind what you're observing in a little more detail.

As we continue work on both versions of OmniFocus, we'll keep improving this portion of the process as well.

Another day and another load of small updates via app store on my iphone - some big, some tiny - BrainChallenge has now updated twice in a week!

So, i'm going to be blunt today and then not bother you again. You create FANTASTIC APPS and i LOVE THEM! And i don't mind at all if you tell me to STOP WINGING! I chose and use OmniFocus and i got what i paid for. It can be ineffective on the iPhone at times as it loads very slowly, but it is what it is and it is mostly WONDERFUL. Period.

However, with regard to updates, I'd really like it if you'd just get to the point and say "we simply haven't made enough progress with an update to release it yet. That's the ONLY reason that we haven't released an update via iTunes. We have more work to do and aren't really sure when it'll get done. You'll hear from us as soon as its released and not before because we're not into releasing road maps nor blog articles about the progress of the iPhone app". This stuff has clearly got nothing to do with me, but I'd love you to just say that and not bother blaming process complications that other iPhone developers are dealing with fine and releasing 2 updates a week.

So, i'm going away now and a BIG THANKS for some great apps and i look forward to future updates whenever they arrive.

Thanks :)

Here's a comment from an Omni employee on the topic of release schedules:

[URL="http://forums.omnigroup.com/showpost.php?p=47475&postcount=2"]http://forums.omnigroup.com/showpost.php?p=47475&postcount=2[/URL]

Frankly, I don't understand what the problem is. You get much more visibility and input into Omni's development than any other established company that comes to mind. The quality level of the finished result is generally excellent, unlike that of many other vendors. There's an old joke about software engineering that goes "cheap, fast, correct; choose any two" and I think a variant of it applies here. This isn't enterprise software that needs to be rolled out to 10,000 seats simultaneously. Why is knowing the exact date it is going to ship more important than knowing that they are confident they have delivered the best product they can? Has Apple told you when they are going to ship 10.5.6, or the next version of the iPhone software? :)

Your other developers that are shipping multiple releases a week may be rapidly using up their supply of good will with Apple, who knows. It's not like they've never done anything arbitrary or capricious to a 3rd party developer, is it?

Holland, exactly how much transparency to have is something that we struggle with. While we tend to like transparency, there are some drawbacks in certain aspects or circumstances, ranging from controlling expectations to competitive reasons to not always being confident enough in our current plans to marketing reasons and more. (How's that for a vague answer?)

That said, since it's been mentioned elsewhere, we have an update that has been submitted to Apple and is just waiting for their approval. We don't want to make a big deal about it because we don't have any control over this part of the schedule.

I can say it again , APPLE DECIDES when updates hit the app store , not the developer. Cutured Code released an update to things touch , and 8 days later it showed up on app store . Not being a developer, I'm not sure if apple even tells you why they're holding up your update ..
I'm going to venture a guess , that the more complicated the app is , the more thorough they check it out ?
I'm very grateful for the amount of communication omni does with us .
It's much much much more than a lot of companies I've dealt with .
Keep up the good work Omni !