Push notifications for OmniFocus
 

Hello,

Im a average user, who bought an iphone specifically thinking about GTD apps. I initially used RTM, and then switched to omniFocus, Omnifocus is a really nice application, i just missed two things, one was repeating tasks, another one was some sort of reminders for the tasks. in the meanwhile the repeating tasks feature was implemented (and works great), the alerts at that time was not supported by the iphone.
In the meanwhile the iphone os 3.0 came out, with support for push notifications, all other GTD apps started to implemented it, i thought it would be just a matter of time to finally see it in omnifocus, after a while checking almost everyday if there was a update that implemented the feature, i decide to google it and to my suprise i found that omnigroup is refusing to implement this feature, instead putting a more or less complicated alternative solution involving mobile me/webdav and the iphone calendar, that ,sincerely, doesnt work for me (and many other people from what ive read in this forum).

i dont have mobile me, i dont want to have it. even if i had it, i dont want my calendar to have things like "take out the carbage" or "give food to the fish" (but i do want to be reminded about it!).

I always have good network access (yeah im not in the U.S and i dont use AT&T, quite bad company or so i heard), so network connectivity is never an issue.

Push Notifications is what works best for me and other users. Im asking you [B]omnigroup, please , please implement push notifications[/B] and [I]let the users decide how to best use the application they paid for, dont try to decide it for them.[/I]

We're providing notifications now in the best way possible to us. I certainly agree that calendar notifications which go through a separate server aren't ideal: what would be ideal would be for Apple to add date-based notifications on the device itself which had all the same options as push notifications (so we could specify different alert sounds and update the app icon, just like push notifications do). We've been requesting that feature for over a year (starting the day Apple announced push notifications), but Apple already had a lot on their plate for 3.0. (Hopefully they'll get to it for 4.0!)

We're not refusing to implement push notifications, but push notifications aren't possible for OmniFocus at the moment because your data lives on your devices, not on servers hosted by us. (We don't have any OmniFocus servers!) That means there's nowhere for us to push notifications from, unlike a hosted service like Remember the Milk.

(We could certainly enter the hosted service business, but that's talking about a whole different business model—one which would presumably involve some sort of recurring subscription fees.)

The calendar-based notifications which we implemented in OmniFocus 1.5.1 for iPhone aren't perfect, but they work pretty well. (They'll work even better when OmniFocus for Mac also updates the calendar.)

It's also important to point out that MobileMe isn't required to use calendar notifications. Any of the providers listed in our [URL="http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=11054"]Free WebDAV sync providers[/URL] thread can host your calendar file.

[QUOTE=omniEndUser;66509]
i dont have mobile me, i dont want to have it. even if i had it, i dont want my calendar to have things like "take out the carbage" or "give food to the fish" (but i do want to be reminded about it!).
[/quote]
Your calendar doesn't have to have those things if you are using the iPhone calendar or iCal. It goes in a separate calendar which you do not have to display. Also the notification events are only entered a few days in advance of the present, and removed as they pass, so there's not much in there unless you are slapping due dates on everything in your system.

[quote]
Push Notifications is what works best for me and other users. Im asking you [B]omnigroup, please , please implement push notifications[/B] and [I]let the users decide how to best use the application they paid for, dont try to decide it for them.[/I][/QUOTE]
The application you bought didn't have push notifications, so you don't have the option of deciding to use it that way, any more than I have the option of deciding to run Snow Leopard on my iMac G5. Well, I suppose we can both [b]decide[/b] to do what we want, we just can't do it :)

[QUOTE=Ken Case;66511]

The calendar-based notifications which we implemented in OmniFocus 1.5.1 for iPhone aren't perfect, but they work pretty well. (They'll work even better when OmniFocus for Mac also updates the calendar.)[/QUOTE]

Ken,

When does this look like this will be available? I am real excited for this as it will make it far more convenient :) by the way I love the way omnifocus has implement the notifications as I am always in buildings that loose service and AT&T isn't very reliable so its perfect for now! Let's hope apple gets their act together to put this in the OS in 4.0

It looks like iPhone OS 3.1 enables syncing of subscribed calendars from iCal via MobileMe's over-the-air sync service. Note that this can lead to duplicate events appearing in your iPhone Calendar app if you subscribe to your OmniFocus due soon calendar on both your iPhone and on your Mac.

See this other thread for more info:

[URL="http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=13801"]http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=13801[/URL]

-Dennis

[QUOTE=Ken Case;66511]We're providing notifications now in the best way possible to us. I certainly agree that calendar notifications which go through a separate server aren't ideal: what would be ideal would be for Apple to add date-based notifications on the device itself which had all the same options as push notifications (so we could specify different alert sounds and update the app icon, just like push notifications do). We've been requesting that feature for over a year (starting the day Apple announced push notifications), but Apple already had a lot on their plate for 3.0. (Hopefully they'll get to it for 4.0!)
[/QUOTE]

As a business investment (and to prevent you from sounding kind of foolish)..

I recommend you take a peek into the iPhone SETTINGS > NOTIFICATIONS
screen. (os 3.0)

Here you will see a list of all the applications installed in your iPhone that you can choose to allow to use "SOUNDS", "ALERTS", "BADGES" : )
Among the great GTD apps for iPhone that are currently
giving people Alerts without claiming they are "impossible" <love that word:

Appigo's ToDo application (a GTD app costing $9.99)
Remember The Milk (free, albeit kind of crappy)
ReQall (Voice activated calendar-> free, with subscription to web site)

Countless others (including some $1 games) are currently utlizing these INTERNAL ALERTS without using any server of any kind. It's great!
Just set a due time for an Action, choose to be alerted, and WHAMMO!!
A popup window and an alert sound, even if the iPhone is locked.

It's truly fantastic.

Please: either update your info, or cut the price on this thing, man.
It's already looking like one of those very expensive apps that says
certain things are "impossible" when in fact there are other apps being used by the people you're talking to, which have been using these
impossible features for a year now.

Have a good one.

Approximately 40% of the potential customers for Omni's app use iPods, which do not have ubiquitous connectivity, nor do iPhones necessarily have it. Just because the competition is willing to provide a "solution" which doesn't work much of the time doesn't mean Omni should do the same. An alert on which you cannot rely makes a lousy component in a trusted system.

Ken's a smart guy, not in any real danger of being made to look foolish by you. Please do keep entertaining us trying, however :D

[QUOTE=phlange;66598]Among the great GTD apps for iPhone that are currently giving people Alerts without claiming they are "impossible" <love that word:

Appigo's ToDo application (a GTD app costing $9.99)
Remember The Milk (free, albeit kind of crappy)
ReQall (Voice activated calendar-> free, with subscription to web site)

Countless others (including some $1 games) are currently utlizing these INTERNAL ALERTS without using any server of any kind.[/QUOTE]

Did I miss something? All of these are using servers to push the notification based on information of yours which they've stored on their servers (which, as I mentioned above, is the way we could provide this service as well):
[LIST][*]For [URL="http://www.appigo.com/todo"]Appigo ToDo[/URL], you sign up for their [URL="http://www.appigo.com/todo/features/alerts/setting-up-todo-task-alerts"]Alert Service[/URL].[/LIST][LIST][*][URL="http://www.rememberthemilk.com/services/iphone/app/"]Remember the Milk for iPhone[/URL] requires a $25/year [URL="http://www.rememberthemilk.com/upgrade/"]Pro account[/URL] web service.[/LIST][LIST][*]And if you want to receive push notifications from [URL="http://www.reqall.com/about/reqall_iphone_native"]reQall for iPhone[/URL], they require that you sign up for a $2.99/month or $24.99/year [URL="http://www.reqall.com/about/compare_pro_standard"]reQall Pro account[/URL].[/LIST]
Of course, it's no surprise that they all have services, because the way push notifications work is that something has to push the notification at the appropriate time. Since the iPhone app can't push the notification (iPhone apps can't run in the background), that notification has to come from some other service somewhere!

I also use ToDo because OF doesn't do alerts.

I didn't sign up for any service from Appigo, it just works. I do sync with Toodledo for my todo list.

That's what I recommend OF does - work out a deal with Toodledo for their free accounts to support this. They have an API and everything.

J.