[wcheese]

I was curious if there is any plans for OF for iPhone to access any of the iPhone's phone functionality, specifically outputing audio/vibrating?

The thought first occurred to me when I found myself wanting to be reminded of a specific action at a specific time. I thought it would be convenient if I didn't have to leave OF and go into the Clock App and set an alarm (sorry but I don't use iCal at the moment, perhaps this can be accomplished there).

Ideally, I think it would be great if OF could use the iPhone's vibrate/ringer as a time-based notification system - seems like this additional functionality would really add another layer to the OF user experience.

Full disclosure, I am a novice OF desktop user and currently only own an iPod Touch. I will be buying an iPhone 3G within the next month (stock permitting) and with it OF for the iPhone.

Additional newbie question: Are phone numbers in OF automatically tied into the iPhone's calling ability?...If "Call Jim, 123-456-7890" was listed as an action would it be intelligently identified and able to be dialed by tapping on it?

Thanks and my apologies in advance if this has been discussed previously, my forum searching found nothing.

[tchaten]

If you add an attachment to any action or project it will recognize phone numbers and I believe email addresses/web urls in which it will launch the appropriate app to finish that task

[Lizard]

The problem with adding alarms to OmniFocus is that they would only trigger when OmniFocus is the actively running app on your phone. We can't run anything in the background.

[tchaten]

I am curious how you are able to enable the badges on the icon if all background processes close? I'm just curious - very happy you are able to do this! :)

[Andrew]

Originally Posted by tchaten

I am curious how you are able to enable the badges on the icon if all background processes close?

That's a feature of the platform, and we have limited control over it (which is why the badge is not orange if you only have "due soon" tasks).

-andrew

[kevinkingmd]

Is there a way for OF to push items to the iCal DB?

KK

[PsychLik]

Originally Posted by Lizard

The problem with adding alarms to OmniFocus is that they would only trigger when OmniFocus is the actively running app on your phone. We can't run anything in the background.

This is a SHAME, because a feature I've been dreaming about (and almost dread to suggest for fear of sounding too much like a sci-fi geek) is a location-based alarm system, whereby you can instruct OF to alert you to perform an action when you are near a particular location. But, if no background activity is allowed, there is no way this dream can become reality...

Imagine, though: no more need to guesstimate when you'll be home, to set a time-based alarm to remind you, "fill the dog's water bowl". You could program a location-based alarm to alert you as soon as you walk in the door (or onto your home's GPS grid location, to be exact...).

Oh, well. You guys should push Apple on this feature, though. It could even be a whole other program, and you can charge a gazillion for it (just don't forget my royalties...)

Cheers,
Omar Canosa, M.D.

[Andrew]

Psychlik, a problem with the location-based alarm is that constantly updating your location would burn through the battery pretty quickly. There are approaches one could imagine to alleviate this, but for now at least, something like what you describe would probably have to be pretty compromised at best.

-andrew

[wcheese]

Originally Posted by Lizard

The problem with adding alarms to OmniFocus is that they would only trigger when OmniFocus is the actively running app on your phone. We can't run anything in the background.

I just got done reading about a beta version of a 2.1 firmware for the iphone on MacRumors moments ago:

Besides Core Location speed and heading additions, Apple has also included early Push Notifications APIs that allows applications to process notifications in the background. Apple promised this feature by September.

Assuming this is true, would this help what's needed to run in the background for my original feature request?

Curious (and don't quite understand).

Thanks.

[Andrew]

We don't yet know all the details about how push notification will work, and if we find out any time soon we probably will still be under NDA, unable to talk about it. However, I recommend against taking everything the rumors sites say as completely accurate.