[phlange]

This is amazing! Here are some of the things OmniFocus for iPhone does that NO OTHER iPHONE Task Management App does:

Create a task called "call John Smith ph# (555)555-5555.
Start time: [[say twenty minutes from now]] Context: PHONE".

For fun, create another task called: "go to http://www.aol.com"

You get what you pay for, right ? Watch...

1. NO ALARM...NO POPUP ALERT...NOTHING alerts you that
you are now missing the appointment. If for nothing else, I believe a person buys a mobile task app so he or she does NOT have to remember the task!
set the due date, get notified of it.

Only OmniFocus doesn't use alerts, and claims to be the best.
If I wanted to write my tasks down, and NOT be alerted of their
coming due, I might have used, say, PAPER!

2. Try calling John Smith Anyway....YOU CAN'T TAP HIS NUMBER TO MAKE
THE CALL! Another Unique situation. Stare at John's number, memorize
it, close omnifocus, open the phone, type his number in, call him.

3. How about the URL ? NO, You can not click it and go to that site...

4. Notice that this app is constantly doing something..
that little wheel on the bottom spins around every few minutes to let
you know it's busy as a beaver!
It sure as hell isn't busy alerting you about the appointments
you've putting in there.
Ohhh, nowww I see...it's busy filling up my MobileMe iDisk!
There we go...ok cool.

In summary:

No alerts (visible or audible).
No clickable phone numbers even when the context is "PHONE".
No clickable URL's even if the context is "WEB".

I hope somebody above middle-management is reading this post, whether you delete the post or not, you'll need to know this right now:

Because omnifocus for iPhone is the single most expensive iPhone application on the entire AppStore...
Because there was no "Lite version" enabling unsuspecting buyers to experience this utter lack of necessary functionality, and
Because it is lacking in every single feature that a task management application is expected to have, by ANYONE...

I am absolutely disgusted with this purchase, and I can't imagine a scenario where I would be out and about, driving or anywhere, staring at this thing, manually FINDING my scheduled appointments and tasks.

[adamayers]

Good morning mate, perhaps you need to read the user guide and this forum a little clearer, if you had invested even half the time that it took you to write that rant you would know how time-based alarms (not push-based) work in OmniFocus (very well to make things simple)

[tarun101]

I have never tried using phone or web addresses in my notes but if its true its quite an oversight and something that should be fixed.

Also, I think, calendar based alarms are a great idea (I would prefer them over push) - however they are little harder to "get". (Even though the technical difficulties related to setting up push and calendar are apple's decision - I believe user ends up blaming the app !!)

While I will ignore the OP's negative tone - I do hope the product team realizes that the product is now pretty damn complex and it is very hard for a newbie to set or explore what it can do and how.

As a point example - I think the sync choices are unnecessarily complex and were driven by engineers more than users.

There should really be only two options to sync:

• omnifocus run server (automatically set up, free and tied to your serial number of purchase)
• a "hidden" webdav option

More about my rant is here: http://tarun.me/2009/09/03/omnifocus-syning-goof/

[whpalmer4]

Originally Posted by tarun101

I have never tried using phone or web addresses in my notes but if its true its quite an oversight and something that should be fixed.

It's not true. A phone number or URL in the action name won't work, but a phone number or URL in the notes field will.

Also, I think, calendar based alarms are a great idea (I would prefer them over push) - however they are little harder to "get".

What do you mean by that? Harder to understand the concept and mechanism?

As a point example - I think the sync choices are unnecessarily complex and were driven by engineers more than users.

I don't know if I agree with this; I think it's a business decision by Omni not to provide a server that they maintain, and setting up sync on the iPhone is comparable in difficulty to the other syncing iPhone apps that I've come across.

More about my rant is here: http://tarun.me/2009/09/03/omnifocus-syning-goof/

I like how you say "Omnifocus currently offers 4 different ways to sync data from iphone to mac" but then list one that doesn't apply to the iphone to mac case and even point that out yourself :) I would also disagree that setting up Bonjour is appreciably more difficult than setting up MobileMe.

But let's explore your idea a bit more: how do you propose that the Mac know what the URL on the Omni-provided server is to be? What authentication means will be provided so that someone can't just snarf random data from that server? How will your desktop know what those authentication credentials are, without introducing comparable complexity to what is there now?

[tarun101]

Originally Posted by whpalmer4

It's not true. A phone number or URL in the action name won't work, but a phone number or URL in the notes field will.

This is a workaround but acceptable. Not a big deal but it will be great if phone/URL in action name will work too. Its probably not that hard and I do not see why they should not.

Originally Posted by whpalmer4

setting up sync on the iPhone is comparable in difficulty to the other syncing iPhone apps that I've come across.

I suggest that we try setting up evernote sync (or facebook "sync"). I do not know of any other iphone app that want you to install webdav server as one possible option.

Originally Posted by whpalmer4

I like how you say "Omnifocus currently offers 4 different ways to sync data from iphone to mac" but then list one that doesn't apply to the iphone to mac case and even point that out yourself :)

Point taken. Technically you are right. However, I will still say that it is listed right there with other options and a user considering which option to use iPhone sync with has to review and understand it. hence, it adds to the complexity of the sync subsystem.

Originally Posted by whpalmer4

But let's explore your idea a bit more: how do you propose that the Mac know what the URL on the Omni-provided server is to be? What authentication means will be provided so that someone can't just snarf random data from that server? How will your desktop know what those authentication credentials are, without introducing comparable complexity to what is there now?

There is this nifty "technology" called "username and password" - I hear lots of folks are using it on the internets !!

----
Tarun
http://tarun.me

[whpalmer4]

Originally Posted by tarun101

I suggest that we try setting up evernote sync (or facebook "sync"). I do not know of any other iphone app that want you to install webdav server as one possible option.

Wants you to? No, offers you the choice to do so, and even provides it, in the Bonjour case.

Point taken. Technically you are right. However, I will still say that it is listed right there with other options and a user considering which option to use iPhone sync with has to review and understand it. hence, it adds to the complexity of the sync subsystem.

Aren't we talking about the iPhone/iPod? It's not listed there. No need to understand it if it isn't an option.

There is this nifty "technology" called "username and password" - I hear lots of folks are using it on the internets !!

I thought this was all going to be automatically set up? So now you have to have a mechanism to get the username and password from this system that set it all up automatically, and configure it into the desktop client. That doesn't sound very automatic to me, it sounds like the same transactions you go through setting up the current system.