[whpalmer4]

Steven,

what do you want? We can't go back and undo the decision they made, even if we might be adamant that it was the wrong one. My guess is that Ken's June 2010 estimate reflects expected intensive work on the app, not just changing a few manifest constants and recompiling sometime in late May.

I also own just about everything they make, though I haven't pulled the trigger yet on the iPad apps, and like with you, OmniFocus is the app that gets the lion's share of the usage. For me, the iPhone app running on the iPad gets me greater performance (more of a big deal for me, given that my database has thousands of actions in it, and my 2G iPod is substantially slower than your 3GS iPhone). It is yet another device on which I can interact with my data, which is helpful because there are two other people competing with me for use of those devices. It isn't going to be a life-changer the way getting the iPhone/iPod app was a year ago, when I was balancing my MacBook in shopping carts and lugging it around every time I left the house.

I am optimistic that OF built for the iPad will be a very fine tool. It goes without saying that I want it last week. Part of me thinks that maybe it is a good thing that they got their iPad feet wet with two apps that aren't so important to me, rather than having done a crash effort on OF and ending up with something I would feel obligated to buy, even though it might not be ready for prime time. Of course, we might end up with substantially the same experience, just 3 months later! Let's hope not.

We can't go back and make OF available for the iPad last week. We've got Ken's prediction of a native version in June. I'm assuming that's a full-featured iPad app, not just the current iPhone app using the larger screen at appropriate resolution. If it is the full-featured version, it seems unlikely to me that we could realistically hope to see it any sooner, no matter how heart-felt the desire. That seems to leave a universal version of the current app that can make full use of the screen as the only bone that could be thrown our way, and presumably it pushes the "real" iPad app out a bit. Would the stopgap app be of appreciable value to you? Is there some other route from where we stand today toward you being happy that I haven't mentioned? I know I would install and use such a stopgap app (might even pay some money for it, if the wait for the real thing looked long enough), but I don't have a good feel for how much of a delay I'd be willing to accept in exchange.

Short version: what's done is done, is there anything they might do to improve the situation for you, other than giving you a chance to vent your frustration? :)

[blewis]

Originally Posted by whpalmer4

That seems to leave a universal version of the current app that can make full use of the screen as the only bone that could be thrown our way, and presumably it pushes the "real" iPad app out a bit. Would the stopgap app be of appreciable value to you?

Yes.

My desire would be:

1) Universal stopgap now. Same functionality as OF iPhone, just formatted with iPad fonts and font sizes. If I can get the "Home" view in the left panel (i.e. my Projects/Contexts/existing Perspectives), then I'm _really_ happy.

Yes, users will probably be miffed/confused that they can't "long tap and drag" Actions from Projects into other Projects.

2) When OF 2.0 is ready to go, I'm ready to dump more cash into upgrading my OF iPad to a more full featured version.

Having said that, I too feel like I've got my $20s worth. I'm just not excited about paying $20 in June for OF iPad and then $20 again in Feb 2011 (my guesstimate) when OF 2.0 comes out. At that rate, I would've spent more on the iPhone/iPad versions than I spent on the Desktop version (I got the original beta pricing).

[blewis]

Some food for thought:

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2...ting-games.ars

Murray sees iPad development as something that is unique from the iPhone, but the paths of the two devices are going to cross often. "Right now iPad has a much smaller installed base than iPhone and iPod touch, so it makes sense to lead on iPhone and create brand new games there," he says. "The iPad version is then essentially taking the core ideas of what makes the game fun, and adapting them in a way that makes the best use of the iPad's unique features. It's more work to do it that way, but we think this approach gives our games the best chance to shine on each specific platform."

[steven]

Hey, thanks for replying! I generally feel very positively about Omni; from their products, to their support, to their forum participation, they're just top notch. My beef is with the decision to schedule the two (excellent) drawing apps before Omnifocus.

Originally Posted by whpalmer4

Steven,

what do you want? We can't go back and undo the decision they made, even if we might be adamant that it was the wrong one.
--snip
We can't go back and make OF available for the iPad last week. We've got Ken's prediction of a native version in June. I'm assuming that's a full-featured
--snip
Short version: what's done is done, is there anything they might do to improve the situation for you, other than giving you a chance to vent your frustration? :)

re: what's done is done
The liberal sprinkling of disclaimer through my post was intended to indicate that I'm generally pretty pragmatic about that. I get it, and I'm not advocating "ditching OF."

re: what's my real gripe?
I'll bet, based on my own dependence on OF, and the levels of frustration expressed by others, that Omni's decision to expend limited programming resources on any app before OF is the primary source of our dissatisfaction. That's all.

I imagine, from my simplistic user perspective, that postponing the release of Graffle & Sketcher until after the OF release would get OF in users' hands sooner. How much sooner?

If they started working on getting Graffle & Sketcher iPad-ready at about the beginning of Feb and they released them about the beginning of April, then maybe that's a couple month's effort.

If they then turned to OF dev with a (possible) release date of June, that would mean that getting OF out was also possibly 2 or 3 months of effort. (I'm admitting that this is only my general perception, and that the reality could be that the first two apps took 4 days to get onto the iPad, and that OF could have been the priority the whole time)

I consider (my opinion only) OF the flagship product, and putting it on the iPad is the freakin' holy grail of "doing the items." The devs admitted that they wanted to get the two "drawing" apps out first because those apps were more of a natural fit for the platform.

When I first heard their intentions, I assumed OF was a little further along the production line, not waiting serially for the "finger-drawing" apps to come out. Then when some folks started getting ancy in the forums about "wah! give us our OF," one of the Omni responses was "thanks for letting us know your preference, we'll make sure OF is on the list of iPad apps."

At that point I realized that OF was nowhere near an "initial release," and was on the "it's done when it's done, after these other apps" schedule.

Because of Omnifocus' utility _to me_, I don't agree with the release order, so I was just saying so as a respectful & invested customer.

There, feelings vented. :)

[steven]

also, re: stopgap iPad app:

I'd need some kind of cost/benefit association, i.e. "we could create a version of OF for iPad that is functionally identical to the iPhone version, but it shows twice the rows and isn't pixel-doubled. This release would be free, but would delay the "real" OF for iPad by 6 weeks."

Unfortunately, that would fragment not only the user base, but the product's perception to prospective users, so Omni would never (and probably should never) do that.

I feel that the opportunity for any user input on product direction or priority was a couple months ago, but I'll be following with interest.

[wilsonng]

Originally Posted by steven

I consider (my opinion only) OF the flagship product, and putting it on the iPad is the freakin' holy grail of "doing the items." The devs admitted that they wanted to get the two "drawing" apps out first because those apps were more of a natural fit for the platform.

IMHO I personally think that OmniOutliner is the flagship product. There are more people dependent on outlining needs over GTD needs. I could be wrong. But it seems easier to get into outlining than it is to get into GTD.

But, yes, OmniFocus is my key app on my iPod touch. I would rather have had OF out first but I'm not sweating it. OF users will stick with OF despite the lack of an OmniFocus HD app. Things users will stick with Things for iPad. Newbies have the option of buying Things for iPad and then discarding it for OmniFocus HD when it arrives! :p

Originally Posted by steven

There, feelings vented.

Well, this thread is certainly cheaper than a shrink :D

[jdh]

As others in this thread have suggested, I'm too invested in OmniFocus to bother looking at anything else at this point, and this is coming from somebody who hopped between OmniFocus, Things and a couple of other solutions for weeks at a time over the course of a year or so. I've seen how the rest of the world lives and it's not pretty.

Things is all flash and no substance, and if you think that Omni's schedule for getting OF onto the iPad is longer than it should be, consider that Things has been promising features like over-the-air syncing and full repeating task support for a year and a half now. I downloaded Things for the iPad, not because I was interested in switching to it, but simply for research purposes because I write about iPhone and iPad stuff for a living.

Things may look nice, but it's nothing more than the iPhone version dressed up for the iPad, and the rate of improvements in the iPhone version of Things has been glacial at best. Critical deal-breakers for me would include the requirement for local-network Wi-Fi syncing and the fact that there is NO concept of repeating tasks on the iPad or iPhone side -- you can't create them, and any repeating tasks that are in your library don't exist on your iPhone until they're scheduled by the desktop app and then synced to the device. This basically makes it completely impractical to be away from your "home base" computer for any extended period of time as you basically have to sync up at daily for anything to happen, a problem exacerbated by the fact that Things can't easily be used on more than one computer without resorting to kludges like Dropbox syncing of the database file.

To be fair, the only real issues I have with OmniFocus are due to the fact that I've spent the past week being drawn in by "shiny new toy syndrome" with my iPad, so naturally OmniFocus currently feels out of place. I'm also using my iPhone less as I'm busy fiddling with the iPad, making it seem even more frustrating on the surface. Thinking about it, however, I have to admit that once the novelty wears off and I get down to using the device as an actual productivity tool it's not going to be a serious issue to live with the iPhone version on the iPad as a stop-gap -- it may not be pretty, but it's as functional as it needs to be for now. The reality is that I'm rarely without my iPhone anyway, so having OF on the iPad at all right now is really just a matter of casual convenience -- if the iPad is in my hand and I think of something that needs to be put in OF, I might as well do it there rather than reaching for the iPhone.

[drj]

Originally Posted by jdh

Thinking about it, however, I have to admit that once the novelty wears off and I get down to using the device as an actual productivity tool it's not going to be a serious issue to live with the iPhone version on the iPad as a stop-gap -- it may not be pretty, but it's as functional as it needs to be for now. The reality is that I'm rarely without my iPhone anyway, so having OF on the iPad at all right now is really just a matter of casual convenience -- if the iPad is in my hand and I think of something that needs to be put in OF, I might as well do it there rather than reaching for the iPhone.

Well put, while I am anxiously looking forward to the iPad version all the functionality is there. While it may not be quite as pretty in iphone 2X I'm getting my stuff done which is the point really. :)

[gopi]

Add me to the "please do a quick stopgap" list.

The keyboard on emulated iPhone apps is terrible. Takes up half the screen and is nowhere near as good as the iPad one. Even worse, it's still there if you have an external keyboard.

Personally, I think that the improvements I'd see in a temporary stopgap would be significant enough that I'd be willing to wait two or three weeks longer for the "real" version if I could get a stopgap in 2 or 3 weeks.

[HappyDude]

So I think I know the answer to what I'm about to ask but here goes:

I recently got my buddy hooked on the GTD methodology and in turn kept asking me what OmniFocus was on my iPhone. He loves OF on my Mac and he got OF for his mac too about a month ago. About a week ago he purchased the iPad and is dying to get OF with him on the go though obviously there is no iPad app yet out. He is really gun Ho in this and was considering purchasing the iPhone omnifocus app but wanted me to ask if there would be another charge for the iPad app when it comes out perhaps in the summer. Or if omnigroup would even offer some sort of discount towards the ppl that already have the iPhone OF app.

He's sitting right here next to me saying he needs to "gtd on the go, on the go."


..god help me.