Last januari the moment had finally come: Omnigroup proudly presented the first screenshots of an all new Omnifocus 2. Then Mavericks came along and a public beta had to be repealed. Now, with the year coming to an end soon, there is no new public beta in sight yet.
How will this develop, what is the worst case scenario?
Let us suppose that Omni will have a public beta out a year after that first announcement, so by the end of january. If the beta period of OmniOutliner 4 (in beta since March and not out yet) is any measure, OF2 may not be ready for release before oktober 2014. But by then Apple will have pushed out a new OS X, causing further delays for OF2 development and then the circle starts again. I conclude that Omnigroup has a serious problem. Be it lack of capacity, investment, inspiration, focus or coffee, I don’t know what bothers them and I don’t need to know either. But I do know that given this pessimistic forecast, I need a plan B. So I started to look for alternatives.
Based on my needs, I set five knock-out criteria.
1. App must allow subtasks.
2. Email import with working link back to the original mail.
3. Good customer support, no abandon ware
4. Syncing between multiple Macs and iOS
5. Stable and no ugly bugs
Next I visited the App Store and looked at serious ToDo apps in the 30-50 euro price range. I found Things, 2Do, The Hit List (THL), FireTask and Organize:Pro (OP). You may not know the latter. It is a business oriented tool to manage multiple projects, you can position it between Omniplan and Omnifocus.
This is what happened when I applied my criteria.
1. Subtasks: exit Things and FireTask.
2. Working link back to email: 2DO bites the dust.
3. Customer support, no abandonware: THL falls through, according to forums, dev never responds.
4. Syncing: THL goes down again: it’s a payed service, not too expensive. But pay recurring subscription fees to a dev who never ever answers an email or support request? Never!
5. Stable and no ugly bugs: Organize:Pro had one problem, not serious.
Then there is the so subjective issue of the user interface.
- Things: slender and elegant. Features stay out of sight until needed.
- 2DO: functional, but you need to like dull blue-gray. Start and due dates are too hidden, causing extra mouse-clicks.
- THL: great and efficient interface. Good use of icons, colors and fonts. The tab system is fantastic.
- FireTask: ugly, childish, almost comical.
- OP: huge, unique designer dashboard, interesting features, very different from the rest. A lot of attention went into that. Task bars are too bulky and attributes buttons on them are too small and greyed out.
So for an alternative to OF, I have to acquire Organize:Pro, a heavy duty tool meant for professional project management and control. Ironically, it is well designed, contains unique advanced features, and yet is a lot cheaper than OF. @Omnigroup: this should get your attention. OP is less flexible, but in terms of functionalities and UI you are being outclassed at a lower pricepoint.
The rest of the pack worries me. The other apps are seriously priced and the devs clearly aspire to go beyond hockeymom level. The underlying concepts are well known and no rocket science. Why then is it so difficult to do EVERYTHING right and build a real good ToDo app and service?
Anyway, I found my Plan B candidate.
How will this develop, what is the worst case scenario?
Let us suppose that Omni will have a public beta out a year after that first announcement, so by the end of january. If the beta period of OmniOutliner 4 (in beta since March and not out yet) is any measure, OF2 may not be ready for release before oktober 2014. But by then Apple will have pushed out a new OS X, causing further delays for OF2 development and then the circle starts again. I conclude that Omnigroup has a serious problem. Be it lack of capacity, investment, inspiration, focus or coffee, I don’t know what bothers them and I don’t need to know either. But I do know that given this pessimistic forecast, I need a plan B. So I started to look for alternatives.
Based on my needs, I set five knock-out criteria.
1. App must allow subtasks.
2. Email import with working link back to the original mail.
3. Good customer support, no abandon ware
4. Syncing between multiple Macs and iOS
5. Stable and no ugly bugs
Next I visited the App Store and looked at serious ToDo apps in the 30-50 euro price range. I found Things, 2Do, The Hit List (THL), FireTask and Organize:Pro (OP). You may not know the latter. It is a business oriented tool to manage multiple projects, you can position it between Omniplan and Omnifocus.
This is what happened when I applied my criteria.
1. Subtasks: exit Things and FireTask.
2. Working link back to email: 2DO bites the dust.
3. Customer support, no abandonware: THL falls through, according to forums, dev never responds.
4. Syncing: THL goes down again: it’s a payed service, not too expensive. But pay recurring subscription fees to a dev who never ever answers an email or support request? Never!
5. Stable and no ugly bugs: Organize:Pro had one problem, not serious.
Then there is the so subjective issue of the user interface.
- Things: slender and elegant. Features stay out of sight until needed.
- 2DO: functional, but you need to like dull blue-gray. Start and due dates are too hidden, causing extra mouse-clicks.
- THL: great and efficient interface. Good use of icons, colors and fonts. The tab system is fantastic.
- FireTask: ugly, childish, almost comical.
- OP: huge, unique designer dashboard, interesting features, very different from the rest. A lot of attention went into that. Task bars are too bulky and attributes buttons on them are too small and greyed out.
So for an alternative to OF, I have to acquire Organize:Pro, a heavy duty tool meant for professional project management and control. Ironically, it is well designed, contains unique advanced features, and yet is a lot cheaper than OF. @Omnigroup: this should get your attention. OP is less flexible, but in terms of functionalities and UI you are being outclassed at a lower pricepoint.
The rest of the pack worries me. The other apps are seriously priced and the devs clearly aspire to go beyond hockeymom level. The underlying concepts are well known and no rocket science. Why then is it so difficult to do EVERYTHING right and build a real good ToDo app and service?
Anyway, I found my Plan B candidate.
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