Things 2 is out (Mac/iOS app)
culturedcode.com
culturedcode.com
Perhaps that makes me a unique snowflake, and perhaps a true Scotsman.
The convenience of ubiquitous sync is undeniable, but there's more personal data in my todo list than in my email spool. I use it for notes, ideas, trivial record keeping, etc.
It's private, and there are a dozen little companies who offer to sync my stuff. I don't trust any of them. I don't trust Google or Apple with that data either, but I wish someone would do it right so I could.
Is this not a concern for others?
Not at all. I refrain from these apps (and most note-taking apps) for the same reason. I dump everything from passwords to CC-numbers into my notes and todos. If I had to start thinking about what to put there and what not it would kill half the utility.
It's beyond me why the vendors don't add this comparably trivial, yet critical feature (client-side encryption).
It's a matter of time until Evernote and friends get hacked, if they haven't been already. That day you will see many sad faces, when people begin to realize that over time they've probably put more than "get milk"-notes and the latest cat pictures in there.
Why not store your passwords in a purpose built app like 1password and use the todo software for todo's (get milk, finish project etc.)?
Then, I think it all boils down to personal preference. In the limit, you have diehard emacs users, who store everything (notes, todos, spreadsheets, word processing aka TeX documents, playlists (http://www.gnu.org/software/emms/), encryption utilities, etc) in 'emacs files' :-)
edit: Spelling mistake
http://culturedcode.com/things/cloud/
I would be surprised/shocked if any To Do app did not yet use HTTPS.
It was the wait for over-the-air syncing, with months of overwrought blog posts, that led me to abandon Things. I recreated my use in the Reminders app and have been much happier since. With this 2.0 I see they have finally, years later, released "cloud syncing".
I don't see $50 worth of functionality, but still, wish them well with the new release.
With the release of Mountain Lion I am getting along fine with Reminders. I use Fantastical in my menu bar to add things, it's always synced to my phone. Has priority, time & date, and geolocation.
Using an Fn double-tap to dictate makes it Siri-esque, only more reliable :)
Best of all, the file format is plain text, so you can keep it in source control, edit it in Vim (there's even a vim plugin - https://github.com/davidoc/taskpaper.vim), or whatever you want.
At first, it looks great but the Dropbox sync'ing is completely broken. I was losing data many times a day and ended up giving up on it. Many have reported sync'ing issues on their forum as well. That's too bad because I really liked it otherwise.
On the other hand, I feel that there is really too little to justify tagging it v2. What's really new and noteworthy? Cloud sync, perhaps but that's in no way a revolutionary feature. Daily review? Really really nice but it's more of an addon/improvement rather than a full feature. And then we have it ... next to those there isn't anything really new and groundbreaking.
I sure hope they can get their team working on some other great new features now that cloud sync is finished. Time to move on and innnovate!
Now I have to use a note taking app on my Android phone and tablet, then manually copy them into Things when I get back to my computer. It’s a bloody hassle but Things is so much better than anything else I tried that it’s the only way.
Imagine a world where you had to pay 50$ for every app on your phone (I personally have 10-15 that I use regularly), every web app that you use (these guys have bills to pay too) and everything installed on your desktop computer. You wouldn't be able to use as much as you use today.
The fact is, this app seems great, I might try it, but I usually shell out 50$ for software on either an exceptional game that I know I will be playing for a long time (often multiplayer) or some development tool/license (for example Apple dev program). Organizing my life into items that I can tick doesn't seem that complicated or essential to me that it's worth 50$.
It's time to realize that software is worth something. The flood of the 99 cent apps in the App stores have really ruined software development for people who can't price their apps higher because they wont sell and they can't make money off of the way they price them now. I bought Things almost 5 years ago and I've never once regretted paying as much as I did. I tried to switch away from it for a while but kept coming back.
Todo lists just don't happen to be something I value enough to shell 50$ for. I might look into the iOS version though, I like portable todo lists a lot more.
It's certainly a bargain compared to a $10/month service like Flow.
I like Things, it's great... but until it's collaborative, it doesn't work (for me).
2.0's new "Daily Review" feature encompassing the previous Move-to-today vs. Highlight distinction looks spot-on.
Things initially crashed when converting my DB, I am not sure yet if that is recoverable. Fortunately I had a iOS backup - hope that helps.
Anyway - I suggest backing up before upgrade, and wait for a 2.0.1! :-)
If this problem ouccurs for you, try this: 1. Download a fresh Things.app from http://culturedcode.com/things/ 2. Replace your current one 3. Enjoy
Should have tried that myself - but was to scared it would destroy my db. :-)