Remember The Milk Gets iPhone Push Notifications

Still not seeing v1.1.1 ... the app store only shows 1.1.0 so we still don't have sound notifications which basically makes this notifications useless (and easy to miss).

Meh - big let down. For months and months, users have been complaining about RTM iPhone's missing features and the fact that adding or modifying a task takes too many swipes and taps. And after all these months, THIS is their big new thing? Push notifications? Oh please. Make the damned thing friendlier and easier to use and more functional.

I switched over to Toodledo months ago and haven't looked back.

28pfds

@TheChexican: They have upgraded it, but it, like so many other apps, is caught-up in the Apple approval process.

28pfds

@The5thElephant: I agree with this for the most part. I'm an S60 user, not iPhone, so my calendar has a to-do list as well, but I'd like the ability to sync it with RTM the way I can with my Google Calendar. I've got it syncing to all my PCs through Thunderbird and it's great to have my to-do list available wherever I happen to be working. I'd settle for Google Tasks support on S60, but then I need a Thunderbird extension to handle that, too.

for some reason, v1.1.1 is still not available to me - not through the app store, nor through iTunes on my pc...

antiserendipity

RTM rocks. And $25 per year is NOTHING. If you like the product and use it, why not support them so they keep adding features? This is why I pay for premium services like RTM Pro and Slacker Radio Plus.

jkrell

@GraceLS: did you enable reminders? I'm pretty sure they are disabled by default. You need to enable reminders and then make sure "iPhone" (or iPod Touch) is listed under "I want to be reminded by..." at the bottom of the reminders area.

It's kind of a poor implementation, but it works well enough for right now.

Well, I paid my $25 and updated the app, and I can't get push to work for the life of me. Checked the RTM FAQ's and tried their re-booting suggestions. Disappointed.

Any experience of how much this hits battery life? If you already have .Mac push notifications, is this (or other push apps) an additional battery drain?

SaralaEurus

@mrsilver: But Google Tasks does most of that, and it's integrated into both Gcal and Gmail. The only thing it lacks is the notification text directly from Tasks, but I'm sure that will be forthcoming.

Kajo

Threadjack: what do you guys use for todo list management on your iphone?

XuxaBon Jovi

I agree completely.

Why would anyone pay for this.... Oh right, Apple users are accustomed to paying for things that should not cost anything.

to do lists and/or outlook syncing on windows mobile gets the same job done. Oh, and I can send mms messages.

danman6126

@dudehead: I did the exact same thing ... switched from RTM to Toodledo. I was happy with RTM, but $25 a year is insane.

@lostarchitect:
You can check out RTM for free on their website. One nice feature that I like about RTM is its ability to organize your tasks depending on location. The iPhone version is location-aware, which allows it to tell you what tasks are nearby. You can try the iPhone version with a free RTM account on a trial basis.

Oscar Feliciano

Still waiting on Toodledo to update their iPhone app for push notifications...

@TimothyMacropod: It's not quite the same though as a task will hang around until you complete it. At that point you mark it as such.

With a calendar appointment, you need to dismiss it to get at the iPhone menu system. Once it's been dismissed it won't come back. So you're still stuck having to make a list up of things you need to do.

Finally, if you use the calendar then there is no way to list all the outstanding tasks and no easy way to view all the ones that will be due in the next couple of weeks.

It really should be a separate application. Using the calendar is just a fudge and a poor one at that.

mrsilver

I must be the only one in the mobile industry who thinks that Tasks should be a basic part of the PIM tools on a mobile phone. The iPhone doesn't come with tasks, the Pre doesn't and neither does Android.

I'm sure this app is great, but I can't help feeling a little cheated for having to cough up for functionality I'd expect to come out of the box.

mrsilver

@lostarchitect: RTM provides an interface of upcoming tasks and non-date related tasks that Calendar and gCal don't. I can see a list of all upcoming tasks regardless of date, overdue tasks, and subject specific tasks. Calendar only shows me what is on a specific date and does not inform me if I have missed something (no "overdue" section).

Also I have RTM gadgets wherever I need them. On my desktop, in my Gmail, on my iPhone, etc. Google calendar has gadgets, but they once again don't provide the list format of upcoming tasks and non-date related tasks or any of the sorting ability RTM provides.

Well worth the $25 in my opinion. That's only $2 and change a month.

My only complaint is that the RTM app could have a more efficient interface, but you get used to it.

The5thElephant

I use to use RTM but switched to Toodledo - free version. Toodledo seems to do more than RTM and has a great iPhone app that I think was only about $5. Toodledo pro has the ability to do subtasks which I tried but doesn't fit the way I work. So I just use the free version now. BTW, the free version has SMS notifications.

dudehead

@lostarchitect:
For me I found it much more straight forward and easy to use RTM once I got it setup. I have tons of tasks a day to do for work. I use my Google Calendar for Apts. and things other than my daily tasks I need to keep track of. RTM really is great but I two thing they are overcharing for the iphone application.

Idrive

@BrianH: Actually, I took a cursory glance over the Push Notification docs, and it looked like it's not quite as simple as it seems.

The iPhone side is pretty simple, but the developer has to write a push notification server from scratch that will connect to Apple's central server. The connection is a persistent one, binary with SSL encryption, and must have practically no hiccups or downtime, or Apple will temporarily blacklist it. This also means that if the application gets to be really popular, the dev's server could potentially be sending out thousands or tens of thousands of notifications per minute, which could increase server and bandwidth load by a LOT.

But I'm sure something will come out for free. Maybe I'm exaggerating the difficulty (or just ticked off that I don't think I could write the server :D)

interficio

Google Calendar + Google Tasks. Works great, and it's only a matter of time before Tasks add notifiers within GCal.

Kajo

@BrianH: i use google calendar... i can make entries from a computer and alerts show up on my iphone. i too fail to see the necessity of this RTM. Anyone?

just use gmail calendar which will sms/text your events for free

TimothyMacropod

I use RTM, but not enough to justify the $25 per year to have the iPhone app.

I'm stumbled across another task app that looks cool. It does push notifications as well, but its not out yet. Their website says they are waiting for Apple to approve it. I don't work for them or anything, I was just looking for an alternative to RTM and this is what I found.

[www.powerybase.com]

Hope it helps someone else.

Xerol

@Andrew Cybulska: I had the same thought, but then I realized that (for me) it gets tedious typing in reminders & details on that silly little touchscreen keyboard... but still for now, that's my approach as well, and it works fine.

@larister: I'm pretty sure someone will. This is just too simple of an application for someone not to do it for free.

Yeah, I'd love to be able to support RTM and use their iPhone app, but not for $25 a year. The mobile site works well enough for me.

I would rather use reqall. not sure if they have push notifications yet though. IMO much better.

Mahesh Chinnaiyan

@lostarchitect:

Exactly. That was the first thing I thought of. How is this different than setting up an event in the calendar?

Andrew Cybulska

@lostarchitect:
I see the calendar as more long term events. I miss my blackberry for its todo list.

Toad2016

@larister:
I agree. I'll stick with notepad until then.

Toad2016

Can someone explain to me why remember the milk is better than just adding events to the calendar with an alert? seriously, i don't know.

Damnit...now I am going to have to purchase a Pro account...this will be way to great to pass up!!

Idrive

Hmm this is exactly what I've been waiting for, however somehow I still can't bring myself to sign up for the Pro account. I'm wondering if anyone else is going to do this cheaper...

larister