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OmniFocus for iPhone: Location-Aware Contexts and More
Merlin Mann | Jun 10 2008
The Omni Group - OmniFocus for iPhone and iPod touch [Disclosure: I’m a consultant on the OmniFocus project. You can blame me for having requested any of the features you don’t like.] Oh, man. It’s so nice to lift the veil on this one. It’s been like I knew you guys were getting the big Lego Millennium Falcon for Christmas, but I couldn’t tell you until Santa had gone back up the chimney (in his black mock turtleneck and jeans). Anyway. Merry Christmas, Mac productivity nerds: iPhone synching for OmniFocus is coming. And it is gorgeous, usable, and location-aware. More here on OmniGroup’s blog. From the OmniGroup site:
Yum. Screengrabs and more — including a reminder that you should totally visit me at the WWDC OmniFocus meetup tonight — after the iJump.
FWIW, I’m going to let OmniFocus answer any questions people have (blog post comments, forum) about details of their apps and plans and what have yous. I just wanted to take the opportunity to fist bump the OmniNerds on their fine hard work. They’re pathologically dedicated to taking care of their customers, and you can see that in this app. It’s crazy-smart and a lot of fun to use. So! Yes. Tonight. Come to the OmniFocus meetup at the W and fistbump me: The Omni Mouth » OmniFocus meetup in S.F. on 6/10/08
Also, completely off topic, there’s a rumor that there might be a totally informal, last-minute You Look Nice Today meetup in SF tonight featuring @scottsimpson and me (@lonelysandwich is at a Fannypack Convention in Prague). Stay tuned to @ylnt for details as they emerge. [Again, with the Disclosure: I’m a consultant on the OmniFocus project. You can blame me for having requested any of the features you don’t like.] 16 Comments
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 This will rock my world!Submitted by Lecter on June 10, 2008 - 10:56am.
I am so happy to hear about the progress Omni has made on this. The location based features will be fantastic. I can’t wait to start using this! »
 Completely deliciousSubmitted by carlsonjf on June 11, 2008 - 7:46pm.
I depend on OmniFocus like a idiot savant already and this extension to the iPhone would allow that “one system” capture that I am having trouble with currently. This is the final piece of the puzzle for me. How much and when is what everyone wants to know. »
 Fist bump?Submitted by Podophile on June 10, 2008 - 11:02am.
… or terrorist fist jab? The OnmiFocus action that everyone is interpreting differently. »
 Remember the TPSubmitted by cephalopodcast on June 10, 2008 - 12:36pm.
Location aware? So in theory, when I am standing in line at the Safeway it will remind me to pick up toilet paper? Awesome. »
 Coulda sworn I had two hundred bucks here.Submitted by Tetsujin on June 10, 2008 - 3:45pm.
Damn. You just sold me an iPhone, Merlin. »
 Location Aware? C'mon people.Submitted by Mauronic on June 10, 2008 - 9:30pm.
The Omnifocus desktop app looks cool (albeit a tad over engineered). This gives me hope for migrating GTD from my Treo to an iPhone 3G next month. But why on earth does anyone need location aware tasks lists? Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you have to! »
Re: Location Aware? C'mon people.Submitted by James Stapleton on June 11, 2008 - 3:13am.
Got to disagree with you. I can think of two real world situations where this functionality would totally improve my day. ::Work Example:: You work as a consultant. The company your consulting for has multiple offices around the state. With location aware tasks you could use the tasks to plot your travel between offices and then when on site only view the tasks relevant to that site and not the entire company/project. ::Home Example:: Family sends you shopping. Imagine if the phone could warn you before you you leave the shops without all the requested items. Think of all the pointless arguments and second trips this could save you. I agree a feature like this could be very gimicky. I honestly expect there to be a slew of first round iphone applications that add location aware functions simply because they can. But there a tons of situations where this could be very handy. Of course you don’t need GPS to do what i described above, but it does make it easier. »
 OmniFocus = smartphone killer appSubmitted by mhuyck on June 13, 2008 - 10:10am.
Tetsujin took the words right out of my mouth. OmniFocus on the iPhone is exactly what the PalmOS should have done for the Treo… about 5 years ago. It’s unbelievable to me how badly the folks at Palm bungled their ownership of the smartphone world. (Can you tell I’m a grizzled Treo 600 owner?) (Hey! It’s the Treo that’s grizzled, not me.) I jumped on the Palm smartphone bandwagon back when it was clear we would not be seeing an entrant from Apple for quite a while, if at all. Things looked to be going in all the right directions for Handspring (remember them?) and I had great expectations about the future of the PalmOS. It was great to be able to use all of the old Palm apps on my phone right out of the box. Well, sort of. Most of them worked. Okay, some apps were actually updated to be compatible with the five-way navigator so they could be properly used with one hand. Don’t even get me started about syncing to conduits on the Mac. But I still had to rely on the base PalmOS features for calendar, address book and to-do list synchronization. I waited eagerly for new and improved features to come in the next release of the software. Wait, it’s not upgradeable? Okay, I’ll fork over the cash for the next model that has improvements in those core features. That was years ago. I’m still waiting. Apple has done almost everything right so far. As long as they continue to refine and perfect the core features, the iPhone will continue to be a strong player in the market. Third-party developers like Omni should be given free reign to build whatever they want to extend beyond those core features. My fear is that Apple will retain such a tight grip on the platform that third-party developers will eventually lose interest and abandon the iPhone for the latest shiny new open platform. That may sound like blasphemy now, but that very thing was just as hard to believe about Palm only five short years ago. OmniFocus is what’s tipping the scales in my decision about abandoning my Treo, PalmOS and Sprint and entering the iPhone world. Apple’s iPhone software is nice, but not nice enough to make me switch. Before I saw this announcement, I was only lukewarm about the iPhone 2.0 features — now I’m actively drooling. (Okay, so lunchtime might actually be responsible for the drool.) Apple, take note: your developer community makes the difference between market player and market dominator for you. »
About Merlin Mann Bio Merlin Mann is an independent writer, speaker, and broadcaster. He’s best known for being the guy who started the website you’re reading right now. He lives in San Francisco, does lots of public speaking, and helps make cool things like You Look Nice Today. Also? He looks like this, answers questions, and has something like a life. Merlin’s favorite thing he’s written recently is a short essay called, “Better.” |
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