Posted by Jeffrey Kabbe on July 30th, 2010 in GTD, iPad, News, Software | Permalink
OmniFocus makes a grand appearance on the iPad
July 30, 2010If you were anything like me, you were probably checking the Omni Group forums every few hours for the past week. So you would know by know that OmniFocus for iPad (iTunes link) was approved by Apple today. I have only had a chance to play around with it for about 30 minutes, but I figured I would never live it down if I didn’t share my initial thoughts today.
There are a handful of developers, and the Omni Group is one of them, that are really pushing the envelope on the iPad. I used Things for months on the desktop. And when the iPad was released, I took it for a spin for a few weeks there too. The iPad version was pretty much a well-executed port of the desktop version. Except for the placement of buttons and some eye candy, Things looks and works fairly similarly on the desktop and the iPad.
Not so with OmniFocus. The second you start up OmniFocus on your iPad and sync your data, you’ll see that the iPad application was designed from scratch with a smaller touchscreen in mind. It’s absolutely gorgeous (dare I say, lickable?). And from my limited use, I actually like it better than the desktop application. It’s like the Omni Group redesigned OmniFocus from the ground up based on how the interface should work, completely disregarding the desktop version.
Some of the new features are just delightful. I love the +1 day, +1 week, +1 month buttons on due dates. I love the Forecast screen, allowing you to see how many tasks are coming due each day. This was the one feature that I really started to feel like was missing from the desktop version as I transitioned to using OmniFocus for all of my task tracking.
And then there’s the new mapping feature. OmniFocus for iPad allows you to associate a map location with a context. I am sure someone will come up with an awesome way to use this feature (but right now it’s not coming to me).
The bottom line is that OmniFocus for iPad makes me want to use my iPad rather than my desktop when it’s time to sit down and plan my day or see what’s next.
EDIT: MacSpark already has an in-depth review up (but frankly, he cheated a little because he was a beta tester).