When Apple rolled out iOS 5 way back in 2011, one of the software’s highlights was a new app — Reminders — to help you keep track of tasks.
Since that time, Reminders hasn’t evolved much. However, the type of task manager people are looking for has changed dramatically. TickTick offers greater control, more granularity, and is an all-around better to-do list app.
Todo lists are great for not forgetting to, you know, do stuff. But they can be tyrannical, stressing you out with an endless queue of tasks which need to be completed. Even if you are hyper-productive, and manage to get through most of your chores, your todo list can end up cluttered with lower-priority tasks that don’t need to be on it.
This, then, is where the do-it-later list comes in.
Does your husband/wife/boss/presumptuous, spoiled teenage kid send you lists via iMessage or SMS? Do you then spend the whole day flipping to the Messages app and scanning it to see which tasks you’ve done (or groceries you’ve dropped in your cart), and trying to work out what’s still left to do? Then you need to get that list out of the Messages app, and into the Notes app, turning it onto a checklist along the way. And don’t worry. This is so quick and easy, you can do it in a few seconds.
Spark, one of the finest third-party email clients for Mac and iOS, just got a big update that will ensure you never forget another important task.
The app, developed by the terrific team at Readdle, now boasts seamless integrations for popular reminders apps like Todoist, Wunderlist, Things, and even Apple’s own Reminders app.
Apple and The Rock’s rampage of crazy ads continued today with two new commercials that pair the movie superstar with digital assistant Siri.
In the latest short ads, The Rock taps into his ability to speak Mandarin in order to showcase Siri’s support for more than 20 languages. The funny ads are a sequel of sorts to the short film Apple released last month starring the unlikely duo.
Check out both new ads below.
Apple’s partnership with the Rock (aka Dwayne Johnson) has spawned three new ads for the iPhone 7 that showcase Siri’s talents at performing everyday tasks.
The Rock cooks up something smelly and takes his selfie talents to space in the colossal ads that are a follow up to the short film Apple released last month starring Johnson and Siri.
Check out all three sequel ads:
The days of having a junk folder full of Apple-made apps you don’t want is finally coming to an end.
It appears that Apple made its first steps toward allowing iPhone and iPad users to delete stock apps today by making them available to download via the App Store.
The company didn’t announce the changes during its WWDC keynote, but after installing the first beta build of iOS 10, developers have discovered that apps like Maps, Contacts, Stocks, and others can now be deleted.
When iOS 9 rolls out to the public this fall, it’ll be iPad users that appreciate it most, thanks to the many improvements Apple has made to multitasking. One of the biggest is Split View, a feature that’s exclusive to the iPad Air 2, which lets you run two apps side-by-side — just like you would on your Mac.
Split View lets you read articles in Safari while composing an email in Mail, enjoy a novel in iBooks while taking notes in the Notes app, and talk to friends via iMessage while organizing your schedule in Calendar.
But is Split View as game-changing as it looks at first glance? You bet it is.
Designer, artist and feminist Molly McLeod has an iPhone problem. It’s one we probably all share: We spend too much time staring at it. Imagine how much worse it’s going to get when we replace our neurotic iPhone obsession with an Apple Watch.
McLeod created four delightfully playful designs that we could use to remind us (with a healthy dose of irony) to stop staring at our tiny screens for a moment.
“I find myself habitually looking at my phone when I’m commuting or idly waiting for something,” she writes on her website, “so I thought I would make my phone give me this gentle reminder. There are always other interesting things to look at if you look up!”
iOS 8’s new Family Sharing feature makes it easier than ever for your entire family to share purchases on iTunes, iBooks and the App Store.
Family Sharing is about more than just sneaking copies of apps off your siblings’ accounts, though: It can bring harmony to your entire digital life by sharing photos, creating a family calendar and even keeping track of each others’ locations.
With minimal effort, you can sync up to six accounts. Here’s how to maximize Family Sharing’s potential.
iOS 8 will bring Extensions to your iPhone and iPad. Extensions are essentially miniature versions of apps that can be run inside other apps. For instance, if you have Evernote installed on your iPhone, you could pop up the Evernote Extension when you’re running the Mail app, and save a snippet of that email to your Evernote account.
Clearly this is huge. It’s something that Android and Windows Phone users have enjoyed for a while, but Apple has – typically – taken its time to get it right. In fact, you have probably used Apple’s own “test” Extensions already: Whenever you see the Mail sheet roll down inside another app, or you access the built-in Twitter sharing box, you’re using an Extension.
But what kind of things can Extensions do for us? I’ve been thinking about that, and here’s a wish list of Extensions I’d love to see.
Despite all efforts to the contrary, email is still the default way to shift files, photos and – yes – mail around the internet. Even when you share a file using Dropbox, the link goes via old-fashioned email. And yet email clients are still awful. They’ve gotten a lot better in the last couple of years, on both iOS and the Mac, but we’re still stuck without a proper task manager that integrates with the native iOS/OS X Calendar and Reminders.
What’s going on?
Clear, everyone’s favorite swipe-based to-do list app, now integrates with the native Reminders app on the Mac and iOS. Originally planned for February, the latest update lets you get reminded to do things on that list.
Realmac Software today confirmed that the much-anticipated update that will bring reminders to Clear for iOS will arrive in April. It was originally due to arrive this month, but the company has been working hard to ensure everything’s just right before it goes live.
Seriously, if I have to start over from scratch one more time when I try and use Siri to send a Tweet or book an appointment, I may just give up using Apple’s much-touted personal digital assistant altogether.
As it is, I tend to skip trying to use Siri other than as a glorified app launcher and I use the built-in dictation instead from within the Messages, Twitter, or Calendar apps.
But that was before I found out that you can just tell Siri to change whatever it is she’s not getting.
Realmac Software is throwing in the towel on Clear+ and making its original Clear release the priority. A new update that’s rolling out today brings iPad support to the app at no extra cost, while support for Reminders is coming soon.
This Week, the app which we said “beats iOS Reminders app at its own game,” is now a universal app with newly-added iPad support. And it’s still way better than Reminders for adding dated tasks.
Every time I walk into a bookstore, I want to buy a book. Or three. Sadly, my budget doesn’t cover that all the time, because I go into bookstores quite a bit. To scratch that itch, I’ve turned to taking a photo of the book covers with my iPhone; that way, I get the satisfaction of doing something about my book lust without having to pull out the wallet each time.
Shoots & Leaves is a new iOS app that aims to solve the same problem, but for all those things you need to be reminded of, not just books you want to buy (though you can use it for that, too, I suppose).
The built-in iOS Reminders app has two big advantages: it’s ubiquitous, and it syncs flawlessly between devices. This makes it a great back end for other apps’ reminder systems, which is handy as the reminders app is a nightmare. Viewing and checking off completed tasks is fine, but creating them? Even Siri starts to seem attractive.
Luckily, you can now use an app called This Week to create and use your reminders. Better still, it excels at adding and managing due dates, which is the weak point of Reminders’ already weak task-creation offering.
If This, Then That (IFTTT) is a system by which you can create amazing workflow recipes. There’s also an app in the App Store that lets you use the incredibly powerful recipes right on your iPhone. Send all your Instagram photos to Dropbox, for example, or email all your Photos to a specific address. There are tons of recipes you can browse and steal use, plus making your own custom recipes is a snap.
Since emails can often contain things you have to make reminders for follow-up, let’s take a look at turning our emails into reminders using the IFTTT app right on your iPhone.
Clear, the wonderful to-list management tool for Mac and iOS from Realmac Software, is finally going to get Reminders next February. It’s one of the most requested features from Clear’s more than one million users, and it will make the app even more useful than it already is.
Reminders are delightful thing. Apple’s implementation syncs across the Mac to iPhones and iPads, and if you log in to iCloud.com, you can share Reminders with friends, family, co-workers, and the like. They’re super useful.
Sometimes, though, you might want to single out a specific Reminder for special attention. There’s really no starring system or tagging available within Reminders itself, so you’ll have to get creative.
IFTTT has gotten a big update today in the form of proper Reminders and Photos integration for iOS. Before, you could have it do some clever automatic thing when you added a new photo or reminder to the respective iPhone apps, but now IFTTT can create reminders and add pictures to any album. It’s pretty sweet, and would be awesome but for one big gotcha.
Dr. Drang is on a roll these days. After letting us organize our photos in the Finder with his fantastic shell scripts, he will now change the way you use your iOS reminders app. Are you ready to have your mind blown?
iOS 7 is much more than a pretty face. Early “news” reporting focussed on the new look provided at the last minute by Jony Ive and team, but the inner workings of the new OS have clearly been under development for a lot longer. So, try to look past the bright colors, blurred popovers and beautiful parallax for a moment, and join us as we take a tour of the best new features of iOS 7.
