To do apps: Astrid for Android

I have to say that I am suffering from technological growing pains. Specifically, with my to-do lists. I have used a Palm Pilot for 10 years and I have honed my ability to use its tasks application to a fine point. So when I look at other task applications for iPad or iPod touch or Android, you can be sure that I want something that will be as functional as my Palm.

So far I am very frustrated. While Palm seemed extremely concerned with using screen real estate as carefully as possible, it seems like iPad, iPod Touch, and Android applications drop the ball by being more concerned about style and beauty rather than efficient use of space. I’m forced to scroll with my finger to find the information that should be immediately visible in the most important screen space.

Right now I am testing the Android ap Astrid.

What Astrid does wrong

Astrid puts user-created lists at the bottom of the main lists screen. User-created lists should be at the top of the screen where users can get to them easily. Why should a list called “Recently Modified” or “I’ve Assigned” get more attention than a list that I am more interested in myself? I want those OUT of there and I can’t find anyway to do that!

Astrid uses the “active tasks” label. The label should be “all” instead. This makes much more sense.

Astrid has a button for “Sorting and Hidden Tasks,” but unfortunately I have no idea what I do to create hidden tasks. I have some, but I don’t know how they got that way in the first place. It wasn’t like I selected “hide” anywhere.

Astrid provides an “Astrid smart sort” option, but gives me no information as to what “smart sort” actually does. Astrid’s help site is silent on the matter.

Astrid only has 4 priority levels. After having 5, 4 seems like a step down. I may sound picky, but if I could, I would have 6 or 7 priority levels.

Astrid has the capability of adding additional filters for lists, but in testing out this capability, I discovered that the filter I created was added to the main lists screen and it uses up more of the valuable screen real estate space! And there is no way that I can see to delete it. (Later: Never mind. I discovered I could press and hold on that filter and then a dialog came up that gave me the option of deleting it. (phew!)

What Astrid does right

Astrid allows users to customize the layout of their task creation screen so that most needed items are easiest to get to. If it weren’t for this option, I probably would have given up on this ap in the first 10 minutes of trying it out. For me, the most important things to enter for a task are:

• Description
• Priority
• Due date
• Category
• Notes

Astrid allows me to find out exactly how much time it takes me to complete a task by incorporating a little timer into each task you create. You can start it when you begin the task and stop it when you take a break. This makes it possible to really gather data about how long it takes to accomplish something and make your estimates more accurate for how long it will take to complete a task.

Astrid makes it possible for me to put a task on my Android calendar without having to go to the trouble of entering it manually. Unfortunately, it seems to put the wrong tasks in. Obviously there is a bug there. I messed around with the task I had tried to put in and finally got it to work.

For me, a good to-do list program should have

• Priorities. Use numbers for priorities, preferable as many numbers as possible. 1-5 is good, 1-10 would be better.
• Categories. Allow user to make as many categories as they want.
• Due dates. Allow user to give due dates.
• Due date ranges. Allow user to see task for next seven days, today, and last seven days.
• This way, user can easily see what is coming up to prepare for it, and can easily see what they missed.
• Recurring tasks. Allow the user to make tasks repeating tasks. Palm’s repeat is the best I’ve seen for customizing repeats. You can actually set something to repeat until a specific day, which is very nice for tasks you know will only last so long.

An unconventional view of buying cars and body styling

Many people get snookered into buying a fancy-looking car without realizing one important thing. You only get to enjoy the snazzy body styling during one particular time—finding and getting into your car. All the rest of the time, you are in the car, or leaving the car. Can you enjoy the snazzy EXTERIOR styling from the INSIDE of it? No. Can you enjoy the snazzy exterior styling while walking away, back to the car? No—(unless you give yourself an uncomfortable crick in the neck and are willing to run the risk of colliding with hard objects and complete strangers while not watching where you are walking). Because of this, for me it is far more worthwhile to appreciate OTHER PEOPLE’S cars. Thus, when I see a new car model coming out with exceptionally attractive styling, I look forward to seeing it populating the roads because then I’ll get to see it often, and each sighting will give me a little thrill of surprise and delight.

On another matter, I believe that car designers need to understand the most important places for a car to have its best styling touches is the sides and back. I was looking at a picture of a new model car today and it struck me that all the appeal was concentrated on the front end, with the sporty shark-like shape of the hood and headlights. It was all in the nose. But the sides were lackluster, and I couldn’t see the back. I supposed that it was a PR photo that was playing up the best angle to drive sales, if you'll pardon the pun. But I realized that in the real world, drivers and passengers don’t spend much time looking at the front end. Drivers see the front ends of cars usually only in the rear-view mirror, and even then, not for very long, since they have to go back to watching the road in front. However, passengers get plenty of time to see the sides of a car and the back end of a car. And the driver sees the TAIL end of the cars in front of him/her for a good long time. It follows then, that if the styling of the back and the sides is excellent, the car will be a great advertisement for itself on the streets where it is driven every day.