I’ve never been one to carry around a to do list, but being a student, task management has become a huge part of my daily routine. I have searched high and wide, looking for the best solution to use my mobile devices to manage my to dos. I have a few important criteria that need to be satisfied in order for me to be truly happy with a service. First, I want a task manager that is cross-platform, extending to my three major platforms which are BlackBerry, iPod Touch, and desktop. Secondly it needs to do all that with simplicity and user-friendliness. I have tried quite a few things (more on that later) but I finally settled on a service called Remember the Milk (RTM).
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RTM stretches to all major mobile platforms via an application or a syncing solution of some sort. It also has a super easy, and powerful web interface that makes it accessible from any computer, in fact RTM has massive collection of services that allow you to manage your tasks in just about any way imaginable. Remember the Milk is free for basic services but does require a Pro subscription for users who would like the applications for Android, iPhone, BlackBerry, and Windows Mobile. A Pro subscription is $25 per year, which for the functionality you’re getting, isn’t bad at all.
MilkSync for BlackBerry and Windows Mobile
The applications for BlackBerry and Windows mobile are both a syncing addon to the phone’s native tasks application. This is probably my biggest gripe with RTM. As much as I like the integration that MilkSync has with the native calendar and tasks applications, I still wish there was a more full-featured application that features this same integration along with push, and more options for managing tasks. MilkSync is fairly self-explanatory and resembles Google Sync for BlackBerry in its functionality. Essentially you log into the application, and set it up to sync at the desired interval (I use 2 hour intervals) and then let the application do its thing in the background. MilkSync works fairly well and is a reliable two-way sync solution for task management but I think the RTM team needs to put forth some development effort and make a native application for BlackBerry.
Remember the Milk for Android and iPhone
RTM has built really great, full-featured applications for Android and iPhone. The two applications both feature everything you expect from the full web version including unique location features to help you complete tasks when you are near them. Push notifications come standard with each application and app badges allow a quick glance to tell you how many uncompleted tasks are present.
I have tried a few other task management options and the only other one that came close to RTM was Reqall. Reqall also features a web version and iPhone and BlackBerry applications. The BlackBerry app is even a full application! Though the applications had advanced features such as voice commands and location features, they were hard to navigate and not fun to use. I also found the syncing to be unreliable and obnoxious. I also gave Google Tasks a shot but the lack of good application support was a dealbreaker. As far as cross-platform task management goes, Remember the Milk is unbeatable.
Pros
-Cross-platform task management
-Location features
-Easy to use web interface
-Excellent Android and iPhone applications
-Multitude of services for task management
Cons
-Lackluster BlackBerry and Windows Mobile applications
-No voice controls
Are any of you avid Remember the Milk users? Prefer a different task manager? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
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