Sharpe's Opinion

Shawn Blanc Reviews Two Things: One for the Mac and One for the iPhone

In-depth review of Cultured Code’s task management app Things. I became so dependent at work on the beta version of Things that I bought the full version the instant it came out, and I use it for keeping on top of everything work-related. I still haven’t got into using it for my personal life yet, largely because I can’t seem to get into the habit of entering stuff the instant it appears in my mind. The recognition I feel for this section of the review, though, is uncanny:

I do not use Things on my iPhone to manage my shopping list when out on errands. I use it almost exclusively as my parking lot. Regardless if I’m in a meeting, at Wal-Mart, or waiting for the oil to be changed, there is no way to tell when a thought will pop into my head. When it does, I need a place to drop it.

I used to jot those thoughts onto the palm of my hand.

Then I bought a Palm Pilot. Then a pocket Moleskine, then a notepad. But through all that, the only thing I ever had with me all the time was my cell phone. I’ve had a mobile device of some sort ever since my first pager in 7th grade. It’s 2nd nature to check my pockets as I walk out the door. Keys. Phone. Wallet. Let’s go.

Once I owned a cell phone that sent emails too, I had two spots to drop my ideas: one was my to-do list manager of choice at the time, and if that wasn’t handy I would send myself an email. Then later, the email would get turned into a to-do item.

Though I originally bought Things for my iPhone based on the novelty of having a to-do list app that worked on both platforms and would sync between the two, I have found that I rarely use its full features. It has primarily become my input collector, which I then just sync to my Mac.

Incidentally, probably the best reason to use a Mac instead of a Windows PC is the huge variety and incredible quality of third-party Mac applications. There is simply no comparison on any other platform.