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Firetask | Project Management on Your iPhone

By Matthew Guay on January 12, 2011 in iOS Apps, Reviews

Looking for a way to manage your projects on the go with something more advanced than a standard todo list app? There’s a fine line between having too little or too much info about the things you need to do. Today we’re going to look at Firetask for iPhone, a detailed project management app that lets you keep track of all the details of the tasks in all of your daily projects.

Keep Track of Everything About Your Tasks

Firetask is a task and project manager that lets you keep up with a surprising amount of data about the things you need to do from your iPhone or iPod Touch. One nice thing is that it’s rather easy to get started with. Whenever you open a screen for the first time, you’ll see a hint notification that explains what to do there.

Add a new task from any screen by tapping the plus icon in the top right corner. Just type in your task name and press Save, or scroll down to add a wide variety of extra data to your task. You can set the task’s priority, due date, flag or categorize it, add notes, or assign it to different people in your team. The only problem here is that Firetask is a single-user app without a cloud interface, so it really doesn’t work well for managing tasks for a whole team.

Many of the options open a separate dialog where you can select the category, status, or more for your task. Unlike most todo list apps, your tasks are not limited to simply done or not done. With Firetask, you can track a task from start to completion like a full-blown project management system.

Now, from the Today screen, you can see all of your upcoming tasks and those due soon. Tap Focus to see only the tasks without dates and those scheduled for today or tomorrow. You can also view all of the tasks in categories from the bottom menu. If you took the time to categorize tasks, you’ll easily recognize tasks with their icons on the left even from the Today screen.

Dates and categories aren’t enough sometimes, so Firetask also lets you organize your tasks into projects. I’ve found this very useful, as I can quickly get all of my tasks into a group and see related tasks in 2 taps. When you add a new task in a project, you can still add categories, notes, flags, due dates, and more to each task.

Once a task is in progress, tap the box on the left to mark it as In Progress with a tiny graph icon. Tap again to mark it as complete. Or, press Edit List to reorder or remove tasks from the list. Firetask works great with projects like this, and you’ll still be able to see upcoming tasks from the Today screen and in their respective categories. No matter how much you have to do, Firetask can handle it.

Conclusion

If you’ve wanted to be able to keep up with more about your tasks and projects, organize them efficiently, and more, you may have found most iPhone todo list apps too feature-limited for your needs. Firetask includes tons of ways to organize and sort your tasks and projects, and it feels more like a mini-Basecamp than than a todo list. The only problem is, all these features make Firetask more cluttered than competing task management apps, and it has a somewhat steeper learning curve. If you prefer to just keep up a quick todo list, you may find one of the other todo list apps better for your needs, but if you’re wanting to keep better track of everything you’re doing, the extra steps and learning curve may be worth it. Additionally, if you have a Mac, you can purchase Firetask for Mac and keep your tasks in sync between your computer and iPhone.

Our Rating: 7/10

Download Firetask for iPhone from the App Store | $5.99

Checkout all of the Firetask Apps

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Today todo | Simply Focus on What You’re Doing Today

By Matthew Guay on January 12, 2011 in iOS Apps, Reviews

Tired of all the me-too todo list apps on your iPhone or iPod Touch? Sometimes it seems like everyone tries to make their apps look as much like other popular apps as possible, especially for productivity apps. Today Todo is a fresh change that takes your tasks into a new day, literally. Apple recently featured Today Todo in their list of essential College Survival Kit apps, so let’s take a look and see how it will help you manage your time, assignments, and more.

Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, and the Future

When you first install and start Today Todo, you’ll be greeted with a bright sun and blue sky, with todo’s floating on top. The default tasks are a tutorial that help you quickly get up-to-speed on how Today Todo works. Once you’ve finished a task, just press the circle on the left to check it off.

On the top of each screen, you’ll notice a small white pull-down shade. This shows your lists of tasks, where you can separate your tasks, say, into school, home, work, or other categories. Tap the category you want to see the tasks it contains, or tap All to see all the tasks you’ve added to every list.

To add a new task, just tilt your device to the left or right and start typing. You can press the plus button to add a task, but just turning the device is much simpler! Type in your task on the top, then select a date for it on the bottom. You can also tap one of the three bars on the top right to select a priority for the task. There’s no tagging, notes, or location … just your task, the priority, and when it needs done. Once you’re done, just flip your iPhone back up to see your filled task list, or just press save and immediately enter another task.

To view your tasks scheduled for the future, swipe the sun icon on the top to the left. Swipe again to see tasks scheduled for Someday without a specific date to be completed. Then, once you’ve completed tasks, you’ll see them show up in the Yesterday screen which you’ll find by swiping the sun to the right from the Today screen. This is a cute way to keep everything organized by the time you need to do it.

Edit and Backup Tasks from your PC

One frustrating thing about many todo list apps is that they leave your todos on your iPhone. Whether or not you enjoy typing on your phone, sometimes it’s easier to type on a full keyboard. Plus, sometimes you can just copy and paste tasks you need to do from a webpage very quickly from a full computer. Today Todo includes a neat web server mode that lets you add and edit tasks from any computer or browser. Just tap the I icon in the bottom right corner of the app, then tap the slider beside Enable web server.

Now, browse to the address listed on your device on your PC or Mac, and you can view and edit all of your todos on your iPhone directly from your PC. Changes are saved to your device directly, so whenever you’re finished just tap Stop Webserver on your iPhone or iPod Touch and you’ll immediately see your updated task lists on it.

Today Todo doesn’t include an iPad version, but you could run it on an iPad in iPhone mode. Or, you could always view and edit your todos in the webserver mode in Safari on your iPad. This way, you can view, edit, and add todos to your iPhone or iPod Touch from a larger keyboard without using a PC at all!

Conclusion

Truth be told, I didn’t expect as much from this app as it offers, and figured it wouldn’t be as serious of a to-do list app with the whimsical background images. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Today Todo is one of the most intuitive todo list apps I’ve tested. I especially liked the way you can just tilt your device to add a task, the tilt it back to see your list without pushing any buttons or closing dialogs. Plus, the backgrounds actually add a nice, carefree attitude to the app. For once, managing tasks is actually fun!

My only complaint would be that Today Todo doesn’t keep a log of the tasks you’ve already completed, so you can only see your tasks from yesterday. That said, if you’re looking for an affordable and simple way to keep up with the things you need to do today and in the future and don’t want to fuss with notes, tags, or anything extra, this is a nice app you should definitely try. It’s scheduled tasks at it’s best!

Additionally, if you’d like a free todo list to just keep up with what needs done today, you can download Today Todo Basic, which lets you only add tasks for today and see what you did yesterday. It’s a great way to try out Today Todo’s interface for free, too.

Our Rating: 9/10

Download Today Todo for iPhone from the App Store | $3.99

Today Todo’s official website

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Review: Cooking for Geeks

By Matthew Guay on January 10, 2011 in Books

When’s the last time you did a chemistry experiment? Truth is, most of us do chemistry experiments more often than we imagine. Every time you try tweaking a recipe or try to cook something new, you’re doing a chemistry experiment. Best thing is, you can use the basic properties of food to make new dishes and recreate your favorite foods.

This can be difficult to do on your own, though, and most cookbooks are designed to just help you make individual recipes and don’t overly teach you how to design new ones. Cooking for Geeks is a great book that does exactly that. Author Jeff Potter guides you through the basic ways foods work so you’ll understand how everything from eggs to high temperature cooking works. It includes tons of recipes, but best of all, it’ll leave you with an understanding of what made that recipe tick and how you can use the ideas from it on your own. You’ll even learn better ways to make boiled eggs, of all things!

Whether you’re cooking on your own or using it with a school group to teach, Cooking for Geeks empowers you to take your cooking to the next level. Sure, cooking is not a technology centric thing, but this book makes cooking appeal to those of us who enjoy hacking and tweaking. Plus, when’s the last time you saw the Mac vs. PC debate mentioned in a cookbook? My family and I have found this book very educational and enjoyable, and if you find cooking any bit interesting, I believe you’ll be fascinated by this book, too.

Our Rating: 9/10

Checkout the Official Cooking for Geeks site

Purchase Cooking for Geeks from Amazon.com [$21.54 paperback | $15.39 Kindle Edition]

Purchase Cooking for Geeks from O’Reilly [$34.99 print | $27.99 eBook]

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The Personal MBA: Can You Get an MBA From a Book?

By Matthew Guay on December 30, 2010 in Books, Featured, Reviews

Have you ever wondered if staying in college or going back to college long enough to get a MBA would make a significant difference in your career? Making the choice to stay in college longer and spend tens of thousands of dollars for something of an uncertain benefit can be a very difficult thing to do. The truth is, though, what you need is not another degree: you simply need to learn more about what makes business tick and how to improve your own ventures or the company you work for. Now you just need to figure out what to study, and you’ll be ready to learn all the skills an MBA would give you on your own.

Why do you need to learn more about business?

First, though, you’ll need to decide if you really need to learn more about business. When I personally started college, I never thought I would end up taking business classes. I was shocked when my college required a number of business and economics focused classes, and initially resented having to take them. I then started seeing how the classes had helped me look at the world of business differently, and I found the info in them benificual in everything from running my own site to working as a freelancer to my ministry work in Thailand. The thing is, business permiates every part of life, and the more you can learn about how to start your vision, progress it into something others are willing to pay for, and then grow the business to fit your and the market’s needs, you’ll find it easier to do your own job or start the business you’ve always wanted to.

That’s where The Personal MBA comes in. Author Josh Kaufman has been sharing tips and training on his website, PersonalMBA.com/blog, for years, trying to help people learn all they can about business from the best authors and online content. From highlighting the best business books to distilling his own business knowledge in informative blog posts, the Personal MBA site has a wealth of info to help you learn everything from an MBA without having to go back to school. Then, building on this knowledge, Kaufman has distilled it into his new book, The Personal MBA: Master the art of business. This book is being released today, but I had the privilege to receive a pre-release copy for review and was very impressed at how thorough and informative this one book is.

An MBA in a book

The Personal MBA book is a nearly 400 page book that lets you explore all the topics you’ll come across about business and economics related to running your own company. But rather than being a dry book that tries to teach you a whole field of knowledge in each chapter with different concepts mixed in throughout the whole thing, this book is designed to let you learn about individual concepts thoroughly with mini-essays about each. It’s laid out similar to 37signals’ Rework or Getting Real, with short sections that pack in a powerful concept and make you ponder its implications for your work. From ROI to Bias to Risk reversal to Association marketing, you’ll learn about an amazing variety of business concepts on your own pace with interesting and easy to understand explanations and applications.

Then, each section of the book includes a Share This Concept link at the end. Each individual idea has a companion page on the book’s site, which includes a video explaining more about the topic, and an outline of what that section of the book discussed. For example, page 180 discusses what bootstrapping means, how it’s benificial to your business, and more. This section’s Share This Concept link, http://book.personalmba.com/bootstrapping/, both gives you more info about the topic and lets you share what you’ve learned with colleagues and friends. If you take the time to explore this extra content, you’ll find that you learned even more from the book than you could from the text alone.

I was very impressed with the depth of business topics that The Personal MBA covered, and was very excited to see that it didn’t make business dry or difficult to understand. Unlike a textbook, The Personal MBA is designed to let you explore a topic you need to learn more about, even if you haven’t read the whole book. Whether you’re a business student or want to learn more on your own, you’ll find this book a great reference guide to help you master business better than you could on your own. Best of all, it’s a great example of how much you can learn today online, from books, and in self study, without spending tens of thousands of dollars or wasting years of your life in school. For once, technology and its related older cousin, paper books, have made life simpler and can help make you more productive! The most important part isn’t about where you learn, or how you learn, but it’s what you learn and what you do with it. The Personal MBA empowers you to understand the business world and drive your visions into profitable ventures, and if you’re motivated, you can use it to learn more than an undedicated person would in a traditional business program.

Purchase The Personal MBA from Amazon.com ($15.21)

Purchase The Personal MBA in Kindle eBook format ($14.99)

Learn more about The Personal MBA

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Zenbe Lists | Todo lists on your iPhone and your browser

By Matthew Guay on December 9, 2010 in iOS Apps

Would you like to keep up with all of your tasks in orderly lists? Today we’re going to look at Zenbe Lists, a simple to-do list app that lets you keep up with your tasks without the fuss of more complicated apps, and then keep everything backed up online with the free Zenbe Lists webapp. Let’s dive in and see if this is the ideal to-do list app for you.

Staying Organized With Zenbe Lists

Zenbe Lists sports a clean and easy to use interface. When you first open the app, you’ll be greeted with little popup messages that help you learn your way around the app. This task manager is built around lists with tasks, so you can tap the top to add some lists for things you need to keep up with. You do it all right there on the front screen; no jumping between screens required.

Entering tasks is just as easy. Just tap the list name to see the contents, then press the top to add a new task. One feature I really liked is the ability to add tasks without going to a different screen; everything’s entered and checked off right there on the same screen.

Once you’ve entered tasks, tap them to edit the task, prioritize it, or add a due date. Or, back in the list view, press Edit to rearrange the notes or bulk check them off. While you can rearrange tasks in the same list, the app currently doesn’t let you move tasks to a different list. Thankfully, Zenbe just announced that this feature is coming in a update that should be in the App Store soon. This will make it much easier to manage all of your tasks and get them in the lists you need.

If you have an iPad, Zenbe Lists works just as good on it. Actually, you’ll have even less switching back and forth since everything’s right there on the same page. And if you add online sync as we’ll see below, you’ll be able to keep your tasks synced between all of your iOS devices. Zenbe Lists is a universal app, so you get all of this for the same price!

Syncing and Sharing Tasks Online

One of Zenbe Lists best features is that you can sync your lists and tasks online for free with Zenbe List’s webapp. Press the Sync button from any list to sign in with your Zenbe ID, or tap Signup to create a new account for free. Once you’ve created the account, go back to Zenbe Lists and sign in. Seconds later, your lists and tasks will be synced between the cloud and your device.

Now, you can sign in at lists.zenbe.com and access all of your lists and tasks online. This is a great way to quickly enter a ton of tasks from a full sized keyboard. Actually, if you’d like to use Zenbe Lists but don’t have an iOS device, you can signup for a free account online. You can take advantage of almost all the same features, and can even collaborate with others on list all from your desktop. The webapp even looks much like the iPhone app and’s just as easy to use. Then if you ever get an iPhone, you’ll be ready to move your tasks over in only a couple taps.

Conclusion

Zenbe Lists actually offers much more than you’d think on the surface. It’s a very simple task list app, but that also makes it very easy to use. With support for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad in the same app, as well as a free webapp that runs on any desktop browser, Zenbe Lists is great way to keep up with everything you need to do no matter where you are. If you like keeping all of your tasks in organized lists with just the most essential info, this app is a great one to check out. It includes less features than more advanced task managers like Things, but that also makes it simpler and easier to get used to.

There’s to-do list apps for every style of task management, so stay tuned for the rest of our reviews and a final roundup!