The Reviewer’s Dilemma

One of the most difficult things about reviewing apps is that there’s some things about an app that just can’t be quantified. Feature lists might make one app look better than another, but specs never tell the full story. It’s true with computers, camera, smartphones, cars, and yes, it’s true with software.

And so I’m subjective. I’m most likely to write on Techinch about the software I love and rely on daily. I try out tons of apps, and the ones I stick with are the ones that fit my needs like a glove. Other apps might have more features or something that makes them appeal to others, but the apps I use daily have the stuff I need.

And that, perhaps, means I end up ignoring other apps. This was brought to my attention vividly when discussing the new OmniFocus 2 for Mac on Twitter. I mentioned at random that OmniFocus’ recurring task features were “better” than any other app I’d tried—and at the time, that was what I remembered from the last time I’d taken Things for a serious try at managing my tasks. Turns out, Things has far more granular options for recurring tasks than OmniFocus, but the reason I’d remembered it as being worse was because I don’t like the way it handles recurring tasks (i.e. by putting them all in the Scheduled list, which oddly only shows recurring tasks rather than any tasks with a due date).

Things didn’t fit what I needed. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad app, it just means that OmniFocus is better for my needs. And if I’m going to review a todo list app, I’m far more likely to share with you why I love the app I rely on daily, especially with the limited time I have to review apps. If I were to review Things, as I likely will when the next version comes out simply because it interests me, I’d be careful not to misrepresent its features as I accidentally did on Twitter—and then, after that, somehow I bet I’d go back to using OmniFocus since it’s just home to me.

Somehow this has been hanging over my head this week, and kept me from publishing my full review of OmniFocus 2. And that’s silly. We’re all opinionated, and yet, being opinionated can be a great thing. I really do try to keep my biases at bay when reviewing apps, but if there’s anything that’s going to get me motivated to hit Publish on a new article here, it’s going to be something that excited me—something that either solves a problem in a new and unique way (like the Keep Everything app I reviewed recently, even though it’s not exactly part of my daily workflow since I rely on Instapaper and Evernote already), or something that’s such a big part of my life (like OmniFocus or Ulysses III) for whatever reason that I can’t help but want to share it.

I’ll review other stuff, but it’s those things that excite me—that do something good enough that you can overlook the other features they don’t have—that keep me wanting to write about apps. Without Techinch being my full-time job, there’s only so many apps I can review, and I’m far more likely to want to take the time to write about an app when it’s something that really excites me enough that I want to share it with you.

I sure hope that’s ok.

Thoughts? @reply me on Twitter.