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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > iPhone, iPad & iPod > Which tasks manager should I buy? OmniFocus or Things?

Which tasks manager should I buy? OmniFocus or Things?
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sja777
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Jul 13, 2008, 03:53 PM
 
I picked up an iPhone yesterday.

I would like a decent industrial-strength task manager that syncs with my desktop. Currently I'm looking at OmniFocus and Things. Now OmniFocus is $79.95 + $19.95 for the iPhone App and Things would cost $39 plus $9.99. OmniFocus is a finished product and (apparently) works fine already, but is very expensive for what is basically a glorified to-do list. Things looks pretty-much as powerful, but isn't a finished product yet.

Has anyone bought either of these apps? Are they any good? Or is there another solution I haven't found yet?
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sethneal
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Jul 13, 2008, 04:54 PM
 
I think Things is GOING to be awesome. Its definitely beta right now, but its totally useable and you can get it cheaper than OmniFocus (by a lot). I think Omni is a great company but their software is just overpriced. I'm sure some will disagree, but that's my feeling.

You have to go what you are comfortable with but I really have liked Things even in Beta.
     
64stang06
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Jul 13, 2008, 05:05 PM
 
Things. The desktop client is great and since they plan on having sycn for the mobile and desktop versions, can't beat that.
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badtz
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Jul 14, 2008, 12:16 AM
 
I'm curious too.

I use THINGS on the desktop, and ultimately the iPhone version will have sync capabilities via USB.

OMNIFOCUS can sync to your own webDAV server or MobileMe, which I think is cool.

Not sure which one to go with, I think it ultimately depends which one I'll go with on the desktop

I'm currently using Things because it's easy to use, but I'm wondering if the extra capabilities of OmniFocus will be needed in the future. Gotta test it out.
     
k2director
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Jul 14, 2008, 04:44 PM
 
I actually bought both Things and Omnifocus for the iPhone when the App store launched on Friday.

Things comes out ahead for me, for a couple of reasons:

1) It's easier to use and understand, coming from iCal. For instance, when you've entered a couple of To Dos into your Inbox, it's quicker to mark them as To Dos for Today than it is with OmniFocus. Omnifocus is very deep, but making a quick To Do for Today takes too much work. Also, Things has one view that combines all the things you need to do Today and all the past things you haven't done into one view. I like that. With OmniFocus, you have to look at Today's Tasks, and then Past Due Tasks separately (as far as I can tell). That's too much work for me. Things feels like a step up in terms of features and complexity to iCal (where I'm coming from), while OmniFocus is 2-3 steps up, which is a little more than I need right now.

2) Things launches quicker. When you launch it, it comes up right away. When you launch OmniFocus, it has to load its database for a couple of seconds first. That gets old when you just want to jot down a quick To Do.

3) Things is $10 cheaper, and the desktop app will be cheaper than OmniFocus as well. You can download the beta preview right now, free of charge.

So that's why I lean towards Things. I will say, however, that OmniFocus can indeed sync its data with the desktop application, which is something that Things can't do yet (although the Things developers are focused on synching starting today). It works, IF you use an alpha version of the OmniFocus desktop application (v1.1), which has proved to be unstable in some other areas (for instance, I get an error when I try to synch my OmniFocus To Dos to iCal).

Hope this helps. Both are clearly quality apps, though...
     
Mastrap
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Jul 14, 2008, 04:47 PM
 
I know this isn't relevant to the question asked, but Remember the milk is a pretty awesome online task manager that works well with the GTD methodology. Also, they have a dedicated set-up for the iPhone at i.rememberthemilk.com.
     
   
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