Latest Delivery: Remember The Milk Arrives On iPad

Remember The Milk is now available on the iPad. The popular note-taking app is now universal, according to news first announced on the company's blog. But, is it any good? Based in Sydney, Australia, the Remember The Milk service has been around since 2004. Although it was first website-centric, it spread to devices too in recent years. Today, it is available on iDevices as well as on Android-based smartphones. Through the years, the service’s main selling point is that it was available for free. However, as you shall see, that distinction is riddled with limitations. On The iPad Remember The Milk for iPad took over one year to create, with the team eventually testing four separate design concepts before deciding on a final version. The end result is described as being built to feel “natural and intuitive,” and for the most part, they’ve hit a homerun. Tasks are organized by list, tag, or location. Most impressive is the ability to add tasks to “Smart Lists.” These are tasks that conform to a specific property created by the user. For example, tasks that are tagged with the word ‘mail’ or ‘phone,’ or those due within ten days. You can also establish Smart Lists based on multiple criteria, such as those with a high priority that are due in the upcoming week. Remember The Milk supports a number of fields too, including task name, list, priority, due date/time, repeat, time estimate, tags, location, and URL. Each of these fields is easily customizable as well. Finally, Remember The Milk for iPad supports gesturing. Completing or postponing tasks are as simple as tapping on the task with two fingers; pulling down to reveals the Complete button, as pulling up shows the Postpone button. Other features include:

• See tasks located nearby
• Searches for tasks by name, or though an advanced search operator
• Accessibility and VoiceOver support
• Available in 20 languages

Free Service Limited As a free service, Remember The Milk offers plenty of features to satisfy many looking for a todo list solution. Unfortunately, much of what makes Remember The Milk special requires ponying up $25/year and become a Pro member. Without a Pro account, syncing across devices is limited to one sync per day. Yep, you read that correctly. Although you can add tasks all day via the web, iPhone, and iPad, they cannot be synced but for once in a 24-hour period. In addition, you’ll need a Pro account to activate the service’s Push Notification abilities. Finally, if you’d like to sync your tasks to Microsoft Outlook or other services, again, you’ll need to pay the price. Conclusion App developers deserve to make money. However, Remember The Milk’s line in the sand between what is offered in the free version vs. the Pro account is too limiting and might turn off users. The syncing limitations, in particular, border on being unacceptable. Unlimited syncing across all devices (including the desktop) is what makes services such as Evernote very popular. We would suggest, at the minimum, automatically syncing become part of the free Remember The Milk package. Still, Remember The Milk is a brilliant service. We would suggest, however, to fully appreciate all it has to offer, expect to upgrade to a Pro account. The free Remember The Milk app is available in the App Store. You may upgrade to a Pro account via an in-app purchase on a monthly ($2.99) or yearly basis ($24.99). What do you think? Leave your comments below.

Mentioned apps

Related articles