Never Forget Anything With NotifyMe For iPhone
NotifyMe 2: ToDo in cloud ($3.99) by PoweryBase Inc. is a simple reminder app for your iPhone that comes with plenty of features. There are also separate iPad and Mac versions as well, with a free beta webapp service.
A while back, I reviewed a simple notification app called Notificant. I've been using this app daily, however, the developers were unable to meet their financial needs of developing the app. So they have pulled the iPhone and Mac apps from their respective Store and are shutting it down completely in September.
Because of this, I had to look for another replacement app for getting notifications and reminders on my Mac and iOS devices. So I found NotifyMe after it has been updated to version 2.0, and I like what I'm seeing.
To use NotifyMe, you will have to sign up for a free account (much like Notificant did). The cloud service offers you more options when creating reminders, though you can create feature-limited local reminders. Creating an account will also keep your reminders in sync across your iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
On opening NotifyMe for iPhone, you'll get an overview screen. Here, you will find five categories: Upcoming, Completed, Recent, Categories, and Sharing & Friends. At the bottom is the very-hard-to-miss "New Reminder" button.
Tapping this giant button will take you to Cloud Reminder edit screen. Simply enter the text for your reminder, pick a time, choose if it should repeat, put it in a category, set an optional pre-alert and auto-snooze, and one of the nine tunes. Should a task require additional info, there's a notes section.
Know friends or family that have a NotifyMeCloud.com account? then you can also share the reminder with them.
If you create a task that isn't repeating, you will also get a toggle for "auto-done." Toggling this option on will have the reminder be completed automatically -- if you want to manually mark it as complete, leave this off.
When you save the reminder, you'll be taken back to the Overview screen. The Upcoming, Completed, and Recent categories will show a count of tasks so you can get a quick glance of how much is left.
Going to the Categories will show you the default categories as well as a count of reminders to go along with them. By default, the categories are Birthday, Personal, Shared, Shopping, ToDo, and Work. You can delete any of these with the Edit Categories button, and create your own with Add Categories with over 30 custom icons.
The Sharing feature in NotifyMe works well and is great if you need to collaborate. If you know the email address that the other person used, you can send a request to them. People that have authorized you to share with them will also show up on this screen.
The Settings in NotifyMe have a wide variety of options. There are two categories of settings: Notification and User Preferences.
If you are using both the iPhone and iPad versions, you can choose to toggle notifications on either device, like leaving notifications off on the iPad when you're not using it.
There is also the Local Notification reminder, which I mentioned at the beginning of this review. This is toggled in the Notifications section of the app settings. Local notifications will split the "New Reminder" button in two: one side will still be the Cloud Reminder, but the new button will allow you to create a Offline Local Reminder.
Local Reminders will not require an Internet connection to work, and for the most part, have the same features as a regular Cloud Reminder. Of course, it won't be synced and you won't be able to share it with others.
NotifyMe also supports worldwide time zones. To do this, you simply need to launch NotifyMe after you update the time zone on your device after traveling. You'll always be up-to-date on your reminders.
I found NotifyMe to be a nifty app for quick reminders, and being able to sync it with my Mac and iPad are nice. The iPad version works essentially the same way as the iPhone version, though I'm not sure why the developers chose to make them separate apps instead of a universal binary.
However, I think the overall price of the NotifyMe suite is a bit high. This iPhone version of NotifyMe is $3.99, the iPad version costs another $4.99, and the Mac version will set you back $15.99. It's pretty expensive for a simple reminder app, though it works very well.
Personally, I think the $3.99 price tag for the iPhone version is high for what it is. I believe it would be better off as a $4.99 universal app, like what Due is. The Mac version should also shave a few dollars off (perhaps a price of $9.99 is better?).
While the entire suite does the job well, it's probably a bit too much for most people. If you require a system that can send you reminders on your Mac and iPhone and iPad, and even share with others, then I would check out NotifyMe (at least on one platform for now). If not, then I would recommend holding off until there's a sale of some sort on these apps.
