
Gmail Tasks: Paper vs. iPhone - raju
http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/02/tasks-paper-vs-iphone.html
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unalone
I know they were joking, but as a dour paper advocate I felt the need to
respond:

 _Limited availability. You don't always have a pad of paper with you to write
new things._

So they're saying you always have a phone with you?

 _Not ubiquitous. If you leave a piece of paper in one pair of jeans, you
can't access it from the other jeans you're currently wearing._

On the other hand, the entry level for paper is much cheaper than the entry
level for a device that uses Gmail.

 _Difficult to organize. Eventually turns into a giant mess on your desk._

I think if you have as many Gmail notes as you have paper notes, you'll get
just as big a mess. The fact that Gmail isn't as messy is a testament to the
fact that I can't doodle, can't quickly sketch out a melody to a song, or
anything similar.

~~~
derefr
> So they're saying you always have a phone with you?

If my phone isn't in my hand, it's in my pants. If I'm not _wearing_ pants,
it's on the end-table of my bed, where I assumably am as well. So yes.

~~~
unalone
Similarly, I always carry around a notebook. My point is that for people who
need to write, paper is very rarely in short supply.

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dominik
I tried using Gmail Tasks for about two or three weeks. I transferred all my
tasks into it.

Ye Olde List o' Annoyances:

#1: I could only view one list at a time. I like having a 'big picture' view.
Plus, the default-in-Gmail view was tiny. I could pop it out, but then it was
in an orphan browser window -- which would sometimes disappear because it
still technically tied into Gmail (e.g. adding a Labs extension to Gmail made
Tasks go poof).

#2: They positioned the delete button _between_ the "Add Task" and "Switch
List" buttons. I nuked a few tasks accidentally, without evening know what I
deleted.

#3: There's no undo and no history. If I wanted to hide completed tasks, I had
to delete them, which meant losing them forever. If I accidentally deleted a
task thanks to the positioning of the delete button, well, too bad.

#4: I couldn't select multiple tasks and move them around.

I couldn't take the annoyances.

I've since switched to a homebrew todolist solution that lets me see
everything at once, switch between contexts, edit multiple items at once, and
keep a full history. I complement this with a Moleskine notebook as a
collection input. For stuff that has a hard due date, I use Google Calendar.

As for paper vs. iPhone -- I don't have an iPhone so I'm quite happy with
paper. My notebook fits comfortably in my pocket and goes with me everywhere,
and Moleskine thought through the design so its pages don't wrinkle and it
stays nice and neat while remaining easy to write in. I've only used it for
two weeks, but I've found it well worth its price compared to el cheapo pocket
notebooks (which I used for several months, until I gave up in frustrating at
having them wrinkle after living in my pocket).

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mattmcknight
I was sort of holding out hope they would buy out Remember the Milk[1]. They
already have Blackberry and iPhone sync in their pro version and a gadgets
that plug into Gmail and Google Calendar (and iGoogle and Google Desktop
etc.). Their model for tasks is much more advanced than the Gmail one- with
due dates, alerts, sharing, multiple lists, nice print outs to carry with you
etc.

[1] <http://www.rememberthemilk.com>

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buro9
Now if only they would offer sync of tasks for users of Blackberry and Windows
Mobile smart phones they would be on to something.

I've just re-visited Tasks, and it is nice... but to be ubiquitous (and
therefore useful enough to displace the paper I carry) it will need to be in
my phone.

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msluyter
I like the interface. I downloaded several ToDo apps from the iPhone App store
when it first went online and many suffered from the problem that they
required more than one screen touch to create a new item. For example, you
might press "+" and then press again to get the focus of the text entry field.
(I'm sure not all were like this, but it seemed that many I tried were.) The
gmail tasklist only requires a single touch. I also like that "New Task" is
the top row of the task list, as opposed to being a "+" located at the bottom
of the screen. YMMV.

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pyroman
I've been looking for a simple task app that I can use on my iphone and have
in my google homepage. I'll be trying this out.

~~~
wastedbrains
yeah I have as well, since the default iGoogle tasks don't sync / work well on
the iphone

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johnrob
Great idea! What distinguishes this from the 'Notes' app that comes with the
iPhone is that now your tasks are editable in gmail as well.

For those who don't know, go to settings->labs in gmail, and you can activate
tasks. Then a tasks link will show up under your regular mail 'folder' links.

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wastedbrains
that is great, I was sad when they shut off iphone iGoolge just cause that is
how i kept my task synced... now a truly supported version with a better
interface should make keeping my todo list up to date much easier.

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jim-greer
Has anyone gotten this to work using the Google Apps version of Gmail?

