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Tag Archives: review
Review: Organize task manager for Mac is deep and complex
Organize (available at the Mac App Store ) is a to-do list manager with project management aspirations, but its ambitious feature set tends to be a drag on the experience. Most essentials for a good task manager are present, like task grouping and categorizing, easy item creation, and due dates. It can sync with its namesake apps for iOS devices over Wi-Fi or the Internet. But a multitude of niche features and some missing core functionality can make using the product ungainly. At the heart of every to-do list is the task, a discrete unit of action that has to be accomplished. In addition to a title and description, each Organize task can also contain a priority (indicated by a series of blue dots), a color, flagged status, start and end dates, repetition intervals (daily, weekly, etc.) a duration, percentage completed, and persons assigned to be responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed. Tasks can also have three review stages called Action, Information, and Decision. Each of the three review stages has a review date, context, location, and security classification. Setting the multitude of options can be achieved from the task list view, but I found many of the button labels to be useless. Consider that each task in list view has three different buttons labeled with the letter A, but each has a different function and Organize offers no tooltips to guide your selection. Mercifully, an Inspector palette is available that puts all your options in one place and doesn’t use cryptic abbreviations. Organize’s Foci offer innovative insight to your tasks. This Focus permits you to quickly see which tasks occur at a given time. Individual tasks can be grouped into Projects, a very logical way to keep related items together. Each task can also be assigned various Contexts. In Organize, a Context is a label that transcends both Task and Project. In a team setting, for example, the same group of people may be working on multiple projects, and any given person in the group is likely to be responsible for several tasks. By creating a Context for each person, it becomes very simple to pull up a list of one person’s tasks across all Projects. The Context concept can be applied to locations, disciplines, or just about anything else. Contexts can be added to a Task by typing in the desired value or dragging a context from the list on the left side of the window and dropping it on the task. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Continue reading
Posted in Apple, Apple News, Apple Rumors, Apps, CES, Features, iTunes, Macs, Other, Reports, Technology
Tagged apple, entertainment, features, inbox, macworld, organize, project, reports, review, sponsored-links, task
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Review: Fitbit Zip needs a bug fix to be great
For months, I’ve used the Fitbit Ultra . It’s a tiny, rechargeable device that tracks every step I take; at a glance I can see the number of steps I’ve taken, how many miles I’ve walked, and even the floors I’ve climbed for the current day. And the device syncs that data to the Fitbit website and the Fitbit iPhone app, too. I was thus eager to try Fitbit’s newest pedometer, which not only looks more fun, but is more fun to say, too: the $60 Fitbit Zip . The Zip is cuter and more colorful than its predecessor; it’s available in solid blue, white, lime (green), charcoal (black), or magenta. Unlike the Ultra’s LED display, the Zip’s screen uses LCD instead. If you have a hard time keeping those acronyms separate in your mind, the upshot is this: You can see the LED display on the Fitbit Ultra (or its successor, the Fitbit One) in the dark, because it lights up. The Zip’s screen doesn’t glow and isn’t backlit—like a traditional digital watch—so it’s tougher to see in low light. The Zip is cheaper than the Ultra or the One, each of which costs $100. The Zip measures 1.4 inches tall, 1.1 inches wide, and 0.38 inches deep. It weighs 0.18 pounds, or 8 grams. In other words, it’s very tiny, and won’t weigh you down one iota. It ships with a color-matched rubbery case; you’ll use the case if you want to hook the Zip onto your shirt, pocket, belt loop, or sports bra. I always just plop my Ultra into my pocket, so I did the same with the Zip in my testing. During my weeks with the Zip, I kept my Ultra in my pocket, too. They consistently reported essentially the same numbers, within a couple dozen steps of each other. The Zip’s screen displays one of several bits of data it collects at a time. Press the screen to get it to toggle between displays, and you can see your total steps, distance in miles, a clock, your total burned calories, and the Fitbit Smiley. That last is meant to indicate how you’ve been doing recently in terms of staying physical and active; to me, it’s largely useless. I can barely tell the different versions of that smiley apart, and I also intuitively know whether I’ve been sitting around or moving about. If you log in to your Fitbit account, you can actually turn the Smile off for your device. I also debated turning off the calories burned counter. If you leave the Zip on your nightstand all day, it will still read out some number of calories that you burned that day, based on your basal metabolic rate. (The human body burns calories just to exist. When you consume more calories than your body burns, you gain wait.) I’d prefer to see only the calories that I’ve burned through my activity while wearing the Zip—despite the approximations such numbers require. Unlike the One and the Ultra, the Zip doesn’t track your sleep or floors climbed. There are two ways to sync the Zip. First, it can sync to your Mac or PC via the included USB dongle—you plug the dongle in, and when your Zip is in range, it syncs to the Fitbit website over Bluetooth. If you’re using an iPhone 4S or iPhone 5, you can also sync directly to your phone over Bluetooth. (Fitbit says support for syncing to newer Android phones is coming eventually.) In theory, you’re meant to be able to sync to the iPhone app silently in the background, thanks to BTLE . However, I couldn’t get it to work reliably. If I launched the app, my Zip would sync. When the app wasn’t running, it never seemed to update, despite Fitbit’s claims that it should. Neither our press contact nor Fitbit’s customer support got back to regarding this issue yet. It’s frustrating. A key difference between the Zip and other Fitbit models centers on the battery. Other Fitbits require occasional recharging; the Zip doesn’t. Instead, it relies on a 3V coin battery—the sort that powers many digital watches. Fitbit claims that one battery should last you from four to six months; since the device hasn’t been out that long, we can’t yet verify those claims. A quick online search shows that replacement batteries are amusingly cheap . When I initially synced the Zip to my iPhone, it replaced the Ultra previously linked to my account. At present, Fitbit supports just a single device per account, which in practice isn’t a serious limitation. During my first week with the device, I experienced a variety of issues: It would fail to sync properly, and it displayed the wrong time—which in turn meant it was attributing steps and other details to the wrong days part of the time. Removing the watch battery once didn’t fix things, but removing it and leaving it out for a minute—which may well have been voodoo—fixed what ailed me and it. Whether you sync via your Mac or iPhone (or third-generation iPad), all your data gets stored at the Fitbit website. You can optionally share your data and compete amicably with friends via the website. Seeing that your buddies have 20,000 more steps than you do for the week can certainly provide some motivation to step it up. Bottom line If the Fitbit Zip did everything it were supposed to do, I’d recommend it heartily to cost-conscious consumers interested in getting started with digital fitness tracking of this sort. It’s competitively priced, tracks what it says it will, and seems durable enough. I thought I’d miss the Ultra’s LED screen more than I do in practice, and I’ve found that I don’t miss the sleep tracking much, either. (I do miss the floors tracking feature, because I want that extra credit for the floors I climb.) But as an iPhone 5 owner, one of the Zip’s big draws for me was the wireless background syncing without requiring a USB dongle on my Mac. Right now, the Zip only seems to sync when I do plug in that dongle, or when I launch the iOS app manually. I imagine it’s a fixable bug; I’ve already installed one firmware update for the device over Bluetooth. Until it’s fixed, I think the Zip’s key selling point doesn’t work as expected for iPhone customers—and that’s a disappointment. Continue reading
iOS Review: Echograph photography app
Echograph is a photography app for the iPad that allows you to make still shots with some moving elements, at high resolutions. Continue reading
Posted in Apple, Apple Rumors, iPad, Mac News, Mac Rumors, Technology
Tagged apple, echograph, ipad, make-still, review, some-moving
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iOS App Review: MyScript Notes Mobile has appeal for handwriting fans
If jotting down notes as opposed to typing them on your iPad is your thing, then this app might be right up your alley. Continue reading
Posted in Apple, Apple Rumors, Inside Apple, iPad, Mac News
Tagged alley, apple, ipad, notes-as-opposed, review, script-notes, thing, your-thing
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iOS App Review: MyCalenar provides birthday reminders, self-promotion
This single-task app can help you remember the birthdays of Facebook friends and other contacts, but that comes with the price of shameless self-promotion. Continue reading
Posted in Apple, Apple News, Apple Rumors, Inside Apple, Mac Rumors, Other
Tagged apple, birthdays, facebook, other-contacts, price, provides-birthday, remember-the-birthdays, review, single, the-price
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iOS App Review: MyCalendar provides birthday reminders, self-promotion
This single-task app can help you remember the birthdays of Facebook friends and other contacts, but that comes with the price of shameless self-promotion. Continue reading
Posted in Apple, Apple Rumors, Mac News, Other, Technology
Tagged apple, birthdays, facebook, other-contacts, price, provides-birthday, review, the-price
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Review: Disk Drill Pro
Data loss generally results from three types of accident: user error in deleting a file they didn’t intend to, some repairable disk or directory corruption, or an unrecoverable total (mechanical) drive failure. Cleverfiles’ Disk Drill Pro institutes, well, a clever way of recovering files that have been lost due to causes one and two, and has a refreshingly candid way of educating users about file deletion and how various factors may hinder recovery. Should it be part of your utility toolbox? We give this drive saver a spin in our exclusive review…. Continue reading
Posted in Apple, Apple News, Apple Rumors, CES, Inside Apple, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Mac News, Other
Tagged 10-most-read, apple, article, iphone, mac news, microsoft, podcast, review, review-disk-drill-pro, toggle, utility
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iOS Game Review: Walking Dead is scary good
This iOS adaptation of the popular TV series offers compelling characters, unique worlds, and an interactive experience that’s as intense as it is memorable. Continue reading
Posted in Apple, Apple Rumors
Tagged apple, compelling-characters, popular, review, scary-good, series-offers, the-popular, unique-worlds, walking, walking-dead
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iOS Game Review: Arms Cartel Global will test your patience
Instead of action, this massive online game gives you the chance to sit back and wait passively for things to transpire. Continue reading
Posted in Apple, Apple Rumors, Inside Apple
Tagged apple, cartel, cartel-global, chance, massive, online-game, patience, review, the-chance, will-test, your-patience
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iOS Game Review: Agent Dash puts a pretty face on a familiar app
The most compelling thing about this fairly standard side-scrolling platformer is its eye-catching look. But gameplay and controls are pretty ordinary. Continue reading
