OmniFocus iPhone 1.0 Review

We have been waiting for the iTunes App Store for a long long time and the one application that always topped our listed was an iPhone version of OmniFocus. The day has past we have put it through its paces and are ready to report the down and dirty.

Getting Things Done

OmniFocus for OSX is an application loosely based on David Allen's Getting Things Done (www.amazon.com) philosophy of productivity. To that end, it has things like projects and contexts, due dates and the ability to focus. OmniFocus for the iPhone picks up where the desktop application left off and tries to bring all of that with you, wherever you may go. The main idea is to be able to Get Things Done anywhere, not just sitting at your desk and with a click of a button in iTunes App Store (and $19.95) you are on your way.

Sync Me? No Sync You!

Of all the things that were promised and delivered syncing has to be both the most sought after and hardest to do. OmniFocus for the iPhone does it but not with ease. You can run OmniFocus for the iPhone in standalone which just keeps a database on the device or sync it with a webdav server like MobileMe (www.amazon.com). In our tests the syncing has been, well, ok. Sometimes it syncs back and forth without a problem and other times changes on the MobileMe side don't get back to the desktop or the other way around. It is a work in progress and best practice is to make sure you have done a one way sync, close out of that side (OSX/iPhone) and then try syncing the other side.

Location. Location. Location.

Not just good advice is real estate, the location based services of OmniFocus are very cool. The applications allows you to assign a location or search to a context (Grocery store, work, errands) and then in OmniFocus it will give you a list of things you need to do close by. Super cool and it just works. In our tests in and around New York City, OmniFocus could figure out a where we were and what were the closest things to go do at any given time. There were a few crashes now and again, but this feature brings productivity and focus to a whole new level.

A Good Start

OmniFocus for the iPhone is a mixed bag. It has just enough features and goodies to give you a taste of what could be done, but suffers from being a 1.0 in a brand new environment. It crashes now and again, it takes a long time to load (3-20 seconds) and is missing key features like ways to block pending projects and perspectives. It also doesn't really live up the "ubiquitous capture" that David Allen talks about as entering in a new project or task isn't that quick or easy.

Conclusion

OmniFocus for the iPhone shows promise and vision but at this point suffers from too many nagging issues to make it your trusted source. We believe that OmniGroup is up to the task and will bring it to the next level, but for now it is more of a neat toy than full blown productivity application.

Pros

• Location based contexts
• Syncs to desktop through MobileMe
• Access to most data on the go

Cons

• Crashes too often
• Loads slowly
• Missing key OmniFocus features

Specs

• $19.95
• Available in iTunes App Store