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SmartTime 3.0 - "finally, an organizer with a brain"

I

ifonivan

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 2, 2008
16
0
On airplanes
There is a plethora of 'task managers' and 'calendars' on the app store. This seems to be a combination of both, except it's smart: it actually looks at your appointments, then schedules your tasks. It's got some nifty features like sync with Google calendar, integration with the Contacts List and the Phone itself, GPS and Maps, etc. Oh and if you turn your iPhone sideways, it shows you Week or Month view with all your free time. If it did email, it would be Outlook with a Brain.

SmartTime on the App Store

Left Coast Logic web site

Cool flash video

Smart-500.png


STMonth-500.png
 
probably the best task manager ever

I love smarttime... there are so many task managers out there - and they really all take the narrow minded approach. SmartTime really does it differently and has some cool features that make it unique.:)
 
The concept is good for those that have a regular schedule (I don't), although one would need to schedule in daily activities like showers, lunch, and all the other stuff for it to be close to precise when finding time for tasks.

I love the graphics of the app, but I find it's not yet usable (getting there). I need to be able to see monthview upon opening the app, and also be able to double tap a day and see a smartview list of events and tasks for just that day.

Creating events in my circumstances is also cumbersome if I don't know the exact date. Smartview sometimes requires a lot of scrolling and sometimes a bit of math to find the date I need to create an appointment for (the third Friday of next month is what date?). Monthview quick add has limited options (duration of an event can only be 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, or three hours), and there's no way to duplicate or copy and paste an event in monthview.

I do most of my planning and creating appointments via monthview, and I have a lot of irregular recurring events with time durations of 45 minutes and 90 minutes.

Going back and forth between monthview and smartview to do what I need takes too much time.

I imagine SmartTime will eventually become a very usable app, and I check on the updates via AppSniper to see if it an update meets my needs.

I will definitely say I like the graphics a whole lot better than a couple other apps I have tried.
 
Well I stumped up for this as it looked like it had potential. However I regret buying this. It's too convoluted, slow (to load, switch views, in fact do anything), syncing to Google took forever, the Week view is totally useless as it'sread only, Calendar view is day only and there are far too many categories for new events/tasks to map to.

While I agree there is a need for a good Task&Event app, sadly IMHO this is not it. I will continue with PocketInformant, which has a much more logical and unclutered layout. It also has a better task implementation into the Today view as well as having an active Weekview.
 
ifonivan said:
There is a plethora of 'task managers' and 'calendars' on the app store. This seems to be a combination of both, except it's smart: it actually looks at your appointments, then schedules your tasks. It's got some nifty features like sync with Google calendar, integration with the Contacts List and the Phone itself, GPS and Maps, etc. Oh and if you turn your iPhone sideways, it shows you Week or Month view with all your free time. If it did email, it would be Outlook with a Brain.
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So, are you one of the developers or are they paying you to post this stuff? I was looking at the couple of threads on the app as I was interested, and I kept seeing your name giving such 'helpful' information. I checked your other posts (there are not that many) and if you are not saying how great smarttime is you are in threads discussing similar apps telling everyone how they are not as good as smarttime.

There is nothing wrong with an app developer coming on to talk about their app and answer questions, but they should disclose their connection, people appreciate that and they get a lot of feedback. Personally I don't like people advertising by pretending to be a user in love with the app, I don't buy that you are not connected with them.
 
mactually said:
I love smarttime... there are so many task managers out there - and they really all take the narrow minded approach. SmartTime really does it differently and has some cool features that make it unique.:)
Click to expand...


Actually, you are at it too! 2 posts and both singing the praises of an app others don't rate highly.

I will take LostLogik's advice and go with PocketInformant, the developers come on here, tell us they are the developers, answer all the questions, offer advice and accept the feedback - positive and negative. I like their honesty.
 
Relax, guys

I just happen to like the app. If you want to talk to the developers (which I do), they are very responsive and have a forum on their web site.
 
ifonivan said:
I just happen to like the app. If you want to talk to the developers (which I do), they are very responsive and have a forum on their web site.
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If you say so;) Interesting this isn't the only place you like to post reviews for this app, if you are not connected to smarttime you really should get out and see some other apps as this is average to good, there are a lot of brilliant apps out there.
 
MillieWales said:
You really should get out and see some other apps as this is average to good, there are a lot of brilliant apps out there.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the suggestion. I normally come to this forum to find out what the newest rumors are for Mac hardware. As for software, I've looked at all the other apps and they are basically calendars or tasks managers, but not both. There are some exceptions but in most cases, you have to make a compromise, like having your tasks separated from your schedules. I like how SmartTime organizes for you. I like it enough to feel compelled to write about it.
 
ifonivan said:
Thanks for the suggestion. I normally come to this forum to find out what the newest rumors are for Mac hardware. As for software, I've looked at all the other apps and they are basically calendars or tasks managers, but not both. There are some exceptions but in most cases, you have to make a compromise, like having your tasks separated from your schedules. I like how SmartTime organizes for you. I like it enough to feel compelled to write about it.
Click to expand...



that simply can't be true cause there is no comparison between smarttime and pocketinformant. also, you're new here buddy but when 99% of your posts have to do with hawking an app like smarttime, it's no wonder people think you're the dev or a friend of the dev simply trying to hype up sales. If you are the dev's buddy, i sure hope he's paying you something cause you have a tough job considering the app you're hyping hasn't been getting consistently good reviews and the avg of reviews puts the app at average to sub-average. No amount of hype you do will change that. Also, i haven't tried the app, but based on the screenshots, the app looks rather juvenile. it's simply not for me and based on the reviews also not for the majority of users who happened to have dished out the money for it.
 
ifonovan could be just trying to hype sales for SmartTime, but I also wouldn't be surprised if he was just a fan of the app, given what I've seen on SmartTime's forums.

Pocket Informant is great, and SmartTime's getting there.
 
Comparison

I have both PocketInformant and SmartTime on my phone. PI is syncing to ToodleDo, ST to a group of Google Calendars, so both sync with Outlook.

I've used PI for many years on my old Palm and bought it for the iPhone, too. For both tasks and schedule I prefer ST...it just feels easier to use. I think that PI went too far in trying to make the app be GTD, and it gets in the way of itself. ST is much simpler, and uses several GTD principles without making it obvious.

Perry
 
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