In the Oven: iPod Nano for On-the-Go GTD Action
Chris Messina of Factory City writes:
“I’d love having my tasks on my ipod!”
Me too!
I sent a long winded brain dump cleverly disguised as an email, including this little bit:
“One other setup I have been dreaming about is a nano collection device. Now that the iPod nanos have mic capability, it would be cool if one of the hardware manufacturers made a nano-sized mic (just the width of its base, sort of like the Nike+ kit). This would allow transporting of actions, quick collection via voice notes… all a dream at the moment but…”
Five days later, XtremeMac’s new nano-sized mic showed up on TUAW. Later that night, Actiontastic was writing to my nano. This was just too cool to pass up.
So, yes, iPod syncing is in the oven for your next Actiontastic update, due out before your current one expires. A nano isn’t really required as any iPod with audio input will work, but I think the nano’s size makes it a winner here. As always, the upcoming release will quietly upgrade your data when you install it, this time adding the ability to select contexts (like @errands) for iPod syncing. (Other goodies based on your comments and email are in the release too :-)
A Tiny Request
If you happen to have some sort of mini manufacturing facility in your home (and who doesn’t these days?), I have a little request: please build a nano accessory and embed a tiny mic right into the piece of attachable hardware instead of requiring a bulky extension or silly looking lapel mic.
To be fair, XtremeMac’s mic seems to target higher quality audio over voice memo-style convenience. I can almost understand this. Perhaps they have achieved a nice level of success with this approach in the full sized iPod market. In my own humble opinion, having a floppy mic sticking out of a nano is a bit of a design philosophy clash, perhaps even a misunderstanding of the market. I own both an old school iPod and a nano. The entire reason for buying a nano is its size…the ease of which you can place great podcasts, essential music, and audiobooks in your pocket and hit the road.
While We’re on the Subject of Big Ideas in Small Packages…
Messina, along with designer extraordinaire Wolfgang Bartelme, have created a standard set of microformat icons announced today on Wolfgang’s blog. Chris has published the icons for download on his site.
Obyor wrote:
Hm… “Sync to iPhone”… Sweet…
Posted on 07-Dec-06 at 3:02 am | Permalink
Jon wrote:
@Obyor:
I hope some of those iPhone rumors are true. I would *love* to add a “Sync to iPhone” button to the app!
Posted on 07-Dec-06 at 5:20 am | Permalink
Oliver Nielsen wrote:
Can I check off items on an iPod?
Posted on 07-Dec-06 at 7:25 am | Permalink
Jon wrote:
@Oliver:
At the moment, no. Maybe I should revise my hardware request and ask that the maker of said hardware to allow me to embed a complete Actiontastic interface on the device. That would rock.
Posted on 08-Dec-06 at 5:11 am | Permalink
Oskar L-B wrote:
Great idea. But don’t forget to get all the other fixes into next build, like multiple selection ;)
Posted on 08-Dec-06 at 11:30 am | Permalink
CM Harrington wrote:
I have another feature request. This one actually keeps me from switching from KGTD:
The concept of “Super Projects”. Basically, this says that every action belongs to a project, but any project can belong to a super project. For example, a Super Project may be “HBO Redesign” and in that, you’d have projects: “Create Wireframes”. In that, you’d have actions: “Create Homepage Wireframe, Create Landing Page Wireframe”… If I recall, the Super Project idea was pretty popular in the KGTD realm.
Posted on 08-Dec-06 at 4:49 pm | Permalink
Detlef wrote:
Any chance for a sync to Palm Treo? That would be great.
Posted on 10-Dec-06 at 8:21 am | Permalink
Benson wrote:
great app. downloaded it today and using it it to max already :)
any export features planned? it would be great just to dump everything into a html file or something like that “to go.”
Posted on 12-Dec-06 at 1:13 am | Permalink
Jon wrote:
@Oskar L-B:
I can’t promise multiple-selection in the very next build but I am working on it. The core of why it isn’t immediate is that it involves filtering tweaks, but I haven’t forgotten about this request :-)
@CM Harrington:
At the moment, Actiontastic tries to keep everything atomic for simplicity’s sake. I can see how nesting projects would help define a dependency but wonder if the upcoming date features (start date, due date, pausing) will help with this. When you have a chance to check them out, I would be interested in hearing your ideas about these trade offs if you have the time.
@Detlef:
Treo sync (via iCal) is in the works.
@Benson:
Export features are indeed planned. Lots of this post’s iPod syncing code provided the foundation.
Posted on 12-Dec-06 at 7:22 am | Permalink
Kaydo wrote:
Been using Actiontastic for a month or so now and am extremely pleased. Way to go. I apologize if this has been asked already, but until sync features are included, is there any way to use the app across multiple computers? I have one computer I use at home, and another at work, and carry an external drive between the two. I’d love to have access to my lists on both computers. Thoughts?
Posted on 12-Dec-06 at 8:51 pm | Permalink
Jon wrote:
@Kaydo:
There may be a way to keep these lists in sync by copying your ~/Library/Application Support/Actiontastic/Actiontastic.sqlite file from one machine to the other, but this is completely untested and unsupported at the moment. Make backups if you want to try this. I should know if this is a feasible workaround shortly. Of course, web syncing will take care of this in a nice way, but that won’t be available until the 0.9 series is out.
Posted on 13-Dec-06 at 7:02 am | Permalink
kaydo wrote:
Thanks for the help! I copied the .sqlite file over, and it seemed to work. I’ll keep trying this for a few days and see how it goes. Can’t wait to see the next version!
Posted on 13-Dec-06 at 11:32 am | Permalink
Jerome wrote:
Hi, just want to know if you’re gonna release a beta before the 18th. Or is there a workaround to use the application anyway after the 18th? I use actiontastic for a lot of my tasks so I may get in trouble after the 18th if it doesn’t work anymore ;-)
Thank you for your great job
Posted on 17-Dec-06 at 5:29 pm | Permalink
Jon wrote:
@Jerome:
Thank you. Yes, a new version will be out tonight, before your current version expires. All of these free betas are released back-to-back so that you aren’t left hanging :-)
Posted on 17-Dec-06 at 6:04 pm | Permalink
CM Harrington wrote:
@Jon: “I can see how nesting projects would help define a dependency but wonder if the upcoming date features (start date, due date, pausing) will help with this. When you have a chance to check them out, I would be interested in hearing your ideas about these trade offs if you have the time.”
Yeah, I use start and end dates, and they’re great, although they really don’t address the need for superprojects. The two are orthogonal. Without superprojects, I have a redundancy when I create a project, as I have to put the name of the superproject into all the project names, and that’s kinda lame.
Keep up the good work! At this rate, you’ll knock the Omni guys out of the block!
Posted on 18-Dec-06 at 4:29 pm | Permalink
eDragonu - a view on the world » Blog Archive » GTD software race - close run wrote:
[…] Actiontastic made its move and launched 0.8.3 version, which basically sync to iPod now (a feature announced several weeks ago). The blog post annoucing this is also a little rebel, and instead of bulleted lists of features it just tells a story about how the software might be used. […]
Posted on 18-Dec-06 at 5:43 pm | Permalink
Ian wrote:
Uh-oh… looks like a bug with iCal sync. I’m finding that “Start” dates for Actiontastic actions are getting translated into *completion* dates for iCal ToDos. And that means anything with a start date in the past is treated by iCal as completed, which means I don’t see it on my ToDo list… Urp!
I’ve made heavy use of start dates, so now I can’t trust iCal sync much at all. 8-{
Posted on 16-Jan-07 at 8:27 am | Permalink
Ian wrote:
Sorry, accidentally stuck that comment on the wrong blog entry. My bad. I’ve re-posted it on the appropriate (Actiontastic 0.9) entry.
Posted on 16-Jan-07 at 8:30 am | Permalink