Submitted by Frank Macey on
Apple promises to help organize your life into a series of to-do lists with the Reminders feature coming this fall in iOS 5. Integration with the mobile operating system on your iPhone or iPad sounds great, but if you don't want to wait for iOS 5 you can have this functionality right now.
There are two popular apps available on the Apple App Store that can be installed free and will help you use your iOS device to create reminders and task lists today. Both apps are found in the Productivity section of the App Store. First we'll discuss Wunderlist, which has companion apps for desktop computers and even a web app that syncs with your lists.
Syncing with the Wunderlist cloud is completely free on every device, provided when you first start using the app you register for a free account. Registering makes it possible to use email to share lists and receive push notifications directly from the cloud. You can send tasks from your email directly to Wunderlist to add them to a list, assign due dates, prioritize, and see badge notifications for due and overdue tasks.
The second reminder-style app is Remember the Milk (RTM). With RTM you get one free sync per 24-hour period without a subscription. It's possible to configure the app to remind you of tasks that are coming due via text messaging, email or instant messenger, however these features are set on the RTM website. Pro features are available via subscription for $2.99 per month or $24.99 for the entire year. This also adds unlimited syncing with the cloud.
Pro features also add push notifications and badge updates. Another feature of RTM is that your lists will sync on various applications including iCal, Gmail, Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook and Twitter among others. RTM will also organize tasks by location and list nearby tasks, plus you can create repeating tasks and use the search function to create smart lists of items sharing specific criteria.Overall, Wunderlist and RTM are great productivity-increasing reminder apps that give you the functionality of iOS 5 Reminders right now.