Windows Phone Wednesday: What do you use to manage tasks?
There is no Task support in WP7, but there are plenty of 3rd party app developers that have stepped up to fill this gap. Check out a few select ones I found in the Marketplace.
Last week there were 9,035 apps in the Marketplace at the time I wrote my post, based up on the count on the Marketplace Browser website, and this week we are up to 9,586. This growth of 551 apps is greater than the 400 apps per week that we saw in January. You can see on the WP7 Applist site that there is an average of 128 apps being updated a day. At this rate, it is likely we will see Microsoft pass 10,000 apps for WP7 next week.
We see one new game with Xbox LIVE support this week, called Burn It All!, priced at $2.99. As usual, I installed the trial version to test out the game. While the colors and graphics are nice, I wasn't really into the gameplay of this one and will stick with the many other ones I have already installed.
The Deal of the Week (DotW) this week is Star Wars: Battle for Hoth for $2.99. The regular price is $4.99 so this is a nice deal and one of my favorite tower defense games on Windows Phone 7.
I wasn't sure about a theme for this week, but I received some questions from readers and decided to take a quick look at apps that support tasks. Unfortunately, Microsoft did not include the ability to sync WP7 devices with Outlook Tasks so you have to seek out 3rd party options. I personally have a OneNote note setup with the label of Task List and have it pinned to the Start page. I also use Evernote on my non-WP7 devices and look forward t the day they support this platform.
WinMilk Task Manager: I have heard a lot of great things about Remember the Milk and if you are a user of this app on other devices, you can find WinMilk Task Manager that syncs with your online account. The app supports local caching of apps for offline access, note adding and editing, sharing by SMS/email, and more. It is available for FREE and I may just have to give this a try soon.
ToDoTask: This one seems to be fairly highly rated and has a great looking UI. With ToDoTask can filter your tasks, share the task via SMS or email, and more. It also supports hardware keyboards like the one on my Dell Venue Pro or the upcoming Sprint HTC Arrive. It is available for FREE.
CleverToDo: CleverToDo is modeled to help you use your WP7 device with the David Allen Getting Things Done methodology. It features a Live tile, global search, cloud backup support, and more. It is priced at $2.99, but there is also a trial version and I am testing it out now myself.
APPA Mundi Tasks: I searched in the Marketplace and found that APPA Mundi Tasks lets you sync with your Exchange server to provide a task experience that I expected from Microsoft. It is a $3.99 app with a trial version, but it does have a Live tile, status reports via email, and more. BTW, it appears as Tasks in your application list. I tried it and the fact that it syncs with Exchange may actually turn this into a must-have app for me.
Lists & Things: Many people use tasks mainly for to do and shopping lists and it looks like Lists & Things may be one of the highest rated apps to provide this functionality. It is setup to allow you to create these two types of task lists quickly and easily with a slick user interface. You can even include images in your task, which can be handy for things like Christmas shopping lists. The shopping lists can be completed as you shop and then re-used at a later date. Lists & Things is available for FREE.
I do not have major task needs like some people and tend to either create task "appointments" on my calendar or use the OneNote functionality for my basic lists. What do you use or recommend for task management on Windows Phone 7?
BTW, this has nothing to do with tasks, but one of my favorite all-time fitness apps is now on WP7. Runkeeper is already available for iOS and Android devices so you can use multiple devices and sync your fitness info to the cloud. I am more motivated to run when I have a GPS tracking application due to the social sharing aspects where my friends can encourage me to get going. I have tried a few others, but Runkeeper is my favorite and now I can use it and listen to my Zune music.
