Of a good task manager app. I always feel unorganized and don't have much time to keep everything sorted out. Thought an app might help. Something for meal planning, gym, appointments, and meetings. If it synced with my iPhone that would be a good bonus.

I tried searching for a thread but must not have looked very well since I am sure that you folks have already talked about this. Thanks!

I looked at several apps for this and, in the end, chose Pocket Informant HD.

I read that Pocket Informant was buggy but, in my (admittedly) limited experience, I’ve found no problems at all. It has a very nice user interface that's almost infinitely configurable - a complaint that many Forum members make about the iPad’s native ‘Calendar’ app. So you can choose how tasks, events, projects, appointments are colour coded and there is a wide choice of notifications and alarms - so, for example, you can have different alarm sounds for different categories of notifications.

Pocket Informant ‘sits on top’ of the iPad's native ‘Calendar’ app and (optionally) imports all entries that it finds there. They can be colour coded so they can be distinguished from entries made in Pocket Informant itself.

This is important because many other iPad apps use the native ‘Calendar’ app as the default place to put events, invitations etc. So, for example, if you are invited to a meeting by email and you receive that invitation in the iPad’s native ‘Mail’ app, that app can automatically (and quite cleverly) insert that invitation into the default calendar app. Without that integration between the native app and Pocket Informant, you'd have to enter those invitations all over again.

Pocket Informant has lots of ‘hidden’ features too. One of the reviewers remarked that part of the ‘fun’ of using Pocket Informant was discovering them!! The display is infinitely configurable - day, week, month, year at a time. Tasks, events, overdue tasks, projects, projects in progress etc etc all can be optionally displayed on the main calendar. Projects and tasks can have infinitely nested sub-tasks and projects - these can cleverly be integrated with GPS - so, say you needed to purchase some goods from the hardware store. Put that in a To-Do list and link it to the location of the hardware store using the iPad’s native ‘Maps’ app. Next time you’re driving past the hardware store, up pops the notification (‘Remember to purchase some 2”x4” timber’).

Repeating events are very flexible too, with the ‘custom’ mode being infinitely (I keep using that word!) configurable. So, meetings that occur on the last Thursday and first Monday of every other month - no problem.

It can sync with external calendars - Google for example - and back-up is cool, it creates a backup file that you can email to yourself for safe keeping. If you lose your iPad or all your data is corrupted, that backup can be imported back into Pocket Informant with a single click.

You can create multiple diaries within Pocket Informant - say ‘Work’, ‘Family’, ‘Golf Club’ etc and have their entries optionally displayed on the main screen or restricted to the display of the individual diary. So it’s easy to check if there’s a clash between the golf tournament and your wife's birthday - and hide it if there is......

If you surf to the developer’s web-site, you can download for free a very comprehensive User Manual that will show you in detail what Pocket Informant can do.

The developers are constantly updating the program - always a good sign in my view.

As I said at the beginning, perhaps I'm not a particularly demanding user, but I’ve had no stability problems at all. I should add the usual disclaimer that I have no contact or other relationship with the developers of Pocket Informant other than being a very satisfied customer.

Tim
Scotland

Totally agree with Tim, Pocket Informant HD is the best if it can be a little bit more stable. Unfortunately it occasionally crashes on my ipad.

You guys have almost got me convinced to switch. I just need to wait until next month when I have some spare cash. I need both versions and it's either wait or give up my morning coffee shop run for the rest of the week.

Awesome! I am definitely going to go check it out. Thanks for the help. Hopefully it can get me organized!

Originally Posted by twerppoet

You guys have almost got me convinced to switch. I just need to wait until next month when I have some spare cash. I need both versions and it's either wait or give up my morning coffee shop run for the rest of the week.

Nothing is worth giving up the coffee shop run....

Tim

Pocket Informant HD plus 1

Annoying thread title

Stick with the coffee.
Have a loathing of all task mangers as they make me feel bullied rather than empowered.
Anarchy ftw!

That said fullsome advertisement Tim.

Definitely pocket informant. Best app ever, it has all my birthdays, anniversaries, appointments, school timetable, oh I could go on and on but that cup of coffee does beckon me Hasty. I'm afraid I need something to remind me of all this information, the older I get!