Archive for 'Shootup Comparisons'

To-Do List App Comparison “Shootup” Review

To-Do List App Comparison “Shootup” Review

Posted on 07. Feb, 2009 by iPhone App Reviewer.

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The iPhone is more then just your phone, music, and mobile phone gaming. It’s a productivity tool, some people even prefer it over their Blackberry or PDA. Now, everybody uses to-do lists, everybody with responsibilities has a list of tasks they need to do. Most people this time are now putting their to-do lists on digital devices, seeing as the iPhone has probably revolutionized your life, why not have your to-do list on it? Better than keeping a pad of paper with you wherever you go!

We’re going to compare the following apps:

We also wanted to include ‘Things’ in our review but unfortunately it will not be included.

More importantly, what do we want in a to-do list app? Here’s some requirements and bonuses I want in my to-do app of choice:

Requirements:

  • Multiple lists/categories
  • Date due and date started
  • Organized and appealing UI (user interface)
  • Subnotes/description for each list item
  • Customization and settings
  • Email list of tasks

Bonuses/Extras:

  • Notification outside app of how many uncompleted items
  • Sync with desktop application or web service
  • Multiple themes
  • List item tagging
  • Search list items
  • Switch sorting order
  • Quick item add

To-Do List by Concrete Software: [iTunes Link]

First up to bat is To-Do List by concrete software. This app is feature packed although suffers from a poor unappealing user interface. It also has a few glitches here and there that can be annoying. If you can mind past these and just look at the features then this is a pretty good to do list app. Although the user interface is somewhat disorganized, animations around the app are smooth, nothing is laggy, and no crashes. It features priorities which are easy to set as well as an easy way to email all your uncompleted tasks or per category. The app is however quick to navigate around but still looks rather unappealing. You can view each category of list items and view them by priority, due date, and title. You can specify if that task is to call or email somebody, and if so, it will allow you to link them from your contacts list. You can also set repeats so that the task will be recreated every specified interval.

Cons:

  • Not much settings
  • Settings outside of apps
  • Poor graphics appeal
  • Poor user interface

Requirements Met: 3/6

Extras Met: 0/6

Good for: If you can mind the user interface this is the best to do list app for the price of $2.99

Screenshots here

Todo by Appigo: [iTunes Link]

Now for my personal favourite, Todo by Appigo. Todo has an absolutely excellent user interface, and it’s feature packed. It has all the features To-Do List by Concrete and To-Do Lists by Tapku has, plus more, way more. One of the features people will see right away is the synchronization feature, this will allow you to sync it with it’s partner app Notebook and a few popular web services. My favourite feature of Todo is the quick add button. This allows you to quickly add an item on the go. There’s also a ton of settings to go along with the app. You can sort the items via a few paramaters which is very useful for organization. You can even customize the look with settings like the strikeout style (change how a completed task is marked). Another key feature that is simply fantastic is the tagging of items and searching. This is great for finding items you completed long ago. Todo is simply the best iPhone To-Do list application that I’ve seen, although you might not want to pay the $10 dollar price tag.

Cons:

  • Basic user interface (though it still looks great)
  • Price of $10 dollars might be steep for some people

Requirements Met: 5/6 (missed email lists, but it can sync so no loss)

Bonuses Met: 6/7

Good for: Best to-do list, if you want a feature packed great looking app this is for you.

Screenshots here

To-Do Lists by Tapku: [iTunes Link]

Last up to bat, To-Do Lists by Tapku.  If you’re looking for a cheap simple great looking to do list app this is for you.  It isn’t feature packed but does what needs to be done, great for just personal use, small lists like grocery shopping or a chores list.  It comes with two themes, both which look spectacular.  It’s also kind of enjoyable to cross out completed items as unlike other apps, you actually get to swipe a line across the item. There are some annoyances though, for one, you have to delete completed tasks as they don’t go to the bottom of the list or into a separate category.  Luckily, there’s an easy ‘Delete Completed Tasks’ button.  Adding tasks is easy and quick, it allows you to have subnotes, an action which can link to your contacts list, and even includes the date it was added.  There are some glitches and as said before, some annoyances which if you try to heavily use this app you will run into some roadblocks.

Requirements Met: 4/6

Bonuses Met: 3/7

Good for: A personal quick cheap to-do application.

Screenshots here

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Paid Twitter Client Shootup

Paid Twitter Client Shootup

Posted on 23. Jan, 2009 by iPhone App Reviewer.

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Twitter is a popular social networking “microblogging” site that “answers the question ‘What are you doing?’”  The iPhone and iPod Touch have many twitter clients to make posting and reading twitter in a mobile environment a breeze.  In this post, we’re going to do a “shootup” comparison review of all non-free twitter clients.  This includes, Tweetie, Tweetsville, Twittelator Pro, and Twitterrific Premium.  If you are not a twitter user I highly recommend you check it out here, http://twitter.com.  Enjoy!

For my ultimate twitter client for the iPhone there’s some requirements, and some features I’d like to have.

What We’re Looking For

  • Clean, friendly, user interface – Requirement
  • Refresh Button (no need to reload the app to get new tweets) – Requirement
  • Ability to reply to tweets and direct messaging – Requirement
  • User information – Bonus
  • Landscape viewing/posting – Bonus
  • Multiple account support – Requirement
  • Smilies/emoticons – Bonus
  • Built-in TinyURL/url shortening service – Requirement
  • Easy ‘insert picture’ into tweet feature – Requirement
  • Different colour schemes and themes – Bonus
  • Ability to load links in the app – Bonus
  • Ability to load links in Safari – Requirement
  • Characters left in message counter – Requirement
  • Insert location – Bonus
  • Twitter Trends – Bonus
  • Everyone’s Tweets View – Bonus
  • Select and view favourite tweets – Bonus
  • Settings in the app – Bonus
  • Scroll to last tweet read – Requirement
  • Ability to load x amount of tweets – Bonus
  • Twitter server error notification – Requirement
  • Copy and paste – Bonus
  • Easy to view messages and replies separately from normal tweet timeline – Requirement
  • Search through twitter – Requirement
  • Ability to follow/unfollow users – Bonus

Tweetie [iTunes Link]

Tweetie is probably the most popular paid twitter client in the app store.  If you want an experience closest to the desktop version of twitter in your browser, then this is for you.  The menu is neatly separated into Tweets, Replies, Messages, and Favourites; just like the normal version of twitter.  There’s also a more tab which gives us trends, information on the profile in use (following, followes, description, website, etc…Wink.  Tweetie takes advantage of the iPhone and iPod Touch’s location services to find nearby tweets which is cool for a night out on the town, or seeing updates on an event in your city.  Tweetie allows you to search a user and from there find out all about the user.  You can send him or her a reply or a direct message, follow/unfollow, view their followers and who they’re following and even search through the user’s tweets.  Clicking on an indvidual tweet will allow you to link to the tweet, send it in an email, favourite it, reply to it and then view the user who posted it.  One key feature of Tweetie is the ability to post tweets in landscape mode.  Tweetie has very easy to use multiple account support.

Cons:

  • Settings outside of app
  • I’m not a big fan of the tweet timeline part of the user interface.  You can customize it to your liking though.

Overall, tweetie is an impressive twitter clients and definitly serves up some serious competition to the other contenders.

Requirements Met: 10/11

Bonuses Met: 8/13

Overall Rating: 8.7/10

Good for: Light, multiple account tweeting while wishing for the closest environment to regular twitter.

More screenshots here

Tweetsville [iTunes Link]

Tweetsville was my first paid twitter client, I loved it but quickly realized others like Tweetie were much better.  The main thing I like about Tweetsville is it’s user interface, it’s perfect for my uses.  If only it allowed multiple account support though, once I had a personal and work twitter account I quickly got frusturated with switching between them.  Tweetsville is a pretty barebones twitter client in comparison to others.  When writing a tweet there is no location feature like other twitter clients, just photos.  You can easily view each tweet with and lots of options for each.  You’re also able to view individual’s profile and do everything standard twitter can.  A nice feature is it’s advanced twitter searching.

Cons:

  • No multiple account support
  • Interface isn’t nearly close to standard twitter
  • Lacks much settings

Requirements Met: 9/11

Bonuses Met: 6/13

Overall Rating: 7.2/10

Good for: Light, single account tweeting for users who are focused on following trends and news

More screenshots here

Twittelator Pro [iTunes Link]

Twittellator Pro is the best competitor to Tweetie, it packs some features in that no other twitter client on the iPhone/iPod Touch has.  This is for heavy duty tweeting folks!  the user interface is quite good, (at least for writing and viewing the timeline, I don’t like how the ‘Groups’ set up they have).  Some features you’ll notice when first looking at the timeline, if the tweet has a link in it there’s a quick access arrow to open that link in Safari.  There’s a quick access favourite selector and a reply button.  On tapping the center button on the bottom to write a tweet, a spectacular advanced editor pops up.  Like other clients it has photo and location insert, but it also adds emoticons/avatars and a copy and paste feature within the app.  Plus for easy @replies or direct messages there’s a button at the top that will pull up a menu in which you can select between all the people you follow.  Selecting an individual tweet will bring up a page with lots of useful information on it.  How many followers the user has, how many tweets, favourites, etc…  You can stop or start following the individual, open the user’s website in Safari.  There’s a quick link to send a direct private message to the user, and to view all of that user’s tweets on a single page.  Twittelator has easy multiple account suppot, trends, nearby tweets, advanced searching through twitter, favourite viewing, and a history of recent profiles you’ve looked at.  In my opinion, twitterlator pro is the best Twitter client, just barely outranking Tweetie.

Cons:

  • “Groups” menu not my thing

Requirements Met: 11/11

Bonuses Met: 11/13

Overall Rating: 9.5/10

Good for: Heavy duty, multiple account tweeting for users who are willing to pay the extra couple bucks for an all-in-one package

More screenshots here

Twitterrific Premium [iTunes Link]

Twitterrific Premium provides the best casual twitter experience.  Not to mention it’s the easiest on the eyes (and with a light or dark colour scheme).  Opening the app and hearing the delightful sound that you have new tweets is thrilling (ok that’s exagerrating but maybe just maybe….)!  The tweet timeline is pretty basic, showing avatar image, user, tweet, and how much time since the tweet was made.  Double tapping on a tweet however brings you to another spectacular looking page that allows you to favourite the tweet, reply to it, and view the user’s info.  The user info page again looks spectacular. They’re many settings to allow you to tweak just to your liking.

Cons:

  • No multiple account support!
  • Could use a separate timeline for replies and messages (there’s even room on the toolbar for this Razz )
  • $10 dollars

Requirements Met: 9/11

Bonuses Met: 9/13

Overall Rating: 8/10

Good for: Casual twittering with a beautiful interface

More screenshots here

To wrap up, we present some awards!

Best User Interface: Twitterrific Premium

Best Casual Twittering Experience: Twitterrific Premium

Best Features: Twittelator Pro

Best Multiple Account Support: Tweetie

Best Value for Price: Tweetie

Best Performace: Twitterrific Premium

Best Twitter Client: Tie! Twittelator Pro and Tweetie

Hope you enjoyed the post!  What did I end up keeping of the four?  Twittelator Pro.  It was sad to let the others go though…all have their pros and cons.

Vote below for your favourite!  And vote for other “best apps” here, http://www.iphoneappreviewer.com/best-apps/

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