Reader Andrew Davidson appears to be a simple man with simple needs. Yet one of those needs is not addressed by Apple. He writes:
I have what I think is a very simple need regarding to-do lists. I would like to find a simple mechanism for maintaining to-do lists on both my Mac and iPhone, keeping them in sync with each other. I would also like to just use the native Mac/iPhone apps to do this, since my needs are modest, as is my budget. And I like the simplicity and clean UI of the native Mac apps. This seems like such a basic thing to want to do with all of these great platforms. Am I missing something?
The only thing you’re missing is the power to wave a wand and proclaim “Apple, seriously, this feature should have been there from Day One. Make it happen!” and lo, it happens. Regrettably, that power and wand are housed in a secret vault deep below Cupertino’s fertile strip-malls and not available to the general public.
While I understand that you’d like to do this with the native apps and within your budgetary constraints, there are times when it pays to pay. This is one of them. For a meager $5 (limited time only), you can have a copy of Appigo’s Todo (), a popular tasks app for the iPhone (there’s also an iPad version).
Our own Dan Frakes merits it good when he says, “There are plenty of simple to-do apps available for the iPhone—we reviewed a slew of them a few weeks back. But if you’re looking for something with more functionality, Appigo’s Todo 1.1.1 is one of the better options, and it doesn’t require a Ph.D. in Getting Things Done (GTD) to figure out how to use it.” [The current version is 3.4.3.]
Not only is it a fine and affordable tasks application, but when you download the beta version of Appigo’s free Appigo Sync, you can wirelessly (Wi-Fi) sync your iCal tasks with Todo (and vice versa). You can also use Todo to sync with Toodledo, the popular online to-do list.
It’s not all Apple-native, but it works.