Hey: Don’t forget to take the garbage out.
And just in case today isn’t your trash day, there’s an easy way you can keep reminding yourself without Macworld’s help: India-based Caramel Cloud has released Notificant for iPhone. The app, which works hand-in-hand with the Notificant Web service and the $5 companion Mac App Store app, focuses on making sure you don’t forget to do the things you want to do.
When you tap new entries into Notificant on your iPhone, you can choose whether to get reminded on your phone, on your Mac(s), via e-mail, or some combination thereof. Since the sync works in all directions, you can also create new reminders with the Mac app that will harass you on your iPhone at the appropriate time.
Tapping in a new reminder is as simple as you’d expect. You tap the Plus (+) icon and immediately start typing the text for your notification. Next, you tap to set the reminder time. The app smartly prevents you from adding a reminder in the past, which which is helpful for most of us, though it does make the app a terrible choice for time travelers. Finally, you choose where you’d like to receive your reminder—and then you can forget all about it. At least, until Notificant sounds a reminder for you 45 minutes later. You can review archived reminders and edit upcoming ones, too.
I’ve previously used the free Pester app for similar one-off reminders, but it’s Mac-only; Notificant’s Web-based cross-device syncing seems like a clear advantage. Of course, you could always rely on iCal (on the Mac) and Calendar (on the iPhone), and sync your reminders via MobileMe, Google Calendar, or another means. But then you’ll suffer the calendar alert cacophony when all your devices try to remind you about something at the same time since, unlike Notificant, that approach offers no means of specifying which devices should sound which alerts. Notificant’s reminder entry screen also offers less friction than creating even a simple iCal event.
Notificant costs $3 and requires iOS 4.0 or later.
Disclaimer: Caramel Cloud CEO Aayush Arya is an occasional Macworld contributor. He is, unsurprisingly, good at remembering to turn in his freelance assignments on time.