Review: Headfinder for iPhone – A Reminder/Time Management App

If there is one thing I’m bad at, it is remembering things I need to do. I do fine on hitting deadlines for projects and articles, but I’m lousy at remembering when my wife wants me to pick up the dry cleaning, or asks me to bring home something for dinner. Enter “Headfinder”.

Headfinder is an easy to use reminder application. With just a few taps, you can easily set reminders for the things you need to accomplish as you go about your day.

Adding a reminder is a three-tap process. Upon starting the app, you’ll see the “Current” reminder screen. If you don’t have any tasks already set, the page will display famous quotes. Simply tap the “+” button in the upper right corner and you’ll be taken to the new task screen. There, you enter the task name, and if needed, a description of the task. Click “Done” and your task is added to the “Current” list. If you’d like to set a date, time, or countdown timer for the task, you can also set those in the new task window.

All tasks are split into three categories, “Current”, “Done”, and “”Missed”. Any of the categories can be viewed with one tap of the finger. A task in any of the categories can be edited by tapping the task, and then tapping the tiny “gear” that appears for the task. Also, if you have included any information in the description when adding or editing a task, the tap also displays that information. A task can be marked as “done” by tapping the icon to the left of the task.

 Once a task is set, Headfinder sits in the background until the time limit is reached for a task; you are then notified with a chime and a notification. (Headfinder seems to play well with others when displaying notifications while running under the new iOS5, which is the version I run on my iPhone 4.)

The ability to set reminders for either a time of day, or a set amount of hours and minutes is handy. I do wish it had the ability to also remind you of a task when you are arriving or leaving a location like the built in “Reminders” app in iOS5. Recurring reminders would also be handy.

The Verdict

Headfinder is a great little reminder app, and a worthy addition to your device. If you need a quick and easy way to get yourself to remember upcoming tasks, this is the app to use.

Rating: [rating:4]

Headfinder is available in the App Store for .99 cents.

This review was contributed by Chris Hauk.

Pros:

• Easy to use, all your tasks at a glance
• Three taps to enter a reminder
• Also allows description of task to be entered. Great for shopping lists.
• Plays well with other apps when reminding about a task.
• Easy to postpone a task.
• Has a fun feel to it.

Cons:

• When marking tasks completed in list view, it takes a couple of taps for the program to register the change. Could’ve been my fat fingers.
• When setting a time of day, times are in 24 hour format, for use in the USA it’d be nice to have times available in AM/PM format too.
• No ability to have a reminder alert when arriving or leaving a destination.