Review: ToDo Checklist for iPhone

Developed Brain in Stock, ToDo Checklist lies somewhere in the middle, combining a basic list creation app with a sophisticated system of reminders and a full calendar of events.

Overview

At its most basic level, ToDo Checklist simply stores and reminds the user of planned tasks, and includes features such as alarms for notifications, the ability to create custom lists and add tasks to them, a note editor, the ability to specify particular due dates, and so forth.

The app does a great job of determining which of your tasks should take priority (based on the user assigning those tasks priority levels from one star to five stars), and reminding users of tasks that they have coming up, and when the deadline is for those tasks.

Besides serving as a task manager, the app is also useful for creating shopping lists, packing lists for traveling, and so forth. Adding and removing lists, as well as adding and removing items from those lists, is a pretty simple task – at least once you learn how everything works.  The app even allows users to share lists through SMS or email.

Another particularly useful feature of this app is that it allows the user to sync via Dropbox, so your lists and reminders aren’t lost if you need to restore or replace your device, and the app integrates well with Notification Center on iOS 5.

Concerns

I was also rather disappointed that there is no iPad version of this app. This dramatically reduces the usefulness of this app for me, as well as pretty much anyone who uses both an iPhone and an iPad.While the app does work well for basic list creation and scheduling purposes, however, it does have a few shortcomings. The app does not provide a way to sync with your iOS calendars in any way, which is a significant shortcoming, especially for people who have a number of events already in calendars on their iOS device.

Finally, I found the app’s interface to be quite confusing. The main screen in the app features two separate panes: one for tasks lists, and one for categories. Tapping on particular tasks lists allows you to add or remove items from the list. However, users cannot add tasks while viewing a category.

This caused a great deal of frustration, and could easily have been addressed by adding a tutorial or instructions of some sort within the app. Instead, the user is left to trudge through the interface on their own and figure out how the app works for themselves.

One final suggestion I would offer is to allow users to change the skin or theme of the app. The grey linen design that the app is based around doesn’t suit my style at all, and I would find it difficult to continue using this app for any significant period of time as a result.

While the basic idea of ToDo Checklist works well enough, the app does have a lot of room for improvement.

Verdict

Rating: 3/5[rating:3]

Priced at $1.99, this app has a lot of shortcomings, and considering that there are plenty of free and $0.99 apps out there, many of which are far more intuitive, feature-rich, and compelling to use, I would not recommend this app to most users.

ToDo Checklist is available now for $1.99 from the App Store ($1.99, App Store link).

Pros

• Integrates with Dropbox and iOS 5 notifications.
• Great for creating lists and reminders.
• Easily prioritize important tasks.
• Includes its own in-app calendar.

Cons

• Expensive.
• Does not integrate with iOS Calendar app.
• Interface can be confusing, and there is no tutorial explaining how to use the app.
• No iPad version.

This is a paid review via Review Roster.