Great app, but HORRIBLY outdated!! – Things Review

UPDATE – Sept. 13th, 2016: Well, Cultured Code released an update today, and as usual, it provides absolutely nothing of value. It contains invisible bug fixes, but nothing whatsoever to improve the user experience. So thanks again for yet another long wait followed by yet another huge disappointment! ORIGINAL REVIEW: Like many of you, I've been following Cultured Code's progress (or LACK of progress) for years now, hoping against hope that one day they will actually listen to their paying customers' feedback. But alas, they never do. Version 3 for iOS was promised over 2 years ago, and there is still no sign of it. So where do I start… PROS - The Mac version is brilliant. It takes a while to learn all the keyboard shortcuts, but once you've got it, adding and editing items is fluid and intuitive. - Things has the most powerful and flexible Recurring Date options I've ever seen. You can schedule a recurring To Do on any sequence except for the first or last Mon, Tue, etc. of the month. - Wonderful date picker. - I used to hate having to do the "Daily Review" manually, but now I love it. This forces me to start my day by intentionally ordering my priorities. CONS - Bloody expensive! You'll have to sell one of your kids to afford Things for your Mac, iPhone and iPad. For that kind of money, you'd think they would show a little more respect to their loyal customers by implementing requested updates sooner, or at all. By the way, I ran a software development company for 23 years, and I do NOT mind paying a lot for quality apps... IF the users are actually listened to, and IF the app gets updated with substantive improvements on a fairly regular basis. NEITHER are taking place with Things, and that's what really annoys me. - A huge gap exists between the Mac version and the iOS version. There is a long list of functions that can ONLY be performed on the Mac, but they CANNOT be done on iOS. Why the heck not? This is just laziness on the developer's part, and it severely cripples Things on iOS. So when I'm away from my office and realize I need to create a Repeating Project, or add a new Contact to Things, well, I can't. I have to create a new To Do so I'll remember to do it when I get back to my MacBook. How ironic! - The iOS version requires way, way, WAY too many taps to navigate anywhere. Users have raised this complaint for years, but as we've come to expect, Cultured Code sits on their hands and says, "Who cares!" If you've drilled down into a Project and its To Do's, it can take up to SIX taps just to return to the Home page. SIX! Multiply that by the number of times users do that every day and it doesn't take a genius to see how much time is being wasted. Come on guys, for the love of God, add a freakin' HOME button already! Or are you not smart enough to know how to do that? - When looking at any list of To Do's, it takes THREE taps to even be able to BEGIN editing the To Do. This could be made simpler. - When trying to edit Tags, you are forced to first tap the Edit button, and then tap the Tag you want to edit. Why?! Tapping on the Tag currently does nothing, and since we're already in the "Edit Tags" section, shouldn't that imply we want to, you know, EDIT them? Why not just open the Edit page whenever a Tag is tapped on? The Edit button should only be needed for rearranging the Tags. Same goes for editing Areas. - These time-consuming problems I've listed above, plus many others, could easily be resolved if the app were updated to use actions like tap and hold, double tap, additional swipe gestures, pop-ups, etc. But every single action in this entire app happens only by single taps, and this creates an unbelievably slow navigation process! This is horribly outdated functionality, and further evidence that these developers are years behind the times. - On the Next view, there is no way to change the sort order of Projects and Areas of Responsibility on that page. - After moving To Do's from Next to Today, they STILL show up on the Next page. This is utterly confusing! If I've "MOVED" an item to Today, it can't still be in Next! The whole purpose of the Next view is to scan for items you HAVEN'T YET moved to your Today list. I just don't get it. When any item is moved from Next to Today, it should completely disappear from the Next view to provide a cleaner, less cluttered list of exactly which items you still might need to move to the Today view. - Their instructions say you should constantly switch between Today and Next in order to transfer To Do's from Next to Today. No problem. Except when you're in Today, you have to back out of it to the Home page, THEN go into Next from there. Doing this throughout the day every day feels like constantly putting your car in Drive, then Reverse, then Drive, then Reverse, over and over again. Gee, I don't know… here's a crazy thought… why not add a button on the bottom of both pages that would let us instantly toggle back and forth between Today and Next with one simple tap? Hmmm? - When adding "Assigned To" people via Things on the Mac, it only displays each person's FIRST name. Oookaay… what if we have two people named Jim or Beth (which we do)? Good luck figuring out who's who! - STILL no Due Times for To Do's. - STILL no alarms for any To Do's. - STILL can't attach photos or files to any item. - STILL can't do rapid-entry of To Do's. - STILL no location-based alerts. - STILL can't do anything whatsoever with Assigned To people in iOS. - STILL can't rearrange Projects in iOS. - STILL can't duplicate To Do's or Projects in iOS. - STILL no Undo capability in iOS. - STILL can't create sub-tasks in any To Do. Well, I could go on, but you get the idea. This really is a wonderful app, but it is sorely outdated and in desperate need of a renewal. It looks and feels like an app from the iPhone 3 days. Come on guys, you've earned a reputation for being stagnant. When are you going to wake up?
Review by HeresMyTwoCents on Things.