listingly

Review: Create and manage to-do lists with the basic Plain Tasks for iPhone

With so many to-do list apps for the iPhone, how do you know which ones are best suited for your needs? For the casual user, a free app is the best option, but there are hundreds of them to choose from, and some offer only marginal improvements over what Apple's Reminders app does. With Plain Tasks, you can enhance your to-do list creation without taking on dozens of tools you'll likely not need with this elementary yet effective, free app.

Plain Tasks operates exactly as you would expect. Upon opening, you are presented with a white screen and … Read more

Review: List Master Lite for iPad lets you create, manage, and share lists

The iPad is a perfect device for creating, tracking, and managing your lists. It's mobile, it's constantly connected for mobile syncing, and the interface is intuitive enough to make entry and editing a snap. So the List Master Lite app has a lot going for it; it's a free app that provides many of the same tools as the expensive productivity tools on the App Store. But does it do enough to provide a realistic alternative to those pricey apps?

When you first open List Master Lite, a handful of pop-ups will warn you about the trial … Read more

Prevent automatic scrolling in the OS X Finder

The OS X Finder offers a number of different views for organizing folder contents; however, in some of these views you may notice periodically that contents will shift around. This usually is not an issue, but sometimes it may result in the window view switching to a different position, resulting in you losing your place. This can be especially frustrating when you are managing a long list of items in a folder and the view keeps returning to a specific locaiton in the list.

This generally happens because you have the Finder view listed by date modified or a similar … Read more

How to add line breaks between list items in OS X Mail

When composing messages in OS X Mail, you have the option to use the program's built-in list tool to keep numbered or bulleted lists properly formatted, but you may find its formatting options to be a bit limited.

The list generator is not intended to be a complex option; however, by default it only displays one list entry per paragraph, so if you attempt to create a line break to separate list items or add multiple paragraphs per item, the default behavior is to simply append new list entries.

This can be a bit annoying to deal with, and … Read more

How to use optional list-sorting methods in the OS X Finder

When you view a Finder folder in both standard lists and the Cover Flow view in OS X, you have the option to sort the list by any of the view's columns.

By default, these are the item's Name, Date Modified, Size, and Kind (for example folder, picture, PDF) which you can click to sort in either an ascending or descending list. However, there are some additional ways to locate the files you need.

Add more columns In addition to the default column categories, OS X includes a number of others that can be enabled on a per-folder … Read more

Synchronize note-taking with recordings, with Pear Note for Mac

For students or professionals who often have to take notes during lectures, organizing them can prove difficult. Pear Note for Mac works well to track audio and typed notes in one program for later reference and organization.

While the full program costs $39.99 to purchase, a free, 14-day trial is available. Download and installation of Pear Note for Mac were fast, and startup occurred without any user interaction beyond accepting a licensing agreement. No instructions were easily available, but the interface is fairly easy to interpret and use. The program's basic graphics were a disappointment, but the layout … Read more

Features we want in an Apple iWatch

Does the world really need an Apple iWatch?

Probably not, but the only thing I'm sure of is that I've been consistently wrong when it comes to guessing what people will buy. I still remember when Apple launched the iPad and I was absolutely certain that the name "iPad" was a kiss of death. I also remember believing in my heart that the Microsoft Zune would eventually win people over.

If Apple does release a smartwatch this year (and the jury's still out on that one), it would have to solve a number of problems … Read more

Astrid integrates with Siri for voice-powered reminders

I rely pretty heavily on the iOS Reminders app -- not because it's especially good (it's not), but because it works with Siri. I love being able to dictate tasks ("Remind me to call Bob at 3 o'clock," for example) while I'm driving or otherwise hands-occupied.

That's a key reason I've stuck with Reminders, even when there are so many other better to-do-list apps out there. Thankfully, one them just offered a chance at liberation: Astrid now offers Siri integration.

In case you're not familiar with it, Astrid is widely regarded … Read more

List an OS X folder hierarchy with TextWrangler

The OS X Finder is a great tool to use for organizing your documents and projects into folder hierarchies; however, it is a bit limited. If you would like to save this hierarchy as a list in a file then the Finder and OS X does not provide these options. While the Finder does support printing a folder's listings by dragging a folder to a print queue, this is about the limit of the options for listing folder items.

One alternative to this is to use screenshots; however, these are static images in which items cannot be selected and … Read more