Review: VITO Task2Gather

VITO Technology recently announced their Task2Gather client for Windows Mobile devices.  Task2Gather is a task management system that has been available for free on the web and also via their iPhone app.  It is a simple, yet powerful way to keep up with projects, lists, tasks, and many other things you can think of.  I have been using the web client for several weeks along with the iPhone version, so I was very pleased to start using the Windows Mobile application

What is Task2Gather?  Here is the official product description from VITO Technology:

Task2Gather for Windows Mobile is a task manager that helps you to be organized and successful in everything you do. Task2Gather allows you to create, edit and share tasks on the go.

All your personal, family, and business tasks are saved in the web cloud and can be accessed not only from your Windows Mobile device but also from your desktop PC or Mac.Task2Gather performs greatly not only as a personal to-do or shopping list but also as a collaborative tool for reaching common team goals.

Even if your family members, friends, or colleagues don’t have Windows Mobile device, they can work with you from a desktop PC, Mac or even iPhone. The idea of updating your shopping list while you are in the shop will be to your wife’s liking.

How does Task2Gather manage all of this?  Can Task2Gather somehow change the way I view task management (I usually have between 30-50 tasks per week)?  Keep reading to find out.

Task2Gather does not follow the standard Windows Mobile layout.  This probably reflects on the move to make everything more touch friendly.  VITO Technology has been one of the pioneers of making Windows Mobile a touch experience with Winterface and I can see a lot of those elements in Task2Gather.  Here you enter your email address and password that you use on the web.  One gripe I have is that there is no option for remembering your password and logging in automatically.  Windows Mobile has its own security features, so I feel that I should not have to enter my password anytime I want to quickly check on my tasks and projects.  The other issue with having to login each time is that it pulls down fresh information from the web every time you login.  This is a good thing, but it pulls the information down, it does not synchronize the information.  As far as I can tell, there is no information actually stored on your device.  If you do not have a network connection, be aware that you may not be able to use this application.

If you do not have an account yet, you can click on the “Have no account?” button and you will be given a screen to enter your details to register for an account.  Bravo to VITO on this.  I have been seeing more and more applications that will just tell you to go to their website to register, and that really annoys me to no end.

When you login, you are presented with the Projects screen that shows all of your projects.  You can create them on the web and they will show up here.  If you create them here, they will show up on the web.  This really is cloud computing at its best.  You have the option here to add a new project by clicking on the plus symbol at the upper-right of the screen.  You can also logout to go back to the login screen.  Unfortunately, this is the only way to truly exit from the program.

If you are creating a new Project or just editing a current one, you get the screen above.  If you share a project with another participant, you can assign it to them using this screen.  You can also change the color (status).  There are currently only 6 color options available.  Any comments you enter will be added to the “Discussion & changes history” that you see at the bottom.  This is really a great feature because it lets you keep a conversation going with anyone that is a participant in the project.  It is also a good place for you to leave notes for yourself (see below).  This also shows any changes you or another participant makes to the task such as time spent, estimated time to complete, deadline, and even status/color changes.

You can also add a deadline to the task.  I really wish that Task2Gather would have the option to remind you on the day that the task is due.  I see no reason that is not an option on Windows Mobile since it has such a flexible notification system built into the OS.  Part of this could be due to the fact that the information is not stored locally, which I hope VITO can change in a future release.

The most powerful features of Task2Gather is the fact that you can create tasks and subtasks.  Here I have my “grocery” list and I created a task for each store that we may need to get items from.  I guess I should rename this to “shopping list” seeing as BestBuy is one of the stores, but this makes it seem like BestBuy items are things I really need!  Anyway, this would let my wife and I assign items to an individual store.  You can see the difference in the icons beside BestBuy/Target and Bi-Lo.  Bi-Lo is the only store with subtask items, so it shows up with a different icon.

You complete a task by either clicking on the empty box or you can click on the item and mark it complete on the details screen.

Task2Gather seems like a simple task/project management system, and it is.  In adding the ability to create multiple levels of subtasks along with the collaboration abilities of the discussions, it really makes this a project manager’s dream.  If you are a Franklin Covey type of task user, this may not be complicated enough for you, but I do believe that Task2Gather has changed the way I plan a lot of my tasks that I used to keep in simple lists.  I may still use Pocket Informant for some recurring tasks, but Task2Gather will be my new daily applications that helps keep my life organized.

Here are some of my favorite things about Task2Gather:

• Simple to use without ever reading the user manual.
• Great touch interface that navigates without hiccups.
• Project sharing that is simple, yet powerful.
• Sub-tasks give you flexibility to setup task lists and projects the way you want them to be, not the way a programmer thinks they should be.
• The ability to keep your tasks synced up between your device, any participant’s device, and the web makes this a true project management solution that can be used on the go.
• The time tracking features (time spent vs. estimated time to complete) along with the changes history means that you will always be able to go back and see how much time you or another participant has spent on the project.

I think that VITO did an outstanding job with their initial Windows Mobile release of Task2Gather, but I also feel they have some room for improvement.  Here are the top features that I would like to see in upcoming versions:

• Offline task storage.  I know that most Windows Mobile devices are connected, but not everyone wants to use their data plan just to view their tasks.  It would also help for those times that we are roaming or in an area without coverage.
• Auto-login.  I know it is more secure to have to login every time, but Windows Mobile provides ways of protecting our devices, and we should use those.  Right now it feels a lot like a fancy web app, and not a full-fledged Windows Mobile application.  I do not want to have to login to my account every time I just need to see what task I should be working on next.
• Non-touch navigation.  I know that a lot of people are infatuated with touch these days.  Windows Mobile however, was not built around touch.  Most phones these days use 4-way navigation and a lot of people would rather use that then touch their screens as the only way to navigate.  This is really the only thing that truly disappointed me about Task2Gather.  Even if all the navigation does is highlight the different features in the current interface, I think it should be an option on a Windows Mobile device.
• Easier option to exit the application.  The only way to exit the application right now is to logout.  I would like to see an option to enable me to exit the program from any current screen without having to drill back up to the Project List and logout.
• Integrate with Windows Mobile reminder system.  I understand that this is not possible on the iPhone, but I see no reason that Task2Gather cannot use the Windows Mobile reminders for a task.  Windows Mobile does not lock applications out of this, so I feel that a task management application especially should take advantage of this.
• Tweak the date picker (lower sensitivity and add calendar).  The current date picker seems like it was ripped out of the iPhone (which is not always a bad thing), but I find it to be a little too sensitive and the lack of a calendar makes it hard to always schedule appointments for the correct dates.  There are a lot of things I want to schedule on the 2nd Tuesday of the month, and I do not always know that date without a calendar.
• Today screen plugin.  This would be a really great feature for those of us that abuse our Today screen’s ability to organize our lives to the fullest.  This is not a make or break issue, but I think it would be something very nice to add down the road.

I have faith that VITO will improve on Task2Gather because I have seen the ways they have improved on Winterface and other applications.

While there is definitely room for improvement, I think Task2Gather is a steal for $4.99 as a solution for keeping your life organized.  The free web interface and fact that there is an iPhone client (also currently $4.99) just makes it that much better since it means that you can add participants that are not Windows Mobile users.  Head over to the Task2Gather Windows Mobile site and take a step towards organizing your life.

If you have other ideas for VITO Technology on Task2Gather, leave a note below.  I know that they enjoy user feedback and if you followed our Winterface review, you know that many of those changes came from your comments here.

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