Reasons why a Native Android app should be a top priority
Roanna K.
via web
Reposted comments by request of David Drake :)
I think an Android app development should have the highest priority in the development team, for the following reasons:
1) Offline / anywhere access is pretty crucial from a "Gathering" or "Inbox" standpoint. Waiting until you can go somewhere with internet access is a huge disadvantage in terms of freeing up mental RAM, and the vast majority of people using GTD apps are much more likely to take their phone everywhere (and to a place without internet access) than take their laptop everywhere. So I think this takes precedence over (desktop) offline access.
2) There is absolutely nothing in the Android/Windows market that rivals Nirvana, either GTD-wise or UI-wise. I mean, the closest I've seen GTD-wise is Toodledoo, but its web application is REALLY UGLY. Remember the Milk is the big one everyone knows about, but it's basically a disorganized mess and you basically can't use GTD with it.
3) I know all dev teams want to do the iPhone app first, but here's a very good reason not to: most people who use the Apple products trinity (iPhone/iPad/Mac) already use (the very well established and highly functional) Omnifocus or Things. Also, Android now dominates the smartphone market share vs. iOS.
4) There are some nice GTD apps on the Android market, but I like the Nirvana mobile website (mostly), so I trust their UI development; plus, debugging syncing and cross-mapping features with a different development team is a huge pain and the kinks while that's being worked out are really irritating from an end-user point of view.
iPhone/iPad users, I'm not trying to shut you guys out here -- in fact, I would say an iOS app would be the 2nd highest priority, but I honestly know very few all-Apple people who don't use either Things or Omnifocus, so the iOS app would mainly appeal to the iPhone/iPad + Windows market, which is much smaller than the gaping hole that is the Windows/Linux + Android market.
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32 Posted by Phil on 10 Oct, 2011 10:17 AM
Yes, I've been using it. So far, i am liking it. The app is actually very similar to the new Siri functionality in the new iPhone.
In Vlingo, you can set it so that the app listens for speech input as son as you open it. Then you can say something like "Email Nirvana, subject: buy milk." it then creates an email addressed to my Nirvana inbox (from my contacts). It first shows you the email for confirmation,and you then just tap the send button. It is very cool.
You can also tell it to place phone calls, write text messages, update social network status, web search, and look up map directions. This is all on the iPhone, of course. I assume it would work similarly on Android.
33 Posted by Proximo on 11 Oct, 2011 10:19 PM
Vlingo sounds interesting but in 3 days, it won't matter. :-)
Siri is not simply voice recognition. It has hundreds of millions of dollars invested into it's AI before Siri purchased it and then Apple purchased it.
Siri traces its origins to a military-funded artificial-intelligence project called CALO, for "cognitive assistant that learns and organizes," that is based at the research institute SRI International. The project's leaders--including Cheyer--combined traditionally isolated approaches to artificial intelligence to try to create a personal-assistant program that improves by interacting with its user. Cheyer, while still at SRI, took a team of engineers aside and built a sample consumer version; colleagues finally persuaded him to start a company based on the prototype. Siri licenses its core technology from SRI.
Used Siri app for a long time and I look forward to using it in it's new integrated fashion on iOS 5.
34 Posted by Phil on 11 Oct, 2011 11:09 PM
@Proximo
Ha. Yea, I saw somewhere else on here that you're awaiting a 4S. So jealous. Siri looks really awesome, especially with the supposed raise to speak ability. I'm sticking with my iPhone 4 until the next iteration. Hoping for a jailbreak Siri at some point.
35 Posted by Proximo on 13 Oct, 2011 03:37 AM
I honestly think Siri can work on iPhone 4. I understand that it may need some more power to run faster to voice commands, but why not give the iPhone 4 user the option and let them wait a slightly longer time for the response.
Anyway. I am going from a 3GS to a 4S, so it makes sense for me to upgrade now.
36 Posted by Roanna Kong on 17 Oct, 2011 03:02 PM
I've definitely ended up going to different solutions just because Nirvana
development cycle is lagging so much. I do understand it's a lot of work,
but it seems like every day there are new and elegant solutions for
productivity management. Currently, I'm using a combination of Workflowy for
Inbox/disorganized thoughts, Astrid (and their new web-synced solution) for
mobile input, sorting and tasks, and Trello for projects. It's not perfect,
but it works well for now.