Online Technology News: wunderlist is a cross-platform free to-do list manager

Saturday, December 11, 2010

wunderlist is a minimalistic, pretty to-do list manager. Here's a quick rundown of what it can and can't do:

Pros:

Looks: It looks quite pretty. You can change the background, and it's generally just lovely.
Simplicity: That can also be considered a bad thing, I guess, but wunderlist is very simple. There are no nested tasks, for example.
Multiple lists: You can easily create extra lists for different contexts and move items between lists.
Fast search: Search is "live" and updates as you type. It's very snappy, but I only tested it with a tiny list.
Quick filtering: There are quick links to see tasks due today, tomorrow, within the next seven days, etc. You can also filter by "starred" tasks.
Online sync: When you save the file, it's automatically synced to wunderlist's online server. Then you can run wunderlist on another computer and keep working on the same task list. I love this feature.
Cross-platform: It works with OS X and Windows at this point. The Windows version doesn't feel "native" at all, though - it feels like a Mac app running in a Windows window.

Cons:

Simplicity: There's no smart text processing. If I tell it "Buy food tomorrow," it doesn't realize "tomorrow" is a deadline. It's the same for "Talk to Josh @work" - it doesn't make a list with "@work" (or add to it if it exists).
No documentation: I know people never read it, but come on, technical writers have to earn a living somehow! Seriously though, I would expect at least an HTML page (other than the "Features" page, which is marketing).
No mobile app (yet): An iOS app is coming, but there's no talk of Android yet.
No global hotkey: And that's the deal-breaker for me; as I've said elsewhere, quickly capturing ideas and to-do items is crucial for me. There is currently no way to bring up wunderlist's window with a hotkey.

Bottom line: It's nice, if you like pretty software, and it shows a great deal of promise for the future (if the "cons" above are addressed).