Filed under: Software, Productivity
The Hit List enters public beta
A few weeks ago, Brett wrote about his first impressions with The Hit List from Potion Factory, a task management application that goes toe to toe with OmniFocus and Things. He was extremely impressed with what the release, then just entering private beta, offered. "We haven't seen a lot of waves in the advanced, visually polished task manager wars lately, but this one is going to storm the gates," he said then. I have to agree.Brett is a power user for this sort of program, but I'm brand new to it. After investing $100 into the OmniFocus applications only to wind up frustrated with them weeks later, I had started to look to Things when the private beta for The Hit List came out. I wanted a place where I could keep complicated to-do lists for projects alongside simple lists for basic tasks such as a to-read list and what books I wanted from the library.
The Hit List hits that sweet spot where it's got enough features for power users, but the absolute beginner can tailor it to their own needs -- much like Literature and Latte's Scrivener for the writing crowd. Some of the included features that beta testers enjoyed include being able to navigate the program almost completely via keyboard (think Quicksilver) and a slick timer that lets you know exactly how much time you've spent on a task, a tagging system that syncs well with iCal (at least from my experience), tabbed interface and more.
The Hit List is moving from private to public beta with the official release candidate now available. A Google Group for users has also been set up. The Hit List will retail for $69.95, but the pre-order price is $49.95 and will be available at that price until version 1.0 is released. The Hit List's future does include an eventual iPhone app.
And, a great little Easter Egg: While examining the package's contents, I discovered audio cues set to Super Mario Bros. and Star Wars. I haven't figured out where in the application they're used yet, but if you've tested it and figured it out, let us know in the comments!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Brian E said 11:38AM on 1-09-2009
Had this come out before Things went 1.0, and included a version for the iPod Touch, I'd be more interested. As it is, I've already decided that Things can work for my system, so however neat it might be I'm probably not going to switch. It does look like THL has a little more flexibility than Things, but without the cluttered and inspector-heavy interface of OmniFocus. If you're just starting out with a system, it might be a good option try - but it still needs an iPod touch client!
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the tide said 11:46AM on 1-09-2009
Good God!
It's impossible to not like the next new shiny app. I was content with Things, but after spending 15 minutes with THL I'm looking at THings as it were some ugly dysfunctional duckling.
I need help, TUAW!
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Norman said 11:56AM on 1-09-2009
I tasted sooo many GTD apps, things looked nice, but since none of them offers real synchronization to many other devices, i picked something i would have never thought of myself: an online-service for GTD.
www.rememberthemilk.com is the best service if you have multiple devices.
The whole "syncing just over wifi and just to one device" problem with Things etc. kills those apps, even though Things is still one of the best when it comes to simplicity.
If they ever offer web-sync i'm back on the boat, until then it's RememberTheMilk.
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PhilH said 12:04PM on 1-09-2009
I really like THL. I wanted something simpler that Omnifocus, but not as simplistic as Things (I hate not being able to nest tasks).
The neatest thing about THL is all the keyboard shortcuts: - and = to cycle through start dates and [ / ] to set the end date is much quicker than either directly typing a date or using a picker.
I wish the iPhone app was around so I could evaluate both at the same time: I can't live without some mobile means of logging my tasks.
Fantastic potential, though.
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Brad said 12:04PM on 1-09-2009
THL feels a little like Things to me, but definitely has more structure like OmniFocus. It's harder for me to get tasks entered and organized the way I want than I want it to be. That's the beauty of Things.
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Dave said 12:36PM on 1-09-2009
I love that the whole "THL sits nicely between Omnifocus and Things" mantra. TUAW should have just recycled the old review.
If you love the next shiny thing to come along, THL is very pretty, though it looks almost too much like things. But it's mostly cosmetic (sound effects, lined notebook paper-- ugh). You can do basically the same in all 3 applications, but its simply easiest in Things.
"I wanted a place where I could keep complicated to-do lists"
I love this. David Allen would have a heart attack. There is no such thing as a complicated todo list, although it may be fun to say.
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Dave said 2:12PM on 1-09-2009
"There is no such thing as a complicated todo list, although it may be fun to say."
Uhhh... maybe you don't have much work, or very complex projects
dorian said 1:39PM on 1-09-2009
this is pretty impressive. get me away to import my data into and
i'll test it out. That really is the main holding me back from really trying these other systems is the lack of importing other data. I'm not about to screw out trying to figure it out.
As someone who has been using Omnifocus, really need to change up it's apperance and interface really quickly. It just feels so stiff and not friendly. I thought this was the Delicious Monster age of Mac apps or something?
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2shae said 3:48PM on 1-09-2009
This is a really cool app.
I never really liked Things for some reason and even though I use Omnifocus at the moment, the Inspector window really annoys me (No I'm not just repeating what TUAW says....it really is the most annoying thing about about Omnifocus, they have to redesign the app)
The Hit list could be my next favorite app, but I just think that ALL these glorified To-Do lists are way to expensive.
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2shae said 4:12PM on 1-09-2009
Just testing out The Hit List and wow they've really though of everything. It's sort of a mix between Omnifocus, Things and Midnight Inbox.
But it looks and works and just feels better than any of them.
I'm gonna test this app out for a while, but already I'm pretty sure i'll be buying this app.
Jake said 6:32PM on 1-09-2009
Looks nice. Be sure an post about this again when and if the iPhone sister application is released.
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Aloysius Snuffleupagus said 8:33PM on 1-09-2009
Beautiful, elegant interface. A notch above Things - which I loved. The bummer is (and this holds true for Things as well) the necessity of syncing with a client computer. I've switched to Toodledo on the Firefox / ToDo on the iPhone and the ability to sync to the cloud and add tasks by voice via Jott make them indispensable. However, I sure wish someone would write a pretty front end client like this for Toodledo with a nice hot-key HUD as well. Keep your eyes on this, TUAW. I'd like to see where they go
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AppBeacon said 9:08PM on 1-09-2009
Argh! Another leopard only release! Everything is becoming leopard only. I wouldn't mind upgrading, but with Snow Leopard just around the corner (maybe?), I don't want to upgrade twice.
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Woody said 3:02AM on 1-10-2009
When you type Mario Brothers or Star Wars and mark it off of your list it plays the music to both. It's kinda cool.
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Anthony said 5:16AM on 1-10-2009
I only bought Things a couple of days ago, maybe I shouldn't have... THL is really nice.
But maybe with the ability to create so many lists so freely I'd just make it all too complicated. The simplicity of Things is a good thing. Plus it has an iPhone app. As soon as one comes out for THL I'll probably switch.
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DT said 2:18PM on 1-10-2009
I really wanted to try out THL and of what I've heard I thought of it to be way better than Things. But now that I've tried it myself I find it quite more complicated than Things and I suspect the time I'm going to save by using a GTD app will be spent into operating THL itself. OmniFocus is even more complicated and time consuming to use. I think I'll stick with Things.
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noah said 10:13PM on 1-10-2009
The difference between heavyweights and lightweights in this category: the ability to easily get bulk information into the task list. Sure there's a quick entry window, but no quick way to get the text of an email message, the selected Safari content, or other random text into THL without exhaustive typing or copy and paste. No Quicksilver integration, and no easy way to email yourself a task. This is where Things (too simple) excels, Omnifocus (too complicated) gets points, and iGTD (too ugly) really knocks it out of the park. None of these apps are as pretty as THL, but the ability to get information into your GTD app quickly is huge. I'm playing with Applescript to do this myself, but any developer who wants to sell their GTD app for $70 should be doing this kind of service integration themselves.
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kuswanto said 11:28PM on 1-10-2009
Agree, right now I am testing the THL. It's very stable on my end. I really like to see what Noah's suggested.
My GTD always linked to email message, THL and things can do that, but both are failed to expand the email messages, only display its title. I hope THL will get Mail integrations, not just mimicking mail notes appearance.