OmniFocus for iPhone finally has reminders, but implementation is awful

Responding to Jason in post #6: "I'd be interested to see how many people simply don't bother"

I agree with you on that point; I am one of those who doesn't bother. I can rise to the level of 'power user' sometimes, but am not a techie. Bringing in a third-party (in this case, a WebDAV server) as part of a means to get notification going just struck me as distasteful/clunky/extra work. And, yeah, it was the first time I'd ever came across the term 'WebDAV.'

I reason "Why invest in this early-stage clunkiness when, eventually, Apple will make available the full bag of tricks, and Omni will reverse course to take advantage of that, and then give us the OmniFocus that was destined to be."

I was disappointed when the 3.0 firmware wasn't that milestone. I'll just wait til 3.5 or 4.0 or whenever to rock local-popup-notification-style-GTD on my iPhone. I understand that Apple has got to take it sure-and-steady, but I've gone through two generations of iPhones that aren't making use of OF -- and it was the very first app I bought in the App Store.

I'm also someone who thinks the writer of this article is way off base. Personally, I have found Apple's push notifications to be a complete waste of time - the implementation is the shoddiest solution for what is a simple demand that Apple have ever implemented - and this compromise on the part of OmniFocus for the iPhone (a) just works and (b) just works well. Some of the authors points are valid (the start versus due time alert dilemma, lack of badge icon, Apple's rubbish notifications system on the iPhone and their overly basic and limiting Calendar app) but, with the exception of start/due times, they are beyond OmniGroup's control. However, until Apple has an API for on-phone notifications this solution is much superior to push for a task management app.

Btw, if you feel that you are getting too many alerts added to your calendar then you aren't doing GTD right! You should only ever have a few alerts at the very most ...

I not a developer, I am just a woman (homecare dentist) that loves mobile tech, with a busy life, errands most of the time.
Would you trust push notifications to remind you to give your son a medicine at 3pm sharp? Would you remember it in the beggining of the day, among many other woman, professional, wife and mom's (or dad's) tasks?
I don't mind I have to sync OmniFocus every morning before I leave, as I stay far from computer every day. But I don't trust carriers and server enough for such a critical application as a task / project manager. I prefer the way I always had with my former Palm or Pocket PC devices. I spent most of my last "mobile years" offline. This push dilemma is kinda strange. It's a task manager, guys, not an instant messenger!
Maybe that's the problem with you guys, in front of a computer and online all day long :)
Stop complaning with push versus iCal reminders, let's join ourselves against this Apple's stupid policy.
OminGroup staff is doing a great job. I am a GTD enthusiast and love OmniFocus. Thanks for helping me manage my life!

More proof that iPhod (phone/pod) *needs* on-device notifications. For fark's sake, Apple, it's just a cron entry!

I've been using Appigo Todo with RTM Pro account for over a year. I get reminders sent to iPhone via SMS. Works great.

Not a fan of OF.

When the calendar sync is added to OmniFocus 1.7 for the Mac, I'd like to see the ability to sync different projects to different calendars. Currently it's setup so you can only sync contexts to calendars. My workflow involves a calendar in iCal and a matching project in OmniFocus. I'd love for the two of these to be in sync, and, if they were, I'd like more control over reminders and their placement in iCal. I'd love to have all of my tasks automatically pushed to my iCal calendar on a calendar of my choosing. Placing them all on one generic "OmniFocus" calendar makes no sense at all...

Normally I would agree with omnigroup on the direction that they take their apps, but in this case I think they need to stop thinking purely about the app itself and about a complete user experience. To solve a few problems and even might bring a new form of revenue for omnigroup they could set up a service on Amazon Web Services or anywhere a pay service that allows for hosting of the webdav files and can generate push notifications. Shoot they could even then have a third client that is completely web based for the times that iphone and desktop are not available to users. I know I would be willing to pay a reasonable yearly fee for this option.

@jason

No matter how disappointed you might be about the implementation of this particular feature, OmniFocus is simply eons ahead of Things by Cultured Code.

At least the OmniFocus guys will talk to their customers and explain why certain decisions were taken (and it does sound as if they're doing their best within limitations that Apple have created), whereas Cultured Code's response to the mass of complaints on their forum was, incredibly, to hide their forums, deleting all links from their main site so that potential new customers wouldn't see what a mess they were buying into.

As for people who consider WebDAV syncing to be a problem, just be glad you have it and don't have to remember to manually sync while still within within range of your desktop or be out of sync all day - Things users were promised that WebDAV sync would be delivered early this year, now Cultured Code won't even tell why it is delayed, when it might arrive or even if they are still working on it.

If the Omni Group ran a "Things Refugee Offer", giving users who want to switch a 50% discount on the price of OmniFocus, they'd probably capture half of Cultured Code's customers within a month - some users are happy with Things but a lot of us feel that we were suckered in by the glitz, only to find ourselves tied to a company that can executes at a glacial pace and which simply refuses to communicate. Even hardcore Cultured Code fans have become disillusioned in recent months, especially after the blatant move of hiding the forums.

I personally like the way it itegrates with my calendar.

You are right - its clugy but omni is doing the best with what they have. (1) If, you want reminders to work when there is no connectivity and (2) can't run in the background or even set an alarm/reminder because iPhone OS won't allow it, what other options are there?

Using iCal is better than requiring the app to be running all the time like all those useless alarm applications.