Things coming to iPad, updates to 1.3

Aaron, if you've been around since 2008 you'll know that the official promise of cloud syncing was made at a time when the initial discounted price offer was about to end. Many people liked the look of Things but were concerned because it was missing this vital feature, which competing products such as OmniFocus had from the beginning.

Jürgen knew that a lot of people were sitting on the fence, unsure about whether they should take a chance on Things and, for that reason, he publicly assured us that his cloud syncing feature was at an advanced stage of testing and would definitely appear within the first 3 months of 2009. I was on the basis of that official promise that many people took the plunge and bought Things.

Now, absolutely, you can say that we were stupid to buy the desktop and iPhone applications on the basis of a promise that they would soon work well together, especially when competing desktop+iPhone combos already had cloud syncing, but we figured that the owner of a company would not just outright lie that a feature was just around the corner and we bought in before the discount period ended.

We are not wrong to complain about the lack of cloud syncing because cloud syncing is precisely what we were promised and, if you are trying to create a GTD system that you can trust (trust being one of the core tenants of GTD), cloud syncing is the only form of syncing that makes any sense.

The reason why so many past customers take the time to warn others about this company is the outrageous way in which they first misled and then completely ignored their customers. At any time, they could have been honest and said "Sorry, the feature was more complex than we anticipated and is no longer on the roadmap" but, instead, they manipulated their forums by deleting legitimate complaints, then they attacked unhappy customers using sock puppet accounts (pretending to be happy customers) and, finally, when the deluge of complaints became too heavy, they simply deleted the forums.

They could also, at any time, have purchased the cloud sync feature for $2000 but I guess they figured it was more profitable to simply ignore the demands that they honor their promise. Few companies are as ruthless or dishonest as Cultured Code and that is why so many people warn others to look behind the pretty face.

Aaron,

Agreed on the term "sync" having multiple meanings and I don't mean to sound unreasonable. Things will sync for one device over wifi. If that suits your needs, then Things is a good solution. However, if you have more than one device, then it doesn't work and the dropbox solution is kludgy at best. If I recall correctly there was a period of time where CC did not recommend syncing through dropbox because of the risks involved in corrupting the Things DB. The larger issue for me is that CC made very direct promises that true cloud syncing would be forthcoming by March 2009 at the latest. Then there was a communication from CC indicating that they were going to take a little more time because it was going to be ultra cool blow your socks off and they needed a little more time to get it right. And then...crickets. For a year. It turns out that the ultra-cool blow your socks off features that everyone was waiting for were keyboard shortcuts and an iPad app! Who knew!

Anyway, water under the bridge as they say. I like tweaking them because they're website is so smug and cute and they are an epic fail on customer service. The irony that a company that sells GTD software just can't seem to get it done is too rich.

*I hit submit, and for some reason an old post of mine posted instead. Here's what was meant to be posted:

I love Things. It's won a lot of awards, which I feel are well deserved. I use it everyday, and it's such a beautiful program. However, I can't disagree with the issues raised in earlier comments. There's a lot of "things" that need to be added to catch up with cheaper, newer alternatives. Cultured Code has a great status page http://culturedcode.com/status/ that shows that some of these complaints are being addressed. These features need to be added ASAP though. Back when I purchased Things + Things Touch for about $50, it was worth it. If I would've waited to say now, I don't know if I'd make that leap. I'm sticking with them, because I've invested 50 bucks (lol). In the meantime, we need more big updates and not simple bug fixes.

Off topic: I love how 1 Password updates almost every week or two. This is one of the reasons 1 Password users are so loyal. Hell, I'd buy a 1 Password bumper sticker if they were available lol. Plus, they interact with users on Twitter every day, answering questions and filling us in on developing projects. Come on Cultured Code!

Hopefully, they are reading these comments

David, Toodledo also has auto syncing and push, email, and SMS alerts.