Our Verdict
My late stave - up of the best of the basic to - do apps for iPhone and iPod touch , which focused on dim-witted apps for tracking list of job , omitted Robert Kieffer ’s freeZenbe Lists 1.2 . Also a introductory to - do tracker , Zenbe Lists has two feature film that jell it apart from those other apps : online syncing and sharing .
As a standalone to - do list app , Zenbe Lists is straightforward and easy - to - role . It lets you make multiple lists of tasks — which it call Items — using New List and New Item button that appear at the top of the main and list screen , respectively . Tap on an point ’s loge to mark it as complete . you’re able to remove an item entirely using the Edit clitoris or the conversant swipe - delete gesture .
Zenbe Lists lets you manually reorder items in a list , as well as reorder the lists on the main screen . you’re able to edit any tilt name or point after creating it , although you ca n’t move an particular from one list to another . Zenbe Lists also supports due dates for items ; although there are no audible or visual alarms , an item ’s due date is displayed in pocket-sized type below the item ’s name . in the end , although you ca n’t total a disjoined note to an point , the item - name field is prominent enough to reconcile drawn-out notes ; one drawback to this approach is that the rootage of your musical note will seem in the list scene ( as render for the “ Write article ” item in the screenshot below ) .
A Zenbe Lists list on the Web
Zenbe Lists offers , via its preferences concealment , a few options : font sizing , whether or not checked - off particular are automatically affect to the bottom of the host list , and the power to use landscape mode . Unfortunately , these options are n’t located within the app itself ; they ’re found in the iPhone ’s configurations app , so you have to quit the app and switch to scope to make any changes , then switch back to Zenbe Lists .
What typeset Zenbe Lists asunder from other canonic to - do apps is that once youset up a detached history at the Zenbe Web site , and then come in your username and password in the iPhone app , you could synchronise and share your list online . On the information - safety side , this means that a simple water tap on the Sync button in the iPhone app saves all your lists on the Zenbe site . ( you’re able to even select , via the app ’s context , to automatically sync whenever you set up the app . ) If your phone is ever stolen or needs to be reinstate , you do n’t have to vex whether iTunes ’ unreliable backup feature will go ; you may easily synchronise your lists back to your iPhone . After experiencing several iPhone restore thatdidn’trestore my data , I no longer personally employ a to - do - list app that does n’t synchronize , either online or with an app on my Mac .
But there are also other compelling welfare of online syncing . Tap the the plowshare button in Zenbe Lists on your headphone , and an e - mail message is make containing a limited Zenbe link ; anyone with an iPhone or iPod touch with Zenbe Lists installed can press that link in Mail to load your listing intheircopy of Zenbe Lists . If they have their own gratuitous Zenbe invoice , they can edit the lean and sync their changes , as well .
Alternatively , you could view — and edit — your lists in any Web web internet browser by logging in to your Zenbe account . And if you press the Share release for a list in the Web interface , you get a URL you may share that lets other hoi polloi see and edit that inclination in their own Web web internet browser ; this approach does n’t require others to have a Zenbe news report . ( you’re able to also make a version of the list for engraft in a Web web site — read / write for iGoogle or read - only for any other WWW page . )
A Zenbe Lists list on the Web
( Regardless of where you share a lean link from — the Web site or Zenbe Lists on your iPhone — chess opening that contact on your computer will immediately take you to the Web version of the leaning . Opening the nexus on your iPhone will take you to a special iPhone version of the Zenbe site , where you’re able to get across to add the leaning to the Zenbe Lists app . )
A Zenbe Lists list on the Web
These two communion options — Web and iPhone — make Zenbe Lists nonpareil for lists that need to be accessible and editable by multiple the great unwashed . A perfect good example of this , visible in my screenshots here , is a shopping leaning . I ’ve set up disjoined lists for storage my family shops at regularly ; everyone in my family can get at those lean , using either Zenbe Lists on an iPhone or iPod touch , or via bookmarks in a Web web browser . Whenever anyone adds an particular to a shopping list , that leaning is instantaneously updated online — everyone else sees the update immediately . Which means no one has to project out who has the latest composition list or where it ’s hidden in the house . Even better , it means that I can actually beatthe supermarket when my married woman remembers that we require sun - dried Lycopersicon esculentum ; a quick tap on Sync before I chink out show me the newly - added item .
( Note that a Zenbe WWW - site news report also bring home the bacon e - mail , calendar , and Indian file - sharing services , but those feature are beyond the scope of this review . )
If you do n’t need advance labor - direction features , Zenbe Lists provides an easy - to - use root for tracking multiple inclination of to - DO . But it ’s the app ’s online syncing and sharing features that have garner it a permanent spot on the iPhones and iPod touches in my house . For the blue , low toll offree , you may synchronize your lists between multiple gadget and share them on the WWW , making Zenbe list perfect for mere shared tilt , such as those you ’d keep for shopping and household to - bash .
Updated 8/8/2008 3:05pmCorrected information about list share-out .
Zenbe Lists is compatible with any iPhone or iPod touch running the iPhone 2.0 software or after .
[ Senior editor Dan Frakes pass over low - price computer software in the Mac Gems blog . ]
