TaskAware puts its own spin on the old task-reminder type of app: You can set reminders to go off when you near a certain destination, not just when the clock hits a certain time. A free ad-supported version has recently been introduced. Its location-awareness feature works, but certain parts of its interface seem a bit confusing.
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Task Aware, an app from Nino D'Aversa, is available for free at the App Store. A paid version without ads is available for US$4.99.
My quest for a perfect taskmaster app to babysit my absent mind continues. I still haven't discovered one with perfect vigilance, something that will consistently, doggedly nag me at intervals of my choosing after I blow it off, regardless of how often I keep hitting Snooze.
But a maniacal dedication to annoy me wasn't what initially drew my eye to Task Aware. Instead, it was the app's ability to know the user's location and apply it to a list of reminders.
Once a task is entered into Task Aware, the user can also set a location anywhere in the world. When the app detects that your phone is near that location, it'll buzz you with a notification. Works well for grocery runs, remembering to ask your friend to borrow that miter saw the next time you visit, or any other task predicated by the phrase "Next time I'm there, I should remember to ..."
Free and Not So Free
Task Aware is available in two versions: a free one with ads and a $4.99 paid version without ads. I tried the free version, and the banner ads didn't give me much trouble. There's still plenty of space to see what you're doing. On the other hand, if you're wary of any app that knows your location and serves you ads, take that into consideration.
The startup screen is somewhat similar to those of other task apps: blank field bordered by lists of functions. To add a task, hit the + button at the upper right, and it will take you to the Task Details screen.
Here's where things get a bit strange. Besides the usual fields like Task Description, a priority marker and a Due Date selector, you have options for marking the task New, Pending or Complete. Complete makes sense -- this is the task editing screen, and perhaps you'll later want to mark this complete but not erase it from the list. But New and Pending ... technically, isn't any task "pending" until it's complete?
If you mark a task as Pending, it will receive an orange icon with circular arrows on your main list. More on that later.
Other options on the Task Details screen include setting a due date notification on or off, labeling a task with a category (all of which must be supplied by the user), adding task notes, and last but not least, including a location.
A Sense of Place
This is Task Aware's main event. Touch the blank field under Location, and you'll go to your personal list of places. The list will be blank the first time you use it, so it's time to start adding some. The + button will take you to a map of the world. From there, you can search for a specific address or zoom in and set a pin manually. You can also make a more general search ("Costco," for example) but you'll need to specify the city you want it to search also. It doesn't seem to use your present location by default.
Once your point is found, it will be surrounded by a shaded circle. Next time the phone detects that it's in this area of the map, it will give you an alert. The radius of the circle is adjustable; you can set it to cover just a few blocks or the better part of a whole city.
Once the place is selected, turn on Nearby Notification and set a time. For example, if you don't want to be given this reminder today or tomorrow as you pass by the place in question, but after that you do want it to speak up as soon as you get close, it can be set to do that.
Once that's all set, you will be given the reminder when you're near your target. It did its job even after I'd shut down the application and killed it in the multitasking menu.
However, Task Aware's ability to sense its location raises some power drainage questions. Its App Store entry advertises "low power consumption, with brand new multitasking location services in iOS 4.0 Task Aware can track your location without ever turning on the GPS."
Further down the page, it reads "*For best performance, have your phone plugged into a charger while traveling in the car." The asterisk reference is a sentence at the bottom of the page: "Continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life."
I'm not exactly sure what to make of that -- does Task Aware continuously run GPS in the background or not? Does it kick up the GPS only when it can tell you're in a moving vehicle?
I'm not sure how it does any of this, but I do know that since installing Task Aware, I haven't noticed a significant drain on my iPhone's battery when I'm walking around, and I do keep it in a charger when I drive. So use as directed, I suppose.
Bottom Line
Beyond its location awareness feature, Task Aware is an average task app that shares shortcomings with others I've used before.
There's a Snooze feature that will re-remind you later if you blow off an alert, yet that snooze alarm only seems to go off when you actually open the app. The whole app also crashes from time to time, though I'm not sure whether that's due to some kind of iAd traffic jam or if the no-ad paid version also suffers the same hiccups.
Finally, back to the Pending feature: Any task marked New receives a blue icon with a dash; Complete gets a green icon with a check mark, and Pending gets an orange icon with circular arrows. To me, circular arrows imply it's a repeating task -- hit me with a notification every Monday at 8 AM, for instance. Yet I couldn't figure out how to set anything to repeat. Perhaps I'm way off course.
However, Task Aware's location feature does its trick, and it could save you a moment of self-reproach when you realize that yet again you drove right past the grocery store without picking up a bag of tangerines. Just keep an eye on your battery meter, and remember to close it down completely.
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