The App Store is seeing a lot of apps that are tieing in with internet services. Do I need to mention Twitter apps? It’s the ready availability of internet on the iPhone, coupled with the popularity of the App Store, and the beautiful user interfaces that are possible on the touch device. Here’s one that just landed in the App Store, Basetent. The extension to the semi-popular project management web service, Basetent hopes to complete the experience.
What is Basecamp?
It’s a project management web service that allows you to collaborate with multiple users, manage task lists, live chat, and post messages. It’s like ‘getting things done’ on a group level. We used Basecamp during the initial days of getting Smoking Apples up and running, as well as planning out the magazine, or any other important events. We also maintain certain lists and milestones on the ‘camp’. That said, we’re not active users of the service, more like checking in whenever we need to.
Basetent, an iPhone native client.
While the official support for Basecamp extends only as a web app, Basetent is native on the iPhone. There have been other basecamp clients on the App Store, but this one seems to be the first that apes the actual website. You get a very similar interface (the different but same feeling, just like Things), while supporting all of the major functions of the web version. Inadvertently, this also means the app uses a totally non-standard UI on the iPhone, but it’s pleasing and comfortable.
One important thing I’d like to mention, is that for it to work, you need to enable your basecamp API. There’s no indication that you need to do so by the app itself. I would have assumed it to have thrown a welcome pop up announcing this important change needs to be made. It’s mentioned on the App description page, but that’s no excuse.
The main screen, ‘Dashboard’, allows you to view and checkmark your Todos (sorted according to lists), Milestones, Projects, and narrow these down to those tasks assigned to a particular member.
The fact that adding and editing anything requires you to go into a project and not on the main level is very counter intuitive. For a few minutes I thought all I could do was check mark todos and milestones! I can only assume this is done because of the multiple account and project support, so you don’t add tasks in different projects in different accounts.
Once you get into the Project mode, it’s all smooth sailing. Adding new tasks and milestones is just about tapping the respective + button. You can post messages, but the live chat feature is missing.
One irritating bit is, every time you checkmark a task, it syncs with the server. This is a big waste of time if you want to just quickly check a bunch of tasks or milestones. Hopefully they will enable background syncing so you don’t have to stare at a “completing task…” box every few seconds.
For what it’s worth
The app is a solid first attempt. I did notice some bugs and UI issues throughout the app, but I expect them to be ironed out soon. At $9.99, Basetent is affordable and usable for any basecamp user. If you’re a free account holder, you can check out Basetent Lite, which allows you to manage just 1 project.
You could also check out these other apps for Basecamp Encamp, Groundwork. There’s also Outpost, which claims to be the only one with offline support.
