Ever since the App Store was launched, there hasn’t been a shortage of Todo apps. And with the release of iPhone OS 3.0 and all the APIs it brought along, all the developers started churning out Todo apps like they were high on Redbull. Over the past few months, I’ve come across an abundance of Todo apps on the App Store, some brilliantly done, some downright ugly.

But I’ve always had a problem with Todo apps. I hadn’t managed to settle on any that I could really use. The reason? It’s not really a fault of the app, actually. It probably is because of the way I look at tasks. Almost all of my tasks are usually the ones that are due on the same day. Up until two weeks ago, I used to work from home and having a *very* bad memory, I have to be reminded of every little thing I’m supposed todo. Go to the bank, Pay the telephone bill, do the laundry, begin drafting the Tweetie 2 for Mac review — things like these ended up in Things with a tight due date, sure, but I couldn’t really set the time at which these tasks had to be completed. And I hated to see the count go up on the icon. So I didn’t really need an advanced Todo app that I needed to keep checking of what needed to be done, I was looking for an app that did that for me. NotifyMe is exactly that. And it does it quite well.

NotifyMe is a nifty little app for your iPhone (and iPod touch) that uses Apple’s Push Notification Service to alert or remind you of tasks. Unlike all the advanced Todo apps and Task managers on the App Store today, NotifyMe’s feature list is pretty simple. But that’s the beauty of it. It does one thing, but does it quite well. The app has been around for quite some time now, and was doing quite well on the App Store charts. The developers have just released version 2 of the app that brings in a bunch of changes and improvements.

When you first launch the app, you’re prompted to create a user account on their servers. This registers your device for Push Notifications and also enables you to use their web app (We’ll talk about it later down below). Once you’re done setting up the account, you’re presented the app’s main screen (although you can configure what screen you want to be placed on when the app launches), that lists your upcoming, recent and completed tasks.

At the bottom of the screen, you have options to create two kinds of new reminders:

1. Push Reminders

Push reminders are NotifyMe’s ability to make use of Apple’s Push Notification System to deliver the reminder to your device. With this, you get some advanced options like Custom repeating patterns, access to the NotifyMeCloud web app, Sharing reminders with friends & family, Pre-alerts and auto-snoozing.

2. Local Reminders

Local Reminders take advantage of the local notifications API of iOS 4.0. With these, you can create reminders even when you don’t have network coverage and NotifyMe will still alert you on time. Pretty slick. However, Local Reminders lack all the advanced options I mentioned above.

New Reminders

Setting up a reminder is as easy as peeling a banana. Tap any of the two options, give your reminder a name, set the time you want to be alerted, set how often you want that to be repeated, select a Category for that reminder (or leave the default ‘Todo’), set an optional Pre-alert and you’re done. NotifyMe automatically syncs the new reminders back to the NotifyMe cloud. There’re also options for setting the snooze and adding a note to each reminder.

One major shortcomings of the app when it first launched was that it assumed a Task as done when the reminder was triggered. With v2, there’s a Snooze option added that will continue reminding you until your manually mark a Task as done. This has come as a huge relief for me, because I’m not always on my toes to finish a task and people around me know me for my lazy attitude.

Depending on what options you set the reminder with, you’ll be notified at the set time, even if the app is not running. The app appends (Pre-alert) or (Autosnooze) to the reminder when it notifies you. The app ships with a few nice melodies, but unfortunately doesn’t let you use your own.

The NotifyMeCloud

As mentioned above, NotifyMe syncs all the data back to the cloud. Powerybase has built a simple web app at http://webapp.notifymecloud.com/ to overview and manage your reminders. You can also add new notifications here, which are then synced back to the app when you launch it. And since you registered the device for Push Notifications when you registered for an account, even if the app is not running, you’ll still be alerted for any new reminders you add through the web app. And all this works pretty well.

Sharing and Friends

NotifyMe has introduced an interesting feature with this version. Called ‘Sharing and Friends’, this feature lets you add (authorize) other people to share your reminders with. So you can add your roommate or your wife, who also have the app on their devices, so that you can share some tasks to their own devices. Similarly, your friends can share tasks with you and you will be alerted at the same time. However, the task is also locally created on your own device among your other alerts. I’d have loved to see a way of assigning a task to someone, without it being created on your own device.

iPad Control Center

The developers are currently working on a native iPad app they’re dubbing iPad Control Center. Unlike the iPhone apps, this app will let you manage multiple accounts (Like multiple devices in the same household). Each authorized account will be protected by a passcode, so all the family members can manage their accounts from a single iPad in the house. This is still being developed and is not currently available on the store.

For those who are impressed by NotifyMe and its features and want to dive right in, the app is available on the App Store for $5.99. However, there’s also a “Simple” version available on the store, that is essentially NotifyMe 2, minus the Cloud. NotifyMe 2 Simple features only local notifications support, but misses out on Cloud Syncing and the ‘Sharing’ feature. It’s still a great app if you want simple daily reminders. NotifyMe Simple costs $2.99 on the store.

Both the apps have been done remarkably well and I’ve found enough reasons to ditch Things, at least till they introduce OTA syncing. NotifyMe 2 is simple and just works, which is what I like about it. I’d highly recommend you go through their website.