TaskTask

I’ve just finished uploading the final version of TaskTask and TaskTask HD 3.1. This release is the first significant release for TaskTask in a while and includes a much requested feature: attachment support!

Version 3.1 allows you to download and preview attachments to your Outlook tasks. For example, if you flag an e-mail with an important PDF in Outlook, now you can read that PDF (or any other file you can open on your device) straight from TaskTask!

When you open a task, the attachments appear just under the notes field:

Attachments are not downloaded automatically, because they can be rather large. To download an attached file, tap on the filename, and the attachment will start downloading:

Once the attachment has finished downloading, the attachment will present an arrow indicating it is ready to be viewed:

Tapping on the attachment name again, once the attachment is downloaded, will open the attachment in the built-in previewer:

You can also open attached files in other applications on your device, for example if you need to make changes to a file and send it back to someone. Just tap the action launcher button on the right side of the title bar, and you’ll get a list of applications you can use to open the file.

This update also includes a number of other improvements and updates, including:

• Mark a task as private – Now you can use TaskTask to mark a task as private, and prevent other people who have access to your task list from seeing the contents of the task.
• iOS 5.0 compatibility – Some issues were found using TaskTask on iOS 5.0. This update resolves those issues.

This version also includes some usage reporting capabilities. This feature provides completely anonymous and untraceable data about how you use TaskTask back to the developer. It includes information like how long it takes to sync your task list, how many tasks are downloaded from the server, and how many tasks you create or complete while using TaskTask. This information will help me to make TaskTask better in the future by understanding how you really use the program. If you don’t want to provide this information, you can switch off data collecting and reporting by launching the Settings app, scrolling down to TaskTask, and switching off Report Usage. No personally identifying information about you or your identity is ever sent back.

The update should hit the app store this coming week, as soon as it clears the Apple app approval process.

Yesterday I released the 3.0.370 update on the iTunes App Store. This update is a minor update on the 3.0 release from a few weeks ago. This update includes mostly bug fixes and new languages, including:

• Localization for German and French
• Fix for blocked BPROPFIND servers (Exchange 2003 only)
• Fixed a crash when modifying tasks from search results
• Sync can always be cancelled

This update is recommended for everyone. I think there is probably one more minor release with a couple of minor features and bug fixes before I take a bit of a hiatus from working on TaskTask for iOS and investigate TaskTask for other mobile platforms.

For iPhone and iPod Touch users, version 3.0.362 has been released to the App Store. This update resolves two major issues:

• Crashing when launched from an iOS device running 3.x firmware
• Users without an Exchange server who lost their tasks when upgrading

I want to apologize to everyone who was affected by the initial 3.0 offering. The testing on that build was clearly not completely up to par on 3.x devices. This is largely due to Apple preventing firmware downgrades on devices, which left me with no way to test TaskTask on a device still running a 3.x firmware release. I have since acquired an original iPhone (first generation) which can only running 3.x firmware to test TaskTask on, so this problem shouldn’t be reoccurring.

Thanks for being a customer, and I certainly appreciate your business. I hope TaskTask 3.0 provides functionality to help keep you productive while you’re on the go.

Happy New Year! I’m happy to announce that today, on Jan 1 2011, I’ve submitted the latest updates for TaskTask to the App Store for approval. Version 3.0 is a pretty significant upgrade for TaskTask that I’ve been working on since October. This update includes a number of requested features and some work under-the-covers to make sure TaskTask syncs with Exchange even under more difficult network conditions.

Some of the new features included in the 3.0 update include:

• Improved UI: Now it’s easier than ever to delete or complete a task using the toolbar at the bottom of the task editor.
• Task Subfolders: TaskTask now downloads and synchronizes tasks stored in subfolders as well. If you use folders to organize yourself and your task list, TaskTask now works for you! If you are using Exchange 2007 or 2010, you can even create and delete task subfolders from TaskTask.
• Color Categories: If you’re a heavy category user in Outlook 2007 or later, you’ve probably assigned colors to all of your categories. Now you can do the same in TaskTask to make it easier to visualize your tasks. If you’re connected with Exchange 2010, TaskTask will even download the colors with your categories!
• Improved Task List Filtering: Now you can filter based on start date, due date, category, or importance independent of how your view is arranged or sorted.
• Rich Text Notes (Exchange 2007 or later): If you’ve edited a task note and added rich formatting to the note (tables, font styles, etc), TaskTask will now show you the note with the original formatting. To edit the note in TaskTask however, it must be converted to plain text.
• Forward tasks via e-mail has been added to the iPhone edition
• Printing is now available in both iPhone and iPad if you are running the latest version of iOS

A lot of work has gone into this update, so I hope it provides some features to enable TaskTask to be your choice for task list management on iOS devices!