Cheddar

by samsoffes • 14 years ago

125 136 14 years ago

A new simple to do list that instantly pushes changes to all of your devices. Cheddar supports Markdown and has tags. A free universal iPhone/iPad app and web app were just released.

citricsquid• 14 years ago

A web interface? Hurrah! I don't like typing on my iPhone but find it handy for storing information (eg: shopping lists) and when I went through trying to find apps I couldn't locate any with a web interface so I would have to type on my phone... I eventually gave up trying to find one.

Feedback specific to the website: If a user hasn't downloaded one of the apps yet have the "apps" link from the footer in a more prominent place. I didn't notice it at first and wondered how to find the app links.

Also the ability to login via the website would nice, so after logging in I scan a QR code and it logs me in on my phone too, typing out my password on my phone is an annoyance.

andrethegiant• 14 years ago

If you view the page on iOS 6 beta, an app banner appears at the top of the page, linking to the app store.

peterhajas• 14 years ago

Looks really great. I love the idea behind instantly keeping things up to date on all devices.

I can't wait to try the Mac App mentioned on the Support page - https://cheddarapp.com/support. I hope it fits in a small horizontal space, so that it can be always open (much like a Twitter client).

Good looking stuff. Excited to see if I can incorporate it into my workflow.

antr• 14 years ago

+1 on the Mac App.

Looks like Cheddar is going to replace Wunderlist for me. 6Wunderkinder haven't updated their iPad app in ages, and the non-retina graphics makes their product unattractive.

jonny_eh• 14 years ago

No trademark issues with CheddarGetter?

john-n• 14 years ago

Maybe tweak volume on video? (cant hear it)

zoul• 14 years ago

Dear God no, yet another pimped-up todo list? What does it do that the others don’t?

btipling2• 14 years ago

When pg used a todo list as an example app to challenge email, this was to be expected. A million todo apps everywhere. People have so little imagination.

pmelendez3• 14 years ago

He (PG) was talking about a new protocol that allow people to share tasks and control how many tasks they can have. Not a simple TODO list though.

I don't think this is suppose to be an email killer. If they are doing this because of what PG said then I am afraid they might misunderstood him.

guynamedloren• 14 years ago

I don't think pg is to blame for this... todo list apps are inherently simple to design and build. If anything, they're a great 'first app' for new or aspiring developers, so a marketplace flooded with (many shitty) todo apps is not surprising.

jarederondu• 14 years ago

Markdown, for one.

alttab3• 14 years ago

So thats the reason why all other Todo apps get abandoned after the first week? I don't ever remember lack of formatting being the reason why Things or Wunderlust never worked for me.

erickhill• 14 years ago

I must have tried over 10 different apps for keeping track of simple notes and tasks. I finally landed on Evernote (and emailing myself) mostly due to the sync issues across multiple devices. If this works similarly without all of the extra whistles and bells, I'd be pretty happy. The nice clean interface is encouraging.

induscreep• 14 years ago

Try Producteev

Zaheer• 14 years ago

How many task manager apps do we need? I've seen a huge influx of these apps recently. Nevertheless great UI!

andrewcamel• 14 years ago

Totally agree -- it'd be great to get a product comparison on the site to see some feature differentiation laid out. Except for the nice UI, it looks like just another to-do app.

novakinblood2• 14 years ago

Looks simple and clean but I already use "remember the milk" to do the same thing. The landing page doesn't give enough convincing arguments to pull me away.

blackRust• 14 years ago

Exactly what I was going to say. RTM has been around for a while and integrates with a lot more devices, they are committed to maintaining their Apps and provide much more functionality for power users with saved searches etc.

Link: https://www.rememberthemilk.com/

gklitt• 14 years ago

I'm a happy RTM user as well. This doesn't look like it does anything better, although I guess for people who don't need the more advanced features of RTM it's a good alternative.

zethraeus• 14 years ago

They're only undercutting RTM my $5/year, which doesn't seem likely to be incentive enough for many people.

Remember the Milk also has better device support.

I'm pretty unclear on the value prop.

RegEx2• 14 years ago

I'm a big RTM fan myself, although I'm honestly not too pleased with their latest UI update on the iPhone. It's prettier, but not as snappy.

novakinblood2• 14 years ago

I agree about the UI update. It looks nice but feels clunky and I get disoriented with all the swiping. It's too "swipey".

eragnew• 14 years ago

This looks great. Will try it out for iphone.

dag112• 14 years ago

There is much incentive for you to make an Android version of Cheddar, too. The reason why is there's already plenty of similar task apps for iOS, but good task management apps are lacking on Android.

shahidhussain• 14 years ago

Any.do not work for you? http://www.any.do/

dag112• 14 years ago

Any.do works fairly well. I like its Chrome extension. However, its syncing is very delayed, which bothers me.

spne• 14 years ago

Is there any way to add a date or deadline to a task? I've been having issues with Wunderlist syncing between devices, but due dates are key.

jamesjyu• 14 years ago

Small nit: on the bottom phone, the text "Simple, just text" is horribly kerned. Otherwise, the product page looks great!

ryantownsend• 14 years ago

And randomly a different serif font. The line-height on the actual app's UIToolbar title is a bit too much too, should be slightly higher up, imo.

davidradcliffe• 14 years ago

No official Android app in the works. https://twitter.com/cheddar/status/218385506533249027

kefs• 14 years ago

> <strong>pushes to all of your devices</strong>

iDevices you mean.

SpikeX• 14 years ago

There's never any Windows Phone love...

sigh...

heretohelp• 14 years ago

There's never any NetBSD clients for the apps I like...

sigh

Me1000• 14 years ago

No. Cheddar also works in browsers, so any device with a browser can run cheddar and it pushes it to ALL your devices.

mertd• 14 years ago

it's cute how they pretend Android and WP don't exist.

samsoffes3• 14 years ago

Mobile web.

encima• 14 years ago

This is nothing new, there are a ton of good task syncing apps. What makes this apple-specific app so much better? Oh, wait.

callmeed• 14 years ago

If any app category needed a parody video and site, it's to-do lists and productivity.

Time to charge the camera batteries.

jgrahamc• 14 years ago

I'll add it to Yellow Yellow's TODO list for when they come out of double stealth: http://doublestealth.blogspot.com

J3L24042• 14 years ago

"Currently we're in double stealth mode (the public doesn't know what we're building and neither do we)."

Fun read.

samarudge• 14 years ago

While it's always nice to have a pretty frontend, why not use Google Apps or Exchange reminders as a backend? Yet another account, yet another site, disconnected and needing individual management. I use Exchange reminders, to set it up I just add my Exchange account to my iPhone or Outlook and it's done. It's not pretty but I don't have to remember another site

andrewguenther• 14 years ago

Seems almost identical to Fetchnotes, but with worse device support.

techx2501• 14 years ago

Or Gmail Tasks

__mark__• 14 years ago

Another TODO list app? When I looked at the website it seemed like the main value proposition was that my TODO list will be everywhere. Countless apps already do this though so I don't understand how this one is better.

sammcd• 14 years ago

Congrats on launching Sam!

samsoffes3• 14 years ago

Thanks Sam :)

alaskamiller• 14 years ago

Hackers love to make todo lists. It's like some musicians' work remixing pop songs.

mikeryan• 14 years ago

Ironically I've yet to find an online todo list I like. My favorite todo list is a pad and a pen, next to my computer. I've not found a feature set in an online tool that works better for me.

genwin• 14 years ago

After too many years typing I can barely write, so it's Notepad or Wordpad for me.

bradwestness3• 14 years ago

They're basically just Hello World apps for persistent data.

mnicole3• 14 years ago

Only allows me the ability to create two lists for free? I'm not going to pay for a service that can be replaced by Post-Its and the bevy of other services/apps that do the same thing. Inability to sync lists with other users is another reason. Friendly UI but that's about it.

Additionally -

Product Marketing 101: If you're competing in a space with [hundreds of] others just like you, you need to have a shortlist of reasons why to choose yours over the others before just dropping people into it.

You should also account for the amount of people visiting your site when you launch so it isn't crawling when people try to sign up for it. I'm trying to traverse the site right now to find where I can see a compare-and-contrast of similar tools and it is useless.

Also just noticed the icon is basically Clear's -- another list/to-do app -- is that intentional? Surely we can find better ways of illustrating lists than using a checkmark so people don't get confused.

Terretta• 14 years ago

Plus, Reminders with its default list on (free) iCloud "magically" syncs with all your (Apple) devices. Reminders adds geo fencing, recurrence, and other great features. It's a surprisingly well designed competitor in this space.

Couple that with Fantastical on the Mac menu bar which now shows those same iCloud Reminders and you have a slick solution.

thom3• 14 years ago

+1 for delicious cheese.

donerKebab• 14 years ago

Let me guess, you're American.

Not that cheddar can't be a good cheese, but on the other side of the pond, cheddar is really the most basic cheese.

thom3• 14 years ago

I'm from the UK, and good, mature cheddar is wonderful cheese, 'basic' or not. :P

thom3• 14 years ago

I did wonder why the app was orange, though, so I assume that's a symptom of the American cheese gap.

tjr• 14 years ago

We here on this side are unfortunately accustomed to cheese far more basic than cheddar (some of which are arguably even cheese at all)...

But superlative or not, I do greatly enjoy a quality sharp cheddar.

munaf• 14 years ago

Startup request: Please, someone come up with a todo/productivity/project management system whose main feature is _motivation_ to use it, not just technical versions of paper todo lists. I don't know if the solution is necessarily technical. I've tried every major app and still rely on the visceral impact of post-it notes next to my computer to get things done. I'd love to switch to an app but nothing is actually making me use one.

amwelles• 14 years ago

I've not used it, but I have friends who really enjoy [Epic Win](http://www.rexbox.co.uk/epicwin/). On the downside, it doesn't sync and is only available on iOS.

wam• 14 years ago

Books I'd read: "Wanting to Get Things Done"

chetan51• 14 years ago

I have just the thing for you. It's an app called TimeBend: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/timebend/id525224894?mt=8

Be sure to read the app description before you download, so you know how to use it correctly. It's simple, but really gets you motivated to get things done on time.

brandoncapecci2• 14 years ago

Interesting you bring this up... I was working on one for awhile that hard a sort of social karma system built in. I wanted to try and reenforce people creating tasks in a game environment rather than just through self-motivation. You were awarded points for completing tasks and able to view accumulated points of friends. I hoped this would allow just a bit more accountability since all your friends can see that you just sat on your ass all day. Same sort of idea of the scale that tweets your weight. There really was no good way I had come up with to make a fair scoring system and to defer cheating. Had I finished it, what it definitely wouldn't have been is anything like this app which makes me feels very detached. I honestly think todos should be fun, otherwise most people won't stick with them.

For the record, this was just one of the smallest projects I could think of to learn a new technology. I think the space sucks but that's largely because everybody does exactly the same thing. It's kind of funny that I couldn't bring myself to work on something that stale even if it was just for me to see.

cwilson• 14 years ago

I believe this is also one of the goals of Lift.do, one of the current in-development projects from Obvious Corp (Evan Williams, Biz Stone).

kylebrown2• 14 years ago

Try the pomodoro technique (its just a 25-minute timer). I only tried it quite recently, but its working great and quickly becoming a habit. I really appreciate the no-nonsense approach which prevents any yak-shaving[1]. Its simple on the most basic level so its compatibile with more the complex systems like GTD, or task management / team collab apps.

1. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/yak_shaving

grantismo• 14 years ago

How about this for motivation?

You assign a due date and a dollar amount punishment when you create a todo list or task. When you fail to complete your tasks on the due date, your account is charged the punishment amount.

"How do you verify that the task has been completed?" you might ask.

You don't. If users "cheat" then they're just losing out on the motivation service, otherwise you get the motivation required to do the task on time.

cdalonzo• 14 years ago

We're working on it. Tweet us and I'll send you a link to sign-up for alpha access. http://twitter.com/whatscurrent

sophacles4• 14 years ago

Sweet, it's completely useless! I can't dump a task from command line or vim. Can't script it to pull things to the calendar automatically. Can't send an email to put a task directly into it. Can't dump tasks to a text todo list to put at the top of the code or document im writing to remember what I need as I write.

Will not use. And, even if those features show up, won't consider due to lack basic thought in initial design.

I've said before and I'll say it again: todo's are a functionality that are only useful when broadly accessible from many different apps and contexts. Your app (for any your) is mostly useless to me.

Edit: I don't get all the hate this post is receiving. Is it because I didn't wrap it in sugar? Is it because I listed the things I would actually consider paying for? Or is it just because I'm disagreeing with some startup and that's against the local religion?

pmelendez3• 14 years ago

IMHO I think this phrase is part of the reason behind downvotes "Sweet, it's completely useless!" It is a strong statement and it is probably subjective. What it is useless for you might not be for someone else. You did fixed after... " is mostly useless to me." but I think was too late.

"I don't get all the hate this post is receiving. ". The post itself feels like a lot of hatred behind him. Maybe it is getting the same medicine?

sophacles4• 14 years ago

I should probably clarify that last bit then: I still think cheddar is useless, because it doesn't provide the functionalities I declare. I meant, that in a hypothetical todo app that has those features, the official released app is still mostly useless to me.

antiterra• 14 years ago

First, saying it's completely useless is complete hyperbole. You can enter to do items through an application or web interface. That is a use. It may not be a novel use or a use that interests you in any way, but it's still a use. It's a disappointing fact, but the truth is that command line integration, scripting or a public API are not particularly mainstream features in an app.

Next, it would seem pretty fanatical to say "this app does everything I want to, but because the features weren't there in the first version, I refuse to use it." If the new functionality is well-integrated and not simply shoe-horned in, would does the first version of the product have any relevance at all?

sophacles4• 14 years ago

Well a team that decides to build a clone of something that exists hundreds of times over, without thinking to even mention that more features are on the way, probably doesn't have the ability properly add features in the future. They show a complete lack of thought towards innovation or product usefulness, only the ability to poorly copy something. Therefore I'm not going to waste my time following them, and instead give attention to one of the other 100 todo apps that shows the potential for actually becoming useful to me.

fluidcruft• 14 years ago

Do you know of something that does this... I'd like to try it? Is this something org-mode can do (probably not since the vim statement, but just wondering)?

sophacles4• 14 years ago

Unfortunately not that I've found. Apparently, despite the existence of many, many todo apps, not a single one is made by people who think, "we can innovate the market by going the tried and true 'make it easy for developers to build on' route".

kylebrown2• 14 years ago

You have a point, the service should come with an API.

wildmXranat• 14 years ago

Where's Clippy when you need it to tell you to hit backspace when writing yet another todo list app.

ken• 14 years ago

Given the recent exploits of other popular web services, I'm curious to hear a bit more about your security model. The privacy policy makes it sound as though all non-credit-card info is transmitted and stored in plaintext.

jenius• 14 years ago

Something really bothers me about the design of this app... definitely not trying to be a hater here, but the color, font, spacing... everything seems a little off to me.

knurdle• 14 years ago

Always in Sync Instantly Everywhere*

*Except Android, Windows mobile, etc..

samsoffes3• 14 years ago

Browsers are everywhere :)

ntkachov• 14 years ago

Out of all the todo apps I've tried. Every time I go back to writing shit on a white board.

I've timed myself. IT takes me about 6 seconds to write something on a whiteboard. And about 10 to take a picture of it with my phone.

Compare that to the 20+ it takes for me to pull out my phone, open an app, get into the list I want, and then type it out on a shitty little keyboard.

Until you make a note taking app that takes less time to use than a white board, I'm gonna use the whiteboard.

J3L24042• 14 years ago

"Siri make me a reminder to delete all my to-do apps."

"Ok, making your reminder."

cool-RR• 14 years ago

It takes me around 4 seconds to type in a task with MyLifeOrgainzed. (Can be 2-3 seconds for short tasks.) No need to open the app, it's always open, just press a shortcut key to bring up a dialog for adding a task.

huhtenberg3• 14 years ago

Wow... that's one really ugly UI.

http://www.mylifeorganized.net/i/sshots/myLife-ssh012.gif

nhangen• 14 years ago

Same here, and for some stuff, using iOS reminders works well. I've tried all of them - Things, Wunderlist, Asana, iOS Reminders (still use a bit), and can't get any of them to stick.

sunnynagra4• 14 years ago

Can you check out an app I helped make called Reminders with Friends? http://www.slyceapps.com/reminders

I would love to hear your opinions after you've tried all those other apps.

bradwestness3• 14 years ago

I always end up falling back to a combination of Google Tasks (because it's on iGoogle, which is my homepage) and just writing stuff on a legal pad. If I'm out and about, I'll just text it to Google Calendar.

smackfu• 14 years ago

I use these small 5x8 yellow legal pads. Doesn't take up much space on my desk, and you get 17 lines or so, which is generally plenty. If I need multiple lists, I use multiple pages. Dead simple and fast. And it even allows for multiple levels of completion, like I can mark an X next to an item for when it's coded, then cross out the line when I test.

wyclif• 14 years ago

My fave todo app is still todo.txt. Simple. Effective. Writable and readable anywhere.

ebun• 14 years ago

Agree 100%. I use Evernote for longer notes, but a Moleskine for quickies.

bryanjclark• 14 years ago

"Until you make a note taking app that takes less time to use than a white board, I'm gonna use the whiteboard."

You should check out Threadnote (www.threadnote.com) -- we made it exactly for that reason.

tatsuke95• 14 years ago

Same experience. I'm dying for a great to-do application, but I always seem to revert back to my staples: whiteboard, a moleskine and Evernote.

changdizzle• 14 years ago

i think this is great - few questions for you:

- is there any way to altogether delete tasks? looks like you can only archive - are there any plans to have an osx app? i was just looking for something like this yesterday for my MBP

julian55• 14 years ago

I thought this was going to be about cheese but it's just another to do list.

brandoncapecci2• 14 years ago

To-do app: Yawn. Stupid name: double yawn. There has only been one moderately innovative app in this space and it was Clear. Clearly, the space is now beyond saturated.

modarts• 14 years ago

This is really great timing: I woke up this morning thinking "You know what I really need? Another todo app!"

stephanimal• 14 years ago

I would just like to note, that as a human I can only store a finite number of passwords in my brain and would love if web apps like these would at least provide OAuth with another identity provider (gmail, etc.) as an option.

shanev2• 14 years ago

The design of this app looks awesome, but I don't think we need more todo apps in the App Store. I have a huge list of app ideas with not enough time to implement all of them. Every few weeks I see one of my ideas, done by someone else, hit the top 25 of the App Store. If you're a talented developer there's much more creative things you could be buliding.

akamaka• 14 years ago

Sounds like you have a lot of great ideas. Can I have some? I'm a talented developer, but I rarely ever use apps myself, so I'm short on ideas. I'll buy you some beers if I make a few sales. :)

shanev2• 14 years ago

Sure, hit me up at my HN username @ gmail.

huhtenberg3• 14 years ago

Seriously, Sam. Reword the brief to not say "magical". It's annoying at best and insulting at worst. If it were ticking off "get milk" when you put a new carton of milk in a fridge, that could've passed for magical. Doing an auto background sync is not, you are late by few years.

cpocpo• 14 years ago

It's ironic that he uses "magical" when his company is called Nothing Magical.

FuzzyDunlop• 14 years ago

It might actually be magical, if you [mis-]read this:

It's just text. Type in the box. Press return. Done.

I'd love to complete all my tasks by typing in a box and pressing return.

revorad• 14 years ago

The comments on this thread are such an embarrassment. Someone's worked hard on something for months, and people go and piss all over it.

If you don't think this is a useful or good app, you don't even have to look at it. Just pass.

At least when someone launches a product, if you don't have anything encouraging or constructive to say, it's best not to say anything.

It seems HN is suffering more and more from the "Why wasn't I consulted?" angst - http://www.ftrain.com/wwic.html

mnicole3• 14 years ago

Why is honest criticism not allowed? Don't you want to know why people are averse to your service so you can perfect it, no less directly from the people who would pay for it?

nalidixic• 14 years ago

There's a difference between honest criticism and bashing someones hard work. 75% of the comments on this post are not honest criticism.

gyardley• 14 years ago

The 'oh no, not another todo list' comments on this are hilarious - and I suspect Sam will get also get a kick out of them, as he deposits his checks.

Sam, congratulations on your launch.

rvid• 14 years ago

Here's what I'd like to see - A Todo app, calendar and goal tracker all rolled in one, with a clean UI and multi-platform sync. That's all the productivity I need!

fcoury• 14 years ago

Anyone else experiencing a lot of bugs with Cheddar? I mark an item done on my iPhone, web UI doesn't sync. Now I create a new list, it doesn't show.

Still early stage?

rane• 14 years ago

App store reviews sound like they've been solicited.

kennywinker• 14 years ago

Looks pretty similar to my current fav: http://teuxdeux.com/

SwellJoe• 14 years ago

I have a "todo" email in my drafts folder in GMail, I've been using this method for years, and it has always synched up across all of my devices. I used to do it with my regular IMAP email, which worked on my Sidekick, so this process goes back nearly a decade. I've tried using stuff like Remember The Milk, because people love it so much, but it just doesn't give me any benefit and I have to internalize a new process, setup all my machines, etc.

The same is true of Evernote. Email drafts are searchable and available on all my devices, so I just keep my notes there, too.

If I wanted to get fancy, I could make a folder just for todo lists and one for notes. But, I rarely have more than one active list at a time, and notes being searchable makes it easy to find the one I need when I need it.

choxi• 14 years ago

I know there's a ton of todo apps out there, I've tried Remember the Milk, Evernote, Wunderlist, Reminders.app, and probably a couple other iOS todo apps.

I picked Wunderlist and have used that for a long time because it's on every platform I care about (iPhone, iPad, and Mac) BUT it's absolutely horrible about syncing content and I get duplicates and missing todos all the time. I just tried out cheddar's "push" feature and it's actually enough for me to leave Wunderlist.

Also the Markdown feature is awesome

rubergly• 14 years ago

Am I the only one who sees a clear, functional difference between "todo" and "list" apps?

Todo apps: Any.do, Orchestra, 2Do, Do It Tomorrow, TeuxDeux

List apps: Clear, Cheddar, Listary

I always keep one of each one my phone, because they serve entirely different purposes. While they both work by storing lists, there's a big difference for me between tasks and items in a list. When I'm tracking tasks, I want things organized based on timeframes (maybe also assigning priorities, due dates, or categories), and an interface designed around that principle is always going to do that better; you could use Clear or Cheddar to store "Today", "Tomorrow", and "Soon" lists, but that's a poor hack. When I'm simply maintaining a list of things to remember (e.g., grocery list, debts to friends, items I need to buy after moving, songs to buy, 100 push-ups program), all I want is several (separate) lists with items I can add, edit, rearrange, and delete.

I currently use Any.do as my tasks app and Clear as my list app. I really like the design of both of them, but I have reservations of both. Any.do takes a very nice approach of sorting tasks into bins of Today, Tomorrow, This Week, and Later, but aggressively bubbles tasks up (the idea is nice if Tomorrow tasks moved into Today after a day, and This Week into Tomorrow after 6 days, and Later always stayed in Later, but I've had to push the same tasks back into Later and This Week 4+ times per week). Clear lacks syncing of any kind -- this is extremely frustrating because it could easily hook into something like SimpleNote. I really like the focus on syncing from Cheddar, but I have major reservations about the subscription concept (even though experience shows that I move between these apps frequently and will likely not need to pay for many months, a subscription feels like a significant investment whereas a <$5 app doesn't), and I find myself missing Any.do and Clear's gestures.

dhucerbin• 14 years ago

If you like apps with nice interface based on gestures check 30/30. In this app you create tasks and asign time for them. Something like pomodoro technique but time may vary.

[I downloaded any.do - like it!]

phil• 14 years ago

I don't understand the hate in the comments. Two things:

1) The simplest applications are still hard to polish this much. In fact, simple things can often hide some of the hardest design choices.

2) Three years ago, Twitter apps were the UI design playground of choice. Now that they've told everyone not to write new clients, UI experimentation has shifted to other applications. Compare Cheddar to Clear, for example. Both are nominally to-do lists, both have carefully thought out custom interfaces, but they express very different philosophies about software design.

damian2000• 14 years ago

YAFTDL (yet another effing to-do list).

Cheddar

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