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Chris Bowler on Things Touch -

It’s not all peaches and cream though. As good as syncing is between the desktop and your handheld device, it could be improved. I don’t actually refer to the syncing itself, but rather the initiation thereof. To initiate a sync, you must have Things open on your computer, be on the same wifi network and then open Things on your iPhone/iPod Touch. Having to be on the same network doesn’t bother me, but there are times when I head out without opening Things on the touch and it is always a few tasks off from the desktop.

And if you add this inconvenience to the fact that it’s easier to write something down on paper than it is to add a new task to Things using the iPhone keyboard and one thing becomes clear—the usefulness of having a copy of your task management data with you at all times may be fairly minimal. At least in this form factor.

While Chris touts the interface and day-to-day functions as top notch, syncing and capture seem to be two of the crucial areas of improvement needed.

In a portable task management system, I want two things (no pun intended)—fast, simple capture, and syncing with my computer. Paper has the advantage over digital in capture: you can quickly jot down ideas and notes at any time. However, paper provides no way to sync, copy, or duplicate those notes in any way, without recapturing them digitally.

There is a huge opportunity for an iPhone/iPod Touch app that will simply allow you to get your ideas down as fast as possible. Organization can be tedious; it can be done later on the computer. Keyboards, and even multi-touch aren’t fast enough means on mobile devices for inputting thoughts. Voice may be the way to go, and while Jott comes close, it is far from perfect.

Give me an iPhone app with fast input, and automatic syncing. Throw in a little flair of location awareness, and you have a killer product.