A picture is worth a thousand words

While searching for a MobileMe alternative, and a solution to rectify the "inconsistent data" message received while trying to sync with my iCal at work, I came upon this hilarious image courtesy Yong Hwee at "The Second Press" that pretty much summed up a day's worth of syncing angst. I am shocked and dismayed at Apple for releasing a product clearly lacking in resemblance to a good User Experience. MobileMe's lack of interface and sub navigation is frustrating, it's lack of in-depth help irritating, and my inability to sync up with my work calendar leaves me baffled. The "cloud" must have evaporated.

For a few fleeting moments I found myself missing my Tungsten and wondering how much more I need to spend in time and money to find a decent solution for integrating my two essential calendars.

On a positive note I have to share my love for the "Mind Meister" mind-mapping app which made outlining a project on UI Design processes less of an ordeal than it could have been. Typically outlining, let alone initiating less-visual projects with many moving parts, is kin to trudging up a steep hill for me. My usual tools of choice, index cards or stickies, are fine but then to lead to a lot of erasing and unreadable hand writing.

Enter the ease of keying in multiple concepts and the ability to arrange and rearrange through an online grid. Not only was mapping my processes simple and intuitive but less time consuming, too. And should I ever be without the comfort of a computer adding a fleeting idea is easy through the iPhone app "Geistesblitz". I can't wait to use Mind Meister to kick start even more projects.

Kinda unproductive!

So far my iPhone has been holding me hostage with it's newness today. My productivity has not improved and the lack of a to-do list native on the iPhone is plain silly. I will attempt to use Jott as a productivity tool for now and see how it works. I have to wonder how a smart group of Apple engineers omitted a function as crucial to a smart device as a to-do list--that's madness! OK, and mobileme strikes me as cumbersome and lacking in the ability to fully play nice with OS Tiger. Other than that, I love my shiny new iPhone.

Update: 6:02pm

I've been so engrossed with my iPhone I've missed my friend Suzanne's open studio (and feel shamed by this, too.) Since writing this post, on my iPhone which was slightly counterproductive, I've come across a couple of different apps to try. One is "Things" and the other is "Todo". Many in the iPhone apps community seem to like both and being my huge cross to bare is that of organization/prioritizing I've sprung for both. So far, Todo seems the more intuitive of the two and while coupled with "Toodledo" offers me the added bonus of goal setting. If they could add an SMS to inquire about how I'm doing with my goals, at a frequency of my choosing, I'd be grateful.

What I do like about Toodledo so far is the ability to assign e-mail or phone numbers via the iPhone's contacts--how easy is that? Very.