Remember The Milk: The Ultimate Reminder Service

The days of carrying around oversized leather-bound organizers are over.  Seriously, if you still carry one, it really is time to start thinking about joining the digital age - and soon.  With even the most basic of mobile phones carrying calendar and web access, information is readily accessible almost anytime, anywhere.

One of the most useful types of web-based software is time-management tools, and if you’re like us, you can’t remember what you were doing 5 minutes ago, much less what you need to do three days from now.  I’m fairly confident it is people like this that RememberTheMilk.com [PC - Mobile] had in mind when creating their service.

If you aren’t yet familiar with RememberTheMilk.com, it is a robust task management and reminder service that is available free of charge, with premium services offered for $25 a year (that means you, iPhone and iPod Touch users).  Sporting a simple. well-laid out interface, even the most amateur PC users will find navigation straightforward.  Setup and registration is quick and painless, but must be done on your PC. 

We are avid users of Google Calendar, however, one feature that stands out about RememberTheMilk.com is the myriad of notification options.  Not only are the old standby reminders available (text message, email) RTM allows you to set up the service to instant message you from any of 8 IM Services, and any combination in between.  You may also view your tasks on Google Calendar or Apple iCal, or subscribe to them in an RSS feed reader if you choose.

We love the tags.  It’s pretty standard stuff anymore - the more tasks with the same tag, the bigger the tag on the overview page.  Handy for a quick look and available on the mobile site as well, though without the size.  Nice touch.

The mobile version of the site is also easy to use.  Almost all of the functionality of the PC version is there: Manage your tasks, add new ones, change settings, search. 

One of the things that we were looking forward to was the sync feature of the Pro Account package.  Sadly, it is only available to Windows Mobile and iPhone/iPod Touch users.  A word to all of you iPhone/iPod touch users, there is an optimized online Pro version for you, but visiting the site starts a 15 day trial.  After which, it’s either upgrade or use the alternate mobile version.  We’d really like to see more Smartphone OS support as well (like Palm OS and Symbian OS).

So here’s the final word:  RememberTheMilk.com (ignoring the annoyingly long name) is a robust task management and reminder service.  Easy to set up and use with convenient reminder settings.  We could not, however, find any real reason to upgrade to the Pro service (unlease you just want to “Make Bob Happy” - their words, not ours), the online and mobile sites provide more than enough functionality. 

-wS.