PingMe: A Task Reminder Service

Passing by on the Deck ad network this morning (at Andy Baio's blog) I saw a new service called Tempo, which is a time tracking tool... but this is not a post about that product, but another from the same folks at Zetetic, called PingMe. I will take a look at Tempo at some other date.

PingMe is a task reminder tool that allows users to create, share, and get alerted about things. The old school use case would be creating tasks online and getting email or SMS reminders, but the one that caught my eye was Twitter integration.

Tasks are created using a simple editor, and are displayed in a post-it note format. Personally, I would rather a more straightforward list, with sorting based on various fields.

PingMe - What *Should* You Be Doing?, originally uploaded by Stowe Boyd.

Tags are supported, so I could click on reboot10 and just see those two tasks.

I thought the 'pester' option was interesting:

PingMe - Pester, originally uploaded by Stowe Boyd.

The Twitter integration works as advertised. Here's a task I created in PingMe in my Twirl client:

stoweboyd - twhirl 0.8.2, originally uploaded by Stowe Boyd.

But when I tried creating a ping from Twitter, no go.

There is an elaborate text language for remote pings supporting email integration, but it doesn't work from Twitter. Although I am following @gpm -- the company's Twitter bot -- and receive messages from it, I can't create tasks this way, although I would like to.

Here's the sort of message supported in email:

3pm start the ribs at 300º

So I would expect to be able to twitter:

d grm 3pm start the ribs at 300º

or maybe @gpm?

At any rate this has to be added if I were to use the solution. Especially since I am using Remember The Milk, which has Twitter integration, and I can say

d rtm start the ribs (300º) at 3pm

and it works as advertised. Here I display the results in the Google Calendar integration:

Google Calendar, originally uploaded by Stowe Boyd.

(I have to confess, I wish RTM's Gcal integration was a standard calendar, instead of this Ajax hackery. It shows well, but can't sync with my iCal.)

So, my recommendation is that if you'd like task lists integrated in your Twittering, stick with Remember The Milk. RTM supports twitter queries, like these

!today
gets tasks due today (shortcut: !tod)

!tomorrow
gets tasks due tomorrow (shortcut: !tom)

!getdue friday
gets tasks due on the specified date (shortcut: !gd)

And reminders from RTM can be directed to Twitter, as well. I have my reminders set up now just to send to Twitter 30 minutes ahead of any task with a specific time.

(PS I wrote a fairly comprehensive write-up about using Remember The Milk's Gmail integartion at Unclutterer: A Simple Way To Simplify Email.)

Comments

[Stephen Lombardo]

Thank you for putting together such a comprehensive and balanced write up on PingMe! One note - when creating a reminder from Twitter you would need to add a + to the front of the message to indicate it's a new reminder. The reason is core to PingMe's philosophy and a result of the way that it differs from other systems: we let you reply to reminders interactively.

Let's say you get a ping on Twitter to "call john to schedule dinner and drinks", but you're with a client or it's just a bad time. Just send a message back like "d gpm 3 hrs" to move it - and in three hours you'll get another reminder for the same task. Thus, you can reply back to adjust reminders/tasks right from your phone without ever logging into the site. This interactivity, along with features like pestering reminders, repeats, and confirmation requirement, makes PingMe perfect for folks with frequently changing or unpredictable schedules.

So, the + sign on the front of new entries from Twitter helps PingMe tell the difference between a reschedule of the last reminder and a new reminder. To create a new reminder for tomorrow via twitter try "d gpm +1 day start the ribs". Here's a bit more information on the twitter integration and time codes.

For what it's worth we're also planning some improvements for a future release that I hope will address some of your other suggestions including support for natural language scheduling and an interface refresh.

[stoweboyd]

Stephen -

I didn't see anything written up about Twitter integration, at least not the stuff you are talking about here. Is there a link to any material?