Apple iOS 5 Features That Matter

Of all of the new bits and pieces of iOS 5, one of the apps I’m using the most is Reminders. It’s a simple yet effective app for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad that is used to set up self-reminders and task lists that are synced through iCloud. Let’s take a look at this latest feature of iOS and Mac OS.

The icon for Reminders describes at a glance exactly what it does — it looks like a list of tasks, each with a check mark indicating completion. Reminders works on the concept of lists, and you can create any number of them. The app automatically adds a list called “completed” that contains any task that you have finished but have not deleted.

To add a list, there’s an edit button on the Lists page. With a tap you see the names of all of the lists that you have created, and can create new lists either on the device you’re working on or in iCloud. For syncing, it’s best to create new lists in iCloud. On the Lists page, a tap of a specific list (“Work” for example) displays all of the individual tasks underneath.

Creating tasks is also easy: you just type in the name on the Lists page. Once the name is entered, a tap of the task takes you to a Details page where you can enter in a reminder. How do you do that? Tap on the “Remind Me” button, which opens up a dialog asking if you wish to be reminded on a day, at a location, or both. Choosing a day to be reminded brings up a standard date and time picker for an alert, while choosing a location displays buttons for Current Location, When I Leave, and When I Arrive. A tap on Current Location brings up a list of locations — usually your current location, a work location, and a “choose address” location.

The latter only lets you pick addresses from your contact list. That’s a real bone of contention for me, since I’d like to be able to set location reminders for businesses that aren’t in my address list. For example, let’s say that I want to be reminded to buy laundry detergent when I go to the nearby Whole Foods Market. I don’t want to enter the grocery store into my contacts, but right now that’s the only way I can add the location into a reminder — that or go to the location and set the reminder using “current location.”