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Launch HN: Routine (YC W21) – Tasks, notes and calendar all in one product

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Re: Launch HN: Routine (YC W21) – Tasks, notes and calendar all in one product

#31

Post by jquintard »

orangefarm wrote: post #26
criddell wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you happy with how the application looks and behaves on the Mac? Apple is clearly moving to having iOS apps work on the Mac. Do you think the iOS Routine app would work on the Mac?

Reading all the negative sentiment on HN about Electron beforehand I was a bit concerned about picking it for the desktop app but now I am positively surprised to be honest. I totally understand that Electron's memory footprint is not acceptable for very small apps that only serve as a utility. For Life though, which is supposed to replace 2-3 other apps, a memory footprint of ~300mb seems fine to me. In-app performa…

Routine's iOS app is written in native Swift.

Re: Launch HN: Routine (YC W21) – Tasks, notes and calendar all in one product

#33

Post by spooneuh »

criddell wrote: post #28
jquintard wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a very good point. Definitely Apple's direction. I think it will take quite some time to reunite both world. But maybe indeed, eventually, we'll have only the iOS app that will run on both iPhones and macs. Note thought that there will always be a big difference in experience. On desktop, we want the experience to be center-ed around the keyboard shortcut, the console and natural language. On iOS (at least for…

> On iOS (at least for most people) Are you assuming a phone here or including the 12" iPad Pro with a keyboard?

Hi criddell, I'm the iOS dev for Routine. As of now, the iOS application is restricted for iPhone only. Regarding the iPad with keyboard it is definitely something we need to think about, as the usage is closer to a desktop than a phone. As of now, if we authorized the iPhone version to be used on iPad it would lack the main desktop feature : the console.

Re: Launch HN: Routine (YC W21) – Tasks, notes and calendar all in one product

#34

Post by zaphar »

jbverschoor wrote: post #27

Warning - google accounts only. What's the deal with all these google-only apps? And on the other hand the de-googling of everybody on HN. It's super annoying, and basically forces you to use a throwaway google account. Also, with the whole supplychain security, why not just also promote your webapp, instead of a bundled electron app? ### In order for Routine to provide the value you are looking for, it needs access…

A Google Account integration is an easy and relevant MVP for your product. It allows you to get up and running quicker. You can always add other integrations and self-hosted user management later as you prove out your business model.

Re: Launch HN: Routine (YC W21) – Tasks, notes and calendar all in one product

#35

Post by criddell »

spooneuh wrote: post #33
criddell wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> On iOS (at least for most people) Are you assuming a phone here or including the 12" iPad Pro with a keyboard?

Hi criddell, I'm the iOS dev for Routine. As of now, the iOS application is restricted for iPhone only. Regarding the iPad with keyboard it is definitely something we need to think about, as the usage is closer to a desktop than a phone. As of now, if we authorized the iPhone version to be used on iPad it would lack the main desktop feature : the console.

If you did decide to support an iPad with keyboard, I wonder what the experience on the Mac would be compared to the Electron app?

You can probably tell Electron isn't my favorite way to make Mac apps.

Re: Launch HN: Routine (YC W21) – Tasks, notes and calendar all in one product

#36

Post by jquintard »

swimminginlove wrote: post #32

Just a heads up. My Google account only has a first name so when I tried signing up got this error {"reason":"invalid JSON OAuth response: missing required field family_name","method":"GET"}

Hey. Thanks for that feedback. We're going to look into this and we'll get back to you. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Re: Launch HN: Routine (YC W21) – Tasks, notes and calendar all in one product

#37

Post by spooneuh »

criddell wrote: post #35
spooneuh wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi criddell, I'm the iOS dev for Routine. As of now, the iOS application is restricted for iPhone only. Regarding the iPad with keyboard it is definitely something we need to think about, as the usage is closer to a desktop than a phone. As of now, if we authorized the iPhone version to be used on iPad it would lack the main desktop feature : the console.

If you did decide to support an iPad with keyboard, I wonder what the experience on the Mac would be compared to the Electron app? You can probably tell Electron isn't my favorite way to make Mac apps.

Surely if we were to have the console on iPad (and all the features that are not developped on iOS as of now), we probably could release a native MacOS app along. But realistically it will not be in the near future, as the iOS app is lagging a fair amount behind the electron app. As of now, we're focusing on iOS on the simplest and most used functionalities as well as features that works well with touch UI.

Re: Launch HN: Routine (YC W21) – Tasks, notes and calendar all in one product

#39

Post by catchmeifyoucan »

Congrats on the launch! +100 for keeping notes and tasks together. I think it's an under explored area.

I really like the design, and how minimal you've kept it. I've been working in this space with Amna [https://getamna.com] and I know how hard it is to get the design right. It's soo easy to keep building UI for everything.

One thing I found frustrating was closing out of the "console" when I was clicking out of it. Since it was invoked with a mouse, my hands weren't on the keyboard.

I'm looking forward to where this is going!

Re: Launch HN: Routine (YC W21) – Tasks, notes and calendar all in one product

#40

Post by mful »

I've been looking for a combined task manager and calendar for a long time, and have often entertained building one for myself. Some feedback that is preventing adoption for me:

- Complex recurrence is key. I exercise 4 days per week. I only process my inbox (GTD-style) on weekdays. I triage bugs twice per week.

- Need to be able to view more than one day at a time on the calendar, and add tasks to specific days in that view — I plan out my weeks.

- Looking at future dates, it still shows my tasks scheduled for earlier dates. This makes planning difficult.

Ergonomic feedback

- Keyboard shortcuts (including arrow key navigation) does not work if you are focused on the name field of the task in the list. This means I can't really navigate, open, archive, reschdule tasks without using the mouse. Or at least I can't see how to. Might have to change hotkey scheme (use control or option?) as well, as command+A, for example, should probably still select all text in a field.

- I should be able to click out of the console — I keep trying to click or alt-tab out of it, like it’s spotlight, and it just hovers empty in front of my screen until I click to refocus on it and hit escape.

- When I've thought of building this myself, a key feature was adding tasks to the day's calendar (like, "I plan to work on X from 2-3:30pm").

Currently I use Asana for it's calendar view (note: this is not a calendar integration) and great keyboard shortcuts.

Anyway, congrats on the launch!

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