Popular To-Do App 'Clear' Coming to Mac With iCloud Syncing

[MacRumors]

Popular iOS to-do app Clear is coming to the Mac complete with iCloud cross-platform syncing. Clear launched earlier this year to strong reviews of its minimalist interface. The app is designed to be extremely quick and easy to use, with lists automatically color coded in order of priority. The Mac app is expected to be released next week on November 8th. Realmac, the creator of Clear, plans to price the Mac version at $15. It will require OS X Mountain Lion.

With Clear for Mac, we wanted to spearhead a new design direction for Mac UI that focuses on simplicity. Featuring nearly all the gesturally-driven interactions from Clear for iPhone as well as a complete set of keyboard shortcuts, Clear will revolutionise the way you interact with your Mac.

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Clear for iPhone will be getting a free update next week as well, adding support for iCloud backup and syncing, as well as a few other nice features. The new version of Clear requires iOS 6. It's available on the App Store for $1.99. [Direct Link]

Update: Nik Fletcher, product manager for RealMac Software, commented in the MacRumors forum about the pricing decision on Clear for Mac:

Thanks for your feedback, guys. It's interesting to hear your thoughts on the app and pricing. Pricing it is always tricky, and whilst some folks may think that pricing is something that is simply determined at the last moment, that's not the case with us. We gave the Clear pricing a **lot** of thought (and continue to do so). We think great apps are worth paying for, and we want to ensure that we can always continue to build apps that people want to use.

Thanks again, I hope you enjoy using Clear for Mac and iPhone w/iCloud when it launches next week.

Article Link: Popular To-Do App 'Clear' Coming to Mac With iCloud Syncing

 

[lazyrighteye]

While I like the clean, minimal design/aesthetic (very nice work UI team), the app is so minimal I found myself needing a bit more function. I've not used it outside of the first week of experimentation.

That said, $15 is an absolute joke for the desktop version. Sure, iCloud sync is nifty. But $15 is a bit steep for a pretty to-do list app. I guess it all comes down to the adoption rate for which Clear is targeting. At $2 (iOS)/$15 (OS X), I don't see this taking off - which may be fine with them. At $2/$4 or better, FREE/$2... I suspect you'd see some significant adoption. I could be wrong. Would not be the first nor the last.

Now if there are updates to the app down the road, I may revisit. But as it stands now... I'm good.

 

[rocknrollme]

Seems to be a pretty nice app, but what are the benefits compared to Apple's built-in reminders ?

 

[besweeet2]

It's practically the same as the iPhone version, which is $2, so they price the Mac version at $15? That makes *total* sense. They're practically begging people to pirate it.

 

[komodrone]

$15? there's no reason for $15. At least Tweetbot had a good reason for their massive price tag.

 

[wongulous]

Are you kidding me? I spent double what it was worth to buy it on the app store, and it's taken THIS LONG to get iCloud syncing... I had to reorganize my whole to-do-list-life in order to use Clear up until this point. And now they want $15 for a rehashed desktop version?

Uh, no. What jack***es.

 

[macnerd93]

$15 for this?

I'd rather use the more than adequate reminders.app what works seamlessly with my iPad, iPhone MacBook Pro & iMac. Its free apart of iOS & OS X .

 

[Cali Fornia]

I mean, awesome app, but 15$ (= 15€, that's actually all my paid apps together)? Everthing above 6$ is insance, stop milking the cow.

 

[Xano]

15.00?
Are you serious?
People are forgetting the sense of common stuff!
GreedyClear?
I'm Out ... already moving!

 

[aristotle]

Who is it popular with? Hipsters? It looks too minimalistic and too edgy. Form over function and usability.

Also, the price seems really high.

 

[EmpyreanUK]

What does it do that Reminders, or even a plain text note do not?

 

[lightmyway]

I just use a combo of Reminders and Wunderlist, but guys– stop complaining about $15 software. A lot of time, effort, and money goes in to developing quality software. You don't have to buy it if it doesn't suit your needs, but I would say $15 is a bargain for daily-use software like this.

 

[coder12]

If it supported Reminders, I might consider paying $15, but this is a wee bit ridiculous.

 

[Dwalls90]

Apple should buy them and integrate into Reminders.

 

[JTToft]

What does it do that Reminders, or even a plain text note do not?

- It looks nice and has fancy colours.

 

[lazyrighteye]

I just use a combo of Reminders and Wunderlist, but guys– stop complaining about $15 software. A lot of time, effort, and money goes in to developing quality software. You don't have to buy it if it doesn't suit your needs, but I would say $15 is a bargain for daily-use software like this.

Totally. Supporting devs is imperative to the ecosystem.
I just don't think that what their offering is $15 worthy. Some will. Some won't. I'm of the latter.
As stated earlier, should they evolve the app, I might revisit. The simple, clean, minimal UI is fantastic. But at $15, it needs a bit more oomph. For me. One guy.

 

[Drunken Master]

What does it do that Reminders, or even a plain text note do not?

It gives you a satisfying sound when you check something off, I guess.

I found that I just ended up not using it much. Asking Siri to remind me of something or creating a To-Do list in Notes is much better.

I can only fit so many apps on my iPhone homescreen so this one bit the dust.

I just use a combo of Reminders and Wunderlist, but guys– stop complaining about $15 software. A lot of time, effort, and money goes in to developing quality software. You don't have to buy it if it doesn't suit your needs, but I would say $15 is a bargain for daily-use software like this.

Yeah, we're getting too spoiled these days with all these quality $0.99 apps.

 

[nuckinfutz]

I went OmniFocus a long time ago.

About ready to delete all the tasks apps on my devices. I find many to be too simple and OF is probably overkill but I can get the basics in pretty easy.

 

[nikf]

Disclaimer: I work at Realmac Software, makers of Clear.

Thanks for your feedback, guys. It's interesting to hear your thoughts on the app and pricing. Pricing it is always tricky, and whilst some folks may think that pricing is something that is simply determined at the last moment, that's not the case with us. We gave the Clear pricing a **lot** of thought (and continue to do so). We think great apps are worth paying for, and we want to ensure that we can always continue to build apps that people want to use.

Thanks again, I hope you enjoy using Clear for Mac and iPhone w/iCloud when it launches next week.

—Nik

Nik Fletcher
Product Manager, Realmac Software
@nikf

 

[k2director]

Jeez, judging from the comments complaining about price, I can see most people here don't have a clue about software development and how product pricing works.

They can price Clear for iOS at $1.99 because there's a huge market--ie, people looking to keep a simple to do list on their mobile device. The price is very low, but the developers turn a good profit by selling to the masses.

The market for people looking for a Mac version is much MUCH smaller, yet it can easily take just as much time to design/code/test the Mac product as it did the iOS version. Hence the higher price. Without mass sales, the price has to be higher to turn a reasonable profit.

As for Clear's design, it's very simple, but that's what a lot of people want/need. I've known three people who tried multiple to do apps on their phone, and never got in the habit of using them regularly. I introduced each one of them to Clear, and they all took to it because it was so easy and fast.

The gestures work beautifully, and the developers deserve credit for coming up with such an out-of-the-box approach (there are dozens of to do apps out there, and none thought to create a gesture-driven interface like the Clear developers did).

I just hope iCLoud synching works reliably. iCloud synch for Apple's Reminders desktop app sure doesn't.

 

[whiteatom]

I'm having a hard time seeing what this does over Reminders. I've never had an issue with reminders syncing - in fact is was perfect on Lion through the calendar - it seems a tiny bit faster now there is an independent app.

I am on the "get what you pay for" side, and I totally agree $2 and $15 are reasonable prices for quality software adding some useful functionality. The problem here is the second point... I don't see how they have added $15 of usability now that Reminders is a separate app. Back in Lion when it was buried in mail, sure I would have paid $15 to have a better interface, but now? I don't know why it was developed, or why Apple approved it.. don't they have problems with apps that duplicate existing functionality?

My $0.02.

 

[cambookpro]

Meh, I tried Clear when it was 99c.

I LOVED the design and aesthetics - great work there, with all the swipe stuff etc

But it was never very... useful. No alerts, no option to add notes to that entry, no scheduling etc. I understand they went for simplistic but it just seemed too simple.

Hoping the great design can be transferred to a useful-er app in the future.

 

[macduke]

I'm always the guy advocating for developers. They deserve to get paid when they do good work. But "clearly" this app isn't worth $15. It's great design, but not worth the price of admission. I consider this an accessory to the iPhone version, which means I might occasionally use it. I'd pick it up for $5, but $15? No chance. I almost feel offended by a $15 asking price. Do they think we're dumb? This app lacks basic functionality. At $10 I would feel less offended, but still probably wouldn't purchase.

And yes, I did buy Tweetbot for $20. But that app does far more than make pretty lists. It is extremely full featured. You see, minimalism is great on a phone when you need to quickly add items and sort things, but when I sit down to my Mac I'm doing real work. This is not a real to-do list manager. Even Tweetbot on the iPhone is somewhat minimalist, but neatly tucks away all the advanced stuff so it's still easily accessible.

What I'm more interested to know is this: does the new iPhone version with iCloud sync mean that it ties into our existing reminders, or does it just sync Clear data between devices? Because I use Siri all the time to add things to lists, and have stopped using Clear because it doesn't support that. I'd love to ditch Reminders and go back to Clear, but lack of Siri integration kind of kills it for me.

 

[Reach9]

I bought Clear on iOS and while it had a nice minimalistic UI, it was just too simple to use.
The Reminders App replaced it easy.

I use 2Do for my task managing. And their Mac version is coming out soon.
It's really the best task manager in the market.
And i've bought and tried Things and Omnifocus too.

 

[InfoTime]

Disclaimer: I work at Realmac Software, makers of Clear.

Thanks for your feedback, guys. ...[snip]

Nik Fletcher
Product Manager, Realmac Software
@nikf

Nik, thanks for posting here. I'm embarrassed by some of the posts here like this one:

It's practically the same as the iPhone version, which is $2, so they price the Mac version at $15? That makes *total* sense. They're practically begging people to pirate it.

I get so tired of the cry-baby entitlement attitude. If you think something is priced too high or you don't like something about the producers or distributors of product you think it gives you the right to take it without paying for it?

Remember Nik, this forum also has at least one poster who brags about how he regularly uses 6 - 8 GB of his unlimited AT&T 3G data plan.

Just ignore the fringes. If you're not willing to pay $15 for an app that will improve the use of your time then your time probably isn't worth too much to begin with.