Read (or simply search) through the many pages of our blog, and you will likely find a review on task/list management or some similar mobile tracking and reminder mechanism. I have waxed poetic myself on the topic a time or two, and probably spouted off that I had finally found the WM Holy Grail of task management, only to forget about it 3 months later! Remember The Milk is probably one of the coolest services in this genre that I've used to date, as it's fully functional via a web browser, and works (at some level) with just about any kind of client, including WM. The cool part is that it doesn't add another PIM task manager to your device to screw up your registry, databases and cause a myriad of other problems. It syncs tasks straight into the built-in Tasks program in WM using a lightweight sync tool called MilkSync. Neat, huh? It even preserves your notes, and unifies changes (2-way) as you work from both your device or the browser. Now imagine you want to take it one step further...! You have a task that you would like to share with your friend or co-worker, and make sure they get reminded to do their part? Yes, you can share out tasks with a group of people, so they can get Tasks updates on their WM phone/PDA (or reminders via Twitter, Google Calendar, even RSS) as well!

Installation:

First you must visit the RTM web-site, register for a free account, and grab the MilkSync client for Windows Mobile. There is also a client for RIM BlackBerry, and iPhone users as well. RTM also has various integration features that work with the web version of Gmail, Google Calendar, Twitter, and many more web services, and has a mobile web version as well. You can also track your tasks via RSS feeds. How friggin cool is that?! So if all you want to do is use the web service, then after you register and login for the first time, you're pretty much good to go. Tasks Away! But, if you want your tasks to appear on your mobile client, you will need to go grab the additional downloads and install them. After the initial account sign-up, you will receive a confirmation e-mail in order to login and start using the tool. Download the cab to your device to install MilkSync on Windows Mobile. WM users already know that if you don't uncheck the little check-block in the download dialog, the file will open automatically and the installer will run. A desktop installer is also available, if you prefer using that method. MilkSync only works with WM 5/6 (not 2003 and older).

Setting up RTM:The RTM (RememberTheMilk.com) web version is the main control panel to fully manage and administer your tasks and lists, as well as collaborate with other users. You can syncronize and update tasks from your RTM tasklist with clients/web-services, but to fully take advantage of the RTM features, you need to use the main web service. It will work with Firefox 2.0+, and IE6/7, Opera 9.0+, Safari 3.0+ and I tested it with Google Chrome though it complains that it's not really supported, however it seemed to work mostly fine. Javascript and cookies need to be enabled in your browser. Since they have a pretty darn good tutorial, and to save myself the trouble of re-creating/resizing all the web-pages in this review, I snagged some of the screenshots from the help guide. After logging in to your account, the main web page presents a tabbed overview screen. From here, you can quickly browse today's tasks (e.g. tasks due today), as well as those for tomorrow and the week. Click the "Continue" button or the tasks link at the top of the page to start creating and managing tasks.  Tasks Screen...

Creating and Sharing Tasks:

The Tasks screen follows the same simple tabbed design as the rest of the site. The first time you enter RTM, of course you will not see any tasks. To create your first task, simply click the "Add Task" link. See below:

The task will be selected so you can edit fields and properties, such as a due date, time estimate, keyword tags, and notes in the right-handed details pane (see below). A handy feature here is the "Atom" icon, which will provide the feed URL for your tasklist. Click it, and if your browser can parse RSS (most of the later browser versions can), a listing of your tasks should display. You can point a feed reader at this URL, and monitor tasks in this manner. I use a Windows Vista Gadget for this. Once you have a list of tasks built, you can sort them in a variety of ways, blast them out to other users, and move them to other categorized lists.

Task Edits...

My tasks in a Vista feed gadget...sadly the due dates are not correct...

Managing Lists, and Reminders

The organizational and collaborative features really make this web-service outstanding--the ability to add/edit your own "category" or lists of tasks, as it were. This is useful for structuring and planning tasks, epecially for a large group of people. The lists are tabbed along the top of the tasks pane. When you first log in, the default list tabs will appear (Inbox, Personal, Work, Study, and Sent). The Inbox list item acts just like a incoming mail queue, and the sent category does the same for outgoing tasks. You can edit the list settings and add or delete categories by tweaking the settings menu (which includes a lot of additional features/services not fully covered in this review). The reminders feature is really awesome, as RTM can notify you in a variety of ways: email, SMS, and instant messenger (AIM, Gadu-Gadu, Google Talk, ICQ, Jabber, MSN, Skype and Yahoo! are supported). You can set new reminder methods by using "Add Details" in the Reminders screen.

Add your own lists...

Tweak Reminder features...

Groups and Users:

Send Invites out to your team! Similarly, you can create and add groups, and invite users to join RTM to be added to your groups. Select the Contacts menu to add groups and users.

Add Groups and Send Invites...

Sync everything or only specific lists...

MilkSync for Windows Mobile:

MilkSync is a client application that allows you to syncronize tasks from the RTM server to your handheld, and vice-versa. As stated earlier, it will add tasks directly to the built-in Tasks application in Windows Mobile. I tested it on a cooked WM 6.1 ROM. It will run either through your A/S connection, or directly via OTA. I had some issues with it, but this could have been because of my ROM. Some of my mobile edits wouldn't stick. I could create new tasks and sync them with no issue, but say, if I updated the notes for a task (add text, for example), it did not get updated in the on-line version after syncing. The RTM categories you set are preserved in WM, which will prove very useful for filtering. It would be better if you could create list categories on the device-side and sync them to the server (which did not work in my case). I also noted that it didn't delete categories from a particular task when I moved them (simply added the new category onto my lists). While I like that MilkSync is lightweight, a few more syncing features like these might require a full mobile client application that replaces using the Task application. Here's the official line from the RTM help on what you can/can't sync successfully:

--Which task properties will be synchronized when using MilkSync for Windows Mobile?

"The following task properties will synchronize between the Windows Mobile Tasks application and Remember The Milk, using MilkSync (i.e., any changes made to these properties will be reflected both on the device and in RTM): task name, priority, due date, recurrence, notes, and category (known as list name in RTM). Note: Windows Mobile only has 3 priority levels, whereas RTM has 4 (so both priority '3' and 'no priority' will show as 'low priority' in Windows Mobile). In addition, Windows Mobile does not support due dates with times (only dates)."

--Which task properties will not be synchronized when using MilkSync for Windows Mobile?

"Remember The Milk does not support the following task properties, so they will not synchronize if changed on your device: status, start date, sensitivity, and alarm. Windows Mobile does not support the following task properties, so they will not appear on your device when syncing with RTM: tags, time estimate, location, URL, and sharing information. In addition, Windows Mobile does not support filtering by Smart List."

Configuring and Using MilkSync:

When you first set up MilkSync, you should again go into the RTM settings and tweak your sync settings. Under the sync menu, select "all" (to sync all your listed tasks) or drill down on specific lists to syncronize. Then run the client application, and enter your account information in the appropriate settings selection. The client settings also allow you to set automatic sync options when cradling (or at intervals)--this can also be set to manual. In this case, you need to manually open the app and select the left soft-key marked "sync" to start a syncronization. Other sync settings include the ability to sync both from server and client, or one-way from each (sync only from client, or only from server).

Conclusion: RTM has been getting some sound bites of late (most noteworthy, Dvorak), and since it included a Windows Mobile client app, I thought I'd take a look. It's still in "beta" according to the web-site, but I notice they are offering an upgraded "pro" version (25$ for 1 year), which I have not checked out. I have used the beta for awhile, and not had anything time-out yet, and well, it's free! So, I'll use it for as long as it continues to work (15 days for the free trial, according to the FAQ). The RTM team isn't offering much to entice one to ugrade, however: priority support and mobile clients? Oh, and a "warm, fuzzy feeling"... You can even give a pro account to someone as a gift--imagine giving RTM as an anniversary present--better be quick on your feet, and have the number of a good lawyer. There is another rather cool feature, but will require you to install/use Google Gears to activate it. You can set the web version into off-line mode, make changes, and then switch it back online. This is a cool twist for web apps, as you are usually tethered to the net in order to use a service such as this. With Gears you can still access and change tasks via your browser, even if you lose your net connection. 

You can find out all about RTM, sign-up for a free account, etc here. For once, I can fully agree with a PCMAG pseudo op-ed piece on something! I recommend PCRAG for the excellent "Ask" columns by Neil Rubenking and Loyd Case, and wish they would dedicate the whole mag to the same kinds of stuff: Hardcore geek reviews and tips.. I digress...Remember The Milk is definitely worth the time it takes to check out. It's simple to set up and use, while at the same time providing lots of capabilities and advanced features. It doesn't work perfectly yet, but I expect that the minor issues I have thus far noted can be tweaked. I hope this beta grows into something akin to gmail. Shoot, Google will probably just buy it up and integrate it before that can happen. Course, then it would probably remain free!