Software : Roundup: 6 best to-do apps and extensions to manage your time

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• Roundup: 6 best to-do apps and extensions to manage your time
• Calling the Amazon phone: Will you use this Siri-like assistant app?
• Is Google Babel-ing on again with Google Voice for Android update?
• In Depth: Best free video editing software: 9 top programs you should download

Roundup: 6 best to-do apps and extensions to manage your time Posted: Make list. Tick things off list. Lose list. List-making apps for smartphones are myriad, but so far have taken longer to use than a pen and paper. Available on different platforms and devices - such as iOS, Mac OS X, Android, Chrome, Gmail and Windows-flavoured operating systems - and often synced via the cloud, we've enlisted some of the best free apps for this super-test. There are a plethora of paid apps, too, with the likes of Firetask, ToDo and TaskPaper costing a staggering £27.99/US$39.99, £10.49/US$4.99 and £17.49/US$24.99 respectively, but to us that seems like the digital equivalent of spending a week drawing a revision timetable. Here's some of our favourite free or cheap task apps from the hundreds now available. 1. Wunderlist 2 Free (Android, iPad, iPhone, Mac, Windows) The best-looking app around is also the king of the cloud. Tasks can be entered and later filed into folders (work, DIY or anything - it's free text entry), or smart lists created for today, the current week, or for anything starred. It's familiar, it's simple and it's enormously useful. We especially like the way each entry can be expanded upon; a simple 'buy bread' instruction can be created that just sits there until being digitally crossed-off (by ticking a box), or it can be given a due date whereby pop-ups appear on a smartphone and desktop - and even via email. It goes deeper, with a notepad available for each entry that can store reams of simple text. Our only complaint is that anything pasted into the notepad loses all formatting, and there's not even bold/italic/underline functionality within the apps. Other than that, it's not far off being a task-based Evernote. Everything is stored on the cloud, and lists can be shared between people, too, so it's just as good for a weekly shared shopping list as it is for a work project. 2. Remember the Milk Free (Android, Gmail, Google Calendar, iPad, iPhone, Outlook, Twitter) It looks basic and, design-wise, a little dated, but in practice Remember The Milk is one of the better task apps, largely because it's available across so many platforms. King of the cloud sync, Remember The Milk is as comprehensive - or not - as you want it to be. If you just want to make a simple list of things not to forget, the default sections for Today, Tomorrow and Overdue are probably enough. Exact due dates and times can be set and reminders (via email or text message) come through promptly, though it's also possible to set daily, weekly or even yearly tasks that could cover birthday present-buying or annual job tasks (such as filing tax forms). Its availability across almost every device and platform is another bonus, but think twice about installing it everywhere - it works for you, remember, not the other way around. 3. Clear £1.49/US$1.99 or £4.99/US$6.99 (iPhone or Mac) Last year's hit task app and surely a design inspiration for the popular Mailbox app doing the rounds this year, Clear is all about swiping instead of tapping. Folders and individual tasks are created by side-swipes, with left and right gestures completing or deleting them, while a long swipe downwards returns to the main screen. The interface relies on blocks of colour, though several simple themes are available. Clear is a product of the 'less is more' mantra, and while that will be a plus for some, others will sorely miss the chance to set reminders, create timed events or program recurring tasks. Although it's thoroughly modern and thoughtfully designed, it's not much more than an electronic version of a paper notebook - although the cloud-syncing introduced with the birth of a Mac app version does change that. There is some unnecessary clutter, with empty folders graced by pithy rent-a-quotes from the likes of Thomas Edison, Carl Sagan and, err, Bruce Lee, which can be posted by Twitter. That gives it a slightly amateur dimension that doesn't sit well with its price, though overall the core simplicity of Clear will be just what some users are after. 4. ITA 69p/US$0.99 (iPad, iPhone) Most to-do list apps hinge on a smartphone app, but ITA - though for iOS only - is also optimised for the iPad. Like Clear, ITA is another very simple app that does away with scheduling or recurring tasks and instead presents text-only entry boxes for tasks. Once grouped together under a heading - say, Work, Home or DIY - tasks can all be reordered, edited, completed (and thus put to the bottom) and entire lists shared by either email or - unusually - by text message, most often by a tap or a drag. The master list of, err, lists can also be reordered, but across the app there's a mishmash of different fonts, sizes and backgrounds that give it a slightly disjointed look. Although all lists can be stored locally, there's a cloud-based option if you want to access and alter tasks from both an iPhone and iPad. 5. Any.DO Free (Android, Chrome, iPhone) Probably the most beautiful-looking task app, Any.DO works across iOS and Android devices as well as via an almost identical Chrome extension, though there's an email action plugin for Gmail, too. The elegant interface is divided into Today, Tomorrow, Upcoming and Someday. When entering a new task on Any.DO there's a speech-to-text option that works reasonably well, though it only makes one attempt; if it misunderstands you it's back to the keyboard. Notes can be made for each task - again, there's a speech-to-text option upfront - and tasks can be shared with others via email. Reminders can be set for specific times, while tasks can recur daily, weekly, monthly, or even yearly. However, the app's daily reminder at 10am to 'take a moment to plan your day' does grate; who wants to be hassled by an app? Although it syncs with Google Tasks, a unique angle of Any.DO is a Gmail plugin that monitors the language in all incoming emails in an attempt to extract a task to add to Any.DO. In practice, the suggested action is often way off the mark, but it's a cinch to add free text in the 'What's Next?' box and set a time to follow up. As well as a rather simple Chrome extension, there's a new location-based feature that uses your phone's GPS to set geographical alerts. However, it's only available if you go through the process of inviting friends to use Any.DO, which for us is a task too far. 6. Taskulous Free (iPhone) Designed solely for the iPhone, Taskulous is similar in structure - if not in scale - as Any.DO.The basic front screen groups things into Today, Scheduled and Someday, which might be a bit prescriptive for some, but in practice covers anything. That last folder - Someday - can become a dumping ground for tasks that don't fit anywhere else, but can be just as exhaustively scheduled as anything else. For each task there's a free-text Notes tab and a Due Date and - best of all - the option to add it to a linked Calendar, such as iCal or Google Calendar. It's a clever way to both extend the reach of this one-device app and meld with your existing ways of organising your life. As well as appearing in the Scheduled tab, any event or task can be shared via email. However, even if you give exhaustive due dates for tasks they don't appear in the Scheduled section, just the folder you originally created them in, so you have to make that decision beforehand. The empty Logbook section, which is presumably for completed tasks but remained empty during our test, reinforces our feeing that Taskulous isn't quite as polished or as flexible as it first appears.

Calling the Amazon phone: Will you use this Siri-like assistant app? Posted: Amazon has played in the e-reader space for what seems like ages, leaving the smartphone work to others as it carved out its own niche market. That's not to say an Amazon phone hasn't been rumored, however. In fact, more evidence is amassing that the company wants to get on the same field as the likes of Apple and Samsung, with a new revelation today adding more fuel to the Amazonian phone fire. According to sources speaking with TechCrunch, the company quietly purchased digital assistant app Evi for $26 million (around UK£17 million, AU$25 million) sometime late last year. Available on Android and iOS, Evi is a very Siri-like service made by UK-based True Knowledge. She's one smart cookie, with the app's inventor saying Evi can process almost 1 billion facts while tapping into a "huge base of the world's knowledge in a form that she can understand and reason with." She even "learns" as she goes. So what does Amazon want with Evi? Though the sale of Evi is unconfirmed by all parties involved, bunches of clues point to the deal being done. Among those is that at the UK Companies House, which oversees company registrations, all Evi Technologies Ltd directors were reportedly replaced by Amazon's UK legal rep. Mitre Secretaris Ltd is the corporate secretary for Amazon.co.uk and it's now also apparently the Company Secretary for Evi Technologies. Twisted. But in terms of what Amazon would want with this voice and text recognizing personal assistant, there are a few options, with most pointing to a mobile device. One is that the online retailer is looking to boost its Kindle Fire offerings with a Siri-ous companion. In the face of competition from the iPad, iPad mini and Android and Windows 8-based tablets, an intelligent assistant like Evi might give the Kindle an extra edge. If she can give good book recommendations, she's a winner. Or perhaps Amazon is laying the groundwork for the introduction of its very own phone, one we wouldn't be surprised is based on Android but features its own homegrown features, like Evi. Maybe Evi will join sister software Ivona, which Amazon picked up in January, to create the uber-assistant? Nothing is for sure, but the Amazon phone is sounding increasingly like a foregone conclusion.

Is Google Babel-ing on again with Google Voice for Android update? Posted: A minor update to the Google Voice VoIP app for Android this week may hold a few clues regarding the Babel messaging service that the company is reported to be cooking up. The app update only lists "Improved the reliability of SMS delivery" as its reason for being, but Android Police took a glance beneath the surface to find one particularly intriguing little detail. It may not sound like much, but the APK teardown showed that Google Voice's configuration settings can now be read by other applications within the Android ecosystem. Putting two-and-two together (perhaps to make five), some have concluded Google is intending for another app to take on Voice's settings. Could that be the rumoured all-encompassing Babel application? Babel fishing? Recent rumours and leaks have suggested that Babel will bring together G-Talk in Gmail and on Android, as well as a client for Chrome, Android and iOS. According to a leaked Google memo, the service will run across synchronised devices (a la Apple's iMessage), while it'll also support 800+ emoji and video based Google+ Hangouts. Speculation has also pointed to the eventual integration (and replacement) of Google Voice, which brings us neatly back to today's reports. "I think it all points to another app taking over Google Voice's duties," wrote Android Police's Ron Amadeo. "Google is either baking in special support for its own app, or they're going to start supporting a third party Google Voice ecosystem about a million years too late. GV is, at least partially, readying to transfer data to something, we just aren't sure what." An official announcement regarding Babel is expected for Google I/O less than a month from today.

In Depth: Best free video editing software: 9 top programs you should download Posted: It's the first law of movie-making: no matter how expensive your camera, or how skilled you are at using it, your raw footage will always be rubbish. And so, if you're looking to add a little professional polish, then installing a video editor will be essential. Commercial video editors can be very expensive, of course, but you may not have to go that far. Whether you want to trim your clips down to size, add a soundtrack or captions, apply transitions or special effects, there are some great free tools which can help - and these are the very best around. 1. Windows Movie Maker 2012 Windows Movie Maker is supremely easy to use. Just drag and drop a few clips onto the program (most formats are supported) and immediately they're assembled into order; transitions and special effects are just a click away. It's just as simple to add a soundtrack, captions and credits, and you can save the results as a video file, or upload them directly to YouTube, Facebook and many other sites. You can take a little more control when you need it, for instance trimming clips and applying a few other basic options. The program's main focus is on making it very simple to produce quality movies, though, and for the most part it's a great success. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2. Kate's Video Toolkit While there's nothing too surprising in Kate's Video Toolkit, it does provide some basic but useful editing features. So you can trim files or join them, link two videos with a transition, create a sequence of videos with a custom soundtrack, and there's a simple file format conversion tool as well. There are plenty of limitations, too (you can't maximise the program window to use your full screen resolution, for instance), but Kate's Video Toolkit is extremely easy to use. If you don't want to read Help files and your editing needs are simple, it could be a great choice. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3. Avidemux Avidemux is a small but capable open source video editor which can help you join clips, cut them (without re-encoding), and apply a lengthy list of useful filters (Add Logo, Crop, Flip, Rotate, Resize, Sharpen, Remove Noise, tweak brightness, contrast colours and more). While this sounds basic, there are lots of options and fine controls to help make sure everything goes as you expect, and an excellent online wiki which documents everything. Overall, Avidemux is well worth a look, as long as you're happy to spend a little time learning how it all works. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4. VSDC Free Video Editor Non-linear video editors can take some time to learn, and VSDC Free Video Editor is no exception (a lack of useful documentation doesn't help, either). If you persevere, though, you'll find a capable editor with plenty of functionality: drawing and selection tools, plenty of colour and lighting corrections, some useful filters, transitions, audio effects and more. When your project is complete, there are options to save it to file, optimise your movie for various mobile devices, or even burn it to DVD. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5. MPEG Streamclip 1.2.1b6 With a download size of only 327KB, you'd expect MPEG Streamclip to be, well, a little underpowered. And yet, the program opens multiple files, DVDs or URLs of video streams; can trim, cut, copy or paste parts of your footage; and has options to rotate your footage or export the soundtrack, while its Export dialog provides more control over your finished video than some commercial products. It's not all good news - we had problems playing back some MP4 files - but if you're just looking for trimming and file conversion features then MPEG Streamclip is definitely worth a try. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6. VirtualDub It looks a little dated now, and only works fully with AVI files, but if that's your format of choice then VirtualDub has plenty to offer. A clean and clear interface helps you navigate through and trim your clips, there are plenty of filters - sharpen, blur, resize, rotate (at any angle, not just 90 degree increments), brightness, colour and contrast tweaks - and optional plugs add even more capabilities. Learning how to use all these functions can take a little while, as you'll need to explore some very lengthy menus to find them. But if you need an AVI processor, though, VirtualDub is still worth the effort. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 7. Free Video Dub At first glance Free Video Dub looks like just another video trimming tool: step through the source movie, select the left and right points, cut that section from the video and save the results. What's different here, though, is that the program doesn't re-encode your movie, so no matter how much trimming you do, no video quality will be lost. And if you have a lengthy clip which requires a lot of work then that could be very useful indeed. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 8. Lightworks If it's real editing power you need, then Lightworks is the best of the free package. Its feature-packed timeline, strong multicam support, realtime effects and smart trimming tools are so impressive, in fact, that the program has regularly been used to help produce top Hollywood movies such as Mission Impossible and Batman. There is a price to pay for all this functionality, though: an extremely steep learning curve. This is not a tool for beginners, and you should expect to spend plenty of time reading the documentation before you can do anything useful at all. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 9. Freemake Video Converter As you'll probably guess from the name, Freemake Video Converter is primarily a video conversion tool (and a very good one, too) - but it can also double as a simple video editor. Drag and drop your clips onto the program and you can arrange them into order, cut each one to suit your needs, flip or rotate individual clips and convert them to your preferred format (or even upload the finished movie directly to YouTube). And all in a polished, professional and very easy-to-use interface.

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