Getting started with Astrid for iPad

Astrid was a popular to-do-list app on Android before it arrived for the iPhone last year. Now, with its latest release, it's a universal app. Astrid is still free, although there is a premium service that costs $4.99 a month or $39.99 for the year and lets you attach files to your to-do items and record voice notes. We are going to take it slow with Astrid, however, and cover the free version of the app.

When you first launch the app, you'll have the familiar choice of creating an account via e-mail or logging in via Facebook. After creating an account, you're brought to the My Tasks view. Astrid starts you off with a few tasks by way of instruction. They show you that you can tap on a box to mark a task complete, swipe left to delete, swipe right to postpone, and tap on the row of a task anywhere but the check box to edit its details. You can also shake the iPad to return to the My Task view, which doubles as the home screen.

When you tap to edit a task, a narrow window pops up to the left. The Who line lets you assign the task to someone other than yourself. The When line lets you assign a deadline and whether you'd like it to be a repeating task. From the Priority line, you can choose one of four color-coded priority levels. The List line lets you choose a category such as work, home, a particular project, or anything else you care to create. The Share line lets you share the task via e-mail, Facebook, or Twitter. And the Description line lets you enter more text about the task, but the only place it shows up is in this edit window.

You can organize your task by creating various lists, which are located in the bottom-left corner of the app. Alternatively, you can tap the small button in the upper-right corner to view all active tasks, those due today, those due this week, those that are past their given deadline, or those that have been completed.

Other views in addition to My Tasks are: Activity, People, Reusable Checklists, and Profile. The People view works only if you connect via Facebook, while the reusable checklists appear to let you create marketing or self-help lists such as "Top 10 Wedding Gifts Under $100" or "16 Things To Do to Prepare for an Emergency." From the Profile view, you can adjust settings including the snooze interval, how long the app should wait before hiding completed tasks, and set quiet hours where only tasks you schedule yourself will make sounds. You can also purchase Astrid's premium service here.

Lastly, I found that the free version of the app syncs between my iPad and iPhone, letting me keep things in check no matter which device I'm closest to.

Do you have a go-to to-do-list app? If so, please comment below.