List Sandy Replacements Here / delicious tag

Great thread, thx. I was using RTM prior to Sandy but found it very cryptic and a bit of "overkill" for my needs. I tried GoPingMe yesterday but it can't handle notes which doesn't work very well for projects, IMHO. I'm leaning towards Todoist but am on the fence about paying $3 per month to be reminded via Twitter. Very small price, yes, but I would prefer to at least test the service prior to committing.

Excellent idea. I guess I'm spoiled by IWS. I was playing with RTM before and I didn't like it because I couldn't get the SMS reminders working. Plus there doesn't seem to be any way to send an SMS reminder for only some things--seems you have to set them on for everything or nothing. Sigh.

If I find any decent replacement for IWS, I'll share as well.

Another possible alternative to add to the mix is a service called Gubb. http://gubb.net They also utilize remote commands and use SMS and email for communication. However, they are mostly focused on list management. Might be a good addition in a hybrid solution

I have looked at gopingme and am trying it out, but struggling a bit with the syntax and not being able to forward / cc a message to generate a reminder.

Gopingme's syntax is awful - I gave up after 45 minutes. I'm leaning towards a hybrid solution: Google Calendar for reminders and Gubb for lists, with addresses for both in my Dial2Do contacts.

The big things missing are email integration with GCal - being able to look at the original email that I sent (context) at the time of the actual appointment was very useful. I also lose tagging with this solution, so the whole thing has a more cobbled together, less organized feel than Sandy ... :(

Sorry to hear the news. I always really like the design for the I Want Sandy site.. :(

To answer the question posted here, I also want to suggest an alternative calendaring solution from my company, www.airset.com

One of the tools that we have is a group based calendar solution that allows each members to maintain the events/schedules, but choose who else he/she wants to share the events with. The calendar comes with SMS/Email reminder. In our next release (coming out in a month), you will also be able to set up sub calendars based on the different tags that you set for each of the events.

We have a user forum at www.getsatisfaction.com/airset

I spent most of today trying to find a replacement for Sandy. I have found something that works for me. I use Sandy to get email and SMS reminders of events (one time events like "watch Dancing with the Stars Finale today at 8pm" and recurring events like "take out trash on Tuesday at 10pm @weekly")

What I needed was:

1. email reminders
2. SMS reminders
3. an ical feed so I can view reminders in iCal, Google Calendar, various calendar widgets
4. easy way to add reminders using natural language via email.
5. a way to convert my data from Sandy without re-entry of everything.

What I discovered was Google Calendar does it all except for #4 (sort of).

1 & 2. yes, easy to set up in Google Calendar -- you can configure how long before the event you want the email/SMS.
3. yes, easy to do this in Google Calendar. Then you can subscribe in iCal/Outlook/calendar widgets, share with spouse/coworkers, etc.
4. yes and no. There is no way to add events via email, but you can use natural language (like Sandy) to add events via SMS and via the Quick Add feature in Google Calendar (works pretty much like Sandy. e.g., "brush teeth today at 9pm repeat daily"). I use a Mac so I created a web clipping of the quick add button so I basically have a dashboard widget to quick add events. Firefox has a plug in for quick add, but I haven't tried this. The SMS feature is very cool and works when you are away from the computer but have your phone. You get a confirmation SMS from google which is cool! Google is always adding features so I would expect adding events by email would be coming eventually.
5. Yes!!! So easy. Login to Sandy and go to your settings -> account -> calendar subscription and download. Save the file to your computer. Then in google calendar click "Add" and "Import Calendar". There you go!

Today was horrible to hear Sandy is gone. But Google comes to the rescue.

I'm going to be using Omnifocus to manage my todo lists so the main thing that I need it a reminder system. gCal might be the thing I need.

Does anyone have experience with reQall? http://www.reqall.com/

The other ones I have seen mentioned but not checked out are:
http://gopingme.com/
http://deadlineapp.com/
http://www.gottakeepup.com/

I'm replacing a couple specific features.

First, the ability to forward an email (or call Jott, send a tweet, or SMS) and have it schedule something in the future. For that, I'm enjoying Deadline. Easy syntax, and it has an ical feed. It doesn't keep the original email for context.

For the to-do list I decided to move out of the cloud (so this never happens again) and am test-driving Things (for OS X). A to-do list manager with tagging, scheduled to-dos, and projects. Doesn't work with email yet (though they're talking about integrating with Mail), but I can drag n drop an email to crate a to-do, and that links back to the email. (That means I have to keep the email, instead of delete it.) Or, I can select text in the message and copy it to the task.

I also played with Basecamp. You can email to-dos to any Backpack page, so it's easy to create a page for different projects, or a page of to-dos and a page of laters. I don't like their reminders. You can also email notes, emails, and files to Basecamp. That's very Sandy-esque. They have a calendar, but I think gCal is a better option. Or the new Yahoo calendar (when it comes out of beta.) Cheap. However, I've been using this for years just as a notepad/place to jot and I gladly pay every month. No daily digest.

Highrise, by the makers of Basecamp let's you forward email, too. As a bonus, every email is associated with a contact. If it doesn't have the contact in the system, it makes a new contact. You can also forward emails to create tasks (and the task will link to the email which is attached to the contact). You can email tasks without attaching them to a contact, and it offers a daily digest and print version which is actually nicer than Sandy's. Emailed tasks can be scheduled but only for general times: today, tomorrow, this week, next week, or later. On the website, though, you can schedule tasks for specific days and times. Scheduled items have an ical feed. Contacts can be tagged. Notes would be added to a contact, or to a Case. But to have any number of useful Cases, Highrise is too expensive. (Everything but the cases is available fro free.)

Evernote is pretty good. You can email anything in (a photo, a file, an email) and it stores it for you. You can also tag items. It won't make contacts, but it's search is awesome. (It will even search text in images.) So, you can forward an email from a contact, tag it as "to-do" and "contact". And it's easy to search within a tag. So you could search all items tagged "contact" for "plumber" or "Joe" and Evernote would return the item to you. No dated items, but it'll store everything else. Free plan very robust. Paid plans are reasonable.

GoPingMe, ActionMethod, Remember The Milk, Gubb, and Todoist... didn't like them. Not elegant. Not simple. Not me. (IMHO)

Never before mentioned app with probably the closest natural language processing you'll find. Happy Thanksgiving. Here is an example of what this program can process

The date format is flexible! You can either enter a time relative to the current time, or an absolute time. Some valid dates are listed here: and it is free. Receive reminder emails and with a workaround SMS reminders. Lettermelater.com

* now
* next friday
* next year
* 2pm
* tomorrow 4:02 am
* 4 hours
* 45 minutes
* Sunday January 1, 2012 at 6:00 AM

Video demo http://www.viddler.com/explore/molzy/...

Reqall.com might be the perfect Sandy replacement. Uses natural language to detect and store notes, to-dos, a shopping list, and photos. (Contacts must be added seperately.)

You can send things in via IM or phone. It uses keywords to set dates: ReQall understands dates and times like “today at 5:30,” “Tuesday,” “8:00 a.m. on Jan 31st,” “this Friday,” “next Friday” and more.

There's also a Firefox extension, and email as a way to add stuff is also on the way.

Daily digest!!!

Also includes reminders, a news feed, and ical feed

Here's another one:

3mindme.com does natural language time processing. I like it better than lettermelater because there are a few less hoops to go through. You email directly and it emails you back, If you are like me and mostly used Sandy just for the ticklers, this is really great.

Interesting at how Sandy was able to beautifully meet so many differing needs!

I am leaning toward RTM (even though I know most aren't). It meets most of my needs in a way that's easy for me. I am testing out the iPhone app to see if I want to pay the $25 to upgrade to RTM pro and use syncing.

I like pingme, but it doesn't feel natural to me. I will see how I feel about the other apps as I try them out.

I am also looking for a replacement for stikkit. So far I am using evernote (I was using that anyway). It is missing many of the interactive functions of stikkit, but I can't seem to find anything else web-based that is close.

Has anyone tried quub.com? I haven't -- it's in private beta.

Backpack with Backboard are my votes. Backpack can also be "group enabled" and the new Backboard freeware app is simple yet powerful.

I have been using Jott ( http://jott.com ) with Sandy for some time now. It may suffice as a stand alone.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?ke...

I made a spread sheet with some different services and whether or not they had the features I am looking for. So far I haven't really found anything I love. It's between ReQall, Vitalist, Pingme and Hiveminder

7/30/09 Great idea. Miss using iwantsandy but as with many great tools, some stay, others go. Have you folks tried www.mosio.com? Works for me too. I also use www.ohdontforget.com, www.reqall.com, www.gotomsg.com.
Here's something: I use www.dial2do.com to log into other reminder
sites using my voice (BTW all free), you might want to try that. Dial2do
is a good, all around site that allows the user great flexibility.
AllenN