Clear for iPhone is a pretty big deal for a buck. It’s a list manager and, as you may have heard, its designers have gone out of their to present you with as little UI chrome as possible. The result is a dead-simple, gesture-driven task manager that strives to rival the simplicity of pen and paper.
This means that Clear purposely ignores many of the more complex features present in other apps like Things, 2Do, and OmniFocus. Investing a dollar in Clear for iPhone will buy you the ability to keep multiple itemized lists, complete or delete individual items, and – oh, wait, that’s about it.
[Well, there are a few settings hidden in the top level of the app, but for the most part, what you see in the video demo of Clear, is what you get.]
The app’s capabilities can be summed up in a sentence, but the arrangement and implementation of those capabilities deserves at least a few more words. Clear reminds me a bit of Microsoft’s Metro interface for Windows Phone 7: it uses basic shades, isn’t overly shiny, and the plain text really is the most prominent graphical presence on screen. Most of the basic features – like the creation, completion, or deletion of tasks – are implemented as gestures. A quick tutorial right at the beginning of the app teaches you to pull on this, swipe on that, and pinch between these two items to stick a new task between them. It looks wordy on a page, but it feels natural in person, and, more importantly, it’s a lot of fun to do.
Clear’s greatest strength is definitely how easy it feels to operate. Items are just as easy to create as they are to complete, and the current lack of any sync means that the app just pops right up and works when you need it to. Clear seems like the ideal home for the simpler shopping and reading lists that always feel too cumbersome to fill out in Things. I can spend a minute creating a shopping list before heading to the supermarket, and when I get to the actual shopping, Clear’s gestures allow me to operate the app one-handed and require far less accuracy than the typical touchscreen checkbox.
Clear is one of those stupidly easy purchasing recommendations. App enthusiasts get a great new interface to play with, and those who prefer to create quick, simple lists will have one less use for pen and paper.
Clear was purchased by the author for review on iSource. For further information regarding our site’s review policies, please see the “About” page.
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