Sneak Peek part 3: Timers
One of the most requested features, for the iPhone app, was to have some way to track and log time. And to be fair, the phone is a perfect device for this kind of thing. Whether you're in a meeting with a client or working at your desk, the chances are that you'll have your phone near by. As I write this post, in a café in Blarney, the phone is serving me some Hotspot goodness while displaying a full screen TeamworkPM timer - reminding me to stay on the straight and narrow. Time is money after all.
So what have we done? Well, as you'd expect you can quickly start a timer from any task or project. (Sorry Martin not from a Milestone!). When you do, a big, easy to read, timer is displayed. Stick the phone in the dock and the screen won't dim. So while you work, a single glance towards the phone will remind you what you're working on, and how long you've been doing it.
But you don't have to stay on the big timer screen. You can continue moving around the iPhone app as normal. To remind you that you're working on something a small timer will appear at the bottom of both the Task List and the Dashboard. Clicking on the small timer brings you straight into the full screen timer.
Now, when it comes to tracking time it seems people fall into one of two camps: some like to set out what they are going to do at the start, while others prefer to wait until the end when they say what they've been working on. You can work either with TeamworkPM. For example, if a call comes in and you want to know how much time it sucks up - just hit the project timer and press play. You don't have type anything until after the call. But if you want to set out what you're going to do, tap the edit button, enter a description and hit continue instead of upload. That way you can work away and have the timer remind you what you're working on.
As with the previous post, seeing this stuff is better than reading it. So I've recorded another screen cast. When you're watching it, just try to imagine that your finger is the little arrow moving around :)
That's it. Version 1.5 of the TeamworkPM iPhone app should start showing up in the App Store at some stage today, so keep an eye out for it and as usual, let us know what you think!
Mike.
