You might have noticed that in one specific regard the iPhone version of Things was one step ahead of the desktop version: sorting by due dates. This changed today.

Aside from bug fixes and refinements, Things 0.9.5 allows you to filter and sort any list by due date. Similar to how the tag bar works, the due date filter button is only shown when needed; that is, when the given list contains items that actually have a due date.

When filtering your Next list for example, to-dos without a due date are hidden. The remaining ones are sorted by date and grouped into sections like Next Week, November, or 2009, making it easy for you to keep track of them.

Hello, I’m Michael!

Allow me to express my gratitude to my new team for inviting me to come along for the ride. This is much more than a job to me – it’s an opportunity to be part of something special. And no, they didn't pay me to say any of this – I already got the job. ;)

Cultured Code invited me to head up marketing, business development, and communication. Things is an amazing product, and I am excited to be part of its future development.

What amazes me even more than Things itself is the community that has developed around it. In the past few days, I've been busy reading previous blog posts, tweets, and forum entries. With communication at the core of my responsibilities, I am very much looking forward to taking part in future discussions!

Over the next few months leading up to the release of Things 1.0 at Macworld Expo 2009, more details will be revealed on our blog and Twitter feed, so stay tuned.

When we started the public development of Things, we invited everyone on an “interesting journey”. And interesting it was, to say the least. It also was a much longer one than we ever expected.

We are very happy to announce today that Things 1.0 will be released at Macworld Expo 2009, on January 6th. Here is what will be constantly on our minds over the next few weeks, the Things release countdown timer:

When you embark on a journey, you know the direction‚ maybe the destination; but you cannot‚ and in fact you don't want to‚ control what happens on the way. After all, it's the unexpected things that make a journey interesting.

Some things are bound to happen, like users strongly advocating features we previously didn't deem that important. Needless to say we were happy to oblige: Things 0.9.2 Brings Support for Leopard's System-wide To-do Service, Recurring Tasks XXL. Some things you wish to happen, like the iPhone SDK and the amazing iTunes App Store. And some things you can only dream of, like being mentioned on Apple's iPhone page.

What was first, the hen or the egg? When relying on venture capital, it is clearly the company that is created first. Then the company creates its products. With an indie developer, things are not that clear cut. An indie developer jumps first and then learns how to fly. First and foremost is always the product; then the company is built to support and nurture the product as needed.

As paradoxical as it may sound, we found that the biggest enemy of an indie developer is success. The more successful we became, the less time we could spend on the actual development. This summer, when we were laying the groundwork for the future of Cultured Code, we even dropped the ball. We were no longer able to keep up with blog and forums. No doubt, people noticed. And how could they have known that it was actually us working overtime that caused the lapse?

We decided that this cannot ever happen again. But promises aren't enough. After all, we are product guys. What we clearly needed was a communication guy. Hiring the right people is crucial to the success of a company. If you don't get it right, you are doomed. That is why we are so happy that we have found the perfect fit for Cultured Code: Michael Simmons. He gets who we are. Michael will watch our backs and take care of any obstacles that may come up. In short, he will help us to stay what we are: product guys.

This morning, Apple gave the green light for Things touch 1.1. The most prominent new feature is the ability to sync with the desktop version of Things. It took us quite some time to find and fix most of the syncing related bugs, many of which were reported by our 100 brave beta testers. Thanks to all of you!

Other improvements are a faster dialog for entering new to-dos, an app icon badge, and a customization of the automatic logging behavior. We have also added localizations for French, Spanish, and Japanese.

Enabling Sync

Please make sure that you have both the latest desktop version (0.9.4) and the latest iPhone version (1.1) installed. Also, both your Mac and your iPhone/iPod touch have to be connected to the same wireless network. To turn on syncing, start Things on the desktop, go to Preferences > iPhone, and follow the on-screen instructions.

App Icon Badge and Automatic Logging

The app icon badge is disabled by default. To enable it, just launch the Settings application on your iPhone and go to the Things settings screen. The automatic logging behavior can be changed in this screen as well.

What's Next

The past few weeks have been quite a ride. We all worked very hard to get the syncing update out, so now is the time for us to relax a bit and refill our energy. We have also found a wonderful new office to move into which no doubt will boost our productivity even more :)

Once we are back to coding, there are quite a few to-do items on our list. First, the desktop app will see some long awaited improvements that will push it closer to 1.0. The iPhone version will also get updates that bring bug fixes (if you find any), and support for Tags and Areas. We will post more details on the roadmap as soon as we get to it. And as always, we will keep you updated on our progress via Twitter.