It’s the first ever video review on The Industry — and for the very first one, I’m privileged to review Cheddar an iPhone app designed to display your todos in an organized and clutter-free interface.

Video Transcript

Cheddar is a web-syncing task manager app designed to display your todos organized and clutter-free. So, the first thing Cheddar does is that it asks you to sign up for an account. Since I’ve already made one let’s go ahead and sign right in.

Now, If you haven’t made an account yet, you can sign up over at the Cheddar website (display URL) or you can do the same, directly on your phone. The reason Cheddar asks you to sign up, is because, Cheddar is a web-syncing app, which means it syncs your data across all your other devices.

Now that we’re in Cheddar, let’s go ahead and make a list. As you can see, Cheddar comes with a simple, straight-to-the-point user interface, so you’re not distracted by the other elements other to-do apps have, such as due dates, task assignments or folders.

Let’s go ahead and make this grocery list.

If you haven’t noticed already, Cheddar comes with a custom font on its iOS app. Straying away from the default font, Helvetica, Cheddar comes with Gotham, a nice, clean font, that’s simple, elegant, straight-to-the-point, and isn’t as overused as Helvetica. Gotham sets a standard that makes Cheddar an app that stands out from the rest.

As you can see, I’ve loaded up a list of things I need to buy from my local Aussie grocery store. The task list still reflects Cheddar’s clean motif of a clutter-free interface. Now, just because it looks simple, doesn’t mean it’s an app intended for non-pro list users.

Let’s write a task down for example. Cheddar for the iPhone comes with a speedy input bar for writing tasks down. All I have to do, is type in the box, say, Milk, and then press ‘Go’. My task just whooshed down to the bottom of the list, and the box still stays, ready for me to type another task down. I can then keep going and going, until I’ve fully completed my list.

Another thing Cheddar has, is Markdown support. If you’re familiar at all with John Gruber’s Markdown or if you’ve used Mou before, then you should know that Markdown has a pretty simple, memorable syntax.

Now, for example, I’d like to write a task down and state it as something really important, and I’d like to mark it in bold text. So, all I have to do, is double-asterisk my text, and boom. Right there at the bottom, bold text.

Users familiar with Markdown can do the same with other syntax features too, for example, I can italicize text, or add links to my tasks.

As you can see, you can build up your list of todos really long. And it can be really tedious to sort things out if I’m shopping aisle-by-aisle in the supermarket. So, one thing you can do is you can add hashtags to tag and sort your list items.

And, with the hashtags, you can tap on them while you’re in the list, and Cheddar filters your list items based on the hashtag.

Now, what Cheddar is, is that it’s an app that isn’t designed to directly compete with big task-manager apps like Omnifocus or Things, nor is it a direct competitor to Clear. What Cheddar is, is that it’s an app that’s designed to fill the void between Omnifocus and Clear, sort-of like the task manager in between. It’s as simple enough whilst being totally powerful.

On the design, Cheddar’s user-interface features subtle patterns neat design cues, for example, the unique peach-orange hue of the top nav bar stands out from the rest of the other apps on the App Store, the use of Gotham, as stated earlier, is clean to the eyes and isn’t as overused as Helvetica and the speedy, intuitive interface is completely easy to use.

Though, since Cheddar is button and tap-based, there aren’t much gestures used to navigate within the app. I’m a complete gesture fan (if that exists) and having to reach over and tap instead of swiping is what I think gives the app a much slower sense of momentum, contrary to the speedy task-adding of course.

Cheddar is now available on the App Store, but the service only allows you to create a maximum of up to two lists. You can purchase Cheddar Plus to create unlimited lists, with a pricing plan of 3 months for $5.99, 6 months for $9.99 or go all the way with $19.99 for a year’s worth of unlimited lists. Other than that, Cheddar is a free slice of cheese that’s ready for you to try out.

Go check out Cheddar on its website, or get the free app available for your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch.