One of the features that came with the iOS5 upgrade was Reminders. At first glance you may not think much of it, but under the hood it is quite powerful. When you first open Reminders you see a default list named Reminders, if you want to rename it, hit the edit button above the list section, and then tap on the name and rename it. If you want to make a new list again hit the edit button and then create a new list.

Once you have named your list, it is now time to add an entry. To do this either tap on the list and then either hit the + button or tap on a blank line on the list and name the entry. Then hit the arrow and fill in the information. Under Remind Me you have the choice of setting a reminder by date or location. Setting by date is pretty self-explanatory. Under location you can either set the reminder for your present location or a specific address. In order to set a reminder for a specific address, that address must be in your address book. If you choose current location, you can choose to be reminded when you leave or arrive at the location. The location reminder is only available on a 3G enabled devices, and you must have location services enabled under Settings. You can set a priority at low, medium or high. You can also set an event to repeat daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly or yearly. You can change the list the entry is on. Finally, you can also add a note. You also have the option of viewing entries by date. If you choose the date option at the bottom of the screen you can either arrow to the date or just click on it. At the top right hand corner there is a calendar icon. Click on that and you have monthly calendar, if you type an entry into the search bar it will give you the date of the entry. You can also search for an entry on the list section, which will tell you the list the entry is on. You can swipe from one list to another.

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All entries will sync immediately to your other iOS devices and your iCal. If you don’t see the Reminders on your iCal go to the Menu bar, View and then hit Show Reminders. You will then see the Reminders on the right hand side of the Calendar. You can also view reminders by signing onto your iCloud account online.

There are a couple of things that are either missing in Reminders that prevent me from giving it a five-star rating. The first is there is no way to share a list with someone who is not on the account. The second is if you do share an account there is no way to make a list or entry private. The final problem is the fact that in order to use the location reminder the address of the location must be in your address book. Despite these problems I suspect the Reminder application is going to replace the to do application I am using presently.