Any chance in future ?
I'd also like to see this feature!
I just changed from wm6 to Android 2.3 and just love it, but this tiny little problem of syncing my tasks to Thunderbird without getting gxxgle involved keeps nagging me constantly.
Add another vote for the Tasks synch in Android (Gingerbread)! Thank you.
Just came across BirdieSync and I find it very interesting but this missing feature is holding me back from buying BirdieSync!
I'm using a palm treo, but the Thunderbird sync conduit for the palm address book quit working somewhere around Thunderbird 3.0, or 6.0, or . . . I just know it was a long time ago and I've been having to maintain two separate address books for a long time now. After using palm for so many years, I'm hooked on the idea of having my full personal address book in my cell phone, plus calendar and tasks - preferably memo pad as well - all synced with my PC. Looks like the only option is Thunderbird + BirdieSync + Pocket PC or bite the big one and go to Outlook and then you can sync with most any smart phone.
So considering what the source of the problem is, it looks like the only answer would be for someone to develop an Android app that does what we want - something like DejaOffice (http://www.dejaoffice.com/) - but something non proprietary so that BirdieSync could have access to the necessary info to build a conduit for us.
I know I'm going to sound harsh....but I've been struggling with the untenable situation that is Android phones and syncing a DECENT Task manager/Application..FOR OVER THREE YEARS!!! And still nothing.
I can't and/or won't use any other "third" party accounts, etc.
I require the more advanced functions or Outlook or Thunderbird/Lightnings tasks...Google tasks is worthless and only good as a conduit between devices. Plus, Google themselves completely ignore Tasks, despite the feedback they receive. Not a single update or improvement since a couple months after introduction in 2009.
I'm not and can never be on an exchange server. The two or three full solution apps such as Touchdown, have not worked well for me.
I keep getting sent to this app because people can't seem to get it straight that calendars and contacts are not the issue. I ask the developer of this app...exactly what I want to ask every major decisions maker at Microsoft, Google, etc......."WHY DOES EVERYONE IGNORE TASKS? An important component of popular information managers, one that a great many of us depend on to be successful...yet for all out cries. Silence.
Now I'm going to sound really harsh, but for the life of me. DO NOT tell me you don't sync tasks because there is no native Android app. That is a lazy and lousy excuse. There are well over 30 to 40 task apps made to sync with Googles tasks..Couldn't partner with some of them? In the world of email..since the Google apps are so closed, you find apps that work with K9, Kaiten, etc. You can't tell me there aren't a couple out there that would love to connect both of your products...and finally close the gap between Thunderbird and Android.
(PS...before anyone responds...yes, I have researched and tried every method and configuration of linked accounts and products and they have not worked, or had a shortcoming/limitation o..something that forced me to move on. Like a vast growing number of people, my life and work fit somewhere in the middle, between the Business/Enterprise companies and a casual home user...multiple email addresses from different clients/roles professionally, No exchange server as it can't manage that scenario, no streaming at all through a web service like Google (forbidden by IT and clients for security), on the road a lot and use 3 to 4 devices...problematic sync issues, and No, a web-based application isn't the answer, as I can't be connected to the web for large portions of time.
Finally, I was all set to give up on Android (for more reasons that you can possibly imagine) and go with Windows 8, phone, PC and tablet...thinking they would have better connectivity..it's all their own products. It pained me deeply to discover, after working with my Surface RT for a month, that they are even worse.
Anyway, thanks for reading. Sorry If I bored you. Apologies if I offended, and if your steaming angry...you need a life, as bad as I do. But in all earnestness...does anyone know why, tasks are so ignored, treated as inconsequential or so problematic that there hasn't been any significant improvement for 3 years?
Actually there are other users interested in task synchronization. I'll try to explain why Birdiesync hasn't provided task synchronization yet.
In the old days, the situation was simpler with Microsoft (yes, really ). Microsoft provided technologies (API) for developers to manage contacts, events, tasks and mails on Windows Mobile devices. But when the iPhone came in, the situation changed: at first it was only possible to access contacts. We cannot be sure why an API for events was not immediately provided to developers. Maybe a question of priority, or maybe a way to force users to synchronize with Apple system (MobileMe). Then an API for events became available (unfortunately with severe and unacceptable limitations for third-party developers) and then an API for tasks. Still no API to manage mails... Regarding Android, same thing (but event API is at least correct) but this time no official task app and so no API to manage tasks, so no easy way to synchronize tasks on Android.
So there are several possibilities: Android will provide a new stock Task app (as Apple did) with a dedicated API to manage tasks. We'll see what's available in the upcoming Android 5.0. Or it will be necessary to interface with a specific task app on Android (proprietary or not, developed internally or not), with a task provider which can be used as an API.
Now the question is when task synchronization will be provided based on one solution or another. Very likely after other important evolutions are completed in BirdieSync. They are necessary because the little world of smartphones has evolved and it's needed to adapt to the increased complexity of the smartphones and enhance synchronization in term of possibilities and ease of use. Once these new features are ready and the core of BirdieSync improved, it will be time to spend more time on new kind of data to be synchronized. Developing and improving BirdieSync requires a lot of time and it's necessary to make some priorities. So all this to say that task synchronization should be provided in the future after some other evolutions presently in the pipe are completed.
Thank you for the reply and explanation, however I am a bit confused.
I do know that without a native task app on Android, it makes this process a bit more challenging. I would bet all my retirement on Google not ever adding one. Tasks as a webapp in Calendar hasn't had an improvement, upgrade or new function since 2009..things desperately needed for it to be a REAL task manager (reoccurring tasks, alerts, proper handling or over-due items, viewing all either in agenda or calendar, not only by list, etc) There was an announcement back in mid 2011 for some upcoming upgrades, but nothing ever came of it.
Point is, if everyone is waiting on Google, then might as well dump every android device I have.
Confusion #1, The Task Queue API was released sometime between September and December last years. While it is only March and thus 6 to 4 months, your response seems to state that the API still isn't available. I understand "difficult..too hard to work with, etc", but whatever it's value, the API does exist.
Confusion #2, Even without the API, these has been SEVERAL (15 to 20, possible more) Task manager apps available from third-party developers, from the day I brought my first Motorola Droid home...and most "sync'd" with the Google Web-app. I'm been using Calengoo for two years, and I access tasks, write them,etc. May not be something you call a TRUE SYNC, but obviously apps have had the ability to communicate with Tasks. So how were all these apps able to do something that you say can't be done? Is it the difference between an app on the device (even third party built) and something that attempts to talk to the web-app directly? Although that can't be correct, because I know that Calengoo connects directly with Tasks via the web and doesn't utilize any of the sync engines in Android.
Last word...seems lately that every platform is making decisions, pulling support, etc....in barely veiled attempts to have the consumers be completely with their ecosystem. Making it more difficult to utilize different platform devices...Google dropping Active Sync support for Win Phones. The MS WindowsRT mail app not supporting any POP3 email, etc. Unfortunately it isn't realistic. Most people I know and work with don't always have a choice in product, platform, supported protocols. And when we do, then we want to use the apps, services and devices that best suit us. While Apple, Google, MS and others try to trap us in their webs...it is the providers that find ways around the garbage and help people connect their choices together that will come out the victors.
The "Task Queue API" doesn't seem related to TODO/Reminders on Android (or Google web). Here is a page which describes this API. It seems to provide a way to execute background tasks for Google Apps.
There is also another API which allows to access to Google Tasks on the web. Maybe you were referring to this one ? But it's not an API to access to local tasks on Android.
So I think that the other apps which synchronize tasks on Android device are task apps which access to Google Tasks on the web using this API. But the purpose of BirdieSync would be to access to tasks locally on the Android device and not on Google web. Unless I'm mistaken, at the moment there is no Android API for this (like there is for contacts and events). But maybe users would be interested in synchronizing Google Web Tasks to Thunderbird ?
In the old days, the situation was simpler with Microsoft (yes, really ). Microsoft provided technologies (API) for developers to manage contacts, events, tasks and mails on Windows Mobile devices and tablet pcs. But when the iPhone came in, the situation changed: at first it was only possible to access contacts. We cannot be sure why an API for events was not immediately provided to developers. Maybe a question of priority, or maybe a way to force users to synchronize with Apple system (MobileMe). Then an API for events became available (unfortunately with severe and unacceptable limitations for third-party developers) and then an API for tasks. Still no API to manage mails... Regarding Android, same thing (but event API is at least correct) but this time no official task app and so no API to manage tasks, so no easy way to synchronize tasks on Android.
THis is interesting android app with a dedicated API to manage tasks. please anyone tell me how to download it.
I suggest to have a look at Pocket Informant.
May be they have a part of the job done, and besides there is a long proven track of collaboration between birdiesync and PI apps.
We desperaltely need sync solutions for the tasks without exposing our data to g*.