Microsoft To Shut Down Wunderlist, an App It Acquired Two Years Ago, In Favor Of Homegrown App To-Do (techcrunch.com)

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Microsoft To Shut Down Wunderlist, an App It Acquired Two Years Ago, In Favor Of Homegrown App To-Do (techcrunch.com)

Posted by msmash on Thursday April 20, 2017 @02:40AM from the microsoft-things dept.

From a report on TechCrunch: Microsoft acquired the popular mobile to do list application Wunderlist back in 2015, and now it's preparing users for its eventual demise with the release of its new application "To-Do," it announced this week. The new app was built by the team behind Wunderlist, and will bring in the favorite elements of that app in the months ahead, Microsoft insists. The company also added that it won't shut down Wunderlist until it's confident that it has "incorporated the best of Wunderlist into To-Do." In case you're hoping Wunderlist will get some sort of reprieve, Microsoft makes its forthcoming demise pretty clear. Stating its plans in black-and-white: "we will retire Wunderlist," it says in a blog post. In the meantime, Microsoft is encouraging Wunderlist users to make the switch by offering an importer that will bring in your lists and to-dos from Wunderlist into To-Do, where those items will now be available in other Microsoft products, like Exchange and Outlook.

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WTF by Anonymous Coward · 2017-04-20 02:42 · Score: 1

An "app" for a to-do list? Can't you use a simple text file for that? LUDITES!
[x] Insult the users of to-do-list app users
1. Re:WTF by PmanAce · 2017-04-20 02:55 · Score: 1
  
  Try inserting a picture in a text file.
  
  --
  Tired of my customary (Score:1)
2. Re:WTF by Anonymous Coward · 2017-04-20 02:55 · Score: 0
  
  LUDITES!
  "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."
3. Re: WTF by Anonymous Coward · 2017-04-20 02:58 · Score: 0
  
  APP appers use apps for their Todo lists to keep track of what they need to do app! APP appers app apps!
  Use a pencil and paper!
  LUDDITE!
  APPS!
4. Re:WTF by Anonymous Coward · 2017-04-20 03:02 · Score: 0
  
  Nor does he know how to spell it.
5. Re:WTF by Anonymous Coward · 2017-04-20 03:03 · Score: 0
  
  Because keeping images in the same folder as your text file, with a note to "check image abc.jpg" is too hard of a concept to grasp...
  But if you REALLY want images in your text file, use some sort of markup and a markup viewer of some sort. I hear there's some kind of HyperText Markup Language that is popular with the kids these days.
  No need for a proprietary application (and accompanying file format).
6. Re:WTF by Anonymous Coward · 2017-04-20 03:14 · Score: 0
  
  So now you need to learn html to make your todo list? Where do you put your todo line for learning the html?
7. Re:WTF by Anonymous Coward · 2017-04-20 03:20 · Score: 0
  
  Wunderlist is nice because you can share lists with other people.
  I share a grocery list with my wife, and if either of us think of something to add, we could add it at that time and the list is updated for both of us.
  The same with checking things off when they are complete.
8. Re:WTF by Anonymous Coward · 2017-04-20 03:22 · Score: 0
  
  I inserted my penis in your mom's text file.
9. Re:WTF by Anonymous Coward · 2017-04-20 03:42 · Score: 0
  
  Learning HTML goes into my TODO.md file
  It even supports ![images](http://goatse.cx/hello.jpg)
10. Re:WTF by stephanruby · 2017-04-20 04:30 · Score: 1
  
  Does anyone here use Wunderlist? It's time to stop now, try to delete your data on the app, and replace it with pornographic and nonsensical to-dos.
  If the Microsoft acquisition of SwiftKey was any indication, Microsoft will randomly pop items onto your to-do list from other users to-do lists. And it will take some of your to-dos and randomly insert them into other people's lists. That's the beauty of Microsoft cloud technology. It's like a giant salad bowl up there where all your confidential data goes to get mixed up with other people's confidential data.
11. Re:WTF by PmanAce · 2017-04-20 04:31 · Score: 1
  
  No thanks, I rather be able to click once to insert an image in my to do list from my phone and have it automatically synchronized with my computer at home. I'm not stopping you from doing all those extra manual steps.
  
  --
  Tired of my customary (Score:1)
12. Re:WTF by dnaumov · 2017-04-20 04:49 · Score: 2
  
  You're stupid, "tap to remove item from list" is an invaluable feature when grocery shopping.
13. Re:WTF by nasch · 2017-04-20 04:56 · Score: 1
  
  I have never seen anyone else's items appear on my lists.
14. Re:WTF by Desler · 2017-04-20 05:09 · Score: 1
  
  1987 called and says to use RTF.
15. Re:WTF by Your.Master · 2017-04-20 06:00 · Score: 1
  
  You really don't get why people use computers, do you?
  The whole point is to make things faster and easier. Your suggestions are slower and more difficult than a piece of paper, and basically assume a desktop/laptop is the sole computing device.
16. Re: WTF by Anonymous Coward · 2017-04-20 08:40 · Score: 0
  
  Nope, plenty if user-friendly html editors around.
  Or - use a word processor! Text AND images....
17. Re: WTF by Desler · 2017-04-20 09:19 · Score: 1
  
  Or one of thousands of editors that can do RTF?
18. Re:WTF by Anonymous Coward · 2017-04-20 09:23 · Score: 0
  
  You really don't get why people use computers, do you?
  The whole point is to make things faster and easier. Your suggestions are slower and more difficult than a piece of paper, and basically assume a desktop/laptop is the sole computing device.
  Yes, but this app and the ones like them aren't much faster than a simple text file.
  Paper and pencil are still better options for this. Great speed and compatibility with that.
19. Re: WTF by tigersha · 2017-04-20 14:03 · Score: 1
  
  I have seen other people's books on my Kindle. Whole account in fact
  
  --
  The dangers of excessive individualism are nothing compared to the oppressiveness of excessive collectivism
20. Re: WTF by PmanAce · 2017-04-21 05:05 · Score: 1
  
  Why would you use a tool shed instead of a hammer???
  
  --
  Tired of my customary (Score:1)
I tried them all recently by Anonymous Coward · 2017-04-20 02:44 · Score: 0

Wunderlist wanted $5/mo to enable all features. $60/year for a todo list? That's rich, no thanks. Trello was better anyway.
1. Re:I tried them all recently by Anonymous Coward · 2017-04-20 02:46 · Score: 0
  
  Trello is the first cloud app that I've found insanely useful. I can add an item on my phone on the go, and pull it up on my tablet while in the living room / kitchen / garage.
2. Re:I tried them all recently by Anonymous Coward · 2017-04-20 03:13 · Score: 0
  
  Google Keep does what I need. Could be better in some areas. It's free.
3. Re:I tried them all recently by Anonymous Coward · 2017-04-20 03:59 · Score: 0
  
  wow!!!!! that is insanely useful!!!!!
  p.s. you're a fucking idiot.
4. Re:I tried them all recently by ausekilis · 2017-04-20 06:05 · Score: 1
  
  The wife and I use Wunderlist to stay on top of things. The shared feature of it is actually really nice. We run out of something, add it to the groceries list and whomever does the shopping next knows what to get.
  And before anyone says "how 'bout you two talk"... It's hard to keep everything straight with 2 busy kid schedules too.
Huh? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-04-20 02:44 · Score: 0

Microsoft acquired the popular mobile to do list application Wunderlist back in 2015,....
Never heard of it. My calendar app does everything I need it to do.
Obvious by Anonymous Coward · 2017-04-20 02:47 · Score: 0

Microsoft bought this to include a to-do list application in his suite, not for maintaining a foreign project for fun and giggles. I dislike this but I guess it was obvious that something like this was going to happen.
1. Re:Obvious by Anonymous Coward · 2017-04-20 09:33 · Score: 0
  Nothing Microsoft has now actually originated from them:
  
  Microsoft Word came out of Xerox's Bravo
  Microsoft Excel, formerly Microsoft Multiplan, was a blatant clone of VisiCalc.
  Microsoft PowerPoint, formerly Forethought's Presenter, borrowed lots of concepts from Apple's HyperCard.
You know what they say... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-04-20 02:52 · Score: 0

App appers who app apps that app other apps get apped!

Apps!
1. Re: You know what they say... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-04-20 05:04 · Score: 0
  
  Appedity app!
2. Re: You know what they say... by OhSoLaMeow · 2017-04-20 06:21 · Score: 1
  
  (don't talk back)
  
  --
  They can take my LifeAlert pendant when they pry it from my cold dead fingers.
Scraping the bottom of the barrel by Anonymous Coward · 2017-04-20 02:52 · Score: 0

Honestly we need a good recession to burn out the money underbrush that are funding all these absolutely idiotic ideas for apps that do nothing.
To do list by Big+Hairy+Ian · 2017-04-20 02:57 · Score: 2

1. Write pointless App
2. Get bought out by M$
3. Get paid to rewrite pointless App for M$
4. Profit

--
Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.
1. Re:To do list by c · 2017-04-20 03:20 · Score: 2
  
  Could be worse. Step 3 could be "get paid to write some pointless crap for Office 365 while a completely different team writes a shittier version of pointless App that doesn't do half the stuff that pointless App did in the first place."
  Microsoft has shown an amazing ability lately to take the Golden Goose, kill it, throw it in the oven and then render it into a greasy pile of charcoal. Granted, they're no Yahoo! or Oracle, but they've got the touch.
  
  --
  Log in or piss off.
2. Re:To do list by Anonymous Coward · 2017-04-20 03:48 · Score: 0
  
  1. Write pointless App
  2. Get bought out by M$
  3. Get paid to rewrite pointless App for M$
  
  4. Quit and go work for Google
  5. Rewrite pointless App in your 20% time
  6. Have Google launch a pointless beta of your pointless app
  7. Watch your pointless app get wildly popular
  8. Have Google yank the app suddenly and replace it with a half-baked feature in Google Assistant.
  ....
  10. Profit
3. Re:To do list by nasch · 2017-04-20 04:57 · Score: 1
  
  What makes you think the app is pointless? Because you personally haven't installed it?
And this is why i dumped Wunderlist by technoid_ · 2017-04-20 03:01 · Score: 1

I had used Wunderlist on and off for a bit to be able to get a visual of what needed done and help prioritize things I needed to accomplish. Once Wunderlist was bought I just uninstalled and said good bye as I knew it wouldn't last or would end up needing dependencies that I didn't want to install (i.e: become part of office).
Now I just vi a text file on a server that I can access via the internet.

--
Two wrongs don't make a right, but 3 lefts do - Lew of GO magazine
1. Re: And this is why i dumped Wunderlist by Anonymous Coward · 2017-04-20 03:03 · Score: 0
  
  You are indeed the Unix guru!!!
2. Re:And this is why i dumped Wunderlist by WallyL · 2017-04-20 07:50 · Score: 1
  
  I just use a named notepad.pw page. Who cares who can crack into a simple password-protected note pad on the Internet?
Why can apps be "shut down" by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · 2017-04-20 03:16 · Score: 0

If the app and its data are on your device, how can it be shut down?
If the data is not on your device, why would you want to use an app designed to be able to be shut down?

--
Your ad here. Ask me how!
1. Re:Why can apps be "shut down" by Anonymous Coward · 2017-04-20 04:31 · Score: 1
  
  The app is on your device. A copy of the data is on your device.
  The server where the app synchronizes the data is a major value proposition (for most users). The server means that if your device is lost, stolen, broken, or simply replaced because you want (and bought) a new one you can retrieve your data on your new device. If you have more than one device (phone+tablet+computer) you can access your data from any of them and it synchronizes with the others.
  Of course, the drawback to this arrangement is the need for that service provider to continue providing the service. (the same occurred with Yahoo buying and discontinuing Astrid a few years ago)
  I would like to operate my own server, but most developers don't offer that since most users know nothing of how networking or data works. They think their data is "in" the app and are now confused when a program asks where they want to save or open a file containing the data.
2. Re:Why can apps be "shut down" by Anonymous Coward · 2017-04-20 06:28 · Score: 0
  
  I forgot to mention, another significant value proposition for the server is sharing with other people. Using TickTick, for example (and Astrid, before it was shut down), I was able to share separate task lists with my wife and with others who I worked with (outside of work). This is handy, and is easy for people who are not network admins to configure since the server information is hard-coded in the app. No confusing set of configuration settings to manage before it will connect.
Microsoft... bought a ToDo list app... by the_skywise · 2017-04-20 03:30 · Score: 4, Funny

Microsoft... bought a company... to program a ToDo list...
Microsoft spent upwards of 100 million dollars... to get a ToDo list app...
http://www.theverge.com/2015/6...
Microsoft has this product called Outlook that, at one time, had a ToDo list built in...
Microsoft built Outlook to compete with Lotus Notes which had... a ToDo list built in...
Microsoft already HAS ToDo list functionality in their OneNote product - designed for the Windows 10 ecosystem and is already cloud based.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is why MBAs SUCK! "I need a ToDo list app to fulfill market segment XJ27- go buy this popular one and integrate it with Windows 10", "But sir we have a ToDo list app built into our OneNote product"
"Don't be a fool - that's for taking notes, not a ToDo list app. Apps are appy apps."
"But you told us to get rid of the ToDo list in Outlook to cut costs on developers?!"
"Don't bother me with trivialities."
1. Re:Microsoft... bought a ToDo list app... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-04-20 03:38 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Wunderlist is popular having a large number of users. They bought it for the users not the app. If Microsoft can convert many of them to Office they win.
Color me gone by Anonymous Coward · 2017-04-20 03:57 · Score: 1

Wunderlist is popular having a large number of users. They bought it for the users not the app. If Microsoft can convert many of them to Office they win.
Microsoft can kiss my big hairy ass too. I love Wunderlist, but I'll be looking for alternatives. I have seen the shit they pass off as software these days and I want no part of their ideas. The last thing I want is to spend time migrating to some Microsoft abortion only to have them "Windows 10 it" after I start depending on it. Fuck that shit and fuck you Microsoft.
1. Re:Color me gone by caseih · 2017-04-20 06:09 · Score: 1
  
  I use Wunderlist all the time as well. It's an invaluable tool for sharing lists between people. I have no interest in buying into Outlook or any of MS's other products. So I will be looking for a new shared to-do list solution. Any suggestions that can replace everything Wunderlist currently is, which isn't really that complicated?
  - shared lists
  - sub tasks
  - progress indication
  - notes
  - attachments (photos mainly)
  - ability to review and re-enable previously marked off items (some lists I use again each year)
2. Re:Color me gone by Anonymous Coward · 2017-04-20 09:28 · Score: 0
  
  Not if you want complete control over your data or privacy.
3. Re:Color me gone by geeper · 2017-04-21 05:22 · Score: 1
  
  ToDoist has some of these features. I like it fine.
  
  --
  Error reading device 'Signature'. (A)bort, (R)etry, (F)ail?
EEE is alive & well by Anonymous Coward · 2017-04-20 04:46 · Score: 0

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend_and_extinguish
Well this result is the natural progression of course. EMBRACE, EXTEND, and EXTINGUISH (tm)
- Hear about a company's product.
- Commit some token development into the same type of idea.
- Causes first company to 'feel some competition' and innovate further. MS may even offer 'expertise and advice' to original company.
- MS purchases said company.
- MS shuts down said company.
- MS offers their Frankenstein version of both parties' efforts, which is always a pale comparison to what could have been, were they to have left everything alone to begin with.
_
STFU! And /. Censorware. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-04-20 05:26 · Score: 0

Dont assume 1 & 2 & 3 & 4. Get off your ass and lookup conpany background infornation like Julian Assange would do.
This is like another favor between PizzaGate members.
Evernote too! and /. Censorware by Anonymous Coward · 2017-04-20 05:29 · Score: 0

Every cpmpany giving free tools to steal what we are thinking.
How long before MS shuts down LinkedIn? by knorthern+knight · 2017-04-20 06:02 · Score: 1

I wonder what their "new and improved replacement" for LinkedIn will look like.

--

I'm not repeating myself
I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user
1. Re:How long before MS shuts down LinkedIn? by chrish · 2017-04-21 02:57 · Score: 1
  
  Based on the current set of changes to LinkedIn, the "new and improved replacement" will be a half-assed version of Twitter, for business.
  
  --
  - chrish
FU Microsoft - Goodbye Wunderlist by Noryungi · 2017-04-20 07:26 · Score: 1

And that is all I have to say.
This sucks, but I'll have to search a decent open-source app for to do lists.
In the meantime, I'll probably use Keep, by the other Great Satan.
Oh, and F* you Microsoft.

--
The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
Sigh... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-04-20 07:27 · Score: 0

I'm looking forward to the day when company value isn't solely based on the number of users an application has...
Owning data by Excelcia · 2017-04-20 11:58 · Score: 1

This is why I won't use any app where I don't own the data. It doesn't matter where the software lives or runs, as soon as it phones home with my data then I don't control anything.
I can't say it strongly enough, or often enough... say no to anyone else controlling your data. It is not a matter of if, but when that party decided to do something with it that impacts you negatively. Whether that's something to do with the data itself, or simply leveraging the fact that their servers are required to compel you to to do what they want (stop using an app, switch apps, upgrade, etc).
ToDoist by geeper · 2017-04-21 05:29 · Score: 1

ToDoist may be a good replacement for some people. I moved from Wunderlist to Todoist about 6 months ago.

--
Error reading device 'Signature'. (A)bort, (R)etry, (F)ail?