ReQall review

Simon Bisson

We review ReQuall, an application that turns your BlackBerry into a memory jogger

Published on Jun 23, 2009

To do lists are a wonderful idea. They’re there to remind you what to do, when you need to do it. Unfortunately keeping up with one often needs several more to do lists just to remind you to use your list.

Of course you don’t need to do it by hand, and tools like ReQall mean you can use the one thing you always have with you: your BlackBerry.

ReQall is really very simple. It’s there to remind you of things (and if you’ve given permission to friends and family, for them to remind you of things). You can type in what you need to do, and when, and ReQall will turn your words into an appointment and handle reminders for you.

If you type in “Meet Fred at 4 o’clock”, it’ll guess who you mean by Fred, and pop up a reminder in time for your meeting. You can use email addresses for names, or register key contacts with ReQall.

There are four main screens in ReQall, a Memory Jogger that shows you what you need to do right now. The others include a Time screen that categorises items by Today, Soon, Later and Overdue, and Things and People screens. The Things view is where you’ll find to do lists, as well as notes. Switch between screens using the trackball (or just tap on a Storm).

You can add items by calling ReQall using the phone, where voice prompts guide you (you’ll need to register a phone number in advance). If you’ve got a BlackBerry with a keyboard, then you’ll probably prefer text entry – though there’s also the option if using ReQall’s voice recognition from your phone without making a call.

ReQall understands certain keywords, and these are used to categorise where it stores information. If you use the word “Buy”, then you’re automatically creating a shopping list item, while “Meet” means a meeting. Saying “Remind” creates a to do list item – either for you or for a registered contact.

If you pay the annual subscription of $24.99 you’ll get more features, including integration with your BlackBerry’s location services – so you know where you were when you created a note. Other Pro features include an improved Memory Jogger, and the ability to receive reminders by text.

A Pro account also unlocks the Places screen.
ReQall is one of those applications that’s hard to describe, but easy to use, and certainly very very useful. A Pro subscription lets you get the most from the application, but the free version should help you keep on top of even the busiest and most disorganised of lives.