At the outset, I must say that I am a regular user of OmniFocus on my iphone and mac. Its a very well designed product and I use it many times a day every day and cannot imagine how I will manage my tasks without it. I have tried Things and a few others and, I think, for my current needs, Omnifocus is the best fit. However, I think the sync choices in the application are unnecessarily complex and the concept of keeping things simple for users was lost somewhere. Omnifocus currently offers 4 different ways to sync data from iphone to mac:

• MobileMe (easy to set up. available everywhere. but not everybody has it.)
• Bonjour over your wireless network (harder to set up. does not work everywhere. most people have it)
• Disk (most esoteric. does not work for mac to iphone sync but is listed right there)
• WebDAV (hardest to setup. can be made to work everywhere. most people dont even know what it is)

As you can see - there are no good choices. There is nothing here that is easy to setup, works everywhere and everybody has it. I submit that when designing a product a product manager should focus on easy to setup above everything else. If its not easy to setup, it should be made easy to setup or its not a viable option. Period. In this particular case, Omnifocus should have had really one choice and one backup choice:

• company run webdav server for syncing
• a command line based  option to change the URL of the webdav server

A server run by omnifocus can be made exceedingly simple to set up, will be available everywhere, can be free (given the price of the product), available to all licensed users and should be the default, automatic choice. Its actual technical implementation could be as a webdav interface (which the product currently supports). The only challenge with it would have been that a minority of people will not be comfortable putting their data in a 3rd company hands. For that minority privacy-focused group, there should be a way to change the "URL" of the webdav server to a private server (if they want). This would have been the best compromise to provide ease of use of the users along with giving the control to modify if they want. And control is second only to ease of use in terms of what you as  a successful product manager need to give to your users.

If you liked my article on the purchase list for moving from windows to mac - you might want to follow it up with a list of business apps that you can use on your iphone to work with your mac. As always, the list is in the order that I use them:

1. Evernote: This is a great note-taking application for your iPhone. Your notes automatically stay synched with the peer application on your Mac (which is a great application in its own right). Besides, its free !!
2. OmniFocus: Perfect companion to your mac version of Omnifocus. Note new action items and complete action items anywhere. Must-have if you are fan of GTD.  Syncs automatically with your desktop.
3. TripIt: Now available for iPhone. forward your trip emails (from airlines, hotels etc) to tripit and have then available as organized trips with offline access on your iPhone. Very useful for people who travel a lot.
4. Kayak: Look up the cheapest fares and hotels or book the next flight home while you are in the cab going towards airport !! Call airlines or hotels at the touch of a button (they have phone numbers for all of them)
5. LinkedIn: Your LinkedIn on the phone !! Learn more about the person you are about to meet or search contacts in your network on the fly !! And yes, its free.
6. RowMote: So okay. Using your iPhone to flip your powerpoint slides for every little meeting gets old soon but its still worth doing it for those big conference rooms or large meetings. Works with both Keynote or Powerpoint (also controls FrontRow, DVD, VLC and lots of other apps)
7. Yelp: In a new area and do not know what will be a good place to grab lunch (or dinner of your favorite cuisine). Why not go where locals go - using Yelp!!
8. Tip: There are dozens of tip applications in the appstore. Some are even free. But i like this 99 cents app. Its has the highest rating of all tip apps and it am
9. Cheap Gas:  Find the cheapest gas prices near you. So okay, company is paying for the gas in your rental but you can still use the app to find the nearest gas station (and if there is one across the street that is 6 cents cheaper, it wont kill you to use that!!).And yes, its free.
10. Bloomberg Mobile: Catch up with the day's business news. Review your stock portfolio. On the go.

I recently moved from Windows to Mac and am posting a full list of all you need to buy to make yourself as productive on Mac as you were on Windows. Hopefully, this will allow you to make a more informed call on if you want to make the change. Also, you will avoid the pain and confusion I went thru when I  moved from Windows to Mac. The list is in the order of perceived severity of what you will need. In other words, things at top of this list are required more than things at the bottom. Here goes:

1. Apple MacBook
   
   or Apple MacBook Air . Macbook Air is much lighter and more sexy looking but more expensive.
2. I also highly recommend reading thru the short book:- Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual. This book has a nice listing where you can just lookup by Windows action (for example, copy text) and find its mac equivalent. Please do skim thru this book. It will save you many hours later.
   
3. If you give presentations or use an external monitor,  you will also need a Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter. This is required because Apple laptops do not come with a way to connect with standard VGA.
4. If you end communicate with a lot of other people who use Windows, then you will also need Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac. This is also required if you have an Exchange-shared calendar or contact list etc. Built-in apple alternatives (iCal etc) will probably not cut it for you.
5. One big concern for all users is how to move their current mail, addressbook and calendering information from Windows to the new Mac. This little company makes an excellent $10 utility that saved many frustrated hours for me (and, since then, for my friends). [Of course, if all your data is inside Exchange - and not on your local machine - then you may be okay]
6. You should also continue to use your current laptop mouse with your new macbook. Not having a "normal" multi-button mouse is a big source of confusion in many new migrations.
7. If you use Outlook tasks a lot, and you are looking for a powerful Mac alternative, you might consider Things or Omnifocus.
8. You might also need Parallels Desktop, if you want to continue runinng Windows for certain applications.

This is pretty much you should need to get started.

Here is the list of software I use to make my work  life easier when I moved from Windows+Blackberry to Mac+iPhone.

• Microsoft Office for Mac
  
  • There is really no alternative to Microsoft Entourage (part of Microsoft Office for Mac) if one uses MS Exchange-shared calendars.
  • If the office workflow requires documents formatted in Microsoft Excel, Powerpoint or Word, then its best to buy this to ensure full formatting compatibility
• Evernote for Mac and Evernote for iPhone
  • A very good note taking application for your Mac and iPhone.
  • Data sync automatically between the two over  the air.
  • Can also sync variety of files formats, images taken from camera (capture whiteboards and wine labels ) and web links.
• OmniFocus for Mac and OmniFocus for iPhone
  • A solid task-management tool based on GTD methodology
  • Has a sharp learning curve for a GTD newbie but is very powerful when mastered
  • iPhone and Mac versions sync automatically over the air.
• Parallels Desktop
  
  • Virtualization Software to run Windows on Mac
  • Not required for most cases unless there is that one windows app that you need to run.

Also see:

• Moving iTunes libarary from PC to Mac

One problem that I face is that how do I keep track of what tasks I have delegated to others from my Entourage. So, I wrote an applescript that will take your current message and copy it to OmniFocus inbox and also set the context to Waiting. At your leisure (or depending on your settings), you set the project of this task later (if you want to). Here is what you need to do:

1. download this applescript and save it at ~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Entourage Script Menu Items
2. create a contact in entourage with name as "waiting" and address as your own email address
3. set up a rule in entourage for the account you created the "waiting" account like this.
4. The applescript should point to the script mentioned above.
5. Now, whenever you want to track a task that you have delegated to somebody else - you can also BCC the same email it to "waiting" contact and it will automatically appear in your omnifocus inbox when it is recieved.

I modified Sandro's wonderful script to send Entourage message to OmniFocus.

My modified script takes the selected messages and add them to the quick entry window and then activates the quick entry window so people can assign projects to them.

It then also moves the selected messages to a folder called "Active". You need to have this folder created in the same mail account.

Save this file to your ~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Entourage Script Menu Items

I modified Sandro's wonderful script to send Entourage message to OmniFocus. My modified script takes the selected messages and add them to the quick entry window and then activates the quick entry window so people can assign projects to them. It then also moves the selected messages to a folder called "Active". You need to have this folder created in the same mail account. Save this file to your ~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Entourage Script Menu Items