6 ms·

Show HN: Timely for iPhone – Scheduling and Time Tracking, Simultaneously

78 points by matmik 12y ago

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
heumn 12y ago
Why no billing system? That must be the #1 requested feature? At least that was my understanding (missing feature) from what I could find on the web page. Other than that, simply great site and app.
- matmik 12y ago
  It's a highly-requested feature, but we really want to focus on the scheduling and time tracking part of the task, and make that as best as it can possibly be. We're going to stay away from invoicing, but encourage anyone to integrate it via our API.
  - midnightmonster 12y ago
    I've used Freshbooks for invoicing for years, and I've switched between their time tracker and other services/apps repeatedly. Switched to timely first of August, and I'm still happily using it even though it increases my pain significantly a couple times a month when I have to invoice things--timely is just that much better for scheduling and tracking that it's easily worth it for me. While I'm here, I would love if the web app had a multi-week view so I could plan a month more easily and drag tasks between days over larger spans.
    - matmik 12y ago
      Thank you for the nice comments! I actually had a call with Freshbooks a few weeks back, so we might be getting some great integrations going there. Hehe, I can more or less promise you both of those things will be implemented.
      - midnightmonster 12y ago
        :-) ... and fyi, two things I want to know all the time are how much unbilled already completed work do I have on a given project, and all the stats summed over all projects for a given client. I have to solve unbilled-completed by subtracting estimated from unbilled, and add the others up manually. If the relevant time span is over more than one month, this becomes extra painful.
    - bdcravens 12y ago
      For OS X I really like Chronomate which integrates with Freshbooks nicely: I can select/add clients/project/task, add time entries, run multiple timers etc; it sits in menu bar. One thing that sets it apart from other timers is that it detects idleness and asks me what I want to do (keep/remove, stop/continue). When I've considered alternatives to Freshbooks, Chronomate is what kept me.
minimaxir 12y ago
This submission is being vote manipulated, with the startup asking for upvotes on Twitter: https://twitter.com/timelyapp/status/530059248261017600 https://twitter.com/timelyapp/status/530059248261017600 https://twitter.com/matmik/status/530058147977629697 https://twitter.com/matmik/status/530058147977629697 EDIT: OP apologized in comments and deleted the tweets. Leaving this comment up for posterity, however.
- matmik 12y ago
  Hey, Being a tiny, tiny company that is bootstrapping, I'm just spreading the word anyway I can. I'll delete it immediately if that is not allowed. I'm truly sorry if that is against the rules. EDIT: Dammit, I obviously hadn't read the rules well enough. Just deleted both tweets!
  - lordbusiness 12y ago
    https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html Thank you, sincerely, for being forthcoming.
  - matmik 12y ago
    Fuck, I'm so sorry about that! I obviously hadn't read the rules carefully enough. Deleted both tweets.
ultrafez 12y ago
In case you didn't know, there's an alarm clock app for Android also named Timely. Interestingly, it has a similar method of doing time selection as your app - touch and drag to select the time on a line. Here's a link to the Android app's author's website: http://www.bitspin.ch/ http://www.bitspin.ch/
- matmik 12y ago
  Thanks for sharing, I'm aware of those guys. They launched long after we launched v1 of Timely, but got a ton of press when they got bought by Google.
- xemoka 12y ago
  There's also Time.ly [0] a calendar and plugin for Wordpress... [0] http://time.ly/ http://time.ly/
  - mwilcox 12y ago
    And Timely, an appointment booking service: http://www.gettimely.com http://www.gettimely.com
- drewcrawford 12y ago
  And an iOS app I wrote back in 2008. It's defunct now, but these guys were aware of it when it was still a going concern, and used the name anyway.
midnightmonster 12y ago
FWIW, I think you've got a really neat presentation of the app ui in the video there. I have no idea if it's effective for new people as I've been a daily user for three months now. Your 60 sec front page video sold me immediately three months ago.
- matmik 12y ago
  Ah, it makes me truly happy to hear that! The frontpage video you're referencing took me an insane amount of time to finish. I hadn't done that kind of 3d stuff before, so I had to redo it a few times. Also, as I couldn't afford to get custom music made, I had to buy a song, which meant editing everything to match the story of the music, instead of the other way around. It's a very intersting creative way to make a video. Anyhow, thanks again, really appreciate the comment. I'm available on mathias@timelyapp.com if you ever have questions.
- squeaky-clean 12y ago
  It looks really neat, but as a new user, it was pretty fast. I'm not really sure what happened. Edit: It also seems to start before I see it, like when I've opened the page in a new tab. I didn't actually know there was a video until seeing this comment.
seivan 12y ago
Well designed! Any blog posts on your transition code? It looked really impressive. I noticed you had several "move from list to detail" style transitions. Did you take snapshots and recreate, or actually moved views from one controller to another during the transition? Nice work!

78 points by matmik 12y ago

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

heumn 12y ago

Why no billing system? That must be the #1 requested feature? At least that was my understanding (missing feature) from what I could find on the web page. Other than that, simply great site and app.

matmik 12y ago
It's a highly-requested feature, but we really want to focus on the scheduling and time tracking part of the task, and make that as best as it can possibly be. We're going to stay away from invoicing, but encourage anyone to integrate it via our API.
- midnightmonster 12y ago
  I've used Freshbooks for invoicing for years, and I've switched between their time tracker and other services/apps repeatedly. Switched to timely first of August, and I'm still happily using it even though it increases my pain significantly a couple times a month when I have to invoice things--timely is just that much better for scheduling and tracking that it's easily worth it for me. While I'm here, I would love if the web app had a multi-week view so I could plan a month more easily and drag tasks between days over larger spans.
  - matmik 12y ago
    Thank you for the nice comments! I actually had a call with Freshbooks a few weeks back, so we might be getting some great integrations going there. Hehe, I can more or less promise you both of those things will be implemented.
    - midnightmonster 12y ago
      :-) ... and fyi, two things I want to know all the time are how much unbilled already completed work do I have on a given project, and all the stats summed over all projects for a given client. I have to solve unbilled-completed by subtracting estimated from unbilled, and add the others up manually. If the relevant time span is over more than one month, this becomes extra painful.
  - bdcravens 12y ago
    For OS X I really like Chronomate which integrates with Freshbooks nicely: I can select/add clients/project/task, add time entries, run multiple timers etc; it sits in menu bar. One thing that sets it apart from other timers is that it detects idleness and asks me what I want to do (keep/remove, stop/continue). When I've considered alternatives to Freshbooks, Chronomate is what kept me.

minimaxir 12y ago

This submission is being vote manipulated, with the startup asking for upvotes on Twitter: https://twitter.com/timelyapp/status/530059248261017600 https://twitter.com/timelyapp/status/530059248261017600 https://twitter.com/matmik/status/530058147977629697 https://twitter.com/matmik/status/530058147977629697 EDIT: OP apologized in comments and deleted the tweets. Leaving this comment up for posterity, however.

matmik 12y ago
Hey, Being a tiny, tiny company that is bootstrapping, I'm just spreading the word anyway I can. I'll delete it immediately if that is not allowed. I'm truly sorry if that is against the rules. EDIT: Dammit, I obviously hadn't read the rules well enough. Just deleted both tweets!
- lordbusiness 12y ago
  https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html Thank you, sincerely, for being forthcoming.
- matmik 12y ago
  Fuck, I'm so sorry about that! I obviously hadn't read the rules carefully enough. Deleted both tweets.

ultrafez 12y ago

In case you didn't know, there's an alarm clock app for Android also named Timely. Interestingly, it has a similar method of doing time selection as your app - touch and drag to select the time on a line. Here's a link to the Android app's author's website: http://www.bitspin.ch/ http://www.bitspin.ch/

matmik 12y ago
Thanks for sharing, I'm aware of those guys. They launched long after we launched v1 of Timely, but got a ton of press when they got bought by Google.
xemoka 12y ago
There's also Time.ly [0] a calendar and plugin for Wordpress... [0] http://time.ly/ http://time.ly/
- mwilcox 12y ago
  And Timely, an appointment booking service: http://www.gettimely.com http://www.gettimely.com
drewcrawford 12y ago
And an iOS app I wrote back in 2008. It's defunct now, but these guys were aware of it when it was still a going concern, and used the name anyway.

midnightmonster 12y ago

FWIW, I think you've got a really neat presentation of the app ui in the video there. I have no idea if it's effective for new people as I've been a daily user for three months now. Your 60 sec front page video sold me immediately three months ago.

matmik 12y ago
Ah, it makes me truly happy to hear that! The frontpage video you're referencing took me an insane amount of time to finish. I hadn't done that kind of 3d stuff before, so I had to redo it a few times. Also, as I couldn't afford to get custom music made, I had to buy a song, which meant editing everything to match the story of the music, instead of the other way around. It's a very intersting creative way to make a video. Anyhow, thanks again, really appreciate the comment. I'm available on mathias@timelyapp.com if you ever have questions.
squeaky-clean 12y ago
It looks really neat, but as a new user, it was pretty fast. I'm not really sure what happened. Edit: It also seems to start before I see it, like when I've opened the page in a new tab. I didn't actually know there was a video until seeing this comment.

seivan 12y ago

Well designed! Any blog posts on your transition code? It looked really impressive. I noticed you had several "move from list to detail" style transitions. Did you take snapshots and recreate, or actually moved views from one controller to another during the transition? Nice work!