rminder review

Reviewed on August 19, 2006

Overview from rminder

rminder offers the following overview on their web site (http://www.rminder.com/):

Easy voice and text reminders to your phone. Never forget the important stuff again.

First Impressions

I remember meeting a friend in college at the CrossXgates mall in Albany, New York about 12 years ago. He talked to me about creating a reminder service. He was so excited about it because we could charge $5 a month, and people would sign up for it solely because they forget things. Who knew it would take 12 years for this service to become a reality! Just kidding.

The basic idea of rminder is: you setup reminders with the specific text for the reminder, and then on the specified time and date, you get the message via voice and/or text.

Signup

Basic signup with image verification. Also requires a phone number.

Pricing

There is a free option which has a limit of 8 reminders a month/2 per week. You can view the full pricing here.

Service Usability

rminder allows you to import items from the following programs:

• Backpack
• Basecamp
• Google calendar
• Yahoo! calendar
• Microsoft Outlook
• iCal

The import function is an excellent feature as you don’t need to re-enter everything from your calendar tool. You can send reminders to yourself, a loved one, a colleague or anyone else you need to. Setting up a new reminder is easy: just enter the text for the reminder, the date and time, and the number to call. I tested the system and it worked well for both of my free reminders.

The big benefit of this tool is that you can have your reminders sent to you/others by sms or voice. So even away from your computer you will never forget an important appointment or date.

What would I like to see added to rminder

• Stronger wording about how my phone number will/won’t be used.
• What about a free 30 day trial of one of the beefier accounts?
• Umm, no secure server for the upgrade page? Must have this for people to feel safe entering their credit card information

Final comments

I think a service like rminder held a place in the market 20 years ago, 10 years ago and today. Missing important deadlines can be downright deadly, whether you are a student or businessperson. This service offers the ability to import some of the most popular software and online services and for that alone, it is a worthwhile investment. Just calculate what you would be lost if you miss a meeting or a friend’s birthday or an exam date and the price for rminder becomes a good investment.

Tags: rminder | social networking

Tags: Reviews, rminder, telephony