Keep track of what you want to watch, listen, and read with ‘Done Not Done’

done not done

Ever make a mental note to watch a movie, listen to an album, or read a book, and realize months later that you forgot what you wanted to do in the first place? This happens to the best of us, but it doesn’t have to.

Done Not Done is an automated ‘watch/read/listen’ list for iOS. You can select movies, books, and albums you’ve seen or want to see (or hear), and Done Not Done will keep track of them for you. If you connect Done Not Done to Twitter or Facebook, you can even get ideas and recommendations from friends who are using the app…

Focusing on the good first: the interface is great. You can sort through movies, books, and albums by tapping on bookmark ribbons at the top of the screen. The search engine is simple to use. Just type in the name of the movie, book, or album you want, and you can select ribbons to filter the results. Once you select some media, you can choose whether you’ve seen it or not. If you’ve seen it, it will show up in your Done list and you can recommend it with a rating out of 5 stars. If you haven’t seen it it will show up in your Not Done list. Overall the app is enjoyable to use.

done not done profileThe Done Not Done app was not able to find Snow Crash, a well-known science fiction novel.

My biggest complaint with Done Not Done is the lack of an option to add missing content. Say I watched FLCL, and decided I wanted to listen to music by The Pillows: If this obscure, Pixies-inspired J-rock isn’t in the app’s database, I have no way of adding that content I want. The lack of custom content severely hampers Done Not Done’s ability to act as a watch/read/listen list, as well as its ability to function as a content discovery platform, since my friends won’t see the recommendation.

Here’s another issue: Done Not Done is mostly limited to movies, albums, and books; there’s no support for other media like games or even TV shows. In a post-Netflix world, the inability to watch and recommend TV shows is a sticking point. You could just add shows to your instant queue, but that only works for content that’s actually on Netflix.

On the bright side, Done Not Done is available for free on iTunes. The app is built for the iPhone and iPod touch and is compatible with iOS 5.1 and up. If you don’t currently have a compatible iOS device, you can also access Done Not Done through a web browser.

Would you use an app to keep track of what you want to watch, read, or listen.