Cue is an iPhone app developed by Greplin, Inc. that aims to make your cluttered schedule look less daunting. The secret? Intuitively linking certain related events together by accessing your various accounts.

What is it and what does it do

Main Functionality

Cue allows you to sync multiple calendars, contact lists, and social media accounts to build the best possible picture of your personal and professionals lives. Some of the things which Cue syncs for you include email, contacts and calendars to Facebook posts, Dropbox files and LinkedIn. The result: “an intelligent snapshot of your day.”

Pros

• Easy to set up: sync with all your personal accounts five easy steps
• Also monitors local weather systems that might affect your plans
• Passcode lock can be used to keep your information and schedule more secure
• Surprisingly robust array of life-organizing features: change or cancel reservations, check into flights, track the arrival of packages, or text your contacts
• Pretty interface that uses images and varied text to engage your eye, keep you from feeling overwhelmed, and keep you focused
• Some account connections can be unlocked via recommending the app to friends, instead of paying for premium service

Cons

• Despite having the ability to connect to a ton of services — only premium users can sync with Evernote, Basecamp, Yammer, Highrise, Google Reader, Reddit, Delicious, and Salesforce
• Premium price tag is $4.99/month or $49.99/year
• While linking accounts is a simple process, it can be time-consuming, with long waits after entering your info before being returned to the app, and long waits for your linked info to show up in your calendar
• Also a long wait when skipping ahead a few days to see a future date on your calendar

Discussion

I really like what Cue tries to do. The idea of an app that is smart enough to recognize related items in your social calendar across all your services and link things together in a meaningful way is a great idea. Most of us have days on our calendars that are just too hectic to make sense of. Cue does a good job of helping users avoid those feelings of being overwhelmed.

A lot of user reviews on the App Store note issues with “synced” calendar items not actually getting synced. In my own experience playing around with Cue, I didn’t experience this at all. It took a couple minutes for the calendar items to sync, but everything imported fine. Unlinking, not surprisingly, also takes several minutes.

What I did experience were TERRIBLE wait/load times. It wasn’t even just a matter of waiting for items to sync: whole days would just stubbornly refuse to load. Maybe premium Cue users don’t have this problem, but I certainly did.

Conclusion and download link

Cue has really great potential. It’s easy on the eyes, and the way that it attempts to intuitively provide a “snapshot” of your day in an attractive, easy to review package is truly commendable. But despite its free price tag, it is hard to give this app a glowing recommendation: the load times are truly problematic. It’s definitely worth trying out, and seeing if it works well for you. In my opinion, however, I think Cue hasn’t quite reached its full potential. Keep your eye on it, though: when Cue does reach its potential, it will be a killer app.

Price: Free

Version reviewed: 2.2

Requires iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch, iOS version 4.3 or later

Download size: 7.7 MB

Cue on Apple App Store