The Gmail Blog takes a light approach to introducing the iPhone version of their Task manager:
Among the world’s leading productivity tools is an advanced technology known as paper.
…paper is pretty hard to improve on, and reigns as a leading task management technology.
…With the version of Tasks in Gmail, we focused on making editing very fast and simple — as close to paper as we could. But despite dual-core CPUs, 30" monitors, and high speed internet connections, many Googlers still found themselves using paper to track their tasks.
OK, so the solution to the paper vs. computer dilemma: let’s introduce an iPhone version. No it’ super easy to access anywhere, everyone’s happy, and we can forget paper.
Except: it doesn’t work. As much as I like Gmail and find myself using it for more and more purposes outside traditional emailing, Tasks only lasted for an hour or so. Sorry, but I found it useless: a dumb list that does not do anything. For example what’s the point of entering Due Dates if I can’t even sort the list by due dates, let alone displaying only relevant / upcoming entries? Calling this thing a Task Manager is a joke, with or without iPhone access.