iCal 1.5.1 and iSync 1.2.1 Released

[MacRumors]

Apple released new versions (http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=SVBIZINK10.story&STORY=/www/story/10-08-2003/0002031828&EDATE=WED+Oct+08+2003,+08:31+AM) of both iCal and iSync today.

In addition
to managing multiple calendars and sharing them over the Internet, iCal now
includes an all-new interface for creating and managing event details and
improved support for working across time zones. iSync, which allows users to
instantly sync their Mac address book and calendars with their mobile phone,
Palm OS device, iPod(TM) and other Macs, now delivers calendar support for
Symbian-based smartphones and supports new mobile phones from Sony Ericsson,
extending Apple's lead in integrating with Bluetooth-enabled phones.

Both applications are available imediately as free downloads from Apple.com (http://www.apple.com).

These updates have been long expected (http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2003/08/20030821184417.shtml) and were first noted in late August.

[cr2sh]

All morning long I sit here and hit refresh.. time well spent. :D

[.a]

the panther ticker at apple.com is too cool !!!
.a

[NicoMan]

Panther is there!! On the Store.

[wordmunger]

FYI, here are the direct links:

isync (http://www.apple.com/isync/download/)

ical (http://www.apple.com/ical/download/)

Did not show up for me in Software Update.

[Kamu-San]

cr2sh LOL!

Me too, it's a good day's work :-))

[j33pd0g]

Well, I'll test this for sure when I get home. I actually would have been more happy if they improved the online side of things.

Example: Posting my iCal events online saves me from having to cart paper between work and home. I wish they added online tools for editing on the .mac account. I'm not allowed to have OS X at work, so via the browser is all I got. I just email myself all the info that I need to add or update.

Published iCals are not accessible through the .mac login. I would like to see an easy to navigate URL.

[howard]

i like the new ical even adder except for 2 things...it jets way out to the side, when i first tryed it it was off the screen... and i liked the use default under alarm...i wish you could set the default instead of 15 mins..

[Room40]

WTF! This app just became more or less useless - at least on my 17" Studio Display.

The info-pane is so big it slides out of sight, forcing me to resize the iCal window, thus making the main view look cramped (harder to read) and almost useless. I'm speechless...

Good grief Apple, get a clue.

:mad:

[chmorley]

This is the thing I am more apprehensive about. But at least now my P800 will also have my calendar and To Do items. Given all the problems that I have had with iSync in the past (with my old Handspring Visor, mainly), I am holding my breath.

I'll have a sense by the end of the day how it is.

Chris

[j33pd0g]

Originally posted by Room40
WTF! This app just became more or less useless - at least on my 17" Studio Display.

The info-pane is so big it slides out of sight, forcing me to resize the iCal window, thus making the main view look cramped (harder to read) and almost useless. I'm speechless...

Good grief Apple, get a clue.

:mad:


What if Panther is like this? I think I'll wait now... I'll wait for panther 10.3.1... and wait to read about how well that is too!

[backspinner]

Wow, that information slide-out is big! I'm glad I have a wide screen mac, but this will give problems on the old iMac of my girlfriend (she has the dock on the right of course).

Still no week numbers :mad:

[Kid Red]

Weird, my version of iCal is already 1.5.1 so i guess I don't need to download it. Oh wait, it came with a certain build, never-mind :)

[dongmin]

iCal 1.5.1 is now in software update, as of 10:20 am EST.

iSync 1.2.1 only from the website.

[NicoMan]

Originally posted by dongmin
iCal 1.5.1 is now in software update, as of 10:20 am EST.

iSync 1.2.1 only from the website.
No. You download iCal first from SWU. And then iSync is available on SWU.

[NicoMan]

Originally posted by Kid Red
Weird, my version of iCal is already 1.5.1 so i guess I don't need to download it. Oh wait, it came with a certain build, never-mind :)
BUSTED!!

[Awimoway]

Woohoo, iCal now opens files on a scheduled basis. I just saved $15 on Alarm Clock Pro 6.3 (http://www.koingosw.com/products/alarm_clock_pro.shtml), which I was trying out. Who needs it now?

[Longey Nowze]

will the SE P900 be supported by iSync? the Z600 had an apple logo in its site saying that it was supported by iSync before it was on Apple's site, the P900 hasn't been announced yet, they will announce on 26th of October, maybe then we'll have news? I want that phone! and Panther and a G5! and an Aston! :P

THANK YOU
MaT

[rog]

Syncing didn't work on my Treo 300 with the new Palm conduit unless I forced it to slow sync. That's annoying. Still no way to sync Notes and have them show up on my desktop. Looks like it's back to Palm Desktop again.

[a_kim]

My t68i still doesn't recognize all-day events. Too bad. I'm guessing it's a limitation with the phone and not isync or ical, but still... shouldn't there be some simple algorithm for dealing with this, like turning all-day events into 8am-10pm events when syncing with the phone? As it is now, these all-day events don't show up on my phone at all.

[Frisco]

Originally posted by rog
Syncing didn't work on my Treo 300 with the new Palm conduit unless I forced it to slow sync. That's annoying. Still no way to sync Notes and have them show up on my desktop. Looks like it's back to Palm Desktop again.

Yeah I still prefer Palm Desktop too.

[beerguy]

I upgraded both and now neither runs.....iCal has unexpectedly quit.....blah, blah, blah

[beerguy]

For iCal I had to uninstall and reinstall to get it to work.

iSync, I had to smoke the preferences.

Kind of annoying, but it's working now.

[mainstreetmark]

Is anybody publishing a MacRumors iCal with all these rumored release dates for products? Woulda been neat to have Panther on Oct24th, and of course, spending all summer seeing powerbook updates on tuesday of next week.

[maxtrax]

No trouble here. updates worked perfectly and iSync and iCal are working as expected on my Powerbook 800. iCal is a little more responsive and I like the info drawer much better, but it is big for a non wide screen, seems fine on PB though. Overall I don't notice much improvement...

[notjustjay]

I had problems with iCal too, I got the "application unexpectedly quit" error when trying to run it from the Dock. I realized after some futzing around that I could double-click on its Finder icon and it would run, so I dumped the iCal icon off the Dock and reinstated a new icon... and the new one seems to be working fine.

Odd.

[MacBandit]

Everyone remember to repair your disk permissions after installing. This could potentially fix the problems people are posting here. I personally have had no problems with it though I always repair permissions after installing new software.

[mangoman]

Originally posted by mainstreetmark
Is anybody publishing a MacRumors iCal with all these rumored release dates for products? Woulda been neat to have Panther on Oct24th, and of course, spending all summer seeing powerbook updates on tuesday of next week.

Great idea.

[Pudi]

Everything works fine... but there's no way to sync my P800... javascript:smilie(':(')

Works fine with adresses (as before) but troubles with cal and to do's...

[kcmac]

Woohoo, iCal now opens files on a scheduled basis

What does this mean? Opens files....appointment...to do....or word files, etc....

[centauratlas]

So far so good. I have done several synch's between my Nokia 3650 and the new iSync today. It is *great* synching the calendar. I am sure the next version will do it even better, but this is a welcome thing.

Now when my Nokia 6600 arrives it will be even better. ;-)

(Or in the future my Apple iPhone).

[mainstreetmark]

Where does iCal store it's local calendars? I can't find it in the ~/Library

[MasterMac]

It's in ~/Library/Calendars

[mainstreetmark]

Originally posted by MasterMac
It's in ~/Library/Calendars

JEEZ!!

I was looking for iCalendars and stuff like that.

[j33pd0g]

Every things good here! Normal size. Didn't see anything that took up the screen. No complaints.

[Macco]

Yay! Yaaaaaaay! .1 upgrades to nonessential software! Yaaay! Wooooooooooooo! Wooooooooooooo! My life is complete! I can sleep at night now knowing that iCal 1.5.1 resides safely on my hard drive! Not that I use it anyway, but yaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

(BTW, anyone know why it's 1.5.1 and 1.2.1? Seems sorta odd, since most software originally is released as x.x, not x.x.x)

[chmorley]

iSync works okay with my P800 calendar--just a few minor glitches. For example, if I modify an existing event on the P800 and then sync, the event moves to the "Unfiled" calendar--a hassle, for sure, but not a tragedy.

Significant upgrades, to be sure. I am not sure I like them yet, but they are significant.

Chris

[mangoman]

Been messing around with iCal tonight. THIS is the app' they should've released the first time. Now I'm wondering if I'll go to work tomorrow and find a solid iSync of my calendar changes. If that's still broken, then Apple can... can... well, get back to work on the app'. It's one of the features I finally bought a .mac account for.

[idkew]

Originally posted by Pudi
Everything works fine... but there's no way to sync my P800... javascript:smilie(':(')

Works fine with adresses (as before) but troubles with cal and to do's...

yes there is. i have a p800. no problems syncing contacts and calendar.

[cubist]

iCal seems a little improved. The info drawer is OK, makes editing items much easier.

I like the way that the calendar shows for the week. However, the to-do list is still crude. No categories, no sort options, and have you seen the way you have to enter dates? Blech! It's awful. It makes me wonder where Apple is getting their inspiration.

[nlz]

Originally posted by idkew
yes there is. i have a p800. no problems syncing contacts and calendar.

Would you please tell me what your settings are or what steps you took to get it working?

Does your "Bluetooth Serial Utility" show a serial connection setup? How did you pair phone and Mac? What are your Bluetooth and iSync settings?

I've been waiting sooo long for this update, but MY p800 only syncs sporadically. First time worked fine, second time didn't, since then I haven't been able to get it to properly sync (all) my data again (looks like only "last week" as calendar setting works sometimes?).

It seems my Mac connects to the phone but never notices it and after about 20 seconds the phone disconnects. It can't be my firewall or pptp connection over ppp0 (which seems to be where the bluetooth serial connection wants to be), I disabled both and even rebooted... :-/

Yes, file transfer works in both directions, so the pairing shouldn't be the problem.

And on top of that my Handspring has kept some of the address data I deleted on the Mac, but at least it doesn't try to sync it back to the Address Book (or is that a bug, too?).

Thanks for any hint, I feel I've already spent way more time on this than I should have to...

[mangoman]

Calendar syncing WORKS via my .mac account. Yippe-Ki-Yayyy.

[nixd2001]

Originally posted by nlz

It seems my Mac connects to the phone but never notices it and after about 20 seconds the phone disconnects.

I've had problems like this and, at least in my case, think it's the difference between turning the phone on with BT enabled and enabling after turning the phone on. So enable BT then power cycle the phone and see if that's more reliable.

I've other comments about the new iCal behaviour, but they'll have to wait.

[Dingwall]

I would really like to fix this:
The sync starts fine. It gets to a point where it downloads from the P800. It slowly builds up to 18k, and then hangs there for quite a while. An error message appears on the Apple stating the the P800 ran out of memory.

I've cleared up the P800 - it has over 5MB free. Any suggestions!?!

[1macker1]

anyone know of a phone that works with sprint service.

[nlz]

Originally posted by Dingwall
...stating the the P800 ran out of memory.

I've cleared up the P800 - it has over 5MB free. Any suggestions!?!

I had the same message on one occasion, but it didn't stop my p800 from syncing all my calendar entries back to the year 2000 on another run. Just try again.

Also, be aware that the message may actually mean the phone's RAM when it says memory. IIRC, the p800 has 16 megs of firmware for the system software, a 16MB internal flash "drive" (4 of which are always used by the system), a 16MB Memory Stick "drive" AND 16MB of actual RAM. The RAM is managed by the system, which automatically purges running apps from memory when the air gets thin. Sometimes that doesn't work (methinks especially with Opera, but that's just a feeling). Try rebooting and syncing before running any apps.

[scottwat]

For the most part very very happy with the upgrade of isync, very pleased to do bluetooth ical sync to the phone. Echoing some previous sentiment, while I do love the pop out tray, and expect much of panther to be this way, the tray can't be sized small enough to be effective on the little ibook, I imagine 12" users and some imac users etc will have the same problem. That would be one of the few things I would change, maybe even make it a choice? I wouldn't say that this tray makes it useless, just a bit of a pain to adjust each time. I'll live with it till I get a 15" powerbook!!!

[nlz]

Originally posted by nixd2001
I've had problems like this and, at least in my case, think it's the difference between turning the phone on with BT enabled and enabling after turning the phone on. So enable BT then power cycle the phone and see if that's more reliable.


Yes! Thank you so much! It finally works. :) :) :)

To summarize what to consider when using bluetooth and a P800 with iSync:

If you experience problems with pairing or syncing, try rebooting the P800 with bluetooth enabled. If that doesn't help, try also restarting the mac. Changing the phone visibility should work without rebooting.

Initiating pairing from the phone doesn't work, and it's best to use the "Bluetooth Setup Assistant" because it will ask whether the calendar should be synchronized (just creating a connection to a new device from the system preferences has that option disabled). This automatically adds the phone to iSync. Of course the phone has to be in visible mode to appear on the list.

The firewall (Sharing Preferences Pane) needs a rule that lets connections to port 3004 proceed to get sync working. Some hints mention a rule for the port range 3000-3004, but the Apple error message only talks about 3004. This is the port for the mRouter serial connection (ppp via bluetooth) used for syncing. On the first sync, a serial connection is automatically added to the system (view the list with "Bluetooth Serial Utility").

Authentication and encryption work and may be activated, and it's also handy to set the phone to accept connections from the Mac without asking.

The Mac OS Address Book only stores tiny thumbnails of contact pictures, so if your internal drive needs to be formatted(*), you'll loose the fullsize versions you made with the phone.

I usually have to wait forever, as phone sloooowly transmits my 350+KB of data at 0.1KB/s. I wonder why it's so slow? :o

*The internal drive will be force-formatted, if it ever runs out of space. This usually happens to people (me) 5 minutes after they leave their mac at home for a three week vacation. :rolleyes:

[Dingwall]

Continuation of frustration:
iSync starts with no problems, and when it gets to the part where it says "Getting changes from P800 (18K downloaded)", it hangs there forever. So for some reason the 18K point is a barrier. Sometimes it hangs there indefinitely, and sometimes it gives an error message of the P800 being out of memory.

I've tried a number of permutations of settings on the P800, restarted it with BT on, rebooted the Mac, but with no joy.

After the excitement of FINALLY being able to sync my P800 with my PowerBook (alas nothing yet for Entourage!!), this problem is really frustrating, and any assistance would be most appreciated!

[Pudi]

still some problems with events that show up three or four times after syncing...

I updatet my Software on P800 and now I have at least an idea how it could work... no problems with T68i... this syncing-process looks more confident...

[nlz]

Originally posted by Dingwall
Sometimes it hangs there indefinitely, and sometimes it gives an error message of the P800 being out of memory.
It most likely is the memory, then.

After the force format I previously mentioned, I set up a rule for myself to never again use the internal drive for anything. So all my apps are installed on the memory stick.

Even then, I managed to get a low memory error once. I got rid of it by checking for memory hogs in the "Storage manager" (in "Control panel"). I have no idea why (my drive wasn't full), but the application data you see there (on the first screen, not under "Files") seems to somehow affect "memory" in addition to "drive" usage, even though AFAIK the data is stored on the internal drive. So I deleted some old installer I had forgotten under Message/Beamed (you might also try removing SMS/eMails, calendar entries up until today, finished tasks etc.) and the problem disappeared.

The phone probably needs memory to process the data it wants to send to the mac...