iCal version 1.5.2 released

[ComputerWizard]

iCal Version 1.5.2, 7.7MB

iCal is a calendar application that enables you to unify, manage and share the many calendars in your life. With iCal, you can view multiple calendars at the same time, share your calendars with friends and family, subscribe to personal-interest calendars, and access your calendars on the Internet using your .Mac account.


iCal 1.5.2 gives you the option of viewing your calendar, event, or To Do information in a drawer or in a separate window, and includes a number of performance and reliability enhancements.


If you use iSync to synchronize your calendars across computers and devices, you need to upgrade each computer to iSync 1.2 (or later) and iCal 1.5.2.

[iJon]

awesome, thanks for the heads up.

iJon

[dukemeiser]

Basically just a complaint release. I know a lot of people weren't happy when the event viewer was changed to a drawer. This release gives them the option of a window or a drawer.

[virividox]

thanks

[johnnyjibbs]

Apple for once has realised that OPTIONS not DICTATION are best! Woohoo!

[robotrenegade]

About time

[jacg]

I don't get any reminders from iCal at the moment and I wasn't alone. Hope they fixed this.

[coumerelli]

Originally posted by ComputerWizard
iCal Version 1.5.2, 7.7MB

iCal is a calendar application that enables you to unify, manage and share the many calendars in your life. With iCal, you can view multiple calendars at the same time, share your calendars with friends and family, subscribe to personal-interest calendars, and access your calendars on the Internet using your .Mac account.


iCal 1.5.2 gives you the option of viewing your calendar, event, or To Do information in a drawer or in a separate window, and includes a number of performance and reliability enhancements.


If you use iSync to synchronize your calendars across computers and devices, you need to upgrade each computer to iSync 1.2 (or later) and iCal 1.5.2.

It should be in your software update...

[lindmar]

nice update :-)

[pixote]

Does anybody know if it will wake up a computer from sleep? I have a program that records web radio programs that launches from ical, but I have to turn off sleep mode.

[Trowaman]

updates good . . .

Keep 'em coming Apple. Now just wait to scramble the spare cash for iLife '04

[Stoffel]

Yea! Give us more of these good apps!
ical is one of my favourite iApp. I use it every day....

[splashman]

Checked software update, got the reply "Server unavailable. Try again later."

I'm not complaining -- it's just surprising. I think this is the very first time I've ever had trouble getting anything from Apple or from their site.

[applekid]

Update Safari, Apple! Tons of things that could be fixed with performance, compatibility, and plug-ins.

Oh, the iCal update works well too :)

[jesus h christ]

By God I hope they fixed the lame excuse for a To-Do list. Not allowing you to print just a To-Do list sucked. To-Do entries that had past disappear forever... Great! We'll see if those issues have been fixed.

...

Nope, still can't print JUST a To-Do List. They do have options now that will let you change when the To-Do's are removed, etc. Still needs some work IMHO.

JHC.

[Fuchal]

It's about time for a iChat update.

[evil_santa]

Originally posted by pixote
Does anybody know if it will wake up a computer from sleep? I have a program that records web radio programs that launches from ical, but I have to turn off sleep mode.

you could turn of the computer and use Energy Saver / Schedule to wake it up at the right time. or not let your computer sleep.

[.a]

Originally posted by pixote
Does anybody know if it will wake up a computer from sleep? I have a program that records web radio programs that launches from ical, but I have to turn off sleep mode.

it did not work at my mac with the new ical - would've been great!
.a

[cubist]

Multiple time zones - I just complained about that last month! As they say, Woot!:)

[noraa]

Originally posted by jesus h christ
By God I hope they fixed the lame excuse for a To-Do list. Not allowing you to print just a To-Do list sucked. To-Do entries that had past disappear forever... Great! We'll see if those issues have been fixed.

...

Nope, still can't print JUST a To-Do List. They do have options now that will let you change when the To-Do's are removed, etc. Still needs some work IMHO.

JHC.


Actually, yes you can. In the print dialog window, click on the drop down menu that says "Copies and Pages" and scroll down to the iCal item, once you're there you can select what items you want to print - Calendar, TO-DO LISTS, and mini-months.

[BWhaler]

Not trying to look the gift horse in the mouth here, but iCal is still terrible.

It is not workable in a corporate environment, which wouldn't be such a big deal except for the fact that you really need to use the iApps to get all of the built in goodies.

(I know that there are shareware apps and things of that ilk, but that doesn't cut it in the business world. It's tough enough maintaining computers as is.)

I hope Apple gets serious about a 2.0 release for business. Or, release a Pro version that supports multiple users, group scheduling, etc. I would pay for it. And no matter what, don't give us a tiny, miserable upgrade with 10.4.

[eric_n_dfw]

Well, it's still useless for me as it cannot update/subscribe behind a username/password authenticating proxy. (It even has an error dialog that says it cannot do it.)

If they want this thing to compete with Outlook, they really need to start thinking about people who work in large companies with such networks. (iSync and iTunes both choke for the same reasons - even though the settings are present in the network proxy properties)

[mainstreetmark]

Have you tried including the un/pw in the url when subscribing?

http://<username>:password@www.somecalwebsite.com

It's worth a shot.

[rockman2023]

Has anyone else had problems installing this update? At first, I tried through Software Update, and it hung while "Waiting for local disks". Then I downloaded the package alone, and tried through Installer, and that also hung. I finally tried Pacifist, and it got the job done.

I did notice this while I was trying to install with Installer:
http://www.vectorelement.com/misc/iCal_install.jpg

[El Tritoma]

iTunes is presently unavailable right now, too. They don't usually do this during the afternoon of a weekday do they?

[SiliconAddict]

Originally posted by mainstreetmark


http://<username>:password@www.somecalwebsite.com

It's worth a shot.

Priceless :D

[yamabushi]

iCal is now getting to be pretty handy for personal use. However, it is not a business application. It would be nice to see Apple working on applications that could become parts of an Apple office suite.

[Photorun]

I'll wait for iCal 1.5.3 which should work with my Powerbook G7.

[g4oliver]

Umm, I must be missing something obvious. How does one detach the drawer??

edit: I figured it out - go to the Window menu and choose Detach Info . . . and the same to get it reattached.

[gothamac]

Another no news day.

[Glial]

Originally posted by gothamac
Another no news day.

I agree, big woop.

[splashman]

Originally posted by eric_n_dfw
Well, it's still useless for me as it cannot update/subscribe behind a username/password authenticating proxy. (It even has an error dialog that says it cannot do it.)

If they want this thing to compete with Outlook, they really need to start thinking about people who work in large companies with such networks. (iSync and iTunes both choke for the same reasons - even though the settings are present in the network proxy properties)

No offense intended to Apple or anyone else, but it seems to me that iCal isn't ready for the big time, for several reasons. Compared to Entourage, it still seems pretty anemic. It works fine for me (self-employed, and I only have to sync with my wife's iBook), but I have a hard time imagining a mid-to-large-size, mixed-platform company depending on it. I'm guessing the more honest folks at Apple would agree.

I'm not complaining -- it's still a very young app, and overall, I'm pleased with how much Apple is investing in development of these "free" apps. I can't help thinking of some of the stupid accessory apps included in Windows that haven't changed appreciably in ten years.

[Wilhelm]

Originally posted by splashman
No offense intended to Apple or anyone else, but it seems to me that iCal isn't ready for the big time, for several reasons. Compared to Entourage, it still seems pretty anemic. It works fine for me (self-employed, and I only have to sync with my wife's iBook), but I have a hard time imagining a mid-to-large-size, mixed-platform company depending on it. I'm guessing the more honest folks at Apple would agree.

I'm not complaining -- it's still a very young app, and overall, I'm pleased with how much Apple is investing in development of these "free" apps. I can't help thinking of some of the stupid accessory apps included in Windows that haven't changed appreciably in ten years.

With all due respect, iCal is not meant to compete for the mid- to large-sized comapany market. It's an "i" app, meaning it's for the consumer market, not the professional one.

[coumerelli]

Originally posted by Wilhelm
With all due respect, iCal is not meant to compete for the mid- to large-sized comapany market. It's an "i" app, meaning it's for the consumer market, not the professional one.

Absolutely!

From Apple's mission statement:
Apple is committed to bringing the best personal computing experience to students, educators, creative professionals and consumers around the world through its innovative hardware, software and Internet offerings.

They have (and may never) no intention on competing with outlook. Also, the tag line for the new iLife is "Like Microsoft office for the rest of your life." They are not competing WITH office or any other mass business offerings.

[simX]

Originally posted by jesus h christ
By God I hope they fixed the lame excuse for a To-Do list. Not allowing you to print just a To-Do list sucked. To-Do entries that had past disappear forever... Great! We'll see if those issues have been fixed.

...

Nope, still can't print JUST a To-Do List. They do have options now that will let you change when the To-Do's are removed, etc. Still needs some work IMHO.

JHC.

Both of those features have been in iCal before this update. You could always specify never to remove To Do items, and I'm pretty sure you could always specify (in the "iCal" section of the Print panel) to just print To Do items.

originally posted by cubist
Multiple time zones - I just complained about that last month! As they say, Woot!

This was also in a previous iCal update... this is nothing new to iCal 1.5.2. It seems like people haven't been looking in their preferences enough. ;)

The only thing that really changed with this update is that you can have the drawer detached again like it used to be before iCal 1.5. The update specifically says performance and reliability enhancements, but I haven't seen anythingh specific changed in this area.

[keysersoze]

20th Anniversary!!! G5 upgrades!!!! Apple Store renovations!!!! Powerbook upgrades!!!! New displays!!!!!

It's like Christmas morning, waking up and finding you got.... socks.

iCal1.5.2?

uh....thanks grandma. don't know what I could've done without it.

blllllaaaahhhh

[sethypoo]

Update looks nice to me! I like the new options.

[zim]

I still wish there was a way, and if there is please let me know, to view to do items by month and to have to do items, like bills, repeat every month.

It is getting better but I feel that there is still a ways to go. Love the draw being separate again.

[Tue12]

Originally posted by splashman
No offense intended to Apple or anyone else, but it seems to me that iCal isn't ready for the big time, ...but I have a hard time imagining a mid-to-large-size, mixed-platform company depending on it.

EARTH to DUDE. It's called iCal, not proCal or incCal.

Get it? Got it? Goooood.

:p

[splashman]

Originally posted by Tue12
EARTH to DUDE. It's called iCal, not proCal or incCal.

Get it? Got it? Goooood.

:p

Yeah, I got it from a couple of earlier posts . . .

[kilometer31]

update, while modest, is most welcome. as others have stated, alarms FINALLY work like they should. They even go off if iCal is not running. (Before they rarely went off even when iCal WAS running.)

Haven't tried them during sleep. My guess is they'll go off as soon as you wake from sleep

[Juventuz]

I'm finding it a lot more difficult to input data compared to 1.5.1

In the New Event title section I have to input the data twice, it won't accept what I've typed the first time around. I'm also finding it a real p.i.t.a to just double click on an appt and edit it. I'm having to have to right click on the appt and choose Show Info to do any editing.

So far it's been a dissapointing January from Apple :(

[idkew]

You mean its FREE? I was ready to pay $50, i mean, all this great functionality and all.

also- it is copyrighted 2002-2003. Isn't it 2004?

[kilometer31]

Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but with 1.5.2 I can no longer double-click an event bar to access the info window/drawer. (In previous versions, you had to click just so, or else you'd just select the text in the bar.)

You can right-click on the bar and choose "Show info" from the contextual menu, but still ...

Of interest: Previously existing events (like subscribed holidays, which are read-only events) still double click and open info just fine.

This has to be a bug ...

[youngr40]

iCal 1.5.2 - its FREE, thats good for me

U'd still like to see rendezvous Calendar sharing, but I am sure thats coming in v2.0

[pyknosis]

iCal is still too slow when switching from week to month view. It takes ~2 seconds on a 1.25GHz PB. It should be instantaneous. This is a lame update.

[splashman]

Originally posted by pyknosis
iCal is still too slow when switching from week to month view. It takes ~2 seconds on a 1.25GHz PB. It should be instantaneous. This is a lame update.

Interesting. The switch is almost instantaneous on my dual G4, and a bit less than 2 seconds on my wife's iBook G3 600. Not sure if the amount of data has anything to do with it. Our calendars are sync'ed, and there's quite a bit on there, but maybe we've got a lot less entries than you.

I agree that a 2-second response time is pretty lame, especially on a top-of-the-line PB.

I suppose somebody is going to remind me again that iCal is a CONSUMER app, not a BUSINESS app, right?

[idkew]

Originally posted by splashman
I suppose somebody is going to remind me again that iCal is a CONSUMER app, not a BUSINESS app, right?

damn you. this is ical, not procal!

[splashman]

Originally posted by idkew
damn you. this is ical, not procal!

:) Thanks for the validation.

[jettredmont]

Originally posted by splashman
No offense intended to Apple or anyone else, but it seems to me that iCal isn't ready for the big time, for several reasons. Compared to Entourage, it still seems pretty anemic.

Hmm. You know, TextEdit just ain't ready for Prime Time either. I mean, just fire up Word and you'll see how pathetic TextEdit is!

For those who haven't figured it out yet:

iCal is NOT a business scheduling application. It is NOT intended to replace the likes of Outlook or MeetingMaker. It's not going to find mutually-free time slots for meetings. It's not going to address reserving a conference room. It's not going to give you one-click messaging to all your guests when the meeting time/place changes.

iCal is for a single person's calendars, and potentially for drawing in other peoples' calendars in the occaisions where their calendar directly affects your life.

Yes, you could use it as a poor man's Outlook. Set up your own iCal server (iCal is an open and non-Apple protocol, you all realize, right? You can set up an iCal server inside your firewall if you need to. You can even expose that to your home PCs through a VPN or proxy or DMZ.) Have everyone subscribe to everyone else's calendars so everyone knows what everyone else is doing. Whatever. It'd be a mess with more than three or four people, but doable I suppose. It's certainly not the design focus of iCal at all, though!

[splashman]

Originally posted by jettredmont
Hmm. You know, TextEdit just ain't ready for Prime Time either. I mean, just fire up Word and you'll see how pathetic TextEdit is!

For those who haven't figured it out yet:

iCal is NOT a business scheduling application. It is NOT intended to replace the likes of Outlook or MeetingMaker.

Yeeesh. Have you read any of the other responses to my original post? (That's a rhetorical question -- you obviously didn't.)

Here's a free tip for those with quick fingers: before responding to someone, read the rest of the thread to see if someone beat you to it.

I mentioned I was happy with iCal, remember? And happy with Apple. How about cutting me just a smidgen of slack here.

(Another rhetorical question: Did anybody notice I was responding to a poster who opined that Apple should "start thinking about people who work in large companies"?)

[pyknosis]

Interesting. The switch is almost instantaneous on my dual G4, and a bit less than 2 seconds on my wife's iBook G3 600. Not sure if the amount of data has anything to do with it. Our calendars are sync'ed, and there's quite a bit on there, but maybe we've got a lot less entries than you.


Well, maybe I do have a "lot" of entries (4-8 entries, each several words, per day). This may be the reason that iCal takes 2sec to switch views, but I don't think Apple should have let this happen. Just imagine if you were a PC user thinking of switching and you saw someone's freakin' calendar performing so sluggishly. What would you think about the other apps? (Not that I'd ever show a potential switcher iCal... and definitely not iPhoto.) ;) Anyways, iCal should fly, even if it's "just a consumer app." There's really no excuse for it not to other than laziness on the part of the programmers.

[splashman]

Originally posted by pyknosis
Anyways, iCal should fly, even if it's "just a consumer app." There's really no excuse for it not to other than laziness on the part of the programmers.

I absolutely agree it should fly -- even in the worst case we're not talking about huge amounts of data.

However, rather than laziness, don't you think it would be more fair to attribute it to a management decision regarding engineering priorities? Instead of optimizing the iCal code, maybe they decided to put all their time into GarageBand. :D

Again, I'm certainly not defending the slow app. I'd just like the mud to be thrown in the right direction. If mgmt. had decided that iCal's speed was a problem, I'm sure the programmers could have fixed it.

Speaking of which . . .

Not that I'd ever show a potential switcher iCal... and definitely not iPhoto.

Does this mean you don't have '04 yet? iPhoto's response on the 600mhz iBook with about 4,000 photos is pretty impressive, IMHO. Which makes iCal look even worse in comparison.

[eric_n_dfw]

In follow up to the "ProCal" responses to my comparision of iCal to Outlook, you are right, it's not meant to compete with the high end stuff.

I don't think I'm asking to much, however, for iCal and iTunes (and iSync for that mater) to use the authentication info that the network config panel has gathered.

As far as syncing to Outlook, it would be *nice* but I bought Enturage for that. -- Oh, wait, it doesn't work either because the evil IT folks at my company don't have IMAP turned on or something.

I could set up an iCal server (and very well may do so), but one of the reasons I use a Mac is to avoid geeky sys-admin type stuff like that. (I do geeky stuff all day for a living, I try to get away from it at home ;) ) Besides, my company might frown on it as it could be considered firewall piercing and a breach of security.

[Sabenth]

ill be honest i hardly ever use iCal i used it 2 times so far but i did update it just incase

[JJTiger1]

Originally posted by splashman
Yeeesh. Have you read any of the other responses to my original post? (That's a rhetorical question -- you obviously didn't.)

Here's a free tip for those with quick fingers: before responding to someone, read the rest of the thread to see if someone beat you to it.

{snippage}

... may I add:

Read beyond the third line of text.
... but this is the third line of text so you won't read the next line of text.

Apple has not released an update to your installed version of iQ.

:D :D :D

[Photorun]

Sooo, by reading this thread, can I infer that iCal is indeed NOT a pro app but a consumer app?

[pyknosis]

Does this mean you don't have '04 yet? iPhoto's response on the 600mhz iBook with about 4,000 photos is pretty impressive, IMHO. Which makes iCal look even worse in comparison.

True. I've ordered my copy of iLife '04, but haven't received it yet. I'm truly hoping that iPhoto is as fast as Steve showed it to be during the keynote. I have a 6 megapix camera, so with the current version of iPhoto, I can't have very many photos in my library before iPhoto slows to a painful crawl.

[rodolfo.xavier]

A curious thing happens when I try to update my iCal to iCal 1.5.2, either by using Software Update (on Apple menu) or by downloading the file from Apple): after all the update processing, my iCal file has version 1.5.1, and NOT 1.5.2.

Does anyone have a clue on what is going on?

I have done it on 2 machines, both under Mac OS 10.3.2, and both with "portuguese" as the main language.

[parrothead]

My ical updated just fine. The only problem is that I still can't get it to put the info in a window instead of the annoying drawer. I tried looking in the preferences but no luck. Can anyone tell me how to tell it to use a seperate window instead of the drawer?

[zim]

Originally posted by parrothead
My ical updated just fine. The only problem is that I still can't get it to put the info in a window instead of the annoying drawer. I tried looking in the preferences but no luck. Can anyone tell me how to tell it to use a seperate window instead of the drawer?

Open the draw and then go to the Window menu. Under Window you should see Detach Info. Once you detach it, it stays detached. If you want it back as a draw, go back to Window.

[splashman]

Originally posted by pyknosis
True. I've ordered my copy of iLife '04, but haven't received it yet. I'm truly hoping that iPhoto is as fast as Steve showed it to be during the keynote. I have a 6 megapix camera, so with the current version of iPhoto, I can't have very many photos in my library before iPhoto slows to a painful crawl.

As long as you keep in mind that SJ was doing his demo on a dual G5, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. The fast re-sizing and the fast scrolling that was so impressive in the demo is not quite as smooth on my 600mhz iBook, but I'm thrilled with the performance (we have about 4,000 photos). So I can just about guarantee you'll be thrilled with the performance on your PB.

My camera is 4 megapix, but we generally have it set to 1280x960 unless we know we'll need a hi-res print. And many of our earlier photos were shot with a 1 megapix camera. But I'm guessing that your larger file size won't affect scrolling, etc. very much, since iPhoto builds its own reduced-res preview images.

[MacsAreNeato]

I'm new here, but I think I've gathered that iCal is NOT an Outlook competitor?

But what about Palm Desktop? I think that's a reasonable comparison: it's free, it's generally intended for one user, etc. It's ugly, but I have to use it for one simple reason: Memos. I use them for taking notes all the time, and have no other way of synching them and interacting with them in my desktop environment.

I've got iCal for appointments and To Dos, Address Book for people. Anyone figure out a way to dump Palm Desktop entirely for iApps, yet? Until then, I can't fully commit.

Your thoughts?

[Archmage]

Memos --> Stickies would be cool :)

[ifudge]

>But what about Palm Desktop? I think that's a reasonable comparison: it's free, it's generally intended for one user, etc. It's ugly, but I have to use it for one simple reason: Memos. I use them for taking notes all the time, and have no other way of synching them and interacting with them in my desktop environment.<

Ugly? No way. There are numous themes and colors and imho it's way more interesting and easier to read than iCal.

It took an act of will for me to give up on PD, because I too miss the ability to link events and memos, etc. But the alarms wouldn't go off for me, unless the program was in an open window. I know lots of other people have had problems getting their iCal alarms to work, but I haven't had the problem. So I've learned dto live with one memo per event.

Dave

http://www.davewyman.com

[MavanAtapattu]

Originally posted by MacsAreNeato

I've got iCal for appointments and To Dos, Address Book for people. Anyone figure out a way to dump Palm Desktop entirely for iApps, yet? Until then, I can't fully commit.

Your thoughts?

Have you thought about using a diary and a biro? I find it a quite effective method of recording appointments and such like. Admittedly it doesn't synch well with a palm desktop, but its much cheaper.

[damson34]

the reason the alarms work now most likely is due to the fact it added a start up item now for alarms. I think this is new to this release as i have never seen it there before.

[AlisonMooreSmit]

Hello everyone!

Tell me it ain't so! I just transferred all my calendar date form Now Up-To-Date to iCal, only to find that it may have a fatal flaw.

I cannot determine a way to make To Do Items repeat.

I have, for example, a billion things that I like to have associated with a particular day as a To Do, but not associated with any particular time. Most are things that need to be regularly scheduled. There are many each day, so I don't want them cluttering the timed events listed on my calendar, but I want to be able to check them off. For example:

2nd Sunday of each month: prepare lesson
3rd Sunday of each month: call supervisor with report
1st Saturday of each month: check septic system;
Daily: exercise
etc.

Can anyone give me some help? Acckkk!

Alison

[DJY]

Ok so I'm a new switcher - and have come from outlook to iCal.

Now whilst I acknowledge that iCal is a consumer aimed product...
I thought it should be able to suck birthdays out of the Address Book and pu them in iCal?

Mmm searched for the option everywhere! Anyone able to help?

[frenetic]

Ok so I'm a new switcher - and have come from outlook to iCal.

Now whilst I acknowledge that iCal is a consumer aimed product...
I thought it should be able to suck birthdays out of the Address Book and pu them in iCal?

Mmm searched for the option everywhere! Anyone able to help?

There are two free applications that do that on versiontracker:

http://www.versiontracker.com/php/search.php?mode=basic&action=search&str=ical+birthday&plt%5B%5D=macosx&x=13&y=8

Hope this helps...

BTW if you're new to the platform, both versiontracker.com and macupdate.com are a huge database of all apps mac...

[DJY]

Thanks mate
Just found reference to those two add-ins via the apple support pages.

Knew about versiontracker - but thanks for the other one!

For others who search in here in the future...
seems BirthdayCal - doesn't duplicate entries...
whereas iCal Birthday Shifter might still.

Just downloaded BirthdayCal - and voila!

Now if only I could find a way to migrate my old calendar out of outlook.

Thanks for the info though - I'm quickly falling in love with my new toy and OS!

[frenetic]

Thanks mate
Now if only I could find a way to migrate my old calendar out of outlook.



You're welcome. Here's a link which explains how to export from outlook to ical. It's a bit tedious but you might want to give it a try: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20020912063701529

BTW macosxhints is also quite a good source for little system hacks and so on...

And I am happy you're liking your new computer and os already... :)

[DJY]

Frenetic you are the best!

Thanks very much for that last link!

Couple of hiccups - but got it all via using Palm Desktop Manager as a bridge!

Thank you very very much - you have saved me HEAPS of typing!

[frenetic]

Frenetic you are the best!

Thanks very much for that last link!

Couple of hiccups - but got it all via using Palm Desktop Manager as a bridge!

Thank you very very much - you have saved me HEAPS of typing!

You're welcome :)