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Best Calender App?

W

WingedWheel

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 7, 2010
28
0
Chicagoland
Hey all,

Before I go out and spend $13 on something like Pocket Informant, has anyone used a cheaper (yet functional) calender/list app?

I am using LifeTopix, which is a great app, but seems like a bit much just to keep track of simple appointments and lists.

Thanks
 
I use OmniFocus for tasks so for calendaring all i really need is a calendar..

The iPhone calendar isn't bad. But Calvetica is a really good replacement for it.

You can take a look at BusyCalTodo as well if you insist on a todolist/calendar all in one.

I'd encourage you to use separate apps though... todo lists are great, but you shouldn't assign "todos" to a day all the time. It's great for things that NEED to be done that day, but what happens if you get behind? Now you're playing catch up and you set yourself up for failure and you're constantly moving todos to another day. It's an endless cycle once that starts. Best thing to do is use a GTD based app for tasks and let it flow.

I only put appointments on my calendar... class schedule, work schedule, appointments. Tasks go in OmniFocus where I can filter based on location, time estimates, etc.
 
For 20 years I used a Franklin Planner, now last week I switched to my iPod. I'm still transferring over info. For a to-do list I use Easy Note, it's free, simple and the best to-do list I’ve found, for a calendar I use IKoyomi2, it can show 2 months at a time, for notes I use Awesome Notes. PDF's trying PDF reader. Anyone have an good suggestions?
 
Depends on what suits your needs better...

[app]Week Calendar[/app] - loads up fast, and it shows your events in a timebar weekview, really useful for seing your upcoming weekly schedule and at what times you're busy.

[app]Saisuke[/app] - the best app for seeing up to six events per day in monthview, so quickly finding the next time you're doing something is fast with this app, and the copy and paste function is great for scheduling multiple recurring events.

[app]Pocket Informant[/app] - Best timebar monthview, which makes finding free time to schedule a new event quick.

[app]Calvetica[/app] - Load up fast, it's great for quickly finding a particular date in the far future and seeing what's happening on that date. Friend asks you what you're doing on the second Saturday of two months later, well Calvetica would be the fastest for checking that.

[app]Todo[/app] (by Appigo) - I've also subscribed to their online service, which I see as best cause they control both ends of the sync, so sync will more likely be reliable and fast, and it has been.

[app]MomoNote[/app] - A note app, they also control both ends of the sync. It was messed up syncing on Awesome Note that had me deciding it's better to choose apps where the app company controls both ends of the sync. On both EverNote and Google Docs, I was getting triplicates and quadruplicates of the same notes I entered in Awesome Note.
 
CalenGoo syncs to your Google Calendar, I've used this for a long time.
I also use Calvetica for it's simplicity.
 
Decisions Decisions.....

From what it sounds like, (from the reviews anyway) It that you can't go wrong with calengoo, pocket informant, or omni focus.

for me, syncing with my gmail account is probably the biggest factor.
 
I am using the default calendar synced wutg Google calendar. For the more complex tasks and appointments I use the free version of RTM. Works great for me.

Back in the days of Palm OS I used DateBK 4. I have not found anithing as good for iOS.
 
WingedWheel said:
Decisions Decisions.....

From what it sounds like, (from the reviews anyway) It that you can't go wrong with calengoo, pocket informant, or omni focus.

for me, syncing with my gmail account is probably the biggest factor.
Click to expand...

I guess you need to be more clear on what exactly you want to do.

Do you want to track tasks?
Do you want to track appointments?

A calendar is for appointments
A todo app is for tasks.

In very simple terms obviously.

Determine what you want to do and respond back on this thread...
 
I never had a great experience with the iOS calendar syncing to Google calendar. A few events would take up to a week to actually even sync from the iOS calendar to Google calendar, and occasionally an event just wouldn't sync at all. Fortunately my calendars were easily moved to Yahoo calendars, which has been far more reliable than Google Calendars, but not everyone can simply move to a new service...

Calengoo's got to have the ugliest and least intuitive interface out there. Pocket Informant and SaiSuke are so much better in my opinion. They all sync directly to Google calendar, so they'll all be much more reliable than trying to sync to Google calendar via the iOS calendar.
 
iCal and Google Calendar are the two major calendars I rely on.

I sync them using the newest version of Calengoo which is outstanding. Much nicer looking, fast to sync and very stable as compared to the older version, this newest one is simply ideal.

It's super fast opening on the iPhone and gives me better views than iCal.

Calengoo has been simply stellar.
 
I'm actually hoping to get away from using Google products. The only one I plan to continue to use is Google Voice.

MobileMe has worked very well for me with calendar syncing and contact syncing. I tried rolling my own Darwin Calendar and Contact Syncing server... that was just not fun.

I also have no real desire to pad Google's coffers since I think for the most part Android is doing more of a disservice than anything else lately. The whole Don't Be Evil thing has sort of been thrown about but never really backed up.

Some suggestions anyway...

I'd avoid using Things... while the apps are reasonably nice, they don't listen to their users, typically keep their mouths shut and keep you in the dark... and when keeping you in the dark means something like over a year of silence about a promised feature it sours a lot of attitudes. I've got all three apps and got tired of the crap. I switched to OmniFocus and haven't looked back. They have world class support. I get responses from their support in record time. They're open about their plans and even back up their apps with a 30 day refund. If you're a student, they also offer discounts on their web store. i'd encourage you to buy the Mac app on their store, not the App Store, upgrade pricing will be useful when 2.0 comes out. it hasn't been announced and is likely a ways off. But at 1.8.2 or something like that now, it's obvious that 2.0 will need to come out sooner rather than later.

For calendar related stuff, I still prefer iCal (using Calvetica to display the calendar content on the iPhone) and syncing with MobileMe.
 
WingedWheel said:
Hey all,

Before I go out and spend $13 on something like Pocket Informant, has anyone used a cheaper (yet functional) calender/list app?

I am using LifeTopix, which is a great app, but seems like a bit much just to keep track of simple appointments and lists.

Thanks
Click to expand...

I bought Pocket Informant I think the week that it came out. I've never regretted it. I actually purchased an iPod Touch 2G so that I could run it, and it was the best thing I ever did PIM-wise.
 
gks said:
I guess you need to be more clear on what exactly you want to do.

Do you want to track tasks?
Do you want to track appointments?

A calendar is for appointments
A todo app is for tasks.

In very simple terms obviously.

Determine what you want to do and respond back on this thread...
Click to expand...

Ideally I'd like something that does everything. That way I'm not opening 3 different apps for a group of activities. For instance, If I get invited to a wedding, I don't want to open the calendar to record the date, then open a todo list to remind myself of picking up a gift, then open a notes app to jot-down gift ideas.

However, if all I require is a reminder to myself to get my suit dry-cleaned, I don't want to have to go through a complex app to accomplish this
 
[app]Pocket Informant[/app] does all that except the notes. Note support will be added later though.
 
WingedWheel said:
Ideally I'd like something that does everything. That way I'm not opening 3 different apps for a group of activities. For instance, If I get invited to a wedding, I don't want to open the calendar to record the date, then open a todo list to remind myself of picking up a gift, then open a notes app to jot-down gift ideas.

However, if all I require is a reminder to myself to get my suit dry-cleaned, I don't want to have to go through a complex app to accomplish this
Click to expand...

Eh. I'd suggest splitting things up.

But it's a matter of preference.

What I'd suggest you do for some research first is to do a google search for GTD. See what you can find on the topic and read it. Then determine whether that workflow will help you. If it will, separate apps will be the way to go.

As I've stated in past posts.

Calendar = Appointments (time slots. i.e. Work 3-9:30pm)
Tasks = Things you need to do (which could be a project with plenty of tasks within it)

The thing about most calendar apps is that they try to get you to set a date for things. That doesn't work because things change. The best thing to do is to put tasks in an app (GTD calls this a Trusted System). You get that crap out of your mind, and into a trusted system, so you can concentrate on other things.

You then organize those tasks on a number of things. What are the requirements to finish this task? Is it actually a project? Do I need something to do this task? Do I need to be in a particular location to do this task?

Those "requirements" are sort of organized by what is usually called "Contexts."

An example. I have some software updates I need to perform. The context is @mac

I can then show all contexts of "@mac" in OmniFocus and do them all at once (assuming I have time)

Another would be if I need to call someone. That is under "@phone" for its context. Since I have my phone in my hands, show me all tasks that have a context of "@phone" so I can just make all those calls now.

It's a very clear separation for me. Things that I "do" are tasks. Places I need to "be" are appointments. I use a task management program for the tasks, and a calendar for the appointments.

Obviously this won't work for everyone. But it really helps me keep track of what I need to be doing.
 
gks said:
Eh. I'd suggest splitting things up.
Click to expand...

My biggest worry is getting info mixed-up across apps. It's actually already happening. Not only is it a headache but it could become "dangerous".

Anyway, Thanks to all for your input. You've given me some things to work with here. I am leaning towards Pocket Informant, and maybe keeping Awesome Note on the side for now.

Cheers!
 
samh said:
I bought Pocket Informant I think the week that it came out. I've never regretted it. I actually purchased an iPod Touch 2G so that I could run it, and it was the best thing I ever did PIM-wise.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I run it on the iPad, my iPhone, and company Blackberry simultaneously and task always stay in sync using toodedo.
 
samh said:
I bought Pocket Informant I think the week that it came out. I've never regretted it. I actually purchased an iPod Touch 2G so that I could run it, and it was the best thing I ever did PIM-wise.
Click to expand...

I bought Pocket Informant the week it came out as well, and never once regretted it. I love that the calendar now syncs with the built in calendar since that syncs seemlessly with Outlook via MobileMe and I can disregard Google calendar. Never had an issue with the tasks syncing via Toodledo.

I would highly recommend Pocket informant if you want to keep track of tasks. I personally prefer the Franklin Covey method over the GTD method and Pocket Informant is the only app that I can find that does that well.

If what you want to do is have a very reliable app that will work as a task manager as well as a calendar then you really can't go wrong with Pocket Informant.
 
I got it yesterday. It's just what I've been looking for! I like how you can keep separate, color coded calendars. Syncing to gmail has gone smoother than I expected.

Plus, the price is right....

Thanks to everyone who chimed-in about PI. You weren't kidding about the benefits.

Cheers!
 
Pocket Informant's note function will come out sometime in April according to their blog.
 
I have been using pocket informant on iPhone 3G,3GS and now on an iPhone 4 and the only downside with the application is its speed. It is reliable and stable but it's not fast so it takes a lot of time for it to open, and even when it's open it still isn't very fast when you're scrolling from month to month. While I am waiting for PI 2.0 to fix these issues I am using week calendar and its month view together with Toodledo.
 
Pocket Informant is by far the best Calendar App (In my opinion!) for the iPhone.

I like it that much that I have purchased the iPad Version as well before I have got an iPad! - I hope to get one imminently, just waiting to spot one at the right price!
 
I was seriously considering omnifocus, but then I saw pocket indormant offered at a promo price of $6 so I grabbed it and never looked back. Its a complete tool for me as far as task management goes.
 
fortunecookie said:
I was seriously considering omnifocus, but then I saw pocket indormant offered at a promo price of $6 so I grabbed it and never looked back. Its a complete tool for me as far as task management goes.
Click to expand...

You'll quickly realize that Pocket Informant isn't nearly as good as OmniFocus if you have lots of tasks and/or want more control over what you see.

Pocket Informant just flat out looks dumb in my mind anyway. I have seen the screen shots and I can't see it being useful for me. OmniFocus is pretty brilliant in displaying tasks really well.
 
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