agenda
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Apple reportedly acquires Cue, hints at future agenda features in iOS
Apple already has an agenda-like notification tray in iOS 7, but there are new hints that it may upgrade that functionality soon. Both AppleInsider and TechCrunch report that Apple has acquired iOS developer Cue for at least $35 million. The deal would give Cupertino technology that creates agendas based on email and other personal information; like Google Now, Cue displays meetings and other events in interactive cards. Apple is only acknowledging the purchase with a familiar statement that it occasionally "buys smaller technology companies," and won't discuss its plans. As such, there's no way of knowing if or when Cue's features will surface in Apple products. Still, we won't be surprised if a future iOS release automatically generates rich daily calendars. [Image credit: Blue Wheel Media]
Agenda 4 for iPhone improves on a great calendar app
Agenda from savvy apps is a super calendaring app, and Agenda 4 ($1.99) offers great improvements. In fact, savvy apps considers it a whole new app. There's certainly a lot of good stuff here, such as new views, impressive sharing options, UI changes and a lot more. Here's my look at Agenda 4 for iPhone. New views There's so much that's new with this app that I've got to just pick a place to start and jump right in. Agenda 4 offers two new views, for a total of five. My favorite, pictured above, lets you see the date, month and current appointments all at once. To use it, simply grab the bumpy "handle" on the right and slide it up. I think it's very handsome and useful. I don't have to squint to see the day's date on that tiny calendar, and every color-coded event is clearly legible. I've been using this view a lot. The other new view is "event flyout." You'll find it by tapping any event. A detail screen "flies in" (get it?) from the right with all the pertinent info. From this one view, you can browse the details, edit the event, share it (more on that in a bit), jump to Maps or add some notes. Now, back to sharing. Sharing I can imagine Agenda's developers in an early brainstorming session for version 4, and someone says, "I know. We'll let people share the hell out of their events." Well mission accomplished. Let's start in event flyout view. From there you've got the option to share your event via text or email. Additionally, you can tap the share button to send the event to a variety of supported apps that you've got installed. For me, that's OmniFocus, Due and Drafts. Other options are Clear, Scratch, Things and ToDo. You can even determine the order with which those icons appear in the share sheet. See? I told you they went nuts with sharing. Event creation This is new, too, and it's another surprise. Actually, four surprises. Agenda 4 lets you change the style of the event creation screen. Choose from Agenda mini, Agenda, iOS and Fantastical. Yes, Fantastical. A third-party calendar app that references and works with another third-party calendar app. Agenda mini is my preference. It offers the title plus start and stop time (hit the clock icon on the left to turn "all day" on or off). Agenda's expanded view I find confusing. It's comprehensive and lets you determine start and stop time, add alarms (one or two), set the location, add notes and invitees and repeat. Changing an event from timed to all day is done by clicking a clock icon which slides in from the left and eliminates one alarm option. There's a lot happening on this screen, and I'm not sure about the presentation. The real cool trick is Fantastical integration. With this entry option selected, you get a clean compose field with a Fantastical icon in the corner. You can create your event using natural language ("Drive to PA tomorrow at 9:00 AM") and tap the when you're done. Agenda then launches Fantastical, creates the event and then takes you back to Agenda. Neat, but I'm not sure why you'd use one calendar app to update another. Maybe I'm missing something. There are more little tweaks here and there and I'll let you find those. As I said, this is a new app and savvy apps is charging US$1.99 for it. Overall I like the app a lot and have to recommend it. It's fast, looks great and the external app support is super. Go get Agenda 4 here.
Engadget Expand agenda unveiled: Come see the full schedule for our big event!
Over the past couple of months we've been letting you know about the awesome speaker lineup for Expand, our big event that's just around the corner at San Francisco's Fort Mason on March 16th and 17th. Now you can check out the full agenda of sessions and speakers who will be gracing our stage for two days full of in-depth discussions about the frontiers of technology. From 3D printing to crowdfunding, from robots to space (and undoubtedly some robots in space) and more, you're not going to want to miss the Expand experience. And if you're looking for even more reasons to attend Expand, how about 10 of them? Go on and pick yourself up a full pass for the weekend and get a free six month subscription to Make Magazine to boot. See you at Expand! And don't forget... We now offer day pass options for folks who can't make it out for the entire weekend Join us for Insert Coin winner voting on March 16-17! If you're a company that would like to work with us on an exhibition or sponsorship level, please drop us a line at sponsors at engadget dot com (DIYers and small startups, please ask us about our Indie Corner option!) If you're a member of the media interested in covering Expand, please contact engadget at shiftcomm.com for more information.
Comcast's 'Project Dayview' does PDA duty across TV, phone, PC and tablet (update: video)
While we expected to see Comcast roll out its X1 DVR platform today at the Cable Show, more surprising is the new Project Dayview initiative. As seen above, it attempts to provide a single cross-platform home screen that combines info from its services and third party sources to give customers a quick look at what's important to them, on any screen. Potential sources include Comcast services (DVR schedule from your cable box, voicemails from the home phone, email, or home security / automation updates when you're away) as well as third party information like your current calendar software, social media and local news. While ambitious, it does reflect a futuristic ability to bring its users relevant information (based on the time of day, it could pull the traffic report before you leave for work or TV listings in the evening, for example) automatically. How well it all works remains to be seen once this is integrated with the new DVR software and apps later this year, but you can get an idea of what Comcast has up its sleeve for your four screens from the pictures in the gallery below. Update: Check out a video of CEO Neil Smit demonstrating Project Dayview on the show floor embedded after the break.
Video App Demo: Agenda Calendar
Agenda Calendar is a gesture-based calendar app for your iPhone or iPod touch (our review here). Agenda features a very minimal interface, presenting your data in a simple, straightforward manner with a few animations here and there. There is some intelligence built in as well, giving you links to maps and other things within the app. It's very nicely done and should appeal to those who like a no-fuss interface. Check out the demo below for a preview. if(typeof AOLVP_cfg==='undefined')AOLVP_cfg=[];AOLVP_cfg.push({id:'AOLVP_1034495049001','codever':0.1, 'autoload':false, 'autoplay':false, 'playerid':'61371448001', 'videoid':'1034495049001', 'width':480, 'height':270, 'stillurl':'http://pdl.stream.aol.com/pdlext/aol/brightcove/studionow/p/5e50874aadb06/r/0ecdfddfec243/al/193062/poster-10.jpg', 'playertype':'inline','videotitle':'TUAW - App Demo - Agenda','videolink':'#'});
Agenda is a fast, tidy calendar app for iPhone
Agenda (US$1.99), from Washington, DC developers savvy apps, is a calendar app for the iPhone that's legible, fast, bursting with Multi-Touch support and reminiscent of the desktop organizers we used before apps replaced archaic paper. Nearly every function is a swipe away, and even the icon displays the current date. Here's my look at Agenda for iPhone. UI Black text on a field of white. That's Agenda. As some apps get "cutesy" and try to resemble real-world objects, (I'm looking at you, Calendar for iPad), the folks at savvy apps went in the opposite direction. Agenda features year, month, week, day and event views. A colored dot indicates an event's parent calendar while the tools – navigation buttons, edit/create button and settings button – remain consistent across all views. Best of all, nearly everything you'll want to do, aside from enter event details, can be accomplished with one hand. Heck, with one thumb. %Gallery-126892% Use A calendar must satisfy two main tasks: record information and display it. Here's a look at how Agenda handles both. To enter a new event, tap the "+" button in the lower right-hand corner. The Add Event screen appears, which should be familiar to anyone who's use Apple's Calendar app. In fact, it's identical. Populate the title field, start/end time, repeat field, etc. as appropriate and then tap Done in the upper right. The sheet disappears, and your event is added to the calendar. Agenda's only real advantage in event creation is that the button is always available. With Apple's Calendar app, the new event button disappears while in single event view. Of course, Agenda shines when displaying information, making great use of swipes and taps. By default, Agenda presents a list view. Each day in the list features the date, pending appointments and their respective start times. Swipe up and down to scroll through the list and tap the top of the screen to return to the current day. As you enter a new month, its name is briefly displayed. Here's where it gets fun. Swipe right once from the list view to produce month view. A gray bar highlights the current week, and the current date is in red. Every day with pending appointments displays a dot(s) corresponding to the parent calendar's color. While in month view, swipe up and down to move from month to month, and tap any day to see its events in detail. Next, swipe right again to enter yearly view, which presents a nice overview of the whole year. Again, tap any month to jump to it. Back to list view. Swipe left once to enter daily view. A mini calendar appears in the upper left while the date appears in the upper right. Below a divider is a color-coded list of what's due on that day. Swipe up or down on that list to move from day to day, or tap any item to see its details. Here's what's really cool: while in this event-specific view, swipe up and down to scroll through that day's individual events. Any phone number or address is tappable from event view, so you can place a call or jump to a map. Conclusion Agenda isn't the app for rapid event creation. However, those interested in a speedy, efficient and good-looking way to move through their events ought to consider Agenda. The fact that you can do almost everything with the swipe of a thumb is very nice indeed. Old eyes like mine appreciate the legibility, and I can't help but love the speed. Good work, savvy apps. Agenda is very well done.
