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Calvetica offers a better calendar app for iPhone
Calvetica, for iPhone and iPod touch, offers the promise of a simple but powerful calendar app. There was a bit of a tussle yesterday in the TUAW back channels as a bunch of us watched the Calvetica product video on the developer's home page. I won, meaning I bought it first to write this review, and I've been playing with it since then. I'm pleased to report that it delivers clean, easy-to-create scheduling. Although it certainly helps to Read The (very brief) FAQ before using the app -- since I wouldn't have figured out the swipe-to-menu feature on my own -- once I got going, I found I could easily create to-do items and set reminders for them with a minimum of taps. Using Apple's Calendar app it can take around 5 taps or up to a dozen or more, not including typing, to set a "simple" reminder on your calendar. With Calvetica, you can double-tap, type and hit Done. Want to delete? Swipe the entry and there's a little trash can icon. It's a wonder Apple didn't think of these interactions. So what does Calvetica offer that the built in iCal does not? For your three bucks, you're buying into design. The developers aren't exaggerating when they promise an "uncluttered, minimalist interface." It's sleek, it's clean, it's nice. It's also powerful; Calvetica integrates with Google Calendar, MobileMe, and built-in local notifications. It works with iCal and, if you use it, BusyCal. Admittedly, I've only been using the application for a day but my initial impressions are positive. Calvetica is staying on my home screen for now as I give it a more thorough work-out in the weeks to come. Oh, and that product video? Seriously hilarious. [For equally attractive and useful task management with a similar aesthetic, check out Teux Deux. Calvetica and Teux Deux even have complimentary icons! -Ed.]
BusyCal Info Panel Preferences give you more event options
BusyCal is what iCal should have been. It continues to impress me the longer I use it, and recently I found a way to customize it that I did not know about previously. Event details, like the one shown in the image here, can be customized from a much larger list than what BusyCal shows you by default. To access the Info Panel Preferences, click the small white "i" at the top right of the Event Info panel. (See item #1 in the image here. Note that you can only access these when the panel is floating on its own, not from the BusyCal sidebar.) There are 18 different fields that you can use, and most of them are self explanatory (you can see an image in the gallery below), but I want to draw your attention to a few that I find very helpful. The first is "my URL" which gives you an easy way to link an event to a person from your address book. Simply drag the name from the address book to the my URL field and a link will be created (see #2 in image). Clicking that link will open their contact information in the Address Book.app. You can also drag a person (or business) to the Location, Attendees, My Notes, or Notes field. For the latter two, you get more than just a link to their name, you get address and phone number information (see item #3 in image). While you could use "Attendees" for the same purpose (and that field is shown by default), when you do that, BusyCal wants to know if you want to "invite" them or send them changes whenever you edit the event. That isn't a feature I ever use, so I didn't want to use Attendees, but my URL is almost perfect.
MobileMe Calendar web app out of beta
Apple has announced that the MobileMe Calendar web app is now officially out, leaving beta and becoming available to all MobileMe customers. The service allows you to check or update your MobileMe calendar from any computer or iOS device, share or publish calendars out to friends, family, or coworkers, and even send invitations straight from the calendar for upcoming events. If you're already using the beta, of course, you don't have to do anything at all, but other MobileMe members can sign in to me.com/calendar, and click "Upgrade Now" in the lower left. There's nothing super new here (there are certainly lots of other ways to do these kinds of things using MobileMe and other free services), but having what was previously in beta open to all customers is a nice benefit. [via MacRumors]
Dream a little dream of Allods Online's patch 1.1.02
Patch 1.1 was a contentious period in the life of Allods Online, but the dev team is hoping to get past the controversy with the impressive improvements of patch 1.1.02. Although those excessive decimal points may not instill your heart with awe, the patch is quite beefy indeed. At the cornerstone of this update is a new zone, the Dream Factory. Meant for level 22 Imperial players, the Dream Factory will shed some light on Yasker's war against the League. Also included in the update is a bevy of new social options, including a calendar and a bulletin board system. The bulletin board offers three helpful features: guild announcements, general announcements and a looking-for-group tool. Most of the classes were on the business end of a major tune-up, and as a result, affected classes have had their talents and rubies reset. The patch notes list extensive changes for classes such as the warrior, although scouts are left with this maddeningly vague statement: "Significantly changed all spells and abilities." It's a new minigame: figure out what "significant changes" have been made to your class! You can read the full patch notes over at Allods Online.
World of WarCrafts: The saturated artwork of Christina Marie
World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music, fan fiction and more. Sample the whole spectrum on WoW.com's Arts and Crafts in WoW page. Artist Christina Marie's WoW-themed work is nothing if not saturated -- saturated with color, saturated with game references, saturated with humor. It's the kind of stuff you can toss onto your desktop and then promptly lose vast chunks of time peering and snorting in bemused delight at the details scattered across these works. (Because I whipped up the Christina Marie art gallery, below, in just minutes. Without any linking or idle chatter in the WoW.com newsroom. You believe that, right? Right?) Her talent for twisting elements together (elements of art, elements of the game ... you name it) earned her a nod from Blizzard itself with inclusion in its 2011 holiday fan art calendar (as was our own Kelly Aarons). World of WarCrafts visited with Christina Marie to find out where the deluge of color and inspiration comes from. %Gallery-100713%
HTC EVO 4G suffering new calendar bug, cracked shells, broken dreams?
It wouldn't be the first time the EVO's been dinged for a manufacturing defect, but it seems that at least a few owners are reporting cracks near the power button. Fortunately, these cracks seem to be purely cosmetic without any effect on feel or any real danger of the case falling apart -- and seeing how other high-profile devices have suffered similar fates, we can certainly buy that there are high-stress points in the phone's case where this is prone to happen. We'll wait a moment to continue the story while you pull your EVO out of your pocket and check yours. Alright, now that we have you back, the second issue is purely software -- and arguably quite a bit more troublesome than a tiny, harmless crack. Apparently, the recent Android 2.2 upgrade has introduced a bug whereby event descriptions are being overwritten by their locations when you open them, which basically means this is a legit data loss problem. No ETA yet on a fix, but considering that it's been filed and verified in Android's official tracking system, we're hopeful it's going to get patched up sooner rather than later. [Thanks, Lee H. and Andrew]
Apple issues MobileMe calendar beta
Early this morning, Apple released a beta of the MobileMe Calendar Web app. MobileMe customers can request an invitation at me.com/calendar. As with the Mail beta, the new Calendar has received a major UI overhaul. A new list view, similar to what's on the iOS devices, makes it simple to scan upcoming events. Also, the day, week, and month views have been redesigned. A new feature will let users share calendars with other MobileMe members. During the beta, you can share one read-only calendar. You'll also be able to send out invitations with RSVP from the Web app. Of course, users will still be able to sync all events between the Web app, desktop iCal, and iOS versions. It might take a few days to receive your beta invitation, so be patient. The Mail beta became a final product in relatively short order, so we're looking forward to enjoying an all-new Calendar Web app soon.
Apple's MobileMe iDisk App updated for iPad, redesigned Calendar goes beta
Too lazy to cancel your $99 MobileMe automatic subscription renewal and make the jump to one of the many free alternatives? Don't worry, your lethargy has paid off this morning as Apple introduces its new MobileMe iDisk 1.2 app and a beta version of its new MobileMe Calendar. iDisk is pretty much the same app you know and ignore only now it's optimized for the bigger iPad screen, tweaked to support iOS 4 multitasking, and offers the option to open iDisk documents in compatible apps -- like using iBooks for PDFs for example. The faster loading MobileMe Calendar beta (login to MobileMe to request an invite) features redesigned day, week, and month views; calendar sharing amongst friends, family, and predators (if you like); the ability to publish a calendar to a team or group; and event invitations to anyone holding an email address (me.com or not) with RSVP support and automatic change notifications. Best of all, the Calendar beta uses the CalDAV standard, you know, just like that free Calendar from the company that rhymes with frugal.
Exchange users on iOS 4 need an updated config profile
The path to ActiveSync nirvana for iPhone 4/iOS 4 users has not run all that smooth over the past couple of weeks. There were dramatic slowdowns for Google Apps and Exchange users who tried to synchronize calendar and mail data, although matters improved after the first day or two. Worse, some Exchange administrators noticed a drag on their servers associated with the influx of iOS 4 devices. Not so hot. Good news, though: Apple has a suggested solution for these issues, and all it requires is downloading a new Exchange/ActiveSync configuration profile to your device (or, in the case of corporate deployments, scores of devices) and installing it. The new profile doesn't do much except extend the timeouts for contacting Exchange servers, but in this case that should get the job done. If you've experienced this issue (or tried the fixed profile), let us know. [hat tips to Engadget, Macworld]
Club Nintendo Gold and Platinum awards announced
Here's what you've been buying Nintendo games all year for! Well, hopefully you've been buying Nintendo games because you want to play them, but here's the secondary reason: Nintendo announced the Platinum and Gold Elite Status Gifts for North America's Club Nintendo. Those who reached Gold status (300 coins or more since last July) get a calendar, and Platinum status holders (600 coins or more) get this neat Mario figurine thing. To claim your reward, you have to sign into Club Nintendo and provide a shipping address. The prizes will ship by the end of this year, according to Nintendo. And now ... the process begins again. It's time to start registering games for next year, like that copy of Sin & Punishment you were just about to buy.
TUAW's Daily App: Diacarta
Diacarta is a to-do app like you've never seen. I saw it on the excellent Well-Placed Pixels blog, and the design of the thing is really interesting. Basically, to add items to the to-do list, you just add icons to the image of the clock. Once items have been added, you can see a visual representation of what your day is like. I'm not so much concerned about keeping a strict calendar as I am about just having a list of my various tasks during the day, so for someone like me, Diacarta is a new and interesting way to look at how my tasks line up. Unfortunately, it's probably a bit more style than substance for serious calendar users; it doesn't sync up with other calendars at all (so you have to put everything into the app yourself), and it won't send notifications or let you know when something you plan is actually happening. That means it's probably not a satisfactory replacement if you already regularly use some kind of calendar. However, as a simple visual representation of a day full of errands or various tasks, Diacarta looks great and works just as well. If that's something you're interested in, consider ponying up the US$1.99 price.
'EA Partners Game T.B.A.' headlines changes to EA release calendar for fiscal 2011
[Arrested Development; 20th Century Fox] Not much has changed in EA's game plan for fiscal 2011, which spans April 2010 – March 2011, since the publisher first posted a full release schedule last quarter. Notable changes include Medal of Honor's previously known "delay" from late summer to fall this year and confirmation that the "Shooter from Epic" listed back in February is in fact Bulletstorm, due in the first quarter of 2011. What's new to the release calendar is an "EA Partners Game TBA," for console and handheld/mobile platforms, scheduled for release between October and December this holiday season. The teased listing could be any one of the actually announced EA Partners games in the pipeline, including Rock Band 3 and Grasshopper Manufacture's mystery project, or it could be a truly unannounced title -- we'll see. Also newly penciled in for the fourth quarter of 2010 are the recently announced Monopoly Streets and a "TBA" EA Play game. It should be noted that EA's newly revised calendar omits downloadable console games, which were included on the previous iteration of the calendar. Those entries included a "DTC Game For Console Online" due out in the holiday quarter, as well as an "Action Title TBA" and "Hasbro Title TBA" previously scheduled for the first quarter of 2011. Two EA Partners downloadable releases, Shank and DeathSpank, are expected this summer. Source [PDF] - EA Reports Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2010 Results
Fluid lets you embed webpages as your desktop or in menu bar
I refer to my calendar a lot during the day, but I don't always have my calendar program running. Most of the time I just want to glance at something to confirm the time/date of an upcoming event, or just double check a date: "What is the last Sunday in May? Oh right, the 30th." It occurred to me today that I could make life a little easier if I could have my calendar embedded in my Desktop. Those of you who remember Microsoft Windows' "Active Desktop" feature may shudder in fear at the idea because, at least in my experience, Active Desktop was a complete and utter disaster. It never worked well, if you could get it to work at all. There are extremely geeky ways of doing this but MacOSXHints.com had a simple solution I didn't even know was possible: Fluid.app. Now I've used Fluid.app for a long time, but I never knew what the "Embedded SSB" or "MenuExtra SSB" actually did. Turns out that either of them are a potential solution, not just for calendars, but for any web page. [Editor's Note: Fluid just recently went open source, and though the blog hasn't been updated yet, we're told the SSB creator is now open source as well.]
Ask TUAW: Mac mini as Time Machine server, baby monitoring with a Mac, and more
Welcome back to Ask TUAW, our weekly troubleshooting Q&A column. This week we have questions about accessing a shared Google calendar, baby monitoring, sharing music between user accounts, scanning over an Airport Extreme, using a Mac mini as Time Machine target, and more. As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. Leave your questions for next week in the comments section at the end of this post. When asking a question, please include which machine you're using and what version of Mac OS X is installed on it (we'll assume that you're running Snow Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify), or if it's an iPhone-related question, which iPhone version and OS version you have.
Marketcircle gives orphaned NUDC users some love
A well-known software vendor is rushing in to help out Mac users who have become "orphaned" by the recent failure of Now Software. Marketcircle, developers of Daylite, have set up a web page on their site to help out existing users of Now Up-to-Date and Contact (NUDC) who may be looking for a new solution. The page starts off by noting that Daylite may not be the perfect solution for some NUDC users, and then details the similarities and differences between the applications. There are even instructions on how to customize Daylite to make it more familiar looking to NUDC users, and hints on how to make the migration between the two applications. To help ease the pain of moving to a new platform, Marketcircle is also offering a 30% discount on Daylite to former Now Software customers who are going to need a new application. Details on how to take advantage of the Daylite discount can be found here. Of course, Daylite isn't the only solution that former NUDC customers can move to; the original developers of Now Up-to-Date are the brains behind BusyCal and BusySync, and they have just reprinted a blog post about how to migrate your NUD information to iCal so that it can be used with the products of BusyMac software.
iCalShare relaunches
After a long absence iCalShare.com has relaunched with new search tools and an improved user interface. iCalShare is a site dedicated to sharing calendars for use in applications like iCal, Google Calendar, or Outlook among dozens of other web and desktop apps. The site contains over 3,500 calendars across 40 different categories from Academics to Television. Calendars are free to download and can be used with any desktop or website application that can import iCalendar files. How it works: Just search the site for a calendar of your choosing, click "subscribe" and that calendar will automatically be added to your iCal. Since it's a subscription-based calendar, it will automatically update whenever the author edits the calendar. You can also create and share your own calendars on iCalShare for free after registering with the site. Whether you're a Harvard student, a DC Young Democrat, or a movie buff, there's a calendar for you. iCalShare was first launched in 2002 and spotlighted by Steve Jobs during his 2003 keynote speech. The site was created by Patrick Crowley, a technologist and long-time Mac user.
Stihl's autumn calendar automatically rips through to tomorrow
Unless they're incredibly quiet or potentially explosive, you won't find us waxing poetic (or even prosaic) about leaf blowers. But if a company that produced leaf blowers made a motorized calendar that tore off its own pages? We'd tell you about that in a heartbeat -- even if the wonderfully wasteful contraption turned out to be a viral ad by agency Euro RSCG rather than an actual household organizer, and even if its pages aren't nearly as saucy as Stihl's usual NSFW fare. Believe it or not, there's no blade inside that brushed aluminum shell; the process works by ripping out the bookbinding thread along the calendar's spine using a motorized reel. Join us in celebrating the wonder of pressed dead wood floating to earth all by its lonesome with a short video after the break.
Roundup: Wii and DS game release dates for 2010
Today's Nintendo Media Summit played host to a whirlwind dating game with quite a few players. If all the excitement got your heart thumping but left your head spinning, then you'll be relieved to find our list of matches -- each game paired with its release date (or release window ... or release season) -- posted just after the break. You're welcome!
iPhone icons in felt keychain form
Unfortunately these guys are already sold out (though maybe there'll be more soon), but I'm still posting them here just to gaze on their awesomeness -- Etsy user Rabbitrampage put together these six iPhone icon keychains (well, five iPhone and one Finder) out of felt, thread, and fiber fill. I think they look great, though it would be nice to have even more custom icons available. I guess if you want a special icon keychain made of your own app (ahem), you'll have to make it yourself. This same Etsy user also enjoys wrapping your iPhone in felt recreations of old retro items like Game Boys and even a VHS tape. I've already got a case on my iPhone, but if I didn't have one yet, I'd definitely pick up one of these. [via iPhone Savior]
The Mog Log: Community guide to Final Fantasy XI and XIV
The great thing about being a fan of Final Fantasy XI is that you're not lacking in any sort of resources online. After such a long lifespan, pages have been created to suit almost any need the community might have. And for a game whose mechanics can be obtuse at times, that's a good thing. But we're getting ahead of ourselves, aren't we? The Mog Log is Massively's new weekly column focusing on all things both Final Fantasy and online, meaning both Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV. For our first installment, we're taking a look at the multitude of fan pages, guides, and other resources for players. Needless to say there are a few more options for the former game than the latter (due to only one of them actually being released yet), but there's already a community building in anticipation of Eorzea's adventures.