iCal
Latest
WWDC schedule: Ajax to iCal
Okay I promise this is that last time I'm talking about the WWDC schedule (I can't speak for my confreres). Earlier today Brett posted on a nice Ruby script to convert the data to a readable PDF. Yesterday when we first noted that the WWDC schedule was available I complained about the lack of iCal compatible files and apparently Adrian Kosmaczewski agreed. He proceeded to cook up a little script to make the necessary conversions. You can download iCal format ics files for the iPhone, Mac, and IT tracks at his website.
Today 1.1
Second Gear, the same developers who bring you the PocketTweets Twitter client for the iPhone, have announced that Today 1.1 is now available.Today is an app that works with your iCal database and provides easy browsing of your events and tasks in an attractive and unobtrusive window. Clicking the icons at the bottom of the window opens dialogs for entering new events and tasks in a way that is much easier than entering them into iCal directly. What's new in Today 1.1? Better performance for those of us with big calendaring needs Filtering of the calendars that appear in the Today window Locations can be assigned for new events All day events have a new, more obvious appearance New event and task due dates default to the day that you're viewing Bugs have been squashed Second Gear provides a 7-day test drive for download. The update is free for existing Today users, or you can purchase Today for $15.
Calgoo products now support iCal sync
Here's good news for users of 30 Boxes and Calgoo Hub. Earlier this week, Calgoo announced two-way iCal synchronization for 30 Boxes, Google Calendar, and Outlook. Calgoo account holders can get started by logging in to their account.For the uninitiated, 30 Boxes is an online calendar that includes to-do lists, event management, people finder and more. Calgoo is a company whose mission in life is to simplify the calendars people use. It's their new Calgoo Connect service that lets iCal play nicely with these others.Check it out, and let us know how it goes.
AppleScript: Print daily iCal agenda
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/apple/TUAW_Use_an_AppleScript_to_have_iCal_deliver_a_daily_agenda'; If you use iCal to store you important dates and events, and use it on a regular basis without syncing events via an iPod, iPhone, or other device, then you know how frustrating it can be when you forget about an appointment or event. I'm going to show you a way to automatically print your daily iCal agenda with a simple AppleScript. You can set this script to run when your Mac starts up so you never miss an appointment!Continue reading to learn how to create this AppleScript.
BusySync 2.0 ships, adds Google Calendar
After six weeks in beta (not long at all in Google-weeks), the new version 2.0 of iCal-sharing tool BusySync is out. The headline feature for 2.0 is of course the new iCal --> Google Calendar synchronization capability, which opens up a wide world of cloud-based options for families and workgroups already using the LAN-based sync of earlier versions. You can keep multiple iCal users synchronized (even on the same machine), sync remotely via Google, and more.There are plenty other options for syncing your calendars with gCal, but if you need to keep more than one user's iCal coordinated (think family schedules!) then BusySync may be the product for you, starting at $25 per seat. The guys behind BusySync have a long history with Mac calendaring (including creating the late great Now Up-to-Date, which actually saw its first update in over a year last week) and I've been impressed with the quality of the beta release. We'll do a head-to-head comparison of the iCal sync options soon.
Mac 101: see iCal events in Cover Flow
Continuing with yesterdays obsession with Cover Flow, here is something that you might not have known existed in Leopard. You can browse iCal events with Cover Flow right inside a finder window. All you have to do is open Spotlight up by clicking its icon in the top right corner of the screen (or pressing command + spacebar). Then type kind:ical into a new Spotlight search, and click "Show All." Your results will now be shown in a new Finder window. Activate cover flow by going to View > Cover Flow (or press command + 4). When you find the event you want, you can double click its icon to open it in iCal.app. [via Macworld]
Mac 101: schedule your scripts
We talk about iCal once in a while. Did you know that an iCal alarm can launch an AppleScript? A recent comment from reader Zach (and subsequent replies) made us think that this tip might be of use to anyone who hasn't considered the possibilities. When you schedule an alarm in iCal, one of the options for the alarm is "Run script." If you select "Other..." from the script selection dropdown, you can choose any AppleScript you want to launch. Then you just tell the alarm when to go off and your script will run. Considering that AppleScript can control quite a few of the applications on your mac, and that iCal can handle repeating events, the possibilities are wide open. You could do something as simple as schedule applications by putting the following into a script in Script Editor and saving it as a regular script: tell application "Safari" to activate and another one... tell application "Safari" to quit to quit. Of course, you could then add to the scripts to have Safari navigate to certain pages as well. And you could launch as many apps as you want in the same script. Anything you can do with AppleScript, you can schedule. For more Terminal-savvy readers, Applescript's "do shell script" command allows for an even wider range of possibilities. You can even get user interaction with a "display dialog" command. I'm sure there's someone here who could have a blast with this.
AppleScript: backup iCal calendars
iCal is great for storing your calendars and appointments, but what if you want to export (or backup) your calendars in case of a data emergency? Well, you could backup your calendars manually; however, AppleScript is so much cooler. Let's automate the backup of iCal calendars through the use of an AppleScript. Continue reading to learn how.
Evidence found for possible upcoming iCal task support on iPhone
Today, I was messing around in the Calendar.sqlitedb file associated with the iPhone's on-line calendar application. I was surprised to discover that the onboard calendar contains all the table support needed for to-do tasks, i.e. CREATE TABLE Task (ROWID INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT, summary TEXT, priority INTEGER, due_date INTEGER, completion_date INTEGER, calendar_id INTEGER);. As of right now, this information is completely useless. Tasks won't sync to or from the iPhone. Still, it's good to see where Apple might expand their software. It's a direction that many users would find helpful. So c'mon, Apple, please add to-do list support to the iPhone.
Show floor video: BusySync
BusyMac had a good thing going with BusySync 1 and 1.5: seamlessly share and edit calendar info across your home or business LAN using iCal. Version 2 (due next month) features sync via the cloud-- so you can sync a work and home computer, even if you don't work at home. There's also Google Calendar support in BusySync 2, which could be the holy grail many of us have been looking for. Mike does a quick run through in the video.
BusySync 2 to include Google Calendar to iCal capability
If you're iCal-based for your scheduling needs and you want to share calendars with family or colleagues, you're probably already hip to BusySync and the delights of iCal syncing Mac-to-Mac without a .Mac account. Now the BusySync team has announced a key feature for 2.0, shipping in February: Google Calendar synchronization. You should be able to share calendars across the internet with other Google Calendar users, and if they have BusySync on their machines the Gcal data will slide neatly into iCal for them.BusySync 2.0 will ship for $24.95 per computer, a $5 price increase -- if you buy a BusySync 1.5 license today for $19.95, you can upgrade for free to the new version. There's also a public beta on the way if you want to check it out.
Delete iCal duplicate appointments
Isn't it wonderful that Address Book has a function built right in that allows you to merge duplicate entries? This becomes particularly valuable if you use a contact synchronization tool such as Plaxo. It's so useful, you'd think that iCal would have something similar. As you know, if you've run into the problem of having multiple duplicate appointments polluting your iCal calendar, there's nothing built in that will help you out of your mess. Luckily, John Maisey has created both Leopard and Tiger versions of an AppleScript that will sift through the calendar of your choice and kill off duplicate appointments. Don't be alarmed if it doesn't appear to be doing anything when you first run it. In our brief test, it took about 13 seconds to delete 15 duplicate entries, so this script is no speed demon. But what it lacks in terms of speed, it more than makes up in utility. As with any script or utility that deletes data, be smart and back up your iCal data before you try it. [Via Lifehacker]
BusySync updated to version 1.5
BusySync is a terrific utility that makes sharing iCal calendars easy across networks or the internet (we first wrote about BusySync in September). Simply install the preference pane on all participating Macs, and select the calendars you'd like to share. The next time you update a given calendar, your changes will appear across all machines. You can also make your calendars read-only or editable by everyone.I've been using it at my day job across departments and it's great. Version 1.5 adds internet synchronization. You can read the change log here. BusySync requires Mac OS 10.4 or later and costs $19.95 for a single license (multi-license bundles are available).
Anxiety iCal ToDo management
Anxiety is a new Leopard-only "lightweight To-Do management" tool that integrates with iCal and Mail to give you easy access to your To-Dos in a sleek interface. It displays either all of your To-Dos or To-Dos from a single iCal calendar in one of those translucent HUD palettes that are becoming so popular these days. It also offers easy To-Do creation with a single click on the check-mark on the top right of the interface. In some ways it's like a stand-alone version of DoBeDo Dashboard widget that we recently posted on. You can use either the Dock icon and a menubar item to hide the palette (and either can be turned off).Anxiety is a free download from Model Concept (donations requested).Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
TUAW Tip: Apple Mail needs some help with non-US formatted dates
UK-based TUAW reader Russell Copus wrote in to tell us about his problems scheduling an iCal event based on email text. When he selected "Your shopping will be delivered on 07-11-2007 between 21:00 and 23:00" and tried to Create new iCal Event from that text, Leopard created a calendar event for July 11th, 2007. So to check this out, I went ahead and mailed the same text. After receiving the letter, I then selected it and choose Create New iCal Event. Sure enough, it also created the July 11th date. Next I popped over to International settings and selected the Formats tab. There I switched from using US date formats to UK ones. To do this, I selected United Kingdom from the Region: pop-up menu. Upon returning to Mail, I once again created a new iCal event using the same letter. This time it created the proper iCal appointment in November rather than July.
HACK: Enable adding calendar events on your iPod touch
Hackers Nicholas "Drudge" Penree and Tony Hoyle have figured out an easy fix that allows you to add calendar events to your iPod touch. You'll need read/write access to your touch and a full jailbreak but once you do, all you need to do is add the following two lines to the N45AP.plist file inside your Core Services' SpringBoard app. <key>editableUserData</key> <true/> The plist is found at /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/N45AP.plistUpdate: Reader Andi notes that you need to put the editableUserData under "capabilities" not under "root" in the property list.Update 2: If you'd rather use a text editor rather than the property list editor, convert the file to text-based xml. At the Mac command line, you can do this by issuing plutil -convert xml1 filename.plist. To convert back use binary1 instead of xml1.%Gallery-8511%
BusySync for iCal
When it comes to calendar sharing, we're certainly not short of options on the Mac. Do you use the (very excellent) Spanning Sync and use Google Calendar, or look for something a little more industrial and wait for iCal Server to ship with Leopard Server? Whilst both options may be tempting, for users on the same Local Area Network (LAN) there's BusySync, a new product that via the power of Apple's Bonjour technology makes it even easier to share calendars with read / write control.According to the BusyMac website "BusySync lets you share iCal calendars with family and coworkers on a local area network without a dedicated server and with full read/write access". BusySync has just entered Public Beta, with no word on pricing - and as someone who has Bonjour-loving LANs at home and at the office, this is something I'm going to almost certainly be playing with in the coming weeks.[Via Gus Mueller]
New Leopard update as release date nears
With more than a month to go before Leopard's release, Apple seeded a large update (6.5GB) to ADC members on Friday, AppleInsider reports. There are only two major issues left in this build. First, the Archive and Install procedure seems to be failing on PPC-based machines, which is a biggie. The second issue wasn't clearly defined, but involves users with HP printers connected to their Macs (as well as users upgrading from a Tiger install that included an HP printer). At this point, Apple is suggesting developers do a custom install that excludes the HP drivers. That sounds like a pain to me, but I'm sure it will be fixed before October. One final note: It looks like Leopard's iCal dock icon displays the proper date at all times! The dozen or so people who have clamored for this may rejoice. [Via Infinite Loop]
MailTags 2.1.1 available now
Scott Morrison sends word that MailTags, the Mail plugin that lets you both tag your emails and connect them directly up to iCal, has hit 2.1.1. The 2.1 release came a few days ago, and introduced incoming reply tagging-- whenever you sent out a message with tags on it, the reply that came back automatically received the same tags-- and the 2.1.1 update improves that feature. You can now tag an outgoing message as "expect reply," and MailTags can notify you through Growl and with highlighting that the reply has arrived.The release also includes an example AppleScript that lets you use a "killed" tag to mark a message and any incoming replies to it as read-- if a thread has ceased to be important to you, you can ignore it completely. Bugfixes involving iCal interaction have also been implemented, and a column sizing interface improvement has been added.The 2.1.1 update is a maintenance update and available for free to MailTags users over at the website. If you haven't bought the plugin yet, you can get it here for $29.95.
Ask TUAW: External Front Row, iSight mirroring, booting from an external hd and more
It's time again for Ask TUAW, our weekly feature where you ask the questions and we make up the answers... er, I mean carefully research and determine the optimal solutions. This week we'll be tackling questions about using Front Row on an external display, mirroring on an iSight, multiple external displays on a MacBook, timezones in iCal, booting from an external hard drive, and more!As always readers' suggested answers are most welcome! Please leave your questions for next week in the comments.
