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Screencast of endo's ability to handle event feeds
The endo blog today linked a well-produced screencast (.MOV link) of endo's ability to handle event feeds, an RSS microformat. The screencast walks through endo's feed discovery, pin-pointing a specific event feed from a blog, and then endo's ability to add these events to iCal, complete with a choice of which calendar receives the event.This is a really slick and powerful feature that I haven't seen in other newsreaders, not even the mammoth NetNewsWire. Kudos to Adriaan (endo and ecto's developer) for being on the cutting edge.
Hack iCal to present alarms through Growl
If you're a Growl fanatic, or maybe iCal's alarms just aren't cutting it for you, a forum thread at cocoaforge might provide you with some options for getting iCal and Growl to shake hands. Discussion has included various methods of using AppleScript, hacking the innards of iCal and even replacing the GUI option of emailing a reminder with sending it to Growl. Either way, it doesn't sound like any of the methods are for the meek of heart, so if you don't feel like digging around in application bundles and AppleScript, you might want to wait for a prettier solution.[via Hawk Wings]
Create events and todos from Mail.app messages with Event Maker
Event Maker allows you to create iCal events and todos from Mail.app messages, or simply from scratch. It looks like it has a more navigable UI, especially for keyboard junkies like myself, and a side drawer allows for adding alarms.Event Maker is available right now from Mac Update, where the author has posted a request for server space to enable an automatic update feature. Also, the app's author, Mike Abdullah, has requested help with drawing some toolbar icons, so head over to Hawk Wings for the details and contact info if you can lend an illustrative hand.
So long iCal, hello Google Calendar
Call me crazy, but I think Google is using some kind of mental suggestion on me while I sleep, as I am slowly falling for their products one by one (maybe I should shut my Mac off at night so they can't get to me?). I've been hanging out at Google News more often, I haven't started Mail.app in almost a week in favor of Gmail, and now iCal has been kicked out of my Dock in favor of a Quicksilver trigger that takes me straight to Google Calendar.That's right, as a .Mac customer and lover of 3-plus years, I am tossing iCal and its syncing ability aside for the innovative and ultimately easier to use beauty that is Google Calendar. Sharing calendars and events is so much simpler on the gCal side of the fence, especially since the invited guests can leave comments on the event right at Google Calendar without the need for some obnoxious service like Evite.More to the meat of the matter, Google Calendar's 'Quick Add' takes the chore out of adding an event to my schedule, inviting me to do it a little more often to make I stay all the more on top of things. In gCal, I can hit the letter 'q' to open a small dialog box into which I can type an event name, time and date almost as if I were telling someone about it in an email: 'dinner with Jessi 6 pm 4/22' adds the event right where it should go. As icing on the Quick Add cake, date spanning works too: 'Half Life 2 Therapy Camp April 22-24' creates an event that spans properly. No obnoxious tabbing around to set dates and times right, and no mousing to drag little event boxes. Call me crazy, but I'm starting to believe that some desktop app developers could learn a few things from this kind of simplicity that is found in many of today's web-based apps and services.Google Calendar's multiple and customizable notification features sealed the deal for me. Email, SMS and popping up the browser window (if gCal is open) are all available for various notification types like events, new, changed or canceled invitations, replies to invitations and even a daily agenda email reminder that sends you a roundup of the day's events. Hawk Wings points to a blog post by Jeff Hobbs who puts it quite nicely: "it’s like Google just hired a personal secretary for everyone on Earth." Sweet, I've always wanted a secretary. Unfortunately, there is one seriously lacking feature in Google Calendar's 'secretary factor': as of yet, there is no 'pick up a latte from Starbucks' option. Maybe someone can whip up a Greasemonkey script or plug-in?Caffeine addictions aside, you can top this all off with the 'access and edit from anywhere' factor since Google Calendar is web-based, and Gmail automatically parses email for events to add to Google Calendar (*ahem* iCal/Mail.app engineers!), and I'm already forgetting what iCal looked like.
Pocketlight brings (some) Spotlight to Panther
If you're still using Panther for one reason or another but drool when you hear the word 'Spotlight,' an app by the name of Pocketlight can bring a little bit of Tiger to your Panther. Pocketlight isn't nearly as all-encompassing as Spotlight, but it can search Mail.app mailboxes, iCal events, Address Book contacts and files in a specified folder. In an odd turn of events, Pocketlight is only available for Mac OS X 10.3; not 10.4.Pocketlight is free, but the author states that it isn't going to be updated or enhanced from here on out, so grab it while you can.[via Hawk Wings]
Using iCalShare calendars with Google Calendar
Yesterday, Scott showed us how to use iCal to subscribe to calendars created with Google Calendar (let's just say "gCal" to keep it short). Today we go in the other direction: How to use gCal to subscribe to iCal calendars. For the sake of this post, I'm using iCalShare to find a calendar I want to add to gCal. Specifically, the Boston Red Sox 2006 season schedule (Go Sox!). You can read more after the jump.
HOWTO: Subscribe to a Google Calendar using iCal
So Google has released a web calendar that supports the iCal format. Big deal, right? I use iCal, so what do I care? Well, you can use iCal to subscribe to any shared Google Calendar, and it works like a charm, though keep in mind that Google Calendar doesn't support Safari (I used Camino to make this how to).In order to subscribe to your own Google Calendar, first log into gCalendar (as I like to call it). You'll notice the Manage calendars link on the left hand side of your calendar (highlighted in the picture to the right).Go ahead and click on that, and continue reading this tutorial, after the jump.
Google calendar
Today Google unwrapped its latest web product: Google Calendar. gCalendar (as I shall now refer to it) supports the iCal standard, so you should be able to import your events and what have yous from iCal without much fuss. That is, as long as you use a browser other than Safari. I'm sure Google is working on supporting Safari, but as it customary with Google products, it isn't supported out of the gate.Overall gCalendar is something of a yawner, but it is still in Beta, so there is still hope.To read more about gCalendar check out Download Squad and the Unofficial Google Weblog.Thanks to everyone who sent this in.
Drag and drop calendar items from Entourage to iCal
I don't know how long this secret affair has been going on, but apparently MacOSXHints caught a calendar event from Entourage sneaking over to iCal! Mmhm, that's right. Allegedly, it's possible to drag and drop *gasp!* a calendar event from Entourage right onto the iCal window.While it sounds like the event will retain all of its information, I'm not sure if that includes an alarm, if set. The event will also default to being an hour long once dropped onto iCal, so depending on your workflow and your typical schedule, this might or might not be handy.
MenuCalendarClock goes Universal
MenuCalendarClock is a clever little customizable pulldown calendar for the menubar that can also display events from iCal or Entourage to help keep you on top of things. As an unregistered version, MenuCalendarClock can display a small 'pocket calendar' (pictured), and clicking on a day of the week will open that corresponding day in iCal. Registered users will get to see iCal events right in the calendar without iCal even running, email support, a configurable hotkey and much more.This handy little utility sells for $18.95 and, with the most recent version of 2.5, is now a Universal Binary.[via MacMinute]
Make iCal automatically email people at a specific time
I've been on a productivity kick ever since I found that kGTD plugin for OmniOutliner, and I thought this script/app would be a nice addition to the collection of anyone who works in a collaborative environment, especially for those who live and die by email or just can't seem to remember to do X at X o'clock.iCalMail 1.3 sets up a new calendar into which you can add events that will automatically email anyone you want at the event's time. iCalMail is clever too, allowing you to use different fields of the iCal event to compose each email, and the breakdown works like this: event name -> subject location -> attachment attendees -> recipients notes field -> message text I haven't tested this yet, but it seems like a great idea, especially since there is a method for including attachments. Check out the script at ScriptBuilders, as well as more information at Chris J. Shull's site.
Widget watch: Reminder
For all those times when adding a quick reminder to iCal is too cumbersome, or you might not be online so the Backpack widget can do its thing, the Reminder widget might be right up your alley. As you can see, the widget has a simple interface allowing you to add some type of a reminder name/message, along with a reminder time. As an added bonus, this widget actually adds events to its own iCal calendar.The Reminder widget is, of course, free and available from DashboardWidgets.com.
TUAW Tip: quickly adjust viewable hours in iCal
Today's tip is a quick one about iCal, and it hails from the ever-useful archives of MacOSXHints. iCal's preferences allow you to choose how many hours you see in a day or week, but you can easily and quickly change this setting with a simple shortcut key. If you have a scrollwheel mouse or a two finger scrolling trackpad, simply hold the option key and scroll up and down in iCal to increase and decrease the amount of hours you can view.
iCalViewer: This moment in time is the finish line
If you are semi-type-B like me, you may appreciate a new view of your iCal appointments; a view which has your tasks racing towards a finish line on your desktop (red and on the right in the screenshot above). Replete with a hot key for displaying your appointments, iCalViewer is a very handy app.A small word of advice for those wishing to try out this app: disable the "Enable Special Events List" checkbox and the "To do's" "Enable" checkbox or you may have two large annoying white rectangles along with your iCal events. Also, note that iCalViewer is a menubar application. You can quit out of it by choosing it in the menubar and choosing "Quit".If you've been jonesing for a less traditional view of your to-do lists, give iCalViewer a whirl. The app is free for 21 days and $11US thereafter. Version 2.0.5 is a Universal Binary and supports iCal 2.0.1 or later. Race you to the next appointment![via Mad Professor] [Desktop photo courtesy Dan Kaminsky. A Napkin sketch I did at Goldfisch, Berlin 2004]
What's up with July 17th?
'Tis the weekend, oh members of the Mac Elite, and thus any sort of noteworthy news is woefully absent. So, instead, I thought I'd share with you a quick piece of trivia, compliments of Chris at Macteens, for folks who always Wondered but never Knew:The iCal dock icon, when the app is not running, always says "July 17." Why? Because July 17th is the date iCal was originally announced at Macworld New York in the summer of '02. Press release here.There you have it: one less thing to be curious about. Aren't you glad I'm around?[via Macteens]
Create clickable URL/file events in iCal
MacOSXHints has a slick tip on creating clickable iCal events that are either URLs or links to files. Sure, you can add a URL to an event's description, but with this simple method you can create an event itself that is click-able from iCal's main day/week/month calendar view.All you need to do for a URL is either drag it (or its icon) from a browser's address bar onto a time slot in iCal, or add a URL to an event's title and surround it with carrots like this, sans-quotes: "." To create a click-able link to a file, you'll need to use a web browser (such as Firefox) to surf your file system, then simply drag a file or folder from the browser into iCal in the same way as a URL. Don't try it with Safari, as it apparently doesn't do local file/folder surfing.This has already has become a darn handy tip for me, as I constantly add URLs to iCal events for upcoming local shows, and this takes one step out of the "so what is the site again?" process. The one thing I haven't tested yet is whether these would be click-able in iCal's pop-up reminder window. Anyone?
Pod2go 1.6 released
That beta version of Pod2go we mentioned last year (ok, a month ago) has gone official. The new version boasts a wealth of upgrades to the way it handles lyrics, Mail, iCal information, backup, news and apps, as well as support for multiple iPods. A number of usability enhancements are present as well, such as holding down the option key to change the "Sync" option in the menu bar icon to "Sync and Eject." Check out the lengthy list of release notes to catch up on the massive amount of changes in this unassuming point upgrade.[via Hawk Wings]
iCalFix .1
Have you ever wished that iCal would automatically add a reminder for every event that you place on a calendar? Well, Merlin Mann of 43 Folders did and Robert Blum heard his pleas.Robert created iCalFix, which is a 0.1 release, which sets a reminder for any event placed in iCal. At the moment the reminder is hard coded to be 24 hours before the event, but in future releases I am sure Robert will add more robust preferences.[via 43 Folders]
