A lot of people who don't like it seem to be missing the point. When I want to create an event, I don't want to launch iCal or navigate to Google Calendar, I want to enter the event in as little time and as intuitively as possible.
Accessing the app from the menubar solves the issue of speed for me, and the natural language processing lets it all feel intuitive and (dare I say) "magical". It just understands what I'm saying.
It seems beautiful. Still, I am wondering: What's the difference between Fantastical and the billion of others calendar. (And, I really don't mean it in a harsh way as I'm really sad not to be able to try it since I'm on linux).
Is it the real-time sync with gcal? Or the smart event parsing..? The prettiness of it?
I don't like iCal at all. It's too clumsy in almost every respect. The Lion update looks like a step in the wrong direction, too. The only promising feature is the natural language parsing, which IMO is an essential feature of a calendar.
I'm not sure how I feel about Fantastical, since I've only had it installed for 5 minutes. I've tried other iCal replacements like BusyCal, but they didn't seem like enough of an improvement.
There's definitely a space for simple NLP calendar input on the desktop, though.
It must be some confluence of all of them, since Google Calendar + iCal already does everything this app does. We are missing something from our calendaring experience. I'm not sure what that is, but this app doesn't have it.
I use QuickCal [1] together with iCal. Syncing with my Android works over Google Calendar but adding events is way faster with QuickCal and a keyboard for me [2]. I used Google's 'Quick add' function for a while but got annoyed about the slow development [3] and the lack of functionality. Also, nothing is as fast as a native app that you can start with a shortcut. I can even switch between calendars in no time and it will tell me if my new event conflicts with an existing one while I type.
At the moment, I find the greatest annoyance in broken syncs with Google. Its so annoying, that I tend to use local iCal calendars only now. When you have a Mac Air in your pack, looking up and adding dates is often faster than with the phone anyway. Longterm though, I'm seriously thinking about going for an iPone and MobileMe just to get rid of this annoyance.
Fantastical looks great and I will give the free trial a shot later. But on first sight I can't see any obvious advantage over my current setup which was only $1.
[1] http://smellypuppy.com/quickcal-desktop/ $1 in the App Store
[2] To be fair, I'm using a cheap HTC Wildfire and it feels slower every day.
[3] You can't even add a reminder without using the Mouse! At least this was the case till two months ago and it seemed like the dozens of request didn't have an impact.
This is not intended to be a criticism of this specific app but more articulation of the mindset that I'm sure I share with many others. I hope this is interesting to the developers.
I probably won't give this app a serious shot because calendaring is something that is so intrinsically web that it's just not compelling otherwise. Immediacy and ubiquity are really the necessary ingredients. I can't install this, link my accounts, etc. I'd much rather hop on any old browser and be done with it. Google does a really good job of it. There are probably a few places to be improved, but it's definitely good. I'd like to see someone go after those things, but I'm much rather seem them done on the web.
Surely there are people who'd prefer it your way, but I figured I'd let you know where I'm coming from...
Is it? I do most on my organization on the train from and to work. So i cannot use a fancy web app, because I am constantly switching cells and dropping in and out of 3G land.
I would say that calendaring is the canonical example for the need to sync. But web? No, not at all.
So is mail. I like that I can access my Gmail account from everywhere, I don't ever want to live without that feature. I still prefer to use a native mail application on all the devices I own.
As far as I know you can link this up to your Google calendar. Why should you force yourself to use Google's UI when you can have the best of both worlds?
(If you think that Google's UI is superior or if you think that the sync is imperfect you certainly shouldn't use this app.)
For me, this solves the problem of having to load a web page to look at my calendar. Now I can just hit the Fantastical shortcut (ctrl+opt+space) to quickly see what's on my calendar. Getting that plus the features of gcal is a big win.
I suspect I'll be purchasing a license when my trial runs out.
Calendaring may be intrinsically web, but humans aren't. At the very least you need a local client that allows you to get at the information in your calendar without being connected to the internet.
Ideally, this is a seamless integration. Outlook, for example does this so well you barely feel it.
I sync all my google calendars down to iCal and my iPhone and have no issues with syncing. Sometimes there will be a tiny window of time where I don't have everything synced on my machine but my gCal is my master calendar. I just installed this app and it's nicer for me than having to open iCal.
Practically speaking, I almost always enter calendar entries on my phone nowadays. Still, the way it parses the entry in real-time and shows the result is very smart. I expect Google Calendar to copy it immediately since they already have the natural language parsing, but it can be a bit of a shot in the dark whether it gives the right results.
Does this app have its own data store that it syncs with iCal or does it just use the built-in calendar data store? I am always much more skeptical of trusting yet another app to sync properly (no duplications, lags, etc). These apps tend to make life harder since I have to deal with their issues rather than just being a better interface to the same data.
Just bought it and it looks great. However; it uses 70MB RAM which seems a bit steep for this type of program. It is not possible to move its location in the menu bar which is irritating. An alarm clock/countdown timer would also have been nice, which is really what I need on my Mac.
Your post comes off as complaining. 70 MB of RAM? I'll bet you have at least 1 GB. RAM is meant to be used. An alarm clock? Then download an alarm clock app if that's what you want. Do you want a kitchen sink too?
follow up to previous post: OK, this is not what I thought it would be. It's a menu bar widget that allows text entry and little else. The widget isn't resizable so it only shows a few upcoming events at a time, 1-31 days, but you have to use a slider to see most of them. There's no proper calendaring, I can't go to a date for example. Seeing what is coming up next week is clumsy enough that iCal is a better choice.
Too bad. Needs tons of work. As it is, it would be OK as a freebie, but even as such I'd probably uninstall it after a while because of it taking up menu bar space and not being very useful.
This is just my user usability and usefulness feedback. It is not a flame. Downvote it anyway if you must, that's what is done. Polite criticism and honest feedback is not tolerated on these boards, I am used to it.
[+] [-] tealtan|15 years ago|reply
Accessing the app from the menubar solves the issue of speed for me, and the natural language processing lets it all feel intuitive and (dare I say) "magical". It just understands what I'm saying.
[+] [-] tealtan|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] d0m|15 years ago|reply
Is it the real-time sync with gcal? Or the smart event parsing..? The prettiness of it?
[+] [-] sunchild|15 years ago|reply
I'm not sure how I feel about Fantastical, since I've only had it installed for 5 minutes. I've tried other iCal replacements like BusyCal, but they didn't seem like enough of an improvement.
There's definitely a space for simple NLP calendar input on the desktop, though.
[+] [-] ynniv|15 years ago|reply
A good first try.
[+] [-] FrojoS|15 years ago|reply
At the moment, I find the greatest annoyance in broken syncs with Google. Its so annoying, that I tend to use local iCal calendars only now. When you have a Mac Air in your pack, looking up and adding dates is often faster than with the phone anyway. Longterm though, I'm seriously thinking about going for an iPone and MobileMe just to get rid of this annoyance.
Fantastical looks great and I will give the free trial a shot later. But on first sight I can't see any obvious advantage over my current setup which was only $1.
[1] http://smellypuppy.com/quickcal-desktop/ $1 in the App Store [2] To be fair, I'm using a cheap HTC Wildfire and it feels slower every day. [3] You can't even add a reminder without using the Mouse! At least this was the case till two months ago and it seemed like the dozens of request didn't have an impact.
[+] [-] ibejoeb|15 years ago|reply
I probably won't give this app a serious shot because calendaring is something that is so intrinsically web that it's just not compelling otherwise. Immediacy and ubiquity are really the necessary ingredients. I can't install this, link my accounts, etc. I'd much rather hop on any old browser and be done with it. Google does a really good job of it. There are probably a few places to be improved, but it's definitely good. I'd like to see someone go after those things, but I'm much rather seem them done on the web.
Surely there are people who'd prefer it your way, but I figured I'd let you know where I'm coming from...
[+] [-] Argorak|15 years ago|reply
I would say that calendaring is the canonical example for the need to sync. But web? No, not at all.
[+] [-] ugh|15 years ago|reply
As far as I know you can link this up to your Google calendar. Why should you force yourself to use Google's UI when you can have the best of both worlds?
(If you think that Google's UI is superior or if you think that the sync is imperfect you certainly shouldn't use this app.)
[+] [-] mef|15 years ago|reply
http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?hl=en&#...
Event changes are propagated both ways.
For me, this solves the problem of having to load a web page to look at my calendar. Now I can just hit the Fantastical shortcut (ctrl+opt+space) to quickly see what's on my calendar. Getting that plus the features of gcal is a big win.
I suspect I'll be purchasing a license when my trial runs out.
[+] [-] run4yourlives|15 years ago|reply
Ideally, this is a seamless integration. Outlook, for example does this so well you barely feel it.
[+] [-] colinloretz|15 years ago|reply
Props to the developers!
[+] [-] smackfu|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|15 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] smackfu|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] stevanl|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ksuther|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] apinstein|15 years ago|reply
I'd love to know.
[+] [-] sovande|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jonpaul|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rwaliany|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ksuther|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bugsy|15 years ago|reply
In addition to normal language entry and bug fixes, I also need cell phone sync with phones other than iPhone.
[+] [-] bugsy|15 years ago|reply
Too bad. Needs tons of work. As it is, it would be OK as a freebie, but even as such I'd probably uninstall it after a while because of it taking up menu bar space and not being very useful.
This is just my user usability and usefulness feedback. It is not a flame. Downvote it anyway if you must, that's what is done. Polite criticism and honest feedback is not tolerated on these boards, I am used to it.
[+] [-] wmeredith|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pdenya|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] emmett|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ztay|15 years ago|reply
Got scared when i read this. Gotta be a mistype (second headline, middle of page).
[+] [-] ugh|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Vitaly|15 years ago|reply