First, BusyCal doesn’t have that annoying faux leather iPad style interface. It retains an unadorned look more in line with older versions of iCal. There are hacks to return your iCal to classic mode, but sensible good looks isn’t the only thing BusyCal is offering.

BusyCal supports direct syncing of calenders between computers, and if you desire, can bypass the cloud altogether. Otherwise the app supports syncing to any CalDAV service such as MobileMe as well as Google. Setting up Google Calendar sycning is a breeze. You put in your credentials and away you go. Your calendars instantly appear. Lion’s iCal requires a few additional steps to add multiple calendars, which is both annoying and unnecessary.

In iCal for Lion, the calendar list floats on top of your calendar, making it near impossible to view both it and your calendar list. BusyCal retains a unique column for your entire calendar list, as well as a month at-a-glance view (mini-month). Although BusyCal doesn’t have iCal’s yearly view, it does have a list view of all your upcoming events, regardless of when they fall, and can integrate daily events into an optional icon on the menu bar. This is a handy feature to answer the basic question of where you have to be today.

Other nice features in BusyCal include the ability to add graphics to an event, as well as sticky notes and custom banners. These features will even sync with other BusyCal users, but won’t sync with your iPhone or Android device. Best of all is that BusyCal will show you the daily forecast with highs and lows right on the day in question.

Although Lion introduced some great new features, iCal is one giant step backwards in my opinion. BusyCal on the other hand retains great features from Snow Leopard’s iCal, while adding some new ones as well. BusyCal is sold directly for via the Mac App Store for $49.99 ($79.99 for a family pack), which is more than Lion costs as a whole, but the price of entry may be worth it to users that once relied on some iCal features that are no longer there.

Disclosure: Busymac provided a copy of BusyCal for review purposes.

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TouchBase automatically works with your iPhone’s built-in calendar, so you don’t have to sign up for a new service or port all your appointments. And like Siri, it’s smart; TouchBase’s intelligence is a very specific kind of smarts, however, one designed to take the busywork out of maintaining a detailed and highly interactive digital appointment book.

When you create appointments (either in your Calendar app itself, or in-app through TouchBase), the TouchBase software parses your brief description and comes up with two kinds of crucial information: who’s involved, and where things are taking place. So, for instance, I can type (or dictate using Siri, if I prefer) “Lunch with Ian D. at Kenzo,” set the time and day, and be completely done with the appointment-making process. From that, TouchBase will automatically find the correct contact information for the person involved (Ian D. in this case) and set the location, provided I’ve given it enough info to find a likely match in Google Maps.

With that information, TouchBase can quickly perform a number of functions. Using special macros, it can text people you’re meeting with a pre-configured message to let them know you’re at the agreed-upon meeting location, or that you’ll be late. You can also call and email your contacts with just a couple taps, and look up the meeting place via your iPhone’s Google Maps app.

For me, filling out the various fields in my Calendar app when making a new appointment is just too time-consuming in terms of the reward you get back. With TouchBase, however, a simple one line event descriptor takes care of all the heavy lifting for me, so I can just focus on keeping track of things I have to do, without it becoming a huge production.

So is TouchBase more helpful than Siri when it comes to scheduling? Actually, it turns out the two combined are an unstoppable force. I’ll dictate appointments to Siri, who records them in my calendar, which then feeds to TouchBase, where I can use its smart macros to stay in touch with folks I’m meeting and look up venues. Even without direct integration, this is how Siri combined with other apps really does equal magic.

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As you can see in the video, the iCloud apps (running in the latest version of Safari on OS X Lion) look a lot like the redesigned Address Book and Calendar apps from Lion, as does the Mail app from screenshots I’ve seen. Apple’s decision to go for a unified look and feel between the web-based iCloud presence, Mac apps and iOS software is a great idea for encouraging adoption of cloud services among users new to the concept. One experience, no matter where you access from, really helps the learning curve and should help alleviate any concerns about privacy and security of access.

One other really nice feature about the iCloud.com beta: it appears to remember where you are when last you left off, even if you last logged in from a different computer, and delivers you right back to that same spot the next time you log in. It’s sort of like having Lion’s Auto Resume feature on the web.

Apple has definitely stepped up its game compared to MobileMe. Do you see yourself using iCloud on the web when it becomes available to the general public this September?

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First there was the web-based Mail overhaul, and then the Find My iPhone app. Now, the Calendar web app gets a similar makeover to the one Mail received, and like its predecessor, it starts out in invite-only beta form. And at nearly the same time, we get an update to MobileMe’s iDisk app for iOS devices, bringing with it true iPad/iPhone universality. And it’s about time.

The iPad has been out since April of this year, and yet Find My iPhone was the first MobileMe-related iOS app to boast universality. iDisk and Gallery seemed to be being ignored, despite the obvious potential both apps held on the larger iPad screen. Well iDisk is now fully updated for the iPad, and it works wonderfully. The built-in document viewer lets you see all those PDFs, images and word processor files you have stored on your cloud disk. It also works with the “Open In…” feature along with compatible third-party apps, and allows you to create shares for people who don’t use MobileMe.

The Calendar web app beta probably won’t mean much to iPad owners, since presumably they’re using the native Calendar app on their devices, but it sure is a big upgrade for those accessing their MobileMe services from their computer’s Internet browser. Again, like with Mail, it takes cues from its iPad predecessor. The book-style view is there, and there’s also redesigned day, week, and month views in addition to a new barebones list view.

You can share calendars among friends and set up email notifications regarding changes, and publish a calendar for public use, if, for example, you have a recreational sports team to organize. You can also create events and send invites and receive RSVPs, even if your guests aren’t using MobileMe themselves. Sounds like it could provide one more reason for me to stay away from Facebook, if it works as smoothly as it sounds like it should.

The Calendar beta does come with some hefty requirements for all this, though. If you’re on an iPhone, you have to be using iOS 4, for example. It’s iOS 3.2 on the iPad, of course, and 10.6.4 on the Mac. PC and Outlook support are said to be coming soon. To get access, you must be a MobileMe subscriber. Login, and navigate to me.com/calendar, and then click on the “Request an invite” link in the lower left-hand corner of the screen…then cross your fingers.

There are comprehensive third party desktop syncing programs available such as Missing Sync, but realize that with a “Google-based” phone, over-the-air syncing is automatic and built in. When you purchase your Android-based phone, you’ll link it with your Google account (a free Google account is required to use the phone’s over-the-air syncing). Your phone will generally auto-sync with your Google account allowing you to possibly ditch your MobileMe subscription. The task then is to get your Mac to sync with the Google account.

1) Foreplay

While using a Droid isn’t as easy as using an iPhone, it’s not that much harder. Here’s a tip, do NOT allow your mobile phone company to import your contacts from your old phone. This has caused problems with synchronization for some. It’s best to start with a clean list of contacts in your Google account. If you haven’t synced your previous phone with your Mac, go ahead and do it before switching phones. If you can’t, you might consider typing the phone numbers into your Mac Address Book beforehand.

2) Safe Syncing

Syncing is only one step above the SCSI voodoo of previous generations. It’s always best to start with a core data set and push it to other devices. Trying to merge two data sets can result in duplication and corruption.

If your Google account already has contacts, export them from Google as a vCard file and import them into your Mac Address Book.
Once imported, delete the contacts from Google so the initial sync pushes all your Mac info into Gmail. As always, it’s a good idea to back up your data before any sync endeavor. From the Mac Address Book, go to the File menu, then choose Export, and then Address Book Archive.

For your calendar, the safe sync concept is similar but you actually want to start with a populated Google calendar and a clear iCal. From experience, if you push too much into Google at once, it can choke. If you already have a Google calendar, back it up by clicking “Settings” under the “My calendars” Then choose “Export Calendars”.

They’ll download as a zip file that you can double click and get the individual .ICS files. Similarly, backup your iCal by visiting the File Menu and choose “Backup iCal.”

Syncing can be buggy under the best of circumstances, which is why I recommend backups throughout the whole process.

Now that both your Google Calendar and your iCal calender are backed up, you’ll then want to export your existing iCal calendars and import then into your Google calendar. This isn’t the same as backing them up. Click on a calendar, and then go to the File menu and choose “Export This” which will create individual .iCal files for each calender you use. Note that Google doesn’t like To Dos so go ahead and remove those beforehand.

Now that you have your individual iCals exported, go to that same Settings tab in Google under “My Calendars” and now import your individual iCals into your existing calendars. Note: it won’t give you an option to create a new calendar from the import, so have your Google calendars ready beforehand. Finally, delete your iCal calendars (remember to back up first) so your iCal is clear of info and all your data is now on Google’s servers.

3) Getting Your Sync On

If you skipped step two, proceed at your own risk. You have been warned.

If you have Snow Leopard, Google contact syncing is built-in: go to the Address Book Preferences and check “Synchronize with Google”. Put in your Google name and password and let the syncing begin! For Leopard users, you’ll need to own an iPhone or iPod touch to enable syncing or use third party apps like Gsync.

To sync calendars, you’ll need to be running Leopard or Snow Leopard. Go to your iCal application and then go to Preferences and then Accounts. Click the + icon and put whatever you want for description. For username put your name@gmail.com and your password for Gmail. Then under the disclosure triangle for Server Options, put https://www.google.com/calendar/dav/(followed by your googlemail address) and then user. So for example, https://www.google.com/calendar/dav/myname@gmail.com/user would be what you enter. Your calendars will now start downloading from the cloud. Alternatively, you can use BusySync and avoid these hassles.

For photos, iTunes-like picture sync isn’t available, but you can mount your Droid like any other mass-storage device and have it recognized. You’ll need to enable USB mounting first. Go to the menu at the top of your phone and then click USB Connection to mount the SD card. To move music and other multimedia files easily I recommend DoubleTwist.

Having used a Droid for a while I’m pretty darn impressed and you gotta love the advertising. If Mac syncing is holding you back from buying one, you just removed one reason not to switch!

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Many, many months ago, it looked like an official solution for syncing BlackBerry devices with the Mac (including media and iTunes playlists) was right around the corner. Now, almost a year later, RIM is finally making it official. But don’t get too excited. You still have to wait until September before the new software will be available for download.

BlackBerry Desktop Software for Mac, which should allow you to do pretty much everything you can do using the Desktop Software for Windows package currently available, will be available as a free download from BlackBerry.com. In addition to iTunes playlist syncing, you’ll also be able to manage your contacts, calendars and tasks, and install new software packages, if you’d rather not use App World to download them to your device directly.

In addition to a brief overview of the features of the new Desktop Software for Mac, Andrey at Inside Blackberry (the company’s official blog) also posted screenshots of the application in action. It looks a lot like their official Media Sync solution for Mac, but with a lot more options, as you’d expect from a program that does so much more. And it’s nice to see that RIM is paying attention to the desires of its users, as Apple-loving BlackBerry users have been clamoring for just such a program for years.

If you’ve been eagerly awaiting this release, and want to be first in line when it does eventually come out, you can sign up to be notified of its availability via BlackBerry’s web site. Users who want to get a taste of iTunes playlist syncing, without all of the other features, can download a Mac-compatible version of BlackBerry Media Sync that came out back in December of last year.

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Part of that tune-up includes making sure that you won’t have to worry about losing valuable data or not being able to check that important email you’ve just received, even if you’re in an area with a bad cellular data connection. Basically, you now get limited offline support in Gmail for iPhone thanks to Gears integration in the new system architecture.

You also get some very handy usability improvements, including a new way to perform batch commands, which should save you a lot of headaches. The big change in this area is the addition of a floating menu bar which scrolls with you as you move through your inbox. It means that you can check as many messages as you want, and then, using the menu, batch delete, archive, mark as read/unread or spam all without returning to the top of the page.

Search has been moved to the top for easier access, and individual message appearance has been overhauled, so that reading your emails on the iPhone more closely resembles the desktop Gmail experience. Overall, it’s actually a much better experience than Mail.app, but I still prefer a software to a web-based email solution. Calendar gets the same look and feel as Gmail, and the same underlying engine, but I don’t use Google Calendar much so you’ll have to see for yourself about overall usability improvements. Check out Gmail.com on any iPhone or iPod touch to see the changes.

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Email + Calendar

Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync

Although this doesn’t fall into the standard “app” category, having this collaboration toolset is fundamental to most users within medium to large enterprises. In the iPhone 2.0 release, Apple added Exchange ActiveSync support, giving every user access to both their corporate email and calendar.

Unfortunately, a limitation of this support is that you can only accept meeting invitations; you cannot send them. Compared to the native Exchange support on Windows Mobile, BlackBerry Enterprise Server or Motorola’s Good Mobile Messaging, this is an oversight on Apple’s part.

For users in environments without Microsoft Exchange, other third-party Mac software vendors have stepped in to provide alternate ways to support ActiveSync. These include Communigate, Notify Technology and Google.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Having your customer data with you when you’re away from the office is pretty important. Thankfully, the major vendors in the CRM space have provided apps to connect to your corporate data.

Salesforce Mobile (free, but requires a Salesforce license)

Salesforce.com recently released the 3.0.1 version of their Salesforce Mobile application. If you have a Mobile User License, you can view/edit all of your Salesforce.com data.

Oracle CRM On-Demand (free, but requires an Oracle license)

The team at Oracle released five applications for connecting with their on-demand CRM product.

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Daylite Touch ($49.99/year per user)

The team at Marketcircle released this app last week. For more information about Daylite Touch, please read my First Look article.

Search2GO for Salesforce CRM ($9.99)

The Search2GO app enables Salesforce.com users to search for leads, contacts, accounts and so-called “opportunities” within their account. The cool feature of Search2G0 is that users can access their Salesforce.com data without the additional Salesforce.com mobile license. There’s also a Lite (free) version that provides read-only searching.

Expense Management

Another important tool for business travel is being able to maintain your expenses. Here are some great choices.

Expense2Go for Salesforce (free)

Expense2GO lets folks manage their business expenses and synchronize the data with the online expense management application in Salesforce.

XpensTracker (7.99)

In terms of popularity, Silverware Software’s XpenseTracker is at the top of the iTunes Business Apps list for expense management. It’s rich feature set, combined with its pleasant UI, provides a complete solution for the corporate traveler.

Others in the category: iXpenseIt ($4.99) and iXpenseIt Lite (free).

File Management & Manipulation

As a corporate user, having your files with you is critical. Plus, being able to have PDFs of your boarding passes and itineraries is just plain helpful when you don’t always have access to a printer.

MobileFiles Pro ($9.99)

The folks at QuickOffice built MobileFiles Pro for the true mobile professional. This application makes it very easy to add your files to the iPhone via a simple web browser interface. You can read many different file types (Microsoft Office, iWork 08, PDF) as well as create/edit Microsoft Excel 2003 files (.xls) right within the application. Further, if you use MobileMe, you can access your iDisk files as well.

Documents-To-Go (price unknown)

Dataviz is the file management king of the SmartPhone world. They are currently at work on their version for the iPhone. Dataviz expects their iPhone version to ship sometime in the second quarter of 2009.

Others in the category: ReaddleDocs, Air Sharing and DataCase.

Task Management

For corporate users, having your tasks with you on the road and being able to update/sync with them back at the office is crucial to “Getting Things Done.”

One item of note: If you use Microsoft Entourage, you’ll have to wait for the new update that supports Exchange Web Services to have Notes and Tasks synchronization capabilities.

iMExchange ($7.99)

iMExchange enables you to sync your Outlook Notes, Tasks and Categories to your iPhone. It works with both Exchange Server 2003 (SP1) and 2007.

Others in the category: Keynotes and Key Tasks

Itinerary Management

If you’re on the road, the best way to keep track of the flight and travel information on your iPhone is by using one of the following apps.

FlightTrack Pro ($9.99)

Using this app, as long as you have a TripIt account, you can synchronize your flight itinerary. FlightTrack Pro lets you see where planes are in-flight (only if you’re tracking other flights, as you can’t check your own flight status in-flight), and it has a fantastic UI.

TravelTracker ($9.99)

TravelTracker uses more of the TripIt API to sync not just your flight information, but your notes and itineraries, including hotel and car reservations. Although this is more expensive, it’s also a more comprehensive application.

Others in the category: FlightTrack and Flight Status

Virtual Meetings

Cisco WebEx Meeting Center (free)

Using the WebEx Meeting Center App, you can easily join an online/virtual meeting. The app sizes the information appropriately for the iPhone screen so you can view the meeting data accurately. The bonus to this application is that it’s free to join meetings. If you want to schedule meetings, you will need an iPhone-enabled WebEx account.

Conclusion

I’m sure that I haven’t included every potential corporate application available in the App Store. However, the purpose of this article is to expose you to which apps will best help you as a corporate user of the iPhone. Please comment below and provide additional suggestions/recommendations of apps you think are best for use within the Enterprise.

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The weekend seems to have rolled up super-fast, so welcome one and all to the Weekly App Store Picks.

Before we jump in to this week’s apps, let’s take a gander at recent happenings in the world of Apple.

First up, as a frequent tweeter, I was pleased to learn about desktop tweeting without a client app earlier this week. Check out the article for a helpful how-to guide.

Mid-week it all kicked off iPhone-style! Countering Apple’s recent anti-jailbreak actions, the Electronic Frontier Foundation submitted a 15-page exemption request to the U.S. Copyright Office. Hit up our post for the low down.

With timing that implied that their next-action was some kind of nonsensical retort, Apple clenched their fists, stomped their feet and promptly rejected the latest South Park game from the App Store.

Moving on to the apps, this week I’ve been looking at FrostyPlace, geoDefense, GooSync, Bowman, technoBox and Shooter.

FrostyPlace (free)
By installing this app, Apple’s ultra-cool Japanese emoticon set — Emoji — are activated on your iPhone. Simply download the app, open it once, close it and then go to Settings, General, International, Keyboards, Japanese and switch Emoji on. Now try sending an SMS, click the globe icon, you’ll have access to a cavalcade of Emoji. Absolutely awesome, essential, legal and free!

geoDefense (99 cents)
There is an overwhelming array of tower defense games available at the App Store. Some are downright awful and a minority are good fun. This app, geoDefense, is a clever twist on a confusingly saturated genre. The game plays out like a puzzle: as the vectorised baddies follow a set path through each stage, you have to work out the optimal tower configuration to defeat each enemy wave. It’s cheaper than many of the other apps, wonderfully stylised and a serious challenge too.

GooSync+  ($14.99)
GooSync+ syncs your Google Calendars, contacts and ToDo lists and is a seriously pricey app, especially for what it is, given the other options available. The problem is that Google’s iPhone and touch web-app support is pretty good — Gmail works perfectly (and is apparently going to feature offline mail in a future update), tasks is now available for iPhone too and users wishing to sync their actual iPhone Calendar with their Google Calendar can do so for free already.

Bowman (99 cents)
My current online game of the moment is Globulos — my user-name is Olly for any readers looking to challenge me — unfortunately, it’s not on iPhone as yet. However Bowman, an online time-waster that I have consistently returned to over the years, has just hit iPhone and touch. Seriously low on graphical flair (you’re a stick man with a bow and arrow), where it really shines is the gameplay — drag the arrows back before launching them at unwitting silhouetted ducks. So simple and so very satisfying as your arrows thunks in to a bird which then plummets to the ground in a shower of blood.

technoBox ($9.99)
I adore electronic music and, as such, there’s a special place in my heart for Roland’s TR-808 and 909 drum machines. If you’re not too familiar with what I’m talking about, go watch this video of the TR-808 in action, bask in its glorious rhythmic awesomeness. Developed by AudioRealism, creators of various pro-level audio plugins, technoBox recreates the 808, 909 and also 303 bass machine. The even has a sequencer and a raft of variables for creating awesome blippy techno tracks whilst on the go.

Shooter (99 cents)
Finally! It’s the official Shooter game, a perfect companion to the movie. You know the movie, right? The one that came out two years ago, featuring nobody we’ve actually heard of except that moderately-talented actor from the Funky Bunch? Yeah, that’s the one. Frankly, I have no clue why this game is tied in with the movie, its not like there’s a marketing bandwagon it could jump on to. It doesn’t even seem to feature Marky Mark’s likeness. The game itself is quite good fun though — it’s like sniper mode from Counter Strike — and, for the price, it’s definitely worth downloading.

That’s all for this week, I’ll be back next Saturday, in the meantime, drop by the comments and let me know what you’ve been downloading (and enable those Emojis!).

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This might just be incredibly coincidental timing, but Apple is announcing that they’ve finally brought the Windows side of their MobileMe personal data syncing service up to snuff, only shortly after it’s come to light that Microsoft in working on their own similar service, currently dubbed “My Phone.” Either way, Windows users who are also MobileMe subscribers (like myself, via BootCamp and netbook) should be well pleased with the new feature additions.

The improvements were made to MobileMe’s syncing service for Outlook, which until now was pretty dismal, and not very Push-y at all. In fact, I never actually considered Windows syncing to be a big part of my MobileMe purchase, and rarely used it when running Windows, preferring to just check my email, calendar, etc. via the web interface or on my iPhone.

Apple now promises that changes you make to your Outlook calendar and/or contacts list will automatically update the information stored on MobileMe, and vice versa. To get the new auto-syncing features working, all you have to do is make sure you are running iTunes 8.0.2 and have downloaded and installed the latest update for MobileMe Control Panel, version 1.3. Once that’s done, you just have to set the “Sync With MobileMe” option to “Automatically.”

It’s something the service should have launched with, honestly, if they really wanted to appeal to the Windows market. Personally, I suspect that most, if not all, Windows users of MobileMe are also OS X users. I find it highly unlikely that Window-only people would buy an Apple-branded personal data syncing solution. If you’re out there, speak up and prove me wrong!

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Jealous of MobileMe users but not willing to part with $100 and/or wary of its seemingly persistent problems? Have no fear, Google’s here.

Google Sync Beta, that is, which is now available for the iPhone (and Windows Mobile, but c’mon, honestly). With it, you can sync your Google Calendar and your Gmail Contacts over the air, and what’s more, changes on either side are automatically pushed. I know I’m sort of regretting that MobileMe subscription right about now, considering I never use the Photos, iDisk, or Bookmarks features anyways, although push Mail syncing is not yet supported.

Setting up Google Sync Beta on your iPhone is easy, but be forewarned: doing so will delete your existing iPhone contacts and calendar data, so don’t do it unless you have that information safely stored somewhere else. And if you’re currently using MobileMe, disable that first, or you’ll run the risk of pushing your deleted contacts/calendars to your other devices.

Once you’ve safely backed everything up, activating the service is easy. There’s no app to install, and nothing to activate on the web-based side of things. Google Beta Sync uses Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync protocol, so you’ll basically be setting up a new Exchange account via the “Add Account…” feature in the “Mail, Contacts, Calendars” settings submenu. Google has full instructions on their official help page.

I set this up on my iPod touch, once I’d safely deleted my MobileMe account there, and it worked without a hitch. Since my Gmail account is long neglected, and only briefly used in the first place, I only had about three contacts, but their information was there. My calendar was actually still set up from when I’d used it for work, so it had all the recurring events accounted for. Test events and contacts that I created on either side were automatically synced, so the service does indeed behave as advertised.

Probably too early to say, but if Google builds this out a little more, and manages to add support for any of its other web services, I’d say MobileMe has good reason to shake in its proverbial boots.

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Calendars have come a long way from the days of a pocket diary, with software able to manage your schedule and information much more reliable and accessible. iCal for OS X is the bundled calendar application, and works surprisingly well. It appears simple on the surface, but packs a wide range of different features and functionality.

This article will walk you through iCal from first opening the app, to having a diary filled with important events, recurring appointments, alarms, attachments, and attendees.

Getting Started

The first step is to open iCal for the first time from your applications folder. You’ll be presented with a window which looks something like this:

Before getting started, you might want to change a few preferences to match the way in which you work. Click iCal > Preferences in the menu bar to review the options available. You’re able to change the days per week, starting day of a week, default alarms for events and a whole range of other options. Once you’re happy with the settings chosen, close the preferences window and we’ll get started adding a few calendars and events.

iCal Views

There are three main viewing modes which can be used within iCal; Day, Week and Month. The month view can be seen above, here’s what to expect when viewing by day or week.

Week view shows you a clearer breakdown of each day:

And viewing by day makes a complicated schedule much easier to make sense of:

Dealing With Calendars

Within iCal, you are able to run several ‘Calendars’. These would commonly represent different projects or areas of your life. These are a few of the calendars I have running:

You can have as many or as few as needed, and adding a new calendar is simple. Click the ‘plus’ icon towards the lower left of the iCal window to add a new calendar (or hold Shift whilst pressing it to add a new group/folder). Once added, right click the new calendar and select ‘Get Info’ to bring up an options window:

Here, you can alter the color of the calendar, or ‘publish’ the calendar through MobileMe — this is a more complicated step, which you probably won’t need to explore at first.

Dealing With Events

Once a few calendars are in place, you’ll need to enter your events/appointments. To do so, right click on the appropriate day, then select ‘New Event’. Type a name, then double click the event. This will bring up a window similar to the following:

A number of options are available within the new event window:

• Location: Enter the place where you’ll be meeting
• All-day: If it’s an all day event, select this option to let iCal know
• From/To: You can enter the start and end time (or days, for an all-day event)
• Repeat: This allows you to schedule an event to re-occur at a set interval (every day, week, month, year, or a custom schedule). It works brilliant for birthdays, or regular bill payments etc
• Calendar: Here, select the appropriate calendar for the event
• Alarm: I’ve covered these various options below
• Attendees: Again, these are covered below
• Attachments: You can add files and documents to a calendar event so you have all the information you need at hand

Alarms

There are several different ways to be notified of an event:

All the different notification methods can be set to occur either at the time of the event, or a set period before. The first two cause a reminder to pop up on your screen with the details of the event, or you can perform more complex actions such as automatically sending an email, or running a file/script.

Attendees

iCal has fairly robust built-in support for dealing with attendees. Integration with Address Book means that sending invitations to attend is simple. Emails are sent to request the person’s attendance, to which they can reply in the way which best suits them. iCal will show a question mark next to the invitee’s name until they respond:

To Do Lists

If you have a list of tasks which need completing, but don’t have a set day or time, you can use iCal’s To Do feature. Clicking the ‘Push Pin’ icon in the lower right corner of the window will display the list of current To Do lists. Adding a new one is as simple as right clicking and selecting ‘New To Do’.

In the same way as calendar events, To Dos are assigned to a particular calendar. Priorities of High, Medium and Low can be assigned to automatically rank tasks in their order of importance:

Time Zones

The final feature to be mentioned is that of automatic time zone support. Clicking ‘Enable Time Zone Support’ in the preference window as outlined at the beginning will add the following text to the upper right of the iCal window (obviously varying depending upon your time zone):

Now, when scheduling meetings you are able to note the time zone in which it will occur. iCal will factor in the difference between your current location and automatically ensure that you’re notified about the meeting at the right time.

If you’d like to add an event which is independent of any time zone, you can select the ‘Floating’ option when adding a new entry.

Conclusion

When first opening iCal, it doesn’t seem like a particularly powerful or complicated application. However, as you start to enter calendars, events and to dos, it becomes clear that it can offer a comprehensive solution to managing your schedule.

I hope that this article has provided a good overview of the iCal basics. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment!

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Good Saturday and a Happy Weekend to one and all, it’s time to sit down, relax and wrap your big eyes round this week’s App Store Roundup.

This week on TheAppleBlog, we got in there super fast with an in-depth look at iMovie ’09, iPhoto ’09 and iWeb ’09. Of particular note was our very own Liam Cassidy describing iWeb as an, “embarrassing, backward cousin,” to the breathtaking updates of iMovie and iPhoto.

And in other news, Darrell Etherington reported on rumblings from two separate sources about a potential new iPhone.

With some of the week’s most notable news out of the way, let’s roll on to our weekly App Store Roundup.

This week I’ve been looking at Distant Shores, Sax Man, Photo fx and LifeTicker.

Distant Shore (99 cents)
Frankly I’m not a fan of LOST. The same location again and again, the same characters every episode, the same premise… it’s infuriating. I’ll take my re-runs of Cheers any day, thank you. However, this app — a virtual desert island which you can wander at your pleasure, soaking up the tropical ambiance — is a wonderful concept. You’re even able to cast off a message in a bottle and read messages from other stranded players. Think of it as LOST, albeit without the uncannily beautiful people, the perpetual onslaught of pointless puzzles or the hairy hobbit rockstar.

Sax Man (99 cents)
The folks over at Yudo are doing good things with their 1 Dollar Game series. The latest addition, while not strictly a game, is a fun little musical toy. Indeed, as a virtual saxophone Sax Man allows you to seriously get your jazz on.  In a control-scheme reminiscent of the utterly breathtaking Ocarina for iPhone, to play the Sax you simply blow in to the iPhone’s microphone while holding the corresponding key combination for a given note. It’s not too tough for beginners and musicians, particularly those experienced with wind instruments will find playing Sax Man to be a breeze.

Photo fx ($2.99)
Like Quantum Leap’s Sam, leaping from place to place and searching for a way home, my journey — from one disappointing photo app to another — searching for the perfect set of iPhone camera tools continues. The developers, The Tiffen Company, actually make real photographic filters, so it seems they know a thing or two about photography. The app itself is intended to simulate Tiffen’s glass filters, optical lab processes and photographic effects. On first look, this app is incredibly promising — feature-rich, easy to use and a wealth of interesting filters and effects.

LifeTicker ($9.99)
Allowing you to keep track of important events in your life — meetings, birthdays, medical appointments — LifeTicker could be an essential tool for some. Or at least as essential as a calendar. I’m gonna skip the pleasantries on this one: the app looks ugly, is light on features and vastly overpriced (even at $9.99 which is, apparently, a limited time 50 percent off launch-price). Users looking for an alternative that integrates more effectively with your lifestyle should try checking out Google Calendar (with NuevaSync) or Apple’s iCal (with MobileMe), both of which sync with your iPhone and are robust enough to feature notes, reminders and contact invitations.

Just One More Thing

Earlier this week, TheAppleBlog’s Darrell Etherington spoke about the recent rumors pertaining to a possible Premium Game Section in the App Store. Currently, in the game section of the store, the sub-categories relate to gaming genres such as puzzle, racing or casino.

If the rumors actually happen, it means that Premium Games will be an additional category in the App Store. Within this category would be products from the big game companies and the pricing would reflect this, with a download costing around $20 (regular players will know that games currently range from free to around 8 bucks).

EA's disappointing MySims Kingdom for Nintendo DS

When I say that the substantial price increase is a reflection of the fact that these are games from big companies, to be more specific, I mean that the big game companies desire to charge you more, much more, for games. This potential move by Apple absolutely does not mean that the games will be higher quality, better graphics or deeper gameplay.

So why is this happening? It’s all a matter of perception: as Pocketgamer.biz note, Apple sees the touch and iPhone as serious contenders in the handheld game wars, up against the DS and PSP where games are upwards of twenty bucks each. This new section in the App Store means that there will be a special shelf in the store for the games from the larger global publishers.

I’d argue that we’re seeing more innovation, more compelling gameplay, and more quality produce at appropriate price-points since launch in the App Store than on the DS and PSP combined. This is because the App Store allows independent developers to bring their wares directly to us on the same store shelves as the big boys, something which just does not happen (at least not enough) on Sony and Nintendo’s handhelds.

And while Apple’s potential move won’t directly stifle this innovation, it may draw the flow of cash towards premium products from risk-averse game publishers, towards games that some consumers will incorrectly perceive as higher-quality and better value for money and away from independently developed gaming pearls like Rolando and Trace.

That’s all for this week’s App Store Roundup, as ever, thank you for joining me for a rundown of the week’s most interesting releases. I’ll be back next Saturday with my picks from the week, in the meantime, drop by the comments and let me know which apps you’ve downloaded this week.

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Syncing Google Calendar with iCal just got a whole lot easier thanks to a new setup tool released by Google called Calaboration. Calaboration is a Google Code project that allows you to add calendars to iCal with a simple point and click interface, a process that used to take quite a bit more digging.

Before this tool was released, adding a calendar involved copying and pasting the private xml address from your primary calendar to iCal. Adding more than one calendar required you to modify a long URL, adding your email address at the right spot, a step most users were probably not likely to do.

In my tests, new calendar entries from iCal to Google appeared online almost instantly, with iCal syncing the changes as soon as they were made. Updates made from Google were synced down to iCal on the next refresh. The default refresh rate for the calendars is every five minutes, customizable in the iCal preferences under “Accounts.”

One annoyance that I’ve found with the setup is that when clicking on the calendar to create a new event, you must have the calendar that you want the event to be a part of highlighted in the left column. Normally, I’d expect to be able to customize the calendar using the drop down menu in the event creation dialog. A small annoyance, and one that I expect will be fixed in future updates.

Google shows again that they are serious about their Mac development, and make it that much easier to switch to their services. Now… where’s that Chrome for Mac?

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Today I’ll be briefly showing how easy it is to create a beautiful calendar using iPhoto, complete with all your important dates for the year and some seasonal photography.

Choosing a calendar

Once you’ve opened iPhoto and asked to create a calendar (via the small plus icon in the lower left), you’ll be presented with the following window:

Apple offers a selection of 10 different calendar styles to suit your needs. My favorites are the classic ‘Picture Calendar’, which puts the most emphasis on your photos, and ‘Colored Paper’, with a more relaxed and colorful feel. There are also a few great themes for obligatory events such as a wedding, holiday, or a new baby.

What then follows is a very handy dialogue for automatically adding some useful dates to your calendar:

You’re able to not only create the standard ‘January to December’ calendar, but can start the calendar on any month and have up to 24 months included (obviously for an extra fee!). It is also possible to pre-load your calendar with the national holidays for your country, any birthdays you’ve added to contacts in Address Book, and the events from any other of your iCal calendars. If you have already populated iCal with all the year’s birthdays, holidays, events and work it is a simple procedure to have them all added to your printed calendar without needing to copy them across by hand when it arrives. National holidays are also useful to have added, as the exact dates generally change from year to year.

On to Designing

Now it is a simple case of choosing the color scheme of each page and adding your own photos. To add an image to your calendar, you’ll need to find it in iPhoto and drag it over the calendar name in the left pane. Once you’re editing the calendar project, all the photos you’ve added will be displayed to the left, easily drag-able into the photo placeholders.

For each month, you’re able to select the number of photos you’d like to be displayed, and the color scheme (if the calendar template supports it). iPhoto has an ‘Autoflow’ feature, which will take all the images you’ve added to the calendar project and automatically fill each month of the calendar with a different layout and style. It’s a time saver, but personally I enjoy crafting each month myself!

Once you’ve added a photo to a grey placeholder, clicking it will bring up a menu allowing you to zoom the image in and out, or drag the image to reposition it within the frame. Take care that you don’t zoom in too far, as this can lead to the photo not being of a high enough quality to print. If this problem occurs, iPhoto places a yellow warning sign next to the photo to alert you.

A great tip for sourcing some extra photography to add a seasonal touch (I’m thinking Halloween, Christmas, Easter etc) is to browse through a stock photography site. Having a few photos of friends and family, coupled with a great Christmas scene can look fantastic. A few of note are:

• Stock.XCHNG
• iStockPhoto
• StockVault

Adding and Editing Events

No doubt there are events you’d like to add to the calendar which were not imported from iCal originally. This can be done by double clicking a date and entering your text. Fonts, colors and sizes can be changed by bringing up the font toolbox (press Command+T). You can also add an image to any given date — great for events and birthdays, and adding a personal touch.

Ordering & Pricing

Once you’ve gone through every month, added your photos and typed in the relevant events, it’s time to upload all that content to Apple and let them start printing your beautifully designed calendar.

Prices of calendars can be found at the iPhoto site. They cost $20, not including P+P, with an extra $1.49 per additional month (over a year). It’s worth keeping an eye open for offers run in relation to calendars — it’s common to have a percentage knocked off around Christmas time, or into the New Year.

Uploading all your photographs and calendar information can take a while, particularly on slower broadband connections, but the process is automatic and you’ll receive an email after the order completes. Delivery takes a couple of weeks, so make sure you plan ahead if you require delivery before the Christmas rush!

If you have any further calendar-related questions, please feel free to ask in the comments. In addition, do let me know if you have any other great Christmas gift ideas which can be ‘Made on a Mac’ — I’m still undecided on what to buy my Grandma…

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The iPhone is indeed a wonderful little device and, for some of us, a game-changer in terms of managing our digital lives from the palm of our hands. There are, however, some essential features that Apple neglected to implement.

Regular GMail and Google Calendar users will have noticed the glaring lack of a Calendar synchronization option, making the native iPhone calendar app somewhat less useful.

All is not lost though! Enter NuevaSync, a web-service that enables two-way synchronization between your Google Calendar and the iPhone Calendar app. NuevaSync is secure, easy to use and painless to set-up…and most notably, it’s totally free.

So, it’s time to grab your gear and follow this ten minute guide to setting up NuevaSync. You’ll need your computer, a Google Account and your iPhone, with the latest firmware update. And by the way, iPod touch users can also get in on the syncing fun.

TAB Disclaimer: Before we begin, it’s worth noting that NuevaSync is still in beta, so if it all goes a little Steve-Jobs-circa-1985 (i.e. everything goes wrong and stops working), it’s not our fault. Nevertheless, the service has worked smoothly for us since sign-up and we wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it.

1. To start, you’ll need to create a fresh account on NuevaSync. Before you make the account, plug your touch or iPhone in, boot up iTunes and run a quick sync to make sure you’re all backed up (it’s good practice and will make you feel all warm inside). While the device is backing up, go create your NuevaSync account on this page.
2. Now that you’ve got a new account, visit the configuration page. You’ll notice that there are four options on this page — Calendar, Contacts, E-mail, Tasks. We’re just syncing our Google Calendar today, so ignore the others. It’s also worth noting that the clever folks at NuevaSync still haven’t implemented Mail sync for the iPhone/touch, this feature is in development though.
3. Click change to the right of Calendar and, on the resulting page, click the Google button then click the Change button. By doing this, we’re basically telling NuevaSync that we’d like to sync our Google Calendar with their service. NuevaSync will tell you that your changes have been saved. Clicking through to the next page will take you through the service setup options. When prompted for your Google Account ID, enter your GMail address and then click Request Account Access. If you’re not logged in to your Google Account, you’ll be sent to the standard Google log-in screen before continuing.
4. Once you’re logged in, you’ll be presented with the standard Google Access Request page. If you’re super-security conscious, read the blurb, once you’re all done, click Grant Access. This tells Google that you’re happy for them to send your Calendar info to NuevaSync (and vice-versa). Back on the Status and Setup page, you’ll see that there’s a big red light next to Calendar – this is a good thing, you’re halfway home and it’s time to grab your iPhone.
5. We’re now going to add NuevaSync as an account on your iPhone. NuevaSync works using the Exchange options on your iPhone. Open up Settings on your iPhone, then go through to the Mail, Contacts, Calendars page. Select Add Account and then tap Microsoft Exchange.
6. For your e-mail address, enter the same one you used for your NuevaSync registration. NuevaSync has mentioned that your device might warn about a certificate being invalid. This isn’t NuevaSync’s certificate, so it’s no reason to be concerned. It’s actually Apple’s auto-config feature trying to guess the appropriate server name based on your info. For your Username and Password, enter your NuevaSync account details. Finally, enter a Description. For instance I use, “Olly’s Calendar”. Now tap Next.
7. You should see a quick message stating Verifying Exchange account information. Incidentally, we got an error message doing this the first time and the service still worked. If that happens and it all goes a little pear-shaped, don’t worry, there are some trouble-shooting tips at the end of this guide.
8. When the Exchange account verification process has finished, a new field will pop-up called Server. Enter www.nuevasync.com and then tap Next. On the resulting page, turn off Mail and Contacts – we only want to sync the calendar today. Then just tap Save and we’re almost done.
9. The final step is to turn off Time Zone Support. So back on the Mail, Contacts, Calendars settings page, scroll to the bottom and then tap Time Zone Support. Then switch Time Zone Support to Off and exit.
10. We’re all done! You’ll want to test and make sure that everything works — make sure your WiFi or 3G connection is enabled and then open the Calendar App on your iPhone or touch. It should auto-update and, if you’ve got stuff in your Google Calendar, you should see it here.  Try adding something to your Calendar and then go check if it appears on your computer’s Google Calendar (and vice-versa too, so add something to your Google Calendar and then go open the Calendar app to see if it appears there).

If everything is working, it’s time to celebrate. Organise a party to celebrate how wonderful NuevaSync is, add said party to your Google Calendar schedule and then watch it magically synchronise with your iPhone.

Troubleshooting Tips

Maybe there was a problem in the setup process or maybe everything ran smoothly but it’s just not working. Whatever the issue, here are a few tips to ensure you get yourself synchronised:

1. Make sure you’re only syncing Calendar. Remember that Mail doesn’t work. You can try Contacts, but we haven’t given that a go yet (and this guide only covers Google Calendar synchronization).
2. NuevaSync have a well-written Troubleshooting page. Visit it here and see if that solves your problem.
3. If all else fails, drop NuevaSync an e-mail. They’re a helpful bunch, very friendly and surprisingly prompt: support@nuevasync.com

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