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iOS 5 Calendar changes killed functional use - My reply from Apple Engineering !

maclab

maclab

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 31, 2009
88
14
Hi

My previous setup for my Business was a MBP and ical, but with Week Calendar HD (iPad app by utilitap that got pulled) and the native Apple Calendar app in iOS 4, I was even more effectively and efficiently able to manage my appointments from an iPad, so I sold the MBP. This all changed when Apple released iOS 5 and the Calendar was no longer able to layout my appointments in a logical, clear and usable way, as well as half missing fonts and totally killing it by pulling Week Calendar HD from the app store. So I have had to resort to remote accessing my iMac from my iPad just to use the Calendar. I can't just drop back to iOS 4 because I need iCloud to sync data between my devices and co workers. And why should I have to be left behind! Apple changed the game!

So here is my story about my communications with Apple.

After months of agonising (I have been per suing this issue since Beta 1 in June/July with Apple in the Developers area) today I got the final verdict from one of Tim Cooks assistants in Singapore who was looking after my case after emailing the big guy. According to Apple what I was reporting as a bug, is a feature!!! Half missing fonts and ridiculously overlapping events which sit all over the place is a feature!!!

I sent a very detailed email with my full report on the issue to Tim Cook out of total desperation, all other communication channels with Apple had failed to get me a response, I felt like I had know where else to go and nothing to loose. The next day I got a phone call from someone in Singapore who was forwarded that email I sent to Tim Cook.

She told me she has been assigned to help with my complaint and asked me to also send her an email explaining my complaint. I then spent a further 2 hrs refining my report and sent it off to her. She told me that she had escalated my bug report again to engineering and that she will get back to me when she gets the response from engineering.

Just over a week later I get a call from her (Friday the 4th Nov) this is her response from engineering: There is no bug, the calendar app for iOS 5 was re written to look this way, what I am experiencing is the new features of iOS 5 calendar. Even when I pushed her about the font issue, I got the same response! this is what she had been told to say and thats that basically. I asked to put her response in an email to me, but she refused and said it was against Apple policy. When I questioned about Week Calendar HD no longer been available I got '0' response.

My rant here is not just me getting in a huff and puff, I have already gone thru all the correct channels and in a correct manner, actually due to my love for Apple I feel I went beyond what is normal, I truly felt that Apple had something to fix and that I was helping them by providing all this information. I forgot to also mention that I also submitted a bug report months ago on the Developer forum and also posted a thread in the developers forum with pics and all way back too.

This new feature they implemented does not work for me, and I suspect there would be many others like me who use it for business or even families who have multiple calendar they share who need a clear picture of whats going on. At least they should make it something that can be switched on and off like I managed to do with iCal 5 in Lion (using debug mode, thanks to instructions from a forum member here).

I would be even more happy if Apple would just allow Week Calendar HD back into the app store for users like me. We need a calendar app that can be used for business, where events get more complex.

So what am I going to do next week? I don't know....the calendar is the centre of my business, this issue has brought me much grief, this issue did not exist before iOS 5 when calendar did not have this feature and when Week Calendar HD existed. I am not crying about something I never had ....... I am crying because I built my entire business management around using my iPad as my office, and now Apple has killed my office.

I am left with no choice apart from totally moving away from Apple or just the iPad at the least, if I can't use the calendar for work then what am I going to do with Apple products

I can't handle having to remote access my iMac anymore....driving me nuts!!!

Calendar in iOS 5 new added features according to Apple .... half missing font and layout chaos!!! these are the pictures engineering at Apple where given .... to which the response was given to me 'the app was rebuilt to look like that' !!!


ios5cal by maclab73, on Flickr


weekcalHD by maclab73, on Flickr

***NOTE***

1) This bug did not exist in calendar for ios 4
2) I have tested for iPad and iPhone on 3 other friends devices, the bug existed on all. THIS IS A UNIVERSAL BUG
3) This bug makes ios 5 it a very inconsistent user experience from icloud/mobileme calender and ical 5
4) This bug makes calendar impossible to use when you have multiple events occurring within similar time periods
5) A bug very similar exists in ical 5 for osx Lion (can fix fixed using debug mode: debug menu > Top Sekret (sic) > Uncheck "use iPad style event layout)

P.s To pre empt the question....yes in my business I am going between to clients at a time, medical related biz.
 
Last edited:
Apples focus is the private sector and consumers. They've always been weak with things like managing contacts, calendars, and call records. If not for Google, the problem would be even greater. Apples lucky that Google treats them so well. As you have experienced Apples first goal is profit and doing things the Apple way. Often & unfortunately that does not always take the customer into consideration. Some people become acclimated to Apples ways & some don't. It can be quite hard.
 
dude, i hate to break it to you...put apple purposely went out of their way to harm you and your company...they weren't trying to make it more useable to everyone just harm you....

ok sorry but you little rant was just to funny to pass up.

Look I feel for you, when they change some major it sucks to get used to because of the course previous way was better. I felt that what about the Lion updates, I still miss expose but i found that for the most part the updates have always been better once i gave them a try.

if you don't like apples calendar changes then maybe try any of the other number of calendar apps available. but they prob won't be iCloud compatible like the ical app is.

but that being said, your other cal from the non-native app is just as confusing as the ical setup.
they actually don't look that much different except that the ical version is slightly more spread out...
also, you keep saying bug, but if they designed it this way then its not a bug.
 
So you are comparing Week Calendar HD, a third party app, with the native Calendar app? You really can't call it a bug if you are comparing two different apps that have two different feature sets. It looks like the Calendar app is working as designed and you do not like that it doesn't work like Week Calendar HD.
 
wow it seems no matter how much effort you make to write a detailed post you still get stupid responses from people who don't bother actually taking in all the content.

----------
vitzr said:
Apples focus is the private sector and consumers. They've always been weak with things like managing contacts, calendars, and call records. If not for Google, the problem would be even greater. Apples lucky that Google treats them so well. As you have experienced Apples first goal is profit and doing things the Apple way. Often & unfortunately that does not always take the customer into consideration. Some people become acclimated to Apples ways & some don't. It can be quite hard.
Click to expand...

Thanks for you comment
 
brand said:
So you are comparing Week Calendar HD, a third party app, with the native Calendar app? You really can't call it a bug if you are comparing two different apps that have two different feature sets. It looks like the Calendar app is working as designed and you do not like that it doesn't work like Week Calendar HD.
Click to expand...

It looks to me as though the Standard calendar app is not working that well though. Cut off fonts, hard to read, and slowly indenting the column as time progresses (Mostly on Tuesday the 8th in the second row of names). I would class it as a bug for sure
 
daviddth said:
It looks to me as though the Standard calendar app is not working that well though. Cut off fonts, hard to read, and slowly indenting the column as time progresses (Mostly on Tuesday the 8th in the second row of names). I would class it as a bug for sure
Click to expand...

Thank you yes...it would be ok if everything just lined up properly and the fonts did not get cut off. The lining up of events was not perfect but much better with iOS 4.

I really pushed this with Apple, but they would not acknowledge it as a bug .... hard to believe coming from Apple, but that is what I was told.
 
maclab said:
I really pushed this with Apple, but they would not acknowledge it as a bug
Click to expand...

I can see how the font issue is a bug, but according to Apple the new layout is a feature and not a bug. Just because you do not like it does not mean that it is bug.

Are you comparing the feature set of Week Calendar HD and the Apple Calendar app in iOS 5? Did the Apple Calendar app do what you wanted on iOS 4?

Have you contacted the developer of Week Calendar HD to find out why it was pulled from the App Store? Maybe Apple is not the one who pulled the app, I have seen where developers will sometimes pull their apps for various reasons.

Can you not use the calendar in iCloud web interface? It could be a temporary solution.
 
brand said:
I can see how the font issue is a bug, but according to Apple the new layout is a feature and not a bug. Just because you do not like it does not mean that it is bug.

Are you comparing the feature set of Week Calendar HD and the Apple Calendar app in iOS 5? Did the Apple Calendar app do what you wanted on iOS 4?

Have you contacted the developer of Week Calendar HD to find out why it was pulled from the App Store? Maybe Apple is not the one who pulled the app, I have seen where developers will sometimes pull their apps for various reasons.

Can you not use the calendar in iCloud web interface? It could be a temporary solution.
Click to expand...

iCloud web interface cannot be accessed via the iPad , I have tried all the browsers with different settings, would love to be proven wrong.

Week Calendar HD was pulled, its was not the Developers doing, they have been trying to get it back up.

Week Calendar HD is a very different app than Apples native app especially with the changes Apple have made to it, so the only reason I can think of why it was pulled from the app store, was because Apple have now used some of the features which they had into there new version for iOS 5 (my own opinion).

So I can't come up with any real reason why Apple will no longer allow it apart from that.

So Apple keep your new fantastic features but give us back Week Calendar HD, it clearly functions very different.


thanks
 
Amen OP. I live and die by my calendar at work and I was VERY disappointed that Week Calendar HD was pulled. I manage 14 business units at work and a clean well presented calendar is essential to my success.

I'm hoping for one of the two solutions:

Week Calendar HD gets re-approved

or...

Apple fixes the calendar app

I'll tell ya, my calendar is a hot mess right now and it's frustrating.
 
At first I didn't see what's wrong except the cutoff fonts. Now that I've seen the indentation thing (wasted space), I get it. The worst thing in that mess is their pulling your favorite app. At least, if you had the choice, you could make a choice...

I've got a problem with the sync'ing of pictures, myself. They get washed out when they go through itunes to the phone. I've sent detailed feedback, to no avail... I can't believe either I'm the only one to have noticed, or they know and they don't care.

I, for one, know that if I had the best screen on my phones, I'd make sure pictures make it shine...

Good luck with the haters and people too stupid to understand your need for usability and, I daresay, Apple-perfect user experience.
 
Week Cal (iPhone version) had to be redone at Apple's request and the redone version, I think, is better than the original.

Week Cal HD I believe is also bing redone per apple request - according to their website it'll be available again soon.
 
xraydoc said:
Week Cal (iPhone version) had to be redone at Apple's request and the redone version, I think, is better than the original.

Week Cal HD I believe is also bing redone per apple request - according to their website it'll be available again soon.
Click to expand...


I think they are still trying to find out why it has been pulled, I say that because it was not out to long before it got pulled and it has been a long time since then, I am sure it took a lot of work to develop and it makes no sense that they would take so long to re submit unless they are been stalled by Apple for some reason. just my sense of it.
 
Trying just to use iPhone today to run the whole show from there....first hurdle apart from form factor...making a new contact on the iPhone does not have a 'note' section like the iPad or on os x. I but important client info in there just iPhone won't do the job .... another Apple inconsistency.
 
maclab said:
Thank you yes...it would be ok if everything just lined up properly and the fonts did not get cut off. The lining up of events was not perfect but much better with iOS 4.

I really pushed this with Apple, but they would not acknowledge it as a bug .... hard to believe coming from Apple, but that is what I was told.
Click to expand...

I feel you. If you've ever used stacks, using a left handed mouse, you'll note that they curve away from the direction your hand naturally arcs. I submitted a bug report with Apple via their developer connection, and it was closed about a year later with "works per spec" or something equally infuriating. To this day, I cannot use stacks.
 
maclab said:
Trying just to use iPhone today to run the whole show from there....first hurdle apart from form factor...making a new contact on the iPhone does not have a 'note' section like the iPad or on os x. I but important client info in there just iPhone won't do the job .... another Apple inconsistency.
Click to expand...

In iPhone contacts, select a contact. Tap edit. Scroll down until you see Add Field. Tap it, and you get a list of field types you can add, one of which is Notes. Once a contact has a Notes field, you can edit it on the iPhone just like any other field.
 
pbrooks said:
Is this an ad for Week Cal HD?
Click to expand...

I too am lamenting that Apple pulled this app, which is far superior to the built-in calendar app. IMHO, the best calendar app that existed. Apple has certainly missed the mark in some of the changes introduced in Lion and IOS 5. Form has overtaken function. And the new form is not really that appealing.
 
The software update highway is littered with situations like these.

The OP can wait an indeterminate amount of time for when and if Week Cal HD is approved and released for iOS 5. Then he'll have to confirm that the new version isn't screwed up in some way.

We know you weren't using iCloud with iOS4...was it MobileMe?

Have you ever tried Google Apps? Works in iOS4. Don't know how much dependence you've got on iCloud.
 
bilibug said:
I too am lamenting that Apple pulled this app, which is far superior to the built-in calendar app. IMHO, the best calendar app that existed.
Click to expand...

I concur with these sentiments. I use Week Calendar on my iPhone and will never use anything else. When I get an iPad next year, Week Calendar HD would be my only choice. I don't care what the native calendar can or can't do, ditto for other calendar apps. Week Calendar, and the developer, are that good.
 
Good catch OP. What a jumbled mess. Yuck.

However, it's not the end of the world. Relax. Be happy you still have a job/business.
 
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