Popular Calendar Replacement Fantastical Comes to iPad

[rexone]

That's interesting because I think exactly the opposite. In fact I was a fan of the Apple Calendar on all my devices until the iOS 7 changes and now I can't stand it, I think it's too difficult to understand what's happening in my diary and the very reason I tried Fantastical as a replacement.

Overall I like iOS 7, it's just the calendar I can't work with.

I'm with you, the latest Apple Calendar is a shocker. It worked well before then they change it in really stupid ways. Classic case of form over function.
And someone explain to me why virtually everything in the iOS is flick side-to-side yet the new calendar is a flick up-down?

 

[AJsAWiz]

Fantastical 2 iPad

It's new, it's out, it's Fantastic!

I have Fantastical on my Mac, iPhone and (until recently) had Fantastical 2 iPhone version on my iPad Mini. I've been extremely pleased with both versions.

At first I was skeptical when I saw the $9.99 price tag. But I also saw that this was a discounted price which will rise to $14.99. Based on my past experience with Fantastical and Flexbits I decided to purchase. Well, I have no regrets and so happy I decided to download it. Here is a snippet from NYT:

"Flexibits's popular iPhone calendar app, Fantastical 2, has received a tablet-ready makeover and is now available for Apple's iPad. The app, which sports an all-new user interface, is a separate purchase and download from its iPhone counterpart.

While most features are the same between the two versions, Flexibits has added one iPad-only function that it calls the Fantastical Dashboard. The dashboard connects the calendar and event list and puts all the user's calendar data on-screen at the same time, allowing users to quickly switch views with a simple gesture."

 

[rablat]

Yeah, I understood the colored bars in iCal but the Fantastical colored dots that are actually in the calendar are quicker to identify vs the single grey dot that shows one or more unclassified events are happening. A grey dot could be a birthday, a job, a drs appointment or all three, I don't know for sure. In Fantastical, I can just know blue dots are work commitments and instantly see whether I'm already booked those requested days or not.

Under each day in the month view. I see what you mean now.

 

[ScottNWDW]

I had Fantastical 2 on my Mac and iPhone and enjoyed them so when the iPad version came out I snatched it up. I don't mind paying for software that is well written and useful to me and Fantastical is one such program. I use a few different calendar apps and they all sync together. I really like the fact that Fantastical syncs with BOTH the Apple Reminders App and iCal. Both of those apps also sync with BusyCal2, another calendar task app that I use on the Mac.

The only thing I don't like about any of these apps that is pretty standard in many other task apps is start dates for tasks. Reminders, BusyCal and Fantastical only allow you to have a due date for tasks. Other apps that I have used for tasks allow both a start date and a due date. The fact that Fantastical and BusyCal don't have start dates is probably tied in with the way Apple created Reminders, which by itself is quite lame at best.

If you want a really nice Calendar app, Fantastical is Awesome.

 

[sentiblue]

Can it sync?

Hi guys...

I see lots of good feedbacks from you guys about this app....
I like the design and the the way info is presented on this app.

Do you know if the app is capable of syncing with email systems? Like Exchange/Lotus/ActiveSync, etc?

I have no issue about the price... but just wanted to make sure the app can help me pull all calendars on all devices together into one place so it's easy to manage. Thanks!

 

[rbrian]

It's not perfect if you just want to glance at a month and see if you are already booked for another client on the day they are requesting. The default calendar USED to do that with notes on the bottom but the iOS 7 calendar doesn't. I can't tell what those dots mean until I dig down and scroll around.

I started looking at alternatives back in iOS 5, because the whole dot thing was a complete waste of time for me - I had a dot every single day, because I recorded my work schedule! There are several iPhone apps which show 3 events a day, with actual words and colours, in month view. None of them were quite perfect. Now I mostly use Month Calendar, which while not particularly attractive is the best way to view a month at a glance, and it's cheap, and universal.

 

[jayem1234]

Most likely would've bought this had it been cheaper. To be quite honest, I actually prefer the Sunrise iPad design over this one anyway. Sunrise has been great for me so far -- epsecially consdiering it's free price tag.