Preview: Fantastical, Upcoming Calendar App for Mac

How do you improve the default OS X calendar application? How do you set out to create an alternative that can be appealing to power users, and accessible for calendar novices at the same time? While beta testing Fantastical, an upcoming Mac app by Flexibits, I thought these were the questions the developers tried to answer with their latest creation. Like in Twitter clients, developing a third-party calendar isn’t an easy task: you have to make sure it will work with all those calendar protocols out there, but most of all you have to know you’ve got something on your hands that will stand out from the crowd – especially when Apple itself ships a full-featured iCal.app with OS X that does its job just fine for most users, and doesn’t require an additional purchase. As usual, though, I believe there’s plenty of room for alternatives if you’re willing to take a risk and believe in your product. And it shows when testing Fantastical: Flexibits believes in its new app so much they wrote “your Mac’s calendar will never be the same again” on the teaser website.

Indeed, Fantastical does some things the default Mac calendar client can’t even imagine. First off, it’s elegant, minimal and unobtrusive, yet beautiful to look at. I know the very own purpose of a calendar app isn’t that of letting you stare at it, but when compared to this or this you’ll notice the difference. User interface, however, is functional to Fantastical: it’s minimal because Fantastical wants to be simple to use, and it’s gorgeous for as much as it’s powerful inside. Fantastical uses a natural language parser that will let you write down events in plain English, and have the app correctly recognize the input in various fields. Example: Meet with Cody tomorrow at Apple Store, Viterbo 5 PM to 6 PM. Adding this sentence to a new iCal event does nothing. But writing it in Fantastical? It creates a new calendar event with “Meet with Cody” as the title, “tomorrow” as the relative date, “Apple Store, Viterbo” as the desired location, and 5 PM to 6 PM as the timeframe. It’s almost unbelievable how well this thing works and how deeply it improves the way I can add events using nothing but English. I don’t have to navigate with my keyboard and mouse, I just write and hit Enter to process the event and add it to my default calendar. Sure, I could still do things manually and adjust dates or location with the cursor, but since installing the first beta of Fantastical I haven’t found a reason why I should.

The language parser is the big feature of Fantastical, but there’s lots more. Without revealing too much right now (let’s save it for a final review, shall we?), I can say Fantastical’s huge advantage over several third-party calendar apps for OS X is that it works perfectly in conjunction with Apple’s iCal, which is responsible for keeping all your calendar configurations. You can start using Fantastical seconds after launch without doing anything, as the app fetches the accounts you’ve already set up in iCal. This means Google Calendar, MobileMe, CalDAV, Exchange, Yahoo Calendar – they all work out of the box. And if you want, you can make a calendar the default one so that adding new events will be as fast as hitting a shortcut, and write.

I wasn’t sure I was going to use Fantastical much initially, mainly because I didn’t think a replacement for the standard calendar interface was needed on a Mac. But after trying it, I have to say Fantastical is the calendar app to look forward to. You can sign up for updates here, and stay tuned for a complete review on MacStories soon. Read more

NYT Labs Create Tool To Donate Your iPhone Location Data

Apple may have fixed the iPhone’s location tracking issues with the recent iOS 4.3.3 update, but The New York Times’ Research and Development Lab thinks this location data is still valuable in the way it provides users and researchers an historical archive of devices’ cellular triangulation points and WiFi hotspot databases. The NYT Labs, the same folks behind innovative iPad news reader News.me, have developed and released a web application called OpenPaths that allows iPhone users to register and anonymously share their location database. The web tool, available here, is touted as a way to “securely store, explore, and donate your iOS location data”, Nick Bilton at The New York Times Bits blog reports. While it’s unclear how the web app works with the latest iOS software update (which stops iOS devices from backing up the location database to a computer, but still keeps an unencrypted copy stored on device), OpenPaths apparently finds a way to obtain this location data and reorganize it in a beautiful interface that also enables you to navigate maps, set specific times of a day, and browse by date.

People who participate in the project are asked to upload location information from their phone, which is then made anonymous and added to a database with the data from every other upload. People can then browse their own location data on an interactive map. At a later date researchers will be able request access to the collection of location uploads.

As for privacy concerns in regards to OpenPaths, the website’s homepage explains how the system works:

Our upload system is completely anonymous. We store your location data separately from your user profile. It is only with your express permission, combined with a unique passcode that only you know and that openpaths does not store, that we release your data to whom you approve. You will always have control over how much of your information is shared.

The main focus of OpenPaths is that of enabling you to donate your data to researchers around the world working on problems like “disaster preparedness, traffic flow, urban planning, and disease transmission.” You can choose to grant researchers access to portions of your data, or skip the process entirely and keep everything for yourself for personal purposes. It’ll be interesting to see whether this NYT Labs project will gain traction in the next weeks, and if future iOS updates will break its functionality with further location database encryption. In the meantime, you can sign up for OpenPaths here.

Apple Reportedly In Talks With New Light Sensor Supplier For Next-Gen iPhone

A new report from Digitimes claims Apple has received a series of verification units for new ambient light sensors to (allegedly) implement in the next-generation iPhone, set to be announced in September according to speculation surfaced in the past weeks. The new supplier, Taiwanese-based company Capella, currently ships ambient light sensors to HTC, and may receive orders from Apple before the end of the year “at the earliest”, the publication says.

Capella, which ships over one million ambient-light sensors to HTC a month currently, has reportedly delivered its products to Apple for verification as the ambient-light sensors currently used by iPhone 4 have been criticized for some problems, said the sources, noting that Capella may received Apple’s orders before the end of the year at the earliest.

Capella shares, which are listed on Taiwan’s OTC market, suffered a major setback recently as sentiment for the stock was blunted by its decreased first-quarter gross margin.

The ambient light sensor is used in mobile devices, in conjunction with software, to determine the automatic screen brightness and optimal settings depending on external light conditions. The iPhone, for instance, has a panel in the system Settings application that allows users to turn auto-brightness on and off, as well as a slider to manually adjust brightness. The iPhone 4 and other Android devices were highly criticized last year for their hardware and software implementation of auto-brightness which, in most cases, doesn’t take in account light conditions at the sides of a device (the ambient light sensor is placed on iPhone’s front panel) and, due to a series of bugs, automatically locks brightness settings to the highest level, thus consuming large amounts of battery life.

The iPhone 5 is rumored to skip a WWDC announcement for a Fall 2011 release, but rumors surfaced online so far haven’t mentioned a new or improved usage of ambient light sensors in the new device.

Firmware Update Enables 6Gb/s in 2011 iMacs→

Firmware Update Enables 6Gb/s in 2011 iMacs

While iMac EFI Update 1.6 is described as including “fixes that improve performance and stability for Thunderbolt,” it would also seem that an unadvertised benefit is that it also unlocks the full 6Gb/s, SATA 3.0 capabilities of two of the internal drive bays. Unfortunately, the optical bay remains at 3Gb/s.

With the 2011 iMac’s EFI Update 1.6 unlocking 6GB/s SATA capabilities, you have no excuse not to plop down the cash for OCZ’s Vertex 3, a pretty monster SSD with outstanding read & write performance (taking advantage of the unlocked bandwidth). The only problem is just how to get behind that tricky panel to make the swap.

MacBooks are more easily accessible, however, and the 2011 MacBook Pros are also receiving an EFI update that’s addressing performance and Boot Camp issues. The only issue now is deciding whether you’re a desktop or laptop guy.

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Spotify 0.5 Goes Live with iPod Sync, New UI

Officially announced yesterday, Spotify began rolling out the promised 0.5 update for the desktop client a few minutes ago, featuring an updated UI and the much anticipated playlist and MP3 sync for iPod Classic, Shuffle, and Nano, alongside wireless sync for iOS and Android devices running the Spotify mobile application. The updated desktop client, available now for download here, comes with a slightly redesigned user interface that’s inspired by the latest iOS and OS X Lion builds: there’s lots of “linen background” going on, redesigned toolbar icons with a more flat look, new translucent buttons to reveal and expand the album artwork, as well as a general polish that clearly brings OS X graphical elements to mind. If you’re familiar with iOS and the latest Lion developer builds, you’ll feel right home with the new Spotify. I like the app’s new look.

Spotify 0.5 can sync playlists, local files and purchased tracks to an iPod (non-iOS) via USB or iOS device wirelessly. The interface to manage sync is quite simple and intuitive, as there’s a new Devices tab in the sidebar that lists all the iPhones or iPods you’ve connected to Spotify. Once connected, the app will display all your playlists, starred items and local files in a new window, allowing you to choose whether you want to sync “all music” to a device, or only specific playlists. Whilst iPhones and iPod touches get the possibility to sync anything as they’ll be able to stream songs later using the mobile app, classic iPods can only receive local files – meaning MP3s Spotify has found on your computer or songs you’ve purchased through the service’s new store. Songs and playlists that are not found will display a “Get Missing” button that takes you to the embedded web store. Tracks start at 50p, but Spotify is also offering MP3 bundles at a higher price.

Overall, Spotify 0.5 looks like a really solid update that shows the path the company has taken: becoming the ultimate music player on the desktop and mobile thanks to a combination of streaming, cache, purchases and sync. Check out more screenshots below. Read more

iPad Dominates The Competition In US Tablet Market

A Nielsen survey released today reveals the iPad has a commanding lead in the US tablet market, controlling a staggering 82%. This is despite the recent entrance to the market by Android tablets from Motorola, Samsung and others, which have comparatively trivial share of the tablet market.

In fact following Apple is Samsung with just 4% of the market despite its strong push late last year with the Galaxy Tab, and then there is Dell and Motorola with just 3% and 2% of the market. Yet all are overshadowed by the ‘Other’ category, this mishmash of various relatively unknown companies staggeringly has the same share of the market that Samsung, Dell and Motorola have combined.

The survey didn’t differentiate between the iPad 2 and original iPad but it did find that there is a fairly even split between WiFi-only models (43%) and WiFi+3G (39%) models. Also fascinating was that the survey found large proportions of tablet users would change their usage of other devices. In particular 35% of desktop computer and 32% of laptop users would use their computers less often or not at all after purchasing their tablet. E-readers and portable music players would also be used less or not at all following a tablet purchase by 27% of those surveyed.

Furthermore, the most frequently given reasons for using their computer less is mostly because the tablet is “easy to carry/take with you”, “ease of interface/OS” and the “fast start up/off” it provides to users. A final interesting note is that 43% of correspondents said that more than 1 person in their family/household is a user of the tablet device.

[Via Fortune]

3D Display Coming To The Next iPad?

There are suggestions by RCR Wireless that the next-generation iPad will incorporate 3D technology in its display. Claiming to have multiple sources confirming the information, from a Hollywood insider to a Foxconn worker, they write:

The fact that the iPad 3 is 3D is a dead cert, one Hollywood insider close to the big movie studios told RCR, adding that the screen would be the real magic. She went on to say that the big film studios were currently running around like blue arsed flies trying to gear up to release plenty of 3D content in time for Apple’s next launch.

It certainly sounds a little bizarre that Apple would adopt the 3D technology, which at this stage seems little more than a fad. But then again, Apple has a number of patents covering 3D technology which range from dual-camera’s to develop 3D images, head-tracking to create 3D illusions (recently demoed) to glasses-free stereoscopic 3D displays.

In fact earlier this year there were reports of a glasses-free 3D display coming to the next-generation iPod Touch. That rumour would see the iPod Touch be similar to the recently released Nintendo 3DS which also makes use of a display which can create the 3D illusion without the necessary glasses. Current 3D displays have mostly been limited to TVs, with few if any mobile devices choosing to utilise the technology. The biggest problem so far has been trying to create a 3D image that is believable without glasses and the 3DS received mixed reception to its implementation.

[Via MacRumors]

The Telegraph Updates iPad App, Enables Subscriptions

The Telegraph has agreed to Apple’s terms and has enabled subscriptions in its updated iPad app, available today on the App Store for free. The app can be downloaded free of charge, but the publication decided to allow users to buy daily issues or monthly access for a fee, which in case of single issues is slightly higher than the print edition, but sports a nice discount if you opt for the monthly subscription. As noted by PaidContent, The Telegraph’s subscriptions come at £1.19 each or £9.99 per month; weekday printed issues of the newspaper are cheaper at £1, but the monthly edition will cost you £26.40. Clearly The Telegraph is aiming at selling monthly digital subscriptions in volume, which are an attractive option due to the price point and access to regular content. In terms of US dollar prices, the in-app subscriptions come at $16.99  for 1 month access, or $1.99 for the daily edition.

The publisher’s upgraded app, out today and built by The Times’ app builder TigerSpike, is free to download but requires “editions” be bought inside at £1.19 each or £9.99 per month, paid and auto-renewing via Apple’s in-app payments.

The app functions much like its free predecessor, so the main new feature is the fee introduction. TMG is rumoured to be considering the introduction of charges to its website, too. If so, this iPad model could give it a springboard to do so.

The app comes with a dedicated settings panel for subscription management, and also allows existing print subscribers to enter their personal code to download iPad issues for free. The Telegraph 2.0 features details instructions to obtain your subscriber code, and places a link back to the iTunes Store to configure your App Store subscriptions. As for other changes in this update, the app includes “video, picture galleries, graphics and cartoon archives”, alongside a night-reading mode and crosswords.

Download The Telegraph 2.0 for iPad here.