BusyCal (replacement for iCal)

This is a commercial replacement for iCal. Our iCal is totally corrupt (events are "bleeding through" from month to month, making it unusable). I've tried various "cleaning" programs, removing duplicate items and so on, to no avail. I've tried "deleting" events older than x days, to no avail. iCal just generally sucks. The BusyCal trial version (30 days) seems to eliminate the problem, and the application seems much faster and is easier to look at and generally better designed, and it responds to Sync Services quickly. Anyone had any experience with it? http://www.busymac.com/ -- .... do not cover a warm kettle or your stock may sour. -- Julia Child

On 2012-04-10 16:16:56 +0000, Warren Oates said: > This is a commercial replacement for iCal. Our iCal is totally corrupt > (events are "bleeding through" from month to month, making it unusable). > I've tried various "cleaning" programs, removing duplicate items and so > on, to no avail. I've tried "deleting" events older than x days, to no > avail. iCal just generally sucks. Have you tried deleting the entire calendar rather than just events? > > The BusyCal trial version (30 days) seems to eliminate the problem, and > the application seems much faster and is easier to look at and generally > better designed, and it responds to Sync Services quickly. It uses the iCal calendars. Now that you've used it, perhaps it's cleaned up whatever was bugging your iCal calendar and you can use iCal again? > > Anyone had any experience with it? I have it and use it. Got it as part of one of those 10 app bundles, so it was a super cheap deal. It wasn't the app that I'd actually bought the bundle for, so for me, it was effectively a freebie, and, I think, a win. My experience so far is that I like it a lot better than iCal.

In article <jm29n9$5td$1@reader1.panix.com>, Bread <BreadWithSpam@Fractious.net> wrote: > Have you tried deleting the entire calendar rather than just events? Well, you mean start from scratch? That would work, I guess, but we'd like to keep the data for reference. > It uses the iCal calendars. Now that you've used it, perhaps it's > cleaned up whatever was bugging your iCal calendar and you can use iCal > again? That's what I thought, but nope. BusyCal has an option "Connect to Remote BusyCal User" which is very useful. > My experience so far is that I like it a lot better than iCal. Oh yes. -- .... do not cover a warm kettle or your stock may sour. -- Julia Child

On Tue, 10 Apr 2012 16:16:56 UTC, Warren Oates <warren.oates@gmail.com> wrote: > The BusyCal trial version (30 days) seems to eliminate the problem, and > the application seems much faster and is easier to look at and generally > better designed, and it responds to Sync Services quickly. > > Anyone had any experience with it? My wife and I had been coordinating our iCal calenders through Apple's MobileMe. When Apple announced it was discontinuing MobileMe I went looking for a new server, and instead discovered BusyCal. BusyCal shares calendars using Bonjour (why didn't Apple think of that?). When my wife or I post an event to our calendar (we each keep our own calendar on our own iMac) the other sees it immediately. The function is rock solid, and there's no need to use a server. Note we're not synching our calendars; I subscribe to her calendar and she subscribes to mine. We can edit each other's calendar items, but must use a password to do it. That capability can be blocked, or of course the passwords can be given only to, for example, the adults in the household. I was pleasantly surprised by everything else about BusyCal. It's mostly like iCal but everything is just that little bit slicker. For example, if you want to edit an event in iCal you have to jump through a couple of hoops (I've already forgotten the details) while in BusyCal you just double-click the event (why didn't Apple think of that?). In sum, I'm a fan. -- John Varela

Warren Oates wrote on Apr 10, 2012: > This is a commercial replacement for iCal. Our iCal is totally corrupt > (events are "bleeding through" from month to month, making it unusable). > I've tried various "cleaning" programs, removing duplicate items and so > on, to no avail. I've tried "deleting" events older than x days, to no > avail. iCal just generally sucks. > > The BusyCal trial version (30 days) seems to eliminate the problem, and > the application seems much faster and is easier to look at and generally > better designed, and it responds to Sync Services quickly. > > Anyone had any experience with it? > > http://www.busymac.com/ > I use it as my default calendar with Lion and haven't had any problems. It syncs quite efficiently between my two Macs at home via iCloud, and also has a few useful features lacking in iCal such as banner events which can span a number of days -- Mike Lane UK North Yorkshire mike_lane at mac dot com

On Tue, 10 Apr 2012 14:46:17 -0700, Bread wrote: > I have it and use it. Got it as part of one of those 10 app bundles, so > it was a super cheap deal. It wasn't the app that I'd actually bought > the bundle for, so for me, it was effectively a freebie, and, I think, a > win. Where do you find these cheap bundles? I haven't come across any. -- Paul Sture

In article <51W5y0sPNk52-pn2-jhYLn97E5RMF@localhost>, "John Varela" <newlamps@verizon.net> wrote: > I was pleasantly surprised by everything else about BusyCal. It's > mostly like iCal but everything is just that little bit slicker. For > example, if you want to edit an event in iCal you have to jump > through a couple of hoops (I've already forgotten the details) while > in BusyCal you just double-click the event (why didn't Apple think > of that?). Thanks, John. It's already become our new calendar. -- .... do not cover a warm kettle or your stock may sour. -- Julia Child

On Wed, 11 Apr 2012 06:55:39 UTC, Mike Lane <mike.lane.usenet@ntlworld.co.uk> wrote: > I use it as my default calendar with Lion and haven't had any problems. It > syncs quite efficiently between my two Macs at home via iCloud, Unless you've also got a laptop you want to sync from remote locations, it's easier and faster to sync using Bonjour. > and also has > a few useful features lacking in iCal such as banner events which can span a > number of days ICal can do that. Create an all-day event and then edit it to change the days. -- John Varela

In article <4f845cfa$0$11841$c3e8da3$12bcf670@news.astraweb.com>, Warren Oates <warren.oates@gmail.com> wrote: > This is a commercial replacement for iCal. Our iCal is totally corrupt > (events are "bleeding through" from month to month, making it unusable). > I've tried various "cleaning" programs, removing duplicate items and so > on, to no avail. I've tried "deleting" events older than x days, to no > avail. iCal just generally sucks. > > The BusyCal trial version (30 days) seems to eliminate the problem, and > the application seems much faster and is easier to look at and generally > better designed, and it responds to Sync Services quickly. > > Anyone had any experience with it? > > http://www.busymac.com/ Here are a couple of posts from Macintouch. Everyone seems to like it. <http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/lion/index.html#d16mar2012> 3/16/2012 Adam Bezark We switched to BusyCal several years ago, and never looked back. It looks and feels very much like iCal, but it does all those things iCal should, but can't - like sharing calendars with non-iCloud users over a local network... or split time zones (when you begin a flight in one time zone and end it in another)... or how about just being able to edit an event without opening a separate modal dialog box? It plays great with Google Calendars and (apparently, though we haven't tried it) with Exchange. BusyCal is just a better front-end client for the existing iCal database, so you can switch freely between apps if you like, and it works fine with your other iCloud iOS devices. 3/17/2012 Matt McCaffrey I'm glad that Tom Hensley discovered BusyCal. I just wanted to add that BusyCal brings back features that iCal inexplicably stripped away. It understands many common ways of typing in a date or a time (for example: "3-18" in the date field becomes "3/18/12" when you tab out, and "914a" becomes "9:14 am"). It doesn't require separate info bubbles to add or edit a new event. (I understand iCal restored an info panel in Lion.) And, the developers bring the front-end expertise that they used in the long-ago "Now Up-to-Date" calendar into BusyCal. I say "front end" because the other feature Tom noted -- no need to convert or import a calendar database -- is there because BusyCal is simply a replacement front-end for the MacOS iCal interface to the underlying iCal information. If you decide you absolutely need something only iCal can provide, you simply launch it, do your work, and close it again.

In article <60sf59-82h.ln1@news.sture.ch>, Paul Sture <paul@sture.ch> wrote: > On Tue, 10 Apr 2012 14:46:17 -0700, Bread wrote: > > > I have it and use it. Got it as part of one of those 10 app bundles, so > > it was a super cheap deal. It wasn't the app that I'd actually bought > > the bundle for, so for me, it was effectively a freebie, and, I think, a > > win. > > Where do you find these cheap bundles? I haven't come across any. Macintouch mentions some on its front page at the bottom, perhaps once a month or so. I'm on the Macworld mailing list so I get notice of ones they sponsor.

In article <0001HW.CBAAE97B0000F4B4B038C9DF@news.virginmedia.com>, Mike Lane <mike.lane.usenet@ntlworld.co.uk> wrote: > >I use it as my default calendar with Lion and haven't had any problems. It >syncs quite efficiently between my two Macs at home via iCloud, and also has >a few useful features lacking in iCal such as banner events which can span a >number of days Mike, what is a "banner event"? I know how to create multiday events in iCal, but perhaps BusyCal offers a variation on that capability that I would find useful. Patty

On 2012-04-11 08:29:26 +0000, Paul Sture said: > On Tue, 10 Apr 2012 14:46:17 -0700, Bread wrote: > >> I have it and use it. Got it as part of one of those 10 app bundles, so >> it was a super cheap deal. It wasn't the app that I'd actually bought >> the bundle for, so for me, it was effectively a freebie, and, I think, a >> win. > > Where do you find these cheap bundles? I haven't come across any. There are a few which run every six months or so, and there's also a couple which just offer a single app at a substantial discount daily. MacUpdate Promo is at http://mupromo.com (And they keep track of everything you've bought through them, including registration keys. It's really quite nice.) They have both daily and bundle deals. MacZot has a daily deal at http://maczot.com ProductiveMacs has bundle deals at http://www.productivemacs.com/ (They just finished one which included BusyCal, Fantastical, NoteBook, LaunchBar and Default Folder X.) Nova Development (who makes Parallels) also sometimes has bundles.

On Wed, 11 Apr 2012 17:25:42 UTC, Patty Winter <patty1@wintertime.com> wrote: > > In article <0001HW.CBAAE97B0000F4B4B038C9DF@news.virginmedia.com>, > Mike Lane <mike.lane.usenet@ntlworld.co.uk> wrote: > > > >I use it as my default calendar with Lion and haven't had any problems. It > >syncs quite efficiently between my two Macs at home via iCloud, and also has > >a few useful features lacking in iCal such as banner events which can span a > >number of days > > Mike, what is a "banner event"? I know how to create multiday events > in iCal, but perhaps BusyCal offers a variation on that capability > that I would find useful. Unless I'm mistaken, they are the same thing. -- John Varela

On Wed, 11 Apr 2012 11:56:40 -0700, Bread wrote: > On 2012-04-11 08:29:26 +0000, Paul Sture said: > >> On Tue, 10 Apr 2012 14:46:17 -0700, Bread wrote: >> >>> I have it and use it. Got it as part of one of those 10 app bundles, >>> so it was a super cheap deal. It wasn't the app that I'd actually >>> bought the bundle for, so for me, it was effectively a freebie, and, I >>> think, a win. >> >> Where do you find these cheap bundles? I haven't come across any. > > There are a few which run every six months or so, and there's also a > couple which just offer a single app at a substantial discount daily. > > MacUpdate Promo is at http://mupromo.com (And they keep track of > everything you've bought through them, including registration keys. > It's really quite nice.) > > They have both daily and bundle deals. > > MacZot has a daily deal at http://maczot.com > > ProductiveMacs has bundle deals at http://www.productivemacs.com/ (They > just finished one which included BusyCal, Fantastical, NoteBook, > LaunchBar and Default Folder X.) > > Nova Development (who makes Parallels) also sometimes has bundles. Thanks very much. I'll look into those. -- Paul Sture

In article <60sf59-82h.ln1@news.sture.ch>, Paul Sture <paul@sture.ch> wrote: > On Tue, 10 Apr 2012 14:46:17 -0700, Bread wrote: > > > I have it and use it. Got it as part of one of those 10 app bundles, so > > it was a super cheap deal. It wasn't the app that I'd actually bought > > the bundle for, so for me, it was effectively a freebie, and, I think, a > > win. > > Where do you find these cheap bundles? I haven't come across any. There's an app called MacBundleWatcher which tracks most of these deals: <http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/35439/mac-bundle-watcher> -- Ed H.