QuickCal

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The invisible stuff

We recently released version 1.6 of QuickCal for the iPhone. 

There is not much in our latest updates you might notice right away. But there are some huge improvements under the hood which I want to point out to you. 

The biggest improvement is the new engine, which now works even better than our Mac version. This should be noticeable not only when you type stuff but also while using dictation. (Which works perfectly! Try it out!)

We also added a feature to the iOS version that makes creating events for a specific day even faster. If you tap and hold on a given day in both list and month view this will set the date for you and you just have to add the missing pieces (title, time, location). 

We also improved the birthday calendar integration … not only visually but also functionally. Just like in Apples calendar you are presented with contact details when tapping on a person. This way you can easily call that person, write an email or post something on the person's Facebook wall. 

And that still isn't all. You now can launch the app directly to the entry view (if you like even with an app like Launch Center Pro). Switching between views should be a lot faster. iPhone 5 / iOS 6 support…

We don't get a lot of press but I hope you - our users - appreciate the improvements. If you do, please tell your friends about QuickCal and help us by leaving a positive review in the Appstore.

Thanks!  Christian

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Is QuickCal ready for Mountain Lion?

Yes. The current version from the Mac App Store (3.1.2) will continue to work fine. 

Actually it will work even better now since in Mountain Lion there is no need to run iCal/Calendar or any other app in order to sync with iCloud.

Outside of the Mac App Store, you'll need to update to 3.1.3, which we just released today! 

However, where there’s light, there’s shadow.

We submitted 3.1.3 to the Mac App Store a while ago but it got rejected because of our docktile plugin (which is used to dynamically update the icon in your dock with current date).  Apple said they won't allow this anymore with the new "App Sandbox". 

We hope they will change their mind so we can continue to add new features to the MAS version of QuickCal and also keep showing the current date in the dock and Launchpad.

We will submit a bugfix update soon and will debate how to continue after that in case Apple should stick to their decision.

We are also closely watching how Apple treats other apps with the same feature e.g. BusyCal.

We are still positive to be able to stay in the MAS. But in case that we have to take away features or leave the MAS altogether we will try our best to make sure you can continue to use QuickCal outside the MAS without having to purchase it again.

Thanks for your support!

Cheers, Christian

P.S.: Marco Arment wrote a good piece about the current Mac App Store situation with Sandboxing.  

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QuickCal 3.1 Beta 1

Today we're releasing a beta (German and English only, French users must wait for next version) of QuickCal 3.1! This is available only outside of Mac App Store; beta link is here: http://quickcalapp.com/app/quickcal-3.1b1.zip . 

QuickCal 3.1 is focused around iCloud "Reminder Lists". With Lion, Apple split calendars into two; one for events, and one for reminders. This caused QuickCal to be confused, as calendars which normally supported both now only supported one or the other. We're now auto-detecting which calendars support what, and dynamically changing to the most appropriate calendar for the tasks that you're attempting to do.

We're also now adding Alarms to Reminders created in QuickCal that have due dates and times.

We also made huge improvements to the recognition engine. In the past, we've had a requirement that dates/times followed descriptions. We've now removed this requirement; the engine is now extremely flexible!

Changes:

Now will auto-detect which calendars support reminders, and will switch calendars dynamically based on context

Alarms will be created for Reminders which have due dates and/or times

For reminder-only calendars, removed the need to add "todo" to text to flag as a reminder; just type the reminder title and you're done.

Parsing engine does not require event titles to be at the front of the entry text. "For 30m do something", "Until 5pm Block my calendar", "Tuesday at Rob's House, Party 7-11p" all work now

German-Specific Changes:

Support for many more terms which will indicate locations (Danke, Tom!)

Date formats like '23.12.' 

As always, beta software could and probably does have bugs. But we wanted to share some of this with you as we finish French localization efforts. So, if you're adventurous, download away! 

If you are using the current version from the Mac AppStore you probably have to delete that first. (You can redownload it any time.)

And, we'd love feedback in our beta forums!

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Alfredapp Xmas Calendar

It's a special Xmas for our friends since they recently went 1.0! Make sure to give this awesome app a try!

Together we prepared a special treat for the Alfred Xmas Calendar: QuickCal for the Mac is 33% off today!

How does the two play together? The basic set up is pretty simple. Just click here to import the custom search and say “Oh yes!” to add it to Alfred.

Create your event or todo/reminder in Alfred …

… and double check in QuickCal. This way you also get all the features of the native UI (e.g. Conflict detection).

For more advanced usage go to Preferences/Advanced and click on the help icon. You can tweak this combo totally to your liking!

Want to try before you buy? Alfred is free and there is a free trial of QuickCal on our website. Check it out!

P.S.: Make sure to subscribe to our blog or follow us on Twitter, Google+ or Facebook to stay uptodate. We have some amazing news coming very soon.

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QuickCal (iOS) vs. Siri?

We just released QuickCal 1.5 for iOS.

It's not the 2.0 we've been talking about for a while (iPad support, mainly). That version was taking quite a bit of time; all the while we were sitting on a recognition engine that since the last iOS upgrade (1.4.4, back in January) had seen localizations to both German and French as well as a host of improvements! So, we decided to go back to git, branch of 1.4.4 and put aside the 2.0 for a bit, and get these awesome new features out to the public! So now you have it, 1.5 is available! 

On a philosophical note, when Apple introduced Siri recently, we asked ourselves why someone would want to continue using QuickCal instead of or in addition to Siri... Should we kill QuickCal?

Well, we're not going to.

Not everyone likes voice interfaces. 

Not every situation makes voice interfaces appropriate. 

Not everyone is connected to a network all the time.

Not everyone has an iPhone 4S

In addition to this, we've got some one-ups on Siri, and we'll continue to fight her. We believe our 'Smart Reminders' are more useful than what's available, and we're confident we can localize to languages quicker than the Siri machine. 

We also have some cool things in mind for 1.6 … a feature we call “focus mode”.

Where all this is going depends a huge deal on your feedback. So please keep it coming! For feature requests, bug reports and discussion please use our forum here on http://quickcalapp.com or Twitter (@quickcal). Unfortunately we can NOT respond to anything in the AppStore. We like to see stars though ;)

Sincerly, your QuickCal Team

What’s New in Version 1.5

Streamlined UI

Toolbar buttons changed to icons; “today” now shows date (Thanks to Gašper at http://picons.me!) 

Selected view (month or list) will persist between launches

MANY natural language improvements (“now”, “in 3 days”, “for 5h”, and much more)

Exclude Numbers from being parsed with ""

Removed “Please Rate My App” Prompts 

German and French Localization

Numerous Bugfixes

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Behind the scenes

Much of the changes you see in QuickCal 3.0 are the hard work of our new team member Pat Dryburgh. (You may know him from his legendary video "Preparing for John Siracusa's Review of OS X Lion".)

Pat was looking for a quick way to add events to iCal and happened to ping the QuickCal team. His involvement quickly escalated from user to a key contributor. You can read the excellent story on Pat's blog!

If you want to learn more about him you should also check out his sweet setup on Shawn Blancs website.

Its great to have you on the team, Pat!

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Mac OS X Lion and the QuickCal Dock Icon

One of the things you may have noticed in QuickCal 3.0 is, after you've clicked the dock icon, that nothing seems to happen! The glowing indicator under the icon doesn't light up. It may not even show up in your Dock initially.

There's actually a reason we did this, and it has to do with Mac OS X Lion.

When using apps in fullscreen mode in Lion, you can't activate another application in the same space, unless the application is just a window, without a menu, or a running application in the dock. If you switch to another "normal" application, you'll be jarringly pulled out of your fullscreen application.

… and being ripped out of what you're working on to "quickly" enter an event? That wasn't going to work for us.

So, QuickCal will only show the menu bar icon. You have to drag the Dock icon manually to your Dock from Launchpad or the application folder.

Why would you want to do that? Even though you'll never see QuickCal running in your dock, you'll definitely want to have it in your dock anyways. Clicking it is another easy way to bring up the entry window. The date dynamically changes, and it's a lot sexier than iCal's. ;-) Plus you can drag text onto it, which then will show up in your entry window.

BTW: Thanks to John Henry Müller and Whatcheer.com for that beauty.