A lot of people who don't like it seem to be missing the point. When I want to create an event, I don't want to launch iCal or navigate to Google Calendar, I want to enter the event in as little time and as intuitively as possible.<p>Accessing the app from the menubar solves the issue of speed for me, and the natural language processing lets it all feel intuitive and (dare I say) "magical". It just understands what I'm saying.
It seems beautiful. Still, I am wondering: What's the difference between Fantastical and the billion of others calendar. (And, I really don't mean it in a harsh way as I'm really sad not to be able to try it since I'm on linux).<p>Is it the real-time sync with gcal? Or the smart event parsing..? The prettiness of it?
I use <i>QuickCal</i> [1] together with <i>iCal</i>. Syncing with my Android works over <i>Google Calendar</i> but adding events is way faster with <i>QuickCal</i> and a keyboard for me [2]. I used Google's <i>'Quick add'</i> function for a while but got annoyed about the slow development [3] and the lack of functionality. Also, nothing is as fast as a native app that you can start with a shortcut. I can even switch between calendars in no time and it will tell me if my new event conflicts with an existing one while I type.<p>At the moment, I find the greatest annoyance in broken syncs with Google. Its so annoying, that I tend to use local <i>iCal</i> calendars only now. When you have a Mac Air in your pack, looking up and adding dates is often faster than with the phone anyway. Longterm though, I'm seriously thinking about going for an iPone and <i>MobileMe</i> just to get rid of this annoyance.<p><i>Fantastical</i> looks great and I will give the free trial a shot later. But on first sight I can't see any obvious advantage over my current setup which was only $1.<p>[1] <a href="http://smellypuppy.com/quickcal-desktop/" rel="nofollow">http://smellypuppy.com/quickcal-desktop/</a> $1 in the App Store
[2] To be fair, I'm using a cheap HTC Wildfire and it feels slower every day.
[3] You can't even add a reminder without using the Mouse! At least this was the case till two months ago and it seemed like the dozens of request didn't have an impact.
This is not intended to be a criticism of this specific app but more articulation of the mindset that I'm sure I share with many others. I hope this is interesting to the developers.<p>I probably won't give this app a serious shot because calendaring is something that is so <i>intrinsically</i> web that it's just not compelling otherwise. Immediacy and ubiquity are really the necessary ingredients. I can't install this, link my accounts, etc. I'd much rather hop on any old browser and be done with it. Google does a really good job of it. There are probably a few places to be improved, but it's definitely good. I'd like to see someone go after those things, but I'm much rather seem them done on the web.<p>Surely there are people who'd prefer it your way, but I figured I'd let you know where I'm coming from...
Practically speaking, I almost always enter calendar entries on my phone nowadays. Still, the way it parses the entry in real-time and shows the result is very smart. I expect Google Calendar to copy it immediately since they already have the natural language parsing, but it can be a bit of a shot in the dark whether it gives the right results.
Does this app have its own data store that it syncs with iCal or does it just use the built-in calendar data store? I am always much more skeptical of trusting yet another app to sync properly (no duplications, lags, etc). These apps tend to make life harder since I have to deal with their issues rather than just being a better interface to the same data.<p>I'd love to know.
Just bought it and it looks great. However; it uses 70MB RAM which seems a bit steep for this type of program. It is not possible to move its location in the menu bar which is irritating. An alarm clock/countdown timer would also have been nice, which is really what I need on my Mac.
OK, I'll try it out. iCal is definitely too much of a pain and riddled with numerous serious bugs.<p>In addition to normal language entry and bug fixes, I also need cell phone sync with phones other than iPhone.