Today Flexibits released Fantastical 2.5 for the Mac. There are several notable new features with the new version including Meetup.com integration and support for sending and receiving time proposals for meetings via Exchange, Google, and iCloud.
I run Fantastical on my 27″ iMac in its own screen with 14 days displayed in week view. I think of it as my calendar control center. It’s the only full-screen app I run on my 27″ iMac and it’s glorious. With version 2.5 they’ve added a bunch of great keyboard support to let you move and change events with just the keyboard. That is definitely my favorite feature in the new version. I demonstrate all of the new features in the video below. It’s a free update if you already are a Fantastical for Mac user.
You can now view, create, and edit attachments on iCloud and Exchange
Travel Time! Receive notifications when you need to leave to reach an event on time
Fantastical will now combine identical events that are on multiple calendars
Undo and redo got a lot more powerful
There are quite a few more new features. Indeed so many updates that I made a few videos for the Flexibits team showing off the new features. Below is the “What’s New” video. I’ve been running this update since its early betas, and it’s solid. Head over to Flexibits to learn more.
Apple has recently announced that starting June 15, any Mac app needing access to iCloud data is going to need an app-specific password. While this is a bit of a pain, it provides a significant increase in your security and I’m all for it. The gang at Fantastical asked me to make a video explaining exactly how to make an iCloud app-specific password. This video is for Fantastical, which is my calendaring weapon of choice, but you’ll be going through the same steps with any third party app starting June 15.
Fantastical for iPad and iPhone updated today to version 2.8. The new update includes rich notifications and and haptic feedback on iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. Now in Fantastical on the iPhone 7, when you scroll dates or times, you feel a nice little click under your finger. I like the way developers are doing haptic feedback in their apps. It’s subtle, but useful. I hope other developers follow suit.
The new version also adds a sticker pack with a calendar-themed stickers. They’re animated and useful for doing things, like inviting a friend to lunch. Learn more here.
Today Flexibits released version 2.2 of Fantastical for the Mac. They could’ve easily named this update version 3.0. There are a lot of new features in this update including:
Microsoft Exchange support
Attendee availability support
Dual timezones – Your timezone on the left and your co-worker’s timezone on the right. It’s super-useful.
Background visual refresh
Multiple selections
Better location search
There is a bunch more. Below is a short video I made for the gang at Flexibits showing off the new features of Fantastical version 2.2.
Flexibits has announced the introductory price for Fantastical 2 for Mac is going to end on January 9. Starting January 10, the new price will be $49.99. I really like this app. So much so that I did a whole series of screencasts on it.
This week the other penny dropped for Fantastical. On the heals of their Mac update comes Fantastical for iOS 2.5. There’s a long list of updates and new features including things like 3D Touch on the new iPhones and multitasking.
For me, the big story here is the Apple Watch app. It’s always looked better than the native Calendar app but also been hampered by the fact it’s not a native application. It is now. The native app is much faster, now includes a Fantastical complication, and retains that clean Fantastical design. I’ve switched all my calendar complications over to the new Fantastical.
I spent most of today with my head down on a calendar intensive project. That gave me a good opportunity to kick the tires on the newest version of Fantastical for Mac. Version 2.1 released yesterday and it’s the biggest update since they launched version 2. The new version supports OS X El Capitan, which will be landing on your Mac later this month. So far, my personal favorite new feature is the ability to cut, copy, and paste events and reminders. Quite often I have need to duplicate an event and being able to copy and paste an event with my keyboard is golden.
Navigation is also easier. You can scroll to a specific day or week using the trackpad and you can expand the scope in week and day view by pinching on the trackpad. Related, arrow keys can also now navigate the day, week, and month views.
There is a whole bunch more and you can read the release notes here. If you haven’t played much with Fantastical, I recommend watching my screencasts on the app. You’ll see why I use every day.
Today Flexibits released Fantastical version 2.4 for iPhone and iPad. The big new feature is draft events. You can now save an event as a draft in the middle of event creation and then come back to it later to finish it off. I frequently have need to consult my calendar after I start creating a new event and this feature is really useful. I liked it so much, I made a screencast demonstrating how it works.
Today was meeting day. I drove all over southern California meeting with clients. As it turns out, today was also Fantastical for Apple Watch day.
Flexibits just recently updated Fantastical (App Store)(Website) for iPhone including Apple Watch support and in my travels today I got to use the new Fantastical for Watch App under fire. I like it.
Better Glance
The Apple Calendar glance view feels odd on the Apple Watch. It displays your next event as a block calendar entry with a lot of pixels devoted to drawing the “card” around the text, making the text smaller and the view less attractive.
Fantastical removes the card paradigm and instead gives you a count-down to your next appointment in large text with the event name underneath in slightly smaller text. There is also a view across the top showing your events for the day graphically. Fantastical’s glance view seems more native on the Apple Watch than Apple’s Calendar app.
Apple Calendar on left. Fantastical on right.
Better Appointment List
Moving in to the Fantastical App, it follows a lot of the same principles as Fantastical’s iPhone App’s with a list of all upcoming events scrollable with your finger or the digital crown. Fantastical does a bang-up job of displaying event lists on all platforms. The Apple Watch is no different.
The Apple Calendar app does something similar but instead of a list view, it draws your events on a long scrolling view that includes all the blank areas where there are no events. Using Apple Calendar, if you have a meeting in the morning and nothing else until the next day, you’ll have a whole ‘lotta scrollin’ to see what’s up the following day.
In my mind there is no question between these two implementations. Fantastical’s is better by a long shot.
Update: @JeffCarlson points out Apple Calendar will do a list view following a force touch. I’d still argue that should be default behavior.
Apple Calendar on left. Fantastical on right.
Reminders
I’m still scratching my head on how the Apple Watch shipped without an app to view reminders. We use the Apple Reminders app in our house for several shared lists. Looking at these on my list while I’m in the grocery store makes perfect sense. Now I can see (and check off) reminders on my Apple Watch with the Reminders support in Fantastical.
Force Touch For Event Creation
While in Fantastical you can create new events by tapping on the screen and dictating the event. You can even use the Fanstical syntax. For instance, saying “Write Blog Post about Fantastical at 6pm alarm 15 Slash MS” created an event at 6pm with an alarm 15 minutes earlier and put it in my MacSparky calendar. (If that last bit sounds like sorcery, watch these videos.) One issue with this is that the Apple Watch likes to turn itself off and sometimes does it right in the middle of event creation, which is a drag.
Overall, I prefer the Fantastical interface and design on the Apple Watch over the built-in Apple Calendar application. It does a better job of giving me the calendar and reminder information I need.
The only down side is that Fantastical is not a native app on the Apple Watch. It has to connect with my iPhone to get its data and sometimes you’ve got to watch the spinning animation while it does so. Hopefully we get news of that changing next week at WWDC.
