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Utilities (Apple) Businesses Software Apple

iCal 1.5.2 Released 98

Posted by pudge from the i-am-waiting-for-iLife-04.1 dept.
cigaar writes "iCal 1.5.2 has been released by Apple. You can download it through Software Update. From iCal's Help page: 'iCal 1.5.2 gives you the option of viewing your calendar, event, or To Do information in a drawer or in a separate window (using the Detach Info command in the Window menu), and includes improved alarm performance and other reliability enhancements.'"
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iCal 1.5.2 Released More

iCal 1.5.2 Released

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  • I prefer no drawers :) (Score:4, Interesting)

    by JHromadka ( 88188 ) on Monday January 19, 2004 @07:01PM (#8025791) Homepage
    Thank goodness that Apple made it an option to use the drawer input style or a separate window for appointment editing. Even on my Powerbook's widescreen, it seemed to take up too much room.

    • Re:I prefer no drawers :) (Score:5, Interesting)

      by rlowe69 ( 74867 ) <ryanlowe_AThotmailDOTcom> on Monday January 19, 2004 @07:29PM (#8026047) Homepage
      I second that. I have a 12" iBook screen. :P heh

      Even though it's 1024x768 that drawer was a serious waste of horizontal real estate. Enough people bitched about it that it got fixed in a few months. The feedback cycle is working, us Mac users should use it to our advantage to make the products that much better.
      • Seems to work for us - they're doing this kind of thing a lot recently, like making iTMS go international.

        Sounds good - I just wanna see what comes next :-)

      • Re:I prefer no drawers :) (Score:5, Interesting)

        by thatguywhoiam ( 524290 ) on Monday January 19, 2004 @08:44PM (#8026995)
        Even though it's 1024x768 that drawer was a serious waste of horizontal real estate.

        It's your perception. I only point this out because this is the classic Macintosh interface tempest in a teapot.

        The new detachable Info windoid is exactly 10 pixels smaller, in its smallest width, than the drawer was. It can get much shorter than the drawer, but that does not make it more functional, in this instance. Safe to say, both drawer and windoid constructs basically take up the same amount of room.

        Now, you could make an argument that having the detachable window is better for screen 'real estate' as you can leave just a little piece of it visible, behind the iCal main window, and click it to bring it forward. But you could have also say there's nothing stopping you from just shoving the drawer portion off-screen as well.

        For myself, I think I prefer the drawer. I'm used to being able to see my event Info (in month view) when iCal is in the background - now I can't, because an app not in the foreground on OS X will make its support windoids disappear. There are always trade-offs.

        In the rare case where neither one is demonstrably better, a choice is good, and its nice that Apple is listening.

        • Re:I prefer no drawers :) (Score:4, Insightful)

          by rlowe69 ( 74867 ) <ryanlowe_AThotmailDOTcom> on Monday January 19, 2004 @11:47PM (#8028394) Homepage
          For those of us with small screens, having to leave "room" for a drawer to pop out visibly is a waste. If I make iCal the width of the screen without the drawer, the drawer will just pop out off the screen and I'll have to move the iCal window over just to see it, losing the left side in the process. This is annoying.

          I want to maximize the width of iCal so I can read more on the calendar. I can't do that if I need to leave space for a drawer to pop out.

          Now, you could make an argument that having the detachable window is better for screen 'real estate' as you can leave just a little piece of it visible, behind the iCal main window, and click it to bring it forward.

          IMO, the popup window is much better because now I don't have to resize or move the iCal window whenI want to see the info. By the way, you can pop up and close it with Command-I, which is a lot easier than mousing over to a visible piece of it.

          Unless you have the horizontal space to pop out the drawer without it going offscreen, I think detachable window is easier to use. But you're right, we're entitled to our own opinions.
          • Actually, if you have it the full size of the screen, it automatically resizes itself to make room for the drawer, although this might have been a new addition in this version...
          • For those of us with small screens, having to leave "room" for a drawer to pop out visibly is a waste. If I make iCal the width of the screen without the drawer, the drawer will just pop out off the screen and I'll have to move the iCal window over just to see it, losing the left side in the process. This is annoying.

            I agree, that is annoying. I have a 12" PB myself so I sympathize. Usually I go with the 'overlapping' approach but I find I need to constantly see the item info, in my daily work.

            IMO, th

            • (Also I wish Apple would be more consistent with this. The iCal Info windoid vanishes when iCal isn't active, as it should. The Safari Download windoid always hangs around.)

              Actually, they are consistent. The Safari Download "windoid" is really a window, as you can see from the full size title bar. Unlike windoids, windows do (and should) stay visible when the application isn't in the foreground.

        • Yeah. Between Mail, iCal, and Calculator, I expect the drawer to be there...not some loose, floating, separate windown. I've become too atached to my drawers to be free of them. Viva la drawers!

        • Re:I prefer no drawers :) (Score:5, Insightful)

          by djupedal ( 584558 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @01:33AM (#8028968)
          But of course...

          It's your perception.

          Perception is integral to the use of any GUI.

          I believe the key is an individual's dependence (or lack thereof) on various perceived elements, that is really at work.

          • Re:I prefer no drawers :) (Score:5, Insightful)

            by thatguywhoiam ( 524290 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @03:13AM (#8029366)
            Perception is integral to the use of any GUI....I believe the key is an individual's dependence (or lack thereof) on various perceived elements, that is really at work.

            I completely agree with this statement. I only point out that one's impression of a certain UI implementation as wrong doesn't necessarily make it so. Sometimes a method is demonstrably inferior. In this case, there are strong points for both drawer and windoid methods, and a strong split amongst the userbase as to which is appropriate -- the correct thing for Apple to do is to offer a choice. Which is of course what they did.

            I find that often a UI method is strongly preferred by a user if it is the first way they have been exposed to. Alt-tab switching is a good example, or the endless vi vs. emacs debates.

    • I've got to agree that the drawer-style info display for iCal was one of the most profoundly crap updates I can ever think of being made to a program. As one of the probably thousands who sent feedback bitching about this, I'm very glad Apple have listened to us.

  • Umm... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Okay, I have a couple of Macs, and I love 'em and all...but why the fuck does a minor version update to Apple's calendar program merit a /. story? Jesus, slow news day...
    • And why not? Just shows how geeks drool over anything and everything Apple has to offer.

      What a bleak and horrible future we live in.
    • I would have to agree. Either /. is becoming easier or this is a major upgrade. I updated iCal, but i didn't change anything...I like my drawer. Rather unworthy of a /. update.

      • Unworthy of a main page /. story, sure, but I think any software update is suitable for the Apple-specific section. At least it gives us all a common place on /. to bitch about^h^hcomment on the update.

    • Re:Umm... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Maserati ( 8679 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @01:34AM (#8028973) Homepage Journal
      How about: Apple fixed an interface problem ? A major software company responded to user feedback ? A *really* robust iCal might someday interoperate with Entourage...

      No, none of that is news. Some of it is speculation.

      • Re:Umm... (Score:3, Insightful)

        by mbbac ( 568880 )
        No, a really robust Entourage might one day interoperate with iCal. iCal already uses an established iCalendaring standard and can already use Outlook's iCalendar files. I'm not sure what Entourage uses.
    • I don't think the main point of these smaller "news" items is to tell the world about their subject, but to give people a place to talk about them.
    • You think that's exciting, wait until you see what's coming in 1.5.3!

  • At least there's one thing it fixes ... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by pvera ( 250260 ) <pedro.vera@gmail.com> on Monday January 19, 2004 @07:30PM (#8026057) Homepage Journal
    The iCal notifications got broken when I upgraded to Panther. This patch seems to have fixed the issue. I rember I went as far as emailing Apple to tell them about it, but no feedback whatsoever. I guess somebody was listening :-)

    • Re:At least there's one thing it fixes ... (Score:5, Informative)

      by beelsebob ( 529313 ) on Monday January 19, 2004 @08:39PM (#8026925)
      Don't e-mail apple, send them a bug report

      Apple bugreporter [apple.com]

      Bob

      • Don't send a bug report... (Score:4, Informative)

        by Trillan ( 597339 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @02:02AM (#8029118) Homepage Journal

        Choose Provide iCal Feedback from the iCal menu and choose Bug Report from the list of options. It takes you to the iCal Feedback [apple.com] page.

        If you do anything else, you're just causing them extra work.

        Whatever you do, don't expect a reply.

        • There are two reasons why I suggested using bug reporter rather than the iCal feedback page:
          • This was a bug in the app, not simply "I love iCal" or "I hat iCal" - it needed to go to the engineering team, not via the minions who have to sit there filtering all the feedback.
          • If you want feedback on an issue then use the bug reporter - I've never had apple not come back to me saying at least "This issue couldn't be duplicated", and I've had as good as "Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention, pleas

          • I am not a person to submit many bug reports. Maybe ten reports since the introduction of 10.2. They were always very detailed and contained my contact information. Guess how often Apple contacted me. Yep, never.

            One of the bugs that I reported forced me to sell my iPod since I was unable to get it to work with my new Mac. Apple's support forums are full with complains about this same issue. Do you how many replies Apple wrote? You guessed it: none. Not even one saying they are aware of the problem.

            Sometim

    • iCal 1.5.1 also broke the alarm system for me under 10.2.8. The latest upgrade makes them work again. Yay!

  • Two-way calendar sync (Score:5, Insightful)

    by David McBride ( 183571 ) <david+slashdot@ d w m.me.uk> on Monday January 19, 2004 @07:59PM (#8026476) Homepage
    I've been playing with iCal and WEB-DAV servers recently for work, and I really like iCal. But one thing I discovered today is that the synchronization doesn't run both ways -- a subscribed can't updated a calendar that someone else has published.

    Which is a shame, because it would be a lot better than the ad-hoc mechanisms I've got right now.

    • Here, here. (Score:4, Informative)

      by waldoj ( 8229 ) * <waldo@@@jaquith...org> on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @01:04AM (#8028847) Homepage Journal
      I've been playing with iCal and WEB-DAV servers recently for work, and I really like iCal. But one thing I discovered today is that the synchronization doesn't run both ways -- a subscribed can't updated a calendar that someone else has published.

      This is a real problem for me, and I'm glad to hear somebody else mention it.

      I spend 90% of my computing time on my PowerMac desktop. About 8% (I'm plainly talking out of my ass here) is spent on my iBook, and 2% on other people's computers (friends, computer labs on my college campus, etc.) I use iCal on my PowerMac as the master calendar, and I publish that calendar to my server via WebDAV. I subscribe to that calendar in iCal on my iBook, and I use WebCalendar [sourceforge.net] to reproduce my calendar on my website. I also sync my Palm and my phone with my desktop regularly, such that I can maintain my calendar on those. This system is really helpful, because I have such a scheduled, busy life that I really couldn't function without a decent calendar system.

      The problem, of course, is that I can only make changes when I'm sitting at my desktop. Changes on my Palm or phone are overwritten next time that I sync. (iSync's valiant efforts notwithstanding.) Changes made via the website and are lost, and iCal on my iBook will not permit me to make changes to the calendar, because it's a subscription.

      I want to make changes on my iBook the same way that I can read and reply to e-mail in Mail.app when I'm not on a WiFi network -- it should synch next time that I get a connection. Likewise, I should be able to do so with the website version, my phone, etc.

      The problem here, as best as I can tell, is that the calendar isn't really stored on the WebDAV server -- it's mirrored on the WebDAV server. My PowerMac doesn't get its data from the WebDAV server, it simply publishes it to that server. I want iCal to use the WebDAV server just like Mail.app uses IMAP -- the server is master, and all else synchs to it.

      I'd sure appreciate suggestions or tips from anybody that can suggest a solution to this, or some sort of a hack that's available for iCal to make it work in this manner.

      -Waldo Jaquith

      • Re:Here, here. (Score:2, Informative)

        by herberts ( 648935 )
        How about you mount a WebDAV Volume using the Finder and make iCal store the Calendar locally?

        Using symlinks can also help.

      • DotMac (Score:5, Informative)

        by slashusrslashbin ( 641072 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @12:18PM (#8032591)
        This kind of two-way synchronization is what you pay top-$$$ for .Mac for; and it works.

        I keep up to three Macs and my Sony Ericsson T68i synced up this way, and it works fine (Bookmarks, Calendar, Address Book). I can enter new events, new bookmarks etc. on .Mac when I'm at work on a PC, and retrieve them through iSync when I get back home.

        The WebDAV iCal publishing thing is only one-way, and will remain one-way because Apple want you to buy .Mac ...
      • Well, this may not be a solution to most of us, but I keep certain calendars on my own webDav server, and edit them right there (using a text editor).

        But that is - as I said - not the solution you are looking for.

        Bye

        Alex
    • That's actually good for us in my department: it means we can all see what each other is up to, but managers can't pencil in appointments under someone else's name, and people can't accidentally delete each other's stuff.

      I admit, though, it would be nice to have a "let this calendar be editable by others" button.
    • Probably because iCal is not real groupware....

      If you want a real calendar solution I would look elsewhere. iCal is much too young of a calendar to do things like that.

      Lotus Notes, Exchange, all do real calendaring (well better then iCal). You probably need some sort of server if you want people to be able to edit your calendars properly.
      • At work we have Groupwise. Although the interface could be better, it's actually quite powerful. I can see the whole office's email/calendars/etc, it's easy to send appointments to people and lots of other nifty things. Pity the phone book sux (or maybe its our implementation). This works over an organisation of 60 000.

        iCal, and Macs in general, still aren't geared towards The Enterprise (large business organisation, not the spaceship). They still seem to be Personal Computers.
    • Reading this note made me wonder about setting up WebDAV on my own OS X box, and instead of asking the quesiton, I looked for the answer (!) and I found this helpful page:
      http://www.gregwestin.com/webdav_for_ical.php [gregwestin.com]
      so I thought I'd post a link to it.
    • a subscribed can't updated a calendar that someone else has published.

      Well if you could then you'd be the publisher. If I were publishing something I wouldn't want subscribers changing it.

  • Detaching Drawers! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Steveftoth ( 78419 ) on Monday January 19, 2004 @08:15PM (#8026653) Homepage
    Apple should make detaching a drawer part of the OS! For those of you that like drawers, great, but some people like them to be floating. They are first class windows to the OS so it would be possible without re-writing the drawer code.

    Well, maybe on second though they should rather create a sub-class of drawer that is detachable and thus all FUTURE drawers could be detachable.
  • Good god, talk about Slow News Day. It's an insignificant point release. They turned a drawer into a bleeding panel, not water into wine.

  • Magically moving dates not fixed (Score:3, Informative)

    by morcheeba ( 260908 ) * on Monday January 19, 2004 @08:28PM (#8026767) Journal
    Does anyone else have this problem? I've got the EFF's calender [webcal] loaded in, and when I click on the checkbox that enables/disables viewing of this, I'll get different events.

    For example, I'll click on and I'll get an event on monday and another on friday. Then I'll click off, and then on again, and I'll get a different event on tuesday and another different event on saturday. If I do it again, It'll randomy switch between three different events (only one visible at a time) and it seems purely random. This update didn't fix that.
  • Is there any way using iCal to show ONLY the to-do list? I'm currently using Stickies for a to-do list and I'd like something more useful.

    • Re:Show ONLY todo's? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by tupps ( 43964 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @01:07AM (#8028857) Homepage
      This sounds like the kind of thing you are after:

      http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macos x/ 19135

      I saw it on version tracker the other day but I use the iCal and sync with my phone and/or palm and check todos off of them.

    • <shameless-plug>

      If you're serious about to-dos, take a look at Life Balance [llamagraphics.com]. It will not only maintain your to-do list, but help you prioritize it and show you (in pie charts) how you've been spending your time.

      </shameless-plug>

      --Stuart

      • Err. Yeah. But my problem with all the todo list managers out there today is that they don't keep it simple. Too much screen real estate (iCal), or too much overhead to see what's up (CheckOff), or too much cpu time (iCal), or tries to do too much (Life Balance) or...

        I just want something simple. Todo list, always visible but not too much space, with a notes side-panel and alerts. Like Stickies, but with a notes panel or something. And alerts.

  • I wonder (Score:2, Funny)

    by Selecter ( 677480 )
    if my life will ever be complicated enough to need a program like iCal? :(

    When is Apple gonna bring out iSex? To hell with this....

  • and it's iCal. I like to see an update every now and then (you know, because 2 months without _anything_ just seems creepy), but iCal? That's it?
  • Unfortunately this upgrade doesn't yet add any substantial context menu support. (Right mouse click for those of you corrupted by XP)

    For instance to delete an entry you can either hit the delete key on the keyboard or go up to the Edit menu and select Delete. But you can't right-click on the entry and delete. I'm rather surprised at this lackluster context menu support now after all these years with many OSX application by Apple! For instance iTunes has excellent context menu support now. Yet even ap

  • Process (Score:1, Informative)

    by gunnmjk ( 734032 )
    When NOT running the new verison of iCal, you'll notice user process "iCalAlarmScheduler" running, which I never noticed before. Turn off by selecting "Turn off alarms when iCal is not open" in the iCal preferences.
  • I m looking to drum up some support for the improvement of task scheduling in iCal (which is really non existant). Date/appointment handling is adequate in iCal. However, the task handling is poor especially in the area of task scheduling. For those of us who have a large number of todo's the only real way of getting through them is to specify chunks of time in the calendar booking time with yourself to doa specific task. Palm Desktop has the right idea where you enter your tasks in the todo list and ju

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