New iCal Alternative with Novel UI and Faster Event Creation

January 7, 2011 in Project Tracking

[prMac.com] Stockholm, Sweden - A new iCal alternative called Caliander was released at the opening of the Mac App Store on Jan 6th. It is the first release from indie developer Little Marauder. Caliander has a novel timeline based UI, faster event creation using common english descriptions, and a global keyboard shortcut for adding events from anywhere and at any time. Since it uses the same calendar database as iCal, it syncs just as usual, and there is no need to migrate old calendars.

Novel Timeline Based Presentation:
Caliander doesn't use the conventional paper calendar layouts in favor of a novel, dynamic timeline layout, which can be panned and zoomed freely. The dynamic layout avoids the problems with static layouts: seeing the past instead of the future at the end of the month, not enough space for busy days, and wasted space for other days.

Also novel is the so called perceptual mode, which squeezes together the distant future to show the more important near future in greater detail. This means that Caliander can show a detailed daily schedule while still reminding the user of things coming up in the next couple of days.

Faster Adding of Events with Common English Descriptions:
To create a new event in Caliander, press Command-N, enter a common english description like "fri 5pm After Work at Bagpiper's Inn" or "feb 3-10 Vacation" and press Return to create an event. This is often five times faster since it avoids having to move between several fields using the mouse or Tab key. Caliander also supports all the usual ways of creating events, like double clicking directly in the calendar view and filling out different fields.

Global Shortcut for Adding Events:
To make adding events even faster and more convenient, the user can specify a global keyboard shortcut for adding events. The global shortcut works from any application and even works without Caliander running.

No Lock In--Syncs as Usual:
Caliander uses the Mac Calendar Store, the same calendar database as iCal uses. Events added in Caliander instantly appear in iCal and vice versa. This means that no migration is needed, that calendars are synchronized with the user's devices as usual, and that things are not stuck in some proprietary format.

System Requirements:
* Mac OS X 10.6.0 or later
* 2.0 MB

Pricing and Availability:
Caliander 1.0.1 is $18.99 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies) and available worldwide exclusively through the Mac App Store in the Productivity category.

Andreas Jarliden founded Little Marauder after being dissatisfied with all the calendar alternatives for the Mac and decided to develop Caliander. The Little Marauder enjoys making software for the Mac that simplifies and have a clear focus and excellent quality. Little Marauder is situated in Stockholm, Sweden. Copyright (C) 2011 Little Marauder. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPod and iPad are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.

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Andreas Jarliden
Founder
Sweden

Productivity  Time Line  Events  iCal  Dynamic  Schedule  Daily Planner  Mac OSX