Price/Platform: $6.99 (iOS)
Review Version: 5.8
Developer Website: https://readdle.com/products/calendars5
Features: Calendars 5 is a event and task manger that has some “smarts”. The app really exceeds with an easy to use and logical event input and its natural language input capabilities.
First off, the app shares a similar layout to calendar.app, with its main views being year, month, week, day and also a task view. To navigate between the individual month/day/year, just swipe to the left or right, or to jump between a series you can go to the bottom of the screen to the timeline view. Adding events is very straightforward , just tap the plus sign or long hold, and the new event box pops up. To complete the event just add the title, or to create a task, first enter a space. You can then add the usual details (date/time/location/calendar/url/notes/repeat/alerts). One nice detail is when you enter a date, it actually shows you the calendar view, and you can select the time from a grid of hours and minutes versus the scroll wheel approach in most apps. Editing events is just as simple, and you can drag and drop events between different days and different times within a day.
So now to those smarts. One of the more interesting features of Calendars 5 is its natural language input. So if I type in “Watch the Phillies on Friday at 7pm”, it will add a event at 7pm on this upcoming Friday with the title, Watch the Phillies. That is just one example, but you can also ask it to do recurring task, like water the plant every Monday at 9 and it will set it up. Now it does have it limitations, but in general if you keep within its limit it is pretty accurate. In the event it interferes with your titles (it doesn’t like “#” in the title), you can go to settings, edit options, and disable it.
Calendars 5 also handles tasks, and can sync with iOS reminders. While the task view is pretty basic, it does have the advantage that you can choose to have your task appear in your calendar or day/list view. In addition, the app supports syncing with your iOS local calendars and can be connected to google calendars.
Summary: Calendars 5 is an easy to use event manger with logical event creation and editing and support for natural language input.
Pro:
- Natural language input
- Consistent interface between iPad and iPhone
- Month/Day timeline allows for easy navigation
Con:
- Is on the pricey side
- Task manger is limited in functionality
How I use it: Calendars 5 is my primary calendar manger. I really like its iPhone interface and I find the natural language input an efficient tool. Also, there are a lot of little features that are really helpful and provide added functionality. One of my favorites is when adding a date to your event, you can see a calendar view. I find this extremely helpful as it gives me context to the date. Another is the timeline on the bottom of the screen. If you want to skip ahead a few days or months, it is so much easier to just tap the day on it versus swiping on the calendar view (which is visually annoying and can be slightly taxing). One annoyance I have with the app though, is that the text is small and there is no way to adjust it. Otherwise, I personally love this app, and it serves my needs perfectly.
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