google-calendar posts

Scott's GMail Alert is a kick-ass GMail, Google Calendar, and RSS notifier

by Lee Mathews Oct 13th 2009

Plenty of apps will give you a simple tap on the shoulder when new mail arrives arrives in your GMail inbox. There's GMail Assistant, GMail Notifier, GMail Notifier Plus, and of course Google offers their own app.

Today's entrant into the battle for GMail notification supremacy -- Scott's Gmail Alert -- has a lot going for it. Way more than just the fact that it doesn't use the word notifier in its name.

SGA can check up to five different GMail accounts including those in your Google Apps domains. Set custom color for your accounts and create as many as ten special alerts to make sure emails from VIPs stand out. Font settings can also be customized, and Aero Glass is supported on Windows 7 and Vista.

Tags: alert, alerter, atom, gmail, google-calendar, notifier, rss, scoots-gmail-alert

Filed under: Web services, Google, Web

Google integrates Picasa, Google Docs, calendars, etc with Google Sites

by Brad Linder Oct 10th 2009

For ages people have been wondering when Google was going to roll out the mythical "GDrive" that would allow users to upload files to a Google server and access them from a single place. Well, that still hasn't quite happened yet, because you can't exactly add Google as a shared network drive (without using third party software) and backup your files. But Google rolled out a new feature this week that does make it easy to access data uploaded to several of its most popular services all from one place: Google Sites.

Google Sites is the company's web page/wiki builder. You can create a single web page or a series of interlinked pages using a simple web page editor, and you can share your sites with a small group of collaborators or with the whole world.

Now Google has added a new "Insert" button that lets you add items stored in other Google services including Google Docs, Google Calendar, Google Maps, and Picasa Web Albums. You can also upload photos directly to Picasa from Google Sites.

In other words, you can access many of the files uploaded to various Google products all from one place. What's interesting is that Google still gives you separate bits of storage space for each service. Files uploaded to Picasa don't affect the amount of space available in your Google Docs account, for example. And you still can't access all of your uploaded files in all Google services. But it's starting to look like Google is working toward better integrating all of its products.

[via Google Operating System]

Tags: google-calendar, google-docs, google-maps, google-sites, picasa, wiki

Filed under: Google

Google Calendar adds holidays, sports calendars, birthdays

by Brad Linder Sep 3rd 2009

Google Calendar has just added a few new options to the "add calendars" section. When you select "browse interesting calendars," you'll see the option to add public and religious holidays for dozens of countries. There's also a new Sports section that lets you add the schedules for sports leagues in Baseball, basketball, hockey, rugby, soccer, and American football.

And if you click the "More" tab you'll see an option to add the birthdays of contacts in your Google address book.

The beauty of Google Calendar is that each of these items is added as a separate calendar. Want to see your personal appointments without all the clutter? Just unselect the sports, holiday, and birthday calendars in your sidebar temporarily to make those appointments go away.

In related news, if you're too lazy to add all the appropriate holiday calendars to your site and just want to figure out whether it's a holiday today or not, there's a single-purpose web site for that. It's called... are you ready for this? IsItAHolidayToday.com. It doesn't have the most comprehensive list of holidays I've ever seen, but if it did, you'd probably see a holiday every single day.

Tags: birthdays, calendars, google-calendar, holidays, sports

Filed under: Macintosh, Office, Productivity, Beta

BusyCal is like iCal Pro, and it's now in public beta

by Jay Hathaway Aug 4th 2009

BusyCal is a calendar app for OS X, and its developers would like you to think of it as "iCal Pro." It's designed for families and small groups, and includes a handful of syncing features that make collaborating on a calendar a lot easier. BusyCal syncs to Google Calendar, and it syncs to multiple machines over a Bonjour network, which is ideal for a multi-user home or an office.

Design-wise, it's like iCal with a lot of nice usability improvements. It's close enough in terms of layout and features that iCal users shouldn't have any trouble switching, and it imports your iCal calendars automatically when you start it up for the first time. Among many, many other features, BusyCal also does iPhone syncing, multi-user editing, and a customizable list view. If you're already an iCal or Google Calendar user, it's well worth giving BusyCal a shot.

Tags: beta, busycal, busymac, calendar, gcal, google-calendar, ical

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Productivity, Open Source

Sync Outlook and multiple Google Calendars with Remote Calendars

by Brad Linder Apr 22nd 2009

Google Calendar Sync does a decent job of letting you synchronize Microsoft Outlook and Google Calendar - if you only have a single Google Calendar you want to synchronize. But if you keep separate Google Calendars for work, personal appointments, or other activities then Google Calendar Sync is of limited use, since it will only synchronize your primary calendar.

But where there's a will, there's a third party plugin. Remote Calendars is an open source add-on for Outlook 2003 and 2007 that lets you subscribe to any online calendar that uses the iCal format. And that includes Google Calendar.

Installation is a bit tricky. Once you download and unzip Remote Calendars, make sure to open the Prerequisites folder and run both applications (or better yet, read the instructions) before running the Remote Calendars setup utility. You'll know it worked if you're greeted with a configuration screen the next time you run Outlook.

Once Remote Calendars is installed you should see a new toolbar in Outlook that lets you add or remove remote calendars. You can copy and paste the URL found in your Google Calendar settings.

[via gHacks]

Tags: google-calendar, google-calendar-sync, outlook, remote-calendars

Filed under: Windows, Productivity, Freeware

GMinder brings Google Calendar alerts to your desktop

by Brad Linder Mar 30th 2009

Google Calendar may be a handy tool for keeping track of upcoming appointments because you can open it from any web browser. But sometimes a desktop tool can be more effective, because you don't need to open a web site to glance at your upcoming meetings.

GMinder is a desktop utility for Windows that hangs out in your system tray and sends you an alert when a Google Calendar appointment is nearing. You can also click the button to bring up a window with a list of upcoming appointments.

You can configure GMinder to work with any calendars linked to your account. In order to set up GMinder, just enter your Google username and password and click the download button to grab a list of available calendars. Click the check boxes next to the ones you want to see. You can also assign each calendar a color to make it easy to tell which calendar each appointment is linked with.

[via Lifehacker]

Tags: gminder, google-calendar

Filed under: Internet, Office, Productivity, Web services, Google, Beta, web 2.0

Google Calendar adds Gears support, now available offline

by Lee Mathews Mar 4th 2009

In late January, Google began offering Gears support for your GMail account and now Google Calendar has received offline superpowers as well. Right now the feature is really only handy for getting a look at what's on your schedule: it's read-only, so you can't edit or add events for synchronization later. Since GMail already provides a more complete set of offline features, hopefully we'll see increased functionality in Calendar in the near future.

If you're not using a desktop calendar application with CalDav to do this already, it's a nice reassurance to know that your Calendar data is accessible right in your browser even if you're temporarily without an internet connection.

If you haven't installed the Gears plugin for your browser yet, you'll need to do that, of course. Get it from Google, then flip the switch on your Calendar. Alex at Google OS noted an error message regarding events beyond June 4, 2009, though my calendar imported without issues. Of course, the feature - and Google Calendar itself, for that matter - is still in beta, so bugfixes and enhancements are no doubt already in the works.

[ via Google OS ]

Tags: google-calendar, google-gears, offline

Filed under: Internet, Productivity, Freeware, Social Software, Web

Track your Twitter history in your favorite calendar app

by Lee Mathews Feb 12th 2009

If you use Twitter for more than just messaging - for example, tracking expenditures or appointments - you may want to take a look at Twistory. It's a handy web tool that creates a calendar feed for your past status updates.

Simply enter your Twitter username where requested, and Twistory creates a feed that you can subscribe to in a compatible calendar application like iCal, Windows Calendar, Outlook, or Google Calendar.

Want to track multiple accounts? No problem. There's no limit to the number of feeds you can create with Twistory. It's also a good way to archive tweets from other users you follow - say, for example, @downloadsquad.

Tags: calendar, google-calendar, ical, twitter

Filed under: Internet, Utilities, Google

Google rolls out offline Calendar access

by Brad Linder Feb 5th 2009

Early last year some folks started finding clues that Google was building offline support for Google Calendar. Now it looks like the company is finally rolling out that feature.

Mark Mathson of Keenpath noticed an offline access button in his Google Calendar yesterday. As you would expect, the service uses Google Gears, which means you'll need to either install Gears for Firefox or Internet Explorer or use Google Chrome, which has it built in.

The feature isn't available for all users yet. But Google seems to be adding it to Google Apps user accounts first, which is unusual since the general public often gets access to new features before the Google Apps crowd.

To find out whether Google's ready to let you read your calendar offline, loging to your Google Calendar account and click the settings link. If you see a tab that says offline, you can configure your settings and download the data from Google Calendar to your desktop. This will let you view your calendar when you're not connected to the internet, ~~and even create, delete, and edit appointments~~. When you connect to the internet again you can synchronize any changes you've made with the server.

Update: Google Calendar will only be available in read-only mode when you're offlinne. That's rather dissapointing.

[via Google Operating System]

Tags: google-calendar, google-gears, offline-access

Filed under: Business, Internet, Windows, Productivity, Google, Web, Windows x64

Track task times in your Google Calendar with a Gadget

by Lee Mathews Feb 4th 2009

There aren't many gadgets on my Vista or Windows 7 desktops yet. I have a hard time finding any that are compelling enough to keep installed. This handy little one from Raneri Web Design, however, is firmly lodged in the sidebar of my workbench computer.

The gCalTasks gadget is a slick desktop timer that integrates with your Google Calendars. Enter your credential and choose the calendar to track your times on - I decided to set up a brand new one specifically for tracking.

Enter a tag line for your task, click start, and then click stop when you're done. Information is automatically sent to your calendar, where the agenda view provides a nice recap of your activities. It's a simple, low-resource way to keep tabs on your time.

Thanks, Ricardo!

Tags: billing, google-calendar, tasks, time-tracking, timer

Filed under: Utilities, Productivity, Google, Browsers, Web

Open Google Calendar in Firefox from any page

by Brad Linder Oct 28th 2008

GCal Popup is a Firefox extension for Google Calendar users too lazy to open a new tab when they want to enter a new appointment or check their calendar. Once the plugin is installed, you'll see a little calendar icon in your status bar. Click it and your Google Calendar will pop up, over the top of whatever page you happen to be visiting. Click the close button and it will go away.

If you're already logged into your Google account you won't even need to login to Google Calendar when the window pops up.

This is listed as an experimental plugin, which means you'll need to register for a Mozilla account and login before downloading. But the add-on seems to be stable enough and hasn't caused my computer to burst into flames. Yet.

[via gHacks]

Tags: firefox-add-on, firefox-extension, gcal-popup, google-calendar

Filed under: Business, Internet, Features, Windows, Macintosh, Blogging, E-mail, Office, Productivity, Web services, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Shareware, Freeware, web 2.0

Should software be native or web-based?

by Jason Clarke Apr 7th 2008

How many of the applications you use on a daily basis are web-based as opposed to locally installed native applications? For me, the answer is way more than I ever would have expected.

Had you asked me this question a few years ago, I would have vehemently denied that the future of development is on the web. As much as I could see and understand the value of a ubiquitously available web-based application, there's just no way to approach the level of power and integration (not to mention the ability to be always-available) that is possible with well conceived and developed desktop software.

Of course, back then I didn't imagine that web applications could become as useful as Google Calendar or Remember the Milk. I also didn't imagine that light - yet still useful - versions of these apps would be available from my mobile phone almost wherever I was.

In fact, and much to my surprise, today most of my personal data today is tied up in online services: Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Backpack, Remember the Milk, Facebook, Newsgator, and Evernote to name just a few.

Most of these are probably pretty familiar names, but one is a newcomer in the web space: Evernote. Still in beta, the new version of Evernote contains a full-featured web version, but synchronizes seamlessly with desktop software on either Windows or Mac platforms. And it's a breath of fresh air.

Tags: backpack, ecto, evernote, facebook, feeddemon, gmail, google-calendar, google-docs, google-gears, google-reader, marsedit, native-applications, native-software, netnewswire, newsgator, omnifocus, online-applications, remember-the-milk, scribefire, tweet-this, web-based, windows-live-writer

Filed under: Weekend Review

Download Squad Week in Review

by Brad Linder Mar 15th 2008

This week saw an odd migration of geeks in and out of Austin. Early this week the tech geeks all left the capital of Texas en mass, while music geeks all boarded trains, plains and autos headed for Austin. And if you're still suffering from jetlag and whiplash, here are a few stories you may have missed.

Download Squad SXSW2008 coverage continues

Southy by Southwest Interactive may be over, but we scored some amazing interviews with movers, shakers, and up and comers. Check out our interview with Guy Kawasaki where he discusses his new startup on a budget, Alltop. And keep checking back for more interviews and special coverage from SXSW.

Who needs IE8? Get WebSlices and Activities in Firefox

Last week Microsoft released the first public beta of Internet Explorer 8. And while it's still a pretty early release with serious compatibility issues with many web sites, IE8 does have a few pretty nifty features. And it only took a couple of days for Firefox extensions emulating those features to pop up.

Tags: adobe-air, beta, eatlime, education, evernote, firefox, google-calendar, ie8, sxsw

Filed under: Productivity, Web services, Google, web 2.0

Google to launch offline calendar feature?

by Brad Linder Mar 14th 2008

It looks like Google is preparing to add offline functionality to Google Calendar. A few days ago the folks at the Digital Streets blog noticed that Google seemed to have added some code to the Google Calendar page that would bring up a prompt to install Google Gears for access to 3 months worth of calendar data while you're offline. But once you install Google Gears, nothing happens.

The plot thickened on Thursday when Googlified noticed a new option in the settings section of Google Calendar. Go ahead and check, odds are you'll see an "Offline" tab in your own calendar settings. When you click the tab, you're told to download Google Gears. Unfortunately, once you install Google Gears, nothing seems to happen. Visiting Google Calendar with Gears installed just brings up the plain old Google Calendar with no option to save your data for offline viewing. But we get the feeling that Google wouldn't be adding features to the Google Calendar settings menu if the company didn't plan to activate those features soon.

Tags: google-calendar, google-gears, offline

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