Dear Calendar, We Need To Talk

Dear Calendar, After criticizing Mail recently, I decided the time has come to offer my opinion on you too. After all, like Mail, you’ve been around a long time, for better or worse. First, let me say, I’m impressed with how you’ve matured over the years, especially since the arrival of iCloud last fall. Now, whenever I have an appointment, you keep me on time, no matter the iDevice that I am using. Also, I’m thrilled that you’re playing so nicely with Siri. On my iPhone 4S, I ask her to schedule an appointment and just like that, you grab it, and post it on my iPad and in iCal. Still, I’ve got some suggestions on what else you should do. For one, I’m decidedly underwhelmed by what you can do (and not do) with calendar invitations. Specially, it would be nice if you linked Contact information with those invited to an upcoming event. That way, I could use Calendar to email, call and/or message the person directly without having to go into another app. Also, is it asking too much to be able to send an event to someone? For example, like reminding someone of a lunch date? I’m also unimpressed with your custom event abilities. In iCal, I can schedule the same appointment on multiple days. For example, on a Tuesday, Wednesday, and Sunday. In iOS, you don’t give me that flexibility. You can also get rid of your imitation leather look. If I wanted to use an actual calendar book, I would have bought one and saved myself a lot of money. Either remove your hipster skeuomorphism altogether, or at least give me a way to change your look to suit my tastes. Other apps can do that, so what’s your deal? Finally, and this is a huge pet peeve of mine. I’d like to see the start and end times of each of my events in the list view on my iPhone. You do a great job with this on iPad, but the feature is missing on my phone. Regrettably, it doesn't look like you'll be changing anytime soon, as Apple hasn't announced any changes for you in iOS 6. I understand they’re too excited about their new Maps app right now to care much about you. Oh well, iOS 7 will be here in '13. Maybe Apple will show you some love then. Always your friend, What other ways could Apple improve their native Calendar app? Which calendar app do you use on your iPhone/iPod touch and iPad? Dear X is a new column featured on AppAdvice.com. Do you have any gripes, suggestions, or concerns about certain apps or iDevices that you want us to highlight? Please email: bryan@appadvice.com or contact me via Twitter.

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