I've been using iCal off and on for a few weeks now.
Overall, it's interesting. Apple's done an OK job with the interface, and certainly sparked a little bit of innovation. People are thinking about calendars differently now that calendars can be shared and subscribed to. I remember attending a conference in 1999 and lamenting that there wasn't an easy-to-use electronic version of the conference program available for PalmOS or any reasonable laptop. With iCal, it looks like we'll start seeing conference calendars published electronically in some format from now on.
At the same time, it's obvious that this is a beta grade product. Performance is abysmal, and seems to degrade over time. Quitting frequently seems to help, especially after you're finished modifying the calendar(s). And it's just barely acceptable in terms of features. It doesn't display conflicting meetings well (as in three concurrent sessions at a conference), and the TODO list is about one step up from keeping long lists of todo entrys in a sticky note or in TextEdit/vi.
Nevertheless, the general interface seems solid: multiple calendars that can be turned on/off, short month view, day/week/month views and a todo list all integrated into one app, with links to the Address Book and Mail.
Perhaps once the kinks get worked out, this will become a truly interesting piece of software.
I haven't started using iCal regularly for two reasons: 1) The performance is abysmal; and 2) To Do items imported from my Palm are not categorized.
I really hope Apple pulls this together, because it seems a shame that there I haven't a really good integrated system for scheduling, to dos, etc. that syncs to my Palm the way I need since I got off of Outlook and Exchange over 2 years ago!
--David
Re:Agreed
pudge on 2002-10-30T19:12:23
I agree with all said here, but I am using it regularly, primarily so my wife and I can share calendars, and so I can sync with the Palm better. If my calendaring needs were greater, it might be different, but I don't have significant calendaring needs to begin with.
