Posts tagged Today

Today was recently reviewed on Mac software site MacApper. As part of the review, we did a giveaway where the entry requirements was to suggest features you’d like to see in Today. By far the biggest request was the ability to use the application with Google Calendar.

This is actually already possible! Spanning Sync is an excellent utility that can automatically sync your Google Calendar data with iCal and Today. Here’s a quick tutorial to show you how.

• In iCal, create calendars with the same names as each calendar you have created in Google Calendar. We will use these to sync data between Google Calendar and iCal.
• Download and install Spanning Sync from their Web site. Spanning Sync is a $25 a year subscription or 1-time $65 payment for a lifetime of updates.
• Launch the Spanning Sync preference pane and authenticate with your Google account. This will enable the sync settings window as you can see below.
• For each Google Calendar you want to sync, match it up with it’s corresponding iCal calendar.

• Set your syncing frequency to every hour.
• Press the Sync button. It may take a while to get all your data synchronized between the two services depending on how long you’ve been using Google Calendar.
• Once everything is synced, what you see in Google Calendar will also be in Today. Any changes you make on Google will also be pushed directly to Today each time Spanning Sync runs.

Spanning Sync is a great application for those that want the power and convenience of Google Calendar, but still want to enjoy some of the luxuries of using iCal and applications like Today. If you have any other tips or tricks on how you’re using Today, please do share them with us!

Today uses the same task storage engine as iCal, Apple Mail and any other application that takes advantage of a new framework in Mac OS X Leopard called CalendarStore. This makes it easy to integrate Today’s task functionality with your favorite GTD applications such as OmniFocus or Things.

I’ll show you how I’m using OmniFocus along with Today to have an outside view of my OmniFocus tasks.

1. Open iCal and create a few calendars that will hold your tasks. This is optional, but I have a lot of contexts and they didn’t all perfectly fit in my “Work” and “Personal” calendars. For instance, I setup an “Outside World” calendar that has any of my frequently visited places that I’ve set as contexts.
2. Open OmniFocus’s Preferences window and go to the Sync pane. On the left you’ll see your iCal calendars. On the right will be your unsynchronized contexts.

1. Drag any context that you want to be synced to iCal to the calendar you want it to synchronize to. In my case, I’m only syncing my most important, non-work related tasks over. Usually this is things like errands, bills and phone calls I need to make.
2. Go to the File menu in OmniFocus and select “Synchronize With iCal.” The tasks will automatically be filtered into your Today window’s task pane. It will also pass any task that was already in iCal to your OmniFocus inbox so you can keep them organized as well.

A similar workflow is possible in other applications, so if you have a favorite application you’re syncing with Today, let me know in the comments!

In a few weeks, the most hardcore of the Apple faithful, the developers, will be descending upon San Francisco for this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference. Apple recently released the full schedule of sessions that will be taking place during the session. Using a mix of Today and Adrian Kosmaczewski’s WWDC iCal creator you can have a quick way to see what sessions you plan to be at each day.

Here’s how.

1. Download the iPhone, Mac and IT calendars from Adrian’s site and open them in iCal.
2. Edit them as necessary to only show the events you want to head to.
3. When WWDC week arrives, you can quickly pop open Today to see your schedule as you head from session to session. Couldn’t be easier!

If you’re going to be at WWDC, be sure to come up and say hello. I’ll be the guy wearing the Second Gear t-shirt.

We’re big fans of the Mac software site iusethis. iusethis takes the software update listing site idea to the next level by allowing users to mark each application they use in a Digg-like update.

Presently Today’s iusethis number is pretty small, and certainly not indicative of the number of users that are actively using the application. If you’re using Today, please consider going over to iusethis and adding our application to your profile.

I’d love to get the number of users above 75 by the end of the week. Let’s do it!

Today users around the world are starting to share how they are using the application to make their daily lives easier. Michael R. Grossman, a lawyer in Evanston, IL, is using Today as a way of managing his law practice. He writes:

For now I’ll rely upon Today, a Mac desktop application that displays appointments and tasks on one convenient window, linked with iCal. And since I use iCal and other Mac applications within my practice management workflow, Today will become a regular and useful tool within my daily grind.

If you’re using Today in a fun or unique way, let us know.

One of the best ways to help solidify a new application is to get a review published in one of the major Mac magazines. In the US, Macworld is on top of the heap. Because of this, you couldn’t imagine the joy I experienced when I refreshed my RSS reader and saw that Macworld had published a review of Today 1.1 for their MacGems section.

Dan Frakes writing for Macworld:

On the Mac on which I use iCal, I find Today to be very useful for quickly viewing my commitments for the day… Since I donâ€(tm)t like to keep iCal open when I’m not actively using it, I’ve long wished Apple would offer an easy way to create new events and tasks without having to open iCal each time.

The article is only online presently, but I’m sure it will appear in a future edition of the magazine. If you haven’t tried Today, hopefully Dan’s review will entice you to give it a shot.

If you would like to review Today in your magazine, blog or podcast, be sure to contact us

I have a feeling a lot of new software is going to be coming out today. Why is that? The Apple Design Awards deadline is today!

Second Gear is no different. We have been working hard on an update to address some of the biggest customer requests we’ve received since we released version 1.0 last month. With that in mind, may I present Today 1.1!

Rumor has it people wanted to be able to filter out what calendars show up in Today. Who knew? As of Today 1.1, you can now show as many, or as few calendars as you so desire in Today thanks to our new calendar filtering support. Inside Today’s preferences window you can select what calendars you want to appear in Today’s event and task sections.

Today 1.1 also introduces some other small changes that people have been clamoring for. All-day events now show up as All Day rather than 12:00AM - 12:00PM. You can also set the location of where your events are going to take place. If you want to see everything that has changed, be sure to checkout the changelog.

Download Today 1.1 and give it a shot. We hope you enjoy the update.