Review: BusyCal
- Article 6 of 19
- MacUser, February 2010
As a synchronisation tool, BusyCal leaves a little to be desired, but as an improved version of iCal, it's very good.
Most of us use iCal as our calendar and task organiser, but Apple's software has its limitations. BusyCal, described by its developers as 'iCal Pro', is an attempt to plug many of those gaps.
The interface of BusyCal is similar to iCal's, though a bit more business-like. It mirrors iCal, and when first opened will import all your iCal calendars through Mac OS X's Sync Services, though it won't preserve your iCal calendar groups - you'll have to recreate those in BusyCal. The program will maintain synchronisation with iCal using the same mechanism, so anything you add to BusyCal will end up synchronised with other devices and programs, as well as MobileMe.
If you don't have access to MobileMe, it can also sync with other BusyCal users using Bonjour or by entering the IP address of a Mac you want to sync with. Like iCal, it can subscribe to WebDav calendars and will import any subscriptions you have in iCal.
BusyCal is also able to sync with Google Calendar, as well as subscribe to other people's Google Calendars. This is less than seamless though, since you have to manually set each calendar to sync with Google. Synchronisation is also unreliable and error-prone, in our tests creating duplicates, missing items and getting dates and times wrong.
Where BusyCal works best is in its improvements and additions to iCal. It has functions for automatic backups, and the ability to have alarms for birthdays. It also has a list view for events and To Dos, sticky notes, journal items, recurring To Dos, scrolling month and week views, and a menu bar item for To Dos and alarms. The info palette can also be customised and docked and time zone support is improved over iCal's as well.