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!
I’m not one to let a month go by without a release, so I’m happy to present you all with Today 1.2. Today 1.2 adds a few features I think everyone will find beneficial.
Today will now automatically shift the date forward at midnight. This only happens if you haven’t adjusted the date away from the present day.
You can now edit events and tasks by double-clicking on the item. It will automatically launch in iCal.
The date browser is enhanced so you can navigate ahead more than just a day at a time. Click on the currently selected date to expose the new date picker.
Beyond the new features, there are several other tweaks and bug fixes that we outline in the release notes.
I can’t tell you how excited I am about the stuff we’ve added in Today 1.2. I gave the folks at TUAW a “>video demo and interview about the new features in Today 1.2. I can’t stand to watch the video because I have a phobia of hearing my own voice, but hopefully you will find it beneficial.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
Now that WWDC has wrapped up, we’re back at Second Gear HQ recovering from a long week of sessions on the iPhone, Leopard and the upcoming Snow Leopard. WWDC is a great way to get up to speed on new technologies, get help from Apple engineers on those lingering bugs and issue you run into and to just meet with fellow developers. I’m sure it is no surprise that there aren’t too many Cocoa developers in southern Indiana!
The focus now shifts back to working on getting Today 1.2 released. 1.2 is the biggest update since Today shipped back in April and will offer a lot of great features that people have been clamoring for. I don’t want to announce too much just yet, but it is coming very soon.
Oh and we’re working on an iPhone application. More details soon.
A lot of people have posted their tips on how to get the most out of WWDC over the week. The Knapsack offer great advice on how to get the most out of the conference itself. Joe Goh, on the other hand, offers some advice on how to survive the amenities and social aspects of WWDC. The Mac Developer Roundtable also recently did an episode which offered other tips for new WWDC attendees.
Having been to two WWDCs in the past, I thought I would offer a different set of advice: how to be healthy at WWDC. Conferences like WWDC are great ways to brush up your development skills, meet with friends and colleagues and just take a break from sitting in front of the computer. Conferences like WWDC are also physically draining. Here’s my tips on how to lessen that drain.
Water. Not Juice: Between sessions, and at lunch, there are several stations available that will offer Odwall juices, soda and bottled water. Go for the water. The sodium in the the juices and soda won’t quench your thirst, only make you still feel thirsty. Water will keep you hydrated and your mind fresh.
Avoid the heavy lunch food: Like Joe Goh said, avoid Moscone’s food. I realize it is included in your conference fee, but it’s awful tasting and many times unhealthy. Stuffing yourself with Lasagna and garlic bread in between morning and afternoon sessions is going to make you feel fatigued. Instead, get out of the building for an hour, head to Metreon or a restaurant nearby for foods with food which have a lot of proteins, complex carbohydrates and vitamins in them.
Fruit > Cookies: Picking up on #2, the in-between session snacks usually include cookies, bagels, and fruit. Go for the fruit. It’s probably the same sugar wise, but you are going to fill up on the fruit faster than the cookies because of the water and fiber contents. Less food in your belly equals less of a food coma.
Sleep: While the evening activities associated with WWDC are a great time, you should really try to get 8 hours of sleep a night. If you’re tired, your not going to be able to easily retain information in the sessions and labs.
Exercise: Every morning I start my day with a trip to the hotel gym, or if weather permits, a quick run through the streets of San Francisco. Exercise is a great way to wake your body and mind up. The endorphin production that can occur from a great workout has been shown to be beneficial to your brain function and response.
If you have any other tips you’d like to share, feel free to do so in the comments.
We just released a maintenance update for Today, our daily event and task manager for Mac OS X Leopard. Today 1.1.1 fixes several little issues that user have reported with Spaces, hot key interaction and other small usability issues. We also decided to extend the Today trial period from 7 days to 10 days so you can get a few more days to see if Today is right for you.
Because we don’t like new releases without something new, we’re happy to announce that Today is now localized in French and German. Our thanks go to Ronald Leroux and Leif Singer for their French and German translations respectively.
I wrote about our love of Fluid a few weeks ago, but it occurred that I should do some updates to Porchlight to make it work better in an SSB.
Now if you create a new SSB in Fluid and point it at your Porchlight account’s URL, it will automatically pull in a 512×512 high resolution Porchlight icon to use as the application icon. Very nice!
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.
Download the iPhone, Mac and IT calendars from Adrian’s site and open them in iCal.
Edit them as necessary to only show the events you want to head to.
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.
While we’re actively looking to find Porchlight, our hosted bug tracker, a new home, it doesn’t mean we’re going to set it out to pasture just to wilt away. With that in mind, I decided to spend my Saturday afternoon putting a fresh coat of paint on the homepage.
The last time we updated the look was in 2006, so it was looking a bit long in the tooth. Just for comparison here is the old and new version side-by-side.
Who knows. Maybe this look will trickle its way into the main Porchlight application? Let me know what you think!
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!
I’m not one to let a month go by without a release, so I’m happy to present you all with 
A lot of people have posted their tips on how to get the most out of WWDC over the week. The 
I wrote about our love of 
