Pencil-sketch circles, color-coded to match the corresponding iCal calendar, encircle the current date. Two 'staples' hold the top of the calendar in place. When adding a new event, your plain-English description glides into place as you type. There are so many UI niceties here, I'll run through them. Call it the Angelina Jolie of Mac calendar apps (or Brad Pitt, depending on your proclivities). An app's function is ultimately more important, but any app that's useful and beautiful is that much more appealing. Whoever said, 'Looks don't matter' truly didn't love software. Then, on Thursday, we'll do a head-to-head shootout between Fantastical and Today. Note: tomorrow I'll post a review of a competing product, Today by Second Gear Software.
It looks great, works well and is definitely worth your time. Fantastical supports incredibly rapid and natural full-text entry for appointments, making it easier than ever to get your events where you need them. This handy app lives in your menu bar, providing quick access to your many appointments across calendars (including iCal or Outlook 2011). There is room for improvement, however, and Fantastical takes a huge step in the right direction. iCal is the Mac OS default today, and it works well.
Calendaring on the Mac has come a long way since I was using Palm Desktop on a 333 MHz iMac.
