- filed in WebApps on 14. February 2006
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30 boxes - free web based super calendar
I have been looking for a good calendar I can access from everywhere… Personally I don’t need all the “features” of Microsoft Outlook. I use Gmail for my email (one Gmail account for handling several IMAP4 non-Gmail accounts – and it does a better job than outlook), but the search for a good calendar app to replace Outlook has been long. Well – I FINALLY found it!
When you first log in to your 30boxes calendar it doesn’t look like much (really!), but the good people at 83° has created an “event parser” called One Box so instead of the traditional method of entering calendar data on a computer, where you first find the date in the calendar, click it, then fill out and DONT fill out a lot of fields before submitting.. You simply enter the relevant data in the fixed positioned, always present 30boxes One Box..
Entered event data could be: “Companywide ditch Outlook meeting march 1 14:30-14:35 tag red tag work (should be an easy decision) +mail@example.com”
That will parse as:
Title: Companywide ditch Outlook meeting
Date: march 1st
Time: 14:30-14:35
Color in calendar: Red
Tag: Work
Note: should be an easy decision
Send invite to: mail@example.com
An invitation will then be send to mail@example.com with links to Accept, deny or “Not sure – show me more”. Even if the recipient isn’t using 30boxes he or she can still accept or deny.. Take that Outlook!
Other magic words the One Box will parse are:
repeat weekly/monthly/yearly
birthday (will automagically ask you if this should be repeated yearly)
private (will hide the entry from anyone you share your calendar with)
and im sure a lot more magic words are going to appear as the app evolves..
When you share your calendar you can choose to share everything (except that marked private), only those events with certain tags or not to share at all (might come in handy in some cases) on a per-buddy-base..
I mentioned earlier that you can access it from anywhere.. Well I can anyway – if you have a Wap browser and a data plan for your phone, so can you. Simply go to http://m.30boxes.com log in and view yours and your buddies calendars and use the One box for adding events. Their mobile version could do with a little updating though. I don’t need date navigation at the top, only the One box at the top, and a list of my 5 or so first upcoming events and then an option to navigate through the dates. One thing is for sure – it’s not going to use a lot of your expensive GPRS bandwith.
Nokia has a python tool for their series 60 and a contacts and calendar API.. Now if only I knew how to write one line of python code.. (and had a series 60 phone). Or perhaps just setup SyncML but I really want the One box on my phone.. Tested my Nokia 6060 (series 40) and I used approx 24 key presses WITHOUT the actual event data to enter a calendar entry.
Email-to-One box is under developement so you send an email, the subject gets parsed as it would if written in the One box. The body of the message goes into the description field.. It will attach any HTML in the body as a attachment of a kind to the event.
One idea I better throw in the 30 boxes forum is: How about having a instant messaging bot set up to act as the One box?
Chris Millward commented on the 30boxes blog, on how to use the url bar in firefox as the One box – Steps:
- Add a bookmark.
- Set the name to something you will remember (for example, ‘Add to Cal’), but you won’t need to click on it.
- Set the location to ‘http://30boxes.com/index.php?action=newEvent&input=%s’
- Set the keyword to something like ‘cal’
- Hit ‘Ok’
When you hit CTRL+L you simply enter: “cal Companywide ditch Outlook meeting march 1 14:30-14:35 tag red tag work (should be an easy decision) +mail@example.com” or whatever and hit enter – now thats EASY..
Should you wish to sync your calendar with a calendar app like Outlook, 30boxes lets you subscribe to your calendar via the iCal standard. Support for RSS is under developement.
This has to be the calendar with the best useability, interoperability and value to date (and its not even finished yet)...
Check out their It’s Your Life blog for progress updates and tips.
uh – reality check, I just lost my excuse to not plan ahead..
