I just came across this thread and checked out your app from the market. Version 0.9.22. I like how easy it is to add an event. And how easy it is to see upcoming events. Looks like you just might have a real winner on your hands.
A widget option to use one full screen on my droid and skin it to match the rest of the current theme would be icing on the cake. Currently I have it set as a shortcut so its just one click to open. Not a big stretch from there to perfect so I am not complaining. Keep up the good work.
A very impressive app I have to say. Like someone else I can't figure out how to get to the "Day" or any other view. The only view I can access is "Month + agenda" and if someone could enlighten me I'd be grateful.
I join what seems to be a common opinion that there's a swipe gesture needed for going to previous/next month. Current controls for that are not ergonomic to say the list. Perhaps swipe on a month name section (bottom right corner) would be better rather than swiping on a month area itself. May be the month name section could be designed as a "slider" with a large button with arrows on either side of it. IE slide it to the right - go to the next month. This way it'd be more intuitive I think.
Another suggestion is to have option for events display. The area for events listing is limited to 3 events display max (without scrolling). Perhaps adding option like "one line event display" could make it possible to view 5 or 6 events without having to scroll. Some users would surely appreciate this.
Also it'd be helpful to see the week day next to the date on top of events list. Sure, you can look down to see what week day this is but it'd be more convinient to have it next to the date me thinks.
And last one: I'm sure many users would appreciate "early display next month" option. This will basically start your month display from the current week, not from 1st day of the month.
Hope this all makes sense. Once again, a very interesting and promissing app. Good luck with it!
I must find some time to create the documentation how to use Gemini Calendar, since not everything must be obvious.
Here are some tips:
Day View - double click on the day of month,
Event details - tap once on the event,
Add Event - long click on the day of month, when blue mark shows up, you can move your finger along the screen to add multiple day event,
Change month of the year - long click on the month name, use the slider to change month, then if you want to:
accept selection - long click on the month name again
cancel selection - tap once the month name
There are context menus for each event in the Month View and Day View (probably you have figured it out already),
In day view, you can change days by swiping left or right,
Regarding the swiping the name of month to change it - there WAS such function in the past, I have decided it was too complicated. I may turn it on again.
Swiping on the days of month area would be kind of tricky, because touching the day of month results in event displaying.
Regarding the swiping the name of month to change it - there WAS such function in the past, I have decided it was too complicated. I may turn it on again.
Swiping on the days of month area would be kind of tricky, because touching the day of month results in event displaying.
That would be GREAT!!!! Probably the main thing I miss about the calendar on my Omnia!!! That function would be great in all views (month, week + day) and maybe an up + down swipe to change the views (again...day, month, + week)!?!?
I see what you mean about swiping in the day field of the month screen though. Maybe have the bottom part the 'swipe-area'? Or if there is a way to have a slight length of touching the day added (for a half second press or something tiny enough to not be a long press but not trigger during a swipe)?
I am not a programmer, so I don't know how tough those suggestions are, so take it with a grain of salt if they can't be done LOL!!!
Day View - double click on the day of month, - Never knew this
Event details - tap once on the event, - Knew this
Add Event - long click on the day of month, when blue mark shows up, you can move your finger along the screen to add multiple day event, - Never knew this
Change month of the year - long click on the month name, use the slider to change month, then if you want to: - Never knew this
There are context menus for each event in the Month View and Day View (probably you have figured it out already), - Knew this
In day view, you can change days by swiping left or right, - Never knew this
__________________ If I agreed with you, we'd both be wrong.
Change month of the year - long click on the month name, use the slider to change month, then if you want to:
accept selection - long click on the month name again
cancel selection - tap once the month name
In day view, you can change days by swiping left or right,
I would suggest that moving forward and backward within a calendar (whether month view, week view, or day view) be consistent. Personally, I like a simple left/right swipe to move. I currently have a BB Storm (waiting for NE2 to switch to an Incredible) and this is how the calendar works on the Storm.
Want to thank you for your undertaking to bring all of the needs for a calendar program into one application. Being a new Android user I had been looking for something like Gemini when I came across your post. Ironically your introduction post came on my birthday so I received a nice present.
Your basic instructions posted earlier today helped me find the one thing I hadn't found on my own... day view.
One of the features I really like is the ability to add an event from the phone log or phone book. I have not found anything else that does this or is even close. And the ability to show the phone number as a link so you can dial directly from the event. A feature request I would like to add here is the ability of selecting which number to include from the phone list. For instance if I have a cell, work and home number to choose from. Or possibly show the contact name as a link and by pressing it taking you to the contact's information page to select the number.
Along this same line, after selecting from book there is a select option pop-up to 'Add call event'. Could this be expanded to include "Appointment", "Email", "Task", etc? This would further expand it's capability from just a call reminder to more like a scheduler.
Could these same things be added when you want to add an event from the day view page?
Like some of the earlier posters, I am not a coder. So I am not sure what is doable and what is not. But some things to consider. As I use Gemini more, it is now my default calendar, I will pass along other suggestions.
It took a little getting used to but I have gotten to like your slide bar concept. Many times using the standard thumb wheel screen I found myself going too fast and kept going past the number I was looking for.
I did notice that when using it to select a different month, going from December to January it does not change the year. Is there a reason for this? Could be a problem for some in November or December thinking they are moving forward to 2011.
I also look forward to the version that will include a widget.
Not sure if this is a bug or just something not implemented yet.
Main Screen>Add From Book>then press Menu key. The keyboard dissapears as it should, then I get a pop-up menu that says 31 Month View. Long or short press it and it goes away. Long press Menu and I get my keyboard back as it should.
Thanks again for a great app/program. Looking forward to further updates and I will also convert to a paid user when the time comes.
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Powell :
First put that explanation post on your website.
And put a popup with a link (or the post itself) in the App, like the changelog.
As you see here many users (me too) don't discover all features.
I understand your concern about the "month sliding", its just that it works on Calpad and is pretty cool.
If you had it in a previous version, do you still have the code ?
Great work, just tell people more about it , and thanks for the good discussion here.
I agree. This is the best calendar app I have come across since I gave up my Palm for Android. The only thing I would really like to see is a full screen widget so it would be easy to add to Sweeter Home. I would love to be able to just leave it open on one of my home screens for quick access. Not a big issue though. All the other features make this app a real keeper. I am spreading the word to all who will listen to check it out.
Calendar can't see my Exchange calendar...the only option it gives me to select a calendar is "Default Calendar" (Gmail calendar) and it can't see my Corp Calendar at all (which is the actual calendar I use).
Is this a known limitation, or ?
When I started the app, and when I go into "My Calendars" on the "More" menu, the only option is "Default Calendar."
I continue to experiment with the "Gemini Add Event" icon and can't get consistent results. Sometimes it defaults to the proper "add event" screen, sometimes it opens to the full calendar screen. And I can't figure out what I did that's causing the difference.
One more thing: On all of the events I add, I have an "On Time" notification and a "5 minutes before" notification.
When the "5 minutes before" notification goes off, I turn on the Droid and see the notification screen, and hit "Dismiss All." However it only dismisses the "5 minutes before" alarm, because the "On Time" notification still rings and needs to be turned off individually.
Is there any way that "Dismiss All" can dismiss ALL the notification alarms with one touch?
I've been using Gemini successfully for several weeks now, but earlier today it completely hung upon me, although I haven't seen an FC. It starts up, and the screen is just blank. This is also true for the "Add Event" app. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the app, but to no avail. But after a phone (Droid Eris, v 1.5) reboot and a long wait (several minutes) things seem to be OK again.
There is some other odd behavior: I have a calendar appointment "tomorrow is bike to work day" for 8pm on Thursday, May 20th. That's how it appears on Google Calendar, and on other Android calendars. But in Gemini, it shows up on Friday the 21st, not the 20th. I'm on U.S. Eastern Daylight time, so that 8pm appointment would correspond to midnight GMT.
I have also noticed a lot of duplicate appointments, but I don't recall whether I added them through Gemini or on a PC using Google Calendar. I'll try to come up with a coherent bug report about this.
jae_63, issue with a blank screen is very strange, specially, if there was not Force Close shown. Android is designed to report any delays in the user interface, so if you see a blank screen for such a long time, there should be a FC dialog. I have no idea, why it did not showed up.
Do you have any other problems with time zones? Other events have the correct time? Could you send me PM with following details: date and time of this bad event that is shown in Gemini Calendar and on Google Page? In Google Calendar system, every calendar has the default time zone, and, additionally, every single event can have its own time zone, which can be different, depending on how you enter the data (on Google page, on your phone etc.). Maybe you can remember, how this wrong appointment was added and we can find the general rule of this behavior. I will send you private message about this.
(G), reminders are served by the system, Gemini Calendar only sets the time of the reminder, it does not participate in ringing and turning the ring off/dismissing. I do not think I can do much about it.
Redflea, have you had your phone synced with the Google server? Is your "Exchange" calendar synced with Google server and is visible on the Google Calendar? It is not mandatory to synchronize your data with Google server of course, but if Exchange cannot be synced, it cannot be shown in Gemini Calendar either.
There is no week view yet, but it is planned of course, and other views and widget. I hope I will release next version of Gemini Calendar by the end of this week.
Thank you for all your opinions and feedback.
Last edited by powell; May 16th, 2010 at 03:28 AM.
Reason: grammar ...
(G), reminders are served by the system, Gemini Calendar only sets the time of the reminder, it does not take participate in ringing and turning the ring off/dismissing. I do not think I can do much about it.
Interesting. I didn't realize that at all. Thanks for the answer!
Redflea, have you had your phone synced with the Google server? Is your "Exchange" calendar synced with Google server and is visible on the Google Calendar? It is not mandatory to synchronize your data with Google server of course, but if Exchange cannot be synced, it cannot be shown in Gemini Calendar either.
Thanks for the reply. My exchange calendar is synced to and from our exchange servers only...i guess I'm out of luck...thanks.
If you can run this on your desktop, then you should be able to do what you want with your Exchange calendar with respect to Google Calendar and Gemini.
Just wanted to say a big thank you for all the hard work and effort you have put into 'making' this calendar application, which, IMHO, is far better than the stock Android application.
However, it states on the Market that it will expire on 31.05. Would you mind elaborating on this please? Will it uninstall; stop working, et cetera.
Just wanted to say a big thank you for all the hard work and effort you have put into 'making' this calendar application, which, IMHO, is far better than the stock Android application.
However, it states on the Market that it will expire on 31.05. Would you mind elaborating on this please? Will it uninstall; stop working, et cetera.
Does anyone else have problems pressing the "next month" arrow at the bottom of the month view screen? The "previous" button I have no problems with, but the "next" one seems to have a much smaller hit target or something.
Thanks, powell, for the great program...I have been using it since I got my Incredible.
The problems with switching months are starting to bother more and more people (including me ). It is not perfect, I agree .
The active space for both arrows (previous/next) has the same size, but sometimes screen responsiveness on the edge is a little bit worse than in the center and probably that is why we all have some problems with this.
I will experiment with other way of switching months. I would love to implement the swiping left/right or up/down, because it is so intuitive and easy, but as I mentioned already, this function is not compatible with events displaying, that are shown immediately after you touch the day of month.
The problems with switching months are starting to bother more and more people (including me ). It is not perfect, I agree .
The active space for both arrows (previous/next) has the same size, but sometimes screen responsiveness on the edge is a little bit worse than in the center and probably that is why we all have some problems with this.
I will experiment with other way of switching months. I would love to implement the swiping left/right or up/down, because it is so intuitive and easy, but as I mentioned already, this function is not compatible with events displaying, that are shown immediately after you touch the day of month.
How about using the top half of the screen to swipe? I tried with a few days I have a lot of things listed and swiped a lot, hard + light touch and the events never went to the detail screen unless I specifically pressed on them, so maybe even make them a long-press sctivation only and that way the swiping can be used without the risk of opening the detail screen in error?
Or....what would be the possibility of making the events displaying a double-tap item, or instead of a smooth swipe to change months more of a gesture (fishing for words here) like a slight pause and swipe without relieving pressure?
Not sure if any of that is feasable/do-able/practical, just tossing ideas out there!!
How about using the top half of the screen to swipe?
This could be a good idea. I am not sure if it is intuitive (changing months on the events area, instead of month area), but maybe it is worth to try.
Quote:
Originally Posted by syrguy1969
Or....what would be the possibility of making the events displaying a double-tap item, or instead of a smooth swipe to change months more of a gesture (fishing for words here) like a slight pause and swipe without relieving pressure?
Thanks syrguy1969, I will think about it.
Last edited by powell; May 14th, 2010 at 05:38 PM.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by syrguy1969
How about using the top half of the screen to swipe? I tried with a few days I have a lot of things listed and swiped a lot, hard + light touch and the events never went to the detail screen
that sounds good, as powell mentioned not as great as a swipe over the month part, but with a lower "false comand" risk
I tried it myself after reading (in day view), it really worked as i wanted it to.
@ intuitive :
tell the users at the first start about it (and the other things like double tab für day view), as we found out in this thread, there are already comands you have to tell the user about
Last edited by Kr0nos; May 14th, 2010 at 11:17 AM.
On the main screen I still like your slide bar for changing months. With other apps, depending on my touch pressure, I've found myself overshooting where I want to go. Or causing it to go to day or a display/edit screen depending on the app. The slider seems to give my big shaky finger or thumb better control.
How about tap the month, pop-up the slider to change the month, then tap the slider to select. Instead of going back to the month to tap and select?
Edit:
Also, by using the slider method the right and left arrows next to the Month could be removed and add the year?
Last edited by bob_54; May 14th, 2010 at 01:50 PM.
Reason: Added wording
Hi,
I just today downloaded the latest version of your calendar after reading this thread. I haven't used it a ton yet but I like it so far. I wanted to draw your attention to a small detail that -really- bugs me though:
When I'm on day view, the animations when I swipe left and when I swipe right seem to be identical. It might seem silly, but it really weirds me out to see me "flipping forward" if I'm trying to move backwards. Maybe mirroring it would be a good solution?
Also, how do you plan to proceed with skins?
Thanks for the great calendar!
When I'm on day view, the animations when I swipe left and when I swipe right seem to be identical. It might seem silly, but it really weirds me out to see me "flipping forward" if I'm trying to move backwards.
I see exactly what you mean. When you swipe right-to-left, the screen changes from right-to-left. When you swipe left-to-right, the screen still changes from right-to-left.
The screen always changes starting at the right, and moving toward the left, no matter which way you swipe.
Very good calendar app, powell! This is almost exactly the type of app I've been looking for after switching from a bb to the Droid Incredible. I do have a couple of comments and suggestions.
First, when I attempt to move to an adjacent month (usually to move backwards), I often have to press the arrow 3 or 4 times before it will actually back up by one month. I read in an earlier post that someone was having the same issue when attempting to move forward, but my issue is mostly moving backwards in the month view.
Second, it would help to have the ability to set up an event that occurs every other week. I have checked the options for recurring events, but a bi-weekly option is not available. There may be a work-around for it that I'm not aware of, but it would help to have that capability.
Third, it would be helpful to allow the user to select a preferred date format. Instead of DY/MO/YR, I prefer MO/DY/YR, but I haven't found a way to change that.
Finally, it would be great to have a weekly view that operates similarly to the monthly view. My wishlist would have the entire week shown at the bottom with blocked appointments and the agenda displayed for the whole day when that day is selected.
Otherwise, you've done a great job with this app! I really like the skin you chose for the display!
Third, it would be helpful to allow the user to select a preferred date format. Instead of DY/MO/YR, I prefer MO/DY/YR, but I haven't found a way to change that.
it would be great to have a weekly view that operates similarly to the monthly view. My wishlist would have the entire week shown at the bottom with blocked appointments and the agenda displayed for the whole day when that day is selected.
I would second this request but perhaps 2 wks option would be more handy - like "Current + next week" view. It would still leave plenty of space at the top for displaying appointments while would also give us option to plan our life a bit further. I think typical work "mini-cycle" for many of us lies within current and next week.
Also "1 line event display" option could be helpful for viewing more appointments without scrolling.
Last edited by crubbish; May 17th, 2010 at 07:26 AM.
First, when I attempt to move to an adjacent month (usually to move backwards), I often have to press the arrow 3 or 4 times before it will actually back up by one month. I read in an earlier post that someone was having the same issue when attempting to move forward, but my issue is mostly moving backwards in the month view.
Next release will have this issue corrected.
Quote:
Originally Posted by paget007
Second, it would help to have the ability to set up an event that occurs every other week. I have checked the options for recurring events, but a bi-weekly option is not available. There may be a work-around for it that I'm not aware of, but it would help to have that capability.
How about this:
Daily period + Every 14 days,
Weekly period + Every 2 weeks,
Both configurations of recurrent events can be set up in Gemini Calendar and do pretty much the same. Don't they meet your requirements?
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Outstanding work, Powell! Your Gemini is already one of the best calendar apps, and at the rate your development is running you will own this space in no time!
This is a minor glitch:
Adding multi-day events does not appear to work across month boundaries. If I want an event starting 30 May and ending 5 June, I cant drag beyond 31 May. Its easy to enter the 5 June end date in event detail, but thought the cross-month issue was worth noting.
Thanks again for Gemini - its a winner.
Last edited by APKhaos; May 17th, 2010 at 12:32 PM.
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First i really want to thank you for implementing request so fast.
Second congrats for the 5000th download
to the update :
I like that you can get to both the day and the month view from the widget, but i would prefer if it displays the events of tomorrow if there is nothing going on today (any more), but thats minor
But i found a small bug :
When I open the day view (of today) through the widget, and press the menu key, the add event it grayed out
When i go to the day view (of today) from the month view (whatever open through widget or shortcut) everything is ok
And the "date box" on the day view is wierdly formated on my Magic (runnig cyanogen's 2.1 experimental rom)
can somebody conform updating of the widget after adding an event (for today)
it seems as it wouldnt do it on my magic, the event appears in the month view and in the stock widget.
But it could be Helix Launcher causing this - custom rom, custom home app - i'm a bad tester xD
Last edited by Kr0nos; May 17th, 2010 at 04:41 PM.
to the update :
I like that you can get to both the day and the month view from the widget, but i would prefer if it displays the events of tomorrow if there is nothing going on today (any more), but thats minor.
An idea along those lines...my BB just shows the next four items in my calendar no matter what date/time they occur. So, if I don't have anything in the calendar for the rest of this month, it will show whatever is in the calendar next month (along with the date and time of the entry).
Both configurations of recurrent events can be set up in Gemini Calendar and do pretty much the same. Don't they meet your requirements?
Thank you for your other suggestions.
powell, this absolutely meets my requirements! I apologize if I didn't realize the functionality before posting if it was already there. If it wasn't, thanks for such a quick response and fix.
The new methods for scrolling between months are great, too. But I think I have found a bug when using the touch field method. It doesn't seem to allow you to move to a month in other calendar years. For example, when I attempt to use that method to select December, 2009, and then touch the month name to set it, the default is December, 2010. The same happens if I attempt to move to January, 2011. Fortunately, the swipe method doesn't have this problem and I can swipe back to 2009 or into 2011 with no problems.
The only other fix I would suggest (and I believe it has been mentioned in an earlier post) is the way the display moves when swiping from the left in either the day view or the month view. The entire display seems to move from right to left when swiping from the left. It would seem more natural if the display moved from left to right when swiping in that direction.
But regardless, this is truly a great app! It has definitely taken the spot of any other calendar on my device for viewing my schedule. Thanks, powell!
If you can run this on your desktop, then you should be able to do what you want with your Exchange calendar with respect to Google Calendar and Gemini.
Thanks, but I have no interest in syncing my exchange calendar to google...the whole point of exchange support is to avoid having to do that...
You should consider including support for corporate calendar...nice app you have here.
I just finished reading through this entire thread, and I'm excited to try this app.
I left my phone at home, which doesn't do me any good here at work.
With that said, I'm terrified of finding out that what I want to do won't work with this app, or that I won't be able to figure out how to do it. As a result, I thought I'd go ahead and ask ahead of time.
I have a personal Google account, and I have a work Google Apps account. My phone is my personal one, and so it's sync'd with my personal account. I would very much like to be able to access my work calendar on my phone, but I can't see of any way to do it (and our apps account is set up in such a way that I can't "share" my work calendar with my personal one, or at least not with any details).
Is this something that Gemini can do? From my reading, it looks like it's more of a front end to the on board app, but the talk of multiple calendars got me all excited.
If Gemini can't do it, does anyone know of a workaround that would make it possible?
[Apologies, in advance, if this information was in the thread and I managed to miss it. It's one of those days.]
A quick note to Powell: Not only does your app look fantastic, but your response time is amazing. I would happily buy this app just to support your awesomeness.
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sylbaris : what version of android is running on your device ?
With 2.1 you should be able to add a secend google account, and could perhabs sync the calendar that way.
I just switched from 1.6 last week, but i dont remember if it already was possible, dont think so
Hi,
I downloaded this app and I love it. It is the best calendar app I've found and beats the stock calendar hands down. I don't know if it is just me, but the 'swipe' on the month is not working. Again, it is probably just me and is likely user error.
I would like to make a request. I would love to be able to set a daily or weekly reminder for a user determined period of time for an upcoming event. I schedule deadlines and currently use a stand alone calendar program that gives me a daily or weekly pop-up reminder leading up to the date of the scheduled deadline. For example, I can enter a deadline as an event for June 15, 2010. I can set a daily reminder that will pop up each day for 5 (or any number of days or weeks that I choose) before and on the date of the scheduled deadline. It really helps keep me on track so that a deadline doesn't sneak up on me.
Would this be of interest to anyone else? Can this even be done?
Thanks for everything you are doing to make this the best calendar app possible. I love what you are doing.
B
But i found a small bug :
When I open the day view (of today) through the widget, and press the menu key, the add event it grayed out
When i go to the day view (of today) from the month view (whatever open through widget or shortcut) everything is ok
And the "date box" on the day view is wierdly formated on my Magic (runnig cyanogen's 2.1 experimental rom)
can somebody conform updating of the widget after adding an event (for today)
it seems as it wouldnt do it on my magic, the event appears in the month view and in the stock widget.
But it could be Helix Launcher causing this - custom rom, custom home app - i'm a bad tester xD
I got the most recent update!! I seem to have the same issue posted above. (running stock ROM on the Incredible)
All I can say is wow! Long time lurker, first time poster. Powell, your amazing app is the whole reason I finally registered to post. I have been searching desperately trying to find even a decent calendar app without any success. I finally stumbled onto this thread by accident and woohoo! Best accident I've had in a long time. I absolutely love this thing. It offers almost everything I need and want in the * perfect* calendar app. You've done a great job and are obviously gaining quite a following. I must thank you for being so open and active with us end users in the development of this app. If only more did this! I can't wait for the widget... that will seriously put this app head and shoulders above the rest. I also agree with some of the others here... if the current widget showed maybe the next 3 or4 appointments rather than just the current days appointments it'd would be very helpful. As for the actual calendar widget, I'd be happy with the current month view with the week's or a set number of appointments showing. If you can't fit it all, maybe you could do a two week calendar with an agenda of those two weeks appointments. Kind of a monthly calendar view + agenda view all together in a 4x4 widget. I hope what I've described makes sense.
Love the app... great job! Thanks for letting us be such an interactive part of making it what it is. Your frequent updates and posts in this thread are greatly appreciated and setting the standard higher for other devs!
Ps... thanks for the swipe between months. Much easier!
Last edited by fisher_ of_ man; May 18th, 2010 at 10:49 PM.
Reason: Ps
I've kind of given up trying to get the "Add Event" widget to work every time. I absolutely cannot figure out why it works sometimes, and why at other times it just brings up the normal calendar view.
It's not a huge deal for me, and in fact, before I add an event I want to see what the rest of the day looks like, so hitting "menu/Add event" isn't that hard.
I just wish I could help by spotting the preceding actions that trigger the wrong thing to pop up.
, and thanks for the good discussion here.
