Gemini Calendar - my vision of calendar software

[powell]

Hello Everybody!
Gemini Calendar is calendar application for Android. It is designed to be easy to use, I will gladly hear your opinion about it.
You can download the app from the Market (search Gemini Calendar)

Here are some screens from the program:

First, small introduction, why I wrote a calendar software.
I know, that there are plenty of calendar widget for Android. There are nice looking plugins for the home screen, that show the basic information about your agenda, meeting etc.
But everything I have tried, was rather static and concentrated on month view or agenda view separately. In such programs you usually see the month view with days marked with stars/triangles/dots/whatever, to see what that marked day contains, you must change view, open new window etc. For me it is not comfortable.
I remember a simple calendar application on my Nokia, where you could just point a day on the month view and you can see (instantly) what is going on that day. O.k., maybe there are such programs for Android too, but I could not find it. Besides, I just thought that my vision will be better
I have also some other ideas, that would make my life better, if they were implemented in the calendar. Lets hope my ideas will meet requirements of others, too.
If you are kind enough to try my software, please, pay attention to the system of date/time entering during a new event creation. I am REALLY curious, if you like such a way of data input

(Hint: when in new event window, touch the date field, it will be marked and the special touch field will appear - see the second screen above. you can change the values of the field by moving your finger along that field)

I will really appreciate if you write your opinion about my software. I am planning to work hard to make it better, I have many ideas for the new features and I need some feedback from the users.

Main features of the Gemini Calendar:

• easy data entering with innovative data input method,
• comfortable month view with easy, instant access to the events,
• events recurrence with intervals of x days/weeks/months/years,
• configurable data and time format, first day of week,
• active links in event details (WWW address, phone numbers,emails and map),
• multiple reminders (up to 8) can be added to the single event,
• recurrent events can be set according to the days of week (separately selectable Mo, Tu, We etc.),
• new event can be added with relation to the call log of your phone,
• new event can be added with relation to the phone book of your phone,
• 'go to date' dialog in the Month and Day View lets you easily switch the current date to another with the same input method as in Add New Event View,
• three different shortcuts for the launcher:
  • Add normal event,
  • Add event from log,
  • Add event from book,
• day widget,
• copy & paste events,
• attendees viewing,

Tips and tricks - how to use Gemini Calendar

I recommend you to read Tips & Tricks, where I explained some of the Gemini Calendar functions.

Things that are still missing, but are planned:

• more widgets,
• week view,
• agenda view,
• changes related to ergonomics, to make the calendar even more easy to use,
• other...

Below YouTube presentation, how Gemini Calendar works:

YouTube

Follow me on Twitter

 

[bradley975]

This calendar is perfect! I love the data input. I love the layout. Extremely functional. And very nice looking interface.

 

[bradley975]

I would like to have the ability to have more than one calendar at a time. I currently have three different calendars attached to my google account and I would like to have the option of having more than one selected at a time. Thx.

 

[powell]

Thank you very much for your nice comment.
I am planning to add multiple calendars service, in fact it could be done already, but I wanted to avoid slow response issue. As soon as I get the reasonably access speed to the calendar database, I will make version with multiple calendars.

Edit: I sent new version 0.9.2, in the previous one editing of existing event did not work.

 

[bradley975]

One other thing while you are working on this project. Releasing a widget with this format would be outstanding. That way we wouldn't have to open the program all the time to see the calendar. We would be able to leave the calendar open on one of our spare pages. Does this make sense? Look at Pure Grid Calendar as an example of a widget but insert your calendar look and it would be a great seller. IMO

 

[Squiggy]

Excellent. This is what I've been looking for in a calendar.

 

[powell]

O.K., I have been working hard this weekend and now new version (0.9.3) is available, which is much faster than before.
I think this is a good start to implement multiple calendars, as you wished.
Stay in touch, I will update my Calendar soon.

P.S.
Widget is on the list, too.

 

[(G)]

Is it possible to set alarms for appointments? Can you set alarms that go off XX minutes before the appointment, too? Will the alarms continue to go off at a certain interval until they're manually shut off?

These are my biggest gripes with the built-in Android calendar.

 

[Squiggy]

Is it possible to set alarms for appointments? Can you set alarms that go off XX minutes before the appointment, too? Will the alarms continue to go off at a certain interval until they're manually shut off?

These are my biggest gripes with the built-in Android calendar.

If it has that feature, I can't find it.

 

[powell]

New version available (0.9.6)
Multiple calendars are implemented now I hope you like it.
Events from different calendars are distinguished only in event details sections, no color difference on the main Month View, but this is only temporary.

 

[bradley975]

Powell
Great update and the inclusion of multiple calendars. This app is just great. I really hope you will have a widget soon to make it perfect.

 

[powell]

Thank you Bradley,
I have had several inquiries about the date/time format, specially "military time" is not convenient for some users. I will make it configurable in the near future.
If someone has additional requests, please, feel free to contact me. It is always good to know the preferences of the user, as it does not have to be obvious for me what to implement first.

 

[nkk]

I have been using your app a lot, and I have one gripe. Peraps you could make a slider at the bottom with one position for agenda view (like at the top of the screen) and one for the full calender (like the botton). As it stands, I feel each is sort of compromised by having limited real estate on the screen.

-Nkk

 

[chuhsi]

i'll use this as soon as there's a widget so i can use this as my home screen

 

[nova7ny]

I love what you have done my friend. Excellent work! The one question I have is if you plan to add support for adding calendars specifically not just pulling them from what is set up already on the phone. I have a work calendar I want to have show up in the calendar. It is Google Apps based but the one problem with the default google calendar app is it won't display all activity even though it was shared. i want it to show all appointment details and be able to trigger calendar notifications as well. As far as I know the stock calendar will not support this but if yours does I will pay for it when it goes 1.0!!!

 

[bioconundrum]

This calender sounds great I will definitely give it a try and let you know. Its great to know there are developers out there that are making things simpler.

 

[powell]

Version 0.9.8 has been released.
Following things were added / improved:

• landscape mode in Add Event window is now possible, it will be easier to enter data,
• days of month are marked while adding event, (try to long click on the day, then move your finger across the screen on the Month View),
• event recurrence improved: now it is possible to add events with interval of 1,2,3... days/weeks/months/years,
• another thing in recurrence: until date, when the recurring event is to be stopped,
• time format can be changed from 24h to 12h clock (see preferences),
• date format can be changed to DD.MM.YYYY or MM/DD/YYYY, for your convenience,
• events can be marked with the same colors as in the Google Calendar page,
• only horizontal "fling" changes day in Day View (you DO know, that it is possible to change day by flinging, do you ?),
• problems with synchronization of recurring events solved,
• other minor bugs

@nova7ny: please, PM me with details what is the problem with work calendar you use, is it synced with Google Calendar page already ? And not everything is shown ?

@nkk: I will think about it, but as you said, there is always a limitation for the space on the screen, so I cannot guarantee that everything will fit,

 

[jae_63]

This looks very promising, especially with regard to your interface for adding appointments. Here are some thoughts:

• I'm afraid it will be necessary for you to add a lot more options, even though it's nice and clean in that respect for now. Some of these options are described below.
• A calendar which starts on Mondays is really hard for us Americans to deal with. Can you please add an option for calendars to start on Sunday?
• There were some stray appointments that showed up in today's calendar when I first started Gemini Calendar. These were real events which I had added at some point, but not for today. They did not appear in either Calendar Pad, the builtin calendar, or Pure Calendar. Unfortunately now I've deleted them (within Gemini Calendar), so I don't have a meaningful bug report for you on this point. In retrospect I should have waited until I reached a computer so I could've poked around Google Calendar to understand what was going on.
• I love that point-and-click nature of specifying the time (in Gemini Calendar) when adding calendar appointments; this is critical for those of us without keyboards. But I would like a much simpler method of adding appointments. This should be as similar as possible to Pure Calendar's "Quick Add", except of course using your much nicer method for specifying the time. I.e., adding an event should just consist of a short description and a start time, plus setting (or disabling) a reminder if it's different than the default.
• While adding an appointment, the menu key should offer "Save" and "Discard" options. There should be no need to scroll to the bottom of that appointment-adding window. This is one of the things which drives me crazy about the builtin Android calendar on my Droid Eris.
• When adding an appointment, by default your scrollbars should let you edit the start-time (in hours) rather than needing to click on that value prior to editing it.
• Would you consider "breaking out" your appointment-add software as a separate app ("Gemini Quick Add")? Then the Pure Calendar author could support it as one of the options for adding an appointment. He already supports a number of other such options, so it would be little effort for him to add another one.
• Here's another idea for adding appointments now that Google is starting to support gestures: Suppose that the user were to scrawl exactly four digits in military time for the start-time of their appointment. E.g., for a 9:30am meeting today I would scrawl "0","9","3","0". The advantage of this is that you don't have to stare so closely at your screen while adding an appointment. In some ways this is analogous to the wonderful PalmOS DateBk technique for adding an appointment.

Thanks for your efforts, and please post back if anything I've written is unclear.

 

[eghill1125]

Really like the idea of this and the look of an agenda and calendar on same screen. If this gets a widget form to it, I may have to go with it over my Agenda widget.. Looks good.

 

[28064212]

Just started using Gemini Calendar today, certainly has a great deal of potential and is better than the stock app in many ways already. Couple of suggestions though:

• When I tap on a date so it's highlighted in blue, then press menu and "Add Event", the new event should be set to the date that's highlighted, not the current date
• When I'm in the process of creating a new event, if I press the 'back' button, the event should be saved rather than discarded. Several times I've put all the details for an event in, only to press the back button without thinking about it. At the very least, it should give you a warning that it won't be saved
• When I tap on an already created event and it opens up, there should be menu options to edit and/or delete it, without having to go back out of it and long-press on it
• When I'm setting the time for an event, once I've set the start-time, changing the end-time shouldn't have any effect on it e.g. If I set the start-time to 14:00, then start decreasing the end-time, it should only go as far as 14:00, no further. I often use appointments as reminders, and set the end-time to the same as the start-time, and it's annoying when I accidentally go too far
• Lastly, a bug report. I get a "Force Close" whenever I double press on a day, press menu and then try to add an event. Running Android 1.5 on a Samsung Galaxy Spica

Oh, and if you do decide to start the day on a Sunday (euuugghhh), make sure you leave it as an option, Monday makes much more sense

 

[powell]

@28064212, @jae_63, thank you very much for your extensive comments. As a developer, I appreciate every feedback from users, but such in-depth analysis like yours cannot be overestimated.

P.S.
I have just released another version (0.9.9), which includes some of your ideas.

 

[jae_63]

@28064212, @jae_63, thank you very much for your extensive comments. As a developer, I appreciate every feedback from users, but such in-depth analysis like yours cannot be overestimated.

P.S.
I have just released another version (0.9.9), which includes some of your ideas.

Thanks for your quick response and update, Powell. I think that you have now created the first easy-to-use interface for quickly adding calendar appointments to an Android calendar, for those of us without keyboards. Please keep in mind this item (from my previous post) in particular, when you get a chance, since it will save us another click.
"When adding an appointment, by default your scrollbars should let you edit the start-time (in hours) rather than needing to click on that value prior to editing it."

By the way, using Swype to enter my calendar appointment title, I can now add a simple calendar appointment from beginning-to-end in about 30 seconds. This is still slower than using DateBk5 and TextPlus on a PalmOS device with a keyboard, but is at least twice as fast as my initial attempts to add appointments to my Droid Eris.

I still wish for a single Android calendar with:

• a widget view as good as Pure Calendar's, for seeing what's coming up in the next few days (along with Astrid support)
• an overview as good as Calendar Pad's (which shows your appointments within a monthly or weekly calendar)
• a quick-add point-and-click capability as good as Gemini's

I know that I can't have it in the foreseeable future, but I still wish that I could. It's crazy to be running 3 calendars (two apps plus a widget) along with the stock calendar.

Kudos again on your fine work, Powell!

 

[rcyphermd]

former palm/datebk user here. So far I like a lot of your ideas. I agree that we are used to a LOT of options with datebk. One I miss tremendously is the ability to schedule repeat events on an irregular schedule. For example, my call schedule is roughly every fourth night, but not always. With datebk I could have the whole month appear and just tap on the days I wanted repeated "on call". If you can add that feature, maybe some more colors, and I would be happy to buy it !!

 

[28064212]

@28064212, @jae_63, thank you very much for your extensive comments. As a developer, I appreciate every feedback from users, but such in-depth analysis like yours cannot be overestimated.

P.S.
I have just released another version (0.9.9), which includes some of your ideas.

Always good to see a developer interact with the community. Thanks for the updates, the app is really starting to come together

 

[powell]

New version (0.9.11) has been just released.
This time I have changed some GUI details in Month View and Edit Event View, and - in response to many requests - I added the configurable first day of week (Sunday or Monday, see Preferences).
On the previous version, I have implemented active links, that are in fact clickable WWW, e-mail addresses, phone numbers and map coordinations (this can be configured in Preferences too).

There are some other, minor changes, as well.

Please, keep sending comments and requests about Gemini Calendar.
It is not that I am sitting in the armchair, waiting for someone to tell me, what to do Your opinions will help me to choose from the pile of to-do's things that could be done earlier.