Gemini Calendar - my vision of calendar software

[Kr0nos]

Some 100 posts or so ago somebody wanted to sync his Exchange Calendar with Gemini without syncing it to his Google Account.
Maybe this could help: Android Sync Software for HTC EVO, Nexus One, Droid, Hero and Other Android Phones
(didnt read it myself, first impression is that it could help)

"change this instance" or "change the whole series"

that would be great, dont know if even the native app can do this

btw : themes can make your Gemini month view layout look wierd

 

[Stalin828]

It would be great if you could add events for birthdays automatically. It would also be nice if it would auto fill in holidays and stuff as well. Things like Mothers Day and Fathers day, etc.

I don't think there is an anniversary field on the contacts page, but that would also be good. Although, if you added birthday functionality, you could just make a contact named Anniversary and set its birthday to the day of your anniversary.

I really like your calendar, but these are the features that I am really looking for in a calendar.

 

[bob_54]

Stalin828... If you go go menu>more>My Calendars then scroll to the bottom (at least on my phone) and select US Holidays >Save they will appear.

 

[bob_54]

Powell,

Regarding my earlier request

After adding from log or from book and making a selection the pop-up appears prompting to select an option. I think it would be nice to be able to have other selections other than Add call event.
Suggestions are Appointment:, Send Email:, Follow-up:, Sales Call:. Or is it possible to add a feature to allow the user to add their categories in the pop-up. As I have seen in some other applications that allow user defined categories. This would make it easier to see at a glance what events are coming up without opening each one. And what type of event needs to be done or is coming up.

 

[kratos]

It would be great if you could add events for birthdays automatically. It would also be nice if it would auto fill in holidays and stuff as well. Things like Mothers Day and Fathers day, etc.

I don't think there is an anniversary field on the contacts page, but that would also be good. Although, if you added birthday functionality, you could just make a contact named Anniversary and set its birthday to the day of your anniversary.

I really like your calendar, but these are the features that I am really looking for in a calendar.

Get on your computer (desktop, laptop, netbook, etc) and browse to Google Calendars. Look on the left side of the page and find "Other Calendars". You will see a small font link that says "Add" with an arrow pointing down next to it. Click that and then choose "Browse Interesting Calendars". The first section to appear is Holidays. Scroll all the way to the bottom and click "Subscribe" next to US Holidays. That will give you all of the US Holidays in your calendar.

Next, scroll all the way to the to of the page and find "More". Click that and then find "Contacts' Birthdays and Events". Click on subscribe next to that one. That will give you all of the birthdays and events associated with your contacts. You must have your contacts birthdays entered in their info for it to work. However, I can assure you that it does work. I am currently using it.

Next, look at the top of the page and find "Back to Calendar" and click on it. On the left hand side of the page, under "Other Calendars", make sure that both of the calendars you just added are highlighted.

Finally, open Gemini Calendar and you should be automatically prompted to choose what calendars you want Gemini to display. If you are not automatically prompted, navigate to menu>more>my calendars. In this screen, make sure that there is a green check mark next to your main calendar (the one associated with you gmail account) and at least the two you just added (Contacts' Birthdays and Events; US Holidays). If you have been invited or if you have added any other calendars, make sure those are checked as well.

You can add calendars for Holidays associated with almost every place in the world, sports events, and the few other calendars listed. These are all read only and you cannot make changes to the events in these calendars. However, it is very useful to have these calendars to help make things easier on you.

If you have any questions about these directions, please let me know. I hope this helps you.

Kratos

 

[bob_54]

Much better explanation of displaying Holidays. I overlooked it needing to be set on google 1st.

 

[bdavis8090]

Times in online Google Calendar did not change, because online Calendar is still in the same place It has the timezone set according to the initial setup which was executed when you created your account (BTW: you can change online timezone in the preferences). If you travel around the world, timezone of the online calendar does not change, timezone in your phone does.
Try to add event in the generic calendar, installed by default in your device, then, if you change timezone (travel to the other place, or change timezone manually in the phone preferences), the times of the event will change too, as it is in the Gemini Calendar.
When you add an event to the calendar, it is added in the current timezone, then, if you change timezone, time is also changed, to maintain the absolute moment, when the event starts.
I think it is the way it is designed by the Android developers, however, I don't insist, that it is the right way. Maybe it could be solved somehow, but right now, I am not sure how.

Thanks for the feedback Powell. This is a new device for me so I am still learning. Maybe this is not a problem for others that travel but it is downright confusing for me. My home base is in the central time zone and I travel to and from various time zones frequently. The way this calendar works basically makes it extremely unreliable. Even if I account for the time difference for an upcoming event the times still change when I enter a new time zone. If the event times are constantly changing I will never know for sure what is accurate. Even if I change the online time zone to enter an upcoming appointment that will take place in another time zone all of my other previously entered event times change. Is there a setting to keep the device calendar synced with the online calendar time zone?

How do other people handle this situation?

Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
B

 

[(G)]

The way this calendar works basically makes it extremely unreliable. Even if I account for the time difference for an upcoming event the times still change when I enter a new time zone.

I haven't done any traveling with the Droid yet, but are you saying that if you're living in LA and have a 2:00 meeting in New York tomorrow and set the calendar to show a 2:00 appointment, that when you arrive in New York, the appointment will show up on the calendar as being at 5pm (which is 2pm LA time)?

 

[bob_54]

I travel between east & central US time zones regularly. For instance if I am in the eastern time and set an appointment for 2:00PM central I just put in 2:00PM. When my phone automatically changes my clock when I cross into the central time zone, the reminder still alerts at 2:00PM. The only time there is a slight delay is when I pass over into the different time zone & how long it takes the phone to find a tower to update the clock. I put a sync button on my screen to help with this. If it seems to be taking too long, I press the sync button & the phone updates.

 

[jae_63]

<snip>

Next, scroll all the way to the to of the page and find "More". Click that and then find "Contacts' Birthdays and Events". Click on subscribe next to that one. That will give you all of the birthdays and events associated with your contacts. You must have your contacts birthdays entered in their info for it to work. However, I can assure you that it does work. I am currently using it.

<snip>

Kratos

This is a nice writeup. Apparently many other people use the Android app EboBirthday to manage birthdays, although your approach sounds better to me.

 

[kratos]

This is a nice writeup. Apparently many other people use the Android app EboBirthday to manage birthdays, although your approach sounds better to me.

Thank you. I've never heard of that app. I like this because I don't have to run a separate app for anything. I simply add the birthday to each contact and then this calendar does the rest.

Kratos

 

[man_ottawa]

I use Magic+, I am having problem with widget display. It says "No upcoming events"
I reinstalled couple of times. calender selection matches with original.

When I add evens using main calendar it gives me choices to add into any of my calendar but when I try to add using widget, only choice I get to add is "default".

Looks like widget is not reading or detecting all of my calendars.

Please help.

 

[Clymmer]

I can't find a way to delete just one instance of a recurring event, it deletes all of them

I get the same result, unfortunately. Powell: thanks for the great app and quick development. Taking are of this quirk would be much appreciated as well!

 

[Stalin828]

Get on your computer (desktop, laptop, netbook, etc) and browse to Google Calendars. Look on the left side of the page and find "Other Calendars". You will see a small font link that says "Add" with an arrow pointing down next to it. Click that and then choose "Browse Interesting Calendars". The first section to appear is Holidays. Scroll all the way to the bottom and click "Subscribe" next to US Holidays. That will give you all of the US Holidays in your calendar.

Next, scroll all the way to the to of the page and find "More". Click that and then find "Contacts' Birthdays and Events". Click on subscribe next to that one. That will give you all of the birthdays and events associated with your contacts. You must have your contacts birthdays entered in their info for it to work. However, I can assure you that it does work. I am currently using it.

Next, look at the top of the page and find "Back to Calendar" and click on it. On the left hand side of the page, under "Other Calendars", make sure that both of the calendars you just added are highlighted.

Finally, open Gemini Calendar and you should be automatically prompted to choose what calendars you want Gemini to display. If you are not automatically prompted, navigate to menu>more>my calendars. In this screen, make sure that there is a green check mark next to your main calendar (the one associated with you gmail account) and at least the two you just added (Contacts' Birthdays and Events; US Holidays). If you have been invited or if you have added any other calendars, make sure those are checked as well.

You can add calendars for Holidays associated with almost every place in the world, sports events, and the few other calendars listed. These are all read only and you cannot make changes to the events in these calendars. However, it is very useful to have these calendars to help make things easier on you.

If you have any questions about these directions, please let me know. I hope this helps you.

Kratos

Freaking awesome, thanks man! I have been using EboBirthday, but I hate having a second app to do something that can be done so easily. All of my contacts already have the birthday info stored. This is great.

The one thing that is good about EboBirthday is it can grab peoples birthdays off of facebook for you automagically.

OMG I can subscribe so it shows the Chicago Bears games as well. I should have known google had this stuff figured out already

 

[bdavis8090]

I haven't done any traveling with the Droid yet, but are you saying that if you're living in LA and have a 2:00 meeting in New York tomorrow and set the calendar to show a 2:00 appointment, that when you arrive in New York, the appointment will show up on the calendar as being at 5pm (which is 2pm LA time)?

That is exactly what I am saying. Every appointment; past, present and future is altered when I enter a new time zone. It is driving me nuts. I am currently on the East coast and have had to manually correct my upcoming appointments, as well as, added new ones. I fully expect them all to change when I hit the central time zone tomorrow. I will spend my weekend sorting them out so that I can be sure that I won't miss flights or appointments.

I can not find any settings in the stock calendar or Gemini to eliminate this problem. I need for my calendar appointments to remain static. I would like to control my calendar rather than have it control me, which is what is happening right now. For me, the whole purpose of having the calendar on my mobile device is to easily keep up with when and where I need to be. I am not always at a computer where I can use Outlook or Google Calendar online.

If ANYONE can offer a solution to this problem I would be extremely grateful.

Thanks for allowing me to vent.
B

 

[IOWA]

Ill definately check this out and see how it stacks against calwidget!

Tapatalk. Samsung Moment. Yep.

 

[Bswartz95]

I really like this calendar as an app. I only wish the widget had a week view (something like Calwidget).

This may have been covered already in a previous post. I didn't start from the beginning.

 

[IOWA]

It would be great if you could add events for birthdays automatically. It would also be nice if it would auto fill in holidays and stuff as well. Things like Mothers Day and Fathers day, etc.

I don't think there is an anniversary field on the contacts page, but that would also be good. Although, if you added birthday functionality, you could just make a contact named Anniversary and set its birthday to the day of your anniversary.

I really like your calendar, but these are the features that I am really looking for in a calendar.

You can auto add holiday from the web.

Tapatalk. Samsung Moment. Yep.

 

[kratos]

You can auto add holiday from the web.

Tapatalk. Samsung Moment. Yep.

See my post here: http://androidforums.com/applicatio...my-vision-calendar-software-5.html#post907530

This is my write up on how to add this (and others) calendar functionality to your personal calendar.

Kratos

 

[crasher]

That is exactly what I am saying. Every appointment; past, present and future is altered when I enter a new time zone. It is driving me nuts. I am currently on the East coast and have had to manually correct my upcoming appointments, as well as, added new ones. I fully expect them all to change when I hit the central time zone tomorrow. I will spend my weekend sorting them out so that I can be sure that I won't miss flights or appointments.

I can not find any settings in the stock calendar or Gemini to eliminate this problem. I need for my calendar appointments to remain static. I would like to control my calendar rather than have it control me, which is what is happening right now. For me, the whole purpose of having the calendar on my mobile device is to easily keep up with when and where I need to be. I am not always at a computer where I can use Outlook or Google Calendar online.

If ANYONE can offer a solution to this problem I would be extremely grateful.

Thanks for allowing me to vent.
B

I don't travel that much, but I'm wondering about this too. I've noticed an option on my Desire that I would like to try out but I can't as I'm not going anywhere, but you can try. HTC Clock app->world clock, go to menu->Local Time Settings and uncheck Automatic(Use network-provided values). From there, you can select the timezone you want, and hopefully it doesn't change for you. If the local clock doesn't change, the event time shouldn't change. To see the clock in other time zones, just add it to the world clock.

It's not the best solution, but at least we are in control (I hope).
Let us know if it works.

Edit: Just noticed that setting can also be found under Settings->Date & Time

 

[ylexot]

That is exactly what I am saying. Every appointment; past, present and future is altered when I enter a new time zone. It is driving me nuts. I am currently on the East coast and have had to manually correct my upcoming appointments, as well as, added new ones. I fully expect them all to change when I hit the central time zone tomorrow. I will spend my weekend sorting them out so that I can be sure that I won't miss flights or appointments.

I can not find any settings in the stock calendar or Gemini to eliminate this problem. I need for my calendar appointments to remain static. I would like to control my calendar rather than have it control me, which is what is happening right now. For me, the whole purpose of having the calendar on my mobile device is to easily keep up with when and where I need to be. I am not always at a computer where I can use Outlook or Google Calendar online.

If ANYONE can offer a solution to this problem I would be extremely grateful.

Thanks for allowing me to vent.
B

The "problem" is that your appointments are static...they are fixed to GMT time. Changing your time zone just changes the offset (EST is GMT-5, PST is GMT-8).

What you want is for the times to actually shift when you change time zones. Sounds to me like you need to figure out how to set up appointments the right way.

 

[tommygun]

I can't find a way to delete just one instance of a recurring event, it deletes all of them.

Same here.

Besides that, if you change the note attached to a recurring event, it is automatically applied to all of them, both in the past and in the future.

I think that when the user modifies a recurring event, there should be a pop-up asking something like this:

You have modified a recurring event.
Should the change be applied to:
X - only this event.
X - all recurring events.
X - this and future events.

Do you agree?

 

[jae_63]

The "problem" is that your appointments are static...they are fixed to GMT time. Changing your time zone just changes the offset (EST is GMT-5, PST is GMT-8).

What you want is for the times to actually shift when you change time zones. Sounds to me like you need to figure out how to set up appointments the right way.

I can visualize what a solution would look like, but it would be a terrible kludge at best, without operating system support.

The idea is this: when you add an appointment, the calendar program offers a checkbox indicating a "Local Time" appointment (this could be on by default, but as you'll see this would not be recommended due to the performance and kludginess issues).

The "Long Description" field would then be modified to include a string like "-4GMT". This indicates the local time zone at the time that the appointment was created.

Then every hour or so, the calendar manager would look through the upcoming appointment for the next 24 hours or so, and look for any strings like "xxGMT", where the GMT offset in the appointment doesn't match the current GMT offset. If any of these are found, then those appointment times should be adjusted by the calendar software to reflect the current time zone, and the corresponding xxGMT string should be adjusted as well.

Like I said, it's quite a nasty kludge, and also relies upon some calendar manager to run all the time.

As Powell and others have noted, the Android calendar API is lightly-documented at best, so it's possible that the Android creators have already thought about this issue, but independent developers wouldn't necessarily know how it's being dealt with.

[ I suggest that the mindblowing Newfoundland time zone should not be supported see:
Newfoundland Standard Time Zone - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
]

 

[Froid]

Same here.

Besides that, if you change the note attached to a recurring event, it is automatically applied to all of them, both in the past and in the future.

I think that when the user modifies a recurring event, there should be a pop-up asking something like thiso you agree?

Yep, this would certainly solve my problem. For now I'm just resorting to the stock calendar when dealing with recurring events.

 

[ylexot]

I can visualize what a solution would look like, but it would be a terrible kludge at best, without operating system support.

The idea is this: when you add an appointment, the calendar program offers a checkbox indicating a "Local Time" appointment (this could be on by default, but as you'll see this would not be recommended due to the performance and kludginess issues).

The "Long Description" field would then be modified to include a string like "-4GMT". This indicates the local time zone at the time that the appointment was created.

Then every hour or so, the calendar manager would look through the upcoming appointment for the next 24 hours or so, and look for any strings like "xxGMT", where the GMT offset in the appointment doesn't match the current GMT offset. If any of these are found, then those appointment times should be adjusted by the calendar software to reflect the current time zone, and the corresponding xxGMT string should be adjusted as well.

Like I said, it's quite a nasty kludge, and also relies upon some calendar manager to run all the time.

As Powell and others have noted, the Android calendar API is lightly-documented at best, so it's possible that the Android creators have already thought about this issue, but independent developers wouldn't necessarily know how it's being dealt with.

[ I suggest that the mindblowing Newfoundland time zone should not be supported see:
Newfoundland Standard Time Zone - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
]

That's kinda how it works RIGHT NOW. Appointment times are recorded in GMT. What you see is the calculated time based on your time zone. I'm in EST (GMT-5), so if I put in an appointment as 6pm, it is recorded as 11pm (11-5=6). If I then change the time zone to PST (GMT-8), it shows 3pm (11-8=3).