MWSF '09: BusyCal

My time at Macworld today was spent going over some vendors that I missed on previous days. One of the vendors that I wanted to check out was BusyMac, makers of BusySync, and a new product that isn't quite launched yet, BusyCal:

John Chaffee of BusyMac, demonstrating the new BusyCal

Right around the time of my MobileMe fiasco, Google released CalDAV support for Google Calendar. So, since I switched my mail to Google, I decided to try switching my meager calendaring needs to Google as well. And while having iCal on my 3 Macs interacting with Google Calendar over CalDAV is working, it has been a little funky. I know that Google's CalDAV support is still pretty new, so I'm really not holding them at fault. But I'm getting errors from iCal enough that I basically am keeping iCal closed unless I actually need it. Thus, I'm pretty interested in iCal alternatives, and from what I saw, BusyCal is definitely going to deserve a look when it ships.

While the ability to personalize the background of my calendar, and add clip-art to the individual days doesn't speak to me, other aspects of BusyCal certainly did. First, it looks like it's pretty fast. The iMacs that BusyMac had to do their demos looked like they were about the same vintage as my iMac, and BusyCal was flying. Secondly, BusyCal can sync todo list items, which iCal cannot (at least, not over CalDAV).

So, I'll be keeping my eye on BusyCal. It is definitely going to merit a strong look once it ships.

-Andy.