calendar

Google Calendar could be the latest Google service to get the much-hallowed Gears treatment--Google's offline site viewing extension for Firefox and Internet Explorer. Earlier this morning, a post by Andy Beal on the Marketing Pilgrim caused a stir when he noted that he got a Google Gears security access request while logging into Google Calendar. Despite the pop-up, there was no offline functionality added to the service, or screenshots for proof.

Since publishing the post, Google has officially responded to Beal, stating that there are no specific announcements for any services that will end up with Gears functionality or … Read more

If you're a user of the mobile versions of Google's Gmail, and Calendar, you'll know that they're incredibly useful if you're on a carrier with less than 3G data speeds. Not as useful as the full desktop browser versions, but great if you're out and about and need to check your calendar or inbox without having to rely on the sometimes clunky POP implementations on the built-in e-mail apps on some phones. Both services have received substantial mobile updates within the last few days, here's what's new:

Gmail mobile (http://m.gmail.com)… Read more

Among the announcements at the Office 2.0 conference this week, Jotlet's online calendars will provide two-way synchronization with Microsoft Outlook later this month. At first glance, the calendars appear elegant and easy to use, with visual niceties such as color coding. Personal accounts are free, while corporate accounts allow a company to use branded Jotlet calendars within their Web sites. While heavily customized calendars such as those displayed during the conference demo might cost in the ballpark of between $100 to $200 per month, Jotlet's prices vary widely with the features and support offered. Jotlet allows user … Read more

There's no doubt Yelp was going to add a local events and calendaring functionality to their popular user reviews service, and today they've done it with a new feature called Events. Coincidentally, last week brought about a refresh of Yahoo's Local service, which finally integrated Yahoo's own events service Upcoming.org.

Not surprisingly, Yelp Events is quite similar to Upcoming.org, with a landing page for each event, a comment board, and a list of yeses and maybes from community members to say whether they'll be attending. The main difference being the way user profiles … Read more

Chores are an unfortunate side effect of domestic existence. Things need to be done, people need to do them, and dolling out who does what, and when can lead to an exasperating amount of effort for parents, roommates, and authoritarians. Everyone has their own system, and many rely on a piece of paper, or in some cases a homemade Wheel of Fortune-like spinner that decides whose fate it is to clean the upstairs bathroom or scoop up the dog poop from the back yard.

ChoreBuster is a service that mixes these two ideas, providing a free, Web-based scheduling tool that can also randomize who has to do a chore.

As administrator, you can create your family or chore participants one by one and begin building a chore list. You can set recurring chores, on a daily, weekly, or custom basis, along with adding odd one-time chores as they come up. This schedule is then made available to everyone online, and can be easily printed out to get stuck on the fridge or other common area. There are also e-mail reminders, a mobile version of the site, along with a Yahoo! Widget that can show each user what they're supposed to do that day.

After testing out the site this morning, my one qualm is that adding several tasks and assigning them is cumbersome, more so than it would be to simply open up a spreadsheet and start writing things down. Maybe I'm just used to scheduling things in Google Calendar and Outlook, but I found it took too many steps. However, for power users, and those looking to really dig deep and add 30 or more tasks--I can see learning ChoreBuster's management system paying off. With enough effort and foresight, you can set it up to swap up tasks on a daily basis continuously for several months with little or no effort on your part.

ChoreBuster could be a lifesaver for big families, and large communal group living situations like fraternities, sororities, and summer camps. It also offers some great integration features for a free service like the e-mail reports and the desktop widget.… Read more

Recently, when Power Downloader was deeply immersed in a particular case, he got a phone call from Candace Clicks. She wasn't very happy with Power because he had completely missed their lunch date. After trying to calm the situation and rescheduling for a nice dinner at Candace's favorite restaurant, Power decided that he might need a little help with keeping track of appointments.… Read more

Category: Productivity

Google Calendar is a free, Web-based calendar. Users can add events in multiple calendars and access them on their mobile phone or using Google's Gmail. Like many other Google apps, Google Calendar has a collaborative nature. Users can share and subscribe to one another's calendars or import them from third-party services that offer things such as national holidays, movie releases, or moon cycles.

In addition to a calendar view that can be toggled by day, week, or month, you can also create your own custom view that lists anywhere from two days to four weeks. To … Read more

Moms often end up feeling like their brain plays the role of the family "hard drive," especially when it comes to scheduling. Someone has to know exactly what, where and when each family member needs to be. Moms get frustrated when they have to do it all, and Dads feel left out of the process when they might like to be involved.

I've looked for a tool to manage this family scheduling and communication, which can often add up to a job as complex as managing a business team. But the products I've found have been … Read more

Is your Google Calendar looking lonely? Is it filled with boring things like work, family obligations, or vacation plans that loom far, far away? Worse yet, is it sitting there, empty and useless? To spice things up, Google has launched a fairly extensive listing of calendars you can subscribe to. They range from important schedules--like national holidays and Presidential candidates' 2008 touring dates--to things that are bound to fill up your days, like TV listings and DVD releases.

The service is launching with schedules from several large brands like Netflix, Disney, and the NBA. Alternately, you can search through publicly … Read more