Beef Up Your Google Calendar With Business Calendar For Android

If you’re anything like me, the apps you tend to search for in the Android Market are those that assist with productivity.  For me, the entire point of having a smart phone is to be….productive.  And one of the most used and worn out feature on any smart phone I own is the calendar functionality.  I have to admit however, as ancient as Windows Mobile feels to me, I do miss various aspects of the integrated calendar features.  I especially enjoyed and benefited from the view that allows you to see a whole week at a time and all of the functions under each individual day of that particular week in one screen shot, something the Android calendar does not offer.  Well, as former president Harry S. Truman once stated, “The buck stops here”.  Business Calendar for Android, by developer Mikado Software,  gives you all of those missing functions that should have been embedded in Android after the Cupcake or Donut update (1.5 & 1.6), in my opinion.  

Business Calendar gives you that Google Calendar look and feel as if you were navigating through it on your PC.  It seamlessly syncs with your Google calendar and offers a clean and streamlined UI.  The scrolling is smooth and there are an array of options for views when in the calendar view (1-14 days).  The standard month, agenda, day and events view is there but with an added UI enhancement.  There is a “favorite bar” which allows you to quickly fade in and out of your calendar view.  And one of the most coveted functions of the calendar is the ability to search for any event within it, which is currently not available in recent versions of Android.  I’m running a Nexus One with Gingerbread 2.3 and the function does not exist apart from a third party app like Aurora, which for some reason didn’t work on Froyo or Gingerbread for me.  This function is now easily and seamlessly integrated into the application.  In addition, there are multiple drag and drop functions along with several useful widgets for month, week agenda and day view.  One of my favorite features in the app is the quick snap shot you can get when you’re in your month view and you simply tap on a day, you’ll get a multi-events view of your day eliminating the need to dive into the day and then dive back out to month view again for an overlook.  Mikado Software also offers a free version of the app called Business Calendar Beta so you can get a feel for the app before you make the big purchase at full price.  I think this is especially beneficial and other developers should adopt this tactic since the new Android Market only allows you a 15 min window to test an app.  If you’re ready to beef up and enhance your Android calendar, then don’t hesitate to download the app and feel free to let us know what you think in the comments below.

Caveats from the developer:

Please do not move the application to the sd card if you want to use the widgets (general limitation of the Android operating system)!
The app depends on the reminders of the stock calendar application please make sure you have not disabled them if you want to get alarm messages for your events!
Does not work with Motorola Xoom at the moment!
Latest version: 1.0.0.0 (for Android version 2.1 and higher)

Source: http://www.talkandroid.com/34603-beef-up-your-google-calendar-with-business-calendar-for-android/