Juggling your day-to-day tasks as well as bigger projects can be a real pain in the neck. It’s easy to lose track of things and get double booked. That’s why having a tool which helps you to keep track of what you have going on and coming up is very useful, and the easier it is to use, the better. That’s why electronic calendars are great to have, and luckily there is a new contender vying to be your calendar application.
What is Newton Calendar
Newton is the company formally known as Cloudmagic, the maker of one of the best email clients around, Newton. Newton email is renown for its smarts and intelligent features. Newton Calendar is the calendar app they developed to complement their email app. After all, often you have to add a calendar item after you have received an email.
Newton Calendar is currently limited to iOS, however many of the features are built into the Newton mail app on Android.
The Good
There are two aspects that standout in Newton calendar. The layout and the way you add new events. The layout of the calendars app is unlike many calendar apps which start with a weekly or monthly view, instead it shows you a list of upcoming events during the upcoming days. This is great for the type of person who has several events everyday, rather than the type of person who has only limited events during the week.
You can still access the monthly view by tapping on the name of the month which leads to a drop down monthly view which you can slide through. This is a great way of keeping the details out of the way but quickly moving to an certain date.
Tapping the plus button brings up the new events input. Here you can start typing your event description using some quick add syntax of “(event title) (day) (time)” However, adding further details like the location and attendees require you to press one of the relevant icons below the event. You can also add extra notes, a phone number and make reoccurring events.
The Bad
There have been several bold decisions made for this app which will make it a divisive app. For instance, some people will miss the weekly or monthly view appearing straight away. In other cases the dark theme may put others off. However for other users, these features will be a big advantage.
One of the strangest aspects of Newton calendar is that it doesn’t support iCal calendar considering it is an iOS app. Newton calendar does support two of the most essential calendars (Gmail and Exchange) but considering newton mail supports a wider range of services, it is a shame not to see the same support in the calendar app.
The entry for events also feels like it is trying to mimic fantastical’s natural language entry, however it doesn’t quite match up. It lacks certain functions (like adding the location or changing the order).
Wrapping Up
Overall, Newton calendar is a good calendar application but it doesn’t feel like it really pushes the boundaries to me. That isn’t a bad thing, but it does seem surprising considering how radical newton email takes on email with several unique features that you can’t find on other email applications. Newton have promised more features in the future so this could be a great application to keep on your radar, even if you aren’t taken with it immediately.
Design: 4
Features: 3.5
Performance: 5
Value for Money: 5
Newton Calendar supports iOS.
You can find Newton Calendar here
[Please note, we were given early access to the beta version of Newton Calendar but it has not influenced our view.]
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