iConiCal: Keep iCal's icon current
After my minor gripe that the iPhone's calendar app displays the proper date on its icon, even though Mac OS X's still doesn't, a few readers directed me towards iConiCal. Basically, all iConiCal does is start up up iCal to update its icon, then it quits both iCal and itself so you don't have extra apps eating up system resources, but you also gain an iCal Dock icon that keeps you up to date. iConiCal also gives you some icon customization options, offering two alternative colors for iCal's icon both in its dormant state and after it is updated. Of course, this app also has a 'start at login' option so your iCal icon can get set right when you log in or start up, so you won't have to think about it for the remainder of your session. For anyone clamoring to have an up-to-date iCal icon and those who aren't up for adding the date to their menubar by tweaking the Date & Time System Preferences pane, iConiCal sounds like a fine solution.iConiCal is donationware available from BlockSoft.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Joope said 8:22AM on 7-05-2007
Dudes, Pleeeeease!
If you want to know the date, have a look (click) at your menubar.
I suggest people start seeing what's really important instead of giving themselves a hard (and most of all a lot of wasted) time over such minor details...
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Mo said 8:35AM on 7-05-2007
It's a nice idea, but iCal's icon in the dock always appears to revert back to “Apple Day” when it's closed.
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tk said 9:13AM on 7-05-2007
duh... requires you to boot/login everyday... useless. And like Joope said - what ever happened to the good old menubar clock, eh?... really...
Oh, and iStat Menus does a so much better job at this! (telling day of the month, that is). Now that's useful.
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James Donevan said 8:37AM on 7-05-2007
Unfortunately iConiCal doesn't include the month which makes the icon look unfinished. If the developer could sort out the month (presumably more difficult than the number due language considerations), it could be a great little accessory.
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CRH said 5:15PM on 7-05-2007
Why can't I display the DATE in the menu bar? I shouldn't have to click on it to get the date. Any one know a fix for this?
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Leonard Nimrod said 3:56AM on 7-06-2007
5.2MB for this icon replacer? That it a bit excessive.
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Rob said 8:47AM on 7-05-2007
From the iConiCal Web Site: "Presently iConiCal will only work when a user with an admin account is loggd in."
Since I rarely log in as an administrator (for security reasons), iConiCal is pretty much useless to me.
I won't sacrifice security just so my iCal icon shows the right date. The best solution for me is to have iCal automatically run at login. (I use the hide option so I don't have to see the calendar -- go to System Preferences - Users - Login Items). iCal does not use up a lot of system resources.
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BlockSoft said 9:56AM on 7-05-2007
Hi, I wrote iConiCal, and I'm also a TUAW reader so thanks for the feature.
In response to some of the comments above - it is 5.1Mb partly because it includes over 90 icons within the package for setting the date.
I am hoping to find a workaround for the admin issue in v1.3 - possibly asking for the admin password or something. This is necessary as iConiCal modifies the picture files within the iCal package, and these are read only unless you have admin permissions.
And regarding the login/reboot everyday - you could just run it at midnight by launching it and getting on with your work.
It's not a perfect solution admittedly, but I'm always working on improvements.
And in response to #2 - this is exactly the problem iConiCal solves. It doesn't simply launch and close iCal, it changes the icon when it is closed too. The only reason iCal needs to be launched, is to force the icon to be refreshed.
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Mo said 10:47AM on 7-05-2007
In response to #7 (Blocksoft), it'd appear the reason it reverts is because I'm a non-admin user (and will stay that way!)
I'll happily use iConiCal if the privilege issue can be resolved.
One work-around would be to allow you to give iConiCal the path to a copy of iCal that you have write-permission to. Most of my apps live in ~/Applications, so I'd have zero problem in stashing a copy of iCal in there and using that.
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HobbesDoo said 12:18PM on 7-05-2007
Lighten up people. Someone comes up with a cool idea to change the icon and provides his work for free (donation-ware) and all you guys do is criticize the work. Geez.
That's been pretty much the kind of comments here on TUAW for quite a while now. Grow up!
Awesome work with the app!!!! Great idea.
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Alan Koenigsberg said 4:33PM on 7-05-2007
I'm looking for information about whether I can use the iPhone's calendar program to input events directly into the phone, as opposed to into my desktop and then sync.
Also, I'm interested in buying an iPhone in part to use as my portable calendar, much as I use my Palm T|X now. How good is it?
Thanks!
Alan Koenigsberg
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john russell said 6:11PM on 7-05-2007
The one thing that irks me about the program is that they used Arial for the closed icon font. It's Helvetica. Learn the difference.
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Edd said 12:09AM on 7-06-2007
err, unless i'm missing something, isn't it easiest just to run ical and leave it running (hide it rather than close it)..? that way your ical icon is always up-to-date...
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