New birthday icon for Calendar in iOS 4.2

The release of iOS 4.2 has brought us a nice little surprise in the form of the new icon shown in this post. If you're tracking birthdays in your Contacts application, those birthdays will appear in your ~~iCal~~ calendar with a little gift package icon. It's a nice little touch to the friendly organizer application, and it helps you visually spot that special day for your loved ones.

No one's made a big deal about this being a new feature in iOS 4.2, of course, since it's such a small detail (much as the new Voice Memos icon is a small detail). But for those of us who rank reaching out to loved ones to say "Happy Birthday" as a priority in our to-do list, this little touch might be a favorite change in iOS 4.2.

In order to set up this functionality, pull up the Contacts record for the person whose birthday you want to track. Select Edit in the upper right hand corner, scroll to the bottom and tap "add field." Then enter the birthday, and the date will show up in your calendar app.

Updated to correct iCal/Calendar app mixup.

Thanks to Ryan for the tip!

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The release of iOS 4.2 has brought us a nice little surprise in the form of the new icon shown in this post. If you're tracking birthdays...

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GoodHealz

THANK YOU SO MUCH I had no idea how to use this icon and it's been bugging me so much! lol

February 08 2011 at 2:10 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

HarrisonT

This is WORTHLESS unless you input the day and month with the YEAR when the next birthday occurs. It should be that you put the BIRTH year ( or leave blank ) and the program marks the birthday backwards to that year and forwards ad infinitum.

November 24 2010 at 5:43 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

HarrisonT

November 24 2010 at 5:16 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

pacokorn77

So. When are they going to add in Week view? As in turn your device on it's side to view your calendar by week.

November 23 2010 at 7:10 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Cris

This only works if you enter a birth year. Seems like a bug to me!

November 23 2010 at 5:46 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Cris

This only works if you enter a birth year. Seems like a bug to me!

November 23 2010 at 5:45 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Simpleminded

The voice memo icon has changed as well...

November 23 2010 at 4:07 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

bward74

Just use Birthday Scanner X - a free app that scans your Address Book for birthdays and automatically adds them to iCal WITH reminders. I have set it so I get a reminder a week before, then 2 days before, then on the day of each birthday.

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/home_learning/birthdayscannerx.html

November 23 2010 at 3:29 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Ian

Glad to see apple are focusing on the priorities. I'm so pleased to be able to visually distinguish Birthday events from calendar events.

Now what about those minor little issues like showing all birthdays prior to 1933 on 13th December.

A pretty interface gets my vote over functionality anytime ;)

November 23 2010 at 3:21 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

junior

It's a shame it doesn't let you set you an alarm to your Birthdays. I always register my contacts birthdays, but I frequently miss them because of the lack of the alarm!!! There is no alarm possibility on OS X either.

November 23 2010 at 2:45 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply