Event Maker, my favourite app for creating normal and all-day iCal events from Mail.app messages, has been updated.

The new version (0.3b3) has been completely rewritten using Cocoa Bindings and sports a redesigned interface. A Software Update function has been added to the app’s menu.

It also supports iCal’s alarms options. A pop-out alarm drawer has been added which allows you choose an alarm for the event:

Very nice!

The developer Mike Abdullah emailed to let me know about the update and to make a request of Hawk Wings readers:

0.3b3 is currently a “beta” release. This is because I cannot draw and I still need some decent icons for the toolbar! So if you could just mention on your blog that I would really appreciate it if someone were able to spare a little time to help me out.

If you can draw icons and would like to help out with this very useful app, please drop Mike an email.

Event Maker also creates To Dos from email messages, although personally I use MailTags for that.

The new version of Event Maker is available from MacUpdate .mail.app, apple mail, ical, events, todos, alarms, plugins

GroupCal offers full two-way synchronization of iCal events and to dos with Ms Exchange Server 2000 or 2003 and will appeal especially to the many Mac users trapped in a Windows world.

It also allows you to make full use of other MS Exchange features like booking people or resources for meetings, responding to meeting requests and viewing Free/Busy time.

Calendar synchronization is controlled from the app’s main window:

GroupCal 3 brought compatibility with 10.4.

GroupCal 3.01, released on Saturday, fixes a significant problem in 3.0 in which Exchange “Tasks” (i.e. iCal “To Dos”) were not being synchronized from Exchange into iCal. It also adds hotkeys to the Synchronize menu entries.

The latest version will run on Intel Macs under Rosetta but is not yet universal.

Designed for the business market, it comes complete with a corporate price tag. Licences range from USD 54.95 for a single user to USD 1.029.95 for 25 users. A free but crippled demo is available from the developer’s web site .

(I have no access to an Exchange server to test this. I even had to pinch the developer’s own screenshot).ical, events, todos, MS Exchange server, synchronization, rosetta, meeting requests, booking resources

I keep track of To Dos with iCal (and MailTags). That’s good enough for me, especially as I try hard not to have too much to do.

If you are very busy person or a hardcore ToDo list maker, you are going to love ToDo X. It is the fully-tooled-up Rolls Royce of To Do lists, with dedicated features that leave iCal’s comfy Corolla in the shade.

Read on after the jump to see the screenshots and read the rest of this review.

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Studies have shown that using the keyboard is faster than using a mouse.

Not everyone agrees. In 1989 Bruce “Tog” Tognazzini (“Leading authority on software design” — HotWired) revealed that:

We?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ve done a cool $50 million of R & D on the Apple Human Interface. We discovered, among other things, two pertinent facts:

?¢‚Ǩ¬¢ Test subjects consistently report that keyboarding is faster than mousing.
?¢‚Ǩ¬¢ The stopwatch consistently proves mousing is faster than keyboarding.

This contradiction between user-experience and reality apparently forms the basis for many user/developers?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ belief that the keyboard is faster.

Interesting as this perception vs. reality debate is, I have long wanted a way to create iCal ToDos that didn’t involve fiddling around with a mouse. And here it is.

ZooDo is a small app that allows you to create iCal ToDos without touching the mouse once.

After installing the app, launch it using Quicksilver (or LaunchBar or Butler or other launcher of choice). It presents you with the following dialog:

The cursor is already sitting in the first field, ready for you to type.

Typing and tabbing gets you to the Create button. It’s possible to get trapped in the Notes field where the tab key stops moving between fields, but Control-Tab gets you out. Hit Return and you are done.

Mouseless To Do creation. Feels faster to me.

ZooDo is freeware (donations not refused) and is available from the developer’s web site .

High Priority is a System Preference Pane that brings the management of your iCal ToDos to the menubar.

An updated version, released today, contains some significant improvements and bugfixes.

The display of ToDos has been improved. It can now display the Due Date in the menu title and show only ToDo items due within a specified number of days. URLs can now be launched from a ToDo dialog.

You can now assign a global hot key to open the menu and choose to display the menu in a small font size.

The update also features new and improved status labels – Cancelled, In Process, Needs Action – for your ToDos, which are now displayed in the tooltip information.

Some bugfixes make it more stable.

High Priority is shareware (USD 6) and is available from the developer?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s web site.

DoBeDo is a widget that manages your iCal ToDos.

It will list your ToDos, but also allows you mark them as completed, to edit them and to select which ones to display.

It has been around for a while, but a new version was released today with a snazzy skin to match the new 10.4.4 Calendar widget:

As you can see, the reverse side offers various useful options.

The new version also displays subscribed calendars and fixes a bug that could cause the contents of a previous ToDo to “get stuck” in the Note box of the next one.

DoBeDo is freeware and available from the developer’s web site.

I’ve added two things to the Hawk Wings’ Plugin and Addon List:

1. High Priority (menubar management of iCal ToDos) was added to the iCal section.
2. MySync (.Mac syncing without a .Mac account) was added to the Miscellaneous or helpful apps section.

That makes 110 entries.

I also added the “Hot mail” icon to the list of different mail.app stamp icons.