I use the Calendar app on the iPhone all the time, but sometimes I find it a little cumbersome. For example, adding an event requires several steps: tap the plus sign, tap Title, enter the title, tap Done, Tap the time/date, enter the time/date, etc. etc. And if you want to go back to a date many months or years in the past, you need a lot of patience. Calvetica Calendar by Myterious Trousers, LLC is an alternative calendar for the iPhone. As the name implies, it uses a different font — Helvetica — and it has a modern look to it. But the real value of this app is that it gives you an alternative, often faster way to add and view events. And because it uses the same calendar database, you can go back and forth between using this app and the built-in Calendar app.
[UPDATE: Many have posted comments asking whether Calvetica works with Exchange, GMail, MobileMe mail, etc. The answer is yes. Any events that show up in your regular built-in Calendar app will also show up in Calvetica. And any events that you add or edit in Calvetica are added to the same date database, and thus will be synced back.]
The main view of the app shows you a single month. Dots indicate the number of events on each day. If you use different calendars on your iPhone (I don’t) the dots can be in a different color corresponding to each calendar.
One thing that I love about the calendar is that it is so fast to jump to another date. You can easily tap on another month to jump right there. Or you can swipe across the year to easily change years. In the iPhone’s built-in Calendar app, you have to go backwards (or forwards) one month at a time, so it takes forever to go back a few years. In Calvetica, it just takes a few swipes and then you are there, making it easy for me to see what I was doing on a specific date several years ago.
Tap on a date and you are brought to the day view. There are three ways to look at a date, which are toggled by the three icons at the bottom left of the day view screen. One view shows you just the events on a day. Another view shows you every single hour of the day from midnight to midnight.
But the middle of the three calendar options is the one I use the most, a view which shows you the day starting and ending at a time that you set in the Settings. (I use 8am to 12pm.)
From the day view, it is very fast to add an entry. Just tap next to an hour and start typing. The default is for each entry to be an hour (a duration that you can change in the Settings). Thus, adding an event is as simple as a single tap on an hour, typing in the event title, and then tapping done. This is much faster than adding an event in the regular Calendar app.
If you don’t want an event to start on the hour, just tap and hold on the hour and a pop-up window comes up for you to select the start time. Note also in this next screen that there are colored dots next to each event; if you use multiple calendars and want to turn on the feature, you can have different colored dots appear next to events depending upon the calendar that corresponds to each event. You can turn off the colored dots if you don’t want them (which is my default setting).
To add an alarm to an event, just tap the alarm clark at the end of the entry. The clock will change color to red when an alarm is set. To edit an event that is already created, just tap on it once and you can edit the details:
You can also swipe your finger across an event to see a red line, from which you can tap the trash can to delete the event or tap the arrows to move the event to an earlier or later time. The icon with a box and a check mark is used if you use multiple calendars.
Finally, you can turn your iPhone sideways and see a view of all of the events for the week, which is handy.
I don’t know anything about the developers of this app, but they clearly have a sense of humor (as you can see from the description of the app on the iTunes App Store) and I like that they have a page on their website called “planvetica” where they tell you what features they are working on.
I am a big fan of the Calvetica app. I purchased it after hearing good reviews on some podcasts that I listen to, and I’m glad that I did. I still use the built-in Calendar app most of the time, but I often find myself using Calvetica when I know that it will be more efficient. It has quickly become one of those apps that I can’t imagine not having on my iPhone.
If you want to try before you buy, there is also a free version called Calvetica Calendar – Narrow (a cute play on the font name theme). The free version lacks some of the features of the full version such as multiple calendars, advanced options for recurring events, the three multiple views on the single day view, etc. The free version can give you a taste of what the app is all about, but I suspect you’ll just want to spend the three bucks on the full version of the app.
Click here for Calvetica Calendar ($2.99): 
Click here for Calvetica Calendar – Narrow (free):
Jay Goodman Tamboli is a (non-practicing) lawyer in Washington, D.C. who (like me) graduated from Georgetown University Law Center. He also has a degree in computer science, and his day job is to serve as the Legal Affairs Correspondent and IT Director for the Talk Radio News Service.
