Mac Calendar App Fantastical Gets An Upgrade And A Bigger Price Tag

Fantastical, one of the more popular calendaring applications designed for Apple users on iOS and Mac, has this morning rolled out its long-anticipated upgrade to its Mac app with the release of Fantastical 2. The upgraded app has been designed exclusively for OS X Yosemite, and supports a number of Yosemite features, including a Today Widget, Action and Share extensions and Handoff support, for example.

The app, which is also notably more expensive than the earlier version, includes improvements to its natural language processing engine, as well as the introduction of new features, such as “calendar sets,” which let users toggle on and off various groupings of calendars and reminder lists.

For example, you could create a calendar set containing your personal calendars, like your family calendar, kid’s school calendar, personal to-do’s, and family birthdays. Plus, you can configure the new Fantastical app to automatically activate that calendar set when you arrive or leave a particular location, too. That way, you could have your personal calendar set pop up when you arrive at home, while having your work calendar set appear when you take your Mac to the office.

Year View

Fantastical 2’s update also includes improvements to its natural language processing engine, which understands calendar appointments written in everyday speech. This has for a long time been one of the app’s main selling points, as it allows users to create appointments more quickly by just typing them in as sentences or phrases, instead of having to click through a bunch of fields. Now the app is able to process more complex input like “every third Thursday of every month,” for instance, or “every weekend,” “the last weekday of the month,” and more, the company notes.

iCloud Reminders are better, too. You can create these by writing things like “reminder,” “to do,” “task” or even “remind me to,” and then add dates, times, and even location-based geofences if you choose, in order to be alerted when you arrive or leave a location. Events and reminders can also now be seen together in the main list.

Today Widget

Like the earlier version, the new calendar supports iCloud, Yahoo and Google Calendars by way of its new CalDAV engine, allowing you to manage calendars across a variety of services. You can still pull the calendar down from your Mac’s menu bar, but the upgraded app includes a full calendar view, too, similar to the iPad version. Here, you can view your day, your month or your year, as you choose.

There’s also a new light theme available, as well as full localization for English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Japanese.

Flexibits, the developer behind the Fantastical suite, first released the calendar for Mac four years ago, which then led to its expansion to iOS devices where the app is regularly well-ranked and often featured by Apple’s editorial team.

Day View

With the release of Fantastical 2, the company is going after its most devout customer base with a launch price of $39.99, to later be followed by a standard price of $49.99. That may seem like a lot for a calendaring app, but it’s one that’s aimed squarely at Fantastical’s heaviest users – those for whom the app is a must, not a “nice to have.” But the pricing is also sure to ruffle some feathers, since there will be those who want the new app but can’t afford to make the leap.

The app offers a 14-day free trial if you’re on the fence. Otherwise, it’s available to purchase from either the Mac App Store or the Flexibits website.