Flexibits, the developers behind the popular Fantastical 2 calendar app for iOS and Mac, today released a teaser suggesting the app will be expanding to the Apple Watch in the near future. A new page on the Flexibits website reads "It's almost time" before transitioning over to the Apple Watch depicting a screenshot from the new app.
Little can be determined about the upcoming Apple Watch app from the screenshot, but it appears to have a clean design with a useful timeline-based calendar for tracking daily appointments and events. A Fantastical app for the Apple Watch will be a welcome addition, as Apple's own Calendar app is limited in functionality.
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Fantastical 2 is one of the premiere Calendar replacements available on Mac and iOS, popular for its simple interface, Reminders integration, and its ability to parse event entries based on natural language input.
Flexibits has not given information on a specific date, but in a tweet, the company says the app is "almost here." As with all Apple Watch apps, the Fantastical app will be introduced through an update to the existing iPhone app.
Fantastical 2 for iPhone can be downloaded from the App Store for $4.99. [Direct Link]
Top Rated Comments
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Flexbits "no universal apps" -approach is somewhat irritating. If 2DO can pull off critically different GUI's for iPhone and iPad on single universal app than Flexbits shouldn't have any problem. Also the Mac app pricing is new form of highway robbery. I love the apps but hate what I paid for them.
Why'd you pay for them then?
I don't get the constant crying about what apps cost these days. Boxed software used to be hundreds of dollars, with no updates, ever. Money is growing on trees for developers. Didn't you all see the story about the top 5 grossing app in the Mac App Store making essentially peanuts? These developers deserve to be properly compensated for good work. Why spend the time and money developing a great app if it's going to provide a less than stellar return on investment?
For the record, don't own any of the Fantasical versions, I'm good with the built in app. But the crying about paying 5, 10, even 50 for good software is getting old. I happily bought all versions and pro upgrades of OmniFocus because it's incredibly useful software that I use every day. In fact, I look forward to opening my wallet again for the next major versions.
I will probably be down voted for saying this, but I actually wish developers of multi-platform software (e.g., Flexibits, Omni Group, Tapbots) add annual subscription pricing.
I can totally see myself paying a reasonable annual fee (e.g., $15/year for Fantastical, $25/year for OmniFocus, $5/year for Tweetbot) for frequently used apps, especially if one license includes access to all platforms (Mac, iPhone, iPad).
I'd rather keep the payment aligned with the work: release major new feature set, make it an in-app purchase. Developer gets new money for new development, old and new customers get the same deal (base price plus N upgrades). And I'm happy to pay for the upgrades. Yes, it is troublesome where the app has to function with/without arbitrary feature sets, but I've seen too many subscription systems end up where not enough gets upgraded once the revenue stream is assured.
So what exactly will this do that the Apple Calendar app can't?A Fantastical app for the Apple Watch will be a welcome addition, as Apple's own Calendar app is limited in functionality.
It's pretty hard to beat raising your wrist and simply saying "Hey Siri, schedule a dentist appointment for 10am on June 27th" and have Apple Calendar automatically create the event for you.
Well at least it comes with the iPhone version so they're not charging me again...
In-app purchase.