[chiliu78]

Not sure how many people have ran into this problem but if you use the "Open Table" app or any others that can put reservations into your Palm Pre Calendar and use Google Calendar heavily, then you might know what I'm talking about here. This also pertains to the "Where" app for movies, etc.

I like everything to be synced accordingly. For example, if something is put on my Pre calendar, I want it to show on my desktop (Google Calendar) and vice versa. The problem I ran into recently was trying to set up a reservation at a restaurant with a friend. Since most of my friends have a smartphone, I do like the idea that if we're doing something together and it's on one person's calendar, it should be on everyone else's.

So anyway, I make a reservation on Open Table and noticed that I have the ability to put the reservation into my calendar. Here's the problem with utilizing this feature: It will put it into your Pre calendar under the "Palm Profile" calendar but it will never show up on your desktop/web Google Calendar since you technically never created (nor have the ability to) a separate calendar called "Palm Profile".

So here is what it looks like after you put your appointment in from Open Table (this pic is "after the fact" so the "3 participants" should not be there. I changed it back to show the color scheme):




AGain, you can see this in your Palm Pre but not in Google. Very annoying (for me anyway).

Additionally, you can "invite" other people through Open Table but it's a load of crap. All it does is send them an email stating time, place, date, etc without the ability for them to put it into their own calendar.

The best way I figured out how to "fix" this was to get it into my Google Calendar without (1) having to type anything and (2) copy and paste anything.

So to fix this, while you're in your appointment screen (shown above), click on the "Palm" that's on the upper right hand corner and you'll get various options to check off. You want to check off one of your Google Calendars - like this:



After you check a Google Calendar, the appointment screen should change colors. Example:



Viola! What is significant about this is (1) it shows up on your calendar - on your phone AND desktop and it continually syncs if you add your own details, etc. (2) have the ability to INVITE other people and lastly (3) the ability to email them all at once.

Not sure if this helped anyone but if you depend on Google Calendar heavily and you like things sync'ed across the board (computer to phone and vice versa), then you might want to give this a try.

[Achill3s]

Cool. Nice find. Have not had this problem yet but it's good to have a heads up.

[TomJ]

Do these apps put entries into your Palm calendar even if you've set Google as your default calendar?

Regards,
Tom

[chiliu78]

Do these apps put entries into your Palm calendar even if you've set Google as your default calendar?

Regards,
Tom

Yes. The point of that is so you can see clearly (based on color coding) which calendar belongs to what. The OpenTable gave me blue. It does look very nice and organized when it's layered and colored separate from my default calendar. But alas, i'd sacrifice color coding to get the ability the sync from desktop to phone and having the ability to invite people.

[ray1b]

It would be nice if the apps put the entries in the default calendar.

[chiliu78]

It would be nice if the apps put the entries in the default calendar.

I think it's a matter of preference. If the phone had the ability to automatically set up a new customized "open table" calendar on my google calendar site, then I'd welcome it. But for now, since it doesn't, I'd choose functional over graphics (color coded)

[chiliu78]

In all fairness, I do see why the apps bucket their own appointments in their own calendar on the Pre. Take for example the day below. I plan on going to Boston for a 4 day trip and I decided to put all the festivals, parties, etc that is going to happen during my stay in Boston.

Additionally, there may be other things going on that same day that I need to be aware of. If you look at the pic below, you can see what I mean. Each is color coded and since it's my calendar, I understand it in my own way:

1. Blue - This is part of my gym schedule. It usually states the times my gym will be open (I workout at a university gym so the schedules fluctuate based on semesters, etc). For this one, it says that there's going to be a locker clean out for this day. Meaning nothing is to be left in lockers in preparation for the Fall semester. This calendar is grabbed (they use google calendar) from the main site and it updates as they update it.

2. Green - This is a weather calendar. I like this because it shows me the weather along with my appointments for the day. This also auto update.

3. Red/Pink - This is my customized Boston trip events. As you can see, the "Boston GreenFest 2009" is an all day event while the "Boston Trip" spans the length I'm there. Since both of them are in my "Boston" google calendar, anything else I dump in there will be red/pink - just like the events starting at 9AM. I can clearly see that there are multiple events going on that day in Boston and I can click on them accordingly.

4. Yellow - This one is my default google calendar. I believe it's my buddy's birthday that day since it's an all day event.

[sbono13]

I do think there was some security related rationale to sandbox apps in their own calendar, rather than allow them to modify existing calendars. The baseball app is a good example of this-- you can add a team's schedule to your calendar, but it creates it's own calnedar account (that can be later deleted en masse). Oddly, Open Table doesn't use it's own calender-- it uses the existing Palm Profile calendar. Being able to switch the event back to Google is nice. But unless I missed something, you stll can't add participants/invites from the Pre, right (you have to do that from either Open Table beforehand or GCal after moving the event to Google)?

I was a bit disappointed that changing the reservation on Open Table (or canceling it) doesn't update the calendar entry.

[chiliu78]

True. You do not have the ability to invite anyone over the Pre yet. They need to fix this if they want to compete against the Blackberry.

Also, I noticed that Google Calendar now integrates Google Tasks and it shows up (on the desktop) as a separate Google Calendar. The Pre is unable to read this meaning that it omits the Task Calendar all together.

Ironically though, my other phone - the HTC MyTouch does not recognize the Task Calendar either. And it's technically a "Google Phone".

The one thing that I think the Pre Calendar needs is an "Agenda View". It's a must - especially when you a booked day. it'll lay out your day in a quick bullet point outline by timeline order.

I do think there was some security related rationale to sandbox apps in their own calendar, rather than allow them to modify existing calendars. The baseball app is a good example of this-- you can add a team's schedule to your calendar, but it creates it's own calnedar account (that can be later deleted en masse). Oddly, Open Table doesn't use it's own calender-- it uses the existing Palm Profile calendar. Being able to switch the event back to Google is nice. But unless I missed something, you stll can't add participants/invites from the Pre, right (you have to do that from either Open Table beforehand or GCal after moving the event to Google)?

I was a bit disappointed that changing the reservation on Open Table (or canceling it) doesn't update the calendar entry.

[reuben.olsen]

It would be nice if the apps put the entries in the default calendar.

Current Palm security policy doesn't allow it. 3rd party apps can only access their own calendar.

I understand the security implications of giving apps blanket access to the other calendars - I wouldn't want my appointments scraped and posted to the internet by a rogue app or just simply deleted. But, I wouldn't mind specifically granting PERMISSION to an app to utilize one or all of my calendars. If I trust the app I should be able to let it do what it was designed to do. When you install a GPS enabled app from the app catalog it asks you if you want to install it. Why not do the same with apps that need access to your calendars and contacts?

[JKTex]

I was reading and anticipation of a new cool tip. <yawn>

I just set up a Google calendar today and it seemed like an obvious way to manage entries.

You also know you can go into preferences and either show or hide each "calendar"?