Readdle launches iOS 7-ified Calendars 5

Readdle Calendar 5 for iOS (teaser 001)

With so much on my plate, you could imagine that daily productivity of yours truly depends on a powerhouse mobile calendar software. I’ve been a longtime fan of Fantastical from Flexibits, but that’s not saying I’m married to it. In fact, I’m expected to test new applications on a daily basis by virtue of my job.

Developer Readdle makes some of the finest productivity apps on the App Store and they just launched Calendars 5, a major new release optimized for the iOS 7 look and feel. It packs in such features as natural language input (take that, Fantastical!), support for iOS reminders, tasks, Google Calendars and much more…

Rather than issue an update to its existing Calendars+ app, Readdle instead re-imagined what a mobile calendar experience for a regular person should be. Nine months in the making, Calendars 5 supports the iPhone and iPad natively, syncs data seamlessly across devices, combines calendar events and tasks and syncs with the stock iOS Reminders app.

The resulting experience is very powerful and frictionless, yet easy to use.

That’s because the UI does away with colorful bars and buttons in favor of the iOS 7 design philosophy. For instance, simply switch between days and weeks by swiping, like you’d swipe in iOS 7 stock apps.

Returning to your Today view is a one-tap affair.

Check out the promo vid.

It’s also arguably the first smart calendar for the iPad, since all other great calendar apps are for the iPhone only. People who do real work on an iPad will love skimming through their Weekly or Monthly schedule on a larger canvas.

Readdle Calendar 5 for iOS (iPhone screenshot 001)Readdle Calendar 5 for iOS (iPhone screenshot 002)

Though Calendars 5 lets you create events in Day view by tapping and holding, you may find its natural language processing faster and – well – more natural. Just start typing away (or copy from clipboard) something like “New iPhones arrive next Friday at 8am PT” and the app will parse your input and auto-populate the event fields for you.

Saves a ton of time.

Readdle Calendar 5 for iOS (iPhone screenshot 003)Readdle Calendar 5 for iOS (iPhone screenshot 004)

Custom recurring events are supported as well so you can create events like “Do something every second month of the year on weekdays of the 1st, 2nd and last week”.

Readdle on its newly-found focus on simplicity and minimalism:

When you create an event in iOS calendar you see a 12-fields-dialog that confuses and disorients you. In Calendars 5 you have a single field to start with. The rest will unfold as you need it.

There’s also Day, Week, Month and List view of your events, SMS reminders and custom alerts, RSVPs, drag-and-drop for tasks and events and other cool features.Readdle Calendar 5 for iOS (iPad screenshot 001)

The 22MB download is optimized for the iPhone 5’s taller screen and requires iOS 6.0 or later. The app’s available at the introductory price of $4.99 that will last only for a week.

Download Calendars 5 from the App Store now.