Google Calendar updates flairs for months and new types of events

Google Calendar is preparing new flairs for event types, as well as updated month imagery.

Google Calendar event images

When we create events in Google Calendar, there's a chance you might end up with a customized image that will allow for a easier visual inspection of our calendar.

Google finally lets users export Gmail and Calendar data in Take Out

Google has always fought for user's rights to own their own data, and that's why it created Google TakeOut, so anyone could take out their data, either for safe keeping somewhere (though I prefer to trust Google with my data than a cumbersome optical disc or hard drive that may fail without warning). However, there were two of Google services that were missing from that list - and precisely the ones you'd more likely want to take out with you should you decide do migrate to other service: Gmail and Google Calendars.

Well... Google has finally decided to follow through, and you'll soon be able to export your Gmail and Calendar data in Google's TakeOut. In fact, you can do it already for the Calendar data, but for Gmail, it will be rolled out gradually over the next month - I guess not even Google wants to deal with a few hundred million users backing up gigabytes of emails... all at once.

You can select whether you want to export all your calendars or just a subset, and likewise, you can select all your gmail  or just specific label - which I would recommend, as it is highly doubtful you really need all the gigabytes of emails you've gathered over the years. In my case, I would just need to select a few labels to get all my important emails - which would probably weigh just a few megabytes, and download it in seconds instead of hours!

The calendar files are exported as ICAL files, while Gmail is exported to MBOX files - both are formats you'll be able to import into other calendar/email programs and services.

Add Events to Google Calendar from Gmail

Scheduling events in Google Calendar will now be easier than ever if you happen to spend most of your time on Gmail. When you receive an email with a date/time reference, Gmail will now detect it's a date (underlining it with a light color) and allow you to quickly add it to your scheduled events.

To ensure you won't be overbooked, it will even show you a preview your schedule for the day, so you can see if there's something already scheduled for that same day/time - and allow you to quickly tweak the time so you can fit it in your schedule.

As a last "nice touch", the newly created event will include a link to the originating email, so you can easily keep track of things and quickly find out relevant information. It's a nice improvement to the "create event" option we already had on Gmail, but that forced us to blindly input the date and time manually. For now this new feature is only available for US english users.

Android Forgets pre-1970 Birthdays

A friend of mine (@jcpandrade) just sent me a strange report that indicates that at least some Android devices might be forgetting the birthdays for people born before 1970. His report follows:

I've beem using Outlook's and MS Exchange calendar for years, as well as its contacts. So, I usually keep their birth dates in the correspondent contact field, and Outlook takes care of creating a recurring yearly event for the birthday. It's a simple "all day" event, repeating every year. And that way, I can easily keep tabs on who's birthday is coming.

However, on my Optimus Madrid (a gingerbread Android smartphone), synced via Exchange corporate account, I found out that I had no birthday event for everyone born before 1-1-1970! (EPOCH).

But there's more: if I create a recurring yearly event starting on January 1st, 1970... it shows up fine. But if you edit it to begin on Dec 31st 1969... Android keeps it on the original Jan 1st date!

I've found that this happens in more devices as well, as I verified the same behavior in a Nexus S (Android 4.0) and Samsung Galaxy S2. On an iPhone 3GS, there's no such issue and the events work up as expected.


A really weird case indeed. But if you happen to have MS exchange synced birthdays on your Android, you might want to verify if everything is working as expected... or risk forgetting someone's birthday... if he or she's over 42!

Google Calendar gets Appointment Management

Here's one new Google Calendar feature that is sure to bring lots of new users to this amazing time management and scheduling service: Appointment Slots in Google Calendar.

That's right, now you can let Google Calendar manage all your appointments. You need only select when you're available and how many appointment slots you have (for instance: 30 min slots from 3 to 5PM) and... that's all you need to do.

You can embed it in any web page so your clients can automatically make their appointments with you, or share it via a url link.

If they also use Google Calendar, they'll be able to see their own schedule - so they won't make an appointment when they're already booked somewhere else.

Really amazing and useful! :)

Colorize Events in Google Calendar

It took them a while (a lot, actually) but Google Calendar now allows custom color events to help us better track and manage our events.

For anyone heavily using Google Calendar and having lots of events, the chance to make any event stand out from the rest by simply making it look different can really be a life saver.

You need only click on any event, and next to the tile you'll find a new small dropdown arrow giving you access to several unique colors.

The new feature is being deployed as we speak, and if it still doesn't show up in your calendar, you'll need only wait a little longer till it gets there. :)

Google Calendar gets Time Zones

It might look like it's a simple thing... but time often has a way of messing things up... especially if you're dealing with multiple timezones.

Thankfully, Google Calendar can now manage timezone, making sure your 3 o'clock meeting in Paris will definitely be at the intended 3 o'clock.
Also, it finally takes care of those airplane rides where you arrive at your destination at same (local) time you've departed.

Any method that helps manage time is good for me, and thankfully Google Calendar is doing its best to make that a reality.

Google Calendar Finds Time for You

If you use Google Calendar to manage your schedule, you've probably noticed some changes in the past couple of days. Change is always a bit awkward for those used to the "old" interface, but one expects things to improve with each update, and this one makes it easier to schedule events.

Recurring events now have their own creation pane:

And finding free time for an event gets better than ever with "Find Time"

You can even see your friends and co-workers schedules (if they gave you permission) in order to find the perfect time to place an event.

Gmail, Docs, Calendar and Talk lose Beta status

An historic day indeed... After years of service (and lots of critics regarding the ever present beta status on its services) Google is about to remove its beta tag from Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar.

For the most part, you shouldn't notice any difference, so... just keep on using it as you've always done before.

Google Calendar gets Tasks

At last, Google has decided to add 'to do' tasks to the place they should have been from the start: Google Calendar.

Until now, you could use 'tasks' in Gmail, using a Gmail Labs feature - and while I find useful to be able to link a task to a particular email, the truth is there isn't an easy way to see what tasks you have pending in a timely manner.

Now with tasks in Google Calendar... things should be a lot easier.