OnTop, a new calendar and task manager app, recently came out for iPhone. It offers natural language processing for creating new tasks, iOS Reminders integration with location based reminders, native notifications and alerts, and a clever interface with gesture-based actions.
On the main screen, you see a list of your upcoming appointments and tasks, with a two-week calendar view that highlights as you scroll through them. The two-week view automatically expands to a scrolling month view after you scroll the list past two weeks. A quick swipe down will also take you to the full month view, and a tap at the top will return you to the two-week view.
You can manage tasks and sync them with Reminders (which, of course, syncs to your other devices, including Mac) right within the app. There’s a quick input screen that allows both calendar items and tasks to be entered using natural language. You can even assign a location from which to trigger the reminders when entering or leaving. OnTop can also provide expected travel times to appointments that have a location assigned.
The natural language parser is quite good, and allows a wide variety of complex sentences to be recognized and converted into events or tasks. You can see the result of your sentence live on the calendar as you type it, and see your other events at the same time to avoid conflicts.
Quickly edit, copy, and delete events with a swipe, and use a pop-up date picker to reschedule. It even features a night mode and a URL scheme for integration with other apps.
While I’m not replacing Fantastical, I will say that OnTop is a very strong competitor. And at $2.99 US, it’s a bargain. It doesn’t have a Mac companion like Fantastical does, but for iPhone management of your calendar, it’s a serious contender.
The developers of OnTop have offered 10 free copies to BrettTerpstra.com readers. Sign up below with just a name and an email address for a chance at 1 of 10 copies ($2.99 value). Open to all iTunes App Store customers. The drawing will take place on Tuesday, August 12th at Noon CST. Check out OnTop on the App Store, and good luck!
Sorry, this giveaway has ended.
