Blotter is simply a calendar app, that integrates with your calendars in iCal, and present them in a very elegant form. If you’ve ever thought that iCal was simple enough, well Blotter will blow you away. At least it did for me. With Blotter, you can now display your 7 day calendar right on your desktop. What’s cool about this is that it isn’t a separate window (like all the other apps), but it’s simply a nice and slick presentation of your calendar that stays on your desktop. Since this is integrated with the native iCal app, all the calendars that have been input into iCal will be displayed in Blotter. Of course, you can also choose individual calendars you have set up to be displayed on your desktop too. If you have configured each calendar with different colors in iCal, this color difference will also be applied in Blotter. Below is and image to show you the presentation.
As you can see on the top left, the date is presented very large and clearly. Below that is a “To Do” section where it will display all your to dos for the day. And below that is the “Right Now” section. So if you have a task set for a specific time of the day, that task won’t show up in this box until 2 hours before the actual time set. This will be handy because it tells you the approximate time left until your next task, with the presentation of a dotted line at the present time. On the right side of the display, you will see a 7 day projection of your calendar. If you have set a new task for yourself for the entire week, all this will be displayed on your desktop. Just like the “Right Now” section, this 7 day projection also includes a dotted line that shows you the time of the day, as well as how close you are until your next task. And once your day ends, the date and timeline will automatically adjust itself to the next day, without having the need to open iCal. Another handy feature with Blotter is that you can set a new task or event right from the toolbar on the top, without having the need to open iCal.
You can also adjust a few settings in “Preferences”. As I have mentioned before, you can set which calendar you want displayed. You can set the entire display to automatically fade after a set time. You can also change the size of the entire presentation, and also omit the presence of the 7 day projection.
The pros about this app is that the presentation is absolutely slick and beautiful. No matter how you look at this app, it is just very simple that it will make you think why Apple has made iCal seem a little difficult to use. Another pro is that this app does not require its own icon in the dock. You can see this app running right from the toolbar, and also adjust settings from the toolbar. You can even set this app to open at login, so you don’t have to do anything at all, as long as you have your calendars and task being set right. You can also make new tasks or events right from Blotter, in the toolbar, without having to open iCal. Another cool pro about this app is its size. Even though you can adjust the size, in preferences, to omit the 7 day projection, or make it full screen, we actually prefer the default size of the app, as it does not cover the entire screen, leaving you some space on the side, either left or right, for you to leave a few documents or files that you temporarily leave on your desktop whilst working on other tasks.
Now moving on to the cons. Firstly, even though you can enter new tasks and events, as well as their times, you can’t do anything further. You cannot input any invitees, notes and alarms. Although these might not be features you will use every time, we would have like to at least have the feature to include notes, as I always include notes when entering new events. Another point, which might not really count as a con, is that when you have 2 tasks set for the same time of the day, meaning they clash, it doesn’t display them nicely on the 7 day forecast. This would make it difficult to read what the actual task is, however most of the times we don’t really have 2 or more tasks set for the same time of the day, although it might be handy for people who have shared calendars with their family.
All-in-all, the Blotter app is just a beautiful app with an extremely slick presentation of your iCal calendars, and I have been blown away by how it looks and performs over the past few weeks of use. The Blotter app is currently available through the Mac App Store for $9.99, and I absolutely recommend this app for people with a lot of tasks and events in heir calendars, because this will allow you to view your entire 7 day projection without having to load up iCal every time. Although I have mentioned about the inability to include notes, this is not a major con for most people, and it may arrive in future updates.
plomonet rating: 10/10
Category: Productivity
Price: $9.99
Current Version: 1.3
Size: 0.9MB
Languages: English, French, German, Korean, Russian, Spanish, Swedish
System Requirements: Mac OS X 10.6 or later
About the Author: Kenta Arai is a tech enthusiast who was born in the Kanagawa Prefecture of Japan. His passion towards technology began to develop as he grew up in Hong Kong, where technology had its solid place in the mass market. Arai became one of the most enthusiastic technophile student in his high-school, and was also well-known for consulting many of his school-mates when purchasing new computers. His expertise in the tech industry is focused on Apple Inc. and Google Inc.
