iOS Calendar integration

Q: I have a major problem with the iOS calendar. It doesn’t allow entry of repeating events/appointments for any but the five predefined frequencies.

The addition of a “custom” frequency (like the one in Pocket Informant) would make the calendar far more useful to me. Is there any calendar app that has the “custom” repeat functionality and syncs to the iOS Calendar directly without having to use Google calendar as an intermediate step? How does one suggest an enhancement to a built-in app such as the Calendar to Apple?

– Anonymous

A: The Calendar app on iOS devices is clearly designed to provide a basic solution for the average user and definitely lacks a number of more advanced features that users coming from other PDAs and personal information managers might expect.

In the past, third-party applications were not permitted to access the iOS Calendar information directly, however the good news is that iOS 4 has now added an API that allows third-party apps to not just sync to the iOS Calendar, but to actually access its data directly. Pocket Informant added iOS Calendar integration earlier this week, and with these new APIs it’s likely other developers are working on similar solutions.

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