BusyCal adds long-anticipated Exchange compatibility<!--CONTENT START--><p style="text-align:center;padding:0;margin:0 0 10px 0"><img alt="" border="0" height="293" src="
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<p>It's a big day for Exchange users; one of the
best Mac calendar applications, BusyCal, has just been updated to support Microsoft's enterprise collaboration technology.
Version 2.5 is available in the Mac App Store now, as a free upgrade for existing users or US$29.99 for new licensees. The new version supports Office 365, full sharing privileges, public calendars, free / busy time, tasks and more. Of course, the new build is still compatible with both iCloud and Google Calendar hosted scheduling.</p>
<p>
Mac users who work with Microsoft Exchange calendars may sometimes feel like they just have to make the best of a challenging situation. Microsoft's own Office client, Outlook 2011, works well, but doesn't necessarily deliver that "born on Mac" experience we crave; Apple's Calendar (formerly iCal) may feel right, but compatibility hiccups can drag down your calendar productivity. Even the popular
Fantastical app relies on one of those full-featured calendars for syncing.</p>
<p>Back in the day, the
original BusyCal application (up through version 1.6) worked with Sync Services and iCal / Calendar to deliver Exchange functionality to happy users. Unfortunately, as Apple's underlying synchronization technology was deprecated (not to mention being creaky and buggy for quite a while), BusyMac founders John Chaffee and Dave Riggle made the tough choice in BusyCal 2 to abandon Sync Services and restructure the app around the supportable cloud calendaring technologies.
A number of features had to be left on the editing floor in that change, including publishing calendars local-to-Google and crossover LAN sync with cloud calendars. (I was personally irked about that shift, as I was apparently one of a small number of
BusyCal 1.x customers successfully using the product to
replicate my work Exchange calendar to a Google calendar so that my spouse would be able to track my comings and goings.)</p>
<p>Chaffee and Riggle have been working on Mac calendar apps for a long time; they were behind the remarkably capable Now Up-to-Date networked scheduling app that debuted on Mac OS 7 in the early 1990s. It's great to see their current product still evolving and responding to the needs of the Mac community. You can read more about BusyCal, and get a full rundown of using the app for sharing and collaboration, in the free
BusyCal Take Control e-book by Joe Kissel.</p><p style="padding:5px;clear:both;">
BusyCal adds long-anticipated Exchange compatibility originally appeared on
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BusyCal adds long-anticipated Exchange compatibility
