30 Boxes Trial

30 Boxes recently released a mobile version, so I thought I'd look at it. I've been looking for a way to share scheduling with Claire in an accessible way.

So far, I'm not sure if it'll really work or not. I can't figure out how to do a shared editable calendar -- Claire can't remove something I put onto my calendar. You can only seem to view what others have scheduled or send invitations. I could create another calendar with another shared login, but it would also require attaching it to its own email address. That feels like it shouldn't be necessary. I'm sure I'll figure it out. I have a feeling that tagging entries will probably be the key to simulating separate calendars.

The mobile version is pretty quick and responsive. Data entry on the phone is awkward. I think some tuning of the field types could help. (I'm pretty sure you can do that in WAP.) They also don't have your buddies' calendars (the all important shared part) merged into your default calendar view. I expect this'll come eventually.

Google's calendar didn't seem to have a mobile interface, though I expect it could with the given success of their mobile maps application. That's what kept me from looking too seriously at Google yet.

Claire was pretty excited about 30 Boxes when she first looked at it. She wants to use it to coordinate her business schedule with her business partner at the daycare.

Update (16 August 2006): Importing RSS and iCal feeds is sort of amusing in 30 Boxes. I can import my weblog and websvn feeds to get an interesting perspective of posts and code commits. Subscribing to iCal feeds of other calendars (instead of using the Buddy links) may prove useful, since it'll let me more tighly integrate Claire's calendar into my own. It seems that it will even make it visible by default in mobile view. It still doesn't provide any shared editing capability though. I'll have to keep poking around with that.