There are plenty of product announcements coming out of the 2009 Macworld Expo, including one from BusyMac about an application that looks like it will give iCal a run for its money. The company's new application is called BusyCal, and the program boasts a variety of media, calendar, and customization features, as well as the ability to sync calendars in a variety of ways.
BusyMac is perhaps best known for its BusySync calendar syncing application, which allows local network and Google Calendar syncing of iCal calendars. The same technology is found in BusyCal, so users of the application will be able to sync calendars via Bonjour, sync calenders to their iPhones via iTunes or MobileMe, and sync with Google Calendar as well. The software also supports multi-user editing and offline editing of calendars.
In terms of calendar features, BusyCal supports icons and graphics in calendars, and also sports sticky notes that can be synced to other BusyCal users. The application also has support for weather reports, rich text calendar text, and customizable list views. Oh, and you can set up recurring ToDo items, as well. These ToDos will stay in the BusyCal software, along with many of the other features, so doing things like adding a ToDo or a graphic won't break compatibility with iCal or Google Calendar, which is nice.
BusyCal is on display at BusyMac's Macworld Expo booth, but both the public beta and the final release are forthcoming. The release is slated for Spring 2009, but the beta should be arriving before then, and probably reasonably soon. BusyCal requires Leopard, and will retail for $40, although all BusySync users will be able to get it for $10.
