Review: Fantastical 2 calendar app great for iOS and Mac users

LOS ANGELES - Calendars are a vital tool for our ever-busy lives, but I rarely use my digital smartphone calendar, because entering events there involves too many steps.

I've changed my tune on that now though, thanks to discovering Fantastical 2, an app for the iPhone and iPads which greatly simplifies the process.

The app, which starts at $4.99, has two great features: First of all, there's an at a glance feature that lets you scroll through your days--instead of multiple clicks, and secondly, it has easier inputs for calendar additions.

Let's take a closer look.

The app works with your existing calendars--Apple's iCloud, Microsoft Outlook and Google, to add information gleaned from there and it also syncs with your Facebook contacts, if you want, for access to everyone's birthdays, in addition to the contacts, appointments and the like you just added.

Fantastical calls the at-a-glance calendar feature I mentioned the DayTicker.

It shows you June, for instance, at one view, but lets you also scroll backwards to May and April and beyond, without having to click buttons, and move on to July and August at one sitting, with the swipe of your fingers. And it has search functionality, which I'bve rarely seen in a calendar app.

You can share events with friends with one click share tools, from within the app.

The best part is adding new events. You can type in, say, "Jeff 3:30" in the Monday column, and it will pick it up in one click, without having to type in the title and time separately, or better yet, it can also access the iPhone microphone and you can just dictate it.

The latest upgrade to the Fantastical 2 app for the Mac--which sells for a hefty $49.99, is a major one. It was a browser extension before, but it now a fully-functional desktop app. The app is also available for the new Apple Watch.

Readers: what's your favorite calendar app? Let's talk about it on Twitter, where I'm @jeffersongraham.