One of the things that has always bothered me about my iPod Touch is the wasted space on the lock screen.  I mean, here is a whole screen that displays every time you access you device, and there is nothing you can do with it.  If you ask me what I would like to put there, I would choose my calendar.  How cool would it be to glance at your lock screen and find a list of your next five appointments right there.

Well, lucky for me, here at JAMM we have our own in-house developer.  And by that, I mean Brandon is a valued member of our team, and also now develops iPhone apps.  His first application, gCalWall was just released at the iTunes App Store.  Let’s take a look.

Let’s start with what exactly gCalWall does,.  Essentially, it logs into your Google Calendar, grabs the next five appointments from your Google Calendar, slaps them onto a picture of your choice, and then allows you to set that picture as your lockscreen wallpaper.  Now, when you turn on your phone, instead of a blank screen or a useless picture, you’ll see your upcoming appointments.

OK, so here is what you need to do.  Before you get started, you will need to link up with your Google account.  You can do this from the main settings menu, or by choosing Change User Info from within the program.

Now, all you need to do is search your phone for your favorite image.  That is one of the cool things about this program, you can slap your calendar onto any background you want. 

The problem I had though, was putting words on top of a multicolored image can be difficult to read.  I would have liked the program to include a few plain colored backgrounds. 

I was impressed, however, by the fact that you can change the font color, in order to better control the contrast.  Use a light colored font with a darker image.  Use a dark font with a lighter image.  This was a great idea, and I was happy to see it included.  I did think, however, that a preview feature would have been nice, so that you could see how the font color would look before you selected it.   

Once you have selected your image and font color, the program will seek out your calendar, and download the necessary info.  Note, however, that if you use multiple calendars, gCalwall will only sync your default calendar.  Just hit save after your appointments have been superimposed on your image, and you are ready to go.  That’s it. 

Now, for the slightly more complicated part.  You will need to exit the program, head back over to settings, and pull up the wallpaper menu to select the image and set it as your wallpaper.  It would have been nice if you could have done this from within the program, but the extra step or two were not that big of a deal.

OK.  So, I am not saying that Brandon made this program just for me.  But, here are the facts: I have been harping on this lack of functionality since I got the iPod Touch, Brandon has heard me say this on numerous occasions, and then Brandon made gCalWall.  So, I am not saying it was specifically designed for me…but you be the judge.

Seriously, this is a great program, which I thought did a fantastic job of taking your important information, and putting it right in front of your face.  This is exactly the essential function which the iPhone/iPod Touch have been missing.  Great job, Brandon!

What I Liked:

• Choose any image from your library to use
• Puts your appointments on your lock screen where you need them most
• Customizable font color

What Needs Improvement:

• Preview of font color before selecting
• Set wallpaper from within program
• Include solid color backgrounds

Developer: Respiratory Data Solutions (aka our very own Brandon)

Price: $1.99

Oh and stay tuned, because there is a pretty good chance that we can convince Brandon to give away a few copies of gCalWall right here at JAMM.

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