One of the things I love about mobility is talking about how different people use the same device.  Platforms like Windows Mobile and Android make it easy to conform the same device to two very different preferences or styles.  For example, I am the kind of person who likes to have my agenda right on top.  When I was using Windows Mobile, there were several programs available which could place all of my upcoming appointments and events right on the Today Screen, where I could plan my day at a glance.  While the HTC Hero, which is Android based, included several calendar widgets, none of them really met my needs.

The included widgets showed either a month at a time, allowing me to see whether I had any appointments that day, but not any further detail; or the next appointment only.   Neither are particularly helpful for planning my day.  So, I took a walk through the Android Market, and came back with aniAgenda, a fantastic Android Widget.  Let’s take a closer look.

In a nutshell, Aniagenda is a widget, which will display your daily (or several days at a time) agenda on one of the screens on your Android’s Home Screen.  Using the Hero and HTC’s SenseUI, I have plenty of space on seven screens, so I opted for the full screen widget (4×4). 

Other Android interfaces may not offer as much space, however, so the half screen (4×2) or 3/4 screen (4×3) might fit your needs better.  This will allow you to add additional widgets or shortcuts on the same screen.

When displayed on your home screen, the widget will show all of your upcoming appointments for as many days as it can fit in the allotted space. 

What I really liked about aniAgenda was that you can customize which of your calendars are displayed, and even color the color code the calendars, making it easy to tell at a glance which calendars have upcoming appointments.  AniAgenda itself, however, does not sync or create calendars independently.  Instead, it draws the information from your android calendar.

Back to the main screen, one thing you will notice is that the more calendars you add, the fewer days you can see at a time.  Space is a premium, even in the full screen widget.  You can scroll through your upcoming appointments by using the scroll arrows on the side.  Just tap to scroll up and down.  To be honest, though, this was probably the worst part of the app.  First, it is completely inconsistent with the rest of the Android interface.  Other full screen widgets scroll with a simple flick of the finger.  These side arrows simply felt antiquates and out of place.  More importantly, though, they do not work.  Scrolling it terribly slow and ineffective.  Hopefully this will be significantly improved in future versions.

The aniAgenda widget is also tied closely to the default Android Calendar, which means the two work seamlessly together.  To get more information on any appointment, just tap the appointment to open the full event details. 

You can also tap the Agenda View button on top to view the full Android Calendar agenda view. 

You can even create a new agenda item directly from the aniAgenda widget. 

Finally, if you need a bigger picture view, you can tap the full calendar view, which shows you six months at a time.  This is great for planning purposes.  I would have liked it, however, if I could have jumped from this screen to the Agenda view for a particular date by tapping on that day.  For now, though, we will just have to be content with viewing the information without any further interaction.  Too bad.

One of the cooler aspects of aniAgenda is its ability to put your weather data directly into the interface.  Just enter your location in the settings and a weather icon, showing the day’s weather will appear next to each date.

Tap the weather button on top to view the upcoming forecast.  I thought this was great, albeit a bit buggy. 

I found the app kept losing my location data, requiring me to reenter it on a nearly daily basis, or even restart the widget entirely.

Well, I am not going to tell you that aniAgenda is the perfect app.  It has some flaws.  But it is the perfect app for me.  It gave me exactly the functionality I needed on my device, the ability to see all of my upcoming appointments at once.  I love this app, flaws and all, and have made it a permanent fixture on my HTC Hero’s homescreen.

AniAgenda was developed by anifree, and is available from the Android Market for $1.99.

What I Liked:

• Three different widgets to fit any space available
• Full agenda, not just the next appointment
• Color coded calendars
• Customizable interface
• Color coded calendars
• Weather display
• Integrates well with Android Calendar

What Needs Improvement:

• Scrolling does not work well
• Scroll arrows do not fit well with the interface
• Weather display is buggy
• Can’t jump to a date from 6-month view

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