Show HN: Menu Bar Calendar on macOS | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Menu Bar Calendar on macOS

sindresorhus.com

107 pointsmofle83 comments

It looks really nice.

Note that macOS already has this kind of -- just add the month-view calendar widget and it'll appear alongside the other widgets (click the datetime in the menubar to show widgets).

But it only shows the current month -- no arrows for next month (since widgets aren't interactive). But click it and it'll bring up the full Calendar app with monthly arrow navigation.

Is there a way to create the equivalent of the iOS Clock app: alarms, timers and stopwatches on macOS preferably in the menubar ?

And before this new widget that is blocked on current month there was in prior macOS versions a calendar you could navigate month by month into, so this is a regression. Might give this calendar menu bar a try

Regression indeed. So annoying to have to open an app instead of swipe to widget and interact with it.

Yeah, that was the widgets screen rather than the new widgets sidebar.

The change to the sidebar required widgets to be static images now, from my understanding (with a seeming exception for clocks). There's no way to provide interactivity.

The plus side is they display instantly because they're pre-rendered in the background. The downside is, well, no interactivity.

macOS Sonoma has such a calendar widget again.

Here's another alternative: Itsycal

brew install itsycal

https://www.mowglii.com/itsycal/

I like that you can customise the menu bar formatting, even adding custom messages.

This is my fav. There is also hidden bar https://github.com/dwarvesf/hidden

Love it!

MacOS is great by many measures, but it's interesting devs keep developing apps to replicate what other operating systems do and are considered basic features (rectangle, alttab, bartender, calendar).

Don't want to start a flame war, but I'm not a big fan of Finder, I hope there was a replacement that worked more like what we have on Windows/Gnome/KDE.

Very nice.

Reminds me of a Steve Jobs(?) quote about how things like are should be a feature not a product. Gnome has this built in and I think Windows does too. I recall a number of times when I wanted to look at dates while using a mac and had to open the Calendar app to do that instead of just using a calendar widget in the OS menu/task bar.

I’ve heard investors complain of the exact opposite (well, circa 2012): “is that an app or just a feature?”.

Is there an alternate side to this where people want to just sell features? Because that seems like a sure way to pursue product market fit!

The problem with selling features is you’ll get sherlocked.

is that a reference to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_(software)

Yep. The most famous case I know of a product that was a feature being redundanted.

This guy ships! Love the website and the apps.

I too dabble in putting out macos apps but I haven't ventured on the Mac AppStore.

Great little app, Sindre! I'm a big fan and lover of Dato. Thank you for creating such beautiful software!

Just as a note if you're looking for similar programs or alternatives, Shaun Inman[0] released something like this a long time ago called Day-0. I've been using it on the MacBook I'm currently typing this on since 2012.

He's updated it a few times over the years to deal with new versions of macOS not cooperating with the old build.

Website seems to be down due to Media Temple merging into GoDaddy, according to the description of the GitHub repo[1] mirroring the old content, but the Day-0 zip archives[2] are still there. Of course, it feels weird to download and install a zip from a GitHub archive without any context, so I guess it's probably dead now.

There'

I think the first version was released sometime around 2011 and the most recent update[3] was in 2020.

---

[0]: https://twitter.com/shauninman

[1]: https://github.com/shauninman/shauninman.com

[2]: https://github.com/shauninman/shauninman.com/tree/main/asset...

[3]: https://web.archive.org/web/20230317115926/https://shauninma...

Off topic but damn, Media Temple. Brings back deep nostalgia for the pre-and-becoming Web 2.0 era of the web. I still have a red iPod shuffle and some other miscellaneous swag from participating in their beta programs.

(offtopic rant follows)

I wish I had space for more menu bar icons. Or let me rephrase it, I wish OSX would allow me to manage them myself. I don't get how it's not an out of the box feature, considering every single app likes to put an icon there (however useless it may be) and that we have limited estate there with the macbook bumps.

What do you mean “manage them myself”? You can Cmd-drag the icons to move or remove them.

How do I remove them? When I was searching for this (few years back) I only found 3rd party applications.

Cmd-Click and, while holding Cmd, drag the icon down away from the menubar.

I tried that, didn't work. Now tried it with multiple icons, thinking it might have been the application forcing it, but same result for all that I've tried. And I'm also wondering how would I get it back after?

Bartender (https://www.macbartender.com) is my go-to. Been using it for many years.

I jumped into using Bartender when I got a new Macbook with the camera notch. I'd been dealing with some apps on narrower screens having menus that hid the leftmost menubar icons, but the notch sealed the deal.

Bartender just works. Recommended highly.

The seems to be an interesting fermium play for their Dato (paid) app. Interesting!

I currently pay for Fantastical. I don’t even use it much, because our company uses Google Calendar, and booking in the web app is superior (I can access/add meeting rooms, etc.).

What I haven’t been able to do is sync my work and family calendars (so my wife doesn’t double book me or vice versa).

I also really like the full-screen takeover by Dato (again, from the article’s author), don’t know why Fantastical doesn’t have that!

I was having the same problem where I wanted to block events on my iCloud calendar on my work Google calendar. Google allows you to subscribe to other calendars (Like the iCloud one) but there’s an invisible limitation of 10MB where it then just doesn’t do anything and no events show up.

I set out to build that (of course I already bought a domain!) and only while building that stumbled upon a gem for calendar parsing which was built by someone who built a service like that already which did exactly what I wanted…just better so I’m just using this now:

https://calmcalendar.com/

Nice find! thank you :)

Man, I don't know why I remember all this stuff. It is exhausting.

So I remembered : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26425318

> Hey HN,

> I’m Jordan from Superpowered (http://superpowered.me/), here with my co-founders Nikhil, Nick, and Ibrahim. We’re building a calendar app for the Mac menu bar.*

Seems like the company pivoted to an AI taking app.

One of YCs filters based on which school you passed out from is no longer a good signal and hasn't been for a while.

> an AI taking app.

I have no idea what that does, but I want it.

Iirc macOS used to do this when you clicked the time, then it started triggering widgets instead. I hated that change and appreciate this app.

I don’t think it ever did, you’re probably confusing it with one of the many such apps. I remember I was using one with 10.4 already because Windows Vista had it natively (if I remember correctly)

Maybe I am thinking of windows

This is what happens when I click the time on my decade-old version of macOS: https://i.ibb.co/jRy6vf9/Screen-Shot-2023-09-03-at-8-00-59-A...

Was there an in-between version?

Question for the OP: who/where/how do you design your app icons? They're super.

Found my answer randomly https://twitter.com/sindresorhus/status/1597251293965594624

Until recently, all by hand in Photoshop and Sketch. Now I use AI generation as an initial base in icons, but still tweak a lot. This icon was fully made in Sketch though.

Nice! I use this app all the time. Though it is simple, I find this app essential!

Sindre does amazing work!

Very cool app and super clean design. Did you use SwiftUI?

Yes, it's made with SwiftUI.

I really like it, but I wish that one of the bar icon options was the very cute happy calendar from the app icon.

That’s a good idea. I will get that added

Can anyone recommend a great source code example of a menu bar app?

I've got the urge to hack on one of my old ideas..

I’ll check this and Dato out!

I need something like this on my Windows 11 work laptop :(

Looks nice. Nice to see SwiftUI projects shipping.

Itsycal is also free and does more. Install from Homebrew or https://www.mowglii.com/itsycal/

+1 for itsycal.

- solid integration with macOS Calendar app (shows all your events and has a "+" option to create new ones)

- can also display a time clock along with the date and also has fully customizable datetime patterns meaning you fully replace the system date/time. I especially love doing this and now being able to just click on the date time in the menubar and see a calendar popup (instead of datetime settings which I never need quick access to) similar to the Windows clock

Yeah, itsycal has been around a while and is fantastic.

Only free. I thought it was free and open source.

I still love it, though

Itsycal is open source: https://github.com/sfsam/Itsycal

Unfortunately squatters steal mobile apps source and republish it with ads or in-app purchases. Apple does nothing to prevent it, so legitimate developers have to stop providing source code.

Now that looks competitive with fantastical

I use itsycal and this project looks remarkably close, right down to the logo!

I have been using Itsycal as my menu clock + calendar for quite a while. I cannot fathom why Apple never implemented this natively.

It’s mind boggling that this isn’t a native feature. I’ve been using minical, and this looks really nice. I suppose I’ll never understand why Apple doesn’t just add two buttons to their calendar so we can scroll months.

I haven't used macOS much but I suspect it's due to the style of minimalism that Apple tends to like. Windows has always had a calendar in the equivalent place since Win95, I believe (double-click the taskbar clock.)

The default calendar that comes with Mac OS sucked the last time I tried. It was always slow to load and there are no quick shortcuts to things so that prompted me to look for 3rd party ones that simply blow the stock one out of the water.

It does however come with three built-in things:

Calendar widget (on the side of your screen)

Calendar.app

cal in the shell. Interestingly it's the one I use the most

Appreciate the effort from the author, however there is a similar app called Mini Calendar that I use and love for what it does: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mini-calendar/id1088779979?mt=...

It shows up in the dock with the current date and also has an option to be shown in the menu bar as well

Ah, how many of these do we need?

https://quickviewcalendar.com/

One every year until Apple actually implements this basic functionality I guess.

I like https://www.seense.com/the_clock/ as it has calendar items, and multiple timezones

Oh that’s beautiful and localized

> Non-App Store Version

> A special version for users that cannot access the App Store. It won’t receive automatic updates. I will update it here once a year.

Looks nice but not sure why you don't just put it on Homebrew instead of updating the non-app store version once a year.

You're welcome to submit a PR to Homebrew if you want it there. Why is it his job to put it there for you?

They don't have to submit it to Homebrew. Similarly I don't have to use it. If I have to submit a PR to Homebrew when an app's creator can (and usually does) do it themselves, it's likely I will just use something on Homebrew already, like Itsycal, which I have just started using as a result of someone else mentioning it. It's just a difference of opinion, nothing more.

I maintain something like this. You're talking about maybe ten lines of ruby to accomplish getting this into Homebrew. It would just download this url and perform a checksum.

Sounds good, sounds like the creator will have an easy time of adding it to Homebrew then. Until then I will continue using other apps that are already on there.

If it's so simple, why don't you do it since YOU'RE the one who wants it there so badly?

You claim it's so easy, just a few minutes, yet you spent more time telling everyone how easy it is for him to do, than just doing it yourself.

Can we stop expecting developers to jump to every little request given for a free app?

Like threeseed said in sibling comments, it seems strange to make users do this, all the while trying to use it as a free product to drive traffic to the paid one, which is equivalent to itsycal which is entirely free and open source? Why should the users perform free labor for the creator, while the creator gets to keep all of their paid version's revenue? It is not on the user to add it to Homebrew, it is on the creator.

I am not sure why this is contentious at all, except for the sake of arguing. Homebrew packages are usually maintained by the creator, not the user.

> which is equivalent to itsycal which is entirely free and open source?

> Why should the users perform free labor for the creator, while the creator gets to keep all of their paid version's revenue?

It's clear you have no desire to use this at all, you've mentioned many times in this whole parent thread that you would rather use ItsyCal even over this because it has more features... So what exactly is your goal with these demands? Just to make Sindre do something you want?

> It is not on the user to add it to Homebrew, it is on the creator.

No it's not. The creator has no obligation to do anything for anyone, paid or free. Stop being entitled.

I don't wish to make the creator do anything, all I asked was why it was not on Homebrew rather than having a non app store version be updated only once a year. Then you asked why I don't do it myself. I don't believe the user should be doing stuff like this that is the creator's job. As I said earlier, they don't have to do anything, but at the same time I don't have to use it either. I have no "demands," I don't "demand" that they add it. All I said was that if they do, I'll use it.

Again, you haven't answered why users should do it for free while it's a traffic funnel for a paid app. Seems you know this creator personally and support them, but I don't, and most users don't either, and many users use Homebrew so if they don't see it on there, they likely won't use it either. It's not entitlement, it's simply how it works. You wouldn't go into a store who said their inventory is only updated once a year while a store right next to it is updated regularly. Nothing to do with the quality of products in said store, but they're just not the target customer.

All this to again say why it's a point of contention to ask, not even why it's not on Homebrew, which wasn't even my point, but why they're expending extra effort to update it once a year when they could make their lives a lot easier by adding it to Homebrew and having it be done automatically.

And then what if the URL changes or the creator completely changes how it is hosted.

It seems odd to place the onus on users to help drive traffic for a paid product.

There is simply not enough demand to justify spending double the time on publishing every update (one build for App Store and one build for Homebrew). There are very few people that use Homebrew and cannot use the App Store. The non-App Store version is intended for users on locked down corporate computers.

Why would it be double the time ? At this point I would assume there is a proper CI/CD process and this should just be another target.

And when you look at Homebrew users versus App Store users they are like separate circles on a Venn diagram.

I am also building a Mac app and will definitely make sure it's on Homebrew. Crazy not to.

Agreed, it really is strange how this is a point of contention for so many people in this thread. Like you, I also think Homebrew packages should be maintained by the creator, not some random user. It's weird that people are pushing a user specifically to put it on Homebrew, that's simply not the user's responsibility.

> I also think Homebrew packages should be maintained by the creator, not some random user.

Oh boy, I have some unfortunate news for you. The whole ethos of Homebrew is exactly that, userland maintaining formula for software they want... I promise you Microsoft is not maintaining the casks for their stuff. 99% of all formula in the Homebrew repo is maintained solely by volunteers unaffiliated with all of the software.

My question for you is why are you replying to everyone insistent on demanding that Sindre do all this for you, someone who will not be using the software anyways? What is your angle here? You're coming off super entitled.

Like I said in my other comment, I'm not "demanding" anything, my initial point wasn't even about Homebrew specifically but about why they're not automating their builds. I don't care whether the creator adds it or not, so it's not a demand from me at all, but it seems like you are the one who's annoyed that I'm just asking about Homebrew in the first place, calling me "entitled" for something I don't even care about.

Not sure why it'd be double the time when you can just point the Homebrew version to the same download url as your app store version. Or is there no CI for this app, and you build and publish manually?

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