Back in late June, after my trusty Sprint Motorola Q9c smartphone died an unfixable death when the backlight turned off, I replaced it with Sprint's new HTC EVO 4G Android phone. I've been having a mostly good experience with the phone, but after the update to Android 2.2 (code-named "Froyo" - short fot "frozen yogurt"), I developed a small problem.
The EVO Froyo update had a little extra hidden “feature” - a Calendar bug that wipes out Description information and replaces it with the “Where” field whenever you want to amend an appointment (such as to change the time). HTC, Google and Sprint are all aware of the bug, and I’ve been waiting for an OTA (over-the-air) fix.
After having experienced the frustration of losing my “description” information when editing a calendar event, and not being satisfied with the idea of entering description information in the “Where” field for future events, I saw a suggestion in one of the EVO forums involving downloading a third-party calendar, Jorte.
I downloaded Jorte a few days ago. I chose to have it interact with the Google calendar, though one could conceivably use it in a standalone mode. I can now happily change the time of an appointment without invoking the calendar bug, without having to wait until I can go to my office and edit an event in Microsoft Outlook, followed by a sync.
Jorte comes with a number of homescreen widgets in various sizes, that cover the calendar and “Tasks” as well. About the only thing I didn’t find that I like from the standard calendar, is that Jorte doesn’t have a 4×1 widget for showing the next appointment. So for that I am still using the standard application’s widget on my main home screen under the clock, while I have the Jorte calendar in its 4×3 full month mode on another home page. I’ve even begun to appreciate that this also allows me up to four more widgets (well, four 1×1 widgets) or app buttons on the same screen, unlike the HTC Sense/Google calendar full-month widgets.
There is also a reasonable amount of customization available by opening the program, or tapping on the widget showing the calendar, and then tapping on "options" or another of the buttons.
Aside from the lack of a 4×1 horizontal “next appointment” widget, there really isn’t a downside to Jorte.
Jorte is a free app that can be obtained from the App Market or through AppBrain. So if you’re tearing your hair out over the speed at which the EVO’s Froyo Calendar Bug is being fixed, Jorte can be your temporary, or even permanent, solution. After working a few days with Jorte, I think it’s a winner!
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I know - this blog is primarily about religion and politics. If you have an EVO, this essay might contain useful information. For that matter, if you have any Android phone, you might want to check out the Android Market to see if Jorte is available for your phone.
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UPDATE - September 23, 2010 -
Yesterday, the word went around that Sprint was delivering the calendar bug "fix" via an OTA rollout. I got mine today - it is a gradual rollout so it may take some time for everyone to get it.
I can confirm that the calendar bug I reported is fixed - it is now possible to edit an event without losing data.
Added goodies include a lifting of the 30 fps limit on video, and the ability to sync more than one g-mail account.
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