iPhone & iPad

A new way to keep a rounded schedule FREE | DIALSAPP.COM | IOS 9 OR LATER

There are plenty of great calendar app options — Fantastical 2, BusyCal and Calendars 5 are three of our favorites. But for those in search of something exciting and fresh, check out the new kid on the block. Dials Calendar offers a completely different experience, one that substitutes the traditional day/week/month view you know and love with a clock-based design. The dark UI definitely takes some getting used to, with events appearing as colour pins placed around a dial at scheduled times; tapping a pin displays additional details for that event.

By default, the home dial provides a peek at the next 12 hours (there’s no way to view all 24 hours at once), with a running countdown to your next event; you can also switch to time or date views. A tap or swipe puts the focus on only morning or evening events, and the weekly calendar across the bottom can be expanded to reveal the entire month.

This approach starts to make sense when assigning event times, which is done by dragging start and end pins around the dial. But it’s a little more awkward with all-day events. One nice touch is how Dials integrates with Contacts and Maps, providing visual flair by showing photos of the people you’re scheduled to meet with, as well as the location.

The result is a calendar that can be navigated using your thumb with the device held in one hand, which mostly works even on larger devices like the iPhone 7 Plus. (Dials can be installed on an iPad, but sadly lacks native display support for tablets.) The app can be used independently with a Dials account, or synced with major cloud services such as iCloud, Google and Outlook/Exchange.

Dials Calendar isn’t for everyone, but its ‘rock around the clock’ approach is unique, and shows itself to be useful for one-handed use. We’d like more display options, though.