Google Calendar Material Design

   My Nexus 4 prompted me last night for permission to update Gmail and Google Calendar. I must say, while Gmail looks slightly better than it did, GCal has received a much needed revamp, especially the widget. I do not have a screenshot of the previous version, but the colour scheme was terrible and the layout was such that it was hard to determine the division between days. It was also very difficult to quickly glance at a calendar to get some information.

A screenshot of the new GCal widget
on my Nexus 4.

   The new version, released yesterday, has received the "Material Design" treatment; the colours are a little more tame, and the division between events and dates is much clearer. Worth the (free) update.

I guess I'm saying I like the new designs of Google.

GCal push notifications on your iPod

 Recently, Google updated its Google Mobile app for the iPhone/iPod touch. Lifehacker almost instantly pushed out the information to the geeks. However, they failed to mention one small detail.

I tried this when it went out the first time. For some reason, I received notifications in the form of badges for my Gmail e-mail, but nothing for Google Calendar. The answer to that problem is, in fact, very simple.

I switched the calendar feed from Exchange to Gmail itself, which solved the problem. I did that to get colour sync from Google Calendar and the Calendar app on the iPod Touch  and I suddenly began receiving push notifications from GCal!

Yay!