Microsoft's latest acquisition, while not officially announced by the company, is said to be Sunrise Calendar. Anyone who's ever spent any time with Android or iOS may well be familiar with i already. It's massively popular and all the while has remained free to download.
But what is it that makes this calendar app a potential $100 million investment? Why is it so good? Read on and we'll try to break it down for you.
When is a calendar app more than just a calendar
Sunrise is a calendar. That much is a given. It has days, weeks, months, years, just like every other calendar. But what's one of the main purposes of a calendar app? To help you plan the day. To record meetings, tasks, appointments, to keep you where you need to be at the time you need to be there.
Sunrise takes it a little further. Through partnerships with other services such as Evernote and Todoist, Sunrise Calendar really can be your one-stop daily planner. Got a Todoist task due at 3pm? No problem, have it automatically added to your calendar. Likewise with your Evernote reminders.
Think of it as a hub to manage your entire day.
So, what can plug in to Sunrise Calendar
This is where the true power of the app is unlocked. Bringing some of your favorite services right into your calendar, and keeping them all synced across your devices. Here's what's currently supported.
- Google calendars
- iCloud calendars
- Facebook events and birthdays
- Foursquare checkins
- Google tasks
- Twitter, showing last tweets of people you're meeting with
- Linkedin information about meeting attendees
- Producteev tasks
- Evernote reminders
- GitHub milestones
- Songkick to track your favorite bands
- Asana tasks
- TripIt travel itinerary
- Todoist tasks
- Eventbrite tickets
- Exchange calendars
Calendar apps are a plenty, but it's this ever growing list of partners which has helped Sunrise become so popular, and also such a quality tool. And it takes away the need to spend the time manually updating your calendar with deadlines, reminders, even birthdays. Once you've used these features it's hard to use anything else.
What platforms is it currently available on
Here's the kicker. Presumably with a Microsoft purchase either the full Sunrise app or all of the good stuff inside would be made available on Windows platforms. As it currently stands there are apps available for iOS, Android, Mac, Google Chrome and there is also a general web app that everyone can use.
Find out more
Our buddies at iMore have been living with Sunrise Calendar for some time, now. So, if you want to go a little further and find out a little more about Microsoft's latest purchase, hit the link below.
- All you need to know about Sunrise Calendar
The future plans aren't at all clear right now, but it's something we'll be following closely.
