Apple Thoughts: Tips for iCal and Subscriptions

"iCal has always been an elegant program. Though it has a "subscribe" function for public calendars, it hasn't always played nicely with other devices and other calendars. This limitation forced many a user to seek greener pastures elsewhere, like Google Calendar."

In our family we have the family plan mobile me, as well as 3 iPhones so not being able to effectively share calendars that will show up on our iPhones has always been an annoyance. Well has been is the key since that has been fixed with the iPhone 3.0 upgrade. This article goes into how to add subscriptions to your iCal, but once you learn how to add subscriptions, how do you get them on your iPhone? Well, read on to find out!

This wasn't something I was able to find easily, so I thought you might want to know how I did it. Basically you go to your Settings --> Mail, Contacts, Calendars to get to the Accounts screen. At the bottom of your accounts is an option to "Add Accounts." Tap here and it will bring up the "Add Account" screen.

Once you get to the screen on the left, tap on "Other" and you will get to the screen on the right, which will allow you to add your CalDAV Account or a Subscribed Calendar in the same way as you would to iCal, by the feed address. Tap on the "Add Subscribed Calendar" and you get the option to add your subscription. Fill in the blank for the feed of the calendar and you will add that calendar to your iPhone. Works out well if you have multiple MobileMe accounts, in my situation I can add my wife's and my daughter's calendars on my iPhone.