Gorgeous calendar app Fantastical 1.0.2 adds BusyCal support

Fantastical is a great companion app for iCal that allows you to ditch the huge and clunky iCal interface altogether and use a clean and beautiful popdown that sits in your Mac’s menu bar. Today, Fantastical developer Flexibits has released Fantastical 1.0.2 which brings one of the most popular requests from current users, integration with BusyCal.

If you’re not familiar with BusyCal, it’s a full on replacement app for iCal that has its own CalDAV server and allows for far more interface customization and syncing options than iCal does. Its been around since long before MobileMe sync and has a large and dedicated userbase. If you’re one of the folks that has been using BusyCal and doesn’t want to give it up, but likes the idea of Fantastical, you’re in luck because version 1.0.2 now supports it.

Fantastical isn’t just a pretty modal version of iCal (and now BusyCal) though. It also packs in a superb natural language engine that allows you to enter events as you would tell them to a friend. For instance, if you type “lunch with Judy at 3 on Sunday”  into Fantastical, it will automatically parse it to add an appointment called ‘lunch with Judy’ at 3 o’clock on the next Sunday after the current date. It really has to be tried to be appreciated. I’ve only been playing with it for a short time and I’m incredibly impressed.

Fantastical 1.0.2 also supports Entourage and Outlook if you’re not an iCal or BusyCal user. Fantastical is available now on the Mac App Store or directly from the Flexibits Store for $19.99. If you want a free trial, head to Flexibits site.