Fantastical is Mac calendar tool with something of a difference. It enables you to keep track of upcoming meetings and appointment, which is nothing new, and it resides in the menu, which is far from unique. What makes Fantastical stand out is the fact that it doesn’t stand out - it has been designed to be as unobtrusive as possible so you are not distracted, and adding new appointments is a breeze.

If you receive an email and are reminded that you need to add something to your calendar, you can call up Fantastical via the menu bar icon or by pressing the customizable keyboard shortcut. You can then type in the details you need to record, press Enter, and you’re done. This may sound like nothing special, but the way Fantastical works is impressive

Rather than requiring you to selecting dates and times from drop down menus - although this is possible - Fantastical enables you to write in natural language. Type 'Lunch with Bob tomorrow' and an appointment will be added to your calendar for tomorrow. You can get as specific as you like when entering information, and the app will interpret what you mean and take the appropriate action.

You are given the opportunity to send invites to contacts in your address book, and the whole process is kept so streamlined that you can get back to what you were doing in no time. Events can be colour coded to enable you to understand your day's schedule at a glance and Fantastical can be used in conjunction with iCal, Google Calendar, Outlook or Entourage.