I Hate The New iOS Calendar

Indulge me for a few minutes while I rant about something not related to medicine. I recently upgraded my iPhone's operating system to iOS 7.1, just like most Apple lemmings, I mean loyalists, do when they get their friendly reminder from the company to do so. The upgrade went without a hitch, as they usually do. There are a few cosmetic changes that are neither here nor there in relevance to my daily use. However, when I checked my Calendar, there was a huge surprise in store, and not in a good way like Christmas or birthday surprises.

Anybody who uses the Calendar app on the iPhone knows that days that have appointments are marked with a little dot on the monthly view. I usually keep my call schedule on the Calendar. But when I opened up Calendar after the upgrade, I suddenly noticed a bunch of new little dots that were not there before. Curious, I zoomed in to the daily view and this is what I found. Apple has kindly filled in my calendar, without asking for any permission, with events it thought I might find important.

As you can see from the screen shot above, the company thought I would want to know when Earth Day is this year. Dear Apple, I do not need or want to know when Earth Day is. I know your company and employees consider yourselves all progressive and environmentally friendly. But my kids will be bringing plenty of propaganda home from school on that day to remind our family what wasteful heathens we are for not recycling every little scrap of paper and plastic in the trash bag. I don't need my phone to nag me about the same thing. Apple also thought I might want a reminder on my calendar about when Cinco de Mayo occurs. Hello!! The name of that day is also the date on the calendar. I do not need a reminder on May 5th that that day is Cinco de Mayo in Spanish.

They also thoughtfully filled in Christian themed holidays for me. That is a total intrusion of privacy and I do not appreciate them pushing a religion on my phone. What if I celebrate Rosh Hashanah? Somehow that day hasn't been placed into my calendar. What if I observe Ramadan? That also wasn't approved by Apple as an official holiday to push at its users without permission. As a liberal left wing corporation, Apple should know better than to push religion on anybody. Do their Calendar app people work out of Texas?

So Apple, please do another upgrade soon so that these corporate preapproved holidays and events are removed. They are a distraction when I need to check my calendar for an appointment and a total invasion of privacy. I don't need to know when Flag Day is in the year 2015.