Ever since I got my first Android phone, a good old HTC EVO 4G, I’ve been very impressed with the idea of widgets on the homescreen. I had previously owned an iPod Touch, which I thought was great, but now it makes sense to not only have links to apps, bookmarks, and folders, but also actual utilities. One of the widgets I definitely needed was a way to look at my Google Calendar. The mobile web app left me wanting for more, while HTC Sense’s calendar widget was really pretty and functional but occupied more space than I liked. So I went in search of an alternative, first looking through MakeUseOf’s Top 100 Android Apps page, and then in the Market.

Jorte is a very complete alternative app I’ve found that syncs with Google Calendar and Google Tasks. What’s impressive about it is not only the number of available widgets that are bound to fit in any of your phone home screens, but also the number of views you can see your calendar in when you’re loading the actual app. Once you download Jorte and enter your Google login credentials, you can immediately see how useful this app will be.

Widgets, Widgets, Widgets

For a quick glance at this month’s calendar, this week’s schedule or a peek at your daily agenda, Jorte has got a widget for it all.

There seems to be a giant number of widgets that Jorte generously provide, all equally impressive and useful. Just long-hold on your homescreen to add a widget and locate Jorte 1×1. It will be followed by plenty of other widgets in different sizes.

For my first screenshot, I chose all four widgets of size 2×2, so you can see they all fit nicely. If you need more space, you can always shrink the widgets by either choosing a different-sized one when you’re adding a widget next time, or simply choosing to display other widget types. You can do the latter without deleting the widget and reading another one by tapping the upper right corner of the existing widget. You will be presented with a handy dialog to update the settings, choose what to display, colors, font size, etc.

You can choose between displaying a calendar, monthly, weekly or daily agenda, or even tasks only.

Here’s how the monthly agenda with the tasks widget looks like in 4 x 4.

There are definitely countless ways to customize the look of your agenda on your phone homescreen with Jorte’s widgets. The functionality doesn’t end there, however. When you click on any of the widgets, you’ll of course, be directed to the actual app, which we will take a look at in the next section.

Launching The Jorte App

If there’s one big idea that you should have got from the previous section is that Jorte provides numerous ways for you to view your Google Calendar events. You’ll also see this reflected when you launch the app.

If you have ever wished that the mobile Google Calendar web app had more views than the default month and day, like perhaps a weekly view of some sort, or wished you could view your dated Google Tasks on your Google Calendar, Jorte can do both of these in ways that will blow your mind. It provides at least 3 different weekly views, even a two-week view, and you can even see your tasks underneath.

You can also synchronize your tasks, and create regular and important tasks, the latter of which will be denoted by “[!]” on your task name.

Jorte is a great Calendar app if you’re a power user of Google Calendar. It is definitely one of the best organizational apps you can download.

What do you use to keep yourself updated on your tasks and calendar events? Let us know in the comments!