Evernote Smart Notebook by Moleskine(blog.evernote.com)
blog.evernote.com
Evernote Smart Notebook by Moleskine
http://blog.evernote.com/2012/08/24/the-new-evernote-smart-notebook-by-moleskine/
146 comments
I don't know how it is today, but OneNote on tablet pc was doing pretty fantastic search of handwritten notes in ~2004 (back when I last used it). When I worked at MSFT, I took basically all of my notes in it.
I've used a tablet PC for years. OneNote is truly powerful software. I pray for a convertible ultrabook. Sometimes I wonder if I'm the only one. So much hate for the lowly tablet PC.
Asus has a convertible ultrabook coming out sometime [1]. Too bad it looks like its just capacitive touch, no digitizer =/. Wish Lenovo would find a way to thin out their X200T's.
[1] http://www.anandtech.com/show/5897/new-asus-transformer-book...
[1] http://www.anandtech.com/show/5897/new-asus-transformer-book...
With OneNote in mind and being a Tablet PC user myself, I'm really baffled by the decision to make handwriting available only on x86 Surface version. There's really nothing that would've prevented ARM version of Surface to become a killer OneNote host...
[deleted]
Seconded -- OneNote was/is an amazing piece of software. I took all my notes for the CFA on it in 2008, and I used it to great effect apartment hunting off craigslist that year as well. My tablet died a couple of years ago and I haven't replaced it, or I'd probably still be using OneNote.
Since they are doing recognition of stickers, isn't it also possible for you to invent your own 'tag' and train Evernote to recognise it? Then they could charge for the app and you won't be stuck with recurring sticker purchases.
I got one of the pre-release notebooks at the Evernote Conference yesterday. You can reset what tags the stickers correspond with in the desktop and mobile apps.
Or just "pirate" them yourself with some colored sticker paper.
I don't know why you should need stickers at all - just have some unique symbol you can draw, train evernote on the symbol and get rid of the stickers all together. It can't be that hard to do if you train it on your own symbol, as opposed to trying to learn to copy one or whatever.
>just have some unique symbol you can draw
Yes, that's exactly what I was thinking. And if you draw the same thing every day you get pretty good at keeping it consistent.
Yes, that's exactly what I was thinking. And if you draw the same thing every day you get pretty good at keeping it consistent.
What's your opinion of Livescribe?
I'm also a paper note taker but I don't see myself moving to Livescribe (though I haven't tried it) or taking photos of pages in Evernote. I'm pretty organized, though, so I'm not dying to have everything digitized.
I'm also a paper note taker but I don't see myself moving to Livescribe (though I haven't tried it) or taking photos of pages in Evernote. I'm pretty organized, though, so I'm not dying to have everything digitized.
[deleted]
I found the huge pen rather clunky, and the spiral bound notebooks really frustrating. Their software is also rather pitiful compared to Evernote.
There's a livescribe->evernote bridge, though, isn't there?
Yes, there is, last I recall.
I used livescribe back in 2009 or so. Hated the big pen. Till date nothing compares to taking notes on a normal paper and a pen/pencil. Even the S-note on the galaxy note/tab is a far cry.
I bought a Livescribe Echo smartpen two years ago and only used it one or two times, including going through the tutorials. It is definitely a very neat technology demo, but my interest was as a developer. I wanted to be able to use the pens as an input device for applications on my Android phone. Unfortunately, this was pretty much impossible with the Echo pen because there is no built-in bluetooth so I gradually lost interest. It was a terrible lost opportunity for Livescribe since I can only imagine the applications one could build with Livescribe and an smartphone; they just seem to go well together.
I used a Livescribe pen as a student, and I found it really helpful. Being able to record audio and tie that to the words I was writing was incredibly useful. I also appreciated that they didn't go with the price-gouging printer/razorblade-refill model, because they allow you to print your own paper for free (as long as you have a high-quality printer).
The only thing I didn't like about the pen was that it was ballpoint - I'm oddly particular about this; I like Uniball or fountain pens, and I find ballpoint pens a bit irritating to write with.
But other than that, I didn't have any complaints with the pen - if you're like most people and don't mind using ballpoint pens, you probably won't mind the pen either.
The only thing I didn't like about the pen was that it was ballpoint - I'm oddly particular about this; I like Uniball or fountain pens, and I find ballpoint pens a bit irritating to write with.
But other than that, I didn't have any complaints with the pen - if you're like most people and don't mind using ballpoint pens, you probably won't mind the pen either.
The concept sounds great, and the technology works really well. But, having just used it for the last couple months, the ballpoint pen is so bad that it instantly degrades your handwriting. My notes may now be digital, but I can't understand them.
It's worth it to me (#623). I use Evernote pretty heavily, but there are times where paper wins out (i.e. dead batteries and meetings where being on a phone/tablet could be frowned upon).
What I also enjoy about this idea is that it is like a physical version of Paper By 53. Although now instead of emailing Evernote my sketches via paper I can now snap a picture from Evernote itself. Seems like an interesting product tie-in that has me wanting it more than I want money.
What I also enjoy about this idea is that it is like a physical version of Paper By 53. Although now instead of emailing Evernote my sketches via paper I can now snap a picture from Evernote itself. Seems like an interesting product tie-in that has me wanting it more than I want money.
I'm still hoping for a good stylus solution for tablets. Fingers are a great primary input device but when I'm taking notes, or some other writing/drawing activity, something that works like a pen is much preferred.
I bought a stylus marketed specifically for the ipad and it sucked. The tip was this big soft spongy foam thing. It was nowhere close to the immediate, reliable experience of putting pen to paper. I was left assuming that the current capacitive technology in these devices is just not up to the task of making pen input work well.
Maybe it can be done easily, but it just wasn't high enough on the priority queue. Maybe Microsoft will do this well with Surface, since it would differentiate them and after all, they were doing tablets with pen input over a decade ago.
Whatever the holdup, I'm still looking forward to tablets that are as easy to write on as pen and paper.
I bought a stylus marketed specifically for the ipad and it sucked. The tip was this big soft spongy foam thing. It was nowhere close to the immediate, reliable experience of putting pen to paper. I was left assuming that the current capacitive technology in these devices is just not up to the task of making pen input work well.
Maybe it can be done easily, but it just wasn't high enough on the priority queue. Maybe Microsoft will do this well with Surface, since it would differentiate them and after all, they were doing tablets with pen input over a decade ago.
Whatever the holdup, I'm still looking forward to tablets that are as easy to write on as pen and paper.
It's expensive, but consider the Jot Touch stylus:
http://adonit.net/product/jot-touch/
http://adonit.net/product/jot-touch/
Now that Evernote has acquired PenUltimate (handwriting app), I think you'll see some really good integration on the iPad where you can use the stylus to write your notes, and it will end up in Evernote automatically.
http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/25868-news-penultimate-...
http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/25868-news-penultimate-...
Just bought, order #263. Pretty brisk sales considering it's a pre-order.
#375 here, less than half an hour later.
503
601
#654
#175739 got mine from moleskin, evernote's store really sucks, couldn't purchase it there ;/ Why they felt the need to setup a crappy store instead of just letting other retailers sell it is beyond me.
#739155813
Now I wish Devonthink Pro had a feature like this. I've been using paper notebooks for years—this: https://jseliger.wordpress.com/2012/05/25/design-y-notebook-... discusses a recent example—and like you I find the reconciliation process difficult too. But at the same time, I find that I'm in a different "state" when I write on paper, and that's not a state I'm willing to give up without a good replacement.
So far, my experience with Evernote has been watching them make Skitch almost unusable. The app always forgets my Skitch credentials, keeps displaying the startup screen even when I check "Do not show this to me again", and tries to force me into an Evernote account. At one point they changed Skitch to display 10 different things I could do after an upload. They made it a real mess.
I assume Evernote's products are overly complicated, but I'd like to know if they just botched the Skitch acquisition. Does anybody have any insight into this?
I assume Evernote's products are overly complicated, but I'd like to know if they just botched the Skitch acquisition. Does anybody have any insight into this?
This is the world crying out for a fast e-ink small form-factor tablet that just saves everything as digital ink. (Then build-up from there.) Simply recording time (and optionally location) associated with each page would make the device awesome. Add the ability to interface with a web app for better processing, as Evernote does, and you'd take over the world.
I saw the link, and thought that's what it would be. Just that it synced with Evernote instead of Amazon or whatever.
Then I saw 'new iOS app' in the copy and my expectations disappeared. :(
Then I saw 'new iOS app' in the copy and my expectations disappeared. :(
I have been looking for basically that. I stumbled across this http://www.improvelectronics.com/us/en/. Anyone have experience with it?
This should be ideal for someone like me, but unfortunately I can't see myself using it. I have a shelf full of Moleskins (began buying them in 2005) and I was a premium Evernote user from 2009-2011. But I canceled my Evernote subscription because I never used the software - I really dislike their UI. The only thing that could bring me back to them is a UI redesign, to make it seem less like an email application and more like a file-sorting system, which is what it's supposed to be.
And the idea of taking pics of my notebook pages with my phone is too clunky.
However, I'll grant that this is why this doesn't work * for me * and express envy for those for whom it does work for, since "on paper" all of this seems like a great idea. Having notebook pages scanned and sortable would be wonderful.
And the idea of taking pics of my notebook pages with my phone is too clunky.
However, I'll grant that this is why this doesn't work * for me * and express envy for those for whom it does work for, since "on paper" all of this seems like a great idea. Having notebook pages scanned and sortable would be wonderful.
Now, for those of us interested in startups - what a perfect example of great product development:
- Address existing need that few other products addresses
- Helps generating new customers by removing some of the barriers - "I like to create my notes with a pen on a paper"
- Involves non-trivial blend of hardware and software
- Involves non-trivial business partnership
- Serves as a test-bed for bringing the solution to more people by refining unskewing algorithms
- etc. etc.
Well executed, Evernote!
- Address existing need that few other products addresses
- Helps generating new customers by removing some of the barriers - "I like to create my notes with a pen on a paper"
- Involves non-trivial blend of hardware and software
- Involves non-trivial business partnership
- Serves as a test-bed for bringing the solution to more people by refining unskewing algorithms
- etc. etc.
Well executed, Evernote!
Do either Evernote or Moleskine really qualify as startups, though? (not that that necessarily changes things, though I'm not convinced that it's as revolutionary as being made out to be... certainly evolutionary).
I don't think Evernote is a startup anymore, but it's a remarkable product development story nevertheless. Certainly thinking outside of the box.
Not that interested in the Moleskine, but the smart stickers are an amazing idea. A great mesh of the real world and digital.
I agree, I wish they just sold them separately so you tag random objects in the world.
As an author, it's depressing to see empty books -- stickers and all -- selling for twice as much as full ones.
I walked out of the library today and was treated by the free books stand. I got Crime and Punishment, The Crucible, The Old Man and the Sea, and 4 others of equal caliber. And when I got home, I was reminded I'm out of shelf space. In mymind, that's a great reason to get a bookshelf. To my wife, not so much. Dead tree books have negative value to a growing percentage of the population.
BTW, for those buying, unless you're a reporter, I highly recommend the large size. If you look at the notebooks of great men, most tend to be closer to the larger size. Michelson is the one that sticks in my mind, since I walked past those notebooks every day for 7 years.
BTW, for those buying, unless you're a reporter, I highly recommend the large size. If you look at the notebooks of great men, most tend to be closer to the larger size. Michelson is the one that sticks in my mind, since I walked past those notebooks every day for 7 years.
Keep in mind that an empty notebook is not the same as an empty book, nor is Moleskine famous for being affordable. Moreover, full notebooks are among the most expensive types of books.
It's not very intuitive. However, a notebook stays with me for a couple of years, so I prefer it to be nice as well as durable. A novel lasts a few days usually.
This is my reasoning as well. If I'd treat a paperback novel the same way as I treat my notebooks, stuffing them in my bag, taking them everywhere, they'd fall apart after a week or two. I select a notebook for durability (among a few other things, like not having squares or lined paper but rather blank, and having a convenient form factor).
However, while I do agree that Moleskine notebooks are absolutely gorgeous, I usually buy other types at about 1/3rd of the price.
Their diary/planner, however, is merely on the high price end for such things, not by a factor of three. And in the years I've used one of those (I use a much tinier planner now), I kept on being pleasantly surprised by their attention to detail in the design of tables, grids and bubbles you'd find in a planner, all of it really well-thought-out. But then, a pre-printed planner is not the same as an empty notebook.
However, while I do agree that Moleskine notebooks are absolutely gorgeous, I usually buy other types at about 1/3rd of the price.
Their diary/planner, however, is merely on the high price end for such things, not by a factor of three. And in the years I've used one of those (I use a much tinier planner now), I kept on being pleasantly surprised by their attention to detail in the design of tables, grids and bubbles you'd find in a planner, all of it really well-thought-out. But then, a pre-printed planner is not the same as an empty notebook.
> However, while I do agree that Moleskine notebooks are absolutely gorgeous, I usually buy other types at about 1/3rd of the price.
I used to do that as well, and felt Moleskines were just too expensive. Then I splurged on one a couple of years ago, and never had that feeling again. Don't know if I just feel that I get my money's worth, or that my brain just simplistically adjusted to the price.
Empty pages is also my thing. In general I have four, pocket sized one, A5 sized main notebook, A4 sized sketchbook for drawing, and a reporter style watercolor pocket one (I love the panorama-like landscape format for pictures).
I used to do that as well, and felt Moleskines were just too expensive. Then I splurged on one a couple of years ago, and never had that feeling again. Don't know if I just feel that I get my money's worth, or that my brain just simplistically adjusted to the price.
Empty pages is also my thing. In general I have four, pocket sized one, A5 sized main notebook, A4 sized sketchbook for drawing, and a reporter style watercolor pocket one (I love the panorama-like landscape format for pictures).
An empty book, to me, is usually more valuable than a filled one. Once completed, most artwork is dead.
That's because those empty books aren't truly empty. They're filled with imagined potential. Most purchasers estimate the value of that potential as high and are therefore willing to invest in something expensive to protect it and signal its worth.
I sympathize; but on the other hand, many of us value our own thoughts very highly too.
Blank CDs sell for more than AOL free trial discs.
The feature I would really like to see would be a printed title Box in the moleskin notebook, which would allow me to title my written work and then pass that title into Evernote when it's scanned. You could obviously also extrapolate this feature out to tags or other pieces of metadata to be stored in the digital Evernote document.
Just to clarify: this would really be made for those who have awful handwriting (like me), so only a small part of your page would need to be written carefully and eventually digitized to be searchable.
Just to clarify: this would really be made for those who have awful handwriting (like me), so only a small part of your page would need to be written carefully and eventually digitized to be searchable.
Not really a fan of Moleskine's notebooks, but this is interesting.
But, Evernote's Page Camera feature that was added to the iOS app does seem to work just fine with other paper (I tested Field Notes w/ graph paper). It's just 'optimized' for the paper in these notebooks, whatever that means.
But, Evernote's Page Camera feature that was added to the iOS app does seem to work just fine with other paper (I tested Field Notes w/ graph paper). It's just 'optimized' for the paper in these notebooks, whatever that means.
I love Moleskine, but that just made me all the more sceptical about the "optimized" dotted paper pattern. That just screams gimmick to me, especially looking at the picture provided.
If it does make a significant usability difference, that would be pretty cool and I'd love to get some insight into why dotted lines would be simpler for image processing software to work with than straight lines, but... For now, I'm gonna keep on trying to bury myself with post-it notes...
If it does make a significant usability difference, that would be pretty cool and I'd love to get some insight into why dotted lines would be simpler for image processing software to work with than straight lines, but... For now, I'm gonna keep on trying to bury myself with post-it notes...
The grids or lines on the notebook are dotted. Their algorithm knows the geometry of those dots ahead of time, so it can exploit that fact to figure what the orientation is suppose to be.
But the geometry of all lined notebooks is effectively the same: horizontal parallel lines inside a rectangular shape. For this type of application I don't think any more geometry is needed.
Unless scale is important but I can't see how that could be.
Unless scale is important but I can't see how that could be.
If I had to guess, I'd say the extra geometry is useful because, 1: the dotted pattern is less likely to be confused with user writing/drawing, and 2: they have one specific notebook that they know works seamlessly with their current algorithms without a lot of extra field testing against different notebooks.
It most likely helped a good amount in bringing this feature to market as quickly as possible, and it'll be interesting what they do with the dotted pattern concept in the future (I see it either fading into an edge case of the software that becomes a technical debt for the remainder of its lifetime as the algorithms for handling the base case of any arbitrary notebook paper improve, or evolving into the base of an Evernote certification process for notebooks).
Personally, for me this feature is the tipping point between "yeah, Evernote seems kinda cool" and "I'm actually considering using Evernote (assuming the feature finds its way to Android)". The only improvement I would make that would really seal the deal would be the ability to fax all my notes to Evernote instead (seems like much less a pain in the ass for digitising volumes of notes than meticulously photographing each page), though I suppose that as long as they support manual uploading of images through their desktop site this would be fairly trivial to script myself.
It most likely helped a good amount in bringing this feature to market as quickly as possible, and it'll be interesting what they do with the dotted pattern concept in the future (I see it either fading into an edge case of the software that becomes a technical debt for the remainder of its lifetime as the algorithms for handling the base case of any arbitrary notebook paper improve, or evolving into the base of an Evernote certification process for notebooks).
Personally, for me this feature is the tipping point between "yeah, Evernote seems kinda cool" and "I'm actually considering using Evernote (assuming the feature finds its way to Android)". The only improvement I would make that would really seal the deal would be the ability to fax all my notes to Evernote instead (seems like much less a pain in the ass for digitising volumes of notes than meticulously photographing each page), though I suppose that as long as they support manual uploading of images through their desktop site this would be fairly trivial to script myself.
The issue is that it would be much harder for an algorithm to figure out whether a line was something you drew or the grid lines of the paper, especially if the orientation is off. If the algorithm only has to look for a dot pattern with a known relative spacing, it makes the problem much easier.
for one, the paper has alignment dots that evernote uses to square the image perfectly even if the camera is held askew.
Can't a generalized line/grid detection algorithm be used to correct the skew from photos of any lined or squared note paper?
$25/notepad is way of the charts for the types of notes and sketches that I actually need a notepad for.
$25/notepad is way of the charts for the types of notes and sketches that I actually need a notepad for.
The limited selection is even worse than the price. I vastly prefer Moleskine's soft cover notebooks, and these are apparently only available in hard cover. Then again, aside from "disaster recovery", the flatbed scanner I already use to scan notebook pages probably works better than the iPad's camera even with special deskew logic anyway.
Have you used the 5 x 8.25 size with grid lines? I was a skeptic until then. Now I swear by them.
Sigh. Looks like Big Commerce (the store Evernote is using) stores passwords in plain-text or at least a reversible hash. They emailed me my password. :\
Yes, but how far is this from just using standard/college/quad ruled paper in the first place? Requiring special paper automatically limits the feature's utility. Once their "limited edition" notebooks sell out this feature immediately begins the countdown to uselessness.
> Yes, but how far is this from just using standard/college/quad ruled paper in the first place?
Not far. Most of the features, it seems, do not really require the notebook. But it also seems that it wouldn't be difficult to eventually add support for any old notebook to allow for automatic alignment.
So when you say....
> Requiring special paper automatically limits the feature's utility.
...I can't help but think it allows them to get the feature out sooner before refining it.
> Once their "limited edition" notebooks sell out
they'll be offering normal edition notebooks, as well as providing better support for other notebooks.
I really don't see the features here as something they are just going to limit to a limited time physical product.
Not far. Most of the features, it seems, do not really require the notebook. But it also seems that it wouldn't be difficult to eventually add support for any old notebook to allow for automatic alignment.
So when you say....
> Requiring special paper automatically limits the feature's utility.
...I can't help but think it allows them to get the feature out sooner before refining it.
> Once their "limited edition" notebooks sell out
they'll be offering normal edition notebooks, as well as providing better support for other notebooks.
I really don't see the features here as something they are just going to limit to a limited time physical product.
How is this different from taking notes on any physical paper and take a photo of it? My Galaxy SII camera takes real good pictures of papers. They are readable, good focused and sharp.
I just see a marketing partnering stunt here?? Am I missing something?
I just see a marketing partnering stunt here?? Am I missing something?
"we designed a special dotted paper pattern" - this sounds very much like what Anoto[1] does.
[1] http://www.anoto.com/the-technology-1.aspx
Wacom went the opposite way for obvious reasons - digital pen that works with any paper. Wacom Inkling, http://www.wacom.com/en/Products/Inkling
neat idea, but this kills it for me:
>How accurate are the sketches?
In general, sketches with Inkling will be accurate to within approximately +/- 0.1 inches (+/- 2.5 mm) in the main drawing area of an A4 page, and within (approximately +/- 0.2 inches (+/- 5.0 mm) at the edges of the page.
2.5mm is quite a large fuzz factor. Enough to make me think this could be great for very-rough sketching / outlining of a design, but not enough for replacing scanning / doing (essentially) OCR.
>How accurate are the sketches?
In general, sketches with Inkling will be accurate to within approximately +/- 0.1 inches (+/- 2.5 mm) in the main drawing area of an A4 page, and within (approximately +/- 0.2 inches (+/- 5.0 mm) at the edges of the page.
2.5mm is quite a large fuzz factor. Enough to make me think this could be great for very-rough sketching / outlining of a design, but not enough for replacing scanning / doing (essentially) OCR.
(Not a referral link - just a video review by someone who bought it)
http://www.amazon.com/review/R2M4YOUB8J3F84/ref=cm_cr_dp_tit...
If you check out that review it shows that the product definitely needs to mature. I can't see the wacom one being used for professional purposes until they up the accuracy. I was going to buy one for my finance for her birthday (she has a cintiq but wanted something for the go) but decided it wasn't worth it.
On top of that inkling requires that device to help read from the paper which limits its usefulness some (for me at least).
Hopefully they improve on it because it's definitely an interesting approach to this problem.
If you check out that review it shows that the product definitely needs to mature. I can't see the wacom one being used for professional purposes until they up the accuracy. I was going to buy one for my finance for her birthday (she has a cintiq but wanted something for the go) but decided it wasn't worth it.
On top of that inkling requires that device to help read from the paper which limits its usefulness some (for me at least).
Hopefully they improve on it because it's definitely an interesting approach to this problem.
Illuminating video. Thanks! That's pretty condemning, inaccurate enough that I won't even consider buying it :/ It's too bad, because otherwise Wacom seems to make good stuff.
I wonder if that's relative to a fixed position or to the previous point. Like, if you draw a large square, the final corner may not meet, but the lines won't have discontinuities or bumps in them.
Livescribe[1] is another example of a smartpen with dotted paper.
[1] http://www.livescribe.com/en-us/smartpen/dotpaper.html
[1] http://www.livescribe.com/en-us/smartpen/dotpaper.html
It looks like Evernote is just using the dots to help remove the skew caused by taking pictures of a curved page. Anoto, Livescribe, et al. use the dots to capture the handwriting as it is being written - so their dot patterns have to be unique across each page. The way Evernote is using the dots is much more akin to how Google de-warps the pages of books it scans.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/library/2009/04/the_granting_of_pat...
http://www.npr.org/blogs/library/2009/04/the_granting_of_pat...
You can see in the picture ( http://blog.evernote.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/moleskin... ) that the 'special' pattern is simply that all the lines are dotted (perhaps with ovals, or is that my imagination?). That's all that is needed, really, to find the skew of the paper.
Nope. Not even close. Anoto dot pattern is a special, unique to every page pattern that allows digitizing pens like the Livescribe to follow handwriting with their cameras.
The Moleskin/Evernote dot pattern is merely alignment marks to help unskew photos taken with the iPhone. Not sure why that's even necessary as many iPhone apps which take photos do this automatically.
The Moleskin/Evernote dot pattern is merely alignment marks to help unskew photos taken with the iPhone. Not sure why that's even necessary as many iPhone apps which take photos do this automatically.
Except it seems that the dot pattern for Evernote would have to be much larger. I'm a heavy user of Livescribe pens, which are built on Anoto's paper, but the dots are so small that it takes a very close look to even see them. In this case, the dots have to be large enough to be seen by the application when using a cell phone camera.
That said, nice to see they've eliminated the need for a special pen.
As much as I wanted to use digital notes in meetings, I still take joy in using the beautifully designed moleskine notebooks with a Cross pen. However, indexing and search is always a problem. If Evernote can fix this for me I will be a lifetime paid user of Evernote!
In my opinion this is a good glimpse of digital and analog life working in harmony instead of dictating you have to live with either one.
Great job! Ordering mine now :)
In my opinion this is a good glimpse of digital and analog life working in harmony instead of dictating you have to live with either one.
Great job! Ordering mine now :)
I could see some use in combining the laptop and piece of paper in note taking. To make this easier I would like a system to help me reconcile the the notes made on different mediums. Probably I'm writing on laptop and would like to include stuff drawn on paper in between those notes.
Few things that could make this easier: - Add machine readable page numbering to the notebook - Some kind of annotation scheme, like (1) I could use to refer to the drawings on the notebook.
On laptop I could refer to the pictures with <page number>:<picture> style notation.
Would be actually nice to follow similar workflow with laptop and iPad. Write text on full keyboard, draw diagrams for the same note on iPad at the same time. Maybe this is already possible, have never tried this.
Few things that could make this easier: - Add machine readable page numbering to the notebook - Some kind of annotation scheme, like (1) I could use to refer to the drawings on the notebook.
On laptop I could refer to the pictures with <page number>:<picture> style notation.
Would be actually nice to follow similar workflow with laptop and iPad. Write text on full keyboard, draw diagrams for the same note on iPad at the same time. Maybe this is already possible, have never tried this.
I don't know much about unskewing, but presumably the dotted lines mean you know how each dot should be placed relative to each other dot. With plain lines you'd have to do some guesswork based on how wavey the line is etc.
I don't mean to be a debbie downer, but I find the idea of taking pictures of moleskine pages really, really clunky. I have done that in the past to take photos of book/magazine pages, and in my experience the picture almost always comes out low quality - a combination of blur, contrast, the curvature of the page and flash reflecting off the paper makes it very difficult to read later. I can only imagine what types of problems these factors will cause for Evernote's hand-writing recognition program. After all, software can optimize image quality only so much.
The Moleskine is supposed to lie very flat and the paper isn't shiny. Those both improve the focus, too. The lines are supposed to help remove skew, too.
It should be a lot better than a photo of a book, and much much better than a magazine.
It should be a lot better than a photo of a book, and much much better than a magazine.
Great, except that Moleskine notebooks are very costly here in India.
Generally in ranges of hundreds of rupees.
http://www.flipkart.com/search/a/all?query=Moleskine&ver...
Generally in ranges of hundreds of rupees.
http://www.flipkart.com/search/a/all?query=Moleskine&ver...
I didn't even look through all the functionality before I made my purchase (#182).
I use Evernote for nearly everything I do. Task lists, projects, ideas, goals. Evernote saves me one of my most precious resources: time. I've worked Evernote into my daily workflow for getting things done.
And I have a stack of Moleskines I've used for reminders, sketches, random thoughts that I scratch down in a hurry throughout my day.
This is the perfect product for my everyday use. Looking forward to when they arrive (they will ship in October). I just wonder if I bought enough of them.
I use Evernote for nearly everything I do. Task lists, projects, ideas, goals. Evernote saves me one of my most precious resources: time. I've worked Evernote into my daily workflow for getting things done.
And I have a stack of Moleskines I've used for reminders, sketches, random thoughts that I scratch down in a hurry throughout my day.
This is the perfect product for my everyday use. Looking forward to when they arrive (they will ship in October). I just wonder if I bought enough of them.
Interesting. And the new app seems great. No more different modes for reading and editing! Hopefully they release an update for Android as well...
Stickers are a neat idea, but why not just some special drawn symbol? Would be way cool if you could define your own.
Uh, because with a drawn symbol you wouldn't need their thirty dollar notebooks?
You'd still need the pages with the "special dotted paper pattern".
No, stickers could serve that function. Google "registration marks"
Does evernote not allow you to fix the page manually? (I don't use it.) The JotNot Pro app I bought for a dollar allows one to slide the corners around and reskews the image as appropriate, with some amount of auto detection as well.
Not that it's impossible, but it would be significantly more difficult to make the digital signal processing algorithms to detect custom symbols, especially hand drawn custom symbols.
Is there any reason they can't do this with the Android app, too? Or does it already have this functionality?
This is great. I love Evernote and use it daily but I also prefer writing some things in notebooks (and I use Moleskine ones). I could definitely see myself using it. It depend on how the $ price works out in GBP compared to regular Moleskine notebooks which are about £9.
There are a couple of note books (CamiApp, Shotnote) that have appeared in Japan that are quite similar. I found the design pretty good, though I stopped using them.. I think mainly because I switched form Evernote to org-mode.
Gutted this isn't on Android. Why are so many people still launching apps/competitions/products for iOS only? I could understand it a few years back, but doing it today just cuts your market in half.
Because even though iOS has fewer users, those users are more valuable. They tend to fall into higher income brackets and be higher spenders.
I don't doubt that :-)
But I wonder how long this will be the case. Anecdotally I'm seeing more people choose Android (or at least Samsung Android phones) - with a bigger user base, how long before the subset of early adopters/higher spenders is as big or bigger than those with an iPhone?
But I wonder how long this will be the case. Anecdotally I'm seeing more people choose Android (or at least Samsung Android phones) - with a bigger user base, how long before the subset of early adopters/higher spenders is as big or bigger than those with an iPhone?
They don't buy apps though. I know maybe a dozen people with Android phones and (barring 1 person and 1 app) they have NEVER purchased an app. They don't pay for subscription services, they don't do in-game upgrades, they don't put any money into the phone. Its crazy. And the 1 person that did buy an app? It was an app to aid in pirating things.
This [1] is from their user guide for the notebook.
Device Support
Page Camera is currently available only on iOS (iPhone / iPad), but will be added to Android and other mobile platforms in the future. iPhone 3Gs, iPad 2, and earlier models are not optimal for Page Camera due to absence of flash and low camera resolution.
EDIT: Formatting.
[1]: http://evernote.com/getting_started/moleskine/#5
Device Support
Page Camera is currently available only on iOS (iPhone / iPad), but will be added to Android and other mobile platforms in the future. iPhone 3Gs, iPad 2, and earlier models are not optimal for Page Camera due to absence of flash and low camera resolution.
EDIT: Formatting.
[1]: http://evernote.com/getting_started/moleskine/#5
That's good news, thanks.
I think you answered your own question. Building iOS only is only half the effort as well. Half the effort for the more valuable half of the market gives disproportionate gains.
When you first release a product/feature, the people that are going to really use it are the "early adopter" crowd. Once they embrace it, then you can spend the capital to roll it out to the later adopters. I'd be willing to bet that Android has far fewer early adopters than iOS.
One thing precludes the other, though. How can Android users be early adopters if apps are consistently released on iOS first?
There's also a major fragmentation problem with Android: Evernote can look at the iPhone 4 sales figures and know that they'll have so many million potential users with the same hardware and OS; with Android they have to compare a ton of different models to see which ones have a usable camera and whether the vendor + carrier are holding up OS releases. If you want to prove an idea that's a lot of extra work.
I've never gotten into Evernote, but have wanted to for a long time. I've bought these as a way of forcing myself to finally sit down and learn how to use it.
Does anyone know of a good intro guide to Evernote?
Does anyone know of a good intro guide to Evernote?
Yes, it's even advertised in the Evernote desktop application. "Evernote for Dummies".
It's awkward that I can't vote and therefore save stories anymore. So I have to comment even if I don't have anything useful to say. Can't be the goal of Hacker News, can it?
Or alternately, use your browser's bookmark functionality?
Correct. I don't know why voting is disabled. The account seems to be ok because I can comment. So what's wrong? There is nothing in the FAQ about this and no apparent contact address. That is all.
SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY. Oh wait, IOS Only? Never mind.
Almost enough to make me go back to Moleskine (love the notebooks, but not being able to easily digitize was a problem.)
Very neat. The only concern I have is to remember take a photo of all the pages and which page I already took a photo.
Cut/Tear the corner off once a photo has been taken of both sides. I do that already to determine quickly the next available page.
That answer and its question have got to be the most value-added comments in this thread.
stickers man, stickers...
I'm addicted to moleskine notebooks - I have many, I'll certainly be getting this one as well!
Great work, Evernote! That's pretty darn cool :-)
I never "got" Evernote, but this is trés cool.
the shills will eat this up
i hate evernote
Only a fool would buy $25+ notebook. I'd rather play lottery.
quality is fractal; good, smooth acid-free paper that can take a wide variety of inks without smearing, discoloring, or bleeding through -- well constructed and durable.
quality is worth paying for...
quality is worth paying for...
> smooth acid-free paper that can take a wide variety of inks without smearing, discoloring, or bleeding through -- well constructed and durable
You mean just like a standard 1€ spiral bound notebook with 80g paper?
You mean just like a standard 1€ spiral bound notebook with 80g paper?
what kind of pen do you use?
Moleskine notebooks are mediocre in paper quality, though, and not very consistent. You'll see variations based on which of their Chinese suppliers manufactured a particular notebook, but bleed through and feathering are generally sub par for the price.
They're nice and easy to find though, and the form factor's lovely.
They're nice and easy to find though, and the form factor's lovely.
What would you recommend as a higher-quality notebooks?
Except moleskin are not quality. I bought one (was a fool once), it's not better or worse than normal 80g paper. I draw with pencil A LOT (as my username would suggest), and write a lot and take notes all the time - all on paper. Regular spiral bound notebook is all one needs for effective usage. Everything else is posing.
In my experience, Moleskine notebooks are better as notebooks than the usual alternatives. That's not because of build quality, though - it's more because of the design. Unfortunately, the surcharge for that usability is too much for me.
For a heavy note-taker, regular notebooks are probably better. For drawing, I would look at specialized notebooks. But don't dismiss valuing usability in intermittently used products as mere posing.
For a heavy note-taker, regular notebooks are probably better. For drawing, I would look at specialized notebooks. But don't dismiss valuing usability in intermittently used products as mere posing.
Moleskine notebooks make for a great mousepads from my experience.
Big -1 to Moleskine. Such a brand and partnering with some tech whatever.
Because Moleskine haven't already debased their brand with gimmicky tie-ins?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Moleskine-Pac-Man-Limited-Edition-No...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Moleskine-Limited-Brick-Plain-notebo...
etc.etc.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Moleskine-Pac-Man-Limited-Edition-No...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Moleskine-Limited-Brick-Plain-notebo...
etc.etc.
For the hipster in your life...
Please don't post comments that don't add to the conversation.
This could very well bring me back to Evernote. Not sure if it's worth $24+, but if it works, maybe... I do take an awful lot of handwritten notes, and I'd love to digitize them easily.