Evernote Smart Notebook by Moleskine • Hacker News Board

Re: Evernote Smart Notebook by Moleskine

#121

Post by chrisro » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 1:52 PM UTC

pgmcgee wrote: post #44

iamben wrote: post #40

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.

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?

Re: Evernote Smart Notebook by Moleskine

#122

Post by a2tech » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 2:24 PM UTC

iamben wrote: post #76

ig1 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

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.

Re: Evernote Smart Notebook by Moleskine

#123

Post by hexagonc » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 2:48 PM UTC

naner wrote: post #52

king_magic wrote: post #4

I think this is really quite neat. I used to be a heavy user of Evernote, but I found it difficult to reconcile my handwritten notes (90% of my notes at work) with what I'd have in Evernote. As a result, I stopped using Evernote. I always hoped I'd be able to find a good way to record my notes digitally (e.g., iPad + stylus), but at the end of the day, taking notes with pen & paper always wins for me. This could very…

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 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.

Re: Evernote Smart Notebook by Moleskine

#124

Post by SpikeDad » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 4:30 PM UTC

orjan wrote: post #5

"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

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.

Re: Evernote Smart Notebook by Moleskine

#125

Post by tmoertel » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 5:02 PM UTC

cjoh wrote: post #77

As an author, it's depressing to see empty books -- stickers and all -- selling for twice as much as full ones.

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.

Re: Evernote Smart Notebook by Moleskine

#126

Post by sesqu » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 5:08 PM UTC

cjoh wrote: post #77

As an author, it's depressing to see empty books -- stickers and all -- selling for twice as much as full ones.

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.

Re: Evernote Smart Notebook by Moleskine

#127

Post by sesqu » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 6:07 PM UTC

Keyframe wrote: post #119

shawndumas wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

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.

Re: Evernote Smart Notebook by Moleskine

#128

Post by charlieok » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 6:20 PM UTC

king_magic wrote: post #4

I think this is really quite neat. I used to be a heavy user of Evernote, but I found it difficult to reconcile my handwritten notes (90% of my notes at work) with what I'd have in Evernote. As a result, I stopped using Evernote. I always hoped I'd be able to find a good way to record my notes digitally (e.g., iPad + stylus), but at the end of the day, taking notes with pen & paper always wins for me. This could very…

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.

Re: Evernote Smart Notebook by Moleskine

#129

Post by jaaron » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 6:32 PM UTC

charlieok wrote: post #128

king_magic wrote: post #4

I think this is really quite neat. I used to be a heavy user of Evernote, but I found it difficult to reconcile my handwritten notes (90% of my notes at work) with what I'd have in Evernote. As a result, I stopped using Evernote. I always hoped I'd be able to find a good way to record my notes digitally (e.g., iPad + stylus), but at the end of the day, taking notes with pen & paper always wins for me. This could very…

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 l…

It's expensive, but consider the Jot Touch stylus:

http://adonit.net/product/jot-touch/

Re: Evernote Smart Notebook by Moleskine

#130

Post by chimeracoder » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 6:33 PM UTC

naner wrote: post #52

king_magic wrote: post #4

I think this is really quite neat. I used to be a heavy user of Evernote, but I found it difficult to reconcile my handwritten notes (90% of my notes at work) with what I'd have in Evernote. As a result, I stopped using Evernote. I always hoped I'd be able to find a good way to record my notes digitally (e.g., iPad + stylus), but at the end of the day, taking notes with pen & paper always wins for me. This could very…

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 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.