Moleskine Announces New Smart Planner That Will Digitize Appointments Into Apple's iCalendar Format

[MacRumors]

After announcing the "Smart Writing Set" earlier in February, Moleskine today unveiled the newest product in this line, called simply the "Smart Planner." The new planner will allow users to jot down appointments and reminders within a weekly calendar area of the notebook, which will then be automatically digitized and synced to Apple iCalendar or Google Calendar formats (via TechCrunch).

Moleskine's Smart Writing products work with the help of an invisible grid, made with Ncode technology, that enables the connected Moleskine Pen+ device to recognize where it is on the page and within the notebook. Previous devices in the Smart Writing Set would sync hand-written notes from a paper tablet into the Moleskine Notes app, but the company's new Smart Planner is one of the first to introduce direct calendar syncing compatibility.

Like other Livescribe systems, the Smart Planner as it's called uses paper embedded with sensors that can read and sync anything written by the Moleskine Pen+. Meetings and appointments written on the planner part of the paper are synced automatically to the user's Google or Apple account and placed appropriately on their calendar.

TechCrunch explained that when users write down meetings and appointments within the planner part of the paper, the notebook and Pen+ intelligently recognize the text as a calendar appointment, and convert it into an entry on the correct date in the user's chosen calendar app. This requires both the planner and Pen+, and Moleskine said it will begin selling a set of the new Smart Planner on September 12 for $199. If users already have a pen, they can buy just the Smart Planner for $29.

Article Link: Moleskine Announces New Smart Planner That Will Digitize Appointments Into Apple's iCalendar Format

 

[jadot]

Moleskine would do well to port their awesome iPad calendar app Timepage to the desktop. I think that's a better idea than a $200 notebook.

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

They do make great products.

 

[Archmage]

iCalendar is not Apple's format. It's IETF RFC 5545.

 

[arkitect]

They do make great products.

I dunno… I think Leuchtturm make far superior notebooks… and the whole invented and hyped up myth about van Gogh, Hemingway etc… is just a load of guff.

 

[swm]

if i'm so keen to use real paper and pen to jot down appointments instead of poking them into the device right there (or maybe afterwards), then i'd keep the old school/mega-hipster outfit and look stuff up from my handwritten, leather wrapped filofax (or let someone do that) rather than paying $200 just to have a special paper (that will wear) with a special pen (that runs out of ink) to sync it...

 

[joej2]

In the end it is still a ballpoint or rollerball pen. Here's a vote for a "Moleskine Pen+" to be a fountain pen - perhaps a Namiki Vanishing Point.

I would love the ability to write in a quality notebook with a good fountain pen and have it digitized easily.

 

[mdriftmeyer]

iCalendar is not Apple's format. It's IETF RFC 5545.

You're better off citing the correct RFC: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2445

RFC 2445 is what 5545 now supersedes, but whose entire calendaring relies on.

 

[69650]

I've used Moleskine notebooks for years. I just love the quality of the paper.

 

[Archmage]

You're better off citing the correct RFC: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2445

RFC 2445 is what 5545 now supersedes, but whose entire calendaring relies on.

I dunno. That spec says right at the top that it is obsolete.

 

[StephenDix]

After announcing the "Smart Writing Set" earlier in February, Moleskine today unveiled the newest product in this line, called simply the "Smart Planner." The new planner will allow users to jot down appointments and reminders within a weekly calendar area of the notebook, which will then be automatically digitized and synced to Apple iCalendar or Google Calendar formats (via TechCrunch).

Moleskine's Smart Writing products work with the help of an invisible grid, made with Ncode technology, that enables the connected Moleskine Pen+ device to recognize where it is on the page and within the notebook. Previous devices in the Smart Writing Set would sync hand-written notes from a paper tablet into the Moleskine Notes app, but the company's new Smart Planner is one of the first to introduce direct calendar syncing compatibility.
TechCrunch explained that when users write down meetings and appointments within the planner part of the paper, the notebook and Pen+ intelligently recognize the text as a calendar appointment, and convert it into an entry on the correct date in the user's chosen calendar app. This requires both the planner and Pen+, and Moleskine said it will begin selling a set of the new Smart Planner on September 12 for $199. If users already have a pen, they can buy just the Smart Planner for $29.

Article Link: Moleskine Announces New Smart Planner That Will Digitize Appointments Into Apple's iCalendar Format

This technology is based on NeoLAB Convergence's N2 smartpen and NCode technology. It has nothing to do with Livescribe.