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Scrybe - the online productivity suite I'm dying to try
by Jason Clarke Oct 20th 2006 at 7:00AM
In this era of worshipping at the temple of "The David" (Getting Things Done), there is no shortage of offline and online productivity suites. With that in mind, I rarely get all that excited about the new Web 2.0 offerings that get a bit of buzz here and there. But Scrybe appears to be different.
Way different.
Like wow different. Here, just watch:
Scrybe is an online organizer that is grounded in one word: context. The user interface is designed to always give the user context relating to the data they are dealing with. So if you're working in your calendar, you can fly up to a year view, or dig down all the way to a day view, and all of the related information is intelligently displayed so that you never lose track of where you are. Watching the video on their site, you immediately get a feeling of "that just makes sense". Google Calendar is good, but doesn't appear to be as good as this.
Before moving on to other features of the online organizer, I should stop for a moment and mention that while Scrybe is an online organizer, it's the first one to support the ability to work with it offline, seamlessly. You simply set your browser to offline mode, and navigate to your Scrybe account the way you would if you were online, and everything works exactly as it does online. As soon as you have an internet connection, your changes will synchronize back to your online account.
The video shows seamless importing of popular document formats like Excel, Word and Acrobat, and can take a list from Excel and turn it into a todo list immediately. Information from within Scrybe can also be exported back out to these popular formats.
The Todo list portion of Scrybe is also grounded in the concept of always maintaining context; a list for a specific project will contain items that are also related to dates, for example, as well as a parent category for Work, Home, or however else you choose to organize your todo lists. Todos can be viewed based on any of these contexts, as well as viewed by the date that reminders have been set for them. Think Backpack on steroids.
There is a note taking component to Scrybe as well, that seems somewhat similar to Google Notebook, but maintains connections to the other portions of the Scrybe organizer, therefore maintaining your frame of reference - yet again, it's about context.
Finally, Scrybe takes an interesting perspective when talking about synchronization: instead of worrying about how to interact with the myriad of devices that are out there, they simply provide intelligent printable templates that can be folded and tucked into your back pocket, so you can take all of the relevant information you need with you for the coming week. Brilliant.
Unfortunately, Scrybe is not yet available to try, but the site proudly proclaims that it will be launching in beta in October. Seeing that October is running out, it should be soon. We've been in contact with one of the co-founders, and understand that Scrybe will be running a closed beta initially. We've been promised a beta account during the closed beta period, so we'll certainly give our feedback when that happens. We'll also make sure to let you all know as soon as the public beta is available. For now, check out the video, and let us know in the comments if we're right to be as excited as we are.
So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do.
Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game.
The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
pravijn said 9:37AM on 10-20-2006
WOW!
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Deano said 9:00AM on 10-20-2006
Wow indeed.
Can't wait for this one, it looks like it trumps anything from 37Signals and Google. The offline synch and being able to print off your data is uber cool.
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Josh said 9:11AM on 10-20-2006
Excuse me while I pick my Jaw up off the floor!..
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Chris said 9:11AM on 10-20-2006
Wow. Now THAT is innovative.
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bg1 said 9:38AM on 10-20-2006
I'll repeat what evryone else is saying ... wow. that is really impressive. i never use calendars but that would make me start using one
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Vanessa Balchen said 9:33AM on 10-20-2006
I'm very pleased. This is exactly what I need in my personal life but also will fill a huge void in our office. I can't wait to see how it will sync with phones ...although right now my favorite part is the paper sync. I signed up for the public beta.
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nicole said 9:35AM on 10-20-2006
Wow is right. Im looking forward to this!
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Scott Weinberg said 12:27PM on 10-21-2006
Neato!
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andrew_yuan said 12:12PM on 10-21-2006
This is how things "SHOULD" be. Now we just need to wish that Apple can pick this thing up and beautify it...Now it looks very...."productive" if that's ever a word to described artistic elements....
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Jody said 10:25AM on 10-20-2006
Dear Scrybe,
Gimme gimme gimme.
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Carl said 12:24PM on 10-20-2006
This is just what we need right now. I've tried all manner of other online calendar apps and just always find that one of them has a feature that I like and another has a different set of features that I like. I think we are all too fussy nowadays!
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Danny said 12:24PM on 10-20-2006
Whoa. This looks amazing! can't wait either.
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ThwartedEfforts said 12:24PM on 10-20-2006
Personally, I don't see the wow. I can only guess that my life is as organised as it's going to get :)
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ryan libson said 12:25PM on 10-20-2006
Looks very cool, hey it even prints up a nice hipster pda. But when you jot down notes on the paper...how do you get those back into the program...you have to re-input them. Seems kind of counterproductive. This product for sure is a great evolution...seems to marry google calendar with evernote etc... but what I need is something that can take texts/email/speech and input it into a calendar so that I dont have to duplicate my entries.
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Jack said 12:56PM on 10-20-2006
I'd gladely fork over my money for this software, rather than anything microsoft has to offer.
Wonderful job nicely done, Baig
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Don Schenck said 4:33PM on 10-20-2006
I feel like I've just seen the next "Killer App".
Combine this with a Tablet PC (or, I wish, Tablet Mac) and let your imagine run wild.
I've seen the future. What's the stock ticker??
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Skaag Argonius said 4:33PM on 10-20-2006
You know what, in a way Scrybe looks and feels like what the Apple Newton would be if it were not discontinued (and fitted with a color screen + interface).
I'm referring specially to the way the Notes & Calendars work. I would not be surprised if the Newton has inspired some of the ideas in Scrybe. Would love to try it out!
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David Gerbino said 4:33PM on 10-20-2006
Holy ******* ***** ****** ******
I just watched that video thee times. If this thing is for real, they just blew everyone away. I mean everyone!
The PaperSync, Brilliant.
I gotta watch that again. I will actually use this each and every day.
WoW!
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ben said 4:33PM on 10-20-2006
Argh - I want this now. Now. Now.
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Kim Siever said 4:33PM on 10-20-2006
"they simply provide intelligent printable templates that can be folded and tucked into your back pocket, so you can take all of the relevant information you need with you for the coming week. Brilliant."
I don't see how writing things down twice (once on the paper and the second time when I am back at the computer) is brilliant. Certainly not better than syncing with a PDA or phone. Write it once and let the computer do the syncing.
Until I can get wireless/Internet access wherever I am, I will continue using my Outlook/PDA combo. If Outlook 2007 really will offer iCal syncing, I may switch then.
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