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.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
10-20-2006 @ 9:00AM
Deano said...
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.
Reply
10-20-2006 @ 9:11AM
Chris said...
Wow. Now THAT is innovative.
Reply
10-20-2006 @ 9:11AM
Josh said...
Excuse me while I pick my Jaw up off the floor!..
Reply
10-20-2006 @ 9:33AM
Vanessa Balchen said...
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.
Reply
10-20-2006 @ 9:35AM
nicole said...
Wow is right. Im looking forward to this!
Reply
10-20-2006 @ 9:37AM
pravijn said...
WOW!
Reply
10-20-2006 @ 9:38AM
bg1 said...
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
Reply
10-20-2006 @ 10:25AM
Jody said...
Dear Scrybe,
Gimme gimme gimme.
Reply
10-20-2006 @ 12:24PM
Carl said...
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!
Reply
10-20-2006 @ 12:24PM
Danny said...
Whoa. This looks amazing! can't wait either.
Reply
10-20-2006 @ 12:24PM
ThwartedEfforts said...
Personally, I don't see the wow. I can only guess that my life is as organised as it's going to get :)
Reply
10-20-2006 @ 12:25PM
ryan libson said...
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.
Reply
10-20-2006 @ 12:56PM
Jack said...
I'd gladely fork over my money for this software, rather than anything microsoft has to offer.
Wonderful job nicely done, Baig
Reply
10-20-2006 @ 4:33PM
Don Schenck said...
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??
Reply
10-20-2006 @ 4:33PM
Skaag Argonius said...
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!
Reply
10-20-2006 @ 4:33PM
David Gerbino said...
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!
Reply
10-20-2006 @ 4:33PM
ben said...
Argh - I want this now. Now. Now.
Reply
10-20-2006 @ 4:33PM
Kim Siever said...
"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.
Reply
10-20-2006 @ 4:33PM
Victor Agreda, Jr. said...
Dude! That's sweet. Paper sync. Good gravy, these folks have done their homework. The only thing they could do to improve would be add some skins in there, so we can make it more colorful ;)
Reply
10-20-2006 @ 4:34PM
Chris said...
Sorry. This may be cool, but they still don't get it. I don't want to carry around paper or worry about finding a printer. I want this to sync to my portable device and printing is just a band-aid to the real problem. Until this happens, this is no better than anything else out there.
I can't wait until one of these online organizers get it. Do we have to wait until Web 3.0 till all our mobile devices start getting into the game or what?
Reply