Some people have a hard time letting go of using a pen and paper for note taking and planning their calendar. There is just something about using an actual pen and paper that make people feel more comfortable. Keeping track of your life digitally, though, is much smarter. With digital solutions like a smart planner, you always have a backup, you are able to share your information with those that might need it, and it’s always at your fingertips.
Moleskine is hoping to bridge this gap for people, by creating a new smart day planner. The planner includes a Livescribe pen with sensors embedded in the paper to read your handwriting. If you write in the planner a time and description for your event, the Smart Planner will sync that appointment to your Google Calendar, which can then be synced over to iCloud or Outlook as well.
This planner can give users the benefits of a digital planner, with the added bonus of being a tangible notebook. For those who love to write with a pen and paper, this could be exactly what will help bring them into the digital world. It is still yet to be seen if the handwriting recognition will work as well as it is claiming to. Likely, there will be a lot of double and triple checking from users, in the beginning, to make sure the events are transferring over correctly.
The planner and the pen will run you $199, but considering the pen alone is $150, you are really mostly paying for the pen. The Livescribe pen will work with other notebooks designed for use with the pen, and new Smart Planners will only be $29 once you already have the pen. The planner will be available on September 12th.