Scrybe is a new, exciting online agenda application. Attributed for delivering a “Demo of the Gods”, I checked out if it really is that great. With its offline mode, its ThoughtPad, the PaperSync and a lot of visual bells and whistles, I surely seems to be a cool app.
At first, Scrybe seems to be quite nice application. It uses Flash to add some nice effects when switching between day, month and year view. You can literally zoom out the overview of all tasks on one day, to an overview of the month, to a year calendar. Likewise, you can also select a month in the year calendar, and select a day in the month view to zoom in to a specific date. Accordingly, when you view a specific day, and you click to view the next day, it moves into your sight from the right. In the month view, browsing to the previous month will result in it moving into your sight from the top (or, seemingly, the “camera” moving up to the top).
Question is of course if these effects are really needed. They’re not annoying, so I don’t mind them, but as soon as they start to irritate, the application will quickly become worn out. Scrybe also suffers a bit from the Web 2.0 hype: there are so many online agenda applications appearing right now that it’s hard to to be noticed, and that it’s hard to make a difference. Scrybe may be better than the average Web 2.0 calendar, but they will have to be a lot better to get enough users to survive.
An agenda is however not the only thing you get with Scrybe, they also ship a “ThoughtPad”. The ThoughtPad is a text application to which you can add texts, images and links. They appear after each other, as some sort of notebook, which follows your train of thought. It’s a nice application, I’m wondering if they will do some other more innovative applications after the agenda and the ThoughtPad.
The greatest advantage of Scrybe compared to other online agendas is probably its offline mode. After you’ve worked with Scrybe once on your machine, you can work offline with it. Simply check the “Work offline” item in the File menu, surf to iscrybe.com, and you’ll be able to work with your data offline. The next time you’ll log in online, that data will be synced so the online application is up-to-date.
Another good idea is the PaperSync. Using the simple PaperSync wizard, you’ll be a create a print version of your agenda easily, which can be folded to fit in your pocket. Other niceties include easy theming, reminders to your cell phone e-mail and easy working with timezones.
