IPad App Review: Moleskine Journal

Category: Productivity
Price: Free
Release Date: August 24, 2012
Version: 1.0.1
Seller: Moleskine S.r.l.
Rated: 4+
Requirements: Compatible with iPad.Requires iOS 5.0 or later.
Link to app

TiP Rating: 3.5/5 Stars

App Store Description:

Your best ideas everywhere – Moleskine journals, re-imagined for limitless creativity, productivity and passion.

The look and feel are classic Moleskine; the digital capabilities are inspiring. Enjoy all the things you usually do with your Moleskine journals, and send your creations out into the world, page after page.

Created with input by a team of artists, designers and other Moleskine enthusiasts like you, the all-new digital Moleskine Journal features the attributes you cherish most in Moleskine tools: simplicity and elegance.

Summary:

The newly launched Moleskine Journal focuses on simplicity and functionality while incorporating the classic Moleskine notebook style. While much more impressive than the original app, it still has a few kinks to work out.

Review:

Moleskine, which recently teamed up with Evernote to launch the Smart Notebook, has also released a new mobile app called Moleskine Journal.

The completely redesigned app focuses on simplicity and functionality while incorporating the classic Moleskine notebook style. It offers a range of paper selection, including plain, ruled, and squared, as well as templates from Weekly Planner, Passion Recipe Journal, and Storyboard.

Going beyond simple note-taking and sketching capabilities, Moleskine Journal boasts an impressive artist toolset, featuring a pen, pencil, paintbrush, highlighter, and a very handy text tool. Notetakers can tweak fonts, color, opacity, and size, all on the fly. The fully featured color picker offers a full spectrum of color for easy customization.

Of course, it wouldn’t be Moleskine without its signature inner pocket, which slides in from the right side of the screen. Here you can store your favorite images and text for quick access. Moleskine Journal also comes with intuitive iOS gestures, such as pinch and spread, two-finger scroll, and page flip.

The app supports both portrait and landscape modes, and you can also view your entire journal inane editable page thumbnails view. Unlike real Moleskines, your notebooks never run out of Pages; however, you can always create new notebooks.

You can also sync your notebooks with Evernote or backup to Dropbox. If you’re in a sharing mood, you can do so via Twitter, Facebook, or email.

After spending some hands-on time with the app, it’s incredible to see the difference between Moleskine Journal and the original Moleskine app. It’s much more visually appealing and offers a smoother experience. However, I did run into a few hiccups along the way.

The most frustrating thing about this iteration is the text tool. When I tap the screen to place the cursor, it goes somewhere else. I found myself tapping multiple times before I got it in the right spot.

I also lost a lot of text after putting the keypad away. It’s as if the keypad took the text with it when I minimized it. Unfortunately it didn’t return when I brought the keypad back.

This is frustrating because even on the iPad, the writing tools aren’t very convenient. I have small fingers and still had a hard time writing — which meant I had to rely on the text tool more than I would have liked.

However, Moleskine did say that the current iteration is aimed toward creativity and that it’s working on refining the note-taking features, including zoom in for handwriting and PDF compatibility.

I also noticed a lot of loading time, especially while switching between pen/pencil and the text tool. I didn’t have to wait too long, but it definitely took away from the overall experience.

My final complaint is that Moleskine Journal only supports iPad, leaving iPhone users with the crappy (compared to this) original app. The kicker: while Moleskine can remain on your devices after you’ve downloaded Moleskine Journal, it will be removed from the App Store on September 1st.

Overall, Moleskine Journal is a significant improvement on the original app, but it definitely has some kinks to work out before it becomes my go-to note-taking app.