Moleskine™, everyone’s favorite notebook/journal decided to release their own free for download digital version of Moleskine™ for the iPhone and iPad1. The interface is beautifully made, one that you’ll expect from Moleskine™. Like any modern note-taking app, you can create categories, tags and even customize your notebook cover. It will let you insert image, additional text and sketch. Browsing through your notes is easy but the experience of taking down notes is really bad. If you want to put down your ideas as fast as your mind flies, Moleskine app won’t let you as it will ask you to name your new note, add in a category and tag it. And the default text is always set in larger font. You still have to set up the option to let you use a smaller font. Adding/inserting image is easy but Moleskine™ decided to use menu labels such as crop but what it really means is that you are ready to execute the insert. Which could have save the user the confusion if they decided to use an better option like a DONE button. You can also sketch on you notes with an option to sketch on a new leaf or overlay your sketch on you text. It’s fairly easy but I wouldn’t recommend using this app for sketching as there are far much better sketching apps out for the iPhone. Moleskine™ App also lets you browse their online catalogue so you can order directly on their online store for new notebook. Conclusion: Moleskine™ app looks beautiful with a gorgeous interface but with a bad User Experience. If you are planning to rely on this thing to take down notes or ideas there are a gazillion other iPhone apps you can use. The only way to export your notes is by sharing it through twitter, facebook and email. No other way to back up your notes on dropbox or by exporting it to a text or rtf file. If you are also in a hurry, the app will take you 30seconds from start up to writing down your notes. In my opinion, Moleskine™ app doesn’t really want you to use this as your default mobile note-taking app but only to showcase Moleskine™ in a digital space and introduce or remind us that physical notebook still exist and that one that you can carry anywhere that is much faster and doesn’t require a charge. If you are looking for an alternative though, I highly recommend you to check out Simplenote and Evernote for more serious note/idea taking app. 2 I’m reviewing the iPhone app. ↩ Wrote this review on the Moleskine™ app sent to my Simplenote account via email then edited in Markdown using nvALT. ↩

Moleskine™, everyone’s favorite notebook/journal decided to release their own free for download digital version of Moleskine™ for the iPhone and iPad1. The interface is beautifully made, one that you’ll expect from Moleskine™. Like any modern note-taking app, you can create categories, tags and even customize your notebook cover. It will let you insert image, additional text and sketch. Browsing through your notes is easy but the experience of taking down notes is really bad. If you want to put down your ideas as fast as your mind flies, Moleskine app won’t let you as it will ask you to name your new note, add in a category and tag it. And the default text is always set in larger font. You still have to set up the option to let you use a smaller font. Adding/inserting image is easy but Moleskine™ decided to use menu labels such as crop but what it really means is that you are ready to execute the insert. Which could have save the user the confusion if they decided to use an better option like a DONE button. You can also sketch on you notes with an option to sketch on a new leaf or overlay your sketch on you text. It’s fairly easy but I wouldn’t recommend using this app for sketching as there are far much better sketching apps out for the iPhone. Moleskine™ App also lets you browse their online catalogue so you can order directly on their online store for new notebook.

Conclusion: Moleskine™ app looks beautiful with a gorgeous interface but with a bad User Experience. If you are planning to rely on this thing to take down notes or ideas there are a gazillion other iPhone apps you can use. The only way to export your notes is by sharing it through twitter, facebook and email. No other way to back up your notes on dropbox or by exporting it to a text or rtf file. If you are also in a hurry, the app will take you 30seconds from start up to writing down your notes. In my opinion, Moleskine™ app doesn’t really want you to use this as your default mobile note-taking app but only to showcase Moleskine™ in a digital space and introduce or remind us that physical notebook still exist and that one that you can carry anywhere that is much faster and doesn’t require a charge.

If you are looking for an alternative though, I highly recommend you to check out Simplenote and Evernote for more serious note/idea taking app. 2

  1. I’m reviewing the iPhone app. ↩

  2. Wrote this review on the Moleskine™ app sent to my Simplenote account via email then edited in Markdown using nvALT. ↩