Skit Notetaking App

3Athlete · Thread Author #1 05-12-2011, 12:04 AM

So I am one of the people that have been looking for a note taking/hand writing/sketch app. I initially settled with ScratchPad as it was good for the basic functionality of quick small sketches needing to be made. If you needed, the sketches could be saved. However, it is missing a lot of the more advanced features which are desirable such as actually saving the sketches to pdf, multiple notebooks, pen widths, precision, etc.....

Enter Skit. I read about this in another thread and it had been taken down from Appworld for an upgrade and appears to be up and running again. Initial impressions of it are quite good. It is responsive to touch and draws distinct, accurate lines. There is a small bit of lag when drawing the lines but it is not that bad. Another nice feature is that it will pick up a single dot unlike scratchpad which did not register a dot. The biggest hindrance to accuracy is the fact a styles or your finger is not pin point accurate so keep that in mind when using these apps and judging them. I think the wacom bamboo stylus may help. The reviews seem to be good so far as it has a slightly smaller tip than other capacitive ones. I only made a few pages of notes and exported them to pdf and tested the readability on the playbook and it seems to function well.

A few small details which could use improvements. It would be nice to be able to have longer names for the books. I don't know if this is feasible as I know nothing about developing apps. I think having larger pages would also be nice. Instead of having only the screen space maybe put a scroll bar that must be manually operated to scroll down and maybe make the available space on one page in landscape mode double what it is now maybe 3x what it is. Something that is purely graphical and takes absolutely nothing away from this app is the menu is a little laggy to pull down. Not a large deal but it adds some polish to a very clean looking app. Lastly maybe having all the color options you do in the app for drawing as optional colors for books would be nice.

Overall, A+ app!

eta- @ 4 dollars I think it is well worth it. $4 is really nothing. Skip a cheeseburger one day and buy yourself this program instead. Having paid for it I am hoping more support will be given for the program if it does well so this is a great start for it. It can only get better from here.

-another thought, maybe being able to bookmark and add it to a table of contents on the first page of a book?

belsunce · #2 05-12-2011, 06:19 AM

good review/summary. I totally agree with you.

I was fortunate enough to pick up Skit before it got pulled. the last update I installed really improved the app. before, text was super angular and note taking was far from ideal, but this was the most full featured app in its category on App World. with the latest update, text is just so much smoother and round; it's quite drastic how much input recognition has improved.

I agree with you that the app is a tad laggy and the pages could be bigger.
hopefully with the app back in the store, more sales will result in more dev support and updates.

so Skit the cheeseburger and get this one (ZING!!!)

ps. I use a Griffin stylus. works well enough.

ATLdigitized · #3 05-12-2011, 10:24 AM

I'm using a Kensington 2-in-1 Stylus and with the minimal amount of pressure it writes pretty well. Thirding the lag as a bit of a drawback but its not bad at all and, frankly, may always have at least a slightest bit of lag. Overall though it seems to work quite well. Things to add:

-portrait mode switching ***update: just realized you just switch the type of paper you want to employ a portrait mode experience
-longer page (as the OP said)
-perhaps some audio record feature for voice notes within each "book"

Again, a good app and now I'm the coolest (read nerdiest) guy in my office meetings... and proud of it.

V3nom · #4 05-12-2011, 02:45 PM

very nice well polished app. more pages per book would be great

santi29402 · #5 05-12-2011, 07:37 PM

Great app would be better if you can make notes on an existing PDF, like a pdf blueprint.

kirson · #6 05-12-2011, 07:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by santi29402

Great app would be better if you can make notes on an existing PDF, like a pdf blueprint.

^^^ Completely agree. Would be terrific if we could get an app to mark-up existing PDF files (or, god willing, even Word or Excel files). One of the things I miss the most on the PB, and one of the reasons I keep having to pull out the old iPad.

Eclaircie · #7 05-15-2011, 12:30 AM

Hi, I'm one of the developer of Skit. It's surprising to see that's there's already thread on our product. Thank you so much for purchasing and reviewing Skit (special thanks to someone from this forum who put a great review in AppWorld).

We'll be watching this forum for any review/critics, and we'll try to put your suggestion in future updates. Sales has been good in first few days only, so we're really looking for important aspects we need to improve.

short answers to your queries:
- longer title: it is feasible to have longer title. Our only concern is just about the aesthetics (it will not fit one-line) in the book cover. Less elegant, don't you think ?

- larger pages: it is feasible. Concerns: 1. the invisible area of the paper will make some users confused about the exact paper size. 2. The area in our 'small' playbook screen is just too precious to waste for scroll bar. Our idea is to have the whole screen as your paper (that's why the top menu is automatically hiding), and try to make hand-writing as natural as possible. Perhaps, better solution will be: click hand icon, drag up / down.

- laggy menu : Okay we'll make it faster

- audio record: something we need to consider more.

- @V3nom: more pages per book would be great ? you can always add more page by clicking next-page button (top right-most) in canvas.

If you need further support, you can email us on support@eclaircie.web.id

jdhuttojr · #8 05-15-2011, 10:03 AM

eclaircie,
Which stylus do recommend for your app? I'm trying to find the bamboo stylus for Ipad, but it is on backorder on every site that sells them. Is there another you have used that works as good?

I bought the app and really like it, I think a stylus would work better for me with this app.

Jean-luc_Picard · #9 05-15-2011, 10:57 AM

Here's my feature request: Chapters and/or bookmarks! That way I can have a single book be a course, yet have subsections of it be the units.

V3nom · #10 05-16-2011, 11:00 AM

Any chance of dialling up the sensitivty of the app. I have tried a stylus with it, the alupen, not a great one I know, but it works great in scroodle, but a not that great in Skit. was wondering if the sensitivity might have something to do with it

belsunce · #11 05-16-2011, 01:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by V3nom

Any chance of dialling up the sensitivty of the app. I have tried a stylus with it, the alupen, not a great one I know, but it works great in scroodle, but a not that great in Skit. was wondering if the sensitivity might have something to do with it

my thoughts exactly. I use the Griffin stylus, which worked awesome on iPad.

Skit is by far the best app in its category so far but it still needs some work. now that I see it's not just my stylus...
it works well enough now but it could definitely be smoother.

Mojoski · #12 05-16-2011, 02:08 PM

Well, I'd suggest you guys take a good look at Notes Plus and snag a few ideas from them. The first one that I'd recommend you consider, that seems like it would not be that hard to implement, is the "Palm Pad" to keep you from scribbling on your paper when you're trying to write with a stylus.. Check it out towards the end of this interesting video:

YouTube - Notes Plus for iPad: Getting Started

Bottom line is that we need something like Notes Plus on Playbook and the closer you get to supporting some of these basic features, the happier I will be that I spent my money on your app!

dcscott · #13 05-16-2011, 02:41 PM

I just purchased Skit and with the Targus stylus it is pretty much worthless for me. I have to print so darn large that I can only get about two to three words on a line. Is there a better stylus that I should try?

Mojoski · #14 05-16-2011, 02:55 PM

I bought one of these today at Walmart and found about the same thing. You have to press the stylus all the way down, deflating the rubber tip and touching the hard stuff under the rubber, before it registers any movement. Also, the bottom of my hand ends up writing all over the paper when I try to use the stylus. Hence my recommendation that they consider implementing something like the "Palm Pad" on Notes Plus for iPad.

Love the app idea and what is there so far is pretty cool, but the app isn't really usable yet for me as a day to day note taking app for meetings and such.

I'm also interested in other people's stylus recommendations. Are other stylus working better or is it just a limitation of capacitive touch screens?

Quote:

Originally Posted by dcscott

I just purchased Skit and with the Targus stylus it is pretty much worthless for me. I have to print so darn large that I can only get about two to three words on a line. Is there a better stylus that I should try?

Ittles · #15 06-22-2011, 06:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jdhuttojr

eclaircie,
Which stylus do recommend for your app? I'm trying to find the bamboo stylus for Ipad, but it is on backorder on every site that sells them. Is there another you have used that works as good?

I bought the app and really like it, I think a stylus would work better for me with this app.

I also bought this app and the Targus stylus does not work very well, what stylus do you recommend for your app?