The last day of the year is an excellent time to review what we’ve accomplished for you, and to gaze forward to what we have planned for the next year.
2012: Helping You Get Connected
In 2012, we launched three completely new products: SmartDay for Mac, ScrapBook for iPad, and SmartDay for iPhone. All were top-sellers in their respective app store categories. We also released an entirely new, free, web service: mySmartDay.com. In addition, we released major updates to our top selling iOS app, SmartPad organizer for iPad, and to our top selling project planner, SmartPlans for iPhone & iPad. Let’s take a quick look at each.
New for 2012
mySmartDay.com
There is no other app that integrates Tasks into the Calendar like ours do. So up until last year, our solution was to sync them separately to calendar apps and task manager apps. In 2012, we came up with a “better mousetrap” – mySmartDay.com connects all of our SmartDay apps (including SmartPad), but it’s much more than a sync hub: it’s a fully functional organizer with the exact same features as our SmartDay apps. You can use it anywhere, on any computer. Just log sign up from any of our SmartDay apps.
SmartDay for your Mac
We had been thinking about a Mac app for quite some time, and for quite some time, the notion of a huge computer screen scared us. What should we do with all that space? Then finally, it hit us: nothing! Let’s take what we do best on the iPhone, and create a really minimalist design that docks to either side of your computer so you can have it open and running WHILE you doing all the other stuff that you do on your computer! SmartDay for Mac was selected by Apple as “New and Noteworthy” and rose to #7 in the productivity section of the Mac App Store. We have a new version already submitted to the App Store; see below.
ScrapBook
We took the idea of SmartNotes and converted it into a book format that allows you to drop photos, notes, and maps directly onto different pages, move them around, resize them, and add text. Then we added some cool features such as slide-show and landscape view, so you can use it not just as a scrapbook, but as a way to tell whatever story you have to tell. That’s why we named it ScrapBook – Tell Your Story. During its launch, it reached into the top 50 on the iTunes App Store, outselling 98% of all apps in the Productivity Category. We have a new version ready for release and in final testing; see below.
SmartDay for iPhone
For SmartDay, we listened to our users and observed a huge unmet need in the marketplace: People like to schedule events, build task lists, take notes, and make check-lists, but they want them all in the same place. But for us, it was not enough to just drop these into an app and call it an ‘organizer’. We chose to truly integrate them. The result was SmartDay for iPhone; it debuted in the top 15 of the iTunes App Store in the Productivity section, which contains over 4,000 apps.
Major Updates for 2012
SmartPad 2
It’s not always a good idea to reinvent the wheel, and since SmartPad uses the same SmartTime™ logic as our other apps, we kept it largely unchanged. But we did release a new version that synchronizes Tasks, Events, and all of the sort settings with mySmartDay.com so that your data can now be shared across Mac, iOS devices, and even PC’s. We have much more in store for SmartPad users in 2013; see below.
SmartPlans 3
SmartPlans has been the top-selling multi-project planner since it was first released in 2010. It’s not just a project planner; it’s designed to help you manage multiple projects, and how they all fit into your time constraints. “SP3” added milestones with deadlines, and dependency linkage between plans. We added sync with the iOS Calendar so that you can see your milestones directly in the calendar as “All Day Events.” The next step for SmartPlans is coming in 2013, when it will be integrated with mySmartDay.com. Stay tuned!
2013: Tools for Sharing, Noting, and Planning
We thought 2012 was a busy year, but we have even more planned for 2013. It will start with two big launches in January: our first iBook, and SmartDay 2 for Mac.
iBook: Organize Your Life
We have created a visual handbook for iPad that introduces the SmartDay system of flexible organizing for busy people. It uses images, video clips, slide-shows and detailed “how to’s.” It will be available, initially for free, to anyone with an iPad. Check it out.
SmartDay 2 for Mac
Already submitted to the Mac App Store, SmartDay 2 integrates Notes & checklists directly into the calendar, the same way that SmartDay for iPhone and mySmartDay for web, do. We’ve also added new organizational features and filters.
Here’s what we’ve got coming for Spring/Summer 2013.
SmartPad 3
We’re updating SmartPad with the new integrated notes feature of SmartDay. Now on your iPad. Tap any event or task, to view attached notes. Link notes to any day, task, or event. Just like SmartDay.
ScrapBook 2 with Facebook sync and Themes
Scrapbook 2 has several huge new features that we’ve already been testing with our beta group: share individual pages or entire books to your Facebook gallery; download cool new themes for each season; and now you can drag and rotate items in any direction. The new Scrapbook2 will allow you to tell your stories, easier and better, to more people.
Feature: Planner for SmartDay apps
This is a new feature that will be integrated into our iPhone, iPad, and Mac organizers, as well as in our free web app, mySmartDay. Planner will meet two needs: how to allow users to schedule tasks into the future, and how to integrate tasks from our project planner, SmartPlans, directly into SmartDay.
Feature: Task Manager for SmartDay apps
Ever wanted to distribute tasks to your “team,” then monitor the results? Now you can. Your “team” can be a work team, a school study group, or even your own family. This is the first of many Group features that we are developing for the SmartDay family. Delegate tasks to others, complete with deadlines – and their SmartDay will automatically schedule those delegated tasks into the free time in their calendar!
SmartDay 3 for Mac OS X
This major new upgrade to SmartDay will feature a fold-out Week and Month calendar, with Planner built-in. Talk about Wow.
A New Visual tool
Yes, just for the pure fun of it, we have an all-new visual productivity and sharing tool in the works. It will integrate with the SmartDay family, but there’s nothing like it. Stay tuned.
