(Archived) Evernote teams up with Livescribe!

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Dang, catching up on a bunch of Evernote related stuff this morning!

(If I'd not just had my nails done a couple days ago, I'd polish them Evernote green, today.)

http://blog.evernote.com/2010/10/14/the ... onnection/

http://www.livescribe.com/blog/2010/10/ ... e-team-up/

Off to download the latest LS desktop...

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

FYI, in the LS desktop I had (2.2.2.41615), checking for updates says I have the latest version. But I don't. The EN integration was released 10/14 (per Andrew Sinkov's comment in the EN blog post.) So I had to go directly to the LS site & download the latest version (2.3.2)

http://www.livescribe.com/cgi-bin/WebOb ... erviewPage

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Ok, here's what I've found.

1. FIRST & foremost...you don't get the Livescribe "click to hear" that is LS's niche. So don't expect it to function like the LS desktop only from within Evernote. I don't know if LS would be willing to allow that to happen (since it is their niche) or even if it's currently possible.

2. When sending to Evernote, you have to enter a name for the pencast first. Then you will be prompted for your Evernote login & password. At first blush, this does not seem to be stored in LS desktop, so they may need to be entered each time. Since this is a new integration, I would imagine this may be something that is added in later.

3. My initial test was with a page that has ~5 entries. The entire written page was sent as an image (rather than pdf) and the audio was sent as wav. I was trying to only get the most recent entry on the page, from yesterday. But NBD. The audio that was sent was only for the first segment at the top of the page. I tried sending a second time & got the message that I'd exceeded my monthly upload limit. :shock: :shock: :shock: Yet, when I go to the Evernote website & check settings, I've only used 45% of my upload limit. (wipes sweat from brow) (I was at ~40% yesterday...)

SO...I'm not sure if there's something I'm doing incorrectly or if we're just working some bugs out. (So maybe item #1 is a moot point.) But now I need to get back to other stuff, so will have to revisit later on. But I think this will end up being a very cool feature!

[engberg 89]

Thanks for the report. I haven't tried this myself, but am relaying it to the right people.

[sterlingz 7]

Thanks for the detailed report BNF. This is one integration that will be really great to nail down technically - I'm sure these issues can be resolved in future updates. The audio format is an especially important issue to resolve.

I know I ranted about focusing on the core software rather than integrations, but this is a pretty awesome partnership. I looked at buying a Pulse pen years ago, but gave it a pass due to their software and the fact that the content would be isolated in yet another island. Now the Evernote integration is a major selling point, and I will definitely get one. They owe you big! I'm sure they are going to move some major units as a result of this partnership. Perhaps in return, they can come up with a way to pass their OCR to Evernote? I read one poster on your initial blog post that stated that the Livescribe application OCR was superior to Evernote's online OCR for handwriting. I've had bad results in the past for handwritten notes that I've scanned into Evernote, so maybe this is an area where you can lean into a partner to enhance this functionality? Like I said, they owe you . . . This announcement transformed the Pulse pens from a novelty to a must have accessory for Evernote lovers.

Look forward to getting my smartpen and working with the content in Evernote!

[SethH 36]

Thanks for the detailed followup. We're really excited about this integration, and one of the best parts is that this is just step 1...there are a ton of great things that we can add on now that we have the base built.

FYI, in the LS desktop I had (2.2.2.41615), checking for updates says I have the latest version. But I don't.

I reproduced this and will check with the Livescribe team.

1. FIRST & foremost...you don't get the Livescribe "click to hear" that is LS's niche.

That's correct, we haven't integrated Livescribe's synchronized playback.

Then you will be prompted for your Evernote login & password. At first blush, this does not seem to be stored in LS desktop, so they may need to be entered each time.

Livescribe Desktop for Windows automatically remembers your Evernote credentials and uses them the next time you want to upload pages or sessions to Evernote. Livescribe Desktop for Mac gives you the option of storing the credentials in your keychain or entering them every time.

The entire written page was sent as an image (rather than pdf)

We chose to save pages as images rather than PDF because Evernote's handwriting recognition is far better at recognizing handwritten text in images. We hope to give you the option of image or PDF in future versions.

The audio that was sent was only for the first segment at the top of the page.

When you're in Livescribe Desktop for Windows viewing a page that has multiple audio sessions and you choose to share with Evernote, you'll see a dialog that lets you choose whether you want to upload both the pages and audio, just pages, or just audio. If you choose to upload both, you can specify which pages and which audio sessions are uploaded. When you click "Share" to upload, each page and audio session becomes a separate note, so if you chose to upload one page with 5 audio sessions, you'll get 6 new notes in Evernote.

I tried sending a second time & got the message that I'd exceeded my monthly upload limit.

I can't reproduce this one, we'll look into it.

[sterlingz 7]

The entire written page was sent as an image (rather than pdf)

We chose to save pages as images rather than PDF because Evernote's handwriting recognition is far better at recognizing handwritten text in images. We hope to give you the option of image or PDF in future versions.

This is great to know - I had been using my scanner to scan pages out of my paper notebooks to PDF with poor results, and then I just noticed that an iPhone photo of a handwritten notebook page actually had quite good handwriting recognition. Is this included in the documentation? Would be great to let users know this to get best results.

[costikyan 0]

First - so happy about this combination.

Second, I am choosing the pages & audio option and my notes are being shared no problem, but I am having trouble finding the wav files. Where should I look or am I doing something wrong.

[Philosofy 1]

I was really excited about this, since handwritten notes during sales calls are a big thing for me. Then I found out that Livescribe won't work on Powerbooks.

[fncll 1]

I am having problems similar to the person two messages above this: when I choose to share from Livescribe to Evernote, the pages show up just fine, but the audio is nowhere to be found. For now I am exporting manually from Livescribe desktop and attaching to the proper note(s), but this is tedious... FYU, I am using Evernote 4.0.0.2880 and livescribe desktop 2.3.2.44477 ...

[sterlingz 7]

Finally got my Livescribe Echo - very excited.

I just transferred a test page to Evernote, and I noticed that the file is quite low resolution. The PDFs that Livescribe exports are much higher resolution. Does anyone know of a preference in Livescribe Desktop to change - I couldn't find it. If not, I think this would be worth tweaking for the next iteration of the integration. The filesize is only 456 x 596 for the smaller size notebook. It's good enough resolution for Evernote OCR, I think it would be beneficial to have a little higher resolution image. For example, on my iPad, I need to zoom in to be able to fill the screen, and it looks fuzzy.

[sterlingz 7]

Follow up. I love my Livescribe pen, and their software is quite good, especially the synchronized playback which is amazing. However, the Evernote integration is really weak - I'm very disappointed. I realize this is just the first step, but it really leaves a lot to be desired. I won't be using it.

I was just at a conference, and took a couple dozen pages of notes. I wanted to put these in Evernote. The Livescribe Desktop basically just sends images of each page to Evernote as separate notes. Who wants that? This might be ok for searching, but for looking through notes it's a really horrible user experience- especially in the web interface. So, for a 50 page double-sided notebook, you'll end up with 100 separate notes? I'm much better off exporting a PDF of the pages from Livescribe Desktop, and then uploading that to Evernote (though the handwriting OCR only works on images according to Evernote engineers - side note - why can't Livescribe's OCR, which is outstanding, be passed to the Evernote notes as part of this integration? That would be a useful feature). I'd rather have one note than 36, thanks very much.

I noticed that the options are very thin for sending things to Evernote, there is no option to choose AAC for audio as previously noted, leading to bloated audio files that will take you to your quota fast. In my tests, the .wav files that ended up in Evernote were more than double the size of .aac files generated by Livescribe. Yet, somehow the engineering resources were there to make sure there is an "upgrade to Premium" button within the Livescribe interface. Suggestion to Evernote - these blatant attempts to sell us stuff at every turn (i.e. one of the year's most exciting "features," The Trunk) are really irritating when there are so many glaring issues within the basic software itself. I realize you need to make money in order to sustain the business, but I've paid my dues and I really don't want to be reminded again. Couldn't that button at least be grayed out for current premium subscribers, the way the "create an Evernote account" is once you've put in your credentials?

This integration is pretty shoddily executed in my view, and trying to sell an existing Premium subscriber another subscription is just rubbing salt in the wound.

I'll be really interested to see whether any of the feedback in this thread is actually followed up on, or this is integration is just left to languish like so many other bugs that go unfixed. I don't know who's responsible for what in terms of the partnership, but to me, as it currently stands, this is more just of a PR stunt than an actually meaningful software integration. It worked, I bought a pen. Fortunately, it's pretty good on its own, crappy integration notwithstanding. I'll use the Livescribe software on its own, and archive PDF and AAC files to Evernote manually. It just makes a lot more sense.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Suggestion to Evernote - these blatant attempts to sell us stuff at every turn (i.e. one of the year's most exciting "features," The Trunk) are really irritating

viewtopic.php?f=53&t=17574&p=70941&hilit=trunk#p70941

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

FWIW, I will also continue to add LS written & audio files in the way I did before this integration b/c of the opposite reason. Most of my notes take from a couple of lines to half a page. Since the entire written page gets sent, I much prefer just taking an EN screen cap of just the portion that goes with the audio & add in the aac file.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Forgot to add, I guess for my use, since you are able to select what segments from the page you want to send to Evernote, it would be nice to send only the written portion that goes with the audio that has been selected. In this example, I'm only wanting to add the most recent segment. You can tell that the LS app knows which written portion goes with that audio b/c it's in pink. The black/grey writings match up to the unselected audio files. (Prior notes.) But I'm pretty sure this is on the LS side of things, since EN is only receiving it.

("We will receive, we will receive.")

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

The audio that was sent was only for the first segment at the top of the page.

When you're in Livescribe Desktop for Windows viewing a page that has multiple audio sessions and you choose to share with Evernote, you'll see a dialog that lets you choose whether you want to upload both the pages and audio, just pages, or just audio. If you choose to upload both, you can specify which pages and which audio sessions are uploaded. When you click "Share" to upload, each page and audio session becomes a separate note, so if you chose to upload one page with 5 audio sessions, you'll get 6 new notes in Evernote.

Yes, thanks for letting me know! I like this!

I tried sending a second time & got the message that I'd exceeded my monthly upload limit.

I can't reproduce this one, we'll look into it.

I haven't had this problem, since. (YAY!)

[sterlingz 7]

Forgot to add, I guess for my use, since you are able to select what segments from the page you want to send to Evernote, it would be nice to send only the written portion that goes with the audio that has been selected.

Great suggestion. Would love to see this option as well.

[SethH 36]

Thanks again for your feedback, everybody. The size of the audio files is something that we're actively working on with Livescribe.

[Everforumuser 0]

uploading from livescribe desktop on mac os x didn't work for me today. but the LS desktop program didn't give me error messages or something like that. the audio part of the note just wouldn't show up in evernote.

i still have over 200mb of space this month and the note i was trying to send was approximately 1 hour or 18mb in LS desktop (aac format i presume).

i hope the integration between LS desktop and evernote will get better soon.

[Everforumuser 0]

still have that issue that certain pencasts won't upload to evernote. well i think i know why now (it is so obvious that i didn't see it before). evernote limits it's notes to max 50mb, the .wav files the livescribe desktop software creates are soooo much bigger. this means that an livescribe note larger then half an hour won't upload to evernote ever never.

but i'm shure evernote is working on a way around this? (dividing audio notes in smaller parts, or complete pencast integration (with AAC support?)).

[Everforumuser 0]

FWIW, I will also continue to add LS written & audio files in the way I did before this integration b/c of the opposite reason. Most of my notes take from a couple of lines to half a page. Since the entire written page gets sent, I much prefer just taking an EN screen cap of just the portion that goes with the audio & add in the aac file.

I would really like to see a solution for this too. feature request.

[jyl 3]

Livescribe audio files won't appear for me. Uploaded livescribe pages with select audio segments. Pages came fine. Audio file did not show up (selected one small audio file.) Tried to upload just a single 3MB audio file. Again, LS says it uploaded but it can't be found in evernote. I am well within my monthly Evernote limit. LS2.5, Windows 7, Firefox 3.6.13. Any suggestions?

[oklibrarian 0]

Another chime in to the mute chorus: I brought over a ~2 hour pencast this morning (after upgrading to premium specifically for this functionality), received 4 of 4 pages, and no sound on try 1, and 3 of 4 pages (no sound) on try 2. Maybe the Wav files are hiding somewhere, but i can't find them, and there's no guidance on the issue here despite several others in this thread with this issue. I exported it properly, Before you ask I checked twice before i hit send, and tried the send twice. I'm only at 6% of my monthly limit. There are no answers from EN to any of the several comments on the thread remarking on this problem, and several comments lead me to think that although my evernote account says i had plenty of bandwidth left, a single pencast may be too large for the daily limit, even on a Premium Account? If so, wasn't this something you should have warned about or at least added a disclaimer stating that pencasts >x minutes wouldn't have their sound imported?? I am happy with other bits of EN, such as the handwriting recognition which was much improved from my last experiment, and I understand that some bugs don't show up in testing, but having sound with a pencast is rather critical functionality, and I can't believe an issue like this is happening in full production after all the marketing brouhaha from both EN and LS. I had been pretty happy with both services, but right now I can't help but feel a tad cheated. I look forward to a swift response and an eventual resolution.

[oklibrarian 0]

Well, I have to report improvement of a sort. Livescribe now will warn me that a transfer exceeds my daily limit before executing. I can Kludge by sending over the audio file and pencast images seperately. I might try breaking up my classes into multiple sessions, that's just more files to deal with. EN either needs to work with LS to reduce audio file size, or bump up the daily upload limit for Premium at some point. that said, this is still handier than livescribe's software and website, and as my overall evernote addiction deepens I look forward to continued improvements on the smartpen front!

[sterlingz 7]

I stopped by the Livescribe booth at Macworld and expressed my disappointment at how this integration works (as they were triumphantly promoting their partnership with Evernote in their signage). They pretty much pointed the finger at Evernote, with some excuse about how Evernote's requirement to support all platforms makes it hard for them, and it's been hard to make this work smoothly, as two small companies. They said something about a significant update this spring. Anyone from Evernote care to comment or give a status update?

Right now, the way it seems to me as a consumer of both products:

Evernote on its own - Great

Livescribe on it own - Great

Evernote + Livescribe together - Not Great

This despite loads of marketing hype about how well these products work together. Right now, they don't. It's a mess as pointed out in excruciating detail in this thread. Next time, I think it would be better to perfect the integration before hyping it so much. It would have been more appropriate to present this as a long-term strategic partnership, with a first beta plugin, rather than a fully-baked integration that is now shipping. Because that's essentially what people who've been trying to make this work have been - beta testers. I have no doubt that eventually the Livescribe pens will be a killer tool in the Evernote arsenal, but customers thinking that's the case today will surely be disappointed.

[Pitamakan 2]

I saw the Livescribe booth at Macworld, too ... I had to stop, because I was walking along, and distinctly heard a voice coming from the booth that I recognized. Turned out to be one of the hosts of the Evernote blogcast, giving a Livescribe spiel.

Anyhow, I really wanted to buy a pen, especially because they were offering a free year of Evernote premium with it, but it didn't take long to realize that the supposed integration wasn't anywhere near ready for prime time. Hopefully someday ...

[sterlingz 7]

About six months in, do we have any news about how this integration is going to be improved, based on all of the issues documented earlier in this thread? Is this still being worked on?

[sterlingz 7]

Well, it looks like things have moved forward, and the integration has improved a great deal. I have yet to test all the new features, but it certainly looks promising.

[jfsnotjfk 0]

I just bought the Livescribe pen with the free year of Evernote premium. How do I how do I activate the premium when Evernote is asking for payment?

[peterfmartin 221]

You should get an email with a promotional code. I had a bunch of trouble with this recently, but the good folks at cs@livescribe.com walked me through the problems. Good luck.

[gbarry 2,659]

I just bought the Livescribe pen with the free year of Evernote premium. How do I how do I activate the premium when Evernote is asking for payment?

Alright, we've seen a few of these requests come in. Peter's right, you should be getting a promotional code in the email from Livescribe, with steps to get your Premium account. Here's what you need to do:

After you've performed the steps to register your new pen as given by Livescribe, and after you've received the email saying you have received a free year of Premium check to see if it has a code. If it does, great! Use that to register. If you need steps on where to enter your code, contact support and we'll help get you sorted.

If it doesn't, send that email to our support queue. If the email didn't come with a promotional code and we confirm that, we'll get you set up with your Premium account.