How a “Smart Calendar” Changed the Way My Family Stays Connected

ZDNET Key Takeaways

• THE 15 inch skylight calendar is a smart display for $300, with a 10-inch version available for $160.
• It is an interactive digital calendar designed for busy lifestyles and allows for shared use within a household or team.
• Although it has proven to be indispensable for my family, the 15-inch version costs $300.

Getting organized is a never-ending struggle for me. As a self-proclaimed “organized person,” I like to be in control of my schedule, my environment, and everything else. But every time I manage to get my affairs in order, something bothers me, whether it’s a new child, a new house or a move abroad.

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I’ve always preferred pen and paper, which is why I love my bullet journal and wall calendar. But I don’t always have them with me and I can never find a pen when I need one. This is why the Skylight Schedule had such an impact on my life.

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Skylight Schedule

The Skylight Calendar is a smart touchscreen available in 10- and 15-inch models that always displays an interactive calendar.

With three young children and a dog running around the house, I often forget who should go where and do what at what time. This leads to missed doctor appointments, which come with missed appointment fees. And, of course, you have a variety of family staples in your backyard: missed after-school classes, being the only kid at school without a toy during potluck day, double-booked activities, and more.

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I’ve always relied on my wall calendar, a trusty traditional paper calendar that I received every year from Walmart, to keep me on track. But after moving across the country and buying a new house, creating new jobs, new schools, new doctors and new everything, the paper decor just couldn’t keep up. I kept forgetting to add events or things I needed to accomplish, and the old “out of sight, out of mind” couldn’t be more accurate.

I started looking for an alternative to my paper calendar, so I started testing the Skylight calendar and realized I could never go back.

The Skylight Calendar is a 15-inch smart display that looks like a high-end tablet. It runs an Android-based operating system and displays a calendar at all times. The calendar can be placed on a table or shelf or mounted on the wall. I chose the latter installation method to replace my old wall calendar.

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Using the Skylight app on my phone, I can add events, tasks, and dinner plans and create lists for everyone to see on the wall calendar in seconds. Each account also receives a personalized Skylight email address that you can give to others who don’t have the app. They can then send events to this email, and these will also be added to the calendar almost immediately.

This means that no matter where I am, whether on the phone with the doctor on the way to school or at home, I can always immediately send events to my calendar on my wall from my phone.

You may be wondering why don’t you use your phone’s calendar app? The biggest difference between using the Skylight Calendar and a calendar on your smartphone is that it is always visible wherever you place it. So the screen shows the calendar at all times except when you schedule it to go to sleep, which I do at night. This makes it a family center where everyone, even the youngest who don’t have a phone, can see what’s happening and when.

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You may be happy to know that Skylight Calendar also automatically syncs with other popular digital calendars, such as Google, Outlook, Apple, Cozi, and Yahoo.

When you are not actively using the Skylight Calendar, the screen remains on unless a sleep timer is scheduled, regardless of which calendar view you choose. Skylight also gives you the ability to view photos on your calendar when it’s inactive, like a digital photo frame, which requires a Skylight Plus plan at $39 per year. I’ve decided to skip the subscription for now, but it’s worth noting that this option also lets you import emails or PDFs to automatically convert them into events on your calendar, which seems pretty handy.

Now let’s move on to the elephant in the room or the wall. I can’t gloss over the price of the Skylight Calendar – not at $300 for the 15-inch.

The price was admittedly the main thing that stopped me from purchasing the Skylight calendar. Since Skylight isn’t the most well-known brand, I was worried about spending so much on a tablet that would end up bricked in a year or two when the company stopped providing support or something happened to it. It’s not like if you buy a tablet from Apple, Samsung or Amazon, you’ll know you’ll get a few years’ worth of it.

ZDNET’s purchasing advice

In the end, I was lucky enough to get a review unit from Skylight, and after using it for a few weeks, I’m sure I’d buy one for myself, even if it’s $300. Skylight also sells a 10-inch calendar at $160a great option for small families, couples or individuals.

The main selling point of the Skylight Calendar is that it provides a visual and interactive way to view your calendar and help you get organized, automatic syncing with your phone’s calendar and the ability to add events anywhere you are so that everyone at home can do it. see.