NoteSlate: the End of Paper & Pencil

[Anenome]

Paper? That's so 2000's. We're in the 10's now baby!

Meet NoteSlate, a touch sensitive, one color display device that will bridge the gap between non-interactive e-reader's like the Kindle, and those incredibly interactive touch-devices like the iPad:

http://i.imgur.com/MtyUL.jpg (http://www.noteslate.com/)

(click image for more info)



NoteSlate is low cost tablet device with true one color display, real paper look design, long life battery (180h!), together with very handy usage and very simple and helpful interface for pen and paper.

This easy, compact and portable gadget is used anywhere you want to make any notes, drafts, sketches, any ideas for future reference. Paper for everyone! Write a note and check it later, save it, or delete it. Maybe send it after. Just one colour is enough to express the basics. Keep your life simple. You will love it. For $99.

Basic Characteristics
- REAL PAPER look design
- ONE COLOR display
- ONE TOUCH ability just with pen / eraser
- 210x310x6mm thin body
- 13 inch matte monochrome eInk display
- 190x270mm active display, 750x1080pixels
- 180 hours battery life (almost 3 weeks of daily work !)
- 280 g weight !
- basic inputs: pen with eraser, USB mini, SD Card, Jack 3.5 mm, AC/DC 12V
- Wi-Fi module on request with order (no added charge (!)
- no web browsing!
- end price $99
- ONE POINT OF SALE - NoteSlate online e-store

[Evil Avatar]

Ask anyone who has tried to "draw" on an iPad what a colossal waste of time it is. The way you do things on paper may be something that can never be duplicated with a touch screen.

Look at the picture you put in your article -- when you write letters by hand do they look like they were drawn by a 5 year old? Mine don't.

I suspect these people will quickly realize that without an ebook reader that even at $99 they aren't going to find many takers for this product.

[Gusj]

Ask anyone who has tried to "draw" on an iPad what a colossal waste of time it is. The way you do things on paper may be something that can never be duplicated with a touch screen.

Look at the picture you put in your article -- when you write letters by hand do they look like they were drawn by a 5 year old? Mine don't.

I suspect these people will quickly realize that without an ebook reader that even at $99 they aren't going to find many takers for this product.

The lines looks slightly better on the Green NoteSlate they're showing on their web page. They might have exaggerated the lines to make them look more "hand drawn" in this example.

Anyway.
As a student I'm constantly looking for good alternatives for paper. I don't like taking notes on my laptop for various reasons. Booting it up takes time, it's big, bad battery life, but mainly that I write slower by keyboard.
My problem with paper is that it is so easy to lose and sometimes really hard to organize. That's where digital formats really shine, being able to put them in catalogues, tag them, search through them and easily back them up.

Products like this will be easy to boot up, lasts long, and will be able to back up documents easily.

I don't think we're quite there yet with replacing paper, but the NoteSlate is a step in the right direction. Of course we can't know for sure how this product works before we actually try it. Hopefully it will not be a complete failure so they can continue working at improving the technology.

[Chimpbot]

Ask anyone who has tried to "draw" on an iPad what a colossal waste of time it is. The way you do things on paper may be something that can never be duplicated with a touch screen.

Look at the picture you put in your article -- when you write letters by hand do they look like they were drawn by a 5 year old? Mine don't.

I suspect these people will quickly realize that without an ebook reader that even at $99 they aren't going to find many takers for this product.

More and more hand-drawn art is being done on drawing tablets these days, such as the Wacom products. Once folks are practiced with these products, you'd hardly even know they weren't drawn with an actual pen or pencil. It's only a matter of time before touch screens have the same level of precision and sensitivity as your average drawing tablet.

So, yes. Drawing an on iPad, e-readers or products such as this won't be a "colossal waste of time" for much longer.

[Gusj]

For serious touch screen drawing: Wacom Cintiq (http://www.wacom.com/cintiq/)

[Chimpbot]

For serious touch screen drawing: Wacom Cintiq (http://www.wacom.com/cintiq/)

Those are quite expensive...and quite a bit outside of the scope of this particular device.
The Noteslate is, quite obviously, a digital notebook. I'd have a much easier time tossing $100 at this thing than $1000 for the low-end Cintiq...or, god forbid, $2000 for the higher-end model.

You do, however, help to prove my earlier point; Wacom has a touch screen sensitive enough to allow for actual drawing. It's only a matter of time before that sort of screen and overall tech bleeds down into smartphones or tablets such as the iPad.

[Anenome]

Yeah, you want drawing ability, pick up a Wacom. NoteSlate isn't about drawing, it's about replacing paper as an entity.

I can imagine using this to sketch out ideas during a business lunch, then save what we come up with and email copies to my friend when I get back to the office, etc.

A larger version of this could forever replace chalkboards!

I can see schoolchildren using devices like this to take tests, do schoolwork, and all manner of other things.

Some kind of stylist-based digital input device is necessary to go truly paperlyss, and this is a good step towards that. And cheap enough to be ubiquitous eventually. Just cool tech.