The difference is that scanning doesn't capture the meta data of input strokes, and there are already Windows tablet PC applications that are able to use this data to make handwritten notes searchable. That is, since they can convert to text (and as much as I'm not a huge fan of Windows OS, Windows 7 actually does an exceptional job of converting handwriting to text), the stroke data is stored along with the graphic of the handwritten word, and even if you don't explicitly convert it to text, it can search it as if you did. I can't remember the name of the program I was playing around with years ago (not Agilix Go Binder but a similar "multi-binder imitation" program) and it did this incredibly well, even on Windows XP Tablet edition before the handwriting recognition improved leaps and bounds.

In order to get a scanned pdf to be as useful, you'd need OCR for handwriting (not sure that exists yet) and at the very least a graphic/pdf editing tool if you want anything other than a static representation of the paper notes. Don't these software tools cost a few hundred dollars themselves? Throw in the cost of the scanner and perhaps you can do more for the same price as an edge, but you can't do this one task nearly as well.

Granted, the edge isn't there with the handwriting functionality yet, but it has the potential to be. It captures strokes (because you can use the "stroke erase" tool) so it's just a matter of time until that data can be put to even better use. It might be a *long* time, but that's been one of the most requested features on this forum, so it would make sense that that's a reasonable direction for this device to go. I'm not holding out for immediate solutions, especially given that I know how inferior Apple's handwriting recognition is compared to Microsoft's. If it were easy, Apple's should be comparable and the edge would already have it, so I get that it's not an easy feature to add. But handwriting recognition aside, at least these documents are currently editable in their electronic format. (Of course, paper is editable, too, but it's much more difficult and/or costly to edit once it's been scanned.)

So, while I agree with the value of having an electronic form of notes, not all e-forms are created equal. There is huge potential in creating the document electronically, to take advantage of the stroke input data for sure... and to avoid all those little paper bits from ripping it out of a spiral notebook at the very least!