eink notepads

[AJ Starr]

Originally Posted by Mickey330

There is also the Note Slate, though recently I'm beginning to wonder if we'll ever see it ... or if it's just vaporware. It was supposed to be revealed in June, but no changes yet.

I truly hope it comes to be! Because, for what it does (take/save notes only) for only $99 (USD), I want one so badly! Badly enough that I just can't delete the bookmark. It's such a wonderful concept...

And, now that you know about it, now you too can hope it becomes real. Maybe it'll be like fairies - if enough people believe, it'll be true.

Marilyn

Note Slate's web site is gone. So I assume it was vapor ware. Someone said it was a school project (???)

[Hellmark]

Originally Posted by AJ Starr

Note Slate's web site is gone. So I assume it was vapor ware. Someone said it was a school project (???)

Uh, I was just on it, and the site is still very much up there. They actually updated it recently (June 29th).

There has been all sorts of rumors floating around about what the Noteslate project may be. Some say it is a hoax, some say a student project, etc. Personally, I think it is a company that went public too early, and when they hit some stumbling blocks (difficulty finding a manufacturer, site being DDoS'ed, etc), it just made things seem all that much worse because people were expecting more. They should have held the hype machine back until they at least had a contract with someone to make it.

[sarah11918]

Originally Posted by Hellmark

Uh, I was just on it, and the site is still very much up there. They actually updated it recently (June 29th).

Yup, just visited it and it's there for me. I agree with your assessment Hellmark. I don't think it's a scam, but I do wonder about their ability to bring to market.

[sarah11918]

Originally Posted by wodin

I've had my eye on these for a while now, and am a little afraid that they will never emerge from Taiwan. Sarah, if you get one please post a mini review.

It's in my sister's hands! I should have it within the week.

No, they are never going to be officially released in North America. That announcement was made at the beginning of June. If you read between the lines, it sounds like they might work towards a newer version in the works that will eventually be for the U.S. market.

But they can be purchased relatively easily through several eBay listings (almost all from Taiwan, unless you find someone selling theirs used) or from PC Home, a retail outlet in Taiwan from which several people have ordered internationally. So if you like it, it's not impossible to get. It just wasn't yet worth it to me to pay the eBay premium. (Most are selling for almost $300, once you include shipping. And who knows what you might get hit with during importing.) PC Home's price translates to roughly $240 USD, and shipping I think is only another $10 USD, plus you're dealing with a big retail company. But the device is so new for the most part that I don't mind paying less for a slightly used one, especially if it's already been imported into Canada. I haven't heard of many lemons with this product, so neither ordering from Taiwan or picking one up used seem overly high risk.

Truth be told, my entourage edge is a much better pdf work horse than I expect the Eee Note will be. And while I'm home for the summer, not traveling, it doesn't matter that it's heavier than my laptop. But come the fall when we're out traveling regularly again, I was hoping this might be an OK light weight substitute. I was going to wait until the end of August if I hadn't found one at a good price and then break down and order one. But this way I should have a good chance to play with it and make sure it can do what I want it to do while on the road.

the Onyx Boox M90 was also tempting, because of screen size and the fact that writing at different zoom levels seems to be figured out, but at more than double the price for a device that is still designed to be more of a reader than a writer, I think the Asus is easier to jump on board with right now.

So again, to the OP, these are pretty much the options out there:
- Boogie board if you just want scratch paper and don't need to save notes (or wait until the fall and see what kind of basic save feature they'll come out with). Inexpensive, does what it says it will do. For just scratch paper, there's almost no reason not to have this.
- Asus Eee Note EA800 if you don't mind spending $200-$300 and want an decent sized electronic notepad, and can go through some simple steps to convert to English. Not e-ink, but also not backlit LCD, so you have to use it in lit conditions, but also helps to give it a longer battery life.
- Pocket Edge from Entourage (discontinued, but available on eBay or every now and then on Woot) if you want to spend $150 - $200 for a smaller, pocketable notepad that will work VERY well for basic scribbling, lists (and let you save, export to PDF) and also includes the functions of a decent Android tablet so you can check email, browse the web, run a good selection of apps. If you use it regularly, it will need daily charging, if not more frequently.
- Entourage Edge (full-sized) if you want the closest thing to a tablet PC (using wacom stylus technology) in terms of electronic note taking, annotating books and pdfs without paying for a tablet PC. These have been discontinued, are no longer supported, and are more difficult to find than the smaller pocket versions, and considerably more expensive. Probably way too expensive to justify a discontinued product. But it's basically like a tablet PC netbook in terms of functions, minus handwriting recognition. (Although there are hacks people have made to import into OneNote and have the handwriting recognized.) Battery life will get you through an entire day, plus it has a removable battery so a spare battery and you almost can't run out of juice before you can get it back to charge it.
-Nokia N800/N810 if you want a chunky little pocket device that functions as a mini computer, and which can run Xournal (which is very similar to the Tablet PC Windows program Journal Note that comes standard for making handwritten notes). It imports pdfs and annotates them excellently. But the screen is small, and it's just a touch screen (resistive) so the stylus is just a piece of plastic and if you touch the screen while writing, it will register as a handwriting stroke. I'm forever going back and erasing all these jagged lines from something being sensed by the touch screen while I write. But, this is actually what I use for grocery shopping lists. You can conveniently lock the screen, so I just have my list displayed and lock the screen and it will stay there while I shop. A quick unlock to cross items off, then lock again and keep going. While it's a good size for being out and about (think thick iPhone), I find it too small and temperamental to have sitting by the phone for jotting down quick notes in a hurry. That I use my EE for. Battery life is short, but replacement batteries are easy to come by and are standard Nokia batteries, not that expensive either. It's no longer made, but pretty cheap on eBay.
- NoteSlate would be awesome if it existed/came to market. On paper, it does what people want the Boogie Board to do. But they don't have a public prototype yet, and this may or may not ever materialize.

I think that concludes the devices, short of a tablet PC, and not including current tablet devices (iPad, HTC Flyer, Motorola Xoom etc.) that have a writing app because none of them are e-ink or e-ink like. Although I did include the N810 because it's tiny and cheap enough that you might decide it's worth a shot, even if not e-ink. And the Boogie Board/NoteSlate/Asus are all slightly different products that some people might find acceptable substitutes for e-ink, given their dedicated purpose and lower cost. The EE and PE are both e-ink writing surfaces.

[wodin]

Thanks Sarah, Karma to you.

You didn't mention the HTC Flyer (or Sprint's version, the EVO 4G View). It's a bit spendy, but might be the best of both worlds; high performance Android tablet and HTC Scribe.

Anybody had any hands on experience with these?

[sarah11918]

Originally Posted by wodin

Thanks Sarah, Karma to you.

You didn't mention the HTC Flyer (or Sprint's version, the EVO 4G View).

I have no experience with them, but I guess I think of the HTC Flyer more as a "spiffy tablet that has a pen option." I believe the pen only works on one or two specific note-taking apps, but otherwise, it's a regular touch-screen tablet, right? And, of course, it's not e-ink.

But you're right, it does deviate from the tablet-norm so it's totally worth mentioning.

[toronado]

Originally Posted by Mickey330

There is also the Note Slate, though recently I'm beginning to wonder if we'll ever see it ... or if it's just vaporware. It was supposed to be revealed in June, but no changes yet.

I truly hope it comes to be! Because, for what it does (take/save notes only) for only $99 (USD), I want one so badly! Badly enough that I just can't delete the bookmark. It's such a wonderful concept...

And, now that you know about it, now you too can hope it becomes real. Maybe it'll be like fairies - if enough people believe, it'll be true.

Marilyn

http://liliputing.com/2011/07/notesl...available.html

Was this theoretical NoteSlate device able to save notes?

[sarah11918]

Originally Posted by toronado

Was this theoretical NoteSlate device able to save notes?

Yes (in theory!), although they had several projected stages of features. Absolutely by the final stage it is/was projected to be pretty much what everyone who wants an electronic notepad thinks should be in a single-function device, although perhaps a tad pixelated.

http://noteslate.com/design.htm

[Dylrob]

Originally Posted by Dulin's Books

no.

but there is the Boogie Board. http://www.improvelectronics.com/us/en/

its a writing/ drawing tablet using a one pixel pressure sensitive ch-lcd that is bistable. which means you use a stylus( or your finger etc) to write on it and it stays until you erase it with button push.

there is no memory yet ( a next gen model is in development that would have memory) to save items and even if there were you couldnt call them back on to the display because its one giant pixel. when you erase you erase the whole thing.

they just released 2 new models this past week. the new ones are the 10 inch model that comes with a lock out for the erase button- which will certainly come in handy if you write your grocery list on it and happen to push the erase button getting out of the car at the store sigh...

the other has an extra wide enclosure with holes for using in a binder.

the 8" is the original model, we have one for our notes and one for the boys to draw on etc. They just came out with a sort of bulletin board / cork board accessory for hanging it up. Brookstone is supposed to get some of the 8 inch ones in a new case design in a multiple of colors

Good to know that the next generation will have memory. I tried one out in Brookstones, and while it had me intrigued, without being able to save pages I simply have no practical use for it.

[crossi]

Something like the Boogieboard, but with memory so I could have several pages of lists, the ability to erase portions of the screen, and the ability to send notes I want to save to OneNote would be perfect.

[toronado]

Originally Posted by sarah11918

I believe the [HTC Flyer] pen only works on one or two specific note-taking apps, but otherwise, it's a regular touch-screen tablet, right?

Yes, and that's exactly why I didn't get one. There is no support for the pen to be used as a stylus within Android to control the OS in general, or with most Android apps. The pen can be used only for drawing on the screen. As soon as you touch the pen to the screen, it takes a screen shot, and then lets you draw on it.

[sarah11918]

For what it's worth, I've now received my Asus Eee Note EA800 and if I can answer any questions about it, I'll gladly do so. Please be patient with me, though, as I've only just plugged it in to update the firmware, and I haven't even converted it to English yet.

[toronado]

Originally Posted by sarah11918

For what it's worth, I've now received my Asus Eee Note EA800 and if I can answer any questions about it, I'll gladly do so. Please be patient with me, though, as I've only just plugged it in to update the firmware, and I haven't even converted it to English yet.

Cool. Let us know how that goes. I'd be particularly interested in knowing how annotating PDF files works on the EA800.

[sarah11918]

Originally Posted by toronado

Cool. Let us know how that goes. I'd be particularly interested in knowing how annotating PDF files works on the EA800.

That's one of my main goals, so I'll be test-driving the heck out of that.

The issue I'm having now is trying to find ways other than the official Sync app to load PDFs onto the device. I'm on a mac, and my version of Parallels is so old it won't even open! I have an older tablet PC that I can use, but when I go traveling on the road for months at a time, I can't take every laptop I have, so I'm looking for a mac-based solution.

I'm going to break down soon and at least put pdfs on the normal way, just to play around with it. But I can report that getting stuff OFF of the Eee Note via Evernote is a snap (as .png or .gif files, which I have no problem then printing as PDF for my purposes).

I'm exhausting all possibilities I can think of for getting pdfs ON, though. You can't simply put them on the microSD card and have them recognized by the system. It's intended you'll load everything through the Sync app which is windows only.

[AJ Starr]

Originally Posted by Hellmark

Uh, I was just on it, and the site is still very much up there. They actually updated it recently (June 29th).

There has been all sorts of rumors floating around about what the Noteslate project may be. Some say it is a hoax, some say a student project, etc. Personally, I think it is a company that went public too early, and when they hit some stumbling blocks (difficulty finding a manufacturer, site being DDoS'ed, etc), it just made things seem all that much worse because people were expecting more. They should have held the hype machine back until they at least had a contract with someone to make it.

I apparantly had checked when the site was down for revamping. I checked several times over several weeks, I thought, and the site just went to the general "for sale" site the ISP holder put on.

I'm glad they're back, hopefully they can get the product to market.

AJ