Prefer writing or sketching with pen and paper to using a digital pen and tablet? There are a few gadgets that let you place a paper pad over the top of a special tablet so that you can save your doodles both on paper and on a computer.
But Rocketbook’s Everlast Notebook is something very different. It’s basically a physical notebook with reusable pages. Write or draw with a pen and the ink will stick to the pages without smudging or wiping off.
Add a drop of water and you can erase everything you’ve written… so there’s no need to go out and buy a new notebook when all the pages are full.
Want to save your work? There’s an app for that.
Rocketbook already has a reusable notebook called the Wave. That’s a $27 model with 80 pages that can be erased by putting the book in your microwave.
The new Everlast model is up for pre-order through Kickstarter, and it’s expected to ship in April to backers who pledge $34 or more for the Everlast Notebook and a compatible Pilot Frixion pen. But any pen from that line of gel ballpoint pens should work, which gives you the option of writing in multiple colors.
While the prices for these notebooks is a lot higher than the price you’d pay for a stack of paper stuck into binding, theoretically you’ll never run out of pages with Rocketbook’s notebooks.
On the other hand, saving your work is a little weird: Rocketbook has an app for Android and iOS that uses your mobile device’s camera as a scanner. Point it at the pages you want to save and it’ll scan them and allow you to upload them to Dropbox, Evernote, Google Drive, Box, or Slack. Or you can just email the pages to yourself.
The app automatically crops and rotates pages, which is nice. And QR codes on the physical pages tell the app the page number, so you can scan items out of order and they’ll be put in order by the mobile app. But if you’ve ever tried using your phone’s camera in lieu of a real scanner, you’ll know that the results aren’t always perfect.
Still, it’s an interesting idea… and a lot cheaper than a Lenovo Yoga Book or Wacom tablet.
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