A Practical LCD Writing Tablet 171
An anonymous reader passes along a word about an innovative LCD writing tablet. The Boogie Board costs $30, can be written on with a stylus or a fingernail, and uses no power in the act of writing. Only erasing consumes power — from a watch battery, which lasts for 50,000 erases. The total cost per "page" comes out to only 1/15th that of steno paper. The writing surface is pressure-sensitive and "highly responsive to variable amounts of pressure," so you can make thick and thin lines.
Wow What an Idea (Score:1)
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Expensive? It's only $30. An etch-a-scetch is nearly $20 [world-of-toys.com].
Sure, it's not a mythical, magic tablet from Apple but I bet people could find a few uses for it and it's a hell of a lot cheaper...
Yeah. Worthless without connectivity. (Score:3, Informative)
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Update: After talking to an Improv Electronics representative, we’ve confirmed that they are indeed working on a recordable Boogie Board tablet that would utilize flash memory and a USB connection to save and download your work. It would be the size and model, just with added storage and USB connection. They anticipate having this new version available for sale within the year but will still sell the current base version. Price on this new recordable model would be around $50. Read more: http://besttabletreview.com/the-boogie-board-paperless-lcd-writing-tablet-very-cool-and-only-30/#ixzz0dYELgHng [besttabletreview.com]
AWESOME! I've been waiting for something like this in a portable version ever since I was blown away by a chalkboard sized version in a conference room at Cornell a few years back. That one was in color (!) with different light pens for each color and the ability to save the entire board to a connected computer. I'm hardly ever a first-adopter (they call me Mr. SP2 *cough*) but this thing I'll buy as soon as it gets storage and/or a PC connection.
:)
Thanks for the info
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This manufacturer appears to be a small one with its eyes on the thrifty geek - I doubt its interests will really intersect those of the giants so if I were its CEO (or owner as the case may be), I'd simply market it as an electronic scratchpad, which neither t
demo please? (Score:3, Insightful)
I'd like to see a youtube of a boogie board in use.
Re:demo please? (Score:4, Insightful)
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Why not just shake it [etch-a-sketch.com]?
It's close to being price-competitive with the old classic too. Once the immediate geek fuss fades, I'd say that's where its niche will be found.
Re:demo please? (Score:4, Interesting)
I actually didn't know there was such you controlled with two knobs too. Sounds a bit hard and limiting. Magna Doodle [wikipedia.org] is probably a little bit closer with its pen and free drawing.
The Etch A Sketch toy was invented in the late 1950s by a man by the name of Arthur Granjean invented something he called ``L'Ecran Magique", the magic screen, in his garage. The inside surface of the glass screen is coated with aluminum powder which is then scraped off by a movable stylus, leaving a dark line on the light gray screen.
and Magna Doodle
The key element of the Magna Doodle is the magnetophoretic display panel, filled with a thick, opaque white liquid containing tiny dark magnetic particles. These particles can be drawn to the surface by the stylus or the shapes, or to the hidden back side by a sliding eraser bar. The middle layer is divided into a honeycomb of cells, keeping the liquid static and the particles evenly distributed across the panel. The liquid is formulated so that the particles can be pulled through it in response to the magnetic forces, but not due to gravity.
Interesting concept though. I always wanted to know how it worked :)
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Strangely reminds me of the first time I encountered a motor driven (!!, OMG) pepper mill which (of course) was a present imported from the land of Alices Restaurant, then just beginning to loose its appeal as a Wonderland over here.
CC.
Demo videos right here (Score:2)
Video Link 1 [youtube.com]
Here is another one using it to visually depict string theory:
Video Link 2 [youtube.com]
Looks Great! (Score:2)
Looks great, and the price seems awesome. Is it too good to be true?
Re:Looks Great! (Score:4, Insightful)
No way to upload to a computer, no computer assistance, and $30?
I can give you a device that does the same for a tenth of the amount and the added convienence that it can easilly be digitized using common computer technology.
I call it a pencil and paper pad.
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Yes, but at $30 it's cheaper than paper... if you about a hundred sheets of paper a day.
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Yes but the 100's of sheets stick around once you're done with them. Thus they have a 'save' function that the tablet lacks.
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Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
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You mean $9+the-cost-of-a-computer more. The boogie thing is completely self-contained. Plus, you can see what you're drawing -where- you're drawing. With a cheap digitizer for the computer, you have to watch the computer's screen and draw somewhere else. Yes, people do it all the time, but there's a reason people are willing to spend thousands on a Cintiq instead of pay 1/10th as much for just a regular digitizer.
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Ugh, RTFA, yes your paper and pencil pad can be scanned. No it doesn't cost 1/10th of the price, it costs 5 times the price to get the same number of "sheets" out of it.
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Automatic erasing etch-a-sketch (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Automatic erasing etch-a-sketch (Score:4, Insightful)
Why oh why can I not save the screen? (Score:5, Insightful)
The thing would be awesome if I could save the screen. As it is I don't really see why I would choose it over paper since I can't save paper either, but at least paper I could store for later and write on more paper.
But it IS pretty cool.
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You can. It's called a camera. Same as taking a picture of a whiteboard or blackboard.
At $30, it's cheaper than almost anything except a free digitizer.
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How about a network connected scanner? Its a bit inefficient if the only option from there is PDF, but if you could OCR it and partly automate the process it might work for notes to carry around.
Re:Why oh why can I not save the screen? (Score:5, Funny)
Gaze in fear, World!
Ok then, why not paper???? (Score:4, Informative)
You can. It's called a camera. Same as taking a picture of a whiteboard or blackboard.
Or a piece of paper!
It still gives me NO reason to use this device over something that needs no battery, and serves as archival hard copy of my idea.
Without the extra step of the camera, an electronic notepad would be very useful indeed to quickly produce pages of material that then got sent elsewhere. But needing that extra step just kills it from being more useful than paper.
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I was thinking this myself, but finally came to a conclusion in favor of the boogie board. When doing circuits homework, I often have to shift circuits around so I get something pleasing to look at or manipulate equations, which can sometimes be trial and error. Now it looks like instead of blowing paper on trial and error, I could do it on there and later transfer the final version to my homework. That being said, I'm finding it a little hard to justify $30 for it, since this is the only use I can think of
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It is pretty hard to justify when here is the UK you can get 7600 sheets of cheap paper for £19 ~ $30. Biro's cost pennies as well.
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Since it's ink/lead-less, it could be useful for cleanrooms where special non-shedding paper and pens are necessary.
As the site notes, it's useful in many of the same instances where small marker/chalkboards works - sports sidelines, shopping lists, fridge reminders - but doesn't require a pen or marker, much less dry-erase ink or chalk, which is also a benefit for people sensitive or allergic to marker/chalk dust.
The ability to write with a finger can help people with wrist/hand disabilities who can't easi
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drop it on a copier later to save your image.
Re:Why oh why can I not save the screen? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, I would easily pay $100 if I could save things to a memory card and recall pages from thumbnails. Double that or more if it did some basic diagram aid (draw a rough rectangle, have it neatened). I've been searching for the ideal "electronic graph paper" and I have yet to find anything. It doesn't need to play movies or browse the web or send email... ok, it could have basic wifi and be able to email diagrams... but still. A few functions for drawing and writing and diagramming, some storage and searching, and that's all it needs.
That said this looks like this product probably can't even address pixels. It's probably lucky to just get enough current to the whole panel so that it clears. I doubt that requires even half the electronics of a 4-function calculator, but then I'm not an EE.
Totally agree (Score:4, Informative)
I've been searching for the ideal "electronic graph paper" and I have yet to find anything.
That's all I want too! I don't need it to play music or videos or browse the web, or even receive anything for that matter. Just let me use it as an off-line digitizing pad and I'll be happy.
The diagram neatening would be interesting but I could skip anything except recording where I pressed, preferably with some degree of pressure sensitivity as this offers.
That said this looks like this product probably can't even address pixels.
I wondered about that too, but there's got to be something that happens when you press that causes the state change, if it would even store that raw input and have software to assemble it back into an image later that would be fine by me.
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I did a internship @ A.T. Cross (high-end pens/gifts), when they were dabbling with 'modernizing' the company and introducing digital products. (that are all now discontinued)
They made a device that would let you write on a paper pad, but @ the same time capture (in Vector format no less) your pen strokes, and then download them to a PC.
http://www.amazon.com/Cross-CrossPad-CP41001-01-Portable-Digital/dp/B00000K1R3 [amazon.com]
As a result, I got to play with a few of those, and used one in college. The software had OCR
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If I could also play MP3's and view PDF's on it, that'd be all I want! I don't need to download apps for it or give me Google Maps or anything. Just let me use it as a basic media device. ...
If I could also download apps and view Google Maps on it, I'd be perfectly happy. I don't need to show HD video or have 3D acceleration for games or anything. Just let me use it as a basic computer. ...
guess what goes here
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It is totally doable, even as a DYI project, at a cost below $100 (including the cost of the tablet). All you need is a digitizer to stick on top or better yet below the LCD, a microcontroller to grab the digitizer output and a SD card slot for saving the page as bitmap. There are large digitizers available in the sub-$50 range (individual retail price, likely a lot cheaper in bulk), a MSP430 microcontroller is a few bucks (or you can get free samples from TI), a PCB you can do yourself with an inkjet print
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Re:Automatic erasing etch-a-sketch (Score:4, Interesting)
"I want to jot down a small note that I can hardcopy later for posterity, but I don't ever want to need to worry about my pen running out of ink, as long as I remember to change the battery occasionally"
Indeed, that seems to be all it is really good for -- other than the geek factor of writing with passive liquid crystals.
I solved the "I don't want to run out of ink" problem by buying a Fisher Bullet Space Pen. The ink cartridges are said to last a very long time and never run dry from disuse. So, for the meager amount of writing that I do, this pen will probably be able to stay in my change pocket for many years before it needs the cartridge replaced. And it was $10 cheaper than this "practical" LCD tablet.
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Sure there is. Scan it or photocopy it before you erase it. If these get popular enough, scanners will be made smart enough to deal with the low contrast (grayish background) and white-on-black with a single button. Obviously it's not hard to do in software.
It could obviously be better if the device could scan itself, but there is a workaround for now.
Mal-2
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So I suppose there is no chance of running Etch [debian.org] on it?
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The battery's sealed — apparently the lifetime of the battery exceeds that of the gadget itself.
That detail aside, I can't disagree with anything you've said. I was excited at first hearing about this, but then I noticed the thing has no way to save what you write. Without that feature, what's the point?
I noticed that there's a heavy emphasis on the greenness of the product. So this would seem to be yet another lame attempt to cash in on yuppie guilt over their big ecological footprints.
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That's what got me. How could it possibly replace paper in schools (as noted on their website) if you can't save and electronically transmit the data to the instructor?
Have standards in school dropped so significantly that our students need only a single sheet of paper per day? Are the kids expected to hand-in their pad for grading? Even at 1/8 inch, a stack of 30 pads is a good load for the poor teacher to lug home for grading.
I was hoping this would make a good replacement for my old Casio PV-400 plus.
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Have you ever tried to jot a quick note on an Etch A Sketch? It's much more like a Magna Doodle [wikipedia.org].
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Then it would be powered by a dynamo which
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Shipping kills it (Score:5, Informative)
Wow, they want almost $45US for shipping an 11oz tablet to the UK.
USPS airmail from the US to the UK for a 1lb parcel is slightly over $10.
So, it's $30 for the tablet, and $35 for the handling fee. Shame.
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Just spend a few days kayaking over here and pick it up with no shipping costs. Then you would only have to pay for the food & water for your trip.
You want to sea kayak the North Atlantic? I don't think even Ed Gillet [canoekayak.com] would try that. Unless you tried to hug the coast and ice around the north. Should be pretty safe that way.
Of course this is the standard way [google.com] for us to get to the USA now.
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To be fair, it doesn't seem to be Amazon, I think the manufacturer is shipping directly.
My experience is that Amazon's shipping charges are usually very reasonable.
Can you actually buy it? (Score:1)
I was really excited about this when I saw it earlier this week. In fact I thought it was so cool I attempted to buy one. The company appears to be selling them on Amazon, but won't ship them to the USA.... so, has anyone actually purchased one?
you used the word practical why? (Score:4, Insightful)
Cuz c'mon, what can you use this for? This is an easier to use version of the Etch-a-Sketch, nothing more. Good for kids to play with, but that's about it. I guess it beats paper and crayons, though, in that you now have an excuse not to have to put up their latest 'masterpiece' on the fridge for years. It's easier to just not have kids, though. Much more PRACTICAL that way.
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I read the summary thinking, Cool, this is a new form factor, I wonder what putting a million smart monkeys together and thinking about it might come up with... That's why I read Slashdot. I mean, anybody can just DISMISS something. It isn't that there is anything wrong with people summarily rejecting it and saying things like This is _______, nothing more ... it's just that I suspect there is a place for something like this. I'd be curious what that would look like. JUST an etch a sketch? ONLY kids?
E
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It's 30$ now. Invest ca. 5 million $ to start MASS producing. Another 5 million $ to start OSS programming for driver, UI etc. And finally 5 million $ for USB port and the rest of the needed hardware.
3 years later you will have sold ca. 500 million units at 10 - 14$ a piece.
5 years from now the price will have fallen to 5$ and thy will be found everywhere.
In 10 years they will be given away for free.
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Well, at least Etch-a-Sketch lets me draw perfectly straight lines without a ruler.
BTW, what this needs isn't a way to save out the image information. What it needs is to cost around $5, because I'd rather buy a steno pad from Staples.
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I'm buying one to hang on the refrigerator. Saves post-its and hunting for pencils.
It works by using a charge to align LCD crystals, pressure randomizes them.
I can imagine putting an array of photodetectors behind the LCD, such that a simple circuit could read the light pattern in sufficient detail to enable it to be digitized.
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I'm buying one to hang on the refrigerator. Saves post-its and hunting for pencils.
So does a whiteboard, though admittedly, this _looks_ cooler than a whiteboard, and you'd save on the cost of the markers. But you get multiple colors with whiteboards, which may or may not be a deal-breaker, depending on your application.
I just don't think this is solving a huge problem that existed before, so the attitude of "finally, a practical solution" aspect doesn't seem to apply. MagnaDoodles and whiteboards already e
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I'd say it's more like a replacement for a white board, one which doesn't require special pens. There are plenty of contexts where a whiteboard is currently used-- message board next to a phone or on an office door, grocery lists, daily-special signs in restaurants and stores, etc-- where this could be used just as well. (And you don't have to worry about the pen running dry; in fact, you don't have to worry about a pen at all, since people can use whatever writing implements they have handy, or even just
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Cheaper version of the Apple iSlate tablet, I thought. Who cares about why - it's a gadget! Hype it up!
Re:you used the word practical why? (Score:5, Interesting)
Many years ago I was going to have jaw surgery. I was going to be wired shut for about seven weeks. They told me to bring a paper tablet and a pen. I went to the toy store to pick up one of the pads called magic slates in the midwest. I came across a new toy called a Magna Doodle.
This is two sheets of plastic with white oil and iron fillings (or something similar) you had a magnetic wand and the back has a wide magnet.
When you write on the surface with the wand the dark particals move to the front and turn it dark and the slider on the bottom wipes it back out.
The doctors/nurses had never seen one and would borrow it at the start of each shift and show it at the daily meetings.
Not pressure sensitive, but I think it does most everything else the board does
Sems like this addresses one problem (Score:2)
I got a magna-doodle for my wife when she was recovering from some voice problems, and it worked pretty well. It didn't do very well with small writing. Since the boogie board uses a stylus, it might be better in that regard.
So when can we get one? (Score:2)
from http://www.myboogieboard.com/ [myboogieboard.com]
Attention
Due to overwhelming interest, the Boogie Board LCD Writing Tablet is currently out of stock on Amazon.com for orders shipping to the U.S. only (Amazon will still process an order for International shipment*).
Today's shipment to Amazon has sold out. The tablet is expected to be back in stock by Tuesday. If you would like to be notified when it is in stock, please follow us on Twitter or Facebook.
We apologize for any inconvenience.
Thank you for your interest in the Boogie Board LCD Writing Tablet and your effort to "Say Goodbye to Paper".
* Amazon will reject orders for U.S. shipment using the international link. Using the Buy Now button on myboogieboard.com will automatically take you to the international page.
And I don't think the page has been slashdotted yet.
I got one that uses no batteries (Score:3, Insightful)
No download (Score:2)
OK, so it's 1/15 the price of steno paper. But with no ability to interact with a computer, I can think of something even cheaper and just as useful for grocery lists, doodling, practicing ABCs, and playing tic-tac-toe: a $3 whiteboard.
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You still need pens for that whiteboard though, and wiping it is a lot more trouble than pushing a button.
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This seems to be monochrome, while whiteboard markers come in different colors.
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Markers for the whiteboard dry out. And then there's the smart-alec who accidentally uses a permanent marker on it.
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Your point is valid, but there's precisely nothing stopping someone using a permanent marker all over your new "Boogie Board".
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So don't use it in a kindergarten class or near full-blown idiots.
Better yet, keep your permanent markers out of reach of toddlers and full-blown idiots. They'll draw on anything.
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There's no need to use ANY sort of marker on a boogie board. Your finger does fine, and there's less likelihood of someone mistaking a sharpie for their finger, unless they're management.
Electronic Mystic Writing Pad (Score:2)
No battery at all, and the cost was just pennies. Back then, anyway. :-)
--Greg
No saving? Here's why... (Score:4, Interesting)
It looks to me that this is not an electronic device, per se. There's no ability to save because it does not detect the presence of a writing object or the state of the surface. It seems to be just a really crappy, but durable, LCD screen. When you apply pressure, you displace the liquid crystal material. And when you "erase" the board, it applies electricity to redistribute everything. In order to add saving features, the "energy-efficient" part of the device that seems to be one of the major selling points would pretty much have to go down the drain.
This is not meant to be a permanent record, and I don't know why they relate it to a pad of paper... it's more like a monochrome dry erase board.
(I am not affiliated with the makers; I have never seen one of these up close and personal; The above writing is based purely on assumption from looking at pictures and reading what it does)
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Wasn't there a pen you could get which scans as you write? Maybe you could use it with this device?
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The ones I've heard of that do that require special paper. They have a sensor on the pen facing down that reads some pattern printed on the paper.
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If you're thinking about the Lightscribe pens, those actually require that you write on special paper. The paper contains nearly invisible (to the eye) dots in a grid which is actually how the pen tracks what you write.
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Fortunately, the special paper is easily made with a laser printer of sufficiently high DPI. You can use a copier too, but the dots encode position so writing on a photocopied sheet immediately after writing on the original will produce a scribbled mess on the computer.
Inkjet doesn't work unless the ingredients are easily detectable with an IR camera.
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I disagree - you could use the current model with a built in flash drive that only needs to be activated during saves.
I disagree. In order to do that, you would have to
A) Capture activity in real time with a resistive touch mechanism.
or B) Invent a method of detecting the current state of the screen at save time, which would involve a light-sensitive grid (or perhaps some other way that you could detect the presence of the liquid crystal material) covering the entire screen and capable of detecting a resolution that would be useful for storage of hand-drawn images, etc.
Method A would completely negate any of these energy-e
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No you couldn't, as there's no computing hardware in this device to read the display to save it to a flash drive. It's just a puddle of liquid crystals that you displace with the pen, and then get zapped back into position when you press the 'clear' button. It would need a lot more stuff to save the screen to memory.
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I'm guessing somebody was sitting in a warehouse of LCDs with stuck pixels thinking "what the hell can I do with these?"
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dry erase board is better: i can erase only a small part of it to make corrections.
Can you erase? (Score:2)
The thing doesn't sound very useful if the only way to erase is to wipe the entire screen. I'd like to use something like this to replace pencil-and-eraser for math, but not if it's like using a pen...
Um... (Score:2)
Magna Doodle? (Score:2, Informative)
Shortly before reading this article, I was playing with my son's Magna Doodle [wikipedia.org], making a sketch of our dog. Somehow I was still impressed when I read this article. Nonetheless, the Magna Doodle is still cool. It takes no batteries to erase and even works under water! And it has for 36 years.
Perfect for Temp Data (Score:2)
Use the tools you already have. (Score:2)
I already have a perfectly good place for temp data... my Clie. I'm sure that whatever handheld you use, whether it's a phone or a PDA, has a similar function built in. Now it's not as handy as it once was, in that I can no longer depend on being able to beam notes to co-workers back when everyone was using PalmOS or Windows CE (both of which supported Palm's IR beaming), but it's still an order of magnitude more convenient than a sticky note or a big clunky tablet.
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The problem is that the information I take down is only for my convenience and it is infinitely easier to glance over to a notepad or sticky note on my desk as I'm typing or on the phone than it is to spend the half-minute it'll take to pull the correct note up on my phone.
Sounds like the iPhone isn't as user-friendly as it's made out to be.
The most recent note on my Clie comes up in seconds when I push the "note" button. And my "scratchpad" note is always that one or the one under it.
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This beats shifting my eyes 6" to the left to read the post-it note without my hands leaving the keyboard/rodent. Win!
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Hm. I bet you could get this thing to store. . . (Score:2)
I bet you could get this thing to store images quite easily. (Well, with the right hardware design team and enough funding, I mean.)
But it seems that all you'd need is some manner of scanning a series of on/offs, technology which is very robust and all over the place. It would be basically a scaled up digital camera sensor; heck, you could probably use many of the same controller chips which have been developed over the last ten years.
The trick would be to hold back and not try to make it into an "everyth
the tablet pc is like speech recognition or AI (Score:2)
remember dragon naturally speaking? remember the apple newton? bill gates was hyping tablets in 2001
tablets are just not going to happen, like speech recognition is not going to happen
both are eternally just beyond the horizon and somehow superior... except they are not
sound recognition seems like it superior to keyboards, and yet its not
likewise, scribbling on a pad seems superior to keyboards, and yet its not
here, don't take my word for it, take bill gates circa 2001 hyping how we're going to be using tab
Project from 2005 that was like this (Score:2)