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If you’ve always wanted to be done with pen and paper in favor of a comparable digital solution, or are just a fan of nifty one-trick gadgets, then you are going to want to put aside $100 this June for the NoteSlate. NoteSlate is a high tech gadget with low tech dreams; an E-Ink tablet with the sole purpose of doing its best to emulate a notepad — or, more likely, one of those personal chalkboards that is its namesake.
It’s actually a very cool idea. The tablet’s 13-inch screen and stylus combo make for easy note scrawling, diagram drawing, and other scribbles, and the single purpose aspect makes for a comparatively low-priced solution for the pen and paper crowd that want an upgrade that fits their work habits.
The specs of the NoteSlate are intriguing, as a few of them fly directly in the face of the MORE POWER mantra of most of today’s devices. Check out some of the highlights below:
- 750×1080 pixel display that outputs at 100ppi
- 1bit colour
- No antialiasing — they claim this is their best feature
- Optional WiFi (it’s free to add it in, apparently)
- No web browsing (though there is some sort of sharing client)
It does have some of the more standard things you might expect from a modern tablet, however, such as its slick look and extremely light weight, a mini-USB port, SD card slot that supports up to 32GB, and mp3/PDF/OCR capability (another free upgrade). It also bears mentioning that the hardware and software are both open source, and that you can get a few different single-colour models, and even a four-colour model to suit your personal tastes.
It is unclear how well the NoteSlate will do in the burgeoning tablet market, but it definitely does speak to a niche of more hands-on, note takers, especially those with a more minimalist bent.
What do you think of the NoteSlate?
Ali Mujtaba says:
Well I think the NoteSlate is clearly a step forward and probably the future. Paper will become the past…
February 10, 2011 — 10:22 pm
Bobby Travis says:
Good thing my father no longer works in a pulp mill…
February 11, 2011 — 5:40 am
Bryann says:
I’m vying for the Noteslate when it comes out in June. I definitely want to add this to my arsenal. I still tend to jot notes, draw mindmaps, and do some sketching on ‘ol pen and paper, not because I’m old school, but because having that freedom to draw freely amps up my brainstorming somehow. Behance had an article on why this may be the case: http://bit.ly/hbndqB Analog rituals, as they say, still have their place.
I guess my only concern is the accuracy of the pen. Oh, and I feel like some kind of Evernote functionality in the future would be cool.
February 15, 2011 — 7:04 am
Bobby Travis says:
I hear you on the “analogue rituals” Bryann. I often find that, when working something out, the best and sometimes fastest thing to do is still to write or draw it, as opposed to type. Helps to access a different part of your brain. I don’t know if I, personally, can go for a single purpose device when I have an iPad and a stylus on hand, though. That said, the NoteSlate seems to have a lot going for it in terms of price, and screen accessibility/usability. If it connected directly with Evernote, that would be a killer feature — though it will lose something by not being able to access the typed notes of Evernote.
February 15, 2011 — 1:43 pm