How smart are Smart Notebooks?

[maxd]

I’ve always been a pen-and-paper kind of guy but at some point you have 20 notebooks on the go and it just gets a little crazy. I’ve been looking into these recently, swamped by marketing BS but having a tough time getting a real picture of what the overall pros and cons are.



My primary interests in something like this would be:

• write text longhand with painless OCR.
• nice writing experience.
• whiteboard style idea drafting, “blob” diagrams etc.
• easy editing of what’s on screen.
• some organisational tools available: eg. folders and/or tagging.
• full and free access to everything I create, zero limitations, NO subscriptions here.
• full ownership: I hold all my digital stuff or at least can store it where I choose.
• don’t need it to be a phone or a tablet.

Anyone using one for real? Dead curious to hear what’s good, not so good, “wish I’d done this” type comments.

 

[andysbetting1187]

Ive not used one - im old school and everything is in A4 notebooks which then get moved to the loft when full (I need to keep them in the event I end up in an inquest etc. and need to refer to my notes)

But.....I am seeing a lot more people in the office move to these so am getting tempted to try one for myself - even a few of the older hands (like me) who don't really like tech are starting to test them - the most popular one I see in the office is the "remarkable" versions of notepad. I don't know if this is because they are decent, or its more a case of "Dave has this, he says its good so I will get the same"

From speaking with those who have it, they like the fact that they can create notes/mindmap etc. One feature they like is that they can just erase a word/part of a diagram by using the back of the stylus (like a rubber).

I know the remarkables are expensive (£500ish for a notebook), but there are much cheaper alternatives out there.

 

[andysbetting1187]

Biggest concern for me would be loosing the stylus - if I lose a pen, theres always one lying around somewhere.

If you loose the stylus not sure how quickly it could be replaced

 

[L&L-Jan]

spoke to one last one, that was a pretty smart bloke

 

[andysbetting1187]

spoke to one last one, that was a pretty smart bloke

You drinking already on a Friday

 

[L&L-Jan]

You drinking already on a Friday

just opened one yeah, was going to continue on my downswing sessions

 

[maxd]

Biggest concern for me would be loosing the stylus - if I lose a pen, theres always one lying around somewhere.

If you loose the stylus not sure how quickly it could be replaced

Yeah, that stylus issue is no joke. My wife has misplaced the stylus for her iPad and has no idea where the damn thing is. It pinged “battery running out” the other day so it could be anywhere and it’s not calling home.

I’ve been impressed with reMarkable’s technical credentials but I ran across the fact that you apparently need to have a monthly subscription in order to see and search your previously saved notes, all saved on their cloud servers it seems. That’s a deal-breaker for me, though I should verify it before torching that one as a possibility.

 

[andysbetting1187]

Yeah, that stylus issue is no joke. My wife has misplaced the stylus for her iPad and has no idea where the damn thing is. It pinged “battery running out” the other day so it could be anywhere and it’s not calling home.

I’ve been impressed with reMarkable’s technical credentials but I ran across the fact that you apparently need to have a monthly subscription in order to see and search your previously saved notes, all saved on their cloud servers it seems. That’s a deal-breaker for me, though I should verify it before torching that one as a possibility.

Yeah with remarkable, if using the free version then any files not worked on for 50 days automatically get removed. Its unlimited if you pay.

For me access is imperative; i was in an inquest this week where i had to refer from notes from 3 years ago - its a pain going into the loft to get the relevant book but at least I know where they are

 

[L&L-Jan]

I’ve always been a pen-and-paper kind of guy but at some point you have 20 notebooks on the go and it just gets a little crazy. I’ve been looking into these recently, swamped by marketing BS but having a tough time getting a real picture of what the overall pros and cons are.



My primary interests in something like this would be:

• write text longhand with painless OCR.
• nice writing experience.
• whiteboard style idea drafting, “blob” diagrams etc.
• easy editing of what’s on screen.
• some organisational tools available: eg. folders and/or tagging.
• full and free access to everything I create, zero limitations, NO subscriptions here.
• full ownership: I hold all my digital stuff or at least can store it where I choose.
• don’t need it to be a phone or a tablet.

Anyone using one for real? Dead curious to hear what’s good, not so good, “wish I’d done this” type comments.

I played with one this week, colleague was convinced it would recognize my hand writing and was positive it wont recognize my drs hand writing... i was right. Its not for me, plus im old, just give me a notebook and pen.

 

[maxd]

Yeah, I suspect I’m going to decide the same, or something like that. I am writing more and more these days though and the issue keeps coming up. I may have to just live with the job of typing longhand stuff into the computer.

 

[andysbetting1187]

Yeah, I suspect I’m going to decide the same, or something like that. I am writing more and more these days though and the issue keeps coming up. I may have to just live with the job of typing longhand stuff into the computer.

I think I will just stick with pen and paper - some tech advances are really good, others create more problems.

I don't want my notes synced to the cloud, risk loosing a stylus or worry about another device that needs charging.

Paper has been around for over 5000 years, I will stick with it for now until some climate change activist finds a reason to ban it - when that happens, hopefully the three seashells will be in every bathroom (IYKYK)