Each August I buy 10 spiral bound notebooks for $1 at Target during school supply shopping. I use them all year long to organize my ideas. One notebook per topic, business idea or area of my life. They get messy and disorganized. Fast. About a year ago I was telling (whining to) my husband that someone should invent an electronic notebook. Something that could accommodate multiple notebooks that you could hand write (not only type) your information into. You could add or rearrange pages so your info would stay organized in a way that makes sense to you. I really wanted something that would keep all my ideas and notes in ONE flexible, ever-expanding place.
Along comes the iPad. I got so excited until I realized it was basically a giant iPod Touch. I don’t care about watching movies or listening to music or reading books on it. It seems more like a (pricey and cool) toy. Not what I’m after.
Last week I found out about Microsoft’s (maybe) upcoming product called Courier. Be. Still. My. Heart! If it ends up working like the videos below show, then I want me one. Bad. I love that you can sketch in it. It’s a tool, not a toy. Take a look at these videos from a few months ago. They don’t show an actual product. But still. It’s pretty dang cool. I hope it becomes a reality (at a price I can afford!).
That looks awesome! Someone recently told me about a website called evernote. I haven’t signed up, but from a cursory glance it appears to have some of the same ideas. Maybe it can tide you over until the real thing is released.
Okay, I am such a nerd that my first thought was “It’s like the Empire Strikes Back.” Which means that the next gen iPad will be short and fuzzy and primitive and will exploit technological weaknesses in Microsoft’s new Death(Courier)Star. May it be everything you hope and not attacked by Ewoks!
PS. Word has it that they are already developing a stylus app for iPad. But I’m so with you on stacks of notebooks. Stacks and stacks. If it weren’t for the sheer tactile pleasure of pencil/pen on paper, I’d have converted to digital a long time ago…
I think I just got light headed! I’ve been using Microsoft One Note software on my computer at home but this is portable and takes One Note so many steps forward.
That looks really cool and great if you can sketch as the ipad doesn’t have the stylus feature like a tablet pc would.
Another alternative you might like is the livescribe. It’s a pen that has infrared on it so it notates everything you write on the dot paper. Then you download that as a pdf to your computer. It’s like having a walcom tablet inside a pen! The 2G one runs about $150 at target but I’m sure you can find it cheaper on Amazon. I’ve been itching to get one for years now!
It looks like a really cool gadget. I’ve been using evernote to keep all my notes and to-dos in one place, but this is way better. I hope it comes out at a good price. Thanks for sharing!
This looks nifty! I also like One Note, but a notebook combined with a portable tablet is GREAT!