![]() ![]() I like the Targus iNotebook, and I must admit I am a bit surprised to see myself writing that sentence. (There is a reason why the iNotebook product page has more short videos than pretty much any product I have ever seen.) There is a lot going on here and I can’t see anyone appreciating the app or the Targus iNotebook if they don’t get past the learning curve. Again I should note that it is worth taking the time to really get to know the app if you are going to use it. ![]() (I’ve been there far too many times!)Īnd because this is a feature-rich app there are a number of settings and sharing options available. That’s great if you take a lot of notes and don’t want to waste your time searching for something you wrote three months ago. The app lets you create any number of notebooks, and it has some fairly powerful search features that will let you find the notes you need quickly. It looks nice, but I have to side with the people encouraging a move away from rich graphics like this in favor of a cleaner and simpler look. The app has the skewmorphic thing (trying to render virtual space in a manner reflective of real-world objects) that has been discussed as of late in Apple and iOS circles. Some time spent watching the videos on the Targus iNotebook product page and then a period of playing around with the app will certainly help you get the most from it. It offers a huge number of features and, as a result, there is a bit of a learning curve. In and of itself it is a nice note taking app. The iNotebook app is a download from the iTunes App Store. That being the case let’s turn our attention to the iOS app. It was at that point that I began to appreciate what Targus has done here. That was a huge turnoff for me until I downloaded the iOS app, paired my iPad and saw what the accessory can do. Still, no matter how you slice it the Targus iNotebook is a big, bulky device. Let’s take a look at the device and a video I made of it being used in the real world. But what if you don’t use Evernote? What if you don’t want your notes in the cloud? That’s where the Targus iNotebook comes in. What is so striking is that with both the Livescribe smartpen and the Evernote Moleskin, an Evernote account is a key component of the workflow. Like the Livescribe Smartpens, once the pages are in Evernote they are completely searchable. Then, using my iPhone Evernote’s special Page Camera setting in the Evernote Camera function, I’m able to snap a picture and have the notes uploaded directly to Evernote. I am now able to take notes in the Evernote Moleskin using any pen or pencil. More recently Evernote introduced their special Moleskin and Page Camera functionality. The only real downside, other than the price of admission, is the fact that you need to carry the large electronic pen and special paper with you in order to make use of the technology Lifescribe offers. It works beautifully, and it is a terrific productivity tool. The Sky enables you to wirelessly sync your notes to Evernote over a WiFi network. Most recently the need to dock the pen was eliminated by the introduction of the company’s latest offerings, the Livescribe Sky Smartpen. The Livescribe Smartpen allowed me to capture of both hand writing and voice notes and bring them over to my computer by connecting the pen to the Mac. Note-taking Compromises: The Livescribe Smartpen and Evernote Page Camera ![]() I finally resolved the issue through two pieces of technology. Yes, there have been some software attempts at palm rejection, but they stink. The lack of palm rejection meant that a southpaw like me couldn’t do anything legible in the writing department. While the iPad was the best tablet I had ever seen, it was not the device for taking handwritten notes. It let me have a tablet again still, everything wasn’t perfect. I looked at the MacBook conversion kit that turned a Mac notebook into a tablet, but it was too rich for my blood. When I made the move to Macs, I missed having a productivity tablet. Still, it was the best productivity tool available at the time. They were heavy, they ran hot, they were pricey, and most of the time they got lousy battery life. There were, however, some key issues with pretty much every one of the Tablet PC’s I used. During the time I used a Windows tablet PC, I could also be seen in meetings happily scribbling along on my computer. I also did some voice recognition on it, but that tended to have mixed results due to the actual hardware. It was a terrific productivity tool that allowed me to use one computer for both typing and capturing hand written notes. Before we get into the review though, let me step back and give a bit of history.Īs I have previously noted here on the site, my best experience with Windows came in the form of using a Windows Tablet PC. It is an intriguing device, and Targus was kind enough to send an iNotebook for review. We saw the Targus iNotebook at CES last month. ![]()
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