Looks interesting. Would really prefer to be able to take notes and highlight like this, when reading on my kindle. Wish that Kindle would become more open and allow other platforms/apps access to their books, etc. Doesn't make sense to me why they don't… or do they? If this could seamlessly receive books from the kindle store I'd probably buy it.
On a technical note, it doesn't look to be as high resolution screen as the latest release of the kindle and the voyager. Seems like that would be really important.
p.s. Love how in the video the scene is slowly being traced!
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@benwtnb they state it has 1080x1440 on a 6.8" screen, which results in 264ppi.
The kindle voyage has pretty much the same resolution (1430x1080), but on a 6" screen and is therefore just slightly sharper at 300dpi.
@boettges Thanks! Sorry I should have searched a bit harder! Maybe it's just the kind of lines they're trying to display that make this look quite a bit less sharp.
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@benwtnb No worries :) I think the issue are the thin lines the stylus stroke creates, but I think it is intentional and the overall style of those "1bit thin lines" is also emphasized by the "pixelated" shiro wording in the logo.
Furthermore, to improve the smoothness of the font's perception, amazon's kindle actually received a custom font just this year, called "Bookerly", which is supposed to utilize the capabilities and limitations of the eink screen to its fullest, which makes the font appear smoothly on the eink carta screen. Other fonts that were previously used struggled with this a bit.
@benwtnb Great use case!
Am I crazy, or is it too much to ask for an e-Pen that transfers the data of what's written regardless of the medium upon which it's being applied? What I'm saying is: Why is the tablet even needed? Can't all that's necessary to log the movement of the pen be held by the pen itself, and the data transferred via bluetooth to the device it's paired with? You could build a badass API to allow it to sync with Kindle (if they were more open), Evernote, and other writing tools.
Neat idea. My first impression was that it's cool, but not for me.. then as I looked down from my keyboard at the notepad I was writing on, I realised I use notepads all the freaking time. And trying to find the important stuff can be frustrating.
Watching the video though, I'm not convinced... there seems to be a lot of lag between the time the writing occurs and when the writing appears.
@rossdcurrie Agreed, was going to make a point of the latency. Not sure that long intro of writing was the best idea given that issue.
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Reminds me a lot of the Boogieboard, but a bit more cleaner, functional and more connected: http://www.myboogieboard.com/na/
I really would love to like this product...actually I'm keeping my eyes open for something to replace paper since years....,but there are too many downsides.
With 10mm it seems kind of thick. I guess the design choice of the edges (grooves + overall slab-like design) emphasizes the perception of the thickness. The problem is that the higher the elevation off the table, the more uncomfortable it is to write on, especially when the device is small and you can't rest your hand on the device itself.
The fact that the screen is recessed in combination with the quite chunky stylus—which reminds me a lot of the pencil by 53, by the way—make me think that I will often bump into the bezel/frame even if I'm just taking notes or navigating. You get a similar inconvenient user experience with touchscreen eink-readers with recessed screens...it's not a major flaw, but a minor detail that just is annoying over time.
The 6.8" screen results in 4.08" × 5.44" (or 10.36cm × 13.82cm) that seems pretty small. It's roughly half of a letter sized or a DIN A4 paper sheet and therefore potentially too small for students and alike. Especially if you start to preload PDFs to annotate onto the device, given that most pdfs have additional margins.
In general the whole product category has one flaw. The price is high in contrast to paper, which is close to free. Plus, the devices bring a lot of limitations and additionally will add a whole new level of files to maintain and organize. Most people already struggle with keeping their music collection, photos and documents organized, hence the popularity of services like spotify, google photos, google drive etc.
I really whole heartedly love the product category, but I think it's an intermediate step between analog and digital that will most likely be skipped by the majority of people.
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