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Inotebook for ipad3/25/2023 ![]() I was able to figure out what caused the first problem to happen - the notebook was just thick enough that the upper right corner of the page was sticking up and blocking the sensors. I also had a problem where some text was suddenly angled on the page differently from the rest of the text. Very cool! Then, all of a sudden, I noticed the writing capture turning to an illegible pile of scrawls. The first issues came about when I had linked the device to my iPad and was busily writing on the paper pad watching my writing being captured in digital ink on the iPad. However, I had some issues with the second unit that made me a bit trepidatious about recommending the iNotebook. The first unit I got wouldn't charge up, and fortunately the folks at Targus were good about sending a second test device and taking the first back for troubleshooting. Now, let's get into the actual operation of this device. Basically, anything that is 5 inches wide by 8 inches tall or smaller can be used. ![]() I like the fact that there's no special paper or notebook required for the iNotebook. Whenever a page is filled, you either tap the + icon to add a new page, or press the physical "page" button on the sensor. At this point, you can start writing in the notebook. Another tap on the New icon creates a new page. In the iNotebook app, you tap the New icon on the bookshelf to create a new notebook, then open the notebook with another tap. Once iNotebook appears in the list of Bluetooth devices on your iPad, you tap the device name to pair it. While in the Bluetooth settings on the iPad, you press and hold the power button on the iNotebook until a green light flashes, then press the Bluetooth button on the iNotebook until the blue light flashes. Both LEDs go out when charging is complete. There's a red LED on the pen that shows when it is charging, and a red icon on the sensor that glows during its charging period. It's smart that they're using IR to do this, since the iNotebook itself uses Bluetooth to talk to the iPad and you wouldn't want any battling Bluetooth signals. So, how does the sensor know where the pen is on the piece of paper? The sensor is covered with a transparent red plastic and there are what look like IR LEDs behind a transparent part just above the pen tip. Additional refills can be purchased for $7.99 for a pack of ten. The pen comes with a trio of refills so you can continue to take notes and not throw out the pen. Those notebooks can be named anything you want, and with a tap and drag, your individual captured note pages can be moved to any notebook. It's of the skeumorphic design school, with a cherry wood bookshelf with all of your virtual notebooks. While waiting for everything to charge up, I took the time to install the free iNotebook App that provides the repository for your notes. Working life when not paired to your iPad is about 15 hours, but only about six hours when you're paired via Bluetooth. On the plus side, once both are charged up and ready to go, they'll happily wait up to 60 days for you to use them in standby mode. The pen takes about six hours to charge fully, while the sensor charges in about three and a half hours. Both have a mini-USB connector, and there's a handy two-headed charging cable included so you can charge both pieces at once. ![]() There's one negative point to using the iNotebook - both the sensor in the case and the pen need to be charged before use. There's a place for the back cover to slide into so that the paper notebook doesn't move too much while you're using it. You don't need to use this particular notepad, so if you happen to be a fan of Moleskine's Professional Notebook you can drop one of those in. Inside the nice case - there are two varieties, one made of black leather, the other covered with cloth - you'll find a notepad. That's a good thing, since the iNotebook is about the size of an iPad in a case, meaning you'd have to lug around two devices. ![]() It's able to capture and store up to 100 pages of notes that can then be synced to the iPad with a touch of a button. INotebook doesn't need to be near your iPad all the time. The iNotebook (US$179.99) isn't exactly as inexpensive as a pad of paper and a regular pen or pencil, but it offers a way to capture, annotate, and organize your handwritten notes. Targus has just released an iPad accessory that may work for me (and Dave Caolo, my paper-notebook-addicted cohort here at TUAW) by letting me write on regular paper with a real pen, and capturing my notes in an iPad app. Yeah, I know - I should at least snap photos of my scrawls and upload them to Evernote, but being middle-aged, it's hard to get rid of some old habits. Despite having the latest in high technology at my fingertips, I like to take notes on good old paper.
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