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As you may have seen over on Instagram, I’m testing out a small (slightly larger than a Kindle Paperwhite) eInk tablet for taking notes. This is my first foray into those types of devices, but it’s not the first I’m aware of their existence. That particular prize goes to the Remarkable.
While I’ve never used an Apple Pencil on an iPad, I can certainly imagine how the slickness of that glass screen – so nice for touch – would not necessarily feel like a natural writing experience. That’s where these eInk devices come in, particularly with the matte – and slightly resistant – writing surfaces. Sure, it’s not 100% like pencil on paper, but it does come pretty close.
From this… 
… to this!
Many people like typing up their notes in a meeting, and I’ve certainly done some of the same myself. However, study after study has shown that you retain much more information when you write it down, simply because you have to choose what pieces of information to compress. In other words, you’re not just blindly transcribing what you’re hearing, you’re making decisions about what you’re hearing, and getting in down in a way that make sense to you.
Of course, just having the information recorded is only the first step. You’ll also need to be able to search through it later to find the information you want or need down the road. To that end, it seems the Remarkable has some clever tricks up it’s sleeve. Along with built-in organization, it can translate your written word to typed text, as shown in the video below.
This really seems to be a “killer app” sort of functionality on the Remarkable device. I’m used to how Evernote can search through my written word (I just take a photo of my notebook and it can search that), so that’s my gold standard to judge against at the moment. This, well, seems like it takes things to another level. Then again, for a device that runs $500 right out of the gate, you want it to do some amazing things. While pricey, the Remarkable seems to be quite the focus writing implement, and one we’re looking into getting a loaner of to get some hands-on impressions. remarkable.com
