Business cards and shop cards are often regarded as boring, impersonal representations of people and places, but that’s partly because we often forget to associate the person with the name on the card. It’s easy enough to forget the first encounter with a stranger who hands you their business card, not unless you actually turn that card into an unforgettable memory. Rather than keep those cards in some container that you forget inside a drawer, why not slip them into this minimalist and profound log book that lets you write down your own thoughts and memories about people, encounters, and events, turning them into small stories that let you cherish these memories and remember them better for days to come.
Some people and events definitely leave a lasting impression, but our frail human minds can easily forget them as well. Photos and even business cards offer tangible triggers to jog our memories, but they can still end up feeling distant and impersonal, more like watching a film from the eyes of an outsider rather than from your own perspective. What better way to ensure you’ll remember the poignant details of that memory than by writing it down? And that’s exactly the kind of space that this Memories Log Book provides, allowing you to make every business card, shop card, or photo a truly personal and memorable encounter.
Using the log book is genius in its simplicity. You simply insert the two corners of a card into the slits and it will stay in place without the need for messy adhesives or cumbersome pockets. It can fit business cards, shop cards, and even small Instax photos, anything you might collect from brief but memorable encounters. Beside each card is an empty space, a blank canvas where you can write your own reflections on the person or event, helping your future self remember what made the card worth keeping. You can even draw on it, if you’re so inclined, creating a stronger association with those people you’ve only just met.
This A5-sized business card file log book can hold up to 120 cards, but you can add, remove, and rearrange pages just as easily as you add cards. An elastic band serves as the binding, running across the height of the book and through cutouts on the top and bottom edges. This innovative system makes it trivial to organize those cards the way you like that you might actually find yourself losing time just personalizing the pages.
The Log Book’s minimalist design extends to its choice of material. High-quality paper is simple yet holds deep meaning, both for our minds and especially our hands. The tactile warmth of each page creates a bond between the person and the cards on that page, and its elegant yet unassuming appearance is a perfect fit for any setting, whether it’s at home, in the office, or even in a meeting. It’s definitely a great gift idea not just for workers but for anyone who loves collecting memories in a more meaningful and personal way.
Paper notebooks are in again, though some would argue they never really went out of fashion. Even with the inherent limitations of the medium, there is just an unbridled joy in putting pen or pencil to paper that has not yet been sufficiently replicated by the most advanced technologies and designs. In a way, notebooks have also become a reflection of the owner’s own self, while also acting as a gateway to their own inner world, their thoughts, their dreams, and maybe even their own self-image. Some people like their notebooks and their covers plain, while others opt for designs that display their interests and loyalties. Still, others treat their notebook covers like a blank canvas ready to tell their life story through stickers and art. This rather distinctive Japanese-inspired notebook tries to tell a different story, one that aims to inspire the owner to not only rise from the ashes but also embrace their own imperfections.
Ceramic pots have great value not just because of their intricate, often hand-made designs but also because of their fragility. A single drop or hard bump is enough to break a beautiful vase, and most people simply throw these away, even if there’s just a crack. The Japanese, however, aren’t ones to dispose of what can still be repaired, and so the famed kintsugi, the traditional art of repairing pottery, was born. In a nutshell, this art uses golden lacquer to patch up and cover cracks, resulting in a piece of pottery that is even more beautiful because of its obvious flaws.
Over time, kintsugi became a symbol of embracing imperfections and self-healing, and those are the sentiments that this golden healing notebook attempts to convey. Using an equally traditional screen-printing method, wriggling lines of gold are painted on the notebook’s plain black cover, mimicking the cracks covered up by lacquer in a kintsugi masterpiece. And as with cracks, there is no uniformity or pattern to the branching lines, giving it a sense of randomness that you would find in nature itself. It’s a striking visual, with the gold contrasting with the black, that evokes both awe and wonder, subtly leading the mind to deeper thoughts.
The notebook’s theme of recovery and revival goes deeper than the cover. The paper used inside is bagasse which is made from the residue produced during sugarcane extraction. Instead of creating new paper from virgin pulp, it reuses what has been discarded, trying to make whole what was broken. In its own small way, it helps heal the planet’s cracking health, patching it up in small beautiful pieces rather than in one grandiose but ineffective sweep.
The kintsugi notebook embodies not only a traditional Japanese practice but the very highlights of Japanese culture itself. It is the perfect example of Japanese minimalist design, the frugality and efficiency of its people, as well as the profound thinking they can evoke from just a few simple symbols and materials. Whether you’re writing down your most secret thoughts, planning out your day ahead, or simply scribbling ideas and dreams, the notebook’s beautiful recycled paper invites you to let your pen roam free on the page, while the seemingly cracked cover exhorts you to embrace even the flaws that could, someday, lead to a beautiful design.
If you love the idea of your Apple Pencil magnetically attaching to the side of your iPad, this ‘Inseparable Notebook Pen’ brings a similar concept to your analog diary or notepad. With a clever clip-on base and a magnetic pen, this piece of stationery ensures you’re never left searching for a pen. The magnetic interaction ensures the pen’s always attached to the side of your notebook, available at a moment’s notice whenever you need to sketch a concept, make a doodle, jot down an idea, or take notes during a meeting.
The Inseparable Notebook Pen, as its name suggests, pairs your pen with your notebook to ensure they’re always together like the happy couple they are. The pen comes with a three-part design, featuring a plastic protector, a metal clip, and the ballpoint pen itself. The device works practically on any notebook, whether soft or hard-bound, giving you a convenient way to store your pen when not in use. However, just like the Apple Pencil sits diligently on the side of y23-our iPad, this pen waits patiently on the side of your notebook, diary, or pad too, waiting to be grabbed and used.
Effortless Writing, Anywhere You Go
To pair your book and pen, first start by placing the plastic protector on the edge of your book’s back cover. This ensures that the metal clip doesn’t accidentally damage your book (it would be a shame if your Moleskine had marks on them, no?) Once the plastic protector’s in place, fix the minimalist metal clip onto the back cover, ensuring it’s gripping your book cover securely. You can now ‘dock’ your pen onto the notebook of your choice. Once the notebook’s over, simply shift the protector and clip onto another notebook and you’re ready to go all over again!
A Daily Companion That Enhances Your Life
The Inseparable Notebook Pen is an adorably minimal piece of stationery that does something so simple, you’ll wonder why nobody’s ever thought of this before. We’re so used to placing pens in pockets or in stationery kits, it’s strange how nobody thought of putting it in the one place it NEEDS to be… your notebook! The pen sits flush against the side of your book, with a magnet that’s just strong enough to ensure that accidental bumps don’t dislodge the pen while in transit. A fabric pull-tag on top allows you to un-dock the pen when you need to write, and the clip’s satisfying magnetic action lets you snap the pen back when you’re done writing… or even if you just feel like fidgeting for a bit!
Imagine a pen that solves your mathematical equations as you note them down, or converts all your handwritten meeting notes into a comprehensive list of bullet points, or even enriches your essays with tags and other relevant information for easier searching and even for a better output. Sure, ChatGPT can do all of that, but it’s limited to the fact that it exists in your phone. The XNote puts the powers of AI inside your ballpoint pen, allowing you to instantly digitize drawings, doodles, and notes, and even have the AI interpret, expand, and solve them for you. Notes get synced in real-time, and through the power of GPT, can also be summarized, bulleted, or even translated instantly. Never did I think that AI would revolutionize the world of stationery, but here we are!
Designer: XNote
Click Here to Buy Now: $179$249 ($70 off). Hurry, exclusive secret perk for YD readers only! Raised over $275,000.
The XNote looks like an ordinary classy notebook and pen combo – the kind you’d carry to work and into meeting rooms… but let not its deceptive exterior fool you, because within that pen lies some of the most impressive tech ever invented since the gel pen that could write in space. The XNote pen comes with a built-in computer that instantly digitizes your notes, sketches, doodles, and technical drawings… but it doesn’t stop just there. It leverages the power of ChatGPT to interpret what you write, allowing you to simply have GPT summarize meeting notes, turn a set of instructions into a task list, solve equations in real-time, translate notes into different languages, and even expand on paragraphs you may have written with even more information. Your notes then exist in two forms – the one written on paper, and the other, in the XNote app, where you can save notes, search through them, and use them digitally however you see fit.
The borderline wizardry lies in the XNote pen’s engineering, and the way it communicates with the app to tap into its AI powers. The pen boasts a 300mAh battery that grants it an impressive standby duration of 60 days, along with 7-8 hours of actual usage. Transmitting data to XNote’s app via BLE, the pen also offers a noteworthy 100MB of storage capacity. While these specs may initially seem modest, it’s equivalent to a thousand A4 pages teeming with text and illustrations. The notebook pairs with the pen wonderfully too, with its Moleskine-like exterior and its luxurious appeal that just makes the XNote feel incredibly premium.
All your written matter – be it notes, scribbles, drawings, or even complex graphs – get digitized and synced with the XNote app, which leverages the full spectrum of ChatGPT’s capabilities. Operating on OpenAI’s API, it intelligently interprets text and drawings, deducing insights from them, comprehending inherent instructions, and conveniently categorizing them for effortless future retrieval. Write a paragraph, and the app can summarize it, or translate it into 53 different languages (as of January 2024). It gives you the ability to ‘chat’ with your notes, unleashing the kind of power that seemed absolutely impossible just 2 years ago. During a meeting, it transforms your notes into task lists, action plans, or ready-to-send Minutes-of-Meeting emails within seconds. You can even pose questions to your notebook, convert quick scribbles into reminders, or tackle complex equations and graphs with ChatGPT’s assistance. A simple paragraph could become a dissertation, a note could become a well-executed email, a quick list of ingredients could convert into a perfect recipe, or even the opposite – your recipe could get converted into a shopping list that you could then use to pick up the right groceries. The possibilities are quite literally endless, and the XNote’s ability to create meaningful tags for all your written matter means you can effectively search through your notes too.
The beauty of the XNote lies in the fact that it takes cutting-edge advanced technology, but packages it in a way that pretty much anyone can use. You don’t need to ‘learn’ how to use the XNote pen, simply because there’s nothing really to learn. The entire experience is automatic and intuitive, and the app helps you work with your data in a myriad of ways, saving time and effort without having you ‘adjust’ to a new technology or method of working.
There is, however, the concern of privacy… which XNote takes incredibly seriously. XNote relies on ChatGPT’s secure API, which is end-to-end encrypted to protect user data. Moreover, your data doesn’t ever get used to train OpenAI’s GPT models, so you can rest assured knowing that your information only belongs to you and nobody else. Your handwritten notes obviously exist in the notebook, but the digitized version of your notes exist on the cloud, and can be stored offline on your device so you don’t need an internet connection to access them. The app even supports adding voice memos to your text, a pretty useful feature that lets you add context to all your notes. Most of the app’s essential OCR and transcription features are free, like unlimited cloud storage, seamless syncing, and offline accessibility. However, the ChatGPT-powered features require a subscription to the XNote AI+ Membership plan, priced at $59 for an annual subscription.
The notebook and pen combo, typically priced at $199, is available for a special Yanko Design exclusive price of $179. This offer includes an 18-month warranty for the pen’s hardware, a charging cord, 5 complimentary ink refills, a 1-month trial of the AI+ subscription, and worldwide shipping options.
Click Here to Buy Now: $179$249 ($70 off). Hurry, exclusive secret perk for YD readers only! Raised over $275,000.
The pen is mightier than the sword, especially given how it has withstood the test of time, even in our current digital age. But while writing things down by hand has plenty of cited benefits, from psychological to practical, handwritten notes also miss out on a lot of conveniences and potential, especially when it comes time to search through dozens of pages of scribbles. For years, smart notebooks have tried to bridge this gap between analog and digital with some measure of success, but the majority of them stop at turning handwritten notes into digital text you can easily search. This innovative smart notebook, however, upgrades that experience by harnessing the power of AI to make the best out of your scribbles and sketches, turning them into summaries, tasks, appointments, and even translations that will take your productivity to the next level.
AI has been a hot topic for the past years, impressing many while scaring off others. The power that artificial intelligence, machine learning, and neural networks can bring to seemingly ordinary products can really be mind-blowing, especially when you consider the new experiences they enable. ChatGPT, for example, is quite a famous large language model (LLM) application that is being used for things like conversations, searches, and other text-related processing that makes it feel like you’re talking with an actual human person. The XNote smart notebook utilizes this amazing AI to bring together the joy of writing on paper and the convenience of digital technology in an intuitive and seamless way.
The magic of the XNote starts, of course, with pen and paper, specifically a beautiful invisibly coded notebook and a revolutionary smart pen. The notebook itself bears a Moleskine-like design, complete with an elastic band to keep it from opening accidentally. The smart pen looks like it’s simply leaving ink marks on paper, but it’s also detecting invisible patterns so that every stroke is accurately sent and mirrored to the XNote app via Bluetooth in real-time. You don’t have to take pictures of your notes and you don’t even have to wait for your scribbles to sync with the app. You can see your scribbles and drawings recreated inside the app instantly, almost like magic. With a built-in 265mAh rechargeable battery, you can write for 7 to 8 hours of use without having to worry about a forced break.
While other smart notebooks stop there, XNote transforms your ink marks into text, formulas, or diagrams, all kinds of digital objects that can later be searched or even shared with others online. XNote, however, goes beyond handwriting recognition and uses ChatGPT to create contextual recognition, smartly identifying the kind of text so that you can simply ask XNote when you need to look for a note. Can’t remember where you stored a friend’s suggestion for your next binge reading? Just ask in the XNote app to look for the book recommendation you wrote last week. Need a quick recap of the meeting notes you took earlier? Ask XNote to summarize those for you in easy-to-digest pieces. You can even have those notes translated for easier communication beyond geographical boundaries. And since the notes are digitized, you can easily search across different notebooks and access your data on platforms, ensuring that your analog notes remain accessible long after the paper notebooks go away.
XNote not only cares about your notes but also about your privacy as well. It uses advanced end-to-end encryption, two-factor authentication, and top-tier cloud security protocols to ensure no unauthorized person ever lays eyes on your notes. And while the basic package has the core features you need, XNote offers a $9/month ($59/year launch special) Premium subscription that brings all the power of AI to your fingertips, including Smart Task Alerts and AI-driven Tags and Categories. Even better, now that it has reached its $200,000 funding milestone, every backer who has selected either the 1-Year Subscription or the Combo Bundle will be automatically upgraded to a Free Lifetime AI Membership! With the ChatGPT-powered XNote smart notebook, you can employ that powerful AI to do the heavy lifting of making sense of your notes while you continue to enjoy the benefits of writing with pen and paper.
Productivity systems like GTD and the Bullet Journal have made paper notebooks all the rage again. But while it’s inspiring to see so many creative designs for notebooks and stationery, these can also get in the way when you just need to write or sketch something down. Bound notebooks might not have the right combination of grids and lines that you need, or they might have too many or too few pages. Ring binders let you add, remove, and move pages, but the rings tend to get in the way, and the holes lead to tears and unaesthetic pages. You could always make a DIY notebook combining just the sheets and designs that you need, but keeping them together can also be a hassle. If all these sound familiar to you, here’s how this simple yet ingenious clipboard removes the friction when it’s time to take notes while also letting you design your notebook your way.
Rather than limiting yourself to the type and number of pages a notebook comes with, this clipboard lets you mix and match any kind of paper that fits inside it. An A4 jacket, for example, can hold A4 paper or A3 paper folded in half, while the A5 version can use A5 and A4 sheets in the same way. You can use unmarked blank paper, grid paper, dotted sheets, printed designs, or anything you want or need to give your thoughts a physical form.
You can really use any paper that you can write on, even those with printed text on the back. This is an excellent way to make use of those discarded sheets before they’re dumped into the bin. Even perforated or loose leaf paper with holes is fair game because they can easily be hidden inside the jacket’s “margin.”
Clip Paper Easily in Any Order
Unlike typical binders, this clipboard uses a clever Magnet x Lever mechanism to hold those loose sheets together while still letting you easily remove them as needed. Simply pushing down on the edge lifts up the clip, releasing the paper and allowing you to add or remove sheets in a snap. The clip can hold up to 30 sheets of paper, but it can secure even a single sheet if that’s all that you have left.
This deceptively simple design gives you absolute freedom in how you arrange your notes. You can always put a blank page at the top of the stack, ready to meet the tip of your pen or pencil at a moment’s notice, or you can order them according to topic or a specific flow of thought. Or you can just leave them as-is and none will be the wiser.
Take Notes Anywhere
This ultra-minimalist paper notebook isn’t just easy to organize, it’s also super easy to use. Simply lift the flip tab to open the notebook and you’re good to go. You can even leave your pen inside so that it’s ready the next time inspiration strikes. The same strong magnets that keep the sheets of paper together also keep the cover from accidentally opening and exposing your precious scribbles. The jacket’s rigid hardcover and flexible angle make it trivial to fold it around and hold it in one hand, allowing you to take notes even while standing up.
Best of all, both the inside and outside of the jacket are waterproof and you can easily wipe any drops that fall on it. This gives you the flexibility to not just take notes anywhere but also take your notes everywhere. You can even put it up on a metallic surface or whiteboard thanks to its magnetic clip. Time to ditch those pretty but inflexible notebooks and embrace the freedom that this magnetic, loose paper jacket can bring to your creativity and productivity.
As someone who sits in front of a computer all day, there’s nothing better than working at a desk that I assembled and decorated myself. Likewise, if you’re working out of your very own home office – where you ideally have space to get creative with the elements that make up your work area – you may want some tips on how to fill that space with items that offer both function and form in equal measure. The possibilities are limitless, and everyone has different tastes. Some of us like putting succulents in our workspaces, others don’t. Regardless, aside from obvious purchases like pens and notepads, there are ten staple desk accessory “categories” that you probably shouldn’t ignore. If I were shopping for a new home office right this moment – from scratch – these are the ten items that would sit at the top of my shopping cart:
1. PowerPic mod Wireless Charger
The PowerPic mod Wireless Charger is a decently-priced yet gorgeous wireless charger that is widely compatible with all types of phones. It’s slated to work with MagSafe and non-MagSafe iPhones, Android phones, and it even lets you customize the frame with your own 4×6 image, allowing it to blend with nearby furniture and match the overall style you’re going for. It only requires a single USB-C cable hooked into the base to power it, making for a clean appearance with no messy stray cables laying about.
2. Lamicall Headset Stand H1
The Lamicall Headset Stand H1 is an inexpensive way to store over-ear headphones on your desk without skimping on quality. The upper lip is designed to protect your headphones’ padding against damage, and the base appears sturdy enough to sit firmly on a desk without slipping and sliding around whenever you remove or replace your headphones. This is a simple product, but it makes total sense to have around; storing your headphones on their side on the desk surface is a missed opportunity to let them shine, and thanks to multiple color options, you can make the Lamicall Headset Stand work with any desk.
3. Shure MOTIV MV5
Shure is one of the best microphone brands on the market, and you don’t even need to purchase one of its premium XLR mics like the popular SM7B. The Shure MV5 is an excellent, affordable, and compact condenser mic that is well-known for outputting high-quality audio while taking very little desk space. This little orb comes in two slick color palettes; white ribs with a black chassis, or an all-black exterior accented with a red inlay. Not only is the versatile MV5 a great microphone for a streamer, a podcaster, or an office worker wanting to sound clear in video calls; it could also be useful for the traveling musician who wants to bring their recording studio on the go.
4. HappyLight Luxe by Verilux
It’s fall, which means seasonal affective disorder is coming sooner than many of us are comfortable with – at least, up here in the Northern Hemisphere. That said, the rather tiny and comparatively affordable HappyLight Luxe Therapy Lamp could be a great assistant to get rid of the SAD by tricking your brain into believing the sun is fully visible, even when it’s dark outside. Its convenient tablet shape makes it way easier to fit on a packed desk than some of the other, bigger therapy lamps on the market. But it doesn’t compromise on power to achieve such a slim and slender form factor; the HappyLight Luxe is rated to output 10,000 lux, which is roughly how bright it is outside in the middle of a clear summer day.
5. LEATHER VILLAGE Vintage Leather Bound Journal
The Leather Village Vintage Leather Bound Journal is a rather unconventional alternative to smaller, cheaper journals. But hear me out: how much cooler would it be to write work notes and conduct journaling sessions with a giant, leather-bound journal that looks straight out of Middle-Earth? Leather Village balances rustic charm with eco-friendly principles, vowing to only use leather from water buffalo that died of natural causes and paper made from recycled cotton waste. In any case, this is one of the most stylish journals I’ve ever seen – perfect for stationary enthusiasts.
6. Bose 700 Headphones
Sure, the Bose 700 Noise Cancelling Headphones are on the expensive side relative to other noise cancelling headphones in this range, but the key difference is that this pair is also wireless. You can’t argue with Bose’s durability and sound quality, and the Bose 700 is built with high-quality materials to provide a balanced sound stage and decent noise cancelling features with a 20 hour battery life. Its extra mics allow it to pick up more of your voice as well, making it a strong daily driver for phone calls and video conferencing.
As far as $300 headphones go, this is an all-rounder that hits every box on the checklist of features you might want when isolating yourself from annoying sounds in your work environment, and it also sounds good, looks good, and lasts for a long time without needing a charge. When you do finally need to recharge it, it should only take about two and a half hours plugged into the wall via USB-C. It comes in black or luxe silver.
7. Goblintechkeys Pastel Pink Seaside Desk Mat
Goblintechkeys’ Pastel Pink Seaside Desk Mat is one of several custom desk mats from Goblintechkeys, and though it happens to be my personal favorite, all of them look gorgeous and immediately breathe life into any desk surface they’re placed on. It’s advertised to use 100% natural rubber to create a spill-resistant, non-slip surface that works great as a mouse pad, a desk surface protector, and a cushy place to rest your wrists. I recommend the extra large (90x40cm) desk mat, which can comfortably seat a keyboard and a mouse on a desk surface while livening up the entire workstation.
8. YETI Rambler 46 Oz Water Bottle
Everyone needs to drink more water. Fortunately, water bottles are always in fashion, and the YETI Rambler 46 Oz Water Bottle is just as useful in an office as it is in the middle of a desert. Yes, this is an expensive bottle, but YETI bottles are famously sturdy, clean, aesthetically appealing, and designed to maintain internal temperatures longer than other brands. This is probably the fanciest water bottle you’ll ever buy, but it’s also potentially the only water bottle you’ll ever need to buy. It comes in several color options, including navy, charcoal, seafoam, black, and white.
9. Serenilite Hand Therapy Stress Ball
Working long hours in one position is stressful business, which is why I always keep my Serenilite Hand Therapy Stress Ball nearby in my own home office. Squeezing these colorful little balls can build up your hand and wrist muscles while easing tension in your body. I even gave it a few good squeezes while writing this article, but the best part of using it so often is it’s never scratched or torn; in fact, it still looks exactly like it did the day I bought it in 2020, when I was first setting up my workspace. Fortunately, Serenilite offers these in packs of three (in case you lose one) including soft, medium, and hard options if you have a preference for one or the other.
10. Samsung T7 Shield
USB storage options are abundant nowadays, but I don’t regret purchasing a Samsung T7 Shield earlier in the summer when I needed a way to migrate all of my data from an older external HDD to something faster and more secure. This tiny portable SSD can carry up to 4TB of storage space and is now shipping for a relatively low price, though you can buy a 1TB model at sub-$100 these days. Thanks to USB 3.2 connectivity and the T7 Shield’s lightweight design, you can use it to easily store and transfer information between all of your devices – allowing you to let Windows, Mac, Android, Linux, iPad Pro, or even gaming devices like the PlayStation 5 transfer files between one another.
I personally keep my T7 Shield hooked up to my PC, where I offload Steam games and play those games directly from the drive, which works way better in practice than I expected, given that it’s an inexpensive way to seamlessly add terabytes of storage to my device.
What makes it truly stand out, however, is just how durable and secure it is. As a Windows user, I can use Samsung’s proprietary software to set a password on my T7 Shield, which locks anyone out of accessing or even viewing the drive partition unless I personally unlock it from my Windows computer. This means nobody is going to be able to break into it and access my data if it gets stolen. It’s also rated to survive up to 9.8 ft drops and is even rated as water resistant and fully dust-proof.
Pen and paper never really went out of fashion, even in this day of computers and smartphones. They did, however, experience a resurgence in popularity, thanks to some relatively new paper-centric productivity systems like The Bullet Journal. While there are plenty of advantages to this “analog” experience, there are also some drawbacks in our modern digital age. Fortunately, technology and intelligent design have made it possible to bridge the two worlds in a way that’s simple, unique, and, more importantly, sustainable. That’s the kind of modern experience that the reusable Rocketbook Pro notebook is offering, now with a few more features designed to make a notetaker’s life more convenient and more stylish.
Rocketbook isn’t entirely new to this “reusable notebook” market and is, in fact, one of the pioneers. It started with a notebook that you had to microwave in order to use but quickly evolved to using an advanced type of paper that behaved almost like a dry-erase board. Using Pilot’s line of FriXion pens, you could simply wipe any markings off a page with a damp cloth and start anew, preferably after you’ve snapped a photo of that page. It’s a technology that helps save paper and trees while also offering the convenience of searchable notes stored on the cloud.
As its name suggests, the new Rocketbook Pro takes that experience to the next level, building upon the wins of the first Pro model from two years back. Unlike the standard Rocketbook, the Rocketbook Pro has Page Packs designed with different templates, ranging from to-do lists to meeting notes to plain pages. These packs attach to the Rocketbook Pro via magnets, making it trivial to add, remove, and rearrange them as desired. As before, the Rocketbook mobile app allows you to take photos of those pages that can then be uploaded to cloud storage and analyzed with OCR (Optical Character Recognition) so that they can be easily searched, even if they contain handwritten notes. Rocketbook Pro makes that process even more convenient with an NFC tag that immediately launches the app the moment you tap your phone on it.
This new version of the Pro notebook also refines the appearance and design of the reusable notebook, making it look more professional and improving its usability. Its hardcover vegan leather cover is more scratch-resistant, and it ditches the awkward pen holder so that it can now lie or fold back completely flat. You can, instead, clip the pen on the spine, which has a small curve at the top to indicate that purpose.
Like many reusable notebooks, the Rocketbook Pro tries to offer the best of both analog and digital worlds, combining the familiarity and benefits of handwriting with the convenience of digital storage, search, and retrieval. It also saves a significant amount of paper, though it’s not exactly clear how sustainable the patented materials and processors really are. For professionals, creatives, and avid notetakers that love the act of writing by hand, the Rocketbook Pro offers the flexibility and freedom of a modern analog experience, now with a lot more convenience and a handsome appearance to boot.
Many aspects of our lives have become digitized, and writing and drawing are no exception. Many of us use some sort of digital tools for keeping up our schedule, taking notes, brainstorming new ideas, or sketching. Even though digital tools offer great convenience, there is something about old-fashioned writing with pen and paper that inspires creativity in us. The designer behind notesX believes writing down your thoughts and ideas with pen and paper is the best outlet. However, traditional pen and paper may not necessarily be economical or ecological since the traditional paper cannot be reused. notesX is like a combination of a whiteboard and a notebook, providing great reusability and customizability with the familiarity of a paper notebook.
This innovative notebook utilizes small magnets to bind the pages, the front cover, and the back cover. Since the papers are not glued or sewn together like traditional notebooks, you can easily add, remove, or move pages around as much as you like.
You can even take a page out from the bundle and stick it to metallic surfaces like a fridge door or a magnetic whiteboard. The front cover also has pockets to hold cards and small pieces of paper, things you’d usually stash inside a normal paper notebook.
The notebook’s special papers aren’t actually made with paper. Instead, they use synthetic resins and natural minerals. While the material offers a high-quality surface for writing from the get-go, its special property is that it can erase marks easier than you could when using a pencil. You can write with erasable pens like Pilot’s FriXioin series and then erase what you wrote by rubbing a plastic eraser that usually comes with these pens. You can also use wet wipes to erase a larger area or simply rinse the page down with water when you want to erase everything on it.
The pages themselves are minimal and bare, but there is a faint blue grid on the paper that acts as a guide without distracting you from what you’re writing. The synthetic paper also prevents glaring when taking photos of a page, making it easy to detect the edges of the page when you want to digitize it. This way, you can keep a digital copy of the page before you erase its contents. With this, you have an immortal and infinite notebook, allowing you to rearrange and reuse pages as much as you need.
The notebook has an elastic pen holder that can accommodate any pen with a diameter of 9mm to 15mm, regardless of whether it has a clip or not. A rubber band also keeps the notebook from opening accidentally, similar to those on notebooks like Moleskine. Beyond offering this basic function, this rubber band brings a philosophical aspect to the notebook. Almost like a ritual, the act of removing the rubber band to open the notebook commences your creative activity and putting it back to close it gives you great satisfaction by marking the completion of writing your idea down before it flies away.
