Dawning of a Digital Era.

I like technology. Computers, smartphones, digital tablets et al. Yet I also like the analog, notebooks, printed books and the like. In the past I talked about how I organize myself.

You may recall (or not) that I carry a Moleskine notebook. I carry it because a) its legendary. b) its cool looking, and feels great to write in. c) sometimes it is just easier to pop open a book and start writing. I love me some Moleskine. The catch is that once I’ve written what could potentially be the greatest short story in the known universe it’s locked in the notebook. On paper and ink. What if I want to share that with a larger audience? You good folk for instance.

I recently started using an online notebook service called Evernote. It is an amazing cloud/local storage application with which you can create notebooks for anything and then add content either by typing, copying/pasting, adding a link etc.. It is such a powerful organizational tool, one which I haven’t even fully explored yet.  Here was most everything I wanted in a digital product.

And then lightning struck. I received an email with this link. My jaw dropped. My mind was blown. Stunned, I read more. The two companies that I enjoyed so much, teamed up? What have they wrought?

A Moleskine Notebook, with sticker tags and special lines, that you can take a picture of with the Evernote Smartphone app. The application will recognize the special lines and square up the picture. It will then digitize the image, translating the picture into words, links, images and create a new entry in your Evernote notebook online. What, what, what?

That’s correct, I can potentially write/draw something in my notebook and then with a few gestures on my smartphone digitize the page and upload it, share it, post it, change it. Bam. Done. If you write in a notebook and write on a computer and want some way of merging the two, this could be it. I would urge you to check into it. When I get my hands on an actual notebook I will put it through its paces and definitely let you know what my opinion of it is.

The potential is amazing, the product itself looks beautiful. It opens my mind to new possibilities and ideas. It seems like a work of pure fantasy now coming to life.

Another product that my wife tipped me off to is: The Boogie Board eWriters. These are digital notepads which you write on like any legal notepad, and they then translate your writing to digital formats. They also work with Evernote, as well as generating PDF documents. They look pretty neat. There are several models/styles and their price isn’t outrageous.

Lots of cool new technology for writers to check out if so inclined.

Today’s tagline: Keep calm and Carry On!

s.