Let's face
it, it's often tough to beat good old-fashioned pen and paper. Is
it really easy to pull out your Palm V, scratch out the notes in
Graffiti and draw a tiny picture on a tiny screen using a tiny
stylus?
Most of us
would opt for pen and paper, if given a choice. Why? It's
intrinsic. We grew up writing with pen and paper and over the years
we've developed and refined a handwriting that's all our own,
nearly as distinguishable as fingerprints.
Our
handwriting has become a part of us, Graffiti hasn't.
Seiko is one
company that realized this. They've developed a new product called
the SmartPad that claims to be "the easiest way to capture
handwritten notes or drawings on your Palm connected organizer."
And after using a SmartPad for the past week, I might have to
agree.
The SmartPad
($199), which Seiko calls "The Connected Notepad", looks a lot like
a standard DayTimer or Filofax organizer. It's a zippered, black
leather portfolio that measures 7.5" x 10.5" and 1.5" thick, and
weighs 1.5 pounds. And inside the SmartPad is a place for your
business cards, a place for pens and styluses, a notepad, and a
place for your Palm organizer. But that's where the similarities
end.
The concept
behind the SmartPad is that any notes and drawings you write on the
notepad can be automatically displayed and captured on your Palm
organizer.
Is it really
that simple? Yes. And does it really work? Absolutely.
If you look
closely at the SmartPad you'll see that there's a hard plastic pad
under the notepad and a small plastic cube above where you'd affix
your Palm organizer. What's under the notepad is something akin to
a digitizing table and it works in conjunction with a SmartPen to
turn the handwritten notes and drawings you write on the notepad
into digital signals. The signals are immediately passed through
wires hidden in the portfolio's case over to the cube that sits
above your Palm. Then they're sent using infrared to your PDA and
picked up by a program that displays your notes and drawings on the
screen.
Simple to install, simple to
use
The SmartPad
was easy to setup. First, using the enclosed CD, I installed the
SmartPad desktop application on my desktop computer and the Palm
applications on my Palm VII. Then I insert two AAA batteries (which
are included) into the SmartPad's battery compartment. Finally, I
mounted my Palm VII using the fastener strips. That's all there was
to it.
The SmartPen
feels just like a typical ballpoint pen but it's powered by a
single AAAA battery. It also has a stylus tip on one end. There's
nothing tricky about using the SmartPen. And it comes with five ink
refills.
There are
four Palm applications that come with the SmartPad: eDateBook,
eAddress, eToDo, and eMemo. If you are in one of these applications
and begin writing a note on the notepad, it will immediately appear
on the Palm's screen as an "ink note". It's just that
easy.
Ink notes
appear to be very small on the Palm's screen but you can zoom in to
either 2X or 4X. And you can use the stylus to pan throughout the
ink note by touching the
When you sync
with your desktop computer, the ink files are also transferred.
There is an easy-to-use SmartPad desktop application that enables
you to view, print or email ink notes. You can also email and ink
notes directly from your Palm using MultiMail Pro and a Palm
compatible modem or a digital cellular phone equipped with data
service. SmartPad can automatically converts ink notes to GIFs
before you send them.
My only
disappointment was that I could not create an ink note and email it
immediately using my Palm VII using Palm.net.
The SmartPad
may not be for everyone, but it's a unique solution for Palm users
who can't quite make the break from pen and paper.
Discuss this article
| 
(ad area=home position=left size=160x600/)
