As a writer and reporter, I take lots of handwritten notes. On a near-daily basis. And once every few months, I go back through notebooks I’ve filled — just to see if I need to save any crucial information. The usual solution: I type those notes into my computer and then toss all of the pages into the recycle bin. Several companies have offered compelling ways to digitize those notes the past few years. In fact, I’ve personally tested out products from Moleskine, Rocketbook, RoWrite and others. And they’re all pretty decent. But I may have a new favorite. And it’s very affordable.
Scribzee digitizes your notes
It’s hamelin brands spiral notebooks (that’s right, no caps). They’re traditional, very high-quality paper notebooks made with top-quality materials. And they have a free companion smartphone app — Scribzee — that acts as a bridge between the analog and digital worlds. So far, I’ve just described many products like this. So what sets this one apart?
First of all, the paper. It’s called OPTIK paper, which feels superior — for lack of another way to express it. It has a thick, substantial texture to it. You can write on it with any pen, pencil, marker, highlighter, whatever. Pen tips just glide smoothly, gracefully and quietly across the page. And the ink won’t smudge or bleed through. Because the paper is bright white, the ink colors just seem to stand out — instantly looking high contrast. The company claims that because the paper is manufactured using wood from sustainable forests and forestry operations that are “PEFCTM or FSC certified”, this was the first notebook brand to receive the European Ecolabel for its paper products. The spiral on the notebook is also high-quality, and the thick cover has pockets on the inside. Plus, there’s a page of color-coded stickers in each notebook that let you make labeled dividers on any page that protrude from the side of the notebook. To be honest, I’ve been doing this on my own the past two years, so it’s awesome to see other people who think the same way as me. It’s amazingly helpful in quickly getting to the notes I’m looking for.
What I like about the app: It’s fast, simple and doesn’t try to do too much. It doesn’t attempt to convert my handwriting into text notes: While other products take a stab at that, you need stellar penmanship to pull it off. My scribbles look more like a doctor’s handwriting. Probably only I can read it. But this app lines up the small logos on the four corners of every page and instantly captures the contents properly every time. I deliberately covered one of the corner logos and the app went into hypermode, quickly snapping one scan after another trying to seek a work-around. In other words, it tries to do its job perfectly. You can rename the pages however you want. As for organization, you can scan and group multiple pages into one file, put them in folders, create folders, and rename the folders however you want. And of course, you can share pdf files of the notes pretty much any way you want, through the app.
It also does an amazing job with flash cards -- interactively quizzing you until you learn the ... [+]
I wish they had this product when I was a student. Would’ve made me way more organized. And in fact, that’s who the company mainly steers these notebooks — and it’s very clever, interactive Flash 2.0 cards — toward in its marketing campaign. Students take the color-coded flashcards and write on them pictures, words and mnemonic devices that help them remember the information. Then using the app, they snap a picture and the app organizes and sorts the flashcards by color for easy studying. Once they’re confident they know their stuff, they use the app’s quiz feature to test their progress — flipping digital cards front and back, and swiping right for the correct answers, left for the wrong answers. The app sorts them for ensuing round studying. Very clever and useful.
At the last minute, I decided not to attend CES this year. I did watch all of the online reports and talk with friends who went. While there seemed to be a tremendous amount of eye-catching, super-cool technology there, I’m confident that hamelin’s had to be one of the most well-thought-out and practical everyday-use systems at the tech show. And definitely one of the most affordable: The notebooks all cost $13 and less for 150-to-180-page books, while the flash cards are $6-$7 per package of 80.
