By Chris Scott Barr
LCD’s are wonderful bits of technology. TVs, computer monitors and even the screen on your phone are probably LCD displays. Now one company even wants to use this same technology to replace your old-fashioned pen and paper. Behold the Boogie Board LCD Tablet.
No, this thing isn’t going to completely replace that pad of paper in your desk drawer, but it does have its uses. What you’re looking at is an LCD tablet that can be used with a stylus (or any other object, such as a fingernail) to write on. Touch-sensitive screens are nothing new, but this particular one uses no power except when you erase the screen. Even then it requires only a very small amount of power, which is supplied by a watch battery. This is good for around 50,000 erase cycles.
So why won’t you be tossing out all of your notepads in favor of one of these? For starters, There’s no way to save the work you’ve written (or drawn) on the tablet. I suppose you could put it on a copier, but I think the irony would actually cause the universe to implode. The other issue I have is the fact that you can only erase the entire page. If you make a mistake, you’ve got to either live with it or start all over.
Essentially what you have is a portable whiteboard that doesn’t need those awesome-smelling markers in order to work. It could be great during brainstorming sessions and whatnot, but without any way to correct mistakes or export images, I think its practicality is limited. On the bright side, it’s only $30. There’s a good chance I’ll pick one of these up just for kicks.
Just buy a tablet notebook and then you can save and add images. It would be a better investment to me.
Reminds me of those concept “e-newspapers” they used to say were coming up. Too bad they didn't just use a AAA battery…
Reminds me of those concept “e-newspapers” they used to say were coming up. Too bad they didn't just use a AAA battery…